Effects of category knowledge, strategies, and social interaction on children's memory performance.
Item
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Title
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Effects of category knowledge, strategies, and social interaction on children's memory performance.
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Identifier
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AAI9325170
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identifier
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9325170
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Creator
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Yu, Younoak.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Katherine Nelson
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Date
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1993
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Developmental
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Abstract
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This study of 120 4-year-old, 120 7-year-old Korean children, investigated children's memory performance in relation to developmental changes in category knowledge structure, emergent strategy use, and social context. In 2 experiments, pictures of items from two types of categories--slot-filler and taxonomic--were used. Experiment 1 contrasted three instruction conditions: simple remembering, sorting pictures, and directions for strategy use. Experiment 2 provided three social interaction conditions: alone, with a peer, and with an adult "expert.".;In Experiment 1 the 7-year-olds performed better on both list types than 4-year-olds. The younger children, however, demonstrated better recall, clustering, and shorter latencies for the slot-filler than the taxonomic list, while the 7-year-olds showed no such differences. These findings support the view that script-based slot-filler categories have a strong influence on young children's memory performance (Nelson, 1988).;There was an interaction between age, category knowledge and instructions. All Children performed better under strategy instruction on both list types. Younger children performed better with sorting instruction than with simple remembering instruction on the slot-filler but not the taxonomic list, again demonstrating the importance of slot-filler relations in item recovery. Twenty-three 7-year-olds, but only 4-year-olds used strategies under all instructions.;The results of Experiment 2 showed that all children benefitted from expert guidance on both types of lists. 4-year-olds recalled more in the child-child condition than alone, suggesting that shared knowledge is a central feature of social interaction. Cultural attitudes toward learning may also influence performance. Compared to American, Korean children have more experience with expert (teacher) directions than with peer interactions.;These research results led to the general conclusion that children's memory performance at both ages was influenced by their slot-filler category knowledge. Younger children appear to be able to use the slot-filler category structure to search memory more effectively. Older children also have built up more scripts, as well as taxonomic category knowledge structures. These effects were observed under all conditions of instruction, social interaction, and strategy use.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
