| Abstract: | 60 LITERATE SS AND 24 PRESCHOOL SS WERE TESTED FOR IMMEDIATE FREE RECALL OF 4 LISTS DIFFERING IN DEGREE OF CONCEPT CATEGORY RELATEDNESS IN 2 SEPARATE BUT RELATED EXPERIMENTS. 2 LISTS OF WORDS BELONGING TO THE SAME CONCEPT CATEGORY (HIC) AND 2 LISTS OF "UNRELATED" WORDS (LOC) WERE PRESENTED USING A LATIN SQUARE DESIGN. HYPOTHESIS I, THAT PRESCHOOL SS WOULD SHOW MINIMAL DIFFERENCE IN THEIR RECALL OF HIC AND LOC LISTS, WAS PARTLY UPHELD, AND HENCE ONLY EQUIVOCAL SUPPORT FOR PIAGET'S THEORY RELATED TO COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT AT THE PRESCHOOL LEVEL IS FORTHCOMING. HYPOTHESIS II, THAT ELDERLY SS WOULD SHOW SIGNIFICANTLY GREATER DISPARITY BETWEEN MEAN RECALL LEVELS OF HIC AND LOC LISTS THAN WOULD YOUNG ADULTS, WAS UPHELD. THIS FINDING WAS EVALUATED IN TERMS OF THEORIES CONCERNING GROWING INFLEXIBILITY IN THE INTELLECTUAL PROCESSES OF THE ELDERLY. (FRENCH SUMMARY) (17 REF.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
