Independent Paths in the Development of Infant Learning and Forgetting

doi:10.1006/jecp.1997.2395

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Volume 67, Issue 2, November 1997, Pages 131-163

https://doi.org/10.1006/jecp.1997.2395 Get rights and content

Abstract

We investigated the possibility that age differences in infants’ long-term retention are artifacts of correlated differences in learning rates or learning opportunities (overlearning). Using path analytic procedures, these possibilities were examined in two experiments in which 15- and 18-month-olds (Experiment 1) and 12- and 15-month-olds (Experiment 2) learned five novel activities to a strict acquisition criterion. Three months later, infants’ retention was tested using four test trials with no further study opportunities. Using a series of causal models to test the relationships between age, learning rate, learning opportunities, and forgetting rate, the results disconfirmed the artifact hypothesis. These analyses indicated that, at least for criterion-learning designs, developmental declines in forgetting rates between 12 and 18 months of age do exist independent of developmental differences in learning. Furthermore, age differences in forgetting rates are not confounded with age differences in “overlearning.” These findings are discussed in terms of the growing body of evidence that attests to the continuity of memory development across childhood.

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The study of infant memory had been dominated by use of three principle techniques to assess retention of experience over delays: visual paired comparison, conjugate reinforcement, and elicited and deferred imitation. One goal of this chapter is to describe infant memory behavior based on these techniques and to evaluate the nature of memory evidenced in each. The second goal is to explain changes in memory behavior in terms of developments in the neural substrate supporting long-term memory and their implications for the basic processes of encoding, consolidation and storage, and retrieval. Social influences on memory development also are discussed.
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Citation Excerpt :
Though certainly a logical alternative, explanation in terms of differential encoding cannot account for age-related differences in retention when encoding-related vulnerability is controlled. To test this possibility, in a series of studies in my laboratory, we have controlled encoding statistically (Bauer, Van Abbema, & de Haan, 1999), and by bringing infants to a criterion level of learning (Bauer, Güler, Starr, & Pathman, 2011; see also Howe & Courage, 1997). We also have controlled encoding-related variability through matching of initial performance.
Some memories of the events of our lives have a long shelf-life – they remain accessible to recollection even after long delays. Yet many other of our experiences are forgotten, sometimes very soon after they take place. In spite of the prevalence of forgetting, theories of the development of episodic and autobiographical memory largely ignore it as a potential source of variance in explanation of age-related variability in long-term recall. They focus instead on what may be viewed as positive developmental changes, that is, changes that result in improvements in the quality of memory representations that are formed. The purpose of this review is to highlight the role of forgetting as an important variable in understanding the development of episodic and autobiographical memory. Forgetting processes are implicated as a source of variability in long-term recall due to the protracted course of development of the neural substrate responsible for transformation of fleeting experiences into memory traces that can be integrated into long-term stores and retrieved at later points in time. It is logical to assume that while the substrate is developing, neural processing is relatively inefficient and ineffective, resulting in loss of information from memory (i.e., forgetting). For this reason, focus on developmental increases in the quality of representations of past events and experiences will tell only a part of the story of how memory develops. A more complete account is afforded when we also consider changes in forgetting.
Memory Development
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: Preparation of this article was supported by Grant OGP0003334 to Mark L. Howe and OGP0093057 to Mary L. Courage from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Additional funds were provided by a President's Research Award.

: Correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed to Mark L. Howe, Department of Psychology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada A1B 3X9; e-mail: [email protected].

: J. R. NesselroadeW. H. Reese, Eds.

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Regular ArticleIndependent Paths in the Development of Infant Learning and Forgetting

Abstract

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Developmental Review

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Developmental Review

Developmental Review

Infant Behavior and Development

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Developmental Review

Consciousness and Cognition

Developmental Review

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior

Infant Behavior and Development

Heredity, environment and the question of “How?”

Psychological Review

Human memory and cognition

The developmental analysis of individual differences on multiple measures

Life-span developmental psychology: Methodological issues

Recalling past events: From infancy to early childhood

Annals of Child Development

Episodic memory in 16- and 21-month-old children: Specifics are generalised but not forgotten

Developmental Psychology

Increasing steps in recall of events: Factors facilitating immediate and long-term memory in 13.5- and 16.5-month-old children

Child Development

After 8 months have passed: Long-term recall of events by 1- and 2-year-old children

Memory

Putting the horse before the cart: The use of temporal order in the recall of events by one-year-old children

Developmental Psychology

Continuity in mental development from infancy

Child Development

Three-year-olds remember a novel event from 20 months: Evidence for long-term memory in children?

Memory

Issues and questions in the development of forgetting

On the development of forgetting

Child Development

Can Age × Learnability interactions explain the development of forgetting?

Developmental Psychology

Learning rate, learning opportunities, and the development of forgetting

Developmental Psychology

The development of forgetting and reminiscence

Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development

Infant cognition: Predicting childhood intellectual function

The paired-comparison paradigm and infant intelligence

Individual differences in infant conditioning and memory

Infant memory [Special issue]

Memory

A developmental theory of intelligence

American Psychologist

Learning and retention: A comparison of three experimental procedures

Archives of Psychology

Issues in the study of age differences in forgetting

Peer imitation by toddlers in laboratory, home, and day-care contexts: Implications for social learning and memory

Developmental Psychology

Regular Article
Independent Paths in the Development of Infant Learning and Forgetting