Autobiographical memory in Korean, Chinese, and American children

Autobiographical memory and story recall were examined in Korean, Chinese, and American children (N = 158). In each culture, 4- and 6-year-olds (half boys) participated, with interviews conducted in the country-language of origin. On Day 1, children were given identical free-narrative interviews about life events and were shown a narrated story. On Day 2, children were interviewed about the story. Day 1 results indicate that in comparison with Asians, Americans provided more references to specific past events, more descriptives, more references to internal states, such as evaluations, and more mentions of themselves relative to others. Age differences were observed in Asia and sex differences in the United States. Objective story memory performance was equally accurate across cultures, although memory content differed.