AGE-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN FREE-RECALL AS A FUNCTION OF RETRIEVAL FLEXIBILITY

The present experiment examined the possibility that developmental differences in recall are due in part to older subjects using a more flexible retrieval strategy. Children aged 4, 7, and 10 years inspected a set of 25 line drawings depicting familiar objects, which could be organized into both thematic and taxonomic modes. In a training phase all subjects demonstrated that they could classify each of the objects into both modes. Subsequently, a cued-recall test was administered, and the Reduction method of Tulving and Watkins (1975) was used to provide a quantitative description of the composition of subjects' memory traces. Later, all children attempted free recall. Older children recalled more items and their recall protocols demonstrated a greater amount of mode switching during recall. Younger children retained as many of the traces necessary for retrieving items on the basis of both modes as did older children. Hence age-related differences in switching between modes during recall appears to have been a causative factor underlying recall differences. © 1978.