The Relation of Narrative Skill to Memory Recall in Chinese and European American Children

Bui, Van-Kim

The Relation of Narrative Skill to Memory Recall in Chinese and European American Children

Abstract

Studies have shown that narrative development enables young children to remember past events. However, most research has focused on preschool-aged children, and few studies have explored the relationship between narrative and memory recall in middle childhood. In this study, I examine the narrative development and subsequent memory recall in 130 participants, aged 6-8 years of European and Chinese descent. At the first time point, children's narrative abilities were assessed where they were asked to narrate a story using a picture book entitled Bear Goes to the Market. Six months later at the second time point, the children were asked to recall as much of the story as they could and then answer a series of directed questions about the story to measure the amount and accuracy of memory recall. Results show that narrative ability in the first time point was predictive of memory recall and accuracy in the second time point, suggesting that narrative ability plays an important role in memory development.

Description

Item removed from eCommons on 2012-05-17 at the request of the Department of Human Development, College of Human Ecology.

Date Issued

2011-05

Keywords

narrative; memory recall; memory accuracy; cultural differences

Types

dissertation or thesis