Maternal Style and Children's Participation in Reminiscing: Stepping Stones in Children's Autobiographical Memory Development

In this study we investigated maternal and child factors in children's autobiographical memory development. Fifty-eight mother-child dyads discussed unique past events when the children were 19, 25, 32, and 40 months old. In addition, children participated in experimenter-child interviews about unique events when they were 25, 32, and 40 months old. The developmental progression to children's independent verbal memory begins with children's early interest in participating in the conversations and maternal reminiscing style, which together elicit children's later shared memory elaborations. Subsequently, children's shared memory elaborations and maternal reminiscing style both contribute to children's later independent memory at approximately 3 1/2 years of age. We address the idea that autobiographical memory development is essentially a collaborative process, with children significantly contributing to the development of their own reminiscing style from its inception.     

Preschool Children's Collaborative Problem-Solving Interactions: The Role of Gender,Pair Type,and Task

The purpose of this study was to investigate gender differences in problem-solving and conflict-resolution skills in preschool children. Children between 4 and 5 years of age completed 3 problem-solving tasks with either a same-sex or a different-sex peer. Children's verbal and nonverbal interactions were analyzed. Girls used mitigation more often than did boys. Mixed-sex dyads engaged in controlling verbal interactions more often than same-sex dyads. There were relationships between verbal and nonverbal behaviors and task success; these relationships also differed across pair types. The results of the study demonstrate that the gender differences in types of verbal interactions previously observed in preschool children's free play are also present in their problem-solving interactions and that children are able to alter the types of behaviors they use depending upon both partner gender and the type of task involved.     

Behavioral and neuroanatomical investigation of Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM)

A single case study recently documented one woman's ability to recall accurately vast amounts of autobiographical information, spanning most of her lifetime, without the use of practiced mnemonics (Parker, Cahill, & McGaugh, 2006). The current study reports findings based on eleven participants expressing this same memory ability, now referred to as Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM). Participants were identified and subsequently characterized based on screening for memory of public events. They were then tested for personal autobiographical memories as well as for memory assessed by laboratory memory tests. Additionally, whole-brain structural MRI scans were obtained. Results indicated that HSAM participants performed significantly better at recalling public as well as personal autobiographical events as well as the days and dates on which these events occurred. However, their performance was comparable to age- and sex-matched controls on most standard laboratory memory tests. Neuroanatomical results identified nine structures as being morphologically different from those of control participants. The study of HSAM may provide new insights into the neurobiology of autobiographical memory.     

Family Environments and Children's Executive Function: The Mediating Role of Children's Affective State and Stress

There is increasing evidence that inadequate family environments (family material environment and family psychosocial environment) are not only social problems but also factors contributing to adverse neurocognitive outcomes. In the present study, the authors investigated the relationship among family environments, children's naturalistic affective state, self-reported stress, and executive functions in a sample of 157 Chinese families. These findings revealed that in inadequate family material environments, reduced children's cognitive flexibility is associated with increased naturalistic negative affectivity and self-reported stress. In addition, naturalistic negative affectivity mediated the association between family expressiveness and children's cognitive flexibility. The authors used a structural equation model to examine the mediation model hypothesis, and the results confirmed the mediating roles of naturalistic negative affectivity and self-reported stress between family environments and the cognitive flexibility of Chinese children. These findings indicate the importance of reducing stress and negative emotional state for improving cognitive functions in children of low socioeconomic status.     

Role of Verbal Working Memory in Complex Skill Acquisition

Although research has shown that general cognitive ability is related to performance during the initial stage of skill acquisition, empirical evidence is needed to increase understanding of the primary abilities responsible for the relation. We propose that verbal working memory is related to initial skill acquisition performance based on cognitive activities people enact when learning complex skills. After completing a general cognitive ability measure and a test of verbal working memory, 120 undergraduate students performed a complex computer simulation. The working memory test accounted for a meaningful amount of performance variance after statistically controlling for the general cognitive ability measure. These data suggest that tasks depending heavily on the activation of multiple knowledge structures may be understood in terms of individual differences in working memory.     

分心抑制和关系整合对学前儿童类比推理的影响

为探究分心抑制和关系整合对学前儿童类比推理的影响,实验一先初步探究分心抑制和关系整合对25名3~4岁和26名5~6岁儿童完成含有知觉分心的类比情景任务的影响。其次,揭示知觉分心与关系整合在类比推理中的具体作用模式。实验二先初步探究分心抑制和关系整合对30名3~4岁和28名5~6岁儿童完成含有语义分心的类比情景任务的影响。其次,揭示语义分心与关系整合在类比推理中的具体作用模式。结果表明,抑制控制能显著预测儿童完成各种类型类比推理成绩,工作记忆能显著预测儿童完成含有语义分心的类比推理成绩而不能显著预测含有知觉分心的类比推理成绩。儿童完成类比情景中的分心抑制是在关系整合中完成的,当类比情景中的关系整合没有超过儿童的工作记忆容量时,知觉或语义分心才能造成对儿童类比推理的影响。     

Credibility of Asylum Claims: Consistency and Accuracy of Autobiographical Memory Reports Following Trauma

Herlihy and colleagues (current issue) review the literature on the characteristics of autobiographical memory in asylum seekers who are presenting evidence of their traumatic experiences in the immigration courts with a view to finding a safe haven. In this commentary, I briefly discuss how the quality of the memory report may influence reliability and credibility judgements in individuals whose memories may be subject to post‐traumatic stress disorder. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Elaboration and Autonomy Support in Low-Income Mothers' Reminiscing: Links to Children's Autobiographical Narratives

Maternal elaboration and autonomy support during reminiscing facilitate middle-class children's autobiographical narrative skills. In this study, low-income Hispanic, White, and Black mothers' elaboration and autonomy support in reminiscing were examined in relation to children's joint and independent autobiographical narratives and engagement. Sixty preschool children discussed three past events with their mothers and one past event with a researcher. Maternal elaboration was related to children's joint and independent autobiographical narratives, and autonomy support was related to children's joint and independent engagement. Hispanic mothers used a less elaborative style during conversations about misbehavior, and Hispanic children tended to have less advanced independent autobiographical narratives. Maternal elaboration and autonomy support appear to play different roles in children's autobiographical narratives. Further, reminiscing may serve different purposes in different racial/ethnic groups.     

自传记忆事件聚集现象中的组织和提取特点

事件聚集是在事件水平上组织自传记忆的结构,是一种反映自传记忆组织的提取现象.在利用矫正后的事件追随任务对62名成人进行测试后发现:①事件之间各种组织信息并不是分离的,而是以整合的方式来组织事件聚集结构,这些信息不仅包含客体的信息,更包含主观的感受.②自我在自传记忆组织中的作用是强化事件聚集本身所具有的联系.③自传记忆的提取中首先要满足当前自我的要求;进行直接提取失败后,被试根据自传记忆的层级关系进行生成搜索;生成提取策略也失败后,个体则会根据事件线索中任何可以利用的细节来完成回忆任务.     

母亲元情绪理念与儿童情绪调节能力发展的关系：母亲情绪调节的中介作用

以540名小学一、三、五年级儿童的母亲为对象,采用回归分析和路径分析技术,考察了母亲元情绪理念及其情绪调节对儿童情绪调节能力发展的预测作用及其机制。结果表明：（1）母亲情绪教导和情绪紊乱理念对儿童情绪稳定性的发展具有直接预测作用,且以其高冲动性为中介对儿童情绪稳定性的发展具有间接预测作用;（2）母亲情绪教导理念对儿童情绪调节性的发展具有直接预测作用,且以其情绪调节策略缺乏为中介对儿童情绪调节性的发展具有间接预测作用。因此,母亲情绪教导理念有助于其不良情绪的控制和更加灵活多样的情绪调节策略,而对自身不良情绪的有效控制和更灵活的情绪应对策略,将有助于促进其孩子情绪调节能力的发展。     

The Unnoticed Absence of Emotion in Autobiographical Memory

Memory for one's own life experiences, or autobiographical memory, is impressive in its accuracy and flexibility. A memory is constructed anew at each recollection through a process of finding and temporarily joining together specific details about location, sensory experiences, and other details. Curiously missing, however, are emotional details. Although emotional experiences are well remembered, the emotional aspect of an experience is neither retained in its full intensity nor reexperienced during recollection. The adaptive benefits of omitting emotion from autobiographical memory include uninterrupted goal pursuit and emotional stability. But most people make metacognitive errors that convince them that autobiographical memories generally do contain emotion. Possible causes of these errors include naïve theories, motivation to believe that one is healthy, filling in current emotion for remembered emotion, and biased sampling of memories.     

行为表现与言语报告:3～5岁儿童的一级观点采择(英文)

为考察3~5岁儿童一级观点采择的行为表现与言语报告之间的潜在差异,本研究采用"单面镜"范式设计了两个实验。实验1中,54名儿童成对与实验者一起完成观点采择游戏,逻辑回归分析结果表明3-5岁儿童的行为表现不存在显著差异(B=?0.225,Wald=0.38,p=0.541)。方差分析也没有发现儿童的行为表现和言语报告存在差异。由于实验1中的编码系统存在一些局限,并且缺少对儿童偏好的控制,因此在实验2中进行了改进。实验2选择了另外60名3~5岁儿童完成藏玩具游戏。方差分析发现了实验范式类型(行为表现或言语报告)、年龄和性别的三因素交互作用(F(2,48)=3.55,p=0.037,η2=0.13)。结果表明随着年龄增加,男孩与女孩一级观点采择的行为表现都显著提高,而男孩言语报告的提高程度显著低于女孩。总体而言,考察儿童一级观点采择时,行为表现可能比言语报告提供更多信息。     

集体记忆中的协作促进及其原因

摘 要 协作促进是指先前协作提取的经验对后续的个人提取具有积极影响。为了探讨协作促进产生的基本条件及其原因,本研究通过两个实验分别考察了小组的人数和回忆方式对协作促进的影响以及他人再现和交叉线索对协作促进的贡献。结果表明：无论小组的大小为2人组、3人组还是4人组,回忆方式为轮流回忆还是自由回忆均能产生协作促进,且轮流回忆的协作促进量要高于自由回忆的协作促进量;他人再现对协作促进的贡献大于交叉线索。这说明协作促进是一个稳定的现象,其主要原因是他人再现的作用。     

自我、文化与记忆：自传体记忆的跨文化研究

自传体记忆不仅是对过去自我经验的加工和提取,还反映了特定的社会和文化背景。近年来,自传体记忆跨文化研究表明,东西方被试在最早记忆年龄、记忆容量和具体性、内部语言的使用、记忆取向等方面存在差异。文章从自我概念、亲子回忆和叙事方式、社会变迁和文化多元化等角度,探讨了文化自我观对于自传体记忆的核心意义。Nelson和Fivush的社会文化发展观则从发展的角度动态考察了内外因素对自传体记忆产生文化和个体差异的机制。文章还回顾了自传体记忆跨文化研究的主要方法。最后,文章探讨了自传体记忆跨文化及相关领域的研究前景和存在的问题     

工作记忆子成分在听觉障碍儿童心算过程中的作用

采用2×2×3的混合实验设计,比较听力正常儿童和听觉障碍儿童在心算作业上的差异,考察了工作记忆子成分在听觉障碍儿童心算过程中的作用。结果表明,与听力正常儿童相比,听觉障碍儿童在高存储负载水平下的心算成绩显著降低,说明语音回路负责心算过程中的存储成分;而且听觉障碍儿童在对中央执行能力有高需求的实验条件下的作业水平并不比正常听力儿童差,说明他们的中央执行能力并没有受到损失。     

Children's Moral Emotions,Narratives, and Aggression: Relations With Maternal Discipline and Support

ABSTRACT. Children who attribute more positive emotions to hypothetical moral victimizers are typically more aggressive and have more behavior problems. Little is known, however, about when individual differences in these moral emotion attributions first emerge or about maternal correlates of these differences. In this study, 63 4–6-year-olds judged how they would feel after victimizing peers for gain and enacted event conclusions using narrative methods adapted from the MacArthur Story Stem Battery. In addition, children's mothers completed assessments of their disciplinary styles and social support, and children's aggressive tendencies were assessed based on ratings from mothers and a second familiar adult. Results revealed that most preschoolers expected to feel happy after their victimizing acts, but variations in happy victimization were unrelated to children's aggression. Several of children's narrative themes, including making amends (e.g., apologizing, reparations), aggressive acts, and mentions of death/killing, however, were related to children's aggression. Moreover, two maternal disciplinary dimensions, higher warmth and reasoning, as well as greater social support were also related to lower child aggression. Children's emotion attributions and moral narratives, however, were unrelated to maternal disciplinary practices or social support.     

抑郁症患者的自传体记忆特征及其应用自传体记忆测验的元分析

研究目的在于探讨抑郁症患者自传体记忆的特征以及自传体记忆测验(the autobiographical memory test, AMT)在该领域的应用情况。通过文献检索, 搜集了18篇应用AMT作为测评工具的抑郁症自传体记忆研究, 抑郁症患者566人, 正常对照组457人。元分析研究发现, 和正常对照组比较, 抑郁症组的具体性记忆减少, 概括化记忆增多, 反应迟缓。目前对这种现象的解释主要有功能性回避模型、认知执行受损模型和沉思模型; 年龄、抑郁情绪以及AMT测试程序对测试结果有明显影响; 发表偏倚和敏感性分析显示存在发表偏倚, 但稳定性较好。AMT在抑郁症研究存在灵敏度不足等局限, 作者从AMT程序、研究设计等方面提出了改善建议。