Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm

The overall goal of the Elicited Imitation procedure, is to study the development of recall memory in infancy and early childhood. This method can help answer key questions in the field of Developmental Psychology, regarding how long infants remember information, the kinds of information infants remember, and the manner in which context impacts learning and memory. The main advantage of this technique, is that it can be used to study recall memory in pre and early verbal infants and children, who cannot discuss the past using language.

Though this method was initially used to provide insight into the development of recall memory, it has been adapted to study other aspects of cognitive development, including the ability to generalize learning, and aspects of executive functioning, such as planning. Begin by engaging the child in play with age appropriate toys unrelated to the study, to establish comfort with the researcher and the testing environment. For children younger than 13 months, demonstrate how to put a shape into the top or the side of a shape sorter toy, while explicitly telling them to put it in.

Alterntively, give older children a plastic ball and a Slinky. Instruct them to roll the ball, and put it inside of the Slinky. Allow the child to immitate.

Next, start the baseline period by putting the sequence materials for the first event, on the table. Push the props towards the child and then encourage interaction with the sequence materials, by asking the child what they can do with these items. Provide positive reinforcement as the child interacts with the props, both when they perform the target actions, and when they are engaging with the props more generally.

Allow children younger than 13 months between one and a half and two minutes to interact with the props. Terminate the baseline period for older children when the child engages in repetitive or off-task behaviors, such as repeatedly banging them on the table or dropping them on the floor. If the child appears distracted, call his or her name, or tap on the sequence materials in an attempt to redirect his or her attention to the task.

Bring the sequence materials back to the researcher's side of the table, and return the materials to their original standardized position, without letting the child see what is going on. Then, put the materials back on the table. Make eye contact with the child.

Using infant directed speech, ask the child to watch as the experimenter makes a shaker with the materials. Next, demonstrate how to put the block into one of the two nesting cups. Then cover one of the nesting cups with the other cup.

Finally, show the infant how to shake the assembled apparatus. Put all of the props back on the table, make eye contact with the child, and tell her, that's how to make a shaker with these items"Return the sequence materials to their original position, and repeat the demonstration again. If the child appears distracted during the demonstration, call his or her name, or tap on the sequence materials in an attempt to redirect his or her attention to the task.

Just as done for sequence modeling, discreetly return the materials to their original standardized positions, and then put them back on the table. Push the props towards the child, while providing the name of the event sequence, make a shaker"as a retrieval cue. Ask the infant how to make a shaker with these materials just like the experimenter did.

Provide positive reinforcement as the child interacts with the sequences. If the child appears distracted, redirect attention by tapping on the sequence materials. Allow children younger than 13 months, between one and a half and two minutes to interact with the props.

Terminate the imitation period for older children, when the child engages in repetitive or off-task behaviors. Test delayed recall after delays ranging from minutes to months. Complete the warm-up procedure, by letting the child play with toys unrelated to the study.

Push the props towards the child, while providing the name of the event sequence, make a shaker, as a retrieval cue. Ask the infant how to make a shaker with these materials. In previous research, analysis revealed, that although children encoded both target actions and their order, neither child language comprehension, nor condition, was associated with encoding.

Furthermore, children in the high comprehension group, produced more target actions when maximally supportive language was used at encoding, then when minimally supportive language was used at encoding. The opposite effect was apparent for children in the low comprehension group. After watching this video, you should have a good understanding of how to use the Elicited Imitation procedure to study the development of recall memory in pre and early verbal infants and children.

While attempting this procedure, it is important to watch the child's eyes as the sequences are being demonstrated, to ensure the child has the opportunity to encode what is being modeled. It is also important to make sure that the parent does not help the child during the imitation phases. Following this procedure, other methods, such as the recording of event related potentials, can be performed to answer additional questions associated with the neural processes that contribute to long term recall, namely encoding or consolidation and storage.