Development of verbatim and gist memory for numbers.

Abstract

Two theories of developmental and functional relationships between verbatim and gist memories of numbers were compared: (a) the integration hypothesis, which assumes that gist memories are constructive inferences from verbatim memories, and (b) the parallel retrieval hypothesis, which assumes that gist memories are stored in parallel with the encoding of verbatim information. In Experiment 1, being able to remember verbatim numbers did not help children remember either the global gist (most or least) or the pairwise gist (more or less) of those numbers, manipulations that improved verbatim memory did not improve gist memory, and the relative accuracy of the 2 types of memory reversed with age. In Experiment 2, additional evidence favoring the parallel retrieval model was provided by an instructional manipulation that enhanced preshooler's gist memories but impaired their verbatim memories