Eliminating age differences in children’s and adults’ suggestibility and memory conformity effects
Date
2017
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Publisher
Developmental Psychology
Abstract
We examined whether typical developmental trends in suggestion-induced false memories (i.e.,
age-related decrease) could be changed. Using theoretical principles from the spontaneous false
memory field, we adapted two often-used false memory procedures: misinformation (Experiment
1) and memory conformity (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, 7/9-year old children (n = 33) and adults (n = 39) received stories containing associatively-related details. They then listened to misinformation in the form of short narrative preserving the meaning of the story. Children and adults were equally susceptible to the misinformation effect. In Experiment 2, younger (7/8-year olds, n = 30) and older (11/12-year-olds, n = 30) children and adults (n = 30) viewed pictures containing associatively-related details. They viewed these pictures in pairs. Although the pictures differed, participants believed they had viewed the same pictures. Participants had to report what they could recollect during collaborative and individual recall tests. Children and adults were equally susceptible to memory conformity effects. When correcting for response bias, adults’ false memory scores were even higher than children’s. Our results show that age trends in suggestion-induced false memories are not developmentally invariant.
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Keywords
suggestibility, false memories, misinformation effect
Citation
Otgaar, H., Howe, M. L., Brackmann, N. & van Helvoort, D. (2017). Eliminating age differences in children’s and adults’ suggestibility and memory conformity effects. Developmental Psychology, 53(5), 962-970.