DEVELOPMENTAL DIFFERENCES IN THE TIMING OF ORGANIZATION IN CHILDREN'S RECALL

In the present experiment possible developmental differences in the
timing of organization in children's free recall were examined. It was
hypothesized that children who organize information at input would show
a smaller decrement in recall as a result of delayed testing with
related than with unrelated materials. If the categorical similarity
among items is discovered at input, the resulting organizational scheme(s)
would make the individual items more resistant to forgetting over time.
However, since no organizational scheme could be imposed upon unrelated
items, many items would be lost as a result of delayed testing. This
pattern of data was predicted only for junior high students and not
for second and third graders. However, contrary to expectation, both
the younger and older groups of subjects showed this pattern, indicating
that children of both age groups organize categorically related
information at input. The possibility of a semantic facilitative effect
for the younger subjects was discussed.