Abstract
Free recall performance with both constant and varied input orders was compared to serial recall performance across three grade levels. Categorized lists composed of frequent instances from categories familiar to young children were presented under both blocked and nonblocked conditions. Results revealed high levels of recall performance and semantic clustering with no evidence of production deficiency. Both the amount recalled and the number of instances per category increased with increasing grade level, while the degree of clustering did not. Serial ana tree recall performance did not differ due to the high use of semantic clustering in free recall, which made the previously facilitative provision of an ordering strategy during serial learning no longer useful.
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The authors are grateful to Dorothy Leuze for her help in data collection. The authors are grateful to the principal and faculty of Brookside Elementary School.
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Posnansky, C.J., Pellegrino, J.W. Developmental changes in free recall and serial learning of categorically structured lists. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 5, 361–364 (1975). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333272
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333272