Examination of the habit and cognitive memory systems in children.
Item
-
Title
-
Examination of the habit and cognitive memory systems in children.
-
Identifier
-
AAI9530903
-
identifier
-
9530903
-
Creator
-
Matier-Sharma, Kristin Noel.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: Jeffrey M. Halperin
-
Date
-
1995
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Psychology, Developmental | Psychology, Physiological | Biology, Neuroscience
-
Abstract
-
Habit and cognitive memory have been proposed by Mishkin and Petri (1984) as distinct systems for retaining experience in humans and primates. These memory systems have been found to be dissociated in terms of their developmental trajectories in monkeys and very young children, and have been found to be differentially affected by brain lesions in monkeys and adult humans. In this dissertation, performance of school-age children on tasks designed to separately assess habit and cognitive memory was examined. A third task, in which some trials placed previously formed habit memory in competition with accurate cognitive memory performance, was also administered. The sample consisted of 81 normal children, divided into three age-groups (age ranges were 5.5 to 7.49 years, 7.5 to 9.9 years, and 10 to 14.5 years). Results indicated a significant effect of age on the test of cognitive memory, but not on the habit memory task. These findings are related to data from the human and animal literature, which indicate that habit memory reaches its mature form earlier in development than does cognitive memory. The presence of previously encountered habit task stimuli as recognition alternatives appeared to improve cognitive memory performance for all age-groups. However, the youngest group demonstrated less facilitation than the two older groups in the context of previously reinforced recognition alternatives. Alternative explanations for this finding are discussed.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
