The potential role of memory conversations in children’s suggestibility and in the development of control mechanisms for remembering
Abstract
Memory conversations substantially impact the development of children’s autobiographical memory and other capabilities. However, if memory accuracy is brought into focus, exposure to maternal elaborative conversations may make children susceptible to suggestions by others, formulating the question how these mnemonic practices exactly figure into children’s memory development. We argue that suggestibility might be a consequence of how children are socialized to remember, and thus can be explained by their tendency to rely on the input of other people while recalling their memories. This may result in memory errors when conversation partners have mistaken assumptions about the past. Nevertheless, experience from these conversations could also positively impact a number of cognitive abilities – theory of mind, epistemic vigilance, metacognition – which may serve as control processes during retrieval and gradually allow children to discern when to trust their own or other’s testimony about the past, resulting in better memory capabilities in the long run.
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