Odegard, Cooper, Lampinen, Reyna and Brainerd (2009) “examined the influence of prior knowledge on children’s free recall, cued recall, recognition memory, and source memory judgments for a series of similar real-life events.” To do this study, they decided they were going to create four themed birthday parties with four different characters, SpongeBob, Patrick, Harry Potter, and Hermione, four different days over a range of four weeks. The researchers wanted to see if children ages 5-12 could remember the events that happen at the themed parties at different interviews after the parties have happened. This was so the researchers could see what age group of children is able to remember certain things during events. This would help researchers …show more content…
figure out if children who are abused are able to tell the story of what happened to them when they are asked questions. “The theme of the parties could arguably act like meaning does in world-learning paradigms by allowing children to extract global gist traces that would connect the two SpongeBob parties to one another and the two Harry Potter parties to one another” (Odegard, et al. 2009). B. Scope and Goals The goal of this study is to see what age group 5 to 6 year olds, 7-9 year olds, or 10-12 year olds would be able to retain information about the birthday parties they attended each week. After the children attended the birthday parties, they would then go to an interviewer who would ask them different questions about the party. C. Hypotheses The hypothesis for this study was “we predicated that older children would demonstrate better free and cued recall for the thematic as opposed to genetic events because they would be better able to encode and later use global gist traces representing the overall themes of the parties than would younger children” (Odegard, et al. 2009). II. Method A. Study Design The design of this study was rather interesting. The researchers had four characters, two from the popular show SpongeBob and two characters from Harry Potter. Each of these characters had their own birthday party which took place at a community center in a city. The parties took place on four different Fridays, one right after the other. Ten days after the children attended the parties, they were then asked to come to and interview about the parties. B. Participants There were 57 children who were able to participate in this study but only 47 children, with the consent of their parents, attended the party. C. Materials There were four birthday parties that had four different themes. All of these parties were held at two different recreation centers in a city. Two of the characters were SpongeBob and Patrick and the other two characters were Harry Potter and Hermione. As the children arrived at the birthday parties, they were offered two different types of snacks, one thematic and the other generic. “Thematic snacks were consistent with the overall theme of the party. (The) generic snacks were not specific to the theme of the party” (Odegard, Cooper & Lampinen 2009). D. Procedures After the children were done with their snacks, they were divided into three different age groups. These groups consisted of age’s 5-6 year olds, 7 to 9 year olds, and 10-12 year olds. Once divided into these groups, they went to three different groups that consisted of games, crafts, and stories. When the group was done with one group, they would then move into another group. After each group was done with all three of the activity groups, they went on home after the party. Odegard, Cooper & Lampinen (2009) said, “Ten days after the final birthday party, children were interviewed individually by one of five interviewers using a structured forensic interview protocol.” There were three different types of questioning the children when through. The questions were free recall questioning, cued recall questioning, and recognition memory questioning. If the children did not have a response to the question the interviewer asked them, they would ask them other questions and then come back to that question hoping it will help them to remember. III. Results A. Calculation of Dependent variable / variables In this study, the researchers used the ANOVA, post hoc analyses, and within theme-source errors to calculate the dependent variables of this study. B. Statistical Procedures Since there were three different phases to this study, there were three different statistical procedures.
For the free recall phase, the researchers “calculated the recall phase and dividing the total number of events that were accurately recalled by the total number of events that could have been recalled” (Odegard, et al 2009). The next phase was the cued recall. This was calculated by “dividing the number of events that were accurately recalled by all possible events that could have been recalled” (Odegard, et al. 2009). The last phase was called the recognition phase. The events were also calculated like the other phases above. Since there might have been some confusing as to what was being asked of them by the interviewer, the researchers added in the thematic source errors. “To assess within-theme source errors, the proportion of correctly recognized targets that were attributed to the incorrect source of the same theme was calculated and analyzed. The same was done for the generic events” (Odegard, et al. …show more content…
2009). C. Study Findings The study found that the older children were able to retain more from the thematic parties unlike the younger children did. This helped to back their hypothesis they made earlier. Odegard, et al (2009) found that, “Older children were found to encode global gist traces and to use them to guide their free recall, cued recall, and source memory more so than younger children.” This could be due to the older children being able to remember more important things that happened at these parties, or even in real life events that happen in their lives. This is very important because this would help the children to get out of danger if anything were to happen to them when they are young. They will be able to help tell the police or an adult what really happened to them. IV. Discussion The researchers hoped this study would help them to understand if children of young ages would be able to recall prior events that have happened in their lives.
After doing this study, the researchers found that the older children were able to remember more from the thematic themed birthday party than the younger children did. The younger children performed lower on the recall questions for the thematic party opposed to the generic events. “Such data suggests that older children were better able to use the themes of the parties to help them reconstruct the past. These findings are consistent with the predictions set forth by the fuzzy trace theory suggesting older children to be better able to encode and use global gist traces than younger children” (Odegard, et al. 2009). After reading through this article, I believe what the researchers did here was very important. The researchers were also impressed with their work. “In conclusion, the present research replicated and extends age-related differences in the ability of children to encode and use global gist memory that have been observed using word-learning paradigms to real-life events using forensic interviewing techniques” (Odegard, et al. 2009). While the researchers do not have all of the data they needed, this will help them get a start on the rest of the data they still need to collect. The researchers believe they will be able to help further other research in doing this
study.
Roediger III, H. L., Watson, J. M., McDermott, K. B., & Gallo, D. A. (2001). Factors that determine false recall: A multiple regression analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 8(3), 385-407.
When the topic of childhood memory pops up in a conversation the listeners would think the story teller is telling the truth right? Well, what if I said that the people telling the stories might not even know if they aren’t? When these stories are told most don’t realize the little bit of memory actually involved. So how much or it is true and how much it came from another inaccurate place? Where could something like that come from? Were Jennette Walls’ memories real? Does this affect you or is it not a big dilemma? Should these be considered There are several different debates within itself but the main one to focus on is are your memories even your memories?
Wright, D. B., Gaskell, G. D., & O'Muircheartaigh, C.,A. (1998). Flashbulb memory assumptions: Using national surveys to explore cognitive phenomena. British Journal of Psychology, 89, 103-21. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.fiu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/199628529?accountid=10901
The aim of the research experiment is to explore the conditions under which unbiased leading questions would influence a child’s memory performance. If young children are asked unbiased leading questions, then their memory performance is going to alter the correct answer. The independent variable is age. Age is an important indicator of how children will view their environment. Age is often inextricably associated with available strategies which children may use to aid in their memory performance. The dependent variable is the number of correct answers. Hence, understanding the children’s limitations will help to understand their version of the truth.
Many of the memories that were remembered are usually previous childhood experiences. Dewhurst and Robinson (2004) conducted a study where 5, 8 and 11 year old children were tested on memory illusion. One of the procedures used to test false memories is the DRM paradigm. The DRM paradigm presents a list of words that include a critical word that is typically remembered although it was never presented. During the DRM procedure the children were given five lists that contained eight words. Each list consisted of at least one rhyme and a semantic theme. Each child was tested on their own by the classroom
...These specifics recalled consist of things which, under normal conditions, we probably would not have ever remembered. The number of detailed facts retained about a particular situation is usually commensurate to the intensity of involvement or proximity to the action in question; therefore, it can be reasonably concluded that while these memories are not always perfectly engrained into our minds, interesting arguments exist which support the possibility of substantial and long-term recall of these matters.
Flashbulb memory is when a person learns or experiences a very surprising and emotional arousing events (Matlin, 155). As it is a long lasting memory that people report vivid details about a traumatic event, it has been the subjects of recent scientific studies. Recent findings have mentioned a relationship between flashbulb memory and the September 11, 2001 attack. An article published in the American Psychological Association entitled “Seared in Our Memories” written by Bridget Murray Law analyzes different studies on the topic to explore how accurate people vividly remember about the 9/11 attack, and on how much is accurate or fabricated through various encounters. After reading the article, Law mentions interesting researchers concluding
Experience plays an immense role in presenting the desolation that age and education has on one's capacity to remember. Individuals compare and contrast the correlation between these two variables; for example, the greater ones age the less recollection they seem to have. However, Psychologists Agneta Herlitz and Jenny Rehnman challenged this case by presenting a similar a preposition comparing two opposite variables: Does one’s sex affect his or her ability to remember day to day events? The interconnection between sex and memory is surprisingly a controversial topic. According to the research they provide, an individual’s sex does, indeed, play an immense role in commemorating the affairs that arise day to day.
While all societies acknowledge that children are different from adults, how they are different, changes, both generationally and across cultures. “The essence of childhood studies is that childhood is a social and cultural phenomenon” (James, 1998). Evident that there are in fact multiple childhoods, a unifying theme of childhood studies is that childhood is a social construction and aims to explore the major implications on future outcomes and adulthood. Recognizing childhood as a social construction guides exploration through themes to a better understanding of multiple childhoods, particularly differences influencing individual perception and experience of childhood. Childhood is socially constructed according to parenting style by parents’ ability to create a secure parent-child relationship, embrace love in attitudes towards the child through acceptance in a prepared environment, fostering healthy development which results in evidence based, major impacts on the experience of childhood as well as for the child’s resiliency and ability to overcome any adversity in the environment to reach positive future outcomes and succeed.
Roebers, C.M., Moga, N., & Schneider, W. (2001). The role of accuracy motivation on children’s and adults’ event recall. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 78, 313-329.
Acquisition of memory- for the amount of information from the person during the time of the issues or crime activity.
Children’s memories are easier to confuse as those of adults. For many years most adults believed that children’s memories could not be trusted because children tend to confuse reality with their fantasies. Children just as adults can be accurate in what they report and they also like adult can distort, forget, fantasize, and be misled. As research show, their memories processes are only human. All I know is that I wouldn’t like to be accused by a group of children or students. It’s not quite as reliable as you may have hoped a memory would be.
...tumps them and studies and research is still being conducted in order to gain more insight into this quizzical case. But in order to understand the correlation between age and eidetic memory, one can look at the causes as three different theories. The first theory is the Linguistic theory, the idea that as children mature, their language skills help them perceive information. The second theory is one dealing with functionalism. The idea is that over time, the child’s brain learns to retain only significant bits of information and discard unnecessary ones. And the last theory deals with association. As one matures, one learns to associate their different senses in order to process information. In all, each theory takes credence, because one provides a thoughtful and logical explanation as to why children rely less and less on visual imagery to build their memory.
Most research in this area has been conducted using adult participants relying on self-report of childhood trauma. One study, however, involved testing the autobiographical memories of children placed into two different age groups (Valentino, Toth, and Cicchetti, 2009). Surprisingly, the investigators found that the older age group seemed to experience more overgeneral memories than did the younger children (Valentino, Toth, and Cicchetti, 2009).
Does ones age and learning style affect ones memory? The experiment conducted was to see if there is a correlation between memory, age, and the learning style of an individual, and how it is all connected. The hypothesis tested was, if a subject memorizes a list of numbers, then it will be easier if they are older and a visual learner.