Abstract:
Three studies were carried out in which children were tested on knowledge of the content of curriculum units they had experienced in class twelve months earlier. The children were then interviewed about the reasons for their test answers and their memory for their original classroom experiences. Data from these interviews was used to identify the way episodic and semantic content is stored in children's memory and the variety of different cognitive processes they use in answering apparently simple achievement test questions. The implications for measuring children's learning and relating it to classroom experiences are discussed.