{"title":"The influence of semantics on long-term visual memory capacity in children and adults","authors":"Priti Gupta, Marin Vogelsang, Lukas Vogelsang, Pragya Shah, Sharon Gilad-Gutnick, Pawan Sinha","doi":"10.1111/bjdp.12498","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Human visual memory capacity has a rapid developmental progression. Here we examine whether image semantics modulate this progression. We assessed the performance of children (6–14 years) and young adults (19–36 years) on a visual memory task using real-world (or meaningful) as well as abstract image sets, which were matched in low-level image attributes. For real images, we find comparable performance across the two age groups, consistent with previously reported results. However, for abstract images, we find a clear age-related difference indicating greater reliance of children's memory processes on semantics, suggesting that strategies for encoding abstract patterns keep improving even into late childhood. We complemented these studies with computational experiments designed to examine the role of increasing experience with real-world images on real and abstract image encoding, to examine whether the observed age-related differences, as well as the general privilege of real over abstract images, can emerge directly through experience with meaningful images. Our results provide support for this possibility and set the stage for a finer-grained investigation of the timeline along which children's memory capacity for abstract images reaches adult levels.</p>","PeriodicalId":51418,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Developmental Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"British Journal of Developmental Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjdp.12498","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Human visual memory capacity has a rapid developmental progression. Here we examine whether image semantics modulate this progression. We assessed the performance of children (6–14 years) and young adults (19–36 years) on a visual memory task using real-world (or meaningful) as well as abstract image sets, which were matched in low-level image attributes. For real images, we find comparable performance across the two age groups, consistent with previously reported results. However, for abstract images, we find a clear age-related difference indicating greater reliance of children's memory processes on semantics, suggesting that strategies for encoding abstract patterns keep improving even into late childhood. We complemented these studies with computational experiments designed to examine the role of increasing experience with real-world images on real and abstract image encoding, to examine whether the observed age-related differences, as well as the general privilege of real over abstract images, can emerge directly through experience with meaningful images. Our results provide support for this possibility and set the stage for a finer-grained investigation of the timeline along which children's memory capacity for abstract images reaches adult levels.
期刊介绍:
The British Journal of Developmental Psychology publishes full-length, empirical, conceptual, review and discussion papers, as well as brief reports, in all of the following areas: - motor, perceptual, cognitive, social and emotional development in infancy; - social, emotional and personality development in childhood, adolescence and adulthood; - cognitive and socio-cognitive development in childhood, adolescence and adulthood, including the development of language, mathematics, theory of mind, drawings, spatial cognition, biological and societal understanding; - atypical development, including developmental disorders, learning difficulties/disabilities and sensory impairments;