PSY312H5 Chapter 7: Memory Development
Document Summary
Suggestive questions can lead children to recall not just unimportant events but also events affecting their bodies, such as nurses blowing in their ears, paediatricians sticking fingers or sticks into their genitals. However, they also often underreport what happened, particularly during the preschool years: children also remember more when they are encouraged to think deeply about the event. Conclusions about children"s eyewitness testimony: children"s recounting of events reflects what they encoded initially, their experiences during the storage interval, and the conditions under which they retrieved the information. In the absence of interviewer bias, even preschoolers accurately recall much that is relevant to legal cases. The testimony may be lacking in detail, but what they say is generally accurate. Preschoolers are especially vulnerable to the effects of misleading questions and stereotypes. Explicit and implicit memory: explicit memories are ones that can be described verbally, that are conscious, or that can be visualized as a mental image.
