Transfer of a mnemonic keyword strategy at two age levels.

80 12- and 80 18-yr-old students learned a list of cities paired with their products. In experimental conditions, Ss were instructed in mnemonic usage to learn the city–product pairings. Control Ss were simply instructed to learn the pairings. Then all Ss were presented a list of Latin nouns and their translations to learn. Spontaneous transfer of the keyword strategy to the Latin task was observed only among 18-yr-olds. However, the 12-yr-olds could transfer the keyword strategy to the new task situation if they were told to "use a technique similar to the one used in the city–product task." Results are interpreted within a developmental elaboration theory framework. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)