The development of children’s early memory skills

A multi-task battery tapping nonverbal memory and language skills was used to assess 60 children at 18, 24, and 30 months. Analyses focused on the degree to which language, working memory, and deliberate memory skills were linked concurrently to children’s Elicited Imitation performance, and whether the patterns of association varied across the different ages. Language ability emerged as a predictor of immediate Elicited Imitation performance by 24 months and predicted delayed performance at each age. In addition to the contributions of language, the children’s abilities to search for and retrieve toys in the deliberate memory task were associated with their immediate Elicited Imitation performance at each age. In addition to language, working memory was positively associated with aspects of both immediate and delayed performance at all ages. The extent to which it was possible to replicate and extend previous cross-sectional work in this longitudinal study is discussed

The eVects of prior knowledge on children's memory and suggestibility

Abstract In this study, 5-and 6-year-olds were read a story and asked to recall its details. Two independent factors-prestory knowledge and poststory suggestions-were crossed to examine the eVects on children's story recall. The results indicated that prestory social knowledge about the story protagonist as well as academic knowledge relating to the content of the story inXuenced the accuracy of children's recall immediately after the story presentation. Following the suggestive interview, children reported interviewer-provided social and academic misinformation to a greater extent when the misinformation was consistent with their prior knowledge. In contrast, children were more likely to refute misinformation that contradicted their academic knowledge. These Wndings are discussed in terms of the mechanisms underlying the knowledge-memory and knowledge-suggestibility linkages. Published by Elsevier Inc

Variations on a technique: enhancing children’s recall using narrative elaboration training.

The current study examined first, whether the positive effects demonstrated by the Narrative Elaboration Technique (NET) could be further enhanced when coupled with mental reinstatement of context (MR), prior to interview, and second, compared the efficacy of the NET at a two-week delay and a nine-month delay. In Study 1, 47 children took part as a class in a staged event about safety. Two weeks later they received a single training session, and the following day were interviewed with either the NET (n = 16), NET + MR (n = 17), or in a control condition (n = 14). Children trained with the NET reported approximately twice as much correct information, and were more accurate, than a control group who did not receive NET training, although the combination of the NET + MR did not result in a further significant enhancement of recall. In Study 2, 22 children took part in the safety event, and nine months later received a single training session, and were interviewed the following day with either the NET (n = 11), or in a control condition (n = 11). Children who received the NET training reported more correct information than those who did not. The practical applications of the NET and its variations are discussed

Developmental Differences across Middle Childhood in Memory and Suggestibility for Negative and Positive Events

Online publication 27/04/2016In the present study, we investigated age differences in children's eyewitness memory and suggestibility for negative and positive events that children often experience during middle childhood. We first examined 216 ratings by children aged 8-12 years of the frequency and intensity of personal negative and positive experiences (Study 1). Based on those ratings, videotapes depicting the most frequent and intense negative (an accident) and positive (a family excursion) events were developed. A new sample of 227 children aged 8-12 years was tested for recognition memory of the videotapes using the three-stage post-event misinformation procedure (Study 2). Compared with 8- to 9-year-olds, 10- to 12-year-olds exhibited less memory malleability and less compliance with false information. Age improvements in recognition accuracy were also evident for children who watched the negative event, but not for those who watched the positive event. Compliance predicted misinformation effects, particularly in regard to peripheral details. Thus, using ecologically representative emotional events, age differences in suggestibility and memory accuracy emerged, especially for negative events. Theoretical and forensic implications concerning children's eyewitness memory and suggestibility are discussed.This research was supported by grants PSI2012-32093, PSI2015-65696, RYC-2014- 15440 and Severo Ochoa (SEV-2015-049) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) to P.M.P-A