Preschoolers' Knowledge and Use of Behaviors Varying in Strategic Effectiveness

The development of strategic knowledge and its relationship to strategy use and memory performance were examined in two studies. Preschoolers were asked to judge the relative effectiveness of ignoring, looking, touching, and marking for increasing recall in a memory-for-location task. In Study 1 wit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 1989-07, Vol.35 (3), p.363-377
Main Author: Justice, Elaine M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adopted children
Children
Experimentation
Memory
Metamemory
Mnemonics
Preschool children
Preschool education
RESEARCH REPORTS
Strategic behavior
Turntables
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Summary:The development of strategic knowledge and its relationship to strategy use and memory performance were examined in two studies. Preschoolers were asked to judge the relative effectiveness of ignoring, looking, touching, and marking for increasing recall in a memory-for-location task. In Study 1 with 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds, the 5-year-olds judged ignoring as less effective than the other strategies and marking as more effective than looking. Four-year-olds showed only a preference for marking over ignoring, and 3-year-olds did not discriminate significantly among the behaviors. In Study 2, where strategy judgments were counterbalanced with a memory task, 4- and 5-year-olds both judged ignoring to be least effective; however, only the older children showed any discrimination among the other three strategies. Strategy use and performance data indicated that more effective strategic behavior led to a higher probability of correct retrieval. A summary measure of strategic knowledge was related to both strategy use and performance for children who did the memory tasks prior to making strategy judgments.
ISSN:0272-930X
1535-0266