Children Don't Forget; They Remember Later
Written By Savvy Auntie Staff Writers
By: Jaime Herndon
Have you ever noticed that kids repeat things, days later, when you think they forgot about it? Researchers have discovered that kids can remember information better days after they
initially learned it, than they can on the day they actually learned the
material. This is in contrast to adults, whose memories tend to fade
over time.
The study, published in the journal Psychological Science,
found that two cognitive phenomena occur simultaneously: “extreme
forgetting” (when kids learn two things in rapid succession, with the
second thing causing them to forget the first thing), and “delayed
remembering” (recalling the forgotten information days later). When
children get multiple pieces of similar information at the same time,
the different pieces compete with each other, causing a deficit in
memory. When there is a delay, this competition is erased, and their
memories improve over time.
The study found that of the 4- and 5-year-olds who played a computer game that dealt with associations between
objects, those who re-played the game two days later scored more than 20
percent higher than those kids who re-played the game later that same
day.
Let your nieces and nephews take some time to absorb new
information. If you’re helping them with homework, it’s
helpful to them to go over the older material. It may seem
counter-intuitive, but give new material time to sink in – it might
surprise you!
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Ohio State University. "'Delayed remembering': Kids can remember tomorrow what they forgot today."
ScienceDaily. (accessed September 29, 2015).
Updated and republished: September 1, 2021
Originally published: September 29, 2015