Memorial consequences of imagination in children and adults

Recent work with adults suggests that imagination can impair later recall of previously encoded events but can improve recall of subsequently encoded events. The present study examined the memorial consequences of imagination in children. Kindergartners, first and fourth graders, and young adults studied two successively presented lists of items. Between the two lists, participants were given an imagination task supposed to create a change in mental context. As expected, in adults, the imagination task impaired recall of the previously encoded material (List 1) and improved recall of the subsequently encoded material (List 2). In children, significant List 1 impairment was present from first grade on, but even fourth graders failed to show improvement for List 2. The results challenge a purely context-based explanation of the memorial costs and benefits of imagination. Instead, they suggest that the two effects are mediated by different mechanisms with different developmental trajectories.