R. Demerval et E. Mullet, UNDERSTANDING THE COMBINATION OF MEMORY VARIABLES - A REEXAMINATION, The Journal of genetic psychology, 154(3), 1993, pp. 389-396
This study was a direct prolongation of a study by Wellman, Collins, a
nd Glieberman (1981), which showed that, provided a sufficiently sensi
tive methodology is used, it is possible to demonstrate experimentally
that even 5-year-old children are capable of integrating two types of
information-effort and difficulty of task-in their judgment of perfor
mance (number of items recalled). We prolonged this study by adopting
Anderson's information integration methodology in order to provide evi
dence concerning the type of combinatorial rule describing subjects' u
se of both pieces of information and to refine analysis to the individ
ual level. In terms of group results, it was possible to describe the
algebraic aspects of the information integration process by an additiv
e model in children and adolescents, and by a multiplicative model in
adults. Conclusions changed considerably, however, when individual res
ults were studied. In the 5- and 8-year-old children, the dominant rul
e was clearly unifactorial, involving effort. Only in the adult group
was true integration seen in all subjects.