Post-Event Information Affects Children's Autobiographical Memory After One Year (original) (raw)

In two experiments, we examined whether post-event information (PEI) about true and false events persisted in children's reports after approximately 1 year. In Experiment 1, 4-to 6-year-olds were given PEI and then were given memory tests 2 weeks and 15 months later. Although PEI appeared in free recall at the initial testing, it decreased substantially by the long-term test. In contrast, on recognition tasks the children showed facilitation and misinformation effects at initial and follow-up tests. Experiment 2 replicated lasting misinformation and facilitation effects in recognition memory among 4-to 9-year-olds who were tested after 1-week and 10-month delays. We conclude that true and false reminders about an experienced event continue to affect children's memory approximately 1 year later.

Timing Moderates the Effects of Repeated Suggestive Interviewing on Children's Eyewitness Memory

SUMMARY The relative role of the timing and repetition of misinformation on the accuracy of children's recall was examined in two experiments. Kindergarten children participated in a magic show and about 40 days later had a memory test. Between the magic show and the memory test, the children were suggestively interviewed either one time in a relatively 'early' interview (temporally closer to the magic show than the memory test) or a relatively 'late' interview (closer to the memory test than the magic show), or in both suggestive interviews. The timing of the suggestive interviewing was manipulated so that the interview was temporally distant from the event or memory test or temporally close to the event or memory test. Repeated interviewing heightened misinformation effects only when the children received the two interview sessions temporally close to the event and memory test. A basic principle of memory is that repetition promotes recall (Ebbinghaus, 1885/1913). The research to support this principle concerns the beneficial effects of repeating accurate information on participants' recall. There is however, little direct evidence to examine the corollary of this principle, namely the repetition of erroneous information (misinforma-tion) promotes memory distortion. The present study examines this hypothesis with respect to one particular type of memory distortion, false reports that are the product of suggestive interviews in which misinformation has been presented. It examines the cumulative effect of repeated misinformation on memory distortion in young children. Repeated neutral interviews (where there is no misinformation) may confer a number of positive effects on recall. A review of the developmental literature reveals that it can consolidate memory for an event and thus protect against forgetting

True (but not false) memories are subject to retrieval-induced forgetting in children

Journal of experimental child psychology, 2015

Veridical and false memories of children aged 6 to 15 years were studied in two experiments with the retrieval-induced forgetting paradigm. Using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) false memory word lists, children's reports of true, but not false, memories showed evidence of retrieval-induced forgetting. These differences were observed across delays as long as 2 days following word list presentation. The lack of observation of retrieval-induced forgetting in children's false memories provides evidence that a key assumption in the theory of retrieval-induced forgetting, cue independence, might not consistently apply. These experiments underscore the need for both practical and theoretically motivated study of true and false memories.

Loading...

Loading Preview

Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.