Encoding distinctiveness and the encoding shift penalty in children and adults

This study determined some of the reasons for developmental differences in retrieval variability. The critical manipulation involved the use of semantic orienting questions at both acquisition and retrieval for elementary school children (7 and 10 years of age) and adults. The retrieval questions biased the sampling of cue information compatible or incompatible with the information sampled in acquisition. The recall difference that resulted is the Encoding Shift Penalty. Experiment 1 manipulated encoding distinctiveness at acquisition and the delay between acquisition and retrieval. Experiment 2 varied acquisition encoding constraint and employed two retrieval trials varying the kind of retrieval question. Among other findings, the results suggest that (1) the acquisition encoding of adults is more distinctive than is that of children; (2) encoding distinctiveness affects the probability of sampling and resampling compatible cue information, and the identification of target event information once cue comptibility is ensured at retrieval; and (3) incompatible initial samples of retrieval cue information for children may interfere with their ability to resample successfully.