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Distinguishing between memories for thoughts and deeds: The role of prospective processing in children's source monitoring
Author(s) -
Foley Mary Ann,
Ratner Hilary Horn
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
british journal of developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.062
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 2044-835X
pISSN - 0261-510X
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-835x.1998.tb00765.x
Subject(s) - psychology , action (physics) , identity (music) , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , similarity (geometry) , social psychology , aesthetics , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , computer science , image (mathematics)
The source monitoring abilities of children and adults were compared by asking both age groups to distinguish between memories for performed and imagined actions. The identity of the person performing actions (self vs. other), as well as the identity of the person imagined (self vs. other) were varied to create four kinds of performhagine conditions. Results showed that 6‐year‐olds performed worse than adults in all four conditions, and they were more likely than adults to claim an imagined action was actually performed (Expt 1). This bias to claim an imagined action was performed was more pronounced for children who imagined themselves going through the motions of performing actions compared to those who imagined seeing themselves (Expt 2). Action similarity played a role in source monitoring, but only under some conditions. The results point to the importance of prospective processing for children's source monitoring, and suggest that systematic investigation of the goal‐directed nature of actions in source monitoring is needed.