Premium
Visiting the Wizard: Children's Memory for a Recurring Event
Author(s) -
Price Derek W. W.,
Goodman Gail S.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1990.tb02810.x
Subject(s) - psychology , context (archaeology) , recall , developmental psychology , event (particle physics) , wizard , scripting language , wizard of oz , child development , cognitive psychology , history , computer science , world wide web , physics , archaeology , quantum mechanics , human–computer interaction , operating system
The development of children's scripts for a recurring event was examined. 24 girls–2.5, 4, and 5.5 years of age—repeatedly experienced an initially novel episode (a trip to the “wizard's room”) in a laboratory setting. Based on parents' ratings, the episode was defined as consisting of 26 actions organized into 7 activities. The sequential, spatial, and causal relations among the activities remained constant across episodes. Each child's knowledge of the recurring event was assessed by 4 probe conditions: free recall, prop reenactment, in‐context reenactment, and in‐context deviations. Results support conclusions that during early stages of script formation: ( a ) more actions and activities are included with age in children's scripts, ( b ) causally related activities are sequenced at all ages but temporal ordering is age‐related, ( c ) hierarchical organization of actions within activities emerges gradually over the preschool years, and ( d ) probe conditions strongly influence performance for the younger but not for the older children.