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To have and to hold: Episodic memory in 3‐ and 4‐year‐old children
Author(s) -
Scarf Damian,
Gross Julien,
Colombo Michael,
Hayne Harlene
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.21004
Subject(s) - episodic memory , childhood amnesia , recall , psychology , childhood memory , developmental psychology , amnesia , cognitive psychology , late childhood , long term memory , memory development , cognition , cognitive development , neuroscience
Episodic memory endows us with the ability to reflect on our past and plan for our future. Most theorists argue that episodic memory emerges during the preschool period and that its emergence might herald the end of childhood amnesia. Here, we show that both 3‐ and 4‐year‐old children form episodic memories, but that 3‐year‐old children fail to retain those memories following a delay (Experiments 1 and 2). In contrast, 4‐year‐old children retained episodic memories over delays of 24 hr (Experiment 1) and 1 week (Experiment 3). This marked change in the retention of episodic memories between 3 and 4 years of age suggests that it is our ability to retain, rather than to form, an episodic memory that limits our ability to recall episodes from early childhood. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 55: 125–132, 2013