Episodic memory and autonoetic consciousness: developmental evidence and a theory of childhood amnesia

This research draws together Tulving's (1985) view on episodic memory and research on children's developing "theory of mind." Episodic memory, in its technical meaning given by Tulving, requires the autonoetic consciousness of having experienced remembered events, but developmental findings suggest that children cannot encode events as experienced before the age of about 4 or 5 years. Before this age they have insufficient understanding of what constitutes experience, specifically they do not reflect on the perceptual origin of their own knowledge. To demonstrate such a link children between 3 and 6 years were assessed for their understanding of the perceptual origin of their own knowledge on different "see-know tests," in particular a test assessing understanding that our senses inform only about certain aspects of the perceived objects. A significant association was found between passing see-know tests and free recall, which persisted even when cued recall and verbal intelligence are partialed out. These results are used to argue that between 3 to 6 years children develop the ability to remember events as experienced and that this development can explain adults' inability to have recollective experiences of childhood events before that age (childhood amnesia).