ABSTRACT
During her career, Katherine Nelson has profoundly influenced research and schol-
arship in many different domains of developmental psychology in general, and cog-
nitive and language development in particular. Indeed, in the twomain areas of work
in our laboratory-memory development and conceptual development-Kather-
ine’s work has exerted significant shaping force and influence. In the domain of
memory in particular, we feel the proximal and distal effects of Katherine’s work on
a daily basis. Her 1986 edited volume, Event Knowledge: Structure and Function in
Development, made abundantly clear that 3-year-old children have well-ordered
representations of everyday events and routines (e.g., going to fast food restaurants).
The demonstration sparked systematic examination of preschool-age children’s
memory in natural contexts. Simultaneously, it compelled investigations of children
younger than age 3: If 3-year-olds already are competent mnemonists, then the ca-
pacity to construct event representations must have developed earlier. It was in
search of the emergence of the ability to remember the past that our laboratory ven-
tured into the land of the pre-and early verbal child.
