Developmental changes in episodic memory across early- to mid-childhood: insights from a latent longitudinal approach

ABSTRACT

Episodic memory is a cornerstone ability that allows one to recall past events and the spatiotemporal context in which they occur. In an effort to characterise the development of this critical ability, many different tasks have been used independently to assess age-related variations in episodic memory. However, performance on memory tasks is multiply determined, and the extent to which different tasks with varying features relate to each other and represent episodic memory as a latent cognitive construct across childhood is unclear. The present study sought to address this question by exploring the feasibility of using four different laboratory-based tasks to characterise changes in episodic memory ability during early- to mid-childhood in 200 typically developing children (4–8 years). Using longitudinal data and a structural equation modeling framework, results suggest that multiple tests of episodic memory can be utilised to indicate a comparable latent construct of episodic memory ability over this period of development, and that this ability improves consistently between 4 to 8 years. Overall, results highlight that episodic memory measured as a construct increases at a similar rate over early- to mid-childhood and demonstrate the benefits of using multiple laboratory tasks to characterise developmental changes in episodic memory.

KEYWORDS:

• Episodic memory
• development
• longitudinal change
• structural equation modeling

Acknowledgements

This research was conducted as part of a doctoral dissertation by Kelsey L. Canada at the University of Maryland and was supported by the Jack Bartlett Memorial Award and a Janet Johnson Research Fellowship at the University of Maryland (K.L.C.), and the National Institutes of Health (grant HD079518, awarded to T.R.). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. The authors thank the members of the dissertation committee, the families who participated in this study, and the members of the Neurocognitive Development Lab, especially Morgan Botdorf, Marissa Clark, Lisa Cox, Elizabeth Mulligan, Jennifer Sloane, and Shane Wise for assistance with data collection.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data and code availability statement

The data analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request and completion of a data sharing agreement. Sample Mplus code used to conduct analyses is available at https://osf.io/s8kuq.

Notes

1 The Stories subtest from the Children's Memory Scale (Cohen, 1997) was also administered to children at each wave. However, this task ultimately was not included in this study due to multiple modifications from the standardised scoring guide and the presence of practice effects.

2 An alternative approach to examining the similarity of the episodic memory construct between cohorts would be the use of multi-group modelling. However, convergence issues arose with this approach and, consequently, convergence at the 6-year time point was tested to provide evidence of similar constructs indicated across cohorts.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Jack Bartlett Memorial Award and a Janet Johnson Research Fellowship at the University of Maryland (K.L.C.), and the National Institutes of Health (grant HD079518, awarded to T.R.).