Memory strategies used by young normal and retarded children in a directed forgetting paradigm

Two experiments were reported investigating the possibility that normal children (6- to 7-years old) and retarded children (9- to 10-years old) equated for immediate memory performance may not use effective strategies to eliminate interference from irrelevant information in memory. In both experiments a directed forgetting paradigm was used in which the children were presented with two sets of four pictures, and recalled only one set on each trial. On some trials, there was a cue to forget the first four and to remember only the last four pictures. In the first experiment both groups adopted a passive-active strategy in which the to-be-remembered items were processed actively only after a forget cue. Experiment 2 replicated this pattern of results. The use of sophisticated directed forgetting strategies seemed to be beyond the immediate abilities of these children. Two possible interpretations of the passive-active strategy were offered: (a) The strategy was an attempt to cope with the presence of occasionally irrelevant information and (b) The strategy was an attempt to cope with memory overload.