The majority of episodic memory (EM) tests are far removed from what we experience in daily life and from the definition of this type of memory. This study examines the developmental trajectory of the main aspects of episodic memory--what, where, and when--and of feature binding in a naturalistic virtual environment. A population of 125…

Studies investigating the development of memory processes and their neural substrates have flourished over the past two decades. The review by Jabès and Nelson (2015) adds an important piece to our understanding of the maturation of different elements and circuits within the hippocampal system and their association with the progressive development…

In 1995, Nelson published a paper describing a model of memory development during the first years of life. The current article seeks to provide an update on the original work published 20 years ago. Specifically, we review our current knowledge on the relation between the emergence of explicit memory functions throughout development and the…

Personal recollections constitute autobiographical memory that develops intensively during the preschool years. The two-wave longitudinal study focuses on gender differences in preschool children's independent recollections. The same children (N = 275; 140 boys, 135 girls) were asked to talk about their previous birthday and the past weekend at…

Pregnancy and early motherhood involve uncertainty and change, which can evoke mental health problems. We identified maternal mental health trajectories in pre- and postnatal period, and examined their association with later child mental health and development. Finnish mothers reported psychological distress (General Health Questionnaire [GHQ-36])…

Storytelling is a ubiquitous human activity that occurs across the lifespan as part of everyday life. Studies from three disparate literatures suggest that older adults (as compared to younger adults) are (a) less likely to recall story details, (b) more likely to go off-target when sharing stories, and, in contrast, (c) more likely to receive…

This study focused on individual differences in maternal style and children's developing recall abilities in early memory conversations. Within a longitudinal design, a sample of 56 mother-child dyads was observed while reminiscing, and the children's language skills were assessed when they were 18, 24, and 30 months old. In contrast to mothers…

Investigated the relation between age and rate of forgetting in 72 three-, four-, and six-year-olds in a task that eliminated differences in level of initial learning. Rate of forgetting was nearly identical in every age group. (RJC)

Seven-, ten- and seventeen-year-olds (N=72) in control and experimental conditions were used to test the role of metamemory and metamemory activation in the development of mnemonic performance. Metamemory was found to be a necessary condition for mnemonic performance. Developmental differences were found. (Author/DB)

A study investigating the maintenance of a memory strategy after training indicated that one factor influencing preschool children's strategy maintenance was the size of the improvement on recall performance that the strategy produced. A second study showed that size of improvement did not influence strategy transfer. (RH)

On balance and buzzer tasks, different developmental trends were found for recall of covariance ideas than for recall of explanation ideas. There were developmental increases in the frequency of "if" and "because" statements used to describe causal sequences. Third- and fifth-graders systematically paired "if" with…

Describes research on memory in preschool children. Each child was studied for scene and list memory. Domain-specific and general knowledge were not found to be strongly related to memory performance. Object typicality did not have a strong effect on memory, but size did. (GH)

Children's memory for stories was examined as a function of subjects' understanding of causal reasoning ability in stories. Results supported a developmental view in which recall performance was a complex interaction between characteristics of the learner and characteristics of the story. (Author/PCB)

In study involving three experiments, high and low metamemory children aged five to seven were differentiated according to metamemory scores. Results showed children's performance differed significantly when demand of memory task fell within their knowledge of memory, and when task required more sophisticated strategy; children's ability to…

Reviews seven books: (1) "Cross-Cultural Psychology" (Berry and others); (2) "Biological Asymmetry and Handedness" (Bock and Marsh); (3) "Interpersonal and Identity Development" (Vandenplas-Holper and Campus); (4) "Natural Theories of Mind" (Whitten); (5) "The Psychological Examination of the…