Developmental origins of ordered memory recall tendencies

This preregistered study examined early transitions in children's spontaneous memory recall tendencies. Children aged 3 to 5 years (N = 72; 36 females; mostly White) were presented with a simple visuospatial memory task in which they freely recalled the locations of sequentially hidden targets across four test phases. We observed distinct age-related shifts in output order: younger children predominantly prioritized the most recently hidden target, whereas older children increasingly prioritized