sing. In the general memory section and learning (recall), full term children performed slightly better than preterms. The researchers proposed an interesting theory as to why preterms have poor memory. They said that it might be directly related to the presence, and in particular, the severity of Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RDS), because the hypoxic-ishemic episodes that come with it damage the brain. In the section of the test, the Sternberg Memory Search, which tested the children’s ability to recall pictures, the preterms made errors significantly more often than the full term children did over the 24 trials. The premature children took a significantly longer amount of time to complete all the tasks. When they were simple tasks, such as when there was only one choice, the premature children were very fast in choosing the answer, but when the amount of choices increased, so did the amount of time it took them to answer it. The premature children also performed poorly on the Tachistoscopic Threshold test, which showed the minimum amount of time required to determine whether two stimuli are the same or not, as compared to the full term group. On average, the preterms needed exposure to the stimulus one and a half times longer than the full terms did. This shows that most premature children are slower on the intake of information and on acting on the information they just obtained. This slower action does not have anything to do with a lack of motor skills, it is completely cognitive in nature. The researchers found in the last test that there is virtually no difference between motor speed in pre and full term children. Another study performed testing the differences between pre and full term infants was done by Jacob, Roach, Benedict, and Blackledge. They used the McCarthy Scale Index to measure differences in cognitive, perceptual, and personal-social development of premature preschoolers. The general cognitive i...
