Michelle D. Leichtman

The Effects of Stereotypes and Suggestions on Preschoolers' Reports.

Childrens (N = 176) reported memories of a strange mans visit were studied. Three- to 6-year-olds were interviewed repeatedly after the event in one of the following conditions: (a) control, in which no interviews contained suggestive questions; (b) stereotype, in which children were given previsit expectations about the stranger; (c) suggestion, in which interviews contained erroneous suggestions about misdeeds committed by the stranger; and (d) stereotype plus suggestion, in which children were given both pre- and postvisit manipulations. Results from open-ended interviews after 10 weeks indicated that control participants provided accurate reports, stereotypes resulted in a modest number of false reports, and suggestions resulted in a substantial number of false reports. Children in the stereotype-plus-suggestion group made high levels of false reports. All experimental conditions showed dramatic developmental trends favoring older children.

The possible role of source misattributions in the creation of false beliefs among preschoolers.

In this article the authors examine one possible factor in the creation of false beliefs among preschool-aged children, namely, source misattributions. The authors present the results from an ongoing program of research which suggest that source misattributions could be a mechanism underlying childrens false beliefs about having experienced fictitious events. Findings from this program of research indicate that, although all children are susceptible to making source misattributions, very young children may be disproportionately vulnerable to these kinds of errors. This vulnerability leads younger preschoolers, on occasion, to claim that they remember actually experiencing events that they only thought about or were suggested by others. These results are discussed in the context of the ongoing debate over the veracity and durability of delayed reports of early memories, repressed memories, dissociative states, and the validity risks posed by therapeutic techniques that entail repeated visually guided imagery inductions.

Sharing memories and telling stories: American and Chinese mothers and their 3-year-olds.

American and Chinese mothers were asked to talk with their 3-year-old children at home about two shared past events and a story (41 mother-child dyads). Results revealed between-culture variation in the content and style of mother–child conversations when sharing memories and telling stories. American mothers and children showed a high-elaborative, independently oriented conversational style in which they co-constructed their memories and stories by elaborating on each other’s responses and focusing on the child’s personal predilections and opinions. In contrast, Chinese Mother–child dyads employed a lowelaborative, interdependently oriented conversational style where mothers frequently posed and repeated factual questions and showed great concern with moral rules and behavioural standards with their children. Findings suggest that children’s early social-linguistic environments shape autobiographical remembering and contribute to cultural differences in the age and content of earliest childhood memories.

Same Beginnings, Different Stories: A Comparison of American and Chinese Children's Narratives

This study examined social, emotional, and cognitive characteristics of American and Chinese childrens narratives. Twenty-four American and 26 Chinese 6-year-old children participated. Each child was interviewed individually twice with a 1-week delay interval. During the two interviews, children were asked to tell 11 stories prompted by pictures and standard verbal leads and to recount 7 emotional memories. Content analyses were performed on childrens stories and memories. In line with predictions, findings indicated that compared with American children, Chinese children showed greater orientation toward social engagement, greater concern with moral correctness, greater concern with authority, a less autonomous orientation, more expressions of emotions, and more situational details in both their stories and memories. A few gender differences were found. Findings are discussed in terms of different value systems and early socialization practices in these two cultures.

Childhood Memory and Self-Description in Young Chinese Adults: The Impact of Growing Up an Only Child.

This study examined the relationship between self-description and childhood memory in 255 Chinese young adults. Ninety-nine participants were from only child families and 156 had siblings. All participants completed two questionnaires: a version of the Twenty Statements Test of Kuhn and McPartland (Kuhn, M.H., McPartland, T.S., 1954. An empirical investigation of self-attitudes. American Sociological Review 19, 68-76) eliciting self-descriptions, and an instrument asking for earliest and other childhood memories. Based on theories positing a relationship between autobiography and the organization of the self, we predicted differences on both measures between only- and sibling-child participants. Findings indicated that compared with sibling children, only children had more private and fewer collective self-descriptions, earlier first memories, more specific and more self-focused memories. In addition, autobiographical measures were influenced by cohort, gender, preschool attendance, and urban/rural family effects. Findings are discussed in terms of literature on autobiography, the self and childhood in China.

True and false memories in children and adults: A cognitive neuroscience perspective

The authors consider evidence concerning accuracy and distortion in childrens recollections within the broader context of recent research on memory that has used the methods and conceptual framework of cognitive neuroscience. They focus on 3 phenomena—source amnesia, confabulation, and false recognition—that have been observed in young children and in adults who have sustained damage to the frontal lobes. Similarities and differences between the memory performance of young children and frontal lobe patients are noted, and evidence concerning frontal lobe maturation and cognitive development is examined. The literature provides suggestive but not conclusive support for the hypothesis that some aspects of memory development and cognitive development are associated with immature frontal functioning. The authors conclude by considering several cognitive and temperamental factors that may be related to suggestibility and memory distortion in young children.

The good, the bad, and the ugly: accuracy, inaccuracy, and elaboration in preschoolers' reports about a past event

This study investigated how suggestions provided to interviewers prior to questioning preschoolers affected childrens reports of past events. Children aged 3-5 years (N=20) were exposed to a series of game-like events that varied on a number of dimensions: the events involved being physically touched or not, carrying out unusual or usual actions, and acting or observing another child act. One and two months after the events, every child received two interviews from separate adults who had been briefed with either correct or incorrect information about each event. Results indicated that suggestions to interviewers determined the questions they asked, and that younger children acquiesced more often than older children to questions based on inaccurate information. Children of all ages agreed more readily with questions about unusual than usual actions, and younger childrens reports became more inaccurate over time. These trends may have relevance to the accuracy of young childrens eyewitness testimony.

The Problem of Infantile Amnesia: Lessons from Fuzzy-Trace Theory

In recent years, developmental and cognitive psychology have provided a wealth of information about infancy that has forced us to reconsider James’ celebrated observation that the baby’s universe is “one big blooming buzzing confusion” (James, 1950). Studies of memory, coupled with those in other areas, have begun to confer a view of the organism as a powerfully prepared information processor, starting at birth and perhaps even earlier to shape and be shaped by its environment. Querleu and his colleagues, for example, have shown that a fetus’ heart rate will accelerate in response to the sound of its mother’s voice, as well as the voices of others by the third trimester (Querleu, Renard, & Crepin, 1981). Taking the notion of this early perceptual/mnemonic ability a step further, Spence and Decasper’s (1982) results indicate that newborns can discriminate between stories that had been read to them while still in their mother’s womb and those that had not been read. Such indications of an early ability to parse information from the world and store it for further use is supported by studies of short-term memory, which demonstrate, for example, that from as early as 2 months of age, infants distinguish between familiar and novel stimuli (e.g., Fantz, 1956, 1964; Fagan, 1985).

What happened in kindergarten? Mother-child conversations about life story chapters

ABSTRACT Research indicates that adults form life story chapters, representations of extended time periods that include people, places and activities. Life chapter memories are distinct from episodic memories and have implications for behaviour, self and mental health, yet little is known about their development during childhood. Two exploratory studies examined parent–child conversations about life chapters. In Study 1, mothers recorded naturalistic conversations with their 5–6 year old children about two chapters in the child’s life. In Study 2, mothers recorded conversations with their 6–7 year old children about a particular life chapter—the child’s kindergarten year—and also about a specific episode of their choice. The results indicated that young children are able to recall and discuss information about life chapters and that parents actively scaffold children’s discussion of general information in chapters as well as specific events. Mothers’ conversational style when discussing chapters (e.g., elaborativeness) predicted children’s memory contributions, and was also positively correlated with their style when discussing specific events. The results suggest new avenues for research on the ontogeny of life chapters, the factors that shape them, and their role in development.