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“When I Was Little”: Childhood Recollections in Chinese and European Canadian Grade School Children
Author(s) -
Peterson Carole,
Wang Qi,
Hou Yubo
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.1467-8624.2009.01275.x
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , child development , childhood development
Recollection of early childhood experiences was investigated in 225 European Canadian and 133 Chinese children (ages 8, 11, and 14) by a memory fluency task that measured accessibility of multiple early memories and elicited the earliest memory. Younger children provided memories of events that occurred at earlier ages than older children. Furthermore, Canadian children produced more memories and had an earlier age of first memory than did Chinese children, with cultural differences in both measures increasing with age. It appears that while adultlike childhood amnesia is still emerging among Canadian children, Chinese children by age 14 already resemble adults. Content of Canadian versus Chinese children’s memories reflected an autonomous versus relational self‐construal. Results are discussed in terms of sociocultural influences on memory.