Episodic Memory Paper

As previously mentioned, autobiographical memory is a subtype of episodic memory. Episodic memory is the ability to remember contextual details (e.g., where the event happened and when it occurred) about past events. Previous research on episodic memory has shown age-related improvements, specifically improvement during early childhood years (e.g., Brainerd et al. 2004; Ghetti & Angelini 2008; Riggins, 2014). Episodic memory in children can be measured and analyzed in a variety of ways such as binding paradigms, source memory tasks, and relational memory paradigms (Riggins, 2014). Generally, these tasks involve the child recalling associations between events and the context in which they occurred (DeMaster & Ghetti, in press; Lloyd, Doydum, …show more content…
They had previously learned novel facts from different sources while watching the video. The result of the study showed that children’s ability to recall a novel fact and the source from whom it was learned improves during childhood, with the greatest improvement observed between 5 and 7 years of age (Riggins, 2014). Another study, which utilized the binding paradigms to assess episodic memory had similar results. 4 year olds, 6 year olds, and adults were shown pictures and then later tested on their memory of isolated and combined parts of the picture. 4-year-old children performed poorly when asked to recall combined aspects of the pictures they had previously viewed, however, 6-year-old children performed similarly to adults. Results from this experiment show that memory-binding processes significantly improves during early childhood, suggesting that the development of episodic memory occurs during this time period (Sluzenski, Newcombe, & Kovacs, 2006). As with autobiographical memory, episodic memory also drastically improves during