1. 本研究はいくつかの異なった材料を用いることによって記憶の発達傾向を調べるとともに系列記憶課題における提示条件,教示の効果を検討する目的でおこなわれた。 2. 記憶範囲はテスト結果の処理方法によってはMillerのいうように一定の値をとることを示唆する結果が得られたが,同時にそれは材料の特質,被験者によるその材料の学習の度合いなどによっていくぶん変動することも示唆された。したがって,一定材料についての学習結果の水準を限界をつきとめるという方向でとらえるのではなく,その水準に至るまでの学習過程とその水準に到達した後の変化を追求するという発達的観点をもつことが大切であることも考察された。 3. 刺激材料の提示は被験者の予測を容易にする方法でなされた場合に成績を高めることが示された。したがって,刺激を単に受動的に機械的記憶にうったえて受容するものとして被験者をみるのではなく,むしろ積極的に一定の構えをもって反応する能動的情報処理者とみることが妥当であると結論される。 4. 刺激材料の有意味性と材料の諸側面の関連性を高めることは,それについての記憶と思考操作を容易にする。また,有意味性,関連性について被験者の反応を方向づける教示は積極的効果をもつことが示された。

The experiments reported in this study were made to investigate the developmental trends of memory ability and to examine the effects of presentational conditions and instructions in serial memory tasks. A number of series of digits and the nonsense words of two syllables (Umemoto, T., et all., Association value and meaningfulness of two syllable nonsense words, Jap. J. Psychol., 1955, Vol.26, No.3, 148-155) were used to construct the experimental tasks. The subjects were obtained from the third and the fifth graders in several elementary schools and the first and the third graders in a junior high school. The main conclusions were as follows: 1) A certain procedure of data analysis produced the following result; the immediate memory apan had a relatively stable range, as suggested by Miller (Miller, G. A., "The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information." Psychol. Rev., 1956, 63, 81-79). However, the nature of the tasks and the degree of learning could affect the memory span. Consequently, it is likely to be of little importance to explore the limit in learning of such tasks. It is rather thought to be more important to pursue from a developmental point of view the learning process to reach a given level and the subsequent changes. 2) The present experiment demonstrated that improvement of performance could be found if the learning materials were presented in such a way as to facilitate the subjects' prediction. Therefore we can not regard our subjects as passive acceptors of stimuli, only with rote memory ability. It is rather reasonable for us to regard them as positive information processors responding with a given set. 3) Remembering and thinking in serial tasks could be made easier by strengthening the meaningfulness of learning materials and the interrelationships among dimensions of the materials. The instructions in order to suggest some solutions to the subjects were revealed to give some positive effects.