title: Developmental differences in episodic memory across school ages: evidence from enacted events performed by self and others.
abstract: The aim of this study was to examine action memory as a form of episodic memory among school-aged subjects. Most research on action memory has focused on memory changes in adult populations. This study explored the action memory of children over time. A total of 410 school-aged child participants, comprising 201 girls and 208 boys in four age groups (8, 10, 12, and 14), were included in this study. We studied two forms of action encoding, subject-performed tasks (SPTs) and experimenter-performed tasks (EPTs), which were compared with one verbal encoding task as a control condition. At retrieval, we used three memory tests (free recall, cued recall, and recognition). We observed significant differences in memory performance in children aged 8-14 years with respect to free recall and cued recall but not recognition. The largest memory enhancement was observed for the SPTs in the 8-14-year-old participants under all test conditions. Participants performed equally well on the free recall of SPTs and EPTs, whereas they displayed better performances on the cued recall and recognition of SPTs compared to EPTs. The strategic nature of SPTs and the distinction between item-specific information and relational information are discussed.
authors.affiliation: a Center for Health and Medical Psychology (CHAMP) , Örebro University , Örebro , Sweden.
authors.forename: Farzaneh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Badinlou
authors.affiliation: a Center for Health and Medical Psychology (CHAMP) , Örebro University , Örebro , Sweden.
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kormi-Nouri
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology , Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman , Kerman , Iran.
authors.forename: S M Hossein
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Mousavi Nasab
authors.affiliation: c Department of Psychology , Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University , Frankfurt , Germany.
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Knopf
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D041923:Adolescent Development / Q000502:physiology*; D000367:Age Factors; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Developmental differences; action memory; enactment effect; episodic memory; school-aged children