Effects of retrieving childhood events on metamemory judgments depend on the questions you ask

Objective. The more people retrieve childhood memories, the less favourably they evaluate their own memory. It has been argued that this might play a role in self-reports of amnesia. However, a limitation of previous studies addressing this phenomenon is that participants' judgments about their memo ry were based on a single item. Design. Students were randomly assigned to either of two conditions. In one condition, they were asked to retrieve nine negative childhood events, whe reas in the other condition, participants were required to recall three eve nts. Method. After recall, students completed measures on memory accessibility a nd 'repression'. Results. Students who retrieved nine events rated their memories as less ac cessible, but also reported less repression than did students who retrieved three events. Conclusion. The direction of retrieval effects on metamemory judgments depe nds on the way in which questions are framed.