Fitzgerald J M
Department of Psychology, Wayne State University.
J Genet Psychol. 1991 Jun;152(2):159-71. doi: 10.1080/00221325.1991.9914663.
This study was an attempt to demonstrate the utility of a developmental approach to the study of early childhood amnesia. Working from a model of early childhood memory development proposed by Nelson and Ross (1980), I hypothesized that children would show early childhood amnesia and that this could be tested by comparing obtained estimates of memory strength to values predicted by a standard retention function. The data confirm this hypothesis for 6- and 10-year-old children, and suggest that the early childhood amnesia period extends from birth to a point between the third and fourth birthdays. The data also support a prediction, derived from the aforementioned model, that children would report a disproportionate number of general memories from the amnesia period. Thus, the developmental model provides a useful vehicle for examining early childhood amnesia and helps to frame further questions such as why some specific memories from this period are retained even though most are lost.
本研究旨在证明采用发展性方法研究幼儿期遗忘症的效用。基于纳尔逊和罗斯（1980年）提出的幼儿记忆发展模型，我提出假设：儿童会表现出幼儿期遗忘症，并且可以通过将获得的记忆强度估计值与标准保持函数预测的值进行比较来对此进行测试。数据证实了6岁和10岁儿童的这一假设，并表明幼儿期遗忘症阶段从出生延伸至三岁到四岁之间的某个时间点。数据还支持了从上述模型得出的一个预测，即儿童会报告来自遗忘症阶段的不成比例数量的一般记忆。因此，该发展模型为研究幼儿期遗忘症提供了一个有用的工具，并有助于提出进一步的问题，比如为什么这个时期的一些特定记忆得以保留，即使大多数记忆都丢失了。
