Elaborative Talk During and After an Event: Conversational Style Influences Children's Memory Reports.

An experimental design was utilized to examine the effects of elaborative talk during and/or after an event on children's event memory reports. Sixty preschoolers were assigned randomly to one of four conditions that varied according to a researcher's use of high or low elaborative during- and/or post-event talk about a camping event. In a memory conversation 1 day after the event, children who were engaged in high elaborative during-event talk and those whose memory conversation featured high elaborative post-event talk reported more information than children in low elaborative during- or post-event talk groups. Moreover, 3 weeks later, when a standard memory interview was conducted with all children, high elaborative during-event talk influenced the children's memory reports.

Mother-Child Joint Conversational Exchanges During Events: Linkages to Children's Memory Reports Over Time.

This longitudinal study explores linkages between patterns of mother-child conversation as events unfold and children's subsequent event memory. A total of 89 mother-child dyads took part in novel "adventures" in their homes when the children were 36 and 42 months old. In contrast to "low joint talk" dyads, the conversations of "high joint talk" dyads were characterized by a high proportion of children's correct responses to their mothers' Wh- questions, and a low proportion of failures to respond to these queries. Children in the high joint talk dyads reported more in assessments of their memory at 36 and 42 months than their low joint talk counterparts. The results point to specific forms of elaborative conversational interactions that may be especially important for successful remembering.