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The “when” and the “where” of single‐trial allocentric spatial memory performance in young children: Insights into the development of episodic memory
Author(s) -
Ribordy Lambert Farfalla,
Lavenex Pierre,
Banta Lavenex Pamela
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.21479
Subject(s) - episodic memory , psychology , amnesia , cognitive psychology , childhood memory , spatial memory , retrospective memory , developmental psychology , long term memory , neuroscience , working memory , cognition
Allocentric spatial memory, “where” with respect to the surrounding environment, is one of the three fundamental components of episodic memory: what, where, when. Whereas basic allocentric spatial memory abilities are reliably observed in children after 2 years of age, coinciding with the offset of infantile amnesia, the resolution of allocentric spatial memory acquired over repeated trials improves from 2 to 4 years of age. Here, we first show that single‐trial allocentric spatial memory performance improves in children from 3.5 to 7 years of age, during the typical period of childhood amnesia. Second, we show that large individual variation exists in children's performance at this age. Third, and most importantly, we show that improvements in single‐trial allocentric spatial memory performance are due to an increasing ability to spatially and temporally separate locations and events. Such improvements in spatial and temporal processing abilities may contribute to the gradual offset of childhood amnesia.