Knowledge, strategy, and motivational contributions to preschool children's object recall.

This study examined the contributions of four individual difference predictors to preschool children's recall for object names. Measures of object knowledge (the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test [PPVT]), conceptual tempo (the Kansas Reflection-Impulsivity Scale for Preschoolers [KRISP] error scores), strategic study period activities, and teacher ratings of children's mastery motivation were used to predict recall scores of 3- and 4-year-old children. KRISP-error scores, strategic study activities, and motivation ratings were found to be significant correlates of recall. Motivation ratings entered a regression prediction equation first, followed by the strategic study activity measure, yielding a multiple correlation of .62. These predictors were unrelated, suggesting that motivational factors contributed to young children's recall proficiency directly, perhaps through greater task involvement and analysis and more effortful retrieval activity, and do not mediate strategic study behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)