The Development and Use of Memory Editing Strategies in Children

儿童记忆编辑策略的发展和使用

• 批准号: 1124412
• 负责人: James Lampinen
• 金额: $ 40.04万
• 依托单位: University of Arkansas
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-06-01 至 2016-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1124412&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Development; Use; Memory; Editing; Strategies

False memories occur when people remember events in a way that diverges from the way the events actually happened. Both children and adults can be subject to false memories, but adults develop a number of strategies to limit these errors. One strategy involves making use of expectations about how vivid and distinctive particular sorts of memories should be (i.e., distinctiveness strategy). Another strategy involves making use of knowledge that memory of one event sometimes implies that another event did not happen (i.e., logical inconsistency strategy). Although these memory editing strategies are well developed in adults, they are less developed in children. The purpose of the planned research is to understand how children develop these skills.  In the first two experiments, children and adults will study lists made up of both pictures and words.  Because pictures tend to produce more vivid memories than words, a participant using the expected distinctiveness strategy should have fewer false memories for pictures. To measure the use of the logical inconsistency strategy, some participants will study lists where each item is presented as either a picture or a word, but never in both formats. This will allow them to use the logical inconsistency strategy (e.g., "I know it was not a picture because it was a word").  Other participants will study lists that include some items that are presented as pictures, some items that are presented as words, and some items that are presented as both pictures and words ? making the logical inconsistency strategy invalid. To see if strategy use is related to frontal lobe development, participants will complete a standard neurological test battery that measures frontal lobe function (Experiment 1-3). To see if strategy use is learned through experience, some participants engage in multiple study test trials to see if this experience increases strategy use (Experiment 2). The final year of the project will examine if these strategies are used by children in situations that mimic the challenges faced by actual child witnesses (Experiment 3).  A number of high profile cases in the 1980s and 1990s raised public concern about whether children sometimes falsely remember events, especially after suggestive questioning. In these and other contexts, the accuracy of children's memory can be of vital importance. Part of the puzzle involves understanding why children are less able to avoid false memories than adults. A science based understanding of strategy development in children could produce an immediate impact in these and other cases. The research we plan on conducting may improve methods for interviewing children and may help us understand the situations where children are most likely to fall prey to false memories. The research will also help determine if there are individual differences between children which may make some children more prone to memory errors than others. Finally, the research may have important educational implications.  If the strategies being investigated are learned through experience, the planned research may result in educational approaches that help children to learn these strategies more efficiently. In fact, as part of the investigators' plan to share the results of this research, they intend to hold annual "learning about learning" workshops with local school districts. These workshops will allow the investigators to share with educators the results of the research and will also allow the researchers to gain insights from the first hand experiences educators have helping children to learn.

当人们以与事件实际发生的方式不同的方式记住事件时，就会发生虚假的回忆。儿童和成人都可以遭受虚假的记忆，但是成年人制定了许多限制这些错误的策略。一种策略涉及利用对记忆应该如何生动和独特的记忆（即独特策略）的期望。另一种策略涉及利用知识，即对一个事件的记忆有时意味着没有发生另一个事件（即逻辑上的不一致策略）。尽管这些记忆编辑策略在成年人中发达了，但在儿童中它们的发展较少。计划研究的目的是了解儿童如何发展这些技能。在前两个实验中，儿童和成人将研究由图片和单词组成的清单。由于图片往往比单词产生更生动的记忆，因此使用预期独特性策略的参与者对图片的虚假记忆力较少。为了衡量逻辑不一致策略的使用，一些参与者将研究每个项目作为图片或单词的列表，但从未以两种格式出现。这将使他们能够使用逻辑上的不一致策略（例如，“我知道这不是图片，因为这是一个单词”）。其他参与者将研究包含一些作为图片的项目，一些作为单词呈现的项目以及某些作为图片和单词呈现的项目的列表？使逻辑上的不一致策略无效。为了查看策略使用是否与额叶开发有关，参与者将完成测量额叶功能的标准神经系统测试电池（实验1-3）。研究测试试验以查看这种经验是否增加了策略的使用（实验2）。该项目的最后一年将检查是否在模仿实际儿童证人面临的挑战的情况下使用这些策略（实验3）。在1980年代和1990年代，许多引人注目的案件引起了公众对儿童是否有时会错误地记住事件的关注，尤其是在提出质疑之后。在这些和其他情况下，儿童记忆的准确性至关重要。难题的一部分涉及了解为什么孩子比成年人避免避免错误记忆的能力。基于科学的儿童战略制定的理解可能会在这些和其他情况下立即产生影响。我们计划进行的研究可能会改善采访儿童的方法，并可能有助于我们了解儿童最有可能落入虚假记忆的情况。这项研究还将有助于确定儿童之间是否存在个体差异，这可能会使某些孩子比其他孩子更容易出现记忆错误。最后，该研究可能具有重要的教育意义。如果通过经验来学习所研究的策略，计划的研究可能会导致教育方法，以帮助儿童更有效地学习这些策略。实际上，作为调查人员分享这项研究结果的一部分，他们打算与当地学区举办年度“学习学习”研讨会。这些研讨会将使研究人员能够与教育工作者分享研究的结果，还可以使研究人员能够从第一手经验中获得教育工作者帮助孩子学习的见解。