Mnemonic elaboration and recency judgments in children

Abstract

Recency judgments in second and fourth grade Ss were examined when contextual or spatial locations were correlated with sequential order. No age differences were apparent when the cues were not available; however, unlike fourth grade Ss, the younger Ss failed to take advantage of the additional cues when they were provided. In Experiment 2, second grade Ss were successfully trained to use the appropriate strategy, suggesting that the age related deficiency was one of production rather than mediation. The effectiveness of mnemonic elaboration as an aid to recall of order information was established, together with the short-term efficiency of training such mnemonic strategies in young children who do not adopt them spontaneously. The data support the hypothesis that memory tasks are developmentally sensitive when a deliberate mnemonic strategy can be applied but insensitive to developmental differences when no strategy is appropriate.