Abstract
A longitudinal study tested the hypothesis that rapid cognitive improvement adversely affects young children's long-term memories encoded prior to cognitive transition. Seventy-one Year One (five- to six-year-old) children were assessed for recall for event and educationally-relevant information and cognitive ability (in operational reasoning) at four points to Year Three. Contrary to the hypothesis, recent cognitive transition appeared to slightly improve -not worsen recall for educational material taught prior to cognitive transition. Earlier cognitive transition was associated with slightly better educational recall, significantly better event recall for actions (but not objects), and significantly better reading, writing, spelling and mathematics examination performance.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-10 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Australian Journal of Educational and Developmental Psychology |
| Volume | 7 |
| Publication status | Published - 2007 |
Keywords
- Cognitive change
- Five to seven year shift
- Long-term memory
- Primary education
- Standard assessment tasks