Under the Cortex Young Minds, Smart Strategies: How Children Decide When to Use External Memory Aids
Apr 3, 2025
Cognitive psychologist Zsuzsa Kaldy from the University of Massachusetts Boston explores how young children navigate memory and external aids. They discuss her research revealing when kids choose to rely on memory versus helpful tools like lists. Kaldy reflects on her journey from Hungary to studying child cognition, and she shares insights on the cultural differences observed in memory strategies between US and China. The impact of technology on memory reliance today also sparks an intriguing conversation about the future of cognitive development.
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Childhood Shoe Game Sparked Research
- Zsuzsa Kaldy described her toddler hiding favorite plastic animals in a row of shoes and reliably retrieving them on request.
- This inspired her to investigate surprising early memory skills that can outperform expectations.
Kids Outperform Parents On Story Recall
- Kaldy tested parents and four-year-olds by reading a new story repeatedly over 10 days and later quizzing recall.
- Children recalled more than twice as many words as parents despite not being asked to memorize the text.
Notes As Extensions Of Mind
- The extended mind idea reframes notes and lists as literal extensions of our cognitive system.
- Offloading information externally frees limited memory capacity for other mental work.