Children's Cue Utilization in a Memory-for-Location Task

Abstract

GEIS, MARY FULCHER, and LANGE, GARRErTT. Children's Cue Utilization in a Memory-for-Location Task. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1976, 47, 759-766. First, third, and fifth graders hid a series of people pictures in containers, half of which bore picture cues related to the people's societal roles and half of which bore cues unrelated to the people's roles. Younger children were as planful as the older children at storage, inasmuch as the proportion of people hidden their appropriate related cues was similar across ages. At each grade level, children made more appropriate hidings and had better recall for the people's locations when instructed at hiding to put each person in the container he went best with than when instructed to remember where each person was hidden or when instructed that the experimenter would have to remember each person's location. All children successfully remembered the locations of people hidden their apropriate cues, but the older children were better in remembering the locations of people hidden inappropriately or for whom there were no related cues. In a second study, preschoolers who did not show planful storage behavior received training in cue usage. An increase in appropriate hidings occurred after training and remained evident 3 weeks later.