Differences in episodic memory between four- and five-year-olds: False information versus real experiences

It is assumed that personal episodes from any age less than about four year s can rarely be recalled (infantile amnesia) because episodic memory is not well developed until this age. To investigate this, experiments were condu cted with 30 4- and 30 5-yr.-olds. Experiments first examined whether the c hildren could report parent-child games in a sports festival two days after the festival. The results indicated that 4-yr.-olds could not report the e pisodic contents of the games properly even though they reported the result s of the ball matches as well as the 5-yr.-olds. Seven days after that repo rt, the subject was told twice by the experimenter about realistic or unrea listic events as if these were their own experiences. The subject was again required to report the events seven days after receiving information. The results showed that 4-yr.-olds tended to mistake the information provided b y the experimenter for their own real experiences. These results indicate t hat there may be a critical difference of episodic memory between 4- and 5- yr.-olds. Episodic memory was not well developed yet in 4-yr.-olds.