Revisiting the effect of reminders on infants' media memories: does the encoding format matter?
With the present research, the authors examined whether reminders could maintain 18-month-olds' memories generated from picture books and videos. Infants (N = 98) were shown a series of target actions in a picture book or on video. Either 24 hr or 2 weeks prior to a 4-week deferred imitation test, they were exposed to a reminder, a partial presentation of the original media demonstration. After both reminder delays, groups that received a video demonstration and a video reminder (video/video) performed significantly better than did the video-reminder-only control group (x/video), but groups that received a picture-book demonstration and a picture-book reminder (book/book) did not perform better than did the picture-book-reminder-only control (x/book). Additionally, if reminders did not veridically match the conditions of encoding (e.g., video demonstration and a book reminder, video/book or vice versa), infants also failed to perform better than controls. Theoretical implications for the understanding of long-term memory processing during early childhood and practical implications for early multimedia usage are discussed.
Department of Psychology, Georgetown University.
Rachel
R
Barr
Natalie
N
Brito
Gabrielle
G
Simcock
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002657:Child Development; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012153:Retention, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric