Children's use of mnemonic strategies: variability in response to metamemory training

In this study, 8- to 12-year-old children were tested to determine their level of use of a strategy for organizing lists of low-associated words into semantic groups. Then, on the basis of their scores in the strategy tests, the children were placed in either a strategic or nonstrategic group. The groups were divided into a sort-instruction training condition, in which they were told to group words so that they "go together" in some way, and a metamemory training condition, in which these instructions were supplemented by feedback, strategy reminders, and opportunities to self-test. One week later, each child's strategy use was reassessed. Children in the strategic group sorted semantically throughout training and transfer, and they showed high recall, regardless of condition. Children in the nonstrategic group showed high strategy use and recall during training, but they showed significantly more variability in recall than did the children in the strategic group. Children in the nonstrategic-metamemory condition who benefited from training were also more likely to transfer the use of the strategy than were children trained in the sort-instruction condition.