MEASURING INFANT MEMORY - A CRITICAL COMMENTARY

Although Bogartz (1996) has engaged in an interesting mathematical exe rcise, he has revealed no new solution to the real-world problem of wh en a prior infant experience is likely to affect future behavior and h as offered no behavioral evidence that his proposed measure yields out comes substantially different from those obtained with extant measures . Moreover, his proposed measure of retention fails to recognize that response rate is not a parameter of response strength (Collier & Rovee -Collier, 1983). Our measures have concurrent validity: They yield res ults highly similar to those reported by infant researchers who use va stly different measures and functional relations highly similar to tho se reported in studies with animals and human adults. In addition, we have published evidence of their predictive validity. To quote an anci ent Socratic scholar (Yogi Berra), ''If it ain't broke, don't fix it.' ' (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.