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Development of visuospatial short-term memory in the second half of the 1st year

Kevin A Pelphrey1, J Steven Reznick, Barbara Davis Goldman

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3366, USA. kpelphre@email.unc.edu

Developmental Psychology
|September 10, 2004
PubMed

Insights

Infants show linear gains in short-term visuospatial memory (STVM) from 8 to 12 months, with age explaining most performance variance. Reaching responses were more prone to perseveration than gaze responses.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Short-term visuospatial memory (STVM) is crucial for cognitive development.
  • Understanding the developmental trajectory of STVM in infants provides insights into early learning and memory formation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the development of short-term visuospatial memory (STVM) in infants aged 5.5 to 12.5 months.
  • To examine how memory performance is affected by delays and the number of locations.
  • To compare gaze and reach responses in delayed-response tasks.

Main Methods:

  • Eighty infants (5.5-12.5 months) completed four delayed-response procedures.
  • Tasks varied delay duration and number of search locations.
  • Both gaze and reach responses were assessed.

Main Results:

  • STVM performance showed little improvement from 5.5 to 8 months, followed by linear improvement from 8 to 12 months.
  • Age accounted for 66% of the variance in STVM performance.
  • Improvement in searching multiple locations lagged behind improvement with longer delays; memory scores were similar for visual and manual tasks.
  • Perseveration was highest for reach responses, increasing with task challenge and decreasing with age.

Conclusions:

  • Infant STVM develops linearly between 8 and 12 months.
  • The ability to search multiple locations develops later than the ability to maintain memory over longer delays.
  • Response modality (gaze vs. reach) influences perseveration, with reaching being more susceptible.

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