What are the boundaries that limit expansion of semantic knowledge across development? One striking contender is the necessity of a prompt to integrate and self-generate new information. The present research was an investigation of 7- to 9-year-olds’ and 18- to 22-year-olds’ prompted versus unprompted memory integration and subsequent self-derivation of new knowledge. Children and adults (Experiments 1 and 2, respectively) were exposed to sets of novel, true facts that could be integrated to self-derive new knowledge. On some trials they were prompted to integrate and self-derive and on others they were not. Both children and young adults capitalized more effectively on prompted opportunities to self-derive compared with unprompted opportunities, and the mechanism of this difference in performance likely underlies memory integration. Thus, the current work illustrates the importance of the conditions under which memory integration occurs, regardless of age. Results also offer evidence consistent with developmental change in unprompted integration and self-derivation performance, such that children and adults may engage the process of self-derivation differently. This work is particularly important in highlighting the necessity of appropriate scaffolding to foster successful learning opportunities and understanding the conditions under which semantic knowledge is accumulated.

限制语义知识跨开发扩展的边界是什么？一个引人注目的竞争者是提示整合和自我生成新信息的必要性。目前的研究是对 7 至 9 岁和 18 至 22 岁儿童的提示与自发记忆整合以及随后的新知识自我推导的调查。儿童和成人（分别是实验 1 和 2）接触到了一系列新颖的、真实的事实，这些事实可以整合到自我衍生的新知识中。在一些试验中，他们被提示整合和自我推导，而在其他试验中，他们没有。与自发的机会相比，儿童和年轻人都更有效地利用了自发的机会，而这种表现差异的机制可能是记忆整合的基础。因此，目前的工作说明了记忆整合发生的条件的重要性，而与年龄无关。结果还提供了与自发整合和自我推导表现的发展变化一致的证据，因此儿童和成人可能以不同的方式参与自我推导的过程。这项工作在强调适当的脚手架的必要性以促进成功的学习机会和理解语义知识积累的条件方面尤为重要。这样儿童和成人可能会以不同的方式参与自我推导的过程。这项工作在强调适当的脚手架的必要性以促进成功的学习机会和理解语义知识积累的条件方面尤为重要。这样儿童和成人可能会以不同的方式参与自我推导的过程。这项工作在强调适当的脚手架的必要性以促进成功的学习机会和理解语义知识积累的条件方面尤为重要。