Short- and Long-Term Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood: Taking the First Steps Toward Remembering

Despite early speculations that young infants are unable to form memories, since the 1950s developmental scientists have documented amazing memory abilities in infancy and explored how these abilities develop. This research on memory development in infancy and early childhood has recently moved in exciting new directions. Extensions of work on memory systems in adults and the use of behavioral and neuroscience methods to study early developing memory abilities have lead to an explosion of ide…