This study was designed to examine the impact of encoding and reminding experiences on preschoolers' event memory performance. Preschoolers between the ages of 42 and 60 months participated in a pretend camping event with an experimenter, and were interviewed about the event 1 day and 6 weeks later. The camping event was staged at their preschool and was comprised of three parts: packing supplies, fishing, and preparing a picnic. To test the effect of encoding on recall, the experimenter's statements during the camping event were scripted to be either elaborative or empty - styles modeled after the high- and low-elaborative styles of talk that mothers naturally exhibit. Half of the participants were engaged by the experimenter using the elaborative script, and the remaining half were engaged by the experimenter using the empty script. To test the effect of reminding on recall, four weeks after the camping event, half of the participants from the elaborative and empty event conditions were briefly reminded of the event by viewing the objects as they were setup originally. The remaining half of the children from the elaborative and empty event conditions were not reminded of the camping event. The results indicated that there were no significant effects of event (elaborative, empty), reminder (present, absent), or event x reminder on reporting during the immediate and final memory interviews. The absence of these effects are discussed in terms of several factors, including variability within the sample due to age, the lack of forgetting during the retention interval, and more broadly, in terms of previous experimenter-child and mother-child reminiscing studies, as well as reinstatement
