The effects of instructional variables on young children's organization and free recall

The relationship between verbal instruction and children's free recall was examined. Sixty first-grade children (mean age 84 months) were trained to categorize pictures of common objects. Half were given organizational instructions emphasizing categorization, and half were given instructions emphasizing the individual objects. Similarly, half were given detailed verbal instructions and encouraged to listen, and half were taught using a question type format that encouraged participation. Immediately and after a 2- to 3-week delay, children who were shown an organizational strategy categorized the materials during study and attained higher recall scores than children who were shown a specific strategy. After the 2- to 3-week delay, children in the explanation groups out-performed children in the question-asking groups. The child's competence as measured by intelligence and performance in school did not contribute to amount recalled when subjects were given instructions emphasizing the general strategy. However, children of high competence benefited more from specific training by recalling more items than did children of low competence. These findings point to the importance of instructional variables in studying changes in children's processing capabilities.     

The effects of semantic integration training on memory for pictograph sentences

The effectiveness of training a semantic integration strategy for recall of pictograph sequences, and the generalization of the strategy to a related oral sentence task were examined in 60 kindergarten prereaders. Semantic integration training consisted of three individual sessions in which the child was instructed to treat the sequence as a sentence and to act out the pictograph sentences using toys in order to facilitate recall. Repetition and no-practice control groups were included. Pictograph sentence memory post-tests immediately following and 2 weeks after training indicated that semantic integration training substantially improved recall for pictograph sequences, an improvement that was unrelated to the child's initial memory performance or subsequent post-training awareness of the strategy. In addition, the training resulted in better performance on a generalization test of oral sentence synthesis. These findings support a strategy-based conceptualization of individual differences in the semantic processing of written materials.     

Developmental differences in the role of detail in picture recognition memory

Two experiments assess the effect of the amount of physical detail in pictures on picture recognition memory. Children and adults were presented simple and complex line drawings. A “same-different” recognition test followed in which the distractor items were original pictures from the presentation phase with the amount of physical detail altered. For second- and fourth-grade subjects, recognition sensitivity, measured in terms of d′, was similar for pictures in the simple and complex presentation conditions. For adults, however, recognition sensitivity was greater for pictures in the simple than complex presentation condition. This finding with adults was replicated in Experiment 2. Interpretations of this age difference in picture memory processing are discussed, as well as the constraints imposed by various dependent measures used in picture memory studies.     

Lateralization effects in the perception of Hebrew and English words

A series of four experiments was conducted on Israelis with a good knowledge of English, Anglo-Saxons with a good knowledge of Hebrew, and full Bilinguals of the two languages. In all experiments words were presented vertically and measurements of both accuracy and response times were taken. Experiments 1 and 2 examined the perception of Hebrew words in unilateral and bilateral conditions, respectively; Experiments 3 and 4 examined the perception of both Hebrew and English words in these two conditions. The results revealed right visual field advantage in the perception of words in both languages and in all groups. A reversal between the two conditions was not found. The data support the hypothesis whereby nonnative languages are less lateralized than native ones, but they indicate that full bilinguals are more, not less, lateralized than monolinguals. Various hypothesis regarding the relationship between lateralization and bilingualism are discussed.     

Word frequency and children's stuttering: The relationship to sentence structure

This study investigated the relationship between word-frequency level and stuttering within the context of four slected sentence types. Fifteen stuttering children, aged 8–12, read 48 sentences of four different transformational types, and three word-frequency levels 12 simple active-affirmative-declarative (SAAD), 12 negative, 12 passive and 12 negative-passive. All sentences were identical in terms of underlying swings and variations of the SAAD sentences. Results agreed with Ronson's study with adults (1976) in that when the group rating was severe and the sentence type was negative, stuttering increased significantly as word-frequency level decreased. It appears that children's stuttering in relationship to word-frequency level is a different response that is subject to variables of sentence type and the severity rating of stuttering.     

Effects of sexual versus fear arousal on alcohol consumption in college males

To compare the effects of pleasant and aversive arousal on alcohol consumption, 18 male undergraduates had three weekly sessions to separately view erotic, mutilation or neutral slides in a simulated memory experiment. Following exposure to the slides, they received access to alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, which were presented to half the subjects in a taste rating task, and to half as the result of engaging in an operant lever-press task. Subjects believed these tasks to be distractors during a purported retention interval. Self-report instruments and basal skin conductance confirmed the success of the affective manipulations. However, only the subjects using the taste task after viewing erotic slides significantly increased alcohol consumption. These results question a tension reduction model of drinking and qualify the contribution of autonomic arousal to motivation for drinking.