Effect of Labels on Memory in the Absence of Rehearsal1

Abstract

Nursery school children were shown two pictures and then asked to pick those they had seen from an array of 10 possibilities. Half the subjects labeled the pictures as they were shown; the remaining half observed without labeling. For all subjects there was a 20‐second delay between presentation and recall, during which the tester conversed with the child to prevent rehearsal. Subjects who labeled showed recall superior to that of subjects who did not, indicating that the facilitating effect of labels in short‐term memory is not solely attributable either to an increased tendency to rehearse or to the strengthening of a “primary” memory trace.