A Systematic Exploration of when Elements of Episodic Memory Begin to Emerge in Young Children

对幼儿情景记忆元素何时开始出现的系统探索

• 批准号: 2743031
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Cambridge
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2743031
• 关键词: Systematic; Exploration; when; Elements; Episodic

There have been decades of research into the underlying mechanisms of episodic memory including its' emergence and ontogeny. Much of the early research into the emergence of episodic memory claims that it does not appear until around the age of 4 (e.g., Tulving, 2005). However, more recent research, using adapted measures of EM for even younger children, have found evidence for episodic memory present at 3 years (e.g., Bauer et al, 2013) and even by the 2nd year of infancy (Bauer & Leventon, 2013).A surface-level interpretation of these findings would merely imply that previous research illustrates uncertainties regarding the emergence of EM. However, these findings should not be considered in parallel with one another as they adopt the use of different tasks (e.g., picture sequence memory task and elicited imitation) and whilst these are known to be measures of EM, we must be careful to assume that they are measuring identical psychological processes. Furthermore, it may be the case that episodic memory does not fully emerge until the age of 4, however this is likely due to the gradual emergence and development of constituent cognitive abilities that contribute to complete episodic memory. Such discoveries only perpetuate the notion that episodic memory should be approached not as a unitary construct, but rather a multifaceted process. Implementing and using multiple assessments of episodic memory in a systematic manner can allow us to gain a greater understanding of when these different processes begin to emerge in earlier years and the trajectory at which they develop. This 'divide-and-conquer' design for assessing elements of EM (Cystal & Suddendorf, 2019) is particularly essential when working with pre- or early-verbal participants, as attempting to create a single, unified measure of wholistic EM may require complex levels of cognition and language abilities that have not yet been fully developed at this stage.If such a battery can be effectively developed for very young children, these assessments could then be adapted to test AI agents. A recent line of research, the Animal-AI testbed (Crosby et al., 2020), adopts a comparative cognition design, placing an AI agent in a 3D virtual environment where they can be tested on a range of cognitive tasks that have been previously successfully completed by animals. Notably, however, there remains to have been developed an assessment of the cognitive processes required for EM in AI agents, which could provide invaluable insight into the rapidly evolving work surrounding the integration of Artificial Intelligence into social and professional spheres.This brief outline of existing literature reveals two overarching lacunae that I aim to overcome in this project: a systematic ontogeny of episodic memory in infancy/early childhood, and the development of robust and valid assessments for testing elements of episodic memory in AI agents. As such, the research aims are as follows: 1) To implement existing, and develop novel, tests of EM culminating in a battery of assessments for very young children 2) To use the data on task performance to develop additional tests of EM for preverbal infants and AI agents This research will contribute to a comprehensive timeline of how cognition develops to culminate in full, reconstructive, episodic memory. A timeline of this evolvement of episodic-like cognition in young children would add novel insight to the knowledge base of EM emergence. The development of a medium through which to test episodic memory in artificial intelligence would also allow us to conduct the first direct human-AI comparison on this measure.

已经有数十年的研究对情节记忆的基本机制进行了研究，包括其“出现和个体发育”。关于情节记忆的出现的大部分早期研究声称，直到4岁左右才出现（例如，Tulving，2005年）。然而，最近的研究，即使是年幼的儿童的EM进行了改编的措施，已经发现了3年的情节记忆证据（例如，Bauer等人，2013年），甚至到婴儿期的第二年（Bauer＆Leventon，2013年，2013年）.a对这些发现的表面级别的解释仅暗示着先前的研究就会阐明无原始empersive of em em em em em em em em em em em em em em em em em em em em em em em em em em em em em em。但是，这些发现不应彼此同时考虑，因为它们采用了不同任务的使用（例如，图片序列记忆任务和引起的模仿），虽然已知这些任务是EM的衡量标准，但我们必须谨慎地假设它们正在测量相同的心理过程。此外，可能是在4岁时直到4岁时才完全出现的情况，这可能是由于逐渐出现和成分认知能力的发展，这有助于完整的情节记忆。这样的发现只会延续以下观点：情节记忆应该不是作为统一构造，而是一个多方面的过程。以系统的方式实施和使用多个情节记忆的评估可以使我们能够更了解这些不同的过程何时在早期开始出现以及它们发展的轨迹。当与前或早期的言语参与者合作时，这种“划分和争议”的设计（Cystal＆Suddendorf，2019）尤其重要，因为试图创建单一的，统一的统一量度的全能em的衡量标准可能需要在此阶段进行复杂的认知能力，然后在此阶段尚未完全开发。最近的一项研究，即动物AI测试床（Crosby等，2020），采用了比较认知设计，将AI代理放置在3D虚拟环境中，可以在以前已成功完成的一系列认知任务上进行测试。 Notably, however, there remains to have been developed an assessment of the cognitive processes required for EM in AI agents, which could provide invaluable insight into the rapidly evolving work surrounding the integration of Artificial Intelligence into social and professional spheres.This brief outline of existing literature reveals two overarching lacunae that I aim to overcome in this project: a systematic ontogeny of episodic memory in infancy/early childhood, and the development of在AI代理中测试情节记忆元素的鲁棒和有效评估。因此，研究的目的如下：1）实施现有的，并开发新颖的测试，最终对非常年幼的孩子进行一系列评估的测试2）使用有关任务绩效的数据来开发对言语前婴儿和AI代理的EM测试，这项研究将有助于综合的认知如何在完整的恢复性，恢复性地进行综合的时间表，以恢复为情节，恢复性地恢复。幼儿中情节样认知的这种发展的时间表将为EM出现的知识基础增添新的见解。通过在人工智能中测试情节记忆的介质的开发也将使我们能够对此措施进行第一个直接的人类比较。