NSF LogoNSF Award Abstract - #9730143 AWSFL008-DS3

Children's Spontaneous False Memories for Traumatic Medical Experiences

NSF Org SES
Latest Amendment Date August 28, 2001
Award Number 9730143
Award Instrument Standard Grant
Program Manager Paul J. Wahlbeck
SES DIVN OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SCIENCES
SBE DIRECT FOR SOCIAL, BEHAV & ECONOMIC SCIE
Start Date March 15, 1998
Expires August 31, 2002 (Estimated)
Expected Total Amount $250275 (Estimated)
Investigator Charles J. Brainerd brainerd@u.arizona.edu (Principal Investigator current)
Farrell Lloyd (Co-Principal Investigator current)
Valerie F. Reyna (Co-Principal Investigator current)
Sponsor U of Arizona
601 Administration Building
Tucson, AZ 85721 602/621-2211
NSF Program 1372 LAW AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Field Application 0000099 Other Applications NEC
0116000 Human Subjects
Program Reference Code 0000,OTHR,

Abstract

Children's spontaneous false memories have been the subject of considerable heat and little light recently. This research is testing several hypotheses about false memories for doctor visits that are accompanied by trauma to answer questions that bear on the accuracy of children's witness testimony. Prior research by these investigators has produced a theoretical framework (fuzzy-trace theory) that makes counterintuitive predictions about such important issues as: age variability in spontaneous memory falsifications, age variability in the effects of delay on memory falsification, the persistence of false memories over time, the tendency of mere memory testes to falsify the contents of memory, and the features of experienced events that are most prone to memory falsification. Three experiments will use a false-recognition procedure and will consist of four sessions. Participants will be 180 children between the ages of 23 and 8. Children's experiences to urgent-care clinics will be the focus of subsequent memory interviews to occur 1-3 days after the child sees the physician. Subsequent interviews occur at 6 month and 1 year intervals. Memory interviews will query events that the child did and those that her or she did not experience. False-recognition effect will be used to index spontaneous memory falsification. Differences in spontaneous memory falsification are being tracked as a function of several variables that have forensic relevance: frequency of experience with events, amount of prior interviewing, whether inferences have been made about events, whether inconsistent version of evens have been experienced. These data will resolve tow uncertainties in current scientific knowledge about children's false memories. These are that mere memory tests can create false memories that are stable over time and whether spontaneous false memory increase with age or delay between exposure to events and memory tests. %%% Children's spontaneous false memories have been the subject of considerable heat and little light recently. This research is testing several hypotheses about false memories for doctor visits that are accompanied by trauma to answer questions that bear on the accuracy of children's witness testimony. Prior research by these investigators has produced a theoretical framework (fuzzy-trace theory) that makes counterintuitive predictions about such important issues as: age variability in spontaneous memory falsifications, age variability in the effects of delay on memory falsification, the persistence of false memories over time, the tendency of mere memory testes to falsify the contents of memory, and the features of experienced events that are most prone to memory falsification. Three experiments will use a false-recognition procedure and will consist of four sessions. Participants will be 180 children between the ages of 23 and 8. Children's experiences to urgent-care clinics will be the focus of subsequent memory interviews to occur 1-3 days after the child sees the physician. Subsequent interviews occur at 6 month and 1 year intervals. Memory interviews will query events that the child did and those that her or she did not experience. False-recognition effect will be used to index spontaneous memory falsification. Differences in spontaneous memory falsification are being tracked as a function of several variables that have forensic relevance: frequency of experience with events, amount of prior interviewing, whether inferences have been made about events, whether inconsistent version of evens have been experienced. These data will resolve tow uncertainties in current scientific knowledge about children's false memories. These are that mere memory tests can create false memories that are stable over time and whether spontaneous false memory increase with age or delay between exposure to events and memory tests.

You may also retrieve a text version of this abstract.
Please report errors in award information by writing to: award-abstracts-info@nsf.gov.

Please use the browser back button to return to the previous screen.

If you have trouble accessing any FastLane page, please contact the FastLane Help Desk at 1-800-673-6188