Emotion and memory: Children's long-term remembering, forgetting, and suggestibility

Children's memories for an experienced and a never-experienced medical proc edure were examined. Three- to 13-year-olds were questioned about a voiding cystourethrogram fluoroscopy (VCUG) they endured between 2 and 6 years of age. Children 4 years or older at VCUG were more accurate than children you nger than 4 at VCUG. Longer delays wee associated with providing fewer unit s of correct information bur not with more inaccuracies. Parental avoidant attachment style was related to increased errors in children's VCUG memory. Children were more likely to assent to the false medical procedure when it was alluded to briefly than when described in detail, and false assents we re related to fewer "do-not-know" responses about the VCUG. Results have im plications for childhood amnesia, stress and memory, individual differences , and eyewitness testimony. (C) 1999 Academic Press.