ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the various factors that may influence the quality of memories during encoding, during the retention period, or during recovery. The cognitive self facilitates the grouping and personalization of the memory of events in what will become autobiographical memory. The development of autobiographical memory depends mainly on maturation factors. Children can, therefore, pay less attention and not make a conscious effort to retain as much information as possible as they might do during a visit to the botanical garden, knowing that they will have to submit a written report of this visit upon return to school. Events with a negative connotation are likely to arouse in children the same type of evaluation as in adults by way of cognitive elaboration, rumination, or personal reflections. However, these mechanisms are likely to be less spontaneous in children and most often involve the participation of an adult in their development.
