Brain structures that are implicated in different forms of memory mature during the first and second decade of life. Although the maturation rate of these forms of memory have not been directly assessed, based on neuropsychological evidence it is possible to formulate hypotheses regarding the improvement of memory during childhood. Our research at the CEPL aims to investigate the progression of memory functions based on these hypotheses.
For example, it has been suggested that implicit and explicit memory systems are functionally and neuroanatomicaly dissociated, and that implicit memory matures early on, at around age of 3-4, while explicit memory continues to develop until adolescence. To examine this claim, we asked children and adults to perform a picture fragment completion task followed by a simple recognition task. Our findings partially support the hypothesis as we found that implicit memory continues to develop beyond the age of 6, while it appears that the rate of development of these systems differs.
In recent years, we have also examined the maturation rate of item and source memory. Memory for item indicates that the person is familiar with previously presented events, while source memory indicates a conscious awareness for previously presented events that is manifested by remembering context information. It is possible then, that children’s inferior performance in recognition memory tasks stem, for the most part, from lower ability to remember context information. We designed experiments in which children and adults were asked to perform item and source memory tasks. Our data suggest the children and adults use similar brain mechanisms when performing the item memory task, while during the source memory task adults perform much better than children, and used neural networks that are different than that of children.
Responsible Investigators: David Friedman