Serial position effects in young children: temporal or spatial?

Abstract

3 experiments examined the notion that children's primacy and recency in the probe-type pictorial memory task are related to the spatial distinctiveness of the leftmost and rightmost items presented. The correspondence between spatial location and temporal position of pictorial items was varied systematically in each experiment. 3-year old children were observed in experiment 1; 8-year olds in experiment 2; and 2 age groups (5 years and 8 years) in experiment 3. Taken together, results of the 3 studies indicated strong primacy and recency for all age groups when temporal order was completely confounded with left-to-right spatial arrangement of the items. When spatial and temporal components were separated, so that each could be assessed independently of the other, the data showed: (a) consistent temporal recency, (b) weak or absent temporal primacy in all but 1 experiment (experiment 3), (c) little evidence of primacy and recency related solely to spatial location, and (d) no significant interactions of age with serial position (spatial location or temporal position). These data do not support the inference that spatial distinctiveness or anchoring alone is responsible for children's primacy and recency in the widely used probe-type pictorial memory task. Rather, they suggest that preschoolers and older children alike are able to code temporal order along with the corresponding pictorial and location information in this kind of task.