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Maternal Reminiscing Style During Early Childhood Predicts the Age of Adolescents’ Earliest Memories
Author(s) -
Jack Fiona,
MacDonald Shelley,
Reese Elaine,
Hayne Harlene
Publication year - 2009
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.1467-8624.2009.01274.x
Subject(s) - psychology , autobiographical memory , developmental psychology , childhood amnesia , childhood memory , style (visual arts) , early childhood , late childhood , episodic memory , cognition , archaeology , neuroscience , history
Individual differences in parental reminiscing style are hypothesized to have long‐lasting effects on children’s autobiographical memory development, including the age of their earliest memories. This study represents the first prospective test of this hypothesis. Conversations about past events between 17 mother–child dyads were recorded on multiple occasions between the children’s 2nd and 4th birthdays. When these children were aged 12–13 years, they were interviewed about their early memories. Adolescents whose mothers used a greater ratio of elaborations to repetitions during the early childhood conversations had earlier memories than adolescents whose mothers used a smaller ratio of elaborations to repetitions. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that past‐event conversations during early childhood have long‐lasting effects on autobiographical memory.