Poster #31 - How does the ability to define learning impact children’s ability to accurately recall learning events?

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - Cognitive Processes

Integrative Statement

Research has indicated that a variety of cognitive skills (Bemis, Leichtman, & Pillemer, 2013; Sobel, Li, & Corriveau, 2007) contribute to children’s ability to accurately report on their own learning. Further, understanding the process of learning has been shown to support children’s ability to provide their own examples of learning and subjective reports of how it occurred (Sobel & Letourneau, 2015). No research has investigated the relationship between defining learning and the accuracy of children’s reports. The present study sought to address this question by combining the paradigms of Sobel and Letourneau (2015) and Bemis et al. (2013), asking children to both define learning and reflect on what they learned from a staged event.
Seventy-five children in three age groups, 28 4-5 year-olds (Mage = 5;0), 19 6-7-year-olds (Mage = 7;0), 28 8-10 year-olds (Mage = 9;3), participated in a one-session study with a single interviewer. Children first completed Sobel and Letourneau’s (2015) interview where they were asked to define learning and provide examples of their own learning. Children then participated in a staged learning event. Following the event, children were asked two types of questions- open-ended questions where they recalled any facts they had learned and three dichotomous-choice questions about specific facts. After both question types, children indicated how they had learned the material.
Children’s definitions of learning were coded using the scheme developed by Sobel & Letourneau (2015). Specific codes included no response, identity - simply saying "learning" as a definition, content –identifying learned content, and process-identifying an action that contributed to learning. Children’s responses to questions about how they learned were coded as accurate identifications if they mentioned any detail from the staged event.
Results indicated that, consistent with Sobel and Letourneau’s (2015), children in the two oldest age groups provided more process definitions than younger children, χ2 (6, N = 75) = 28.09, p<.001 (see table 1). In response to the open-ended questions, children providing process definitions reported more correct facts (t(73) = 4.30, p <.001) and were more likely to accurately identify the staged learning event as the source of their knowledge (t(73) = 3.57, p = .001. Providing process definitions of learning was not related to children’s ability to correctly respond to the dichotomous-choice questions (t(73) = .94, p =.35), but was related to their ability to correct identify the staged-event (t(73) = 2.49, p = .02) as the source of their knowledge (see table 2).
To determine if interviewer knowledge influenced children’s accuracy we included a second sample of 40 children -11 4-5 year-olds (Mage = 4;10), 15 6-7 year-olds (Mage = 6;10), 14 8-10-year-olds (Mage 9;3) - who completed the same interview, but were interviewed by a naïve interviewer following the staged event. Regarding the relationship between children’s definitions of learning and their memory accuracy, results were identical with one notable exception, providing process definitions of learning was not related to children’s ability to identify the staged event in their responses to the dichotomous-choice questions, t(38) = .547, p = .59.



Authors

• Rhyannon Bemis, Salisbury University
  Presenting Author

• Jade Gomez, Salisbury University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Leah Zachariah, Salisbury University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Amy Wible, Salisbury University
  Non-Presenting Author