title: Whose picture is this? Children's memory for item and source information.
abstract: Children aged 3½ to 6½ years viewed pictures of common objects presented either once or three times on one of two consecutive days. A different hand puppet was used to present the pictures on each day, providing both perceptual and temporal cues to source. At test, old (studied) and new (non-studied) pictures were presented for item recognition and source identification. Results showed that both item and source accuracy were higher for older (M = 5; 9 years) than younger children (M = 4; 6 years). Significant interactions between Age and Day of study were found for both item and source accuracy. For younger children, accuracy was higher for pictures studied on Day 1 than Day 2 (significant for source identification but not item recognition), whereas older children showed the opposite pattern: Higher accuracy for Day 2 than Day 1 (significant for item recognition but not source identification). Results are interpreted with respect to proactive interference and response bias. The utility of signal detection theory measures in determining the basis of age differences in performance of source identification is discussed.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Kerry A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Chalmers
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003463:Cues; D006801:Humans; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: childhood; item recognition; source memory; source monitoring; temporal context