The Development of Verbatim and Gist Memory: Task Effects

아동의 축어 기억과 요점 기억의 발달과 과제의 영향에 관한 연구

This study examined the development of verbatim and gist memory, and the effects of the relevance and inferential direction of the task on the development of the verbatim and gist memory. The subjects were second, fourth and sixth grade children in elementary schools. Each age group consisted of forty children. Eight sets of inference tasks were administered to each subject. In the task, the relevent and the extraneous sentences were mixed for inferential direction. The sentences that described 'which term is more' were inserted in half of the task and the sentences that indicated the direct numbers were included in the other half of the task. The task was presented by the audio tape in which instruction was recorded by one speaker. Results showed that (1) age differences in verbatim memory were significant but age differences in gist memory were not significant. These results indicate that the processes of verbatim and gist memory are separate and independent. (2) The relevance and inferential direction of the task affect gist memory but no verbatim memory. This result also supported independence between verbatim and gist memory. It was suggested that these results can be interpreted in terms of fuzzy trace theory.