Abstract
Nursery-school children, ranging in age from 3.4 to 4.3 years, were divided randomly into three groups to study the effects of labels on short-term memory. One group served as a control, receiving no labels, one group was given labels suggesting the actual colors of the stimuli, and the third group was given irrelevant word labels for the colors. The results indicate that labeling, whether relevant or irrelevant, improves retention. Recency and primacy effects were found for all groups.
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This study was supported in part by a training grant in normal and retarded development, Grant HD 00244, from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, United States Public Health Service.
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Bush, E.S., Cohen, L.B. The effects of relevant and irrelevant labels on short-term memory in nursery school children. Psychon Sci 18, 228–229 (1970). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335751
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335751