Remembering before acting: The role of episodic memory in future prosocial behavior in preschoolers

The directive function of episodic memory - using past experiences to guide current behavior - plays a crucial role in human decision-making. Research suggests that children who recall a past good deed are more likely to act prosocially. However, the emergence of this relation remains unexplored in early preschool years. To address this question, 134 French-speaking preschoolers (24-47 months) were recruited and assigned to either a "good deed" condition, in which they actively helped a female accomplice hide a birthday gift, or a "neutral" condition, in which they were asked to watch the accomplice hide the gift. One week later, after their memory of the previously experienced event was assessed, they were put in a situation requiring them to provide help (i.e., the experimenter dropped some cards and had to pick them up). Their prosocial response was recorded. Generalized Linear Analyses revealed that, in the good deed condition, children with more detailed memories were more likely to help the experimenter. This effect was not found in the neutral condition. Interestingly, children also appeared to be less likely and slower to provide help as they grew older, suggesting a developmental shift in their memory-based decisions: younger children rely on fast, automatic decisional processes while older children engage in a slower, more deliberate decisional balance.