INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES IN CHILDRENS AND ADULTS SUGGESTIBILITY AND FALSE EVENT MEMORY

In this article, we provide an overview of the emerging area of resear ch concerning individual differences in children's memory, suggestibil ity, and false event reports. We begin with a discussion of recent res earch on children's false event memories. We then review research and theory concerning sources of individual differences in children's memo ry and suggestibility, including both cognitive (e.g., understanding o f dual representations, source monitoring, imaginativeness, and event knowledge), and social-personality (e.g., attachment styles and temper ament, parent-child communication, and sequelae of maltreatment) influ ences, and we highlight implications of these sources for children's f alse event reports. Finally, we examine how individual-difference fact ors proposed to mediate adults' false memories relate to those that ma y mediate children's false memories.