The child's conception of organization and recall

Children in kindergarten, third, and sixth grade were asked to compose lists of words which would be easy to recall. Organizational strategies were assessed by comparing lists designed for recall with ordinary free associations and by observing whether the lists served as units of organization in a subsequent free recall task. A developmental trend toward insight into the role of organization in recall was found. Organization by taxonomic category was the major strategy for generating lists for recall. No evidence could be found for the prior strategic use of other relationships.     

Ageing and the misplacing of objects

A lost and found questionnaire was administered to 281 young and 153 old subjects to examine incidents in which objects were misplaced and recovered. Incidents were reported by 31·3 per cent of the young and 26·1 per cent of the old subjects, a difference that was not significant. Subjects reporting an incident rated themselves as more absentminded than subjects not reporting an incident. The roles of absentmindedness and perceptual problems in creating these incidents were examined. Only the latter showed significant differences with age. More old than young subjects reported finding the object in plain sight, in its proper place, and in a place already searched, suggesting a tendency with age to overlook objects in obvious places.