Bruce M. Ross

Ordering of Nonverbal Items in Children's Recognition Memory.

Abstract In two experiments children of different ages were instructed to recognize certain items previously pointed out from nine simultaneously exposed nonverbal items. In Exp. 1, recognition conditions of two, three, or two out of three items were administered; in Exp. 2, children had to recognize three items either in the exact order shown or in any order. In both experiments type of material was a variable. The youngest children, CA 5 to 6, showed a significant amount of spontaneous ordering in easy conditions, while ordering in the hardest condition was low for these S s but increased with age. A major result was that the oldest S s, CA 10, recognized as many items correctly when they were requested to order items as when they were not; at CA 6 this finding held only for easy items. It is concluded that storage of order information is relatively independent from retention of item information in recognition memory.

Effects of transverse G-stress on running memory.

A 2-channel running memory task with 2 random binary series as stimuli was used to test Ss under 4 levels of transverse G-stress. No memory deficit was found at 3G. Significant memory deficit was found at 5G and 7G with still greater deficit at 9G. Most of the deficit occurred during the latter half of each 2-min. and 18-sec. stress-period. Serial-order error ranking for retained symbols was similar for both stress and non-stress performance, but stress increased error for all serial orders. However, stress vs non-stress differences were found in serial orders that included a previously correct symbol that S had to disregard. This irrelevant symbol was an important error factor in non-stress performance but not in stress performance where S curtailed the number of symbols he processed each trial.

Developmental Memory Theories: Baldwin and Piaget

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the two theories of memory development that can be said to be complete by themselves. Baldwin and Piaget were able to sketch the broad outlines of a theory of memory development. It should be emphasized that for neither theorist memory makes a central issue. Baldwin is concerned with mental development generally and Piaget, as is well known, is genetic epistemologist who has written on memory primarily as it is necessary to do so while developing a theory of the changing structures of intelligence. The chapter presents the major features of Baldwins and Piagets theories of memory. In describing each theory, a number of comparisons are made between them.

Oral Verbalization as Interference in Running Memory

When Ss performing a running memory task had to speak aloud the name of a viewed symbol that was to be matched with a previously seen symbol, a significant increase in errors was produced. The control condition was the same task performed without oral naming of the viewed symbol. Since both running memory conditions required exact identification of the viewed symbol, the error increase was attributed to the requirement of speaking aloud rather than to any cognitive difficulty in symbol naming. Comparison of the above 2 conditions with 3 other interference conditions showed that the error increase from oral symbol naming was about as large as the error increase from conditions that required Ss to perform activities irrelevant to the memory task or from a condition which decreased the time to perform each memory match by 1 sec.

Judgment stability and pseudorecognition of random and patterned configurations

Thirty six simple patterns were judged as “random” or “patterned” by adult Ss. Category judgments were consistent whether Ss were told that 1/4, 1/2, or 3/4 of the patterns were random or if no proportion was specified. In a second experiment, Ss viewed a series of slides previously judged patterned followed by a recognition series with two additional patterned slides inserted in a series of otherwise random slides. Although slides were never labeled random or patterned, Ss made the most false recognitions for the two patterned slides. In another condition where random and patterned slides were reversed, most false recognitions were made for the two random slides. Both Gamer’s notion of hypothetical set size and an analysis of balanced elements fit the results, but the adequacy of both hypotheses can be questioned when applied to previous results with more complex patterns.

Memorizing and Copying Visual Patterns: A Piagetian Interpretation

Six-, 8-, 10-, and 12-year-old children (10 boys and 10 girls) reconstructed two visual patterns from immediate memory, while other 5- and 6-year-old children (10 boys and 10 girls) reconstructed the identical patterns by direct copying. Patterns were simple and composed entirely of circles or squares as component items. Four results were emphasized: (a) Numerous errors mady by the copying groups led to the conclusion that memory loss is often overestimated in young children. Since an independent estimate of perceptual encoding errors is rarely carried out, encoding mistakes are often included among forgetting errors. (b) One pattern was both copied and remembered more poorly than the other in accord with a Piagetian interpretation of a conceptual conflict inherent in the pattern design between spatial and numerical correspondence of component pattern items. (c) A memory strategy emphasizing configuration preservation was suggested for the 6-year-olds who made slightly fewer memory than copying errors for two configural scoring categories. (d) Performance in an unrelated planning-for-memory task significantly differentiated between better and worse performers on the visual pattern memory task.

Preferences for Nonrepresentational Drawings by Navaho and other Children

Children (N = 320) who were mostly 11 and 12 years old and from four different cultures-the Navaho Indian, suburban U.S., Israeli, and Costa Rican-selected preferred pictures. Two of five pictures were chosen from 32 different picture arrays in which all pictures were nonrepresentational drawings. Navaho and suburban children also picked the best and the least-liked pictures across all arrays. Preferences among cultural groups were discriminated by three scales scoring picture attributes of High Quality, Low Action, and Uniqueness. The Navaho girls produced the most extreme scores on each of the scales with most High Quality and Low Action choices and fewest Unique choices. It was concluded that (a) as a group the Navaho girls already conformed to the stereotype that adult Navahos have conservative but superior esthetic preferences, (b) sex differences that are of only borderline significance within a culture may still be important in cross-cultural comparisons, and (c) the overall best-liked pictures for Navaho and suburban children were similar even though some significant scale differences were found using the above forced-choice technique.

An analysis of two random paintings.

Two recent paintings are analyzed whose small number of constituent elements fit criteria of randomness formulated previously by having naive Ss construct random configurations.