Memory development during the infant and toddler years
pp. 39-74
in: , Memory development from early childhood through emerging adulthood, Berlin, Springer, 2015Abstract
The review of the literature presented in this chapter starts with short-term memory (STM) development in very young children. Overall findings suggest that infants can use a limited-capacity system to temporarily maintain information, with the number of items retained in the short-term story increasing from 1 to 4 during the first year of life. Research assessing long-term memory (LTM) in infants indicates that the development of sophisticated research tools and techniques during the past three decades has documented very young children's impressive LTM abilities. In particular, neuropsychological research investigating brain–behavior links has provided new insights, proving the importance of encoding and consolidation processes during the first year of life and beyond for subsequent memory development.