Two investigations examined how college students perceived the utility of commercial memory aids. In investigation 1 the participants rated the perceived utility of a wide range of commercial external aids. The commercial aids rated as most useful were ones that served an encoding function. In general, the participants viewed the aids as somewhat more useful to themselves than they would be to other people. A review of the literature and Investigation 2 showed that the utility of commercial memory aids varies with three kinds of individual differences: those pertaining to demographic characteristics (age, gender); personality (conscientiousness, desire for control, agreeableness, fearfulness); and past experience (such as having a consistent or chaotic schedule). As the world relies more on technology, proper understanding of cognition in everyday life will increasingly require research that clarifies why people do or do not make good use of commercial memory aids.

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In this study, we examined the process of problem solving in mailing list discussion groups. We analyzed subjects' participation in discussions and e-mail messages when solving two types of tasks (a mechanical spring problem and a catch phrase making task) by groups of three sizes (small, medium, large). Group performance was compared with the performance of non-collaborating artificial work groups. Results indicate that group size and task type influence the degree of participation and group performance. We found a significant contrast in large-groups. In the ‘spring problem’, which is a difficult scientific task, the group process was inactive and group performance got worse as group size increased. In the ‘catch phrase’ task, communication was active and various opinions were proposed, and group participation and performance did not drop even in large groups.

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College students examined the relations between Web-site design/structure and cognitive performance. In Study 1, nineteen subjects evaluated 283 Web-sites of university department and found that two axes, surface design of two dimensional complexity and structure design of three dimensional complexity contribute to the evaluation of Web-site impression. In Study 2, twenty-one students joined a memory experiment to investigate which axis contributes to the understanding and memory of Web-site. The results suggest that the contribution of each axis depends on the nature of contents (general and specific) and the cognitive attributes (understanding and memory). The axis of Web-site structure contributes to both understanding and memory for general information but the axis of Web-site surface design contributes only to the understanding, not to the memory function.

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The aim of present study was to examine the relationship between the frequency of use of memory strategies and the performance of a prospective memory task. The frequency of use of memory strategies (Low or High) and the significance of the prospective memory task to the subjects (significant or non-significant) were manipulated. In Experiment 1, the subjects were given a prospective memory task, i.e., sending e-mail on a designated day by their mobile phone. The results showed that although in the significant task group the performance of the prospective memory task in the Low memory strategy group was higher than that in the High group, these trends were reverse in the non-significant task group. These results suggested that the significance of the prospective memory task would have an influence on the relationship between the frequency of use of memory strategies and the performance of the prospective memory task. In Experiment 2, the subjects were asked to post a card on a designated day. The results were different from those in Experiment 1; the performances on the prospective memory task in Experiment 2 were higher than those in Experiment 1. Also the performance on the prospective memory task in the significant task group was higher than that in the non-significant task group. The reasons for these incompatible results between the two experiments are discussed in terms of the accessibility of the communication tool.

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Focusing on two attributes, possibility of correct (correctability) and possibility of exit (exitability), of the electronic media communication, we examined whether electronic media negotiation would prompt agreement by inducing participants to take constructive action such as trade-off, or to suppress a strong assertion. In a role-play experiment, 80 students negotiated with each other through the e-mail system in one of four experimental conditions across two levels of correctability and exitability. It was found that participants who were allowed to correct messages prior to delivery produced clearer and socially more acceptable messages than those who were not. When the other party was able to exit, participants refrained from strong assertion more often than when it was not. Furthermore, a combination of correctable and exitable situation prompted agreement. We discuss the socio-psychological processes producing constructive action in the electronic media negotiation.

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This paper looks at the background to the recent development of present day applied memory research and considers its present day successes and failures. Applied memory research emerged into the view of science in general in that late 1970s. Its reception was controversial at best. Many basic researchers seemed to feel that they should direct the course of not only basic research but also applied research as well. Gradually it became apparent that while the missions of basic and applied research were similar in relying on the scientific method, these two different branches of science address different phenomena in different contexts. However, applied memory research is still slowed unfairly. Problems which impede the progress of applied memory research, including difficulties of evaluation, lack of peer esteem, and unrealistic expectations of journal reviewers of research conducted under ecologically valid conditions, are discussed. Nevertheless, applied memory research is coping with the challenges put to it, and perhaps because of the scepticism it faces, is accelerating its contribution to the needs of the world.

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