Time and again: Effects of repetition and retention interval on 2 year olds' event recall

doi:10.1016/0022-0965(89)90032-5

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Volume 47, Issue 2, April 1989, Pages 259-273

https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-0965(89)90032-5 Get rights and content

Abstract

How and what very young children remember is a central question for understanding the course of memory development. In this research, we examined the effects of two factors on 2-year-old children's ability to recall novel events: repetition of the experience and time since experience. Twenty 24-month-old and twenty 28-month-old children participated in unusual laboratory play events. Half of the children returned after a 2-week delay and again after a 3-month delay (repeated experience condition); the remaining children returned only after 3 months (single experience condition). Memory was assessed by asking children to reenact the events. Recall was generally accurate, and there were no significant effects of age. All children recalled more information about the activities associated with the event than about the objects. Surprisingly, children in the repeated experience condition recalled as much about the events at the 3-month retention interval as at the 2-week retention interval. Further, children in this condition recalled more information at the 3-month retention interval than children in the single experience condition, suggesting that reexperiencing an event may guard against long-term forgetting.

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^☆: This research was supported by NSF Grant BNS 8519422 awarded to the first author. Parts of this research were presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Washington, DC, April 1988.

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Time and again: Effects of repetition and retention interval on 2 year olds' event recall☆

Abstract

Cognitive Development

Cognitive Development

Infant Behavior and Development

Infant memory in everyday life

Script development and episodic memory

Learning about school: The development of kindergarteners' school scripts

Child Development

Scripts and categories: Interrelationships in development

Two year olds talk about the past

Cognitive Development

Children's long-term memory for a novel event: An exploratory study

Merrill-Palmer Quarterly