Recency judgments in children: A production deficiency in the use of redundant background cues.

Presented 8 20-picture lists to 40 2nd and 40 4th graders, and each list followed by 3 test pairs, each pair repeating 2 list items. Ss were required to pick the item they had seen more recently on the list. Background color cues were provided, and half the Ss were instructed in using the cues to simplify the task. Difficulty of the recency judgments was also varied by increasing the separation between the 1st presentation of the tested items from 3 to 9 items. The wider the separation, the better the judgment of relative recency. On cue problems, training improved the performance of 2nd graders but not 4th graders. The developmental implications of the study are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

General and context-specific encoding: A life-span development study.

Examined general and context-specific encoding across the life span, using the same procedure for all ages. Ss included 2nd- and 5th-grade schoolchildren, college students, and individuals aged 65+ yrs. Ss were asked to generate a personal word association to each of 24 target items prior to a surprise cued-recall test. The cues were either the S-generated associates or category labels. Ss at all ages recalled more associate-cued than category-cued items. Using the college students' performance as a baseline, 2nd graders performed equally poorly with both types of cues; 5th graders performed relatively more poorly with category than associate cues; and the older Ss performed relatively more poorly with associate than with category cues. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do children "DRM" like adults? False memory production in children.

The Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm was used to investigate developmental trends in accurate and false memory production. In Experiment 1, DRM lists adjusted to be more consistent with children's vocabulary were used with 2nd graders, 8th graders, and college students. Accurate and false recall and recognition increased with age, but semantic information appeared to be available to all age groups. Experiment 2 created a set of child-generated lists based on the free associations by a group of 3rd graders to critical items. The child-generated associates were different from those generated by adults; long and short versions of the child-generated lists were therefore presented to 2nd, 5th, and 8th graders and college students in Experiment 3. Second graders exhibited few false memories, whereas 5th graders were similar to adults in low-demand conditions and more similar to younger children in high-demand conditions. Findings are discussed in terms of developmental changes in automatic and effortful processing and the use of semantic networks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's understanding of retrieval cue utilization.

To understand the logic of effective cue utilization, one must know not only that cues are useful but that a specific cue is useful only if it is located where one will be when it is time to remember, and placed so one will encounter it automatically. This experiment investigated 16 1st, 16 2nd, and 16 5th graders' knowledge of the use of retrieval cues to aid memory. Stories representing effective and ineffective cue locations were constructed. Many 1st graders believed that all cue locations were effective; the discrimination of ineffective locations showed a clear order of acquisition by age. Those 1st graders had little understanding of external retrieval cues as mnemonic means. As soon as Ss achieved this understanding, it was coordinated with temporal requirements for using cues effectively. However, full understanding of the temporal criteria required a series of developments. Ss at first knew only that a cue encountered after the time to do the task would be ineffective. Next, Ss understood that a cue would be ineffective if it were encountered after the time one had to remember to do the task. Most 5th graders knew that even a cue encountered before the task would be ineffective if the cue appeared greatly in advance of the time one had to remember. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of investigating children's integrated knowledge, or theories, about memory. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Blocking in the Morris swimming pool.

Four experiments demonstrate that spatial blocking is governed by the same principles that govern blocking in Pavlovian conditioning. In the 2nd stage of each experiment, rats escaped from a Morris swimming pool by swimming to a submerged platform with a beacon attached to it. Test trials were then conducted in the absence of the platform and the beacon to assess the extent to which subjects had learned about the position of the platform with reference to the room cues. For the 1st stage of their training, rats either swam to the platform and beacon in the presence of curtains that prevented the room cues from being seen (Experiments 1 & 2), or they swam to the platform and beacon that were moved from trial to trial (Experiments 3 & 4). In each experiment, learning about the room cues in the 2nd stage of the experiment was blocked by the presence of the beacon. This blocking effect was disrupted by changing the appearance of the beacon for the 2nd stage of training or by restricting the amount of exposure to the beacon during the 1st phase of training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Syllable coding in printed-word recognition by children and adults.

Studied phonological coding in printed-word recognition in English by examining the use made of syllable information by skilled and less skilled readers in 2 experiments using 32 2nd graders and 81 undergraduates. Stimuli were bisyllabic frequent nouns. Syllable coding was used by the less-skilled 2nd graders but not by either the better 2nd graders or adults in lexical decision tasks. However, adults did make use of syllable information when the direct use of letter information was slowed by presenting items in alternating upper- and lowercase letters. Differences between children and adults in their use of the syllable information in pseudowords are interpreted as indicating that for skilled adult readers, the major focus of activity in word recognition is at the letter level. For immature readers, the process of word recognition is less analytic and involves a more extensive lexical search based on a reduced amount of letter information. The results are discussed in terms of an interactive model of reading. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship of Morphology and Other Language Skills to Literacy Skills in At-Risk Second-Grade Readers and At-Risk Fourth-Grade Writers.

Structural equation modeling evaluated the contribution of phonological, orthographic, morphological, and oral vocabulary factors to word reading, spelling, and reading comprehension outcomes in 98 2nd graders at risk for passing state standards in reading and to those same outcomes plus composing in 97 4th graders at risk for passing state standards in writing. For 2nd-grade children, morphology contributed uniquely to reading comprehension, and oral vocabulary and orthography contributed uniquely to word reading. For 4th-grade children, morphology and oral vocabulary did not contribute uniquely to any outcomes, but morphology and word reading were correlated, and orthography and phonology contributed uniquely to decoding words with affixes. Fourth graders are still learning to coordinate orthographic, phonological, and morphological cues in written words. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's comprehension of family role portrayals in televised dramas: Effects of socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and age.

578 middle and lower socioeconomic status (SES), Black and White children in Grades 2, 5, and 8 participated in 2 fully-crossed replications of the same design. They viewed 1 of 2 edited television dramas that portrayed either a White middle-class family (Study 1) or a Black working-class family (Study 2) in similar conflict resolution situations. Ss' comprehension of central (plot-essential) and peripheral content and their inferences about actors' emotions and causes of action were assessed. Memory for content was age-related in both studies. However, in Study 1, middle-SES 2nd graders viewing the middle-class family show scored higher than lower-SES 2nd graders. In Study 2 lower-SES 2nd graders who viewed the working-class family show achieved higher scores than their middle-class counterparts. There were no SES effects among 5th- and 8th-grade participants and no consistent effects of ethnicity at any age. Additional analyses indicated that congruence between televised characters and settings and viewers' own experiences, as indicated by SES, facilitated 2nd graders' processing of program content. Implications of age-related processing skills for social effects of TV are discussed. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive load, schema acquisition, and procedural adaptation in nonisomorphic analogical transfer.

Cognitive load theory was explored in 3 conditions among 96 3rd graders in nonisomorphic transfer. In 1 condition, both goal attainment and problem-space exploration were emphasized on each acquisition trial. In a 2nd condition, problem-space exploration was emphasized, whereas goal attainment was not. In a 3rd condition, goal attainment was emphasized, but the problem-space was explored only until an error occurred on each trial. All children solved 2 analogs of the missionaries/cannibals problem and transferred to an analog of the jealous husbands problem. Children in the 2nd condition made fewer errors and required less time than the other groups on the 1st move in transfer, which is taken to reflect the quality of the base attained during acquisition. On later moves, children in Conditions 1 and 2 outperformed those in Condition 3. Thus, children in the 1st 2 conditions were better able to adjust the base to the target. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental analysis of the role of social comparison in self-evaluation.

The use of social comparison information for self-evaluation may be viewed as a major developmental step in children's growing understanding of their competencies and limitations. The 2 studies presented here suggested that children's achievement-related self-evaluations are little affected by relative comparisons until surprisingly late—that is, not earlier than 7–8 yrs of age. In Study 1, 104 1st and 2nd graders performed a task with 3 coacting peers; only the 2nd graders made any use at all of the social comparison information in their evaluative judgments. In Study 2 an attempt was made to maximize the potential for using comparative information by providing a strong incentive to engage in social comparsion of abilities in a situation in which objective information about a success/failure outcome was unavailable. The 90 kindergarten, 2nd, and 4th graders played a game with peers and made competence-related self-evaluations and decisions about future performance. Only the judgments of the 4th graders were consistently affected by the social comparison information. Previous research on the development of social comparison and possible explanations for the developmental trends observed are discussed. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of trait and state anxiety on the performance of elementary school children in traditional and individualized multiage classrooms.

Evaluated anxiety and performance on concrete and abstract criterion-referenced mathematics tests for 267 1st and 2nd graders assigned to either individualized multiage programs (IMP) or traditional learning environments (TRAD). The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC) was used to measure anxiety. Lower trait and state anxiety was associated with the IMP program, and anxiety-reducing effects were greater for 2nd graders. High A-Trait 1st graders performed more poorly than low A-Trait 1st graders. Although IMP 1st graders were lower in A-Trait than TRAD children, they did not differ in performance. For 2nd graders, the IMP environment facilitated the performance of high A-Trait children, but resulted in poorer performance for low A-Trait children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Retrieving for rehearsal: An analysis of active rehearsal in children's memory.

Two experiments with 96 2nd graders and 24 6th graders explored the operation of retrieval processes in Ss' active rehearsal strategies. Both experiments used free-recall tasks, in which Ss were given instructions in active rehearsal as well as supports that might facilitate the retrieval operation and thus enhance both rehearsal and recall performance. In Exp I, 2nd and 6th graders were given visual or auditory access to an 18-item stimulus-word list. Results show that, by providing 2nd graders with an opportunity to view previously presented words, rehearsal activity and recall increased substantially, whereas the performance of the 6th graders was not affected. In Exp II, presentation time and visual access to a similar 18-word list were manipulated for 2nd graders. Results show that the provision of extra time for an item enabled Ss to execute a more active rehearsal strategy. Extra time had only minimal effects on recall, except when it was combined with visual access to the items. Findings suggest that retrieval per se is not necessary for the beneficial effects of active rehearsal, if other procedures can be followed to permit the juxtaposition of several items in rehearsal. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A new statistical test for age-of-onset anticipation: application to bipolar disorder

Sixty 2nd, 5th, and 8th graders were interviewed on their moral and ecological reasoning about the 1990 Exxon Valdez oil spill that occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Results showed that children understood that the oil spill negatively affected the local Alaskan shoreline, marine life, fishermen, recreationists, and the oil company. Children cared that harm occurred to the shoreline and marine life and conceived of both types of harm as violating a moral obligation. Fifth and 8th graders, compared with 2nd graders, used a greater proportion of anthropocentric reasoning (e.g., that nature ought to be protected to protect human welfare) and biocentric reasoning (e.g., that nature has intrinsic value, rights, or a teleology). Discussion focuses on how studying children's reasoning about nature not only extends the bounds of what counts as moral--to include a relationship with the natural world--but also provides a unique means by which to conduct basic research on children's moral development.     

Development of children's use of a story schema to retrieve information.

In Exp I, 80 2nd and 6th graders and 40 college students heard normal or scrambled stories and either recalled them exactly as heard or recalled them by making them into "good" stories. Scrambled stories generally depressed recall; 2nd graders performed poorly, but there was a clear improvement with age/grade in the ability to reorganize a scrambled story. In Exp II, an explanation for 2nd graders' poor performance was proposed and tested with 24 additional 2nd graders. It was thought that 2nd graders might know the form of an ideal story, but fail to spontaneously and consciously use their knowledge of its constituent parts to guide retrieval. A brief training procedure was introduced to teach a new group of 2nd graders how to sequence story propositions. The expectation was that training would prime them to use the internal story structure as a retrieval strategy when faced with a set of scrambled stories to recall (in good order). The expectation was confirmed. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's moral and ecological reasoning about the Prince William Sound oil spill.

Sixty 2nd, 5th, and 8th graders were interviewed on their moral and ecological reasoning about the 1990 Exxon Valdez oil spill that occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Results showed that children understood that the oil spill negatively affected the local Alaskan shoreline, marine life, fishermen, recreationists, and the oil company. Children cared that harm occurred to the shoreline and marine life and conceived of both types of harm as violating a moral obligation. Fifth and 8th graders, compared with 2nd graders, used a greater proportion of anthropocentric reasoning (e.g., that nature ought to be protected to protect human welfare) and biocentric reasoning (e.g., that nature has intrinsic value, rights, or a teleology). Discussion focuses on how studying children's reasoning about nature not only extends the bounds of what counts as moral—to include a relationship with the natural world—but also provides a unique means by which to conduct basic research on children's moral development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Use of headings by children for text search.

Examined the development of text search strategies in 144 4th, 6th, and 8th graders who were assigned to reading booklets with or without headings embedded in the reading material. Both younger and older Ss demonstrated evidence of efficient use of headings as locational aids when explicitly instructed on how to use them, and spontaneous use of headings as a search strategy was observed in half of the 4th and 6th graders and in most of the 8th graders. Ss at all levels read faster when asked to search for a specific fact than when asked to read the story line by line, indicating their awareness of when to skim. Findings suggest that by the 4th grade, children may have the cognitive skills to benefit from headings but may use these skills only in structured situations. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental change in judging important and critical elements of stories.

Conducted 2 experiments with 54 2nd, 4th, and 6th graders and 15 undergraduates (Exp I) and 45 2nd and 4th graders (Exp II) to examine children's understanding (metacognitive awareness) that in a simple story the following parts are most important or essential for comprehending it: what precipitates the character's action (initiating event), what the character did (action), and what follows the character's action (consequence). Ss' judgments of simple stories showed that 2nd graders seldom selected this sequence, but 4th, 5th, and 6th graders and adults did so under a variety of conditions. In addition there was a modest relation between recall of the stories and older children's (5th graders) judgments of them. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Knowing what to remember and forget: a developmental study of cue memory in intentional forgetting

These experiments are the first to investigate children's encoding and use of information about a memory cue in Bjork's (1972) intentional forgetting task. In Experiment 1, children in Grades 2, 4, and 6 and college students were given cues to either remember or forget after the presentation of each picture. Recall and recognition tests of pictures and cues followed. The procedure in Experiment 2 was identical to that in Experiment 1 except that the list of presentation pictures was altered for some children (Grades 3 and 4) and adolescents (Grades 8 and 9) so that remember and forget cues were associated with particular taxonomic categories. In Experiment 3, the testing component was modified so that children (Grades 2, 3, and 4) and college students were asked to recall only the cue associated with each picture. The results indicated that (1) children as young as second graders encode the cue associated with each picture, although to a lesser extent than do college students, (2) much improvement in intentional forgetting is still occurring during adolescence, (3) only adults adequately cluster their recall by cue, (4) associating remember and forget cues with items from different categories does not increase the differentiation between cues, and (5) eliminating picture recall and recognition has minimal effects on the magnitude of cue judgments. These results suggest that children's difficulties on intentional forgetting tasks stem, at least in part, from their poorer encoding of information about whether an item should be remembered or forgotten.     

Developmental analyses of two formal operational structures: Combinatorial thinking and conditional reasoning.

Investigated developmental patterns for combinatorial thinking and conditional reasoning abilities and explored the possibility of an interrelationship between these formal operational structures in preadolescents and adolescents. 10 males and 10 females (IQ > 110) at each of the 5th-, 6th-, 7th-, and 8th-grade levels were given (a) 2 verbal and 1 quantitative combinatorial thinking tasks and (b) a 30-item conditional reasoning test (2-wk intertest interval). Analysis of variance for the verbal combinatorial thinking revealed that 7th and 8th graders scored significantly higher than 5th graders, and that male 6th graders scored higher than female 6th graders while female 7th graders scored higher than male 7th graders. Analysis of quantitative thinking scores also revealed a significant (positive) effect for grade level but no sex * grade level interactions. Conditional reasoning scores for 8th graders were also significantly higher than Ss' scores at any other grade level. These overall findings support Piaget's contention that formal operational structures emerge during early adolescence; however, the nonsignificant correlations between Ss' scores on the 2 types of tasks fail to confirm his contention of an integration of formal operational competencies during this period. Methodological problems with the Piagetian clinical approach are noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lexical memory in poor and normal readers: Developmental differences in the use of category cues.

Examined whether differences between poor and normal reading children on lexical memory tasks may be attributed to semantic development, using 80 2nd and 6th graders. Ss were presented with 4 lists of taxonomic categories and were asked to recall items under (a) noncued and random conditions, with Ss instructed to recall as many items as possible and (b) cued and blocked conditions, with Ss told to recall items in a category. All Ss performed better with category cues. Group differences on category recall were more reliable at Grade 6, suggesting that facility in accessing taxonomic categories may differentiate poor and normal readers more reliably at older age levels. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)