Lisa F. Huffman and Norman W. Bray, Ph.D.
Mailing address: Department of Psychology and Civitan International Research Center, SC 313, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294. Phone: (205) 934-9768, FAX: (205) 975-6330. Send Internet email to: bray@cis.uab.edu
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Young children are frequently discouraged from using external aids, [e.g., to not count on their fingers (Siegler & Robinson, 1982)] and are often forbidden from using external aids during tests. Children may understand, however, that using external aids would benefit performance (Bray, Saarnio, Borges, & Hawk, 1994). Siegler and Crowley (1994) suggested that cognitive processes in non-privileged domains, such as the use of memory strategies, are constrained by an abstract "goal sketch" which embodies components of a strategy which are consistent with the goal of a task. Children use a goal sketch to narrow the "search space" for selecting a strategy and to exclude strategies inconsistent with the goal of the task. The present study investigated developmental differences in goal sketches, knowledge of testing rules, and the use of external strategies.
Ninety-six 7-, 9-, and 11-year-old participants were presented with a memory task where they were asked to remember the location of objects in a story about a haunted house. The participants heard from two to seven sentences such as "the key is above the ghost" and "the shoe is on the blue side of the key" on each of 15 trials. Then, the participant placed miniature objects representing those mentioned in the sentences onto a computer screen. Half the participants were told they would listen to a story and were given a minimal prompt of "You can do anything that you think will help yourself remember where the objects are", and half were told this was a test and given no prompt.
After the completion of 10 trials, the participants viewed videotaped vignettes of a confederate child performing 8 different memory strategies, varying from ineffective to effective. The participant first rated each strategy using a "rules thermometer", which had five points from "not breaking the rules" (1) to "breaking the rules very, very, much" (5). Next, the participants rated each strategy with a "helps thermometer" with five points from "does not help remember"(1) to "helps very, very much" (5). Following the vignettes, participants resumed the memory task for 5 additional trials.
Results indicated a developmental decrease in the use of ineffective strategies (i.e., holding the objects), F(2,90) = 9.58, p<.001, and a developmental increase in the use of effective strategies (i.e., arranging the objects), F(2,90) = 10.92, p<.001. There was an age by condition interaction for effective strategy use, F(2,90) = 4.04, p<.02, with effective strategy use increasing more in the story condition suggesting that the type of situation plays a role in strategy use.
Findings from the "rules thermometer" showed a developmental decrease in ratings of strategies as "against" the rules, but there was no condition effect.
Results from the "helps thermometer" demonstrated a developmental increase in the ratings for effective strategies and a developmental decrease in ratings for ineffective strategies. These ratings provided data related to Siegler and Crowley's goal sketch concept: after viewing the vignettes, there were marked decreases in the use of ineffective strategies and marked increases in the use of effective strategies. The vignettes seemed to highlight some knowledge available to the children which was not used prior to the vignettes, but was used subsequently.
The results suggest that the "goal sketch" of Siegler and Crowley develops with age, constrains strategy use in children, and contains information necessary for judgments of strategies that are and are not "effective" in problem solving situations.