Unconstrained retrieval from semantic memory.

The present study was designed to examine developmental change in the processes used to retrieve lexical information from semantic memory. We asked 8-, 12-, and 21-year-olds to name as many animals and pieces of furniture as they could, in separate 7-min intervals. The principal results were the following: (1) the number of items retrieved increased with age, but at all ages retrieval declined hyperbolically over the 7-min interval; (2) analysis of the time between retrieval of successive items indicated that older individuals retrieved larger clusters of items, but that the number of clusters retrieved did not vary with age; and (3) at all ages prototypic category members were retrieved first, followed by typical (but not prototypic) and atypical category members. The results are explained in terms of a model in which the information in semantic memory changes with age, but the processes used to retrieve that information do not.