The ontogeny of serial-order behavior in humans (Homo sapiens): representation of a list.
The authors trained 3-, 4-, 7-, and 10-year-old children and adults (Homo sapiens) on a nonverbal serial-order task to respond to 5 items in a specific order. Knowledge of each item's sequential position was then examined using pairwise and triplet tests. Adults and 7- and 10-year-olds performed at high levels on both tests, whereas 3- and 4-year-olds did not. The latency to respond to the first item of a test pair or triplet was linearly related to that item's position in the training series for the 7- and 10-year-olds and adults, but not for the 3- and 4-year-olds. These data suggest that older children and adults, but not younger children, developed a well-integrated internal representation of the serial list.
Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA.
Michelle
M
Guyla
Michael
M
Colombo
D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D015186:Hominidae; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D012919:Social Behavior