Differences in Benefit from Strategy Use: What's Good for Me May Not Be So Good for Thee

Abstract

The present study explored group differences in the relationship between strategy use and text recall. Academically bright and average elementary school-aged children were trained in the use of elaborative interrogation (a reading-comprehension strategy). Gifted children had greater recall than did average children prior to and one week after training, despite equivalent levels of strategy use. Correlational evidence indicated that average children eventually benefitted from using the strategy, while for gifted children strategy use did not correlate with recall at any point. It is suggested that gifted children, because they seem to have superior nonstrategic memories, may require more difficult tasks than average children in order to acquire and use memory strategies and that an optimal level of strategy use may differ as a function of one's cognitive abilities.