Poster #4 - Memory at Play: Examining the Relations Between Episodic and Semantic Memory in a Children’s Museum

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Attention, Learning, Memory

Integrative Statement

Episodic memory (EM) is memory for events that occur in a particular time and place, and semantic memory (SM) is memory for knowledge and facts (Tulving, 1972). Both of these memory systems undergo developmental changes throughout childhood (Bauer, 2007; Robertson & Köhler, 2007), yet there is relatively little known about the relation between EM and SM development, especially in typical development. Here, we sought to explore this relation by asking how a specific aspect of SM—spatial semantic knowledge—may influence children’s EM in middle childhood.

Five-year-olds (n=29), 6-year-olds (n=29), and 7-years-olds (n=28) participated in 18 short events across 6 exhibits in a children’s museum modeled after a town (Figure 1). Conducting this work in this museum allowed us to capitalize on contextual details not present in the research laboratory and manipulate events by the extent to which the event/action and the spatial location “matched.” Events were either spatially congruent (e.g., buying groceries at the market) or incongruent (e.g., sorting mail at the theater). There was also a baseline condition (‘spatially independent’) in which events were not tied to any one location (e.g., hearing a joke). After a 10-15 minute delay, children participated in a recognition memory test. They were presented with 18 old and 18 new events, and asked to select which ones they had experienced, and also tested for the spatial locations of events. Finally, a novel semantic interview task was given designed to assess children’s knowledge of the locations represented in the study (e.g., post office, market).

Analyses focused on 1) age related changes in children’s EM (via the recognition memory test) and SM (via the semantic interview task), and 2) the relation of these memory systems across middle childhood. First, we did not find effects of age in children’s recognition of events or their locations (EM)—possibly underscoring the benefits of naturalistic research on children’s memory performance (in comparison to typical laboratory paradigms; see Pathman et al., 2011). However, our novel semantic interview (SM) task revealed age-related improvements in separate one-way ANOVAs on both the quantity of accurate facts, F(2,83) = 4.70, p < .05, as well as the quality of responses, F(2,83) = 5.34, p < .01. Second, to experimentally test the influence of children’s spatial SM on their memory for the spatial location of events (i.e., relation between SM and EM), we used a 3 (age: 5,6,7) x 2 (condition: congruent, incongruent) repeated-measures ANOVA and found a significant main effect of condition (F(1,83) = 46.33, p < .001, η2 = .37) on children’s memory for the location of events such that memory for the location of congruent events was greater than that of incongruent events (Figure 2). Correlational analyses in which we test the relation between SM on EM using the narrative task and other standardized measures of SM administered (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test) will also be presented. The practical implications (e.g., usefulness of museum settings) and theoretical implications (EM and SM theories; context influences) of this work will be discussed.

Authors

• Sarah Sipe, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Non-Presenting Author

• Thanujeni Pathman, York University
  Presenting Author