The Development of Memory in Infancy and Childhood

Human memory is not only the repository of our past but the essence of who we are. As such, it is of enduring fascination. We marvel at its resilience in some situations and its fragility in others. The origin of this extraordinary cognitive capacity in infancy and childhood is the focus of vigorous research and debate as we seek to understand the record of our earliest beginnings.

The first edition of this volume, The Development of Memory in Childhood, documented the state-of-the-art science of memory development a decade ago. This new edition, The Development of Memory in Infancy and Childhood, provides a thorough update and expansion of the previous text and offers reviews of new research on significant themes and ideas that have emerged since then. Topics include basic memory processes in infants and toddlers, the cognitive neuroscience of memory development, the cognitive and social factors that underlie our memory for implicit and explicit events, autobiographical memory and infantile amnesia, working memory, the role of strategies and knowledge in driving memory development, and the impact of stress and emotion on these basic processes. The book also includes applications of basic memory processes to a variety of real world settings from the courtroom to the classroom.

Including contributions from many of the best researchers in the field, this classic yet contemporary volume will appeal to senior undergraduate and graduate students of developmental and cognitive psychology as well as to developmental psychologists who want a compendium of current reviews on key topics in memory development.

Mary Courage (Ph.D. Memorial University, Canada, 1985) is Professor of Psychology with a cross-appointment to the Faculty of Medicine (Pediatrics) at Memorial University. Her work on the early development of vision, attention, and memory has been published in many academic journals, and is funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. She co-edited a special issue of Developmental Review on early memory development in 2004.

Nelson Cowan (Ph.D. University of Wisconsin, 1980) is Curators' Professor at the University of Missouri. His work focusing on short-term working memory and its relation to selective attention in children and adults has been published in various academic journals and has been funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1984. He has served as Associate Editor for three journals in experimental psychology.