The specificity of priming effects over the first year of life.

Full Abstract

Despite its significance for the enduring effect of early experience, the specificity of priming on infants' forgotten memories is unknown. This study determined the impact of cue and context changes on the initial priming and retrieval of the reactivated memory over the first postnatal year. Infants were operantly trained with a distinctive cue in a particular context. After forgetting, they were primed and tested for renewed retention with combinations of old and new cues and contexts. Priming was hyperspecific to the original cue and original context at all but 12 months, when the memory was reactivated in a novel context. At 9-12 months, the reactivated memory generalized to a novel cue or context. At younger ages, the reactivated memory generalized only after a very brief prime. These findings indicate that priming in early infancy is initially conservative, buffering against recovering memories in contexts that might no longer be appropriate.(c) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Author information

Author/s: Defrancisco, Becky Sweeney (BS); Rovee-Collier, Carolyn (C);

Affiliation: Rutgers' Early Learning Project, Department of Psychology, Rutgers University 152 Frelinghuysen Rd. Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.

Grants: MH32307 (Agency:United States NIMH)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: Developmental psychobiology (Dev Psychobiol), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Jul; vol 50 (issue 5) : pp 486-501

Dates: Created 2008/06/18; Completed 2008/08/22;

PMID: 18551465, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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