Students in grades 4, 6, and 8 were required to indicate whether or not a stimulus word belonged in either of two semantic categories that were held in memory. Results indicated that even for the youngest children semantically similar categories required less search time than dissimilar categories. (GO)

Investigates why children under eight years of age show categorical clustering above chance expectations in free recall, when such organization does not correlate with recall. Six-year-old children and adults were tested for memory of 24 pictures of categorizable items. Proportion of items recalled in category strings and number of strings of each…

One purpose of the present study was to investigate whether the presence or absence of background pictures would have differential effects on kindergarten children's free recall and whether such effects would be affected by the relationship between the test items and the backgrounds. (Authors)

A grouping task revealed a chronological progression: color and form determined the 4-year-old children's grouping about equally; form dominated in the 5-year-olds; and 9-year-olds grouped primarily by conceptual attributes. Performance on a memory task showed the developmental shift from color to form to concept, while cued recall showed…

Assessed organizational strategies for recall by comparing lists designed for recall by children in kindergarten, third and sixth grade with ordinary free associations, and by observing whether the lists served as units of organization in a subsequent free recall task. (Author/SDH)