EPISODIC MEMORY AND AUTONOETIC CONSCIOUSNESS - DEVELOPMENTAL EVIDENCEAND 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 mem ory, in its technical meaning given by Tulving, requires the autonoeti c consciousness of having experienced remembered events. but developme ntal findings suggest that children cannot encode events as experience d before the age of about 4 or 5 years. Before this age they have insu fficient understanding of what constitutes experience, specifically th ey do not reflect on the perceptual origin of their own knowledge. To demonstrate such a link children between 3 and 6 years were assessed f or their understanding of the perceptual origin of their own knowledge on different ''see-know tests,'' in particular a test assessing under standing that our senses inform only about certain aspects of the perc eived 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 argu e that between 3 to 6 years children develop the ability to remember e vents as experienced and that this development can explain adults' ina bility to have recollective experiences of childhood events before tha t age (childhood amnesia). (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.