Memory for sentences: The subject superiority effect

Three experiments are reported on subject noun superiority in cued recall from S-V-O sentences. In Experiment I surface subjects were superior cues across a wide variety of conditions when the order of nouns/pronouns was matched in sentences and probes. The effect was less clear-cut in Experiment II, when cues and responses were confined to single key words.

The final experiment showed that cue superiority depends on the cue which subjects learn to use in retrieving information from sentences, and can be reversed by brief training. Several other aspects of the results, including a contrast in recall and recognition patterns, suggest that subject cue superiority results from the way subjects process remembered sentences rather than from memory trace structure. It is suggested that failure to control the utilisation of cues for memory retrieval may account for the sometimes elusive nature of the subject superiority effect.     

COMPUTER ASSESSMENT OF READING VOCABULARY: A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE,WORD FREQUENCY,AND RESPONSE TIME

The assessment of vocabulary knowledge has posed a number of problems which have resulted in widely differing estimates of children's vocabulary growth. Such estimates assume importance when school texts are controlled for vocabulary diversity, and in pedagogical debates concerning the value of vocabulary instruction. In this paper we outline a computer‐based methodology which obtains simple timed responses to sets of words and word‐like nonsense items. We present pilot data depicting estimated vocabulary knowledge, and relating it to word frequency and decision response time, and we speculate about the question of total vocabulary size.     

Physiological-behavioral coupling research in the soviet science of higher nervous activity: A visitation report

Behavioral research paradigms presently used by Soviet scientists to explore relations between behavioral and physiological activities are discussed. Each laboratory represented was physically visited by the author during a six month exchange visit to the Soviet Union. Research ranging from central concommitants of language and meaning to biofeedback and peripheral autonomic functions are described.