The effect of a nonverbal aid on preschoolers' recall for color

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether the provision o f a nonverbal memory aid would improve preschoolers' recall of color. Forty 4-year-old children carried out 2 tasks with the same set of colored objec ts. Colors were not referred to, nor were children told that their recall w ould later be tested. One day later, the children were split into 2 groups. One group was given a chart containing both the colors of the objects and distracter colors. The other group was not given a chart. Recall for object color was tested. There was an effect of chart provision; children who use d the chart recalled more colors correctly than did those who did not use a chart. This result indicates (a) that even very young children can make us e of props to facilitate their recall and (b) that such memory aids need no t be exact copies of previously seen objects. Implications of these finding s for eyewitness recall are discussed.