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Prior Spatial Knowledge Differentially Impacts Learning in Children and Young Adults

Abstract

Previous work suggests that established memories can both facilitate and interfere with new learning in adults. We predicted that children may not show these same effects of prior knowledge, as there is emerging evidence that they are less likely to relate new experiences to existing memories. To test this hypothesis, we had children (4-11 years) and young adults (17-33 years) complete a spatial learning task inspired by rodent model paradigms. Subjects first formed strong memories for object-location maps and then learned new locations, some of which could be incorporated into a learned map. We found that same-day prior spatial knowledge had a different impact on learning in children and adults: Adults demonstrated marginal proactive interference while children showed slight proactive facilitation, if anything. Our results suggest there are developmental differences in the effects of prior knowledge on learning, perhaps due to immature associative memory formation and/or activation mechanisms in children.

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