CHILDRENS KNOWLEDGE, EXPECTATION, AND LONG-TERM RETENTION

To examine the influence of prior knowledge on children's immediate an d delayed recall of the details of a physical examination, 4- and 6-ye ar-olds received a specially constructed check-up that included some t ypical, expected medical features (e.g. listening to the heart), while omitting others, and incorporated several atypical, unexpected proced ures (e.g. measuring head circumference). Using a combination of open- ended and more specific probes, the children were assessed for their r ecall of expected and unexpected features that had been included in or omitted from the examination. Expectation based on prior knowledge af fected three aspects of performance. First, correct recall of typical features that had been experienced exceeded that of unexpected feature s. Second, after a 12-week delay, spontaneous incorrect recall of expe cted-but-omitted features was considerable, with 42% of 4-year-olds an d 72% of 6-year-olds making at least one intrusion, and essentially ze ro for atypical procedures that were unexpected and omitted. Third, wh en questioned directly about medical procedures not included in the ex amination, correct denials were high for atypical features, but at cha nce levels for those that were expected. The positive and negative inf luences of knowledge raise questions about children's abilities to dif ferentiate clearly between experience and expectation and have implica tions for understanding their testimony. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, L td.