Errorful learning improves recognition memory for new vocabulary for people living with memory and dysexecutive impairment following brain injury.

A widely accepted view is that errorless learning is essential for supporting new learning in people with anterograde amnesia, but findings are mixed for those with a broader range of memory impairments. People at a chronic stage of recovery from brain injury (BI) with impaired memory and executive function ( = 26) were compared with adults in a comparison group without any known risks to brain function ( = 25). Learning techniques were compared using a "Generate-and-correct" and "Read-only" condition when learning novel word pairs.

Retrieval-induced forgetting of spatial position depends on access to multiple shared features within categories.

Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) is typically observed in verbal memory tasks, although a few studies have observed RIF in visual spatial tasks. This leaves an open question as to whether RIF depends on semantic identity to link across semantic properties of objects, or whether RIF depends on access to the perceptual features of objects. To explore RIF of spatial positions, we report three experiments utilizing a continuous measure of the accessibility and precision for objects that were distinguished by their shape, color, and spatial region.

Progressive retrieval practice leads to greater memory for image-word pairs than standard retrieval practice.

The benefits of retrieval practice on learning are robust and have transferred from laboratory findings to many real-world educational settings. We report two experiments that investigated a novel retrieval practice technique for remembering arbitrary associations (image-word pairs), with and without reward as a motivator. As well as typical retrieval practice and restudy conditions, we added a third condition of graded retrieval practice in which the image cue was partially released in a progressive process.

Self-protecting motivation, indexed by self-threat, modifies retrieval-induced-forgetting and confidence in employment decision bias against out-group targets.

Human memory is malleable by both social and motivational factors and holds information relevant to workplace decisions. Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) describes a phenomenon where retrieval practice impairs subsequent memory for related (unpracticed) information. We report two RIF experiments.

Proactive and reactive control mechanisms in navigational search.

Reactive and proactive cognitive control are fundamental for guiding complex human behaviour. In two experiments, we evaluated the role of both types of cognitive control in navigational search. Participants searched for a single hidden target in a floor array where the salience at the search locations varied (flashing or static lights).

Drawing Firmer Conclusions: Autistic Children Show No Evidence of a Local Processing Bias in a Controlled Copying Task.

Drawing tasks are frequently used to test competing theories of visuospatial skills in autism. Yet, methodological differences between studies have led to inconsistent findings. To distinguish between accounts based on local bias or global deficit, we present a simple task that has previously revealed dissociable local/global impairments in neuropsychological patients.

Receptive vocabulary and semantic knowledge in children with SLI and children with Down syndrome.

Receptive vocabulary and associated semantic knowledge were compared within and between groups of children with specific language impairment (SLI), children with Down syndrome (DS), and typically developing children. To overcome the potential confounding effects of speech or language difficulties on verbal tests of semantic knowledge, a novel task was devised based on picture-based semantic association tests used to assess adult patients with semantic dementia. Receptive vocabulary, measured by word-picture matching, of children with SLI was weak relative to chronological age and to nonverbal mental age but their semantic knowledge, probed across the same lexical items, did not differ significantly from that of vocabulary-matched typically developing children.

A specific cognitive deficit within semantic cognition across a multi-generational family.

We report a study of eight members of a single family (aged 8-72 years), who all show a specific deficit in linking semantic knowledge to language. All affected members of the family had high levels of overall intelligence; however, they had profound difficulties in prose and sentence recall, listening comprehension and naming. The behavioural deficit was remarkably consistent across affected family members.

Children with autism are neither systematic nor optimal foragers.

It is well established that children with autism often show outstanding visual search skills. To date, however, no study has tested whether these skills, usually assessed on a table-top or computer, translate to more true-to-life settings. One prominent account of autism, Baron-Cohen's "systemizing" theory, gives us good reason to suspect that they should.

Deficits in verbal long-term memory and learning in children with poor phonological short-term memory skills.

Possible links between phonological short-term memory and both longer term memory and learning in 8-year-old children were investigated in this study. Performance on a range of tests of long-term memory and learning was compared for a group of 16 children with poor phonological short-term memory skills and a comparison group of children of the same age with matched nonverbal reasoning abilities but memory scores in the average range. The low-phonological-memory group were impaired on longer term memory and learning tasks that taxed memory for arbitrary verbal material such as names and nonwords.

Developmental consequences of poor phonological short-term memory function in childhood: a longitudinal study.

Background: A longitudinal study investigated the cognitive skills and scholastic attainments at 8 years of age of children selected on the basis of poor phonological loop skills at 5 years.

Methods: Children with low and average performance at 5 years were tested three years later on measures of working memory, phonological awareness, vocabulary, language, reading, and number skill.

Results: Two subgroups of children with poor early performance on phonological memory tests were identified.