Memory suppression is an active process that improves over childhood

We all have memories that we prefer not to think about. The ability to suppress retrieval of unwanted memories has been documented in behavioral and neuroimaging research using the Think/No-Think (TNT) paradigm with adults. Attempts to stop memory retrieval are associated with increased activation of lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) and concomitant reduced activation in medial temporal lobe (MTL) structures. However, the extent to which children have the ability to actively suppress their memories is unknown. This study investigated memory suppression in middle childhood using the TNT paradigm. Forty children aged 8–12 and 30 young adults were instructed either to remember (Think) or suppress (No-Think) the memory of the second word of previously studied word-pairs, when presented with the first member as a reminder. They then performed two different cued recall tasks, testing their memory for the second word in each pair after the TNT phase using the same first studied word within the pair as a cue (intra-list cue) and also an independent cue (extra-list cue). Children exhibited age-related improvements in memory suppression from age 8 to 12 in both memory tests, against a backdrop of overall improvements in declarative memory over this age range. These findings suggest that memory suppression is an active process that develops during late childhood, likely due to an age-related refinement in the ability to engage PFC to down-regulate activity in areas involved in episodic retrieval.Supported by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (Pedro M. Paz-Alonso), and NSF grants 0648564 (Simona Ghetti) and 0448844 (Silvia A. Bunge)

Neural Correlates of Fluid Reasoning in Children and Adults

Fluid reasoning, or the capacity to think logically and solve novel problems, is central to the development of human cognition, but little is known about the underlying neural changes. During the acquisition of event-related fMRI data, children aged 6–13 (N = 16) and young adults (N = 17) performed a task in which they were asked to identify semantic relationships between drawings of common objects. On semantic problems, participants indicated which of five objects was most closely semantically related to a cued object. On analogy problems, participants solved a visual propositional analogy (e.g., shoe is to foot as glove is to…?) by indicating which of four objects would complete the problem; these problems required integration of two semantic relations, or relational integration. Our prior research on analogical reasoning in adults implicated left anterior ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) in the controlled retrieval of individual semantic relationships, and rostrolateral prefrontal cortex (RLPFC) in relational integration. In this study, age-related changes in the recruitment of VLPFC, temporal cortex, and other cortical regions were observed during the retrieval of individual semantic relations. In contrast, age-related changes in RLPFC function were observed during relational integration. Children aged 6–13 engage RLPFC too late in the analogy trials to influence their behavioral responses, suggesting that important changes in RLPFC function take place during adolescence

Embedding Equitable Research Practices into the Rigorous Study of a Cognitive Learning Intervention

Resources and examples of building equity into the design of rigorous education studies of cognitive interventions is lacking. Here we describe an early-stage attempt to build equity into a large-scale randomized trial of a cognitive intervention - i.e., interleaved practice - for middle-school mathematics learning. Our approach is informed by WestEd's Anti-Racist Evaluation Strategies (WestEd, 2021) which is informed by literature on equitable research and evaluation. It incorporates three overarching themes: self reflection and learning, equitable partnerships, and understanding context. Our approach incorporates the themes into two major strands of equitable research practices: (1) engaging the study team in learning and self-reflection around issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion and (2) Engaging relevant parties in the research processes. Though in the early stages of the project, we will report both successes and challenges of these efforts and aim to foster discussion about how to best incorporate equity-based approaches in cognitive science research

Development of Category-Based Reasoning in Preschool-Age Children: Preliminary Results of a Longitudinal Study

Category-based reasoning is central to mature cognition; yet, the developmental course of this fundamental ability remains unclear. We designed a longitudinal study to investigate the development of category-based reasoning. We also took an individual differences approach to identify possible cognitive factors that may facilitate category-based reasoning. In this paper we report preliminary results of our longitudinal investigation into the development of category-based reasoning