Examining Temporal Memory and Flexible Retrieval of Conventional Time Knowledge across Middle to Late Childhood

Memory for the time associated with past events is critical for our understanding of episodic memory and its development. Relatively little is known about the factors that influence temporal memory development. One such factor examined in the literature is semantic knowledge for time (conventional time knowledge; CTK). Other possible factors include domain general skills (e.g., working memory). The goals of this study were to a) assess temporal memory for past events in middle to late childhood using a naturalistic, yet controlled task, b) examine the relation between temporal memory performance and CTK, c) examine the factors that support the development of conventional time knowledge, and d) test which factors best predict temporal memory performance. Participants included 7-year-olds, 9-year-olds, 11-year-olds and young adults (N = 140). They engaged in naturalistic events in unique locations in the lab over a span of 2–3 hours. One week later, participants were asked to place the events on an arbitrary timeline, and we measured deviations from the precise time that each event took place. Performance on the CTK task, but not age, contributed unique variance to accuracy in the timeline task, replicating findings from previous work. Further, vocabulary and working memory but not inhibitory control or age, were unique predictors of performance on the CTK task. Finally, vocabulary surpassed CTK task performance as a significant predictor of temporal memory. The implications of this work to our understanding of temporal memory, semantic knowledge for time and episodic memory development are discussed.