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Resumen
En este artículo, se revisan las investigaciones realizadas sobre el desarrollo de la memoria infantil durante los últimos 30 años y se identifican cinco áreas en las que se han logrado avances significativos: el desarrollo de las estrategias de memoria, la función de la base de conocimientos en la memoria, el desarrollo de la memoria a corto plazo y de trabajo, el desarrollo de la memoria en los bebés, y el desarrollo de la memoria autobiogr´fica. En la segunda parte del artículo, se sugieren algunas líneas de investigación interesantespara el futuro, y, más concretamente, se proponen a los investigadores en este campo cinco temas específicos: la neuropsicología del desarrollo de la memoria, los modelos evolucionistas del desarrollo de la memoria, la memoria implícita, algunas nuevas aproximaciones a las estrategias de memoria, y la construcción y destrucción de los recuerdos infantiles.
Abstract
In this article, we review research on memory development performed over the last 30 years and identify five areas in which major accomplishments have been achieved: the development of memory strategies, the role of knowledge base on memory performance, the development of short-term and working memory, the development of infant memory, and the development of autobiographical memory. In the second part of the article, we suggest directions for the future and propose five topics for memory development researchers to pursue: neuropsychology of memory development, evolutionary models of memory development, implicit memory, some new approaches to memory strategies, and the construction and destruction of children's memories.
Extended Summary
The main goals of this article are: 1) to select and to comment briefly on several of the most outstanding insights that have been gained from research on children's memory development, and 2) to suggest some new directions for the future. In the first major section, we focus on five areas in which we believe substantial knowledge has been accumulated: strategies, knowledge base, short-term and working memory, infant memory, and autobiographical memory. Concerning strategies, we describe how much we have learned about its developmental function and the importance that the identification of mediational, production, and utilization deficiencies has had on the field. Concerning knowledge and short-term and working memory development, we examine their roles in memory development as a whole and also their impact on others aspects of cognition. Concerning infant memory, we describe briefly the state of the art and how this has contributed to reducing the mystery about this topic. Finally, concerning the development of autobiographical memory, we point out some advances about event recall and children's witness memory.
Following this historical review, we examine the present conception of children's memory development. We illustrate the general consensus of researchers on several issues: 1) memory is not a unitary concept; 2) children's memory becomes increasingly strategic when related to prospective remembering, and increasingly reliable when retrieving previously stored information; and 3) there are some general explanatory principles involved in the development of children's memory (symbolic function, social and cultural variables, emergence of consciousness, limits of working memory, and role of knowledge base), though we still do not know well how they act and interact. We then describe some of the deficits of research in this field, and, taking into account Marr's ideas about the levels of analysis of information processing mechanisms, identify which of these levels we believe should be paid more attention in the near future.
In the second major section, we suggest five directions for memory researchers to pursue as we move into the new millennium: neuropsychology of memory development, evolutionary models of memory development, implicit memory, some new approaches to memory strategies, and the construction and destruction of children's memories. Concerning neuropsychology, we emphasize the need for improving our knowledge about its relation to memory development, assuming that cognitive psychology cannot progress isolated from neurology and molecular biology. However, we point out the need of not losing sight of the cognitive and behavioural levels of analysis while looking at the brain. Concerning evolutionary models of memory development, we argue that applying Darwin's ideas of natural selection and taking a “functional” approach to understanding cognitive processes, will result in a more sophisticated understanding of memory and its development. Concerning the understudied topic of implicit memory, we propose that it should be studied simultaneously with implicit learning and the significance of unconscious cognition in general. However, we point out that implicit memory itself is not a unitary phenomenon, and we suggest a tentative distinction among the various types of implicit memory. Concerning strategy development, we suggest four understudied areas for the future: strategy variability, strategies developed in naturalistic contexts, cross-cultural commonalities and differences, and teaching of school-type strategies. Finally, concerning construction and destruction of children's memory, we argue that it is important to examine in greater depth the various factors (e.g., social environment, language) involved in the creation of true and false memories, and we identify some aspects not completely understood related to children's testimony and their suggestibility.