Ceci, S.J. & Bronfenbrenner, U. (1985). “Don’t forget to take the cupcakes out of the oven”: prospective memory, strategic time-monitoring, and context. Child Development, 56, 152-164.
H1: Children utilizing strategic time monitoring will display less clock-watching, while remaining
punctual.
H2: Strategic time monitoring will occur more evidently in the home environment, as opposed to the laboratory environment.
2a. Anxious time monitoring (linear increase in clock-watching) will be more evident in the laboratory environment than in the home environment.
2b. Overall frequency of clock checks will be higher in the laboratory environment than in the home environment.
H3: Older children will show more pronounced usage of strategic time-monitoring and less frequent clock checking than younger children.
H4: Children will show more anxious clock-watching when participating in the sex-role consistent activity than those in the sex-roll inconsistent activity. This effect will be more pronounced in the older children.
H5: The influences of age, gender, and task will be greater in the laboratory environment than in the home environment.
Methods
Ninety-six children participated, 48 10-year-olds and 48 14-year-olds. The male/female split was 50/50. Each child was tested individually in either the lab or home environment. Children were given a 15 minute warm up period to practice with the distracter task of a Pac Man video game. After the warm-up the children were to start a task of either baking cupcakes for 30 minutes or charging a motorcycle battery for 30 minutes. Children continued playing the Pac Man game during the 30 minute interval. The children were positioned with their backs to the clock, so that clock checks could be accurately counted.
Results
H1: Fig. 1.
Children that used more strategic time monitoring and checked the clock less frequently. The children using more anxious time monitoring check the clock more frequently.
H2: Also Fig. 1.
Children in the home environment used more strategic time monitoring and checked the clock less frequently.
H3: 14 year-olds spent less time in clock-watching and more utilization of strategic monitoring than the 10-year-olds. These age difference were only significant in the laboratory setting.
H4: In the lab only, the older boys showed the most efficiency and least amount of anxious behavior in the cupcake condition. The analogous situation for girls showed the trend but was not significant.
H5: The above findings suggest that the laboratory environment arouses anxiety that is not aroused in the home environment.
Fourteen children were more than 90 seconds late in the prospective memory task. Seven others were 60 to 90 seconds late. Only one of these individuals was in the laboratory setting. Boys were more likely to forget than girls (16 to 5). These individuals did not show strategic monitoring (Fig. 3).
Discussion
· Children as young as ten show strategic monitoring strategies.
· Children are more likely to use this strategy in the home setting.
· There is no evidence to show that either the strategic monitoring or the anxious monitoring is more effective.
· Additional halfway house experiment
· Used an intermediate environment.
· The patterns in this environment were indistinguishable from the laboratory setting.