When children are the worst and best eyewitnesses: Factors behind the development of false memory

This chapter discusses several false memory methods and theories that have frequently been employed to study and explain false memories and their development. It focuses on the developmental aspects of the formation of different types of false memories. Many studies that use suggestion to instigate false memories follow a procedure called the misinformation paradigm in which participants are exposed to erroneous information. False memory implantation studies have also been undertaken using child participants. In Associative Activation Theory is assumed that false memories are caused by associative activation spreading throughout an individual’s knowledge base. False memory models have emphasized that, in order to fuel false memory formation of fictitious events, people should first believe that the event is something plausible that could have happened to them. Experimentation in adults has found that, although script knowledge affects the formation of false beliefs, it is not a prerequisite for false beliefs to occur.