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Schreiber F, Schneider S, Newen A, Voigt B. Embodying anticipated affect enhances proactive behavior in 5-year-old children. J Exp Child Psychol 2024; 249:106099. [PMID: 39368238 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2024.106099] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2024] [Revised: 09/10/2024] [Accepted: 09/10/2024] [Indexed: 10/07/2024]
Abstract
Imagining anticipated affects can foster future-oriented behavior in adults. However, children often still have difficulties in vividly imagining how they will feel in a specific episode (affective episodic future thinking [EFT]). We investigated whether enacting anticipated affects helps children to imagine how they will feel and whether this enhances proactive behavior in turn. A total of 90 5-year-old children were randomly assigned to one of three groups. In the embodiment group, children were instructed to imagine and physically enact how positive and negative they would feel in an upcoming performance test. Children in the EFT-only group underwent a similar procedure but did not enact their future affect. In the control group, children were reminded of the upcoming test only without receiving a prompt to imagine the upcoming test. After the manipulation, children had the opportunity to play one of three games. One game was relevant for the test. Children's choice to play the relevant game in advance of the test served as an indicator for proactive behavior. Mechanisms (e.g., detailedness of the envisioned event) and moderators (theory of mind and neuroticism) of the link between embodied EFT and proactive behavior were explored. Children in the embodiment group chose the relevant game above chance level, but they did not choose the relevant game more often than children in the EFT-only group and the control group. Those results were independent of the assumed mediators and moderators.
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Affiliation(s)
- Felix Schreiber
- Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Department of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Ruhr Universität Bochum, 44789 Bochum, Germany.
| | - Silvia Schneider
- Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Department of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Ruhr Universität Bochum, 44789 Bochum, Germany; German Center for Mental Health (DZPG), Bochum-Marburg partner site, 44787 Bochum, Germany
| | - Albert Newen
- Institute of Philosophy II, Ruhr Universität Bochum, 44789 Bochum, Germany
| | - Babett Voigt
- Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Department of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Ruhr Universität Bochum, 44789 Bochum, Germany; German Center for Mental Health (DZPG), Bochum-Marburg partner site, 44787 Bochum, Germany
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2
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Rifkin-Graboi A, Tsotsi S, Syazwana N, Stephenson MC, Sim LW, Lee K. Variation in maternal sensitivity and the development of memory biases in preschoolers. Front Behav Neurosci 2023; 17:1093619. [PMID: 36873774 PMCID: PMC9978004 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1093619] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2022] [Accepted: 01/11/2023] [Indexed: 02/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Links between maternal sensitivity, hippocampal development, and memory abilities suggests early life insensitive care may shape structures and schemas influencing future decisions and stress management, biasing children to negative information. While it is possible that this pattern of neurodevelopment may have adaptive consequences, for example, preventing children from encountering untoward experience with future adversity, it may also leave some children at risk for the development of internalizing problems. Methods Here, in a Two Wave Study, we examine whether insensitive care predicts sub sequentially assessed memory biases for threatening (but not happy) stimuli in preschoolers (n = 49), and if such relations cut across different forms of relational memory, i.e., memory for relations between two "items," between an "item" and its spatial location, and an "item" and its temporal sequence. In a subset (n = 18) we also examine links between caregiving, memory, and hippocampal subregion volume. Results Results indicate no main or interactive influence of gender on relational memory. However, insensitive caregiving predicted the difference between Angry and Happy memory during the Item-Space condition (B = 2.451, se = 0.969, p = 0.014, 95% CI (0.572, 4.340)], as well as memory for Angry (but not Happy) items [B = -2.203, se = 0.551, p < 0.001, 95% CI (-3.264,-1.094)]. Memory for the difference between Angry and Happy stimuli in the Space condition associated with larger right hippocampal body volumes (Rho = 0.639, p = 0.004). No relations were observed with internalizing problems. Discussion Results are discussed with reference to developmental stage and in consideration of whether negative biases may serve as an intermediate factor linking early life insensitive care and later socioemotional problems including an increased incidence of internalizing disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne Rifkin-Graboi
- Office of Educational Research, Centre for Research in Child Development, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Stella Tsotsi
- PROMENTA Research Centre, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Nadhrah Syazwana
- Office of Educational Research, Centre for Research in Child Development, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Mary C Stephenson
- Centre for Translational MR Research, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Lit Wee Sim
- Office of Educational Research, Centre for Research in Child Development, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Kerry Lee
- Centre for Educational and Developmental Sciences, Department of Early Childhood Education, Faculty of Education and Human Development, Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
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3
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Immel AS, Altgassen M, Meyer M, Endedijk HM, Hunnius S. Self-projection in early childhood: No evidence for a common underpinning of episodic memory, episodic future thinking, theory of mind, and spatial navigation. J Exp Child Psychol 2022; 223:105481. [PMID: 35753195 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105481] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2021] [Revised: 05/25/2022] [Accepted: 05/25/2022] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Buckner and Carroll [Trends in Cognitive Sciences (2007), Vol. 11, pp. 49-57] argued that episodic memory (EM), episodic future thinking (EFT), theory of mind (ToM), and spatial navigation all build on the same mental mechanism-self-projection, that is, the ability to disengage from the immediate present and shift perspective to alternative temporal, mental, or spatial situations. Developmental studies indeed show that all four abilities undergo profound developmental changes around 4 years of age, and there are first indications of developmental interrelations between some of the abilities. However, strong evidence for the self-projection account, namely that all four abilities are interrelated in their emergence during early childhood, is still lacking. To thoroughly investigate the self-projection hypothesis, we tested 151 4-year-old children on 12 different tasks assessing their EM, EFT, ToM, and spatial navigation skills (3 tasks per ability). Structural equation modeling under maximum likelihood estimation was conducted on a final sample of 144 children to evaluate a model with the 12 tasks as indicators and self-projection as the latent factor. The model showed a very good fit to the data. However, the factor loadings, indicating the strength of association between the latent factor and the indicators, were very low-which speaks against the validity of the measurement model. In summary, the results do not support the assumption of a common latent factor underlying the various abilities EM, EFT, ToM, and spatial navigation. Implications of our results for the self-projection account and possible related theoretical and methodological challenges are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- A-S Immel
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, 6525 GD Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
| | - M Altgassen
- Department of Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, 55122 Mainz, Germany
| | - M Meyer
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, 6525 GD Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - H M Endedijk
- Educational Science, Leiden University, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - S Hunnius
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, 6525 GD Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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4
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Saragosa-Harris NM, Cohen AO, Shen X, Sardar H, Alberini CM, Hartley CA. Associative memory persistence in 3- to 5-year-olds. Dev Sci 2021; 24:e13105. [PMID: 33626196 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13105] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2020] [Revised: 01/10/2021] [Accepted: 02/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Adults struggle to recollect episodic memories from early life. This phenomenon-referred to as "infantile" and "childhood amnesia"-has been widely observed across species and is characterized by rapid forgetting from birth until early childhood. While a number of studies have focused on infancy, few studies have examined the persistence of memory for newly learned associations during the putative period of childhood amnesia. In this study, we investigated forgetting in 137 children ages 3-5 years old by using an interactive storybook task. We assessed associative memory between subjects after 5-min, 24-h, and 1-week delay periods. Across all delays, we observed a significant increase in memory performance with age. While all ages demonstrated above-chance memory performance after 5-min and 24-h delays, we observed chance-level memory accuracy in 3-year-olds following a 1-week delay. The observed age differences in associative memory support the proposal that hippocampal-dependent memory systems undergo rapid development during the preschool years. These data have the potential to inform future work translating memory persistence and malleability research from rodent models to humans by establishing timescales at which we expect young children to forget newly learned associations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natalie M Saragosa-Harris
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA.,Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | | | - Xinxu Shen
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA.,Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Haniyyah Sardar
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA
| | | | - Catherine A Hartley
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA.,Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA
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5
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Kopp L, Hamwi L, Atance CM. Self-projection in Early Development: Preschoolers’ Reasoning about Changes in Their Future and Past Preferences. JOURNAL OF COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT 2021. [DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2021.1874954] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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6
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Harris PL. Early Constraints on the Imagination: The Realism of Young Children. Child Dev 2021; 92:466-483. [DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13487] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
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7
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Prabhakar J, Hudson JA. Past is prologue: The role of memory retrieval in young children's episodic prospection. J Exp Child Psychol 2018; 177:17-35. [PMID: 30165289 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2018.06.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2017] [Revised: 06/26/2018] [Accepted: 06/26/2018] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
Prior research has revealed a strong link between the ability to remember one's past (i.e., episodic memory) and the ability to envision one's future (i.e., episodic prospection). Indeed, the past holds valuable learning experiences that can inform future choices and plans. Although these abilities both emerge during preschool years, there exist few theoretical accounts of how memory processes might support developmental improvements in prospection abilities. We developed a novel paradigm to determine whether young children (3 and 4 years of age) use past knowledge to inform future choices. Experiment 1 revealed that children find it more difficult to retrieve relevant information from their past when they envision the future versus reflect on the past. Experiment 2 facilitated children's access to past event components and, thereby, eased retrieval of relevant components from memory for future event construction. We discuss results in light of recent proposals on the development of episodic prospection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Janani Prabhakar
- Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, Piscataway Township, NJ 08854, USA.
| | - Judith A Hudson
- Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, Piscataway Township, NJ 08854, USA
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8
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McCormack T, Burns P, O'Connor P, Jaroslawska A, Caruso EM. Do children and adolescents have a future-oriented bias? A developmental study of spontaneous and cued past and future thinking. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2018; 83:774-787. [PMID: 30159672 PMCID: PMC6529372 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-018-1077-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2018] [Accepted: 08/13/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Previous research has indicated that adults have a future-oriented cognitive bias, one illustration of which is their tendency to report more thoughts about the future than the past during mind-wandering. We examined whether children showed a similar bias, and whether there were any developmental changes in the magnitude of such a bias. Children aged 6–7 and 9–10 years, adolescents, and adults completed two tasks in which they could report either past or future thoughts: a mind-wandering task assessing spontaneous past and future thinking and a cued episodic thinking task in which they were free to describe either past or future events. Only adults showed a future-oriented bias in the mind-wandering task. Participants in all groups were much more likely to describe past events in the cue word task, and the proportion of future events described did not change developmentally. However, more than a third of the youngest age group produced no descriptions at all of future events, which was a significantly larger proportion than in any other age groups, and illustrates the difficulty that some children of this age have with future thinking. Our findings indicate that future-oriented bias and developmental changes in such bias may be task-specific.
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Affiliation(s)
- Teresa McCormack
- School of Psychology, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, BT71NN, UK.
| | - Patrick Burns
- School of Psychology, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, BT71NN, UK
| | - Patrick O'Connor
- School of Psychology, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, BT71NN, UK
| | - Agnieszka Jaroslawska
- School of Philosophy, Psychology, and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
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9
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Roberts L, Richmond JL. Using learning flexibly and remembering after a delay: understanding cognitive dysfunction in adults with Down syndrome. JOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY RESEARCH : JIDR 2018; 62:521-531. [PMID: 29700883 DOI: 10.1111/jir.12492] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2017] [Revised: 12/22/2017] [Accepted: 04/01/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Episodic memory deficits are a characteristic of cognitive dysfunction in people with Down syndrome (DS). However, less is known about the processes (i.e. encoding, retention or using learned information flexibly) that underlie these deficits. METHOD We explored these abilities by administering a relational memory and inference task to participants with DS and mental age-matched controls and testing both immediately and after a 24-h delay. RESULTS Adults with DS learned paired associates more slowly than controls but showed good recognition at both the immediate and delayed tests. Despite memory for learned pairs, adults with DS were less able to use relational learning flexibly to make inferential judgements than controls. CONCLUSIONS These results deepen our understanding of the cognitive profile of adults with DS, demonstrating deficits in both encoding new information, and flexibly using such information. These results have important implications for workplace training and intervention programs for people with DS.
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Affiliation(s)
- L Roberts
- Discipline of Clinical Psychology, Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, New South Wales, Australia
| | - J L Richmond
- School of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
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10
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Ngo CT, Newcombe NS, Olson IR. The ontogeny of relational memory and pattern separation. Dev Sci 2017; 21. [PMID: 28256097 DOI: 10.1111/desc.12556] [Citation(s) in RCA: 53] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2016] [Accepted: 01/03/2017] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Episodic memory relies on memory for the relations among multiple elements of an event and the ability to discriminate among similar elements of episodes. The latter phenomenon, termed pattern separation, has been studied mainly in young and older adults with relatively little research on children. Building on prior work with young children, we created an engaging computer-administered relational memory task assessing what-where relations. We also modified the Mnemonic Similarity Task used to assess pattern discrimination in young and older adults for use with preschool children. Results showed that 4-year-olds performed significantly worse than 6-year-olds and adults on both tasks, whereas 6-year-olds and adults performed comparably, even though there were no ceiling effects. However, performance on the two tasks did not correlate, suggesting that two distinct mnemonic processes with different developmental trajectories may contribute to age-related changes in episodic memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chi T Ngo
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Nora S Newcombe
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Ingrid R Olson
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
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11
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Cuevas K, Rajan V, Morasch KC, Bell MA. Episodic memory and future thinking during early childhood: Linking the past and future. Dev Psychobiol 2015; 57:552-65. [PMID: 25864990 PMCID: PMC4501266 DOI: 10.1002/dev.21307] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2014] [Accepted: 03/11/2015] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Despite extensive examination of episodic memory and future thinking development, little is known about the concurrent emergence of these capacities during early childhood. In Experiment 1, 3-year-olds participated in an episodic memory hiding task ("what, when, where" [WWW] components) with an episodic future thinking component. In Experiment 2, a group of 4-year-olds (including children from Experiment 1) participated in the same task (different objects and locations), providing the first longitudinal investigation of episodic memory and future thinking. Although children exhibited age-related improvements in recall, recognition, and binding of the WWW episodic memory components, there were no age-related changes in episodic future thinking. At both ages, WWW episodic memory performance was higher than future thinking performance, and episodic future thinking and WWW memory components were unrelated. These findings suggest that the WWW components of episodic memory are potentially less fragile than the future components when assessed in a cognitively demanding task.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kimberly Cuevas
- Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, 99 East Main St., Waterbury, CT 06702
| | - Vinaya Rajan
- School of Education, University of Delaware, 113 Willard Hall Education Building, Newark, DE 19716,
| | - Katherine C. Morasch
- Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, 890 Drillfield Drive, Blacksburg, VA 24061,
| | - Martha Ann Bell
- Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, 890 Drillfield Drive, Blacksburg, VA 24061,
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12
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Thinking ahead about where something is needed: New insights about episodic foresight in preschoolers. J Exp Child Psychol 2015; 129:98-109. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2014.09.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2013] [Revised: 09/05/2014] [Accepted: 09/05/2014] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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13
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Ye Q, Song X, Zhang Y, Wang Q. Children's mental time travel during mind wandering. Front Psychol 2014; 5:927. [PMID: 25191301 PMCID: PMC4140076 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00927] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2014] [Accepted: 08/05/2014] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
The prospective bias is a salient feature of mind wandering in healthy adults, yet little is known about the temporal focus of children’s mind wandering. In the present study, (I) we developed the temporal focus of mind wandering questionnaire for school-age children (TFMWQ-C), a 12-item scale with good test–retest reliability and construct validity. (II) The criterion validity was tested by thought sampling in both choice reaction time task and working memory task. A positive correlation was found between the temporal focus measured by the questionnaire and the one adopted during task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs) by thought sampling probes, especially in the trait level of future-oriented mind wandering. At the same time, children who experienced more TUTs tended to show worse behavioral performance during tasks. (III) The children in both tasks experienced more future-oriented TUTs than past-oriented ones, which was congruent with the results observed in adults; however, in contrast with previous research on adults, the prospective bias was not influenced by task demands. Together these results indicate that the prospective bias of mind wandering has emerged since the school-age (9∼13 years old), and that the relationship between mental time travel (MTT) during mind wandering and the use of cognitive resources differs between children and adults. Our study provides new insights into how this interesting feature of mind wandering may adaptively contribute to the development of children’s MTT.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qun Ye
- Department of Psychology, College of Education, Zhejiang Normal University Jinhua, China
| | - Xiaolan Song
- Department of Psychology, College of Education, Zhejiang Normal University Jinhua, China
| | - Yi Zhang
- Department of Psychology, College of Education, Zhejiang Normal University Jinhua, China
| | - Qinqin Wang
- Department of Psychology, College of Education, Zhejiang Normal University Jinhua, China
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Zheng H, Luo J, Yu R. From memory to prospection: what are the overlapping and the distinct components between remembering and imagining? Front Psychol 2014; 5:856. [PMID: 25147532 PMCID: PMC4123788 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00856] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2014] [Accepted: 07/18/2014] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Reflecting on past events and reflecting on future events are two fundamentally different processes, each traveling in the opposite direction of the other through conceptual time. But what we are able to imagine seems to be constrained by what we have previously experienced, suggesting a close link between memory and prospection. Recent theories suggest that recalling the past lies at the core of imagining and planning for the future. The existence of this link is supported by evidence gathered from neuroimaging, lesion, and developmental studies. Yet it is not clear exactly how the novel episodes people construct in their sense of the future develop out of their historical memories. There must be intermediary processes that utilize memory as a basis on which to generate future oriented thinking. Here, we review studies on goal-directed processing, associative learning, cognitive control, and creativity and link them with research on prospection. We suggest that memory cooperates with additional functions like goal-directed learning to construct and simulate novel events, especially self-referential events. The coupling between memory-related hippocampus and other brain regions may underlie such memory-based prospection. Abnormalities in this constructive process may contribute to mental disorders such as schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huimin Zheng
- School of Psychology and Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University Guangzhou, China
| | - Jiayi Luo
- School of Psychology and Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University Guangzhou, China
| | - Rongjun Yu
- School of Psychology and Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University Guangzhou, China
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15
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Richmond JL, Power J. Age-related differences in memory expression during infancy: using eye-tracking to measure relational memory in 6- and 12-month-olds. Dev Psychobiol 2014; 56:1341-51. [PMID: 24634167 DOI: 10.1002/dev.21213] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2013] [Accepted: 02/08/2014] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
Relational memory, or the ability to bind components of an event into a network of linked representations, is a primary function of the hippocampus. Here we extend eye-tracking research showing that infants are capable of forming memories for the relation between arbitrarily paired scenes and faces, by looking at age-related changes in relational memory over the first year of life. Six- and 12-month-old infants were familiarized with pairs of faces and scenes before being tested with arrays of three familiar faces that were presented on a familiar scene. Preferential looking at the face that matches the scene is typically taken as evidence of relational memory. The results showed that while 6-month-old showed very early preferential looking when face/scene pairs were tested immediately, 12-month-old did not exhibit evidence of relational memory either immediately or after a short delay. Theoretical implications for the functional development of the hippocampus and practical implications for the use of eye tracking to measure memory during early life are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jenny L Richmond
- School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
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Nigro G, Brandimonte MA, Cicogna P, Cosenza M. Episodic future thinking as a predictor of children's prospective memory. J Exp Child Psychol 2013; 127:82-94. [PMID: 24332788 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2013.10.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2013] [Revised: 10/30/2013] [Accepted: 10/30/2013] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The primary goal of this study was to investigate the relationship among retrospective memory, episodic future thinking, and event-based prospective memory performance in preschool, first-grade, and second-grade children. A total of 160 children took part in the experiment. The study included participants from four age groups: 4-year-olds, 5-year-olds, 6-year-olds, and 7-year-olds. Participants were administered a recognition memory task, a task to test the ability to pre-experience future events, and an event-based prospective memory task. Data were submitted to correlational analyses, analyses of variance (ANOVAs), and logistic regression analyses. Results showed that, overall, all of these abilities improve with age and are significantly correlated with one another. However, when partialling out age and retrospective memory, episodic future thinking and prospective memory performance remained correlated. Logistic regression further showed that age and episodic future thinking abilities were significant predictors of prospective memory performance independent of retrospective memory abilities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giovanna Nigro
- Department of Psychology, Second University of Naples, 81100 Caserta, Italy.
| | - Maria A Brandimonte
- Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, Suor Orsola Benincasa University, 80135 Naples, Italy
| | - PierCarla Cicogna
- Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, 40127 Bologna, Italy
| | - Marina Cosenza
- Department of Psychology, Second University of Naples, 81100 Caserta, Italy
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17
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Securing the future by remembering the past: But just when does this past and future begin to develop? JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH IN MEMORY AND COGNITION 2013. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jarmac.2013.09.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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