Brainerd C J, Reyna V F, Forrest T J
Department of Special Education, Rehabilitation, and School Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson 85721, USA.
Child Dev. 2002 Sep-Oct;73(5):1363-77. doi: 10.1111/1467-8624.00477.
False memories have typically been found to be more common during early childhood than during later childhood or adulthood. However, fuzzy-trace theory makes the counterintuitive prediction that some powerful forms of adult false memory will be greatly attenuated in early childhood, an important example being the Deese/Roediger/McDermott (DRM) illusion. Three developmental studies of this illusion (N = 282) found that (1) it was at near-floor levels in young children, (2) it was still below adult levels by early adolescence, and (3) the low levels of the illusion in young children may be due to failure to "get the gist" of DRM materials.
