Remembering specific episodes of a scripted event.

Abstract

Children's memory for a specific episode of a repeated event was investigated in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1, eighty 4- and 7-year-olds experienced a standard novel event 1, 2, or 4 times, followed by an episodic event for those children who had multiple standard event experiences. The episodic event involved the addition of both schema-typical and schema-atypical activities to the standard event. Following a 1-week delay, children were asked to recall both event types. Four-year-olds were more confused than older children regarding when the new activities had been experienced, although experience improved memory for the schema-atypical activities. In contrast, 7-year-olds were able to establish more accurate memories for both the schema-typical and the schema-atypical changes. Experiment 2 demonstrated that 4-year-olds could, however, establish distinct memories for both types of changes when the standard event was simplified. The results are discussed in terms of the development of the relation between script memory and memory for a specific instance of an event.