Abstract
Free recall of trait-descriptive adjectives by children in kindergarten, first grade, and fourth grade was studied within an incidental-memory paradigm. Performance was compared after three different orienting-task/encoding questions: “Does this word describe you?” (self-reference), “Is this a nice word?” (semantic), and “Does this word have an ‘s’ sound?” (physical). The trait-recall task was nondiscriminatively difficult for the kindergartners. Recall in the self-reference condition increased over age, and by the fourth grade, the children showed an adult pattern of greater recall in the self-reference condition than in the other two conditions.
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This research was supported in part by a faculty research grant from Franklin and Marshall College. The cooperation of David Krauser and the professional staff of the Rohrerstown School in the Hempfield School District of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is gratefully acknowledged.
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Halpin, J.A., Puff, C.R., Mason, H.F. et al. Self-reference encoding and incidental recall by children. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 22, 87–89 (1984). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333770
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333770