Rehearsal and Organizational Processes in Children's Memory

An overt rehearsal procedure was used to study the relationship between children's rehearsal strategies and recall performance in a free recall task. 2 experiments were conducted, 1 employing unrelated words and the other taxonomically related materials, so that rehearsal could be examined unde...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Child development 1975-12, Vol.46 (4), p.818-830
Main Authors: Ornstein, Peter A., Naus, Mary J., Liberty, Charles
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age groups
Analysis of variance
Children
Experimentation
Grade levels
Memory
Primacy effect
Rehearsal
Rehearsal techniques
T tests
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Summary:An overt rehearsal procedure was used to study the relationship between children's rehearsal strategies and recall performance in a free recall task. 2 experiments were conducted, 1 employing unrelated words and the other taxonomically related materials, so that rehearsal could be examined under different conditions of list organization. In both experiments, developmental changes in rehearsal content were observed. Third graders tended to rehearse the item currently being presented either alone or in minimal combination with other words. In contrast, sixth graders (and older subjects) rehearsed several different items together. These changes in rehearsal technique were related to developmental differences in the magnitude of the primacy effect. However, the role of rehearsal seemed to vary as a function of list structure. When categorical items were employed, ninth graders were better able than younger subjects to use taxonomic information to rehearse related words together. This rehearsal of category items was related to improved recall, but blocked presentation of the taxonomic materials facilitated the recall of the third graders, without corresponding changes in rehearsal being observed.
ISSN:0009-3920
1467-8624
DOI:10.2307/1128385