INDUCED VERSUS SPONTANEOUS REHEARSAL IN SHORT-TERM MEMORY IN NURSERY SCHOOL CHILDREN

4 groups of 20 nursery school Ss were given a serial short-term memory task in which difficult-to-label stimuli were used. 3 experimental groups were provided labels for the stimuli. Of these, l group overtly pronounced the labels and rehearsed them during the task, l group merely pronounced the labels overtly, and l was instructed to say the labels covertly. A control group received no labels for the stimuli. Rehearsal of the labels facilitated recall performance on early serial items, and overt labeling facilitated recall on the last serial item. Covert labeling did not facilitate recall. The results supported the hypothesis that qualitatively different processing strategies determine primacy and recency effects. Current theories of the role of verbalizing in children's memory performance are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.