Talking about parts of a past experience: The impact of discussion style and event structure on memory for discussed and nondiscussed information.
This experiment examined the impact of selective postevent discussion of high- and low-elaborative styles on 5- and 6-year-olds' (N = 47) memory for discussed and nondiscussed aspects of a staged event ("Visiting the Pirate"). The event contained both logically and arbitrarily connected scenes. Discussion was spaced over 3 days, and memory was assessed 1 day later. Compared with a no-discussion condition, memory for discussed information was enhanced after high- but not low-elaborative discussion for both logically and arbitrarily connected scenes. For arbitrarily connected scenes, memory for nondiscussed aspects was impaired relative to the no-discussion condition, with the degree of impairment being equal after high- and low-elaborative discussion. In contrast, for logically connected scenes, memory for nondiscussed information was not impaired after discussion of either style.
Conroy
Rowena
R
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia. conroyr@email.chop.edu
Salmon
Karen
K
D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003210:Concept Formation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014825:Vocabulary