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Neuropsychological Assessment of Memory in Preschoolers
Abstract
Memory is of fundamental importance for cognitive, social, and educational function, making it a target for neuropsychological assessment. The subject of this review is one particular type of memory, namely, episodic memory of unique events and experiences. Episodic memory allows for rapid, even one-trial learning of new information and retention of it for later retrieval. It depends on a particular neural substrate that undergoes a protracted developmental course. The review features discussion of some of the challenges associated with valid assessment of this specific form of memory in the preschool period, as well as a description and critical evaluation of available standardized measures. It also features description of two new approaches to assessment of episodic memory and their sensitivity to memory-specific deficits in the preschool years and in infancy. The review ends with introduction of the NIH Toolbox Picture Sequence Memory Test, designed as a measure of episodic memory in the preschool years and beyond.
... Working memory is a component of children's neurodevelopment and an important predictor of future cognitive functions and school achievement [13,14]. Early measurement of working memory and neurodevelopmental and behavioral problems are important for timely and effective interventions [13,15,16]. ...
... Early measurement of working memory and neurodevelopmental and behavioral problems are important for timely and effective interventions [13,15,16]. Assessment of working memory often involves sequential increases in the number of items that can be recalled; these item lists are believed to be processed or stored in the individual's short-term or working memory [14,17]. Early childhood ages are particularly considered a critical period for the development of working memory as children are expected to have as much as twofold increases in their ability to perform in delayed recall test (tests after timed intervals or distractions) from the ages of 5 to 10 years [18]. ...
... However, when designing the data collection, researchers consulted with a neurodevelopmental expert who recommended the delayed recall examination given the age of the sample, the limited availability of instruments appropriate for samples of young Mexican children, the low costs to researchers, and the low burden to participants. To select the working memory test, researchers reviewed standardized assessments of memory for children in the 3-6-year age range [14]. Researchers decided to introduce a working memory assessment, which consisted of asking children to repeat four words immediately and recall them after a timed distracting task [14]. ...
Healthy eating and active lifestyles are associated with children’s healthy weight and cognitive development. This study examines whether family behaviors relevant for nutrition and activity levels are associated with children’s working memory, independent of their weight status. A convenience sample of child–caregiver dyads (n = 85 dyads) were recruited from a public preschool serving a low-income community in central Mexico. Caregivers reported the frequency of ten family behaviors using the Family Nutrition and Physical Activity screening tool. Children completed a test of their ability to recall four words after a 60-s distraction task, an assessment of working memory. Multiple linear regression models were used to test the association of children’s working memory with each family behavior, adjusting for children’s sex, age, mother’s age and education, and subjective social status and then also adjusting for children’s age- and sex-specific body mass index percentile (BMI-P) and covariates. Higher frequency of breakfast intake was significantly associated with working memory (β = 0.57, p = 0.013). This association was independent of children’s BMI-P. Other family behaviors (frequent family mealtimes, limiting screen time, and others) were not significantly associated with children’s working memory. Frequent breakfast intake could benefit young children’s working memory, regardless of their weight status. This association merits further investigation.
... It is not clear from what ages memories become permanent. Bauer, Leventon and Varga (2012) argued that children show at a very early age that they can remember events from the past. On the other hand, when adults report their first childhood memory, the average age at the time of their first memory is 3 or 4, and memories from before that age are rare, a phenomena called childhood (or infantile) amnesia. ...
... There are some limitations to the usage of this paradigm. Bauer, Leventon et al., 2012 pointed out three challenges in assessing very young children's memory. First, language develops gradually and even preschoolers who already have verbal abilities cannot be counted upon to respond verbally reliably and it is unlikely that they comprehend complex verbal instructions. ...
Explicit memory has been tested extensively in young children. The results show that young children's explicit memory is weak and decays quickly but is in many ways similar to that of adults. However, most studies showed that young children's implicit memory is intact. This inconsistency has lead to a debate about the extent to which the memory of young children resembles that of healthy adults. When adults with impaired explicit memory and intact implicit memory are tested for semantic knowledge, they show better memory under errorless learning procedures. In contrast, healthy adults show better memory under errorful procedures. We tested these two procedures in 3- and 5-year-olds. 3-year-olds remembered less than 5-year-olds, but both groups showed similar errorful learning advantages, which persisted after 5 weeks. Our data show that while 3-year-old children's memory is weak, it is more similar to intact than to impaired explicit memory in adults.
... At age 6 years, a non-standardized=laboratory-based imitation sequencing task was administered. This provided a behavioral measure of memory abilities using a modified version (no learning trials) of the nine-item picture-sequencing task (see Weintraub et al., 2013;Bauer, Leventon, & Varga, 2012;Zelazo & Bauer, in press, for a similar paradigm) that was designed to be as similar as possible to the traditional elicited imitation paradigm used with toddlers, yet age-appropriate for school-aged children. In short, nine pictures of objects associated with a common theme (e.g., playing at the park) were laid out on a table one at a time with verbal narration (e.g., ''catch the butterfly,'' ''throw the Frisbee,'' ''feed the duck''). ...
... At Wave 2, children returned to the laboratory and completed the modified nine-item picturesequencing paradigm (Weintraub et al., 2013;Bauer, Leventon, & Varga, 2012; ...
Over the first decade of life there are marked improvements in mnemonic abilities. An important question from both a theoretical and applied perspective is the extent of continuity in the nature of memory over this period. The present longitudinal investigation examined declarative memory during the transition from toddlerhood to school-age using both experimental and standardized assessments. Results indicate significant associations between immediate nonverbal recall at 20 months (measured by elicited imitation) and immediate verbal and nonverbal memory (measured by standardized and laboratory-based tasks) at 6 years in typically developing children. Regression models revealed this association was specific, as measures of language abilities and temperament were not predictive of later memory performance. These findings suggest both continuity and specificity within the declarative memory system over the first years of life. Theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed.
... For preschoolers the formation of memories, particularly episodic memories will be dependent on the level of meaning the task has for them, which is another way of saying preschoolers learn when the task is fun. Additionally, episodic memory develops rapidly in the preschool period and is an integral part of cognitive development (Bauer, Leventon, & Varga, 2012). Preschool children make significant advances in language development to the extent where oral language abilities are almost fully developed by the end of the preschool period (Conti-Ramsden & Durkin, 2012). ...
... Despite this there is still a perception that preschoolers don't have the attention and self control to engage in the higher order processes that comprise executive function. Preschoolers are not very good at comprehending complex verbal instructions (Bauer, Leventon, & Varga, 2012); which highlights their still developing cognitive flexibility. It has been shown experimentally that in young children reaction time, which is an indication of processing speed, increases with task complexity (Kiselev, Espy, & Sheffield, 2009). ...
An ethnically diverse class of 18 children in a Head Start Program was observed. The children ranged in ages from 4.01-4.84 years. The class was observed for 15 hours over a six weeks period, November 1 to December 6, 2012. The children were observed in their regular classroom setting and on a playground during regularly scheduled “outside time’. The study aimed to examine the impact of the stimulating, socially interactive environment on the cognitive development of the children by examining environmental influences that impact cognitive development. The environment was found to have a positive impact on the cognitive growth of the children; with the most profound impacts coming from the activities that involved peer interaction. This case study provides support for the impact of high quality preschool learning environments on the cognitive development of economically disadvantaged children.
... More imaginative solutions of this kind are needed. The field has been enriched by one-trial social learning presented in children [67] and monkeys [68,69], though in the latter species, alarm calls were used, designs that may be extended by appetitive motivation. ...
One-trial appetitive learning developed from one-trial passive avoidance learning as a standard test of retrograde amnesia. It consists of one learning trial followed by a retention test, in which physiological manipulations are presented. As in passive avoidance learning, food- or water-deprived rats or mice finding food or water inside an enclosure are vulnerable to the retrograde amnesia produced by electroconvulsive shock treatment or the injection of various drugs. In one-trial taste or odor learning conducted in rats, birds, snails, bees, and fruit flies, there is an association between a food item or odorant and contextual stimuli or the unconditioned stimulus of Pavlovian conditioning. The odor-related task in bees was sensitive to protein synthesis inhibition as well as cholinergic receptor blockade, both analogous to results found on the passive avoidance response in rodents, while the task in fruit flies was sensitive to genetic modifications and aging, as seen in the passive avoidance response of genetically modified and aged rodents. These results provide converging evidence of interspecies similarities underlying the neurochemical basis of learning.
... The emergence and development of emotional memory begin in the early stages of life and present significant changes at the preschool stage (Bauer et al., 2012). There are investigations in children indicating that emotions facilitate memory (Adelman & Estes, 2013;Kensinger & Ford, 2020) because it captures attention and provides an interpretive framework that facilitates the integrated processing of the whole aspects of an experience (Kensinger, 2009;Laney et al., 2004). ...
Background. Emotional and cognitive processing are interconnected. Several researchers studied the association between different cognitive control processes and emotional memory, defined as the long-term storage of information accompanied by activating factors that will later favor its recall. Moreover, cognitive control processes include functions that regulate and coordinate attention, memory, language, inhibitory control, and planning. Method. Since these processes are susceptible to change during development, this study analyzed the associations between emotional memory (free recall and recognition) and cognitive processes (evaluated through Corsi and Stroop tasks) at 4 and 4.5 years of age in children from households with different socio-environmental conditions. Results. Significant correlations were found between: a) free recall of negative images and Stroop performance at 4 and 4.5 years; b) free recall of neutral images and Corsi performance at 4 years; c) recognition of negative and positive images and Stroop performance at 4.5 years; d) recognition of neutral images and socio-environmental conditions at 4.5 years. Conclusions. The results of this investigation allow us to highlight the fundamental relationship between the variables studied in this age of life cycle. These processes are closely linked and need to be analyzed together to provide a greater understanding of their mutual influences throughout child development.
... At the same time, during the first year of life and early childhood there is a risk of delay in the development of memory. (Bauer, Leventon, & Varga, 2012). ...
The aim of the research was to identify a progression in the memory skills of children aged 3 to 6 years, using three memory development techniques: memorization, retelling with images and memory games. The objectives of the study are: determining the degree of reproduction of a memorized poem, identifying progress in children's stories telling and setting the level of performance in memory games. Techniques used in this research have demonstrated through the results obtained that they are techniques that contribute to the development of preschoolers' memory. Popescu-Neveanu explains memory as a complex psychic process "of storing and destocking information, of accumulating and using experience" (Popescu-Neveanu, 1978, p. 435). Between the mnemonic process and the other psychic processes there is a relationship of interdependence, influencing the development of all of them, but in turn being imprinted by the formation and development of other psychic processes. Memory has aroused the interest of numerous researches that have been carried out over time, both in adults and children. Some of this research is presented below to better understand this mental process. In 2012, research was conducted on the neuropsychological assessment of episodic memory in preschoolers, which allows rapid learning and retention of new information until they are brought back to the attention of the subject. The development of episodic memory is involved in childhood amnesia, meaning the inability relative to adulthood to reproduce memories of events in the first 3-4 years of life. In order to evaluate the episodic memory, aspects such as
... Currently, there is only one neuropsychological test, with known psychometric properties, that was specifically developed to assess temporal order memory (Bauer et al., 2013;Bauer, Leventon, & Varga, 2012). Originally devised for use in children, Bauer and colleagues developed the Picture Sequence Memory Test (PMST) for the National Institutes of Health Toolbox. ...
We developed a new test to examine incidental temporal order memory for a self-generated sequence of tasks one might complete in everyday life. Young and older adults were given 10 cards, each listing a task one might accomplish in a typical day. Participants were asked to self-generate a "to do" list by placing the 10 cards in a sequence representing the order in which they would accomplish the tasks, but were not informed of a subsequent memory test. We assessed immediate free recall, delayed free recall, and delayed cued recall for the order of the tasks in the sequence. Older adults were significantly impaired relative to young adults on immediate free recall, delayed free recall, and delayed cued recall. Correlation analyses with standardized neuropsychological tests provide preliminary evidence for construct validity for our test, which is portable and can be rapidly administered in clinical or laboratory settings.
The aim of this work was to know the effect of age, type of school, sex and maternal level of education on children’s immediate memory (narrative memory, visual sequential memory and list of words) and deferred memory (deferred memory of narrative, visual sequential spontaneous memory and spontaneous memory of the word list) scores from the Evaluación Neuropsicológica Infantil-Preescolar (ENI- P). Visual perception and auditory perception tasks were included as control variables. A total of 242 Mexican children were evaluated, ranging from 3 years 0 months to 4 years 11 months. MANOVA showed that the tasks captured differences across ages. Critically, maternal education had an impact on children’s performance on all subtests. It also displayed interaction of the age of the child and schooling of the mother on the performance in the tasks of Visual perception, auditory perception and deferred memory of the narrative. There was no effect of children’s school attendance or sex. The regression analysis indicated that visual perception explained the highest percentage of the variance of the score in the six tasks of memory assessed, while the auditory perception, only contributed in four of these and with a lower percentage. The implications of the outcomes on memory development are discussed.
Neuropsychological assessments in preschoolers have not received as much attention as in older children and adults. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common disorder that occurs in early childhood associated with poor academic and personal outcomes, such as learning and social difficulties. Preschoolers with ADHD may present cognitive deficits that are related with the ADHD symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, but may also interfere, beyond and above the ADHD symptoms, with everyday functioning. Most importantly, cognitive deficits in preschoolers seem to predict future ADHD symptoms. Yet, the practice of neuropsychological assessment in this age-group has been limited. The present selective review highlights the contribution of comprehensive neuropsychological assessments to the early identification of symptomatic preschoolers and to our understanding of the nature and developmental trajectory of ADHD.
An observational study of neuropsychological outcomes at preschool age of tiered lowered oxygen (O2) saturation targets in extremely preterm neonates. We studied 111 three-year-olds born <28 weeks' gestational age. Fifty-nine participants born in 2009-2010 during a time-limited quality improvement initiative each received three-tiered stratification of oxygen rates (83-93% until age 32 weeks, 85-95% until age 35 weeks, and 95% after age 35 weeks), the TieredO2 group. Comparisons were made with 52 participants born in 2007-2008 when pre-initiative saturation targets were non-tiered at 89-100%, the Non-tieredO2 group. Neuropsychological domains included general intellectual, executive, attention, language, visuoperceptual, visual-motor, and fine and gross motor functioning. Descriptive and inferential analyses were conducted. Group comparisons were not statistically significant. Descriptively, the TieredO2 group had better general intellectual, executive function, visual-motor, and motor performance and the Non-tieredO2 group had better language performance. Cohen's d and confidence intervals around d were in similar direction and magnitude across measures. A large effect size was found for recall of digits-forward in participants born at 23 and 24 weeks' gestation, d=0.99 and 1.46, respectively. Better TieredO2 outcomes in all domains except language suggests that the tiered oxygen saturation target method is not harmful and merits further investigation through further studies. Benefit in auditory attention appeared greatest in those born at 23 and 24 weeks. Participants in the tiered oxygen saturation group also had fewer ventilation days and a lower incidence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia, perhaps explanatory for these neuropsychological outcomes at age 3. (JINS, 2015, 21, -10).
Developmentally appropriate domain-specific tests with strong psychometric properties for preschoolers are lacking and infrequently developed. Baron's modification of the Hopkins Board test (B-HB) to assess spatial location learning and recall in 3- and 6-year-old children has shown promise in the study of young children born prematurely. Current study data were analyzed on 172 typically developing children at age 3 years and 193 at age 6 years, born at term (≥ 37 weeks; ≥ 2500 grams). Statistically significant gender differences were found and data stratification of T-scores and percentile ranks are provided for each of the eight B-HB measures. The B-HB's strong interrater reliability (99.5%), low-to-moderate test-retest reliability across the 3-year age span, Pearson correlations showing criterion validity, and differential functioning from other selective attention and visuospatial/visuoperceptual tests provide initial normative data for this novel measure of spatial location memory in young children.
Two patients with presumed hippocampal formation lesions and two patients with more extensive temporal lobe damage, all of whom became amnesic in a known year, were given tests of anterograde and retrograde memory function. The two patients with hippocampal formation lesions had moderately severe anterograde amnesia and limited retrograde amnesia for facts and events that affected, at most, the decade preceding the onset of amnesia. Content analysis could not distinguish the autobiographical recollections of the patients from the recollections of control subjects. The two patients with more extensive temporal lobe damage had severe anterograde amnesia and extensive retrograde memory loss for both facts and events. The results suggest that whether retrograde amnesia is temporally limited or very extensive depends on whether the damage is restricted to the hippocampal formation or also involves additional temporal cortex.
In phylogeny as in ontogeny, the association cortex of the frontal lobe, also known as the prefrontal cortex, is a late-developing region of the neocortex. It is also one of the cortical regions to undergo the greatest expansion in the course of both evolution and individual maturation. In the human adult, the prefrontal cortex constitutes as much as nearly one-third of the totality of the neocortex. The protracted, relatively large, development of the prefrontal cortex is manifest in gross morphology as well as fine structure. In the developing individual, its late maturation is made most apparent by the late myelination of its axonal connections. This and other indices of morphological development of the prefrontal cortex correlate with the development of cognitive functions that neuropsychological studies in animals and humans have ascribed to this cortex. In broad outline, the ventromedial areas of the prefrontal cortex, which with respect to other prefrontal areas develop relatively early, are involved in the expression and control of emotional and instinctual behaviors. On the other hand, the late maturing areas of the lateral prefrontal convexity are principally involved in higher executive functions. The most general executive function of the lateral prefrontal cortex is the temporal organization of goal-directed actions in the domains of behavior, cognition, and language. In all three domains, that global function is supported by a fundamental role of the lateral prefrontal cortex in temporal integration, that is, the integration of temporally discontinuous percepts and neural inputs into coherent structures of action. Temporal integration is in turn served by at least three cognitive functions of somewhat different prefrontal topography: working memory, preparatory set, and inhibitory control. These functions engage the prefrontal cortex in interactive cooperation with other neocortical regions. The development of language epitomizes the development of temporal integrative cognitive functions and their underlying neural substrate, notably the lateral prefrontal cortex and other late-developing cortical regions
Over the first decade of life there are marked improvements in mnemonic abilities. An important question from both a theoretical and applied perspective is the extent of continuity in the nature of memory over this period. The present longitudinal investigation examined declarative memory during the transition from toddlerhood to school-age using both experimental and standardized assessments. Results indicate significant associations between immediate nonverbal recall at 20 months (measured by elicited imitation) and immediate verbal and nonverbal memory (measured by standardized and laboratory-based tasks) at 6 years in typically developing children. Regression models revealed this association was specific, as measures of language abilities and temperament were not predictive of later memory performance. These findings suggest both continuity and specificity within the declarative memory system over the first years of life. Theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed.
In this chapter, the author presents a synthesized Carroll and Horn-Cattell (CHC) Gf-Gc framework. The primary goals of this chapter are to (1) describe the evolution of contemporary CHC theory; (2) describe the broad and narrow CHC abilities; and (3) review structural evidence that supports the broad strokes of CHC theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Spatial location memory has rarely been assessed in young children due to a scarcity of developmentally appropriate tests. This study sought to compare nonverbal learning and recall in children born extremely low birth weight (ELBW; <1000 g) and less than 33 gestational weeks (GW) with term-born children at early school age using a recently developed and adapted test. We administered a modification of the Hopkins Board to 210 children at age six; 84 born ELBW (35 born < 26 GW; 49 born 26-33 GW) and 126 term-born. Six measures were obtained: naming, trials-to-criterion, errors-to-criterion, delayed item recall, delayed location recall, and percent retention. After age correction, ELBW children had worse general cognition, item naming, delayed item recall, delayed location recall, and percent retention than term-born children. Delayed item recall and percent retention performances of ELBW children remained worse after correction for general cognition. ELBW groups (< 26 GW and 26-33 GW) groups performed worse than term-born children in naming and delayed item recall with chronological age as covariate. Those born before 26 GW, but not 26-33 GW, performed worse than term-born children in delayed location recall and percent retention. Differences remained significant after controlling for gender, maternal education, and delivery type. All three groups' performance declined from final learning trial to delayed location recall, with a decline greater for less than 26 GW than term-born children. Extreme prematurity (< 26 GW) and ELBW are significant risk factors for spatial location memory deficit. The modified Hopkins Board discriminated high-risk preterm and term-born children at early school age and appears to be a useful test to measure this rarely studied cognitive capacity.
The spatial location memory of preschool-aged children born preterm has rarely been studied primarily due to an absence of developmentally sensitive measures. This study aimed to address this gap in the literature.
We administered a modification of the Hopkins Board to 135 children at age 3 who were born extremely low birth weight (ELBW) (n = 20), late-preterm (LPT) (n = 75), or at term (TERM) (n = 40). Five measures were obtained: naming, trials-to-criterion, errors-to-criterion, delayed item recall, and delayed location recall. Results: ANCOVA indicated that the groups differed in naming (p = .019), errors-to-criterion (p = .002), and delayed item recall (p = .025). For these measures, ELBW performed worse than TERM and LPT, but LPT did not differ from TERM. Corrected age and sociodemographic factors did not eliminate the deficit in spatial location learning for ELBW participants. A MANCOVA found a significant difference in learning, with post hoc tests indicating significant learning across trials in the LPT and TERM groups, but not in the ELBW group.
ELBW is a significant risk factor for developmental delay or impairment of spatial location learning. These findings suggest that the modified Hopkins Board identifies at-risk premature children. This modification may be more broadly useful to assess preschoolers' neurodevelopmental maturation.
Diabetic pregnancies are characterized by chronic metabolic insults, including iron deficiency, that place the developing brain at risk for memory impairment later in life. A behavioral recall paradigm coupled with electrophysiological measures was used to assess the longevity of these effects in 40 3(1/2)-year-old children. When memory demands were high, recall was significantly impaired in the at-risk group and correlated with perinatal measures of iron. Electrophysiological results suggested both encoding and retrieval processes were compromised. These findings support the hypothesis that prenatal iron deficiency leads to alterations in neural development that have a lasting impact on memory ability.
Monkeys with lesions of the mid-dorsal part of the lateral frontal cortex, which extends above the sulcus principalis as far as the midline (MDL lesions), were shown to exhibit severe and long-lasting impairments on certain nonspatial working memory tasks: the self-ordered and externally ordered tasks (experiments 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 8). These tasks, which were modeled on similar ones previously used with patients, measure the capacity to monitor, within working memory, self-generated choices and the occurrence of externally ordered stimuli. Monkeys with lesions of the adjacent posterior dorsolateral frontal cortex, which surrounds the arcuate sulcus (PA lesions), performed as well as the normal control animals on these tasks. Experiments 4 and 5 showed that the critical variable accounting for the impairment on the self-ordered and externally ordered working memory tasks by monkeys with MDL lesions is the size of the set of stimuli that must be monitored. Furthermore, the MDL lesions did not affect basic recognition memory (experiment 6), or primacy and recency mnemonic effects [i.e., the capacity to discriminate between the initial (or final) items and other items in a list of stimuli (experiments 4 and 7), or the capacity to select from a set of stimuli on the basis of a learned fixed sequence (experiment 9)]. Thus, lesions of the mid-dorsal part of the lateral frontal cortex give rise to an impairment in working memory that depends on the size of the set of the stimuli that have to be monitored.
Due to the advent of neuropsychology, it has become clear that there is a multiplicity of memory systems or, at the very least, of dissociably different modes of processing memory in the brain. As the Oxford Handbook of Memory demonstrates, the frontier of memory research has been enriched by breakthroughs of the last decades, with lines of continuity and important departures, and it will continue to be enriched by changes in technology that will propel future research. In turn, such changes are beginning to impact the legal and professional therapeutic professions and will have considerable future significance in realms outside of psychology and memory research. Endel Tulving and Fergus Craik, two world-class experts on memory, provide this handbook as a roadmap to the huge and unwieldy field of memory research. By enlisting an eminent group of researchers, they are able to offer insight into breakthroughs for the work that lies ahead. The outline is comprehensive and covers such topics as the development of memory, the contents of memory, memory in the laboratory and in everyday use, memory in decline, the organization of memory, and theories of memory.
Due to the advent of neuropsychology, it has become clear that there is a multiplicity of memory systems or, at the very least, of dissociably different modes of processing memory in the brain. As the Oxford Handbook of Memory demonstrates, the frontier of memory research has been enriched by breakthroughs of the last decades, with lines of continuity and important departures, and it will continue to be enriched by changes in technology that will propel future research. In turn, such changes are beginning to impact the legal and professional therapeutic professions and will have considerable future significance in realms outside of psychology and memory research. Endel Tulving and Fergus Craik, two world-class experts on memory, provide this handbook as a roadmap to the huge and unwieldy field of memory research. By enlisting an eminent group of researchers, they are able to offer insight into breakthroughs for the work that lies ahead. The outline is comprehensive and covers such topics as the development of memory, the contents of memory, memory in the laboratory and in everyday use, memory in decline, the organization of memory, and theories of memory.
This chapter presents an overview of some of the major findings having to do with preterm/full-term differences in memory during the infant and toddler years. It also discusses their implications for later cognition. Visual recognition, one of the most widely studied forms of infant memory, is generally assessed with the visual paired comparison (VPC) task. The chapter also presents the major findings obtained from the three key periods of studies infancy, toddlerhood, and pre-adolescence. Following this developmental progression, the chapter provides data on the stability of individual differences in memory. It then considers the degree to which memory predicts and contributes to broader cognitive abilities, including language and indices of general intelligence (MDI and IQ). The chapter ends by considering how attention and speed influence memory and model their role in a cascade of effects that explains later preterm/full-term differences in IQ.
This chapter begins with a discussion of how we might conceptualize the interaction of constitution with environment in determining patterns of human personality and behavior. Next, the basic nature of personality is discussed in relation to several core defects in Schizophrenia that may help identify corticolimbic brain regions involved in aspects of the personality that are disturbed in Schizophrenia. This is followed by a review of the ontogenesis of corticolimbic brain areas and the major neurotransmitter systems found in them. This latter discussion lays the groundwork for a description of some recent postmortem findings in Schizophrenia research and a discussion of how neurodevelopmental disturbances theoretically could have given rise to them. The chapter finally concludes with a discussion on the future directions that neurobiologic studies of Schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders, such as Bipolar Disorder, might follow so that a neurodevelopmental understanding of mental illness can eventually emerge.
This chapter defines and describes the phenomenon of childhood amnesia, reviews evidence of commonalities and differences in its presentation among adults, and then discusses the explanations of the amnesia. It reviews the data on the development of autobiographical memory, and on the complementary development of childhood amnesia. Traditional explanations of infantile or childhood amnesia suggested either that memories for early life events are formed but then later become inaccessible, or that memories are not accessible later in life because they were never formed. Although these explanations may seem incompatible, it is likely that elements of both figure in the development of autobiographical memory and thus the offset of childhood amnesia. Finally, the chapter addresses the question of why the course of development takes the form that it does.
The purpose of Remembering the Times of Our Lives: Memory in Infancy and Beyond is to trace the development from infancy through adulthood in the capacity to form, retain, and later retrieve autobiographical or personal memories.
We recently reported on three young patients with severe impairments of episodic memory resulting from brain injury sustained early in life. These findings have led us to hypothesize that such impairments might be a previously unrecognized consequence of perinatal hypoxic–ischaemic injury. Neuropsychological and quantitative magnetic resonance investigations were carried out on five young patients, all of whom had suffered hypoxic–ischaemic episodes at or shortly after birth. All five patients showed severe impairments of episodic memory (memory for events), with relative preservation of semantic memory (memory for facts). However, none had any of the major neurological deficits that are typically associated with hypoxic–ischaemic injury, and all attended mainstream schools. Quantitative magnetic resonance investigations revealed severe bilateral hippocampal atrophy in all cases. As a group, the patients also showed bilateral reductions in grey matter in the regions of the putamen and the ventral part of the thalamus. On the basis of their clinical histories and the pattern of magnetic resonance findings, we attribute the patients' pathology and associated memory impairments primarily to hypoxic–ischaemic episodes sustained very early in life. We suggest that the degree of hypoxia–ischaemia was sufficient to produce selective damage to particularly vulnerable regions of the brain, notably the hippocampi, but was not sufficient to result in the more severe neurological and cognitive deficits that can follow hypoxic–ischaemic injury. The impairments in episodic memory may be difficult to recognize, particularly in early childhood, but this developmental amnesia can have debilitating consequences, both at home and at school, and may preclude independent life in adulthood.
Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Second Edition. Purpose: Designed to measure the 'processing and cognitive abilities of children and adolescents.' Population: Ages 3-18. Publication Dates: 1983-2004. Acronym: KABC-II. Scores, 7-23: Sequential (Number Recall, Word Order, Hand Movements, Total), Simultaneous (Block Counting, Conceptual Thinking, Face Recognition, Pattern Reasoning [Ages 5 and 6], Rover, Story Completion [Ages 5 and 6], Triangles, Gestalt Closure, Total), Planning [ages 7-18 only] (Pattern Reasoning, Story Completion, Total), Learning (Atlantis, Rebus, Atlantis Delayed, Rebus Delayed, Total), Knowledge (Expressive Vocabulary, Riddles, Verbal Knowledge, Total), Nonverbal Index, Mental Processing Index, Fluid-Crystallized Index. Administration: Individual. Price Data, 2004: 49.99 per manual; 99.99 per computer ASSIST scoring software. Time: [25-70] minutes. Comments: Nonverbal scale available for hearing impaired, speech-and-language disordered, and non-English-speaking children (an adaptation that examiners can make when verbal concerns are present). Authors: Alan S. Kaufman and Nadeen L. Kaufman. Publisher: AGS Publishing. Cross References: See T5:1379 (103 references) and T4:1343 (114 references); for reviews by Anne Anastasi, William E. Coffman, and Ellis Batten Page of an earlier edition, see 9:562 (3 references).
One of the most significant domains of cognition is episodic memory, which allows for rapid acquisition and long-term storage of new information. For purposes of the NIH Toolbox, we devised a new test of episodic memory. The nonverbal NIH Toolbox Picture Sequence Memory Test (TPSMT) requires participants to reproduce the order of an arbitrarily ordered sequence of pictures presented on a computer. To adjust for ability, sequence length varies from 6 to 15 pictures. Multiple trials are administered to increase reliability. Pediatric data from the validation study revealed the TPSMT to be sensitive to age-related changes. The task also has high test-retest reliability and promising construct validity. Steps to further increase the sensitivity of the instrument to individual and age-related variability are described.
A laboratory procedure is developed that can be used to assess imitation in the second year of life. The procedure uses a blind scoring technique and incorporates control conditions to distinguish infant imitation from spontaneous production of the target behavior. The procedure is used in 2 experiments evaluating the imitation of a simple action with a novel toy. The experiments assess both immediate and deferred imitation in each of 2 age groups, 14-month-olds and 2-year-olds. The deferred imitation task involved a 24-hour delay between the modeling and response periods. There was strong evidence that 2-year-old infants could perform both the immediate and deferred imitation tasks, which was expected. The results also showed that 14-month-olds could succeed in both tasks. The discussion considers the implications of the deferred imitation results in light of current data and theorizing concerning representational capacities and long-term memory in infancy.
The development of event memory is examined here to determine how personally experienced events with two types of structure are reported by kindergartners and adults. Subjects participated individually in two standardized events involving making and playing with clay. The first was organized causally; the second, temporally. Descriptions of these events were examined in interviews conducted for some subjects immediately after the event and for all, a week later. The reports of both children and adults suggested use of a goal-based hierarchical structure to remember events, although use of the structure seemed more fragile for children than adults. The causal structure of the events influenced the amount of information reported. These results were discussed with respect to possible developmental paths in the formation of generalized event representations, or scripts.
This book provides a comprehensive treatment of the history and implications of the notion of multiple memory systems, of the evidence that supports it, and of the nature of the systems discovered so far. The book begins by highlighting a brief history of ideas about multiple memory systems and how those ideas fit into the story of the progression of our understanding of the nature and organization of memory in the brain. Other early chapters address some of the themes and principles that are common to all memory systems, including the fundamentals of cellular plasticity and the critical role of the cerebral cortex in memory. The central portion of the book then attempts to characterize the role of several specific memory systems, starting with a detailed analysis of the hippocampal memory system - the brain system that mediates declarative memory, our ability to recollect consciously everyday facts and experiences, by supporting the capacity for relational memory processing. Individual chapters focus on non-human primate and rodent models of amnesia, on hippocampal neuronal activity, and on the permanent consolidation of declarative memories. Subsequent chapters present evidence of functional dissociations among various memory systems. These chapters identify and describe brain systems that mediate emotional memories, modulate memory, or mediate the acquisition of behavioral habits (procedural memory), all concerned with long-term memory abilities, and a system focused on the prefrontal cortex that supports working memory.
focuses on late developmental events [those occurring during the second trimester of gestation and continuing into the postnatal period]—synaptogenesis and synapse elimination—in human cerebral cortex [in fetuses–70 yr olds], and stresses functional correlates where these can be determined (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In this chapter, the developments that led to the establishment of an animal model of amnesia are summarized, and recent work with nonhuman primates is reviewed that addresses the specific role in memory of the hippocampal region itself (the hippocampus proper, the dentate gyrus, and the subicular complex). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The extent of developmental deficit and catch-up following adoption after severe global early privation was examined at 4 years in a sample of 111 Romanian children who came to the U.K. before the age of 2 years, and compared with respect to their functioning at the same age to a sample of 52 U.K. adopted children placed before the age of 6 months. The measures at 4 years included height, head circumference, and general cognitive level (assessed on both the McCarthy and Denver Scales). The children from Romania were severely developmentally impaired at the time of U.K. entry, with about half below the third percentile on height, on weight, on head circumference, and on developmental quotient. Many were also in a poor physical state with recurrent intestinal and respiratory infections. The catch-up in both physical growth and cognitive level appeared nearly complete at 4 years for those children who came to the U.K. before the age of 6 months, despite the fact that their background prior to U.K. entry was similar to the children who came to the U.K. when older. The developmental catch-up was also impressive, but not complete, in those placed after 6 months of age. The mean McCarthy General Cognitive Index was 92 compared with 109 for the within-U.K. adoptees. The strongest predictor of level of cognitive functioning at 4 years was the children's age at entry to the U.K. It was concluded that the remaining cognitive deficit was likely to be a consequence of gross early privation, with psychological privation probably more important than nutritional privation. A further follow-up at age 6 years will determine whether there is continuing recovery after 4 years.
Research on children's performance expectations has repeatedly shown that preschoolers and kindergarten children typically overestimate their own performance across a wide range of contexts. In this study, two experiments were carried out with 4- and 6-year-old children to assess the impact of familiarity with the task, memory monitoring, and wishful thinking on children's performance predictions. Results showed that overpredictions were rather due to wishful thinking than to poor metacognition, and that overpredictions were more frequent in unfamiliar as compared to familiar task settings.
Assessing Memory in InfancyEvent and Autobiographical MemoryDevelopmental Changes Across Infancy and Early ChildhoodExplaining Age-Related ChangesInfantile or Childhood AmnesiaConclusion
References
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A robust finding in the literature on event representation and recall is that enabling relations in events facilitate memory for temporal order. In the study presented here we tested whether, with increased experience, enabling relations continue to provide a relative organizational advantage, or whether arbitrarily ordered events become as well organized. Using elicited imitation, we compared 24-month-olds' ordered recall of events constrained by enabling relations with that of arbitrarily ordered events equated for familiarity and temporal invariance. In Experiment 1 we examined recall of novel laboratory events having high numbers of enabling connections or low numbers of enabling connections; the temporal invariance of the events was established through repeated presentation. In Experiment 2 we tested recall of highly familiar, temporally invariant routines having high numbers of enabling connections or low numbers of enabling connections. In both experiments, children's ordered recall of events constrained by enabling relations was superior to that of arbitrarily ordered ones. The results indicate that even after considerable experience with an event in invariant temporal order, enabling relations provide a relative organizational advantage. Implications of this finding for the source of facilitation afforded by enabling relations are discussed.
Although it is apparent that enabling relations in events facilitate ordered recall, the source of the advantage derived from them has been largely unexplored. One suggestion for the source of the advantage is that enabling relations actually reduce the mnemonic demands associated with remembering events characterized by them. This study investigated two means by which reduction in memory load could be accomplished. The first and strongest hypothesis, that enabling relations reduce memory load by allowing one to infer the temporal order of an event, rather than explicitly remember it, received little support (Experiment 1). Experiments 2 and 3 tested the second hypothesis: enabling relations reduce memory load by licensing the “chunking” of separate elements into an organizational unit. One implication of this suggestion, that aspects of events connected by enabling relations would be resistant to separation by other elements, was tested with 20- and 25-month-olds. In both experiments, unequivocal support for the hypothesis was obtained. Together, the results suggest that enabling relations in events facilitate ordered recall not by eliminating the necessity to remember temporal order explicitly, but rather by fostering the organization of to-be-remembered material, thereby increasing the amount of information that can be recalled.
The prenatal environment that accompanies the diabetic pregnancy is characterized by several chronic metabolic insults that can affect fetal brain health, including hyperglycemia, iron deficiency, and hypoxemia. Clinical conditions resulting from multiple metabolic abnormalities are rarely pure events and in fact multiple pathways exist through which maternal diabetes results in alterations to the general fetal metabolic milieu. Severity of diabetes during pregnancy is tightly linked with the severity of the metabolic risk factors. Therefore, the specific effects of each factor on neurologic development are difficult to tease apart in human studies of maternal diabetes. Yet, because effects differ, it is reasonable to suggest that certain cognitive deficits observed in IDMs (e.g., cognitive impairment) are due to alterations in specific brain regions (e.g., hippocampus) brought about by particular abnormalities in the fetal environment (e.g., iron deficiency).
Attention to variability in early declarative memory is not only important in its own right but also an essential component in the examination of relations among individual differences in early memory and other individual characteristics such as temperament and language. Although less attention has been paid to them, relative to the attention paid to mean or group level trends, there also are individual differences in early declarative memory. Early in development, when declarative memory is newly emergent, individual differences are apparent in whether children show evidence of memory.
Over the past two decades, elicited and deferred imitation have emerged as widely used paradigms for the assessment of developmental changes in children's memory abilities. To be implemented effectively, the use of elicited imitation begins with the selection of to-be-remembered material that presents an appropriate level of challenge to the developmental abilities of the participating children. This has been implicit in the use of imitation in which older children are presented with longer sequences than younger children. This chapter presents results from two studies examining the abilities of 16- to 32-month-old children to recall event sequences of a variety of lengths in an elicited-imitation paradigm. The results provide normative information on age-related immediate imitation abilities; and it can serve as a guide for the researchers who plan to use elicited imitation with special populations or use elicited imitation as a tool to study memory's relation to other developmental domains, by establishing developmentally appropriate materials to test children across the second and third years of life.
There is considerable dispute about the nature of infant memory. Using SEM models, we examined whether popular characterizations of the structure of adult memory, including the two-process theory of recognition, are applicable in the infant and toddler years. The participants were a cohort of preterms and full-terms assessed longitudinally--at 1, 2, and 3 years--on a battery containing tasks of immediate and delayed recognition, recall, and memory span (a measure of short-term capacity). Results were in accord with adult models which assume that short- and long-term memory are distinct, and that two processes--familiarity and recollection--underlie recognition memory, while one alone--recollection--supports recall. The finding that prematurity, which entails risk of hippocampal compromise, affected recollection, but not familiarity, accords well with adult findings that hippocampal damage selectively affects recollection. These findings reveal striking similarity between the structure and theoretical underpinnings of infant and adult memory.
The present report assesses information processing in the toddler years (24 and 36 months), using a cohort of preterms (<1750 g) and full-terms initially seen in infancy. The children received a battery of tasks tapping 11 specific abilities from four domains - memory, processing speed, attention, and representational competence. The same battery had been used earlier - at 7 and 12 months. There were four main findings. (1) Preterms showed no 'catch-up,' but rather persistent deficits in immediate recognition, recall, encoding speed, and attention. (2) There was significant continuity from infancy through the toddler years for most aspects of information processing. (3) These specific abilities combined additively to account for global cognitive ability, consistent with the componential theory of intelligence. (4) Toddler information processing abilities completely mediated the relative deficits of preterms in general cognitive ability. Thus, although the toddler years have often been characterized as a period of discontinuity and transformation, these results indicate that continuity prevails for information processing abilities over the first three years of life.
The ability to recall contextual details associated with an event begins to develop in the first year of life, yet adult levels of recall are not reached until early adolescence. Dual-process models of memory suggest that the distinct retrieval process that supports the recall of such contextual information is recollection. In the present investigation, we used both behavioral and electrophysiological measures to assess the development of memory for contextual details, as indexed by memory for temporal order, in early childhood. Results revealed age-related improvements in memory for temporal order despite similar levels of memory for the individual items themselves. Furthermore, this pattern of recall was associated with specific components in the electrophysiological response. Consistent with electrophysiological research in adults, distributed, positive-going activity late in the waveform was associated with increases in recall of contextual details and the development of recollective processes.
Density of synaptic profiles in layer 3 of middle frontal gyrus was quantitated in 21 normal human brains ranging from newborn to age 90 years. Synaptic profiles could be reliably demonstrated by the phosphotungstic acid method (Bloom and Aghajanian) in tissue fixed up to 36 h postmortem. Synaptic density was constant throughout adult life (ages 16--72 years) with a mean of 11.05 X 10(8) synapses/cu.mm +/- 0.41 S.E.M. There was a slight decline in synaptic density in brains of the aged (ages 74--90 years) with a mean of 9.56 X 10(8) synapses/cu.mm +/- 0.28 S.E.M. in 4 samples (P less than 0.05). Synaptic density in neonatal brains was already high--in the range seen in adults. However, synaptic morphology differed; immature profiles had an irregular presynaptic dense band instead of the separate presynaptic projections seen in mature synapses. Synaptic density increased during infancy, reaching a maximum at age 1--2 years which was about 50% above the adult mean. The decline in synaptic density observed between ages 2--16 years was accompanied by a slight decrease in neuronal density. Human cerebral cortex is one of a number of neuronal systems in which loss of neurons and synapses appears to occur as a late developmental event.
Patients with frontal lobe lesions, amnesic patients with Korsakoff's syndrome, other (non-Korsakoff) amnesic patients, and control subjects were given tests of memory for temporal order. In the first experiment, subjects were presented with a list of 15 words and then asked to reproduce the list order from a random array of the words. In the second experiment, they were asked to arrange in chronological order a random display of 15 factual events that occurred between 1941 and 1985. In both experiments, patients with frontal lobe lesions were impaired in placing the items in the correct temporal order, despite normal item memory (i.e. normal recall and recognition memory for the words and facts). The two groups of amnesic patients exhibited impaired memory for temporal order as well as impaired item memory. Patients with Korsakoff's syndrome exhibited poorer temporal order memory than the other amnesic patients, despite similar levels of item memory. These findings demonstrate that patients with frontal lobe lesions have difficulty organizing information temporally. Patients with Korsakoff's syndrome, who have both diencephalic and frontal damage, have memory impairment together with a disproportionate deficit in memory for temporal order.
The ability of 9-month-old infants to imitate simple actions with novel objects was investigated. Both immediate and deferred imitation were tested, the latter by interposing a 24-hour delay between the stimulus-presentation and response periods. The results provide evidence for both immediate and deferred imitation; moreover, imitative responding was not significantly dampened by the 24-hour delay. The findings demonstrate that there exists some underlying capacity for deferring imitation of certain acts well under 1 year of age, and thus that this ability does not develop in a stagelike step function at about 18-24 months as commonly predicted. These findings also show that imitation in early infancy can span wide enough delays to be of potential service in social development; actions on novel objects that are observed one day can be stored by the child and repeated the next day. The study of deferred imitation provides a largely untapped method for investigating the nature and development of recall memory in the preverbal child.