Rehearsal and Organizational Processes in Children's Memory

ORNSTEIN, PETER A.; NAUS, MARY J.; and LIBERTY, CHARLES. Rehearsal and Organizational Processes in Children's Memory. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1975, 46, 818-830. An overt rehearsal procedure was used to study the relationship between children's rehearsal strategies and recall performance in a free recall task. 2 experiments were conducted, 1 employing unrelated words and the other taxonomically related materials, so that rehearsal could be examined under different conditions of list organization. In both experiments, developmental changes in rehearsal content were observed. Third graders tended to rehearse the item currently being presented either alone or in minimal combination with other words. In contrast, sixth graders (and older subjects) rehearsed several different items together. These changes in rehearsal technique were related to developmental differences in the magnitude of the primacy effect. However, the role of rehearsal seemed to vary as a function of list structure. When categorical items were employed, ninth graders were better able than younger subjects to use taxonomic information to rehearse related words together. This rehearsal of category items was related to improved recall, but blocked presentation of the taxonomic materials facilitated the recall of the third graders, without corresponding changes in rehearsal being observed.