Monitoring Retrieval Processes by Children

Abstract

Summary Six- and eight-year-old children were shown a list of categorized items representing three different category sizes. Half of the children were asked to estimate the number of items assigned to each category prior to being tested for recall of the list, while the other half did not receive such instructions. Recall was cued by pictorial category cues, but was terminated at children's own choice. For both age groups, children's estimates of category sizes became progressively larger as the actual category sizes became larger, indicating that even six-year-olds have the ability to acquire rather accurate knowledge about category size during the item presentation. The children were also found to terminate their memory search promptly when they had recalled all of the required items, but conducted an extended search when there were additional items unrecalled. These findings suggest that six-year-olds have the ability to monitor their search processes using their knowledge about the category size.