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Presenter: John Robert Arruda

Faculty Sponsor: Tashauna Blankenship

School: UMass Boston

Research Area: Psychology and Behavioral Sciences

Session: Poster Session 3, 1:15 PM - 2:00 PM, Auditorium, A69

ABSTRACT

Episodic memory is the recall of autobiographical experiences and is composed of several dimensions: the "What," "Where," and "When" (Tulving, 1972). Episodic memory rapidly develops throughout early childhood; however, the dimensions of episodic memory are prone to developmental differences. When the dimensions are tested separately, the "When," or temporal memory, is subject to the most developmental delay in young children (Mooney et al., 2024). Furthermore, emotional valence is known to influence episodic memory, with negative experiences being better remembered than neutral ones (Bowen et al., 2018). The present study seeks to investigate temporal memory in young children (3-6 years-old) and to explore how emotional influences effect temporal memory. We utilize a board game paradigm called "explorer quest". During the study, children played a board game where they visited 4 locations in order to win a prize. We utilize 3 between-subject valence conditions where children either win stickers (positive), lose stickers (negative), or have nothing happen at each location (neutral). After a 5-minute delay children are asked to connect each event with each location and rate how they felt, and order the locations on a timeline to score temporal memory. We have found that older children (4.5-6 years-old, n = 65, M = 61.7 months, SD = 5.44 months) preform significantly better than younger children (3-4.5 years-old, n = 47, M = 45.7 months, SD = 5.12 months) (p < 0.01), and that children who rate their experiences as more positive preform significantly better than children who rated their experiences neutral (p < 0.05).