| Abstract: | The decay rate of the long-term memory trace was studied in children and adolescents of different ages, for different degrees of learning, using visual material which was not easily verbalized and a recognition procedure which permitted the application of decision theory.Groups of children and adolescents were tested, the ages being 5–6, 7–8, 10–11, and 15–16 years. Each subject was shown 280 pictures in divided sessions. During the learning sessions, some pictures were shown only once; others, two or four times. All Ss were tested for successive retention sessions 2, 5, 10, 20 and 49 weeks after the last learning session. Different portions of the originally learned material, with new material interspersed, were used in each retention sessions.The results suggest that when degree of learning is controlled, the rate at which items are lost from memory is invariant across ages, even though recognition was better the older the children. |
