Older participants show an increased ability to tolerate differences between conditions at encoding and retrieval and can use novel cues to retrieve a target memory.
However, memory performance becomes more flexible across development. That is, early in development, successful memory performance is dependent on the perception of a close match between the cues at the time of encoding and the cues at retrieval even minor mismatch at testing can disrupt performance. More recently, Hayne (2004) has argued that there are marked developmental changes in representational flexibility that occur even into early childhood. Historically, researchers have suggested that representational systems emerge relatively late in infancy (e.g., Baldwin 1894/1915 Piaget, 1962). The ability to retrieve memories despite changes in proximal or distal cues, allowing learning to be generalized to novel situations has been referred to as ‘representational flexibility’ ( Eichenbaum, 1997). The encoding specificity hypothesis states that a memory will be retrieved only if an individual encounters a cue with attributes that match those represented in the memory at the time of original encoding ( Tulving, 1983). Theorists generally assume that a memory is a hypothetical collection of attributes that represent what the subject noticed at the time of original encoding ( Estes, 1973, 1976 Roediger, 2000 Spear, 1978 Tulving, 1983 Underwood, 1969). The notion of transfer of learning across contexts has been central to memory theorists since the time of Thorndike (1932) and many recent memory theories have been developed that have transfer of learning at their core. The review will conclude that studies on the transfer of learning between 2D and 3D sources have important theoretical implications for general developmental theories of cognitive development, and in particular the development of a flexible representational system, as well as policy implications for early education regarding the potential use and limitations of media as effective teaching tools during early childhood. The aims of the present review are (1) to review the conditions under which children transfer learning between 2D images and 3D objects during early childhood, and (2) to integrate developmental theories of memory processing into the transfer of learning from media literature using Hayne’s (2004) developmental representational flexibility account. At present, there is no coherent theory to account for the video deficit effect how learning is disrupted by this change in context is poorly understood. Recent research shows that children can imitate actions presented on television using the corresponding real-world objects, but this same research also shows that children learn less from television than they do from live demonstrations until they are at least 3 years old termed the video deficit effect. Understanding the conditions under which young children might accomplish this particular kind of transfer is important because by 2 years of age 90% of US children are viewing television on a daily basis.
Learning from television is a specific instance of transfer of learning between a 2-Dimensional (2D) representation and a 3-Dimensional (3D) object. The ability to transfer learning across contexts is an adaptive skill that develops rapidly during early childhood.