Young Children's Deliberate Reminding

Summary Preschool children have been shown to engage in deliberate memory procedures, but can toddlers? Mothers were instructed to present deliberate reminding tasks (e.g., “Remind me to get milk at the store”) to their 2-, 3-and 4-year-olds (10 each), in the course of their everyday activities. Unprompted deliberate reminding of high-interest tasks was frequent, both for short (five minute) and long (four- to eight-hour) delays. Even two-year-olds remembered such tasks 80% of the time. The results indicate an early development of a deliberate set to remember in toddlers.