Abstract

This study was concerned with the function of preceding information on momory about a target story. The subject were divided 3 levels-2, 4, 6 graders-according to developmental stages. The major findings of this research were as follows : Experiment 1 shows that the effect of preceding information was increased with age being higher. Especially the amount of recall increased sharply in 6th graders. This result implied the role of preceding information was more efficient in older ages. But even the younger children could use the preceding information in remembering a target story. In experiment 2, it was evident that the more information could influence, the better information processing. Such an effect of quantitative aspects in preceding information was observed in the all of three age groups. Also the effect of qualitative characteristics of pre-information was identified in experiment 3. The result showed that the preceding information with higher qualitative value made more contribution to effective information processing. This tendency seemed to be more robust with age being higher. The overall results of 3 experiments indicated that pre-information had a clear effect on memory about a target story. But such an effect of pre-information could be varied by quantitative and qualitative characteristics of pre-information as well as developmental stages.