Domain-specific knowledge and memory performance: A comparison of high- and low-aptitude children.

Abstract

Two studies compared memory performance and text comprehension of groups that were equivalent on domain-specific knowledge but differed in overall aptitude, to investigate whether prior knowledge about a particular domain or overall aptitude level was more important when the task was to acquire and use new information in the domain of interest. Both studies dealt with third-, fifuV, and seventh-grade soccer experts' and novices' memory and comprehension of a story dealing with a soccer game. Several measures of memory performance, memory monitoring, and text comprehension were used. Levels of soccer knowledge and of overall aptitude were varied in a factorial design. Neither study detected significant differences between high-aptitude and low-aptitude experts, regardless of their ages. Low aptitude experts outperformed high-aptitude novices on all memory and comprehension measures. The results indicate that domain-specific knowledge can compensate for low overall aptitude on domain-relate d cognitive tasks. Since the late 1970s, a growing body of research has examined the effects of domain-specific knowledge on memory strategies and performance on various memory tasks. These studies showed that children's prior knowledge substantially affects their choice of memory strategies and significantly influences memory performance (see Bjorklund, 1985; Chi & Ceci, 1987; Ornstein & Naus, 1985; Rabinowitz & Chi, 1987; Schneider & Pressley, 1989, for reviews). Undoubtedly, the most impressive evidence stems from studies contrasting the performance of experts and novices in a specific domain. Examples include studies of baseball expertise (Chiesi, Spilich, & Voss, 1979; Spilich, Vesonder, Chiesi, & Voss, 1979), studies of problem-solvi ng in physics (e.g., Chi, Glaser, & Rees, 1982), and studies comparing chess experts' and novices' strategies and moves (Chase & Simon, 1973; Chi, 1978). In one of the few developmental studies using the expertnovice paradigm, Chi (1978) was even able to demonstrate that child experts outperformed adult novices when the task was to memorize chess positions. From this study, it can be concluded that differences in domain-specific knowledge may outweigh all other memory differences between children and adults and can lead to impressive reversals of age-related improvements in cognitive performance. The superiority of the experts' performance was attributed to the impact of thenrich domain-specific knowledge, which enabled them to recognize many domain-relevant patterns automatically and to solve domain-specific problems. Given the powerful effects of domain-specific knowledge, a related question of interest—and the one of particular interest