A Developmental Study of Changes in Strategy Selection

The present study focused on the relationship between children\u27s knowledge of appropriate task strategies and actual strategy use on two recall memory tasks and two tasks less demanding of memory--coding and alphabetizing. On the recall memory tasks, attention was specifically directed to the modifications of children\u27s strategies as a function of changing task demands. The subjects consisted of 80 seven-, nine-, 11-, and 15-year olds. The children were shown two sets of pictures on cards, representing three categories, which were later to be recalled. The children were free to manipulate the pictures during all the study periods. Task demand changes included either the study time allowed (30 seconds or 2 minutes) or the number of items to be remembered (12 or 24 pictures). The coding task required that the children copy symbols that corresponded to numbers in the coding key. For the alphabetizing task, children were to put words on cards in alphabetical order within a given amount of time. The data analyses showed that children\u27s knowledge of task relevant strategies closely paralleled their task behavior. Overall, picture recall increased with age and with the type of strategy used