Forgetting in retarded and nonretarded persons under conditions of minimal strategy use

Short-term memory processes of mentally retarded (mild, moderate, and severe) and nonretarded persons were compared in a delayed matching-to-sample task that minimized the use of verbal rehearsal. In addition to trials with delays up to 20 s, the inclusion of trials on which the sample and comparison stimuli occurred simultaneously made it possible to isolate memory and discriminability. Forgetting was most pronounced between the simultaneous and 0-s conditions, and nonretarded subjects forgot less than retarded subjects between these conditions. There were no group differences beyond the 0-s delay. Ease of strategy use failed to account for individual differences, and reported strategy use was not related systematically to performance. These findings are incompatible with the hypothesis that normal-retarded differences occur only on tasks involving effortful cognitive strategies. Differences between nonretarded and retarded groups in this study may be due to a failure in automatic encoding processes in retarded persons.     

The adaptation of black graduate students: A social network approach

Despite the importance of increasing the number of graduate degrees awarded to members of minority groups, there has been little research on how minority students adapt to the graduate school environment. The present study examined how social integration and social support were related to academic performance and psychological well-being among 89 black graduate and professional students. Findings indicate that black graduate students were not well integrated into their academic environment. Students in relatively more integrated departments were better adjusted, had higher grades, and perceived themselves to be making good progress in their graduate work. These students were also less likely to have considered dropping out of school. Frequency of out-of-school contact with black faculty and the number of black students in the department were important social integration and social support variables. The implications of these findings for minority student retention are discussed.     

The cognitive representation of an event involving human motion

Human motion is analyzed as a function of the temporal pattern of relative stability and instability of the body in relation to its supporting ground. The cognitive representation of an event unit involving human motion is described as some small number of relatively stable, preparatory motions, followed by an unstable, completing motion. Two experiments tested the coherence of the preparatory motion (s)-completing motion structure, and the visual conditions under which an unstable motion is encoded as the completing motion of an event unit. Preparatory-completing structures were recognized more easily than completing-preparatory structures. The offset of contour motion at the center of an unstable motion was found to be an important variable in the encoding of a completing motion.     

The influence of gender labels on the sex typing of imaginary occupations

Social scientists have been concerned not only with gender stratification within the occupational labor force but with young peoples' recognition and aspiration toward same-gender careers. In this paper we investigate how gender labels influence individuals' evaluational sex typing of occupations. Four gender-marked booklets were constructed such that six imaginary occupations within the story were performed by persons labeled as women, men, both men and women, or individuals. College, high-school, and fifth-and third-grade students were asked to evaluate whether a gender-marked occupation was a position for women, men, or both sexes and possible for girls and boys. Students were also asked to indicate which occupations they preferred. Not only were the occupations classified in relation to the gender labels, but occupational gender barriers were perceived. In essence, males were restricted from engaging in female-labeled jobs and females were restricted from engaging in male-labeled jobs. However, career aspirations     

A categorical analysis of the social attributions of learning-disabled children

The social attributions of learning-disabled and control children with either similar or higher social acceptance ratings were assessed within an open-ended interview format. In addition, measures of social self-esteem and expectation of social success were obtained. The learning-disabled group used luck more frequently and personality interaction less frequently as explanations for social outcomes than did the other two groups. Learning-disabled children also had the lowest expectation of social success and, like the low acceptance group, had a poorer social self-image. Possible explanations for the development of these attributions and the implications for holding them were discussed.     

USING A SELF-CONTROL TRAINING PROCEDURE TO INCREASE APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR

The present study evaluated a technique for teaching self-control and increasing desirable behaviors among adults with developmental disabilities. Results showed that when participants were initially given the choice between an immediate smaller reinforcer and a larger delayed reinforcer, all participants repeatedly chose the smaller reinforcer. Concurrent fixed-duration/progressive-duration reinforcement schedules then were introduced in which initially both the smaller and larger reinforcers were available immediately. Thereafter, progressively increasing delays were introduced for the schedule associated with the larger reinforcer only. When initial short-duration requirements for access to the larger reinforcer were gradually increased, participants repeatedly selected the larger reinforcer, thereby demonstrating increased self-control.     

An abbreviated implicit spatial context learning task that yields greater learning

The spatial contextual cuing task (SCCT) (Chun & Jiang, 1998) is an implicit learning task that appears to depend on the medial temporal lobes. This unusual combination has been of interest in functional imaging studies and research with clinical populations, where testing time is at a premium. However, the original version of the SCCT is time-consuming. In this study, 29 young adults (age range, 18–22 years) completed the SCCT, in which participants respond to the orientation of a target in arrays containing 11 distractors. Either 12 (original version) or 6 (abbreviated version) arrays repeated across the experiment, with the remaining novel arrays being generated randomly. Results revealed that the magnitude of learning (faster responses to repeated versus novel arrays) was larger when there were fewer repeated arrays, with no explicit awareness in most participants. Thus, the abbreviated version remained implicit, with the additional benefit of increasing the magnitude of learning.     

College students' memory for vocabulary in their majors: evidence for a nonlinear relation between knowledge and memory.

The effect of domain knowledge on students' memory for vocabulary terms was investigated. Participants were 142 college students (94 education majors and 48 business majors). The measure of domain knowledge was the number of courses completed in the major. Students recalled three different lists (control, education, and business) of 20 words. Knowledge effects were estimated controlling for academic aptitude, academic achievement, and general memory ability. Domain-specific knowledge consistently predicted recall, above and beyond the effect of these control variables. Moreover, nonlinear models better represented the relation between knowledge and memory, with very similar functions predicting recall in both knowledge domains. Specifically, early in the majors more classes corresponded with increased memory performance, but a plateau period, when more classes did not result in higher recall, was evident for both majors. Longitudinal research is needed to explore at what point in learning novices' performance begins to resemble experts' performance.