This special issue of Memory brings together some of the most exciting new research on infant memory. Using innovative research designs, the five studies presented here are addressing questions of central importance to understanding the development of human memory. In particular, the studies seek to discover whether, and if so under what conditions, memories of events experienced during infancy are retained over the preschool years. Research questions include how long retention of early memories may persist, what form these memories may take, the role of language and language development, and the role of intervening experience in the retention of early memories. The results provide provocative evidence that experiences occurring even during the first year of life may be retained in some form for at least several years. However, much of this memory is expressed more as familiarity than as explicit recall. The researchers and commentator present different theoretical views about what these results mean and the conclusions we may or may not be able to draw. Although many questions remain unanswered, the researchers contributing to this volume are on the edge of making important new discoveries about human memory and its development.

For a number of decades now the study of children's memory development, with few exceptions, has been synonymous with the development of pro cesses that lead to the initial encoding and immediate retention of informa tion. Although there is little doubt that the study of such acquisition pro cesses is central to understanding memory development, the long-term retention of previously encoded information represents at least as important a component of children's memory. Indeed, as both students of memory development and educators, our interest is in the maintenance and utiliza tion of knowledge over considerable periods of time, not just in the immedi ate (e. g. , classroom) context. Clearly, then, without an understanding of how recently acquired information is maintained in memory over extended periods of time, our theories of long-term memory development remain incomplete at best. Although children's forgetting and reminiscence was a topic of inquiry early in this century, it is only recently, due in part to the current controversy concerning the reliability of children's eyewitness testimony, that the study of long-term retention has resurfaced in the scientific literature. The purpose of this volume is to draw together some of the principals involved in this resurgence to summarize their recent research programs, present new and previously unpublished findings from their labs, and outline the issues they believe are important in the study of children's long-term retention.

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER 'Truly fascinating.' Steve Wright, BBC Radio 2 - Have you ever forgotten the name of someone you’ve met dozens of times? - Or discovered that your memory of an important event was completely different from everyone else’s? - Or vividly recalled being in a particular place at a particular time, only to discover later that you couldn’t possibly have been? We rely on our memories every day of our lives. They make us who we are. And yet the truth is, they are far from being the accurate record of the past we like to think they are. In The Memory Illusion, forensic psychologist and memory expert Dr Julia Shaw draws on the latest research to show why our memories so often play tricks on us – and how, if we understand their fallibility, we can actually improve their accuracy. The result is an exploration of our minds that both fascinating and unnerving, and that will make you question how much you can ever truly know about yourself. Think you have a good memory? Think again. 'A spryly paced, fun, sometimes frightening exploration of how we remember – and why everyone remembers things that never truly happened.' Pacific Standard

Human memory is not only the repository of our past but the essence of who we are. As such, it is of enduring fascination. We marvel at its resilience in some situations and its fragility in others. The origin of this extraordinary cognitive capacity in infancy and childhood is the focus of vigorous research and debate as we seek to understand the record of our earliest beginnings. The first edition of this volume, The Development of Memory in Childhood, documented the state-of-the-art science of memory development a decade ago. This new edition, The Development of Memory in Infancy and Childhood, provides a thorough update and expansion of the previous text and offers reviews of new research on significant themes and ideas that have emerged since then. Topics include basic memory processes in infants and toddlers, the cognitive neuroscience of memory development, the cognitive and social factors that underlie our memory for implicit and explicit events, autobiographical memory and infantile amnesia, working memory, the role of strategies and knowledge in driving memory development, and the impact of stress and emotion on these basic processes. The book also includes applications of basic memory processes to a variety of real world settings from the courtroom to the classroom. Including contributions from many of the best researchers in the field, this classic yet contemporary volume will appeal to senior undergraduate and graduate students of developmental and cognitive psychology as well as to developmental psychologists who want a compendium of current reviews on key topics in memory development.

Despite early speculations that young infants are unable to form memories, since the 1950s developmental scientists have documented amazing memory abilities in infancy and explored how these abilities develop. This research on memory development in infancy and early childhood has recently moved in exciting new directions. Extensions of work on memory systems in adults and the use of behavioral and neuroscience methods to study early developing memory abilities have lead to an explosion of ideas about the neural underpinnings of memory, its development, and the mechanisms involved in these developmental changes. This book focuses on recent empirical and theoretical advances in the study of memory development in infancy and early childhood and on mechanisms of developmental change. Its chapters allow readers to compare and contrast contemporary views of memory development, and gain an understanding of what we do and do not yet know about how memory develops in early childhood.