The effect of the knowledge base on the acquisition of memory strategies
Janeke, Hendrik Christiaan
The dissertation explores the effect of the knowledge base on the acquisition of
memory strategies. It is postulated that 'salient' categories - highly elaborated
categorial structures in the knowledge base - facilitate memory performance so
that elevated levels of clustering and recall, and an emergent organisational
strategy, can be expected in young children's memory performance with such
categories. Two multitrial, free-recall experiments were conducted to test the
hypothesis. The first experiment analysed the memory performance of
preschool children and adults on category type (salient versus nonsalient
categories). The second experiment analysed the effect of category saliency on
memory search processes. The experiments yielded evidence suggesting that
highly salient items in the knowledge base are easily activated during the course
of memory retrieval, resulting in enhanced levels of recall with such items, and
the early manifestation of an organisational strategy.
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