Childhood Amnesia Class 2. Discussion Question Describe your first memory? Include details such as: Accuracy Perspective Coherence Confidence.

Childhood Amnesia

Class 2

Discussion Question

Describe your first memory?Include details such as:

Accuracy Perspective Coherence Confidence

Assessing Earliest Memory- Method 1Self-Report- very difficult for adults to

provide precise date unless tied to a datable event.

Structure-type interview- specific questions about sibling births, family move, death of relative, and overnight hospitalization.

Assessing Earliest Memory- Method 2Adults asked to remember as many

memories as possible from specific time points.

This method has revealed a “forgetting curve”

Assessing Child Memories: Deferred Imitation Meltzoff’s

9 month-olds imitate unique toy play after delay Demonstrates that 9 month-olds have declarative, but not

procedural memory

Simcock & Hayne Magic Shrinking Machine. Pre-verbal children can imitate

procedure of magic shrinking machine. After developing language (and specific words needed for

verbal recall) children cannot verbally recall information, can only imitate.

Demonstrates that language is important to memory not only for recall, but also for encoding. Language provides a mnemonic structure.

Deferred Imitation task passes amnesia test

Childhood Amnesia Facts

Most people have no memories before age 2.

The average age of a first memory is 3 1/2

No correlation between age of first memory and memory’s trauma

Explaining Childhood Amnesia

Freud(1924/1953): memories too arousing for the ego are repressed or transformed into bland ones.

James (1890): General weakness of infantile mind.

Reminiscence Bump

Discussion Question

Why do you think childhood amnesia happens?

Psychological Shift

The “psychological shift” occurs around ages 3 to 4 years

Earlier memories forgotten, later memories held with greater tenacity

Why?

What is Autobiographical Memory?

Autobiographical memory is defined as an explicit memory of an event that occurred in a specific time and place in one’s personal past (Nelson and Fivush, 2004).

A.B. Memory also is related to the individual's emotions, goals, and personal meanings

Discussion Question

Is A.B. Memory different from episodic memory?

Importance of A.B. Memory

Without A.B. memory, there would be no sense of past or future (Dimasio, 1999).

Without self-awareness and ability to change perspective (i.e., as third person or object), we would not know that memories are remembrance (Conway and Pleydell-Pearce, 2004).

Reasons for Childhood Amnesia

A. Immature Brain HypothesisB. Language HypothesisC. Self-Identity Hypothesis

Immature Brain Hypothesis

Patricia Bauer: Through elicited imitation, we find that long-term recall is emergent by 9 mo., and is reliable over 2nd year

Memory is dependent on the development of two areas in the brain Hippocampus Prefrontal Cortex

Hippocampus Location

Hippocampus Purpose

Creating new episodic memoriesCase of H.M.

Impairment to episodic memory creation No impairment to procedural memory H.M. could learn new tasks, but would not

remember how he learned it (the learning episode)

How is Hippocampus related to childhood amnesia? Full hippocampal network coalesces in 2nd

half of 1st year of life- consistent with emergence of long-term recall

However, babies still demonstrate learning and memory

Does this research demonstrate an infant’s use of episodic memory or just procedural?

Prefrontal Cortex Location

Prefrontal Cortex Purpose

Recalling episodic memoriesCase of K.C.--damage to frontal lobes.

Could remember facts learned in past, but not episodes

Prefrontal Cortex begins to develop at age 1.

Research confounding Immature Brain Hypothesis Infant Learning & Memory Research

1. Prenatal/Newborn learning2. Habituation3. Object Permanence4. Classical/Operant Conditioning

1. Prenatal/newborn learning

Preference to familiar rhyme (DeCasper, et al. 1994)

Newborn preference to tastes & smells experienced in utero (Mennella, Jagnow & Beauchamp, 2001)

Preference to mother’s voice--learned prenatally, demonstrated at birth (DeCasper & Fifer, 1980)

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2. Habituation Method for assessing infant (pre-verbal)

learning (Thompson & Spencer, 1966)

1. Baby is presented with one stimulus consistently until attentive time decreases (habituation)

2. Baby is presented with a different stimulus.

3. If baby’s attention time increases, baby has noticed change (dishabituation)

www.psy.fau.edu/cdlfau/lab%20visit.htm

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3. Object Permanence

5 month olds remember objects that are not perceptually salient

www.aplaceofourown.org

8 month olds motorically demonstrate object permanence (Piaget) 12 month-olds pass A not B task18 month-olds pass container transfer task

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4. Classical & Operant Conditioning

Infants demonstrate learning through classical and operant conditioning

Sucking more vigorously to hear familiar sounds or sweet tastes (DeCasper & Spence, 1986)

Kicking feet vigorously to activate mobile (Rovee-Collier) mobile movie

Discussion

What kind of memory do these experiments exhibit?

How are these experiments related to the topic of childhood amnesia and the development of autobiographical memory?

Reasons for Childhood Amnesia

Immature Brain HypothesisB. Language HypothesisC. Self-Identity Hypothesis

Language Hypothesis

Nelson & Fivush, Simcock & Hayne

Early memories can’t be verbally recalled because they weren’t verbally encoded

Language provides a structure for encoding memories

Language and A.B. Memory

1. Language is instrumental in how A.B. memories are organized

2. As language develops, children practice, through dialogue, expressing past memories in a coherent fashion.

3. Dialogue facilitates awareness that memories are representations of past events, which helps develop use of multiple perspectives

Evidence for the Importance of Language in Development of A.B. Memory

Peterson and Rideout (1998) assessed 1- and 2- year olds who had been sent to the hospital for an illness or injury.

Children who could not verbalize their experience at time of injury were not able to verbally report accurate information even AFTER later language abilities were developed.

Adult Role in Memory Development

Pipe, Dean, Canning, and Murachver (1996) study found that children who participated in a novel pirate event with full narration were better able to verbally recall their experience and exhibited less recall errors than children who experienced the empty narration.

Maternal Role in Memory Development

Maternal reminiscing style has enduring influence on development of A.B. memory skills.

Maternal reminiscing stable over time and children play an important role in the eliciting and sustaining of maternal elaboration.

Cultural & Gender Differences in Memory Development Females more detailed than males Parents talk to female children more detailed than

males Girls’ autobiographies decidedly more detailed,

coherent, and emotionally saturated than boys’ in pre-school

Cultural differences- Americans more detailed reminiscent styles than Asians

Reasons for Childhood Amnesia

Immature Brain Hypothesis Language HypothesisC. Self-Identity Hypothesis

Self-Identity Hypothesis

Mark Howe, Conway & Pleydell-Pearce

It’s not that child suddenly remembers events

1. integrity or quality of memory traces2. durability of memory traces* both are due to advent of cognitive self

Child Development of Self

18-24 month olds recognize themselves in a mirror--“Rouge Test” (Lewis & Brooks-Gunn, 1979)

2 year-olds begin using self-reflexive language such as “mine” (Bates, 1990) which helps them create personal narratives (Harter, 1998)

2-3 yrs, children experience self-emotions like embarrassment and shame (Lewis, 1995, 1998) & demonstrate self-assertion (a.k.a. Terrible Two’s)

3 yrs, develop Theory of Mind (my thoughts are my own)

Howe: Development of Self

Self- aids in organization of memories Maturationally driven, not socially or experientially

Harley & Reese, 1999: self-recognition and specific event memory

Howe, Courage & Edison, in press: Self-recognizers vs. non-self-recognizers

Longitudinally, no child was successful on event memory task prior to achieving self-recognition

Harley & Reese, 1999: Linguists vs. Self-theorists

BOTH maternal reminiscing style AND children’s self-recognition strong and unique predictors of children’s very early ability to talk about the past

Linguists are Right

Maternal reminiscing style was strong predictor of children’s memory elaborations with their mothers over time

Some children enter autobiographical memory system through linguistic means prior to achieving self-recognition

Self-Theorists are Right, too

Self-recognition at 19 mo. uniquely predicted children’s shared memory

elaborations, but not their memory repetitions in conversation with mothers

also strongly predicted children’s independent memory elaborations with a researcher

Early recognizers progressed faster in their memory reports than later recognizers

Summary of Childhood Amnesia Theories Episodic and autobiographical memories may be poor in the first

few years of life due to immature brain development (Bauer. 2002)

Primarily A.B. memory serves social and cultural and A.B. memory is not developed until the child possesses the language skills to tell a narrative story (Nelson and Fivush, 2004).

A.B. memory emerges when “cognitive self” is developed and memories can use self as a reference point (Howe and Courage, 1997).