The Development of Memory Organization: Converging Insight From Multiple Perspectives

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

A striking feature of memory is that it is constructive. That is, memory not only represents direct experiences, but also inferred knowledge that is extracted across separate, yet related episodes. The ability to derive new knowledge by integrating information across episodes is presumed to be a major source of higher-order cognition, supporting behaviors from language learning to reasoning to concept formation. Nevertheless, developmental investigations of memory have focused almost exclusively on the ability to remember individual events. This gap is particularly surprising considering that knowledge derivation through integration is associated with critical outcomes, including academic achievement (Varga, Esposito, & Bauer, 2019), optimal decision making (Kumaran, Summerfield, Hassabis, & Maguire, 2009), and well-being (Schacter, Welker, & MacLeod, 2016). Furthermore, the majority of research on memory integration has focused on childhood or adulthood. By examining this topic across a more continuous age range (ages 4-23), the present symposium provides complimentary insight into protracted changes in the cognitive and neural processes that underlie memory integration, as well as unique insight into how developmental differences in memory organization contribute to complex cognitive behaviors.

Paper 1 examines whether the co-occurrence of words in language supports abstraction of categorical knowledge that span events. Papers 2 and 3 complement one another, elucidating the basic processes (Paper 2) and neural representations (Paper 3) that support differences in memory integration with age. Together, findings highlight how the prolonged development of integration abilities influences learning and extension across related experiences, supporting age-related improvements in a number of higher-order cognitive functions.

Sub Unit

• Attention, Learning, Memory

Chair

• Nicole Varga, University of Texas at Austin

Discussant

• Vladimir Sloutsky, Ohio State University

Individual Presentations

• Experience vs. Maturation: Development of Abilities to Form Semantic Links from Co-occurrence Regularities in Language - Presenting Author: Olivera Savic, Ohio State University; Non-Presenting Author: Layla Unger; Non-Presenting Author: Vladimir Sloutsky, Ohio State University

• Basic Processes Involved in Organization of Semantic Knowledge - Presenting Author: Patricia J Bauer, Emory University

• Developmental Differences in Hippocampal and Prefrontal Representations of Related Memories - Presenting Author: Nicole Varga, University of Texas at Austin; Non-Presenting Author: Alison Preston, University of Texas at Austin