Developmental Trends in False Memory Across Adolescence and Young Adulthood: A Comparison of DRM and Memory Conformity Paradigms

Little is known about the reliability of eyewitness memory among adolescents as most memory research has focused primarily on adults and young children. A number of studies recently have emerged outlining conditions where memory suggestibility increases from early childhood to adulthood. These developmental reversals are found in semantic association tasks such as the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm and have not yet been thoroughly investigated among adolescents. In the current study, we examined DRM performance among 11–21 year olds (N = 245). Extending the work comparing children and adults, false memory on the DRM task increased with age. False memory on the DRM task was not associated with false memory on a memory conformity task. The different memory processes involved with the tasks and the implications for legal psychology are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of Music Training on Attention,Processing Speed and Cognitive Music Abilities—Findings from a Longitudinal Study

The present study addresses visual attention and processing speed in primary school children (N = 345; 7–8 years of age) who received either music (MC) or natural science training (NC) over a period of 18 months. Dependent variables were collected three times (T1–T3) and included measures for processing speed, visual attention and cognitive music abilities. They were submitted to latent or manifest change models including socioeconomic status and basic cognitive functions as covariates. Groups performed similarly in all dependent tasks at baseline (T1). MC showed significant increases in processing speed as well as in music abilities from T2 to T3 and increases in rhythmic abilities from T1 to T2. Although MC also showed increases in both processing speed and visual attention over time, they were at a small advantage with respect to the former and at a clear disadvantage with respect to the latter measure as compared to NC. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social anxiety moderates memory conformity in adolescents

When two people view the same event and later try to remember it together, what one person says affects what the other person reports. A model is presented which predicts that this memory conformity effect will be moderated, in different ways, by two components of social anxiety. People with higher fear of negative evaluation should be more influenced by their peers than others, but those with higher social anxiety related to avoiding social situations may be less influenced by their peers than others. Pairs of adolescent‐aged participants took part in a face recognition study. For each trial one person responded and then the next person responded. The effect of what the first person said on the second person's response was measured; the size of the effect was moderated by the social anxiety measures as predicted by the model. This is the first study showing the relationship between social anxiety and memory suggestibility. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.