Forming Phonetic Memory in the Cognitive Process of Children and Adults – Reflections from Research

Memory processes play a special role in the cognitive development of both children and adults. In the course of personal activity, more and more new objects and phenomena become familiar. Sensory, visual, auditory and kinesthetic sensitivity then expands. In relation to reading, visual and auditory memory makes it possible to reproduce acquired graphic signs, to perceive the distinctive features of letters and sounds. The information stored in memory enables the reader to access the knowledge he or she possesses, thus ensuring the continuity of information processing (Jagodzińska, 2003). Research exploring direct memory among adults was conducted by, among others, George A. Miller (1956). He found that, irrespective of the type of material being remembered, the range of direct memory is between 5 and 9 elements, or 7±2 elements. An element can be any memorised content, e.g. a digit, a phoneme, a word or a sequence of digits, phonemes or words. This range has been called the ‚Miller magic number‘. On the other hand, Edyta Gruszczyk-Kolczyńska (2005) stated that children‘s memory is dominated by involuntary memory and is closely linked to action. She also accentuated that the majority of research on memorisation is conducted among adults. With regard to children, the mechanisms of retrieval from memory are rarely explored. Following the above and the research findings of G. A. Miller (1956) and Alan Baddeley (1992), I decided to investigate phonetic memory among pre-school children. The study took place in 2018 with a sample of 260 six-year-olds and was conducted in two stages (January, June).