The time to talk: the influence of the timing of adult-child talk on children's event memory.
To investigate the influence of the nature and timing of adult-child talk on event recall, this study engaged 63 three-year-olds and 65 five-year-olds in a staged event and interviewed them 2 weeks later. Children were assigned to 1 of 4 conditions: elaborative pre-, during-, and post-talk, and empty talk (during the event). Children in the elaborative, relative to the empty, talk conditions made fewer errors. Furthermore, post-talk had the greatest influence on correct recall, although for the 5-year-olds, during-talk was also facilitative. Recall was enhanced to a greater extent by the child's contribution to the talk, relative to that of the adult. The findings contribute to an understanding of the mechanisms by which adult-child conversations influence recall.
McGuigan
Fiona
F
Department of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Salmon
Karen
K
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D011939:Mental Recall; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013060:Speech; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014705:Verbal Behavior