Nap-dependent learning in infants

Almut Hupbach, Rebecca L. Gomez, Richard R. Bootzin, Lynn Nadel

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

155 Scopus citations

Abstract

Sleep has been shown to aid a variety of learning and memory processes in adults (Stickgold, 2005). Recently, we showed that infants' learning also benefits from subsequent sleep such that infants who nap are able to abstract the general grammatical pattern of a briefly presented artificial language (Gomez, Bootzin & Nadel, 2006). In the present study, we demonstrate, for the first time, long-term effects of sleep on memory for an artificial language. Fifteen-month-old infants who had napped within 4 hours of language exposure remembered the general grammatical pattern of the language 24 hours later. In contrast, infants who had not napped shortly after being familiarized with the language showed no evidence of remembering anything about the language. Our findings support the view that infants' frequent napping plays an essential role in establishing long-term memory.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1007-1012
Number of pages6
JournalDevelopmental Science
Volume12
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2009

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Cognitive Neuroscience

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