Studies that involve lab-based stimuli (e.g., words, pictures) are fundamental in the memory literature. At the same time, there is growing acknowledgment that memory processes assessed in the lab may not be analogous to how memory operates in the real world. Naturalistic paradigms can bridge this gap and over the decades a growing proportion of memory research has involved more naturalistic events. However, there is significant variation in the types of naturalistic studies used to study memory and its development, each with various advantages and limitations. Further, there are notable gaps in how often different types of naturalistic approaches have been combined with cognitive neuroscience methods (e.g., fMRI, EEG) to elucidate the neural processes and substrates involved in memory encoding and retrieval in the real world. Here we summarize and discuss what we identify as progressively more naturalistic methodologies used in the memory literature (movie, virtual reality, staged-events inside and outside of the lab, photo-taking, and naturally occurring event studies). Our goal is to describe each approach’s benefits (e.g., naturalistic quality, feasibility), limitations (e.g., viability of neuroimaging method for event encoding versus event retrieval), and discuss possible future directions with each approach. We focus on child studies, when available, but also highlight past adult studies. Although there is a growing body of child memory research, naturalistic approaches combined with cognitive neuroscience methodologies in this domain remain sparse. Overall, this viewpoint article reviews how we can study memory through the lens of developmental cognitive neuroscience, while utilizing naturalistic and real-world events.

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自然主义范式和认知神经科学方法的融合来研究记忆及其发展

涉及实验室刺激（例如单词、图片）的研究是记忆文献的基础。与此同时，人们越来越认识到，实验室评估的记忆过程可能与现实世界中的记忆运作方式不同。自然主义范式可以弥合这一差距，几十年来，越来越多的记忆研究涉及更多的自然主义事件。然而，用于研究记忆及其发展的自然主义研究类型存在显着差异，每种研究都有不同的优点和局限性。此外，不同类型的自然主义方法与认知神经科学方法（例如功能磁共振成像、脑电图）相结合来阐明现实世界中记忆编码和检索所涉及的神经过程和基质的频率存在显着差距。在这里，我们总结并讨论了记忆文献中使用的逐渐更加自然主义的方法（电影、虚拟现实、实验室内外的舞台事件、拍照和自然发生的事件研究）。我们的目标是描述每种方法的优点（例如，自然质量、可行性）、局限性（例如，事件编码与事件检索的神经影像方法的可行性），并讨论每种方法未来可能的方向。我们专注于儿童研究（如果有），但也强调过去的成人研究。尽管儿童记忆研究的数量不断增加，但该领域的自然主义方法与认知神经科学方法相结合仍然很少。总的来说，这篇观点文章回顾了我们如何通过发展认知神经科学的视角来研究记忆，同时利用自然主义和现实世界的事件。