Children in grades one, three, and five participated in three experiments which examined the active processing and short-term memory (STM) of color, contour, and interior pattern of shapes found in computer digitized pictures. No age-related differences were found at the level of active processing and at the onset of STM (10 msec delay) for the three dimensions, while age-related differences occurred for color and contour information at a longer memory lag time (100 msec delay). The study provides insights to the role of processing and memory for specific types of information found in color pictures, which has implications for effecting higher order cognitive behaviors.
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