Memory retrieval by 18-30-month-olds: Age-related changes in representational flexibility

Deferred imitation was used to trace changes in memory retrieval by 18-30-m onth-olds. In all experiments, an adult demonstrated 2 sets of actions usin g 2 different sets of stimuli. In Experiments 1A and 1B, independent groups of infants were tested immediately or after a 24-hr delay. Each infant was tested with 1 set of stimuli from the original demonstration and 1 set of stimuli that was different. Recall of the target actions when tested with d ifferent stimuli increased as a function of age, particularly after a delay . In Experiment 2, infants were provided with a unique verbal label for the stimuli during the demonstration and the test. The verbal label facilitate d performance by 24-month-olds tested with different stimuli but had no eff ect on performance by 18-month-olds. One hallmark of memory development app ears to be an age-related increase in the range of effective retrieval cues for a particular memory.