Cultural and Individual Predictors of Autobiographical Memory in Middle Childhood

自传体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。该项目综合了实验和纵向研究方法，以考察儿童中期自传体记忆发展的文化和个体机制。这个年龄段虽然在记忆研究领域普遍被忽视，但对于发展高级自传体记忆技能以进行详细、结构良好和准确的记忆至关重要。来自欧美家庭、中国华裔家庭和美国第一代华裔移民家庭的孩子和他们的母亲将参加。将为每个6至8岁的儿童安排三次家庭访谈，评估儿童发展中的自传体记忆与他们的叙事技能、自我概念、元记忆、时间概念和文化知识的关系。母亲的文化信仰将通过调查进行评估。第一次访谈将进行分阶段的活动，随后将评估儿童对该事件的记忆的内容、数量和准确性。为了描述父母的回忆行为对孩子记忆的贡献，在前两次采访之间，将进行实验性的母子回忆，试验组的母亲将接受培训，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。它将进一步为儿童自传体记忆技能发展的多方面过程和结果提供新的见解，并填补关于儿童中期自传体记忆发展的理论和经验空白。由于自传体记忆是通过儿童对世界和自我的知识来构建的，而记忆反过来又构成了儿童的身份、个性和心理健康，因此这些发现将有可能为有关儿童中期出现的问题(如进食障碍和抑郁症)的研究和临床实践提供信息。此外，在跨文化背景下，这些发现将为当代美国社会中移民人口不断增加的育儿、教育实践和现实生活环境提供参考，以及在当前呼吁跨文化交流和理解的全球背景下。

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.