Success and Maintenance of Memory Strategies by Preschoolers

Abstract

Two studies investigated the maintenance of a memory strategy following training. Maintenance was compared in two groups of preschoolers. The first group was taught the strategy in a situation where it produced large improvements in performance from pretrials to training. These children were more likely to maintain it than those taught the strategy in a situation in which improvements were small. It was concluded that the size of the improvement in memory was a determinant of strategy maintenance, although the second study showed that the size of the improvement did not influence transfer of the strategy to a different task. The implications of this finding are discussed in relation to other intervention studies in memory development, and to young children's ability to monitor their own memory performance.