Visiting the Wizard: Children's Memory for a Recurring Event

Abstract

The development of children's scripts for a recurring event was examined. 24 girls--2.5, 4, and 5.5 years of age--repeatedly experienced an initially novel episode (a trip to the "wizard's room") in a laboratory setting. Based on parents' ratings, the episode was defined as consisting of 26 actions organized into 7 activities. The sequential, spatial, and causal relations among the activities remained constant across episodes. Each child's knowledge of the recurring event was assessed by 4 probe conditions: free recall, prop reenactment, in-context reenactment, and in-context deviations. Results support conclusions that during early stages of script formation: (a) more actions and activities are included with age in children's scripts, (b) causally related activities are sequenced at all ages but temporal ordering is age-related, (c) hierarchical organization of actions within activities emerges gradually over the preschool years, and (d) probe conditions strongly influence performance for the younger but not for the older children.

Using Spaced Learning Principles to Translate Knowledge into Behavior: Evidence from Investigative Interviews of Alleged Child Abuse Victims

“…Perhaps more importantly, the proportion of information in children's reports that was elicited by risky, closed-ended questions (i.e., questions more likely to result in short and inaccurate responses; Goodman & Aman, 1990, O'Callaghan & D'Arcy. 1989Peterson & Biggs, 1997;Price & Goodman, 1990;Saywitz, Goodman, Nicholas, & Moan, 1991) decreased significantly. These findings demonstrate that when forensic investigators use recommended interview procedures, they enhance the quality and quantity of the information elicited from alleged child victims.…”

Children’s suggestibility for an instance of a repeated event versus a unique event: The effect of degree of association between variable details

“…Although the activities were linked in the sense that they all were activities that occurred when "Scott" came to play with the children, the individual activities were not logically or causally connected. Several scholars have found that children are faster to script an event that is causally connected rather than merely temporally related (Bauer & Fivush, 1992;Bauer & Shore, 1987;Price & Goodman, 1990;Ratner, Smith, & Dion, 1986). A more causally connected event may have facilitated the process of scripting for the younger children and heightened their suggestibility to a level equal to or greater than the level of suggestibility of the older children.…”

Children’s eyewitness memory: A comparison of two interviewing strategies as realized by forensic professionals

“…Young children often have difficulty in retrieving detailed memories in response to purely verbal free recall questions, perhaps especially in formal interviews held in decontextualized settings (e.g., Donaldson, 1978;Keary & Fitzpatrick, 1994;Price & Goodman, 1990). Purely verbal interviews might not provide the ''stimulus support" needed for preschoolers to access their recollections fully.…”

“…As a result, open-ended questioning may lead to underestimation of the scope of young children's memories. To prompt preschoolers' retrieval, stimulus support as afforded by memory cues such as props can be advantageous (Price & Goodman, 1990).…”