The devil is in the detail: Children's recollection of details about their prior experiences

Adults sometimes report highly specific details of childhood events, including the weather, what they or others were wearing, as well as information about what they or others said or were thinking at the time. When these details are reported in the course of research they shape our theories of memor...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Memory (Hove) 2013-05, Vol.21 (4), p.431-443
Main Authors: Strange, Deryn, Hayne, Harlene
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amnesia - psychology
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child development
Child, Preschool
Childhood amnesia
Details
Developmental psychology
Event narratives
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Humans
Learning. Memory
Male
Memory
Memory, Episodic
Mental Recall - physiology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Testimony
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Summary:Adults sometimes report highly specific details of childhood events, including the weather, what they or others were wearing, as well as information about what they or others said or were thinking at the time. When these details are reported in the course of research they shape our theories of memory development; when they are reported in a criminal trial they influence jurors' evaluation of guilt or innocence. The key question is whether these details were encoded at the time the event took place or have been added after the fact. We addressed this question prospectively by examining the memory accounts of children. In Experiment 1 we coded the reports of 5- to 6-year-olds and 9- to 10-year-olds who had experienced a unique event. We found that spontaneous mentions of these specific details were exceedingly rare. In Experiment 2 we questioned additional children about a similar event using specific questions to extract those details. We found that 9- to 10-year-olds were able to accurately answer, while 5- to 6-year-olds had considerable difficulty. Moreover, when the younger children did respond they provided generic, forensically inadequate, information. These data have important implications for the courtroom and for current theories of memory development and childhood amnesia.
ISSN:0965-8211
1464-0686
DOI:10.1080/09658211.2012.732722