Long-term fragility: Interference susceptibility may be an inherent characteristic of memory traces acquired through fast mapping

Abstract

Research in adults and in children has demonstrated that item-label memory traces created during Fast Mapping (FM) can be retained over extended time-periods but are also highly susceptible to interference. This could be an inherent and adaptive characteristic of inferential learning allowing rapid and prolonged retention while maintaining a hypothesis status for easy abandonment in case of new evidence suggesting erroneous inference. These characteristics dictate boundary conditions for learning through FM that are best investigated by examining memory dynamics rather than memory quantity and necessitate more nuanced interpretations than recent reviews of FM in children and adults offer.

Keywords: Fast mapping; consolidation; interference; memory transformation.