Memory organization during children's repeated recall.

Presented a list of categorically related words to 20 2nd graders and 20 6th graders in a memory test. Multiple recall tests followed the initial presentation of words so that changes in memory organization could be assessed over recall attempts. Ss in both grades remembered many new words on later recall trials that they had not remembered on Trial 1. The proportions of new words recalled and the retrieval characteristics of these words were similar in both grades. Younger Ss, however, forgot many words during repeated recall, and older Ss did not. Different patterns of forgetting were correlated with different types of organizational strategies. Second graders recalled words in a sequential, rote manner with few transformations or rearrangements of words. Sixth graders, on the other hand, actively constructed larger categories or chunks of words over recall attempts. The spontaneous reconstruction of remembered information by 6th graders is interpreted as a manifestation of constructive memory-monitoring skills. Some potential advantages of a repeated recall paradigm for developmental research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Organization versus item effects of an elaborated knowledge base on children's memory.

Investigated the extent to which the high levels of recall and organization observed when children are asked to recall their classmates' names (class recall) can be attributed to organizational vs item-specific effects. Ss were 109 1st, 3rd, and 5th graders. Levels of clustering in class recall were elevated when Ss were constrained to recall their classmates' names according to specific organizational schemes (either sex or seating arrangement). However, there was no evidence that changes in levels or styles of organization influenced levels of memory performance or which names were recalled. Results indicate that some of the benefits on memory of an elaborated knowledge base cannot be attributed to differences in organization (either strategic or automatic) but rather are due to differences in the ease with which individual items can be retrieved. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Factors influencing rule discovery in children.

Reports on 2 studies using the Esper paradigm to determine development of rule application and discovery capabilities. This paradigm employs both learning and generalization phases. In Exp I with 48 3rd and 4th graders, it was determined that Ss could learn and generalize when rule and structure were provided, but there was little evidence of rule discovery. In Exp II with 48 different 3rd and 4th graders, memory and attention manipulations were added. Both manipulations facilitated learning, but only attention facilitated rule discovery. In both studies 4th graders performed better than 3rd graders on generalization but not learning. The relationship between performance on the Esper and Raven Coloured Progressive Matrices (given to all Ss), although inconsistent, when covaried out removed the significant grade but not experimental effects. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spatial memory for objects and words.

Examined in 4 experiments whether spatial location information is more likely to be encoded with the memory representation of objects than of words. 16 objects or the 1-word verbal labels for each were studied on a matrix display, followed by a recall test and then a relocation test. In each experiment, an independent variable known to affect item recall was introduced to test whether spatial location memory would concomitantly vary for both objects and words. In Exp I, with 48 2nd graders, 48 5th graders, and 48 high school juniors and seniors, recall of both objects and words increased with age of the Ss. However, relocation accuracy increased for objects but not for words. In Exp II, with 64 4th graders and 64 high school juniors and seniors, visual imagery instructions generally improved memory for words without affecting relocation accuracy. In Exps III (with 56 undergraduates) and IV (with 80 adults, aged 26.2–52.3 yrs), prolonging the test delay diminished recall for objects and words. However, relocation accuracy decreased only for the objects. In each experiment, item memory was affected independently of location memory for words but not for objects. The results suggest that different processes are involved in encoding item and location information for words but not for objects. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inducing children to generate mnemonic organizational strategies: An examination of long-term retention and materials.

Investigated whether children's strategy transfer is influenced by prior experience in a memory context. Specifically, experience with highly related materials was predicted to facilitate subsequent use of organizational strategies and recall of low-associated items. In Exp 1, 3rd graders induced to use organizational strategies through exposure to categorical materials demonstrated better recall and organization, both immediately and 3–5 days later, than children explicitly trained in strategy use. Exp 2 examined age-related differences in materials that would induce children to generate organizational strategies on their own. Third graders exposed to categorical materials exhibited better recall and organization of low associates, whereas functional materials facilitated 6th graders' performance. In both experiments, metamemory and simulated teaching instructions mirrored memory performance. Without direct instruction, experience with strongly associated materials induces children independently to discover and use organizational strategies with less-related materials. (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)     

New method for studying semantic encoding in children.

Used a familiarization procedure in 2 experiments investigating word encoding in 40 2nd and 40 6th graders. Previous studies using release from proactive inhibition have indicated that developmental changes on some encoding dimensions occur during this period. It is argued that the dependence of release from proactive inhibition on deliberate recall decreases its pertinence to the process of encoding. Exp I confirmed previous findings that the taxonomic classes animals and body parts are encoded by Ss in both grades. Exp II revealed that Ss in both grades also encode the evaluative connotation of words, a finding that has previously emerged only inconsistently. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memorization processes involved in performance on the Visual-Sequential Memory subtest of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities.

Two studies investigated memory processes involved in performance on the Visual-Sequential Memory subtest of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities. In the 1st study, 64 2nd and 4th graders were administered this subtest under standard conditions. Ss were designated as either "labelers" or "nonlabelers" according to whether they used a stimulus labeling strategy to aid recall. Differences in performance between 2nd and 4th graders could be accounted for almost entirely in terms of the greater number of labelers in the 4th grade. In the 2nd study, labelers and nonlabelers from Exp I at each grade level were formally trained to use a labeling strategy. The training resulted in improved performance for all Ss. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Use of causal attributions about recall performance to assess metamemory and predict strategic memory behavior in young children.

27 1st graders and 24 2nd graders were exposed to a memory task in which their recall performance varied as a function of their incidentally elicited sorting behavior. When asked what had affected their recall, only some Ss at each grade identified sorting as a causal factor, although all had used sorting. Attributions about sorting could not be accounted for by differential memory for sorting behavior or by differential use of sorting on previous trials. Causal attributions, but neither previous sorting nor nonattributional verbal reports about sorting behavior, predicted use of a sorting strategy in a standard, study-recall task 1 wk later. Ss who had attributed recall to sorting tended not to use rehearsal strategies on the subsequent task, suggesting that causal attributions reflected their views about what were the most important influences on recall. Ss' ability to assess their recall performance and their insight into possible mechanisms by which sorting affects recall are discussed as avenues for future research into how children acquire their ideas about factors that affect memory. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Category-order effects in memory span.

When Ss are required to recall lists containing both words and digits, memory span is higher when the digits precede the words than when the words precede the digits. In Exp 1, both forward and backward recall were tested; it was demonstrated that this category-order effect reflects the input position, and not the output position, of the items. Exp 2 revealed that this effect was not eliminated by a filled retention interval. Exp 3 showed that the effect was eliminated when lists were presented at a fast presentation rate. In Exp 4, the effect was eliminated when Ss engaged in articulatory suppression. A 5th experiment extended the findings of Exp 4 to the case in which lists are composed of semantically related or unrelated words. These results suggest that category-order effects reflect mnemonic activity that Ss engage in during list presentation and do not arise from structural characteristics of the memory system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Level of formal thought and organizational memory strategies.

Identified 28 9th graders of similar intelligence as being in either early or late formal-operational stages and presented them with tasks to assess their use of organizational memory strategies: multitrial free recall of unrelated and categorized words and a sorting task followed by free recall of the sorted words. In the multitrial free-recall tasks, late formal-operational adolescents generally showed greater amounts of recall organization than did early formal-operational adolescents. When storage organization was induced through sorting, however, the 2 groups showed equivalent recall organization. Across tasks, late formal-operational adolescents' recall exceeded that of early formal-operational adolescents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lexical ambiguity and children's word recognition.

Conducted 2 experiments to examine the word recognition processes of 2nd, 4th, and 6th graders. In Exp I, 72 Ss named target words that were primed by words that had more than 1 meaning. Targets were related either to the more or less frequent sense of the ambiguous prime or were unrelated to it. Findings indicate that older Ss were more likely than younger Ss to restrict processing of ambiguous words to the most frequent meaning. While younger Ss showed approximately equal facilitation for words related to either meaning, regardless of each one's relative frequency, 6th graders apparently retrieved only the most frequent meaning. Exp II, with 36 Ss, was similar to Exp I but included neutral primes and varied the interval between presentation of prime and target. Results show that all groups showed automatic retrieval of both meanings of the ambiguous word. For 6th graders, however, this retrieval was followed by a 2nd stage, in which attention was allocated to the more frequent meaning, maintaining it, while the less frequent meaning was inhibited. Overall data indicate that older children use meaning frequency to narrow the amount of information kept active following word recognition. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's generation and communication of mnemonic organizational strategies.

Using a series of alternating sort/recall trials, whether 108 1st, 3rd, and 6th graders' experience with categorically related items would facilitate their subsequent organization and recall of low-associated items was explored. Results indicate that 3rd graders exposed to the categorized materials recalled more low-associated items and demonstrated greater organization in sorting and recall than did 3rd graders with previous experience with low-associated materials. Sixth graders' performance with low-associated materials was not affected by their previous experience. Following the memory task, each S provided answers to a series of metamemory questions and then instructed a 1st-grade child in how to perform the memory task. The instructions given to the 1st graders, as well as the performance of these younger children, reflected the older children's differential experience with taxonomic vs low-associated materials. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A mnemonic based on arranging words on visual patterns.

Conducted 3 experiments with 264 undergraduates to demonstrate that arranging word lists on distinctive visual patterns results in better recall performance than does presenting the same word lists on a pattern that is always the same. In Exp I, lists of concrete nouns placed on different visual patterns were recalled better than those lists placed on the same pattern. This was true immediately after learning and 1 wk later. In Exp II, abstract terms taken from an introductory textbook in psychology were arranged on the same or on different drawings. When placed on the different drawings, the words were better learned, and what was learned was better retained in memory for 1 wk. In Exp III, both visual-pattern mnemonic aids and story mnemonic aids were provided to Ss for different lists. The story mnemonic was found to be superior. Possible reasons why the spatial-arrangement mnemonic and story mnemonic are effective are discussed. One important factor seems to be the discriminability among the representations of the word lists in memory. By placing words on distinctive visual patterns, this discriminability can be increased and recall performance can be enhanced. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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)     

Checking it out: Cognitive style, context, and problem type in children's monitoring of text comprehension.

Three experiments investigated the effects of age, context, and reflection–impulsivity (as assessed by the Matching Familiar Figures Test) on children's monitoring of comprehensibility problems in extended passages. In Exp I with 20 kindergartners and 20 2nd graders, reflective listeners were generally more effective detectors of referentially ambiguous terms in brief texts than were their impulsive agemates. Presence of a perceptual context for the messages significantly facilitated Ss' ambiguity detection as well. Exp II replicated the perceptual-context effect for 20 1st graders but failed to find any effects of cognitive style. In Exp III, 72 1st, 3rd, and 6th graders heard stories with several types of coherence problems, including referential confusions or global text-organization problems (missing story themes or resolutions). Half the Ss anticipated retelling the stories, and half did not. No effects of this listener–purpose manipulation were observed. More reflective listeners again detected referential ambiguities more readily overall, but this cognitive style effect did not extend to other types of message problems. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Note-taking, individual differences, and memory for lecture information.

Investigated the encoding function of note taking and processing differences between successful and less successful students in lecture situations in 2 experiments. In Exp I, 48 undergraduates either took notes or listened during a lecture. Different memory patterns were found for these 2 groups, with note-takers recalling many more high- than low-importance propositions and listeners recalling an equal number of high- and low-importance propositions. Results suggest that note taking enhanced organizational processing of lecture information. In Exp II, the notes and recall of 80 successful and less successful students were compared. Successful Ss recalled more of the most important propositions, but these 2 groups of Ss did not differ in their recall of less important propositions. For both groups of Ss, recall content was closely related to the content of the notes, with successful Ss recording more high-importance propositions in their notes. Also, successful and less successful Ss were similar in their note-taking styles and the degree to which they benefited from reviewing their notes. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of the ability to distinguish between comprehension and memory: Evidence from goal-state evaluation tasks.

Three experiments investigated developmental changes in children's ability to monitor and evaluate memorization and comprehension. First and 3rd graders rated the perceived difficulty of memorization (verbatim recall) and comprehension (block-building construction) after engaging in (a) a memory strategy (rote repetition) or a comprehension strategy (pictorial clarification of unfamiliar words; Exp 1); (b) no strategy or repetition (Exp 2); and (c) no strategy or clarification (Exp 3). In Exp 1, children recognized that clarification aided construction more than recall, but not that repetition aided recall more than construction. In Exp 2, children recognized that repetition aided recall but not construction. In Exp 3, children recognized that clarification aided construction more than recall. Thus, by 1st grade, children are sensitive to some aspects of the comprehension-memory distinction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Optimizing cue effectiveness: Recall of 500 and 600 incidentally learned words.

Examined prerequisites on optimal memory performance of large amounts of verbal materials in 3 cued-recall experiments with 28 undergraduates. In Exp I, Ss defined their own retrieval cues by generating 1 or 3 properties of features for each of 504 words. Results indicate that the level of recall was directly related to the amount of retrieval information provided. Results of Exp II show that self-generated cues were much more effective than those generated by someone else. In both experiments, performance decreased over 1-, 2-, and 7-day retention intervals. Findings of Exp III, with 600 words to be remembered, replicated those of Exps I and III. Distinctiveness and compatibility of retrieval cues are proposed as 2 necessary prerequisites to perfect recall performance. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selective reading: Attention to the "unattended" lines.

Previous research on selective reading indicates that upon direct questioning Ss are usually unable to recall words that appear in irrelevant lines. In 3 experiments with male 6th graders (n = 24) and college freshmen (n = 31), a procedure was developed to examine the influence of the unattended lines on memory for the words in attended lines in selective reading. In each study, q of the Ss were given a set of selective reading passages to be read aloud. In the irrelevant lines of each passage were wrong answers to the questions which followed that story. The remainder of the Ss in each experiment read control passages without irrelevant lines. Results show that although Ss in the selective reading condition could not recall the words in the irrelevant lines, their answers to the questions following each passage were influenced by that "unattended" material. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)