Anticipatory eye movements and long‐term memory in early infancy. Issue 7 (November 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wong‐Kee‐You, Audrey M.B.; Adler, Scott A.
• Other Names: Barr Rachel guestEditor.; Hayne Harlene guestEditor.
• Is Part Of: Developmental psychobiology. Volume 58:Issue 7(2016)
• Page Start: 841
• Page End: 851
• Publication Date: 2016-11
• Subjects: infancy -- long‐term memory -- visual expectations -- anticipatory eye movements; Psychobiology -- Periodicals; 155
• DOI: 10.1002/dev.21472
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0012-1630

Abstract

Abstract: Advances in our understanding of long‐term memory in early infancy have been made possible by studies that have used the Rovee‐Collier's mobile conjugate reinforcement paradigm and its variants. One function that has been attributed to long‐term memory is the formation of expectations (Rovee‐Collier & Hayne, 1987); consequently, a long‐term memory representation should be established during expectation formation. To examine this prediction and potentially open the door on a new paradigm for exploring infants' long‐term memory, using the Visual Expectation Paradigm (Haith, Hazan, & Goodman, 1988), 3‐month‐old infants were trained to form an expectation for predictable color and spatial information of picture events and emit anticipatory eye movements to those events. One day later, infants' anticipatory eye movements decreased in number relative to the end of training when the predictable colors were changed but not when the spatial location of the predictable color events was changed. These findings confirm that information encoded during expectation formation are stored in long‐term memory, as hypothesized by Rovee‐Collier and colleagues. Further, this research suggests that eye movements are potentially viable measures of long‐term memory in infancy, providing confirmatory evidence for early mnemonic processes.