Related Picture Cues and Memory for Hidden-Object Locations at Age Two.

RATNER, HILARY HORN, and MYERs, NANCY ANGRIST. Related Picture Cues and Memory for Hidden-Object Locations at Age Two. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1980, 51, 561-564. In this study 2-year-old children's memory for locations of hidden objects was examined in 4 cue conditions. Pictures marked hidden-object locations in 3 of these conditions, and either matched (i.e., pictured the actual objects hidden) or were related associatively to hidden objects. Related pictures were either labeled or unlabeled. In the fourth condition, only blank cards were presented with the objects, and children had to rely solely on locational information to find them. Children provided matching pictures performed best, retrieving 6 or 7 objects correctly out of the 8 presented. Performance did not differ in the other 3 conditions, indicating that children did not make use of related pictures to aid their retrieval of hidden objects. Effective utilization of external memory aids by very young children occurs but clearly depends upon particular nonarbitrary relationships linking cues and to-be-remembered items. These findings were related to Vygotsky's description of the "natural history of the sign."