The effect of verbal elaborations on memory in young and older adults

Abstract

The Stein paradigm was used to examine the circumstances under which verbal elaborations enhance memory in young and older adults. Subjects studied target adjectives that were embedded in one of three sentence contexts that varied in elaboration of the subject-adjective relationship: (1) nonelaborated base sentences; (2) base sentences with semantically consistent, but arbitrary verbal, elaborations; and (3) base sentences with explanatory verbal elaborations that clarified the significance of the subject-adjective relationship. The presence of the elaborations was varied at encoding and retrieval, and cued recall of the target adjectives was tested with incidental and intentional learning procedures. In Experiments lA and lB, explanatory elaborations at encoding and retrieval yielded the largest memorial facilitation for both young and older adults, and the benefit was comparable for the incidental and intentional learning measures. In Experiment 2, age-related differences in recall were minimal with explanatory elaborations at encoding and retrieval, but larger age differences occurred in the nonelaborated comparison conditions. In Experiment 3, explanatory elaborations present at encoding but not at retrieval enhanced recall when the original Stein stimuli were used, but not with the present stimuli. The implications ofthese results with regard to the mnemonic efficacy of verbal elaborations for young and older adults are discussed.

Differential-associative processing or example elaboration: Which strategy is best for learning the definitions of related and unrelated concepts?

“…Regardless of their form, most researchers agree that elaborations often facilitate learning of to-be-remembered information (Cherry, Park, Frieske, & Rowley, 1993; Reder et al, 1986; Simpson, Olejnik, Tarn, & Supattahurn, 1994; although see O’Reilly, Symons, & MacLatchy-Gaudet, 1998, who show that self-explanations are better than elaborations). Indeed, their mnemonic benefit occurs regardless of age (e.g., Cherry et al, 1993), when the stimuli of interest are ecologically valid or when the to-be-learned information is unfamiliar to learners (e.g., Simpson et al, 1994; although see Willoughby et al, 2000 who show that elaborative interrogation is less effective when the to-be-learned information is unfamiliar to the learner).…”

“…Indeed, their mnemonic benefit occurs regardless of age (e.g., Cherry et al, 1993), when the stimuli of interest are ecologically valid or when the to-be-learned information is unfamiliar to learners (e.g., Simpson et al, 1994; although see Willoughby et al, 2000 who show that elaborative interrogation is less effective when the to-be-learned information is unfamiliar to the learner).…”

Verbal and pictorial elaborations enhance memory in younger and older adults

“…More recently, Cherry, Park, Frieske, and Rowley (1993) varied the presence of verbal elaborations at encoding and retrieval to isolate the locus of the effect in the Stein paradigm. Across four experiments, explanatory verbal elaborations present at encoding and retrieval yielded the largest memorial benefit, relative to other conditions with less encoding and/or retrieval support.…”

Memory plasticity across the life span: Uncovering children's latent potential.

“…Recent conceptual frameworks in both child development (Cowan, 1997;Kuhn, 1995;Nelson, 2002;Ornstein & Haden, 2001;Siegler, 2004) and aging (Cherry, Park, Frieske, & Rowley, 1993;Dunlosky, Hertzog, & Powell-Moman, 2005) emphasize the dynamic interplay between knowledge and information-processing mechanisms during cognitive development. Thus, memory plasticity in childhood, including comparisons with other periods of life, has become an important desideratum on the developmental research agenda.…”