Few questions in psychology have generated as much debate as those concerning the impact of childhood trauma on memory. A lack of scientific research to constrain theory has helped fuel arguments about whether childhood trauma leads to deficits that result in conditions such as false memory or lost memory, and whether neurohormonal changes that are correlated with childhood trauma can be associated with changes in memory. Scientists have also struggled with more theoretical concerns, such as how to conceptualize and measure distress and other negative emotions in terms of, for example,...

In this useful text, Mark L. Howe presents the most complete book-length exegesis of the research and theory concerning the emergence and development of declarative, long-term memory from birth through early adolescence. The book also contains the first presentation of Howe's theory that memory is an adaptive mechanism that is used to guide the development and survival of the organism in an initially novel, yet changing environment.

The book is divided into four parts: In the first part, Howe discusses why memory development is important; in the second, he discusses infantile amnesia and...

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...

For some time now, the study of cognitive development has been far and away the most active discipline within developmental psychology. Although there would be much disagreement as to the exact proportion of papers published in developmental journals that could be considered cognitive, 50% seems like a conservative estimate. Hence, a series of scholarly books devoted to work in cognitive development is especially appropriate at this time. The Springer Series in Cognitive Developmemt contains two basic types of books, namely, edited collections of original chapters by several authors, and...

It is a truism that as we age there are a number of underlying physiological changes conspiring to alter our level of behavioral and cognitive function ing. Despite the inherent interrelatedness of these behavioral and cognitive changes, all too often the papers we read confine themselves to specific, isolated components of the developing process. Although exceptions nat urally exist, we believe that these exceptions should become rule. Although an integrated approach is important in all areas of adult devel opment, it is perhaps particularly germane in the study of atypical aging. Here,...

Emerging Themes in Cognitive Development, Volumes I and II offer the full spectrum of current knowledge and research trends in cognitive developmental psychology. The first volume provides a foundation by describing key discoveries in new areas of research and by thoroughly examining fundamental aspects of the field, including several demonstrations of formal modeling; the gains in prediction and precision that can be won by such mathematical analyses are the hallmark of cognitive development as a maturing science. The second volume traces the development of cognitive competence -...

Emerging Themes in Cognitive Development presents two volumes of the newest research and theory in cognitive development available at the outset of the 1990s. These ideas are firmly rooted in research from the 1980s and, in some sense, these volumes represent a culmination of that research and of even earlier work. Nevertheless, these volumes are offered as catalysts more than summaries, because each presents the freshest and most recently gathered data of many scientists whose insights have had an important impact on the field. The latest ideas of these researchers will, in some cases,...

Human memory, like other biological systems, has been subject to natural selection over the course of evolution. However, cognitive systems do not fossilize, which means that current researchers must infer evolutionary influences on human memory from current human behavior rather than from fossils or artifacts. Examining the potential for cognition as adaptation has often been ignored by cognitive psychology. Recently, a number of researchers have identified variables that affect human memory that may reflect these ancestral influences. These include survival processing, future-oriented...

In many criminal trials, forensic technical evidence is lacking and triers of fact must rely on the reliability of eyewitness statements, identifications, and testimony; however, such reports can be riddled with deceptive statements or erroneous recollections. Based on such considerations, the question arises as to how one should weigh such eyewitness accounts given the theoretical and empirical knowledge in this field. Finding the Truth in the Courtroom focuses on how legal professionals, legal/forensic psychologists, and memory researchers can decide when statements or identifications are...