The Development of Infant Memory

Author: Carolyn Rovee-Collier

Source: Current Directions in Psychological Science, Volume 8, Number 3, June 1999 , pp. 80-85(6)

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Buy & download fulltext article:

The full text article is not available for purchase.

The publisher only permits individual articles to be downloaded by subscribers.

Abstract:

Over the first year and a half of life, the duration of memory becomes progressively longer, the specificity of the cues required for recognition progressively decreases after short test delays, and the latency of priming progressively decreases to the adult level. The memory dissociations of very young infants on recognition and priming tasks, which presumably tap different memory systems, are also identical to those of adults. These parallels suggest that both memory systems are present very early in development instead of emerging hierarchically over the 1st year, as previously thought. Finally, even young infants can remember an event over the entire “infantile amnesia” period if they are periodically exposed to appropriate nonverbal reminders. In short, the same fundamental mechanisms appear to underlie memory processing in infants and adults.

Keywords: Recognition; priming; infantile amnesia; reminders

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.00019

Affiliations: 1: The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, New Jersey

Publication date: 1999-06-01

Related content

Tools

Key

Free Content
Free content
New Content
New content
Open Access Content
Open access content
Subscribed Content
Subscribed content
Free Trial Content
Free trial content

Text size:

A | A | A | A
Share this item with others: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. print icon Print this page