1. Childhood Amnesia Class 2

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

3. Assessing Earliest Memory- Method 1 Self-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.

4. Assessing Earliest Memory- Method 2 Adults asked to remember as many memories as possible from specific time points. This method has revealed a “forgetting curve”

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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.

8. Reminiscence Bump

9. Discussion Question Why do you think childhood amnesia happens?

10. Psychological Shift The “psychological shift” occurs around ages 3 to 4 years Earlier memories forgotten, later memories held with greater tenacity Why?

11. 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

12. Discussion Question Is A.B. Memory different from episodic memory?

13. 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).

14. Reasons for Childhood Amnesia A. Immature Brain Hypothesis B. Language Hypothesis C. Self-Identity Hypothesis

15. Immature Brain Hypothesis Patricia Bauer: Through elicited imitation, we find that long-term recall is emergent by 9 mo., and is reliable over 2 nd year Memory is dependent on the development of two areas in the brain Hippocampus Prefrontal Cortex

16. Hippocampus Location

17. Hippocampus Purpose Creating new episodic memories Case 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)

18. How is Hippocampus related to childhood amnesia? Full hippocampal network coalesces in 2 nd half of 1 st 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?

19. Prefrontal Cortex Location

20. Prefrontal Cortex Purpose Recalling episodic memories Case of K.C.--damage to frontal lobes. Could remember facts learned in past, but not episodes Prefrontal Cortex begins to develop at age 1.

21. Research confounding Immature Brain Hypothesis Infant Learning & Memory Research 1. Prenatal/Newborn learning 2. Habituation 3. Object Permanence 4. Classical/Operant Conditioning

22. 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)

23. 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

24. 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 task  18 month-olds pass container transfer task

25. 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

26. 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?

27. Reasons for Childhood Amnesia Immature Brain Hypothesis B. Language Hypothesis C. Self-Identity Hypothesis

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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.

31. 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.

32. 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.

33. 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

34. Reasons for Childhood Amnesia Immature Brain Hypothesis Language Hypothesis C. Self-Identity Hypothesis

35. Self-Identity Hypothesis Mark Howe, Conway & Pleydell- Pearce It’s not that child suddenly remembers events 1. integrity or quality of memory traces 2. durability of memory traces * both are due to advent of cognitive self

36. 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)

37. 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

38. 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

39. 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

40. 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

41. 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).