CAMDEN - Albert Einstein may have said that imagination is more important than knowledge, but, when it comes to children, there are situations where determining fact from fiction is critical. Children's testimonies in alleged sexual abuse cases, for instance.

Research conducted by a Rutgers-Camden psychology scholar may provide new insight into how aware young children are of the many ways in which they acquire information from the world around them and the worlds within them.

Karen Thierry, an assistant professor of psychology at Rutgers-Camden, is studying children's awareness of the sources of their knowledge in 100 three- to six-year-olds. Her research is supported by a $15,000 grant from the Lindback Foundation.

"Sources of knowledge" come from information heard, seen, and imagined. To confuse a "source" is to confuse the origin of that experience, meaning that what one may think really happened could actually have come from a non-reality source, like a stirring dream, a good book, or a TV show. Unlike adults and older children, who can more easily make these distinctions, preschool-aged children often experience source confusion, wherein what they dreamt, watched on television, or imagined all feel real. This is especially evident to parents who have tried to console a toddler who just awoke from a nightmare by saying, "it's only a dream."

Beginning this fall, Thierry, with Rutgers-Camden undergraduates Masha Sumaroka, Elyn Picknally, Jennifer Pontarelli, and Kristin Christiano will interview young children twice a week in the Rutgers-Camden Memory Lab, a space dedicated to advancing to memory-specific research.

The children involved in the project will learn about science from storybooks, from a video, and from an experimenter performing science lessons in real life. During their last session, these southern New Jersey children will be asked to distinguish between experiments they saw happen in real life and those they heard from the story or video. Thierry hopes that the project will illuminate whether young children have more difficulty differentiating real life from television, or real life from books.

Imaginative play and reading are important to child development, notes the Rutgers-Camden scholar, who adds that several studies have shown that young children learn better when lessons are based in imaginative play. However, says Thierry, "Children should be encouraged to talk about the difference between events that are based in reality and those that are merely imagined or heard."

Thierry is among the few pioneering researchers currently studying children's ability to discriminate different sources of information. Her research aims to shed significant light on this topic, which will prove useful in determining the reliability of children's eyewitness testimony. Thierry plans on publishing her findings in journals and books.

A former National Institute of Health postdoctoral fellow, Thierry earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame and her doctoral degree form the University of Texas at Dallas. She joined the Rutgers-Camden faculty in 2003 and currently resides in Philadelphia.

Cathy Karmilowicz

RUTGERS NEWS SERVICE
Camden Campus, Rutgers - The State University of New Jersey
contact: Cathy Karmilowicz
(856) 225-6627
catkarm@camden.rutgers.edu

EDITOR/REPORTER: To interview Thierry or to arrange a visit to the Rutgers-Camden Memory Lab during a session, please call (856) 225-6627.