Development of mnemonic discrimination during childhood.

The present study examined mnemonic discrimination in 5- and 6-yr-old children, 8- and 9-yr-old children, 11- and 12-yr-old children, and young adults. Participants incidentally encoded pictorial stimuli and subsequently judged whether targets (i.e., repeated stimuli), lures (i.e., mnemonically related stimuli), and foils (i.e., novel stimuli) were old, similar, or new. Compared to older age groups, younger children were more likely to (1) incorrectly identify lures as "old" (rather than "similar") and (2) fail to recognize lures altogether, especially when lures were more mnemonically distinct from targets. These results suggest age-related improvements in pattern separation and pattern completion during childhood.