For decades, scientists didn’t think babies could remember much. Although parents and caregivers suspected that more was going on inside their young children’s heads, many “experts” thought babies
experienced the world as simply a blur of sights, sounds, smells and textures.
They were wrong.
Babies remember a lot. And they remember some things for a surprisingly long time.
Short fingers and long memories.
How can we learn what babies remember? Since babies can’t answer
scientists’ questions directly, researchers have had to develop clever
ways to learn how long babies can remember things. One type of
experiment uses deferred imitation to see how long babies remember how
to do things. Deferred imitation is based on two main ideas:
Babies will imitate what they see people do
Babies can remember what they see and do it at a later time.
For example, researchers showed babies how to use a toy they’d never
seen before in a special way. After demonstrating a unique way to play with
the toy, researchers removed the toy so that the babies couldn’t practice or
experiment with it. After some time passed, researchers gave the unusual toy
to the babies to see what they would do. When the babies played with the toy
in the unique way demonstrated earlier by the adult, researchers knew that
the babies remembered and copied what they were shown. (Gopnik, Meltzoff, &
Kuhl, 1999)
How long can babies
remember what they are shown?
In one series of experiments, researchers wanted to learn if
12-month-old babies could remember what they were shown after delays of
three minutes, one week and four weeks. Researchers first showed groups of
babies five different toys and a unique way to play with each of them, like
pulling apart a dumbbell-shaped toy or making a stirring motion with a
wooden stick inside a box. After showing these babies unique ways to play
with the toys (20 seconds for each toy), the researchers removed the toys
from the room. The researchers also made sure that the parents never saw
what the babies were shown, so the babies couldn’t practice at home. (Klein
& Meltzoff, 1999)
Other groups of babies in the experiment were shown different things. Some
babies watched adults do different interesting things with the five toys,
and other babies never saw any of the five toys. Later, the researchers
placed these toys one at time in front of the babies to see what they would
do. (Klein & Meltzoff, 1999)
What they
found.
The researchers in this study did three separate experiments, which
are combined and summarized here.
After a three minute delay, the babies
remembered about 3.5 (about 70%)
of the special ways to play with the five toys.
After one week, the babies remembered more than 2.5 (more
than 50%)
of the special ways to play with the five toys.
After four weeks, the babies remembered about 2.5 (about
50%)
of the special ways to play with the five toys.
Groups of babies that were not shown the special ways to
play with the toys still figured out a few of these ways on their own.
Overall, these babies used about 1.5 (about 30%) of the five special
ways to play with the toys.
Even after four weeks, 12-month-old babies could remember and
copy about half of the things they were shown—and they saw each unique
action for only 20 seconds! Also, this study doesn’t suggest that babies
can remember and copy what they see for only four weeks, but for at
least four weeks. They may remember what they were shown even longer.
(Klein & Meltzoff, 1999)
Helpful Parenting Tips
Babies learn by watching and copying
people!
Show babies positive examples to imitate and remember,
such as giving hugs, treating others well, and playing with toys in
fun new ways.
Remember that babies don’t know the difference between what is safe
and what is dangerous. They are watching everything we do, including things like
working with sharp tools and using poisonous cleaning supplies.
Celebrate your baby’s growing memory when she remembers how to do
new things.
Enjoy the
wonderful learning abilities of babies and remember that they might copy any
model they see. If you are entrusted with the care and nurturing of
children, think of ways to fill their lives with healthy, safe examples to
copy.
References:
Gopnik, A., Meltzoff,
A. N., & Kuhl, P. K. (1999). The scientist in the crib: Minds,
brains, and how children learn. New York: William Morrow & Co.
Klein, P. J., &
Meltzoff, A. N. (1999). Long-term memory, forgetting, and deferred
imitation in 12-month-old infants. Developmental Science, 2(1),
102-113.
