Autobiographical memory in middle childhood: Recollections of the recent and distant past

Abstract

To address the question of whether memories from early childhood survive into later childhood, participants visited the laboratory at age 3 and again at 7, 8, or 9. At age 3, each talked with a parent about six events; at the later age each child talked with a researcher about four of these distant events as well as two more recent events. School-aged children recalled fewer than half of the distant events introduced. Further, the proportion of distant events recalled was negatively correlated with age. Those distant events that were recalled, however, were recounted in an accurate, detailed manner. Importantly, reports of distant events did not reflect the full extent of children's narrative ability. Reports of recent events were more coherent and included twice the detail. Implications for existing interpretations of autobiographical memory and childhood amnesia are discussed, and the need for further research employing innovative methods is emphasised.

Just the facts or just for fun? Children's understanding of and sensitivity to retelling contexts

“…Supporting this interpretation is the finding that many of the narrative content and quality scores at immediate and delayed retellings were significantly positively correlated with each other, suggesting a high degree of retelling style consistency within the children, in line with research from the autobiographical memory development literature suggesting that children are often consistent in the style retelling across contexts and events (e.g. Haden, Ornstein, Eckerman, & Didow, 2001;Kulkofsky, 2010;Reese, Haden, & Fivush, 1993;Van Abbema & Bauer, 2005). Future work may investigate this suggestion further by examining the consistency in entertainment and accuracy ratings in children's retells across events.…”

Past and Future Episodic Thinking in Middle Childhood

“…This is consistent with general developmental literature suggesting that middle childhood is a relatively stable period prior to a large developmental spurt in adolescence (Cole et al, 2005). Although research has shown social-cognitive growth during middle childhood that may facilitate mental time travel (Friedman & Lyon, 2005;Harter, 1999;Van Abbema & Bauer, 2005), the changes may be too incremental to produce marked age differences until the shift in adolescence. Children's verbal skills were not related to their event production, which suggests that the interview questions were within the linguistic competence of children at this age range.…”

“…Research has shown that children's socialcognitive skills that are important for mental time travel, including narrative competence (Van Abbema & Bauer, 2005), self-concept (Harter, 1999), and knowledge of time (Friedman, 1986(Friedman, , 2007Friedman & Lyon, 2005), continue to develop during middle childhood, which may then facilitate children's episodic thinking. On the other hand, the preteen period is generally characterized as relatively stable and uneventful in the developmental literature (Cole, Cole, & Lightfoot, 2005).…”

Neuropsicologia do desenvolvimento da memória: da pré-escola ao período escolar

“…Por exemplo, crianças que passaram pelos mesmos eventos aos 3 anos, quando tinham 7, 8 e 9 anos tinham que recordar os eventos vividos, sendo que alguns desses eventos haviam sido reforçados. Os resultados mostraram que os eventos reforçados foram recordados com certa facilidade ao passo que aqueles que não sofreram qualquer reforço simplesmente foram esquecidos (Abbema & Bauer, 2005).…”

“…E quanto mais velhas, melhor se recordam dos fatos (Abbema & Bauer, 2005). Essa memória, porém, ainda é rudimentar nos bebês (Gazzaniga & Heatherton, 2005).…”