Comparison of intrusion errors and serial position curves on monaural and dichotic listening tasks: A developmental analysis.

Based on a repeated measurement study of 7-, 10-, 14-, and 17-year-olds with monaural and dichotic presentations of word lists varying in associative structure and presentation rate, intrusion and serial position dependent variables were analyzed. Intrusion analyses supported previous reports on word list recall; vis, 7- and 10-year-olds recalled fewer words from monaural and dichotic lists and had more intrusive errors than adolescents. Based on similar orders of report (strategies) for monaural and dichotic word presentations, serial position curves for the two types of presentation were compared. Within-age comparisons were strikingly similar. Between-age comparisons of monaural and dichotic presentation serial position curves support the notion that there are ontogenetic limitations in memory structure and control processes.