Infant memory.
This article provides an overview of developments in long-term memory during the first 2 years of life. Results from three of the most commonly used techniques to assess remembering in preverbal infants-visual paired comparison and visual habituation, conjugate reinforcement, and elicited and deferred imitation-are described. They illustrate infants' ability to encode and retain information as well as the rapid improvements in memory in infancy. A distinction between types or forms of memory is provided in the service of considering how infant memory abilities relate to memory development in early childhood. The review also features discussion of the likely sources of age-related changes in memory in infancy, including the basic processes of memory trace formation and developments in the neural substrate that subserve them. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.
Department of Psychology, Emory University.
Patricia J
PJ
Bauer
Department of Psychology, Emory University.
Priscilla
P
San Souci
Department of Psychology, Emory University.
Thanujeni
T
Pathman