Children's Ability to Recall Obligatory and Optional Acts within a Script and Over Time

The goal of this research was to investigate children’s recall of optional and obligatory elements of a script-based story as the retention period increased. Typically developing children, 20 kindergarteners and 20 second graders, participated. Children were asked to retell a story immediately after exposure to it, as well as one week post-, and two weeks post-exposure. Findings provide evidence that children of both age groups were able to marshal their script knowledge to recall stories over time. Older children were able to recall more elements and more of both, obligatory and optional elements, than younger children across all recall attempts.

The goal of this research was to investigate children’s recall of optional and obligatory elements of a script-based story as the retention period increased. Typically developing children, 20 kindergarteners and 20 second graders, participated. Children were asked to retell a story immediately after exposure to it, as well as one week post-, and two weeks post-exposure. Findings provide evidence that children of both age groups were able to marshal their script knowledge to recall stories over time. Older children were able to recall more elements and more of both, obligatory and optional elements, than younger children across all recall attempts.