INSTRUCTIONAL AND CONTEXTUAL EFFECTS ON EXTERNAL MEMORY STRATEGY USE IN YOUNG-CHILDREN

Young children's ability to devise external representations in problem -solving tasks has not been fully examined. The present two experiment s investigated children's creation and use of external representations (i.e., external representation strategies) in different conditions. I n each experiment, 4- and 6-year-old children Listened to a series of sentences (e.g., ''The doll is on the table'') and were required to re member where to place the objects named in the sentences. In Experimen t 1, direct training increased the use of external representations. Wh en the salience of task dimensions increased in Experiment 2, children 's external representation strategies also increased. Four-year-old ch ildren showed a utilization deficiency in external representation stra tegy use in the prompt conditions, but not in the training condition. Thus, young children require additional situational support before the y demonstrate cognitive competencies (Bray, Fletcher, & Turner, 1997). (C) 1997 Academic Press.