James Emma, Ong Gabrielle, Henderson Lisa M, Horner Aidan J
Department of Psychology, University of York, York, UK.
York Biomedical Research Institute, University of York, York, UK.
J Cogn. 2021 Feb 12;4(1):13. doi: 10.5334/joc.149.
Event memories consist of associations between their constituent elements, leading to their holistic retrieval via the process of pattern completion. This holistic retrieval can occur, under specific conditions, when each within-event association is encoded in a separate temporal context: adults are able to integrate the information into a single coherent representation. In this study, we sought to replicate the holistic retrieval of simultaneously encoded event elements in children, and examine whether children can similarly integrate across separated encoding contexts. Children (aged 6-7 years; 9-10 years) and adults encoded two series of three-element "events" consisting of an animal, object, and location. In the simultaneous condition, they encountered all three event elements at once; in the separated condition, they encountered each pairwise association separately (animal-object, animal-location, object-location). After encoding, they were tested on the retrieval of each within-event association using a 4-alternative-forced-choice task. We inferred the presence of holistic retrieval using a measure of retrieval dependency-the statistical dependency between retrieval of within-event associations. Memory for the pairs improved across ages, but there were no developmental differences in retrieval dependency. In the simultaneous encoding condition, all three age groups showed retrieval dependency. However, counter to previous studies, retrieval dependency was not observed in any age group following separated encoding. The results from the simultaneous encoding condition support the idea that pattern completion processes are developed by early childhood. The absence of retrieval dependency in adults following separated encoding prevent conclusions regarding the developmental trajectory of mnemonic integration.
事件记忆由其组成元素之间的关联构成，通过模式完成过程实现整体提取。在特定条件下，当每个事件内的关联在单独的时间背景中进行编码时，这种整体提取就会发生：成年人能够将信息整合为一个连贯的单一表征。在本研究中，我们试图在儿童中复制同时编码的事件元素的整体提取，并研究儿童是否能同样地在分离的编码背景中进行整合。儿童（6 - 7岁；9 - 10岁）和成年人对由动物、物体和位置组成的两个系列的三元素“事件”进行编码。在同时呈现条件下，他们一次性遇到所有三个事件元素；在分离呈现条件下，他们分别遇到每对关联（动物 - 物体、动物 - 位置、物体 - 位置）。编码后，使用4选1迫选任务对他们进行每个事件内关联的提取测试。我们使用提取依赖性指标（事件内关联提取之间的统计依赖性）来推断整体提取的存在。对这些配对的记忆随着年龄增长而改善，但在提取依赖性方面没有发展差异。在同时编码条件下，所有三个年龄组都表现出提取依赖性。然而，与之前的研究相反，在分离编码后，任何年龄组都未观察到提取依赖性。同时编码条件下的结果支持了模式完成过程在幼儿期就已发展的观点。成年人在分离编码后不存在提取依赖性，这使得我们无法就记忆整合的发展轨迹得出结论。
