Memory Performance And Competencies

Research on memory development has accumulated over the past few years. Given the number of relevant publications in the field, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep track of major advances in specific areas of memory development. This book illustrates 2 purposes: * to permit experts in the various subdomains of research in memory development to summarize recent findings concerning the respective roles of capacity, strategies, and knowledge in the acquisition of memory skills; and * to discuss cross-cutting topics such as the influence of individual differences, practical and educational implications, and the potential of longitudinal studies.

Memory development has been a central topic in developmental psychology for the past 30 years. This volume summarizes the research achievements during that era and relates those achievements to work on memory development conducted throughout the 20th century. An abridgement of Schneider and Pressley's previous work (Memory Development Between Two and Twenty, Second Edition, 1997, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.), this book has been reorganized to better discuss the most important themes in memory development for the novice student. By highlighting the issues driving contemporary memory development research, it provides the knowledge that students require to effectively understand the newest studies on memory development. This textbook is not a history; rather, it offers a framework for understanding the many memory development studies now appearing in the literature. A comprehensive, yet succinct, summary of theory and research on memory development, this volume covers more than a century of research, including European, Soviet, and American contributions. Its organization in terms of basic memory capacities, knowledge, strategies, and metamemory reflects the way that the most important researchers in memory development have conceived of the field during the past two decades. At the same time, it emphasizes the perspective that memory development is not development of any of the components alone, but rather is due to developments in capacity, knowledge, strategies, and metamemory in interaction. As such, the book is appropriate for courses in child development, cognitive development, and cognition and memory--that is, wherever students have a need to know about how leading scholars view the development of memory and intellect.

For a period of some fifteen years following completion of my internship training in clinical psychology (1950-1951) at the Washington University School of Medicine and my concurrent successful navigation through that school's neuroanatomy course, clinical work in neuropsychology for me and the psychologists of my generation consisted almost exclusively of trying to help our physician colleagues differentiate patients with neurologic from those with psychiatric disorders. In time, experience led all of us from the several disciplines involved in this enterprise to the conclusion that the crude diag nostic techniques available to us circa 1945-1965 had garnered us little valid information upon which to base such complex, differential diagnostic decisions. It now is gratifying to look back and review the remarkable progress that has occurred in the field of clinical neuropsychology in the four decades since I was a graduate student. In the late 1940s such pioneers as Ward Halstead, Alexander Luria, George Yacorzynski, Hans-Lukas Teuber, and Arthur Benton already were involved in clinical studies that, by the late 1960s, would markedly have improved the quality of clinical practice. However, the only psychological tests that the clinical psychologist of my immediate post-Second World War generation had as aids for the diagnosis of neurologically based conditions involving cognitive deficit were such old standbys as the Wechsler Bellevue, Rorschach, Draw A Person, Bender Gestalt, and Graham Kendall Memory for Designs Test.

Psychologists have been trying to understand the factors that underpin children's success and failure in different educational domains for many years. One psychological function that has been found to play an important role in educational achievement is 'working memory', the processes involved in the temporary maintenance and manipulation of information. This book provides the reader with an up-to-date review of the research that has identified how working memory relates to academic attainment in: reading, reading comprehension, arithmetic and writing, as well as looking at how children with difficulties relating to hearing impairment and attention deficits differ in terms of their working memory. Other chapters focus on how working memory is called upon in classroom settings, how working memory can be assessed, and approaches to remediation. The opening chapter of the book provides an account of working memory from the architect of the model that has dominated psychological theory for over two decades. This book is a valuable resource for psychologists, educationalists, and anyone seeking to understand more about the cognitive basis of educational achievement in children. * It brings together in one volume information that would normally be found in different sources * It brings together two disciplines that are highly relevant to one another (psychology and education) but not often linked directly * Provides psychologists with a perspective on educational practice * Provides educationalists with a well-established psychological framework for viewing educational phenomena * It provides information about up-to-date research techniques * It provides suggestions on how psychological theory can be translated into practice in educational settings

The authenticity of memories of childhood sexual abuse has become one of the major social controversies of the 1990's. As persons who report histories of abuse have sought remedies in civil and criminal proceedings in the courts, the accuracy of their memories--particularly when they have been recalled after a period of time--has been subject to intense scrutiny. This volume brings together many of the leading participants in the debate to provide a comprehensive picture of the psychological, physiological, and legal aspects of trauma. Beginning by defining the opposing positions in the debate, the contributors then offer a variety of perspectives on the nature of memory, including reviews of some of the most exciting recent developments in this fast-growing area of investigation. Next, consideration is given to the impact of trauma on memory, both in adults and in children. With this framework in place, the authors turn to an examination of the variety of treatment approaches available to victims of trauma, who are trying to cope with the painful consequences of those events. The book argues against a unidimensional approach to trauma, calling instead for a multidisciplinary synthesis that includes developmental, neurobiological, cognitive, and psychodynamic perspectives. Chapters address the legal dilemmas for patients, mental health professionals and society as a whole that have arisen from the trauma and memory controversy. Most importantly, the editors shift the focus of their discussion from the laboratory to the courtroom and from the research journal to the psychotherapist's office, looking at the issues from every relevant angle. This is the only book in the field to treat the trauma and memory controversy comprehensively, from basic research on memory processes through clinical approaches to legal and policy issues. Trauma and Memory is a valuable tool for clinicians treating patients with traumatic memories. It is also intended for psychologists, physicians, social workers and lawyers who need a comprehensive reference on trauma and sexual abuse during childhood.

By analyzing the results of experiments that use a wide variety of training tasks including those that were predominantly perceptual, cognitive, or motoric, this volume answers such questions as: Why do some people forget certain skills faster than others? What kind of training helps people retain new skills longer? Inspired by the work of Harry Bahrick and the concept of "permastore," the contributors explore the Stroop effect, mental calculation, vocabulary retention, contextual interference effects, autobiographical memory, and target detection. They also summarize an investigation on specificity and transfer in choice reaction time tasks. In each chapter, the authors explore how the degree to which reinstatement of training procedures during retention and transfer tests accounts for both durability and specificity of training. Researchers and administrators in education and training will find important implications in this book for enhancing the retention of knowledge of skills. "You have to read this book. Anyone interested in training will want to read it. This book provides the theoretical bases of the acquisition of durable skills for the next decade. It advances and demonstrates a new principle of skill learning that will prove to be as important as the encoding specificity principle and its corollary, the principle of transfer appropriate processing. This new principle is that highly practiced skill learning will be durable when the retention test embodies the procedures employed during acquisition. This principle, and the other important findings reported in this text, will have a great impact on the evolution of memory theory and on the wide range of applications." --Douglas Hermann, University of Maryland

Based on decades of established research findings in cognitive and developmental psychology, this volume explores and integrates the leading scientific advances into infancy and brain-memory linkages as well as autobiographical and strategic memory. In addition, given that the predominantly classic research on memory development has recently been complemented by more cutting-edge applied research (e.g., eyewitness memory, memory development in educational contexts) in recent years, this volume also provides in-depth and up-to-date coverage of these emerging areas of study.

In this volume, two scholars with different but complementary interests in memory and cognitive development present a careful overview of the field of memory development from the perspective of their theory of good strategy use. In addition to treating broad topics of general interest, such as knowledge, cognitive capacity, and metamemory, the text also examines controversial issues surrounding the development of children's memory--particularly eyewitness memory. The result is a coherent statement about memory development accompanied by commentary on the study of memory development, plus applications of the theory and research in the area. This book is intended for advanced undergraduate and graduate students as well as researchers and other professionals interested in child and adolescent memory.