ABSTRACT

Strategic monitoring of recognition memory by children and adults was examined using a semantic DRM procedure. Children (7- and 10-year-olds) and adults (overall N = 393) studied lists of semantically related words either incidentally or intentionally and were tested with old items, new items and critical lures to judge as old or new. Participants either made a decision about every item they saw (forced report), or they had the opportunity to withhold answers they were uncertain about (free report). Children were less likely to withhold an answer than adults. However, 7-year-olds were more able to resist false memories when given the opportunity to withhold an answer compared to 10-year-olds or adults. In contrast, adults were unable to improve false memory accuracy. These data suggest that once semantically induced false memories have been encoded they are amenable to strategic monitoring at retrieval in children but not adults.

摘要

使用语义 DRM 程序检查了儿童和成人对识别记忆的战略监控。儿童（7 岁和 10 岁）和成人（总体N = 393) 偶然或有意地研究了语义相关词的列表，并用旧项目、新项目和关键诱惑进行了测试，以判断是旧的还是新的。参与者要么对他们看到的每个项目做出决定（强制报告），要么他们有机会隐瞒他们不确定的答案（免费报告）。与成年人相比，儿童不太可能拒绝回答。然而，与 10 岁儿童或成年人相比，7 岁儿童在有机会拒绝回答时更能抵抗错误记忆。相比之下，成年人无法提高错误记忆的准确性。这些数据表明，一旦语义诱发的错误记忆被编码，它们就可以在儿童而不是成人中进行检索时的战略监控。