Memory assessments were administered at three time points in the first grade fall, winter, and sprin

1
Using a Person-Oriented Approach to Characterize
Contrasting Developmental Trajectories of Memory
Performance Priscilla San Souci, Rebecca J.
AbuAyed, Laura E. McCall, Jennifer L. Coffman,
and Peter A. Ornstein The University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill
MEASURES
GROUPING BASED ON FRT STRATEGY USE

• Although we observed age-related increases in
  the childrens strategy use and recall, we wanted
  to examine more directly how their strategic
  behavior on the FRT task related to deliberate
  memory recall.
• To do so, we divided the children into four
  groups based upon their ability to implement an
  organizational strategy in the FRT task over the
  course of the first grade and into the first time
  point of the second grade.
• These groups ranged from most to least
  strategic in terms of grouping categorically-relat
  ed items together when studying the pictures,
  reflecting a continuum of strategic competence
  from children who showed organized sorting
  independently without any training or input from
  experimenters to those who never sorted at all.
  The groups were defined as follows
• Independent Sorters (n 16) - showed
  organized sorting independently at Time 1 Trial
  1, before receiving any training.
• Early Sorters (n 45) - showed organized
  sorting at Time 2 after only one training
  experience on Trial 2 of Time 1.
• Late Sorters (n 24) - showed organized sorting
  at Time 3 or Time 5, after a second training
  session at time 3.
• Nonsorters (n 20) - either never showed
  organized sorting over the course of the first
  grade and into the first time point of second
  grade, or only sorted on the generalization
  trials at Times 1 or 3.
• For these subgroups, we examined recall on two
  deliberate memory tasks
• FRT across Grades 1 and 2
• VFR at the end of Grade 2

• Free-Recall with Organizational Training Task
  (FRT)
• (Moely et al., 1992)
• Children were presented with line drawings of
  items from 4 taxonomic categories and were told
  to work to remember the pictures. Memory was
  assessed immediately after children indicated
  that they were ready to recall the pictures.
• At Times 1, 3, and 7 there were multiple
  trials
• Trial 1 (baseline) Children were presented
  with line drawings and were told to work to
• remember the pictures.
• Trial 2 (training) Children were given
  directions in using categorization during the
• study period and when recall was assessed.
  This training emphasized the value of
• using category membership to form groups of
  related items while studying (sorting) and
• remembering (clustering).
• Trial 3 (generalization) Children were
  presented with the task again but with different
  
• materials after a delay and were given
  baseline instructions.
• At Times 2, 5, 6, and 8, only one trial of the
  FRT task was administered, with children being
  told to work to remember the pictures.

• Because we observed significant differences in
  deliberate recall on both the FRT and VFR tasks
  for children who sorted independently, we focused
  on identifying potential characteristics of
  independent sorters
• Receptive language
• (PPVT-III, Dunn Dunn, 1997)
• Independent sorters had significantly higher
  PPVT scores at the end of the first and second
  grade years (Ms 117, 117.5) compared to
  nonsorters (Ms 98.47, 97.57 p lt .01, p lt .001,
  respectively).
• Home Literacy Environment Index
• (Griffin Morrison, 1997)
• Differences in home literacy scores between
  independent sorters and nonsorters also
  approached significance (p.053), with families
  of independent sorters receiving higher scores
  than nonsorters on a questionnaire that provides
  information concerning the salience of reading in
  the family (Ms 13.07, 9.97 respectively).
• Metamemory
• At the beginning of first grade, independent
  sorters had significantly higher metamemory scale
  scores than nonsorters (p lt .001)
• Also at the beginning of first grade, FRT
  Self-Report scores varied as a function of
  strategy group, with independent sorters
  evidencing greater abilities in describing their
  strategic behaviors over all other children
  (plt.01)

AIMS OF THIS PRESENTATION

• Drawing on data from a longitudinal study of
  memory development across the elementary school
  years, in this presentation we adopt a
  person-oriented approach (see Magnusson, 1997)
  to
• Describe changes in childrens deliberate
  memory performance over the course of first and
  second grades
• Characterize childrens recall and metamemory
  as a function of strategy use at multiple
  assessment points during this important period
  for the development of cognitive skill
• Examine the recall performance and metamemory
  awareness of groups of children who evidence
  different levels of strategic behavior

GROUP DIFFERENCES IN DELIBERATE MEMORY RECALL
FRT Recall by Strategy Group Across First and
Second Grade

• Year One
• 107 first graders (49 boys and 58 girls)
• Mean age 79 months (range 71-91 months)
• Year Two
• 91 continuing participants
• Mean age 91 months (range 82-103)

• Memory assessments were administered at three
  time points in the first grade (fall, winter, and
  spring) and four time points in the second grade
  (fall, winter, spring, and late spring).
• The battery of assessments included deliberate
  and incidental recall tasks, as well as
  metamemory assessments.
• A Free Recall with Organizational Training Task
  (FRT), a Verbal Rehearsal and Free Recall Task
  (VFR), and a metamemory battery were selected to
  illustrate the relation between strategy use,
  deliberate memory, and metamemory performance.

DISCUSSION
VFR Recall as a Function of Mode of Presentation
and Group Membership End of Second Grade

• These findings indicate that childrens
  strategy use on the FRT task predicts recall
  across the first and the second grades, and also
  demonstrate that childrens overall performance
  on the FRT task is predictive of their
  performance on the VFR task at the end of second
  grade.
• This examination of homogeneous subgroups of
  children who exhibited contrasting levels of
  strategic competence showed that those who were
  more strategic than their peers also had higher
  deliberate memory recall, PPVT scores, Home
  Literacy scores, Metamemory Scale scores, and
  were more adept at describing their own strategic
  behavior.
• By examining characteristics of independent
  sorters, we are beginning to identify factors
  that enable some children be more proficient in
  strategy acquisition and mnemonic awareness.
• Although previous cross-sectional studies have
  shown positive relations between strategy use,
  recall, and metamemory, this longitudinal
  examination of groups of children who were
  similar in strategic behavior helps to elucidate
  the course of these developing relations during
  the critical early elementary school years.

This material is based upon work supported by
National Science Foundation Grants 0217206 and
0519153..