Bound to remember: Infants show superior memory for objects presented at event boundaries

Following Event Segmentation Theory (EST) adult memory is enhanced at event boundaries (EB). The present study set out to explore this in infancy. Sixty‐eight 21‐month‐olds watched a cartoon with one of two objects (counterbalanced) inserted for 3s either at EB or between EB. Ten minutes later they watched both objects (familiar and novel) in a 10s Visual Paired Comparison (VPC) test while being eye‐tracked. Furthermore, they were asked to point to the previous object. Based on EST, we hypothesized that objects inserted at EB would be processed more fully, resulting in improved memory compared to objects inserted between EB. Only infants with objects at EB exhibited memory evidenced by a transient familiarity preference for the first 3s of the test. Only 18 infants completed the pointing test, but all infants presented with objects at EB (10/10) pointed to the correct (familiar) object, which was not the case for the infants presented with objects between EB (5/8).