Solution of Anagrams: A Developmental Study

Abstract

Developmental changes in performance on anagrams were studied in 258 boys and 271 girls in grades 3 through 9. The Ss were asked to make as many words as possible from the letters contained in the word generation in 8 minutes. There was a consistent increase in the number of correct responses with increasing age, a consistent sex difference in favor of girls, and significant correlations between performance and IQ from grades 4 through 7. An analysis of the methods used by Ss in constructing words indicated that with increasing age Ss produced a lower proportion of words whose letters appeared in the same order in the stimulus word but a higher proportion of words whose letters appeared in a different order. A group of 64 retarded Ss produced significantly fewer words than both their CA and MA peers but tended to use the same methods as their MA peers in constructing words.