During childhood, elements of episodic memory develop at a different pace. Children show greater difficulty with temporal memory (e.g., when things happened) as opposed to location memory (e.g., where things happened). In a previous experiment, we explored whether the development of the mental timeline influences temporal memory. Children who spontaneously arranged the temporal order of events in a linear order had performed significantly better temporal, but not location, memory than children who made nonlinear arrangements. In this experiment, we explore whether priming children with an active spatiotemporal priming task could encourage the use of the mental timeline to represent temporal order. In the priming phase, children watch a cartoon character that visits nine distinct places around the world. As they listen, children place icons that represent each event, either in a left-to-right linear orientation or random orientations, on a board. Next, to assess the effectiveness of the priming task, children watch animated videos of characters engaging in unique activities in unique locations. They are asked questions regarding where and when these events occurred. In a previous version of the priming task, which was conducted virtually, we found no influence of the priming condition on temporal memory accuracy. We predict that by incorporating an active motor component in the priming task (e.g., physically placing icons on a board), children will better apply the linear mental timeline framework in subsequent memory tasks. Our study will give insight into the malleability of memory, provide support for previous research that highlights the impact of motor coordination on learning, and inform us about the interactions between the development of mental representations of time and temporal memory.

There are two main verb categories that exist in all human languages, manner and path. Manner verbs have information regarding how a subject moves (e.g., shoot and swim) whereas path verbs contain information about the direction of movement (e.g., enter and rise). Whether a language is categorized as manner or path depends on which verb class is the majority in a language; manner languages contain more manner verbs (e.g., English and German) and path languages contain more path verbs (e.g., Turkish and Spanish). Past studies have shown that individuals tend to verbally construct motion events through sentences using verbs that fall into the major verb category in their language. To investigate how verb type affects motion event saliency, manner language speakers (English monolinguals) and manner and path language speakers (Spanish-English bilinguals) will participate in a linguistic encoding task followed by a memory task which reflects the saliency of the motion event. Participants will be asked to read paragraphs with an embedded target motion event phrase constructed with either path or manner verbs then will select images that correspond with the target phrases. Here, memory reflects the saliency of the motion event. The easier the target motion event is to remember (indicated by higher memory task scores), the higher its saliency. I hypothesize that English monolinguals will score higher on the memory test when the target phrase is manner-framed rather than path-framed, demonstrating higher motion event saliency when common verbs in a speaker’s language are used. I also predict that Spanish-English bilinguals will display path/manner indifference due to familiarity with both language types, scoring similarly on the memory test for path and manner verb conditions. This study will provide a better understanding of what factors influence motion event saliency to further the understanding of how language interacts with motion conceptualization.

Working memory capacity is the active short-term maintenance of information which is essential for our day-to-day functioning. By measuring pupil dilation during a working memory task, we aim to quantify the relationship between pupil dilation and working memory capacity. The goal of the study is to look at how image type and presentation position influences memory for temporal order. Study 1 presented participants with sequences of semantic images (images of known objects) and sequences of abstract images (random line drawings), one by one, in a central position on the screen. Throughout the experiment, the eye-tracker measured pupil dilation. Participants then organized the images in the temporal sequence they appeared. Participants recalled the order of semantic images better than the order of abstract images, supporting the hypothesis that working memory capacity improves when the participant can associate a label with the image. In addition, pupil dilation was greater during the sequences of semantic images compared to abstract images. Study 2 investigates spatial biases in working memory. Participants see the same image sequences as in study 1, except the images are presented from either left-to-right or from right-to-left instead of centrally. We expect participants to show increased working memory capacity with left-to-right sequences compared to right-to-left sequences due to learned patterns in Western cultures. These results will provide information on how the spatial presentation of information influences working memory capacity. More generally, improving our understanding of how working memory capacity processes affect pupil dilation will allow us to use pupil dilation to study working memory capacity in infants and young children.