Doctoral Dissertation Research: Influencing Children's Memory Through Familiarity and Stereotypes

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The present study concerns how the acquisition of social information, specifically knowledge about personal characteristics, influences young children's ability to recall and report information. Two forms of social knowledge will be systematically examined, familiarity and stereotypes. Research on stereotypes and generalized event representations in particular suggests that development differences exist in semantic-memory dependence for recollection, with younger children at times being more semantic-memory dependent than are older children. The present study examines this notion in the context of children's memory for a one-time event. One hundred forty eight 4- to 5-year olds will participate. The study will conform to a 2 (age) x 2 (stereotype treatment) x 2 (familiarity treatment) x 2 (interview session) factorial design. Results will have theoretical and applied implications relevant to memory development generally and to child eyewitness memory specifically.