The MemoryMaker Study (MeMa)

What is the study about?

In the MemoryMaker study, we are investigating how children aged 4 to 10 remember their own everyday experiences, even after a long period of time. We know that young children are particularly good at absorbing general knowledge, expanding their vocabulary, categorizing objects, and learning social rules early in life. However, the ability to remember specific events develops much more slowly. We want to understand how children's memories of real events change over time and how this relates to memory performance measured in the study environment.

Help us explore these exciting questions:

• How do memories of personal life events change over the course of childhood?
• Why can't we remember experiences from early childhood?
• Why do children remember better as they get older? And how is this related to the development of our brain?

 

What does participation involve?

In the MemoryMaker study, we want to investigate how children remember their everyday experiences even after a long period of time. To do this, we will accompany your child over a total of five years with four test appointments at 15-month intervals. Each annual test round consists of two blocks: the camera block and the laboratory block.

Camera session: Starting nine months before the sessions at the institute, you and your child will record everyday activities (e.g., a visit to the zoo or a picnic) with a small portable camera that your child wears on their upper body. Once turned on, the camera automatically takes photos every 3 seconds for 50 to 70 minutes. We will ask you to record 10–28 such events in your child's life with the camera each year. You decide which photos you want to make available to us for research into your child's memory development! We follow comprehensive data protection guidelines when handling the photos. The camera photos are stored securely on our internal servers and shown exclusively to your child for the memory tasks in our study. The photos will not be shared with third parties.

Laboratory session: After the camera session, there will be four sessions at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, with the last session taking place at Freie Universität Berlin to capture three-dimensional images of the brain (MRI). During the approximately 80–85-minute sessions, your child will play age-appropriate memory games on the computer with our trained study staff. During the last session, an MRI scan will be performed. Using the camera photos of your child, the brain activities associated with remembering these experiences will be measured.

 

Who are we looking for?

We are looking for children in two age groups:

• 3 years and 2 months to 4 years and 2 months, and
• 5 years and 2 months to 6 years and 2 months, 

who would like to take part in our exciting research project. 
 

How will you and your child benefit from participating?

You will be making an important contribution to a research project that investigates how real memories change over the course of childhood development. Participating families will receive a total of approximately €1,650 for participating in the study. Your child will receive a small gift at each appointment as a thank you for participating. This amounts to an expense allowance of €13 per hour – both for visits to the institute and for camera recordings at home. A bonus of €5 will also be paid for each appointment at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and at Freie Universität Berlin.  After completing a test session, families receive a gift or voucher worth €25. If your child participates fully for all five years, you will receive the camera as a gift at the end.

 

Please note that children who take part in the MemoryMaker (MeMa) study cannot participate in the City Tour study, as this would compromise the scientific evaluation – thank you for your understanding.