Children's short-term memory was studied under two experimental conditions: one in which recall was expected to be facilitated because of the provision of a study period, and one in which a distracting task was imposed that was expected to interfere with recall. Forty subjects at each of two age levels, 7 and 11 years, were tested in a serial-position recall task in a control as well as in one of the experimental conditions. Overall, recall was higher at the older than at the younger age level. In the facilitation condition, recall improved for the older children only, especially at the primacy positions. In the distraction condition, recall declined and performance for the older age level did not differ from that of the younger. (Author/SET)