Children's eyewitness memory: effects of participation and forensic context.

We examined effects of participation and forensic context on 4-year-old children's testimony. Children in "participant" and "police" conditions actively participated in games with a "babysitter"; each child in the "observer" condition watched a videotape of a child and the babysitter playing. Eleven days later, children were individually questioned about the event. Before the interview began, children in the police condition talked to a police officer who said the babysitter might have done something bad. Comparison of participant- and observer-condition performance indicated that participation increased free-recall accuracy concerning actions that took place and lowered suggestibility. Comparison of participant- and police-condition performance indicated that forensic context led to increased error in free recall and additional comments to misleading questions. However, forensic context also resulted in higher accuracy on an age-identification task and did not affect children's accuracy in answering abuse-related questions.     

Nearly 4 years after an event: children's eyewitness memory and adults' perceptions of children's accuracy

OBJECTIVE: The current study examined children's eyewitness memory nearly 4 years after an event and the ability of adults to evaluate such memory. METHOD: In Phase 1, 7- and 10-year olds were interviewed about a past event after a nearly 4-year delay. The interview included leading questions relevant to child abuse as well as statements designed to implicate the original confederate. In Phase 2, laypersons and professionals watched a videotaped interview (from Phase 1) that they were misled to believe was from an ongoing abuse investigation. Respondents then rated the child's accuracy and credibility, and the probability that the child had been abused. RESULTS: In Phase 1, few significant age differences in memory accuracy were found, perhaps owing in part to small sample size. Although children made a variety of commission errors, none claimed outright to have been abused. Nevertheless, some of the children's answers (e.g., saying that their picture had been taken, or that they had been in a bathtub) might cause concern in a forensic setting. In Phase 2, professional and nonprofessional respondents were unable to reliably estimate the overall accuracy of children's statements. However, respondents were able to reasonably estimate the accuracy of children's answers to abuse questions. Respondents were also more likely to think that 7-year olds compared to 10-year olds had been abused. Professionals were significantly less likely than nonprofessionals to believe that credible evidence of abuse existed. Professionals who indicated personal experience with child abuse or a close relationship with an abuse victim were more likely to rate children as abused. A gender bias to rate boys as more accurate than girls was apparent among laypersons but not professionals. CONCLUSIONS: Children were generally resistant to suggestions that abuse occurred during a long-ago generally forgotten event, but some potentially concerning errors were made. Both professionals and non-professionals had difficulty estimating the accuracy of children's reports, but adults were more likely to rate children as accurate if the children answered abuse-related questions correctly. Training and personal experience were associated with adults' ratings of children's reports. Implications for evaluations of child abuse reports are discussed.     

Cognitive and metacognitive determinants of eyewitness memory accuracy over time

Metacognition and Learning - In the present study, we investigated the accuracy of eyewitness accounts over time from a metacognitive perspective, in which post-retrieval monitoring and control...     

The affective response of Down's syndrome infants to a repeated event

In a study with 17 Down's syndrome infants, the older infants (mean age = 20 months, 6 days) responded to the regular reappearance of a squeaky doll with significantly more affective behavior than did younger infants (mean age = 9 months, 24 days). When the 10 younger infants were included in a longitudinal study of their responses to this same event, the onset of affective behavior was significantly correlated with the mental development index of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, and was also associated with some aspects of temperament as measured by the Carey Survey of Temperamental Characteristics: these aspects were poor adaptability to change and a low tendency to approach new situations.     

Children's memory for orientation in the absence of external cues

Some have interpreted children's reliance on external visual cues as evidence that they are unable to use internal cues for orientation. This hypothesis was examined in experiment 1, where 24 preschoolers were tested on left-right, vertical-horizontal, and mirror-image oblique discriminations under essentially context-free conditions. Subjects succeeded on all discrimination problems and performed equally well on vertical-horizontal and mirror-image oblique discriminations. Thus, preschoolers can use an internal frame of reference to code orientation. Experiment 2 contrasted children's performance under context-free conditions with their ability to discriminate orientation in the presence of external visual cues. Children who had discriminated left-right oblique and nonoblique mirror-image forms in experiment 1 failed to so discriminate in experiment 2. This result is discussed in terms of a breakdown in the ability to use internal cues when external visual cues are available.     

Diagrammatic representation and event memory in preschoolers

This study investigated the use of diagrammatic representation as an aid for recalling a past event for 30 4–5‐year‐olds in their preschool year prior to commencing primary school. The children were randomly placed into one of two groups: ‘talkers’ (verbal memory) or ‘drawers’ (diagrammatic memory). They were interviewed individually, both one day and one month after the event that involved making a much‐needed tool for a game at their preschool. Both interviews were conducted by a familiar adult through three different levels of engagement—neutral, verbal and visual. Results showed that a combination of drawing and specific questioning (‘verbal’ level of engagement) facilitated better recall of detail than either drawing or talking independently. No significant differences regarding accuracy of responses were found between the two groups.     

Pigeons’ memory for event duration: Intertrial interval and delay effects

The effects of within-session variations in the intertriai interval (ITI) and delay on pigeons’ memory for event duration were studied in delayed symbolic matching-to-sample tasks. Pigeons were trained to peck one color following a long (8 sec) sample and another color following a short (2 sec) sample. In the first three experiments, the baseline conditions included a 10-sec delay (retention interval) and a 45-sec ITI. During testing, the delay was varied from 0 to 20 sec, and the ITI that preceded the trial was varied from 5 to 90 sec. When the ITI and delay were manipulated separately (Experiments 1 and 2), the pigeons displayed a choose-short tendency when the delay was longer than 10 sec or when the ITI was longer than 45 sec, and a choose-long tendency when either the delay or the ITI was shorter than these baseline values. These effects occurred whether the sample was food access or light. When the ITI and delay were manipulated together, the pigeons showed a large choose-long error tendency when the short delay was tested together with a short ITI, and no systematic error tendency when the short delay was tested together with a longer ITI. A very large choose-short error tendency emerged on trials with a long delay and a long ITI; a reduced choose-short tendency was present when the long delay was presented together with a short ITI. In Experiment 4, the baseline conditions were a 0-sec delay and a 45-sec ITI. In this case variations in the ITI had a smaller and unidirectional effect: the pigeons showed a choose-long error tendency when the ITI was decreased, but no effect of ITI increases. Two hypotheses were proposed and discussed: (1) that pigeons judge sample durations relative to a background time composed of the ITI and delay, and (2) that the delay and ITI effects might arise from a combination of subjective shortening and proactive effects of samples from previous trials.     

Multiple hedonic memory: Memory for more than one hedonic event in rats

In each of two investigations, rats ran in a runway to obtain varying quantities of food pellets presented in a fixed order, such as 20-0-20. The major finding was that rats ran faster on a 0-pellet trial if that trial was followed shortly by a 20-pellet trial (e.g., 20-0-20 series) than if it was not (e.g., 20-0 series). This finding was obtained both within groups (Experiment 1) and between groups (Experiment 2), and suggested that the memory of 20 pellets arising from the first trial of the 20-0-20 series was retrieved not only on the second trial of the series, thereby signaling 0 pellets, but on the third trial as well, thereby also signaling 20 pellets. Retrieving the memory of 20 pellets on Trial 3 of the 20-0-20 series apparently resulted in that memory’s elevating speed on Trial 2 of that series.     

Evidence of repeated access to immediate verbal memory during handwriting

Writing is a relatively slow process. A certain degree of overlapping must therefore be assumed to exist between motor activities and more «central» processes involved in the production of language. The present experiment was based on the assumption that these management processes must leave some traces at the level of execution. Subjects were asked to read and memorize a sequence of three words (examples: «parachute parapluie paramètre», «taximètre décimètre paramètre»); and write them down on a graphic tablet. The results are consistent with the following ideas:

1. the same motor program was used for the three occurrences of repeated morphemes
2. Non-repeated morphemes were recovered from verbal memory while the preceding repeated morpheme was being written.

     

Individual differences in children''s and adults'' suggestibility and false event memory

In this article, we provide an overview of the emerging area of research concerning individual differences in children's memory, suggestibility, and false event reports. We begin with a discussion of recent research on children's false event memories. We then review research and theory concerning sources of individual differences in children's memory and suggestibility, including both cognitive (e.g., understanding of dual representations, source monitoring, imaginativeness, and event knowledge), and social-personality (e.g., attachment styles and temperament, parent-child communication, and sequelae of maltreatment) influences, and we highlight implications of these sources for children's false event reports. Finally, we examine how individual-difference factors proposed to mediate adults' false memories relate to those that may mediate children's false memories.     

Children's memory for phonemically confusable and nonconfusable letters: changes with age and reading ability

This experiment focused on differences that occur with age and reading skill in the use of phonemic codes in short-term retention tasks where stimuli were presented visually. In 1 condition, individuals recalled 6-letter strings composed of rhyming and nonrhyming letters after a 15-sec delay under conditions that permitted phonemic coding and rehearsal. 2 other conditions were designed to suppress (a) rehearsal of certain types of phonemic codes in the delay interval and (b) both phonemic coding at stimulus presentation and rehearsal. Subjects were grade 2 average readers matched in reading skill with grade 4 disabled readers, grade 4 average matched with grade 6 disabled, and grade 6 average matched with grade 4 superior readers. Average readers showed a decrease in errors with age in all 3 conditions, although performance was always better in the nonsuppression condition. In the latter, memory for nonrhyming letters was always better than memory for rhyming letters. Differential use of phonemic codes by good and poor readers in grades 4 and 6 was less than that found in previous research with younger children. Finally, by comparing the performances of grade 2 average with grade 4 disabled readers and grade 4 average with grade 6 disabled readers, the developmental lag hypothesis of reading disability was examined. Problems with testing the hypothesis are discussed.     

Systematic errors in pigeons’ memory for event duration: Interaction between training and test delay

Pigeons trained to choose different stimuli following short- and long-duration signals make disproportionately more “short” choices (i.e., “choose-short errors”) following an increase in the retention interval and more “choose-long errors” following a decrease in this delay. The present experiment provided a systematic investigation of how these selective errors depend on the relationship between the training delay and the test delay. Pigeons were first trained with a 0-sec delay between the signal (2- or 8-sec food presentations) and the choice stimuli (red- and blue-lit keys). On subsequent test trials with 5- and 10-sec delays, choose-short errors predominated. Next, the birds were trained with a constant 10-sec delay and then tested with shorter or longer delays on some trials. The birds now responded accurately and without selective errors at the 10-sec training delay, but made choose-long errors at shorter delays and choose-short errors at longer delays. Finally, the birds were trained with a constant 20-sec delay and then tested with shorter and longer delays. Choose-long errors again appeared at shorter test delays, choose-short errors at longer test delays, and no differential errors at the 20-sec training delay. The selectivity of these errors generally increased with the absolute difference between the training and test delay. Theoretical implications of these results are discussed.     

儿童文学对低龄儿童焦虑心理的干预

在很多人的心目中,童年是纯真美好的,但是目前我国儿童焦虑心理普遍存在并呈现低龄化发展趋势。不少儿童文学作品已经开始尝试去反映儿童的焦虑心理,对低龄儿童存在的压力进行了或多或少的释放。研究这一部分作品,对于我们拓宽儿童文学领域、深化儿童文学内涵、更新儿童文学认知具有重要的参考价值。     

Children's Views on Quality Standards for Children's Television Programs

Extending a recent study of the standards mothers apply in evaluating the quality of children's programs (Nikken et al., 1996), this study investigated the standards children between 9 and 12 years of age (N = 427) use to evaluate the quality of four types of children's programs: children's news programs, educational programs for children, dramatic programs for children, and cartoons. Data were collected by means of questionnaires. A factor analysis resulted in a list of nine types of quality standards. The two quality standards children considered most important were: (a) comprehensibility, and (b) aesthetic quality. Additional standards were: (c) entertainment, (d) involvement, (e) credibility, (f) innocuousness, (g) restfulness, (h) thought provocation, and (i) presence of role models. The importance children attached to the nine quality standards varied with both program type and child characteristics. Seven of the quality standards found in the present study are similar to the maternal quality standards observed in Nikken et al. ‘s study. The children in the present study generally viewed these seven quality standards as less important than the mothers in Nikken et al.’s study. However, the relative importance children and mothers attached to these quality standards showed similarity, especially in the case of cartoons, and to a lesser extent for children's news programs and dramatic programs.     

为硬盘"减肥瘦身"

为计算机硬盘“减肥瘦身” ,与人类减肥有异曲同工之妙 :提高整机的启动和运行速度 ,节约磁盘资源 ,减少感染病毒的机会     

中国的儿童文学之路何以走得如此艰难

五四启蒙的实质是知识精英们为构建现代民族国家而在思想上所做的一次努力.为民众的觉醒而呐喊的先驱们为了表示革命的彻底性,将妇女与儿童的解放推到了历史的前台,换句话说,中国此时大力提倡的儿童文学只是"器"而不是"道",先驱们对它的提倡只是作为完成建立现代民主国家这一构想的一个工具而已.这种初衷并非为了儿童文学自身的发展,而是赋予其巨大的社会政治功能.所以,中国的儿童文学自产生之日起就存在不足之处,本应该由成人文学完成的使命却硬性地加载在儿童文学上,使儿童文学在一定程度上扮演了成人文学的角色.     

Effects of repeated testing on short- and long-term memory performance across different test formats

This study examined whether practice testing with short-answer (SA) items benefits learning over time compared to practice testing with multiple-choice (MC) items, and rereading the material. More specifically, the aim was to test the hypotheses of retrieval effort and transfer appropriate processing by comparing retention tests with respect to practice testing format. To adequately compare SA and MC items, the MC items were corrected for random guessing. With a within-group design, 54 students (mean age = 16 years) first read a short text, and took four practice tests containing all three formats (SA, MC and statements to read) with feedback provided after each part. The results showed that both MC and SA formats improved short- and long-term memory compared to rereading. More importantly, practice testing with SA items is more beneficial for learning and long-term retention, providing support for retrieval effort hypothesis. Using corrections for guessing and educational implications are discussed.     

Witness recall across repeated interviews in a case of repeated abuse

In this illustrative case study we examine the three forensic interviews of a girl who experienced repeated sexual abuse from ages 7 to 11. She disclosed the abuse after watching a serialized television show that contained a storyline similar to her own experience. This triggered an investigation that ended in successful prosecution of the offender. Because this case involved abuse that was repeated on a weekly basis for 4 years we thus investigated the degree to which the child's narrative reflected specific episodes or generic accounts, and both the interviewer's and child's attempts to elicit and provide, respectively, specific details across the 3 interviews collected in a 1 month period. Across the 3 interviews, the child's account was largely generic, yet on a number of occasions she provided details specific to individual incidents (episodic leads) that could have been probed further. As predicted: earlier interviews were characterized more by episodic than generic prompts and the reverse was true for the third interview; the child often responded using the same style of language (episodic or generic) as the interviewer; and open questions yielded narrative information. We discuss the importance of adopting children's words to specify occurrences, and the potential benefits of permitting generic recall in investigative interviews on children's ability to provide episodic leads. Despite the fact that the testimony was characterized by generic information about what usually happened, rather than specific episodic details about individual occurrences, this case resulted in successful prosecution.