Linking Fourth and Fifth Graders’ Study Skills, Memory Strategy Use, and Academic Achievement (2008)

Undergraduate: Stephanie Guthrie

Faculty Advisor: Peter Ornstein
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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Through extensive investigations of children’s cognitive development, many of the strategic behaviors that young children exhibit, such as rehearsal and organization, have been thoroughly examined. Despite this, much less is known about the development of more academically related strategic memory behaviors such as study skills. The development of fourth and fifth graders’ study skills and how they relate to other memory strategies, working memory, and academic achievement were examined. On a Study Skills Task, students improved in the sophistication of their study behaviors and the amount of information recalled across the two grades. Both fourth and fifth graders who performed better on rehearsal and organization tasks had higher scores on the Study Skills Task. Additionally, higher academic achievement was related to more sophisticated strategy use on this task. Future research should focus on the relation of these strategies to the classroom, in terms of both teacher instruction of such mnemonic skills and student use of these skills.