Multilab Direct Replication of Flavell, Beach, and Chinsky (1966): Spontaneous Verbal Rehearsal in a Memory Task as a Function of Age

Work by Flavell, Beach, and Chinsky indicated a change in the spontaneous production of overt verbalization behaviors when comparing young children (age 5) with older children (age 10). Despite the critical role that this evidence of a change in verbalization behaviors plays in modern theories of co...

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Published inAdvances in methods and practices in psychological science Vol. 4; no. 2
Main Authors Elliott, Emily M., Morey, Candice C., AuBuchon, Angela M., Cowan, Nelson, Jarrold, Chris, Adams, Eryn J., Attwood, Meg, Bayram, Büşra, Beeler-Duden, Stefen, Blakstvedt, Taran Y., Büttner, Gerhard, Castelain, Thomas, Cave, Shari, Crepaldi, Davide, Fredriksen, Eivor, Glass, Bret A., Graves, Andrew J., Guitard, Dominic, Hoehl, Stefanie, Hosch, Alexis, Jeanneret, Stéphanie, Joseph, Tanya N., Koch, Chris, Lelonkiewicz, Jaroslaw R., Lupyan, Gary, McDonald, Amalia, Meissner, Grace, Mendenhall, Whitney, Moreau, David, Ostermann, Thomas, Özdoğru, Asil Ali, Padovani, Francesca, Poloczek, Sebastian, Röer, Jan Phillip, Schonberg, Christina C., Tamnes, Christian K., Tomasik, Martin J., Valentini, Beatrice, Vergauwe, Evie, Vlach, Haley A., Voracek, Martin
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.04.2021
Subjects
preregistered
development
rehearsal
memory
working memory
open materials
Registered Replication Report
short-term memory
open data
verbalization
registered replication report
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Summary:Work by Flavell, Beach, and Chinsky indicated a change in the spontaneous production of overt verbalization behaviors when comparing young children (age 5) with older children (age 10). Despite the critical role that this evidence of a change in verbalization behaviors plays in modern theories of cognitive development and working memory, there has been only one other published near replication of this work. In this Registered Replication Report, we relied on researchers from 17 labs who contributed their results to a larger and more comprehensive sample of children. We assessed memory performance and the presence or absence of verbalization behaviors of young children at different ages and determined that the original pattern of findings was largely upheld: Older children were more likely to verbalize, and their memory spans improved. We confirmed that 5- and 6-year-old children who verbalized recalled more than children who did not verbalize. However, unlike Flavell et al., substantial proportions of our 5- and 6-year-old samples overtly verbalized at least sometimes during the picture memory task. In addition, continuous increase in overt verbalization from 7 to 10 years old was not consistently evident in our samples. These robust findings should be weighed when considering theories of cognitive development, particularly theories concerning when verbal rehearsal emerges and relations between speech and memory.
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E. M. Elliott and C. C. Morey jointly generated the idea for the study. E. M. Elliott programmed the study, with consultation from Felix Henninger, and created the protocol for data collection, and built the OSF page. The different language versions of the program were forward-and-back translated by their respective teams, and T. C. developed the Spanish version, A. A. O. developed the Turkish version, E. V., B. V., and S. J. developed the French version, J. L. and D. C. developed the Italian version, C. K. T. developed the Norwegian version, and S. P. worked with S. H. and J. P. R. to develop the German version. C. C. Morey generated analysis code to test pilot data and to provide heat maps and other visual representations of the original data for the pre-data manuscript. A. M. AuBuchon and G. M. provided a detailed video for training the researchers to conduct the coding of verbalization behaviors and created the template for recording the verbalization behaviors and strategy coding during the experimental sessions. E. M. Elliott, C. C. Morey, and A. M. AuBuchon co-wrote the pre-data manuscript, with helpful feedback from N. Cowan and C. Jarrold. E. M. Elliott served as the primary corresponding author for all communications with the team of researchers. C. C. Morey created the analysis code for the final analyses and A. M. AuBuchon reviewed and confirmed the code. E. M. Elliott, C. C. Morey, and A. M. AuBuchon co-wrote the final manuscript, with helpful feedback from N. Cowan and C. Jarrold. The authors, E. A., M. A., B. B., S. B-D., T. Y. B., G. B., T. C., S. C., D. C., E. F., B. G., A. G., D. G., S. H., A. H., S. J., T. N. J., C. K., J. R. L., G. L., A. M., G. M., W. M., D. M., T. O., A. A. O., F. P., S. P., J. P. R., C. S., C. K. T., M. J. T., B. V., E. V., H. V., and M. V., contributed to data collection, provided either individual-level or aggregated data, input on their individual methods, procedures, and observations, and T.C., S. H., J. L., D. M., S. P., C. S., C. K. T., B. V., E. V., H. V., and M. V. reviewed the Stage 2 manuscript. All lab leaders for each team approved the final submitted version of the manuscript. See https://osf.io/ehgav/wiki/home/ for a complete listing of all authors and their locations.
Author contributions
ISSN:2515-2459
2515-2467
2515-2467
DOI:10.1177/25152459211018187