Examining temporal memory and the factors that support its development

这些研究符合一个更大的长期研究计划，旨在研究与年龄相关的情景记忆改善的因素。 情景记忆使我们能够回忆起特定地点和时间的过去事件。 对过去事件的顺序或时间顺序的记忆对情景记忆至关重要（例如，Tulving，2002）。 在过去的几十年里，使用基于模仿的范例，已经确定婴儿回忆起事件中一系列动作的顺序（例如，Pathman参见Bauer，2002，2007进行综述）。与丰富的婴儿期文献相比，对年龄较大的儿童如何在经验中安排事件知之甚少。发展文献中的这一空白是显而易见的，因为事件排序是情景记忆和自传体记忆的基本特征，因此会影响这些能力的持续发展。 这些差距也很明显，因为事件排序一直是动物和成人情景记忆文献的焦点，特别是与海马和前额叶皮层有关，可以说是大脑的情景记忆“中心”。 我的研究计划有助于填补这些空白，以告知情节记忆发展文献，但也有助于将发展文献与情节记忆的动物模型和成人文献保持一致。 在一系列的实验中，我检查了童年中后期和成年早期的记忆时间顺序（Pathman & Ghetti，2014，2015）。这些研究表明，眼动可以用来跟踪长时记忆的时间顺序，并且对年龄相关的变化敏感。在建议的研究中，我以两种方式继续这一研究路线。 首先，我研究了记忆准确性和眼动效应是否与涉及时间记忆的大脑区域的年龄相关变化有关（例如，海马体、前额叶皮层）。 第二，我将工作扩展到一个更大的年龄范围，创建一个从早期到晚期的童年时间顺序记忆的发展轨迹。 目的： 1)使用时间记忆准确性的行为测试跟踪学龄儿童和年轻人的时间记忆发展，并检查有助于与年龄相关的改善的因素。（研究1-3） 2)使用间接（例如，眼睛跟踪）和直接（例如，结构MRI）测量海马。（研究1） 3)通过检查，例如，时间记忆的准确性如何与海马结构相关，来检查有助于儿童中期到晚期时间记忆中与年龄相关的改善的因素。（研究1） 4)使用功能性MRI检查海马和前额叶皮层在时间记忆提取过程中的作用。（研究二） 5)将使用儿童中期和晚期眼动的时间记忆测试范式调整到儿童早期（研究3）

The proposed studies fit into a larger long-term program of research aimed at examining the factors that contribute to age-related improvements in episodic memory. Episodic memory allows us to recall past events from a specific place and time. Memory for the sequence or temporal order of past events is critical for episodic memory (e.g, Tulving, 2002). Over the past few decades, using imitation-based paradigms, it has bee established that infants recall the order of a sequence of actions within an event (e.g., Pathman see Bauer, 2002, 2007 for review). In comparison to the abundance of this infancy literature, little is known about how older children order events within an experience. This gap in the developmental literature is conspicuous given that ordering events is a fundamental feature of episodic and autobiographical memory, and thus would influence the continued development of these capacities. These gaps are also conspicuous because ordering events has been a focus in the animal and adult episodic memory literature, especially in relation to the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, arguably the episodic memory “centers” of the brain. My research program helps to fill these gaps, in order to inform the episodic memory development literature, but also help align the developmental literature with the animal model and adult literature on episodic memory. In a series of experiments, I examined memory for temporal order in middle to late childhood and in young adulthood (Pathman & Ghetti, 2014, 2015). These studies showed that eye movements can be used to track long-term memory for temporal order, and was sensitive to age-related change. In the proposed studies, I continue this line of research in two ways. First I examine whether memory accuracy and eye movement effects reported can be linked to age-related changes in brain regions implicated in temporal memory (e.g., hippocampus, prefrontal cortex). Second I extend the work to a larger age range, to create a developmental trajectory of temporal order memory from early to late childhood. Aims: 1) Track development of temporal memory in school-aged children and young adults using behavioral tests of temporal memory accuracy, and examine the factors that contribute to age-related improvements. (Studies 1-3) 2) Examine the development of the hippocampus using indirect (e.g., eye-tracking) and direct (e.g., structural MRI) measures of the hippocampus. (Study 1) 3) Examine the factors that contribute to age-related improvements in temporal memory in middle to late childhood, by examining, for example, how temporal memory accuracy relates to hippocampal structure. (Study 1) 4) Examine the contribution of the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex during temporal memory retrieval using functional MRI. (Study 2) 5) Adapt the paradigm testing temporal memory using eye movements in middle and late childhood to early childhood (Study 3)