TY - JOUR TI - Long-term memory for preconditioned associations at 6 and 9 months of age DO - https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3CJ8DKN PY - 2010 AB - Recently, researchers found that immature human infants can form an association between two stimuli that were simultaneously preexposed in the initial phase of a sensory preconditioning (SPC) paradigm. How long such an association can remain latent before being successfully retrieved and used is still unknown. Because infants’ new associations can be directly or indirectly linked with existing associations (Cuevas, Rovee-Collier, and Learmonth, 2006; Townsend, 2007) as well as with subsequent stimuli or events (Barr, Vieira, amd Rovee-Collier, 2001, 2002), how long a new association can remain latent but accessible defines the period in which it can be incorporated into the infant's expanding network of associations. In the present experiments with 6- and 9-month-old infants, the duration for which the memory of a simultaneous association between two preexposed hand puppets can remain latent before being forgotten was examined. The results indicated that, at both ages, the association can remain latent for as long as 2 to 3 weeks, but the length of this interval is determined by the preexposure regimen—in particular, by the number of sessions. KW - Psychology KW - Infant psychology KW - Memory in infants KW - Free association (Psychology) LA - eng ER -