Organized vs. Chaotic Homes: Associations with Children's Memory Recall
Presenter: Lillette Emile
Faculty Sponsor: Rebecca Spencer
School: UMass Amherst
Research Area: Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
Session: Poster Session 1, 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM, 163, C23
ABSTRACT
Children’s cognitive and behavioral development is influenced by the quality of their home environments. Nurturing and organized settings support development while chaotic or disorganized environments potentially hinder it. Previous research has looked at how external factors such as toxins, pollutants, noise, crowding, and chaos impact children’s cognitive functioning, however, less attention has been given to how home organization impacts children’s short-term memory. The purpose of this project is to evaluate how household chaos influences children’s performance on a memory task through episodic or precision memory. As part of a larger, in-home research study, researchers completed home assessments and immediate and delayed memory tasks were used to evaluate the relationship between home environment and cognitive outcomes. Home assessments include questions about the physical organization of the home and cleanliness. I predict that a more chaotic home environment will be related to lower memory recall. Findings may inform ongoing research investigating how organized versus chaotic home environments relate to children’s developing cognitive and memory processing.