Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-7qhmt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T17:45:31.029Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Autobiographical memory and suggestibility in children with autism spectrum disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2007

MAGGIE BRUCK
Affiliation:
Johns Hopkins University
KAMALA LONDON
Affiliation:
University of Toledo
REBECCA LANDA
Affiliation:
Kennedy Krieger Institute
JUNE GOODMAN
Affiliation:
Kennedy Krieger Institute

Abstract

Two paradigms were developed to examine autobiographical memory (ABM) and suggestibility in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Children with ASD (N = 30) and typically developing chronological age-matched children (N = 38) ranging in age from 5 to 10 years were administered an ABM questionnaire. Children were asked about details of current and past personally experienced events. Children also participated in a staged event, and later were provided with true and false reminders about that event. Later, children again were interviewed about the staged event. The results from both paradigms revealed that children with ASD showed poorer ABM compared to controls. Generally, their ABM was marked by errors of omission rather than by errors of commission, and memory was particularly poor for early-life events. In addition, they were as suggestible as the typically developing children. The results are discussed in terms of applied and theoretical implications.This project was supported by a grant from National Institutes of Health (RO1 HD39282) to M.B. Thanks to the many children, parents, teachers, and school staff who took time and interest in participating in this study. The assistance of Kendra Tannenbaum, Jennifer Betkowski, Katie Whittaker, and Liz Marave is greatly appreciated.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2007 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Baron-Cohen, S. (1995). Mindblindness: An essay on autism and theory of mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A. M., & Frith, U. (1985). Does the autistic child have a “theory of mind”? Cognition, 21, 3746.Google Scholar
Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A. M., & Frith, U. (1986). Mechanical, behavioural and intentional understanding of picture stories in autistic children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 4, 113125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boucher, J. (1981). Memory for recent events in autistic children. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 11, 293301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boucher, J., & Lewis, V. (1989). Memory impairments is relatively able autistic children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 6, 325339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruck, M., & Ceci, S. J. (1999). The suggestibility of children's memory. Annual Review of Psychology, 50, 419439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruck, M., & Ceci, S. J. (2004). Forensic developmental psychology: Unveiling four scientific misconceptions. Current Directions in Psychology, 13, 229232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruck, M., & Melnyk, L. (2004). Individual differences in children's suggestibility: A review and synthesis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 18, 248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carvajal, H., & Gerber, J. (1987). 1986 Stanford–Binet abbreviated forms. Psychological Reports, 61, 285286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ceci, S. J., & Bruck, M. (1995). Jeopardy in the courtroom: A scientific analysis of children's testimony. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Cohen, M. J. (1997). Children's Memory Scale. San Antonio, TX: Harcourt Brace & Company.
Craik, F. I., & Tulving, E. (1975). Depth of processing and the retention of words in episodic memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 104, 268294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawson, G., & McKissick, F. C. (1984). Self recognition in autistic children. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 14, 383394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeLamatre, J. E., & Hollinger, C. L. (1990). Utility of the Stanford–Binet IV abbreviated form for placing exceptional children. Psychological Reports, 67, 973974.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farrant, A., Blades, M., & Boucher, J. (1998). Source monitoring by children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 28, 4350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fein, D., Dunn, M. A., Allen, D. M., Aram, R., Hall, N., Morris, R., et al. (1996). Neuropsychological and language data. In I. Rapin (Ed.), Preschool children with inadequate communication: Developmental language disorder, autism, low IQ (pp. 123154). London: Mac Keith Press.
Finnilä, K., Mahlberga, N., Santtilaa, P., Sandnabbaa, K., & Niemib, P. (2003). Validity of a test of children's suggestibility for predicting responses to two interview situations differing in their degree of suggestiveness. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 85, 3249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fivush, R., Gray, J. T., & Fromhoff, F. A. (1987). Two-year-olds talk about the past. Cognitive Development, 2, 393409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fivush, R., Haden, C., & Reese, E. (1995). Remembering, recounting, and reminiscing: The development of autobiographical memory in social context. In D. C. Rubin (Ed.), Remembering our past: Studies in autobiographical memory (pp. 341359). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Haden, C. A., Haine, R. A., & Fivush, R. (1997). Developing narrative structure in parent–child reminiscing across the preschool years. Developmental Psychology, 33, 295307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harley, K., & Reese, E. (1999). Origins of autobiographical memory. Developmental Psychology, 35, 13381348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hermelin, B., & Frith, U. (1991). Psychological studies of childhood autism: Can autistic children make sense of what they see and hear? Focus on Autistic Behavior, 6, 613.Google Scholar
Howe, M. L. (1991). Misleading children's story recall: Reminiscence of the facts. Developmental Psychology, 27, 746762.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howe, M. L., & Courage, M. L. (1993). On resolving the enigma of infantile amnesia. Psychological Bulletin, 113, 305326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howe, M. L., & Courage, M. L. (1997). The emergence and early development of autobiographical memory. Psychological Review, 104, 499523.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howe, M. L., Courage, M. L., & Edison, S. C. (2003). When autobiographical memory begins. Developmental Review, 23, 471494.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howe, M. L., Courage, M. L., & Peterson, C. (1994). How can I remember when “I” wasn't there: Long-term retention of traumatic experiences and emergence of the cognitive self. Consciousness and Cognition, 3, 327355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hudson, J. A. (1993). Reminiscing with mothers and others: Autobiographical memory in young two-year-olds. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 3, 132.Google Scholar
Lee, A., & Hobson, R. P. (1998). On developing self-concepts: A controlled study of children and adolescents with autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 39, 11311144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, A., Hobson, R. P., & Chiat, S. (1994). I, you, me, and autism: An experimental study. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 24, 155176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
London, K., & Bruck, M. (2006). Event memory and misinformation effects following a 10 month delay among children with autism spectrum disorder. Unpublished manuscript.
Marche, T. (1999). Memory strength affects reporting of misinformation. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 73, 4571.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Millward, C., Powell, S., Messer, D., & Jordan, R. (2000). Recall for self and other in autism: Children's memory for events experienced by themselves and their peers. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 30, 1528.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minshew, N. J., & Goldstein, G. (1993). Is autism an amnesic disorder? Evidence from the California Verbal Learning Test. Neuropsychology, 7, 209216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minshew, N. J., & Goldstein, G. (2001). The pattern of intact and impaired memory functions in autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 42, 10951101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, K. (1995). Stories in memory: Developmental issues. In R. S. Wyler, Jr. (Ed.), Knowledge and memory: The real story (pp. 185191). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Nelson, K., & Fivush, R. (2004). The emergence of autobiographical memory: A social cultural developmental theory. Psychological Review, 111, 486511.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, C., & Whalen, N. (2001). Five years later: Children's memory for medical emergencies. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 15, 724.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pezdek, K., & Roe, C. (1995). The effect of memory trace strength on suggestibility. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 60, 116128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pillemer, D. B., Picariello, M. L., & Pruett, J. C. (1994). Very long-term memories of a salient preschool event. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 8, 95106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prewett, P. N. (1992). Short forms of the Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scale, fourth edition. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 10, 257264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quas, J. A., Goodman, G. S., Bidrose, S., Pipe, M. E., Craw, S., & Ablin, D. S. (1999). Emotion and memory: Children's long-term remembering, forgetting, and suggestibility. Journal of Child Experimental Psychology, 72, 235270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reese, E. (2002). Social factors in the development of autobiographical memory: The state of the art. Social Development, 11, 124142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reese, E., Haden, C. A., & Fivush, R. (1993). Mother–child conversations about the past: Relationships of style and memory over time. Cognitive Development, 8, 403430.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renner, P., Klinger, L. G., & Klinger, M. R. (2000). Implicit and explicit memory in autism: Is autism an amnesic disorder? Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 30, 314.Google Scholar
Russell, J., & Jarrold, C. (1999). Memory for actions in children with autism: Self versus other. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 4, 303331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schopler, E., Reichler, R. J., & DeVellis, R. F. (1980). Toward objective classification of childhood autism: Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS). Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 10, 91103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tager-Flusberg, H. (1991). Semantic processing in the free recall of autistic children: Further evidence for a cognitive deficit. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 9, 417430.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tager-Flusberg, H. (1994). Dissociations in form and function in the acquisition of language by autistic children. In H. Tager-Flusberg (Ed.), Constraints on language acquisition: Studies of atypical children (pp. 175194). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Tager-Flusberg, H. (1999). A psychological approach to understanding the social and language impairments in autism. International Review of Psychiatry, 11, 325334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tager-Flusberg, H., & Anderson, M. (1991). The development of contingent discourse ability in autistic children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 32, 11231134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toichi, M., & Kamio, Y. (2002). Long-term memory and levels-of-processing in autism. Neuropsychologia, 40, 964969.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toichi, M., & Kamio, Y. (2003). Long-term memory in high-functioning autism: Controversy on episodic memory in autism reconsidered. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 33, 151161CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Volker, M. A., Guarnaccia, V., & Scardapane, J. R. (1999). Short forms of the Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scale: Fourth Edition for screening potentially gifted preschoolers. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 17, 226235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaragoza, M., Payment, K., Kichler, J., Stines, L., & Drivdahl, S. (2001, April). Forced confabulation and false memory in child witnesses. Presented at the Developmental Changes in False Memory Formation Symposium, 2001 Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, MN.