The flexibility of early memories: Limited reevaluation of action steps in 2-year-old infants

This study investigated the flexibility of 2-year-old infants’ retrieval and reenactment processes. In a delayed imitation paradigm, children were exposed to a constraint change (implemented by the distance of a target object) affecting the relevance of using a tool to obtain a goal (reach the object). In Experiment 1, during demonstration in the first session the tool was either relevant or irrelevant for reaching the goal, and 1 week later it either lost or gained its relevance, respectively. We found that when the tool became unnecessary (relevant to irrelevant change), children used it somewhat less than before and used it less compared with when the tool’s relevance remained the same (relevant to relevant, no change). When the tool became necessary after a constraint change (irrelevant to relevant change), children used the tool more than before, but not as much as in the Relevant–Relevant control condition. In Experiment 2, the timing of the constraint change (immediate or delayed) was varied in a modified version of the Irrelevant–Relevant condition, where practice before the constraint change was omitted. Children were not significantly more flexible in the immediate condition than in the delayed condition, and comparisons with Experiment 1 showed that performance did not change if we omitted the practice before the change. These results indicate that although 2-year-olds show considerable mnemonic performance, they face difficulties in adapting to constraint changes. We propose that this inflexibility may stem from infants’ inability to revise their evaluations formed in previous events due to their immature episodic memory capacities

A digitális bennszülöttek nyomában. Bemutatkozik az ELTE Alfa Generáció Labor

Az ELTE Természettudományi Kar Etológia Tanszékén működő Alfa Generáció Labor azt kutatja, hogy a 2010 után született gyerekek, vagyis az alfa-generáció életére milyen hatással vannak a digitális eszközök (például az okostelefon, a tablet). Ennek a generációnak a vizsgálata azért kiemelkedően fontos, mert ezeket a gyerekeket születésüktől fogva digitális eszközök veszik körül, és gyakran már kisgyermekkorban felhasználóvá válnak. A 2016-os felmérés alapján a 2–3 éves gyerekek majdnem fele (48%-a) aktívan vagy passzívan (például mesenézésre) használt már digitális eszközt, 4–5 éves korra ez az arány 61%-ra emelkedett (Konok et al. 2020). A kutatás óta eltelt hat évben ezek a számok még tovább nőttek (1). Sőt az eszközhasználati trendek alapján az is elképzelhető, hogy most adódik az utolsó lehetőség olyan gyerekeket találni, akik még nem használnak digitális eszközöket

Irrelevant and relevant constraints during demonstration phase.

One part of the objects was always close to the experimenter/participant; the goal was to collect the other object part. In the irrelevant context the other part of each pair was within arm’s reach, thus the situational constraints made the tool use unnecessary. In the relevant context the second part was further away and could not be reached by hand, thus tool use was necessary.</p

Experimental design of the study.

Conditions could consist of three phases: demonstration, short-term re-enactment, and delayed re-enactment. The demonstration and short-term re-enactment took place at the same occasion, in Session 1. One week later, in Session 2 only the delayed re-enactment took place. Tool use context (relevant/irrelevant) changed between or within sessions according to the conditions.</p

Tool use in experimental and control conditions.

Tool use score varied from 0 to 3. The figure includes tool use scores of Session 1 and Session 2, in the Relevant Baseline, Relevant-Irrelevant, Irrelevant-Relevant, and Irrelevant-Relevant Short-term conditions. Preschoolers either used a tool or reached for the object by hand. Asterisks indicate a significant difference * p < .05.</p

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