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Why does relational binding improve across early childhood? Testing the effects of interference and sleep-filled delays

Episodic memory consists of distinctive experiences, with specific spatiotemporal information about what happened maintained over time. These memories typically share overlapping elements in distinctive combinations. In this study, we evaluated: (1) whether overlapping elements pose a differential challenge for younger children; and (2) whether a sleep-filled delay stabilizes or even improves children’s episodic memories, and if so, whether effects vary by age. We compared memory for unique and overlapping pairs of visual stimuli, presented once to 4- and 6-year-old children, tested immediately and after a 24-hour delay. As expected, older children outperformed younger children, and both age groups performed worse on overlapping pairs. However, overlapping elements were not differentially problematic for young children, and a sleep-filled delay in testing resulted in decrements in memory performance, for both age groups on both pair types. Despite overall differences in accuracy, important aspects of episodic memory are similar across this key developmental period.