The ability to remember the origin of memories is a long process that develops during adolescence, but only when we become mature adults. Researchers in Germany have discovered that children develop the ability to remember past events and the origin of these memories in childhood and adolescence.
Presented in the journal child development, the results show that the ability to remember the origin of memories is a long process that develops during adolescence, but only when we become mature adults. The study provides important information regarding the reliability of the testimony of children in the legal field.
Researchers at the University of the Saarland state that a child can remember having known a person and the context in which it was known. In all, the team examined 18 children (7-8 years old), 20 adolescents (13-14 years of age) and 20 young adults (20-29 years old) and asked them to complete 2 shares a memory exercise.
The first part consisted of images displayed on a computer screen, subjects had to decide how many times the photographs were repeated by pressing the “new” when they saw the image for the first time key and the “old” when they saw a repeat.
The second part was carried out after a break of 10 minutes. The subjects were asked to look at other pictures, some of which were seen in the first part while others were new. The researchers asked participants to decide whether the object was only a repetition or not, ie the objects that were seen in the first half but were presented for the first time in the second part had to be considered “new”, while objects repeated in the second part had to be judged “old”. The team also kept an eye on the response of the brain of subjects during both parts of the year using a helmet for electroencephalogram (EEG).
This has allowed researchers to evaluate how evolutionary changes are called the origins of memories, this is what was the second half of the year, regardless of age-related differences in the memories of events (first part). It is measured as the young retrieve and evaluate the things you remember.
According to the researchers, in the process of recovery there were not many differences in age on the recognition of repeated images (first half of the year). So the response of the brain of children aged 7 and 8 years was comparable to that of adolescents and adults.
Please note however, that the children were immature in this field when it came to evaluate the origin of memories. Furthermore, while adolescents and adults showed similarities, only adults have shown maturity in this field. The data suggest that the brain structures that underlie the right to recall the sources of memories in children and adolescents improve and mature over time.
“The study has important implications for those interested in the ability of children and adolescents to distinguish between different sources of memories”, the researchers say. “Parents, teachers and those working in the legal system should know that the memories of the teenagers can still be distorted by other memories that are distracting, for example by suggestions during testimony”.
