Integration of visual and verbal information in children's memories

The extent to which children's visual memories were modified by subsequent verbal information was examined. In 2 experiments, 6-, 8-, and 10-year-old children and college students were asked questions after being shown slides. Some questions described events that appeared in the slides and other questions described events not depicted. In experiment 1 correct recall of the visual events was facilitated by congruent verbal information and impaired by incongruent verbal information. When subjects demonstrated good memory for the original visual events, the effects of the verbal information increased with age. In experiment 2, the effects of verbal information on visual recognition performance were evaluated. Correct recognition of study slides and false recognition of distractor slides increased when the questions presented information depicted in the appropriate slides. Again, the influence of verbal information increased with age only when subjects demonstrated correct recognition of control slides. These results illustrate the increasing interdependence of the verbal and visual systems with age.