Two stages of learning by children and adults

Repeated attempts to retrieve a 20-item list, without confounding by any further presentation of items after their first recall, were used to show that verbal learning by children and adults can be analyzed in terms of two stages of (item and list) learning, amplifying previous analysis in terms of storage, retention, and retrieval from long-term storage. Two separate stages of learning are indicated by the failure of retrieval to increase until the abrupt onset of perfectly consistent spontaneous retrieval.