The proposed research investigates long-term memor in 31/2- month-old infants using a novelty preference method. It explores memory for object motion, a topic that has been virtually ignored in the literature. Further, it evaluates a new model of infant attention. This model was developed on the basis of a preliminary study which assessed memory for object motion and demonstrated a preference for novelty after a 1-minute delay, no preference after a 1-day delay, and a familiarity preference after a 1-month delay. These results were interpreted as supporting a 3-phase model of infant attention: Phase A, Short-term memory, is characterized by a novelty preference, phase B, intermediate memory, is a transition phase in infant attention from novel to familiar stimuli, characterized by no preference, and phase C, long-term memory, is characterized by a familiarity preference. The first experiment proposed will replicate the preliminary study in a more carefully controlled design. Infants will be familiarized with an object undergoing one of two kinds of motion. A novelty preference test will follow after delays of 1-minute, 1-day, 2- weeks, or 1-month, where the familiar object will be presented undergoing the familiar versus a novel motion. A decreasing preference for novelty and an emerging preference for familiarity are predicted across retention intervals. In a second study, the effects of a retrieval cue on novelty preferences at phases B and C will be assessed. It is expected that the retrieval cue will reinstate preferences for novelty, at least at intermediate retention intervals, supporting the characterization of phase B as a transition phase in infant attention, as opposed to a period of total forgetting. This research challenges current interpretations of infant memory studies where novelty preferences have been taken at the primary index of memory, and null results have been interpreted as evidence of forgetting. It would support a view that preferences for novelty and familiarity interact with retention time, and would suggest a new principle governing information processing in infancy. An understanding of these relations will not only have methodological and theoretical significance, but will also have significance for evaluating delayed patterns of development. One can ultimately assess the effects of prematurity, low birth weight, mental retardation, and other risk factors on subsequent long-term memory and progression through the three phases of the attention cycle.

R03MH044925

1988-09-15

1990-02-28