Analyzing false memories in children with associative lists specific for their age

Two experiments attempted to resolve previous contradictory findings concerning developmental trends in false memories within the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm by using an improved methodology--constructing age-appropriate associative lists. The research also extended the DRM paradigm to preschoolers. Experiment 1 (N=320) included children in three age groups (preschoolers of 3-4 years, second-graders of 7-8 years, and preadolescents of 11-12 years) and adults, and Experiment 2 (N=64) examined preschoolers and preadolescents. Age-appropriate lists increased false recall. Although preschoolers had fewer false memories than the other age groups, they showed considerable levels of false recall when tested with age-appropriate materials. Results were discussed in terms of fuzzy-trace, source-monitoring, and activation frameworks.     

Can Maltreated Children Inhibit True and False Memories for Emotional Information?

The authors examined 284 maltreated and nonmaltreated children's (6- to 12-year-olds) ability to inhibit true and false memories for neutral and emotional information using the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Children studied either emotional or neutral DRM lists in a control condition or were given directed-remembering or directed-forgetting instructions. The findings indicated that children, regardless of age and maltreatment status, could inhibit the output of true and false emotional information, although they did so less effectively than when they were inhibiting the output of neutral material. Verbal IQ was related to memory, but dissociative symptoms were not related to children's recollective ability. These findings add to the growing literature that shows more similarities among, than differences between, maltreated and nonmaltreated children's basic memory processes.     

Visual distinctiveness and the development of children's false memories

Distinctiveness effects in children's (5-, 7-, and 11-year-olds) false memory illusions were examined using visual materials. In Experiment 1, developmental trends (increasing false memories with age) were obtained using Deese-Roediger-McDermott lists presented as words and color photographs but not line drawings. In Experiment 2, when items were photographed with heterogeneous colored backgrounds, developmental trends were eliminated relative to words and homogeneous backgrounds. Experiments 3 and 4 examined whether the conceptual nature of the background mattered and presented items in neutral (color only), theme-congruent, or theme-incongruent contexts. The results showed that the nature of the context did not matter, only whether the backgrounds were homogeneous or heterogeneous. Apparently, children use distinctive perceptual, but not conceptual, features to attenuate false memory illusions.     

True and false memories in maltreated children

Differences in basic memory processes between maltreated and nonmaltreated children were examined in an experiment in which middle-socioeconomic-status (SES; N = 60), low-SES maltreated (N = 48), and low-SES nonmaltreated (N = 51) children (ages 5-7, 8-9, and 10-12 years) studied 12 Deese-Roediger-McDermott lists. Using recall and recognition measures, the results showed that both true and false memories increased with age and, contrary to some speculation, these trends did not differ as a function of maltreatment status. However, there were differences in overall memory performance as a function of SES. These results are discussed in the broader framework of children's memory development and the effects of the chronic stress associated with child maltreatment on basic memory processes.     

Task Dependency and the Role of Category Typicality and Metamemory in the Development of an Organizational Strategy

Second and fourth graders received 1 of 3 lists of items differing in category representativeness in either a free recall or a sort-recall task. The selection of list materials permitted a separation of the effects of age differences in category knowledge from those of that knowledge per se on children's recall behavior. Proximal and distal measures of metamemory also were derived. Levels of recall and clustering were superior in the sort-recall task and for items of high category typicality. Recall also increased with age, while grade effects for clustering were restricted to the sort-recall/high typicality condition. The deliberate use of an organizational strategy increased with items' category typicality and with age, and was more frequent in the sort-recall than in the free recall task. The results were interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that most 10-year-olds are capable of strategically activating category knowledge in appropriate task environments when items of high category typicality are provided.     

Training and Extension of a Memory Strategy: Evidence for Utilization Deficiencies in the Acquisition of an Organizational Strategy in High- and Low-IQ Children

143 9- and 10-year-old children were classified into high- and low-IQ groups and given 4 different sort/recall lists (baseline, training, near [immediate] extension, far [1-week] extension) to assess training and extension of an organizational memory strategy. All children received categorized items of moderate typicality for Phases 1, 3, and 4. For Phase 2, children were assigned to either a training or control group, with half of the children in each group receiving category typical items and the others category atypical items. Levels of recall, sorting, and clustering were greater in Phase 2 for high-IQ children, for the typical lists, and for trained children. Both the high- and low-IQ children trained with typical items continued to show high levels of recall on the near extension phase. No group of subjects maintained high levels of recall after 1 week, although levels of sorting and/or clustering on the extension trials remained high for all groups of subjects except the low-IQ control children. This latter pattern (elevated sorting/clustering with low levels of recall) is an indication of a utilization deficiency , a phase in strategy development when children use a strategy but gain little or no benefit in performance. The results provide evidence for IQ, training, and material effects in the demonstration of a utilization deficiency.     

Children's and Adults' Spontaneous False Memories: Long-Term Persistence and Mere-Testing Effects

In studies of children's false memories of word lists, it has been found that false alarms are stable over long-term retention intervals (persistence effect), that the stability of false alarms can equal or exceed that of hits, that earlier memory tests increase the frequency of hits on later tests (true-memory inoculation effect), that earlier memory tests increase the frequency of false alarms on later tests (false-memory creation effect), and that test-induced increases in false alarms can equal or exceed increases for hits. We studied these phenomena in 6-, 8-, and 11-year-olds and in adults using short narratives about everyday objects and events. All of the phenomena were detected at all ages, but levels of spontaneous memory falsification were much higher than for word lists and patterns of developmental change were somewhat different. Important new findings were that the persistence effect and the false-memory creation effect were greatest for statements that would be regarded as factually incorrect reports of events in sworn testimony and that, like suggestive questioning, interviews that involve nonsuggestive recognition questions may nevertheless taint children's memories.     

Deaf children's use of phonological coding: evidence from reading, spelling, and working memory

Two groups of deaf children, aged 8 and 14 years, were presented with a number of tasks designed to assess their reliance on phonological coding. Their performance was compared with that of hearing children of the same chronological age (CA) and reading age (RA). Performance on the first task, short-term recall of pictures, showed that the deaf children's spans were comparable to those of RA controls but lower than CA controls. For the older deaf children, short-term memory span predicted reading ability. There was no clear evidence that the deaf children were using phonological coding in short-term memory when recall of dissimilar items was compared with recall of items with similarly sounding names. In the second task, which assessed orthographic awareness, performance of the deaf children was similar to that of RA controls although scores predicted reading level for the deaf children but not the hearing. The final task was a picture spelling test in which there were marked differences between the deaf and hearing children, most notably in the number of spelling refusals (which was higher for the deaf children in the older group than their RA controls) and the percentage of phonetic errors (which was considerably lower for both groups of deaf children than for any of the hearing controls). Overall these results provide support for the view that deaf children place little reliance on phonological coding.     

Factors influencing the incidence of utilization deficiencies and other patterns of recall/strategy-use relations in a strategic memory task

Factors that influence the incidence of utilization deficiencies and other recall/strategy-use patterns on a strategic memory task were evaluated in two hundred and fourteen 7- and 9-year-old children. Both utilization deficiencies and the incidence of children showing increases in both recall and strategy use over phases were more likely to be observed on phase transitions involving prompting or when different lists of items were included on consecutive trials; in contrast, increases in recall in the absence of increases in strategy use were more likely to be found between trials consisting of the same stimulus items. This research clearly indicates that patterns of recall/strategy-use relations, including utilization deficiencies, vary meaningfully with the age of the child and a variety of contextual factors.     

Parameters of remembering and forgetting in the transition from infancy to early childhood

The ability to recall is something that most intact adults take for granted. For much of the last century, this feature of mental life was not considered to extend to very young children. There now is evidence that 1- to 2-year-olds are able to recall specific events after delays of several months. Over the short term, 1- to 2-year-olds' recall is affected by the same factors that affect older children's recall; it is not clear whether similar effects are apparent over the long term. Moreover, although age-related increases in long-term recall are assumed, there have been few empirical tests of the question. We examined recall by 14- to 32-month-olds for events experienced at 13 to 20 months. Using elicited imitation of novel multistep event sequences we examined effects of (a) delay length, (b) age at the time of experience, (c) temporal structure of events, (d) mode of experience of events, and (e) availability of verbal reminders, on long-term recall. Participants were 360 children enrolled at 13 (n = 90), 16 (n = 180), and 20 (n = 90) months. All of the 13-month-olds and half of the 16-month-olds were tested on 3-step event sequences; all of the 20-month-olds and half of the 16-month-olds were tested on 4-step event sequences. Within each age and step-length group, equal numbers of children were tested after intervals of 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months (n = 18 per cell). Children were tested on a variety of sequence types. For half of the events, imitation was permitted prior to the delay; for the other half, children were not permitted imitation. At delayed testing, children experienced a recall period during which they were cued by the event-related props alone, followed by a period in which recall was cued both by the event-related props and by verbal labels for the event sequences. Within step-length groups, the length of time for which older and younger children showed evidence of memory did not differ. Nevertheless, when the children were prompted by the event-related props alone, there were age-related differences in the robustness of children's memories (as indexed by higher levels of recall for older children relative to younger children). When the children were prompted by the props and by verbal labels for the event sequences, at the longer retention intervals, there were age-related differences in the robustness of children's memories and in the reliability with which recall was evidenced (as indexed by the larger numbers of older children evincing recall). Age-related effects were particularly apparent on children's ordered recall. Across the entire age range, the children were similarly affected by the variables of sequence type, opportunity for imitation, and verbal reminding.     

Children's integration of facial and situational cues to emotion

Children at 4 age levels (3-5, 6-7, 8-9, and 10-12 years) were shown a series of pictures in which facial and situational cues were (a) congruent, (b) conflicting, or (c) presented alone. Children rated the type (happy or sad) and intensity of the emotion felt by each character. Developmental changes in the relative weights assigned to facial and situational cues were examined using Anderson's information integration approach. The results showed that children's reliance on situational cues increased with age, but their reliance on facial expression decreased with age. Analysis of individual children's ratings indicated a developmental increase in the tendency to integrate facial and situational cues. Children's ability to resolve the conflicting cues (through stories) also increased with age, but there were no age differences in the types of resolutions used. At all age levels, children were less likely to resolve pictures involving an inconsistent positive expression than pictures showing an inconsistent negative expression.     

Strategic and nonstrategic factors in gifted children's free recall

The present experiment contrasted the recall of gifted and nongifted middle-school children for sets of categorically related items. Subjects were given a single free-recall trial on each of two lists consisting of category-typical and category-atypical words. The typicality of the items for one list was based on each subject's unique typicality ratings, whereas the typicality of the items in the second list was based on adult norms. A preliminary category-rating task indicated that gifted students were somewhat more similar to adults in their ratings of category typicality than nongifted children. Recall was comparable between the gifted and nongifted subjects for typical items, but greater for the gifted subjects for atypical items. The latency between the recall of unrelated words was faster for the gifted than the nongifted children. Subjects were classified as strategic or nonstrategic on the basis of clustering and interitem latencies. Gifted subjects were less apt to be classified as strategic than nongifted subjects on the typical items of the self-generated list; there were no differences in the classification between the gifted and nongifted children for all other contrasts. These results were interpreted as indicating that the cognitive advantage of gifted relative to nongifted children is more apt to be in terms of nonstrategic rather than strategic functioning.     

If You're Happy and You Know It: Positive Moods Reduce Age‐Related Differences in False Memory

When tested in the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm, children typically exhibit fewer false memories than do adolescents or adults. Here, participants’ moods and the valence of word lists were manipulated to explore the mechanism responsible for this developmental reversal in memory performance. Children (7‐ to 8‐year‐olds), adolescents (11‐ to 12‐year‐olds), and young adults (18‐ to 22‐year‐olds; N = 270) were assigned to one of three induced mood conditions and were presented with emotional word lists. In negative moods, adolescents and adults falsely recalled more negative information than did children, showing the typical developmental reversal effect. This effect, however, was eliminated when participants were in positive moods. The findings provide support for associative‐activation theory and have important implications for our understanding of the development of emotional false memories.     

Coaching, truth induction, and young maltreated children's false allegations and false denials

This study examined the effects of coaching (encouragement and rehearsal of false reports) and truth induction (a child-friendly version of the oath or general reassurance about the consequences of disclosure) on 4- to 7-year-old maltreated children's reports ( N = 198). Children were questioned using free recall, repeated yes–no questions, and highly suggestive suppositional questions. Coaching impaired children's accuracy. For free-recall and repeated yes–no questions, the oath exhibited some positive effects, but this effect diminished in the face of highly suggestive questions. Reassurance had few positive effects and no ill effects. Neither age nor understanding of the meaning and negative consequences of lying consistently predicted accuracy. The results support the utility of truth induction in enhancing the accuracy of child witnesses' reports.     

Metamemory Development: Understanding the Role of Similarity in False Memories

Research on the development of metamemory has focused primarily on children's understanding of the variables that influence how likely a person is to remember something. But metamemory also involves an understanding of why people occasionally misremember things. In this study, 5- and 6-year-olds ( N  =   38) were asked to decide whether another child's mistakes in a memory game were due to false memories or guesses. Some of the fictitious child's mistakes were similar to material he had seen earlier and some were not. Six-year-olds, but not 5-year-olds, consistently attributed more similar than dissimilar mistakes to false memories. Understanding the link between similarity and false memories improves significantly between 5 and 6 years of age.     

关联性记忆错觉研究的新进展

DRM范式极大地促进了关联性记忆错觉的研究。研究者对关联性记忆错觉的影响因素进行了全面、深入的探讨，并在此基础上提出了几个颇有见地的理论模型。这些都为我们理解记忆错觉和记忆本身提供了新的视角和观点。     

MEMORY FOR PICTORIAL INFORMATION AND THE PICTURE SUPERIORITY EFFECT

This research compared the performance of younger (mean age — 20.7 years) and older (mean age–68.3 years) adults on a memory task that involved pictures, words, and pictures‐plus‐words as stimuli. The results, consistent with previous research, indicated an equivalent picture superiority effect for both young and old adults when pictures were compared to words. More specifically, although recall scores were significantly higher for younger adults compared to older adults, the superior recall scores for pictures versus words did not differ between the age groups. However, the performance of older adults declined markedly, compared to the younger adults, in the picture‐plus‐word condition. These findings are interpreted as providing support for a divided attention model, which involves effortful processing of both visual and verbal aspects of stimuli. This situation of divided attention appears to put older adults at a relative disadvantage compared to young adults.     

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.