Prof. Greg Francis 7/10/081MemoryIIE 366: DevelopmentalPsychologyGreg FrancisLecture 17I. Infantile AmnesiaII. Age Differences in Memory inChildhood and AdolescenceIII. The Role of StrategiesIV. The Role of KnowledgeV. Putting It All TogetherI. Infantile AmnesiaRecall of events associatedwith siblings’ birth (Sheingold& Tenney, 1982)02468101214Average Recall2 years 4 years 6 years 8 years 10 yearsAge at first memory05101520251 2 3 4 5 6Fall 03Fall 04Fall 07Types of events recalled051015202530Common Special TraumaticFall 03Fall 04Fall 07Prof. Greg Francis 7/10/082Explanations for infantileamnesia Encoding failure? No. Encoding specificity: sensory-motorto language encoding Sense of self Emergence of socially-sharedautobiographical memory Brain maturationMeasuring memory Memory span how many itemscan you correctlyrecall immediatelyafter exposure? “The magic number7+/-2:…” Miller (1956)95 78 6 34 9 2 75 9 0 1 36 8 2 9 3 47 2 5 1 6 9 39 1 0 3 5 7 3 23 9 0 5 7 4 2 1 6Types of memory There exist two types of memory systems Long Term Memory (LTM) high capacity (no limit) long duration (forever) Short Term Memory (STM) small capacity (~7 items) short duration (seconds)II. Age Differences in Memoryduring Childhood and AdolescenceDigit Span at Different AgesAge span2.5 26 4.57 59 612 6.5adults 7III. The Role of StrategiesA. Developmental Change in Use ofStrategiesB. The Impact of MetamemoryC. The Influence of SchoolA. Developmental Change in Use ofStrategies 6 6 2 6 2 4 6 2 4 1 6 2 4 1 9 6 2 4 1 9 5 6 2 4 1 9 5 0 6 2 4 1 9 5 0 8 6 2 4 1 9 5 0 8 3 ?????Prof. Greg Francis 7/10/083Judgment of RecencyTask Presentation: 1, 2, 3, 4....100 Test:51 vs 5480 vs 8520 vs 40Prof. Greg Francis 7/10/084Prof. Greg Francis 7/10/085A Slightly Different Judgmentof Recency TaskProf. Greg Francis 7/10/086Prof. Greg Francis 7/10/087A Slightly Different Judgmentof Recency Task Presentation: 1, 2, 3, 4...50 [on ablue background]...51, 52, 53...100[on an orange background] Test46 vs 48 (no cues)52 vs 54 (no cues)49 vs 51 (cues)0102030405060708090No cues Cues7 yr olds20 yr oldsIII. A. The Impact ofMetamemory Metamemory refers to a person’s informalknowledge and beliefs about how memoryworks and their own abilities as a memorizer. Young children have limited metamemory,which explains why they often don’t usestrategies when they should do so. Example: digit spanProf. Greg Francis 7/10/088III. B. The Influence ofSchool What experiences promote thegrowth of metamemory? Going to school, where testsare given frequently. Cross-cultural data.IV. The Role of KnowledgeA. The more you know, the more youcan rememberB. Experience is criticalA. The more you know, themore you can remembern n c c b a s b c c b n?????n b c c b s a b c c n nB. Experience is criticalB. Experience is critical Steve Faloon: college student ofaverage intelligence, average span Digit span of nearly 90 after 20months How? Used extensive knowledge ofrunning times (3492—3 min 49.2sec, near world record for 1 mile) Span for letters perfectly average Span for “noncodeable digits”perfectly averageFaloon's Digit Span01020304050607080905 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45Practice in 5 day blocksDigit SpanProf. Greg Francis 7/10/089V. Putting It All TogetherNext time Intelligence Intelligence tests Heredity and environment Cultural
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