False Memory Phenomenon

Research Paper # 111464

Psychology > Child and Adolescent
Psychology > Memory

An analysis of the impact of suggestibility in young children.

4,341 words () | 31 sources | APA | 2007 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how children's suggestibility has been a focus of research since the turn of the twentieth century and how there have been many studies that examine the influence of a single misleading suggestion on children's recall of an event. It looks at how, as more and more children are called to court to provide uncorroborated testimony, especially in cases involving child sexual abuse, social psychology has turned its attention from studying the effects of a single misleading question on children's recall of neutral, nonscripted, and often uninteresting events, to examining the accuracy of children's testimony under a range of conditions that are characteristic of those that bring children to court. The paper also looks at the social science literature which shows that reinforcing children for behaviors regardless of the quality of the behaviors also increases the frequency of these types of behaviors.

From the Paper:

"A number of studies have shown that asking children the same question repeatedly within an interview and across interviews, especially a yes/no question often results in the child changing her original answer (Howe, 2006). Preschoolers are particularly vulnerable to these effects. Children often do this because they seem to reason, "The first answer I gave must be wrong, that is why they are asking me the question again. Therefore I should change my answer" (Ceci, Loftus, Leichtman & Bruck, 1994). At other times, children may change their answer to please the adult who is questioning them; they reason that the "adult must not have liked the first answer I gave so I will give another answer." At other times, children's answers may change because the interviewer's previous suggestions become incorporated into their memories (Cederborg, 2004). "

Sample of Sources Used:

Brainard, C, J., & Reyna, V, F. (2001). Fuzzy-trace theory: Dual processes ion reasoning, memory, and cognitive neuroscience. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 28, 41-100.
Brainard, C, J., & Reyna, V, F. (2002). Recollection rejection: How children edit their false memories. Developmental Psychology, 38, 156-172.
Brainard, C, J., Wright, R., Reyna, V, F., & Mojardin, A, H. (2001). Conjoint recognition and phantom recollection. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 27, 307-327.
Bruck, M., Ceci, S. J., & Melnyk, L. (1997). External and internal sources of variation in the creation of false reports in children. Learning and Individual Differences, 9, 289-316.
Candel, I., Merckelbach, H., & Muris, P. (2000). Measuring interrogative suggestibility in children: Reliability and validity of the Bonn Test of Statement Suggestibility. Psychology, Crime and Law, 6, 61-70.