二年级小学生“记”“忆”策略的微观发生研究

采用微观发生法,以33名小学二年级学生为被试,以记忆书面语词的分类材料为任务,对儿童记忆过程中"记"、"忆"策略的不同发展规律进行了5个期间的测查.结果发现:(1)分类记忆策略的发展既有突变过程也有渐变过程:分类记策略有生成缺陷,表现为训练后的突然变化;分类忆策略则是一个可以自发形成的渐变过程,如果加以适当的训练也会发生突然的增长.(2)在材料熟悉度较低的情况下,会使少量儿童产生分类记、忆策略使用缺陷现象.     

Reconstructive memory: A computer model

This study presents a process model of very long-term episodic memory. The process presented is a reconstructive process. The process involves application of three kinds of reconstructive strategies—component-to-context instantiation strategies, component-instantiation strategies, and context-to-context instantiation strategies. The first is used to direct search to appropriate conceptual categories in memory. The other two are used to direct search within the chosen conceptual category. A fourth type of strategy, called executive search strategies, guide search for concepts related to the one targeted for retrieval. A conceptual memory organization implied by human reconstructive memory is presented along with examples which motivate it. A basic retrieval algorithm is presented for traversing that stucture. Retrieval strategies arise from failures in that algorithm. The memory organization and retrieval processes are implemented in a computer program called CYRUS which stores events in the lives of former Secretaries of State Cyrus Vance and Edmund Muskie and answers questions posed in English concerning that information. Examples which motivate the process model are drawn from protocols of human memory search. Examples of CYRUS's behavior demonstrate the implemented process model. Conclusions are drawn concerning retrieval failures and the relationship of episodic and semantic memory.     

Learning multiplication facts: a study of children taught by discovery methods in England

The development of multiplication skills was examined in a group of children ages 8 to 12 years who were taught by discovery methods. Strategies used by the children included direct retrieval, retrieval + calculation, and counting-in-series. Repeated addition was not observed. Retrieval was the fastest and least error-prone strategy; counting-in-series was the slowest and most error prone. Children ages 8 and 9 years used mainly mixed strategies. Children ages 10 to 12 years used mainly retrieval or retrieval and calculation for low operands, but reverted to back-up strategies for high operands based on the strategies available for low operands. There was a general shift away from less effective strategies across ages 8 to 12 years but, by the end of the primary school (age 11 years), relatively few children used the most effective strategy of retrieval for all operands. The development of effective strategies was related to nonverbal reasoning ability and to working memory capacity. The results are considered with reference to experiential and pedagogical models of multiplication.     

Interactive effects of numerical surface form and operand parity in cognitive arithmetic

In Experiment 1, adults (n = 48) performed simple addition, multiplication, and parity (i.e., odd-even) comparisons on pairs of Arabic digits or English number words. For addition and comparison, but not multiplication, response time increased with the number of odd operands. For addition, but not comparison, this parity effect was greater for words than for digits. In Experiment 2, adults (n = 50) solved simple addition problems in digit and word format and reported their strategies (i.e., retrieval or procedures). Procedural strategies were used more for odd than even addends and much more for word than digit problems. The results indicate that problem encoding and answer retrieval processes for cognitive arithmetic are interactive rather than strictly additive stages.     

Variation in working memory capacity and temporal-contextual retrieval from episodic memory

Unsworth and Engle (2007) recently proposed a model of working memory capacity characterized by, among other things, the ability to conduct a strategic, cue-dependent search of long-term memory. Although this ability has been found to mediate individual variation in a number of higher order cognitive tasks, the component processes involved remain unclear. The current study was designed to investigate individual variation in successfully retrieving information from episodic memory by examining various aspects of the retrieval process. Both high- and low-working memory capacity participants were found to initiate recall in a similar fashion; however, low-working memory capacity participants did not show the classic asymmetry in their conditional-response probabilities that is typically observed. Overall, the retrieval deficits observed in low-working memory capacity individuals appear to be rooted in their inability to use the products of retrieval to further aid their search.     

Metamemory Experiments in Neurological Populations: A Review

Metamemory refers to knowledge about one's memory capabilities and strategies that can aid memory, as well as the processes involved in memory self-monitoring. Although metamemory has been studied in cognitive psychology for several decades, there have been fewer studies investigating the neuropsychology of metamemory. In recent years, a growing number of studies of neurological patient groups have been conducted in order to investigate the neural correlates of metamemory. In this review, we examine the neuropsychological evidence that the frontal lobes are critically involved in monitoring and control processes, which are the central components of metamemory. The following conclusions are drawn from this literature: (1) There is a strong correlation between indices of frontal lobe function or structural integrity and metamemory accuracy (2) The combination of frontal lobe dysfunction and poor memory severely impairs metamemorial processes (3) Metamemory tasks vary in subject performance levels, and quite likely, in the underlying processes these different tasks measure, and (4) Metamemory, as measured by experimental tasks, may dissociate from basic memory retrieval processes and from global judgments of memory.     

TSUNAMI: Simultaneous Understanding,Answering, and Memory Interaction for Questions

Question processing involves parsing, memory retrieval, question categorization, initiation of appropriate answer-retrieval heuristics, answer formulation, and output. Computational and psychological models have traditionally treated these processes as separate, sequential, independent, and in pursuit of a single answer type at a time. Here this view is challenged and the implications of a theory in which question processes operate simultaneously on multiple question interpretations are explored. A highly interactive model is described in which an expectation-driven parser generates multiple question candidates, including partially-specified candidates. Question candidates act as constraints for a matcher which activates memory items. An answer retrieval process examines question candidates and the active portions of memory in an attempt to generate answer candidates. Answer candidates are examined by an output process that derives the final answer. These processes run simultaneously and interact. Three experiments on human question answering are also described which provide evidence that working memory load during question reading is affected by processes related to answer retrieval.     

Direct retrieval from elaborated memory traces

Four experiments were performed to investigate the beneficial effects of elaborative processing on recall performance. Specifically, the experiments investigated J. R. Anderson's (1983) claim that increasing the number of associative pathways between propositions in a memory trace improves recall performance through direct retrieval. In this study, procedures were used that allowed the amount of elaboration to be systematically varied while the use of inferential reconstruction to aid recall was eliminated, thus providing a test of J. R. Anderson's model. Across all experiments, the results showed that recall of a name was better when it had been stored in a less elaborated memory trace. The results suggest that when reconstructive processes are eliminated, elaboration decreases rather than increases recall performance.     

A Study of Seventh Grade Children's Reading of Comic Books as Related to Certain other Variables

Developmental changes in a variety of cognitive processes as a function of age and schooling were examined in 160 rural Guatemalan children aged 5, 7, 9, and 11 years. Larger differences in test performance were seen between ages 9 and 11 than during earlier age periods on most tasks. Regression analyses of years of schooling controlling for age, sex, and socioeconomic status indicated that the effects of school were limited to memory tasks and to response time on the Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFF). Evidence for cumulative effects of additional years in school on test performance was weak. Good school performance was also most related to two memory measures. Previous studies indicating that schooling has a substantial effect on abstract cognitive processes were questioned; the suggestion that school performance is related to various memory processes was raised.     

Beyond the answer: post-error processes

When you suspect that you just gave an erroneous answer to a question you stop and rethink. Suspected errors lead to a shift in the control and content of cognitive processes. In the present experiment we investigated the influence of errors upon heart rates and response latencies. Sixty-four subjects participated in an experiment in which each subject solved a sequence of 60 verbal analogies. The results demonstrated increased latencies after errors and decelerated heart rates during the post-error period. The results were explained by a psychophysiological model in which the septo-hippocampal system functions as a control system which coordinates the priority and selection of cognitive processes. Error detection suppresses strategies which otherwise prevent looping and iterative reanalyses of old material. The inhibition is also responsible for the cardiac slowing during the post-error period.     

Toward a generalized theory of the shift to retrieval in cognitive skill learning

Prior research on cognitive skill learning has shown that algorithmic and direct memory retrieval strategies are not executed in parallel if the algorithm entails a series of long-term memory (LTM) retrieval steps (as in the case, for example, of mental arithmetic). This phenomenon has been hypothesized to reflect a bottleneck in LTM retrieval processes that forces a strategy choice during an early stage of processing. Here, we investigate simple perceptual–motor algorithms that involve no memory retrieval steps, a largely unexplored case in which parallel strategy execution models remain viable. Pronounced strategy interference was again observed, albeit interference that was different in important respects from that observed for LTM retrieval algorithms. It appears that neither parallel nor choice models, as developed to date, are sufficient as a generalized theory of this skill learning phenomenon. Issues central to the development of a more comprehensive theory are discussed.     

Strategies for solving simple addition problems: A comparison of normal and subnormal children

Abstract.— Children in the third grade in a normal class and children poor in mathematics attending special classes solved all additions with the sum of the two positive addends smaller than 10. The cognitive processes leading to the solutions were described in relation to a process model predicting solution times. The general model included a counter with two operations, setting and incrementing by one unit. It is assumed that solutions are obtained either by direct retrieval from memory or by a reconstructive process. The first step in this process is finding the starting point for the counter which is the greater addend. When the problem has been defined and the starting point has been found the generation of the answers starts by the counter stepping the number of units denoted by the smaller addend. The results based mainly on latencies showed that children poor in mathematics, in addition to a slower processing rate, seemed to have difficulties in the choice of strategy for processing the information in a problem.     

Strategy development and learning to spell new words: generalization of a process

The authors used microgenetic methods in 2 experiments to examine children's and adults' progress from initial attempts at spelling nonwords to later direct memory retrieval of the spellings. Participants repeatedly spelled nonwords presented in computerized, dictated-word spelling tests over several weeks. Following each spelling, participants provided retrospective strategy reports. Half of the children showed a gradual shift from spelling words with effortful backup strategies to fast retrieval; half of the children continued using backup strategies that were fast and effective for them. Relatively more adults shifted from backup strategies to retrieval, but otherwise their patterns of spelling development were quite similar to those of the children. This research provides support for the generalizability of the overlapping waves model to nonalgorithmic domains. It also demonstrates parallels between children and adults in learning to spell new words.     

Situating math word problems: The story matters

In two experiments, we explored how the situation model of a math story problem impacts math problem performance. Participants completed multiplication story problems in which a set of objects was associated with or dissociated from a protagonist, making them more or less accessible in memory during answer retrieval. On the basis of previous findings that the sum of two numbers interferes with retrieval of their product, the number of objects in the math problem was either highly interfering (“9” for 4 3 5) or less interfering (“8” for 4 3 5) for multiplication retrieval in the problem. Participants made more errors in problem solving when highly interfering numerical content was associated with the protagonist and, thus, foregrounded. Moreover, the lower one’s working memory, the bigger this effect. In sum, small changes in the situation model of a math story problem can harm performance. These changes shift the balance of factors that influence math performance away from math knowledge and toward individual differences in general cognitive capacity.     

Automatization through Practice: The Opportunistic-Stopping Phenomenon Called into Question

As a theory of skill acquisition, the instance theory of automatization posits that, after a period of training, algorithm-based performance is replaced by retrieval-based performance. This theory has been tested using alphabet-arithmetic verification tasks (e.g., is A + 4  = E?), in which the equations are necessarily solved by counting at the beginning of practice but can be solved by memory retrieval after practice. A way to infer individuals’ strategies in this task was supposedly provided by the opportunistic-stopping phenomenon, according to which, if individuals use counting, they can take the opportunity to stop counting when a false equation associated with a letter preceding the true answer has to be verified (e.g., A + 4  = D). In this case, such within-count equations would be rejected faster than false equations associated with letters following the true answers (e.g., A + 4  = F, i.e., outside-of-count equations). Conversely, the absence of opportunistic stopping would be the sign of retrieval. However, through a training experiment involving 19 adults, we show that opportunistic stopping is not a phenomenon that can be observed in the context of an alphabet-arithmetic verification task. Moreover, we provide an explanation of how and why it was wrongly inferred in the past. These results and conclusions have important implications for learning theories because they demonstrate that a shift from counting to retrieval over training cannot be deduced from verification time differences between outside and within-count equations in an alphabet-arithmetic task.     

Phase-specific relationships between team learning processes and transactive memory development

With this study we seek to contribute to the research on the emergence of transactive memory, that is, the knowledge of “who knows what”, as part of the structural component of transactive memory systems (TMSs). Based on our theoretical model of team learning and transactive memory development, we analyse the relationships among different team learning behaviours and transactive memory during various phases of team development. We use a longitudinal design with three points of measurement at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of a semester, to examine real student project teams over their full life cycle. The results support our presumptions of phase-specific influences of team learning behaviours on transactive memory development. This shows that knowledge-based processes (storage and retrieval) play a more important role during early stages of project-based teamwork, followed by a shift to a higher relevance of communication-based processes (reflection and co-construction) in later stages. Implications for further research and team management phenomena are discussed.     

The development of strategy use in elementary school children: working memory and individual differences

The current study tested the development of working memory involvement in children's arithmetic strategy selection and strategy efficiency. To this end, an experiment in which the dual-task method and the choice/no-choice method were combined was administered to 10- to 12-year-olds. Working memory was needed in retrieval, transformation, and counting strategies, but the ratio between available working memory resources and arithmetic task demands changed across development. More frequent retrieval use, more efficient memory retrieval, and more efficient counting processes reduced the working memory requirements. Strategy efficiency and strategy selection were also modified by individual differences such as processing speed, arithmetic skill, gender, and math anxiety. Short-term memory capacity, in contrast, was not related to children's strategy selection or strategy efficiency.     

Strategies used by children when solving simple subtractions

Ten children, 9–11 years old, solved all subtraction problems in the form of M?N=…, where 0 ? M ? 13, 0 ? N ? 13 and M ? N. The solution times were analysed and used for the formulation of a process model for subtraction. The model involves memory processes on two different levels, called reproductive and reconstructive respectively. When M=N, N=1, and M=2N the answers were quickly retrieved in reproductive memory processes. The reconstructive processes were found to be analogous to one of two counting procedures, viz. counting up and counting down. In general, the counting process starts either on N (when M < 2N) and counts up to reach the answer, or on M (when M > 2N) and counts down to reach the answer. This may reflect an effort to minimize the number of steps to be counted. However, when M > 10 and N < 10 a problem is always solved in a decrementing counting process. When M=10 many subtractions are solved in a reproductive memory process and the number 10 is also important as a point of reference for solving subtractions when M > 10 and N < 10.     

Attentional limits in memory retrieval-revisited

Carrier and Pashler (1995) concluded-based on locus-of-slack dual-task methodology-that memory retrieval was subject to a central bottleneck. However, this conclusion conflicts with evidence from other lines of research suggesting that memory retrieval proceeds autonomously, in parallel with many other mental processes. In the present experiments we explored the possibility that Carrier and Pashler's conclusions were distorted by use of an experimental method unfavorable to parallel memory retrieval. New locus-of-slack experiments were performed that encouraged parallel memory retrieval strategies with instructions and feedback, along with the use of "preferred" stimulus-response modality mappings. Results from two psychological refractory period experiments showed that the effect of Task 2 recognition difficulty was consistently absorbed into cognitive slack, with both word and picture recognition. We conclude that the memory retrieval stage of recognition tasks can proceed in parallel with central operations of another task, at least under favorable conditions. Our new findings bring results from dual-task locus-of-slack methodology into agreement with other evidence that memory retrieval is not subject to severe, generic central resource limitations.