Events structure information accessibility less in children than adults
Jie Ren1, Erika Wharton-Shukster2, Andrew Bauer2
1University of Toronto, Canada; Longy School of Music of Bard College, United States of America.
Cognition
|August 21, 2021
Summary
Children and adults recognize objects better within events, but event boundaries affect children's memory less than adults'. This suggests event segmentation develops by middle childhood but is less influential in children.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive psychology
- Developmental psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Adults segment continuous experience into meaningful events for information processing.
- Event segmentation influences memory accessibility, with information within an event being more accessible.
- The development of event segmentation and its influence on memory in children is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how event boundaries affect information accessibility in children compared to adults.
- To determine if children's memory recognition is influenced by event segmentation.
Main Methods:
- Tested object recognition in 7- to 9-year-old children and adults.
- Objects were presented within or across event boundaries of two cartoons.
- Measured accuracy and reaction time for object recognition.
Main Results:
- Both children and adults showed improved accuracy and faster recognition for objects within events compared to across event boundaries.
- Children's recent experience recall was less affected by event boundaries than adults'.
Conclusions:
- Spontaneous event segmentation emerges by middle childhood.
- Event structure influences active memory contents less reliably in children than in adults.
- Children's developing cognitive capacities may lead to a less pronounced effect of event boundaries on memory.
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