Young infants' long-term auditory memory: Evidence for changes in preference as a function of delay
✍ Scribed by Melanie J. Spence
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1996
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 813 KB
- Volume
- 29
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0012-1630
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Infants' preferences for a novel or familiar nursery rhyme were examined as an index of long-term memory. One-to 2-month-old infants' preferences were tested, using a nonnutritive sucking, discriminationlearning procedure, at 1, 2, or 3 days after the last of multiple familiarization sessions. A consistent novelty preference was observed at the 1-day retention interval, no consistent preference occurred at the 2-day interval, and a familiarity preference was found following the 3-day interval. This pattern of results is consistent with attentional preference models which interpret novelty and familiarity preferences as reflecting the discrepancy between an external stimulus and the infant's representation of the stimulus. The findings also reveal that infants as young as 1 month of age encoded and subsequently recognized a repeatedly experienced nursery rhyme after a 3-day retention interval.