THE SUGGESTIBILITY OF CHILDRENS MEMORY FOR BEING TOUCHED - PLANTING, ERASING, AND CHANGING MEMORIES

Investigates recent claims that it is relatively easy to suggestively plant false memories in children, by comparing the relative vulnerabil ity to suggestibility of changed, planted and erased memories. 80 4-ye ar-olds and 80 10-year-olds either were touched in a specific way or w ere not touched at all and it was later suggested that a different tou ch, a completely new touch, or no touch at all had occurred The sugges tibility effect occurred only in the changed memory condition; the dif ference between the experimental changed condition and the correspondi ng control condition was significant. In the planted and erased memory conditions no suggestibility effect occurred there was no significant reduction in the experimental groups relative to the corresponding co ntrol conditions. Thus, although it is relatively easy to suggest to a child a change in an event that was experienced, it is less likely th at an event can be planted in or erased from memory. It is thus inappr opriate to provide courtroom testimony regarding the probability of su ggestively planting false memories based on the classic suggestibility research, which has largely been restricted to the study of suggestiv ely changing memories.