Sidonie Cousin

This study investigated the development of all 3 components of episodic memory (EM), as defined by Tul-ving, namely, core factual content, spatial context, and temporal context. To this end, a novel, ecologically valid test was administered to 109 participants aged 4–16 years. Results showed that each EM component develops at a different rate. Ability to memorize factual content emerges early, whereas context retrieval abili-ties continue to improve until adolescence, due to persistent encoding difficulties (isolated by comparing results on free recall and recognition tasks). Exploration of links with other cognitive functions revealed that short-term feature-binding abilities contribute to all EM components, and executive functions to temporal and spatial context, although ability to memorize temporal context is predicted mainly by age. According to its most recent definition, episodic memory (EM) refers to personal events recollected in the context of a particular time and place, and with some reference to oneself as a participant in the episode (Tulving, 2001). The typical develop-ment of EM has received surprisingly little atten-tion despite its central role in structuring identity (Nelson & Fivush, 2004; Piolino, Desgranges, & Eustache, 2009) and its frequent impairment in common neurological disorders such as epileps