Free recall in children.

Abstract

Traditional procedures and theories from adult free recall are reviewed, along with their implications for developmental free recall. Contemporary free-recall research in children is presented as well as some discussion of important developmental variables. The need for a developmental theory to guide free-recall research in children is also discussed.

Developmental differences in recall and output organization

“…The studies cited above do not appear to support Jablonski's (1974) claim that organization increases with age for unrelated as well as related materials. Nonetheless, a strong conclusion that there is little developmental change in organization with unrelated materials presupposes that a comprehensive search for such organization has been undertaken.…”

“…Recall improvement is observed both with materials drawn from common taxonomic categories and with relatively unrelated items. However, even though a recent review (Jablonski, 1974) has indicated otherwise, the existing literature does suggest that developmental patterns in measured output organization differ in these two situations. These data imply that different factors may be responsible for age-related improvement in the recall of related and unrelated lists.…”

Encoding tasks and free recall in children

“…Considerable attention has been devoted to the analysis of the development of memory in children (e.g., Brown, 1979;Jablonski , 1974). Much of this activity has been concerned with the features that children encode at different ages.…”

Free recall in children as a function of list composition and sorting technique

“…Rather than being cognitively unable to engage in organizational strategies, the child displays a production deficiency, i.e., he does not spontaneously seek out and use organizational cues. Support for this position comes from studies in which young children have been induced, by various experimental manipulations, to utilize appropriate organizational strategies (see Jablonski, 1974).…”