Soviet Psychology

ISSN: 0038-5751 (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/mrpo19

The Development of Logical Memorization

Techniques in the Preschool and Young School
Child

A. A. Smirnov , Z. M. Istomina , K. P. Mal'tseva & V. I. Samokhvalova

To cite this article: A. A. Smirnov , Z. M. Istomina , K. P. Mal'tseva & V. I. Samokhvalova (1971)

The Development of Logical Memorization Techniques in the Preschool and Young School
Child, Soviet Psychology, 10:2, 178-195

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.2753/RPO1061-04051002178

Published online: 19 Dec 2014.

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 Voprosy psikhologii, 1969, No. 5, 90-101

A. A. Smirnov, Z. M. Istomina,
K. P. Mal'tseva, and V. I. Samokhvalova

THE DEVELOPMENT O F LOGICAL

MEMORIZATION TECHNIQUES IN THE
PRESCHOOL AND YOUNG SCHOOL CHILD

The role of organizational factors in memory is currently a

major concern of American cognitive psychologists. The pres-
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ent paper replicates the generally obtained trend toward in-

creasing recall and categorization as a direct function of age.
The authors' suggestions for accelerating the development of
organizational skills offer interesting hypotheses for educa-
tional psychologists.

1.

In Soviet psychological literature on memory processes,

qualitative descriptions of these processes and the analysis of
mnemonic a c t s themselves occupy a prominent place (1, 3, 4,
5, 9, 10). Chief emphasis is placed on the description of tech-
niques o r methods of logical memorization that considerably
improve memory productivity and r a i s e i t to a higher level.
The object of these investigations has been, on the one hand
(5,l o ) , techniques that have already been developed and used

The authors are associated with the Institute of Psychology

of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR, Moscow.

i 78
 WINTER 1971 - 72 179

by adults, and, on the other hand (1, 3, 4, 9), the perfecting of

these techniques as children develop. The investigation of de-
velopment has shed light on the unique features of memorizing
techniques (including logical memorization) in children of vari-
ous ages, but principally only in cases in which deliberate,
conscious encouragement of these techniques, i.e., systematic
instruction of children in logical memorization, was lacking.
Thus these techniques have been investigated even in studies
in which various efficient means of memorizing have been
demonstrated to children (6, 7, 8 ) . But even in these studies
no special systematic instruction in the proposed techniques
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w a s employed. Efforts were confined to the simple demon-

stration of the possibility of using some such technique and to
measuring the result obtained through its use. Only the most
recent studies (2) have been concerned with the possibilities
of directed instruction in logical memorization techniques. The
objective of such instruction is to see that these techniques a r e
used more extensively and effectively a t an earlier age than
children usually begin to employ them without the aid of spe-
cial training in logical memorization, s o that they must develop
the appropriate techniques to a large extent spontaneously. The
possibility of effective development of logical memory a t an
earlier age is a very important theoretical and practical ques-
tion and is in the foreground of the general efforts currently
being expended, with good results, by Soviet psychologists to
improve the intellectual capacities, and to make more efficient
use of the intellectual resources, of the child.
In the present report we shall offer certain results of in-
vestigations carried out to discover latent mnemonic resources
in preschool and primary-schaol children. In the first of these
age groups we studied the mastery of one technique of logical
memorization (conceptual association techniques). In school -
children we studied the development of another technique (con-
ceptual classification of material). In one of these studies,
the particular technique w a s applied to unconnected material
(memorizing series of words), while in another it was used to
memorize coherent, intelligible texts. In all the studies w e
 180 SOVIET PSYCHOLOGY

also included control groups of children who had not received

special training in the techniques, but who had been given train-
ing in the memorization of material of the same type as that
employed in the main experiments without any instructions o r
demonstrations of efficient techniques for memorizing these
materials, i.e. , children who had not been taught these tech-
niques. This enabled us to determine the productivity of di-
rected, systematically applied instruction compared with sim-
ple ("blind") training.
In all the investigations, chief attention was concentrated
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on the discovery of ways to develop the techniques studied with

consideration for individual and age differences among the
children. A strategy for the inculcation of each technique was
worked out for each age group.

2.

In an investigation (by Z. M. Istomina) of preschool children

(age 4 to 6) in which verbal material (series of individual words)
was to be memorized, the conceptual association technique, in
which each word was matched with a picture whose content best
fit the given word, was studied. This technique w a s first pro-
posed by A. N. Leont'ev (6) in 1931.
First, pilot studies were run with a large group of children
(75) to select those who were not yet using the technique pro-
posed by the experimenter. These children were later sub-
jects in the main instructional and training experiments.
In the pilot studies a set of picture-cards (portraying various
objects) was given to the children, and they were asked to choose
one picture that would best help them to memorize each word
that was called out. Later, these picture-cards were no longer
shown when the words were recalled. The words to be mem-
orized belonged to the same semantic category and were of the
same order of difficulty. A series of 15 words w a s read off to
each child, with two-second intervals between each word. The
picture did not directly correspond to the words to be mem-
orized, but the conceptual affinity between word and picture
 WINTER 1971-72 181

w a s quite readily discernible. A total of 20 pictures w a s used.

The experiments showed that the memorizing technique of-
fered to the children had no positive influence on their recall.
In fact, word recall w a s even l e s s in all age groups than in
control experiments done without picture-cards. The disparity
(almost 30% less) was especially striking in the youngest chil-
dren (age 4). For these children, not only were the picture-
cards of no help for word memorization but, on the contrary,
the cards even distracted them from the task. In the majority
of cases, the 4-year-olds simply took the first picture-cards
they laid their hands on, which in most cases were totally un-
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related to the word meanings. Only a few children, and then

not in all instances, chose pictures conceptually related to the
words; but even this was hardly conscious and deliberate.
The 5- and 6-year-olds selected pictures corresponding to
word meanings much more frequently. But even then the actions
were still insufficiently conscious and deliberate. When they
reproduced words they very seldom named the words for which
they had selected matching cards.
How was the memorizing technique taught?
For these experiments w e used 60 children, 20 of each age
group. The experiment was run in two stages. In the first, the
conceptual association between words and pictures w a s taught
as an independent act. The children were taught to select a
picture corresponding to each word independently of any solu-
tion to a mnemonic task. This act w a s to be employed as a
memory aid only in the second stage.
Each of the stages themselves consisted of several substeps.
The f i r s t stage involved the successive mastery of a series of
acts of increasing difficulty. F i r s t , the children were to select
a picture from among others that w a s identical to the picture
given them. The experiment usually took the form of a lotto
game. Pictures portraying various objects and one blank lotto
card were placed on a table before the child. The experimenter
also had a card with an a r r a y of pictures depicting the same
objects as the pictures before the child. These pictures were
turned face down. The experimenter turned up the pictures one
 182 SOVIET P SYCHOLOGY

after the other and asked the child "to find this one." The child
then had to pick out from among the others a picture identical
to the one shown.
In the next step, the child w a s to find a picture that was no
longer identical to the picture given him, but only similar to
it in i t s ideational content. In this experiment, the experimenter
likewise showed the pictures one after the other and asked the
child to select pictures similar to them in content from among
those lying before him ("find a picture that matches this one
best").
The next act taught the children was to select pictures de-
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picting objects that were named by the words called out by the
experimenter rather than pictures that matched other pictures.
Finally, in the last step, the child w a s to find a picture the
content of which was appropriate to the word called out. These
acts were all taught in a play situation.
In all cases, when the child made a mistake, the experimenter
went over the incorrect answer with him and sometimes, using
concrete examples, showed the child which card better matched
the word called out, and why.
These experiments were repeated as many times as was
necessary for the children to learn to correlate the words and
pictures correctly. Then the experimenter began the second
stage of instruction.
The first step in this stage involved the mastery of a mne-
monic operation and consisted of acts varying in difficulty.
The experiments were carried out as follows: after pictures
identical (or similar) to the presented pictures were picked
out, they were all covered, and the child w a s asked to recall
without their assistance which pictures had been matched to
the pictures that had just been repeatedly presented to him.
Then an analogous task was set up with words: the child was
to point out which picture had been earlier matched to the word
just called out.
Then the reverse operations were taught: the child was to
indicate to which picture a given card had previously been
matched, and then to which word a picture shown to him at
 WINTER 1971-72 183

the given moment corresponded. Consequently, associations

were formed that were the opposite of those that had been es-
tablished in the opposite direction for memorization but that
were quite necessary i f the selected pictures were to be used
as an aid to subsequent recall (of words o r other pictures).
Next, in the experiments of the second stage, the children
each time were read a list of words (instead of individual
words, as had been done in the experiments just described)
and asked to pick out a card matching each word read as an
aid in reproduction. The number of words in each series w a s
gradually increased (from 5 to 15).
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This step w a s accompanied by the following: first, the words

were reproduced with all the pictures that the subject had p r e -
viously selected before him. Then these cards were covered,
s o that they could then be used as a reference for reproduction
only by recalling them, but not by perceiving them.
Thus, learning the conceptual association between words and
pictures as a memorizing technique involved several steps of
varying degrees of difficulty but all necessary for acquisition
of the given technique. The experiments showed that almost
all the children, including the youngest preschool children,
mastered the memorizing technique. In seeking out the pictures
matching the words called out, they already noted which picture
w a s the best aid f o r memorizing and later reproducing a given
word. When they reproduced words, most of the children quite
consciously relied on the word-picture association they had
established and referred to them in recall. Children between
the ages of 5 and 6 were especially successful in mastering
the conceptual association as a mnemonic operation.
The long instructional process here described w a s generally
quite worthwhile. Memory productivity proved to be consid-
erably higher with pictures (150-200%) than without them.
But i t w a s especially significant that no results of this kind
were obtained in the control groups. The children in these
groups were also to memorize words with the aid of pictures
in six sessions (a f u l l class day), but without special instruc-
tion in how to use them for memorizing. It w a s found that al-
 184 SOVIET PSYCHOLOGY

though memory productivity w a s also raised somewhat above

the initial level of "uninstructed children," this increase was
much less than in children who had gone through the entire
course of instruction. Thus memory productivity in training
experiments had increased by 27% for 4-year-olds, 30% for
5 -year -olds, and 3 5% for 6-year -olds by the end of the practice
period. In the instruction experiments, the increase in pro-
ductivity was ZOO%, 159%, and 149%, respectively. A s is evident
from the data, memory productivity in the control training ex-
periments had increased by only one-third on the average, but
by approximately 2.5-3 times in the instruction experiments.
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Finally, it is to be noted that the mastered memorizing

technique (word-picture associations) was still exerting a
positive influence one year after instruction. In a repeat series
of experiments made one year later, the reproduction produc-
tivity of children in the instructed groups was almost double
that of the control groups.

3.

A s had been noted, the purpose of the experiments with

schoolchildren was to develop techniques for logical memori -
zation: conceptual classification of individual words, and con-
tent analysis of a coherent text.
The first group of experiments (investigation by V. I. Samokh-
valova) was carried out with 2nd-, 4th-, and 6th-grade pupils
(8-14 years old).
A s in experiments with preschool children, pilot studies were
first run to ascertain the level of mastery of conceptual class-
ification both as an independent act and as a memorizing tech-
nique. Then all the children who had participated in the trial
were divided into two groups. One w a s given instruction, and
the other performed practical exercises without the corre-
sponding instruction (training group).
The results of the initial orienting experiments showed that
whereas the 6th-graders (13-14 years old) employed conceptual
classification of words on their own initiative and were quite
 WINTER 1971-72 185

competent in doing so, a considerable number of the 4th-graders

(10-11 years old) did not use this technique and in many cases
required special instruction.
The need for instruction w a s due principally to the inadequate
development of the intellectual act itself (conceptual classifica-
tion), which the children were to employ as a mnemonic tech-
nique. At the same time, some of the children who were fully
competent to use the method, i.e., they had mastered the act
indicated above, nevertheless began to use it only after it had
been pointed out by the experimenter that it was possible to
use this technique; but in several cases the actual completion
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of the operation involved major difficulties.

Experiments showed that the v e r y thought of using indirect,
mediated, memorizing techniques is still uncommon to the
young schoolchild, and essentially foreign to him.
Consequently, besides development of the intellectual act
that was later to be used as a memorizing technique, it w a s
also necessary to make the children aware of the very idea
of employing certain acts in memorizing, i.e., special mne-
monic techniques.
Thus, it w a s found necessary to give instruction in the tech-
nique in two steps (as w a s done with preschool children): to
instruct them in conceptual classification first, as an inde-
pendent act, and then as a memorizing technique.
In the first of these steps, the experimental groups' trials
had several aspects. At first it was necessary to develop an
ability to find generic concepts to designate each conceptual
class of objects. Initially the concepts had to be found for all
the material (consisting in these cases of cards bearing words
o r picture -cards depicting objects) presented simultaneously.
This technique considerably facilitated the separation of the
cards into conceptual classes (the actions were carried out on
an objective, practical plane). Only then w a s it possible to
perform the same task, presenting the material consecutively;
a prerequisite for this w a s that the whole series of words had
already been retained in memory and that intellectual operations
could be performed with them (action on intellectual level).
 186 SOVIET PSYCHOLOGY

The next step was the development of the reverse ability: to

select exemplars as correct words (i.e., more precisely, the
objects designated by these words) from among the generic
concepts presented by the experimenter. These operations
(filling in of conceptual classes) were absolutely necessary
for subsequent reproduction. The subjects were required to
perform these operations only on an intellectual level in these
experiments.
The second step in instruction involved the acquisition of
conceptual classification as a memorizing technique. The sub-
jects were to master the relevant algorithm of acts, which in-
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cluded the following items: (1)preliminary noting (initial fa-

miliarization with the material) of conceptual classes of words,
i.e., the construction of some orientational schema or initial
model for the memoranda; (2) denoting of these classes with
generic concepts that were later to serve as an aid in recalling
words subsumed by them; (3) distribution of the entire list of
words among the conceptuaiclasses; (4) singling out words not
included in the indicated classes (if such words were in the
list); and, finally, (5) the reverse operation (necessary for re-
production of a series) of going from generic concepts to the
words subsumed under them.
A s the experiments showed, some of the subjects initially
experienced appreciable difficulties in performing all the in-
dicated operations, and with these children it w a s necessary
to work out each operation separately.
A study of the subjects who had encountered special difficulty
in learning conceptual classification as a mnemonic technique
showed that they were incapable of making the transition from
the practical plane of action to an intellectual level, o r to con-
struct a mental model that would later exercise a regulatory
function in reproduction. Special attention should be given to
the development of the corresponding ability. It is necessary
that the children develop the ability to apply conceptual classi-
fication directly on the intellectual level, a preliminary transi-
tion to the practical level being no longer necessary.
It was also absolutely necessary that the direct and reverse
 WINTER 1971-72 187

operations be well coordinated and readily reversible. In addi-

tion, it w a s extremely important that the transition from direct
operations to reverse (and vice versa) operations be made
quickly and easily, so that the direct and reverse acts became
a unified, integral system. The fluidity of this system, the ease
of transition from direct acts to reverse acts, and vice versa,
w a s a necessary prerequisite for the transformation of an in-
tellectual act into a mnemonic technique.
A very important precondition for effective instruction in
conceptual classification as a mnemonic technique is a suf-
ficiently high level of mastery of all indicated operations in
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themselves before their use as a memorizing technique. only

then may they be included in the indicated algorithm of actions.
If the steps i n , a mnemonic technique a r e insufficiently devel-
oped, the subjects may be able to use them as partial steps in
the mnemonic technique; but in such cases the technique r e -
quires such an effort from younger children that it is no longer
able to facilitate memorizing and has no useful effect.
On the other hand, when the intellectual operations constitu-
ting a mnemonic act are highly developed and quickly reversible,
the subjects independently make use of them as an aid and
value their role in memorization highly.
In the process of instruction, a number of the younger sub-
jects experienced several additional difficulties in the perfor-
mance of the series of operations constituting mnemonic acts:
they lost their orientation in the course of memorizing before
all operations had been completed, with the result that none of
these operations could be carried to completion. The need for
a highly developed voluntary memory became strikingly clear
in these cases. But the success of voluntary control over the
performance of a mnemonic task as a whole was to a consid-
erable extent determined by the ability to exercise systematic
self -control over the entire problem-solving process taken as
an integral whole. This observation was borne out by the ex-
perimental data.
The extended course of instruction here described was by
no means absolutely necessary for all subjects. The experi-
 188 SOVIET PSYCHOLOGY

ments revealed considerable individual differences among the

subjects with respect to the necessity of instruction in any of
the individual steps in the process. In numerous cases certain
steps could be omitted. Consequently, several modifications of
the procedure of instruction in the technique should be available.
Furthermore, to determine which of these modifications is ap-
propriate, i.e., to ascertain which of the series of steps must
be learned by a given subject, experiments have shown that
there must be two instruction procedures: to ascertain the level
of competence (diagnosis) of a given subject, a descending ap-
proach should be employed, i.e., instruction should begin with
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a task that makes greater demands, whereas for instruction

itself an ascending approach should be used, i.e., instruction
should begin with the easier tasks, and thereafter gradually
increase in order of difficulty.
What has the analysis of training and instructional experi-
ments disclosed? The increase in the memory productivity at
the end of exercises in the training series was 3.8% in the 2nd
class and 5.6% in the instructional class; in the instructional
series it was 28.3% and 26.3% for the 2nd and 4th classes, r e -
spectively. As is evident from these data, in the training series
memory productivity remained practically at i t s initial level,
while in the instructional series it increased by approximately
one -fourth.
The same correlation, only less pronounced, w a s obtained
-
for another index the number of words classified. The in-
crement in the training series was negative (-11.3%) for the
2nd grade, while in the 4th grade it was 11.0%. In this instruc-
tional series it was 140.0% and 76.0%, respectively.
A qualitative analysis of the data showed no marked changes
in the nature of the mnemonic activity in the training series.
In all the experiments, memorizing was most often monotonic,
and relied chiefly on repetition.
An exception to this w a s exhibited by only a few subjects,
who "discovered" the technique by themselves during the course
of the practical exercises, as a result of which they were able
to raise their memory productivity considerably.
 WINTER 1971-72 189

4.

A second investigation with schoolchildren w a s conducted by

K. P. Mal'tseva to ascertain ways to master content analysis
of coherent intelligible texts as a memorizing technique. This
was also essentially a question of conceptual classification of
material, inasmuch as each integral part of the text represented
a definite group of ideas. This technique, in which a textual
outline is composed, occupies a special place among aids for
mediated memorization. With it, the main idea of a text can be
extracted and i t s logical structure understood. Such outlining
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involves complex intellectual activity the result of which is a

fundamental rearrangement of the text in which it is recoded
through generalization of i t s content. The main points of the
outline, since they a r e the chief ideas in generalized form, do
not lose the specific content of the secondary textual themes;
in their verbal formulation they convey the thought of the dif -
ferent parts of the text.
Since this technique is a more complicated intellectual act
compared with other means of mediated memorization, teach-
ing it to children is more complex and requires more time.
Hence it is understandable that teaching students to compose
a textual outline is a difficult task for a teacher.
For this technique the required two stages of instruction
mentioned above assume special significance, namely, in-
struction in compiling an outline as an independent intellectual
act and instruction in its use for mnemonic purposes. As in
the investigations described above, before the trial instruction
the competence of students of different age groups (2nd, 4th,
and 6th grades) to apply conceptual classification to a text
as an independent action unrelated to a mnemonic task w a s
ascertained. Sixty students (20 in each class) independently
composed an outline of a narrative text. The points of the out-
line, in which the subjects expressed the chief thoughts of the
text, were extracted by 46.3% in the 2nd grade, 57.5% in the
4th grade, and 65% in the 6th grade.
An inquiry established that all the pupils who participated
 SOVIET PSYCHO LOGY

in the experiments were unable to explain how to proceed to

find the chief thought in the content of a text, how to check
themselves, or whether the headings of the ideational parts of
the text were formulated correctly. They all required addi-
tional help to develop this ability, and then the ability to employ
conceptual classification as a technique of mediated memoriza-
tion as well.
In working out a procedure for the instructional experiment,
the results of our earlier laboratory and natural experiments
on the development of young schoolchildren's ability to find
the main thoughts and compile a textual outline were taken
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into account (1958, 1962). We also determined the individual

operations involved in compiling an outline and established the
sequence of their development in the experiment.
Instruction in conceptual classification began with the working
out of the main operation - extraction of the main ideas. The
children acquired the proposed technique of textual analysis,
which consisted of a sequence of questions: whom o r what is
being spoken of in the different parts of the text, i.e., questions
on the logical subject and logical predicate of each ideational
part.
At the beginning of the experiments, analysis of the text was
a discursive act in which the students successively asked
these questions aloud and answered them. At this stage, the
younger children, and pupils with poor school aptitude, lagged
behind.
A s this operation was worked out, the children gradually
acquired the ability to analyze a text by themselves and to note
the main ideas aloud. After analyzing the text, they also per-
formed exercises in various ways of generalizing the content
of the material. Since each main idea extracted usually com-
prised a more o r less considerable ideational part of the text,
the child had to express it in abbreviated and generalized form,
putting it into his own language, first in the form of a brief
account, and then as headings of the parts o r points of the
outline.
In these tasks, some marked age and individual differences
 WINTER 1971-72 191

were observed in. the mastery of the operation. In some

cases the children expressed, quite freely and indepen-
dently, the content of an ideational part of the text in generalized
form in their own words. For other children, this type of gen-
eralization caused difficulties, as a consequence of which ad-
ditional stimuli were required to continue the analysis of the
text until a verbal formulation adequate to the idea was found
and expressed in the child's own words (rather than seeking it
in finished form in the text). Cases were observed in which
the children were simply not able to formulate the main idea
independently in generalized form.
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Independent generalizations were noted in 53 of 100 possible

cases in the 2nd and 4th grades and in 60 of 100 possible cases
in the 6th grade. Through the use of additional stimuli, inde-
pendent generalization of the main idea was increased by 21,
31, and 35 cases (from the youngest to the eldest groups). The
number of cases i n which the pupils were unable to generalize
the content of a part of the text and formulate it succinctly in
their own words was 26, 16, and 5, respectively.
A s instruction progressed, the process of outlining became
more and more controllable for the subjects. They acquired
the ability to explain how it w a s necessary to proceed in per-
forming each operation. This ensured the absolutely necessary
self-control for mastering each operation: first, over the ac-
quisition of each operation individually, and then over the ex-
ecution of the process as a whole.
In addition to the indicated operations, which accomplished
the transition from the discursive content of each textual unit
to an increasingly briefer and more generalized presentation,
development of the reverse ability was required: namely, to
recognize how ideas expressed in generalized form in a short
account, heading, o r point of an outline were specifically ex-
panded upon in the text. The development of this operation in-
volved a return to the full content of the text to learn to select
from it information presenting and concretizing the main ideas,
and to learn to distinguish one ideational unit of the text from
another by finding the boundary between them.
 192 SOVIET PSYCHOLOGY

In carrying out this operation, the subjects often displayed

a tendency simply to reproduce the text in as complete a form
as possible, without additional analysis to distinguish the main
idea from secondary points.
Instruction in direct and reverse operations had different
goals. Mastery of the operations employed to distill out the
main ideas in a text (direct operations) prepared the subjects
for conceptual memorization and reproduction of the essential
content while mastery of the reverse operation w a s necessary
-
for the solution of another mnemonic task conceptual mem-
orization and reproduction of the text in as complete a form
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as possible.
A s may be seen from the description of the training experi-
ment, its exclusive aim was to develop in the subjects the
ability to analyze a text and generalize its content in forms
that, when later used in memorizing texts, would ensure active
intellectual activity as a genuine support of conceptual mem-
orization.
After instruction in the composition of a textual outline as
an independent action, instruction in the application of this
action as a memorizing technique did not involve any marked
difficulties whatever, even for the younger children.
In the vast majority of the 4th- and 6th-grade subjects, the
instructional experiment was followed by a substantial quali-
tative rearrangement of memorization. These subjects made
use of the textual outline when memorizing the text indepen-
dently without side prompting. This is a departure from the
usual memorizing techniques that ensure only unmediated re -
tention of the material.
However, these changes in mnemonic activity were not ob-
served in the 2nd-grade subjects. A l l the subjects of this age
were able to compose a textual outline of a story, as was done
in the control experiment; but although they had the possibility
of using the outline as a memorizing technique, its actual use
was inhibited by the established and ingrained habit of mere
unmediated memorizing. For these subjects both special in-
struction in conceptual classification of the text and direct
 WINTER 1971-72 193

encouragement to apply this act as a mnemonic technique were

important, The use of an outline for memorization became a
special problem for them.
In addition to the instructed group, some of the subjects in
this investigation were given exercises in memorizing the same
texts as were used in the instructional experiment, but without
having been given special instructions, whether in conceptual
classification alone o r in its application as a mnemonic tech-
nique. The control experiments showed that in the given series
of experiments, none of the age groups (2nd, 4th, 6th) displayed
the qualitative rearrangement of memorization that was noted
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as a consequence of the instructional experiment.

To summarize the foregoing, we present the following main
results of the investigation:
1. All investigations demonstrated that the children (of pre-
school age and young school age) possessed considerable ability
in mastering conceptual (logical) memorizing techniques that
were based on the use of aids presented t o the children for this
purpose, namely, by recoding already memorized material
(use of mediated ideational references, o r an ideational code,
as an aid in facilitating subsequent reproduction).
2. As experiments showed, the entire process of instruction
in conceptual memorizing techniques (use of ideational refer-
ences) should include two main steps: (1) instruction in con-
ceptual (logical) operations (that mediate memorizing) in them-
selves as a type of intellectual act; and (2) instruction in the
use of these acts for mnemonic purposes, i.e., as memorizing
aids. Both of these steps consist, in turn, of several substeps,
each of which must be thoroughly mastered before passing to
the next one. The aggregate of all these substeps, taken in
definite sequence, is a specific strategy for the development
of such a technique.
3. A necessary condition for the successful use of the ac-
quired operations for mnemonic purposes, i.e., for later re-
production of the memorized material, is the acquisition not
only of the direct operations but also the reverse operations,
i.e., not only recoding (in memorizing) but also decoding (in
later reproduction) of the memoranda.
 194 SOVIET PSYCHOLOGY

4. The successful use of the acquired operations as a mne-

monic aid to a great extent depends on how well these opera-
tions are worked out separately (as independent acts). Other-
wise, their use for mnemonic purposes gives rise to consid-
erable difficulties, demands great intellectual efforts from the
subjects, and is ineffective: the children are inclined to return
at the first opportunity to a primarily mechanical memorizing
technique that is not mediated by these operations.
5. There were considerable individual differences among
the children in the acquisition of logical memorizing techniques.
These differences made it necessary to employ different forms
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of instruction: some were fully expanded to include all the steps

described while others were only abbreviated forms (with some
substeps omitted).
6. In the trainingexperiments, in which material analogous
to that used in the instructional experiments described above
w a s learned by rote through continuous repetition, with the
instruction to memorize this material using any technique used
in the latter experiments but without special instruction in the
use of that technique (in accordance with the above-indicated
strategy), either no positive result whatever was obtained or
the net effect was completely negligible.

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