THE EFFECTS OF EXPERTISE AND IQ ON CHILDRENS MEMORY - WHEN KNOWLEDGE IS, AND WHEN IT IS NOT ENOUGH

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the assumption that rich domain knowledge can compensate for low overall aptitude on domain-re lated cognitive tasks. Whereas previous research dealing with text rec all and text comprehension tasks has provided evidence supporting this assumption, recent studies examining the effects of both expertise an d intelligence on a strategic memory task (sort-recall task) found tha t the effects of domain knowledge were not strong enough to eliminate performance differences between high- and low-aptitude experts. In our experiments, both text-recall and sort-recall measures related to the game of soccer were presented to high- and low-aptitude fourth-grade children who were either soccer experts or novices, using a within-sub jects design. The main difference between the two studies concerned th e testing procedure: Whereas in Study 1 testing was conducted in small groups, in Study 2 children were tested individually. Both studies co nfirmed the outcome of previous research; that is, effects of aptitude on text recall and comprehension were eliminated when the impact of e xpertise was considered simultaneously. However, they also replicated the earlier finding that this pattern of results does not generalise t o other memory tasks. That is, expertise does reduce but not eliminate the relationship of IQ to memory tasks involving deliberate strategie s.