Memory Processes Underlying Misinformation Effects in Child Witnesses

In this article, we review empirical findings that misinformation effects in children are the joint product of automatic or unconscious and intentional or conscious processes. First, we outline the extant literature on multiple systems and process models of memory. Second, we examine how dual memory processes (e.g., recollection and automaticity, verbatim-based identity, and gist-based similarity) contribute to children’s acceptance of misinformation. In this regard we outline findings that show developmental change in the cognitive processes underlying acceptance of misinformation in the absence of overall changes with age in the probability of reporting a suggestion. Competing models of the misinformation effect in children are then evaluated in light of this new evidence.  2002 Elsevier Science (USA)