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Pérez-Mata N, Moreno A, Diges M, Peláez M. How Chronological Age, Theory of Mind, and Yield are Interrelated to Memory and Suggestion in Young Children. THE SPANISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY 2022; 25:e26. [PMID: 36210368 DOI: 10.1017/sjp.2022.22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
We investigated the interrelations between chronological age, theory of mind (ToM), Yield (as a measure of individual suggestibility), memory and acceptance of experimental suggestion in a sample of children between 3 and 7 years old (N = 106). One week after participants interacted with 'a Teacher', they were asked to recall activities carried out with the Teacher (direct experience) and the contents of a story read to them by the Teacher (indirect experience). Data were examined with an analysis of developmental trajectories, which allows establishing the predictor value of socio-cognitive developmental factors regardless of participants' chronological age. It also estimates predictor values in interaction with the age and determines whether age is the best predictor for performance. As in previous research, results showed that chronological age was the main predictor of memory performance, both for direct experience (i.e., activities performed) and indirect experience (i.e., contents of the story). However, ToM and Yield, together with participants' ages, modulated their acceptance of the external suggestions received (presented only once, one week after the event). A turning point was observed at age 4.6. Below this age, the greater the mentalist skills (higher ToM), the lower was the vulnerability to external suggestion. Still, children below this age characterized individually as being suggestible (Yield medium or high) were more vulnerable to suggestion the younger they were. Thus, developmental socio-cognitive factors might modulate young children's vulnerability to external suggestions, even if received only once.
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Cook KM, You X, Cherry JB, Merchant JS, Skapek M, Powers MD, Pugliese CE, Kenworthy L, Vaidya CJ. Neural correlates of schema-dependent episodic memory and association with behavioral flexibility in autism spectrum disorders and typical development. J Neurodev Disord 2021; 13:35. [PMID: 34525948 PMCID: PMC8442441 DOI: 10.1186/s11689-021-09388-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/21/2020] [Accepted: 05/18/2021] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Conceptual knowledge frameworks termed schemas facilitate memory formation and are posited to support flexible behavior. In adults, the medial temporal lobe (MTL) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) trade-off in supporting schema-based memory formation, such that encoding of subsequently remembered schema-congruent information relies on mPFC, whereas schema-incongruent information relies on MTL. Whether this is true in the immature brain and relates to behavioral flexibility is unknown. In this preliminary investigation, we aimed to replicate the adult findings in typically developing (TD) children and to investigate the relevance to behavioral flexibility by examining a disorder with pathognomonic behavioral rigidity, autism spectrum disorder (ASD). METHODS Children completed an associative subsequent memory paradigm, encoding object-scene pairs in an MRI scanner and subsequently completing a recognition test outside the scanner after a delay. Recognition performance was back sorted to construct remembered vs forgotten contrasts. One-way ANOVAS were conducted in MTL and mPFC masks for schema-congruency, followed by congruency by flexibility scores. Exploratory analyses were then conducted within the whole brain. RESULTS As reported in adults, episodic memory was strongest for schema-congruent object-scene pairs, followed by intermediate pairs, and lowest for schema-incongruent pairs in both TD and ASD groups. However, the trade-off between mPFC and MTL in TD children differed from adult reports such that mPFC supported memory for intermediate schema-congruency and left anterior MTL supported memory for schema-congruent pairs. In ASD, mPFC engagement interacted with flexibility such that activation supporting memory for intermediate schema-congruency varied with parent-reported flexibility and was higher in those with more flexible behavior. A similar interaction was also observed in both the left dorsolateral and rostrolateral PFC in whole-brain analysis. CONCLUSION Our findings provide the first preliminary evidence for the association of schema-based episodic memory formation and behavioral flexibility, an executive function impaired in multiple developmental disorders. Upon replication, this line of research holds promise for memory-based interventions addressing executive problems of behavioral rigidity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin M Cook
- Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Georgetown University, 401 White-Gravenor, 37th and O Streets NW, Washington, DC, 20007, USA.
| | - Xiaozhen You
- Children's Research Institute, Children's National Health System, Washington, DC, 20010, USA
| | - Joseph Bradley Cherry
- Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Georgetown University, 401 White-Gravenor, 37th and O Streets NW, Washington, DC, 20007, USA
| | - Junaid S Merchant
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA
| | - Mary Skapek
- University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA
| | | | - Cara E Pugliese
- Children's Research Institute, Children's National Health System, Washington, DC, 20010, USA
| | - Lauren Kenworthy
- Children's Research Institute, Children's National Health System, Washington, DC, 20010, USA
| | - Chandan J Vaidya
- Children's Research Institute, Children's National Health System, Washington, DC, 20010, USA.
- Department of Psychology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 20007, USA.
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Burrows KS, Powell MB. Prosecutors' Perspectives on Clarifying Terms for Genitalia in Child Sexual Abuse Interviews. AUSTRALIAN PSYCHOLOGIST 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/ap.12068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
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Klemfuss JZ, Olaguez AP. Individual Differences in Children's Suggestibility: An Updated Review. JOURNAL OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE 2020; 29:158-182. [PMID: 30142291 DOI: 10.1080/10538712.2018.1508108] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2018] [Revised: 07/20/2018] [Accepted: 07/28/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
The present review is intended as an overview of our current understanding of how children's individual characteristics, in terms of demographic, cognitive, and psycho-social variables, may influence their susceptibility to suggestion. The goals are to revisit conceptual models of the mechanisms of suggestibility, to provide an updated practical guide for practitioners, and to make recommendations for future research. Results suggest that children with intellectual impairment and those with nascent language skills may be particularly vulnerable to suggestion. Further, memory for separate events, theory of mind, executive function, temperament, and social competence may not be related to suggestibility, whereas additional work is needed to clarify the potential contributions of knowledge, stress, mental health, parental elaborative style, and adverse experiences/maltreatment to children's suggestibility.
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Affiliation(s)
- J Zoe Klemfuss
- Department of Psychological Science, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Alma P Olaguez
- Department of Psychological Science, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA
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Löffler E, von der Linden N, Schneider W. Influence of Domain Knowledge on Monitoring Performance Across the Life Span. JOURNAL OF COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT 2016. [DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2016.1208204] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
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Abstract
In a multistage experiment, twelve 4- and 9-year-old children participated in a triad rating task. Their ratings were mapped with multidimensional scaling, from which euclidean distances were computed to operation-alize semantic distance between items in target pairs. These children and age-mates then participated in an experiment that employed these target pairs in a story, which was followed by a misinformation manipulation. Analyses linked individual and developmental differences in suggestibility to children's representations of the target items. Semantic proximity was a strong predictor of differences in suggestibility: The closer a suggested distractor was to the original item's representation, the greater was the distractor's suggestive influence. The triad participants' semantic proximity subsequently served as the basis for correctly predicting memory performance in the larger group. Semantic proximity enabled a priori counterintuitive predictions of reverse age-related trends to be confirmed whenever the distance between representations of items in a target pair was greater for younger than for older children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen J Ceci
- Department of Human Development, Cornell University, NY 14853, USA.
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Paz-Alonso PM, Goodman GS. Developmental Differences across Middle Childhood in Memory and Suggestibility for Negative and Positive Events. BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES & THE LAW 2016; 34:30-54. [PMID: 27117600 DOI: 10.1002/bsl.2239] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
In the present study, we investigated age differences in children's eyewitness memory and suggestibility for negative and positive events that children often experience during middle childhood. We first examined 216 ratings by children aged 8-12 years of the frequency and intensity of personal negative and positive experiences (Study 1). Based on those ratings, videotapes depicting the most frequent and intense negative (an accident) and positive (a family excursion) events were developed. A new sample of 227 children aged 8-12 years was tested for recognition memory of the videotapes using the three-stage post-event misinformation procedure (Study 2). Compared with 8- to 9-year-olds, 10- to 12-year-olds exhibited less memory malleability and less compliance with false information. Age improvements in recognition accuracy were also evident for children who watched the negative event, but not for those who watched the positive event. Compliance predicted misinformation effects, particularly in regard to peripheral details. Thus, using ecologically representative emotional events, age differences in suggestibility and memory accuracy emerged, especially for negative events.Theoretical and forensic implications concerning children's eyewitness memory and suggestibility are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Gail S Goodman
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA
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Koppel J, Berntsen D. The cultural life script as cognitive schema: how the life script shapes memory for fictional life stories. Memory 2013; 22:949-71. [PMID: 24345198 DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2013.859269] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
We tested, across three studies, the effect of the cultural life script on memory and its phenomenological properties. We focused in particular on the mnemonic effects of both schema-consistency and frequency in the life script. In addition to testing recognition (in Study 1) and recall (in Studies 2 and 3), we also collected remember/know judgements for remembered events (in Studies 1 and 2) and memory for their emotional valence (in Study 2). Our primary finding was that, across all three studies, higher-frequency events were more memorable than lower-frequency events, as measured through either recognition or recall. We also attained three additional, complementary effects: First, schema-inconsistent events received remember ratings more often than schema-consistent events (in Study 2, with a trend to this effect in Study 1); second, where an event's emotional valence was inconsistent with the life script, memory for its valence was reconstructed to fit the script (in Study 2); and, third, intrusions in recall were disproportionately for life script events (in Study 3), although that was not the case in recognition (in Study 1). We conclude that the life script serves as a cognitive schema in how it shapes memory and its phenomenological properties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan Koppel
- a Center on Autobiographical Memory Research, Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences , Aarhus University , Denmark
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Martin-Ordas G, Atance CM, Call J. Remembering in tool-use tasks in children and apes: The role of the information at encoding. Memory 2013; 22:129-44. [DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2013.806553] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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Otgaar H, Smeets T, Peters M. Children's Implanted False Memories and Additional Script Knowledge. APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2012. [DOI: 10.1002/acp.2849] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Henry Otgaar
- Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Clinical Psychological Science, Forensic Psychology section; Maastricht University; Maastricht; the Netherlands
| | - Tom Smeets
- Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Clinical Psychological Science, Forensic Psychology section; Maastricht University; Maastricht; the Netherlands
| | - Maarten Peters
- Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Clinical Psychological Science, Forensic Psychology section; Maastricht University; Maastricht; the Netherlands
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Salmon K, Mewton L, Pipe ME, McDonald S. Asking Parents to Prepare Children for an Event: Altering Parental Instructions Influences Children's Recall. JOURNAL OF COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT 2011. [DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2010.496708] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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Principe GF, Haines B, Adkins A, Guiliano S. False rumors and true belief: memory processes underlying children's errant reports of rumored events. J Exp Child Psychol 2010; 107:407-22. [PMID: 20630537 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2010.05.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2009] [Revised: 05/18/2010] [Accepted: 05/19/2010] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Previous research has shown that overhearing an errant rumor--either from an adult or from peers--about an earlier experience can lead children to make detailed false reports. This study investigates the extent to which such accounts are driven by changes in children's memory representations or merely social demands that encourage the reporting of rumored information. This was accomplished by (a) using a warning manipulation that eliminated social pressures to report an earlier heard rumor and (b) examining the qualitative characteristics of children's false narratives of a rumored-but-nonexperienced event. Findings indicated that overheard rumors can induce sensory and contextual characteristics in memory that can lead children to develop genuine false beliefs in seeing rumored-but-nonexperienced occurrences. Such constructive tendencies were especially likely among 3- and 4-year-olds (relative to 5- and 6-year-olds) and when rumors were picked up from peers during natural social interactions (relative to when they were planted by an adult).
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Salmon K, Champion F, Pipe ME, Mewton L, McDonald S. The child in time: The influence of parent–child discussion about a future experience on how it is remembered. Memory 2008; 16:485-99. [DOI: 10.1080/09658210802036112] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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Principe GF, Smith E. Seeing Things Unseen: Fantasy Beliefs and False Reports. JOURNAL OF COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT 2008. [DOI: 10.1080/15248370701836618] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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Salmon K, Yao J, Berntsen O, Pipe ME. Does providing props during preparation help children to remember a novel event? J Exp Child Psychol 2007; 97:99-116. [PMID: 17328907 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2007.01.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2006] [Revised: 01/02/2007] [Accepted: 01/04/2007] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
We investigated the conditions under which preparatory information presented 1 day before a novel event influenced 6-year-olds' recall 1 week later. Children were assigned to one of six experimental conditions. Three conditions involved preparatory information that described the event accurately but differed according to the presence and type of props (verbal, real props, and toy props). In two conditions, which also differed according to whether verbal information was supplemented with real props, half of the preparatory information described the event accurately, whereas the other half was thematically similar to, but inconsistent with, the event (misleading verbal and misleading props). Compared with the attentional control condition, all forms of preparation that described the event accurately increased correct recall. Preparation that included props improved photograph recognition. When half of the accurate information was replaced by misleading information, the positive benefit on recall was reduced, and when misleading props accompanied the misleading information, errors increased. The potential underlying mechanisms and implications for pediatric settings are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karen Salmon
- School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia.
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