The Effect of Questioning on Young Children's Memory for an Event
Cassidy, Deborah Jo
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/69083
Description
Title
The Effect of Questioning on Young Children's Memory for an Event
Author(s)
Cassidy, Deborah Jo
Issue Date
1986
Department of Study
Education
Discipline
Education
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Education, Early Childhood
Abstract
The primary concern of this study was to determine if being asked questions that demand retrieval from long-term memory has a facilitative effect on memory.
Seventy-two 4- and 5-year-old children participated in the study. All subjects experienced two specially planned events. Each child was then assigned to one of three conditions for the experimental sessions: (a) Questioning--subjects were required to recall information from long-term memory; (b) Repetition--subjects were asked to repeat information supplied to them, but did not actively retrieve it from long-term memory; (c) Control--subjects did not discuss the events, nor were memory demands placed on them.
The four experimental sessions were conducted every other week for seven weeks. One week after the last session (seven weeks after the first event), all children were given a final recall test composed of three parts: (a) previously asked questions about the first event viewed, (b) new questions about the previously questioned event, and (c) new questions about the second, previously unquestioned event. The results of the study indicated that questioning that demanded recall from long-term memory had a limited facilitative effect on memory. Questioning improved memory only for the specific information about which questions were previously asked. Experience with questions demanding retrieval from long-term memory produced no more generalization than questions that made no recall demand. Furthermore, not only was there no generalization to new questions about the unquestioned event, but there was also no generalization to new questions about the previously questioned event.
Overall, questioning that demanded retrieval from long-term memory was no more beneficial than questioning that made no demand for retrieval from long-term memory. Both manipulations enhanced recall. However, this finding was only true for the 4-year-olds in the study. The recall of the 5-year-olds was the same regardless of whether or not they discussed information about the events. That is, 5-year-olds in all three conditions performed the same on the final recall test.
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