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.