Developmental origins of recoding and decoding in memory. Kibbe, M. M. & Feigenson, L. Cogn Psychol, 75:55–79, 2014.
doi  abstract   bibtex   
Working memory is severely limited in both adults and children, but one way that adults can overcome this limit is through the process of recoding. Recoding happens when representations of individual items are chunked together into a higher order representation, and the chunk is assigned a label. That label can then be decoded to retrieve the individual items from long-term memory. Whereas this ability has been extensively studied in adults (as, for example, in classic studies of memory in chess), little is known about recoding's developmental origins. Here we asked whether 2- to 3-year-old children also can recode-that is, can they restructure representations of individual objects into a higher order chunk, assign this new representation a verbal label, and then later decode the label to retrieve the represented individuals from memory. In Experiments 1 and 2, we showed children identical blocks that could be connected to make tools. Children learned a novel name for a tool that could be built from two blocks, and for a tool that could be built from three blocks. Later we told children that one of the tools was hidden in a box, with no visual information provided. Children were allowed to search the box and retrieve varying numbers of blocks. Critically, the retrieved blocks were identical and unconnected, so the only way children could know whether any blocks remained was by using the verbal label to recall how many objects comprised each tool (or chunk). We found that even children who could not yet count adjusted their searching of the box depending on the label they had heard. This suggests that they had recoded representations of individual blocks into higher-order chunks, attached labels to the chunks, and then later decoded the labels to infer how many blocks were hidden. In Experiments 3 and 4 we asked whether recoding also can expand the number of individual objects children could remember, as in the classic studies with adults. We found that when no information was provided to support recoding, children showed the standard failure to remember more than three hidden objects at once. But when provided recoding information, children successfully represented up to five individual objects in the box, thereby overcoming typical working memory limits. These results are the first demonstration of recoding by young children; we close by discussing their implications for understanding the structure of memory throughout the lifespan.
@Article{Kibbe2014,
  author      = {Kibbe, Melissa M. and Feigenson, Lisa},
  journal     = {Cogn Psychol},
  title       = {Developmental origins of recoding and decoding in memory.},
  year        = {2014},
  pages       = {55--79},
  volume      = {75},
  abstract    = {Working memory is severely limited in both adults and children, but
	one way that adults can overcome this limit is through the process
	of recoding. Recoding happens when representations of individual
	items are chunked together into a higher order representation, and
	the chunk is assigned a label. That label can then be decoded to
	retrieve the individual items from long-term memory. Whereas this
	ability has been extensively studied in adults (as, for example,
	in classic studies of memory in chess), little is known about recoding's
	developmental origins. Here we asked whether 2- to 3-year-old children
	also can recode-that is, can they restructure representations of
	individual objects into a higher order chunk, assign this new representation
	a verbal label, and then later decode the label to retrieve the represented
	individuals from memory. In Experiments 1 and 2, we showed children
	identical blocks that could be connected to make tools. Children
	learned a novel name for a tool that could be built from two blocks,
	and for a tool that could be built from three blocks. Later we told
	children that one of the tools was hidden in a box, with no visual
	information provided. Children were allowed to search the box and
	retrieve varying numbers of blocks. Critically, the retrieved blocks
	were identical and unconnected, so the only way children could know
	whether any blocks remained was by using the verbal label to recall
	how many objects comprised each tool (or chunk). We found that even
	children who could not yet count adjusted their searching of the
	box depending on the label they had heard. This suggests that they
	had recoded representations of individual blocks into higher-order
	chunks, attached labels to the chunks, and then later decoded the
	labels to infer how many blocks were hidden. In Experiments 3 and
	4 we asked whether recoding also can expand the number of individual
	objects children could remember, as in the classic studies with adults.
	We found that when no information was provided to support recoding,
	children showed the standard failure to remember more than three
	hidden objects at once. But when provided recoding information, children
	successfully represented up to five individual objects in the box,
	thereby overcoming typical working memory limits. These results are
	the first demonstration of recoding by young children; we close by
	discussing their implications for understanding the structure of
	memory throughout the lifespan.},
  doi         = {10.1016/j.cogpsych.2014.08.001},
  language    = {eng},
  medline-pst = {ppublish},
  pmid        = {25195153},
  school      = {Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N Charles St, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA. Electronic address: feigenson@jhu.edu.},
  timestamp   = {2015.05.17},
}

Downloads: 0