The Wiley Handbook on the Development of Children's Memory

Patricia J. Bauer, Robyn Fivush

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9781119993995
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781118590201
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

This all-embracing Handbook on the Development of Children's Memory represents the first place in which critical topics in memory development are covered from multiple perspectives, from infancy through adolescence. Forty-four chapters are written by experienced researchers who have influenced the field. 

• Edited by two of the world's leading experts on the development of memory
• Discusses the importance of a developmental perspective on the study of memory
• The first ever handbook to bring together the world's leading academics in one reference guide 
• Each section has an introduction written by one of the Editors, who have also written an overall introduction that places the work in historical and contemporary contexts in cognitive and developmental psychology

2 Volumes

Volume I

This edition first published 2014
© 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wiley handbook on the development of children's memory / edited by Patricia J. Bauer and Robyn Fivush.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-119-99399-5 (cloth)
1. Memory in children. 2. Child psychology. I. Bauer, Patricia J. II. Fivush, Robyn.
BF723.M4W55 2014
155.4′1312--dc23
2013007829

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover image: Ben Lucas, Memory
Cover design by Cyan Design

Contributors

Cristina M. Atance, Ottawa University

Jocelyne Bachevalier, Emory University

Lynne Baker-Ward, North Carolina State University

Rachel Barr, Georgetown University

Patricia J. Bauer, Emory University

Martha Ann Bell, Virginia Tech

Dorthe Berntsen, Aarhus University

David F. Bjorklund, Florida Atlantic University

Annette Bohn, Aarhus University

Caitlin R. Bowman, The Pennsylvania State University

Charles J. Brainerd, Cornell University

Natalie Brito, Georgetown University

Leslie J. Carver, University of California, San Diego

Nelson Cowan, University of Missouri

Darlene DeMarie, University of South Florida

Anjolii Diaz, Virginia Tech

Judith F. Feldman, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Children's Hospital at Montefiore

Robyn Fivush, Emory University

Mary Ann Foley, Skidmore College

Andrea Frick, University of Bern

William J. Friedman, Oberlin College

Simona Ghetti, University of California, Davis

Gail S. Goodman, University of California, Davis

Andrea Follmer Greenhoot, University of Kansas

Azriel Grysman, Rutgers University

O. Evren Güler, Augsburg College

Catherine A. Haden, Loyola University Chicago

Stephan Hamann, Emory University

Mark L. Howe, City University, London

Judith A. Hudson, Rutgers University

Jeffery J. Jankowski, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Children's Hospital at Montefiore and Queensborough Community College

J. Zoe Klemfuss, University of California, Irvine

Jessica H. Kraybill, Virginia Tech

Marina Larkina, Emory University

Joshua K. Lee, University of California, Davis

Lynn S. Liben, The Pennsylvania State University

Marianne E. Lloyd, Seton Hall University

Lisa M. López, University of South Florida

Stella F. Lourenco, Emory University

Steven J. Luck, University of California, Davis

Angela F. Lukowski, University of California, Irvine

Gema Martin-Ordas, Aarhus University

Kelly McWilliams, University of California, Davis

Jeremy K. Miller, Willamette University

Patricia H. Miller, San Francisco State University

Rachel K. Narr, University of California, Davis

Charles A. Nelson, Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard University

Katherine Nelson, City University of New York Graduate Center

Nora S. Newcombe, Temple University

Lisa M. Oakes, University of California, Davis

Christin M. Ogle, Duke University

Richard O'Kearney, The Australian National University

Ingrid R. Olson, Temple University

Peter A. Ornstein, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Thanujeni Pathman, University of California, Davis

Pedro M. Paz-Alonso, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language

Jodi A. Quas, University of California, Irvine

Elaine Reese, University of Otago

Valerie F. Reyna, Cornell University

J. Steven Reznick, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Tracy Riggins, University of Maryland, College Park

Claudia M. Roebers, University of Bern

Susan A. Rose, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Children's Hospital at Montefiore

Peggy L. St. Jacques, Harvard University

Karen Salmon, Victoria University of Wellington

Wolfgang Schneider, University of Würzburg

Patrick Douglas Sellers II, Florida Atlantic University

Jennifer S. Stevens, Emory University School of Medicine

Shengkai Sun, University of Kansas

Qi Wang, Cornell University

Widaad Zaman, University of Central Florida

Preface

This handbook project was instigated by a perfectly innocent message from Andrew Peart, an acquisitions editor for Wiley-Blackwell, to Patricia Bauer, on February 3, 2010. In the message, Andy remarked that he had been looking for a developmental analog to The Oxford handbook of memory (2000), edited by Endel Tulving and Fergus I. M. Craik. He was unable to find one and wondered whether I might be interested in editing one. One trip down the hall to Robyn Fivush's office and 44 chapters later, we have this book, The Wiley Handbook on the Development of Children's Memory. Our thanks to Andy for asking the question.

The development of memory has been a lively research area over the past 40 years. Several excellent authored and edited volumes have been published on various aspects of the topic, and a few overview chapters have been included in volumes focused on adult memory literature. Yet, this handbook represents the first comprehensive volume in which critical topics in the development of memory are covered from multiple perspectives, covering multiple ages, in multiple chapters. It was planned over several working meetings at Saba's in Emory Village, a favorite pasta restaurant with a respectable wine bar around the corner from the Department of Psychology. Having worked in the field our entire careers, we knew well the great strides that had taken place in understanding the development of memory in the latter part of the last century and into the present. We view this volume as a primary vehicle both for capturing the advances for posterity, and especially for encouraging the next generation of researchers in the study of the development of memory.

As the table of contents began to come together, we extended invitations to both senior researchers who had defined the field, and more junior researchers who have expanded and redefined it. Our goal was to provide both breadth and depth of theory and methods. With very few exceptions, our invitations were accepted with enthusiasm. In many cases, we asked authors to write about what they knew best. For others, we asked for a bit of a stretch or a reach-back to a former focus. Even these invitations were accepted graciously. We are forever grateful to all the authors for agreeing to have their work represented in this handbook. We also extend a special note of thanks to the authors who—again for the most part—submitted their chapters on time, not once but twice, for the first draft and then for the final version. The result is a handbook that is as current when it went to press as when the chapters were originally drafted. Again, thank you.

The handbook has the strengths that it does due to the efforts of another group of collaborators—the Ph.D. students who participated in a seminar that we offered in Fall 2011, during which we read many of the chapters of the handbook in first-draft form. Many thanks for the comments, critiques, and lively discussion to Shala Blue, Chi Cheung, Cory Inman, Maria Jones, Brandi Kenner, Jackie Leventon, Natalie Merrill, Jason Shepard, Aylin Tasdemir, Christina Tzeng, Nicole Varga, and the honorary student Dr. Marina Larkina. This group provided the perfect initial audience for this volume. We also thank Jacqueline Leventon for her service beyond the seminar room as our editorial assistant for the project. Thank you, Jackie, for keeping us organized and on track throughout the process.

Our sincere gratitude to all who helped bring this project to fruition. As a result of your efforts, we now have a comprehensive state-of-the-art volume that defines the field, past, present, and future.

PJB and RF
October 29, 2012

1

The Development of Memory

Multiple Levels and Perspectives

Patricia J. Bauer and Robyn Fivush

Emory University

Memory is a fundamental cognitive capacity. Without it, we would live in a “here-and-now” world without a past and without the ability to anticipate the future. In some form or another, it is available to all living animals. Yet, in humans, memory is exquisitely honed to allow us not only to navigate the challenges of everyday life (e.g., remembering where we parked the car this morning) but to re-create, in living color, the important and self-defining experiences of our lives, such as graduations, weddings, births, and funerals. Although the capacity to remember is with us virtually from birth, it undergoes a protracted and dramatic course of development throughout the first two decades of life. Our memories seemingly function asymptotically for most of adulthood, before declining throughout the course of normal aging. This handbook is concerned primarily with infancy through early adulthood, with comparisons against non-human animals and mature humans as appropriate.

In 1971, John Flavell, a founding figure in cognitive development, in a symposium held at the biennial meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development, asked “What is memory development the development of?” This now-famous quote set a field in motion. Over the years, there has been a continuously increasing interest in memory development from multiple perspectives and across wide age spans. Whereas initial research on the development of memory often focused on differences in school-aged children's abilities to use memory strategies (e.g., Kail & Hagen, 1977; Ornstein, 1978), today, research on memory development begins in utero (e.g., DeCasper & Spence, 1986) and extends to the very last stages of life (e.g., Webster, 2001). In addition to strategic memory, research now focuses on implicit memory, episodic memory, autobiographical memory, as well as on using memory to plan for the future, as evidenced by the chapters included in this handbook. Memory is seen as integral to social and emotional development, and memory is studied in the laboratory, in local contexts such as families and schools, and in macro contexts such as within historical and cultural frameworks. Levels of analysis are from neurons to neighborhoods. In 40 years, we have discovered many answers to Flavell's famous question, but we are still searching for many others. As in all fields of scientific inquiry, the more we learn, the more we still do not know. The publication of this handbook indicates the vibrancy of the field. In 1983, the two-volume Handbook on child development (Mussen, 1983), which was required reading for all developmental psychologists, had one chapter titled “Learning, memory and understanding.” In this handbook, we have 43 chapters, each reviewing a unique aspect of the development of memory.

So, what is memory development the development of? Each of the chapters in this handbook provides a partial answer to this question, but as all good developmental scientists know, to understand a phenomenon fully, one must understand its developmental history. The current intense interest in the development of children's memory that is underscored by this handbook comes out of a history of memory research that began in the nineteenth century. In this introductory chapter, we lay an historical foundation for current approaches to memory. From early research focusing on verbal learning of nonsense syllables, the study of memory progressed through multiple scientific revolutions, including behaviorism, the cognitive revolution, and the neuroscience revolution. We note that every chapter in this handbook provides some historical context for current research, and that the chapters in Section I explicitly lay out theories and methods in memory development research. Thus, we do not provide much detail in this introductory chapter, but point to the excellent reviews in the chapters that comprise this handbook.

A Brief History of the Scientific Study of Memory

The study of the development of children's memory emerged as a discipline in its own right relatively recently, just about 40 years ago. However, not surprisingly, the field has a longer history, w...

Table of contents

• Volume I
• Volume II
• Author Index
• Subject Index