Active control of study leads to improved recognition memory in children

Azzurra Ruggeri, Douglas B. Markant, Todd M. Gureckis, Fei Xu

Research output: Contribution to Book/Report typesConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

This paper reports an experiment testing whether volitional control over the presentation of stimuli leads to enhanced recognition memory in 6- to 8-year-old children. Children were presented with a simple memory game on an iPad. During the study phase, for half of the materials children could decide the order and pacing of stimuli presentation (active condition). For the other half of the materials, children observed the study choices of another child (yoked condition). We found that recognition performance was better for the objects studied in the active condition as compared to the yoked condition. Furthermore, we found that the memory advantages of active learning persisted over a one-week delay between study and test. Our results support pedagogical approaches that emphasize self-guided learning and show that even young children benefit from being able to control how they learn.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 38th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2016
EditorsAnna Papafragou, Daniel Grodner, Daniel Mirman, John C. Trueswell
PublisherThe Cognitive Science Society
Pages2675-2680
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9780991196739
StatePublished - 2016
Externally publishedYes
Event38th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Recognizing and Representing Events, CogSci 2016 - Philadelphia, United States
Duration: 10 Aug 201613 Aug 2016

Publication series

NameProceedings of the 38th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2016

Conference

Conference38th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Recognizing and Representing Events, CogSci 2016
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityPhiladelphia
Period10/08/1613/08/16

Keywords

  • active learning
  • cognitive development
  • exploration
  • inquiry learning
  • metacognition
  • recognition memory

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