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)

Examined the maintenance of cumulative-cluster and cluster rehearsal strategies on free recall tasks as a function of amount of strategy training. Subjects were 50 elementary school students in third and fourth grades. (Author/MP)

Findings provide information about developmental differences in sorting and recall, as well as evidence that organizational training may influence recall performance. (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)

Children were tested at ages four and six for recall of clusterable objects under play and sort conditions. Conceptual clustering predicted recall performance of six-year olds in both conditions and of four-year olds in the sort condition. The stability of memory variables was low with the exception of free recall. (BC)

Examined free recall of kindergartners and third and eighth graders. The use of organizational strategies, which was demonstrated by third and eight graders, led to increased performance only for eighth graders. These results suggest a phase in strategy development when production of a strategy results in little benefit in performance. (LB)

One hundred eighty children from Grades K, 5, and 9 performed a recall task within one of four instructional conditions: serial recall; standard free recall; labeling free recall; labeling cued recall. (Editor)

Study suggests that, rather than being less able to organize information, young children simply organize according to different criteria than adults. (Authors)