Children's memory for the times of events from the past years

Abstract

This study tested 8-12-year-olds' ability to localize in time parent-reported events from four time intervals ranging from 6 months to 4 years ago. Memory for content was very accurate, and children's time estimates showed substantial agreement with the times provided by their parents. Accuracy of year judgments declined with retention interval, with the greatest change occurring between the 1-2-year and 2-3-year intervals. Season, month and time of day accuracy were much more stable over time. There were significant improvements with age in performance on measures of conventional time knowledge, and this performance was correlated with the accuracy of time estimates on the long time scales, controlling for age and general cognitive ability. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.