Inferences on Inference: The Effects of Age, Transitive Ability, Memory Load, and Lexical Factors

Abstract

LIBEN, LYNN S., and POSNANSKY, CARLA J. Inferences on Inference: The Effects of Age, Transitive Ability, Memory Load, and Lexical Factors. CH1LD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 1490-1497. Previous research has indicated that children abstract semantic information from related acquisition sentences, falsely recognizing sentences which have never actually been presented but which contain information that can be abstracted from the original sentences. In the present 2 experiments, constructive memory in sentence-recognition tasks was examined as a function of lexical factors, logical ability to make transitive inferences, memory load, and age (kindergarten, first-, and third-grade children). Results indicated that kindergarten and first-grade children's recognition responses were based primarily on the familiarity of lexical characteristics of the sentences, while third-grade children's responses were based on the accuracy of the semantic content of the sentences. Increasing the memory load did not increase the degree of constructive memory at any age. Notably, the degree of constructive memory was not related to children's performance on Piagetian transitivity tasks. Alternative reasons for age-related differences in memory are discussed.