Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

Faculty/School

Faculty of Science

First Advisor

Kim Roberts

Advisor Role

Thesis Supervisor

Abstract

The current study examined how children’s event representations changed with increasing experience with an event. There were 81 children (40 4-to-5-year-olds, and 41 7-to-8-year-olds) who participated in either 2 (n = 41) or 4 (n = 40) repeated event sessions, which consisted of activities such as playing a counting game, and/or doing a puzzle. Event sessions included three different item types; variable items (which changed at every occurrence), fixed items (which stayed constant throughout the event), and new items (which only occurred once throughout the series). Children were interviewed 5-7- days following their last event session using free-recall, as well as specific questioning phases (where they were asked about every item in the series). Increasing experience aided in recalling more fixed items, but was detrimental to recall of variable and new items. Older children had a better ability to recall fixed and variable items, but not necessarily new items than younger children. Results are discussed with reference to script and fuzzy trace theories, as well as the source-monitoring framework.

Convocation Year

2010

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