Preschoolers' attention to and memory for attachment-relevant information

This study examined the relation between attachment quality in infancy and attention and memory at 3 1/2 years. Sixty-eight children participated in 2 attention tasks and 1 memory task. In the first attention task, children were shown several sets of drawings; each set depicted a different mother-child dyad engaged in positive, negative, and neutral interaction. Insecure/avoidant children looked away from the drawings more than the other children. In the second attention task, children were shown different sets of drawings; each set depicted a mother-child dyad engaged in positive interaction and an adult dyad expressing neutral affect. Insecure/avoidant and insecure/ambivalent children looked away from the mother-child drawings more than the secure children; when children did look at a drawing, insecure children were less likely than secure children to look at the mother-child drawing. In the memory task, children were read 6 stories in which a mother responds to her child's bid for help. In 2 stories the mother responds sensitively to her child, in 2 stories the mother rejects her child, and in 2 stories the mother provides an exaggerated response to her child. Secure children recalled the responsive stories better than insecure/avoidant children and the rejecting stories better than the insecure/ambivalent children. Findings are discussed in terms of the proposition from attachment theory that attachment experiences influence attention and memory processes.     

Scheme and schema in children's memory of their own drawings.

4 groups of 78 6-yr-old children made drawings of 6 themes. One month later new drawings of the same themes were made by the same Ss under 4 conditions: free drawing, memory of the 1st drawing, making a copy of the 1st drawing, making a drawing that appeared different from the 1st one. A week later the Ss were tested for recognition of their own drawings and identification as to when they had been drawn. Recognition of 2nd-session drawings was about equal among the 4 conditions, even though order identification varied significantly and adults found perceptual matches of drawings from the same S much easier with the copy than with the different condition. Results support Piaget's scheme-schema memory distinction in that a basic operative scheme lies behind alternative figural representations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental changes in word recognition strategies

Attempted to determine when children develop adultlike strategies in word recognition and use the entire configuration as a basis for a response rather than individual letters. A total of 144 kindergartners, 1st-6th graders, and undergraduates were asked to choose an alternative which most resembled a stimulus trigram, quadrigram, or quingram. Ss could respond on the basis of individual letter position and overall word shape. There was a clear developmental trend such that, with increasing age, Ss were more likely to choose alternatives with the same shape as the stimulus. There was also a tendency to choose response alternatives with the same 1st letter as the stimulus through 4th grade, followed by a decreasing tendency to rely on the 1st letter starting with the 5th grade. Results are considered supportive of E. J. Gibson's (see record 1972-22179-001) hypothesis of a developmental change with increasing age and schooling in feature analysis and extraction. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Information processing and the development of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic social values.

109 3–10 yr old Ss completed an individualized regression assessment of social values, a central-incidental memory measure, and a free-recall word list task in a study that assessed the possibility that the developmental difference in social values is associated with the development of information-processing capabilities. Findings demonstrate developmental differences in social values and suggest a possible partial explanation for the differences. The modal social value among 3–5 yr olds was individualism, while among 6–7 yr olds and 8–20 yr olds the modal social value was superiority. The oldest Ss expressed a social value involving equality more frequently than did younger Ss. It is suggested that older children, compared to younger children, more often consider the relative nature of their outcomes and more often engage in social comparison. Performance on the memory tasks was consistently associated with age: Ss who expressed an individualism social value generally performed more poorly on the memory measures than did Ss who expressed any other social value. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental reversals in false memory: Now you see them, now you don't!

A developmental reversal in false memory is the counterintuitive phenomenon of higher levels of false memory in older children, adolescents, and adults than in younger children. The ability of verbatim memory to suppress this age trend in false memory was evaluated using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Seven and 11-year-old children studied DRM lists either in a standard condition (whole words) that normally produces high levels of false memory or in an alternative condition that should enhance verbatim memory (word fragments). Half the children took 1 recognition test, and the other half took 3 recognition tests. In the single-test condition, the typical age difference in false memory was found for the word condition (higher false memory for 11-year-olds than for 7-year-olds), but in the word fragment condition false memory was lower in the older children. In the word condition, false memory increased over successive recognition tests. Our findings are consistent with 2 principles of fuzzy-trace theory's explanation of false memories: (a) reliance on verbatim rather than gist memory causes such errors to decline with age, and (b) repeated testing increases reliance on gist memory in older children and adults who spontaneously connect meaning across events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory for object location: A span study in children.

The aim of the present study was to analyze the developmental changes in three spatial processes, namely, in positional reconstruction involving the retention of spatial locations per se (Positional encoding task), in the assignment of objects to positions (Object-to-position assignment task), and in the integration of these two (Combined task). A span procedure was used to assess the development of spatial memory in children aged 6, 8, and 10 years tested in these three tasks. The findings of the present study provide developmental spans for each relocation task. Results show an age-dependent improvement in all tasks, suggesting that spatial position is not automatically encoded. The results also show different developmental patterns for the relocation tasks considered, suggesting that spatial memory comprises a number of different component processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The operative basis of performance on Piagetian memory tasks: Evidence from normal and learning disabled children.

Investigated the role of operative schemes in explaining older children's superior memory on past Piagetian memory tasks. In Exp I, 60 1st–4th grade concrete operational children—half with deficits in visual memory (learning disabled, LD)—reconstructed 2 stimuli in which operative schemes were or were not relevant (a seriated array vs an arbitrary color sequence). As predicted, LD children performed significantly worse than normals on the arbitrary stimulus only. Exp II tested whether this difference resulted simply from differential task difficulty. 28 preschoolers who either could or could not seriate reconstructed both stimuli. Only seriaters performed significantly better on the operative stimulus than on the arbitrary stimulus, supporting the Piagetian position. (2 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Young children's memory for the true and pretend identities of objects.

Two studies examined how children conceive of the true and pretend identities of an object used in object-substitution pretense. In each study, 3- and 4-year-olds were assessed for their memory for each identity of an object that they used in a previous episode of pretend play (Study 1) or observed someone else using (Study 2). More children correctly remembered the true than the pretend identity of the objects, and there was no contingency between their tendency to remember each identity Additionally, children's tendency to correctly specify each identity was related to their age and when (i.e., during or after the pretend episode) the task was given. The results were explained by factors affecting young children's ability to manage separate representations of true and pretend identities of objects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Copying and reproducing pictures in relation to subjects' operative levels.

Past Piagetian memory research has established that Ss' operative levels influence their recall of operatively derived stimuli. To determine the locus of operative influence, children from Grades 1–5 with immature, transitional, or mature concepts of verticality were asked to copy and/or to reproduce verticality stimuli. Stimuli were either operatively advanced (a vertical tree on a hillside) or primitive (a tipped tree). Memory was tested immediately (Exp I, 96 Ss), 1 wk (Exp II, 168 Ss), or 5 mo (Exp III, 46 Ss) after the initial viewing. In each study there was a significant relationship between operative level and performance on the operatively advanced stimulus only. For the tipped stimulus, more distortion was evident in memory than in copy drawings. Contrary to predictions, however, there was no difference between distortion in copy and memory drawings for the straight stimulus regardless of Ss' operative levels. Results suggest that progressive distortion increases over time but that regressive distortion occurs before the stimulus is removed from sight. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of instructions on children's attention to stimulus components.

In 3 experiments, 5-, 8-, 9-, and 12-yr-olds were given a component-selection task with instructions to attend to one component or another or with no specific instructions. Ss at all age levels varied their attention to the nondominant component (color) in accord with instructions. Thus, children even as young as age 5 are capable of altering their manner of attention deployment. In another respect, however, data suggest a developmental change in the way children respond to varying task demands: Ss at 8 yrs of age and beyond, but not the 5-yr-olds, reduced their attention to the dominant component (shape) in response to instructions to concentrate on the nondominant component. During the early school years, children apparently develop a tendency to employ "attentional trading," withdrawing attention from a normally dominant stimulus component when it becomes advantageous to increase attention to another feature. Results are discussed as calling for modification of earlier hypotheses concerning development of attention. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental increase in the duration of memory for tone pitch.

Examined developmental change in the duration of memory for tone pitch. In Experiment 1, the persistence of memory for pitch was examined with a 2-tone comparison task in children 6–7 and 10–12 years old and in adults. Because pitch perception differences could contaminate the measure of memory, the frequency difference between tones was adjusted for each S until a criterion level of performance was reached. In a subsequent test phase, the resulting frequency difference was maintained but the time between tones was varied. Performance deteriorated across the intertone interval more quickly in younger than in older Ss. Exp 2 demonstrated that the developmental difference in pitch memory persistence is unlikely to be based on the development of strategic processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expressions of children's grief: A qualitative study.

Explored the use of guided imagery as a tool to facilitate the expression of children's grief. The children in the study were participating in open-ended, age specific, grief groups. Nine children (aged 4–14 yrs) participated in pre- and post-guided-imagery drawings. The Rosebush drawing itself and the feelings engendered by drawing appeared to be the most important element in assessing change. At discharge, the children's drawings showed greater integration. It was concluded that the Rosebush technique can be an aid in understanding the grief process of the child. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of strategic visual attention in children's drawing development

The many variables that affect the production of visually realistic drawings in children (such as instructions and contrasting models), have been widely documented in the research literature. The experiments reported here assess one variable that has been largely ignored, namely the attention that the child pays towards the drawing model. First, it was shown that the progression from intellectual to visual realism occurred between six and eight years of age, and was accompanied by a spontaneous increase in attention towards the drawing models. A second experiment showed that the drawing performance of the 6-year-olds was enhanced by contrasting tasks and explicit instructions. At all ages, explicit instructions increased attention towards the model, and the use of an efficient attentional strategy was associated with visually realistic drawings. These studies provide further evidence that intellectual and visual realism are not distinct developmental stages, but may instead reflect the use of different attentional strategies by children.     

Tests of the dynamic field theory and the spatial precision hypothesis: Capturing a qualitative developmental transition in spatial working memory.

This study tested a dynamic field theory (DFT) of spatial working memory and an associated spatial precision hypothesis (SPH). Between 3 and 6 years of age, there is a qualitative shift in how children use reference axes to remember locations: 3-year-olds’ spatial recall responses are biased toward reference axes after short memory delays, whereas 6-year-olds’ responses are biased away from reference axes. According to the DFT and the SPH, quantitative improvements over development in the precision of excitatory and inhibitory working memory processes lead to this qualitative shift. Simulations of the DFT in Experiment 1 predict that improvements in precision should cause the spatial range of targets attracted toward a reference axis to narrow gradually over development, with repulsion emerging and gradually increasing until responses to most targets show biases away from the axis. Results from Experiment 2 with 3- to 5-year-olds support these predictions. Simulations of the DFT in Experiment 3 quantitatively fit the empirical results and offer insights into the neural processes underlying this developmental change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Picture naming by young children: norms for name agreement, familiarity, and visual complexity

Researchers concerned with the development of cognitive functions are in need of standardized material that can be used with both adults and children. The present article provides normative measures for 400 line drawings viewed by 5- and 6-year-old children. The three variables obtained-name agreement, familiarity, and visual complexity-are important because of their potential effect on memory and other cognitive processes. The normative data collected in the present study indicate that young children are different from adults in both the name most frequently assigned and the number of alternative names provided. The alternative names given by the children are either coordinate names or names of objects that are visually similar to the pictured object. In addition, the failure (to name) rate is higher among young children compared to adults. Thus, we conclude that unequivocal interpretation of age-related differences in cognitive functions can be made only when age-appropriate pictorial stimuli are chosen.     

Developmental change in working memory strategies: From passive maintenance to active refreshing.

Change in strategies is often mentioned as a source of memory development. However, though performance in working memory tasks steadily improves during childhood, theories differ in linking this development to strategy changes. Whereas some theories, such as the time-based resource-sharing model, invoke the age-related increase in use and efficiency of a strategy of active maintenance of memory traces, other theories, such as the task-switching model, do not mention strategy change. According to these models, either the cognitive load of the task or the duration of maintenance would account for recall performance. In the present study, we varied orthogonally these 2 factors. The results revealed that a different and unique factor affected recall performance at different ages: the duration of maintenance at age 6 and the cognitive load at age 7. As described by the task-switching model, younger children would not implement any maintenance activities while performing a concurrent task, their memory traces suffering from a time-based decay. This suggests that an increasing capacity of cognitive monitoring allows children to shift from this passive maintenance of memory traces to the active refreshing thereof at around the age of 7, reunifying the 2 current accounts of working memory development as 2 developmental stages. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mapping the Developmental Constraints on Working Memory Span Performance.

This study investigated the constraints underlying developmental improvements in complex working memory span performance among 120 children of between 6 and 10 years of age. Independent measures of processing efficiency, storage capacity, rehearsal speed, and basic speed of processing were assessed to determine their contribution to age-related variance in complex span. Results showed that developmental improvements in complex span were driven by 2 age-related but separable factors: 1 associated with general speed of processing and 1 associated with storage ability. In addition, there was an age-related contribution shared between working memory, processing speed, and storage ability that was important for higher level cognition. These results pose a challenge for models of complex span performance that emphasize the importance of processing speed alone. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Structural units and the redintegrative power of picture fragments

We suppose that line drawings are perceived and represented in memory as a hierarchy of related parts and subparts, as dictated by Gestalt laws like common direction and spatial proximity. Therefore, a figure fragment comprising a natural part of an orginally studied pattern should serve as a strong retrieval cue for redintegrating memory for the pattern, whereas an equally large fragment suggesting either no units of misleading units should lead to poorer recall. This was confirmed in an experiment in which subjects studied 33 nonsense line drawings; recall of each was tested with good, mediocre, or bad (misleading) fragments of the original patterns. Good cues had about five time more redintegrative power than bad cues. A second experiment testing multiple-choice recognition memory showed that subjects confused an originally studied pattern about four times as often with a structurally similar distractor as with a structurally dissimilar distractor (which had an equal-sized change). Thus, memory cuing by fragments and memory confusions with slightly altered distractors indicate the significant constitutents of a figure.