The Socialization of Children’s Memory: Linking Maternal Conversational Style to the Development of Children’s Autobiographical and Deliberate Memory Skills

Abstract

Data from a large-scale, longitudinal research study with an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample were utilized to explore linkages between maternal elaborative conversational style and the development of children’s autobiographical and deliberate memory. Assessments were made when the children were 3, 5, and 6 years of age, and the results reveal concurrent and longitudinal linkages between maternal conversational style in a mother-child reminiscing task and children’s autobiographical memory performance. Maternal conversational style while reminiscing was also significantly related to children’s strategic behaviors and recall in two deliberate memory tasks, both concurrently and longitudinally. Results from this examination replicate and extend what is known about the linkages between maternal conversational style, children’s abilities to talk about previous experiences, and children’s deliberate memory skills as they transition from the preschool to early elementary school years.

Origins of mother–child reminiscing style

“…Finally, we did not find any significant associations between SES and mother-child reminiscing, which is in line with previous studies of the development of reminiscing in community samples, for whom SES is a weak correlate of mother-child elaboration (e.g., Reese & Newcombe, 2007). We note, however, that Langley, Coffman, and Ornstein (2017) found significant differences in motherchild reminiscing when comparing families living below and above the poverty line in the United States.…”

Sociocultural developmental approaches to autobiographical memory

“…Our initial findings were exciting, but raised more questions than they answered. Both in our lab and across multiple labs in this country and internationally, researchers both replicated and extended our findings (Bauer & Burch, ; Farrant & Reese, ; Haden, ; Haden, Ornstein, & Rudek, ; Harley & Reese, ; Hudson, ; Langley, Coffman, & Ornstein, ; Peterson, Jesso, & McCabe, ; Peterson & McCabe, ; Wang, ). Most of the research has focused on mothers, but fathers show similar individual differences (Reese & Fivush, ; Zaman & Fivush, ).…”

Use, Adaptivity, and Need Fulfillment: A Methodological Critique of Tests of the Functions of Autobiographical Memory

“…For example, a robust finding in this literature is that children whose mothers use a more elaborative conversational style with them have an earlier age of onset of AM. Excellent examples of this methodology are found in Langley, Coffman, and Ornstein (2017) and Larkina and Bauer (2010).…”