CHAPTER 5:

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN
INFANCY AND TODDLERHOOD
OBJECTIVES
After this chapter, you should be able to:
 Describe the substages of the Piaget's sensorimotor stage.
 Explain how the social environment affects cognitive
development according to Vygotsky's theory.
 Discuss the progression of language development during the
first two years.
 Compare the theories of language development.
 Define the classical and operant conditioning.
 Summarize the different types of memory.
INTRODUCTION
In an effort to better understand the large
spectrum of cognition that infants and todddlers
go through, it is important to analyze and
comprehend various theories that relate to their
growth and development. This chapter will take a
look at the following theories: Piaget, Vygotsky,
Chomsky, Skinner, Pavlov, Wastson, Bandura, and
Bronfenbrenner.
PIAGET
Jean Piaget is the most noted theorist when it comes to children's
cognitive development. He believed that children's cognition develops
in stages. He explained this growth in the following stages:

1. Sensory Motor Stage (Birth through 2 years old)

2. Preoperational Stage (2-7 years old)
3. Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years old)
4. Formal Operational Stage (12 years old - adulthood)
PIAGET AND SENSORIMOTOR INTELLIGENCE

Piaget describes intelligence in infancy as

sensorimotor or based on direct, physical
contact. Infants taste, feel, pound, push,
hear, and move in order to experience
the world.
SUBSTAGES OF PIAGET'S SENSORIMOTOR STAGE
Birth to 1 month 1 to 4 months 4 to 8 months

SUBSTAGE TWO: PRIMARY SUBSTAGE THREE:

SUBSTAGE ONE: SIMPLE SECONDARY CIRCULAR
REFLEXES CIRCULAR REACTION
REACTION
This active learning The infant begins to discriminate The infant becomes more
between objects and adjust and more actively engaged
begins with automatic responses accordingly as reflexes in the outside world and
movements or reflexes. are replaced with voluntary takes delight in being able
A ball comes into movements. An infant may
to make things happen.
accidentally engage in behavior
contact with and and find it interesting such as
Repeated motion brings
infant's cheek and is making a vocalization. This particular interest as the
interest motivates trying to do it infant is able to bang two
automatically sucked on lids together from the
again and helps the infant learn a
and licked. new behavior that originally cupboard when seated on
occured by chance. At first, most the kitchen floor.
actions have to do with the body,
but in months to come, will be
directed more toward objects.
SUBSTAGES OF PIAGET'S SENSORIMOTOR STAGE
8 to 12 months 18 months to 2 years
12 to 18 Months

SUBSTAGE FOUR: SUBSTAGE FIVE: SUBSTAGE SIX:

SUBSTAGE ONE: SIMPLE SUBSTAGE TWO:TERTIARY INTERNALIZATION OF SCHEMES
COORDINATION OF CIRCULARCIRCULAR
REACTIONS
REFLEXES PRIMARY AND EARLY REPRESENTATIONAL
CIRCULAR REACTIONS
REACTION
The infant more actively THOUGHT
This
The active
infant can learning
engage in behaviors
engages in experimentation to
that others perform and anticipate
begins with automatic
upcoming events. Perhaps because of learn about the physical world. The child is now able to
movements
continued maturationor reflexes.
of the pre- Gravity is learned by pouring solve problems using
A context,
frontal ball thecomes
infant becomes into water from a cup or pushing mental strategies to
capable of having a thought and bowls from high chairs. The remember something heard
contact with and
carrying out a planned, goal-directed days before and repeat it, ro
caregiver tries to help the
infant's
activity such as cheek
seeking a toyand
that is child by picking it up again engage in pretend play, and
automatically
rolled under the couch.sucked
The object on
and placing it on the tray. And to find objects that have
continues to exist in the infant's mind
and licked.
even when out of sight and the infant
what happens? Another been moved even when out
now is capable of making attempts to experiment! The child pushes of sight.
retrieve it. it off the tray again causing it
to fall and the caregiver to
pick it up again!
EVALUATING PIAGET'S SENSORIMOTOR STAGE
Piaget opened up a new way of looking at infants with his
view that their main task is to coordinate their sensory
impressions with their motor activity. However, the
infant's cognitive world is not as neatly packaged as
Piaget's portrayed it, and some of Piaget's explanations
for the cause of change are debated. Much of the new
research suggests that Piaget's view of sensorimotor
development needs to be motified (Baillargeon, 2014;
Brooks & Meltzoff, 2014; Johnson & Hannon, 2015).
OBJECT PERMANENCE
One necessary modification would be to
when children develop object permanence.
Infants seem to be able to recognize that
objects have permanence at much younger
age than Piaget proposed (even as young as
3.5 months of age).
The A-not-B Error
The data does not always support Piaget’s claim that certain processes are crucial in
transitions from one stage to the next. For example, in Piaget’s theory, an important
feature in the progression into substage 4, coordination of secondary circular
reactions, is an infant’s inclination to search for a hidden object in a familiar location
rather than to look for the object in a new location. Thus, if a toy is hidden twice,
initially at location A and subsequently at location B, 8- to 12-month-old infants search
correctly at location A initially. But when the toy is subsequently hidden at location B,
they make the mistake of continuing to search for it at location A. A-not-B error is the
term used to describe this common mistake. Older infants are less likely to make the
A-not-B error because their concept of object permanence is more complete.
The A-not-B Error
Researchers have found, however, that the A-not-B error does
not show up consistently (Sophian, 1985). The evidence
indicates that A-not-B errors are sensitive to the delay
between hiding the object at B and the infant’s attempt to find
it (Diamond, 1985). Thus, the A-not-B error might be due to a
failure in memory. Another explanation is that infants tend to
repeat a previous motor behavior (Clearfield & others, 2006;
Smith, 1999).
VYGOTSKY
DEVELOPMENTAL IS DETERMINED BY ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS
Piaget set the tone for much of current-day research but his
theory has also received a great deal of criticism. At a similar
time, another researcher named Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)
had come to similar conclusions as Piaget about children's
development, in thinking that children learned about the
world through physical interaction with it. However, where
Piaget felt that children moved naturally through different
sages of development, based on biological predispositions
and their own individual interactions with the world, Vygotsky
claimed that adult or peer intervention was a much more
important part of the developmental process.
Vygotsky concentrated more on the child's immediate
social and cultural environment and his and her
interactions with adults and peers. He argued that
developmental occurred first through children’s
immediate social interactions, and then moved to the
individual level as they began to internalize their
learning. While Piaget saw the child as actively
discovering the world through individual interactions
with it, Vygotsky saw the child as more of an apprentice,
learning through a social environment of others who had
more experience and were sensitive to the child’s needs
and abilities.
COGNITIVE MILESTONES
Children are actively learning about the
world as they perceive it from the time they
are in the womb. Here is a table of some of
the cognitive milestones infants and
toddlers typically develop.
 2 months 4 months 6 months
 Pays attentions to  Lets you know if she is  Looks around at
faces happy or sad things nearby
 Responds to affection
 Begins to follow  Reaches for toy with
 Brings things to
things with eyes one hand mouth
and recognize  Uses hands and eyes  Shows curiosity
people at a together; such as about things and
distance seeing a toy and tries to get things
reaching for it
 Begins to act  Follows moving things that are out of
bored (cries, fussy) with eyes from side to reach
if activity doesn't side  Begins to pass
change  Watches faces closely things from one
 Recognizes familiar hand to the other
people and things at a
distance
 9 months 1 year 18 months
 Watches the path  Explores things in  Knows what ordinary
of something as it different ways, like things are for; for
shaking, banging, example, telephone,
falls throwing
 Looks for things  Finds hidden things easily brush, spoon
 Looks at the right picture  Points to get
he sees you hide or thing when it's named attention of others
 Plays peek-a-boo  Copies gestures  Shows interest in a
 Put things in  Starts to use things
correctly; for example,
doll or stuffed animal
mouth drinks from a cup, brushes by pretending to
 Moves things hair feed
 Bangs two things together  Points one body part
smoothly from  Puts things in a container,
 Scribbles on own
one hand to the takes thing out of a
container  Can follow 1-step
other  Lets things go without verbal commands
 Picks up things help without any gestures;
like cereal o's  Pokes with index (pointer)
for example, sits
finger
between thumb  Follows simple directions when you say "sit
and index finger like "pick up the toy" down"
 2 years

 Finds things even when hidden

under two or three covers
 Begins to sort shapes and colors
 Completes sentences and rhymes
in familiar books
 Plays simple make-believe games
 Builds towers of 4 or more blocks
 Might use one hand more than the
other
 Follows two-step instructions such
as "Pick up your shoes and put
them in the closet"
 Names items in a picture book
such as a cat, bird, or dog
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
Newborns can communicate. However, they do not
communicate with the use of language. Instead, they
communicate their thoughts and needs with body
posture (being relaxed or still), gestures, cries, and
facial expressions. A person who spends adequate time
with an infant can learn which cries indicate pain and
which ones indicate hunger, discomfort, or frustration
as well as translate their vocalizations, movements,
gestures and facial expressions.
STAGES OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
1. Intentional Vocalizations: Cooing and taking turns: Infants begin to
vocalize and repeat vocalizations within the first couple of months of
life. That gurgling, musical vocalization called cooing can serve as
source of entertainment to an infant who has been laid down for a
nap or seated in a carrier on a car ride. Cooing serves as practice for
vocalization as well as the infant hears the sound of his or her own
voice and tries to repeat sounds that are entertaining. Infants also
begin to learn the pace and pause of conversation as they alternate
their vocalization with that of someone else and then take their turn
again when the other person’s vocalization has stopped. Cooing
initially involves making vowel sounds like “oooo”. Later, consonants
are added to vocalizations such as “nananananana”.
STAGES OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
2. Babbling and Gesturing: At about four to six months of age, infants
begin making even more elaborate vocalizations that include the
sounds required for any language. Guttural sounds stand ready to
equip the child with the ability to repeat whatever sounds are
characteristic of the language heard. Eventually, these sounds will no
longer be used as the infant grows more accustomed to a particular
language. wants, reactions, and feelings. Because gesturing seems to
be easier than vocalization for some toddlers, sign language is
sometimes taught to enhance one’s ability to communicate by making
use of the ease of gesturing. The rhythm and pattern of language is
used when deaf babies sign just as it is when hearing babies babble.
3. Understanding: At around ten months of age, the infant can understand more he or
she can say. You may have experienced this phenomenon as well if you have tried to
learn a second language. You may have been able to follow a conversation more easily
than to contribute it.

4. Holophrastic Speech: Children begin using their first words at about 12 or 13 months
of age and may use partial words to convey thoughts at even younger ages. These one
word expressions are referred to as holophrastic speech. For example, the child may
use "ju" for the word "juice" and this sound when referring to a bottle. The listener
must interpret the meaning of the holophrase and when this is someone who has
spent time with the child, interpretation is not too difficult. They know that “ju” means
“juice” which means the baby wants some milk! But, someone who has not been
around the child will have trouble knowing what is meant. Imagine the parent who to a
friend exclaims, “Ezra’s talking all the time now!” The friend hears only “ju da ga”
which, the parent explains, means “I want some milk when I go with Daddy.”
5. Underextension: A child who learns that a word stands for an object may initially
think that the word can be used for only that particular object. Only the family’s Irish
Setter is a “doggie”. This is referred to as underextension. More often, however, a child
may think that a label applies to all objects that are similar to the original object. In
overextension all animals become “doggies”, for example.

6. First words and cultural influences: First words if the child is using English tend to be
nouns. The child labels objects such as cup or ball. In a verb-friendly language such as
Chinese, however, children may learn more verbs. This may also be due to the different
emphasis given to objects based on culture. Chinese children may be taught to notice
action and relationship between objects while children from the United States may be
taught to name an object and its qualities (color, texture, size, etc.). These differences
can be seen when comparing interpretations of art by older students from China and
the United States.
7. Vocabulary growth spurt: One year olds typically hve a vocabulary of about
words. But by the time they become toddlers, they have a vocabulary of
about 200 words and begin putting those words together in telegraphic
speech

8. Two word sentences and telegraphic speech: Words are soon combined
and 18 month old toddlers can express themselves further by using
expressions such as “baby bye-bye” or “doggie pretty”. Words needed to
convey messages are used, but the articles and other parts of speech
necessary for grammatical correctness are not yet used. These expressions
sound like a telegraph where unnecessary words are not used.
LANGUAGE MILESTONES
In the first two years of life, children go from
communicating by crying to being able to express
themselves with words.
 What Most Children Do By This
TYPICAL AGE Age
2 months  Coos, makes gurgling sounds
 Turns head towards sounds
4 month  Begins to babble
 Babbles with expression and copies
sounds he hears
6 months  Responds to sounds by making sounds
 Strings vowels together when babbling
("ah", "eh", "oh") and likes taking turns with
parent while making sounds
 Responds to own name
 Makes sounds to show joy and displeasure
 Begins to say consonant sounds (jabbering
with "m", "b")
9 months  Understands "no"
 Makes a lot of different sounds like
"mamamama" and "bababababa"
 Copies sounds and gestures of others
 Uses fingers to point at things

1 year  Responds to simple spoken requests

 Uses simple gestures, like shaking head
"no" or waving "bye-bye"
 Makes sounds with changes in tone
(sounds more like speech)
 Says "mama" and "dada" and exclamations
like "uh-oh"
 Tries to say words you say

18 months  Says several single words

 Says and shakes head now
 Points to show others what is wanted
2 years  Points to things or pictures when
they are named
 Knows names of familiar people and
body parts
 Says sentences ith 2 to 4 words
 Follows simple instructions
 Repeats words overheard in
conversation
 Points to things in a book
Child-Directed Speech
Adults use “baby talk” when talking to
toddlers and infants. This is known as child-
directed speech or parentheses. It involves
exaggerating the vowel and consonant
sounds, using a high-pitched voice, and
delivering the phrase with great facial
expression.
Theories of Language Development
Chomsky and the Language Acquisition Device
The view known as nativism advocated by Noam Chomsky suggests that
infants are equipped with a neurological construct referred to as the language
acquisition device or LAD that makes infants ready for language. Language
develops as long as the infant is exposed to it. No teaching, training, or
reinforcement is required for language to develop.
Social Pragmatics
Another view emphasizes the child’s active engagement in learning language
out of a need to communicate. The child seeks information, memorizes
terms, imitates the speech heard from others and learns to conceptualize
using words as language is acquired. Many would argue that
all three of these dynamics foster the acquisition of language (Berger, 2004).
THEORIES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT, LEARNING, AND MEMORY
PAVLOV
Ivan Pavlov (1880-1937) was a Russian physiologist interested in studying digestion.
As he recorded the amount of salivation his laboratory dogs produced as they ate,
he noticed that they actually began to salivate before the food arrived as the
researcher walked down the hall and toward the cage. The dogs knew that the food
was coming because they had learned to associate the footsteps with the food. The
key word here is “learned”. A learned response is called a “conditioned” response.
Pavlov began to experiment with this “psychic” reflex. He began to ring a bell, for
instance, prior to introducing the food. Sure enough, after making this connection
several times, the dogs could be made to salivate to the sound of a bell. Once the
bell had become an event to which the dogs had learned to salivate, it was called a
conditioned stimulus. The act of salivating to a bell was a response that had also
been learned, now termed in Pavlov’s jargon, a conditioned response.
Notice that the response, salivation, is the same whether it is conditioned or
unconditioned (unlearned or natural). What changed is the stimulus to which
the dog salivates. One is natural (unconditioned) and one is learned
(conditioned).

Pavlov’s experiments with dogs and conditioning.

Let’s think about how classical conditioning is used on us. One of the most
widespread applications of classical conditioning principles was brought to us by the
psychologist, John B. Watson
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Classical conditioning is a form of learning whereby a conditioned stimulus (CS) becomes associated
with an unrelated unconditioned stimulus (US), in order to produce a behavioral response known as a
conditioned response (CR). The conditioned response is the learned response to the previously neutral
stimulus. The unconditioned stimulus is usually a biologically significant stimulus such as food or pain
that elicits an unconditioned response (UR) from the start. The conditioned stimulus is usually neutral
and produces no particular response at first, but after conditioning it elicits the conditioned response.

If we look at Pavlov’s experiment, we can identify these four factors at work:

• The unconditioned response was the salivation of dogs in response to seeing or smelling their food.
• The unconditioned stimulus was the sight or smell of the food itself.
• The conditioned stimulus was the ringing of the bell. During conditioning, every time the animal was
given food, the bell was rung. This was repeated during several trials. After some time, the dog learned
to associate the ringing of the bell with food and to respond by salivating. After the conditioning period
was finished, the dog would respond by salivating when the bell was rung, even when the
unconditioned stimulus (the food) was absent.
• The conditioned response, therefore, was the salivation of the dogs in response to the conditioned
stimulus (the ringing of the bell).
NEUROLOGICAL RESPONSE TO CONDITIONING
Consider how the conditioned response occurs in the brain. When a
dog sees food, the visual and olfactory stimuli send information to the
brain through their respective neural pathways, ultimately activating
the salivary glands to secrete saliva. This reaction is a natural
biological process as saliva aids in the digestion of food. When a dog
hears a buzzer and at the same time sees food, the auditory stimuli
activates the associated neural pathways. However, since these
pathways are being activated at the same time as the other neural
pathways, there are weak synapse reactions that occur between the
auditory stimuli and the behavioral response. Over time, these
synapses are strengthened so that it only takes the sound of a buzzer
to activate the pathway leading to salivation.
OPERANT CONDITIONING
Operant conditioning is a theory of behaviorism, a learning
perspective that focuses on changes in an individual’s
observable behaviors. In operant conditioning theory, new or
continued behaviors are impacted by new or continued
consequences. Research regarding this principle of learning
was first studied by Edward L. Thorndike in the late 1800’s,
then brought to popularity by B.F. Skinner in the mid-1900’s.
Much of this research informs current practices in human
behavior and interaction.
SKINNER’S RESEARCH
Thorndike’s initial research was highly influential on another psychologist, B.F. Skinner.
Almost half a century after Thorndike’s first publication of the principles of operant
conditioning, Skinner attempted to prove an extension to this theory—that all behaviors
were in some way a result of operant conditioning. Skinner theorized that if a behavior is
followed by reinforcement, that behavior is more likely to be repeated, but if it is followed
by punishment, it is less likely to be repeated. He also believed that this learned
association could end, or become extinct, if the reinforcement or punishment was
removed.

To prove this, he placed rats in a box with a lever that when tapped would release a pellet
of food. Over time, the amount of time it took for the rat to find the lever and press it
became shorter and shorter, until finally the rat would spend most of its time near the
lever eating. This behavior became less consistent when the relationship between the
lever and the food was compromised. This basic theory of operant conditioning is still
used by psychologists, scientists, and educators today.
SHAPING, REINFORCEMENT PRINCIPLES, AND SCHEDULES
OF REINFORCEMENT
Operant conditioning can be viewed as a process of action and consequence. Skinner used this
basic principle to study the possible scope and scale of the influence of operant conditioning on
animal behavior. His experiments used shaping, reinforcement, and reinforcement schedules in
order to prove the importance of the relationship that animals form between behaviors and results.

All of these practices concern the setup of an experiment. Shaping is the conditioning paradigm of
an experiment. The form of the experiment in successive trials is gradually changed to elicit a
desired target behavior. This is accomplished through reinforcement, or reward, of the segments of
the target behavior, and can be tested using a large variety of actions and rewards.

The experiments were taken a step further to include different schedules of reinforcement that
become more complicated as the trials continued. By testing different reinforcement schedules,
Skinner learned valuable information about the best ways to encourage a specific behavior, or the
most effective ways to create a long-lasting behavior. Much of this research has been replicated on
humans, and now informs practices in various environments of human behavior
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT
Sometimes, adding something to the situation is reinforcing as in the cases we described above with
cookies, praise and money. Positive reinforcement involves adding something to the situation in order to
encourage a behavior. Other times, taking something away from a situation can be reinforcing. For
example, the loud, annoying buzzer on your alarm clock encourages you to get up so that you can turn it
off and get rid of the noise. Children whine in order to get their parents to do something and often,
parents give in just to stop the whining. In these instances, negative reinforcement has been used.

Reinforcement in operant conditioning.

Positive and Negative Reinforcement
Operant conditioning tends to work best if you focus on trying to encourage a behavior
or move a person into the direction you want them to go rather than telling them what
not to do. Reinforcers are used to encourage a behavior; punishers are used to stop
behavior. A punisher is anything that follows an act and decreases the chance it will
reoccur. But often a punished behavior doesn’t really go away. It is just suppressed and
may reoccur whenever the threat of punishment is removed. For example, a child may
not cuss around you because you’ve washed his mouth out with soap, but he may cuss
around his friends. Or a motorist may only slow down when the trooper is on the side of
the freeway. Another problem with punishment is that when a person focuses on
punishment, they may find it hard to see what the other does right or well. And
punishment is stigmatizing; when punished, some start to see themselves as bad and
give up trying to change.
Positive and Negative Reinforcement
Reinforcement can occur in a predictable way, such as after every
desired action is performed, or intermittently, after the behavior is
performed a number of times or the first time it is performed after
a certain amount of time. The schedule of reinforcement has an
impact on how long a behavior continues after reinforcement is
discontinued. So a parent who has rewarded a child’s actions each
time may find that the child gives up very quickly if a reward is not
immediately forthcoming. Think about the kinds of behaviors that
may be learned through classical and operant conditioning. But
sometimes very complex behaviors are learned quickly and
without direct reinforcement.
WATSON AND BEHAVIORISM
Another theorist who added to the spectrum of the behavioral movement was
John B. Watson. Watson believed that most of our fears and other emotional
responses are classically conditioned. He had gained a good deal of popularity in
the 1920s with his expert advice on parenting offered to the public. He believed
that parents could be taught to help shape their children’s behavior and tried to
demonstrate the power of classical conditioning with his famous experiment with
an 18 month old boy named “Little Albert”. Watson sat Albert down and
introduced a variety of seemingly scary objects to him: a burning piece of
newspaper, a white rat, etc. But Albert remained curious and reached for all of
these things. Watson knew that one of our only inborn fears is the fear of loud
noises so he proceeded to make a loud noise each time he introduced one of
Albert’s favorites, a white rat. After hearing the loud noise several times paired
with the rat, Albert soon came to fear the rat and began to cry when it was
introduced.
Watson filmed this experiment for posterity and used it to demonstrate that
he could help parents achieve any outcomes they desired, if they would only
follow his advice. Watson wrote columns in newspapers and in magazines and
gained a lot of popularity among parents eager to apply science to household
order. Parenting advice was not the legacy Watson left us, however. Where he
really made his impact was in advertising. After Watson left academia, he went
into the world of business and showed companies how to tie something that
brings about a natural positive feeling to their products to enhance sales. Thus
the union of sex and advertising!
Sometimes we do things because we’ve seen it pay off for someone else. They
were operantly conditioned, but we engage in the behavior because we hope
it will pay off for us as well. This is referred to as vicarious reinforcement
(Bandura, Ross and Ross, 1963).
A photograph taken during Little Albert research.
Do parents socialize children or do children socialize parents?

Bandura (1986) suggests that there is interplay between the environment and
the individual. We are not just the product of our surroundings, rather we
influence our surroundings. There is interplay between our personality and the
way we interpret events and how they influence us. This concept is called
reciprocal determinism. An example of this might be the interplay between
parents and children. Parents not only influence their child’s environment,
perhaps intentionally through the use of reinforcement, etc., but children
influence parents as well. Parents may respond differently with their first child
than with their fourth. Perhaps they try to be the perfect parents with their
firstborn, but by the time their last child comes along they have very different
expectations both of themselves and their child. Our environment creates us
and we create our environment.
SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
Albert Bandura is a leading contributor to social learning theory. He calls
our attention to the ways in which many of our actions are not learned
through conditioning; rather, they are learned by watching others (1977).
Young children frequently learn behaviors through imitation. Sometimes,
particularly when we do not know what else to do, we learn by modeling
or copying the behavior of others. A new employee, on his or her first day
of a new job might eagerly look at how others are acting and try to act
the same way to fit in more quickly. Adolescents struggling with their
identity rely heavily on their peers to act as role-models. Newly married
couples often rely on roles they may have learned from their parents and
begin to act in ways they did not while dating and then wonder why their
relationship has changed.
MEMORY AND ATTENTION
 If we want to remember something
MEMORY tomorrow, we have to consolidate it into
long-term memory today. Long-term
memory is the final, semi-permanent stage
of memory. Unlike sensory and short-term
memory, long-term memory has a
theoretically infinite capacity, and
information can remain there indefinitely.
Long-term memory has also been called
reference memory, because an individual
must refer to the information in long-term
memory when performing almost any task.
Long-term memory can be broken down into
two categories: explicit and implicit memory.
EXPLICIT MEMORY Explicit memory, also known as conscious or
declarative memory, involves memory of
facts, concepts, and events that require
conscious recall of the information. In other
words, the individual must actively think
about retrieving the information from
memory. This type of information is explicitly
stored and retrieved—hence its name.
Explicit memory can be further subdivided
into semantic memory, which concerns
facts, and episodic memory, which concerns
primarily personal or autobiographical
information.
 Episodic memory is used for more contextualized memories. They are generally
EPISODIC memories of specific moments, or episodes, in one’s life. As such, they include
sensations and emotions associated with the event, in addition to the who, what,
MEMORY where, and when of what happened. An example of an episodic memory would be
recalling your family’s trip to the beach. Autobiographical memory (memory for
particular events in one’s own life) is generally viewed as either equivalent to, or a
subset of, episodic memory. One specific type of autobiographical memory is a
flashbulb memory, which is a highly detailed, exceptionally vivid “snapshot” of the
moment and circumstances in which a piece of surprising and consequential (or
emotionally arousing) news was heard. For example, many people remember
exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard of the
terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. This is because it is a flashbulb memory.

Semantic and episodic memory are closely related; memory for facts can be
enhanced with episodic memories associated with the fact, and vice versa. For
example, the answer to the factual question “Are all apples red?” might be recalled
by remembering the time you saw someone eating a green apple. Likewise,
semantic memories about certain topics, such as football, can contribute to more
detailed episodic memories of a particular personal event, like watching a football
game. A person that barely knows the rules of football will remember the various
plays and outcomes of the game in much less detail than a football expert.
 In contrast to explicit (conscious) memory, implicit (also
called “unconscious” or “procedural”) memory involves
IMPLICIT MEMORY procedures for completing actions. These actions
develop with practice over time. Athletic skills are one
example of implicit memory. You learn the fundamentals
of a sport, practice them over and over, and then they
flow naturally during a game. Rehearsing for a dance or
musical performance is another example of implicit
memory. Everyday examples include remembering how
to tie your shoes, drive a car, or ride a bicycle. These
memories are accessed without conscious awareness—
they are automatically translated into actions without us
even realizing it. As such, they can often be difficult to
teach or explain to other people. Implicit memories differ
from the semantic scripts described above in that they
are usually actions that involve movement and motor
coordination, whereas scripts tend to emphasize social
norms or behaviors.
 Short-term memory is the ability to hold information for a
SHORT-TERM short duration of time (on the order of seconds). In the
MEMORY STORAGE process of encoding, information enters the brain and can be
quickly forgotten if it is not stored further in the short-term
memory. George A. Miller suggested that the capacity of
short-term memory storage is approximately seven items plus
or minus two, but modern researchers are showing that this
can vary depending on variables like the stored items’
phonological properties. When several elements (such as
digits, words, or pictures) are held in short-term memory
simultaneously, their representations compete with each
other for recall, or degrade each other. Thereby, new content
gradually pushes out older content, unless the older content is
actively protected against interference by rehearsal or by
directing attention to it.

Information in the short-term memory is readily accessible,

but for only a short time. It continuously decays, so in the
absence of rehearsal (keeping information in short-term
memory by mentally repeating it) it can be forgotten.
DIAGRAM OF MEMORY STORAGE PROCESS
 In contrast to short-term memory, long-term memory is
LONG-TERM the ability to hold semantic information for a prolonged
MEMORY STORAGE period of time. Items stored in short-term memory move
to long-term memory through rehearsal, processing, and
use. The capacity of long-term memory storage is much
greater than that of short-term memory, and perhaps
unlimited. However, the duration of long-term memories
is not permanent; unless a memory is occasionally
recalled, it may fail to be recalled on later occasions. This
is known as forgetting.

Long-term memory storage can be affected by traumatic

brain injury or lesions. Amnesia, a deficit in memory, can
be caused by brain damage. Anterograde amnesia is the
inability to store new memories; retrograde amnesia is
the inability to retrieve old memories. These types of
amnesia indicate that memory does have a storage
process
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FOR YOUR
ATTENTION!