Children dating childhood memories.
How accurate are children when dating very long-term memories? Chinese and European Canadian 8-, 11-, and 14-year-olds (N=344) recalled and dated memories from before they went to school in a memory fluency task. Parents provided verification of children's memories and age estimates. Across all age and culture groups, a telescoping effect (i.e., events were dated as taking place more recently than they actually did) was found for earlier memories (before 48 months) and a reverse telescoping effect for later memories (after 48 months). Older children showed a greater tendency to telescope earlier memories and a weaker tendency to reverse telescope later memories than did younger children. Euro-Canadian children showed larger reverse telescoping than Chinese children. These are the first systematic findings concerning the accuracy of children's dating of very long-term memories. They shed new light on the phenomenon of telescoping and have implications for research on childhood amnesia.
Wang
Qi
Q
Department of Human Development, Cornell University, MVR Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-4401, USA. qw23@cornell.edu
Peterson
Carole
C
Hou
Yubo
Y
D000293:Adolescent; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D044466:Asian People; D002170:Canada; D002648:Child; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D010290:Parents; D044465:White People