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.
Carneiro
Paula
P
Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, Departamento de Psicologia, Lisboa, Portugal. mpcarneiro@usal.es
Albuquerque
Pedro
P
Fernandez
Angel
A
Esteves
Francisco
F
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001245:Association Learning; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005608:Free Association; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012094:Repression, Psychology; D012660:Semantics; D012691:Serial Learning; D014706:Verbal Learning