Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
1995
Abstract
Young school-aged children appear to be capable of spontaneously adopting strategies in some situations and require instruction before using strategies in other situations. The present study investigated three interrelated task factors hypothesized to play an important role in whether strategies would be used by young school-aged children. The task factors manipulated were (a) presentation modality of the task (auditory or visual), (b) presence of objects (objects available at presentation or only at recall), and (c) task difficulty (memory loads from 1 to 7 sequences). Seven- and 11-year-old children participated in an external memory task embedded in a story about a "haunted house" and a "friendly ghost" which required memory for spatial relations among objects. Measures of working memorгу span were also obtained. Results indicated that, overall, the frequency of strategy use for the 7- and 11-year-olds did not differ. However, there was more strategy use in the object available conditions. External strategies without orientation (e.g., pointing or holding) were used more frequently by 7-year-olds than 11-year-olds. However, external strategies with orientation (e.g., arranging) were used more frequently by the 11-year-olds, especially in the visual with objects condition. Measures of working memory however were not related to strategy use. The limitations of the "production deficiency" approach to strategy development and the results for developmental differences in strategy competency of young children were discussed.
Recommended Citation
Huffman, Lisa F., "Task Factors and Individual Differences in Strategy Use of Children." (1995). All ETDs from UAB. 7081.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/7081
Comments
MA - Master of Arts; ProQuest publication number 31752001