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Equal Learning Does Not Result in Equal Remembering: The Importance of Post‐Encoding Processes
Author(s) -
Bauer Patricia J.,
Evren Güler O.,
Starr Rebecca M.,
Pathman Thanujeni
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
infancy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.361
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1532-7078
pISSN - 1525-0008
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-7078.2010.00057.x
Subject(s) - encoding (memory) , recall , psychology , encoding specificity principle , variance (accounting) , cognitive psychology , context dependent memory , free recall , term (time) , developmental psychology , accounting , business , physics , quantum mechanics
Explanations of variability in long‐term recall typically appeal to encoding and/or retrieval processes. However, for well over a century, it has been apparent that for memory traces to be stored successfully, they must undergo a post‐encoding process of stabilization and integration. Variability in post‐encoding processes is thus a potential source of age‐related and individual variance in long‐term recall. We examined post‐encoding variability in each of two experiments. In each experiment, 20‐month‐old infants were exposed to novel three‐step sequences in each of three encoding conditions: watch only, imitate, and learn to criterion. They were tested for recall after 15 min (as a measure of the success of encoding) and either weeks (1, 2, or 3: Experiment 1) or days (1, 2, or 4: Experiment 2) later. In each experiment, differential relative levels of performance among the conditions were observed at the two tests. The results implicate post‐encoding processes are a source of variance in long‐term recall.