This thesis investigated comparatively declarative memory in infants and children from two different cultural groups. Applying three different memory tasks, memory was assessed in rural Cameroonian Nso children and children from middle-class German families. Everyday concepts of memory were also investigated in both cultural groups. Study 1 implemented an adapted Western deferred imitation paradigm with nine-month-old infants. Study 2 applied an adapted Western face-recognition task to four-year-old children. Study 3 investigated mothers’ everyday concept of memory in children and developed and applied a memory task (shop task) based on the Nso concept of memory to four-year-old children. All three memory tasks were adapted with regard to different methodological aspects. The results revealed that memory performance varies with the familiarity and meaningfulness of the implemented task and assessment method. The middle-class German children demonstrated an advantage in Western-based memory tasks (Study 1 and Study 2) while the Nso children showed a tendency to outperform the middle-class German children in a task considered more meaningful for the Nso community. The results are discussed with regard to adaptation procedures in memory assessments. A new theoretical framework, the cultural model of memory, is introduced to shed further light on the “what” and “how” of cultural memory processes. Finally, practical implications for memory assessments are presented to facilitate the study of memory in a cultural context.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uni-osnabrueck.de/oai:repositorium.ub.uni-osnabrueck.de:urn:nbn:de:gbv:700-2016032414357 |
| Date | 24 March 2016 |
| Creators | Teiser, Johanna Anne Viktoria |
| Contributors | Prof. Dr. Heidi Keller, Dr. Bettina Lamm |
| Source Sets | Universität Osnabrück |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | doc-type:doctoralThesis |
| Format | application/pdf, application/zip |
| Rights | Namensnennung-NichtKommerziell-KeineBearbeitung 3.0 Unported, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ |
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