Origins and Development of Recollection: Perspectives from Psychology and Neuroscience

343 Pages·2012·1.914 MB·English

by  Simona Ghetti, Patricia J. Bauer

Origins and Development of Recollection
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Origins and Development
of Recollection
Perspectives from Psychology and Neuroscience
E S G P J. B
DITED BY IMONA HETTI AND ATRICIA AUER
1
1

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Origins and development of recollection : perspectives from psychology and
neuroscience / edited by Simona Ghetti and Patricia J. Bauer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-534079-2 (hbk. : alk. paper)
1. Recollection (Psychology) 2. Memory. I. Ghetti, Simona. II. Bauer, Patricia J.
BF371.O75 2011
153.1’23—dc23 2011036649
_________________________________________________________________
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in USA
on acid-free paper
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Contributors xiii
1. Remembering: Th oughts on Its Defi nition, Measurement,
and Functional Nature 3
Andrew P. Yonelinas
2. Development of Meaning-Conserving Memory 21
Katherine Nelson
3. Building Blocks of Recollection 42
Tracy Riggins
4. Contextualizing the Development of Recollection:
Episodic Memory and Binding in Young Children 73
Nora S. Newcombe, Marianne E. Lloyd, and Frances Balcomb
5. Development of Recollection: A Fuzzy-Trace Th eory Perspective 101
Charles J. Brainerd, Valerie F. Reyna, and Robyn E. Holliday
6. Th e Development of Episodic Memory: Binding Processes,
Controlled Processes, and Introspection on Memory States 144
Simona Ghetti, Kristen E. Lyons, and Dana DeMaster
7. Neural Basis of Recollection: Evidence from Neuroimaging
and Electrophysiological Research 168
Rachel A. Diana and Charan Ranganath
8. Neural Basis of Autobiographical Memory 188
Peggy L. St. Jacques and Roberto Cabeza
9. Development of Remembering: Brain Development
and Neuroimaging Evidence 219
Kathleen M. Th omas and Lyric Jorgenson
10. Th e Development of Episodic Memory: An Event-Related
Brain Potential Vantage Point 242
David Friedman
11. Memory Development Following Early Medial Temporal Lobe Injury 265
Michelle De Haan
12. Memory Development and Frontal Lobe Insult 286
Gerri Hanten and Harvey S. Levin
Index 309
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PREFACE
F or millennia, philosophers, scientists, and lay people alike have sought an under-
standing of how we remember the past. In his Confessions , Saint Augustine
wondered how one “discern(s) the breath of lilies from violets, though smelling
nothing . . . but remembering only.” He likened memory to a “spacious palace” in
which is stored “the treasures of innumerable images, brought into it from things
of all sorts perceived by the senses . . . for thought to recall . . . ” (Saint Augustine,
~401 CE). Since Saint Augustine wrote these words, our explanations of memory
and how it functions have moved beyond the poetic metaphor of a “spacious
palace” to the more concrete realities of modern psychological and neural sci-
ences. However, what has remained the same is the nature of the phenomenon we
are attempting to explain. In his time, Saint Augustine wondered how physical
entities such as fl owers could be “discerned” based not on the chemicals in the air
that give rise to smell, but through memory alone. Present-day psychologists and
neuroscientists are asking essentially the same question as we ponder how the
roughly 1500 grams (3½ pounds) of tissue that sits in the bony case atop our
shoulders manages to vividly recreate — and even allows us to relive — events and
experiences from the past. Th e modern day developmental scientist further ques-
tions how the material substrate and the processes it subserves develop from
infancy through childhood.
It is clear that the ability to use memory alone to vividly recreate experiences
from the past begins to develop early in ontogeny. By early in the second year of
life, preverbal infants can reenact action sequences, in accurate order, months
aft er original exposure. Over the course of the second year, the length of time over
which memory for sequences is apparent increases dramatically. Once verbal,
children become more and more sophisticated at describing their past experi-
ences, such that by middle childhood, their memories not only include surprising
levels of detail but also precise assessments of their subjective experience ranging
from feelings of memory vividness to reports of emotional content. It is therefore
clear that from early ages children are capable of remembering a great deal about
their past, and this ability continues to develop throughout childhood.
Current models of adult memory identify recollection as the process desig-
nated to allow for reexperiencing our past in vivid detail. Work grounded in
these models has elucidated the functional principles of recollection, and recent
viii Preface
advances in cognitive neuroscience have further clarifi ed the neural architecture
supporting its functioning. Th e present volume represents our eff ort to integrate
these recent advances with a growing literature on the typical and atypical devel-
opment of recollection, from infancy into adolescence. Much of the discussion
is in terms of the neural systems and basic mnemonic processes that permit
memories to be formed, retained, and later retrieved. Yet, a satisfying solution to
the puzzle of memory also entails consideration of “higher level” infl uences such
as the social forces that shape what children come to view as important to remem-
ber and even how they express their memories. Th ese far-reaching, complemen-
tary perspectives are necessary because memory is a complex, multidimensional
process. Indeed, an assumption common to the chapters between these covers is
that memory is not a unitary construct. Rather, there are diff erent types of memory
that involve diff erent processes and that are subserved by diff erent neural sub-
strates. Each of the chapters in the volume illuminates a portion of the larger pic-
ture that we recognize as r ecollection. Here we describe the organization of the
volume and highlight the motivation behind each contribution.
WHAT IS RECOLLECTION?
I n the fi rst section, we included two chapters that provide necessary background
for the rest of the volume. In Chapter 1, Andrew Yonelinas asks, “What is recol-
lection?,” and off ers a comprehensive overview of theoretical and methodological
approaches grounded in dual-process models of memory to address his question.
From this perspective, the process of recollection is specifi cally devoted to the
retrieval of qualitative detail about the past; its contribution to memory perfor-
mance can be formally estimated, and its neurological underpinnings specifi ed.
In Chapter 2, Katherine Nelson engages in a thoughtful analysis of how biologi-
cal, psychological, and cultural bases of recollection make it possible to remem-
ber over time, preserve meaning of life experiences, and form autobiographical
memories. Although Nelson’s analysis focuses on child development, it is clear
that the unique function of recollection outlined in the chapter extends beyond
childhood. Together, these chapters refl ect the rich theoretical discourse sur-
rounding the construct of recollection and its development.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF RECOLLECTION
In this second section, we include four chapters that provide an overview of cur-
rent theories and empirical evidence regarding the psychological mechanisms
involved in the development of recollection. In Chapter 3, Tracy Riggins off ers
a comprehensive analysis of evidence of development of memory in infancy
and early childhood. In doing so, she addresses pressing questions about whether
and when recollection is present in infancy and refl ects on the methodological
approaches and the conclusions that these approaches aff ord about early recollec-
tion. Adhering to the defi nition of recollection as the capacity to remember events
in their spatiotemporal context, Riggings provides a careful examination of recent
Preface ix
research diff erentiating among spatial, temporal, and other attributes of episodic
recollection.
In Chapter 4, Nora Newcombe, Marianne Lloyd, and Frances Balcomb exam-
ine the development of one fundamental feature of episodic recollection, namely,
the capacity to bind diff erent features of an event into an integrated representa-
tion. Th is capacity is distinguished from the operation of strategies and other
forms of controlled mechanisms that promote and monitor binding operations.
Newcombe and colleagues examine the development of binding during child-
hood and integrate this knowledge with a lifespan perspective and investiga-
tions with nonhuman animals. Th e authors off er a series of insightful comments
on how binding might aff ect the emergence and development not only of episodic
memory, but also of other faculties conceptually linked to episodic memory, such
as mental travel time and imagining the future.
In Chapter 5, Charles Brainerd, Valery Reyna, and Robyn Holliday provide a
compendium on the development of recollection from a fuzzy-trace theory per-
spective. Brainerd and colleagues acknowledge the long tradition of mathemati-
cal models in the study of adult recollection and the limited use of such an
approach in the fi eld of child development. Th ey convincingly use their rich
empirical work to argue for the importance of model estimation in the develop-
ment of memory and provide extensive evidence on the developmental dissocia-
tion between recollection and familiarity trajectories.
In Chapter 6, Simona Ghetti, Kristen Lyons, and Dana DeMaster identify
the key components of the development of episodic recollection in the binding
and controlled processes that are necessary to form, store, and reinstate episodic
memories. Th e authors then proceed to emphasize the development of the subjec-
tive experience of recollection. Despite a general agreement that episodic recol-
lection is accompanied with subjective feelings of vividness, little research has
examined the development of this component; Ghetti and her colleagues review a
nascent literature on the topic.
Overall, these four chapters draw from a variety of theoretical perspectives to
provide a comprehensive base from which to examine the phenomenon of recol-
lection and its development, from infancy to adolescence.
NEURAL BASIS OF RECOLLECTION AND ITS DEVELOPMENT
I n this section, we include four chapters that document recent advances in the
cognitive neuroscience of recollection and its development. Chapters 7 and 8
examine the neural correlates of adult recollection, and Chapters 9 and 10 exam-
ine the development of the neural substrates supporting this capacity during
childhood.
I n Chapter 7, Rachel Diana and Charan Ranganath present an extensive over-
view of state-of-the-art knowledge about the contribution of medial temporal
lobes, prefrontal, and parietal regions to episodic recollection. Th ey do so by dis-
cussing the wealth of evidence gathered from patients with brain lesions, electro-
physiological, and neuroimaging research. In addition, the authors take a closer