Development of memory linking supports precise temporal inference.

Abstract

Learning to predict when events occur often requires inferring links between experiences. While children use knowledge of routines to retrospectively estimate event times, little is known about how structured temporal knowledge forms initially and develops. Here, a representative community sample (aged 7-25 years; n = 104; 53% female; 57% White; Austin, TX, USA) completed a memory task in which they could infer event times from temporal cues that varied across learning repetitions by linking and updating information across experiences. We found that while adults precisely located events in time through inference, younger participants' temporal estimates were biased toward average times, particularly when temporal cues were more variable. These findings suggest that developmental improvements in linking and updating information across multiple experiences underlie age-related gains in how children represent time.