Differentiating between children's true and false memories using reality monitoring criteria

Abstract

The present study examined the efficacy of the reality monitoring (RM) criteria in differentiating between children's true and false memories. Two independent judges rated 190 transcripts of children's true and false memory reports along the RM criteria. Results showed that, overall, the RM criteria failed to distinguish between children's accounts of true and false events. However, when examining each RM criterion separately, we found that more visual details were present in children's true memories than in their false memories. Results also showed that more RM criteria were present at the second interview than at the first interview.

Keywords:

• children
• false memories
• reality monitoring framework

Notes

1. Twenty-nine per cent (n=28) of the false memory reports were from children who developed false memories after context reinstatement and guided imagery instructions. A 2 (Veracity: True vs False/Guided Imagery)×2 (Interview 1 vs 2) ANCOVA with age as covariate showed that true and false memory reports did not differ on total RM scores (F(1,116)=1.15, NS). However, also no main effect of time of interview emerged (F(1,116)=1.03, NS).

2. When we performed a repeated measure analysis on children who developed false memories at Interview 1 and 2 (n=15), we also found that children's true and false memory reports did not significantly differ in terms of total RM scores (F(1,28)=0.03, NS). Moreover, results showed that children's memory reports at the second interview (F(1,28)=13.82, p<0.001, r=0.57; M=21.63, SD=11.85) contained more RM details than at the first interview (M=14.47, SD=7.09).