METAMEMORIAL KNOWLEDGE IN A GROUP OF BLACK SOUTH-AFRICAN SCHOOL-CHILDREN

An interview study of metamemory based on that of Kreutzer, Leonard and Flavell (1975) was carried out on 94 Zulu school children, with an age range of 6-13 years. It was hypothesized that the types of metamemorial knowledge found might be culture and/or schooling dependent. A general pattern was detected in the data of the children, namely, that in respect of knowledge of task and person memory variables, responses were mostly similar to those of the Kreutzer et al.'s American group, but in respect of knowledge of strategic variables, the Zulu children lagged behind the American sample. In particular, there were lags in the patterns of responding on the interview sections immediate-delay; story-list, study-plan, preparation: object, preparation: event, retrieval: object, retrieval: event, and rote-paraphrase, Possible cultural and educational reasons for these results are discussed in the light of other related research.