IMPLICIT MEMORY IN CHILDREN - ARE THERE AGE-DIFFERENCES WITH CONCEPTUALLY DRIVEN TASKS

In implicit or priming tests memory is assessed incidentally without instructions calling for deliberate recollection of specific events from a study phase. Memory impairments typically observed with children and older adults are usually not found with such tasks. There are, however, few studies that have been conducted on implicit memory in childhood. Nearly all of them have used perceptual implicit tasks. The purpose of the present study was to test whether age constancy can also be observed with a conceptually driven implicit task. Generation of category members served as the implicit task. Priming is demonstrated when subjects produce instances from the study phase more often than expected by chance. In two experiments, young (six-year-olds) and older children (school-aged) were compared on implicit and explicit (cued recall) tests of memory for category members. Although older children produced more category members in cued recall, priming did not vary with age. Manipulations of elaboration and organization showed dissociative (Exp. 1) as well as parallel effects (Exp. 2) on implicit and explicit measures of memory. The results are discussed with respect to multiple memory systems and processing accounts of implicit memory.