ABSTRACT It is well documented that young children have difficulties with strategically remembering past events. Recent evidence on event memory in 35- and 46-month-old children suggests that strategic retrieval (yes/no questions) improves with age, whereas spontaneous retrieval is relatively unaffected by age. We here replicate and extend those findings (N = 124): First, a novel free (strategic) recall test was added to improve ecological validity. Second, the free recall procedure allowed us to make direct comparisons between spontaneous and free strategic recall relative to age. The free recall test revealed similar results in the standard yes/no questions (older children outperformed younger). The direct comparison between spontaneous and free recall revealed a reliable interaction between age and retrieval mode: While the children’s age did not affect spontaneous recall, the 46-month-olds outperformed the 35-month-olds on the free recall test. The results add to the accumulating evidence that spontaneous recall of events is an early developmental achievement.

中文翻译：

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年龄影响 35 和 46 个月大儿童的战略性而非自发性回忆

摘要 有充分证据表明，幼儿在战略性地记住过去的事件方面存在困难。最近关于 35 和 46 个月大儿童事件记忆的证据表明，策略性提取（是/否问题）随着年龄的增长而改善，而自发性提取相对不受年龄的影响。我们在这里复制并扩展了这些发现（N = 124）：首先，添加了一个新的免费（战略）召回测试以提高生态有效性。其次，免费召回程序使我们能够在相对于年龄的自发和免费战略召回之间进行直接比较。免费回忆测试在标准是/否问题中显示了类似的结果（大一点的孩子表现优于小一点）。自发和自由回忆之间的直接比较揭示了年龄和检索模式之间的可靠交互：虽然孩子的年龄不影响自发回忆，但在自由回忆测试中，46 个月大的孩子表现优于 35 个月大的孩子。结果增加了越来越多的证据，即事件的自发回忆是早期发展的成就。