Do better stories make better memories? Narrative quality and memory accuracy in preschool children

Abstract

The present study examines how the quality of children's narratives relates to the accuracy of those narratives. Sixty-one 3-to 5-year-olds played a novel game with a researcher in their schools. Children were questioned in an interview that included an open-ended free recall prompt followed by a series of directed questions. Children's narratives were coded for volume, complexity and cohesion as well as for accuracy. Correlational results showed that overall, narrative skills enable the reporting of more information, while decreasing the proportion of information that was accurate. These results appeared to be driven by a quantity-accuracy trade-off; in an ensuing regression analysis with all narrative variables entered into the model, volume was associated with decreases in accuracy while narrative cohesion was associated with increases in accuracy. We discuss the results in terms of their relationship to the development of autobiographical memory as well as implications for forensic contexts.

Memory Development and Trauma in Preschool Children: Implications for Forensic Interviewing Professionals - A Review of the Literature

“…Another important element of prototypical autobiographical memory considers the developmental changes in children's narrative skills. To examine the relationship between narrative quality and memory accuracy in preschool children, Kulkofsky et al [19] conducted a study with sixty-one 3 to 5-year-olds. Within this age range of preschool children, the researchers found no effect of age.…”

“…However, results indicate that increases in narrative volume are associated with decreases in accuracy, while narrative cohesion is associated with increases in accuracy. This finding suggests that length and elaborateness of a child's statement is more indicative that the statement contains some inaccuracies, and is not necessarily indicative that the statement is true [19]. In addition, narrative cohesion may be a better indicator of the type of narrative skills demonstrative of autobiographical memory, as narratives provide young children a script with which children can encode, store, and retrieve events [7].…”

A Review of Reminiscing in Early Childhood Settings and Links to Sustained Shared Thinking

“…Also, reminiscing in an early year context may involve more discussion of non-shared rather than shared experiences. There is some evidence that when mothers and children reminisce about non-shared experiences there could be negative effects on children's memory for those events, as parents introduce misinformation about what they believe happened (Kulkofsky et al 2008;Sun et al 2016).…”

A Study on Young Children’s Narratives with Respect to the Personal experience at home and Shared Experiences in the kindergarten

“…To yield narrative, one must organize several sentences appropriately in the order of the events or the theme of the story. The narratives yielded while young children have conversation with adults or peers about daily-life experiences are related to their language development as well as to the use of logical cohesive devices and de-contextualized language (Kulkofsky, Wang, & Ceci, 2008;Nelson, 2010). Young children should be able to use de-contextualized language to talk about their experiences (Paris & Paris, 2003).…”

“…Therefore, "a narrative view of child development presents an experiential child who explores the social, cultural, and physical world in search of meaning in collaboration with social guides and companions (Nelson, 2010, p. 42)". This is because narrative skills provide a culturally appropriate mode for sharing memories with other people, while at the same time provide a form that aids in the long-term retention and retrieval of memories (Kulkofsky et al, 2008). Curenton (2010) suggested a need for more experimental intervention research that examines narratives in terms of school-related social-emotional skills, specifically in terms of social skills with their classroom peers and teachers.…”