Infant recognition memory: studies in forgetting.

In a series of studies on delayed recognition and forgetting, the failure of 22-week-old infants to recognize which of 2 face photos (e.g., man or woman) had been previously exposed was shown to be influenced by what the infant saw during a retention interval. Highly similar intervening targets (other face photos) consistently produced failure of recognition. Targets intermediate in similarity (rotated photos) or of low similarity (line drawings) had little effect. Forgetting due to interference with high-similarity targets was shown to be temporary in nature, however, with recovery of recognition occurring after longer retention intervals and forgetting easily offset by further, brief exposure to the familiar stimulus.