Category Organization in Children's Recall: A Critique of Past and Present Research.

This paper examines several recent lines of research concerning category clustering and describes an alternative to the standard category clustering procedure used to study recall organization in younger children. The specific issue considered is the age at which children first show evidence of spontaneous category clustering in their free-recall. Possible interpretations of the contrasting results presented in the literature focus on the types of organizational behaviors measured by the clustering index: (1) associative modes, or (2) conceptual modes. Examples from research are presented to illustrate the distinction between associative and conceptual clustering. It is concluded that there is no way to distinguish associative from conceptual modes of spontaneous organization at any age level when using traditional measures of clustering. An alternative clustering measure, which employs a sorting-recall procedure, is proposed and described. Results of using this procedure, which differ on several dimensions with previous results, are reported. The advantages of using this sorting-recall procedure include: (1) the determination of particularly meaningful age trends; (2) the provision of important information about the qualities of organizational processing; and (3) the opportunity to determine the category basis and criteria used in grouping items. (SDH)