Reminiscence and hypermnesia in children’s eyewitness memory

Three experiments examined reminiscence and hypermnesia in 5- and 6-year-old children’s memory for an event across repeated interviews that occurred either immediately afterwards (Experiment 1) or after a 6-month delay (Experiments 2 & 3). Reminiscence (recall of new information) was reliably obtained in all of the experiments, although, the number of new items recalled were fewer after a delay than when the interviews occurred immediately. Hypermnesia (increasing total recall over repeated recall attempts) was obtained only in Experiment 1 when interviews occurred immediately and 24 hours after the event.