Differential Contributions of Language Skills to Children's Episodic Recall

Abstract

Theorists have identified language as a critical contributor to children's episodic memory development, yet studies linking language and memory have had mixed results. The present study aimed to clarify the mechanisms linking language and memory and to explain the previous mixed results. Sixty-four preschool children's receptive and productive language abilities were assessed as were their accuracy and completeness when answering an open-ended prompt, direct questions, and misleading questions about scripted laboratory tasks. Results indicated strong relations between language skills and recall even when controlling for initial encoding of the to-be-remembered events and memory for a separate event. Importantly, these relations varied by the type of language skill assessed and by the type of recall. Productive language skills were primarily associated with accurate free recall, whereas receptive language skills best predicted children's resistance to misleading questions. Implications are discussed for theory about language and memory development, and for practical applications.