Intentional and unintentional memory in young children: remembering vs. playing

In an exploration of Istomina's (1975) paradigm contrasting children's recall from an involuntary or game-like context with recall from an intentional or lesson-like context, this study investigated the relative efficacy of asking 4- and 5-year-olds "to remember" or "to play with" a set of 16 pictures or toys in a naturalistic or laboratory setting. The children's behavior and language were measured during two 2-min study phases, after which recall was assessed. Toys promoted different study phase activities and better retention than pictures, asking a child "to remember" a set of toys led to less recall than asking the child "to play" with the toys, and, across all conditions, instructions "to play" and "to remember" elicited differentiated study phase responses but similar levels of retention.     

Children's and adults' recall of sex‐stereotyped toy pictures: Effects of presentation and memory task

Gender schema theories predict a memory bias toward sex‐congruent information. The present study examined how presentation of stimuli and encoding conditions influence gender schematic processing in children and adults. One hundred and sixty 5‐ to 13‐year olds and adult males and females viewed 36 sex‐stereotyped toy pictures that were presented in a static and dynamical way. Half of the participants were asked to memorize the pictures (intentional memory) and half were not told that they would be expected to later recall the pictures (incidental memory). Weak gender schematic processing was observed only during the incidental memory task. Children and adults recalled more static than dynamic gender‐stereotyped pictures, and performance was superior in the intentional than in the incidental memory condition. Gender schematic processing was similar across the age groups. In addition, participants were more likely to recall male‐stereotyped toys. Implications for gender schema theories and education are discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Distinctiveness effects in children's long-term retention

In 3 experiments, kindergarten and second-grade children's retention was examined in the context of 2 distinctiveness manipulations, namely, the von Restorff and bizarre imagery paradigms. Specifically, children learned lists of pictures (Experiments 1a and 1b) or interactive images (Experiment 2) and were asked to recall them 3 weeks later. In Experiments 1a and 1b, distinctiveness was manipulated perceptually (changing colors) and conceptually (changing categories or switching to a numeral), whereas in Experiment 2, distinctiveness concerned the interaction (common or bizarre) between the referents. The results showed that (a) older children retained more information than younger children, (b) younger but not older children failed to benefit from numerically distinct information, and (c) distinctiveness in other domains facilitated children's retention. These results highlight the importance of distinctive information in children's retention.     

Sex-Stereotyped and Nonstereotyped Introductions of New Toys in the Preschool Classroom: An Observational Study of Teacher Behavior and Its Effects

In Study 1, the behavior of teachers in introducing sex-typed and nonsex-typed toys in the classroom was observed in nine preschool classes. Results indicated that teachers called on more boys to demonstrate a "masculine" toy than girls, p<01. No significant differences were found in the mean number of boys and girls called on to demonstrate "neutral" or "feminine" toys. However, teachers were more variable in demonstrating the sex-typed feminine toys than the nonstereotyped toy, p<05. In a second study, two sets of toys, each including five dolls and five trucks, were introduced using stereotyped and nonstereotyped introductions to two classes of 3- and 4-year-old children. No significant sex differences in toy choices were found following the nonstereotyped introductions. Following the stereotyped introductions, the children's toy choices were consistent with sex-role stereotypes. These results are consistent with laboratory studies suggesting that bias in the introduction of toys by adults may contribute to the sex-typing of specific activities.     

Sex stereotyping in children's toy advertisements

Forty-eight categories of toys were rated in terms of sex appropriateness by 48 students. A sample of 392 pictures of children with toys in 12 toy catalogs and 538 pictures of children with toys on toy packages in four retail stores was coded according to toy type and sex(es) of children shown. The rated sex stereotype of the toy category proved to be very strongly related to the sex(es) of the children shown with the toy in catalogs (r=.89) and on toy packages (r=.87). Toys rated as moderately sex typed by raters were just as strongly stereotyped in toy advertisements as those rated as strongly sex typed.An earlier version of the paper by Lori A. Schwartz received the Howard W. Odum for the outstanding undergraduate paper of 1983 from the Southern Sociological Society.     

Involuntary memory and the development of retrieval skills in young children

An incidental memory paradigm was used to study involuntary encoding processes and voluntary retrieval strategies in children's memory. Preschool (mean age: 4 years, 4 months) and kindergarten (mean age: 5 years, 10 months) children sorted pictures according to their color or category membership, and then received either a recall test (Experiment 1) or a recognition test (Experiment 2). Better retention of category- than color-sorted items was observed for kindergarten children in free recall, preschool and kindergarten children in cued recall, and neither group in recognition. These results were interpreted in terms of the retrieval strategies used by children in each of the memory tasks. The importance of distinguishing between voluntary and involuntary memory processes, and between acquisition and retrieval, in studies of depth-of-processing was emphasized. Developmental differences in performance appear to derive primarily from the role of voluntary search strategies in retrieval, rather than from age differences in involuntary encoding processes.     

The effects of delay and imagery training on the recall and recognition of object pairs

The present study represents a further investigation of an imagery training procedure previously developed by the authors (Yuille & Catchpole, 1973). Subjects given a brief training session in the use of an interacting imaginal mnemonic showed significantly higher performance than nontrained Ss on tests of immediate, delayed, and second learning set memory. While both recognition and recall were equally affected by the procedure, with recognition showing its usual superiority, the type of immediate memory test did not affect delayed recall. The findings are interpreted as supporting the preference of young children for visual coding.     

Effects of list organization and retrieval cues on children's delayed recall.

Developmental differences in recall were investigated as a function of mode of presentation (blocked vs. random), recall condition (cued vs. noncued), and time of recall (immediate vs. delayed). Ninety-six second graders and 96 fourth graders were the subjects, and the stimuli were 20 pictured items from five categories. Data on three dependent variables (item recall, category recall, and clustering score) were analyzed. Immediate recall was better than delayed recall, the fourth graders' overall performance was superior to that of the second graders, and the blocked presentation of items and the presence of retrieval cues at recall enhanced recall and organization in recall. Furthermore, an analysis of a three-way interaction on two dependent measures indicated that, in the noncued condition, immediate recall was better than delayed recall for children in both grades. However, in the cued condition, the fourth graders performed better during delayed recall than during immediate recall, whereas the second graders did better during immediate recall than during delayed recall.     

Education as a Science

Developmental differences in recall were investigated as a function of mode of presentation (blocked vs. random), recall condition (cued vs. noncued), and time of recall (immediate vs. delayed). Ninety-six second graders and 96 fourth graders were the subjects, and the stimuli were 20 pictured items from five categories. Data on three dependent variables (item recall, category recall, and clustering score) were analyzed. Immediate recall was better than delayed recall, the fourth graders' overall performance was superior to that of the second graders, and the blocked presentation of items and the presence of retrieval cues at recall enhanced recall and organization in recall. Furthermore, an analysis of a three-way interaction on two dependent measures indicated that, in the noncued condition, immediate recall was better than delayed recall for children in both grades. However, in the cued condition, the fourth graders performed better during delayed recall than during immediate recall, whereas the second graders did better during immediate recall than during delayed recall.     

Reducing negative emotional memories by retroactive interference

Because negative emotional memories are often disruptive, we conducted two experiments to reduce these memories by using a retroactive interference (RI) paradigm. In both experiments, participants were presented with highly negative pictures (List 1) followed by highly negative, moderately negative, or neutral pictures (List 2) or a rest period. Then, following a filler task, participants took a surprise free recall test, recalling pictures from List 1 in Experiment 1 and from both List 1 and List 2 in Experiment 2. In both experiments, recall of List 1 was reduced by List 2, indicating that RI was present. Furthermore, in Experiment 1, RI was similar between moderately negative and highly negative List 2 whereas in Experiment 2, RI was greater for highly negative List 2 than moderately negative List 2. These results showed that RI can be used to reduce negative emotional memories by making these memories inaccessible.     

Influence of marihuana on storage and retrieval processe in memory

Following presentation and immediate free recall testing of 10 20-word lists, 48 Ss were divided into two groups, one of which received an oral dose of marihuana extract calibrated to 20 mg of Δ¹-THC and one of which received placebo. One hour later, all Ss were administered delayed recall, recognition, and order tests on the first set of words. Presentation of another set of 10 lists followed, and there were immediate recall and delayed recall, recognition, and order tests on these words. Performance of drug and placebo Ss did not differ significantly for any of the first delayed tests. However, the performance of drug Ss was poorer than that of placebo Ss on immediate recall, delayed recall, and delayed recognition of the second set of lists. We concluded that retrieval of information relevant to the occurrence or nonocurrence of an event was not affected by marihuana intoxication. Storage difficulties probably account for memory deficits due to the drug, and these difficulties appear to occur in the process of transferring information from short-term to long-term memory.     

Characteristics of Boys' and Girls' Toys

In Study 1, 292 undergraduates rated 126 toys as to whether they were suitable for boys, girls, or both. From these ratings, we established five categories of toys: strongly masculine, moderately masculine, neutral, moderately feminine, and strongly feminine. Using these categories, we constructed four toysets; each consisted of 15 toys, three from each category. In Study 2, 706 undergraduates individually rated the toys from one of the toysets on 26 scales that measured the toys' characteristics. We found that girls' toys were associated with physical attractiveness, nurturance, and domestic skill, whereas boys' toys were rated as violent, competitive, exciting, and somewhat dangerous. The toys rated as most likely to be educational and to develop children's physical, cognitive, artistic, and other skills were typically rated as neutral or moderately masculine. We conclude that strongly gender-typed toys appear to be less supportive of optimal development than neutral or moderately gender-typed toys.     

Gender Stereotyping of Children's Toys: A Comparison of Parents and Nonparents

Parents and nonparents were compared to examinedifferences in the use of gender stereotyping toclassify children's toys. Gender-stereotyping was alsoexamined based on the age of the child. Parents and nonparents were sampled from a predominantlywhite, middle and upper middle class population.Subjects rated the appropriateness of 206 toys for useby girls and/or boys and were in general agreementregarding toys identified as gender-stereotyped. Ingeneral, feminine toys were stereotyped more thanmasculine toys although parents were more gender neutralin their ratings of toys than nonparents. Comparisons across mothers and fathers suggest thatinteractions with children may influence parentalperceptions of gender-appropriateness differentially formothers and fathers and is partly dependent on the sex of the child(ren). Finally, it appears thatwhile toys are gender stereotyped for all age groups,there is more flexibility in gender stereotyping of toysfor infants and toddlers.     

Neuropsychological assessment in illiterates: visuospatial and memory abilities

A basic neuropsychological battery of visuospatial and memory abilities was administered to extreme educational groups (illiterates and professionals). Subjects were matched according to sex and age. The following visuospatial tasks were included: figure copy (cube, house, and Rey-Osterrieth complex figure), telling time, recognition of superimposed figures, recognition of a map, and drawing of the plan of the room. The following memory tasks were used: basic information, digit retention (forward and backward), memory curve, delayed verbal recall, sentence repetition, logical memory, delayed logical memory, immediate recall of the Rey-Osterrieth complex figure, immediate reproduction of a cube, visuospatial memory, and sequential memory. In visuospatial tasks all differences between the two groups were statistically significant. Five of the seven visuospatial tasks (all but telling time and recognition of superimposed figures) showed differences between age groups with a better performance found in the younger groups and four of the tasks (cube, house, Rey-Osterrith complex figure copying, and telling time) were significant between sexes with a better performance in men. In memory tasks, with the exception of the immediate memory of sentences, all tasks showed statistically significant differences between educational groups. Eight of the 13 memory tasks (digits forward and backward, delayed memory of words, immediate and delayed logical memory, Rey-Osterrieth immediate memory, cube immediate memory, and sequential memory) showed significant differences for age while 4 of the tasks (digits backward, memory curve, Rey-Osterrieth immediate memory, and cube immediate memory) were significant for sex. Results are analyzed with regard to current theories in cognitive psychology and anthropology. Emphasis is placed on the finding that cognitive skills usually examined by neuropsychological tests represent learned and highly trained abilities.     

Remembering pictures: pleasure and arousal in memory.

Incidental memory performance for pictures that varied along the affective dimensions of pleasantness and arousal was assessed. For both an immediate and delayed (1 year later) free-recall task, only the arousal dimension had a stable effect on memory performance: Pictures rated as highly arousing were remembered better than low-arousal stimuli. This effect was corroborated in a speeded recognition test, in which high-arousal materials encoded earlier in the experiment produced faster reaction times than their low-arousal counterparts. Pleasantness affected reaction time decisions only for pictures not encoded earlier. These results suggest that whereas both the dimensions of pleasantness and arousal are processed at initial encoding, long-term memory performance is mainly affected by arousal.     

Pictorial enhancement of text memory: Limitations imposed by picture type and comprehension skill

We examined the kinds of information in a prose passage that is better remembered when depictive illustrations are embedded in the passage than when the passage contains no illustrations. Experiment 1 showed that (1) pictures depicting details effectively increased recall of those details and (2) pictures depicting relationships effectively increased recall of that relational information (relative to a no-picture control condition). In Experiment 2, comprehension skill was found to modulate the general effects obtained in Experiment 1. Detail pictures enhanced the recall of targeted details for all skill levels. Relational pictures enhanced recall of pictured relational information for highly skilled and moderately skilled comprehenders, but not for less skilled comprehenders. Because there were no recall differences across the different skill levels in the no-picture control condition, it is suggested that pictures may serve to enable processing in which readers would not necessarily engage under ordinary circumstances. Pictures, however, did not appear to compensate for limitations reflected in lower scores on a standardized test of reading comprehension.     

Immediate and final recall of pictures and words with written or oral tests

Immediate and delayed recall of pictures and words was examined as a function of semantic or nonsemantic orienting tasks and the type of test (written or oral). As expected, semantic tasks generally led to greater final recall than nonsemantic tasks, with semantic tasks even producing positive recency on the delayed test. The evidence for a picture-word difference was largely restricted to the final recall of items involved in negative decisions; for such items the advantage of semantic tasks was apparent only for pictures. This suggests that "congruity" may be an important factor in picture-word differences, with such differences more apparent for the weaker items from negative judgments. Type of test did not seem to be a major factor in determining level of recall, suggesting that reinspecting the recall protocol during a written immediate test does not contribute substantially to final recall performance.     

The Effects of Thematic Importance on Story Recall among Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Comparison Children

This study examined the recall of televised stories for younger (4-6 years) and older (7-9 years) children with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) under two different viewing conditions (toys present/toys absent). Each child watched two Rugrats television programs, once with toys present and once with toys absent. Immediately after viewing a program, the child completed a free recall of the observed story. Comparison children's recall increased more than ADHD children's as importance level increased, and comparison children recalled more information overall than children with ADHD. When toys were present, children with ADHD retold less coherent stories than comparison children, as indexed by smaller correlations between the story units recalled and the order of these units in the story. In summary, children with ADHD demonstrated multiple difficulties in story comprehension. These findings add to our understanding of the differences in higher-order cognitive processing abilities between children with ADHD and comparison children, and suggest important areas of focus in designing more effective academic interventions for children with ADHD.     

The influence of culture on children’s immediate and delayed retrieval

Culture shapes children’s memories. However, scant attention has been given to the influence of culture on specific memory stages. Thus, we conducted two controlled experiments to examine cultural differences in memory recall at immediate and delayed retrieval phases. In Studies 1 and 2 (n = 217), 7- to 10-year-old Chinese and Euro-Canadian children watched a story involving both social- and individual-focused scenarios. Participants then recalled the story immediately afterwards (Study 1) and 5–7 days later (Studies 1 and 2). Findings reveal that Chinese children accurately reported more details from the social-focused events than did their Euro-Canadian counterparts in the immediate interview, and this result was replicated after a delay in both studies. Moreover, as expected, within-country comparisons showed that Euro-Canadian children had better memory for individual- than for social-focused events in both studies. Chinese children, however, showed better memory for social- than for individual-focused events only in the immediate interview in Study 1; their delayed retrieval was not affected by event focus. These findings reveal that cultural variations in memory are evident in both immediate and delayed retrieval. Implications for future research are discussed.     

中英文对偶词呈现的空间位置对词义记忆的影响

采用即时记忆和延迟记忆任务,考察了双语信息加工对偶词呈现的空间位置对词义记忆的影响,结果表明：（1）对偶词呈现的空间位置对词义记忆存在影响,且这种影响只出现在延迟记忆中;（2）在延迟记忆任务中,变换词对呈现的空间位置,对对偶词记忆的效果要显著地优于固定空间位置条件;（3）对偶词的呈现背景不同对词对记忆没有影响。