Recall and recognition of words and pictures by adults and children

Abstract

Recall and recognition performance were compared under three different modes of presentation (written words, black-and-white pictures of objects, and color pictures of objects) for 30 subjects in each of three grade levels (college students, sixth graders, and fourth graders). The results showed a developmental trend of increasing recall performance with age. Whereas adult performance was significantly affected by mode of presentation (color pictures >black-and-white pictures >written words), no difference was found across presentation modes for the fourth and sixth graders. However, the data also indicated that children do have pictorial and color cues available in memory in a manner very similar to adults. It was suggested that the cognitive structures of children do not utilize this stimulus information. © 1977, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.