Despite substantial improvements to memory precision in childhood, the neural mechanisms underlying these changes remain unclear. Here, 40 children (7-9 years; 22 females, 18 males; majority White) and 42 adults (24-35 years; 22 females, 20 males; majority White) modulated their approaches to memory formation--focusing on the specific details to…

Most cognitive training programs are adaptive, despite limited direct evidence that this maximizes children's outcomes. This randomized controlled trial evaluated working memory training with difficulty of activities presented using adaptive, self-select, or stepwise compared with an active control. At baseline, immediately, and 6-months…

Prioritizing what information to learn based on value is a critical developmental skill. Across two studies, value-based memory was assessed predominately in White children aged 6- to 7-years-old and 9- to 10-years-old using a nationwide sample collected between 2020 and 2023. Children learned cue-target associations worth varying point values.…

The current research examined how seeking versus receiving help affected children's memory and confidence decisions. Baseline performance, when no help was available, was compared to performance when help could be sought (Experiment 1: N = 83, 41 females) or was provided (Experiment 2: N = 84, 44 females) in a sample of predominately White 5-, 7-,…

Retrieval practice is known to enhance long-term memory retention, a phenomenon termed as retrieval practice effect. Two experiments (NWhite = 202), showed that the effect was present in preschool age (5-6 years) and had a boundary condition, namely, amount of initial learning. Specifically, there was a considerable effect only when children…

Abstract The relation between statistical learning and working memory in children with developmental dyslexia (DD) remains unclear. This study employed a distributional and a conditional statistical learning experiment and a working memory task to examine this relation in 651 Chinese 6- to 12-year-olds with and without DD (N[subscript DD] = 199,…

This longitudinal study modeled children's complex executive function (EF) development using the Groton Maze Learning Task (GMLT). Using a cohort-sequential design, 147 children (61 males, 5.5-11 years) were recruited from six multicultural primary schools in Melbourne and Perth, Australia. Race/ethnicity data were not available. Children were…

Literacy and numeracy are correlated throughout development, however, our understanding of this relation is limited. We explored the predictors of literacy and numeracy covariance (i.e., shared fluency between literacy and numeracy) in children (N = 1167, girls = 563) in rural Côte d'Ivoire, with specific focus on how developmental timing of…

The ability to use knowledge to guide the completion of goals is a critical cognitive skill, but 3-year-olds struggle to complete goals that require multiple steps. This study asked whether 3-year-olds could benefit from "plan chunking" to complete multistep goals. Thirty-two U.S. children (range = 35.75-46.59 months; 18 girls; 9 white,…

Children's spatial mapping starts out particularly sensitive to 3D wall-like boundaries and develops over early childhood to flexibly include other boundary types. This study investigated whether spatial boundaries influence children's episodic memory, as in adults, and whether this effect is modulated by boundary type. Eighty-one Korean children…

This study addressed whether combining tinkering with digital storytelling (i.e., narrating and reflecting about experiences to an imagined audience) can engender engineering learning opportunities. Eighty-four families with 5- to 10-year-old (M = 7.69) children (48% female children; 57% White, 11% Asian, 6% Black) watched a video introducing a…

In a cross-sectional study, 5-, 7-, and 9-year-old-children and adults (N = 144, 86 females, predominantly White U.K. sample of lower-middle to middle-class background) were interviewed about their experiences of involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs) and semantic mind-pops that come to mind unintentionally. Although some age differences…

Why is instructional gesture ineffective in some contexts? And what is it about learners that predicts whether they will learn from gestures? This between-subjects linear measurement training study compares gesture instruction to two controls--operant action and transient action--in a diverse sample of first-grade students (N = 174, M[subscript…

This longitudinal study examined age- and gender-related differences in autobiographical memory about the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and whether the content of these memories predicted psychological adjustment over time. A sample of 247 students (M[subscript age] = 11.94, range 8-16 years, 51.4% female, 85.4% White) was recruited from public and…

Memory decision-making in 26- to 32-month-olds was investigated using visual-paired comparison paradigms, requiring toddlers to select familiar stimuli (Active condition) or view familiar and novel stimuli (Passive condition). In Experiment 1 (N = 108, 54.6% female, 62% White; replication N = 98), toddlers with higher accuracy in the Active…