Role of Pictorial Cues in Young Children's Distinguishing Self-Performed from Self-Imagined Actions

Abstract

32 4– and 5–yr.-olds participated in a series of performed and imagined actions and a memory interview. Children in the Picture condition answered questions accompanied by pictures of actions whereas children in the Verbal condition received only the verbal cues. Children in the Picture condition performed as well as children in the Verbal condition when classifying performed and new actions but had more difficulty classifying imagined actions. Results suggest that retrieval cues (pictures) did not enhance children's discrimination of self-performed and self-imagined actions.