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Argues that there is a confounding between stimulus presentation probability and memory set size in S. Sternberg's classic study of character recognition. 2 experiments were conducted, with 20 undergraduates in each, in which stimulus probability and memory set size were varied independently. Using Sternberg's analysis, results essentially replicate his. However, a pronounced and systematic stimulus probability effect was found on reaction time to both positive and negative stimuli. The data are consistent with a self-terminating process which searches a stochastically ordered memory stack containing representations of both positive and negative stimuli which are stored with their appropriate response codes as paired associates. (20 ref.)

Clark's (1973) hypothesis about the acquisition of semantics proposed that young children learn the meanings of words component by component, and that, within any given semantic field, they acquire the full adult meanings for the semantically simpler terms before they acquire the semantically more complex ones. The semantic field investigated in the present study was that of kinship terms. A new analysis of kin terms, employing relational components, was used to predict the relative order of acquisition of the terms. Definitions of 15 kin terms were elicited from children aged 3;5–8;10. The data showed that semantic complexity played an important role in determining the order of acquisition, and thus provided support for both the relational analysis of kin terms and the semantic acquisition hypothesis.

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