This research was an investigation of children's performance on a task that requires memory binding. In Experiments 1 and 2, 4-year-olds, 6-year-olds, and adults viewed complex pictures and were tested on memory for isolated parts in the pictures and on the part combinations (combination condition). The results suggested improvement in memory for the combinations between the ages of 4 and 6 years but not in memory for the isolated parts. In Experiments 2 and 3, the authors also examined the developmental relationship between performance in the combination condition and free recall of a naturalistic event, finding preliminary evidence that performance on a memory task that requires binding is positively related to performance in episodic memory.

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Prior data have revealed striking contrasts between 18- and 24-month-old children in place learning, an ability known to depend on the hippocampus (Newcombe, Huttenlocher, Drummey, & Wiley, 1998). The current research examined the development of three other basic abilities of mature spatial competence: the representation of multiple locations, the learning of relations among objects, and the recall of a single location after a substantial filled delay. Results indicated a transition from 18 to 24 months in all three abilities. This evidence supports a general transition in spatial representation that occurs towards the end of infancy. Existing neurobehavioral data suggest that a corresponding change in hippocampal functioning underlies this development.

The purposes of this research were to examine the developmental relation between reality monitoring and episodic memory, to link reality monitoring to autobiographical memory by using extended naturalistic events, and to examine prefrontal functioning as a potential contributor to development in reality monitoring and episodic memory. In Experiment 1, 4-year-olds were worse than 6- or 8-year-olds at reality monitoring after a week delay, despite the fact that they remembered more about real than imagined events and remembered different aspects of each. In Experiments 2 and 3, reality monitoring and episodic memory were evaluated for 4- and 6-year-olds immediately after the events occurred and, in Experiment 3, again after a week delay. Reality monitoring was at higher levels for both age groups, but age differences remained. These data suggest that preschoolers' difficulties with reality monitoring result from a combination of episodic memory deficits and strategic differences. In addition, correlation analyses more directly linked preschoolers' reality monitoring to episodic memory and supported the hypothesis that episodic memory development is related to prefrontal functioning.