Faculty Publications

In Search of Retrieval Search in Children and Adults

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Volume

46

Issue

2

First Page

219

Last Page

246

Abstract

The goal of the four experiments in this study was to examine retrieval access and item-by-item search processes and strategies in the cued recall of children and adults. In Experiments 1, 2, and 3, third- and sixth-graders and college students were shown four-word stimuli (e.g., Bus-Airplane-Car-Train) at acquisition under different acquisition conditions designed to encourage search processes more or less. The retrieval cue information was manipulated as a way of varying the access and search demands, and a post-task retrieval strategy inventory was completed by the older subjects, as a way of providing converging evidence about access and search problems and strategies. In Experiment 4, nominal set stimuli (March-April-June-October) were provided in order to maximize the opportunity to observe search processes. The results suggest that retrieval access is a problem for young children and contributes strongly to developmental increases in recall. Item-by-item search processes, and retrieval strategies in general, are more likely to be used by adults than children, and the use varies with kind of stimulus. However, search occurs infrequently even for adults in optimal situations and thus seems to contribute minimally to recall increases with age. © 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)90058-6

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