Effects of visual and verbal cues in facilitating the remembering of an autobiographical event in preschoolers

ABSTRACT

Although small children have autobiographical memories, as they grow, they forget its specific details. Although this forgetting is common in early childhood, the presence of effective cues may help recall autobiographical memories. This study examines the effect of verbal and visual cues on the long-term maintenance of a school trip autobiographical memories. One hundred children aged between 50 and 74 months were divided into three experimental groups: one verbal, one visual, and one control groups. The results show that, compared to the control group, both verbal and visual cues enhanced children’s autobiographical memory of the school trip in the short term. These results are in line with those of other studies showing that over time children require reminder cues in order to accurately recall autobiographical memories, and that the benefit seems to be greater if the reminder cue is visual.

KEYWORDS:

• Autobiographical memory
• preschoolers
• verbal cues
• visual cues

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Alonso Mateo is an associate professor in the English Department of the Faculty of Education in Albacete, at the Castilla-La Mancha University. He is also a school teacher in the Spanish Educational Foundation FEFC, where he had successively positions as English specialist, Therapeutic Pedagogy teacher and Erasmus and Etwinning project coordinator, leading school associations with several countries. He had a teaching stay at the Faculty of Humanities of the Notre Dame University Louaize in Lebanon. His research interests are focused on autobiographical memory in early childhood, as well as second language acquisition. He is a graduate of the University of Castilla-La Mancha from where he holds a B.A. in English Language Teaching and a PhD in Psychology. He holds a Master in Education of the Spanish Distance University UNED.

Laura Ros is an associate Professor at the Department of Psychology of the University of Castilla-La Mancha. She has experience in Basic and Experimental Psychology related to emotional regulation through autobiographical memory in old age and in different psychopathologies such as depression and schizophrenia. Currently his work focuses on the induction of positive emotions in older people through different procedures (music, images, etc.). She has also experience in the collection of physiological data (EEG, galvanic response of the skin and heart rate).

Jorge J. Ricarte is an associate professor at the Department of Psychology of Castilla-La Mancha. His primary research aim is focused on the impact of different forms and functioning of autobiographical retrieval on well-being, health mood and life satisfaction. With experience in the field of Educational Psychology, he has tested the effects of visual and auditory componentes of mindfulness based therapy intervention in educational settings. He also coordinates several projects about the presence of transdiagnostic variables (rumination, uncertainty intolerance) in mental disorders (depression, schizophrenia and eating disorders).

Dolores Fernández is a PhD student in the Psychology Department at Castilla- La Mancha University. She studied Psychology in Spanish Distance University and she also has a master's degree in applied Psychology investigation and a master's degree in emotional intelligence. She is interested in the autobiographical memory field, specifically in the relationship between how people remember their personal experiences and their psychological functioning (anxiety, depression...) in aging. She is an associate professor in the Psychology Departament of the Education Faculty in Albacete at the Castilla-La Mancha University and currently she is working as technician at Albacete city Council.

Jose M. Latorre is a Professor of the University of the area of Basic Psychology. He has experience in basic and applied experimental psychology in the study of aging and various transdiagnostic factors in psychopathology, mainly autobiographical memory. Together with others, he has developed psychotherapy and cognitive training techniques for older people with cognitive impairment or depression and patients with schizophrenia. Recently he is working on the study of the neural and psychological factors involved in the induction of positive emotions in older people.

ORCID

Laura Ros http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5567-8589

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Education of Castilla-La Mancha (Consejería de Educación y Ciencia de Castilla La Mancha) under Grant PII1I09-0274-8863; and the Ministry of Science and Innovation (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación) under grant PSI2010-20088].