6-, 10-, and 12-month-olds remember complex dynamic events across 2 weeks

TY - JOUR

T1 - 6-, 10-, and 12-month-olds remember complex dynamic events across 2 weeks

AU - Sonne, Trine

AU - Kingo, Osman S.

AU - Krøjgaard, Peter

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s)

PY - 2023/5

Y1 - 2023/5

N2 - Whereas infants’ ability to remember simple static material (e.g., pictures) has been documented extensively, we know surprisingly little about infants’ memory of dynamic events (i.e., events unfolding in time) in the first year after birth. Although there is evidence to suggest that infants show some kind of sensitivity toward complex dynamic events (i.e., events involving agents and a storyline) as indicated by visual engagement in the first year after birth, 16- to 18-month-olds are hitherto the youngest infants documented to remember such material. Using a visual paired-comparison (VPC) task, in Experiment 1 we examined 6-, 10-, and 12-month-olds’ (N = 108) ability to encode and remember cartoons involving complex dynamic events across 2 weeks. Results showed that all age groups remembered these cartoons. To investigate further the role of a complex storyline, in Experiment 2 we assessed the memory of 107 infants of the same age groups for similar cartoons but without coherent storyline information by scrambling the temporal presentation of the information in the cartoons. The results showed that the two youngest age groups did not remember this version. To our knowledge, this is the first experiment to document memory for such complex material in young infants using VPC.

AB - Whereas infants’ ability to remember simple static material (e.g., pictures) has been documented extensively, we know surprisingly little about infants’ memory of dynamic events (i.e., events unfolding in time) in the first year after birth. Although there is evidence to suggest that infants show some kind of sensitivity toward complex dynamic events (i.e., events involving agents and a storyline) as indicated by visual engagement in the first year after birth, 16- to 18-month-olds are hitherto the youngest infants documented to remember such material. Using a visual paired-comparison (VPC) task, in Experiment 1 we examined 6-, 10-, and 12-month-olds’ (N = 108) ability to encode and remember cartoons involving complex dynamic events across 2 weeks. Results showed that all age groups remembered these cartoons. To investigate further the role of a complex storyline, in Experiment 2 we assessed the memory of 107 infants of the same age groups for similar cartoons but without coherent storyline information by scrambling the temporal presentation of the information in the cartoons. The results showed that the two youngest age groups did not remember this version. To our knowledge, this is the first experiment to document memory for such complex material in young infants using VPC.

KW - cartoon

KW - Dynamic material

KW - Eye-tracking

KW - Infant memory

KW - storyline

KW - Visual paired-comparison

U2 - 10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105627

DO - 10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105627

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 36696740

AN - SCOPUS:85146602541

SN - 0022-0965

VL - 229

JO - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

JF - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

M1 - 105627

ER -