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.

当人们对事件的记忆与事件实际发生的方式不同时，就会产生错误记忆。儿童和成人都可能受到错误记忆的影响，但成年人会制定一些策略来限制这些错误。一种策略是利用对特定记忆的生动程度和独特性的预期（即独特性策略）。另一种策略涉及利用对一个事件的记忆有时意味着另一个事件没有发生的知识（即逻辑不一致策略）。尽管这些记忆编辑策略在成人中发展得很好，但在儿童中发展得较少。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，儿童和成人将学习由图片和单词组成的列表。因为图片往往比文字产生更生动的记忆，使用预期显著性策略的参与者对图片的错误记忆应该更少。为了衡量逻辑不一致策略的使用情况，一些参与者将研究列表，其中每个项目要么以图片形式呈现，要么以单词形式呈现，但从不同时以两种格式呈现。这将允许他们使用逻辑不一致策略（例如，“我知道它不是图片，因为它是一个单词”）。其他参与者将学习列表，其中包括一些以图片形式呈现的项目，一些以文字形式呈现的项目，以及一些以图片和文字形式同时呈现的项目。使逻辑不一致策略无效。为了了解策略使用是否与额叶发育有关，参与者将完成一个标准的测量额叶功能的神经学测试（实验1-3）。为了了解策略的使用是否通过经验习得，一些参与者参与了多项研究测试试验，以了解这种经验是否会增加策略的使用（实验2）。项目的最后一年将检查这些策略是否被儿童在模拟实际儿童证人所面临的挑战的情况下使用（实验3）。20世纪80年代和90年代发生的一些引人注目的案件引起了公众的关注，即儿童是否有时会错误地记住事件，尤其是在接受暗示性提问后。在这些和其他情况下，儿童记忆的准确性是至关重要的。这个谜题的一部分涉及到理解为什么儿童比成人更不容易避免错误记忆。对儿童策略发展的科学理解可以在这些和其他情况下产生直接影响。我们计划进行的研究可能会改进采访儿童的方法，并可能帮助我们了解儿童最有可能成为错误记忆牺牲品的情况。这项研究还将有助于确定孩子之间是否存在个体差异，这些差异可能会导致一些孩子比其他孩子更容易出现记忆错误。最后，这项研究可能具有重要的教育意义。如果被调查的策略是通过经验学习的，那么计划中的研究可能会产生帮助儿童更有效地学习这些策略的教育方法。事实上，作为研究人员分享研究成果计划的一部分，他们打算每年与当地学区举行“关于学习的学习”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结果，也将使研究人员能够从教育工作者帮助儿童学习的第一手经验中获得见解。