ARE CHILDRENS FALSE MEMORIES MORE PERSISTENT THAN THEIR TRUE MEMORIES

Fuzzy-trace theory predicts that children's false-memory responses wil l be well preserved over time, and that under specific conditions, the y will be less likely to be forgotten than true-memory responses. The reason is that initial true-memory responses are supported by unstable verbatim traces, whereas initial false-memory responses are supported by stable gist. Data consistent with these predictions were obtained in three experiments with 5- and 8-year-olds.