Children’s Knowledge About Memory: Adaptation and French Validation of a Scale to Assess it.

The present study aimed at adapting and testing a French version of Kreutzer et al.’s metamemory interview (1975) in a group of 128 children aged of 4, 6, 9, and 12. Following Fritz et al. (2010), adjustments have been made to reduce language skill contamination as well as to increase the developmental appropriateness and sensibility of the scale.
Results show the emergence of two sub-scales (“strategy knowledge” and “general memory knowledge”) on the factor analysis and reveal an excellent interrater reliability as well as a good internal consistency for the global scale and two sub-scales (respectively, Cronbach α = .79; .81 and .71). As expected with regard to the literature, a significant correlation has appeared between the metamemory scale and short-term memory capacities (convergent validity). Similarly, the metamemory score has shown its ability to predict children memory performance (predictive validity). Finally, the lack of correlation between most of the scale’s items and vocabulary measurement (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test) and the very good ability of the scale to distinguish between age groups demonstrate that the adaptations made to improve the Kreutzer et al.’s scale in terms of language’s contamination and developmental sensibility have reached their goal.
Regarding its psychometric properties, these results suggest that this interview can be considered as a useful and reliable tool for developmental research. Furthermore, they confirm the importance of metamemory knowledge in memory performance. Future studies will have to be carried out to show the utility of this scale in a clinical population.