William J. Friedman - US grants

This project is designed to elucidate the early development of temporal knowledge in normal humans. It is an attempt to find the earliest ages at which humans possess temporally organized representations of unfolding events and to determine the nature of the processes underlying this ability. As part of a broader program of research by the author and other students of the developmental psychology of time, this work can help us better understand the process of cognitive development in this important domain and thereby have a detailed basis of comparison when studying pathological development. The focus in this research is on humans' sensitivity to temporal directionality in simple event sequences. Adults are highly attuned to forward vs. backward presentations of films of temporally unidirectional phenomena. However, little is known about the development of this ability or the processes underlying it. The proposed experiments will provide basic information about the ages at which sensitivity to temporal directionality appears, about the cues critical to the early perception of anomaly in reversed sequences, and about the role that learning plays in the development of temporally organized representations. Infants will be shown pairs of videotaped events, one in the vertical direction and the other in reverse. Selective looking measures will be used to determine the ages at which reliable preferences for the anomalous, backward versions appear. Further studies will investigate the importance of acceration in the detection of anomaly in gravity stimuli and whether there is an early, content general expectation that disorder will increase with the passage of time. A final experiment will test whether infants who are sensitive to temporal directionality are capable of learning novel temporal sequences. These results will shed light on the role of learning in the development of temporal representations.

9513881 FRIEDMAN This research is concerned with early development of temporal knowledge in normal human infants. The findings will tell us how children come to adapt to an important feature of their environment, its temporal regularities. The results will complement recent discoveries about infants' knowledge of other fundamental domains, such as space, gravity, the continued existence of objects when they are hidden, and causality. As part of a broader program of research on the developmental psychology of time, this work can help us better understand the growth of temporal knowledge in children. Along with research on the psychology of time in adults, this research will help us understand how humans abstract a sense of time from the flow of experience. Knowledge of how children adapt to the temporal features of their world will be useful to practitioners who design preschool curricula and early childhood intervention programs. It will also provide comparative information about normal development that can be used by clinicians who work with children with disabilities. The focus of this research is on humans' sensitivity to temporal order in simple event sequences. Adults are highly attuned to forward vs. backward presentations of transformations that can only happen in one temporal direction: A film of liquid pouring, when viewed in reverse, is strikingly anomalous. Adults must have internalized, temporally-organized representations of how thousands of such transformations normally unfold. However, very little is known about the origins and nature of this sensitivity. Preliminary work has suggested that expectations about the temporal direction of several transformations, such as pouring a liquid or breaking an object, develop between 4 and 12 months of age. These experiments will add to these findings in a number of ways. All of the studies involve comparisons of infants' visual attention to videotapes of temporally normal and reversed or mi s-ordered events. A first experiment is designed to illuminate the role that learning plays in the development of temporal expectations by teaching infants specific, novel transformations. Two other studies will test the limits of competence in 4-month-olds, a group which has failed to show directional preferences in some studies. A fourth study will sample new transformations in order to shed light on the breadth of 8-month-olds' knowledge and on the specific features of the films that are responsible for their looking preferences. A final experiment will test whether 1-year-old infants have developed expectations of the temporal order of familiar event sequences made up of discrete actions. This evidence can reveal whether infants in the first year of life have developed representations of lengthier time patterns than have been tested to date. ***

This project will help psychologists and educators better understand the early development of temporal knowledge in normal human infants and children. Adults are highly attuned to forward vs. backward presentations of transformations that can only happen in one temporal direction. For example, a film of liquid pouring, when viewed in reverse, is strikingly anomalous. Adults must have internalized temporally organized representations of how thousands of such transformations normally unfold. However, very little is known about the origins and nature of this sensitivity. The principle investigator's research over the past 7 years has suggested that expectations about the temporal direction of several transformations, such as pouring a liquid or breaking an object, develop between 4 and 17 months. The proposed experiments are intended to add to these findings in a number of ways. First, two studies using special training will shed light on the role of experience in the development of temporal-directional sensitivity. Second, a study with new gravity transformations will test the generality of previously demonstrated preferences. A third issue is the importance of dynamic perceptual features in infants' preferences. By comparing directional preferences to fully visible and partially screened versions of stimuli, we can learn whether infants of a given age can mentally represent these changes or whether it is only the combination of perceptual features that is recognized. Fourth, a study of the judgments of children of about 3 years of age will help us interpret the late developmental trends seen in past studies. Basic information about how children adapt to the temporal features of their world is an important part of understanding their perceptual and cognitive abilities. It is expected to have implication for practitioners who design preschool curricula and early childhood intervention programs.

This project is designed to elucidate the development of children's memory for the times of past events. It is an attempt to learn about the abilities of children of different ages and the processes involved in this important human ability. As part of a broader program of research by scholars who study the developmental psychology of time, this work will help us better understand the growth of temporal knowledge. The largest of the studies will provide normative information about the abilities of children ranging in age from 4 to 14 years to recall the times of events from the last three years. The interview will test memory for the times, frequencies, and details of the events and measure children's general knowledge of time patterns and their ability to use inference and other reconstructive processes. Another study will entail examining trial transcripts to determine the types of questions about time that attorneys ask children of different ages and the relation between question form and accuracy. Additional studies will be conducted to provide further information about the development of the processes that underlie mature time-memory abilities. In one study children will recall experimental events from 6 months earlier and abilities related to reconstruction will be examined in detail. For example, the interview will provide measures of memory for temporally relevant details of the event and its contiguity to other events, general knowledge of time, and the ability to select and evaluate information that could logically constrain the time. Another study will focus on the development of children's explicit knowledge of how to remember past times, by asking children about the processes, properties, and limitations of remembering the times of past events. Still another experiment will probe the development of children's memory for information about the order of past events by having them judge the order of experimental and school events from many months in the past. In the final component of the project, methods will be developed and empirically tested for improving the accuracy of children's testimony about the times of remembered events. This will lead to the development of recommendations for forensic interviews of children about the times of events.

Overall, the project is expected to improve psychologists', educators', and legal professionals' understanding of an important aspect of memory development: how children of different ages remember the times of past events. The work will also provide information that will be useful to legal professionals and legislators who must make decisions about the capacity of children of different ages to testify about the times of events. Further, the project will lead to the development of techniques for improving forensic interviews of children.