Effects of Meaningfulness on Child Free Recall Learning.

The primary purpose for conducting the present experiment was to assess the effects of an associative-attribute--for example, stimulus meaningfulness (m) on the learning rates of different age group children. An attempt was also made to assess the effects of age and m on a measure of subjective organization. This research consisted of two studies: in study one information was obtained on m values for 40 consonant-vowel-consonant words employing children in grades K, 2, and 6. Study two was concerned with the interrelationship between stimulus m and ontogeny on free recall learning rates and subjective organization. It was hypothesized that learning would be more rapid for older relative to younger children when word lists were identical, that is, stimulus m was allowed to co-vary with age. The findings indicated that increasing stimulus m had a within age facilitating effect on free recall learning. (RB)