The development of the adaptive use of different forms of rehearsal in verbal serial recall tasks. A multi-method study

Verbal rehearsal is a key feature of certain working memory models that have previously assumed that children develop adult-like rehearsal around the age of 7. However, a broader literature indicates that younger children are capable of rehearsal. The present study, consisting of two experiments with 191 primary school children in total, combined methods that are rarely used to study rehearsal in serial recall. Self-paced presentation times were obtained as a behavioural indicator of strategy use. On half of trials, children additionally reported their strategies via think-aloud (Expt. 1) or immediate trial-by trial self-reports (Expt. 1 & 2). Results from the three methods employed in Experiment 1 with 10- to 11-year-olds converged on the conclusion that multiple strategy use was widespread. Listening, single rehearsal, and cumulative rehearsal were common strategies that were validly reported with no or only small effects of reactivity of strategy reporting. Experiment 2 revealed that multiple strategy use was widespread across 6- to 11-year-olds. Listening without rehearsal was common and cumulative rehearsal rare among the younger children, but cumulative rehearsal and strategy adaptivity to list length gradually increased with age. Importantly, self-reports were corroborated by self-presentation times even in younger children. We conclude that rehearsal development does not follow a stage-like progression. Rather, the data support an overlapping waves model as several strategies coexist, the likelihood of using a strategy changes gradually, and adaptivity of strategy choices still improves among older children.