The facilitation of long-term memory improvement and operative development

J. Piaget and B. Inhelder (1973) have reported that children's memories for pictures or events improve between early (1-wk) and late (several-month) recall sessions in conjunction with operative growth. Using the concept of verticality, the present study investigated (a) if an intervening operative training task would increase memory improvements, and (b) if exposure to the memory stimulus per se would enhance later operative performance. 97 3rd graders were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups-with or without operative training and with or without a memory task. At the end of the school year, all Ss were tested for operative level. The trained group showed significantly more memory progressions and fewer regressions than the untrained group on 1 of 2 memory stimuli. On the 2nd stimulus, performance was consistently high across children and recall sessions, and thus no differences were found as a function of training. Participation in the memory task enhanced later operative performance. Implications for Piagetian memory research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).