A Priming Study of Developmental Changes in the Associative Strength of Class Relations

Abstract

KAREEV, YAAKOV. A Priming Study of Developmental Changes in the Associative Strength of Class Relations. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1982, 53, 1038-1045. Class relations (knowledge of superordinates and exemplars) are an important part of semantic memory, and even young children have and can use them. Yet performance in many tasks involving class relations greatly improves with age. The present study tested the hypothesis that semantic memory changes with age such that concepts become more strongly associated with their superordinate classes than with their exemplars. The Stroop color-naming technique was employed with 48 children (ages 8-12) to measure the degree of semantic activation between concepts in memory. Concepts were overall more strongly associated with exemplars than with superordinate classes, but this difference decreased with age and was reversed for the oldest children. The younger children's responses also implied the operation of inhibitory as well as excitatory processes in memory. The observed changes in semantic memory could underlie the age-related differences in performance in tasks involving class relations.