Previous research indicates that young infants readily learn to move an overhead crib mobile by means of their own kicks (mobile conjugate reinforcement) and they persist in this instrumental behavior when presented with the mobile days or weeks later. Altering the reinforcer by making changes in the details of the mobile (e.g., changing the number of mobile components from 10 to 2) produces crying in some infants. Infants who fail to cry in response to this shift show memory of the contingency for longer periods than those who cry. This indicates that crying in infants (and its associated emotional state) may function as an amnesic agent in that it produces accelerated forgetting (retrograde amnesia). The present research will continue the investigation of the interaction of affect and memory in infancy. The experiments to be conducted have two major objectives. First, they will investigate the processes associated with the amnesia by focusing on the role of affective context in infant memory. This will aid in the understanding of how and why crying has its amnesic effect. Second, they will focus on the issue of the stability of individual differences in both negative affect and memory across different learning/memory procedures. These studies will provide some of the first direct evidence linking affect and cognition in infancy and will contribute to our growing knowledge of memory and early development. The study of how infants react to violations of their learned expectancies, the variables that influence this reaction, and the role of various reactions on memory, will aid educators, clinicians, and parents in understanding how and why infants adjust, or fail to adjust, to new environments, as well as the possible long-term consequences of adjustment failure. In addition, the data collected will provide additional baselines against which deviations from the norm may one day be assessed.
| Ullrich, Anja; Carroll, Marjorie; Prigot, Joyce et al. (2002) Preschoolers' inhibition in their home: relation to temperament. J Genet Psychol 163:340-59 |
| Fagen, J; Prigot, J; Carroll, M et al. (1997) Auditory context and memory retrieval in young infants. Child Dev 68:1057-66 |
| Ohr, P S; Fagen, J W; Rovee-Collier, C et al. (1989) Amount of training and retention by infants. Dev Psychobiol 22:69-80 |
