Intraobject and extraobject memory binding across early development.

The ability to bind, or link, different aspects of an experience in memory undergoes protracted development across childhood. Most studies of memory binding development have assessed extraobject binding between an object and some external element such as another object, whereas little work has examined the development of intraobject binding, such as between shape and color features within the same object. In this work, we investigate the development of intra- and extraobject memory binding in five-year-olds, eight-year-olds, and young adults with a memory interference paradigm. Between two experiments, we manipulate whether stimuli are presented as coherent objects (Experiment 1: n 5-year-olds = 32, 19 males, 13 females; n 8-year-olds = 30, 15 males, 15 females; n adults = 30, 15 males, 15 females), requiring intraobject binding between shape and color features, or as spatially separated features (Experiment 2: n 5-year-olds = 24, 16 males, 8 females; n 8-year-olds = 41, 19 males, 22 females; n adults = 31, 13 males, 18 females), requiring extraobject binding. To estimate the contributions of different binding structures to performance, we present a novel computational model that mathematically instantiates the memory binding, forgetting, and retrieval processes we hypothesize to underlie performance on the task. The results provide evidence of substantial developmental improvements in both intraobject and extraobject binding of shape and color features between 5 and 8 years of age, as well as stronger intraobject compared with extraobject binding of features in all age groups. These findings provide key insights into memory binding across early development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).