ACCURACY OF RECALL OF CHILDREN WITH MENTAL RETARDATION

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DESCRIPTION: In most theoretical models, memory mechanisms involved in encoding, storage, and retrieval of information, as well as psychosocial characteristics associated with compliance and acquiescence are assumed to play an important causative role in autobiographical recall and suggestibility. Because children with mental retardation (MR) display a number of basic memory deficits and are also often compliant and acquiescent, they should have poor recall of their past and be highly suggestible. However, little is known about these aspects of memory in children with MR. The present proposal attempts to fill in these gaps by drawing on the substantial developmental literature on the accuracy of recall of personally experienced events and the suggestive factors that distort the recall of children with normal intelligence. Two longitudinal, cross-sectional studies, with similar designs are proposed. In both studies recall and suggestibility of children between the ages of 7 and 10 with mild retardation with no known etiology (idiopathic) will be compared to children with normal intelligence who are either matched for chronological or for mental age. Study 1 examines autobiographical recall and misinformation effects. Study 2 examines autobiographical recall and interrogative suggestibility. In both studies, children participate in a staged event. At various delay periods after the event, children recall the event and are also suggestively interviewed. Traditional memory tasks and social compliance tasks are also administered. The data will be analyzed to examine (a) the completeness and accuracy of recall of children with MR, (b) suggestibility of children with MR, (c) developmental changes in recall and suggestibility of children with MR, and (d) the relationships between traditional memory tests and tests of compliance with suggestibility and autobiographical recall. The results of the study will address important clinical concerns and theoretical issues. First, they will provide medical, forensic, mental health and educational professionals with scientific data on the interviewing strategies that allow children with MR to provide the most accurate and complete accounts of their past experiences. The results will begin to provide a scientific foundation for the construction of standardized schedules or guidelines for interviewing children with MR about their past experiences. At present, no such instruments exist. On a theoretical level, the results of the study will provide data on the role that cognitive and psychosocial factors play in autobiographical memory and suggestibility.