Childhood memory

Childhood memories have several unique qualities. The experimental psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist Endel Tulving refers to memory as “mental time travel”, a process unique to humans. However, early memories are notoriously sparse from the perspective of an adult trying to recall his or her childhood in depth. Explicit knowledge of the world is a form of declarative memory, which can be broken down further into semantic memory, and episodic memory, which encompasses both autobiographical memory and event memory. Most people have no memory prior to three years of age, and few memories between three and six years of age, as verified by analysis of the forgetting curve in adults recalling childhood memories.

Childhood memory research is relatively recent, having gained significant amounts of scientific interest within the last two decades. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the mechanisms underpinning childhood memory. Until relatively recently, it was thought that children have only a very general memory and that “overwrite mechanisms” prevented the later retrieval of early memories. Newer research suggests that very young children do remember novel events, and these events can be recalled in detail from as young as two and a half years old. Previous research presupposed that children remember pieces of information from specific events but generally do not keep episodic memories. Contrary to previous research, newer research has shown that children can recall specific episodic memories for up to two years prior to the onset of the earliest autobiographical memories reported by adults. The same research argues against the Freudian theory that early memories are repressed because of negative affective content.

Another older hypothesis that has been thrown into question is that of the prominent psychologists Daniel Schacter (1974) and Ulrich Neisser (1962), who hypothesized that memories are forgotten because cognitive schemas change between childhood and adulthood, meaning that information is lost with an adult's reconstruction of childhood events because present (adult) schemas are not suitable. Schemas change drastically around age six due to socialization and language development. However, as highlighted by katherine Nelson this theory has received criticism. …

The types of childhood memories that an adult recalls may be linked to personality. Research on both children and adults reminiscing about childhood memories is not well-established. However, considerable attention has been devoted to assessing the validity of strategies that can be used to recall early memories, particularly in situations where the accuracy of recall is critical. Some people claim to have vivid memories from very early ages, while others remember life events beginning around age five. Variables that affect age of first childhood memory include early family environments. One such factor is maternal reminiscing style. There is a long-lasting improvement in autobiographical memory in children whose mothers used an elaborative style of conversation after experiencing an event with the child. Autobiographical memory improves with age along with semantic knowledge of the world and ability to construct a coherent life narrative, but age and gender may influence ability to recall early memories. One study found that older adolescents and females perform better on both episodic autobiographical memory and memory for everyday events, given that females tend to provide more emotional, accurate, vivid, and detailed recollections, although conditions of high retrieval support (probing questions) reduced this sex difference.

The accuracy of recalled childhood memories in adulthood is the subject of extensive research and debate. Controversies exist surrounding the authenticity of recovered memories, particularly in the context of child abuse or trauma, such as the debatable accuracy of the spontaneous recovery of distressing memories that were previously forgotten due to inhibitory control. Because memory is reconstructive, false memories may be recalled. Errors might be made even with authentic memories when the adult has to infer missing details, is given inadequate retrieval cues, or recalls inaccurate details due to the power of suggestion from a therapist. Cognitive abilities, personality, interactions with the therapist, and genetic differences also play a role in the types of memories that an adult recalls and how accurate these memories are.

Different memory retrieval tasks involve different cognitive mechanisms. According to dual-coding theory, recognition of a memory stimulus can be studied via two cognitive mechanisms: recollection and familiarity. Familiarity is context-free, or independent of the context in which the stimulus was encoded, and concerns whether a person "knows" they have encountered a stimulus previously. Recollection is context-dependent on the details incidental to encoding of a target memory, and is related to the cognitive feeling of "remembering" something. Within the medial temporal lobe, familiarity tends to be associated with the perirhinal region while recollection is associated with the hippocampus. Cortical regions related to conscious recollections (feelings of "time travel" according to Tulving) include the frontal lobes, while unconscious feelings of "knowing" may be located elsewhere. Dissociation of recollection vs. familiarity has already been seen in 7-8 year-old children as they grow to adolescence.

Lateral prefrontal cortex, superior parietal cortices

The contribution of the lateral prefrontal cortex to working memory has already been recognized in adults. Also, the superior parietal cortex is activated for individual items that have been encountered previously. It has only recently, however, been demonstrated that the LPFC is already active in children by the ages of 5 and 6. It is still not known whether the LPFC is active in preschool children during working memory tasks.

Anterior medial prefrontal cortex, lateral parietal / temporal regions, hippocampus

According to a study by Riggins et al.(2009), observations lend support to age-related increases in contextual memories. This is linked to maturation of frontal lobe structures and connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and medial temporal lobe. Recollection memory for details of individual objects is related to heightened activity in the anterior medial prefrontal cortex and lateral parietal/temporal regions. Recollection for details include the temporal order of events, and this is demonstrated to improve with age even between ages 3 and 4.

Assessment of childhood memory development shows a difference for familiarity of individual objects versus recollection of the details associated with these objects. …

Understanding how memory functions in children and adolescents might lead to more effective teaching strategies in the classroom. Executive functioning skills are the cognitive skills a child or teenager can exert over other cognitive processes to direct attention and achieve goals. Working memory is one subset of executive functioning. Executive functioning skills are rarely taught in classrooms despite the fact that executive functioning is very important for academic achievement, possibly even more important than IQ or entry-level mathematics skills or reading skills. Kindergarten teachers often describe self-discipline and attentional control in children as even more valuable in the learning environment than knowledge of the school material. Working memory (mentally holding and manipulating information) and inhibitory control (the ability to resist distractions) can predict math and reading scores from preschool through to high school. Many children lack executive functioning skills. Because teachers rarely receive instruction in how to improve children's executive functioning skills, children as young as preschoolers are frequently removed from class for exhibiting poor self-control. Associated problems include attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, teacher burnout, student dropout rates, and increases in substance abuse and crime rates, particularly in children from low-income families.

One way of mitigating executive control problems is to alter the learning environment by implementing smaller class sizes or relaxing settings, which will improve working memory performance. Another way is to promote play as an essential activity, not a frivolous activity. Some researchers have found that mature, dramatic play enhances executive function. The same researchers found that the more a task relies on executive functioning, the more it is positively correlated with accomplishment. A third method draws from a series of studies in 2004-2005 (Klingberg et al.) which demonstrated improvement in children with working memory deficits, using training via computer games. The studies emphasize the use of working memory training that incorporates activities children are naturally drawn to. Improving school performance by improving memory through natural activities might significantly reduce dropout rates and save money for school districts.

Techniques have been developed to improve memory by directing attention to internal and external experiences as they occur in the present. This has been used in the health care industry to help individuals overcome anxiety and other problems that interfere with memory retrieval in adults. Success in this area has led researchers to propose mindfulness as a tool for working with children. Relaxation is a way to reduce the flow of stressful or uncontrolled thoughts. Children may show decreased symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and aggressive behaviour along with improved memory in classrooms and in sports settings. Caution is required because some children may be uncomfortable with meditation. Smaller class sizes might also be a means of improving memory by reducing stress.

Operative training task to improve long term memory

The renowned developmental psychologist Piaget thought that memory and intelligence are linked. In Piaget's theory of cognitive development, operative intelligence is the conceptual framework of a child's understanding of the world, and this framework changes as the child learns. Piaget and Inhelder (1973) proposed a link between operative intelligence and memory, specifically that a child's ability to accurately recall an event or an image corresponds with the child's operative level. Previous studies showed very little improvement in operative development with training. However, one study points to inadequacies in older test designs. A study was designed using an operative concept of “verticality”, referring to a child's ability to accurately represent true vertical lines, such as drawing a chimney perpendicular to a slanted roof or perpendicular to the ground. Verticality is a test of the child's ability to comprehend and represent the three-dimensional environment. Children were presented with an array or pattern formed by sticks. Children reproduced the pattern more accurately after a longer intervening interval (6 months) than after a shorter interval (1 week). This has led to research to see if training such operative skills can improve long-term memory.

The results by Liben et al. were inconclusive due to the test design. …