Aimee-Jade Corner

• Bsc (Hons) Psychology
• The ontogeny of episodic memory recollection: characterising the experience of recollecting early memories in children and adults

Previous research in children and young adults suggests the richness of recalling personal episodic memories declines with an increase in time from the present moment. In contrast recently experienced memories are more vividly recalled. We propose the rate of decline is caused by the time elapsed (TE) since the original event was experienced. This project intended to support previous findings by comparing the coherence of the earliest memories of a former children and young adult sample with a larger cohort of 7-10 year olds and an older young adult age range (29-32 year olds). Our experimental design repeated that of previous research, with participants describing and drawing memories ranging from their most recent to earliest. The current data was then compared against previous data sets. Our results demonstrate the further back in time a memory is sampled, the greater rate of decline in the memories coherence in both age groups.

Funding source: Newcastle University

Supervisor: Dr Sinead Mullally