Does providing props during preparation help children to remember a novel event?

Maltreated Children's Memory of Stressful Removals from Their Biological Parents

“…The fact that the children and their parents are 'prepared' for the trauma may contribute to the way in which the event is subsequently represented and maintained in memory (Goodman, Quas, Batterman-Faunce, Riddelsberger, & Kuhn, 1994;Goodman & Schaaf, 1997). Studies have shown that there is a beneficial effect on memory when well-informed adults have focused on the upcoming event and actively engaged the child by talking to them about what will happen, thereby increasing the child's understanding of the experience (Salmon, Champion, Pipe, Mewton, & McDonald, 2008;Salmon, Yao, Berntsen, & Pipe, 2007). Investigations of children prepared for stressful medical procedures have also shown that preparation may enhance the child's ability to cope and reduce stress about what is coming (Steward, Bussey, Goodman, & Saywitz, 1993;Quas et al, 1999aQuas et al, , 1999b.…”

Asking Parents to Prepare Children for an Event: Altering Parental Instructions Influences Children's Recall

“…Findings of several studies in which a novel event has been staged, the style and content of the adult's (parent or experimenter) conversation with the child has been experimentally manipulated, and the interview has been standardized highlight the positive influence of discussion during or after an event on children's (aged 3 to 6 years) recall of that experience (e.g., Boland, Haden, & Ornstein, 2003;Conroy & Salmon, 2006;McGuigan & Salmon, 2004. In contrast, recent research has converged on the conclusion that discussion before a contrived, novel event during which the parent is not subsequently present has only a very modest influence on children's memory of the event, even for children as ''old'' as age 6 years, and regardless of whether the preparatory discussion is conducted by a researcher or parent (McGuigan & Salmon, 2005;Salmon, Champion, Pipe, Mewton, & McDonald, 2008;Salmon, Yao, Berntsen, & Pipe, 2007). Indeed, when the influence on children's memory of discussion at different times in relation ALTERING PARENTAL INSTRUCTIONS to a staged event was compared, talk after the event had the greatest impact on correct recall, whereas the influence of pre-event discussion was restricted to reducing errors (McGuigan & Salmon, 2004).…”

“…Nonetheless, manipulations that boost encoding of the initial ''exposure'' to the event may also improve the influence of adultchild conversation (e.g., Hedrick, Haden, & Ornstein, 2009). For example, preparatory conversations are more effective if the verbally conveyed information is supplemented with visual aids, such as props from the event or photographs, and if, in combination with visual aids, the child generates some of the preparatory information (McGuigan & Salmon, 2005;Salmon et al, 2007Salmon et al, , 2008Sutherland, Pipe, Schick, Murray, & Gobbo, 2003).…”

“…Drawing on our own previous findings and those of others, we aimed to manipulate parental goals such that parents focused primarily either on telling their child about the event or also engaging the child actively in the conversation. Parents and their 6-year-old children were randomly allocated to one of three experimental conditions, two of which were asked to verbally prepare their children for the event; children aged 6 years were selected for comparison with most (e.g., McGuigan & Salmon, 2005;Salmon et al, 2007) but not all (Salmon et al, 2008) of our previous research. All parents were given 5 minutes to discuss the upcoming experience with their child.…”

The susceptibility of young preschoolers to source similarity effects: Confusing story or video events with reality

“…Pictures were included in the storybook to help the children attend to and encode the heard event (cf. McGuigan & Salmon, 2005;Salmon, Yao, Bernsten, & Pipe, 2007). The children's source-monitoring performance was measured using discrimination scores that reflected their accuracy at identifying the source of event components they had recognized as having occurred.…”