![]() ![]() That is, attention has been on the emergence of and subsequent improvements in autobiographical memory. Virtually since the dawning of developmental research relevant to childhood amnesia, the focus has been on the development of remembering. We report the results of a prospective study in which we addressed this question and also examined one potential determinant of the preservation of early memories beyond the onset of childhood amnesia, namely, maternal narrative style. They compel investigation of the processes involved in loss of access to memories of early-life events, heralding the onset of childhood amnesia ( Bauer, 2012, 2014). The findings stand in sharp contrast to the large literature documenting that even young children form and retain autobiographical memories (see, for e.g., Bauer, 2014 Reese, 2014, for reviews). Studies in which children are asked to report their earliest memories provide evidence of amnesia for early-life events by the end of the first decade of life ( Peterson, Grant, & Boland, 2005 Reese, Jack, & White, 2010 Tustin & Hayne, 2010). Data from children are a relatively recent addition to the empirical landscape of childhood amnesia. ![]() That is, the phenomenon was defined in terms of the age of earliest memory among adults, and the distribution of early memories recalled by adults (see Bauer, 2007, 2008, 2014, for reviews). Historically, adults were the only participants in research on childhood amnesia. There is a gradually increasing number of memories from the ages of 3½ to 7 years, at which time an adult-like distribution of autobiographical memories is assumed (see Wetzler & Sweeney, 1986 for empirical evidence Pillemer & White, 1989, for discussion and Bauer, Burch, Scholin, & Güler, 2007, and Bauer & Larkina, in press, for suggestions that the adult distribution of autobiographical memories may be a developmentally later achievement). Among adults, the average age of earliest memory typically is age 3 to 4 years. The relative paucity of memories from early in life experienced by adults-so-called, childhood amnesia-has been a phenomenon of substantial interest at least since its identification in the late 19 th century ( Henri & Henri, 1895 Miles, 1893) and naming in the early 20 th century ( Freud, 1905/1953). ![]() They highlight the importance of forgetting processes in explanations of the amnesia. The findings have implications for our understanding of the onset of childhood amnesia and the achievement of an adult-like distribution of memories in the school years. Maternal deflections of the conversational turn to the child predicted the amount of information children later reported about the early-life events. Overall maternal narrative style predicted children's contributions to mother-child conversations at age 3 years it did not have cross-lagged relations to memory for early-life events at ages 5 to 9 years. In contrast, children ages 8 and 9 years remembered fewer than 40% of the early-life events. Children ages 5, 6, and 7 remembered 60% or more of the early-life events. At the later session, they were interviewed by an experimenter about the events discussed 2 to 6 years previously with their mothers (early-life events). Different subgroups of children were tested for recall of the events at ages 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 years. ![]() Children and their mothers discussed unique events when the children were 3 years of age. The present research was an examination of the onset of childhood amnesia and how it relates to maternal narrative style, an important determinant of autobiographical memory development. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |