An Exploration of Maternal Factors Affecting Children's Memory
School Name
South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics
Grade Level
12th Grade
Presentation Topic
Psychology
Presentation Type
Mentored
Abstract
Depression affects the memory in many negative ways. For example, negative memories are easier to recall, while positive ones are more difficult. We hypothesized that mothers with depression reminisce more negatively and overgenerally to their children, thereby causing the children to have a negative memory bias. To test this hypothesis, we brought mother-child dyads into our lab and had them reminisce together about shared experiences. Then, the children got to make slime, while a series of ambiguous events (or events that can be interpreted either positively or negatively) occurred around them. Finally, the children were interviewed to obtain their interpretations of each event. With this data, we looked for certain wordings in the reminiscing task and connections between this and the children’s interpretations. We project that a connection will be found between mothers with depression and their children interpreting ambiguous events negatively. Children who grow up with this negative memory bias can be more susceptible to depression later in life, so this study makes way for possible future interventions to help mothers with depression learn to reminisce less negatively, stopping the transmission of certain traits of depression.
Recommended Citation
Brown, Mabel and Reddy, Kirti, "An Exploration of Maternal Factors Affecting Children's Memory" (2023). South Carolina Junior Academy of Science. 124.
https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/scjas/2023/all/124
Location
ECL 340
Start Date
3-25-2023 12:00 PM
Presentation Format
Oral Only
Group Project
Yes
An Exploration of Maternal Factors Affecting Children's Memory
ECL 340
Depression affects the memory in many negative ways. For example, negative memories are easier to recall, while positive ones are more difficult. We hypothesized that mothers with depression reminisce more negatively and overgenerally to their children, thereby causing the children to have a negative memory bias. To test this hypothesis, we brought mother-child dyads into our lab and had them reminisce together about shared experiences. Then, the children got to make slime, while a series of ambiguous events (or events that can be interpreted either positively or negatively) occurred around them. Finally, the children were interviewed to obtain their interpretations of each event. With this data, we looked for certain wordings in the reminiscing task and connections between this and the children’s interpretations. We project that a connection will be found between mothers with depression and their children interpreting ambiguous events negatively. Children who grow up with this negative memory bias can be more susceptible to depression later in life, so this study makes way for possible future interventions to help mothers with depression learn to reminisce less negatively, stopping the transmission of certain traits of depression.
