DEVELOPMENT OF THE ABILITY TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN COMPREHENSION AND MEMORY - EVIDENCE FROM GOAL-STATE EVALUATION TASKS

Three experiments investigated developmental changes in children's abi lity to monitor and evaluate memorization and comprehension. First and 3rd graders rated the perceived difficulty of memorization (verbatim recall) and comprehension (block-building construction) after engaging in (a): a memory strategy (role repetition) or a comprehension strate gy (pictorial clarification of unfamiliar works Experiment 1); (b) no strategy or repetition (Experiment 2); and (c) no strategy or clarific ation (Experiment 3), In Experiment I, children recognized that clarif ication aided construction more than recall, but not that repetition a ided recall more than construction. In Experiment 2, children recogniz ed that repetition aided recall but not construction. In Experiment 3, children recognized that clarification aided construction more than r ecall. Thus, by 1st grade, children are sensitive to some aspects of t he comprehension-memory distinction.