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The influence of culture on children’s immediate and delayed retrieval
Author(s) -
Qi Hongyuan,
Roberts Kim P.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
british journal of developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.062
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 2044-835X
pISSN - 0261-510X
DOI - 10.1111/bjdp.12370
Subject(s) - psychology , recall , developmental psychology , social memory , cognition , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , cognitive science
Culture shapes children’s memories. However, scant attention has been given to the influence of culture on specific memory stages. Thus, we conducted two controlled experiments to examine cultural differences in memory recall at immediate and delayed retrieval phases. In Studies 1 and 2 ( n = 217), 7‐ to 10‐year‐old Chinese and Euro‐Canadian children watched a story involving both social‐ and individual‐focused scenarios. Participants then recalled the story immediately afterwards (Study 1) and 5–7 days later (Studies 1 and 2). Findings reveal that Chinese children accurately reported more details from the social‐focused events than did their Euro‐Canadian counterparts in the immediate interview, and this result was replicated after a delay in both studies. Moreover, as expected, within‐country comparisons showed that Euro‐Canadian children had better memory for individual‐ than for social‐focused events in both studies. Chinese children, however, showed better memory for social‐ than for individual‐focused events only in the immediate interview in Study 1; their delayed retrieval was not affected by event focus. These findings reveal that cultural variations in memory are evident in both immediate and delayed retrieval. Implications for future research are discussed.