CURRENT THEORY AND RESEARCH ON INFANT LEARNING AND MEMORY - APPLICATION TO EARLY INTERVENTION

Young infants remember their prior experiences for relatively long per iods with surprising specificity. This specificity can be overridden, however, to facilitate transfer to new situations. Even seemingly forg otten memories can often be reactivated, and multiple reactivations ca n further protract retention. Individuals who plan interventions with infants and young children can program these events in ways that optim ize cumulative learning and retention. The principles on which such in terventions should be based are embodied in the time-window construct.