Partial pictures as imagery-retrieval cues in young children's prose recall.

Two experiments, involving first-grade children, were conducted to test a retrieval-inefficiency explanation for the failure of visual imagery to facilitate young children's prose recall. Consistent with this explanation, children who were given stimuli presumed to elicit visual imagery (“partial pictures”) both during the presentation of a story and at the time questions were asked about the story recalled more story content than children given the partial pictures only during story presentation. An alternative account of these findings—namely that they may be attributed to a general cueing effect—was ruled out in the second experiment. Cognitive-developmental aspects of visual imagery strategies in prosememory situations are discussed.     

Partial picture effects on children's memory for sentences containing implicit information

Two experiments were conducted examining the effects of partial picture adjuncts on young children's coding of information that was implied in sentences. In the two most critical conditions of these studies, subjects were presented sentences specifying a subject, an action, and a direct object with the instrument used to carry out the action not specified in the sentence (e.g., The workman dug a hole in the ground). Implicit-sentence-only subjects received only the sentences, whereas the implicit sentence + partial picture subjects also viewed a partial picture depicting the action in the sentence minus the implied instrument. The main hypothesis was that subsequent recall of the sentences given the implied instrument as a cue would be facilitated by the partial pictures provided at study, since they would lead the children to infer the instrument. That occurred with 6- to 7-year-old children, but not with preschool children. Consistent with the conclusion that the partial pictures prompted 6- to 7-year-olds to infer the instruments, implicit sentence + partial picture subjects recalled as much as subjects in two other conditions, one in which subjects were explicitly told the instruments at study and one in which subjects saw the instruments depicted in pictures at study. In contrast, preschool subjects who heard explicit sentences containing the instruments outperformed subjects who heard implicit sentences even when the implicit sentences were accompanied by pictures depicting the instruments. This failure of complete pictures to facilitate preschoolers' recall of information implied in sentences contrasts with the many demonstrations of prose learning facilitation when picture and sentence contents explicitly and completely overlap. In summary, there were developmental differences in whether (a) partial pictures significantly facilitated inferencing (and subsequent cued recall) and (b) complete pictures containing information not explicitly stated in sentences promoted cued recall of the sentences.     

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.     

Encoding specificity in the recall of pictures and words in children and adults

In this study, the modality of the retrieval cues (pictures or words) was varied in a cued recall task to determine how second and fourth grade children and college adults encode words (Experiment 1) and pictures (Experiment 2). According to the assumptions of the encoding specificity principle, cue modality should affect recall only to the degree to which subjects focus on modality specific (sensory) rather than nonmodality specific (semantic) information in stimuli. In both experiments, the results showed progressively smaller encoding specificity effects with increasing age. To ensure that differences in encoding activity were responsible for these effects, comparisons were made of recall patterns under intentional learn conditions, and under incidental conceptual and sensory orienting conditions. The recall patterns of the children in the conceptual orienting condition were similar to the adult patterns in the learn condition, and the adult recall patterns in the sensory orienting conditions were similar to those of the children in the learn conditions. These results suggest that there are developmental differences in encoding the sensory and semantic information in stimuli that may result from differences in the efficiency with which the semantic information in stimuli is processed. The results suggest that young children typically encode stimuli in a fashion that stresses the sensory aspects of the stimuli, and that recall suffers as a result.     

Let's pretend: The role of motoric imagery in memory for sentences and words

A number of theories suggest that for young children, concepts should have an important motoric (or sensory-motor) component. A levels-of-processing theory is proposed which predicts that processing on motoric imagery should facilitate memory for both isolated words and for sentences. Experiment 1 examined the effects of motoric enactment (viz., pretend play) of sentences on memory for the sentences. Motoric imagery facilitated memory for both children (5 to 7 years of age) and adults, though, contrary to expectations, the effects were weaker for the children than for the adults. Further, it was found that motoric imagery affected the initial acquisition, but was not important as a retreival cue. Experiment 2 examined the effects of motoric imagery on free recall of lists of unrelated words. Under these conditions, motoric imagery facilitated memory for both children (7 to 9 years of age) and adults equally; in contrast, visual imagery instructions had no effect on memory. These results indicate that motoric imagery may facilitate memory under conditions in which visual imagery has no effect. Theoretical implications are explored for previous experiments on pretend play which suggest that training for pretent enactment can facilitate cognitive development.     

Associative and categorical hypotheses of organization in the free recall of adults and children

Associative and categorical explanations for the organization children and adults display in free recall were tested. It was expected that young children would show output clustering as a function of associations between individual items within categories rather than relationship to the taxonomy itself. Kindergarten, fourth-grade, and tenth-grade subjects were presented with pictures representing the four factorial combinations of high and low interitem association and high and low category relatedness. Each set of pictures could be divided into four taxonomic categories of six items each. Kindergarteners displayed greater category clustering of highly associated items than weak associates. Older subjects showed sensitivity to both organizational dimensions. These data support a hypothesis that young children cluster in recall as a function of associations while older individuals show organizational flexibility which serves to facilitate greater recall.     

The effect of pictures on the retention of novel words and prose passages

The effect of pictures on the retention of novel words and prose passages was examined for both good and poor readers. The findings suggest that for both groups of subjects the presence of pictures enhances recall of the prose passages but has no effect on the recognition and pronunciation of novel words. Systematic differences in the strategies used by good and poor readers were also observed.     

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.     

Retrieval of Episodic Information From Memory: Comparisons Among 3- and 4-Year-Olds, 7- and 8-Year-Olds,and Adults

Young children's and adults' recall of episodic information was explored in 4 experiments. The task required participants to recall a target noun presented as the last item of a 4-noun string of related (either categorically or thematically) or unrelated words. Providing all 3 preceding nouns or a subset of them cued recall. Experiment 1 found that 7- and 8-year-old children's recall was better with pictures as opposed to text, and children showed performance equal to adults with thematically related pictorial stimuli. Using pictorial stimuli, Experiment 2 showed that the number of cues present at retrieval affected 7- and 8-year-olds' recall. Experiments 3 and 4 tested recall of episodic information in 3- and 4-year-olds using pictorial stimuli. The results suggested that young children also have access to episodic information in memory and the number of cues present at retrieval influenced recall. The findings are discussed in the context of children's memory for events.     

Components of verbal learning in children: Analysis by selective reminding

Free recall verbal learning by 5- and 8-year-old children was analyzed by selectively reminding them only of items not recalled on the preceding trial (instead of continuing to present the entire list before each recall trial) to show learning by retrieval from long-term storage without presentation. Concurrent analysis of long-term storage, consistent and random retrieval from long-term storage, and recall from short-term storage indicates that, while 5-year-olds showed slower acquisition than 8-year-olds, lower recall by 5-year-olds also was due to less effective retrieval from longterm storage. Repeated retrieval, without any further presentation after an item has been recalled just once, indicates that lower recall by 9-year-old children than by adults also reflects retrieval difficulty, since these children showed storage and retention of almost as many items as adults by eventual spontaneous retrieval without further presentation.     

The effect of pictorial detail and elaboration on children's retention.

In a visual memory task, two degrees of stimulus detail were compared to test Reese's hypothesis that stimulus detail would facilitate retention of paired associates for young children. Stimuli were presented in an elaborated or nonelaborated fashion so that the effect of detail on retention of both types of materials could be investigated. Four and 5 year-old children were included to assess a reported developmental trend that elaboration facilitates retention for older children but fails to do so for younger children. Both age groups performed equally well, and detail had no effect. Elaboration aided retention significantly. A second study, in which difficulty of the task was increased, yielded equivalent results. The constraints on performance by recall and recognition tasks were discussed.     

Developmental differences in recall: Encoding or retrieval?

First- and fifth-grade children and college adults (ages 6, 10, and 18 years, respectively) were presented a 30-item set of pictures to recall in a 4-trial study-test procedure. The stimuli were presented in one of three ways (encoding condition): randomly, blocked (according to categories), or sort (the subject was given the stimuli in random order and asked to sort them into categories). Recall was either free, cued, or constrained (retrieval condition). Results indicated that maximum adult recall was a function of the interaction of encoding and retrieval conditions, and that first- and fifth-grader's recall was influenced by retrieval conditions but not by encoding conditions. The blocked and sort encoding conditions did result in increased clustering relative to random encoding at all three ages, however. It was concluded that encoding conditions influence recall only as they effect the use of retrieval strategies.     

Coding modality vs. input modality in hypermnesia: Is a rose a rose a rose?

Recent experiments indicate that recall of pictures, unlike recall of words, may increase (hypermnesia) with time and effort. This study demonstrates that by recoding word inputs into ‘mental pictures’, i.e., images, subjects can transform inert word lists into hypermnesic ones. Thus, when word inputs are recoded into images, recall increases over time, and resembles in other respects the recall of pictures.     

The use of the cumulative rehearsal strategy: A developmental study

This study was designed to address two issues: (1) At what age do children spontaneously use a cumulative rehearsal strategy; and (2) What effect does the use of the strategy have on their performance?Twenty-eight children at each of five grade levels (nursery, kindergarten, 1, 3, and 5) were tested in a serial-position recall task. Stimuli were pictures of common objects and animals whose labels were one or two syllables in length. Following testing, the children were asked to report the memory strategy they had used.The assumption was made that children who were using a cumulative rehearsal strategy would perform better on series of one-syllable items than on series of two-syllable items. As predicted, nursery, kindergarten, and first-grade subjects correctly recalled as many two-syllable as one-syllable items: Both third- and fifth-graders recalled significantly more one-syllable than two-syllable items. Results indicated that (1) young children do not spontaneously use a cumulative rehearsal strategy until after first grade, and (2) the use of rehearsal did not facilitate overall performance of the rehearsers relative to the nonrehearsers at any grade level. Results are discussed in terms of their theoretical implications for the study of memory development.     

The effects of specific and categorical orienting on children's incidental and intentional memory for pictures and words

This study examines the effects of differences in the encoding of specific and categorical information on second graders' (7 years; 7 months), fifth graders' (10; 6), and college adults' cued recall for cue-target picture and word pairs. The cues at retrieval were either same-modal (P-P and W-W) or cross-modal (P-W and W-P) as the cues presented in acquisition, and acquisition encoding was either incidental or intentional and constrained by orienting questions or unconstrained. The most important results were that both picture and word recall varied with the encoding of both specific and categorical information and that children differed from adults in the encoding of both kinds of information in both incidental and intentional encoding conditions. In addition, both children and adults showed congruency effects for pictures and words that were greater for specific than for categorical orienting questions. The results suggest that differences in the encoding of both specific and categorical attribute information contribute to developmental recall differences independently of encoding intent and stimulus modality.     

The Effect of a Nonverbal Aid on Preschoolers' Recall for Color

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether the provision of a nonverbal memory aid would improve preschoolers' recall of color. Forty 4-year-old children carried out 2 tasks with the same set of colored objects. Colors were not referred to, nor were children told that their recall would later be tested. One day later, the children were split into 2 groups. One group was given a chart containing both the colors of the objects and distractor colors. The other group was not given a chart. Recall for object color was tested. There was an effect of chart provision; children who used the chart recalled more colors correctly than did those who did not use a chart. This result indicates (a) that even very young children can make use of props to facilitate their recall and (b) that such memory aids need not be exact copies of previously seen objects. Implications of these findings for eyewitness recall are discussed.     

Hypermnesia: the role of repeated testing

The present study was designed to determine whether the increased recall of pictures across repeated tests (hypermnesia) is due to increasing strength of imaginal traces during the retention interval or to increased retrieval practice from prior tests. Subjects studied 60 pictures and then recalled them after various delays that were filled with instructions and, in two cases, reading a passage. Recall on a first test showed no change with retention interval. With retention interval held constant, however, the number of pictures recalled varied directly with the number of prior tests subjects had been given. This finding points up the critical nature of retrieval factors in producing hypermnesia.     

Children's use of imagery in accessing different types of semantic information

Semantic retrieval was examined in second graders under an induced imagery and a control condition. Two types of animal properties, perceptual and functional, were presented to children for verification. Properties were high and low in rated association strength; the size of the property (i.e., large vs small) was also manipulated in the case of perceptual meaning. Results suggest that young children rely on imagery in semantic retrieval; however, second graders are also adept at processing functional as well as perceptual meaning, and at using an abstract memory accessing system. Thus, considerable flexibility is evidenced by subjects in semantic retrieval.