ABSTRACT
Over the past decade, there has been a dramatic increase in research on the development of autobiographical memory (Nelson & Fivush, 2000; Reese, 2002). Although clearly a complex and multiply determined skill, a growing corpus of work has focused on the effects of early parent-child conversations about the past on children’s autobiographical memory (e.g., Fivush, 1991; Haden, Haine, & Fivush, 1997; McCabe & Peterson, 1991; Reese, Haden & Fivush, 1993). The literature indicates the presence of substantial individual differences in the ways in which mothers reminisce (e.g., Engel, 1995; Fivush & Fromhoff, 1988; Haden, 1998; Hudson, 1990; McCabe & Peterson, 1991; Reese, Haden & Fivush, 1993; Welch-Ross, 1997), and longitudinal investigations involving White, middle-class American samples have established that the nature of mothers’ talk with their children about past events has a long-term impact on children’s developing autobiographical memory skills (McCabe & Peterson, 1991; Reese et al., 1993). Moreover, as detailed in chapters throughout this volume, cross-cultural variations in autobiographical memory have been found (e.g., Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Mullen, 1994), and differences in early parent-child reminiscing may contribute to these cultural differences (e.g., Han, Leichtman, & Wang, 1998; Miller, Wiley, Fung, & Liang, 1997; Mullen & Yi, 1995).
