Memory development: Difference between revisions

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Infants at as early as 7-months-old can conceptually differentiate between categories such as animals and vehicles. Although infants’ concepts may be crude by adult standards, they still allow infants to make meaningful semantic distinctions. An example is that infants can differentiate between items belonging to a kitchen and those items belonging to a bathroom.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mandler |first1=Jean M. |last2=Fivush |first2=Robyn |last3=Reznick |first3=J. Steven |title=The development of contextual categories |journal=Cognitive Development |volume=2 |issue=4 |year=1987 |pages=339–54 |doi=10.1016/S0885-2014(87)80012-6 }}</ref> At the very least, these categories lay a foundation for early knowledge development, organizing information in storage and influence future encoding. Infants from 16 months old are able to draw on their semantic knowledge in [[generalization]] and [[inference]]. This knowledge can also be used by older toddlers, 24-month-olds, to facilitate acquisition and retention of new information. Their knowledge of causal ordering of events can be used to help to recall the sequence of events.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Henry, Lucy.|title=The development of working memory in children|date=2011|publisher=SAGE|isbn=978-1-84787-329-3|oclc=926809576}}</ref> Infants have the ability to recall experiences after some time or demonstrate that they have a forming cognitive process.<ref name="Henry, Lucy. 2012">{{Cite book|last=Henry, Lucy.|title=The development of working memory in children|date=2012|publisher=SAGE|isbn=978-1-4462-5419-6|___location=Los Angeles|oclc=797817779}}</ref><ref name="Flavell 324–340">{{Cite journal|last1=Flavell|first1=John H|last2=Friedrichs|first2=Ann G|last3=Hoyt|first3=Jane D|date=October 1970|title=Developmental changes in memorization processes|journal=Cognitive Psychology|language=en|volume=1|issue=4|pages=324–340|doi=10.1016/0010-0285(70)90019-8}}</ref>

Pre-school children can be heavily inaccurate in recalling words or numbers they have just learned.<ref name="Flavell 324–340"/><ref name="Henry, Lucy. 2012"/> Children are more able to recall information, which according to Professor Lucy Henry (2011) children can “predict” memory performance if they have an online experience with a task.<ref name="Henry, Lucy. 2012"/> What led to this conclusion was the children were given a tape recorder with 10 words, the kids were asked to stop the tape recorder once they thought they could remember all the words mentioned.<ref name="Henry, Lucy. 2012"/> According to the study 17% children predicted that they knew all 10 words mentioned.<ref name="Henry, Lucy. 2012"/>

Knowledge itself will not alter retention performance, rather how well that knowledge is structured will alter performance. Better retention was shown with information that had greater cohesion and more elaborative elements. Familiarity and repetition of an experience can also influence the organization of information in storage for preschoolers and older children.<ref name="fivush" /> Children who experienced an event twice recalled the event better 3 months later than did children who only experienced it once and showed equally good recall at 3 months compared to recall at 2 weeks after experiences.<ref name="swrtc.nmsu.edu">{{Cite web|url=https://swrtc.nmsu.edu/cli-2/pastconferences/2017-2/agenda/childtraumatic/|title=Child Traumatic Memory and the Testimony of Children {{!}} Southwest Regional Training Center {{!}} New Mexico State University|language=en|access-date=2020-03-30}}</ref>