Children's Development Theories Exercise

What was found in the study by Chi (1978) regarding memory for chess positions?

• Novice adults remember better than expert children

• Expert children remember better than novice adults

• All participants have the same memory capacity

• Adults demonstrate higher memory capacity in all tasks

What do younger children use to group objects?

• Similar shapes

• Similar colors

• Perceptual similarity

• Similar tastes

In the word sorting exercise, younger children group bananas with what?

• Apples

• Oranges

• Grapes

• Monkeys

How does Simon's theory (1974) understand the differences in information reception by younger and older children?

What conclusions can we draw from the importance of expertise proposed by Schneider?

Why can domain specific knowledge or expertise in a particular area affect a person's capacity?

Brunswick, Godlscheider, and Pilek (1932) tells us that children in the range of 2-9 years old have different memory spans with 2 years old having only just 2 items, while 9 years old having the most items of six. While this study is reliable, it is pretty old and could be different in the modern era, for that reason, do you agree with this study? Tell us your reasons as to why you agree or disagree with it.

Chi (1978), has shown us that domain-specific expertise can enhance our ability to store, remember, and retrieve information. If that's the case, how do you think you can apply this theory in the setting of EFL?

Do you agree with Simon (1974) statement that younger children link items based on perception? Tell us your reasonings

Based on the readings that you have done regarding children's memory spans, domain-specific expertise, and also mental representation, how would you apply this knowledge in the context as a language teacher, teaching English as a Foreign Language?