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Judgement of confidence in childhood memories
Author(s) -
Arbuthnott Katherine D.,
Kealy Kinda L. K.,
Ylioja Shelley
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
applied cognitive psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.719
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1099-0720
pISSN - 0888-4080
DOI - 10.1002/acp.1404
Subject(s) - judgement , psychology , autobiographical memory , childhood memory , cognitive psychology , consistency (knowledge bases) , reconstructive memory , memory errors , phenomenology (philosophy) , metacognition , episodic memory , metamemory , childhood amnesia , developmental psychology , cognition , recall , artificial intelligence , computer science , epistemology , neuroscience , philosophy
Memory judgement processes, based on the characteristics and associations of retrieved memories such as sensory details and supporting memories, are considered as important as retrieval in several autobiographical memory models. Judgement processes have received less research attention than memory characteristics themselves. The present studies examined memory judgement using qualitative analysis of the reasons participants gave for confidence in retrieved childhood memories. For memories they were confident of, participants cited memory phenomenology, especially sensory and affective details, much more frequently than consistency with other autobiographical knowledge. For memories they were not confident of, participants reported lack of consistency with autobiographical knowledge or with others' memories more often than memory phenomenology as reasons for their uncertainty. Participants' comments also revealed several metacognitive beliefs about the relationship between memory characteristics and accuracy. These data are consistent with two‐process models of memory judgement associated with true versus false memories. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.