representational change

a young child’s false memory of an initial belief, as demonstrated by performance in a false-belief task. For example, children shown a box marked as containing pencils and asked what it contains are likely to reply that it contains pencils; the box is then opened to reveal that it actually contains pennies. When later asked what they originally thought was in the box, most children ages 3 years and younger say pennies, whereas older children remember their original belief.

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Psychology term of the day

February 28th 2025

hypnotic regression

a therapeutic technique in which an individual under hypnosis is induced to relive a previous experience that may be contributing to current emotional difficulties. There are two types of hypnotic regression: age regression and past-life regression.