What Are Conditions for Inscription-Mediated Memory in Early Childhood? Scribbling and Drawing Before Writing

Abstract

The present study examined conditions contributing to young children ' s " inscriptions " being memory aids. " Inscriptions " refers to all lines produced by children, including scribbles, drawings, and written materials. In Analysis 1 , the relationship between a note-taking task and a note evaluation tasks was examined. The note-taking task was concerned with whether the inscriptions produced by the participating children ( 3 to 7 years old) were useful to them as memory aids; the note evaluation task was concerned with whether the children ' s inscriptions were understandable by others. The results suggested that those inscriptions that were understandable by others were also useful as memory aids for the children. However, some of the inscriptions that were useful to the children as memory aids were not understandable by others. In Analysis 2 , the children ' s utterances when they were producing the inscriptions in the note-taking task were examined. The results suggested that those children who produced inscriptions that were not understandable by others but were useful as a memory aid for the children spoke more about the meaning of the inscriptions while producing them than the other children did. These results suggest that one condition for children ' s inscriptions as memory aids is understandability by others; another is their meaning-making, based on children ' s spontaneous utterances.