John W. Hagen

Poorer Behavioral and Developmental Outcome More Than 10 Years After Treatment for Iron Deficiency in Infancy

Objective. To determine the long-term effects of iron deficiency in infancy. Design. Longitudinal follow-up study of children who had been tested and treated for iron deficiency as infants. Setting. Periurban community near San Jose, Costa Rica. Participants. Of the original 191 participants, 87% were reevaluated at 11 to 14 years old (average age: 12.3 years). The children were free of iron deficiency and growing normally by US standards. Those who had chronic, severe iron deficiency in infancy (n = 48) were compared with those who had good iron status before and/or after iron therapy in infancy (n = 114). Outcome Measures. Comprehensive set of cognitive, socioemotional, and motor tests and measures of school functioning. Results. Children who had severe, chronic iron deficiency in infancy scored lower on measures of mental and motor functioning. After control for background factors, differences remained statistically significant in arithmetic achievement and written expression, motor functioning, and some specific cognitive processes (spatial memory, selective recall, and tachistoscopic threshold). More of the formerly iron-deficient children had repeated a grade and/or been referred for special services or tutoring. Their parents and teachers rated their behavior as more problematic in several areas, agreeing in increased concerns about anxiety/depression, social problems, and attention problems. Conclusions. Severe, chronic iron deficiency in infancy identifies children who continue at developmental and behavioral risk >10 years after iron treatment.

Cognitive Perspectives on the Development of Memory

Publisher Summary This chapter deals with age-related changes found in memory. The early knowledge of memory development is quickly put to use in tests of intelligence; thus, memory is considered a part of the larger sphere of intellectual functioning. However, memory is treated more or less as a unitary construct. Experimental psychology recognize memory performance as, to a large extent, a function of the technique of measurement; but not until the advent of the information-processing models was memory pursued vigorously as a construct in its own right. The information-processing model suggests critical points in the memorial process where developmental changes occur—initial encoding, acquisition, storage, and retrieval—and where this process may be linked to other important aspects of cognition. Initial encoding involves language even in preschool-age children. Semantic information is coded for storage in a wide range of experimental tasks across a wide age range.

Verbal labeling, rehearsal, and short-term memory

The effects of verbal labeling in a serial position short-term memory (STM) task were investigated in two studies. In the first, 32 children at each of the grades 4, 6, and 8 were tested. In the second, 40 college students were tested. The stimuli consisted of eight cards with a central and an incidental picture on each. Half of the subjects overtly labeled the central pictures as they were presented; half did not. In Study I there were eight trials; in Study II there were additional trials in which stimuli contained only the central pictures. In Study I labeling did not affect overall performance; in Study II labeling was found to decrease performance significantly. For both studies labeling had differential effects at the primacy and recency portions of the serial-position data. There was no effect of one versus two stimuli per card in Study II. The findings were discussed in terms of issues concerning verbal mediation and rehearsal strategies. A developmental model for the processes involved in serial-position STM was presented.

STRATEGIES FOR REMEMBERING

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the strategies for remembering. The presence of incidental pictures produces a detrimental effect on central memory performance. Three factors have deleterious effects on short-term memory: an imposed auditory distractor, the presence of an incidental or irrelevant stimulus, and an imposed labeling of the to-be-remembered stimuli. Whether the deleterious effects occur depends entirely upon the developmental level, or chronological age, of the subjects. Imposed irrelevant stimuli, such as piano notes or pictures, impede performance for the younger but not the older individuals. Central versus incidental memory correlates positively at the younger ages and negatively at the older. The development of the use of strategies occurs because of two types of developmental changes. The specific changes are those that a particular mediator, such as verbal rehearsal, goes through. Labeling is not done by the young child at all. With development, overt labeling of stimulus objects in the environment becomes the normal response. When learning or remembering becomes important, strings of labels are repeated covertly. The other type of developmental change is called general, and it involves planfulness on the part of the child.

Prompting and Rehearsal in Short-Term Memory.

HAGEN, JOHN W.; HARGRAVE, SUSAN; and Ross, WILLIAM. Prompting and Rehearsal in ShortTerm Memory. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1973, 44, 201-204. The effects of induced verbal rehearsal and prompting were studied in a short-term recall test in 2 groups of children with mean ages of 5-9 and 7-4. The stimuli were cards depicting animals. 7 cards were presented sequentially per trial for 21 trials. Half the Ss were required to rehearse the names of the animals and were prompted when needed; the remaining Ss rehearsed but received no prompting. A recall test in which no rehearsal was required was administered one week later. Recall improved when rehearsal was employed, but only when prompting was provided. Recall was affected by rehearsal at the younger age level only. No change in recall was found 1 week after initial testing.

Involuntary memory and the development of retrieval skills in young children

Abstract An incidental memory paradigm was used to study involuntary encoding processes and voluntary retrieval strategies in childrens memory. Preschool (mean age: 4 years, 4 months) and kindergarten (mean age: 5 years, 10 months) children sorted pictures according to their color or category membership, and then received either a recall test (Experiment 1) or a recognition test (Experiment 2). Better retention of category- than color-sorted items was observed for kindergarten children in free recall, preschool and kindergarten children in cued recall, and neither group in recognition. These results were interpreted in terms of the retrieval strategies used by children in each of the memory tasks. The importance of distinguishing between voluntary and involuntary memory processes, and between acquisition and retrieval, in studies of depth-of-processing was emphasized. Developmental differences in performance appear to derive primarily from the role of voluntary search strategies in retrieval, rather than from age differences in involuntary encoding processes.

Facilitation and Distraction in Short-Term Memory.

HAGEN, JOHN W., and KAIL, ROBERT V., JR. Facilitation and Distraction in Short-Term Memory. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1973, 44, 831-836. Childrens short-term memory was studied under 2 experimental conditions: 1 in which recall was expected to be facilitated due to the provision of a study period and 1 in which a distracting task was imposed that was expected to interfere with recall. 40 subjects at each of 2 age levels, 7 and 11 years, were tested in a serial-position recall task in a control as well as in 1 of the experimental conditions. Overall, recall was higher at the older than at the younger age level. In the facilitation condition, recall improved for the older children only, especially at the primacy positions. In the distraction condition, recall declined and performance for the older age level did not differ from that of the younger. The results were discussed in relation to the development of rehearsal strategies.

Short-term memory and strategy use in children with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

The present study was designed to examine recall and rehearsal in short-term memory among children with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). Children with onset of IDDM before age 5 years, children with onset after 5 years, and children without IDDM were administered a measure of short-term memory that provides information about rehearsal as well as level of recall. Children with later onset of diabetes and children without IDDM were expected to recall more words and use more effective rehearsal strategies than children with early onset of diabetes. Results indicate that children diagnosed with IDDM early in life used similar rehearsal strategies but recalled fewer words than children with later onset of diabetes and children without IDDM. In addition, results provide evidence that children who are in poor control of their diabetes did not use strategies designed to increase recall as often, or as well as, children in better control of their diabetes.

The Development of Selective Attention under Distracting Conditions.

ZUKIER, HENRY, and HAGEN, JOHN WILLIAM. The Development of Selective Attention under Distracting Conditions. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1978, 49, 870-873. Developmental changes in childrens selective attention to task-relevant and task-irrelevant information with and without distraction were studied. 60 children at each of 2 age levels (8 and 11 years old) performed a serial position recall task either in a control condition or under visual or auditory distraction. Children were tested for recall of task-relevant and task-irrelevant information. In a second series, the procedure was repeated, and now children were set for the incidental information as well. Performance on the central task was better for the older than for the younger children in the control condition only, especially at the primacy positions. When a distractor was introduced, no age differences in performance occurred. Recall of incidental information improved on the second trial at both age levels but more so for the older children. Distractors enhanced recall of incidental information at both age levels and produced differential effects as a function of their mode of presentation. The results indicated that older children make greater use than do younger children of strategies that enable them to (a) focus on the relevant features of the task at the expense of extraneous information and (b) deploy their selective attention with greater efficiency and flexibility. The findings also suggest that distractors have specific effects on performance that interact with age as well as task.

Memory strategies in children with learning disabilities

Abstract Memory strategies were examined among children, 7–13 years old, with diagnosed learning disabilities, in order to investigate whether they perform in appropriately active and efficient ways. The children were grouped at two age levels and administered tasks of serial recall and free recall. A strategy-training session was conducted on the second task. On the serial recall, neither age group showed evidence of rehearsal, in contrast to previous studies. On the free recall task, the younger childrens performance was consistent with the mediation deficiency hypothesis, while the older children improved in sorting, clustering, and recall following training; i.e., they showed a typical production deficiency. There was support for considering this sample of learning disabled children as inactive learners, with potential developmental change. Serial recall improved with age, and the older childrens production deficiences in free recall appeared to be ameliorated with training in organizational strategies.