Poster #1 - Autobiographical Memory Consistency Across the Bounds of Childhood Amnesia

• In Event: Poster Session 10

Abstract

Autobiographical memories formed in childhood change or are lost over time as details are forgotten, contexts change, and new memories are made. Beyond the black-and-white of whether one has retained or forgotten an event, how might autobiographical memory consistency be impacted by age-related developmental differences and the erosive quality of time? Building on previous investigations into autobiographical memory consistency with adolescents and young adults across a month-long delay (e.g., Larkina et al., 2017) and research demonstrating faster rates of forgetting in younger compared to older children (e.g., Bauer & Larkina, 2015), the present study aims to fill existing gaps by exploring these phenomena on both sides of the “boundary” of childhood amnesia (Bauer & Larkina, 2014) and across a delay of one year.
The current study utilized data collected for a 4-year prospective study in which 101 children—who were 4-, 6-, and 8-years-old when the study began— provided recollections of specific, unique events that had occurred within the last 4 months. Participants returned one year later and were tested for recall of the memories. For the present investigation, we focused on the autobiographical memories provided by 4- and 8-year-olds: 4-year-olds are in the period eventually obscured by childhood amnesia, whereas the forgetting rates of 8-year-olds are more similar to those of adults. For each autobiographical memory, consistency was measured following the protocol established by Larkina and colleagues (2017), whereby the content provided in each of the seven narrative Wh- categories—who, what-action, what-object, where, when, why, and evaluation—was coded as not consistent (<25%), partially consistent (25%-75%), or mostly consistent (>75%). Following this assessment, every recalled memory was assigned a final proportion consistent value by comparing the number of Wh- categories coded as mostly consistent to the total number of Wh- categories mentioned at either initial provision or the time of recall.
Our preliminary findings suggest that 8-year-old children displayed more autobiographical memory consistency across the one-year delay compared to their 4-year-old counterparts. Additionally, findings echo Larkina and colleagues (2017), where both age groups exhibited relatively low levels of consistency. This suggests that even memories retained across a one-year delay are open to inconsistencies across specific Wh- categories. These data are also consistent with findings that young adults demonstrate more consistency at the level of memory content compared to adolescents (Larkina et al., 2017) and younger children demonstrate increased rates of forgetting compared to older children (Bauer & Larkina, 2015). We are currently evaluating possible interactions between age and content category, to determine whether some Wh- categories are more susceptible to inconsistencies than others among younger relative to older children. Findings of differential consistency as a function of age will be informative regarding the aspects of memory that are most vulnerable to the onset of childhood amnesia.

Authors

• Elizabeth Greer Spradling, Emory University
  Presenting Author

• Britney Del Solar

• Katherine Anne Lee, Emory University

• Patricia J Bauer, Emory University