Intellectual and developmental differences in external memory strategies

External memory strategies (e.g., moving objects) were investigated in 11- year-old children with mild mental retardation and 7- and 11-year-olds without mental retardation. Participants attempted to place objects at specified spatial locations after hearing sequences of tape-recorded instructions. During baseline, children with mental retardation and 7-year- olds used external strategies more frequently than did 11-year-olds. All three groups used external strategies after prompting that represented the correct spatial locations, and all used the same tactics. In contrast to expected deficiencies in the use of strategies, results show areas of overlap in strategy capabilities among the groups.