Longitudinal Development of Memory for Temporal Order in Early to Middle Childhood

Abstract

Existing studies examining the development of temporal order memory show that although young children perform above chance on some tasks assessing temporal order memory, there are significant age-related differences across childhood. Yet, the trajectory of children’s ability to retrieve temporal order remains unclear as existing conclusions are drawn from cross-sectional studies. The present study utilized an accelerated longitudinal design in order to characterize the developmental trajectory of temporal order memory in a sample of 200 healthy 4- to 8-year-old children. Specifically, two tasks commonly used in the literature were tested longitudinally: a primacy judgment task and an ordering task. Results revealed that, even after controlling for differences in IQ, linearly increasing trajectories characterized age-related change in performance for both tasks; however, change appeared greater for the temporal ordering task. Further, performance on the two tasks was positively related, suggesting shared underlying mechanisms. These findings provide a more thorough understanding of temporal order memory in early to middle childhood by characterizing the developmental trajectories of two commonly used tasks and have important implications for our understanding of children’s developing memory more broadly.

Keywords:

• Development
• early childhood
• longitudinal change
• temporal order memory

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant HD079518, awarded to T.R.).

Notes on contributors

Kelsey L. Canada

Kelsey L. Canada completed her undergraduate work at Grand Valley State University. She received her M.S. from the Psychology Department at the University of Maryland where she is currently a doctoral candidate in the Cognitive and Neural Systems program. Her research focuses on improving our understanding of typical developmental changes in brain structure, and how these changes relate to the impressive improvements in cognitive abilities observed during early childhood. She has a focused interest in the development of children’s episodic memory and its relation to changes in the hippocampus and other neural substrates.

Thanujeni Pathman

Thanujeni (Jeni) Pathman completed her undergraduate work at McMaster University. She received her Ph.D. from the Psychology Department at Emory University. She completed postdoctoral training at the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California, Davis. She was an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and is now on the faculty at York University. Her research interests are in cognitive development and developmental cognitive neuroscience. Dr. Pathman studies the development of declarative memory. She is especially interested in learning about the development of contextual memory (e.g., memory for time and space), semantic memory, and the development of the processes and neural substrates involved in episodic and autobiographical memory.

Tracy Riggins

Tracy Riggins received her Ph.D. in Child Psychology from the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota. She completed postdoctoral fellowships in pediatric neuroimaging at the University of California, Davis and the University of Maryland, School of Medicine in Baltimore. The goal of her research program is to provide better understanding of memory development by examining changes in neural substrates supporting this ability. The empirical research conducted in her laboratory involves both typically developing children and children at-risk for cognitive impairments and uses a combination of behavioral and neuroimaging methodologies. Findings from her research have revealed that early childhood is a time of rapid change in children’s ability to remember life events.