T. Murachver et al., DO, SHOW, AND TELL - CHILDRENS EVENT MEMORIES ACQUIRED THROUGH DIRECTEXPERIENCE, OBSERVATION, AND STORIES, Child development, 67(6), 1996, pp. 3029-3044
To investigate how source of event information influences children's e
vent representations, 5- and 6-year-old children were exposed to a nov
el event through direct experience, observation, or a story. 2 of the
4 scenes comprising the event contained actions that were logically or
ganized, and the remaining 2 scenes contained actions that were arbitr
ary in their organization. Children received either 1 or 3 exposures t
o the event. For children receiving multiple exposures, 2 scenes conta
ined actions that varied across exposures. A few days following their
last exposure, children were asked to verbally recall and reenact the
event. Reports were generally more complete, organized, and accurate w
hen the event was directly experienced compared to when it was observe
d or heard about through a story. However, the impact of information s
ource interacted with interview (recall, reenactment) and number of ev
ent exposures. Furthermore, children's sensitivity to event structure
was dependent on information source and exposure. These results highli
ght the importance of information source in the formation of children'
s event representations.