Psychological Science, 2 ed.

Chapter 11: Human Development

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Can Infants Remember?

Photo: Carolyn Rovee-Collier

This activity includes: - Introduction - Experiment Description and Video - Discussion Questions

What is your earliest memory? If you are like most people, you are unable to recall anything from your infancy. For many years, theorists and researchers believed that infants simply lack the ability to form any memory more complex than that required to recognize their parents, family members, and other familiar and persistent stimuli. In fact, since standard methods of memory testing found no evidence that infants could store and retrieve much before age three, the matter appeared settled.

However, clever and insightful testing methods devised by Carolyn Rovee-Collier and her colleagues put the matter in a new light. In her test, Rovee-Collier would place an infant in a crib, attach a ribbon to the infant's foot, and note the number of kicks the infant gave. Rovee-Collier then connected the other end of the ribbon to a colorful mobile hanging over the crib. When the infant kicked, the mobile would move. Infants are naturally delighted with such motion and will kick with gusto. Kicking rates go up dramatically when the ribbon is attached to the mobile, when compared with the baseline condition of kick rate when the ribbon is not attached to the mobile.

In the first scene you are looking at a child of about four months who has just had the ribbon attaching the foot to the mobile for the first time.

>>Watch the Video [this movie requires the Flash 6 plug-in ]

Video: Courtesy C. Rovee-Collier

After a few minutes, the infant learns that moving the foot activates the overhead mobile. From that point onwards, kick rate increases as the association between kicking and the movement of the mobile strengthens.

>>Watch the Video [this movie requires the Flash 6 plug-in ]

Video: Courtesy C. Rovee-Collier

After the association between kicking and the movement of the mobile has been established, the mobile is removed. The classical opinion on infant memory is that within a short period of time (perhaps a few minutes), the memory of the association fades. The design of the experiment is reflected in the diagram below. In the Baseline stage, the rate of kicking is recorded when the ribbon is not attached to the mobile. After Baseline comes the Acquisition of the behavior when the ribbon is attached, an immediate Test, then a retention interval that can last minutes, days, or even weeks. During the retention interval, the ribbon and mobile are not present. At Test 2, they are both reintroduced. If the infant quickly reacquires the high rate of kicking, it can be inferred that he remembers the link between kicking and the movement of the mobile. If, on the other hand, it takes as long as was originally the case to reacquire the high rate of kicking, we can assume that the link between ribbon and mobile was forgotten.

Rovee-Collier realized that while the ribbon and mobile task was appropriate for younger infants, it was inappropriate for infants of a year or more in age. To test them, Rovee-Collier devised a new task that would capture the interest of the older infants, while maintaining the basic logic of the experiment. In this second task, a toy train was placed in a box and outfitted with a switchplate that, when rocked back and forth, would activate the train for a moment and light the box. Only constant rocking of the switch plate would keep the train in motion. The infant subject was placed on his mother's lap and, after a baseline measure of switchplate rocking, was encouraged to observe an older sibling operate the train

>>Watch the Video [this movie requires the Flash 6 plug-in ]

Video: Courtesy C. Rovee-Collier and Psi Chi

>>Watch the Video [this movie requires the Flash 6 plug-in ]

Video: Courtesy C. Rovee-Collier and Psi Chi

In contrast to the predictions of both Freudian and classic Piagetian theorists, Rovee-Collier found that infants as young as two months showed some memory for the mobile. Older infants exposed to the train task also showed evidence of memory for the task by rocking the plate at rates significantly over baselines for their age. A summary of the results for both tasks is presented below, indicating that infants as young as two months can retain a memory of an event for as long as a week, while infants as old as a year and a half can retain a memory for as long as three months.

Discussion Questions:

1. Define the phrase "infantile amnesia." Prior to Rovee-Collier's work, why did researchers assume that infants were incapable of forming episodic memories?
   
   
   
2. Rovee-Collier's work suggests that while infants are obviously not as skilled at storing and retrieving information as adults, the basic process is more or less the same and infants can learn and recall much earlier than originally thought. Assume for a moment that you are a parent of a newborn. What implications does her work have for your own parenting behavior? What might you do differently after reading Rovee-Collier's work?
   
   
   
3. If we are able to form memories when we are infants, why are we unable to recall these memories as adults? To answer this question fully, you may need to review material on the concept of encoding specificity from Chapter 7 of your textbook. What implications does your answer have for evaluating the eyewitness testimony of a twenty-five-year-old about events he witnessed when he was less than five years old?
   
   
   
4. Your text authors state, "the question of whether infants possess memory is a tricky one." Explain.
   
   
   
5. How did Freud and different theoretical perspectives lead to different predictions? Assume that Piaget and Freud used the same infants, apparatus, and methods that Rovee-Collier used. What would their predictions have been about infant memory prior to running the study?
   

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The picture at the top of this activity shows the range of infants tested by Rovee-Collier. All were found to be able to retain information for appreciable periods of time. For a more detailed and highly readable explanation Rovee-Collier's work, visit the Psi Chi Web site at www.psichi.org/pubs/article.asp?article_id=104.