Journal of Cognition and Development
Volume 7, Issue 1, 2006, Pages 95-118

Emotion situation knowledge and autobiographical memory in Chinese, immigrant Chinese, and European American 3-years-olds (Article)

Wang Q.* , Hutt R. , Kulkofsky S. , McDermott M. , Wei R.
  • a Cornell University, MVR Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-4401, United States
  • b Cornell University, MVR Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-4401, United States
  • c Cornell University, MVR Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-4401, United States
  • d Cornell University, MVR Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-4401, United States
  • e Cornell University, MVR Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-4401, United States

Abstract

This study examined the influence of children's emotion situation knowledge (EK) on their autobiographical memory ability at both group and individual levels. Native Chinese, Chinese immigrant, and European American 3-year-old children participated (N = 189). During a home visit, children recounted 2 personal memories of recent, 1-time events with a researcher. Their EK was assessed in a production task (children described situations likely to provoke happy, sad, fearful, or angry emotions) and a judgment task (children judged what emotions story characters were most likely to feel in various situations). European American children had higher EK scores and remembered more details of the past events than their Chinese peers, independent of the influences of age and language skills. EK had the strongest influence on memory reports and mediated the effects of other individual (age, language skills) and group factors (culture, gender). Findings are discussed in light of EK as an important mechanism for the development of autobiographical memory. Copyright © 2006, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Author Keywords

[No Keywords available]

Index Keywords

immigrant Chinese home task performance literature human sex difference controlled study European American language Happiness long term memory male preschool child female individuality cultural factor scoring system Article emotion human experiment age distribution normal human skill decision making Fear Learning
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-33644935222&doi=10.1207%2fs15327647jcd0701_5&partnerID=40&md5=2be7def9b944f06ba62b088d17bd20ff
DOI: 10.1207/s15327647jcd0701_5
ISSN: 15248372
Cited by: 31
Original Language: English