Memory for Prose: Development of Mnemonic Strategies and Use of Higher Order Relations

Abstract

Abstract. The study sought to determine (a) if age-related increases in memory for prose are, in part, due to deliberate mnemonic strategies, and (b) if older children use the high order relations in prose more efficiently than younger children. Tape-recorded passages were presented to 40 first and 40 fourth grade children. To induce deliberate mnemonic strategies, half of the children from each grade were informed that there would be a memory task; the rest were not told. Additionally, half of the children from each grade were presented contextual information which made the high order relations in prose apparent; the remaining children were not presented contextual information. After passage presentation, each child was asked to reconstruct the story. The analysis of variance indicated that older but not younger children exhibited higher reconstruction scores if they were told versus not told about the memory task. These results suggest that older children engaged in deliberate strategies. Additionally, reconstruction scores were higher if contextual information was presented than withheld. Apparently if contextual information is available, older as well as younger children efficiently retain the analysis of the high order relations extracted from prose.The American literature on memory development is replete with studies indicating that memory development is, in part, due to the development of deliberate mnemonic strategies (Meacham, 1972). While this conception of a This investigation is based on a doctoral dissertation submitted to Ohio University by the first author and supervised by the second author. The