The selective reminding technique : developmental implications for children's memory assessment

Abstract

A commonly-used procedure for the clinical assessment of memory functioning is Buschke's (1973) Selective Reminding Technique (SAT). Although clinicians have employed the SRT with patients of all ages, they have largely ignored a particular problem in interpreting child data. This difficulty stems from the fact that qualitative changes in knowledge occur during. the course of children's cognitive development and that such changes affect memory performance. Thus, a given pattern of apparent deficits may reflect a certain "normal" stage of development, rather than clinical impairment. This study examined the effects of developmental change in the knowledge base on selected SAT variables. Subjects from four age groups, representing different stages of development with respect to predominant modes of organizing information, were required to learn three lists, which varied in degree of congruence with these modes. List-type was found to have a significant effect at each age level, but the type of effect varied across age. This result has implications for the establishment of qualitative, as well as the usual quantitativa child norms, as a prerequisite to the further clinical employment of the SRT with children.