Bauer Patricia J, Burch Melissa M, Scholin Sarah E, Güler O Evren
Department of Psychology, 532 Kilgo Circle, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
Psychol Sci. 2007 Oct;18(10):910-6. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01999.x.
The cue-word technique is frequently used with adults to examine the distribution of autobiographical memories across the life span. Such studies demonstrate childhood amnesia: a paucity of memories of events from the first 3(1/2) years of life, and a gradually increasing number of memories from age 3 to age 7. The pattern is remarkable in light of findings of autobiographical competence among children in the period of life eventually obscured by this amnesia. In the present study, we modified the cue-word task for use with school-age children. Seven- to 10-year-olds successfully generated and dated memories of past events. Girls provided more complete narratives than boys. Across the sample, the resulting distribution of memories was better fit by an exponential than by a power function, implying that early memories may not consolidate and instead remain vulnerable to interference. Implications for explanations of childhood amnesia are discussed.
线索词技术经常被用于研究成年人自传体记忆在整个生命跨度中的分布情况。这类研究证实了童年期遗忘现象：人们对生命最初3.5年的事件记忆很少，而从3岁到7岁，记忆数量逐渐增加。鉴于在最终被这种遗忘现象掩盖的生命阶段中儿童自传体记忆能力的研究结果，这种模式很值得关注。在本研究中，我们对线索词任务进行了修改，以便用于学龄儿童。7至10岁的儿童成功地回忆起了过去事件并确定了时间。女孩提供的叙述比男孩更完整。在整个样本中，记忆的分布用指数函数比用幂函数拟合得更好，这意味着早期记忆可能没有得到巩固，反而容易受到干扰。我们将讨论这一结果对童年期遗忘现象解释的意义。
