Pathways to Skilled Remembering
With support from NICHD and in collaboration with Peter Ornstein (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), members of our research team have been involved in a major longitudinal investigation of children’s memory development from 1 1/2 to 6 years of age. This project allows us to identify and characterize pathways to skilled remembering in young children, building on a wealth of information that outlines the age-related changes in children’s autobiographical and deliberate memory. The Pathways project involves tracking the same children over time to study the transitions from early nonverbal memory to later strategic remembering, and children’s changing abilities in talking about the here and now, to talking about past experiences, and to planning for future memory assessments. Moreover, this study permits the exploration of contextual factors that are associated with changes in cognitive skills.