Short-term memory, verbal competence, and age as predictors of imagery instructional effectiveness

Abstract

Children 6 to 11 years of age heard concrete sentences that they were asked to learn. Half the subjects were instructed to construct images representing the sentence meanings. The remaining participants were provided no strategy instructions (control condition). Consistent with previous outcomes, the older children in the imagery condition learned signficantly more than did the older control subjects. There was a slight trend favoring imagery for younger children in the sample. Individual differences in short-term memory and verbal competence were more highly associated with performance in the imagery than in the control condition, such that greater short-term memory and verbal competence predicted better sentence learning in the imagery condition. In particular, short-term memory and verbal competence made unique contributions (relative to age and to each other) to prediction of sentence learning in the imagery condition, but not in the control condition. In short, imagery instruction is more effective with children who are more intellectually competent.