Changes in remembering

Monday 15 December 2008

A recently completed study has revealed significant changes in the way children retrieve information from long-term memory between 8 and 11 years.

The study, led by Dr Sinead Rhodes, a lecturer in Psychology at the University of Strathclyde, was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and shows that by 11 years old children engage their memory in a similar way to adults. The study findings show that before the age of 11 children will frequently report finding something they have previously encountered as 'familiar' such as meeting someone and having a feeling they know the person but are often inaccurate in 'recollecting' more specific information such as where they have met that particular person before. This reliance on the memory process of 'familiarity' to retrieve information from long-term memory may help to explain why younger children are less accurate when asked to recollect specific information about people they have met or when trying to remember specific details about topics they have learned. In essence, younger children are less accurate because they are more likely to engage their memory in a different way to older children and adults relying on more basic memory processes.     

You will find further information here.