This research is designed to explicate the processes and determinants of event memory through the transition from infancy to early childhood. The ability to represent and recall the past is a fundamental cognitive capacity. Traditionally, the mnemonic abilities of very young children have been characterized as qualitatively different from those of older children and adults. It was thought that due to the absence of any more than a nascent symbolic capacity, as well as encoding deficits and retrieval failures, children younger than 3 were incapable of storing memories in a manner that enabled later recollection. Contrary to these characterizations, it is now apparent that by the second year, continuities in recall processes are the rule, rather than the exception. What remains largely unexplored are the basic processes supporting early event memory, and the determinants of long-term retention and expression of memory. The proposed research has three objectives. The first is to investigate the emergence of verbal expression of memory. Tests of nonverbal expression of memory have revealed that 1 to 2 year-olds construct and maintain organized memories of specific events over long periods of time. Absent from the literature is evidence that these memories survive into early childhood and become accessible to verbal report. The second objective is to identify the determinants of memory. Previous research has established that young children's memory is affected by the organization of event representations, and by reminders. The role of verbal elaboration has yet to be examined. Given the rapid pace of language development in this age period, it is fertile ground on which to investigate effects of linguistic context on memory. The final objective is to examine the early development and function of basic mnemonic processes, by extending enquiry downwards to the first year of life. Attention to normative assembly and atypical function will provide the key to the ontogeny of long-term memory. Seventeen experiments will address these objectives by studying children through the transition from infancy to early childhood. The studies will employ electrophysiological, nonverbal behavioral, and verbal means of assessing mnemonic performance in children ranging from 8 months to 4 years.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
2R01HD028425-06A1
Application #
2025317
Study Section
Human Development and Aging Subcommittee 3 (HUD)
Project Start
1991-08-01
Project End
2001-11-30
Budget Start
1996-12-13
Budget End
1997-11-30
Support Year
6
Fiscal Year
1997
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Department
Pediatrics
Type
Schools of Education
DUNS #
168559177
City
Minneapolis
State
MN
Country
United States
Zip Code
55455
Rollins, Leslie; Riggins, Tracy (2017) Cohort-Sequential Study of Conflict Inhibition during Middle Childhood. Int J Behav Dev 41:663-669
Bauer, Patricia J; Larkina, Marina (2016) Predicting remembering and forgetting of autobiographical memories in children and adults: a 4-year prospective study. Memory 24:1345-68
Bauer, Patricia J (2015) Development of episodic and autobiographical memory: The importance of remembering forgetting. Dev Rev 38:146-166
Bauer, Patricia J; Tasdemir-Ozdes, Aylin; Larkina, Marina (2014) Adults' reports of their earliest memories: consistency in events, ages, and narrative characteristics over time. Conscious Cogn 27:76-88
Riggins, Tracy (2014) Longitudinal investigation of source memory reveals different developmental trajectories for item memory and binding. Dev Psychol 50:449-59
Bauer, Patricia J; Larkina, Marina (2014) The onset of childhood amnesia in childhood: a prospective investigation of the course and determinants of forgetting of early-life events. Memory 22:907-24
Pathman, Thanujeni; Bauer, Patricia J (2013) Beyond initial encoding: measures of the post-encoding status of memory traces predict long-term recall during infancy. J Exp Child Psychol 114:321-38
Pathman, Thanujeni; Larkina, Marina; Burch, Melissa et al. (2013) Young Children's Memory for the Times of Personal Past Events. J Cogn Dev 14:120-140
Riggins, Tracy; Cheatham, Carol L; Stark, Emily et al. (2013) Elicited Imitation Performance at 20 Months Predicts Memory Abilities in School-Age Children. J Cogn Dev 14:593-606
Bauer, Patricia J; Doydum, Ayzit O; Pathman, Thanujeni et al. (2012) It's all about location, location, location: children's memory for the ""where"" of personally experienced events. J Exp Child Psychol 113:510-22

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