Moritz　Koster　(PhD student, Munster University)

タイトル：Investigating the ontogeny of episodic memory and culture-specific learning processes

要旨

　In the first part, I will talk about neuronal oscillations in the human EEG and how the analysis of neuronal oscillations may contribute to a deeper understanding of developmental changes in memory encoding processes in early and later childhood. Here, first results indicate, that episodic memory mainly relies on perceptual details in 7-year-olds, but relies on continuously maturing semantic networks throughout middle and late childhood. We further developed a recognition memory task for 3- to 5-year-olds to investigate the maturation of episodic memory processes at earlier ages. The second part of my talk will focus on early cultural differences in attention and observational learning processes, which, in our opinion, constitute the basic mechanisms for cultural learning. Here, I will present the aims and scope of an ongoing collaborative research project between the Universities of Kyoto and Munster that investigates holistic and analytic perceptual processes (Nisbett & Masuda), as well as parallel and sequential modes of observational learning (Rogoff) in 5-year-olds. In particular, the focus lies on the relation between these two lines of research and how socialization processes (in the mother-child interaction) influence attention and observational learning in early childhood. To conclude, cultural learning processes, i.e., the way the perceive and learn from our environment, can only be fully understood from a multidisciplinary perspective, including developmental, cross-cultural and neuroscientific approaches.