Development differences in associative memory: strategy use, mental effort, and knowledge access interactions.
The deployment of memory strategies is resource demanding and more so for younger children than for older children and adults. The associative memory studies reviewed show that accessibility to relevant event knowledge is directly related to the resource demands of using an elaboration strategy. The greater efficiency of strategy use by older children and adults permits the use of available mental resources to support additional task-relevant processing of to-be-learned items. This additional processing might include alternate or more durable encodings of pair relationships, creation of retrieval opportunities (strategies), and effective strategy monitoring. The additional processing enabled by the freeing of information-processing resources is hypothesized to be responsible for the developmental increase in the efficacy of elaboration and other associative strategies. Knowledge access also affects the nature of the relational strategy selected and the recall benefits observed. Although increases in "elaboration" were hypothesized to account for developmental differences in associative memory, the evidence clearly shows that other associative strategies are also involved. Although these other associative strategies involve elaboration in a nontechnical sense, the observed dissociations between them and the elaboration strategy argue for maintaining the distinction. Moreover, further analysis is needed to understand the interactions between strategy selection and knowledge access. In this regard, the initial strategy deployed by a learner is dependent on his or her knowledge about the relative effectiveness of various relational associations and interactions with knowledge access. For example, a younger subject might forgo "elaboration" if the items are "captured" by an "other associative" relationship activated during strategy deployment (particularly if the initial search for an elaboration is very effortful). In contrast, an older subject might persevere at retrieving a relevant event because of his or her knowledge about the benefits of encoding "direct" interactions for pair members. The learner's subsequent strategy selection, either for additional processing or encoding of new pairs, is undoubtedly more complex because of increases in the learner's knowledge about the relationships between strategy use, knowledge access, and resource demands. In conclusion, research examined in this chapter verified relationships between strategy use, mental effort, and knowledge access. Moreover, interactions between strategy use and knowledge access were exposed. These relationships are presumed to underlie developmental differences in the efficacy of memory strategies.
Department of Psychology, California State University, Fullerton 92634.
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D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D011582:Psychological Theory