Journal of experimental child psychology
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J Exp Child Psychol · Oct 2009
Randomized Controlled TrialInvestigating the childhood development of working memory using sentences: new evidence for the growth of chunk capacity.
Child development is accompanied by a robust increase in immediate memory. This may be due to either an increase in the number of items (chunks) that can be maintained in working memory or an increase in the size of those chunks. ⋯ Young children accessed (recalled words from) fewer clauses than did older children or adults, but no age differences were found in the proportion of words recalled from accessed clauses. We argue that the developmental increase in memory span was due to a growing number of chunks present in working memory with little role of chunk size.
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J Exp Child Psychol · May 2006
Randomized Controlled TrialThe effect of question repetition within interviews on young children's eyewitness recall.
This study investigated the influence of question repetition and question type (answerable, unanswerable, or opinion seeking) on children's recall. A total of 136 children (5-, 7-, and 9-year-olds) watched a live 15-min presentation. One week later, the children were asked 20 questions that were repeated an additional two times within the interview. ⋯ Overall, children maintained the same answers to only three-quarters of the repeated questions. The most common pattern of change was for children to change their answer the second time a question was asked and then to maintain that answer when questioned again. The high percentage of changed answers within a single interview has important implications for forensic interviewing.
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J Exp Child Psychol · Jun 2001
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialUnderstanding children's activity memory: the role of outcomes.
In three experiments the effectiveness of activity outcomes as memory cues was investigated. In the first experiment, 5-year-olds participated in four activities. In two of these activities, action results were maintained during the unfolding of the activity and perceptually preserved in the activity's end product. ⋯ In a third experiment, 5- and 7-year-olds participated in activities of the two types. Within each, picture supports were provided to investigate whether the perceptual availability of action results during encoding influences memory. Results are discussed with respect to an activity memory framework and implications for science education.
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J Exp Child Psychol · Jun 1995
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialOne- to two-year-olds' recall of events: the more expressed, the more impressed.
The literature on stylistic differences in mother-child conversations about ongoing and past events can be interpreted to suggest that the opportunity to verbally elaborate on an event facilitates preschoolers' memory. In this research we examined whether similar effects would obtain in children who are just acquiring language and, thus, the opportunity for verbal encoding. Using elicited imitation, 12 groups, formed by a between-subjects crossing of 3 levels of age (13, 16, and 20 months) with 4 levels of delay (1-3, 6, 9, and 12 months), were tested for memory for specific laboratory events; children's event-relevant verbalizations also were recorded. ⋯ Memories were demonstrated both nonverbally and verbally; nonverbal and verbal measures bore a modest relation with one another. Language ability at the time of exposure to the events predicted verbal expression of memory after the delay. Thus, the availability of a verbal mode of elaboration facilitated 1- to 2-year-olds' event memory.