Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

Publication Date

10-8-1974

Abstract

Th~ proactive interference (PI) release procedure was used in two experiments to assess encoding, differential encoding, and the relative: dominance of encoding attributes in children's short-term memory. The procedure consisted of Ss receiving a series of memory tests, each of which involved the recall of a triad of auditorily-presented words after a 14 second retention interval. The Ss in the experimental groups received four successive recall tests with triads of words which were homogeneous with respect to a given attribute. After four homogeneous triads, a fifth altered triad was presented. The altered triad words were also homogeneous with respect to a given attribute, but the attribute was different from the singular attribute used in the four previous trials. For the control groups, all the items in the five triads were homogeneous with respect to one attribute.

Experiment I used both the acoustic attribute and the concrete-imaginal attribute with first graders. There was a significant build-up of Pl over trials indicating that young children can encode on the acoustic and the concrete-imaginal attributes. The experimental groups exhibited a release from PI on the trial with the altered triad suggesting that the acoustic and concrete-imaginal attributes were differentially encoded. Furthermore, an asymetrical shift effect occurred. That is, the experimental group receiving four acoustic triads and one concrete-imaginal (altered triad) exhibited PI build-up and PI release, while the counterpart (four concrete-imaginal triads and one acoustic triad) exhibited PI build-up but no PI release. This finding indicates that young children have a greater propensity to encode on the concrete-imaginal attribute relative to the acoustic attribute.

Experiment II provided further evidence regarding the propensity interpretation of the asymmetrical shift effect observed in Experiment I. This experiment used the same procedure and attributes used in Experiment I. However, the altered triad item contained both attributes. The results indicated that children encoded the altered triad on the concrete-imaginal attribute even though a more prominent acoustic attribute was also contained in this triad. This finding supports the conclusion that the concrete-imaginal attribute is dominant relative to the acoustic attribute in young children's encoding.

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Educational Leadership

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy

First Committee Member (Chair)

Daniel Bruce Berch

Second Committee Member

Mary Bierman Harris

Third Committee Member

John Thomas Zepper

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