Effects of word length on young children's memory performance

The standard working model that accounts for word length effects in young c hildren has been questioned. This study explored two hypotheses suggested b y Gathercole and Hitch (1993). In three experiments with serial recall task s, the word presentation interval was adjusted so that participants could r epeat both long and short words subvocally the same number of times in the intervals between the words presented. As a result, among children from 3 t o 6 years of age, the word length effect was significantly reduced, whereas the same manipulation of the word presentation interval did not affect the word length effect in adults. These results suggest that the word length e ffects in young children reflect the process of retaining auditory informat ion in the interval between presentations as well as readout of the phonolo gical representation.