Poster #5 - Mothers’ Negative Focus During Memory-Sharing is Linked to Negative Interpretation and Memory Biases in Children

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Attention, Learning, Memory

Integrative Statement

A substantial body of work demonstrates that parent-guided reminiscing fosters the development of children’s autobiographical remembering skills. Through these exchanges, young children learn how to structure their memories in narrative form and how to interpret and evaluate personal experiences. In this study, we explore whether naturally occurring variations in the way that mothers frame and guide conversations about shared emotional experiences is associated with children’s independent interpretation and memory for ambiguous events. Given that mothers and children do not limit their discussions about the past to just the facts of events but also talk about the thoughts, emotions, and reactions of the child, the mother, and others, such dialogues may provide an important context for learning about how to interpret, process, and respond to experiences.

To examine these issues, mothers and their children (aged 3 to 6 years) were asked to reminisce in a natural manner about three recent events that elicited one of three negative emotions (anger, scared, mad). Next, children individually experienced a staged slime-making event that included a set of activities that could be interpreted in either a benign/positive or negative manner. During the event, children were asked for their interpretation of each activity. For instance, during the event, the research assistant (RA) who helped the child make slime asked a confederate to get coffee later. The confederate replied with an ambiguous “No thank you,” and children were asked why they think that the confederate did not want to get coffee. If children did not provide a response this open-ended probe, they were asked a force-choice question with one benign/positive interpretation and one negative interpretation (i.e., “Did [confederate’s name] just not like coffee, or does she not like [slime maker’s name]?). Later, children were asked open-ended and specific questions to elicit their recall of the event.

Results indicated that children whose mothers made more mention of negative emotion or negative information about an individual’s character or behavior during the reminiscing task were more likely to interpret the ambiguous event activities in a negative manner and produce distortions in their recall that incorporated the meaning of their previous negative interpretation. This pattern suggests that mothers who focus on the negative when talking about past events may put their children at risk for interpreting ambiguous events in a negative manner and developing a memory bias that reflects a habit of interpreting such events in negative ways.

These findings offer some insight into processes that might contribute to the development of negative interpretation and memory biases that have been linked to anxious and depressed states, and thus hold promise for treatment and prevention efforts. Given that such biases are not merely associated with emotional disorders but also contribute to them, it is important to explore what sorts of early experiences might contribute to their development, maintenance, and dissipation.

Authors

• Gabrielle F. Principe, College of Charleston
  Presenting Author

• Daniel L. Greenberg, College of Charleston
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tess Shymanski, College of Charleston
  Non-Presenting Author

• Grace Anne West, College of Charleston
  Non-Presenting Author