Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Degree
2005
Degree Name
PhD (Doctor of Philosophy)
Degree In
Psychology
First Advisor
Lisa M. Oakes
Abstract
Previous work has demonstrated that infant visual short-term memory (VSTM) capacity increases dramatically between 6 and 10 months of life (Ross-Sheehy, S., Oakes, L. M., & Luck, S. J. (2003). The development of visual short-term memory capacity in infants. Child Development, 74, 1807-1822). However, it is unclear if this increase is a function of improving memory abilities, or alternatively, if it is a function of improving attentional abilities. Moreover, it is currently unknown if infants, like adults, can use attention to form stable VSTM representations in situations where they would otherwise fail. Four experiments explored the relationship between visual attention and VSTM in 5.5- and 10-month-old infants. Results indicated that 1) 10-month-old infants are able to use attention to selectively encode items into VSTM, 2) this ability does not appear to be present in younger infants, 3) this ability does not appear to interact with the complexity of the test array, and 4) attentional facilitation requires a relatively salient cue. Taken together, these results are the first to demonstrate that infant VSTM representations can be mediated by visual attention, and that this mediation relies on relatively well-developed visual attention mechanisms.
Keywords
attention, infant, development, vision, short-term memory
Pages
74 pages
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 66-74).
Copyright
Copyright 2005 Shannon Ross-Sheehy