TY - JOUR

T1 - Children's emotional false memories

AU - Howe, Mark L.

N1 - RAE_import_type : Journal article RAE_uoa_type : Psychology

PY - 2007/10

Y1 - 2007/10

N2 - Eight- and 12-year-old children were presented with neutral and negative emotional Deese-Roediger-McDermott lists equated on familiarity and associative strength. Both recall and recognition (A') measures were obtained. Recall measures exhibited the usual age increments in true and false recollection. True neutral items were better recalled and recognized than true negative emotional items. Although the children showed more false recall for neutral than for negative emotional lists, false recognition was higher for negative emotional than for neutral items. A' analyses also showed that whereas true neutral information and false neutral information were easily discriminated by children regardless of age, the same was not the case for true and false negative emotional information. Together, these results suggest that although children may be able to censor negative emotional information at recall, such information promotes relational processing in children's memory, making true and false emotional information less discriminable overall.

AB - Eight- and 12-year-old children were presented with neutral and negative emotional Deese-Roediger-McDermott lists equated on familiarity and associative strength. Both recall and recognition (A') measures were obtained. Recall measures exhibited the usual age increments in true and false recollection. True neutral items were better recalled and recognized than true negative emotional items. Although the children showed more false recall for neutral than for negative emotional lists, false recognition was higher for negative emotional than for neutral items. A' analyses also showed that whereas true neutral information and false neutral information were easily discriminated by children regardless of age, the same was not the case for true and false negative emotional information. Together, these results suggest that although children may be able to censor negative emotional information at recall, such information promotes relational processing in children's memory, making true and false emotional information less discriminable overall.

KW - MALTREATED CHILDREN

KW - WORD LISTS

KW - EXPERIENCE

KW - EVENTS

KW - STRESS

KW - RECOGNITION

KW - RELATEDNESS

KW - INTRUSIONS

KW - ILLUSION

KW - RECALL

U2 - 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01991.x

DO - 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01991.x

M3 - Journal article

VL - 18

SP - 856

EP - 860

JO - Psychological Science

JF - Psychological Science

SN - 0956-7976

IS - 10

ER -