Self-reported memory strategies and their relationship to immediate and delayed text recall and working memory capacity

Jonsson, Bert; Wiklund-Hörnqvist, Carola; Nyroos, Mikaela; Börjesson, Arne · 2014 · Crossref

DOI: 10.3402/edui.v5.22850

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

Get this paper ↗ (DOI — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)

Summary

This study investigates the relationship between self-reported memory strategies, working memory capacity (WMC), and text recall performance in fifth-grade children. Motivated by established links between WMC, executive functions, and scholastic attainment, the researchers aimed to determine if children’s verbal reports of memory strategies accurately reflect their actual usage and if these reports, alongside WMC, predict immediate and delayed text recall. The study specifically examined whether more complex strategies correlate with better performance and higher WMC, and whether self-reported strategies remain significant predictors of recall when controlling for WMC, gender, and reading speed. The participants consisted of 66 fifth-grade students (33 boys and 33 girls) from Swedish public schools. The experimental design involved three main assessments. First, WMC was measured using a listening span task, which required children to process sentence meanings while retaining the last word of each sentence. Second, text memory was assessed by having children read a 193-word text about a 14th-century painter and then reproduce its content immediately and again after one week. Performance was scored based on the reproduction of specific word units. Third, immediately after the initial recall task, children individually reported which memory strategy they used, choosing from no strategy, repetition, visualisation, elaboration, or a combination of strategies. Statistical analyses included Spearman rank correlations and hierarchical regression models to evaluate the predictive power of strategies and WMC on recall performance. The results indicated that repetition was the most frequently reported strategy, while visualisation was rarely used. Children who reported using more complex strategies, particularly combinations of techniques, achieved significantly higher scores in both immediate and delayed recall tasks compared to those reporting simpler strategies or no strategy. WMC was positively correlated with both the complexity of reported strategies and recall performance. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that WMC and self-reported strategy use were the strongest predictors of text recall, explaining 41% and 43% of the variance in immediate and delayed recall, respectively. Notably, the effect of gender on recall disappeared when strategy use was included in the model, and reading speed did not significantly contribute to predicting recall performance. Children with high WMC outperformed those with low WMC, and those reporting any strategy outperformed those reporting none. The findings suggest that self-reported memory strategies are valid indicators of actual strategy use in fifth-grade children. The study concludes that WMC is a critical determinant for both the acquisition of memory strategies and text recall performance. Children with lower WMC may experience cognitive overload, preventing them from implementing effective strategies. The results imply that educational interventions should consider individual differences in WMC when teaching memory strategies, as more cognitively demanding strategies like visualisation may not benefit children who lack the necessary working memory resources. Furthermore, the study validates the use of self-reporting as a tool for assessing strategy proficiency in educational contexts.

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed.

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-25; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• working memory