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Life-Span Maintenance of Knowledge
Harry P. Bahrick, Lynda K. Hall, and Melinda K. Baker
This volume describes how well we maintain the knowledge we acquire throughout life. Research traditionally focuses on memory for events that are retained over short time periods that can be accommodated in experiments. This book, by contrast, uniquely describes the evolution of methods suitable for investigating memory of complex knowledge acquired over several years and retained during the entire life-span. The methods substitute statistical for experimental controls, and the investigations involve several hundred participants whose memory is tested up to 50 years after they acquired the knowledge in question. The book covers educational content, such as mathematics and foreign languages; knowledge acquired incidentally, such as the streets and buildings of the cities in which we live; and knowledge acquired through the media. Previously unpublished research on age-related access to knowledge is included. The analyses are based on the accessibility/availability ratio, a metric presented for the first time. This metric allows comparisons of the portion of available knowledge that can be recalled as a function of age, education and other individual differences, and as a function of the domain of knowledge in question. The ratio can be used to evaluate methods of instruction and methods of studying. It can also be used to evaluate memory development and to diagnose memory pathology. The volume will be of interest to researchers in human memory, developmental psychologists, gerontologists in academic and applied settings, and educators.
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The Adolescent: Development, Relationships, and Culture
F. Philip Rice and Kim Dolgin
The Adolescent: Development, Relationships and Culture offers an eclectic, interdisciplinary approach to the study of adolescence, presenting both psychological and sociological viewpoints as well as educational, demographic, and economic data. This text discusses not just one theory on the subject, but many, and outlines the contributions, strengths, and weaknesses of each. The authors also take into consideration current and important topics such as ethnic identity formation, gender issues, the Internet, effects of single-parent families, etc. The twelfth edition features a beautiful new full-color design. The result is a vibrant treatment of the adolescent that offers current scholarship as well as an understanding of what it means to be an adolescent today.