Infants can learn and remember that foot movements can move a mobile. This demonstrates which early memory mechanism?

Infants can learn and remember that foot movements can move a mobile. This demonstrates which early memory mechanism?

• A. Motor learning (procedural memory)
• B. Verbal memory
• C. Episodic memory
• D. Sensory memory

Answer: (A)

Motor learning, a form of procedural (implicit) memory, is being shown. Infants learn that their own foot movements can move the mobile, forming a motor-action–outcome link that can persist over time without needing to recall or verbalize the event. This kind of memory is about performing a skill or action based on learned contingencies, not about recalling a specific past experience with details or about retaining raw sensory traces. Verbal memory would involve language, episodic memory would require remembering a particular event with context, and sensory memory would be a fleeting sensory snapshot—none of which captures this motor-based learning.

Motor learning, a form of procedural (implicit) memory, is being shown. Infants learn that their own foot movements can move the mobile, forming a motor-action–outcome link that can persist over time without needing to recall or verbalize the event. This kind of memory is about performing a skill or action based on learned contingencies, not about recalling a specific past experience with details or about retaining raw sensory traces. Verbal memory would involve language, episodic memory would require remembering a particular event with context, and sensory memory would be a fleeting sensory snapshot—none of which captures this motor-based learning.