Organizing factors in remembering and comprehending: A developmental analysis

This report describes an experiment that emphasizes: (a) the influence of organizing factors in remembering and comprehending and (b) the development of those skills that are related to the ability to organize. The analysis of the data was based on a theory of comprehension that emphasized a pair of interrelated processes, one providing for the construction of a schema or plan and the other for the semantic integration of items into the evolving plan. As predicted, adults perform more accurately with the paragraphs vs. the scrambled paragraphs and with the word lists as compared to the scrambled word lists. Accuracy with unrelated words is generally greater than with related words, a finding that is consistent with a reconstructive theory of remembering. The pattern of results for the 5th grade Ss is quite different: they perform more accurately with the scrambled paragraphs than with the paragraphs and somewhat more accurately with scrambled word lists rather than with word lists. These results were interpreted as evidence for a problem of control for the 5th grade Ss. We have assumed that the ability to process certain forms of information depends upon the ability to select and maintain an appropriate focus of attention. The results for these younger Ss suggest that their ability to file information into a schema as a filing system is compromised by the need to change or modify the filing system.