Poster #5 - Remembering time using space

• In Event: Poster Session 18

Abstract

In early childhood, memory for temporal order of events tends to be weaker than memory for the location of those events (Hayne & Imuta, 2011). A potential solution to this challenge is to engage the mental timeline, a linear projection of time onto space. Adults and older children spontaneously activate the mental timeline when remembering the order of events (Pathman et al., 2018), however the mental timeline is slow to develop. In three experiments, we explore how individual differences in the development of the mental timeline relate to temporal memory and whether priming linear representations of time can improve temporal memory.

In Experiment 1 (N=96 5–6-year-olds), we asked whether individual differences in the strength of children’s mental timelines predict their memory for temporal order. Children watched videos of a character engaging in a series of events and answered memory questions about the order and location of the events. Children also completed a timeline construction task that involved arranging icons to represent temporal order (Tillman et al., 2018). Performance on the timeline task predicted memory for temporal order but not memory for locations: children who made two linear arrangements had better temporal memory performance than children who did not make linear arrangements (t(75)=-2.35, p=0.02), but there was no difference in location memory performance (t(75)=0.78, p=0.43). These data suggest that children who spontaneously represent time linearly may reference these spatial representations to remember temporal order. On the other hand, children who do not have consistent mental representations of time may not spontaneously activate the mental timeline when encoding temporal order.

Experiment 2 tested if priming children to represent temporal order linearly strengthens temporal memory. In Experiment 2A (N=66 5-year-olds), children were told a story about a character visiting different places and watched icons appear in either a linear or random arrangement on the screen to remember what had happened. Children then completed the memory task from Experiment 1. Contrary to our prediction, there was no effect of priming condition on temporal memory performance (t(64)=-.87, p=0.39). We hypothesized that the virtual task was too passive to prime children’s mental representations of time events. In Experiment 2B (N=17 5-year-olds) children actively pointed to locations on the screen where the icons occurred. However, we found no difference in temporal memory performance among children who were tested in the initial priming condition and the more active version (t(42)=1.5, p=0.14), suggesting that the pointing did not make the priming task more effective.

In Experiment 3 (in progress), we are moving to in-person testing, and children are actively placing physical stickers in the priming task. Children at this age benefit from the motor engagement which makes the task more active (Chum et al., 2007), which we predict will make this activity more effective in priming the mental timeline. Together, these data contribute to our understanding of the benefits of representing time in terms of space.

Authors

• S. Bahar Sener, University of Washington
  Presenting Author

• Sahana Sridhar, University of Washington

• Ariel Starr, University of Washington