Emotion knowledge and autobiographical memory across the preschool years: a cross-cultural longitudinal investigation.

Full Abstract

Knowledge of emotion situations facilitates the interpretation, processing, and organization of significant personal event information and thus may be an important contributor to the development of autobiographical memory. This longitudinal study tested the hypothesis in a cross-cultural context. The participants were native Chinese children, Chinese children from first-generation Chinese immigrant families in the U.S., and European American children. Children's developing emotion knowledge and autobiographical memory were assessed three times at home, when children were 3, 3.5, and 4.5 years of age. Children's emotion knowledge uniquely predicted their autobiographical memory ability across groups and time points. Emotion knowledge further mediated culture effects on autobiographical memory. The findings provide important insight into early autobiographical memory development, and extend current theoretical understandings of the emotion-memory interplay. They further have implications for the phenomenon of infantile amnesia and cross-cultural differences in childhood recollections.

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Author information

Author/s: Wang, Qi (Q);

Affiliation: Department of Human Development, Cornell University, MVR Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-4401, USA. qw23(-atsign-)cornell.edu

Grants: R01-MH64661 (Agency:United States NIMH)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: Cognition (Cognition), published in Netherlands. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Jul; vol 108 (issue 1) : pp 117-35

Dates: Created 2008/06/02; Completed 2008/08/12;

PMID: 18353299, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Europe - ethnology
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Humans
Male
Memory
United States

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