Week of March 4th

For this post, I chose to talk about Carolyn Rovee-Collier.  Her greatest achievement was known as her “Baby Lab” family.  Most people that were involved in this were the members of a project she designed in 1974 called Rutgers Early Learning Project.  Those members and Collier were the ones who started the “Baby Lab”.   The team members studied babies' memories.  They went all over New Jersey and made about two to three thousand home visits of babies a year.  Collier and her team studied babies and their memory.  They discovered that babies of 2 months can retain a memory for about a week and one-year olds can retain a memory for as long as 3 months.  In her study, she used a string tied to the mobile above the crib and the other end of the string tied to the baby's foot.  Collier realized that the baby wouldn’t fuss while the mobile would spin, but when it wouldn’t spin the baby would fuss.  This is why she decided to use a string.  While the string was attached to the mobile and the foot, the baby would kick making the mobile spin.  After a while, Collier noticed that the baby would kick before the string was even attached.  She then realized that this was establishing a sense of memory in the baby’s mind.  She tried this task with children older than 2 months and realized it didn’t spark an interest in them.  She tried a different study using a toy train and a lever.  The pressing of the lever would make the train move.  Collier contributed greatly in the memory of infants.  She found different stages of memory in infants.  She discovered that infants learn quickly and remember over long periods of time.         


References 
Tomaseli, D. (n.d.). New State Center Opens at Rutgers (Click for more info). Retrieved from https://psych.rutgers.edu/faculty-emeriti/496-obituary-for-carolyn-rovee-collier
Tomaseli, D. (n.d.). New State Center Opens at Rutgers (Click for more info). Retrieved from https://psych.rutgers.edu/faculty-emeriti/496-obituary-for-carolyn-rovee-collier
Psychology, 8e StudySpace. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.wwnorton.com/college/psych/psychology8/ch/08/critthinking.aspx