Nonspecific verbal cues alleviate forgetting by young children

Abstract

Verbal reminders play a pervasive role in memory retrieval by human adults. In fact, relatively nonspecific verbal information (e.g. 'Remember the last time we ate at that restaurant?') will often cue vivid recollections of a past event even when presented outside the original encoding context. Although research has shown that memory retrieval by young children can be initiated by physical cues and by highly specific verbal cues, the effect of less specific verbal cues is not known. Using a Visual Recognition Memory (VRM) procedure, we examined the effect of nonspecific verbal cues on memory retrieval by 4-year-old children. Our findings showed that nonspecific verbal cues were as effective as highly specific nonverbal cues in facilitating memory retrieval after a 2-week delay. We conclude that, at least by 4 years of age, children are able to use nonspecific verbal reminders to cue memory retrieval, and that the VRM paradigm may be particularly valuable in examining the age at which this initially occurs.

Age‐related changes in visual recognition memory during infancy and early childhood

“…Although the VRM procedure was originally developed for use with very young human infants (Berlyne, 1958; Fantz, 1958), the results of the present experiments add to a growing body of research showing that the paradigm is also ideally suited for use with older infants and young children (see also, Morgan & Hayne, 2006a,b, 2007). Across the experiments reported here, subject attrition was remarkably low (n = 2) and participants exhibited high levels of fixation during both the familiarization and test phases.…”

“…All participants were tested in a three‐sided enclosure, 2.05 m high and 1.56 m × 1.57 m × 1.56 m wide, covered in black felt (see Morgan & Hayne, 2006a,b, 2007). Two Apple Macintosh 21″ monitors were mounted to the back panel of the enclosure and were positioned 46 cm apart.…”

“…The stimuli consisted of three computer‐generated cartoon‐like faces presented in 3‐D format using PsyScope.1.2.5.PPC (Cohen, MacWhinney, Flatt, & Provost, 1993). The stimuli consisted of a blue letterbox face, a yellow circular face, and a red square face (Morgan & Hayne, 2006a,b, 2007). During presentation, each stimulus blinked its eyes or moved its mouth.…”

Integrating across episodes: Investigating the long-term accessibility of self-derived knowledge in 4-year-old children

“…First, a large body of research shows that reminders and reinstatements are a highly effective means of extending young children’s event memories over delays (e.g., Bauer et al, in press; Hudson & Fivush, 1991; Hudson, Sheffield, & Deocampo, 2006, for review). Second, 4-year-old children can effectively use verbal reminders to access information that appears to have been forgotten (e.g., Imuta, Scarf, & Hayne, 2012; Morgan & Hayne, 2007). Third and directly related to the present paradigm, the provision of hints has been shown to facilitate knowledge extension through integration by 4-year-olds within a single learning session (Bauer et al, 2012; 2013).…”

The effect of language cues on infants’ representational flexibility in a deferred imitation task

“…Can you remember what face you saw last time you came?" provided only at the time of retrieval facilitates 4-year olds' memory for a previously experienced visual stimulus (Morgan & Hayne, 2007).…”