Loyola University Chicago

Children's Memory and Learning

Boosting Memory

In a series of "training" studies, we invite parents to engage in elaborative talk with their children. A high elaborative style for talking about past events involves asking many Wh-questions (e.g., Why, How), following-in on children’s contributions to the conversation, and continuing to add new information even when children do not. Children recall more about their past experiences when they are engaged in high elaborative reminiscing. Moreover, preschoolers produce longer and more detailed reports of past experiences if they are engaged in elaborative conversation during events. In this work, we are interested in identifying specific ways that parent-child conversations can boost children's memory.