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Children's Memory for Traumatic Injury
Author(s) -
Peterson Carole,
Bell Michael
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1996.tb01902.x
Subject(s) - recall , distress , psychology , emotional distress , injury prevention , psychiatry , poison control , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , medicine , medical emergency , cognitive psychology , anxiety
Children between 2 and 13 years who suffered traumatic injury necessitating hospital emergency room treatment were recruited as subjects. They (and adult witnesses) were interviewed a few days and 6 months later, using free and probed recall, about both injury and hospital treatment. Children at all ages were able to provide considerable information about both stressful events, although the amount of detail increased with age. They also made few commission errors. Surprisingly, children's distress at time of injury did not affect the amount or accuracy of their recall of that event, whereas distress during hospital treatment did decrease recall. A tripartite classification into 3 categories of detail was used: central, peripheral‐inside the emotional events, or peripheral‐outside those events. Children's recall differed depending upon detail category. Implications for children's testimony are discussed.