| Summary: | Studies into the recall performance of children with moderate learning difficulties (MLD) have consistently and repetitiously shown that, where strategies are needed, these children perform deficiently when compared to typical children of the same age. The present study challenges these findings by demonstrating that MLD children can spontaneously engage in active and effective strategic behaviour, providing that the task requirements are effective in eliciting these skills. The notion of "Task Authenticity", as perceived by the memorizer, is presented to explain why some tasks, and not others, are effective in eliciting strategies already at the disposal of the MLD memorizer. Further study of the notion of "Task Authenticity" from the perspective of the memorizer reveals a taxonomy of authentic features which, when incorporated into recall tasks, will be effective in prompting the employment of mnemonic strategies to aid recall. Six factors are identified: real-world relevance, personal relevance, concrete materials, practical engagement, sensory appeal and game format. Findings from the final phase of the study, which compares spontaneous strategic employment by MLD subjects across authentic and non-authentic tasks, support and extend previous findings which indicated that MLD subjects were capable of spontaneously engaging in active and effective strategic mechanisms for authentically-perceived tasks, but not for tasks of a discrete, de-contextualised or rote-type nature. The practical implications of these findings are discussed in the final chapter and a classroom-based instructional model is proposed.
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