Three-year-olds Remember a Novel Event from 20 Months: Evidence for Long-term Memory in Children?

Abstract

Thirty-seven 3-year-old children, who had learned a 9-action event sequence ("making Play-Doh spaghetti") when they were 20 months old, returned to the lab to determine whether they would be able to verbally and/or behaviourally recall the event after a 12- to 22-month delay. Children originally participated in the event either one or three times and experienced different parts of the event either at three distinct locations (spatial condition) or at a single location (nonspatial condition). Results show very little evidence of long-term memory for the event after one to two years. Returning children did not verbally recall the event, and they did not perform more actions or sequence the event more accurately than controls, with the exception of the older experimental children who had a tendency to sequence the event more accurately than same-aged controls. Although the results indicate that young children's memory for novel events is not very enduring, there were individual differences in children's ability to remember the event. These differences are discussed in terms of potential differences in cognitive abilities and changing knowledge about retrieval strategies or memory.

Deja Vu All over Again: Effects of Reenactment on Toddlers' Event Memory

“…In contrast, Boyer et al (1994) failed to find any effect of repeated experience on 3-year-olds' recall of an event they had enacted 12 to 22 months in the past. Participants were 20 months old at the time of their initial exposure to a nine-action event of making Play-Doh.…”

“…If reenactment operates in a manner similar to reactivation, it should also be more effective after a time delay than shortly after training. This could explain the discrepant findings on effects of reenactment found by Boyer et al (1994) and by Fivush and Hamond (1989).…”

“…After a time delay, children are retested for recall of the activities. Using this paradigm, it has been found that 13-to 20-month-olds can reproduce modeled actions 1 week later (Bauer & Hertsgaard, 1993;Meltzoff, 1988), and 18-and 20-month-old children remember action sequences over delays of 2 to 8 weeks (Bauer & Mandler, 1990;Bauer & Shore, 1987;Boyer, Barran, & Farrar, 1994).…”

Déjà Vu All Over Again: Effects of Reenactment on Toddlers' Event Memory

“…Timing of reenactment can explain why positive effects of reenactment were obtained by Fivush and Hamond (1989) but not by Boyer et al (1994). Children in Fivush and Hamond's investigation reenacted events after 2 weeks, whereas reenactment occurred within a 1 week period in Boyer et al's investigation.…”

The Development of Memory

“…Why opposite effects should be found across the two studies is as yet unclear. Furthermore, Boyer, Barron, and Farrar (1994) failed to obtain any evidence, in either verbal protocols or nonverbal imitation, of memory in 2-year-old children of an activity (making PlayDoh spaghetti) learned over a year previously. This result is clearly at odds with other findings.…”