Goals influence memory and imitation for dynamic human action in 36-month-old children

Loucks, J. & Meltoff, A. N. (2013). Goals influence memory and imitation for dynamic human action in 36-month-old children. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 54, 4150. Adults memory for action is organized according to a hierarchy of goals. Little previous research has examined whether goals also play a crucial role in young childrens memory for action, and particularly whether goal information is privileged over veridical sequential order information. The current experiment investigated 3-year-old childrens (N = 40) memory for naturally occurring interleaved action sequences: Sequences in which an actor switched back and forth between carrying out actions related to two distinct goals. Such sequences allowed a test of whether childrens action representations prioritize a goal interpretation over veridical sequential information. Childrens memory for the action events was assessed by deferred imitation, 5-min after the demonstration had ceased. Results indicated that childrens memory prioritizes goals over veridical sequential order even to the extent that the actual sequential order is distorted in memory. These findings deepen our understanding of action processing and memory with implications for social-cognitive development.