Abstract
Although much is known about early memory development, only a few studies have explored infants' memory of social stress. While these few studies suggest that infants can remember stressful interactions, limitations seen in both methodology and statistical analyses give pause. In the current study, 4-month-olds and their mothers participated in both stressful and non-stressful interactions over 2 days. On Day 1, memory group infants participated in the double Face-to-Face Still-Face (FFSF) paradigm and control group infants participated in typical play. Both groups experienced the double FFSF paradigm on Day 2. Memory group infants exhibited the standard SF response but no differences in infant cortisol on Day 1. Both infant groups exhibited the standard SF response on Day 2. However, infants in the memory group, who saw the FFSF paradigm for the second time, did not demonstrate changes in cortisol or behavior indicative of memory across the 2 days. There was also no relationship between changes in cortisol and behavior for both days. The findings question the use of salivary cortisol as a measure of social stress and suggest that, although 4-month-olds reacted to the Still-Face social stressor immediately, they did not remember the following day.
Highlights
The age at which infants and young children remember events is a topic of considerable interest to developmental and cognitive psychology, as well as to brain development and psychobiology
And unlike previous research, the results of the current study suggest that infants did not remember the social stressor, the SF
There were no changes in cortisol reactivity when comparing Day 2 differences between GroupMemory infants and GroupControl infants
Summary
The age at which infants and young children remember events is a topic of considerable interest to developmental and cognitive psychology, as well as to brain development and psychobiology. In the first half year of life infants’ recognize familiar faces (Pascalis and de Schonen, 1994) and their memory for specific actions increases from a few days to a few weeks (Hartshorn et al, 1998; Rovee-Collier, 1999). Less is known about infants’ developing memory for socioemotional experiences, social stress. With the growth of Infants’ Memory for Social Stress the social neurosciences and the recognition of the fundamental importance of social experience for development, a question emerges as to whether memory for social stress, is similar to, partially overlapping, or even distinctly different than, memory for objects, events, and actions. Building on our own work and the work of others, in this study 4-month-old infants’ memory for the maternal Still-Face (SF), an established infant social stressor, is examined using both behavioral and adrenocortical measures of memory
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