Children's representation and recall of event alternatives

In this study, we compared children's recall for alternative event components in both spontaneous and probed recall conditions. At four separate sessions, 4- and 7-year-old children repeatedly participated in the same two activities. Individual components of these activities varied across sessions, with alternatives introduced either (a) at every session or (b) at the third session only. At a fifth session, spontaneous event reports were elicited first, followed by probed recall for alternative event components. Not surprisingly, children in both age groups recalled more variable elements when probed than they did spontaneously. But probing facilitated older children's recall for alternatives to a greater extent than younger children's recall. Further, when directly probed, all children recalled components that always changed better than components that changed only once. These results provide additional evidence that the complexity of children's event representations increases with age, whereas the variable structure of recurring events may have similar effects across age.