THE ROLE OF FEEDBACK IN MNEMONIC STRATEGY TRAINING

DIANE SULLIVAN COLLIER, Purdue University

Abstract

Three major issues concerning the role of feedback in mnemonic strategy training were addressed: (1) conceptualization, (2) timing, and (3) dependent variables. Eighty-four kindergarten and first grade children who did not spontaneously use verbal rehearsal consistently on a serial recall task were trained in the use of that strategy, following procedures of Keeney, Canizzo, and Flavell (1967). Six training conditions resulted from the orthogonal combination of three feedback varieties (simple, causal, and none) with the presence or absence of a simple rationale presented at the beginning of training. Criterial tasks included recall and the use of rehearsal on immediate maintenance, delayed (two-day) maintenance, and generalization tasks, as well as the children's evaluations of both relevant and irrelevant strategies in terms of their usefulness on a serial recall task. Recall and strategy use increased as a result of training, regardless of feedback or rationale, with performance significantly above baseline levels not only on training trials, but also on the immediate and delayed maintenance tasks. Although a large number of children in all the experimental groups rehearsed on the generalization measure, neither their rehearsal nor recall was significantly different from that of children in a control group who had received no training. Causal feedback did have significant impact on metamnemonic judgments. Results of a path analysis indicate that children who received training did not use their metamnemonic knowledge about the usefulness of the verbal rehearsal strategy to mediate their performance on maintenance or generalization tasks. A structural model providing a plausible interpretation of the relationships among variables was proposed.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Developmental psychology

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