Development of episodic and autobiographical memory: The importance of remembering forgetting

doi:10.1016/j.dr.2015.07.011

Developmental Review

Volume 38, December 2015, Pages 146-166

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2015.07.011 Get rights and content

Highlights

•
The role of forgetting as critical to understanding the development of episodic and autobiographical memory is highlighted.
•
Forgetting processes are implicated as a source of variability in long-term recall.
•
Forgetting processes are implicated due to the protracted course of development of the neural substrate for memory.
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A complete account of how memory develops must consider changes in forgetting.

Abstract

Some memories of the events of our lives have a long shelf-life – they remain accessible to recollection even after long delays. Yet many other of our experiences are forgotten, sometimes very soon after they take place. In spite of the prevalence of forgetting, theories of the development of episodic and autobiographical memory largely ignore it as a potential source of variance in explanation of age-related variability in long-term recall. They focus instead on what may be viewed as positive developmental changes, that is, changes that result in improvements in the quality of memory representations that are formed. The purpose of this review is to highlight the role of forgetting as an important variable in understanding the development of episodic and autobiographical memory. Forgetting processes are implicated as a source of variability in long-term recall due to the protracted course of development of the neural substrate responsible for transformation of fleeting experiences into memory traces that can be integrated into long-term stores and retrieved at later points in time. It is logical to assume that while the substrate is developing, neural processing is relatively inefficient and ineffective, resulting in loss of information from memory (i.e., forgetting). For this reason, focus on developmental increases in the quality of representations of past events and experiences will tell only a part of the story of how memory develops. A more complete account is afforded when we also consider changes in forgetting.

Section snippets

Complementary processes in development of memory

There is no doubt that over the course of childhood, memory for past events and experiences gets better. The early history of the developmental study of memory is replete with examples of age-related improvements in task performance (Bauer & Fivush, 2014). The trend is apparent whether one considers incidental memories, such as those formed over the course of everyday life, or deliberate and strategic remembering (see Bauer, 2013, for a review). The changes typically are viewed in terms of

Memory in infancy and early childhood

As implied above, consideration of forgetting is necessary only if there is something to be forgotten. If no memories are formed, there is no need to explain why they are not apparent. Evidence that even infants form and retain episodic memories, and that preschool and early school age children form and retain autobiographical memories, has been reviewed in detail elsewhere (e.g., Bauer, 2007, Bauer, 2013, Bauer, 2014, Bauer, 2015, Lukowski, Bauer, 2014). For this reason, I provide a brief

The role of forgetting in the development of memory

The literature just reviewed makes clear that infants remember specific episodes and that children form autobiographical or personal memories. Throughout infancy and childhood, there are age-related changes in memory, such that both episodic and autobiographical memory become more robust, reliable, and more fully elaborated (see Bauer, 2007, Bauer, 2013, Bauer, 2015, for reviews). It is tempting to explain the changes in terms of positive developmental events associated with the strengthening

Forgetting in memory for specific past events: infancy and early childhood

In this section, I focus on three logical consequences of the nature of memory representations and of the developmental status of the neural substrate responsible for them. First, as just noted, because the neural structures and networks responsible for memory undergo a protracted course of development that extends into the second decade of life, we would expect greater vulnerability of memory in younger relative to older children, resulting in age-related differences in how long memories are

Forgetting in autobiographical memory: childhood amnesia

As argued in Bauer (2015), forgetting processes, and age-related changes in the vulnerability of memory traces to forgetting, have implications for one of the most robust phenomena in the memory literature, namely, childhood amnesia. After describing the phenomenon in adults and children, I provide data on the role of forgetting in explaining the phenomenon.

Conclusions

The argument put forth in this review is that understanding of developmental changes in episodic and autobiographical memory requires consideration of both sides of the mnemonic coin: the complementary processes of improvements in the quality of memory representation and decreases in the vulnerability of those traces to forgetting (Bauer, 2015). Much of the developmental literature has focused only (or certainly, primarily) on improvements in memory with development. As a result of the

Acknowledgments

Support for much of the research from the author's laboratory was provided by HD28425, HD42486, and Emory College of Arts and Sciences. The author extends a special note of gratitude to the many collaborators who contributed to the empirical work that forms that basis of this review.

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Development of episodic and autobiographical memory: The importance of remembering forgetting

Highlights

Abstract

Section snippets

Complementary processes in development of memory

Memory in infancy and early childhood

The role of forgetting in the development of memory

Forgetting in memory for specific past events: infancy and early childhood

Forgetting in autobiographical memory: childhood amnesia

Conclusions

Acknowledgments

Myelination in the human hippocampal formation from midgestation to adulthood

International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience

Holding it all together: how enabling relations facilitate young children's event recall

Cognitive Development

Developments in declarative memory: decreasing susceptibility to storage failure over the second year of life

Psychological Science

Remembering the times of our lives: memory in infancy and beyond

Infantile amnesia

The cognitive neuroscience of the development of memory

The life I once remembered: the waxing and waning of early memories

Memory

The development of forgetting: childhood amnesia

A complementary processes account of the development of childhood amnesia and a personal past

Psychological Review

Using cue words to investigate the distribution of autobiographical memories in childhood

Psychological Science

Episodic memory in 16- and 20-month-old children: specifics are generalized, but not forgotten

Developmental Psychology

It's all about location, location, location: children's memory for the “where” of personally experienced events

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

The development of memory: multiple levels and perspectives

Equal learning does not result in equal remembering: the importance of post-encoding processes

Infancy

Childhood amnesia in the making: different distributions of autobiographical memories in children and adults

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

The onset of childhood amnesia in childhood: a prospective investigation of the course and determinants of forgetting of early-life events

Memory (Hove, England)

Explaining variance in long-term recall in 3- and 4-year-old children: the importance of post-encoding processes

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Memory for one-time experiences in the second year of life: implications for the status of episodic memory

Infancy

The memory is in the details: relations between memory for the specific features of events and long-term recall in infancy

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

One thing follows another: effects of temporal structure on one- to two-year-olds' recall of events

Developmental Psychology

Making a memorable event: effects of familiarity and organization on young children's recall of action sequences

Cognitive Development

A place for every event and every event in its place: memory for locations and activities by 4-year-old children

Journal of Cognition and Development

Adults' reports of their earliest memories: consistency in events, ages, and narrative characteristics over time

Consciousness and Cognition

In for the short haul: immediate and short-term remembering and forgetting by 20-month-old children

Infant Behavior and Development

Parameters of remembering and forgetting in the transition from infancy to early childhood

Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development

Saying is revealing: verbal expression of event memory in the transition from infancy to early childhood

Myelination of a key relay zone in the hippocampal formation occurs in the human brain during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood

Archives of General Psychiatry

The development of forgetting and reminiscence

Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development

When the event is more than the sum of its parts: nine-month-olds' long-term ordered recall

Memory (Hove, England)

The dawning of a past: the emergence of long-term explicit memory in infancy

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

Children remember early childhood: long-term recall across the offset of childhood amnesia

Applied Cognitive Psychology

Frequency of episodic memories as a function of their age

Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society

The spatiotemporal dynamics of autobiographical memory: neural correlates of recall, emotional intensity, and reliving

Cerebral Cortex

Adolescents' memories of preschool experiences

Journal of Genetic Psychology

Some factors and characteristics of childhood memories

Child Development

On memory

From conditioning to conscious recollection: memory systems of the brain

Subjective perspective and personal timeline in the development of autobiographical memory

Children remember childhood: implications for childhood amnesia

Applied Cognitive Psychology