Extralist Retrieval Cues and Memory Processes across Age

Summary This experiment was conducted to determine whether the encoding specificity explanation of why extralist cues are effective with adults is generalizable to children when the extralist cue is the category name. The results suggested that it is. Boys and girls (total N = 180) at grades 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 learned for a single trial, a 20-word stimulus list under conditions in which the cues were present (a) neither at encoding nor recall, (b) at recall only, or (c) both at encoding and recall. Except for grade 6 Ss, cues present at recall only facilitated recall compared to free recall. Overall recall was highest for Ss provided with cues both at encoding and recall.