The development of recency and frequency memory: is there a developmental shift from reliance on trace-strength to episodic recall?

Recency and frequency judgements can be made either on the basis of the familiarity of items or by retrieving item-specific contextual information. Although normal adults seem to use the latter basis, several studies have shown that adults with memory impairments rely on trace-strength information. We report the results of a study examining the basis of 4-, 6-, and 8-year-old children's recency and frequency judgements. Both the frequency and the recency of presentation of items were manipulated such that reliance on trace-strength would lead to a characteristic pattern of performance, as shown by amnesic patients. Although the accuracy of both recency and frequency judgements improved between 4 and 6 years of age, there was no evidence that children in any age-group based their recency judgements on trace-strength, although there was some indication that 4-year-olds may have used this basis for judgements of frequency.