Age-related changes in encoding, retention and retrieval using studies of operant conditioning - created from Mind Map

Early Life Skills: sucking & turning head = newborn gross motor skills [kicking legs] = 3-6 months independent motor skills [reaching] = 6-12 months fine motor control [manipulate objects = toddler

Test Reactions to Memories: looking at pictures sucking on dummy kicking legs manipulating objects

What develops as memory improves? Encoding: older infants learn faster i.e. less demonstration & time needed Retention: older remember for longer Retrieval: older infants better able to retrieve memories in different situations - generalisation younger babies = cannot have different contexts e.g. if mobile has different animals, they have no idea what it is older babies/people = if in the same situation remember better than if not in the same e.g. do revision in exam conditions

Visual Paired Comparison Task: familiarisation (old pictures) vs habituation (getting used to it) test = a familiar stimulus is paired with a novel stimulus 2 pics on screen = 1. old from habituation task 2. new if remember old pic should look at new more

High Amplitude Sucking Task: operant conditioning sounds similar to the womb are most reinforcing DeCasper & Spence, 1986 [Dr Seuss readings] learn the contingency between sucking behaviour and reinforcement [mothers voice]

Mobile Conjugate Reinforcement: operant conditioning test: 1. need to work out a baseline, 2. give practice time, 3. measure - without anything attached to the string, thus no reinforcement = measure if remember cannot remind before hand otherwise can be retrieval error = storage is mature but recall isn't as mature seem to forget the task rapidly: 2 months = 24hrs, 3 months = 1 week, 6 months = 2 weeks learn contingency between kicking behaviour and reinforcement [movement in mobile]

Deferred Imitation: The Puppet Task: 3 actions = remove mitten, shake it, replace the mitten no practice or verbal cues 2 groups: control = don't get a demonstration, experimental = get a demonstraion

Improvements in encoding: younger infants need longer time to encode things Morgan and Hayne (2006) compared memories of a 1 yr old and a 4 yr old test: visual pictures, gave an encoding time of 5, 10 or 30 secs encoding, tested memory 24hrs later and 1 week later 4yr olds gave more preference to older pics even if only saw for 5 secs longer encoding time = better retreival

memory and language development: if cannot speak how r memories encoded: Encoding Specificity Hypothesis: pre-verbal memories might not be translated into a verbal memory = Magic Shrinking Machine

Magic Shrinking Machine: Simcock & Hayne 2002 27, 33 & 39 months old children demonstrated the actions of the machine, then tested language and knowledge at T1 tested 6 months & 12 months later: free recall [tell me everything you remember], direct questions [what are the names of the toys], photography recognition [1 target 3 distractors], behavioural [re-enactment], then language tested language assessment: 23 target words: children didn't use any new words, only used words that were encoded, thus cannot describe old with new words behavioural memories = really good, verbal = memory not as good 6 months = younger infants recognition of actions is good, 12 months = older infants re-enact very well

Age-related changes in encoding, retention and retrieval us…