Biomaterial Database

Developmental changes in infants' visual short-term memory for location. 2011

Lisa M Oakes, and Karinna B Hurley, and Shannon Ross-Sheehy, and Steven J Luck

Center for Mind and Brain, The University of California, Davis, California, United States. lmoakes@ucdavis.edu

To examine the development of visual short-term memory (VSTM) for location, we presented 6- to 12-month-old infants (N=199) with two side-by-side stimulus streams. In each stream, arrays of colored circles continually appeared, disappeared, and reappeared. In the changing stream, the location of one or more items changed in each cycle; in the non-changing streams the locations did not change. Eight- and 12.5-month-old infants showed evidence of memory for multiple locations, whereas 6.5-month-old infants showed evidence of memory only for a single location, and only when that location was easily identified by salient landmarks. In the absence of such landmarks, 6.5-month-old infants showed evidence of memory for the overall configuration or shape. This developmental trajectory for spatial VSTM is similar to that previously observed for color VSTM. These results additionally show that infants' ability to detect changes in location is dependent on their developing sensitivity to spatial reference frames.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007223	Infant	A child between 1 and 23 months of age.	Infants
D008297	Male		Males
D008570	Memory, Short-Term	Remembrance of information for a few seconds to hours.	Immediate Recall,Memory, Immediate,Working Memory,Memory, Shortterm,Immediate Memories,Immediate Memory,Immediate Recalls,Memories, Immediate,Memories, Short-Term,Memories, Shortterm,Memory, Short Term,Recall, Immediate,Recalls, Immediate,Short-Term Memories,Short-Term Memory,Shortterm Memories,Shortterm Memory,Working Memories
D009483	Neuropsychological Tests	Tests designed to assess neurological function associated with certain behaviors. They are used in diagnosing brain dysfunction or damage and central nervous system disorders or injury.	Aphasia Tests,Cognitive Test,Cognitive Testing,Cognitive Tests,Memory for Designs Test,Neuropsychological Testing,AX-CPT,Behavioral Assessment of Dysexecutive Syndrome,CANTAB,Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery,Clock Test,Cognitive Function Scanner,Continuous Performance Task,Controlled Oral Word Association Test,Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System,Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment,Hooper Visual Organization Test,NEPSY,Neuropsychologic Tests,Neuropsychological Test,Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test,Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status,Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure,Symbol Digit Modalities Test,Test of Everyday Attention,Test, Neuropsychological,Tests, Neuropsychological,Tower of London Test,Neuropsychologic Test,Test, Cognitive,Testing, Cognitive,Testing, Neuropsychological,Tests, Cognitive
D002657	Child Development	The continuous sequential physiological and psychological maturing of an individual from birth up to but not including ADOLESCENCE.	Infant Development,Development, Child,Development, Infant
D003118	Color Perception	Mental processing of chromatic signals (COLOR VISION) from the eye by the VISUAL CORTEX where they are converted into symbolic representations. Color perception involves numerous neurons, and is influenced not only by the distribution of wavelengths from the viewed object, but also by its background color and brightness contrast at its boundary.	Color Perceptions,Perception, Color,Perceptions, Color
D005260	Female		Females
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000367	Age Factors	Age as a constituent element or influence contributing to the production of a result. It may be applicable to the cause or the effect of a circumstance. It is used with human or animal concepts but should be differentiated from AGING, a physiological process, and TIME FACTORS which refers only to the passage of time.	Age Reporting,Age Factor,Factor, Age,Factors, Age
D013028	Space Perception	The awareness of the spatial properties of objects; includes physical space.	Perception, Space,Perceptions, Space,Space Perceptions