Recollection rejection: how children edit their false memories.

A new methodology is presented for studying children's ability to suppress memory reports of false-but-gist-consistent events, one that measures children's use of a specific editing operation (recollection rejection) that suppresses false reports by accessing verbatim traces of true events. Children make memory reports under 2 instructional conditions, verbatim and gist, and the data are analyzed with fuzzy-trace theory's conjoint-recognition model. Application of the new methodology in studies of children's false memory for narrative events revealed that (a) false-memory editing increases dramatically between early and middle childhood, (b) even young children spontaneously edit their false memories, (c) measures of children's false-memory editing react appropriately to experimental manipulations, and (d) developmental reductions in the incidence of false-memory reports are primarily due to developmental improvements in verbatim memory ability (rather than to decreases in the formation of false memories). Implications for child forensic interviewing are discussed.     

Recollection rejection: Gist cuing of verbatim memory

Recollection rejection allows people to avoid accepting related lures presented on recognition tests by recollecting their instantiating study items. Two predictions made by fuzzy trace theoristswere tested. First, recollection rejection should likely occur when verbatim traces are available for retrieval. Second, related lures that closely approximate the gist of their instantiating study items should be more likely to evoke recollection rejection than related lures that do not provide such a match. In support of the first condition, estimates of recollection rejection were lower when participants studied items under divided as opposed to full attention. In support of the second prediction, estimates of recollection rejection were greater when participants were presented with antonyms as related lures, as opposed to rhymes. The present results contribute to the cued recall and recognition literatures by demonstrating that recollection rejection is moderated by similar factors as is cued recall.     

Recollection rejection of false narrative statements

Our research was focused on a false-memory editing operation that is posited in fuzzy-trace theory-recollection rejection. The main objectives were (a) to extend model-based measurement of this operation to a narrative task that ought to ensure high levels of recollection rejection and (b) to study five manipulations that ought to influence recollection rejection by affecting the accessibility of verbatim traces of narrative statements: recency of narrative presentation, narrative repetition, type of false-memory item, testing delay, and repeated testing. The results showed that the narrative task did indeed yield high levels of recollection, with an estimated 49% of gist-consistent distractors being rejected in this way on initial memory tests. Consistent with current theoretical conceptions of false-memory editing, the results also showed that recollection rejection increased as a function of manipulations that should enhance the accessibility of verbatim traces of narrative statements, with repeated testing delivering especially large increases in verbatim accessibility.     

Phantom ROC: Recollection rejection in a hybrid conjoint recognition signal detection model

The present experiments test predictions of dual process models with regards to recollection rejection using a model called phantom ROC. Participants studied pictures and then took a recognition test in which they were presented with targets (i.e., the exact picture presented), related lures (i.e., the same object but from a different angle), and unrelated lures (i.e., objects that had not been shown). For each item, participants answered both standard recognition and meaning recognition questions. In Experiment 1 participants studied pictures under either full attention or divided attention. In Experiment 2 some participants were told that no object was shown twice (i.e., mutual exclusivity instructions), while others were told that both camera angles might have been shown for some objects (no mutual exclusivity instructions). The present experiments provide three converging measures, all of which are consistent with dual process models that propose a recollection rejection mechanism.     

Social rejection and ADHD in young adults: an analogue experiment

Poor outcomes in ADHD may be related to problematic social functioning and consequences of social rejection. This study examines how ADHD symptom expression affects mood and social rejection. Working from findings in depression that describe maintenance through negative interpersonal interactions, the authors seek to examine this theory's applicability to poor outcomes in ADHD. In a completely randomized design, 130 participants are exposed to one of several videotape segments that include displays of ADHD, depression, and social anxiety. A normal control is also used. All abnormal videotapes are met with greater rejection than the control. Displays of ADHD elicit similar levels of rejection to those elicited by displays of depression. Additionally, ADHD elicits greater levels of hostile mood, whereas depression elicits high levels of depression and fatigue. Implications for an interpersonal theory of vulnerability in ADHD are discussed along with implications for future research, prevention, and intervention.     

Predictors of suggestibility and false-memory production in young adult women

Recent controversy over memories retrieved in therapy has highlighted the importance of increasing our understanding of individual differences in suggestibility and false-memory production. The purpose of this laboratory study was to assess the ability of several clinically relevant variables (acquiescence, self-esteem, and negative affect) to predict the tendency to yield to suggestive questioning, to alter responses in the face of interpersonal criticism, or to produce false memories (in this study, false recall of implied words). Results indicated that acquiescence significantly predicted suggestibility, as did competence self-esteem scores, but global self-esteem and negative affect scores did not. False-memory production (i.e., false recall of implied words) was associated with higher levels of both acquiescence and negative affect, but the tendency to alter responses after criticism was not significantly predicted by any variable.     

Effective warnings in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott false-memory paradigm: the role of identifiability

These experiments document that warnings can substantially reduce false memories in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm when the critical items are easily identifiable. Participants in a norming study identified the critical item after hearing a list of words. The lists with critical items that could be identified by the largest proportion of participants (high identifiable [HI] lists) and the smallest proportion of participants (low identifiable [LI] lists) were used in the experiment. Participants heard lists of words (e.g., bed, rest, doze) related to a critical item (e.g., sleep) and were warned about the nature of the lists before the study phase. The results indicated that warnings reduced false recognition of critical items for HI lists but not LI lists.     

Expectancy in melody: tests of children and adults

Melodic expectancies among children and adults were examined. In Experiment 1, adults, 11-year-olds, and 8-year-olds rated how well individual test tones continued fragments of melodies. In Experiment 2, 11-, 8-, and 5-year-olds sang continuations to 2-tone stimuli. Response patterns were analyzed using 2 models of melodic expectancy. Despite having fewer predictor variables, the 2-factor model (E. G. Schellenberg, 1997) equaled or surpassed the implication-realization model (E. Narmour, 1990) in predictive accuracy. Listeners of all ages expected the next tone in a melody to be proximate in pitch to the tone heard most recently. Older listeners also expected reversals of pitch direction, specifically for tones that changed direction after a disruption of proximity and for tones that formed symmetric patterns.     

Pictorial representations in adults and children

Reaction time to make same-object judgements was measured for pairs of identical pictures, picture synonyms, identical words, word synonyms, and picture-word combinations in adults and children. At all ages, synonym comparisons took longer than identical comparisons. Adults, but not children responded no faster to picture-word pairs than to picture synonym pairs. This is taken as evidence for the use of abstract pictorial information by adults but not by children. Children seem to compare two different exemplars of the same object verbally in the absence of well-integrated abstract pictorial representations.     

Memory narrowing in children and adults

The memory narrowing effect posits that stress enhances memory for central information at the expense of memory for peripheral details. This effect is well established in adults, but not in children, although studies have not directly compared children's and adults' memory for central versus peripheral details of an identical distressing experience. In the present study, 9–12 year‐old and adult participants completed a laboratory stressor during which measures of self‐reported stress was collected. Two weeks later, participants returned for a surprise memory test regarding central and peripheral details of the laboratory stressor. Greater stress predicted memory narrowing in both children and adults, as indexed via decreased correct responses and increased don't know responses to questions about peripheral relative to central details. Findings have implications for theories concerning stress and memory, particularly in children, and for evaluating eyewitness memory in legal contexts. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sequential pointing in children and adults

The development of visuomotor control in sequential pointing was investigated in 6- to 10-year-old children and in adults. In 3 experiments we manipulated task difficulty by changing the number, the size, and the spacing of the targets in the sequences. In Experiment 4, only 1 movement was required; we varied independently the distance between targets and the distance of the starting point from the participant's body. Children's temporal and spatial parameters of the motor sequences showed large age-dependent trends, but did not reach the adult values. Comparison of performance across levels of difficulty and ages suggests that motor development is not a uniform fine-tuning of stable strategies. Instead, we argue that each stage of development is best characterized by the set of strategic components potentially available at that stage, and by the (age-dependent) rules for the selection of components in a given context.     

Visual search in children and adults: Top-down and bottom-up mechanisms

Three experiments investigated visual search for targets that differed from distractors in colour, size, or orientation. In one condition the target was defined by a conjunction of these features, while in the other condition the target was the odd one out. In all experiments, 6–7- and 9–10-year-old children were compared with young adults. Experiment 1 showed that children's search differed from adults' search in two ways. In conjunction searches children searched more slowly and took longer to reject trials when no target was present. In the odd-one-out experiments, 6–7-year-old children were slower to respond to size targets than to orientation targets, and slower for orientation targets than for colour targets. Both the other groups showed no difference in their rate of responding to colour and orientation. Experiments 2 and 3 highlighted that these results were not a function of either differential density across set sizes (Experiment 2) or discriminability of orientation and colour (Experiment 3). Across all three experiments, the results of both conjunction and odd-one-out searches highlighted a development in visual search from middle to late childhood.     

Visual search in children and adults: top-down and bottom-up mechanisms

Three experiments investigated visual search for targets that differed from distractors in colour, size, or orientation. In one condition the target was defined by a conjunction of these features, while in the other condition the target was the odd one out. In all experiments, 6-7- and 9-10-year-old children were compared with young adults. Experiment 1 showed that children's search differed from adults' search in two ways. In conjunction searches children searched more slowly and took longer to reject trials when no target was present. In the odd-one-out experiments, 6-7-year-old children were slower to respond to size targets than to orientation targets, and slower for orientation targets than for colour targets. Both the other groups showed no difference in their rate of responding to colour and orientation. Experiments 2 and 3 highlighted that these results were not a function of either differential density across set sizes (Experiment 2) or discriminability of orientation and colour (Experiment 3). Across all three experiments, the results of both conjunction and odd-one-out searches highlighted a development in visual search from middle to late childhood.     

Interference and integration: The fan effect in children and adults

In three experiments, we explored (1) possible developmental changes in interference and (2) the use of integration processes to eliminate them. Two versions of the fan effect procedure were used. Results of Experiment 1 with unrelated sentences showed similar fan effects for 12-13-year-old children and adults. In Experiment 2, the sentences were thematically related so that it was possible to use elaboration processes to construct integrated representations. Under these conditions only adult participants eliminated the fan effect. In Experiment 3 a new procedure was used where children and adults studied highly familiar material in an organised manner. The results showed that in these conditions children integrated information and reduced interference. Thus, prior knowledge and organisation seem to be important factors to create meaningful integrated representations in memory.     

Interference and integration: the fan effect in children and adults

In three experiments, we explored (1) possible developmental changes in interference and (2) the use of integration processes to eliminate them. Two versions of the fan effect procedure were used. Results of Experiment 1 with unrelated sentences showed similar fan effects for 12-13-year-old children and adults. In Experiment 2, the sentences were thematically related so that it was possible to use elaboration processes to construct integrated representations. Under these conditions only adult participants eliminated the fan effect. In Experiment 3 a new procedure was used where children and adults studied highly familiar material in an organised manner. The results showed that in these conditions children integrated information and reduced interference. Thus, prior knowledge and organisation seem to be important factors to create meaningful integrated representations in memory.     

Speeded retrieval abolishes the false-memory suppression effect: Evidence for the distinctiveness heuristic

We examined two different accounts of why studying distinctive information reduces false memories within the DRM paradigm. The impoverished relational encoding account predicts that less memorial information, such as overall familiarity, is elicited by the critical lure after distinctive encoding than after nondistinctive encoding. By contrast, the distinctiveness heuristic predicts that participants use a deliberate retrieval strategy to withhold responding to the critical lures. This retrieval strategy refers to a decision rule whereby the absence of memory for expected distinctive information is taken as evidence for an event’s nonoccurrence. We show that the typical false-recognition suppression effect only occurs when the recognition test is self paced. This suppression effect is abolished when participants make recognition decisions under time pressure, such as within 1 second of seeing the test item. These results are consistent with the distinctiveness heuristic that a time-consuming retrieval strategy is used to reduce false-recognition responses.     

Synchrony and emotion in children and adults

This study examined both the development of synchronisation activities and the way emotion affects these activities in children and adults. Children aged from 3 to 8 years, as well as adults, performed a spontaneous motor tempo (SMT) task and a synchronisation task with a 500‐millisecond and 700‐millisecond inter‐stimulus interval (ISI), followed by a continuation task, in both an emotion‐free and an emotional context (High‐Arousal, Low‐Arousal, and Neutral). The results showed that the SMT was faster and more variable in the younger children. In addition, the younger children found it more difficult to slow down their tapping rate in synchrony with the 700‐millisecond ISI, with the result that they quickly returned to their internal tempo in the continuation phase. In contrast, the 8‐year‐olds' synchronisation performance was close to that of the adults. However, despite developmental changes in synchronisation skills, all the participants produced faster tempi in both the SMT and the synchronisation task for the High‐Arousal emotion than for the other emotions. This suggests that emotions induce an automatic distortion of motor timing as has also been observed for the perception of time.     

Forward association, backward association, and the false-memory illusion

In the Deese-Roediger-McDermott false-memory illusion, forward associative strength (FAS) is unrelated to the strength of the illusion; this is puzzling, because high-FAS lists ought to share more semantic features with critical unpresented words than should low-FAS lists. The authors show that this null result is probably a truncated range artifact. When FAS and its complement, backward associative strength (BAS), were independently manipulated in factorial designs, they both affected illusion strength. Moreover, their effects did not interact and were of comparable magnitude. Conjoint-recognition analyses were used to pinpoint the influence of BAS and FAS on retrieval processes that support or suppress false-memory responses. Although the variables affected both types of processes, their effects on suppressive processes were larger and more consistent. This research also provided the first clear evidence that subjects often use suppressive processes inappropriately to reject studied items that preserve the gist of experience.     

Attractiveness in young children: Sex-differentiated reactions of adults

Attractiveness ratings of 50 children aged 12–38 months were investigated in relation to adult socializing agents' behavior toward the children in their homes and play groups and their attitudes toward the children. Attractiveness scores were derived from 43 judges' ratings of facial photographs of the children. The same children were observed in play groups with female care givers; 40 of them were also observed in their homes with their parents. Play-group care givers rated the children for likability, tractability, and peer relations. Parents rated their attitudes toward giving routine care to their child. Attractiveness scores were not correlated with any adult attitude measures. Girls' attractiveness scores were positively correlated with their attempts to communicate in home and play group, and with mothers', fathers', and care givers' instructional responses, but negatively correlated with passive behavior in the home and with mothers' positive reactions. Boys' attractiveness scores were negatively correlated with passive behavior in the play group; no other significant correlations were found in the data for boys.