Assessing declarative memory in 12-month-old infants: A test – retest reliability study of the deferred imitation task

Abstract

Abstract This study examined whether declarative memory in infants can be reliably assessed using the deferred imitation task. Twenty-four infants at the age of 12 months were given the same deferred imitation task twice within a short period of time (week-to-week assessment). Replicating the results of former studies the second memory test yielded better memory performances on the group level than the first one, indicating a memory benefit as is typically found in older children as well as in adults. Stability of memory performance level was analysed using two indicators, namely test – retest correlations assessing stability of individual memory performances for the whole sample, as well as corrected test – retest correlations using individual consistency scores. Test – retest reliability was highly significant (r = .52, p = .009), as well as corrected test – retest reliability (r = .62, p = .001), thus demonstrating that the individual memory performance level in infants can reliably be assessed using the deferred imitation task. Acknowledgments This study was supported by a grant from the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) to Monika Knopf (KN 275/3 – 1). We would like to thank Regina Kressley-Mba for her help during the preparation of the study and we gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Denise Ginzburg and Andrea Lotz in scoring the video tapes. Special thanks are due to all the babies and their families who participated in the study.