Sandra S. Smiley

The Development of Strategies for Studying Texts.

BROWN, ANN L., and SMILEY, SANDRA S. The Development of Strategies for Studying Texts. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1978, 49, 1076-1088. In a series of 3 experiments, the strategies of children and college students were examined as they attempted to study texts. College students, under various intentional learning instructions, displayed a clear diagnostic pattern. Following extended study they improved recall of important, but not unimportant, elements of texts. Eleventh and twelfth graders conformed to the adult pattern, but fifth through eighth graders were not as efficient. Older students benefited from increased study time because they possessed the necessary knowledge concerning the importance of text segments to enable them to concentrate on the essential. Younger students, not so prescient, did not concentrate exclusively on the important units, for they did not know what they were. Age was not the sole determinant of performance, for some students at each age spontaneously adopted the strategies of underlining or note-taking. Those who did concentrated on the important elements and subsequently approached the adultlike pattern in recall; those who did not displayed the immature pattern, even if induced to adopt I of the strategies.

Conceptual preference for thematic or taxonomic relations: A nonmonotonic age trend from preschool to old age ☆

Abstract Two experiments examined the development of conceptual preference for either thematic (functional) or taxonomic relationships in a match-to sample task. In Experiment 1 twenty subjects from each of five age groups—preschool to old age—completed a method of triads preference test where they were forced to choose a thematic or taxonomic match. Young and old individuals preferred the thematic parings while school age and college adults preferred the taxonomic matches. Although the Age × Preference relation was pronounced, the majority of subjects at all ages could provide adequate justification of both the preferred and nonpreferred relationship. In addition, kindergarten subjects in Experiment 2 could readily be trained to respond on the basis of the nonpreferred mode. These data suggest that the pervasive shift in conceptual responding from syntagmatic to paradigmatic, thematic to taxonomic, etc., represents a change in preference rather than a shift to a fundamentally new way of organizing knowledge.

The Effects of Experience on the Selection of Suitable Retrieval Cues for Studying Texts.

BROwN, ANN L.; SMILEY, SANDRA S.; and LAWTON, SALLIE Q. C. The Effects of Experience on the Selection of Suitable Retrieval Cues for Studying Texts. CHrLD DEVELOPMENT, 1978, 49, 829-835. The ability to select (a) suitable retrieval cues, and (b) the main ideas of prose passages was examined in college students and in school students between fifth and twelfth grade. The ability to select the main elements of texts improved over the entire age range studied and was not affected by experience studying and recalling the passage. Retrieval-cue selection was also sensitive to age, with a dramatic shift in flexibility occurring between the high school and college populations. Prior to experience recalling the text, college students selected mainly the most important elements to serve as retrieval cues. After experience recalling, however, they selected units of intermediate importance. Realizing they would remember the main ideas without further effort, they concentrate on the intermediate-level material which had caused them much more trouble on their previous recall attempt. This shift in retrieval-cue selection represents a fine degree of sensitivity to the relative importance of text segments and to the function of retrieval cues in recall, a sensitivity not displayed by even the oldest high school subjects.

Optional shift behavior as a function of age and dimensional dominance

Abstract An optional reversal-nonreversal shift task for which the relevant color or form cues were either dominant or nondominant was presented to 320 Ss, 6 through 20 years of age. Dominance, as defined in terms of relative cue similarity, was related to initial learning and shift behavior for kindergarten and third-grade Ss; but not for sixth-grade and college Ss. The speed of initial learning and percentage of reversal shifts was related to age when the nondominant dimension was relevant. There were no developmental differences when the dominant dimension was relevant.

Instability of dimensional preference following changes in relative cue similarity

Abstract Dimensional preference (either color or form) was assessed in kindergarten, first and third-grade children prior to their being presented with a second preference test which consisted of either similar shapes and dissimilar colors or similar colors and dissimilar shapes. Initial preference was related to class placement (Follow-Through or regular). Preference as measured by the second test was related to both initial preference and relative cue similarity.

Optional shift behavior as a function of dimensional preference and relative cue similarity

Abstract Dimensional preference (either color or form) was assessed in first- and third-grade children prior to their being presented with a reversal-nonreversal optional shift task. During initial learning of the reversal-nonreversal task, one-half of the children were trained with their preferred dimension relevant, while the other half were trained with their preferred dimension irrelevant. For half of each of these groups, the relevant cues were similar; for the other half, the irrelevant cues were similar. Initial learning was faster when the preferred dimension was relevant and when the irrelevant cues were similar. More reversal shifts were made when the irrelevant cues were similar.

The effects of instructions on recall and recognition of categorized lists by the elderly

Sixty noninstitutionalized elderly people were tested for recall of both taxonomic and thematically related lists. On Trial 1, subjects were instructed either to look at, categorize, or remember the pictures; on Trial 2, they were all required only to look at the items. Subjects instructed to remember or categorize recalled and clustered more than subjects required only to look. Although there were no differences due to category type on the first trial, when freed from the restriction to organize or memorize on Trial 2, subjects performed better on the thematic lists. The results are discussed in terms of the possible effects of institutionalization and age-related shifts in the logical basis for classification.