Personal Organization in Children's Free Recall

Abstract

LANGE, GARRETT, and JACKSON, PATRICIA. Personal Organization in Children's Free Recall. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1974, 45, 1060-1067. A sorting-recall procedure was used to explore agerelated characteristics of children's personal categorizing schemes and relationships between free recall clustering, measured in reference to these schemes, and the number of items recalled. 60 Ss, 12 from each of 5 grade levels (1, 4, 7, 10, and college), attained stable free sorting categories prior to free recall. A modification of Robinson's Item Clustering Index (1966) was employed to measure recall clustering. The recall data showed that children at all grade levels made substantial reference to their sorting schemes in free recall, and that relationships between personal clustering and amount of free recall were significant at each grade level. Procedures using E-defined categories as the basis for clustering were discussed as being insensitive to children's categorizing preferences, and therefore inappropriate for the measurement of recall organization in children.