Children's False Memories Research Articles

Creating false memories in children using French word lists.

Creating false memories in children using French word lists.

Children's suggestibility for neutral arbitrary actions in the context of norm violations.

This study investigated children's false memories for neutral arbitrary actions. Five- to six-year-olds (N = 32) were taught four arbitrary actions, each following specific rules. The children then watched a televised adult performing eight actions: the four familiar actions while violating one aspect of each rule script and four unfamiliar actions. Suggestive and non-suggestive questions about all witnessed actions were asked, followed by forced-choice test questions to measure the false memory effect. The likelihood of forming false memories was higher in the suggestive condition than in the non-suggestive condition. There was no effect of previously acquired knowledge about the rules of the actions and no interaction between rule knowledge and suggestion. The results are discussed in light of previous findings in related fields of false memory research.

Methods of Exploring Related-Meaning-Based False Memories

ABSTRACT Children have traditionally been viewed as less reliable witnesses than are adults. More recently, a concept known as developmental reversals, has brought this view into question. Developmental reversals have demonstrated that in certain contexts, children produce fewer false memories than adults. The primary paradigm used to demonstrate developmental reversals, and to study false memory in general, has been the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. However, other false memory paradigms are not consistently related to the DRM, nor do they often produce developmental reversals. This study examined the relation between the DRM and another theoretically similar non-DRM paradigm (i.e., a picture memory task (PMT)), both known to produce false memories in children and adults. Young children (5- to 8-year-olds, n = 37), older children (9- to- 12-year-olds, n = 42) and adults (18- to- 22-year-olds, n = 40) completed the DRM and the PMT. Although false memories were found using both tasks, and predicted developmental patterns in false memory were also found with both tasks, false memory produced by the DRM was not related to false memory produced by the PMT. Theoretical and legal implications are discussed.

Dealing With False Memories in Children and Adults: Recommendations for the Legal Arena

Children are often viewed as poor eyewitnesses. Fact-finders, lawyers, and researchers assume that children are exceptionally prone to accept external suggestive (leading) questions and to create false memories. Is this assumption justified? This review will show it is not. First, studies on spontaneous false memories—elicited without any suggestive pressure—reveal that children are less likely than adults to produce them. Second, under certain circumstances, children are even less prone to accept external suggestions than adults. This counterintuitive finding happens when false suggestions contain information that is associatively related but in actuality not experienced by children or adults. Using empirically based interview protocols can maximize the retrieval of accurate memories in children and adults. Furthermore, expert witnesses should use alternative scenarios to better evaluate whether statements by children or adults are based on truth or fiction.

Maltreatment increases spontaneous false memories but decreases suggestion-induced false memories in children.

We examined the creation of spontaneous and suggestion‐induced false memories in maltreated and non‐maltreated children. Maltreated and non‐maltreated children were involved in a Deese–Roediger–McDermott false memory paradigm where they studied and remembered negative and neutral word lists. Suggestion‐induced false memories were created using a misinformation procedure during which both maltreated and non‐maltreated children viewed a negative video (i.e., bank robbery) and later received suggestive misinformation concerning the event. Our results showed that maltreated children had higher levels of spontaneous negative false memories but lower levels of suggestion‐induced false memories as compared to non‐maltreated children. Collectively, our study demonstrates that maltreatment both increases and decreases susceptibility to memory illusions depending on the type of false memory being induced. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Trauma affects memory.It is unclear how trauma affects false memory. What does this study add? This study focuses on two types of false memories.

A Case Concerning Children's False Memories of Abuse: Recommendations Regarding Expert Witness Work

Expert witnesses can play a major role in legal cases concerning the reliability of statements. Abuse cases frequently contain only the memories of eyewitnesses/victims without the presence of physical evidence. Here, it is of the utmost importance that expert witnesses use scientific evidence for their expert opinion. In this case report, a case is described in which 20 children reported being sexually abused by the same teachers at their elementary school. The investigative steps that were taken by the police and school authorities are reviewed, including how they probably affected memory. In order to provide a sound expert opinion regarding the reliability of these statements, three recommendations are proposed. To reduce the effect of confirmation bias and increase objectivity, it is argued that expert witnesses’ reports should contain alternative scenarios, be checked by another expert, and focus on the origin and context of the first statement.

Dual processes of false recognition in kindergarten children and elementary school pupils

We investigated the contribution of monitoring processes to the emergence of false memories in children. Two age groups were compared, assuming lower monitoring ability at preschool age compared with older children. We also manipulated whether elementary school pupils responded in the memory test with or without time pressure. Furthermore, the frequency of list presentation was manipulated within participants. We found that presenting lists thrice compared with only once increased the number of false memories in kindergarten children and in elementary school pupils responding under time pressure but reduced false memories in elementary school pupils responding without time pressure. These findings indicate that kindergarten children still lack the ability to monitor the source of the activation of critical items of Deese–Roediger–McDermott lists.

Emotional false memories in children with learning disabilities

Research has shown that children with learning disabilities (LD) are less prone to evince associative illusions of memory as a result of impairments in their ability to engage in semantic processing. However, it is unclear whether this observation is true for scripted life events, especially if they include emotional content, or across a broad spectrum of learning disabilities. The present study addressed these issues by assessing recognition memory for script-like information in children with nonverbal learning disability (NLD), children with dyslexia, and typically developing children (N=51). Participants viewed photographs about 8 common events (e.g., family dinner), and embedded in each episode was either a negative or a neutral consequence of an unseen action. Children's memory was then tested on a yes/no recognition task that included old and new photographs. Results showed that the three groups performed similarly in recognizing target photographs, but exhibited differences in memory errors. Compared to other groups, children with NLD were more likely to falsely recognize photographs that depicted an unseen cause of an emotional seen event and associated more "Remember" responses to these errors. Children with dyslexia were equally likely to falsely recognize both unseen causes of seen photographs and photographs generally consistent with the script, whereas the other participant groups were more likely to falsely recognize unseen causes rather than script-consistent distractors. Results are interpreted in terms of mechanisms underlying false memories' formation in different clinical populations of children with LD.

Paradoxical Effects of Warning in the Production of Children's False Memories

The effects of warning on false recognition and associated subjective experience of false recollection and familiarity were investigated in 7- to 13-year-old children and young adults (N = 259) using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Two warning conditions (warning with an example of a critical lure and warning without an example of a critical lure) were compared to a control condition, in which no warning was received. We found that 7- to 8-year-olds exhibited higher false recognition in the warning-with-example condition compared with the control condition; in contrast, 12- to 13-year-olds and young adults exhibited reduced false recognition in the warning-with-example condition. No effect of warning was observed in 10- to 11-year-olds. The subjective experience associated with false memories was similar across ages. In contrast, age-related increases in subjective recollection were found for true memories. The processes that enhance or suppress false memories during development are discussed.

Effects of Presentation Format and List Length on Children's False Memories

The effect of list length on children's false memories was investigated using list and story versions of the Deese/Roediger-McDermott procedure. Short (7 items) and long (14 items) sequences of semantic associates were presented to children aged 6, 8, and 10 years old either in lists or embedded within a story that emphasized the list theme. Subsequent tests of recognition memory revealed different effects of length for lists and stories across development. Longer lists produced more false alarms to critical lures for 8- and 10-year-olds only, and longer stories produced more false alarms to critical lures for 6-year-olds only. These results demonstrate that increasing the number of items presented at study increases false recognition for younger as well as older children when the theme of the items is made salient.

False memories in children. Trauma and suggestibility

A traumatikus eseményekre való emlékezés központi kérdése, hogy kisgyermekek képesek-e pontos emlékbeszámolókat adni az általuk átélt kora gyermekkori traumatikus eseményekről. Jelen tanulmány e problémakörrel foglalkozik. E probléma vonatkozásai két kérdés közelebbi tárgyalásán keresztül közelíthetőek meg. Az első kérdés az, hogy a fejlődő, kibontakozásban lévő emlékező rendszer adott jellemzői (a felnőtt emlékezettől való eltérése) miként hatnak, hogyan alakítják a fennmaradó emlékeket, különös tekintettel, ha azok mélyebb érzelmeket tartalmaznak. A terület kutatási eredményei arra világítanak rá, hogy a fejlődésben lévő emlékezeti rendszer alapvető sajátosságai rányomják a bélyegüket a korai emlékek, így a traumatikus emlékek jellegére is: kisgyerekek emlékmegőrzése az általánosítás irányában torzít, a szokatlan, egyedi eseményeket pontosabban őrzik meg, mint az ismétlődőeket. Ugyanakkor mindkét esetben az esemény célszerkezetébe illő lépésekre koncentrálnak, és az ebbe nem illőeket elhagyják. A kisgyermekkori traumatikus emlékek előhívásának megbízhatóságához kapcsolódó másik kérdés pedig az, hogy az előhívás kontextusa mennyire befolyásolja a kisgyermekeket az emlékformálásban. E kérdés tanulmányozása arra az általános eredményre vezet, hogy kisgyermekek, amiatt, hogy kevésbé képesek az emlékeik tudatos szervezésére, jobban befolyásolhatóak a kikérdezés által.

Emotional true and false memories in children with callous-unemotional traits

Several studies have found that children with callous-unemotional (CU) traits have a deficit in processing emotionally negative material. The present study examined whether this deficit also affects emotional memory. Twenty-two children with low CU traits and 24 children with high CU traits between 8 and 12 years of age were selected from a community sample and presented with neutral and negative emotional words, using the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm. On true recall, there was no difference between the groups. Both groups had higher true recall rates for the neutral word lists than for the negative lists. However, on false recall, although there were no group differences for neutral word lists, the high CU group recalled significantly fewer critical lures on the negative word lists than the low CU group. Furthermore, the high CU group had significantly less false recall on the negative word lists compared to the neutral word lists, while the low CU group showed no difference in false recall between the word lists. These results indicate that children with high CU traits have no deficiencies in true memory performance, yet are less susceptible to developing false memories concerning emotionally negative material.

The structure of semantic knowledge in young children's false memory.

The structure of semantic knowledge in young children's false memory.

Gist processing in free recall and recognition: Latent variable modelling of children's and adults' true and false memories

The present study was conducted to assess an important prediction of the fuzzy trace theory that both true and false memories should increase with gist processing, but that this positive correlation should be stronger when free recall is used as a memory measure than when recognition is used. Children from Grades 3 to 5 and college students learned two sets of six Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) lists and after a set they received a free recall test or a yes/no recognition test. Instead of employing the traditional analysis of variance approach, a latent class analysis technique was used to investigate the relationship between gist processing and true and false free recall and recognition. The results showed that gist trace processing was positively related to true memories, and to false memories. Moreover, for true memories, this positive relationship was stronger for free recall than for recognition.

Dividing attention lowers children's but increases adults' false memories.

The present study examined the impact of divided attention on children's and adults' neutral and negative true and false memories in a standard Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm. Children (7- and 11-year-olds; n = 126) and adults (n = 52) received 5 neutral and 5 negative Deese/Roediger-McDermott word lists; half of each group also received a divided attention task. The results showed that divided attention affected children's and adults' false memory levels differently but did not alter true memory differently. Our results revealed a developmental shift in that divided attention lowered children's false memory rates but increased adults' false memory rates, regardless of the nature of the material (i.e., neutral or negative). Our study indicates that manipulations that target conscious processing (e.g., divided attention) result in marked qualitative and quantitative differences between children's and adults' false memories but not true memories.

Phonological false memories in children and adults: Evidence for a developmental reversal

False memories created by the Deese/Roediger–McDermott (DRM) procedure typically show a developmental reversal whereby levels of false recall increase with age. In contrast, false memories produced by phonological lists have been shown to decrease as age increases. In the current study we show that phonological false memories, like semantic false memories produced by the DRM procedure, show a developmental reversal when list items converge on a single critical lure. In addition, effects of list length were observed in adults and older children but not in the younger children, again mirroring effects previously observed in semantic false memories. These findings suggest that differences in list structure underlie the divergent developmental trajectories previously reported in semantic and phonological false memories. The findings are discussed in relation to theories of false memory and theories of spoken word recognition.

Children's false memories: different false memory paradigms reveal different results

The aim of the present study was to examine whether two different false memory paradigms (DRM vs suggestion) produce similar results. In Experiment 1, 100 children from four age groups (5/6-year-olds, 7/8-year-olds, 9/10-year-olds, and 11/12-year-olds) were instructed to remember lists of semantically related words (DRM paradigm) and to complete a children's suggestibility measure (i.e. BTSS-NL). Results showed that children's false memories for non-presented words increased with age while accepting suggestive information decreased with age. Moreover, no significant relation was found between children's susceptibility to the DRM illusion and concurring to suggestive information. In Experiment 2, DRM false recall and recognition was compared between children with (n=20) and without (n=20) false memories for entire events. Children with implanted false memories did not falsely recall and recognize more critical lures than children without implanted false memories. This study shows that children's DRM intrusions are not related to their acceptance of suggestive information.

Differentiating between children's true and false memories using reality monitoring criteria

The present study examined the efficacy of the reality monitoring (RM) criteria in differentiating between children's true and false memories. Two independent judges rated 190 transcripts of children's true and false memory reports along the RM criteria. Results showed that, overall, the RM criteria failed to distinguish between children's accounts of true and false events. However, when examining each RM criterion separately, we found that more visual details were present in children's true memories than in their false memories. Results also showed that more RM criteria were present at the second interview than at the first interview.

The role of associative strength in children's false memory illusions

The effects of associative strength on rates of 7- and 11-year-old children's true and false memories were examined when category and Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) lists were used to cue the same critical lure. Backward associative strength (BAS) was varied such that the category and DRM lists had the same strength (DRM=category), DRM lists had more BAS (DRM>category), or category lists had more BAS (DRM<category). If BAS drives children's false memories then BAS, not the type of relation across items in a list, should determine false memory production. The results confirmed this prediction using both recall and recognition measures: (1) both true and false memories increased with age, (2) true memory was better for category than DRM lists but there were no differences for false memory, and (3) at all ages, false memories varied predictably with changes in BAS but were unaffected by list-type manipulations. These findings are discussed in the context of models of false memory development.

Examining differences in the levels of false memories in children and adults using child-normed lists.

Several previous studies have demonstrated that children, when compared with adults, exhibit both lower levels of veridical memory and fewer intrusions when given semantically associated lists. However, researchers have drawn these conclusions using semantically associated word lists that were normed with adults, which may not lead to the same level of activation or gist generation in children. In the current study, the authors used similar associative word lists normed with children and then evaluated the memory of children and adults using these newly normed lists as well as the typical adult-normed lists. Results indicate that children showed lower true and false memories with both the child-normed and adult-normed lists. Thus, these data suggest that the negative relationship between age and false memories in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM; J. Deese, 1959; H. L. Roediger & K. B. McDermott, 1995) paradigm is not an artifact of the age group used to construct the lists.