THE EFFECT OF MEMORY TRACE STRENGTH ON SUGGESTIBILITY

This experiment tests the memory trace strength theory of suggestibili ty, that stronger memories are more resistant to suggestibility than w eaker memories, with strength of memory manipulated by means of freque ncy of presentation of target items. Four- and 10-year-old children vi ewed a slide sequence in which four target slides were presented one o r two times each. In a postevent narrative, participants were misled a bout two target items, and two target items served as controls. In a s ubsequent recognition memory test, the hypothesis was confirmed. The d ' difference between control and misled items was greater for frequenc y one than for frequency two; stronger memories (items viewed twice) w ere more resistant to suggestibility than weaker memories (items viewe d once). This pattern was consistent for both 4- and 10-year-old child ren, indicating that similar cognitive processes underlie suggestibili ty at each age. These results suggest that if children's memory is tes ted for an event that occurred to them frequently, they would be expec ted to have more accurate memory for this event and be less vulnerable to suggestive influences such as biased interviewing procedures than they would for an event that occurred only a single time. (C) 1995 Aca demic Press, Inc.