Faculty Publications

The Relation Between Conceptual Elaboration and Retrieval Access to Episodic Information in Memory for Children and Adults

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Volume

46

Issue

1

First Page

100

Last Page

128

Abstract

The purpose of the six experiments in this study was to examine the problems of third graders, sixth graders, and college students in gaining access to episodic information in retrieving information from memory. In Experiment 1, the lengths of the related and unrelated stimuli were varied as a way of manipulating the conceptual elaboration of category and thematic stimuli, and stimulus classification was ensured by orienting questions. Conceptual access to the representations of the episodes in memory was assessed by comparisons of recall for one-word and two-word "extra-list" cues that were conceptually related to the targets. In the other experiments, access problems were examined further by varying "list" cues that represented physical information in the context and instructions about cue use, and conceptual elaboration was examined further by varying no orient instructions, subordinate and superordinate category orienting questions, and prototypical and nonprototypical associates in the stimuli. The results suggested that conceptual access problems vary with grade, that the conceptual elaboration of the representation of an episode facilitates access, and that elaboration is the result of a complex interaction of stimulus information and the associative structure of permanent memory. © 1988.

Department

Department of Educational Psychology, Foundations, and Leadership Studies

Original Publication Date

1-1-1988

DOI of published version

10.1016/0022-0965(88)90025-2

Link to Full Text

Comments?

Share

COinS