Children’s memory “in the wild”: examining the temporal organization of free recall from a week-long camp at a local zoo

Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications

Original Article

Sean M. Polyn¹  Thanujeni Pathman²  Mark Christopher Adkins²  Lina Deker²  Puneet Kaur Parmar² 

[1] Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA;Department of Psychology, York University, 4700 Keele Street, M3J 1P3, Toronto, ON, Canada;

关键词: Episodic memory;    Free recall;    Temporal clustering;    Children;    Naturalistic;    Real-world events;    Memory development;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s41235-022-00452-z

 received in 2022-06-05, accepted in 2022-11-15,  发布年份 2022

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

Free-recall paradigms have greatly influenced our understanding of memory. The majority of this research involves laboratory-based events (e.g., word lists) that are studied and tested within minutes. This literature shows that adults recall events in a temporally organized way, with successive responses often coming from neighboring list positions (i.e., temporal clustering) and with enhanced memorability of items from the end of a list (i.e., recency). Temporal clustering effects are so robust that temporal organization is described as a fundamental memory property. Yet relatively little is known about the development of this temporal structure across childhood, and even less about children’s memory search for real-world events occurring over an extended period. In the present work, children (N = 144; 3 age groups: 4–5-year-olds, 6–7-year-olds, 8–10-year-olds) took part in a 5-day summer camp at a local zoo. The camp involved various dynamic events, including daily animal exhibit visits. On day 5, children were asked to recall all the animals they visited. We found that overall recall performance, in terms of number of animals recalled, improved steadily across childhood. Temporal organization and recency effects showed different developmental patterns. Temporal clustering was evident in the response sequences for all age groups and became progressively stronger across childhood. In contrast, the recency advantage, when characterized as a proportion of total responses, was stable across age groups. Thus, recall dynamics in early childhood parallel that seen in adulthood, with continued development of temporal organization across middle to late childhood.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2023

【 图 表 】

Fig. 1

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