Babies can remember a lot
For decades, scientists didn’t think babies could remember much. Although parents and caregivers suspected that more was happening inside their young children’s heads, many “experts” thought babies experienced the world as simply a blur of sights, sounds, smells, and textures.
They were wrong.
Babies and toddlers can remember a lot. And they can remember some things for a surprisingly long time. Remember that all children are different, and each child’s development may not match this exactly.
Short fingers and long memories
How can we learn what babies remember? Since babies can’t answer scientists’ questions directly, researchers have had to develop clever ways to learn how long babies can remember things. One experiment used deferred imitation to see how long babies remember how to do things. Deferred imitation is based on two main ideas:
1) Babies will imitate what they see people do.
2) Babies can remember what they see and do it at a later time.
For example, researchers showed babies how to use a toy they’d never seen before in a special way.
After demonstrating a unique way to play with the toy, researchers removed it so the babies couldn’t practice or experiment. After some time passed, researchers gave the unusual toy to the babies to see what they would do. When the babies played with the toy in the unique way demonstrated earlier by the adult, researchers knew that the babies remembered and copied what they were shown (Gopnik, Meltzoff, & Kuhl, 1999).
How long can babies remember what they are shown?
In one series of experiments, researchers wanted to learn if 12-month-old babies could remember what they were shown after delays of three minutes, one week, and four weeks. Researchers first showed groups of babies’ five different toys and a unique way to play with each, like pulling apart a dumbbell-shaped toy or making a stirring motion with a wooden stick inside a box. After showing these babies unique ways to play with the toys (20 seconds for each toy), the researchers removed the toys from the room. The researchers also ensured that the parents never saw what the babies were shown so the babies couldn’t practice at home (Klein & Meltzoff, 1999).
Other groups of babies in the experiment were shown different things. Some babies watched adults do different interesting things with the five toys and other babies never saw any of the five toys. Later, the researchers placed these toys one at a time in front of the babies to see what they would do (Klein & Meltzoff, 1999).
What they found:
The researchers in this study did three separate experiments, which are combined and summarized here.
- After a three-minute delay, the babies remembered about 3.5 (about 70%) of the special ways to play with the five toys.
- After one week, the babies remembered more than 2.5 (more than 50%) of the special ways to play with the five toys.
- After four weeks, the babies remembered about 2.5 (about 50%) of the special ways to play with the five toys.
Groups of babies not shown the special ways to play with the toys still figured out a few of these ways on their own. Overall, these babies used about 1.5 (about 30%) of the five special ways to play with the toys.
Even after four weeks, 12-month-old babies could remember and copy about half of the things they were shown—and they saw each unique action for only 20 seconds! Also, this study doesn’t suggest that babies can remember and copy what they see for only four weeks but for at least four weeks. They may remember what they were shown even longer (Klein & Meltzoff, 1999).
Don’t underestimate a child’s memory
Helpful parenting tips
- Babies and toddlers learn by watching and copying you!
- Show babies and young children positive examples to imitate and remember, like giving hugs, treating others well, and playing with toys in fun new ways.
- Remember that children don’t know the difference between what is safe and what is dangerous. They watch everything we do, including working with sharp tools and using poisonous cleaning supplies.
- Celebrate your child’s growing memory when she remembers how to do new things.
- Enjoy the wonderful learning abilities of babies, and remember that they might copy any model they see. Think of ways to fill their lives with healthy, safe examples to copy.
