Development of Memory for General and Specific Sentences.
To investigate memory development for specific and general sentences, second graders (n = 66), junior high school students (n = 66), and college students (n = 66) were given specific-general sentence pairs or general- specific sentence pairs for free recall. The recall performance and the proportions of runs (specific-general association of sentences and vice versa) were measured separately. Specific sentences tended to be recalled more than general ones and the performance for presentation order of specific- general sentences was superior to the reverse order in the two older groups. The output order of sentences in runs tended to be determined strongly by the input order of presentation in the two older groups. Thus there were substantial differences between pre- and postpuberty in both recall and chunking patterns. These results were interpreted in terms of differences in knowledge structure and related strategy.
a Kyushu University , Japan.
Mitsuya
M
Yamauchi
a Kyushu University , Japan.
Kazuko
K
Kojo
a Kyushu University , Japan.
Takashi
T
Tanaka