Long-term recall memory: Behavioral and neuro-developmental changes in the first 2 years of life

Until not long ago, psychologists conceptually linked the capacity for recall of the past to developments in language. With the advent of a nonverbal measure of recall, this association has been challenged. It now is apparent that the capacity for long-term recall emerges well before the verbal ability to describe past experiences. Long-term is newly (or recently) emergent late in the 1st year of life; over the 2nd year, it consolidates and becomes reliable. The course of age-related changes in mnemonic behavior is consistent with current understanding of developments in the neural substrate implicated in recall memory.