Production Deficiency of Nonverbal Mediators in Young Children

A nonverbal reproductive recall task, for which the possibility of a nonverbal mediator was provided, was administered to 40 first grade and 40 kindergarten Ss. 20 Ss at each grade level were observed in each of 2 conditions which differed in the strength of the suggestion to produce the nonverbal mediator. More first grade than kindergarten Ss spontaneously produced mediators while more kindergarten Ss never produced mediators. Kindergarteners required stronger suggestions to produce mediators than did first graders. The results support a production deficiency rather than a mediation deficiency hypothesis for young children's behavior in this type of task.