Ronald E. Johnson

Recall of prose as a function of the structural importance of the linguistic units.

Verbal passages were objectively divided into linguistic subunits partitioned according to acceptable pausal locations. The linguistic units were then objectively ordered according to their importance to the structure of the larger prose passage. In three separate experiments, various samples of learners attempted verbatim recall of a single prose passage immediately after reading it or after a retention interval ranging up to 63 days. The structural importance of the linguistic units was shown to be related to their recall.

Aging and the remembering of text

Abstract A meta-analysis was performed on the published research literature comparing younger and older adults on their learning and retention of text. A total of 194 studies were located, and 1385 effect sizes were computed. Statistical tests then were performed on subclassifications of variables that were hypothesized to be associated with age differences. A statistically significant age deficit was evident in all comparisons and subclassifications. However, the size of the age difference varied as a function of the nature of the learners being compared, the nature of the text passages, the instructions provided to learners, procedural variables at the time of presentation of the texts, procedural variables at the time of testing, and the nature of the scoring procedures.

Meaningfulness and the Recall of Textual Prose

Meaningfulness was found to be strongly related to the recall of linguistic subunits in textual prose. The generality of the relationship was evident with two samples of textual prose, with linguistic units of two different sizes, with two different methods of measuring meaningfulness, and at two retention intervals.

Organizational Encodings in the Serial Learning of Prose.

E. Martin and D. L. Noreen ( Cognitive Psychology , 1974, 6 , 421–435) concluded that the serial learning of arbitrary sequences of words involves the idiosyncratic organization of word subsequences. In the present study, an attempt was made to identify comparable subjective subsequences in the serial learning of a prose passage and to examine the relationship of such organizational encodings to the variable of structural importance. Following the partial serial learning of a prose passage, the learners attempted free recall and backward anticipation. The results indicated that learners associatively organized the individual prose subunits into subjective subsequences. Additional analysis provided evidence that the associative organization of the subsequences was related to the rated structural importance of the prose units within the subsequence.

Retrieval Cues and the Remembering of Prose: A Review

A widespread assumption is that the inducement of remembering is largely a matter of finding appropriate retrieval cues. In the present paper the literature is reviewed to ascertain the conditions under which retrieval cues assist in the remembering of prose. Special attention is given to comparisons in which cues are given prior to attempts at remembering as opposed to cues that are provided after learners have attempted recall on their own. Attention also is directed to the relative effectiveness of different types of retrieval cues. Based upon the review of the literature, it may be concluded that we know surprisingly little about the types of cues that can be used to facilitate (or hinder) the remembering of intact prose passages. Retrieval cues have been found which markedly influence the remembering of sentences presented in isolation, but efforts to induce the remembering of intact prose passages generally have not been successful. The remembering of intact prose appears to be surprisingly impervious to the availability or nonavailability of formal retrieval cues.

Learners' Predictions of the Recallability of Prose*

Do learners of textual prose know which portions of the text are likely to be difficult to recall? For each of two textual passages, samples of college students were able to predict accurately the prose subunits which were actually recalled by various samples of learners attempting immediate or delayed reproductions. Multiple regression analyses provided evidence that the predictions of recall showed considerable congruence with independent ratings of the meaningfulness and comprehensibility of the subunits.

Rehearsal effectiveness as a function of similarity of rehearsal activities to a paired-associate task

Rehearsal conditions were compared which varied in their degree of similarity to a task of learning paired associates. From greater to lesser similarity the conditions were: Stimulus Present, Blank List, Color Guessing, and Joke Reading. A comparison group continued directly into the criterion trials. Higher degrees of rehearsal similarity resulted in superior performances on the first recall trial after rehearsal. Learning performances on additional criterion trials were not influenced beyond the residual effects of the first recall. A preliminary experiment provided evidence that covert rehearsal to a continued presentation of stimuli is as beneficial as overt rehearsal.

The reliability of associative norms

Three experiments provided information about the test-retest reliabilities of the product on and rating methods of determining individual and group associative values. The relative ranking of verbal stimuli by groups of S s was followed a week later by a similar relative ranking. Furthermore, the relative rankings via the production method were similar to rankings via the rating method. Considerable unreliability, however, was found for individual S s and individual verbal stimuli. Comparisons of the production and rating methods also provided evidence that the methods are not equivalent for individual S s or individual verbal stimuli.

Rehearsal of associations stored in long-term memory

A 2 by 2 by 2 design in Experiment I allowed comparison of rehearsers and controls assigned to one of four types of paired associate lists differing in imagery. After reaching a partial learning criterion, rehearsers engaged in covert rehearsal of associations drawn from long-term memory. Rehearsers were superior to the controls on posttreatment trials, but higher imagery was not associated with greater rehearsal gains. In Experiment II, postrehearsal success was strongly related to the relative frequencies of overt rehearsal. Rehearsals were more frequent on known associations, but rehearsal frequency also was related to new associative gain. Overall, the results support the contention that effective rehearsal may be undertaken on associations retrieved from long-term memory.

Remembering of prose: Holistic or piecemeal losses?

Abstract According to B. R. Gomulicki (1956, Acta Psychologica , 12 , 77–94), as passages lengthen, the abstractive process in forgetting results in deletions or “omissions that progress from single adjectives, through short descriptive phrases, to longer phrases which are only incidental to the main theme”. Here, five experiments are reported which test the idea that the unit of omission in longer passages is the phrase rather than the individual word. Analyses of the remembering of words within a phrase, as compared with word pairings drawn from two different phrases, provided evidence on the respective incidences of holistic and independent remembering of words. Independent remembering of words was evident when learners had the contextual support of surrounding text. Holistic remembering, in contrast, was evident primarily when retrieval demands were high and rememberings were scored for gist.