Encoding and Congruity in Children's Incidental Memory

GEIS, MARY FULCHER, and HALL, DONALD M. Encoding and Congruity in Children's Incidental Memory. CmLD DEVELOPMENT, 1978, 49, 857-861. First and fifth graders' incidental free and cued recall were tested after an orienting task. In the orienting task, semantic and acoustic encoding were constrained for different words by requiring the children to answer questions about either the words' meanings or sounds. The questions provided congruous encoding contexts for half the words and incongruous encoding contexts for the remaining words. In cued recall, key words from the orienting questions were used as cues. Semantic encoding and semantic cues were mnemonically more beneficial than acoustic encoding and acoustic cues, even for first graders whose encoding preferences were acoustic, as reflected in the types of guesses which they made to a new set of cues. Although congruity benefited both age groups' memory performance, fifth graders' cued recall was enhanced by cues from congruous encoding contexts more than was first graders'.