week 11 - memory development

Question 1

What is infantile amnesia?

Answer 1

the inability of adults to recall autobiographical memories from the first 3-4 years of life

Question 2

What are some proposed explanations for infantile amnesia?

Answer 2

• Freud’s theory of repression of traumatic early childhood events
• the need for language to form autobiographical memories
• early memories being coded into physical action and sensation, making them dificult to translate into language later
• the cognitive sense of self emerging around age 2, which may be necessary to retrieve autobiographical memory
• a lack of knowledge about the world and a tendency for young children to focus on similarities, forming schemas or scripts, which are not good retrieval cues

Question 3

What is Simcock & Hayne’s (2002) Magic shrinking machine experiment?

Answer 3

• 27, 33, and 39 month olds
• found that children showed good non-verbal memory, but could only describe it using words they had at the time of encoding
• suggests an inability to translate early preverbal experiences into language

Question 4

What is the information processing approach to memory?

Answer 4

a model that proposes memory involves a sensory register, short term (working) memory, and a long term memory, with processes for attention, encoding, and retrieval

Question 5

What developmental limitations did Brainerd (1983) identfy in information processing?

Answer 5

limitations in information processing including encoding, computational, retrieval, storage and work-space limitation

Question 6

What is the role of attention in memory?

Answer 6

for information to be processed, it must be attended to. attention is a state of alertness and the focus on specific aspects of the environment

Question 7

What did Ruff & Lawson (1990) find about attention to stimuli in toddlers?

Answer 7

showed an increate in attention paid to stimuli as age increaes in 1-3 year olds

Question 8

what did Vurpillot (1968) find about how children explore their environment?

Answer 8

• children under 5 examine a few aspects of their environment, make a few comparisons and make lots of errors
• children older than 6 are more likely to examine pairs. children from 6-9 years develop strategies to compare all aspects of an environment

Question 9

What are some encoding strategies for memory?

Answer 9

• rehersal: repeating information
• organisation: linking information together
• elaboration: using associations to aid recall

Question 10

What did Flavell et al. (1966) discover about rehersal and memory in children?

Answer 10

older children rehearsed more and recalled more

Question 11

What did Moely et al. (1969) find about how older children approach memorization tasks?

Answer 11

older children rearrange pictures into categories when asked to memorise them

Question 12

What did Foley et al. (1993) discover about the effectiveness of unusual associations on memory?

Answer 12

the more unusual the association, the more likely it will aid memory in children

Question 13

What did Buckhalt et al. (1976) demonstrate about different types of elaborations?

Answer 13

active elaborations are more helpful for memory than static ones

Question 14

How does memory retrieval develop?

Answer 14

similar to encoding, it develops gradually

Question 15

What did Kreutzer et al. (1975) discover about memory strategies in children?

Answer 15

older children were better at generating strategies

Question 16

what did Kobasigawa (1974) discover about how children use cue cards for recall?

Answer 16

older children use them more effectively

Question 17

What did Keeney et al. (1967) discover about teaching rehersal strategies to young children?

Answer 17

6 year olds can be taught to use rehearsal, but the taught strategy might use up a child’s limited processing capacity

Question 18

what is megacognition?

Answer 18

a person’s awareness of their own cognitive abilities and limitations

Question 19

How did Smith et al. (2003) define metacognition?

Answer 19

a persons awareness of his or her own cognitive abilities and limitations

Question 20

What did Flavell et al. (1970) study using a card memory task?

Answer 20

children’s awareness of their memory limitations

Question 21

What is source memory?

Answer 21

memory for information about how a memory was required, including perceptual, temporal, and emotional information

Question 22

How did Schacter et al. (1991) define source memory?

Answer 22

memory for information about how a memory is acquired

Question 23

What did Johnson et al. (1996) find about the direction of attention and source memory?

Answer 23

the direction of attention, towards self or others, affects source monitoring and recognition memory

Question 24

What did Kovacs & Newcombe (2006) discover about self-focus and other-focus on memory?

Answer 24

self-focus improves recognition memory but reduces source accuracy, while other-focus improves source accuracy but reduces recognition memory

Question 25

Who developed the model of working memory with the visuo-spatial sketch-pad, phonological loop and central executive?

Answer 25

Baddeley & Hitch (1974)

Question 26

According to Baddeley & Hitch (1974), what are the components of working memory?

Answer 26

- **visuo-spatial sketchpad:** stores visual and spatial information - **phonological loop:** stores speech-based information - **central executive:** controls and coordinates mental activities

Question 27

What is the profile for children with working memory deficits described by Gathercole (2008)?

Answer 27

children with working memory deficits are **slow to learn in maths and reading, struggle with structured tasks, and have problems with tasks requiring storage and processing**. they often appear to have attention problems

Question 28

How are working memory deficits identified?

Answer 28

using forward/backward digit span tests, corsi block tests, the working memory test battery for children, the automated working memory assessment, and classroom observations

Question 29

What did Holmes et al. (2009) find about working memory training in children?

Answer 29

it showed improvements in **working memory tasks**, but limited generalization to **academic performance**

Question 30

What did Dunning et al. (2013) find about adaptive working memory training?

Answer 30

adaptive working memory training is associated with gains in **verbal working memory tasks**, but these gains do not extend to **classroom tasks**

Question 31

What is suggestibility in the context of memory?

Answer 31

the tendency to change memory or beliefs in response to **questioning**

Question 32

how did Ceci & Bruck (1995) define suggestibility>

Answer 32

the tendency to change memory or beliefs in response to questioning

Question 33

What did Julian Varendonck (1911)'s studies demonstrate about childrens testimony?

Answer 33

the suggestibility of childrens testimony using leading questions

Question 34

What are some reasons that children are considered unreliable witnesses?

Answer 34

children encode less detail, have weaker memory traces, and are prone to memory distortions and have retrieval dificulties

Question 35

What did Marin et al. (1979) discover about how children recall information compared to adults?

Answer 35

younger children recall less information in **free recall** but what they do remember is generally accurate, while older children provide more information and more errors

Question 36

What is the misinformation effect?

Answer 36

a memory distortion that occurs when **post-event information** is blended with the original memory

Question 37

What did Leictman & Ceci (1995)'s 'sam stone' study demonstrate about suggestibility?

Answer 37

children can be suggestible, even maintaining false memories when probed

Question 38

What are the implications of suggestibility for testimony?

Answer 38

closed yes/no questions are problematic for young children, who may try to answer even when they dont understand. Open ended questions are safer

Question 39

According to Miller & Seier (1994), what may cause children's suggestibility

Answer 39

children's suggestibility may be due to **encoding less information**

Question 40

What did Roberts (2000) suggest about source monitoring and suggestibility?

Answer 40

source monitoring difficulties contribute to children's suggestibility

Question 41

What are some factors that influence children's suggestibility?

Answer 41

authority of the interviewer, repetiton of questions, a desire to please, demographic variables, cognitive variables, emotional variables

Question 42

What are the key elements of the **step-wise** and **cognitive interview** techniques

Answer 42

- **step-wise technique (ABE, 2022):** uses a funnel approach, rapport building, free recall and general to specific questioning - **cognitive interview (Fisher & Geiselman, 1992):** emphasizes context reinstatement, reporting everything, changing order, and changing perspective

Question 43

What are some recommendations for interviewing children?

Answer 43

build rapport with the child, use open-ended questions, and avoid repetition of questions