The Development of Episodic Memory

2013/09/20 by Hyungwook Yim, Simon Dennis, Simon J. Dennis +1 · 2 citations
Neuroscience · Psychology · #Child and Animal Learning Development #Cognitive Abilities and Testing #Memory Processes and Influences

paper · doi:10.1177/0956797613487385

openalex publication_date 2013/09/20 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/26

Abstract

Episodic memory involves the formation of relational structures that bind information about the stimuli people experience to the contexts in which they experience them. The ability to form and retain such structures may be at the core of the development of episodic memory. In the first experiment reported here, 4- and 7-year-olds were presented with paired-associate learning tasks requiring memory structures of different complexity. A multinomial-processing tree model was applied to estimate the use of different structures in the two age groups. The use of two-way list-context-to-target structures and three-way structures was found to increase between the ages of 4 and 7. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the ability to form increasingly complex relational memory structures develops between the ages of 4 and 7 years and that this development extends well into adulthood. These results have important implications for theories of memory development.

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