Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Priming children's and adults' analogical problem solutions with true and false memories. / Howe, Mark; Threadgold, Emma; Norbury, Jenna et al.
In: Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Vol. 116, No. 1, 09.2013, p. 96-103.Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Priming children's and adults' analogical problem solutions with true and false memories.
AU - Howe, Mark
AU - Threadgold, Emma
AU - Norbury, Jenna
AU - Garner, Sarah
AU - Ball, Linden
PY - 2013/9
Y1 - 2013/9
N2 - We investigated priming of analogical problem solutions with true and false memories. Children and adults were asked to solve nine verbal proportional analogies, three of which had been primed by Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) lists where the critical lure (and problem solution) was presented as the initial word in the list (true memory priming), three of which were primed by DRM lists whose critical lures were the solution to the verbal proportional analogies (false memory priming), and three that were unprimed. We controlled for age differences in solution rates (knowledge base) in order to examine developmental differences in speed-ofprocessing. As anticipated, the results showed that adults completed the problems significantly faster than children. Furthermore, both children and adults solved problems primed with false memories significantly faster than either those primed with true memories or unprimed problems. For both age groups there was no significant difference between solution times for unprimed and true primed problems. These findings demonstrate that (a) priming of problem solutions extends to verbal proportional analogies, (b) false memories are more effective at priming problem solutions than true memories, and (c) there are clear positive consequences to the production of false memories.
AB - We investigated priming of analogical problem solutions with true and false memories. Children and adults were asked to solve nine verbal proportional analogies, three of which had been primed by Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) lists where the critical lure (and problem solution) was presented as the initial word in the list (true memory priming), three of which were primed by DRM lists whose critical lures were the solution to the verbal proportional analogies (false memory priming), and three that were unprimed. We controlled for age differences in solution rates (knowledge base) in order to examine developmental differences in speed-ofprocessing. As anticipated, the results showed that adults completed the problems significantly faster than children. Furthermore, both children and adults solved problems primed with false memories significantly faster than either those primed with true memories or unprimed problems. For both age groups there was no significant difference between solution times for unprimed and true primed problems. These findings demonstrate that (a) priming of problem solutions extends to verbal proportional analogies, (b) false memories are more effective at priming problem solutions than true memories, and (c) there are clear positive consequences to the production of false memories.
KW - Priming
KW - Analogical reasoning
KW - False memory
KW - Memory development
KW - DRM paradigm
KW - Problem solving
KW - Speed of processing
U2 - 10.1016/j.jecp.2013.03.006
DO - 10.1016/j.jecp.2013.03.006
M3 - Journal article
VL - 116
SP - 96
EP - 103
JO - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
JF - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
SN - 0022-0965
IS - 1
ER -