The Effect of Spacing Category Members on Children's Memory

Summary

Long-term memory was studied in 324 Yoruba-speaking Nigerian boys and girls in grades 1, 3, and 6 by spacing category members with zero, three, or seven unrelated words, each presented at 1-, 4-, 6-sec rate. A 3³ randomized factorial block design was used. A 32-word, eight-category list was recorded and replayed to subjects for recall 30 secs later. Spacing decreased recall of words, categories, words within categories, and clustering. The poor performance on the last three measures indicated poor category perception and grouping. The rate x grade interaction was significant for word recall, category recall, and clustering. Only grade 6 improved their performance on the first two measures with slow presentation rates, thereby showing better category perception. Only grade 1 improved their clustering with slow presentation rates, thereby showing increased grouping. The higher grades performed better than grade 1 on recall of words, categories, and words within categories, thereby showing better category perception, grouping, and retrieval.