The effect of feedback and recollection rejection instructions on the development of memory monitoring and accuracy

• Published in: Journal of experimental child psychology Vol. 221; p. 105434
• Main Authors: Moore, Kara N., Lampinen, James Michael, Nesmith, Blake L., Bridges, Ana J., Gallo, David A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.09.2022
• Subjects: Experience; False memory; Feedback; Instructions; Memory monitoring; Metacognition; Metacognitive development; Recollection rejection; Memory monitoring; Experience; Recollection rejection; Feedback; Metacognition; Metacognitive development; Instructions; False memory
• ISSN: 0022-0965; 1096-0457
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105434

•Memory accuracy and monitoring improve throughout childhood, and children 8–9 years of age perform similarly to adults.•Children and adults can use recollection rejection without instructions.•Experience may eliminate developmental differences in false recognition.•Feedback promotes improvements in false recognition on a near transfer test in children and adults.•Instructions and feedback have mixed effects on 5 year olds memory accuracy and monitoring. Recollection rejection (a form of memory monitoring) involves rejecting false details on the basis of remembering true details (recall to reject), thereby increasing memory accuracy. This study examined how recollection rejection instructions and feedback affect memory accuracy and false recognition in 5-year-olds, 6- and 7-year-olds, 8- and 9-year-olds, and adults. Participants (N = 336) completed three study–test phases. Instructions and item-level feedback were manipulated during the first two phases, with the third phase including a test containing no instructions or feedback to evaluate learning effects. As predicted, in the younger children, as compared with the older children and adults, we found reduced accuracy scores (hits to studied items minus false alarms to related lures), reduced recollection rejection to related lures, and increased false recognition scores. We also found that, in the third phase, prior feedback reduced false recognition scores, potentially by improving monitoring, and typical developmental differences in false recognition were eliminated. However, there were mixed findings of instructions and feedback, and in some conditions these interventions harmed memory. These findings provide initial evidence that combining instructions and feedback with repeated task practice may improve monitoring effectiveness, but additional work is needed on how these factors improve and sometimes harm performance in young children.