The self-memory system: exploring developmental links between self and memory across early to late childhood

This study tests whether developments in self-knowledge and autobiographical memory across early to late childhood are related. Self-descriptions and autobiographical memory reports were collected from 379 three- to eleven-year-old predominantly white Scottish children, M_age = 90.3 months, SD = 31.1, 54% female. Episodic memory was measured in an enactment task involving recall and source monitoring of performed and witnessed actions. The volume and complexity of self-knowledge and autobiographical memory reports increased with age, as did source monitoring ability and recall bias for own actions. Regression analyses and structural equation modeling confirmed a close association between these developments. These results inform our theoretical understanding of the development of the self-memory system in childhood, which may contribute to the gradual offset of childhood amnesia.