Cultural and Individual Predictors of Autobiographical Memory in Middle Childhood

自传式记忆包括对重要的个人经历和自我知识的记忆，因此，对个人身份和心理健康至关重要。本项目结合实验和纵向方法来研究儿童中期自传式记忆发展的文化和个体机制。这一时期通常被记忆研究领域所忽视，但对于发展高级自传式记忆技能，以实现详细、结构良好和准确的记忆，却是至关重要的。来自欧美家庭、在中国的华人家庭和在美国的第一代华人移民家庭的孩子和他们的母亲将参加。每个6 - 8岁的儿童将接受三次家庭访谈，评估儿童自传式记忆的发展情况，包括叙述技巧、自我概念、元记忆、时间概念和文化知识。母亲的文化信仰将通过调查进行评估。在第一次采访时将进行阶段性的活动，并在随后的时间点评估儿童对活动的内容、数量和准确性的记忆。为了描述父母回忆行为对儿童记忆的贡献，实验计划的母子回忆将在前两次访谈之间进行，实验组的母亲被训练以详细的方式与孩子分享记忆。该项目将通过研究记忆发展的个人和文化参数，对当前的理论做出独特的贡献。这将进一步为儿童自传式记忆技能发展的多方面过程和结果提供新的见解，并填补童年中期自传式记忆发展的理论和实证空白。由于自传式记忆是通过儿童对世界和自我的认识而构建的，而记忆反过来又构成了儿童的身份、个性和心理健康，因此研究结果将有可能为儿童中期出现的问题（如饮食失调和抑郁症）的研究和临床实践提供信息。此外，在跨文化背景下，研究结果将为当代美国社会的教育、教育实践和现实生活环境提供信息，因为移民人口越来越多，在当前的全球背景下，需要跨文化交流和理解。

Autobiographical memory encompasses memory for significant personal experiences and knowledge of the self and, consequently, is critical for personal identity and psychological well-being. This project integrates experimental and longitudinal approaches to examine cultural and individual mechanisms underlying autobiographical memory development in middle childhood. This age period, while generally neglected in the field of memory research, is critical for the development of advanced autobiographical memory skills for detailed, well-structured, and accurate remembering. Children and their mothers from European American families, Chinese families in China, and first-generation Chinese immigrant families in the U.S. will participate. Three home interviews will be arranged for each child between 6 and 8 years of age, where children's developing autobiographical memory will be assessed in relation to their narrative skills, self-concept, metamemory, temporal concepts, and cultural knowledge. Mothers' cultural beliefs will be assessed through surveys. A staged event will be conducted at the first interview and children's memory of the event will be assessed for content, amount, and accuracy at later time points. To delineate the contribution of parental reminiscing behavior to children's memory, experimentally planned mother-child reminiscing will take place between the first two interviews, with mothers in the experimental group being trained to share memories with their children in an elaborative style.The project will make a unique contribution to current theories by examining both individual and cultural parameters on memory development. It will further provide new insights into the multi-faceted processes and outcomes of children's developing autobiographical memory skills, and fill in the theoretical and empirical gap concerning autobiographical memory development in middle childhood. Because autobiographical memory is constructed through the child's knowledge of the world and of the self and the memory, in turn, constitutes the child's identity, personality, and psychological well-being, the findings will have the potential to inform research and clinical practices regarding issues that emerge during middle childhood, such as eating disorders and depression. Furthermore, situated in a cross-cultural context, the findings will inform parenting, educational practices, and real life settings in contemporary American society where there are an increasing number of immigrant populations, as well as in the current global context that calls for intercultural exchanges and understanding.