There were three main goals in the present study. First was to examine developmental patterns in the rate of false memories produced with the DRM paradigm. According to Fuzzy Trace Theory (FTT) two explanations could explain what may happen with false memories. Older children could produce lower rates of false memories than younger children because of their ability to use nonidentity judgments at time of test, OR older children may produce more false memories than younger children because of their ability to recognize the gist of the DRM lists better than the younger children. The Source Monitoring framework (SMF) also suggests to opposing predictions. Because younger children are generally more susceptible to source monitoring errors than older children they should be more likely to falsely believe that critical lures are the studied words, OR maybe if source-monitoring processes are age dependent, younger children may produce less false memories because of the lack of source monitoring capabilities.

The second goal was to study whether false memories are reduced when children process distinctive. The Item-Distinctive information account predicts that even young children’s false memories will decrease when encoding distinctive information such as giving a pleasantness rating to the word. However, the distinctiveness heuristic account predicts that younger children may not be able to adapt a conservative response bias to perform well at distinguishing between studied items and critical lures.

The third goal was to investigate children and adults’ subjective characteristics of true and false memories. Source attributions and confidence ratings were used to provide information for investigating these characteristics.

Method

The false memory effect for different ages was tested using the DRM paradigm with 5-year-olds, 7-year-olds, and college-aged participants. The effect of processing distinctive information was studied by showing half of the participants words along with pictures and half words alone. Then data were collected on source attributions and confidence ratings to study the phenomenological characteristics of true and false memories.

There were two encoding conditions (no picture and picture). Participants were exposed to words lists presented one at a time. After each list was presented, participants were involved in a filler task. After the filler task, participants were asked to recall as many items from the list as possible. After the recall test, the participants were given directions for the recognition test and the confidence ratings. The experiment did not proceed until everyone understood the directions completely. The recognition began, and after answering "yes" or "no" to whether or not each item existed at study, the subjects provided a confidence rating and then reported the source of the test item.

Results

A 3 (age group: 5-year-olds, 7-year-olds, and adults) X 2 (encoding condition: picture vs. no picture) X 2 (item type: studied item vs. critical lures) mixed ANOVA was conducted on the dependent measures of recall, recognition, source attribution, and confidence ratings.

Recall (Table 1)- There was a main effect of item type such that participants were more likely to recall studied items than critical lures. There was an interaction between item type and encoding condition such that participants who saw the pictures during the study phase were less likely to falsely recall the critical lures than those who did not see the pictures. Regarding recall for studied items, all age groups significantly differed from each other. Regarding false recall, 5-year-olds were more likely than 7-year olds and adults to falsely recall the critical lure.

Recognition (Table 2)- Proportions were created for the "yes" responses to derive corrected true and false recognition scores.

True targets (studied items) minus True target controls (words belonging to nonstudied lists) provide corrected true recognition scores.

False targets (critical lures of studied lists) minus False target controls (critical lures of nonstudied lists) provide corrected false recognition scores.

Results showed that true recognition was significantly higher than false recognition. Also, an interaction was revealed such that picture encoding enhanced corrected true recognition scores and decreased the false-recognition effect. Adults had significantly higher true recognition scores than 5-year-olds or 7-year-olds. For false recognition, there was no effect of age.

Source attributions- No significant effect of item type was found. Source attribution accuracy did not vary according to whether participants were attributing a source to studied items or critical lures.

Confidence ratings (Table 3) – Studied items were endorsed more confidently than critical lures, and participants endorsed words more confidently when they studied words accompanied by pictures than when pictures were not studied.

Discussion

Data involving developmental differences in false memory formation have shown that there are no age related differences in levels of association between the studied items and the critical lures. As the ability to recall and recognize studied material increases, so does the ability to compare memory traces to actual memories. Other developmental studies with conflicting results are discussed.

Although there was no direct evidence against the existence of the distinctiveness heuristic, the results of the present study suggest that 5-year-olds and possibly 7-year-olds did not implement the distinctiveness heuristic to reduce false memories. While it is conceivable that presenting children with pictures along with words helped the children encode the items, it is unclear how the relations provided by the distinctive information will reduce false memories.

It is suggested that there is a similar subjective experience for true and false memories because there is no difference in source accuracy between studied and nonstudied items. However, confidence ratings indicated 7-year olds and adults reported higher confidence with studied than nonstudied items. 5 –year-old children did not experience a difference between true and false memory. So, source accuracy and confidence judgments behaved differently in accounting for the subjective experience of true and false memories. Em