The Development of Memory

Abstract

The study of memory, especially in infants, is difficult because so many different behaviors are used as evidence of memory. For example, cognitive psychologists claim that “imitation, object permanence, attachment, conditioning, and preference for novel stimuli all imply that the infant is remembering something” (Cohen & Gelber, 1975, p. 353). For most developmental psychologists, the term “memory” is usually used to refer to certain cognitive operations, and the explication of memory must therefore involve understanding the development of these cognitive processes. In contrast, behavior analysts would suggest that instead of inferring hypothetical processes, it would be more scientific to study the behavioral relations observed when developmental psychologists speak of memory. Explanation of memory, then, would involve basic behavioral processes.