Development of false memories in 5- and 8-year-olds: The role of working memory maintenance mechanisms

Previous research has shown that false memories-that is, remembering things that did not happen but are consistent with the gist of the actual experiences-increase during development. The current study shows that this developmental reversal of false memory is moderated by the development of working memory (WM). In two experiments, 5- and 8-year-olds (N = 184; 103 girls; European) were asked to memorize lists of three or four semantically related words during retention intervals of a few seconds in which the opportunities to maintain the studied words in WM were varied. The children then performed an immediate recall test and a delayed recognition test. Experiment 1 showed that 8-year-olds made more semantic recall errors-that is, false memories-than non-semantic recall errors in the immediate test, whereas the opposite was true for 5-year-olds. Experiment 2, which introduced a stronger manipulation of WM maintenance, showed that 8-year-olds made more semantic errors than 5-year-olds in the immediate test when the opportunity to maintain the studied words in WM was reduced. This developmental reversal disappeared when children had more opportunities to maintain the studied words in WM. These results suggest that the development of WM maintenance mechanisms during childhood reduces the age-related increase in false memories.