The roles of long-term phonotactic and lexical prosodic knowledge in phonological short-term memory.

PubMed

Tanida, Yuki; Ueno, Taiji; Lambon Ralph, Matthew A; Saito, Satoru

2015-04-01

Many previous studies have explored and confirmed the influence of long-term phonological representations on phonological short-term memory. In most investigations, phonological effects have been explored with respect to phonotactic constraints or frequency. If interaction between long-term memory and phonological short-term memory is a generalized principle, then other phonological characteristics-that is, suprasegmental aspects of phonology-should also exert similar effects on phonological short-term memory. We explored this hypothesis through three immediate serial-recall experiments that manipulated Japanese nonwords with respect to lexical prosody (pitch-accent type, reflecting suprasegmental characteristics) as well as phonotactic frequency (reflecting segmental characteristics). The results showed that phonotactic frequency affected the retention not only of the phonemic sequences, but also of pitch-accent patterns, when participants were instructed to recall both the phoneme sequence and accent pattern of nonwords. In addition, accent pattern typicality influenced the retention of the accent pattern: Typical accent patterns were recalled more accurately than atypical ones. These results indicate that both long-term phonotactic and lexical prosodic knowledge contribute to phonological short-term memory performance.

Short-Term Memory and Aphasia: From Theory to Treatment

PubMed Central

Minkina, Irene; Rosenberg, Samantha; Kalinyak-Fliszar, Michelene; Martin, Nadine

2018-01-01

This article reviews existing research on the interactions between verbal short-term memory and language processing impairments in aphasia. Theoretical models of short-term memory are reviewed, starting with a model assuming a separation between short-term memory and language, and progressing to models that view verbal short-term memory as a cognitive requirement of language processing. The review highlights a verbal short-term memory model derived from an interactive activation model of word retrieval. This model holds that verbal short-term memory encompasses the temporary activation of linguistic knowledge (e.g., semantic, lexical, and phonological features) during language production and comprehension tasks. Empirical evidence supporting this model, which views short-term memory in the context of the processes it subserves, is outlined. Studies that use a classic measure of verbal short-term memory (i.e., number of words/digits correctly recalled in immediate serial recall) as well as those that use more intricate measures (e.g., serial position effects in immediate serial recall) are discussed. Treatment research that uses verbal short-term memory tasks in an attempt to improve language processing is then summarized, with a particular focus on word retrieval. A discussion of the limitations of current research and possible future directions concludes the review. PMID:28201834

Retrieval-Induced Inhibition in Short-Term Memory.

PubMed

Kang, Min-Suk; Choi, Joongrul

2015-07-01

We used a visual illusion called motion repulsion as a model system for investigating competition between two mental representations. Subjects were asked to remember two random-dot-motion displays presented in sequence and then to report the motion directions for each. Remembered motion directions were shifted away from the actual motion directions, an effect similar to the motion repulsion observed during perception. More important, the item retrieved second showed greater repulsion than the item retrieved first. This suggests that earlier retrieval exerted greater inhibition on the other item being held in short-term memory. This retrieval-induced motion repulsion could be explained neither by reduced cognitive resources for maintaining short-term memory nor by continued inhibition between short-term memory representations. These results indicate that retrieval of memory representations inhibits other representations in short-term memory. We discuss mechanisms of retrieval-induced inhibition and their implications for the structure of memory. © The Author(s) 2015.

The nature of short-term consolidation in visual working memory.

PubMed

Ricker, Timothy J; Hardman, Kyle O

2017-11-01

Short-term consolidation is the process by which stable working memory representations are created. This process is fundamental to cognition yet poorly understood. The present work examines short-term consolidation using a Bayesian hierarchical model of visual working memory recall to determine the underlying processes at work. Our results show that consolidation functions largely through changing the proportion of memory items successfully maintained until test. Although there was some evidence that consolidation affects representational precision, this change was modest and could not account for the bulk of the consolidation effect on memory performance. The time course of the consolidation function and selective influence of consolidation on specific serial positions strongly indicates that short-term consolidation induces an attentional blink. The blink leads to deficits in memory for the immediately following item when time pressure is introduced. Temporal distinctiveness accounts of the consolidation process are tested and ruled out. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Short-Term Memory and Aphasia: From Theory to Treatment.

PubMed

Minkina, Irene; Rosenberg, Samantha; Kalinyak-Fliszar, Michelene; Martin, Nadine

2017-02-01

This article reviews existing research on the interactions between verbal short-term memory and language processing impairments in aphasia. Theoretical models of short-term memory are reviewed, starting with a model assuming a separation between short-term memory and language, and progressing to models that view verbal short-term memory as a cognitive requirement of language processing. The review highlights a verbal short-term memory model derived from an interactive activation model of word retrieval. This model holds that verbal short-term memory encompasses the temporary activation of linguistic knowledge (e.g., semantic, lexical, and phonological features) during language production and comprehension tasks. Empirical evidence supporting this model, which views short-term memory in the context of the processes it subserves, is outlined. Studies that use a classic measure of verbal short-term memory (i.e., number of words/digits correctly recalled in immediate serial recall) as well as those that use more intricate measures (e.g., serial position effects in immediate serial recall) are discussed. Treatment research that uses verbal short-term memory tasks in an attempt to improve language processing is then summarized, with a particular focus on word retrieval. A discussion of the limitations of current research and possible future directions concludes the review. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Using electrophysiology to demonstrate that cuing affects long-term memory storage over the short term

PubMed Central

Maxcey, Ashleigh M.; Fukuda, Keisuke; Song, Won S.; Woodman, Geoffrey F.

2015-01-01

As researchers who study working memory, we often assume that participants keep a representation of an object in working memory when we present a cue that indicates that object will be tested in a couple of seconds. This intuitively accounts for how well people can remember a cued object relative to their memory for that same object presented without a cue. However, it is possible that this superior memory does not purely reflect storage of the cued object in working memory. We tested the hypothesis that cued presented during a stream of objects, followed by a short retention interval and immediate memory test, change how information is handled by long-term memory. We tested this hypothesis using a family of frontal event-related potentials (ERPs) believed to reflect long-term memory storage. We found that these frontal indices of long-term memory were sensitive to the task relevance of objects signaled by auditory cues, even when objects repeat frequently such that proactive interference was high. Our findings indicate the problematic nature of assuming process purity in the study of working memory, and demonstrate how frequent stimulus repetitions fail to isolate the role of working memory mechanisms. PMID:25604772

Using electrophysiology to demonstrate that cueing affects long-term memory storage over the short term.

PubMed

Maxcey, Ashleigh M; Fukuda, Keisuke; Song, Won S; Woodman, Geoffrey F

2015-10-01

As researchers who study working memory, we often assume that participants keep a representation of an object in working memory when we present a cue that indicates that the object will be tested in a couple of seconds. This intuitively accounts for how well people can remember a cued object, relative to their memory for that same object presented without a cue. However, it is possible that this superior memory does not purely reflect storage of the cued object in working memory. We tested the hypothesis that cues presented during a stream of objects, followed by a short retention interval and immediate memory test, can change how information is handled by long-term memory. We tested this hypothesis by using a family of frontal event-related potentials believed to reflect long-term memory storage. We found that these frontal indices of long-term memory were sensitive to the task relevance of objects signaled by auditory cues, even when the objects repeated frequently, such that proactive interference was high. Our findings indicate the problematic nature of assuming process purity in the study of working memory, and demonstrate that frequent stimulus repetitions fail to isolate the role of working memory mechanisms.

Short-Term Exposure to Lambda-Cyhalothrin Negatively Affects the Survival and Memory-Related Characteristics of Worker Bees Apis mellifera.

PubMed

Liao, Chun-Hua; He, Xu-Jiang; Wang, Zi-Long; Barron, Andrew B; Zhang, Bo; Zeng, Zhi-Jiang; Wu, Xiao-Bo

2018-07-01

Pesticides are considered one of the major contemporary stressors of honey bee health. In this study, the effects of short-term exposure to lambda-cyhalothrin on lifespan, learning, and memory-related characteristics of Apis mellifera were systematically examined. Short-term exposure to lambda-cyhalothrin in worker bees reduced lifespan, affected learning and memory performance, reduced the homing ability, and influenced the expression levels of two learning and memory-related genes of A. mellifera. This research identifies the nature of the sublethal effects of lambda-cyhalothrin on bees and the level of exposure that can be harmful to bee health. This new information will assist in establishing guidelines for the safe use of lambda-cyhalothrin in the field.

Does exposure to GSM 900 MHz mobile phone radiation affect short-term memory of elementary school students?

PubMed Central

Movvahedi, M. M.; Tavakkoli-Golpayegani, A.; Mortazavi, S. A. R.; Haghani, M.; Razi, Z.; Shojaie-fard, M. B.; Zare, M.; Mina, E.; Mansourabadi, L.; Nazari-Jahromi; Safari, A.; Shokrpour, N.; Mortazavi, S. M. J.

2014-01-01

Background: Now-a-days, children are exposed to mobile phone radiation at a very early age. We have previously shown that a large proportion of children in the city of Shiraz, Iran use mobile phones. Furthermore, we have indicated that the visual reaction time (VRT) of university students was significantly affected by a 10 min real/sham exposure to electromagnetic fields emitted by mobile phone. We found that these exposures decreased the reaction time which might lead to a better response to different hazards. We have also revealed that occupational exposures to radar radiations decreased the reaction time in radar workers. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether short-term exposure of elementary school students to radiofrequency (RF) radiation leads to changes in their reaction time and short-term memory. Materials and Methods: A total of 60 elementary school children ages ranging from 8 to 10 years studying at a public elementary school in Shiraz, Iran were enrolled in this study. Standardized computer-based tests of VRT and short-term memory (modified for children) were administered. The students were asked to perform some preliminary tests for orientation with the VRT test. After orientation, to reduce the random variation of measurements, each test was repeated ten times in both real and sham exposure phases. The time interval between the two subsequent sham and real exposure phases was 30 min. Results: The mean ± standard deviation reaction times after a 10 min talk period and after a 10 min sham exposure (switched off mobile) period were 249.0 ± 82.3 ms and 252.9 ± 68.2 ms (P = 0.629), respectively. On the other hand, the mean short-term memory scores after the talk and sham exposure periods were 1062.60 ± 305.39, and 1003.84 ± 339.68 (P = 0.030), respectively. Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to show that short-term exposure of elementary school students to RF radiation leads to the better performance of

In Search of Decay in Verbal Short-Term Memory

PubMed Central

Berman, Marc G.; Jonides, John; Lewis, Richard L.

2014-01-01

Is forgetting in the short term due to decay with the mere passage of time, interference from other memoranda, or both? Past research on short-term memory has revealed some evidence for decay and a plethora of evidence showing that short-term memory is worsened by interference. However, none of these studies has directly contrasted decay and interference in short-term memory in a task that rules out the use of rehearsal processes. In this article the authors present a series of studies using a novel paradigm to address this problem directly, by interrogating the operation of decay and interference in short-term memory without rehearsal confounds. The results of these studies indicate that short-term memories are subject to very small decay effects with the mere passage of time but that interference plays a much larger role in their degradation. The authors discuss the implications of these results for existing models of memory decay and interference. PMID:19271849

In search of decay in verbal short-term memory.

PubMed

Berman, Marc G; Jonides, John; Lewis, Richard L

2009-03-01

Is forgetting in the short term due to decay with the mere passage of time, interference from other memoranda, or both? Past research on short-term memory has revealed some evidence for decay and a plethora of evidence showing that short-term memory is worsened by interference. However, none of these studies has directly contrasted decay and interference in short-term memory in a task that rules out the use of rehearsal processes. In this article the authors present a series of studies using a novel paradigm to address this problem directly, by interrogating the operation of decay and interference in short-term memory without rehearsal confounds. The results of these studies indicate that short-term memories are subject to very small decay effects with the mere passage of time but that interference plays a much larger role in their degradation. The authors discuss the implications of these results for existing models of memory decay and interference. (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved

Short-term Memory as a Processing Shift

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewis-Smith, Marion Quinn

1975-01-01

The series of experiments described here examined the predictions for free recall from sequential models and the shift formulation, focusing on the roles of short- and long-term memory in the primacy/recency shift and on the effects of expectancies on short- and long-term memory. (Author/RK)

Chronic sleep deprivation differentially affects short and long-term operant memory in Aplysia.

PubMed

Krishnan, Harini C; Noakes, Eric J; Lyons, Lisa C

2016-10-01

The induction, formation and maintenance of memory represent dynamic processes modulated by multiple factors including the circadian clock and sleep. Chronic sleep restriction has become common in modern society due to occupational and social demands. Given the impact of cognitive impairments associated with sleep deprivation, there is a vital need for a simple animal model in which to study the interactions between chronic sleep deprivation and memory. We used the marine mollusk Aplysia californica, with its simple nervous system, nocturnal sleep pattern and well-characterized learning paradigms, to assess the effects of two chronic sleep restriction paradigms on short-term (STM) and long-term (LTM) associative memory. The effects of sleep deprivation on memory were evaluated using the operant learning paradigm, learning that food is inedible, in which the animal associates a specific netted seaweed with failed swallowing attempts. We found that two nights of 6h sleep deprivation occurring during the first or last half of the night inhibited both STM and LTM. Moreover, the impairment in STM persisted for more than 24h. A milder, prolonged sleep deprivation paradigm consisting of 3 consecutive nights of 4h sleep deprivation also blocked STM, but had no effect on LTM. These experiments highlight differences in the sensitivity of STM and LTM to chronic sleep deprivation. Moreover, these results establish Aplysia as a valid model for studying the interactions between chronic sleep deprivation and associative memory paving the way for future studies delineating the mechanisms through which sleep restriction affects memory formation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Chronic Sleep Deprivation Differentially Affects Short and Long-term Operant Memory in Aplysia

PubMed Central

Krishnan, Harini C.; Noakes, Eric J.; Lyons, Lisa C.

2016-01-01

The induction, formation and maintenance of memory represent dynamic processes modulated by multiple factors including the circadian clock and sleep. Chronic sleep restriction has become common in modern society due to occupational and social demands. Given the impact of cognitive impairments associated with sleep deprivation, there is a vital need for a simple animal model in which to study the interactions between chronic sleep deprivation and memory. We used the marine mollusk Aplysia californica, with its simple nervous system, nocturnal sleep pattern and well-characterized learning paradigms, to assess the effects of two chronic sleep restriction paradigms on short-term (STM) and long-term (LTM) associative memory. The effects of sleep deprivation on memory were evaluated using the operant learning paradigm, learning that food is inedible, in which the animal associates a specific netted seaweed with failed swallowing attempts. We found that two nights of 6 h sleep deprivation occurring during the first or last half of the night inhibited both STM and LTM. Moreover, the impairment in STM persisted for more than 24 hours. A milder, prolonged sleep deprivation paradigm consisting of 3 consecutive nights of 4 h sleep deprivation also blocked STM, but had no effect on LTM. These experiments highlight differences in the sensitivity of STM and LTM to chronic sleep deprivation. Moreover, these results establish Aplysia as a valid model for studying the interactions between chronic sleep deprivation and associative memory paving the way for future studies delineating the mechanisms through which sleep restriction affects memory formation. PMID:27555235

Circadian modulation of short-term memory in Drosophila.

PubMed

Lyons, Lisa C; Roman, Gregg

2009-01-01

Endogenous biological clocks are widespread regulators of behavior and physiology, allowing for a more efficient allocation of efforts and resources over the course of a day. The extent that different processes are regulated by circadian oscillators, however, is not fully understood. We investigated the role of the circadian clock on short-term associative memory formation using a negatively reinforced olfactory-learning paradigm in Drosophila melanogaster. We found that memory formation was regulated in a circadian manner. The peak performance in short-term memory (STM) occurred during the early subjective night with a twofold performance amplitude after a single pairing of conditioned and unconditioned stimuli. This rhythm in memory is eliminated in both timeless and period mutants and is absent during constant light conditions. Circadian gating of sensory perception does not appear to underlie the rhythm in short-term memory as evidenced by the nonrhythmic shock avoidance and olfactory avoidance behaviors. Moreover, central brain oscillators appear to be responsible for the modulation as cryptochrome mutants, in which the antennal circadian oscillators are nonfunctional, demonstrate robust circadian rhythms in short-term memory. Together these data suggest that central, rather than peripheral, circadian oscillators modulate the formation of short-term associative memory and not the perception of the stimuli.

Implicit short- and long-term memory direct our gaze in visual search.

PubMed

Kruijne, Wouter; Meeter, Martijn

2016-04-01

Visual attention is strongly affected by the past: both by recent experience and by long-term regularities in the environment that are encoded in and retrieved from memory. In visual search, intertrial repetition of targets causes speeded response times (short-term priming). Similarly, targets that are presented more often than others may facilitate search, even long after it is no longer present (long-term priming). In this study, we investigate whether such short-term priming and long-term priming depend on dissociable mechanisms. By recording eye movements while participants searched for one of two conjunction targets, we explored at what stages of visual search different forms of priming manifest. We found both long- and short- term priming effects. Long-term priming persisted long after the bias was present, and was again found even in participants who were unaware of a color bias. Short- and long-term priming affected the same stage of the task; both biased eye movements towards targets with the primed color, already starting with the first eye movement. Neither form of priming affected the response phase of a trial, but response repetition did. The results strongly suggest that both long- and short-term memory can implicitly modulate feedforward visual processing.

Independence of long-term contextual memory and short-term perceptual hypotheses: Evidence from contextual cueing of interrupted search.

PubMed

Schlagbauer, Bernhard; Mink, Maurice; Müller, Hermann J; Geyer, Thomas

2017-02-01

Observers are able to resume an interrupted search trial faster relative to responding to a new, unseen display. This finding of rapid resumption is attributed to short-term perceptual hypotheses generated on the current look and confirmed upon subsequent looks at the same display. It has been suggested that the contents of perceptual hypotheses are similar to those of other forms of memory acquired long-term through repeated exposure to the same search displays over the course of several trials, that is, the memory supporting "contextual cueing." In three experiments, we investigated the relationship between short-term perceptual hypotheses and long-term contextual memory. The results indicated that long-term, contextual memory of repeated displays neither affected the generation nor the confirmation of short-term perceptual hypotheses for these displays. Furthermore, the analysis of eye movements suggests that long-term memory provides an initial benefit in guiding attention to the target, whereas in subsequent looks guidance is entirely based on short-term perceptual hypotheses. Overall, the results reveal a picture of both long- and short-term memory contributing to reliable performance gains in interrupted search, while exerting their effects in an independent manner.

Decay uncovered in nonverbal short-term memory.

PubMed

Mercer, Tom; McKeown, Denis

2014-02-01

Decay theory posits that memory traces gradually fade away over the passage of time unless they are actively rehearsed. Much recent work exploring verbal short-term memory has challenged this theory, but there does appear to be evidence for trace decay in nonverbal auditory short-term memory. Numerous discrimination studies have reported a performance decline as the interval separating two tones is increased, consistent with a decay process. However, most of this tone comparison research can be explained in other ways, without reference to decay, and these alternative accounts were tested in the present study. In Experiment 1, signals were employed toward the end of extended retention intervals to ensure that listeners were alert to the presence and frequency content of the memoranda. In Experiment 2, a mask stimulus was employed in an attempt to distinguish between a highly detailed sensory trace and a longer-lasting short-term memory, and the distinctiveness of the stimuli was varied. Despite these precautions, slow-acting trace decay was observed. It therefore appears that the mere passage of time can lead to forgetting in some forms of short-term memory.

Short-term and working memory impairments in aphasia.

PubMed

Potagas, Constantin; Kasselimis, Dimitrios; Evdokimidis, Ioannis

2011-08-01

The aim of the present study is to investigate short-term memory and working memory deficits in aphasics in relation to the severity of their language impairment. Fifty-eight aphasic patients participated in this study. Based on language assessment, an aphasia score was calculated for each patient. Memory was assessed in two modalities, verbal and spatial. Mean scores for all memory tasks were lower than normal. Aphasia score was significantly correlated with performance on all memory tasks. Correlation coefficients for short-term memory and working memory were approximately of the same magnitude. According to our findings, severity of aphasia is related with both verbal and spatial memory deficits. Moreover, while aphasia score correlated with lower scores in both short-term memory and working memory tasks, the lack of substantial difference between corresponding correlation coefficients suggests a possible primary deficit in information retention rather than impairment in working memory. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Short-term memory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Toulouse, G.

This is a rather bold attempt to bridge the gap between neuron structure and psychological data. We try to answer the question: Is there a relation between the neuronal connectivity in the human cortex (around 5,000) and the short-term memory capacity (7±2)? Our starting point is the Hopfield model (Hopfield 1982), presented in this volume by D.J. Amit.

Impaired short-term memory for pitch in congenital amusia.

PubMed

Tillmann, Barbara; Lévêque, Yohana; Fornoni, Lesly; Albouy, Philippe; Caclin, Anne

2016-06-01

Congenital amusia is a neuro-developmental disorder of music perception and production. The hypothesis is that the musical deficits arise from altered pitch processing, with impairments in pitch discrimination (i.e., pitch change detection, pitch direction discrimination and identification) and short-term memory. The present review article focuses on the deficit of short-term memory for pitch. Overall, the data discussed here suggest impairments at each level of processing in short-term memory tasks; starting with the encoding of the pitch information and the creation of the adequate memory trace, the retention of the pitch traces over time as well as the recollection and comparison of the stored information with newly incoming information. These impairments have been related to altered brain responses in a distributed fronto-temporal network, associated with decreased connectivity between these structures, as well as in abnormalities in the connectivity between the two auditory cortices. In contrast, amusic participants׳ short-term memory abilities for verbal material are preserved. These findings show that short-term memory deficits in congenital amusia are specific to pitch, suggesting a pitch-memory system that is, at least partly, separated from verbal memory. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Auditory working memory. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The human hippocampal formation mediates short-term memory of colour-location associations.

PubMed

Finke, Carsten; Braun, Mischa; Ostendorf, Florian; Lehmann, Thomas-Nicolas; Hoffmann, Karl-Titus; Kopp, Ute; Ploner, Christoph J

2008-01-31

The medial temporal lobe (MTL) has long been considered essential for declarative long-term memory, whereas the fronto-parietal cortex is generally seen as the anatomical substrate of short-term memory. This traditional dichotomy is questioned by recent studies suggesting a possible role of the MTL for short-term memory. In addition, there is no consensus on a possible specialization of MTL sub-regions for memory of associative information. Here, we investigated short-term memory for single features and feature associations in three humans with post-surgical lesions affecting the right hippocampal formation and in 10 healthy controls. We used three delayed-match-to-sample tasks with two delays (900/5000 ms) and three set sizes (2/4/6 items). Subjects were instructed to remember either colours, locations or colour-location associations. In colour-only and location-only conditions, performance of patients did not differ from controls. By contrast, a significant group difference was found in the association condition at 5000 ms delay. This difference was largely independent of set size, thus suggesting that it cannot be explained by the increased complexity of the association condition. These findings show that the hippocampal formation plays a significant role for short-term memory of simple visuo-spatial associations, and suggest a specialization of MTL sub-regions for associative memory.

Insensitivity of visual short-term memory to irrelevant visual information.

PubMed

Andrade, Jackie; Kemps, Eva; Werniers, Yves; May, Jon; Szmalec, Arnaud

2002-07-01

Several authors have hypothesized that visuo-spatial working memory is functionally analogous to verbal working memory. Irrelevant background speech impairs verbal short-term memory. We investigated whether irrelevant visual information has an analogous effect on visual short-term memory, using a dynamic visual noise (DVN) technique known to disrupt visual imagery (Quinn & McConnell, 1996b). Experiment I replicated the effect of DVN on pegword imagery. Experiments 2 and 3 showed no effect of DVN on recall of static matrix patterns, despite a significant effect of a concurrent spatial tapping task. Experiment 4 showed no effect of DVN on encoding or maintenance of arrays of matrix patterns, despite testing memory by a recognition procedure to encourage visual rather than spatial processing. Serial position curves showed a one-item recency effect typical of visual short-term memory. Experiment 5 showed no effect of DVN on short-term recognition of Chinese characters, despite effects of visual similarity and a concurrent colour memory task that confirmed visual processing of the characters. We conclude that irrelevant visual noise does not impair visual short-term memory. Visual working memory may not be functionally analogous to verbal working memory, and different cognitive processes may underlie visual short-term memory and visual imagery.

Is visual short-term memory depthful?

PubMed

Reeves, Adam; Lei, Quan

2014-03-01

Does visual short-term memory (VSTM) depend on depth, as it might be if information was stored in more than one depth layer? Depth is critical in natural viewing and might be expected to affect retention, but whether this is so is currently unknown. Cued partial reports of letter arrays (Sperling, 1960) were measured up to 700 ms after display termination. Adding stereoscopic depth hardly affected VSTM capacity or decay inferred from total errors. The pattern of transposition errors (letters reported from an uncued row) was almost independent of depth and cue delay. We conclude that VSTM is effectively two-dimensional. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Deficits in verbal long-term memory and learning in children with poor phonological short-term memory skills.

PubMed

Gathercole, Susan E; Briscoe, Josie; Thorn, Annabel; Tiffany, Claire

2008-03-01

Possible links between phonological short-term memory and both longer term memory and learning in 8-year-old children were investigated in this study. Performance on a range of tests of long-term memory and learning was compared for a group of 16 children with poor phonological short-term memory skills and a comparison group of children of the same age with matched nonverbal reasoning abilities but memory scores in the average range. The low-phonological-memory group were impaired on longer term memory and learning tasks that taxed memory for arbitrary verbal material such as names and nonwords. However, the two groups performed at comparable levels on tasks requiring the retention of visuo-spatial information and of meaningful material and at carrying out prospective memory tasks in which the children were asked to carry out actions at a future point in time. The results are consistent with the view that poor short-term memory function impairs the longer-term retention and ease of learning of novel verbal material.

Brain oscillatory substrates of visual short-term memory capacity.

PubMed

Sauseng, Paul; Klimesch, Wolfgang; Heise, Kirstin F; Gruber, Walter R; Holz, Elisa; Karim, Ahmed A; Glennon, Mark; Gerloff, Christian; Birbaumer, Niels; Hummel, Friedhelm C

2009-11-17

The amount of information that can be stored in visual short-term memory is strictly limited to about four items. Therefore, memory capacity relies not only on the successful retention of relevant information but also on efficient suppression of distracting information, visual attention, and executive functions. However, completely separable neural signatures for these memory capacity-limiting factors remain to be identified. Because of its functional diversity, oscillatory brain activity may offer a utile solution. In the present study, we show that capacity-determining mechanisms, namely retention of relevant information and suppression of distracting information, are based on neural substrates independent of each other: the successful maintenance of relevant material in short-term memory is associated with cross-frequency phase synchronization between theta (rhythmical neural activity around 5 Hz) and gamma (> 50 Hz) oscillations at posterior parietal recording sites. On the other hand, electroencephalographic alpha activity (around 10 Hz) predicts memory capacity based on efficient suppression of irrelevant information in short-term memory. Moreover, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation at alpha frequency can modulate short-term memory capacity by influencing the ability to suppress distracting information. Taken together, the current study provides evidence for a double dissociation of brain oscillatory correlates of visual short-term memory capacity.

Complex network structure influences processing in long-term and short-term memory.

PubMed

Vitevitch, Michael S; Chan, Kit Ying; Roodenrys, Steven

2012-07-01

Complex networks describe how entities in systems interact; the structure of such networks is argued to influence processing. One measure of network structure, clustering coefficient, C, measures the extent to which neighbors of a node are also neighbors of each other. Previous psycholinguistic experiments found that the C of phonological word-forms influenced retrieval from the mental lexicon (that portion of long-term memory dedicated to language) during the on-line recognition and production of spoken words. In the present study we examined how network structure influences other retrieval processes in long- and short-term memory. In a false-memory task-examining long-term memory-participants falsely recognized more words with low- than high-C. In a recognition memory task-examining veridical memories in long-term memory-participants correctly recognized more words with low- than high-C. However, participants in a serial recall task-examining redintegration in short-term memory-recalled lists comprised of high-C words more accurately than lists comprised of low-C words. These results demonstrate that network structure influences cognitive processes associated with several forms of memory including lexical, long-term, and short-term.

Short-Term Memory; An Annotated Bibliography. Supplement 1.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fisher, Dennis F.

A compilation of 165 references dealing with short term memory, this bibliography supplements "Short-Term Memory: An Annotated Bibliography" (August 1968). The time period covered is predominantly June 1968 to June 1969. Such aspects and topics as psychometrics, motivation, human engineering, vision, auditory perception, verbal and nonverbal…

Labeling, Rehearsal, and Short-Term Memory in Retarded Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hagen, John W.; And Others

1974-01-01

A short-term memory task was used to explore the effects of verbal labeling and rehearsal on serial-position recall in mildly retarded 9-to 11-year-old children. Results support the view that verbal skills affect recall in mildly retarded children similarly to normal children. (Author/SDH)

Working memory, short-term memory and reading proficiency in school-age children with cochlear implants.

PubMed

Bharadwaj, Sneha V; Maricle, Denise; Green, Laura; Allman, Tamby

2015-10-01

The objective of the study was to examine short-term memory and working memory through both visual and auditory tasks in school-age children with cochlear implants. The relationship between the performance on these cognitive skills and reading as well as language outcomes were examined in these children. Ten children between the ages of 7 and 11 years with early-onset bilateral severe-profound hearing loss participated in the study. Auditory and visual short-term memory, auditory and visual working memory subtests and verbal knowledge measures were assessed using the Woodcock Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV Integrated and the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children II. Reading outcomes were assessed using the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test III. Performance on visual short-term memory and visual working memory measures in children with cochlear implants was within the average range when compared to the normative mean. However, auditory short-term memory and auditory working memory measures were below average when compared to the normative mean. Performance was also below average on all verbal knowledge measures. Regarding reading outcomes, children with cochlear implants scored below average for listening and passage comprehension tasks and these measures were positively correlated to visual short-term memory, visual working memory and auditory short-term memory. Performance on auditory working memory subtests was not related to reading or language outcomes. The children with cochlear implants in this study demonstrated better performance in visual (spatial) working memory and short-term memory skills than in auditory working memory and auditory short-term memory skills. Significant positive relationships were found between visual working memory and reading outcomes. The results of the study provide support for the idea that WM capacity is modality specific in children with hearing loss. Based on these

Short-term and long-term memory in early temporal lobe dysfunction.

PubMed

Hershey, T; Craft, S; Glauser, T A; Hale, S

1998-01-01

Following medial temporal damage, mature humans are impaired in retaining new information over long delays but not short delays. The question of whether a similar dissociation occurs in children was addressed by testing children (ages 7-16) with unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and controls on short- and long-term memory tasks, including a spatial delayed response task (SDR). Early-onset TLE did not affect performance on short delays on SDR, but it did impair performance at the longest delay (60 s), similar to adults with unilateral medial temporal damage. In addition, early-onset TLE affected performance on pattern recall, spatial span, and verbal span with rehearsal interference. No differences were found on story recall or on a response inhibition task.

In Search of Decay in Verbal Short-Term Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berman, Marc G.; Jonides, John; Lewis, Richard L.

2009-01-01

Is forgetting in the short term due to decay with the mere passage of time, interference from other memoranda, or both? Past research on short-term memory has revealed some evidence for decay and a plethora of evidence showing that short-term memory is worsened by interference. However, none of these studies has directly contrasted decay and…

Short-Term Memory Affects Color Perception in Context

PubMed Central

Olkkonen, Maria; Allred, Sarah R.

2014-01-01

Color-based object selection — for instance, looking for ripe tomatoes in the market — places demands on both perceptual and memory processes: it is necessary to form a stable perceptual estimate of surface color from a variable visual signal, as well as to retain multiple perceptual estimates in memory while comparing objects. Nevertheless, perceptual and memory processes in the color domain are generally studied in separate research programs with the assumption that they are independent. Here, we demonstrate a strong failure of independence between color perception and memory: the effect of context on color appearance is substantially weakened by a short retention interval between a reference and test stimulus. This somewhat counterintuitive result is consistent with Bayesian estimation: as the precision of the representation of the reference surface and its context decays in memory, prior information gains more weight, causing the retained percepts to be drawn toward prior information about surface and context color. This interaction implies that to fully understand information processing in real-world color tasks, perception and memory need to be considered jointly. PMID:24475131

Short-term memory affects color perception in context.

PubMed

Olkkonen, Maria; Allred, Sarah R

2014-01-01

Color-based object selection - for instance, looking for ripe tomatoes in the market - places demands on both perceptual and memory processes: it is necessary to form a stable perceptual estimate of surface color from a variable visual signal, as well as to retain multiple perceptual estimates in memory while comparing objects. Nevertheless, perceptual and memory processes in the color domain are generally studied in separate research programs with the assumption that they are independent. Here, we demonstrate a strong failure of independence between color perception and memory: the effect of context on color appearance is substantially weakened by a short retention interval between a reference and test stimulus. This somewhat counterintuitive result is consistent with Bayesian estimation: as the precision of the representation of the reference surface and its context decays in memory, prior information gains more weight, causing the retained percepts to be drawn toward prior information about surface and context color. This interaction implies that to fully understand information processing in real-world color tasks, perception and memory need to be considered jointly.

The interaction of short-term and long-term memory in phonetic category formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harnsberger, James D.

2002-05-01

This study examined the role that short-term memory capacity plays in the relationship between novel stimuli (e.g., non-native speech sounds, native nonsense words) and phonetic categories in long-term memory. Thirty native speakers of American English were administered five tests: categorial AXB discrimination using nasal consonants from Malayalam; categorial identification, also using Malayalam nasals, which measured the influence of phonetic categories in long-term memory; digit span; nonword span, a short-term memory measure mediated by phonetic categories in long-term memory; and paired-associate word learning (word-word and word-nonword pairs). The results showed that almost all measures were significantly correlated with one another. The strongest predictor for the discrimination and word-nonword learning results was nonword (r=+0.62) and digit span (r=+0.51), respectively. When the identification test results were partialed out, only nonword span significantly correlated with discrimination. The results show a strong influence of short-term memory capacity on the encoding of phonetic detail within phonetic categories and suggest that long-term memory representations regulate the capacity of short-term memory to preserve information for subsequent encoding. The results of this study will also be discussed with regards to resolving the tension between episodic and abstract models of phonetic category structure.

Gummed-up memory: chewing gum impairs short-term recall.

PubMed

Kozlov, Michail D; Hughes, Robert W; Jones, Dylan M

2012-01-01

Several studies have suggested that short-term memory is generally improved by chewing gum. However, we report the first studies to show that chewing gum impairs short-term memory for both item order and item identity. Experiment 1 showed that chewing gum reduces serial recall of letter lists. Experiment 2 indicated that chewing does not simply disrupt vocal-articulatory planning required for order retention: Chewing equally impairs a matched task that required retention of list item identity. Experiment 3 demonstrated that manual tapping produces a similar pattern of impairment to that of chewing gum. These results clearly qualify the assertion that chewing gum improves short-term memory. They also pose a problem for short-term memory theories asserting that forgetting is based on domain-specific interference given that chewing does not interfere with verbal memory any more than tapping. It is suggested that tapping and chewing reduce the general capacity to process sequences.

Assessment and treatment of short-term and working memory impairments in stroke aphasia: a practical tutorial.

PubMed

Salis, Christos; Kelly, Helen; Code, Chris

2015-01-01

Aphasia following stroke refers to impairments that affect the comprehension and expression of spoken and/or written language, and co-occurring cognitive deficits are common. In this paper we focus on short-term and working memory impairments that impact on the ability to retain and manipulate auditory-verbal information. Evidence from diverse paradigms (large group studies, case studies) report close links between short-term/working memory and language functioning in aphasia. This evidence leads to the hypothesis that treating such memory impairments would improve language functioning. This link has only recently been acknowledged in aphasia treatment but has not been embraced widely by clinicians. To examine the association between language, and short-term and working memory impairments in aphasia. To describe practical ways of assessing short-term and working memory functioning that could be used in clinical practice. To discuss and critically appraise treatments of short-term and working memory reported in the literature. Taking a translational research approach, this paper provides clinicians with current evidence from the literature and practical information on how to assess and treat short-term and working memory impairments in people with aphasia. Published treatments of short-term and/or working memory in post-stroke aphasia are discussed through a narrative review. This paper provides the following. A theoretical rationale for adopting short-term and working memory treatments in aphasia. It highlights issues in differentially diagnosing between short-term, working memory disorders and other concomitant impairments, e.g. apraxia of speech. It describes short-term and working memory assessments with practical considerations for use with people with aphasia. It also offers a description of published treatments in terms of participants, treatments and outcomes. Finally, it critically appraises the current evidence base relating to the treatment of short-term

Pigeon visual short-term memory directly compared to primates.

PubMed

Wright, Anthony A; Elmore, L Caitlin

2016-02-01

Three pigeons were trained to remember arrays of 2-6 colored squares and detect which of two squares had changed color to test their visual short-term memory. Procedures (e.g., stimuli, displays, viewing times, delays) were similar to those used to test monkeys and humans. Following extensive training, pigeons performed slightly better than similarly trained monkeys, but both animal species were considerably less accurate than humans with the same array sizes (2, 4 and 6 items). Pigeons and monkeys showed calculated memory capacities of one item or less, whereas humans showed a memory capacity of 2.5 items. Despite the differences in calculated memory capacities, the pigeons' memory results, like those from monkeys and humans, were all well characterized by an inverse power-law function fit to d' values for the five display sizes. This characterization provides a simple, straightforward summary of the fundamental processing of visual short-term memory (how visual short-term memory declines with memory load) that emphasizes species similarities based upon similar functional relationships. By closely matching pigeon testing parameters to those of monkeys and humans, these similar functional relationships suggest similar underlying processes of visual short-term memory in pigeons, monkeys and humans. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Short-term memory deficits correlate with hippocampal-thalamic functional connectivity alterations following acute sleep restriction.

PubMed

Chengyang, Li; Daqing, Huang; Jianlin, Qi; Haisheng, Chang; Qingqing, Meng; Jin, Wang; Jiajia, Liu; Enmao, Ye; Yongcong, Shao; Xi, Zhang

2017-08-01

Acute sleep restriction heavily influences cognitive function, affecting executive processes such as attention, response inhibition, and memory. Previous neuroimaging studies have suggested a link between hippocampal activity and short-term memory function. However, the specific contribution of the hippocampus to the decline of short-term memory following sleep restriction has yet to be established. In the current study, we utilized resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the association between hippocampal functional connectivity (FC) and the decline of short-term memory following total sleep deprivation (TSD). Twenty healthy adult males aged 20.9 ± 2.3 years (age range, 18-24 years) were enrolled in a within-subject crossover study. Short-term memory and FC were assessed using a Delay-matching short-term memory test and a resting-state fMRI scan before and after TSD. Seed-based correlation analysis was performed using fMRI data for the left and right hippocampus to identify differences in hippocampal FC following TSD. Subjects demonstrated reduced alertness and a decline in short-term memory performance following TSD. Moreover, fMRI analysis identified reduced hippocampal FC with the superior frontal gyrus (SFG), temporal regions, and supplementary motor area. In addition, an increase in FC between the hippocampus and bilateral thalamus was observed, the extent of which correlated with short-term memory performance following TSD. Our findings indicate that the disruption of hippocampal-cortical connectivity is linked to the decline in short-term memory observed after acute sleep restriction. Such results provide further evidence that support the cognitive impairment model of sleep deprivation.

Robust short-term memory without synaptic learning.

PubMed

Johnson, Samuel; Marro, J; Torres, Joaquín J

2013-01-01

Short-term memory in the brain cannot in general be explained the way long-term memory can--as a gradual modification of synaptic weights--since it takes place too quickly. Theories based on some form of cellular bistability, however, do not seem able to account for the fact that noisy neurons can collectively store information in a robust manner. We show how a sufficiently clustered network of simple model neurons can be instantly induced into metastable states capable of retaining information for a short time (a few seconds). The mechanism is robust to different network topologies and kinds of neural model. This could constitute a viable means available to the brain for sensory and/or short-term memory with no need of synaptic learning. Relevant phenomena described by neurobiology and psychology, such as local synchronization of synaptic inputs and power-law statistics of forgetting avalanches, emerge naturally from this mechanism, and we suggest possible experiments to test its viability in more biological settings.

Competitive short-term and long-term memory processes in spatial habituation.

PubMed

Sanderson, David J; Bannerman, David M

2011-04-01

Exposure to a spatial location leads to habituation of exploration such that, in a novelty preference test, rodents subsequently prefer exploring a novel location to the familiar location. According to Wagner's (1981) theory of memory, short-term and long-term habituation are caused by separate and sometimes opponent processes. In the present study, this dual-process account of memory was tested. Mice received a series of exposure training trials to a location before receiving a novelty preference test. The novelty preference was greater when tested after a short, rather than a long, interval. In contrast, the novelty preference was weaker when exposure training trials were separated by a short, rather than a long interval. Furthermore, it was found that long-term habituation was determined by the independent effects of the amount of exposure training and the number of exposure training trials when factors such as the intertrial interval and the cumulative intertrial interval were controlled. A final experiment demonstrated that a long-term reduction of exploration could be caused by a negative priming effect due to associations formed during exploration. These results provide evidence against a single-process account of habituation and suggest that spatial habituation is determined by both short-term, recency-based memory and long-term, incrementally strengthened memory.

Two Distinct Origins of Long-Term Learning Effects in Verbal Short-Term Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Majerus, Steve; Perez, Trecy Martinez; Oberauer, Klaus

2012-01-01

Verbal short-term memory (STM) is highly sensitive to learning effects: digit sequences or nonword sequences which have been rendered more familiar via repeated exposure are recalled more accurately. In this study we show that sublist-level, incidental learning of item co-occurrence regularities affects immediate serial recall of words and…

Verbal short-term memory and vocabulary learning in polyglots.

PubMed

Papagno, C; Vallar, G

1995-02-01

Polyglot and non-polyglot Italian subjects were given tests assessing verbal (phonological) and visuo-spatial short-term and long-term memory, general intelligence, and vocabulary knowledge in their native language. Polyglots had a superior level of performance in verbal short-term memory tasks (auditory digit span and nonword repetition) and in a paired-associate learning test, which assessed the subjects' ability to acquire new (Russian) words. By contrast, the two groups had comparable performance levels in tasks assessing general intelligence, visuo-spatial short-term memory and learning, and paired-associate learning of Italian words. These findings, which are in line with neuropsychological and developmental evidence, as well as with data from normal subjects, suggest a close relationship between the capacity of phonological memory and the acquisition of foreign languages.

Short-term memory in autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Poirier, Marie; Martin, Jonathan S; Gaigg, Sebastian B; Bowler, Dermot M

2011-02-01

Three experiments examined verbal short-term memory in comparison and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) participants. Experiment 1 involved forward and backward digit recall. Experiment 2 used a standard immediate serial recall task where, contrary to the digit-span task, items (words) were not repeated from list to list. Hence, this task called more heavily on item memory. Experiment 3 tested short-term order memory with an order recognition test: Each word list was repeated with or without the position of 2 adjacent items swapped. The ASD group showed poorer performance in all 3 experiments. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that group differences were due to memory for the order of the items, not to memory for the items themselves. Confirming these findings, the results of Experiment 3 showed that the ASD group had more difficulty detecting a change in the temporal sequence of the items. (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

Working Memory and Short-Term Memory Abilities in Accomplished Multilinguals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Biedron, Adriana; Szczepaniak, Anna

2012-01-01

The role of short-term memory and working memory in accomplished multilinguals was investigated. Twenty-eight accomplished multilinguals were compared to 36 mainstream philology students. The following instruments were used in the study: three memory subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale (Digit Span, Digit-Symbol Coding, and Arithmetic,…

False memory for face in short-term memory and neural activity in human amygdala.

PubMed

Iidaka, Tetsuya; Harada, Tokiko; Sadato, Norihiro

2014-12-03

Human memory is often inaccurate. Similar to words and figures, new faces are often recognized as seen or studied items in long- and short-term memory tests; however, the neural mechanisms underlying this false memory remain elusive. In a previous fMRI study using morphed faces and a standard false memory paradigm, we found that there was a U-shaped response curve of the amygdala to old, new, and lure items. This indicates that the amygdala is more active in response to items that are salient (hit and correct rejection) compared to items that are less salient (false alarm), in terms of memory retrieval. In the present fMRI study, we determined whether the false memory for faces occurs within the short-term memory range (a few seconds), and assessed which neural correlates are involved in veridical and illusory memories. Nineteen healthy participants were scanned by 3T MRI during a short-term memory task using morphed faces. The behavioral results indicated that the occurrence of false memories was within the short-term range. We found that the amygdala displayed a U-shaped response curve to memory items, similar to those observed in our previous study. These results suggest that the amygdala plays a common role in both long- and short-term false memory for faces. We made the following conclusions: First, the amygdala is involved in detecting the saliency of items, in addition to fear, and supports goal-oriented behavior by modulating memory. Second, amygdala activity and response time might be related with a subject's response criterion for similar faces. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Short-term memory for order but not for item information is impaired in developmental dyslexia.

PubMed

Hachmann, Wibke M; Bogaerts, Louisa; Szmalec, Arnaud; Woumans, Evy; Duyck, Wouter; Job, Remo

2014-07-01

Recent findings suggest that people with dyslexia experience difficulties with the learning of serial order information during the transition from short- to long-term memory (Szmalec et al. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition 37(5): 1270-1279, 2011). At the same time, models of short-term memory increasingly incorporate a distinction of order and item processing (Majerus et al. Cognition 107: 395-419, 2008). The current study is aimed to investigate whether serial order processing deficiencies in dyslexia can be traced back to a selective impairment of short-term memory for serial order and whether this impairment also affects processing beyond the verbal domain. A sample of 26 adults with dyslexia and a group of age and IQ-matched controls participated in a 2 × 2 × 2 experiment in which we assessed short-term recognition performance for order and item information, using both verbal and nonverbal material. Our findings indicate that, irrespective of the type of material, participants with dyslexia recalled the individual items with the same accuracy as the matched control group, whereas the ability to recognize the serial order in which those items were presented appeared to be affected in the dyslexia group. We conclude that dyslexia is characterized by a selective impairment of short-term memory for serial order, but not for item information, and discuss the integration of these findings into current theoretical views on dyslexia and its associated dysfunctions.

Short-term memory, executive control, and children's route learning.

PubMed

Purser, Harry R M; Farran, Emily K; Courbois, Yannick; Lemahieu, Axelle; Mellier, Daniel; Sockeel, Pascal; Blades, Mark

2012-10-01

The aim of this study was to investigate route-learning ability in 67 children aged 5 to 11years and to relate route-learning performance to the components of Baddeley's model of working memory. Children carried out tasks that included measures of verbal and visuospatial short-term memory and executive control and also measures of verbal and visuospatial long-term memory; the route-learning task was conducted using a maze in a virtual environment. In contrast to previous research, correlations were found between both visuospatial and verbal memory tasks-the Corsi task, short-term pattern span, digit span, and visuospatial long-term memory-and route-learning performance. However, further analyses indicated that these relationships were mediated by executive control demands that were common to the tasks, with long-term memory explaining additional unique variance in route learning. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Qualitative similarities in the visual short-term memory of pigeons and people.

PubMed

Gibson, Brett; Wasserman, Edward; Luck, Steven J

2011-10-01

Visual short-term memory plays a key role in guiding behavior, and individual differences in visual short-term memory capacity are strongly predictive of higher cognitive abilities. To provide a broader evolutionary context for understanding this memory system, we directly compared the behavior of pigeons and humans on a change detection task. Although pigeons had a lower storage capacity and a higher lapse rate than humans, both species stored multiple items in short-term memory and conformed to the same basic performance model. Thus, despite their very different evolutionary histories and neural architectures, pigeons and humans have functionally similar visual short-term memory systems, suggesting that the functional properties of visual short-term memory are subject to similar selective pressures across these distant species.

Short-term memory in networks of dissociated cortical neurons.

PubMed

Dranias, Mark R; Ju, Han; Rajaram, Ezhilarasan; VanDongen, Antonius M J

2013-01-30

Short-term memory refers to the ability to store small amounts of stimulus-specific information for a short period of time. It is supported by both fading and hidden memory processes. Fading memory relies on recurrent activity patterns in a neuronal network, whereas hidden memory is encoded using synaptic mechanisms, such as facilitation, which persist even when neurons fall silent. We have used a novel computational and optogenetic approach to investigate whether these same memory processes hypothesized to support pattern recognition and short-term memory in vivo, exist in vitro. Electrophysiological activity was recorded from primary cultures of dissociated rat cortical neurons plated on multielectrode arrays. Cultures were transfected with ChannelRhodopsin-2 and optically stimulated using random dot stimuli. The pattern of neuronal activity resulting from this stimulation was analyzed using classification algorithms that enabled the identification of stimulus-specific memories. Fading memories for different stimuli, encoded in ongoing neural activity, persisted and could be distinguished from each other for as long as 1 s after stimulation was terminated. Hidden memories were detected by altered responses of neurons to additional stimulation, and this effect persisted longer than 1 s. Interestingly, network bursts seem to eliminate hidden memories. These results are similar to those that have been reported from similar experiments in vivo and demonstrate that mechanisms of information processing and short-term memory can be studied using cultured neuronal networks, thereby setting the stage for therapeutic applications using this platform.

Holding multiple items in short term memory: a neural mechanism.

PubMed

Rolls, Edmund T; Dempere-Marco, Laura; Deco, Gustavo

2013-01-01

Human short term memory has a capacity of several items maintained simultaneously. We show how the number of short term memory representations that an attractor network modeling a cortical local network can simultaneously maintain active is increased by using synaptic facilitation of the type found in the prefrontal cortex. We have been able to maintain 9 short term memories active simultaneously in integrate-and-fire simulations where the proportion of neurons in each population, the sparseness, is 0.1, and have confirmed the stability of such a system with mean field analyses. Without synaptic facilitation the system can maintain many fewer memories active in the same network. The system operates because of the effectively increased synaptic strengths formed by the synaptic facilitation just for those pools to which the cue is applied, and then maintenance of this synaptic facilitation in just those pools when the cue is removed by the continuing neuronal firing in those pools. The findings have implications for understanding how several items can be maintained simultaneously in short term memory, how this may be relevant to the implementation of language in the brain, and suggest new approaches to understanding and treating the decline in short term memory that can occur with normal aging.

Holding Multiple Items in Short Term Memory: A Neural Mechanism

PubMed Central

Rolls, Edmund T.; Dempere-Marco, Laura; Deco, Gustavo

2013-01-01

Human short term memory has a capacity of several items maintained simultaneously. We show how the number of short term memory representations that an attractor network modeling a cortical local network can simultaneously maintain active is increased by using synaptic facilitation of the type found in the prefrontal cortex. We have been able to maintain 9 short term memories active simultaneously in integrate-and-fire simulations where the proportion of neurons in each population, the sparseness, is 0.1, and have confirmed the stability of such a system with mean field analyses. Without synaptic facilitation the system can maintain many fewer memories active in the same network. The system operates because of the effectively increased synaptic strengths formed by the synaptic facilitation just for those pools to which the cue is applied, and then maintenance of this synaptic facilitation in just those pools when the cue is removed by the continuing neuronal firing in those pools. The findings have implications for understanding how several items can be maintained simultaneously in short term memory, how this may be relevant to the implementation of language in the brain, and suggest new approaches to understanding and treating the decline in short term memory that can occur with normal aging. PMID:23613789

Orthographic Structure and Reading Experience Affect the Transfer from Iconic to Short Term Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lefton, Lester A.; Spragins, Anne B.

1974-01-01

The basic hypothesis of these experiments was that the processing strategy for the transfer of alphabetic material from iconic storage to short-term memory involves a sequential left-to-right factor that develops with increases in experience with reading. (Author)

Frequency-specific insight into short-term memory capacity.

PubMed

Feurra, Matteo; Galli, Giulia; Pavone, Enea Francesco; Rossi, Alessandro; Rossi, Simone

2016-07-01

The digit span is one of the most widely used memory tests in clinical and experimental neuropsychology for reliably measuring short-term memory capacity. In the forward version, sequences of digits of increasing length have to be reproduced in the order in which they are presented, whereas in the backward version items must be reproduced in the reversed order. Here, we assessed whether transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) increases the memory span for digits of young and midlife adults. Imperceptibly weak electrical currents in the alpha (10 Hz), beta (20 Hz), theta (5 Hz), and gamma (40 Hz) range, as well as a sham stimulation, were delivered over the left posterior parietal cortex, a cortical region thought to sustain maintenance processes in short-term memory through oscillatory brain activity in the beta range. We showed a frequency-specific effect of beta-tACS that robustly increased the forward memory span of young, but not middle-aged, healthy individuals. The effect correlated with age: the younger the subjects, the greater the benefit arising from parietal beta stimulation. Our results provide evidence of a short-term memory capacity improvement in young adults by online frequency-specific tACS application. Copyright © 2016 the American Physiological Society.

Attention Problems, Phonological Short-Term Memory, and Visuospatial Short-Term Memory: Differential Effects on Near- and Long-Term Scholastic Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sarver, Dustin E.; Rapport, Mark D.; Kofler, Michael J.; Scanlan, Sean W.; Raiker, Joseph S.; Altro, Thomas A.; Bolden, Jennifer

2012-01-01

The current study examined individual differences in children's phonological and visuospatial short-term memory as potential mediators of the relationship among attention problems and near- and long-term scholastic achievement. Nested structural equation models revealed that teacher-reported attention problems were associated negatively with…

Visual Short-Term Memory in Low IQ Adult Functional Illiterates.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fischer, Joan

The purposes of this study were to determine if differences in acquisition and retention existed between low IQ adults and normal twelve-year-olds, and to discover if differences in acquisition and retention of low IQ adults were affected by contrast conditions. Procedures established by Mahoney when he investigated visual short-term memory in…

Short-term memory in zebrafish (Danio rerio).

PubMed

Jia, Jason; Fernandes, Yohaan; Gerlai, Robert

2014-08-15

Learning and memory represent perhaps the most complex behavioral phenomena. Although their underlying mechanisms have been extensively analyzed, only a fraction of the potential molecular components have been identified. The zebrafish has been proposed as a screening tool with which mechanisms of complex brain functions may be systematically uncovered. However, as a relative newcomer in behavioral neuroscience, the zebrafish has not been well characterized for its cognitive and mnemonic features, thus learning and/or memory screens with adults have not been feasible. Here we study short-term memory of adult zebrafish. We show animated images of conspecifics (the stimulus) to the experimental subject during 1 min intervals on ten occasions separated by different (2, 4, 8 or 16 min long) inter-stimulus intervals (ISI), a between subject experimental design. We quantify the distance of the subject from the image presentation screen during each stimulus presentation interval, during each of the 1-min post-stimulus intervals immediately following the stimulus presentations and during each of the 1-min intervals furthest away from the last stimulus presentation interval and just before the next interval (pre-stimulus interval), respectively. Our results demonstrate significant retention of short-term memory even in the longest ISI group but suggest no acquisition of reference memory. Because in the employed paradigm both stimulus presentation and behavioral response quantification is computer automated, we argue that high-throughput screening for drugs or mutations that alter short-term memory performance of adult zebrafish is now becoming feasible. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Acute Sleep Deprivation Blocks Short- and Long-Term Operant Memory in Aplysia

PubMed Central

Krishnan, Harini C.; Gandour, Catherine E.; Ramos, Joshua L.; Wrinkle, Mariah C.; Sanchez-Pacheco, Joseph J.; Lyons, Lisa C.

2016-01-01

Study Objectives: Insufficient sleep in individuals appears increasingly common due to the demands of modern work schedules and technology use. Consequently, there is a growing need to understand the interactions between sleep deprivation and memory. The current study determined the effects of acute sleep deprivation on short and long-term associative memory using the marine mollusk Aplysia californica, a relatively simple model system well known for studies of learning and memory. Methods: Aplysia were sleep deprived for 9 hours using context changes and tactile stimulation either prior to or after training for the operant learning paradigm, learning that food is inedible (LFI). The effects of sleep deprivation on short-term (STM) and long-term memory (LTM) were assessed. Results: Acute sleep deprivation prior to LFI training impaired the induction of STM and LTM with persistent effects lasting at least 24 h. Sleep deprivation immediately after training blocked the consolidation of LTM. However, sleep deprivation following the period of molecular consolidation did not affect memory recall. Memory impairments were independent of handling-induced stress, as daytime handled control animals demonstrated no memory deficits. Additional training immediately after sleep deprivation failed to rescue the induction of memory, but additional training alleviated the persistent impairment in memory induction when training occurred 24 h following sleep deprivation. Conclusions: Acute sleep deprivation inhibited the induction and consolidation, but not the recall of memory. These behavioral studies establish Aplysia as an effective model system for studying the interactions between sleep and memory formation. Citation: Krishnan HC, Gandour CE, Ramos JL, Wrinkle MC, Sanchez-Pacheco JJ, Lyons LC. Acute sleep deprivation blocks short- and long-term operant memory in Aplysia. SLEEP 2016;39(12):2161–2171. PMID:27748243

Retrospective attention in short-term memory has a lasting effect on long-term memory across age.

PubMed

Strunk, Jonathan; Morgan, Lauren; Reaves, Sarah; Verhaeghen, Paul; Duarte, Audrey

2018-04-13

Declines in both short- and long-term memory are typical of healthy aging. Recent findings suggest that retrodictive attentional cues ("retro-cues") that indicate the location of to-be-probed items in short-term memory (STM) have a lasting impact on long-term memory (LTM) performance in young adults. Whether older adults can also use retro-cues to facilitate both STM and LTM is unknown. Young and older adults performed a visual STM task in which spatially informative retro-cues or non-informative neutral-cues were presented during STM maintenance of real-world objects. We tested participants' memory at both STM and LTM delays for objects that were previously cued with retrodictive or neutral cues during STM order to measure the lasting impact of retrospective attention on LTM. Older adults showed reduced STM and LTM capacity compared to young adults. However, they showed similar magnitude retro-cue memory benefits as young adults at both STM and LTM delays. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate whether retro-cues in STM facilitate the encoding of objects into LTM such that they are more likely to be subsequently retrieved by older adults. Our results support the idea that retrospective attention can be an effective means by which older adults can improve their short and long-term memory performance, even in the context of reduced memory capacity.

Working memory training improves visual short-term memory capacity.

PubMed

Schwarb, Hillary; Nail, Jayde; Schumacher, Eric H

2016-01-01

Since antiquity, philosophers, theologians, and scientists have been interested in human memory. However, researchers today are still working to understand the capabilities, boundaries, and architecture. While the storage capabilities of long-term memory are seemingly unlimited (Bahrick, J Exp Psychol 113:1-2, 1984), working memory, or the ability to maintain and manipulate information held in memory, seems to have stringent capacity limits (e.g., Cowan, Behav Brain Sci 24:87-185, 2001). Individual differences, however, do exist and these differences can often predict performance on a wide variety of tasks (cf. Engle What is working-memory capacity? 297-314, 2001). Recently, researchers have promoted the enticing possibility that simple behavioral training can expand the limits of working memory which indeed may also lead to improvements on other cognitive processes as well (cf. Morrison and Chein, Psychol Bull Rev 18:46-60 2011). However, initial investigations across a wide variety of cognitive functions have produced mixed results regarding the transferability of training-related improvements. Across two experiments, the present research focuses on the benefit of working memory training on visual short-term memory capacity-a cognitive process that has received little attention in the training literature. Data reveal training-related improvement of global measures of visual short-term memory as well as of measures of the independent sub-processes that contribute to capacity (Awh et al., Psychol Sci 18(7):622-628, 2007). These results suggest that the ability to inhibit irrelevant information within and between trials is enhanced via n-back training allowing for selective improvement on untrained tasks. Additionally, we highlight a potential limitation of the standard adaptive training procedure and propose a modified design to ensure variability in the training environment.

Short-term plasticity as a neural mechanism supporting memory and attentional functions.

PubMed

Jääskeläinen, Iiro P; Ahveninen, Jyrki; Andermann, Mark L; Belliveau, John W; Raij, Tommi; Sams, Mikko

2011-11-08

Based on behavioral studies, several relatively distinct perceptual and cognitive functions have been defined in cognitive psychology such as sensory memory, short-term memory, and selective attention. Here, we review evidence suggesting that some of these functions may be supported by shared underlying neuronal mechanisms. Specifically, we present, based on an integrative review of the literature, a hypothetical model wherein short-term plasticity, in the form of transient center-excitatory and surround-inhibitory modulations, constitutes a generic processing principle that supports sensory memory, short-term memory, involuntary attention, selective attention, and perceptual learning. In our model, the size and complexity of receptive fields/level of abstraction of neural representations, as well as the length of temporal receptive windows, increases as one steps up the cortical hierarchy. Consequently, the type of input (bottom-up vs. top down) and the level of cortical hierarchy that the inputs target, determine whether short-term plasticity supports purely sensory vs. semantic short-term memory or attentional functions. Furthermore, we suggest that rather than discrete memory systems, there are continuums of memory representations from short-lived sensory ones to more abstract longer-duration representations, such as those tapped by behavioral studies of short-term memory. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Assessing the associative deficit of older adults in long-term and short-term/working memory.

PubMed

Chen, Tina; Naveh-Benjamin, Moshe

2012-09-01

Older adults exhibit a deficit in associative long-term memory relative to younger adults. However, the literature is inconclusive regarding whether this deficit is attenuated in short-term/working memory. To elucidate the issue, three experiments assessed younger and older adults' item and interitem associative memory and the effects of several variables that might potentially contribute to the inconsistent pattern of results in previous studies. In Experiment 1, participants were tested on item and associative recognition memory with both long-term and short-term retention intervals in a single, continuous recognition paradigm. There was an associative deficit for older adults in the short-term and long-term intervals. Using only short-term intervals, Experiment 2 utilized mixed and blocked test designs to examine the effect of test event salience. Blocking the test did not attenuate the age-related associative deficit seen in the mixed test blocks. Finally, an age-related associative deficit was found in Experiment 3, under both sequential and simultaneous presentation conditions. Even while accounting for some methodological issues, the associative deficit of older adults is evident in short-term/working memory.

Identity modulates short-term memory for facial emotion.

PubMed

Galster, Murray; Kahana, Michael J; Wilson, Hugh R; Sekuler, Robert

2009-12-01

For some time, the relationship between processing of facial expression and facial identity has been in dispute. Using realistic synthetic faces, we reexamined this relationship for both perception and short-term memory. In Experiment 1, subjects tried to identify whether the emotional expression on a probe stimulus face matched the emotional expression on either of two remembered faces that they had just seen. The results showed that identity strongly influenced recognition short-term memory for emotional expression. In Experiment 2, subjects' similarity/dissimilarity judgments were transformed by multidimensional scaling (MDS) into a 2-D description of the faces' perceptual representations. Distances among stimuli in the MDS representation, which showed a strong linkage of emotional expression and facial identity, were good predictors of correct and false recognitions obtained previously in Experiment 1. The convergence of the results from Experiments 1 and 2 suggests that the overall structure and configuration of faces' perceptual representations may parallel their representation in short-term memory and that facial identity modulates the representation of facial emotion, both in perception and in memory. The stimuli from this study may be downloaded from http://cabn.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.

Identity modulates short-term memory for facial emotion

PubMed Central

Galster, Murray; Kahana, Michael J.; Wilson, Hugh R.; Sekuler, Robert

2010-01-01

For some time, the relationship between processing of facial expression and facial identity has been in dispute. Using realistic synthetic faces, we reexamined this relationship for both perception and short-term memory. In Experiment 1, subjects tried to identify whether the emotional expression on a probe stimulus face matched the emotional expression on either of two remembered faces that they had just seen. The results showed that identity strongly influenced recognition short-term memory for emotional expression. In Experiment 2, subjects’ similarity/dissimilarity judgments were transformed by multidimensional scaling (MDS) into a 2-D description of the faces’ perceptual representations. Distances among stimuli in the MDS representation, which showed a strong linkage of emotional expression and facial identity, were good predictors of correct and false recognitions obtained previously in Experiment 1. The convergence of the results from Experiments 1 and 2 suggests that the overall structure and configuration of faces’ perceptual representations may parallel their representation in short-term memory and that facial identity modulates the representation of facial emotion, both in perception and in memory. The stimuli from this study may be downloaded from http://cabn.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental. PMID:19897794

Dynamic visual noise reduces confidence in short-term memory for visual information.

PubMed

Kemps, Eva; Andrade, Jackie

2012-05-01

Previous research has shown effects of the visual interference technique, dynamic visual noise (DVN), on visual imagery, but not on visual short-term memory, unless retention of precise visual detail is required. This study tested the prediction that DVN does also affect retention of gross visual information, specifically by reducing confidence. Participants performed a matrix pattern memory task with three retention interval interference conditions (DVN, static visual noise and no interference control) that varied from trial to trial. At recall, participants indicated whether or not they were sure of their responses. As in previous research, DVN did not impair recall accuracy or latency on the task, but it did reduce recall confidence relative to static visual noise and no interference. We conclude that DVN does distort visual representations in short-term memory, but standard coarse-grained recall measures are insensitive to these distortions.

C. elegans positive butanone learning, short-term, and long-term associative memory assays.

PubMed

Kauffman, Amanda; Parsons, Lance; Stein, Geneva; Wills, Airon; Kaletsky, Rachel; Murphy, Coleen

2011-03-11

or agar punches) are removed by manual selection. The software then estimates the size of single worm by ignoring regions that are above a specified maximum size and taking the median size of the remaining regions. The number of worms is then estimated by dividing the total area identified as occupied by worms by the estimated size of a single worm. We have found that learning and short- and long-term memory can be distinguished, and that these processes share similar key molecules with higher organisms. Our assays can quickly test novel candidate genes or molecules that affect learning and short- or long-term memory in C. elegans that are relevant across species.

Conversion of short-term to long-term memory in the novel object recognition paradigm.

PubMed

Moore, Shannon J; Deshpande, Kaivalya; Stinnett, Gwen S; Seasholtz, Audrey F; Murphy, Geoffrey G

2013-10-01

It is well-known that stress can significantly impact learning; however, whether this effect facilitates or impairs the resultant memory depends on the characteristics of the stressor. Investigation of these dynamics can be confounded by the role of the stressor in motivating performance in a task. Positing a cohesive model of the effect of stress on learning and memory necessitates elucidating the consequences of stressful stimuli independently from task-specific functions. Therefore, the goal of this study was to examine the effect of manipulating a task-independent stressor (elevated light level) on short-term and long-term memory in the novel object recognition paradigm. Short-term memory was elicited in both low light and high light conditions, but long-term memory specifically required high light conditions during the acquisition phase (familiarization trial) and was independent of the light level during retrieval (test trial). Additionally, long-term memory appeared to be independent of stress-mediated glucocorticoid release, as both low and high light produced similar levels of plasma corticosterone, which further did not correlate with subsequent memory performance. Finally, both short-term and long-term memory showed no savings between repeated experiments suggesting that this novel object recognition paradigm may be useful for longitudinal studies, particularly when investigating treatments to stabilize or enhance weak memories in neurodegenerative diseases or during age-related cognitive decline. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Conversion of short-term to long-term memory in the novel object recognition paradigm

PubMed Central

Moore, Shannon J.; Deshpande, Kaivalya; Stinnett, Gwen S.; Seasholtz, Audrey F.; Murphy, Geoffrey G.

2013-01-01

It is well-known that stress can significantly impact learning; however, whether this effect facilitates or impairs the resultant memory depends on the characteristics of the stressor. Investigation of these dynamics can be confounded by the role of the stressor in motivating performance in a task. Positing a cohesive model of the effect of stress on learning and memory necessitates elucidating the consequences of stressful stimuli independently from task-specific functions. Therefore, the goal of this study was to examine the effect of manipulating a task-independent stressor (elevated light level) on short-term and long-term memory in the novel object recognition paradigm. Short-term memory was elicited in both low light and high light conditions, but long-term memory specifically required high light conditions during the acquisition phase (familiarization trial) and was independent of the light level during retrieval (test trial). Additionally, long-term memory appeared to be independent of stress-mediated glucocorticoid release, as both low and high light produced similar levels of plasma corticosterone, which further did not correlate with subsequent memory performance. Finally, both short-term and long-term memory showed no savings between repeated experiments suggesting that this novel object recognition paradigm may be useful for longitudinal studies, particularly when investigating treatments to stabilize or enhance weak memories in neurodegenerative diseases or during age-related cognitive decline. PMID:23835143

Writing and overwriting short-term memory

PubMed Central

Killeen, Peter R.

2008-01-01

An integrative account of short-term memory is based on data from pigeons trained to report the majority color in a sequence of lights. Performance showed strong recency effects, was invariant over changes in the interstimulus interval, and improved with increases in the intertrial interval. A compound model of binomial variance around geometrically decreasing memory described the data; a logit transformation rendered it isomorphic with other memory models. The model was generalized for variance in the parameters, where it was shown that averaging exponential and power functions from individuals or items with different decay rates generates new functions that are hyperbolic in time and in log time, respectively. The compound model provides a unified treatment of both the accrual and the dissipation of memory and is consistent with data from various experiments, including the choose-short bias in delayed recall, multielement stimuli, and Rubin and Wenzel’s (1996) meta-analyses of forgetting. PMID:11340865

Temporal Clustering and Sequencing in Short-Term Memory and Episodic Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farrell, Simon

2012-01-01

A model of short-term memory and episodic memory is presented, with the core assumptions that (a) people parse their continuous experience into episodic clusters and (b) items are clustered together in memory as episodes by binding information within an episode to a common temporal context. Along with the additional assumption that information…

Short-term memory to long-term memory transition in a nanoscale memristor.

PubMed

Chang, Ting; Jo, Sung-Hyun; Lu, Wei

2011-09-27

"Memory" is an essential building block in learning and decision-making in biological systems. Unlike modern semiconductor memory devices, needless to say, human memory is by no means eternal. Yet, forgetfulness is not always a disadvantage since it releases memory storage for more important or more frequently accessed pieces of information and is thought to be necessary for individuals to adapt to new environments. Eventually, only memories that are of significance are transformed from short-term memory into long-term memory through repeated stimulation. In this study, we show experimentally that the retention loss in a nanoscale memristor device bears striking resemblance to memory loss in biological systems. By stimulating the memristor with repeated voltage pulses, we observe an effect analogous to memory transition in biological systems with much improved retention time accompanied by additional structural changes in the memristor. We verify that not only the shape or the total number of stimuli is influential, but also the time interval between stimulation pulses (i.e., the stimulation rate) plays a crucial role in determining the effectiveness of the transition. The memory enhancement and transition of the memristor device was explained from the microscopic picture of impurity redistribution and can be qualitatively described by the same equations governing biological memories. © 2011 American Chemical Society

[Short-term memory characteristics of vibration intensity tactile perception on human wrist].

PubMed

Hao, Fei; Chen, Li-Juan; Lu, Wei; Song, Ai-Guo

2014-12-25

In this study, a recall experiment and a recognition experiment were designed to assess the human wrist's short-term memory characteristics of tactile perception on vibration intensity, by using a novel homemade vibrotactile display device based on the spatiotemporal combination vibration of multiple micro vibration motors as a test device. Based on the obtained experimental data, the short-term memory span, recognition accuracy and reaction time of vibration intensity were analyzed. From the experimental results, some important conclusions can be made: (1) The average short-term memory span of tactile perception on vibration intensity is 3 ± 1 items; (2) The greater difference between two adjacent discrete intensities of vibrotactile stimulation is defined, the better average short-term memory span human wrist gets; (3) There is an obvious difference of the average short-term memory span on vibration intensity between the male and female; (4) The mechanism of information extraction in short-term memory of vibrotactile display is to traverse the scanning process by comparison; (5) The recognition accuracy and reaction time performance of vibrotactile display compares unfavourably with that of visual and auditory. The results from this study are important for designing vibrotactile display coding scheme.

Order recall in verbal short-term memory: The role of semantic networks.

PubMed

Poirier, Marie; Saint-Aubin, Jean; Mair, Ali; Tehan, Gerry; Tolan, Anne

2015-04-01

In their recent article, Acheson, MacDonald, and Postle (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 37:44-59, 2011) made an important but controversial suggestion: They hypothesized that (a) semantic information has an effect on order information in short-term memory (STM) and (b) order recall in STM is based on the level of activation of items within the relevant lexico-semantic long-term memory (LTM) network. However, verbal STM research has typically led to the conclusion that factors such as semantic category have a large effect on the number of correctly recalled items, but little or no impact on order recall (Poirier & Saint-Aubin, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 48A:384-404, 1995; Saint-Aubin, Ouellette, & Poirier, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 12:171-177, 2005; Tse, Memory 17:874-891, 2009). Moreover, most formal models of short-term order memory currently suggest a separate mechanism for order coding-that is, one that is separate from item representation and not associated with LTM lexico-semantic networks. Both of the experiments reported here tested the predictions that we derived from Acheson et al. The findings show that, as predicted, manipulations aiming to affect the activation of item representations significantly impacted order memory.

Transfer of Information from Short- to Long-Term Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Modigliani, Vito; Seamon, John G.

1974-01-01

The present study examined current hypotheses concerning information transfer from short-term memory (STM) to long-term memory (LTM) using a Peterson STM task with word triplets presented over retention intervals of 0, 3, 6, 9, and 18 sec. (Editor)

Short-term memory binding deficits in Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Parra, Mario A; Abrahams, Sharon; Fabi, Katia; Logie, Robert; Luzzi, Simona; Della Sala, Sergio

2009-04-01

Alzheimer's disease impairs long term memories for related events (e.g. faces with names) more than for single events (e.g. list of faces or names). Whether or not this associative or 'binding' deficit is also found in short-term memory has not yet been explored. In two experiments we investigated binding deficits in verbal short-term memory in Alzheimer's disease. Experiment 1: 23 patients with Alzheimer's disease and 23 age and education matched healthy elderly were recruited. Participants studied visual arrays of objects (six for healthy elderly and four for Alzheimer's disease patients), colours (six for healthy elderly and four for Alzheimer's disease patients), unbound objects and colours (three for healthy elderly and two for Alzheimer's disease patients in each of the two categories), or objects bound with colours (three for healthy elderly and two for Alzheimer's disease patients). They were then asked to recall the items verbally. The memory of patients with Alzheimer's disease for objects bound with colours was significantly worse than for single or unbound features whereas healthy elderly's memory for bound and unbound features did not differ. Experiment 2: 21 Alzheimer's disease patients and 20 matched healthy elderly were recruited. Memory load was increased for the healthy elderly group to eight items in the conditions assessing memory for single or unbound features and to four items in the condition assessing memory for the binding of these features. For Alzheimer's disease patients the task remained the same. This manipulation permitted the performance to be equated across groups in the conditions assessing memory for single or unbound features. The impairment in Alzheimer's disease patients in recalling bound objects reported in Experiment 1 was replicated. The binding cost was greater than that observed in the healthy elderly group, who did not differ in their performance for bound and unbound features. Alzheimer's disease grossly impairs the

Short-term phonological memory in preschool children.

PubMed

Rodrigues, Amalia; Befi-Lopes, Debora Maria

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to design a short-term memory test, to describe quantitative performance in typically language developing children and to verify the relationship between the non-words repetition and oral phonological measure. The participants included 136 typically language developing children aged from 3 years to 6 years and 11 months old in this study, who were evaluated. The test consisted of 40 non-words of one, two, three, and four syllables. The subjects' repetitions were transcribed and the number of right answers was calculated for each age range. The effect of age was observed in the test, as well as the effect of length, only for disyllabic non-words. The performance in the non-word repetition task showed correlation with the oral phonology measure. The test designed in this research was able to verify the short-term memory in typically language developing children and the results showed correlation between this memory and phonological performance.

Acute Sleep Deprivation Blocks Short- and Long-Term Operant Memory in Aplysia.

PubMed

Krishnan, Harini C; Gandour, Catherine E; Ramos, Joshua L; Wrinkle, Mariah C; Sanchez-Pacheco, Joseph J; Lyons, Lisa C

2016-12-01

Insufficient sleep in individuals appears increasingly common due to the demands of modern work schedules and technology use. Consequently, there is a growing need to understand the interactions between sleep deprivation and memory. The current study determined the effects of acute sleep deprivation on short and long-term associative memory using the marine mollusk Aplysia californica , a relatively simple model system well known for studies of learning and memory. Aplysia were sleep deprived for 9 hours using context changes and tactile stimulation either prior to or after training for the operant learning paradigm, learning that food is inedible (LFI). The effects of sleep deprivation on short-term (STM) and long-term memory (LTM) were assessed. Acute sleep deprivation prior to LFI training impaired the induction of STM and LTM with persistent effects lasting at least 24 h. Sleep deprivation immediately after training blocked the consolidation of LTM. However, sleep deprivation following the period of molecular consolidation did not affect memory recall. Memory impairments were independent of handling-induced stress, as daytime handled control animals demonstrated no memory deficits. Additional training immediately after sleep deprivation failed to rescue the induction of memory, but additional training alleviated the persistent impairment in memory induction when training occurred 24 h following sleep deprivation. Acute sleep deprivation inhibited the induction and consolidation, but not the recall of memory. These behavioral studies establish Aplysia as an effective model system for studying the interactions between sleep and memory formation. © 2016 Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC.

Overwriting and intrusion in short-term memory.

PubMed

Bancroft, Tyler D; Jones, Jeffery A; Ensor, Tyler M; Hockley, William E; Servos, Philip

2016-04-01

Studies of interference in working and short-term memory suggest that irrelevant information may overwrite the contents of memory or intrude into memory. While some previous studies have reported greater interference when irrelevant information is similar to the contents of memory than when it is dissimilar, other studies have reported greater interference for dissimilar distractors than for similar distractors. In the present study, we find the latter effect in a paradigm that uses auditory tones as stimuli. We suggest that the effects of distractor similarity to memory contents are mediated by the type of information held in memory, particularly the complexity or simplicity of information.

Association between early attention-deficit/hyperactivity symptoms and current verbal and visuo-spatial short-term memory.

PubMed

Gau, Susan Shur-Fen; Chiang, Huey-Ling

2013-01-01

Deficits in short-term memory are common in adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but their current ADHD symptoms cannot well predict their short-term performance. Taking a developmental perspective, we wanted to clarify the association between ADHD symptoms at early childhood and short-term memory in late childhood and adolescence. The participants included 401 patients with a clinical diagnosis of DSM-IV ADHD, 213 siblings, and 176 unaffected controls aged 8-17 years (mean age, 12.02 ± 2.24). All participants and their mothers were interviewed using the Chinese Kiddie Epidemiologic version of the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia to obtain information about ADHD symptoms and other psychiatric disorders retrospectively, at an earlier age first, then currently. The participants were assessed with the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children--3rd edition, including Digit Span, and the Spatial working memory task of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery. Multi-level regression models were used for data analysis. Although crude analyses revealed that inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity symptoms significantly predicted deficits in short-term memory, only inattention symptoms had significant effects (all p<0.001) in a model that included all three ADHD symptoms. After further controlling for comorbidity, age of assessment, treatment with methylphenidate, and Full-scale IQ, the severity of childhood inattention symptoms was still significantly associated with worse verbal (p = 0.008) and spatial (p ranging from 0.017 to 0.002) short-term memory at the current assessment. Therefore, our findings suggest that earlier inattention symptoms are associated with impaired verbal and visuo-spatial short-term memory at a later development stage. Impaired short-term memory in adolescence can be detected earlier by screening for the severity of inattention in childhood. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights

A Revised Model of Short-Term Memory and Long-Term Learning of Verbal Sequences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burgess, Neil; Hitch, Graham J.

2006-01-01

The interaction between short- and long-term memory is studied within a model in which phonemic and (temporal) contextual information have separate influences on immediate verbal serial recall via connections with short- and long-term plasticity [Burgess, N., & Hitch, G.J. (1999). Memory for serial order: a network model of the phonological loop…

Randomized controlled trial evaluating the temporal effects of high-intensity exercise on learning, short-term and long-term memory, and prospective memory.

PubMed

Frith, Emily; Sng, Eveleen; Loprinzi, Paul D

2017-11-01

The broader purpose of this study was to examine the temporal effects of high-intensity exercise on learning, short-term and long-term retrospective memory and prospective memory. Among a sample of 88 young adult participants, 22 were randomized into one of four different groups: exercise before learning, control group, exercise during learning, and exercise after learning. The retrospective assessments (learning, short-term and long-term memory) were assessed using the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test. Long-term memory including a 20-min and 24-hr follow-up assessment. Prospective memory was assessed using a time-based procedure by having participants contact (via phone) the researchers at a follow-up time period. The exercise stimulus included a 15-min bout of progressive maximal exertion treadmill exercise. High-intensity exercise prior to memory encoding (vs. exercise during memory encoding or consolidation) was effective in enhancing long-term memory (for both 20-min and 24-h follow-up assessments). We did not observe a differential temporal effect of high-intensity exercise on short-term memory (immediate post-memory encoding), learning or prospective memory. The timing of high-intensity exercise may play an important role in facilitating long-term memory. © 2017 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Ordered Short-Term Memory Differs in Signers and Speakers: Implications for Models of Short-Term Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bavelier, Daphne; Newport, Elissa L.; Hall, Matt; Supalla, Ted; Boutla, Mrim

2008-01-01

Capacity limits in linguistic short-term memory (STM) are typically measured with forward span tasks in which participants are asked to recall lists of words in the order presented. Using such tasks, native signers of American Sign Language (ASL) exhibit smaller spans than native speakers ([Boutla, M., Supalla, T., Newport, E. L., & Bavelier, D.…

Sleep deprivation accelerates delay-related loss of visual short-term memories without affecting precision.

PubMed

Wee, Natalie; Asplund, Christopher L; Chee, Michael W L

2013-06-01

Visual short-term memory (VSTM) is an important measure of information processing capacity and supports many higher-order cognitive processes. We examined how sleep deprivation (SD) and maintenance duration interact to influence the number and precision of items in VSTM using an experimental design that limits the contribution of lapses at encoding. For each trial, participants attempted to maintain the location and color of three stimuli over a delay. After a retention interval of either 1 or 10 seconds, participants reported the color of the item at the cued location by selecting it on a color wheel. The probability of reporting the probed item, the precision of report, and the probability of reporting a nonprobed item were determined using a mixture-modeling analysis. Participants were studied twice in counterbalanced order, once after a night of normal sleep and once following a night of sleep deprivation. Sleep laboratory. Nineteen healthy college age volunteers (seven females) with regular sleep patterns. Approximately 24 hours of total SD. SD selectively reduced the number of integrated representations that can be retrieved after a delay, while leaving the precision of object information in the stored representations intact. Delay interacted with SD to lower the rate of successful recall. Visual short-term memory is compromised during sleep deprivation, an effect compounded by delay. However, when memories are retrieved, they tend to be intact.

On short-term memory of prefrontal cortex using near-infrared spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Chengjun; Gan, Zhuo; Gong, Hui; Luo, Qingming; Zeng, Shaoqun

2003-12-01

For studying prefrontal cortical function in short-term memory two tasks were designed. In task one, a plus expression appears on screen for 300 milliseconds every other 2 seconds and the subject is required to give it"s answer but not to remember it. In task two, an Arabic numeral presents on screen as the same frequency as in task one. While a number is present, the subject need adding it to the sum he got last time. As subjects, 26 children participated in the work. Blood volume changes(BVCs) of right prefrontal cortex(PC) under two cognitive tasks were examined using functional near infrared imaging(fNIRI), a noninvasive technique for localizing regional BVCs which correlate with neural activities. The BVCs caused by short-term memory for numbers were retrieved from BVCs by task one and task two. Results revealed that short-term memory is related to PC and the near-infrared spectroscopy(NIRS) can be used to study prefrontal cortical function in short-term memory.

Topographic contribution of early visual cortex to short-term memory consolidation: a transcranial magnetic stimulation study.

PubMed

van de Ven, Vincent; Jacobs, Christianne; Sack, Alexander T

2012-01-04

The neural correlates for retention of visual information in visual short-term memory are considered separate from those of sensory encoding. However, recent findings suggest that sensory areas may play a role also in short-term memory. We investigated the functional relevance, spatial specificity, and temporal characteristics of human early visual cortex in the consolidation of capacity-limited topographic visual memory using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Topographically specific TMS pulses were delivered over lateralized occipital cortex at 100, 200, or 400 ms into the retention phase of a modified change detection task with low or high memory loads. For the high but not the low memory load, we found decreased memory performance for memory trials in the visual field contralateral, but not ipsilateral to the side of TMS, when pulses were delivered at 200 ms into the retention interval. A behavioral version of the TMS experiment, in which a distractor stimulus (memory mask) replaced the TMS pulses, further corroborated these findings. Our findings suggest that retinotopic visual cortex contributes to the short-term consolidation of topographic visual memory during early stages of the retention of visual information. Further, TMS-induced interference decreased the strength (amplitude) of the memory representation, which most strongly affected the high memory load trials.

As the world turns: short-term human spatial memory in egocentric and allocentric coordinates.

PubMed

Banta Lavenex, Pamela; Lecci, Sandro; Prêtre, Vincent; Brandner, Catherine; Mazza, Christian; Pasquier, Jérôme; Lavenex, Pierre

2011-05-16

We aimed to determine whether human subjects' reliance on different sources of spatial information encoded in different frames of reference (i.e., egocentric versus allocentric) affects their performance, decision time and memory capacity in a short-term spatial memory task performed in the real world. Subjects were asked to play the Memory game (a.k.a. the Concentration game) without an opponent, in four different conditions that controlled for the subjects' reliance on egocentric and/or allocentric frames of reference for the elaboration of a spatial representation of the image locations enabling maximal efficiency. We report experimental data from young adult men and women, and describe a mathematical model to estimate human short-term spatial memory capacity. We found that short-term spatial memory capacity was greatest when an egocentric spatial frame of reference enabled subjects to encode and remember the image locations. However, when egocentric information was not reliable, short-term spatial memory capacity was greater and decision time shorter when an allocentric representation of the image locations with respect to distant objects in the surrounding environment was available, as compared to when only a spatial representation encoding the relationships between the individual images, independent of the surrounding environment, was available. Our findings thus further demonstrate that changes in viewpoint produced by the movement of images placed in front of a stationary subject is not equivalent to the movement of the subject around stationary images. We discuss possible limitations of classical neuropsychological and virtual reality experiments of spatial memory, which typically restrict the sensory information normally available to human subjects in the real world. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Prosodic Similarity Effects in Short-Term Memory in Developmental Dyslexia.

PubMed

Goswami, Usha; Barnes, Lisa; Mead, Natasha; Power, Alan James; Leong, Victoria

2016-11-01

Children with developmental dyslexia are characterized by phonological difficulties across languages. Classically, this 'phonological deficit' in dyslexia has been investigated with tasks using single-syllable words. Recently, however, several studies have demonstrated difficulties in prosodic awareness in dyslexia. Potential prosodic effects in short-term memory have not yet been investigated. Here we create a new instrument based on three-syllable words that vary in stress patterns, to investigate whether prosodic similarity (the same prosodic pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables) exerts systematic effects on short-term memory. We study participants with dyslexia and age-matched and younger reading-level-matched typically developing controls. We find that all participants, including dyslexic participants, show prosodic similarity effects in short-term memory. All participants exhibited better retention of words that differed in prosodic structure, although participants with dyslexia recalled fewer words accurately overall compared to age-matched controls. Individual differences in prosodic memory were predicted by earlier vocabulary abilities, by earlier sensitivity to syllable stress and by earlier phonological awareness. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of prosodic similarity effects in short-term memory. The implications of a prosodic similarity effect for theories of lexical representation and of dyslexia are discussed. © 2016 The Authors. Dyslexia published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. © 2016 The Authors. Dyslexia published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Placebo-mediated, Naloxone-sensitive suggestibility of short-term memory performance.

PubMed

Stern, Jair; Candia, Victor; Porchet, Roseline I; Krummenacher, Peter; Folkers, Gerd; Schedlowski, Manfred; Ettlin, Dominik A; Schönbächler, Georg

2011-03-01

Physiological studies of placebo-mediated suggestion have been recently performed beyond their traditional clinical context of pain and analgesia. Various neurotransmitter systems and immunological modulators have been used in successful placebo suggestions, including Dopamine, Cholecystokinin and, most extensively, opioids. We adhered to an established conceptual framework of placebo research and used the μ-opioid-antagonist Naloxone to test the applicability of this framework within a cognitive domain (e.g. memory) in healthy volunteers. Healthy men (n=62, age 29, SD=9) were required to perform a task-battery, including standardized and custom-designed memory tasks, to test short-term recall and delayed recognition. Tasks were performed twice, before and after intravenous injection of either NaCl (0.9%) or Naloxone (both 0.15 mg/kg), in a double-blind setting. While one group was given neutral information (S-), the other was told that it might receive a drug with suspected memory-boosting properties (S+). Objective and subjective indexes of memory performance and salivary cortisol (as a stress marker) were recorded during both runs and differences between groups were assessed. Short-term memory recall, but not delayed recognition, was objectively increased after placebo-mediated suggestion in the NaCl-group. Naloxone specifically blocked the suggestion effect without interfering with memory performance. These results were not affected when changes in salivary cortisol levels were considered. No reaction time changes, recorded to uncover unspecific attentional impairment, were seen. Placebo-mediated suggestion produced a training-independent, objective and Naloxone-sensitive increase in memory performance. These results indicate an opioid-mediated placebo effect within a circumscribed cognitive domain in healthy volunteers. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Hippocampal Protein Kinase C Signaling Mediates the Short-Term Memory Impairment Induced by Delta9-Tetrahydrocannabinol.

PubMed

Busquets-Garcia, Arnau; Gomis-González, Maria; Salgado-Mendialdúa, Victòria; Galera-López, Lorena; Puighermanal, Emma; Martín-García, Elena; Maldonado, Rafael; Ozaita, Andrés

2018-04-01

Cannabis affects cognitive performance through the activation of the endocannabinoid system, and the molecular mechanisms involved in this process are poorly understood. Using the novel object-recognition memory test in mice, we found that the main psychoactive component of cannabis, delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), alters short-term object-recognition memory specifically involving protein kinase C (PKC)-dependent signaling. Indeed, the systemic or intra-hippocampal pre-treatment with the PKC inhibitors prevented the short-term, but not the long-term, memory impairment induced by THC. In contrast, systemic pre-treatment with mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 inhibitors, known to block the amnesic-like effects of THC on long-term memory, did not modify such a short-term cognitive deficit. Immunoblot analysis revealed a transient increase in PKC signaling activity in the hippocampus after THC treatment. Thus, THC administration induced the phosphorylation of a specific Ser residue in the hydrophobic-motif at the C-terminal tail of several PKC isoforms. This significant immunoreactive band that paralleled cognitive performance did not match in size with the major PKC isoforms expressed in the hippocampus except for PKCθ. Moreover, THC transiently enhanced the phosphorylation of the postsynaptic calmodulin-binding protein neurogranin in a PKC dependent manner. These data demonstrate that THC alters short-term object-recognition memory through hippocampal PKC/neurogranin signaling.

Neural networks engaged in short-term memory rehearsal are disrupted by irrelevant speech in human subjects.

PubMed

Kopp, Franziska; Schröger, Erich; Lipka, Sigrid

2004-01-02

Rehearsal mechanisms in human short-term memory are increasingly understood in the light of both behavioural and neuroanatomical findings. However, little is known about the cooperation of participating brain structures and how such cooperations are affected when memory performance is disrupted. In this paper we use EEG coherence as a measure of synchronization to investigate rehearsal processes and their disruption by irrelevant speech in a delayed serial recall paradigm. Fronto-central and fronto-parietal theta (4-7.5 Hz), beta (13-20 Hz), and gamma (35-47 Hz) synchronizations are shown to be involved in our short-term memory task. Moreover, the impairment in serial recall due to irrelevant speech was preceded by a reduction of gamma band coherence. Results suggest that the irrelevant speech effect has its neural basis in the disruption of left-lateralized fronto-central networks. This stresses the importance of gamma band activity for short-term memory operations.

Speech Perception and Short Term Memory Deficits in Persistent Developmental Speech Disorder

PubMed Central

Kenney, Mary Kay; Barac-Cikoja, Dragana; Finnegan, Kimberly; Jeffries, Neal; Ludlow, Christy L.

2008-01-01

Children with developmental speech disorders may have additional deficits in speech perception and/or short-term memory. To determine whether these are only transient developmental delays that can accompany the disorder in childhood or persist as part of the speech disorder, adults with a persistent familial speech disorder were tested on speech perception and short-term memory. Nine adults with a persistent familial developmental speech disorder without language impairment were compared with 20 controls on tasks requiring the discrimination of fine acoustic cues for word identification and on measures of verbal and nonverbal short-term memory. Significant group differences were found in the slopes of the discrimination curves for first formant transitions for word identification with stop gaps of 40 and 20 ms with effect sizes of 1.60 and 1.56. Significant group differences also occurred on tests of nonverbal rhythm and tonal memory, and verbal short-term memory with effect sizes of 2.38, 1.56 and 1.73. No group differences occurred in the use of stop gap durations for word identification. Because frequency-based speech perception and short-term verbal and nonverbal memory deficits both persisted into adulthood in the speech-impaired adults, these deficits may be involved in the persistence of speech disorders without language impairment. PMID:15896836

Questioning short-term memory and its measurement: Why digit span measures long-term associative learning.

PubMed

Jones, Gary; Macken, Bill

2015-11-01

Traditional accounts of verbal short-term memory explain differences in performance for different types of verbal material by reference to inherent characteristics of the verbal items making up memory sequences. The role of previous experience with sequences of different types is ostensibly controlled for either by deliberate exclusion or by presenting multiple trials constructed from different random permutations. We cast doubt on this general approach in a detailed analysis of the basis for the robust finding that short-term memory for digit sequences is superior to that for other sequences of verbal material. Specifically, we show across four experiments that this advantage is not due to inherent characteristics of digits as verbal items, nor are individual digits within sequences better remembered than other types of individual verbal items. Rather, the advantage for digit sequences stems from the increased frequency, compared to other verbal material, with which digits appear in random sequences in natural language, and furthermore, relatively frequent digit sequences support better short-term serial recall than less frequent ones. We also provide corpus-based computational support for the argument that performance in a short-term memory setting is a function of basic associative learning processes operating on the linguistic experience of the rememberer. The experimental and computational results raise questions not only about the role played by measurement of digit span in cognition generally, but also about the way in which long-term memory processes impact on short-term memory functioning. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Genetic Components of Verbal Divergent Thinking and Short Term Memory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pezzullo, Thomas R.; Madaus, George F.

A study of twins was conducted to determine the presence of an hereditary component in short term memory and in three aspects of verbal divergent thinking--flexibility, fluency, and originality. Results showed the existence of a significant genetic component in the trait of short term memory, while none was found in verbal divergent thinking. (AG)

Exposure to and recall of violence reduce short-term memory and cognitive control.

PubMed

Bogliacino, Francesco; Grimalda, Gianluca; Ortoleva, Pietro; Ring, Patrick

2017-08-08

Previous research has investigated the effects of violence and warfare on individuals' well-being, mental health, and individual prosociality and risk aversion. This study establishes the short- and long-term effects of exposure to violence on short-term memory and aspects of cognitive control. Short-term memory is the ability to store information. Cognitive control is the capacity to exert inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. Both have been shown to affect positively individual well-being and societal development. We sampled Colombian civilians who were exposed either to urban violence or to warfare more than a decade earlier. We assessed exposure to violence through either the urban district-level homicide rate or self-reported measures. Before undertaking cognitive tests, a randomly selected subset of our sample was asked to recall emotions of anxiety and fear connected to experiences of violence, whereas the rest recalled joyful or emotionally neutral experiences. We found that higher exposure to violence was associated with lower short-term memory abilities and lower cognitive control in the group recalling experiences of violence, whereas it had no effect in the other group. This finding demonstrates that exposure to violence, even if a decade earlier, can hamper cognitive functions, but only among individuals actively recalling emotional states linked with such experiences. A laboratory experiment conducted in Germany aimed to separate the effect of recalling violent events from the effect of emotions of fear and anxiety. Both factors had significant negative effects on cognitive functions and appeared to be independent from each other.

Exposure to and recall of violence reduce short-term memory and cognitive control

PubMed Central

Bogliacino, Francesco; Ortoleva, Pietro; Ring, Patrick

2017-01-01

Previous research has investigated the effects of violence and warfare on individuals' well-being, mental health, and individual prosociality and risk aversion. This study establishes the short- and long-term effects of exposure to violence on short-term memory and aspects of cognitive control. Short-term memory is the ability to store information. Cognitive control is the capacity to exert inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. Both have been shown to affect positively individual well-being and societal development. We sampled Colombian civilians who were exposed either to urban violence or to warfare more than a decade earlier. We assessed exposure to violence through either the urban district-level homicide rate or self-reported measures. Before undertaking cognitive tests, a randomly selected subset of our sample was asked to recall emotions of anxiety and fear connected to experiences of violence, whereas the rest recalled joyful or emotionally neutral experiences. We found that higher exposure to violence was associated with lower short-term memory abilities and lower cognitive control in the group recalling experiences of violence, whereas it had no effect in the other group. This finding demonstrates that exposure to violence, even if a decade earlier, can hamper cognitive functions, but only among individuals actively recalling emotional states linked with such experiences. A laboratory experiment conducted in Germany aimed to separate the effect of recalling violent events from the effect of emotions of fear and anxiety. Both factors had significant negative effects on cognitive functions and appeared to be independent from each other. PMID:28739904

Human short-term spatial memory: precision predicts capacity.

PubMed

Banta Lavenex, Pamela; Boujon, Valérie; Ndarugendamwo, Angélique; Lavenex, Pierre

2015-03-01

Here, we aimed to determine the capacity of human short-term memory for allocentric spatial information in a real-world setting. Young adults were tested on their ability to learn, on a trial-unique basis, and remember over a 1-min interval the location(s) of 1, 3, 5, or 7 illuminating pads, among 23 pads distributed in a 4m×4m arena surrounded by curtains on three sides. Participants had to walk to and touch the pads with their foot to illuminate the goal locations. In contrast to the predictions from classical slot models of working memory capacity limited to a fixed number of items, i.e., Miller's magical number 7 or Cowan's magical number 4, we found that the number of visited locations to find the goals was consistently about 1.6 times the number of goals, whereas the number of correct choices before erring and the number of errorless trials varied with memory load even when memory load was below the hypothetical memory capacity. In contrast to resource models of visual working memory, we found no evidence that memory resources were evenly distributed among unlimited numbers of items to be remembered. Instead, we found that memory for even one individual location was imprecise, and that memory performance for one location could be used to predict memory performance for multiple locations. Our findings are consistent with a theoretical model suggesting that the precision of the memory for individual locations might determine the capacity of human short-term memory for spatial information. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Latent Variable Analysis of Working Memory Capacity, Short-Term Memory Capacity, Processing Speed, and General Fluid Intelligence.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conway, Andrew R. A.; Cowan, Nelsin; Bunting, Michael F.; Therriault, David J.; Minkoff, Scott R. B.

2002-01-01

Studied the interrelationships among general fluid intelligence, short-term memory capacity, working memory capacity, and processing speed in 120 young adults and used structural equation modeling to determine the best predictor of general fluid intelligence. Results suggest that working memory capacity, but not short-term memory capacity or…

How does aging affect the types of error made in a visual short-term memory 'object-recall' task?

PubMed

Sapkota, Raju P; van der Linde, Ian; Pardhan, Shahina

2014-01-01

This study examines how normal aging affects the occurrence of different types of incorrect responses in a visual short-term memory (VSTM) object-recall task. Seventeen young (Mean = 23.3 years, SD = 3.76), and 17 normally aging older (Mean = 66.5 years, SD = 6.30) adults participated. Memory stimuli comprised two or four real world objects (the memory load) presented sequentially, each for 650 ms, at random locations on a computer screen. After a 1000 ms retention interval, a test display was presented, comprising an empty box at one of the previously presented two or four memory stimulus locations. Participants were asked to report the name of the object presented at the cued location. Errors rates wherein participants reported the names of objects that had been presented in the memory display but not at the cued location (non-target errors) vs. objects that had not been presented at all in the memory display (non-memory errors) were compared. Significant effects of aging, memory load and target recency on error type and absolute error rates were found. Non-target error rate was higher than non-memory error rate in both age groups, indicating that VSTM may have been more often than not populated with partial traces of previously presented items. At high memory load, non-memory error rate was higher in young participants (compared to older participants) when the memory target had been presented at the earliest temporal position. However, non-target error rates exhibited a reversed trend, i.e., greater error rates were found in older participants when the memory target had been presented at the two most recent temporal positions. Data are interpreted in terms of proactive interference (earlier examined non-target items interfering with more recent items), false memories (non-memory items which have a categorical relationship to presented items, interfering with memory targets), slot and flexible resource models, and spatial coding deficits.

Manipulations of attention dissociate fragile visual short-term memory from visual working memory.

PubMed

Vandenbroucke, Annelinde R E; Sligte, Ilja G; Lamme, Victor A F

2011-05-01

People often rely on information that is no longer in view, but maintained in visual short-term memory (VSTM). Traditionally, VSTM is thought to operate on either a short time-scale with high capacity - iconic memory - or a long time scale with small capacity - visual working memory. Recent research suggests that in addition, an intermediate stage of memory in between iconic memory and visual working memory exists. This intermediate stage has a large capacity and a lifetime of several seconds, but is easily overwritten by new stimulation. We therefore termed it fragile VSTM. In previous studies, fragile VSTM has been dissociated from iconic memory by the characteristics of the memory trace. In the present study, we dissociated fragile VSTM from visual working memory by showing a differentiation in their dependency on attention. A decrease in attention during presentation of the stimulus array greatly reduced the capacity of visual working memory, while this had only a small effect on the capacity of fragile VSTM. We conclude that fragile VSTM is a separate memory store from visual working memory. Thus, a tripartite division of VSTM appears to be in place, comprising iconic memory, fragile VSTM and visual working memory. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

FFT transformed quantitative EEG analysis of short term memory load.

PubMed

Singh, Yogesh; Singh, Jayvardhan; Sharma, Ratna; Talwar, Anjana

2015-07-01

The EEG is considered as building block of functional signaling in the brain. The role of EEG oscillations in human information processing has been intensively investigated. To study the quantitative EEG correlates of short term memory load as assessed through Sternberg memory test. The study was conducted on 34 healthy male student volunteers. The intervention consisted of Sternberg memory test, which runs on a version of the Sternberg memory scanning paradigm software on a computer. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded from 19 scalp locations according to 10-20 international system of electrode placement. EEG signals were analyzed offline. To overcome the problems of fixed band system, individual alpha frequency (IAF) based frequency band selection method was adopted. The outcome measures were FFT transformed absolute powers in the six bands at 19 electrode positions. Sternberg memory test served as model of short term memory load. Correlation analysis of EEG during memory task was reflected as decreased absolute power in Upper alpha band in nearly all the electrode positions; increased power in Theta band at Fronto-Temporal region and Lower 1 alpha band at Fronto-Central region. Lower 2 alpha, Beta and Gamma band power remained unchanged. Short term memory load has distinct electroencephalographic correlates resembling the mentally stressed state. This is evident from decreased power in Upper alpha band (corresponding to Alpha band of traditional EEG system) which is representative band of relaxed mental state. Fronto-temporal Theta power changes may reflect the encoding and execution of memory task.

Short term memory for single surface features and bindings in ageing: A replication study.

PubMed

Isella, Valeria; Molteni, Federica; Mapelli, Cristina; Ferrarese, Carlo

2015-06-01

In the present study we replicated a previous experiment investigating visuo-spatial short term memory binding in young and older healthy individuals, in the attempt to verify the pattern of impairment that can be observed in normal elderly for short term memory for single items vs short term memory for bindings. Assessing a larger sample size (25 young and 25 older subjects), using a more appropriate measure of accuracy for a change detection task (A'), and adding the evaluation of speed of performance, we confirmed that old normals show a decline in short term memory for bindings of shape and colour that is of comparable extent, and not major, to the decline in memory for single shapes and single colours. The absence of a specific deficit of short term memory for conjunctions of surface features seems to distinguish cognitive ageing from Alzheimer's Disease. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

CREB binding protein is required for both short-term and long-term memory formation.

PubMed

Chen, Guiquan; Zou, Xiaoyan; Watanabe, Hirotaka; van Deursen, Jan M; Shen, Jie

2010-09-29

CREB binding protein (CBP) is a transcriptional coactivator with histone acetyltransferase activity. Our prior study suggested that CBP might be a key target of presenilins in the regulation of memory formation and neuronal survival. To elucidate the role of CBP in the adult brain, we generated conditional knock-out (cKO) mice in which CBP is completely inactivated in excitatory neurons of the postnatal forebrain. Histological analysis revealed normal neuronal morphology and absence of age-dependent neuronal degeneration in the CBP cKO cerebral cortex. CBP cKO mice exhibited robust impairment in the formation of spatial, associative, and object-recognition memory. In addition to impaired long-term memory, CBP cKO mice also displayed deficits in short-term associative and object-recognition memory. Administration of a histone deacetylase inhibitor, trichostatin A, rescued the reduction of acetylated histones in the CBP cKO cortex but failed to rescue either short- or long-term memory deficits, suggesting that the memory impairment may not be caused by general reduction of histone acetyltransferase activity in CBP cKO mice. Further microarray and Western analysis showed decreased expression of calcium-calmodulin-dependent kinase isoforms and NMDA and AMPA receptor subunits in the cerebral cortex of CBP cKO mice. Collectively, these findings suggest a crucial role for CBP in the formation of both short- and long-term memory.

Familiarity speeds up visual short-term memory consolidation.

PubMed

Xie, Weizhen; Zhang, Weiwei

2017-06-01

Existing long-term memory (LTM) can boost the number of retained representations over a short delay in visual short-term memory (VSTM). However, it is unclear whether and how prior LTM affects the initial process of transforming fragile sensory inputs into durable VSTM representations (i.e., VSTM consolidation). The consolidation speed hypothesis predicts faster consolidation for familiar relative to unfamiliar stimuli. Alternatively, the perceptual boost hypothesis predicts that the advantage in perceptual processing of familiar stimuli should add a constant boost for familiar stimuli during VSTM consolidation. To test these competing hypotheses, the present study examined how the large variance in participants' prior multimedia experience with Pokémon affected VSTM for Pokémon. In Experiment 1, the amount of time allowed for VSTM consolidation was manipulated by presenting consolidation masks at different intervals after the onset of to-be-remembered Pokémon characters. First-generation Pokémon characters that participants were more familiar with were consolidated faster into VSTM as compared with recent-generation Pokémon characters that participants were less familiar with. These effects were absent in participants who were unfamiliar with both generations of Pokémon. Although familiarity also increased the number of retained Pokémon characters when consolidation was uninterrupted but still incomplete due to insufficient encoding time in Experiment 1, this capacity effect was absent in Experiment 2 when consolidation was allowed to complete with sufficient encoding time. Together, these results support the consolidation speed hypothesis over the perceptual boost hypothesis and highlight the importance of assessing experimental effects on both processing and representation aspects of VSTM. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Stimulus-specific suppression preserves information in auditory short-term memory.

PubMed

Linke, Annika C; Vicente-Grabovetsky, Alejandro; Cusack, Rhodri

2011-08-02

Philosophers and scientists have puzzled for millennia over how perceptual information is stored in short-term memory. Some have suggested that early sensory representations are involved, but their precise role has remained unclear. The current study asks whether auditory cortex shows sustained frequency-specific activation while sounds are maintained in short-term memory using high-resolution functional MRI (fMRI). Investigating short-term memory representations within regions of human auditory cortex with fMRI has been difficult because of their small size and high anatomical variability between subjects. However, we overcame these constraints by using multivoxel pattern analysis. It clearly revealed frequency-specific activity during the encoding phase of a change detection task, and the degree of this frequency-specific activation was positively related to performance in the task. Although the sounds had to be maintained in memory, activity in auditory cortex was significantly suppressed. Strikingly, patterns of activity in this maintenance period correlated negatively with the patterns evoked by the same frequencies during encoding. Furthermore, individuals who used a rehearsal strategy to remember the sounds showed reduced frequency-specific suppression during the maintenance period. Although negative activations are often disregarded in fMRI research, our findings imply that decreases in blood oxygenation level-dependent response carry important stimulus-specific information and can be related to cognitive processes. We hypothesize that, during auditory change detection, frequency-specific suppression protects short-term memory representations from being overwritten by inhibiting the encoding of interfering sounds.

Psychomotor Ability and Short-term Memory, and Reading and Mathematics Achievement in Children.

PubMed

Murrihy, Cherée; Bailey, Maria; Roodenburg, John

2017-08-01

The aim of our study was to examine whether the findings from previous research, indicating the role of short-term memory as a mediator of the relationship between motor coordination and academic achievement in adolescents, is also evident in a younger child population. The study utilized a quantative cross-sectional design involving 133 children aged 8-12. The McCarron Assessment of Neuromuscular Development (MAND) provided four indicators of psychomotor ability (Finger Nose, Walking, Balancing, and Jumping). The Woodcock-Johnson Cognitive battery and the Automated Working Memory Assessment (AWMA) provided two measures of short-term memory (Numbers Reversed and Digit Recall) and the WJIII Achievement battery provided two measures of reading achievement (Letter-word Identification and Passage Comprehension) and two measures of mathematics achievement (Applied Problems and Calculation). Structural equation modeling was used, controlling for age, processing speed, crystallized, and fluid intelligence where appropriate. The results found support for the hypothesis that short-term memory fully mediates the relationship between psychomotor ability and reading and mathematics achievement. These findings indicate the significant affect of psychomotor ability on learning outcomes and consequently the need to assess these in considering learning difficulties, and as such these findings also advance understanding of developmental neural mechanisms underpinning the relationships. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Updating and feature overwriting in short-term memory for timbre.

PubMed

Mercer, Tom; McKeown, Denis

2010-11-01

Previous research has demonstrated a potent, stimulus-specific form of interference in short-term auditory memory. This effect has been interpreted in terms of interitem confusion and grouping, but the present experiments suggested that interference might be a feature-specific phenomenon. Participants compared standard and comparison tones over a 10-sec interval and were required to determine whether they differed in timbre. A single interfering distractor tone was presented either 50 msec or 8 sec after the offset of the standard (Experiment 1) or 2 sec prior to its onset (Experiment 2). The distractor varied in the number of features it shared with the standard and comparison, and this proved critical, since performance on the task was greatly impaired when the distractor either consisted of novel, unshared features (Experiment 1) or contained the distinguishing feature of the comparison tone (Experiments 1 and 2). These findings were incompatible with earlier accounts of forgetting but were fully explicable by the recent timbre memory model, which associates interference in short-term auditory memory with an "updating" process and feature overwriting. These results suggest similarities with the mechanisms that underlie forgetting in verbal short-term memory.

Does tonality boost short-term memory in congenital amusia?

PubMed

Albouy, Philippe; Schulze, Katrin; Caclin, Anne; Tillmann, Barbara

2013-11-06

Congenital amusia is a neuro-developmental disorder of music perception and production. Recent findings have demonstrated that this deficit is linked to an impaired short-term memory for tone sequences. As it has been shown before that non-musicians' implicit knowledge of musical regularities can improve short-term memory for tone information, the present study investigated if this type of implicit knowledge could also influence amusics' short-term memory performance. Congenital amusics and their matched controls, who were non-musicians, had to indicate whether sequences of five tones, presented in pairs, were the same or different; half of the pairs respected musical regularities (tonal sequences) and the other half did not (atonal sequences). As previously reported for non-musician participants, the control participants showed better performance (as measured with d') for tonal sequences than for atonal ones. While this improvement was not observed in amusics, both control and amusic participants showed faster response times for tonal sequences than for atonal sequences. These findings suggest that some implicit processing of tonal structures is potentially preserved in congenital amusia. This observation is encouraging as it strengthens the perspective to exploit implicit knowledge to help reducing pitch perception and memory deficits in amusia. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A phenomenological memristor model for short-term/long-term memory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Ling; Li, Chuandong; Huang, Tingwen; Ahmad, Hafiz Gulfam; Chen, Yiran

2014-08-01

Memristor is considered to be a natural electrical synapse because of its distinct memory property and nanoscale. In recent years, more and more similar behaviors are observed between memristors and biological synapse, e.g., short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM). The traditional mathematical models are unable to capture the new emerging behaviors. In this article, an updated phenomenological model based on the model of the Hewlett-Packard (HP) Labs has been proposed to capture such new behaviors. The new dynamical memristor model with an improved ion diffusion term can emulate the synapse behavior with forgetting effect, and exhibit the transformation between the STM and the LTM. Further, this model can be used in building new type of neural networks with forgetting ability like biological systems, and it is verified by our experiment with Hopfield neural network.

Genetic deletion of melanin-concentrating hormone neurons impairs hippocampal short-term synaptic plasticity and hippocampal-dependent forms of short-term memory.

PubMed

Le Barillier, Léa; Léger, Lucienne; Luppi, Pierre-Hervé; Fort, Patrice; Malleret, Gaël; Salin, Paul-Antoine

2015-11-01

The cognitive role of melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) neurons, a neuronal population located in the mammalian postero-lateral hypothalamus sending projections to all cortical areas, remains poorly understood. Mainly activated during paradoxical sleep (PS), MCH neurons have been implicated in sleep regulation. The genetic deletion of the only known MCH receptor in rodent leads to an impairment of hippocampal dependent forms of memory and to an alteration of hippocampal long-term synaptic plasticity. By using MCH/ataxin3 mice, a genetic model characterized by a selective deletion of MCH neurons in the adult, we investigated the role of MCH neurons in hippocampal synaptic plasticity and hippocampal-dependent forms of memory. MCH/ataxin3 mice exhibited a deficit in the early part of both long-term potentiation and depression in the CA1 area of the hippocampus. Post-tetanic potentiation (PTP) was diminished while synaptic depression induced by repetitive stimulation was enhanced suggesting an alteration of pre-synaptic forms of short-term plasticity in these mice. Behaviorally, MCH/ataxin3 mice spent more time and showed a higher level of hesitation as compared to their controls in performing a short-term memory T-maze task, displayed retardation in acquiring a reference memory task in a Morris water maze, and showed a habituation deficit in an open field task. Deletion of MCH neurons could thus alter spatial short-term memory by impairing short-term plasticity in the hippocampus. Altogether, these findings could provide a cellular mechanism by which PS may facilitate memory encoding. Via MCH neuron activation, PS could prepare the day's learning by increasing and modulating short-term synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Opposing roles for GABAA and GABAC receptors in short-term memory formation in young chicks.

PubMed

Gibbs, M E; Johnston, G A R

2005-01-01

The inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA has both inhibitory and enhancing effects on short-term memory for a bead discrimination task in the young chick. Low doses of GABA (1-3 pmol/hemisphere) injected into the multimodal association area of the chick forebrain, inhibit strongly reinforced memory, whereas higher doses (30-100 pmol/hemisphere) enhance weakly reinforced memory. The effect of both high and low doses of GABA is clearly on short-term memory in terms of both the time of injection and in the time that the memory loss occurs. We argue on the basis of relative sensitivities to GABA and to selective GABA receptor antagonists that low doses of GABA act at GABAC receptors (EC50 approximately 1 microM) and the higher doses of GABA act via GABAA receptors (EC50 approximately 10 microM). The selective GABAA receptor antagonist bicuculline inhibited strongly reinforced memory in a dose and time dependent manner, whereas the selective GABAC receptor antagonists TPMPA and P4MPA enhanced weakly reinforced in a dose and time dependent manner. Confirmation that different levels of GABA affect different receptor subtypes was demonstrated by the shift in the GABA dose-response curves to the selective antagonists. It is clear that GABA is involved in the control of short-term memory formation and its action, enhancing or inhibiting, depends on the level of GABA released at the time of learning.

A neuromorphic circuit mimicking biological short-term memory.

PubMed

Barzegarjalali, Saeid; Parker, Alice C

2016-08-01

Research shows that the way we remember things for a few seconds is a different mechanism from the way we remember things for a longer time. Short-term memory is based on persistently firing neurons, whereas storing information for a longer time is based on strengthening the synapses or even forming new neural connections. Information about location and appearance of an object is segregated and processed by separate neurons. Furthermore neurons can continue firing using different mechanisms. Here, we have designed a biomimetic neuromorphic circuit that mimics short-term memory by firing neurons, using biological mechanisms to remember location and shape of an object. Our neuromorphic circuit has a hybrid architecture. Neurons are designed with CMOS 45nm technology and synapses are designed with carbon nanotubes (CNT).

Memory for relations in the short term and the long term after medial temporal lobe damage.

PubMed

Squire, Larry R

2017-05-01

A central idea about the organization of declarative memory and the function of the hippocampus is that the hippocampus provides for the coding of relationships between items. A question arises whether this idea refers to the process of forming long-term memory or whether, as some studies have suggested, memory for relations might depend on the hippocampus even at short retention intervals and even when the task falls within the province of short-term (working) memory. The latter formulation appears to place the operation of relational memory into conflict with the idea that working memory is independent of medial temporal lobe (MTL) structures. In this report, the concepts of relational memory and working memory are discussed in the light of a simple demonstration experiment. Patients with MTL lesions successfully learned and recalled two word pairs when tested directly after learning but failed altogether when tested after a delay. The results do not contradict the idea that the hippocampus has a fundamental role in relational memory. However, there is a need for further elaboration and specification of the idea in order to explain why patients with MTL lesions can establish relational memory in the short term but not in long-term memory. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Assessment of short-term memory in Arabic speaking children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Kaddah, F A; Shoeib, R M; Mahmoud, H E

2010-12-15

Children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) may have some kind of memory disorder that could increase their linguistic impairment. This study assessed the short-term memory skills in Arabic speaking children with either Expressive Language Impairment (ELI) or Receptive/Expressive Language Impairment (R/ELI) in comparison to controls in order to estimate the nature and extent of any specific deficits in these children that could explain the different prognostic results of language intervention. Eighteen children were included in each group. Receptive, expressive and total language quotients were calculated using the Arabic language test. Assessment of auditory and visual short-term memory was done using the Arabic version of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities. Both groups of SLI performed significantly lower linguistic abilities and poorer auditory and visual short-term memory in comparison to normal children. The R/ELI group presented an inferior performance than the ELI group in all measured parameters. Strong association was found between most tasks of auditory and visual short-term memory and linguistic abilities. The results of this study highlighted a specific degree of deficit of auditory and visual short-term memories in both groups of SLI. These deficits were more prominent in R/ELI group. Moreover, the strong association between the different auditory and visual short-term memories and language abilities in children with SLI must be taken into account when planning an intervention program for these children.

Enhanced long-term and impaired short-term spatial memory in GluA1 AMPA receptor subunit knockout mice: evidence for a dual-process memory model.

PubMed

Sanderson, David J; Good, Mark A; Skelton, Kathryn; Sprengel, Rolf; Seeburg, Peter H; Rawlins, J Nicholas P; Bannerman, David M

2009-06-01

The GluA1 AMPA receptor subunit is a key mediator of hippocampal synaptic plasticity and is especially important for a rapidly-induced, short-lasting form of potentiation. GluA1 gene deletion impairs hippocampus-dependent, spatial working memory, but spares hippocampus-dependent spatial reference memory. These findings may reflect the necessity of GluA1-dependent synaptic plasticity for short-term memory of recently visited places, but not for the ability to form long-term associations between a particular spatial location and an outcome. This hypothesis is in concordance with the theory that short-term and long-term memory depend on dissociable psychological processes. In this study we tested GluA1-/- mice on both short-term and long-term spatial memory using a simple novelty preference task. Mice were given a series of repeated exposures to a particular spatial location (the arm of a Y-maze) before their preference for a novel spatial location (the unvisited arm of the maze) over the familiar spatial location was assessed. GluA1-/- mice were impaired if the interval between the trials was short (1 min), but showed enhanced spatial memory if the interval between the trials was long (24 h). This enhancement was caused by the interval between the exposure trials rather than the interval prior to the test, thus demonstrating enhanced learning and not simply enhanced performance or expression of memory. This seemingly paradoxical enhancement of hippocampus-dependent spatial learning may be caused by GluA1 gene deletion reducing the detrimental effects of short-term memory on subsequent long-term learning. Thus, these results support a dual-process model of memory in which short-term and long-term memory are separate and sometimes competitive processes.

Neuronal correlate of pictorial short-term memory in the primate temporal cortexYasushi Miyashita

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miyashita, Yasushi; Chang, Han Soo

1988-01-01

It has been proposed that visual-memory traces are located in the temporal lobes of the cerebral cortex, as electric stimulation of this area in humans results in recall of imagery1. Lesions in this area also affect recognition of an object after a delay in both humans2,3 and monkeys4-7 indicating a role in short-term memory of images8. Single-unit recordings from the temporal cortex have shown that some neurons continue to fire when one of two or four colours are to be remembered temporarily9. But neuronal responses selective to specific complex objects10-18 , including hands10,13 and faces13,16,17, cease soon after the offset of stimulus presentation10-18. These results led to the question of whether any of these neurons could serve the memory of complex objects. We report here a group of shape-selective neurons in an anterior ventral part of the temporal cortex of monkeys that exhibited sustained activity during the delay period of a visual short-term memory task. The activity was highly selective for the pictorial information to be memorized and was independent of the physical attributes such as size, orientation, colour or position of the object. These observations show that the delay activity represents the short-term memory of the categorized percept of a picture.

Synaptic scaling enables dynamically distinct short- and long-term memory formation.

PubMed

Tetzlaff, Christian; Kolodziejski, Christoph; Timme, Marc; Tsodyks, Misha; Wörgötter, Florentin

2013-10-01

Memory storage in the brain relies on mechanisms acting on time scales from minutes, for long-term synaptic potentiation, to days, for memory consolidation. During such processes, neural circuits distinguish synapses relevant for forming a long-term storage, which are consolidated, from synapses of short-term storage, which fade. How time scale integration and synaptic differentiation is simultaneously achieved remains unclear. Here we show that synaptic scaling - a slow process usually associated with the maintenance of activity homeostasis - combined with synaptic plasticity may simultaneously achieve both, thereby providing a natural separation of short- from long-term storage. The interaction between plasticity and scaling provides also an explanation for an established paradox where memory consolidation critically depends on the exact order of learning and recall. These results indicate that scaling may be fundamental for stabilizing memories, providing a dynamic link between early and late memory formation processes.

Synaptic Scaling Enables Dynamically Distinct Short- and Long-Term Memory Formation

PubMed Central

Tetzlaff, Christian; Kolodziejski, Christoph; Timme, Marc; Tsodyks, Misha; Wörgötter, Florentin

2013-01-01

Memory storage in the brain relies on mechanisms acting on time scales from minutes, for long-term synaptic potentiation, to days, for memory consolidation. During such processes, neural circuits distinguish synapses relevant for forming a long-term storage, which are consolidated, from synapses of short-term storage, which fade. How time scale integration and synaptic differentiation is simultaneously achieved remains unclear. Here we show that synaptic scaling – a slow process usually associated with the maintenance of activity homeostasis – combined with synaptic plasticity may simultaneously achieve both, thereby providing a natural separation of short- from long-term storage. The interaction between plasticity and scaling provides also an explanation for an established paradox where memory consolidation critically depends on the exact order of learning and recall. These results indicate that scaling may be fundamental for stabilizing memories, providing a dynamic link between early and late memory formation processes. PMID:24204240

[Short term memory and severe language disorders in the child].

PubMed

Gras-Vincendon, A; Belion, M; Abecassis, J; Bursztejn, C

1994-10-01

Memory, and particularly short-term memory or "working memory" (Baddeley), is involved in language acquisition in children. We have studied short-term memory, with verbal-and non verbal tests, of 8 children suffering from developmental dysphasia compared with other ones, matched in terms of age and performance I.Q. (W.I.S.C.-R.). The digit span did not significantly differ in the two groups, while the visuo-spatial span was lower in the dysphasic group. The memorization of a list of monosyllabic words by dysphasic children was poor in the absence of visual presentation and improved by it. Differences between dysphasic and control-children are unlikely to be due to speech rate which does not significantly differ from one group to the other one. The results suggest the existence, in language disordered children, of cognitive functions disorders much more important than those directly involved in the speech production.

Spatiotemporal Proximity Effects in Visual Short-Term Memory Examined by Target-Nontarget Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sapkota, Raju P.; Pardhan, Shahina; van der Linde, Ian

2016-01-01

Visual short-term memory (VSTM) is a limited-capacity system that holds a small number of objects online simultaneously, implying that competition for limited storage resources occurs (Phillips, 1974). How the spatial and temporal proximity of stimuli affects this competition is unclear. In this 2-experiment study, we examined the effect of the…

Short-Term Memory and Its Biophysical Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Wei; Zhang, Kai; Tang, Xiao-wei

1996-12-01

The capacity of short-term memory has been studied using an integrate-and-fire neuronal network model. It is found that the storage of events depend on the manner of the correlation between the events, and the capacity is dominated by the value of after-depolarization potential. There is a monotonic increasing relationship between the value of after-depolarization potential and the memory numbers. The biophysics relevance of the network model is discussed and different kinds of the information processes are studied too.

Feature-Based Visual Short-Term Memory Is Widely Distributed and Hierarchically Organized.

PubMed

Dotson, Nicholas M; Hoffman, Steven J; Goodell, Baldwin; Gray, Charles M

2018-06-15

Feature-based visual short-term memory is known to engage both sensory and association cortices. However, the extent of the participating circuit and the neural mechanisms underlying memory maintenance is still a matter of vigorous debate. To address these questions, we recorded neuronal activity from 42 cortical areas in monkeys performing a feature-based visual short-term memory task and an interleaved fixation task. We find that task-dependent differences in firing rates are widely distributed throughout the cortex, while stimulus-specific changes in firing rates are more restricted and hierarchically organized. We also show that microsaccades during the memory delay encode the stimuli held in memory and that units modulated by microsaccades are more likely to exhibit stimulus specificity, suggesting that eye movements contribute to visual short-term memory processes. These results support a framework in which most cortical areas, within a modality, contribute to mnemonic representations at timescales that increase along the cortical hierarchy. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Auditory short-term memory in the primate auditory cortex.

PubMed

Scott, Brian H; Mishkin, Mortimer

2016-06-01

Sounds are fleeting, and assembling the sequence of inputs at the ear into a coherent percept requires auditory memory across various time scales. Auditory short-term memory comprises at least two components: an active ׳working memory' bolstered by rehearsal, and a sensory trace that may be passively retained. Working memory relies on representations recalled from long-term memory, and their rehearsal may require phonological mechanisms unique to humans. The sensory component, passive short-term memory (pSTM), is tractable to study in nonhuman primates, whose brain architecture and behavioral repertoire are comparable to our own. This review discusses recent advances in the behavioral and neurophysiological study of auditory memory with a focus on single-unit recordings from macaque monkeys performing delayed-match-to-sample (DMS) tasks. Monkeys appear to employ pSTM to solve these tasks, as evidenced by the impact of interfering stimuli on memory performance. In several regards, pSTM in monkeys resembles pitch memory in humans, and may engage similar neural mechanisms. Neural correlates of DMS performance have been observed throughout the auditory and prefrontal cortex, defining a network of areas supporting auditory STM with parallels to that supporting visual STM. These correlates include persistent neural firing, or a suppression of firing, during the delay period of the memory task, as well as suppression or (less commonly) enhancement of sensory responses when a sound is repeated as a ׳match' stimulus. Auditory STM is supported by a distributed temporo-frontal network in which sensitivity to stimulus history is an intrinsic feature of auditory processing. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Auditory working memory. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Auditory short-term memory in the primate auditory cortex

PubMed Central

Scott, Brian H.; Mishkin, Mortimer

2015-01-01

Sounds are fleeting, and assembling the sequence of inputs at the ear into a coherent percept requires auditory memory across various time scales. Auditory short-term memory comprises at least two components: an active ‘working memory’ bolstered by rehearsal, and a sensory trace that may be passively retained. Working memory relies on representations recalled from long-term memory, and their rehearsal may require phonological mechanisms unique to humans. The sensory component, passive short-term memory (pSTM), is tractable to study in nonhuman primates, whose brain architecture and behavioral repertoire are comparable to our own. This review discusses recent advances in the behavioral and neurophysiological study of auditory memory with a focus on single-unit recordings from macaque monkeys performing delayed-match-to-sample (DMS) tasks. Monkeys appear to employ pSTM to solve these tasks, as evidenced by the impact of interfering stimuli on memory performance. In several regards, pSTM in monkeys resembles pitch memory in humans, and may engage similar neural mechanisms. Neural correlates of DMS performance have been observed throughout the auditory and prefrontal cortex, defining a network of areas supporting auditory STM with parallels to that supporting visual STM. These correlates include persistent neural firing, or a suppression of firing, during the delay period of the memory task, as well as suppression or (less commonly) enhancement of sensory responses when a sound is repeated as a ‘match’ stimulus. Auditory STM is supported by a distributed temporo-frontal network in which sensitivity to stimulus history is an intrinsic feature of auditory processing. PMID:26541581

Neural Evidence for a Distinction Between Short-Term Memory and the Focus of Attention

PubMed Central

Lewis-Peacock, Jarrod A.; Drysdale, Andrew T.; Oberauer, Klaus; Postle, Bradley R.

2011-01-01

It is widely assumed that the short-term retention of information is accomplished via maintenance of an active neural trace. However, we demonstrate that memory can be preserved across a brief delay despite the apparent loss of sustained representations. Delay-period activity may in fact reflect the focus of attention, rather than short-term memory. We unconfounded attention and memory by causing external and internal shifts of attention away from items that were being actively retained. Multivariate pattern analysis of fMRI indicated that only items within the focus of attention elicited an active neural trace. Activity corresponding to representations of items outside the focus quickly dropped to baseline. Nevertheless, this information was remembered after a brief delay. Our data also show that refocusing attention towards a previously unattended memory item can reactivate its neural signature. The loss of sustained activity has long been thought to indicate a disruption of short-term memory, but our results suggest that, even for small memory loads not exceeding the capacity limits of short-term memory, the active maintenance of a stimulus representation may not be necessary for its short-term retention. PMID:21955164

How visual short-term memory maintenance modulates subsequent visual aftereffects.

PubMed

Saad, Elyana; Silvanto, Juha

2013-05-01

Prolonged viewing of a visual stimulus can result in sensory adaptation, giving rise to perceptual phenomena such as the tilt aftereffect (TAE). However, it is not known if short-term memory maintenance induces such effects. We examined how visual short-term memory (VSTM) maintenance modulates the strength of the TAE induced by subsequent visual adaptation. We reasoned that if VSTM maintenance induces aftereffects on subsequent encoding of visual information, then it should either enhance or reduce the TAE induced by a subsequent visual adapter, depending on the congruency of the memory cue and the adapter. Our results were consistent with this hypothesis and thus indicate that the effects of VSTM maintenance can outlast the maintenance period.

A Short-Term Longitudinal Study of Memorial Development during Early Grade School.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kunzinger, Edward L., III

1985-01-01

Overt rehearsal and free recall performance was analyzed longitudinally in two experimental testing sessions at 7 and later at 9 years of age. Measures of short- and long-term memory recall, and two measures of input processing were obtained. Significant increases between age levels were exhibited by all variables except short-term memory.…

Language repetition and short-term memory: an integrative framework.

PubMed

Majerus, Steve

2013-01-01

Short-term maintenance of verbal information is a core factor of language repetition, especially when reproducing multiple or unfamiliar stimuli. Many models of language processing locate the verbal short-term maintenance function in the left posterior superior temporo-parietal area and its connections with the inferior frontal gyrus. However, research in the field of short-term memory has implicated bilateral fronto-parietal networks, involved in attention and serial order processing, as being critical for the maintenance and reproduction of verbal sequences. We present here an integrative framework aimed at bridging research in the language processing and short-term memory fields. This framework considers verbal short-term maintenance as an emergent function resulting from synchronized and integrated activation in dorsal and ventral language processing networks as well as fronto-parietal attention and serial order processing networks. To-be-maintained item representations are temporarily activated in the dorsal and ventral language processing networks, novel phoneme and word serial order information is proposed to be maintained via a right fronto-parietal serial order processing network, and activation in these different networks is proposed to be coordinated and maintained via a left fronto-parietal attention processing network. This framework provides new perspectives for our understanding of information maintenance at the non-word-, word- and sentence-level as well as of verbal maintenance deficits in case of brain injury.

Language repetition and short-term memory: an integrative framework

PubMed Central

Majerus, Steve

2013-01-01

Short-term maintenance of verbal information is a core factor of language repetition, especially when reproducing multiple or unfamiliar stimuli. Many models of language processing locate the verbal short-term maintenance function in the left posterior superior temporo-parietal area and its connections with the inferior frontal gyrus. However, research in the field of short-term memory has implicated bilateral fronto-parietal networks, involved in attention and serial order processing, as being critical for the maintenance and reproduction of verbal sequences. We present here an integrative framework aimed at bridging research in the language processing and short-term memory fields. This framework considers verbal short-term maintenance as an emergent function resulting from synchronized and integrated activation in dorsal and ventral language processing networks as well as fronto-parietal attention and serial order processing networks. To-be-maintained item representations are temporarily activated in the dorsal and ventral language processing networks, novel phoneme and word serial order information is proposed to be maintained via a right fronto-parietal serial order processing network, and activation in these different networks is proposed to be coordinated and maintained via a left fronto-parietal attention processing network. This framework provides new perspectives for our understanding of information maintenance at the non-word-, word- and sentence-level as well as of verbal maintenance deficits in case of brain injury. PMID:23874280

How does aging affect the types of error made in a visual short-term memory ‘object-recall’ task?

PubMed Central

Sapkota, Raju P.; van der Linde, Ian; Pardhan, Shahina

2015-01-01

This study examines how normal aging affects the occurrence of different types of incorrect responses in a visual short-term memory (VSTM) object-recall task. Seventeen young (Mean = 23.3 years, SD = 3.76), and 17 normally aging older (Mean = 66.5 years, SD = 6.30) adults participated. Memory stimuli comprised two or four real world objects (the memory load) presented sequentially, each for 650 ms, at random locations on a computer screen. After a 1000 ms retention interval, a test display was presented, comprising an empty box at one of the previously presented two or four memory stimulus locations. Participants were asked to report the name of the object presented at the cued location. Errors rates wherein participants reported the names of objects that had been presented in the memory display but not at the cued location (non-target errors) vs. objects that had not been presented at all in the memory display (non-memory errors) were compared. Significant effects of aging, memory load and target recency on error type and absolute error rates were found. Non-target error rate was higher than non-memory error rate in both age groups, indicating that VSTM may have been more often than not populated with partial traces of previously presented items. At high memory load, non-memory error rate was higher in young participants (compared to older participants) when the memory target had been presented at the earliest temporal position. However, non-target error rates exhibited a reversed trend, i.e., greater error rates were found in older participants when the memory target had been presented at the two most recent temporal positions. Data are interpreted in terms of proactive interference (earlier examined non-target items interfering with more recent items), false memories (non-memory items which have a categorical relationship to presented items, interfering with memory targets), slot and flexible resource models, and spatial coding deficits. PMID:25653615

Short- and long-term memory contributions to immediate serial recognition: evidence from serial position effects.

PubMed

Purser, Harry; Jarrold, Christopher

2010-04-01

A long-standing body of research supports the existence of separable short- and long-term memory systems, relying on phonological and semantic codes, respectively. The aim of the current study was to measure the contribution of long-term knowledge to short-term memory performance by looking for evidence of phonologically and semantically coded storage within a short-term recognition task, among developmental samples. Each experimental trial presented 4-item lists. In Experiment 1 typically developing children aged 5 to 6 years old showed evidence of phonologically coded storage across all 4 serial positions, but evidence of semantically coded storage at Serial Positions 1 and 2. In a further experiment, a group of individuals with Down syndrome was investigated as a test case that might be expected to use semantic coding to support short-term storage, but these participants showed no evidence of semantically coded storage and evidenced phonologically coded storage only at Serial Position 4, suggesting that individuals with Down syndrome have a verbal short-term memory capacity of 1 item. Our results suggest that previous evidence of semantic effects on "short-term memory performance" does not reflect semantic coding in short-term memory itself, and provide an experimental method for researchers wishing to take a relatively pure measure of verbal short-term memory capacity, in cases where rehearsal is unlikely.

Hippocampal size is related to short-term true and false memory, and right fusiform size is related to long-term true and false memory.

PubMed

Zhu, Bi; Chen, Chuansheng; Loftus, Elizabeth F; He, Qinghua; Lei, Xuemei; Dong, Qi; Lin, Chongde

2016-11-01

There is a keen interest in identifying specific brain regions that are related to individual differences in true and false memories. Previous functional neuroimaging studies showed that activities in the hippocampus, right fusiform gyrus, and parahippocampal gyrus were associated with true and false memories, but no study thus far has examined whether the structures of these brain regions are associated with short-term and long-term true and false memories. To address that question, the current study analyzed data from 205 healthy young adults, who had valid data from both structural brain imaging and a misinformation task. In the misinformation task, subjects saw the crime scenarios, received misinformation, and took memory tests about the crimes an hour later and again after 1.5 years. Results showed that bilateral hippocampal volume was associated with short-term true and false memories, whereas right fusiform gyrus volume and surface area were associated with long-term true and false memories. This study provides the first evidence for the structural neural bases of individual differences in short-term and long-term true and false memories.

Age differences in short-term memory binding are related to working memory performance across the lifespan.

PubMed

Fandakova, Yana; Sander, Myriam C; Werkle-Bergner, Markus; Shing, Yee Lee

2014-03-01

Memory performance increases during childhood and adolescence, and decreases in old age. Among younger adults, better ability to bind items to the context in which they were experienced is associated with higher working memory performance (Oberauer, 2005). Here, we examined the extent to which age differences in binding contribute to life span age differences in short-term memory (STM). Younger children (N = 85; 10 to 12 years), teenagers (N = 41; 13 to 15 years), younger adults (N = 84; 20 to 25 years), and older adults (N = 86; 70 to 75 years) worked on global and local short-term recognition tasks that are assumed to measure item and item-context memory, respectively. Structural equation models showed that item-context bindings are functioning less well in children and older adults compared with younger adults and teenagers. This result suggests protracted development of the ability to form and recollect detailed short-term memories, and decline of this ability in aging. Across all age groups, better item-context binding was associated with higher working memory performance, indicating that developmental differences in binding mechanisms are closely related to working memory development in childhood and old age. (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Differences in the verbal fluency, working memory and executive functions in alcoholics: Short-term vs. long-term abstainers.

PubMed

Nowakowska-Domagała, Katarzyna; Jabłkowska-Górecka, Karolina; Mokros, Łukasz; Koprowicz, Jacek; Pietras, Tadeusz

2017-03-01

The aim of the study was to assess differences in verbal fluency, working memory and executive functions in two subgroups of alcohol-dependent patients, those undergoing short-term abstinence (STA) and those undergoing long-term abstinence (LTA), and to compare the level of cognitive functions in patients after long-term abstinence with healthy subjects. The study group consisted of 106 alcohol-dependent patients (53 immediately after drinking at least 3 days and 53 after at least one-year abstinence). The control group comprised 53 subjects, whose age, sex and education levels matched those of the patients in the experimental group. The dependence intensity was assessed using SADD and MAST scales. The neuropsychological assessment was based on the FAS Test, Stroop Test and TMT A&B Test. The results obtained for alcohol-dependent patients revealed significant disturbances of cognitive functions. Such results indicate the presence of severe frontal cerebral cortex dysfunctions. Frontal cortex dysfunctions affecting the verbal fluency and working memory subsystems and the executive functions also persisted during long-term abstinence periods. No significant correlations between the duration of dependence, quantity of alcohol consumed and efficiency of the working memory and executive functions were observed in alcohol-dependent subjects after short-term or long-term abstinence. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Attention Effects During Visual Short-Term Memory Maintenance: Protection or Prioritization?

PubMed Central

Matsukura, Michi; Luck, Steven J.; Vecera, Shaun P.

2007-01-01

Interactions between visual attention and visual short-term memory (VSTM) play a central role in cognitive processing. For example, attention can assist in selectively encoding items into visual memory. Attention appears to be able to influence items already stored in visual memory as well; cues that appear long after the presentation of an array of objects can affect memory for those objects (Griffin & Nobre, 2003). In five experiments, we distinguished two possible mechanisms for the effects of cues on items currently stored in VSTM. A protection account proposes that attention protects the cued item from becoming degraded during the retention interval. By contrast, a prioritization account suggests that attention increases a cued item’s priority during the comparison process that occurs when memory is tested. The results of the experiments were consistent with the first of these possibilities, suggesting that attention can serve to protect VSTM representations while they are being maintained. PMID:18078232

Syntax and serial recall: How language supports short-term memory for order.

PubMed

Perham, Nick; Marsh, John E; Jones, Dylan M

2009-07-01

The extent to which familiar syntax supports short-term serial recall of visually presented six-item sequences was shown by the superior recall of lists in which item pairs appeared in the order of "adjective-noun" (items 1-2, 3-4, 5-6)--congruent with English syntax--compared to when the order of items within pairs was reversed. The findings complement other evidence suggesting that short-term memory is an assemblage of language processing and production processes more than it is a bespoke short-term memory storage system.

Effects of age, gender, and stimulus presentation period on visual short-term memory.

PubMed

Kunimi, Mitsunobu

2016-01-01

This study focused on age-related changes in visual short-term memory using visual stimuli that did not allow verbal encoding. Experiment 1 examined the effects of age and the length of the stimulus presentation period on visual short-term memory function. Experiment 2 examined the effects of age, gender, and the length of the stimulus presentation period on visual short-term memory function. The worst memory performance and the largest performance difference between the age groups were observed in the shortest stimulus presentation period conditions. The performance difference between the age groups became smaller as the stimulus presentation period became longer; however, it did not completely disappear. Although gender did not have a significant effect on d' regardless of the presentation period in the young group, a significant gender-based difference was observed for stimulus presentation periods of 500 ms and 1,000 ms in the older group. This study indicates that the decline in visual short-term memory observed in the older group is due to the interaction of several factors.

Short-term memory loss associated with rosuvastatin.

PubMed

Galatti, Laura; Polimeni, Giovanni; Salvo, Francesco; Romani, Marcello; Sessa, Aurelio; Spina, Edoardo

2006-08-01

Memory loss and cognitive impairment have been reported in the literature in association with several 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors (statins), but we found no published case reports associated with rosuvastatin. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of rosuvastatin-related short-term memory loss. A 53-year-old Caucasian man with hypercholesterolemia experienced memory loss after being treated with rosuvastatin 10 mg/day. He had no other concomitant conditions or drug therapies. After discontinuation of rosuvastatin, the neuropsychiatric adverse reaction resolved gradually, suggesting a probable drug association. During the following year, the patient remained free from neuropsychiatric disturbances. Clinicians should be aware of possible adverse cognitive reactions during statin therapy, including rosuvastatin.

Attending to unrelated targets boosts short-term memory for color arrays.

PubMed

Makovski, Tal; Swallow, Khena M; Jiang, Yuhong V

2011-05-01

Detecting a target typically impairs performance in a second, unrelated task. It has been recently reported however, that detecting a target in a stream of distractors can enhance long-term memory of faces and scenes that were presented concurrently with the target (the attentional boost effect). In this study we ask whether target detection also enhances performance in a visual short-term memory task, where capacity limits are severe. Participants performed two tasks at once: a one shot, color change detection task and a letter-detection task. In Experiment 1, a central letter appeared at the same time as 3 or 5 color patches (memory display). Participants encoded the colors and pressed the spacebar if the letter was a T (target). After a short retention interval, a probe display of color patches appeared. Performance on the change detection task was enhanced when a target, rather than a distractor, appeared with the memory display. This effect was not modulated by memory load or the frequency of trials in which a target appeared. However, there was no enhancement when the target appeared at the same time as the probe display (Experiment 2a) or during the memory retention interval (Experiment 2b). Together these results suggest that detecting a target facilitates the encoding of unrelated information into visual short-term memory. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Auditory short-term memory activation during score reading.

PubMed

Simoens, Veerle L; Tervaniemi, Mari

2013-01-01

Performing music on the basis of reading a score requires reading ahead of what is being played in order to anticipate the necessary actions to produce the notes. Score reading thus not only involves the decoding of a visual score and the comparison to the auditory feedback, but also short-term storage of the musical information due to the delay of the auditory feedback during reading ahead. This study investigates the mechanisms of encoding of musical information in short-term memory during such a complicated procedure. There were three parts in this study. First, professional musicians participated in an electroencephalographic (EEG) experiment to study the slow wave potentials during a time interval of short-term memory storage in a situation that requires cross-modal translation and short-term storage of visual material to be compared with delayed auditory material, as it is the case in music score reading. This delayed visual-to-auditory matching task was compared with delayed visual-visual and auditory-auditory matching tasks in terms of EEG topography and voltage amplitudes. Second, an additional behavioural experiment was performed to determine which type of distractor would be the most interfering with the score reading-like task. Third, the self-reported strategies of the participants were also analyzed. All three parts of this study point towards the same conclusion according to which during music score reading, the musician most likely first translates the visual score into an auditory cue, probably starting around 700 or 1300 ms, ready for storage and delayed comparison with the auditory feedback.

Auditory Short-Term Memory Activation during Score Reading

PubMed Central

Simoens, Veerle L.; Tervaniemi, Mari

2013-01-01

Performing music on the basis of reading a score requires reading ahead of what is being played in order to anticipate the necessary actions to produce the notes. Score reading thus not only involves the decoding of a visual score and the comparison to the auditory feedback, but also short-term storage of the musical information due to the delay of the auditory feedback during reading ahead. This study investigates the mechanisms of encoding of musical information in short-term memory during such a complicated procedure. There were three parts in this study. First, professional musicians participated in an electroencephalographic (EEG) experiment to study the slow wave potentials during a time interval of short-term memory storage in a situation that requires cross-modal translation and short-term storage of visual material to be compared with delayed auditory material, as it is the case in music score reading. This delayed visual-to-auditory matching task was compared with delayed visual-visual and auditory-auditory matching tasks in terms of EEG topography and voltage amplitudes. Second, an additional behavioural experiment was performed to determine which type of distractor would be the most interfering with the score reading-like task. Third, the self-reported strategies of the participants were also analyzed. All three parts of this study point towards the same conclusion according to which during music score reading, the musician most likely first translates the visual score into an auditory cue, probably starting around 700 or 1300 ms, ready for storage and delayed comparison with the auditory feedback. PMID:23326487

Visual Short-Term Memory Capacity for Simple and Complex Objects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luria, Roy; Sessa, Paola; Gotler, Alex; Jolicoeur, Pierre; Dell'Acqua, Roberto

2010-01-01

Does the capacity of visual short-term memory (VSTM) depend on the complexity of the objects represented in memory? Although some previous findings indicated lower capacity for more complex stimuli, other results suggest that complexity effects arise during retrieval (due to errors in the comparison process with what is in memory) that is not…

Word-length effect in verbal short-term memory in individuals with Down's syndrome.

PubMed

Kanno, K; Ikeda, Y

2002-11-01

Many studies have indicated that individuals with Down's syndrome (DS) show a specific deficit in short-term memory for verbal information. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of the length of words on verbal short-term memory in individuals with DS. Twenty-eight children with DS and 10 control participants matched for memory span were tested on verbal serial recall and speech rate, which are thought to involve rehearsal and output speed. Although a significant word-length effect was observed in both groups for the recall of a larger number of items with a shorter spoken duration than for those with a longer spoken duration, the number of correct recalls in the group with DS was reduced compared to the control subjects. The results demonstrating poor short-term memory in children with DS were irrelevant to speech rate. In addition, the proportion of repetition-gained errors in serial recall was higher in children with DS than in control subjects. The present findings suggest that poor access to long-term lexical knowledge, rather than overt articulation speed, constrains verbal short-term memory functions in individuals with DS.

Proactive Interference in Short-Term Recognition and Recall Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dillon, Richard F.; Petrusic, William M.

1972-01-01

Purpose of study was to (a) compare the rate of increase of proactive interference over the first few trials under recall and recognition memory test conditions, (2) determine the effects of two types of distractors on short-term recognition, and (3) test memory after proactive interference had reached a stable level under each of three test…

Short-Term Memory, Executive Control, and Children's Route Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Purser, Harry R. M.; Farran, Emily K.; Courbois, Yannick; Lemahieu, Axelle; Mellier, Daniel; Sockeel, Pascal; Blades, Mark

2012-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate route-learning ability in 67 children aged 5 to 11 years and to relate route-learning performance to the components of Baddeley's model of working memory. Children carried out tasks that included measures of verbal and visuospatial short-term memory and executive control and also measures of verbal and…

Long-term effects of interference on short-term memory performance in the rat.

PubMed

Missaire, Mégane; Fraize, Nicolas; Joseph, Mickaël Antoine; Hamieh, Al Mahdy; Parmentier, Régis; Marighetto, Aline; Salin, Paul Antoine; Malleret, Gaël

2017-01-01

A distinction has always been made between long-term and short-term memory (also now called working memory, WM). The obvious difference between these two kinds of memory concerns the duration of information storage: information is supposedly transiently stored in WM while it is considered durably consolidated into long-term memory. It is well acknowledged that the content of WM is erased and reset after a short time, to prevent irrelevant information from proactively interfering with newly stored information. In the present study, we used typical WM radial maze tasks to question the brief lifespan of spatial WM content in rodents. Groups of rats were submitted to one of two different WM tasks in a radial maze: a WM task involving the repetitive presentation of a same pair of arms expected to induce a high level of proactive interference (PI) (HIWM task), or a task using a different pair in each trial expected to induce a low level of PI (LIWM task). Performance was effectively lower in the HIWM group than in LIWM in the final trial of each training session, indicative of a "within-session/short-term" PI effect. However, we also observed a different "between-session/long-term" PI effect between the two groups: while performance of LIWM trained rats remained stable over days, the performance of HIWM rats dropped after 10 days of training, and this impairment was visible from the very first trial of the day, hence not attributable to within-session PI. We also showed that a 24 hour-gap across training sessions known to allow consolidation processes to unfold, was a necessary and sufficient condition for the long-term PI effect to occur. These findings suggest that in the HIWM task, WM content was not entirely reset between training sessions and that, in specific conditions, WM content can outlast its purpose by being stored more permanently, generating a long-term deleterious effect of PI. The alternative explanation is that WM content could be transferred and stored

Short-term prospective memory deficits in chronic back pain patients.

PubMed

Ling, Jonathan; Campbell, Carol; Heffernan, Thomas M; Greenough, Charles G

2007-01-01

Chronic pain, particularly low back pain, is widespread. Although a great deal is known about the impact that this has on quality of life and physical activity, relatively little has been established regarding the more cognitive effects of pain. This study aims to find out whether individuals with chronic pain experience memory deficits in prospective memory (PM), the process of remembering to do things at some future point in time. Examples of PM include remembering to keep an appointment, such as a visit to a clinic, or to perform a particular task, such as paying a bill on time. The PM of 50 participants with chronic pain was compared with 50 pain-free participants. Each participant completed the Prospective Memory Questionnaire, which assesses three aspects of prospective memory (short-term habitual, long-term episodic, and internally cued), and records the use of strategies to aid remembering. In comparison to those not in pain, participants with chronic pain had significantly impaired short-term prospective memory, an effect which was evident even after co-varying use of analgesics and other drugs. These findings provide new insights into prospective memory dysfunction in people with chronic pain. Possible mechanisms for this dysfunction are discussed and suggestions for future research given.

The effect of zinc supplementation of lactating rats on short-term and long-term memory of their male offspring.

PubMed

Karami, Mohammad; Ehsanivostacolaee, Simin; Moazedi, Ali Ahmad; Nosrati, Anahita

2013-01-01

In this study the effect of zinc chloride (ZnCl2) administration on the short-term and long-term memory of rats were assessed. We enrolled six groups of adult female and control group of eight Wistar rats in each group. One group was control group with free access to food and water, and five groups drunk zinc chloride in different doses (20, 30, 50, 70 and 100 mg/kg/day) in drinking water for two weeks during lactation .One month after birth, a shuttle box used to short- term and long-term memory and the latency in entering the dark chamber as well. This experiment showed that maternal 70 mg/kg dietary zinc during lactation influenced the working memory of rats' offspring in all groups. Rats received 100 mg/kg/day zinc during lactation so they had significant impairment in working memory (short-term) of their offspring (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in reference (long-term) memory of all groups. Drug consumption below70 mg/kg/day zinc chloride during lactation had no effect. While enhanced 100 mg/ kg/ day zinc in lactating rats could cause short-term memory impairment.

Similarity as an organising principle in short-term memory.

PubMed

LeCompte, D C; Watkins, M J

1993-03-01

The role of stimulus similarity as an organising principle in short-term memory was explored in a series of seven experiments. Each experiment involved the presentation of a short sequence of items that were drawn from two distinct physical classes and arranged such that item class changed after every second item. Following presentation, one item was re-presented as a probe for the 'target' item that had directly followed it in the sequence. Memory for the sequence was considered organised by class if probability of recall was higher when the probe and target were from the same class than when they were from different classes. Such organisation was found when one class was auditory and the other was visual (spoken vs. written words, and sounds vs. pictures). It was also found when both classes were auditory (words spoken in a male voice vs. words spoken in a female voice) and when both classes were visual (digits shown in one location vs. digits shown in another). It is concluded that short-term memory can be organised on the basis of sensory modality and on the basis of certain features within both the auditory and visual modalities.

Short-Term Memory of Children with Mental Retardation: Structural Defects or Control Deficits.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Katims, David S.

The short-term memory of 24 retarded and 24 nonretarded individuals, aged 10 to 14, under conditions of restricted cognitive strategy use was investigated. An attempt was made to determine whether short-term memory difficulties of persons with mental retardation are caused by deficits in voluntary cognitive strategies, such as the organization and…

Does Occupational Exposure of Shahid Dastghieb International Airport Workers to Radiofrequency Radiation Affect Their Short Term Memory and Reaction Time?

PubMed

Jarideh, S; Taeb, S; Pishva, S M; Haghani, M; Sina, S; Mortazavi, S A R; Hosseini, M A; Nematollahi, S; Shokrpour, N; Hassan Shahi, M; Mortazavi, S M J

2015-09-01

Airport workers are continuously exposed to different levels of radiofrequency microwave (RF/MW) radiation emitted by radar equipments. Radars are extensively used in military and aviation industries. Over the past several years, our lab has focused on the health effects of exposure to different sources of electromagnetic fields such as cellular phones, mobile base stations, mobile phone jammers, laptop computers, radars, dentistry cavitrons and MRI. The main goal of this study was to investigate if occupational exposure of Shahid Dastghieb international airport workers to radiofrequency radiation affects their short term memory and reaction time. Thirty two airport workers involved in duties at control and approach tower (21 males and 11 females), with the age range of 27-67 years old (mean age of 37.38), participated voluntary in this study. On the other hand, 29 workers (13 males, and 16 females) whose offices were in the city with no exposure history to radar systems were also participated in this study as the control group. The employees' reaction time and short term memory were analyzed using a standard visual reaction time (VRT) test software and the modified Wechsler memory scale test, respectively. The mean± SD values for the reaction times of the airport employees (N=32) and the control group (N=29) were 0.45±0.12 sec and 0.46±0.17 sec, respectively.  Moreover, in the four subset tests; i.e. paired words, forward digit span, backward digit span and word recognition, the following points were obtained for the airport employees and the control group, respectively: (i) pair words test: 28.00±13.13 and 32.07±11.65, (ii) forward digit span: 8.38±1.40 and 9.03±1.32, (iii) backward digit span: 5.54±1.87 and 6.31±1.46, and (iv) word recognition: 5.73±2.36 and 6.50±1.93. These differences were not statistically significant. The occupational exposure of the employees to the RF radiation in Shahid Dastghieb international airport does not have any

Does Occupational Exposure of Shahid Dastghieb International Airport Workers to Radiofrequency Radiation Affect Their Short Term Memory and Reaction Time?

PubMed Central

Jarideh, S.; Taeb, S.; Pishva, S. M.; Haghani, M.; Sina, S.; Mortazavi, S. A. R.; Hosseini, M. A.; Nematollahi, S.; Shokrpour, N.; Hassan Shahi, M.; Mortazavi, S. M. J.

2015-01-01

Background Airport workers are continuously exposed to different levels of radiofrequency microwave (RF/MW) radiation emitted by radar equipments. Radars are extensively used in military and aviation industries. Over the past several years, our lab has focused on the health effects of exposure to different sources of electromagnetic fields such as cellular phones, mobile base stations, mobile phone jammers, laptop computers, radars, dentistry cavitrons and MRI. The main goal of this study was to investigate if occupational exposure of Shahid Dastghieb international airport workers to radiofrequency radiation affects their short term memory and reaction time. Methods Thirty two airport workers involved in duties at control and approach tower (21 males and 11 females), with the age range of 27-67 years old (mean age of 37.38), participated voluntary in this study. On the other hand, 29 workers (13 males, and 16 females) whose offices were in the city with no exposure history to radar systems were also participated in this study as the control group. The employees’ reaction time and short term memory were analyzed using a standard visual reaction time (VRT) test software and the modified Wechsler memory scale test, respectively. Results The mean± SD values for the reaction times of the airport employees (N=32) and the control group (N=29) were 0.45±0.12 sec and 0.46±0.17 sec, respectively.  Moreover, in the four subset tests; i.e. paired words, forward digit span, backward digit span and word recognition, the following points were obtained for the airport employees and the control group, respectively: (i) pair words test: 28.00±13.13 and 32.07±11.65, (ii) forward digit span: 8.38±1.40 and 9.03±1.32, (iii) backward digit span: 5.54±1.87 and 6.31±1.46, and (iv) word recognition: 5.73±2.36 and 6.50±1.93. These differences were not statistically significant. Conclusion The occupational exposure of the employees to the RF radiation in Shahid Dastghieb

A Single Brief Burst Induces GluR1-Dependent Associative Short-Term Potentiation: A Potential Mechanism for Short-Term Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erickson, Martha A.; Maramara, Lauren A.; Lisman, John

2010-01-01

Recent work showed that short-term memory (STM) is selectively reduced in GluR1 knockout mice. This raises the possibility that a form of synaptic modification dependent on GluR1 might underlie STM. Studies of synaptic plasticity have shown that stimuli too weak to induce long-term potentiation induce short-term potentiation (STP), a phenomenon…

Impact of Spatial and Verbal Short-Term Memory Load on Auditory Spatial Attention Gradients.

PubMed

Golob, Edward J; Winston, Jenna; Mock, Jeffrey R

2017-01-01

Short-term memory load can impair attentional control, but prior work shows that the extent of the effect ranges from being very general to very specific. One factor for the mixed results may be reliance on point estimates of memory load effects on attention. Here we used auditory attention gradients as an analog measure to map-out the impact of short-term memory load over space. Verbal or spatial information was maintained during an auditory spatial attention task and compared to no-load. Stimuli were presented from five virtual locations in the frontal azimuth plane, and subjects focused on the midline. Reaction times progressively increased for lateral stimuli, indicating an attention gradient. Spatial load further slowed responses at lateral locations, particularly in the left hemispace, but had little effect at midline. Verbal memory load had no (Experiment 1), or a minimal (Experiment 2) influence on reaction times. Spatial and verbal load increased switch costs between memory encoding and attention tasks relative to the no load condition. The findings show that short-term memory influences the distribution of auditory attention over space; and that the specific pattern depends on the type of information in short-term memory.

Impact of Spatial and Verbal Short-Term Memory Load on Auditory Spatial Attention Gradients

PubMed Central

Golob, Edward J.; Winston, Jenna; Mock, Jeffrey R.

2017-01-01

Short-term memory load can impair attentional control, but prior work shows that the extent of the effect ranges from being very general to very specific. One factor for the mixed results may be reliance on point estimates of memory load effects on attention. Here we used auditory attention gradients as an analog measure to map-out the impact of short-term memory load over space. Verbal or spatial information was maintained during an auditory spatial attention task and compared to no-load. Stimuli were presented from five virtual locations in the frontal azimuth plane, and subjects focused on the midline. Reaction times progressively increased for lateral stimuli, indicating an attention gradient. Spatial load further slowed responses at lateral locations, particularly in the left hemispace, but had little effect at midline. Verbal memory load had no (Experiment 1), or a minimal (Experiment 2) influence on reaction times. Spatial and verbal load increased switch costs between memory encoding and attention tasks relative to the no load condition. The findings show that short-term memory influences the distribution of auditory attention over space; and that the specific pattern depends on the type of information in short-term memory. PMID:29218024

Prefrontal θ-Burst Stimulation Disrupts the Organizing Influence of Active Short-Term Retrieval on Episodic Memory.

PubMed

Marin, Bianca M; VanHaerents, Stephen A; Voss, Joel L; Bridge, Donna J

2018-01-01

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is thought to organize items in working memory and this organizational role may also influence long-term memory. To causally test this hypothesized role of DLPFC in long-term memory formation, we used θ-burst noninvasive stimulation (TBS) to modulate DLPFC involvement in a memory task that assessed the influence of active short-term retrieval on later memory. Human subjects viewed three objects on a grid and then either actively retrieved or passively restudied one object's location after a brief delay. Long-term memory for the other objects was assessed after a delay to evaluate the beneficial role of active short-term retrieval on subsequent memory for the entire set of object locations. We found that DLPFC TBS had no significant effects on short-term memory. In contrast, DLPFC TBS impaired long-term memory selectively in the active-retrieval condition but not in the passive-restudy condition. These findings are consistent with the hypothesized contribution of DLPFC to the organizational processes operative during active short-term retrieval that influence long-term memory, although other regions that were not stimulated could provide similar contributions. Notably, active-retrieval and passive-restudy conditions were intermixed, and therefore nonspecific influences of stimulation were well controlled. These results suggest that DLPFC is causally involved in organizing event information during active retrieval to support coherent long-term memory formation.

Prefrontal θ-Burst Stimulation Disrupts the Organizing Influence of Active Short-Term Retrieval on Episodic Memory

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

Abstract Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is thought to organize items in working memory and this organizational role may also influence long-term memory. To causally test this hypothesized role of DLPFC in long-term memory formation, we used θ-burst noninvasive stimulation (TBS) to modulate DLPFC involvement in a memory task that assessed the influence of active short-term retrieval on later memory. Human subjects viewed three objects on a grid and then either actively retrieved or passively restudied one object’s location after a brief delay. Long-term memory for the other objects was assessed after a delay to evaluate the beneficial role of active short-term retrieval on subsequent memory for the entire set of object locations. We found that DLPFC TBS had no significant effects on short-term memory. In contrast, DLPFC TBS impaired long-term memory selectively in the active-retrieval condition but not in the passive-restudy condition. These findings are consistent with the hypothesized contribution of DLPFC to the organizational processes operative during active short-term retrieval that influence long-term memory, although other regions that were not stimulated could provide similar contributions. Notably, active-retrieval and passive-restudy conditions were intermixed, and therefore nonspecific influences of stimulation were well controlled. These results suggest that DLPFC is causally involved in organizing event information during active retrieval to support coherent long-term memory formation. PMID:29445769

Visual Short-Term Cued Recall Memory in Infancy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brody, Leslie R.

1981-01-01

The visual short-term cued recall memory of 8-, 12-, and 16-month-olds was assessed in two experiments using an operant indirect delayed-reaction procedure. In each experiment, 12- and 16-month olds performed better than chance, whereas 8-month-old infants did not. (Author/DB)

Anisomycin Injection in Area CA3 of the Hippocampus Impairs Both Short-Term and Long-Term Memories of Contextual Fear

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Remaud, Jessica; Ceccom, Johnatan; Carponcy, Julien; Dugué, Laura; Menchon, Gregory; Pech, Stéphane; Halley, Helene; Francés, Bernard; Dahan, Lionel

2014-01-01

Protein synthesis is involved in the consolidation of short-term memory into long-term memory. Previous electrophysiological data concerning LTP in CA3 suggest that protein synthesis in that region might also be necessary for short-term memory. We tested this hypothesis by locally injecting the protein synthesis inhibitor anisomycin in hippocampal…

The neural substrates of recognition memory for verbal information: spanning the divide between short- and long-term memory.

PubMed

Buchsbaum, Bradley R; Padmanabhan, Aarthi; Berman, Karen Faith

2011-04-01

One of the classic categorical divisions in the history of memory research is that between short-term and long-term memory. Indeed, because memory for the immediate past (a few seconds) and memory for the relatively more remote past (several seconds and beyond) are assumed to rely on distinct neural systems, more often than not, memory research has focused either on short- (or "working memory") or on long-term memory. Using an auditory-verbal continuous recognition paradigm designed for fMRI, we examined how the neural signatures of recognition memory change across an interval of time (from 2.5 to 30 sec) that spans this hypothetical division between short- and long-term memory. The results revealed that activity during successful auditory-verbal item recognition in inferior parietal cortex and the posterior superior temporal lobe was maximal for early lags, whereas, conversely, activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus increased as a function of lag. Taken together, the results reveal that as the interval between item repetitions increases, there is a shift in the distribution of memory-related activity that moves from posterior temporo-parietal cortex (lags 1-4) to inferior frontal regions (lags 5-10), indicating that as time advances, the burden of recognition memory is increasingly placed on top-down retrieval mechanisms that are mediated by structures in inferior frontal cortex.

Morphological processing with deficient phonological short-term memory.

PubMed

Kavé, Gitit; Ze'ev, Hagit Bar; Lev, Anita

2007-07-01

This paper investigates the processing of Hebrew derivational morphology in an individual (S.E.) with deficient phonological short-term memory. In comparison to 10 age- and education-matched men, S.E. was impaired on digit span tasks and demonstrated no recency effect in word list recall. S.E. had low word retention span, but he exhibited phonological similarity and word length effects. His ability to make lexical decisions was intact. In a paired-associate test S.E. successfully learned semantically and morphologically related pairs but not phonologically related pairs, and his learning of nonwords was facilitated by the presence of Hebrew consonant roots. Semantic and morphological similarity enhanced immediate word recall. Results show that S.E. is capable of conducting morphological decomposition of Hebrew-derived words despite his phonological deficit, suggesting that transient maintenance of morphological constituents is independent of temporary storage and rehearsal of phonological codes, and that each is processed separately within short-term memory.

Long-term effects of interference on short-term memory performance in the rat

PubMed Central

Missaire, Mégane; Fraize, Nicolas; Joseph, Mickaël Antoine; Hamieh, Al Mahdy; Parmentier, Régis; Marighetto, Aline; Salin, Paul Antoine; Malleret, Gaël

2017-01-01

A distinction has always been made between long-term and short-term memory (also now called working memory, WM). The obvious difference between these two kinds of memory concerns the duration of information storage: information is supposedly transiently stored in WM while it is considered durably consolidated into long-term memory. It is well acknowledged that the content of WM is erased and reset after a short time, to prevent irrelevant information from proactively interfering with newly stored information. In the present study, we used typical WM radial maze tasks to question the brief lifespan of spatial WM content in rodents. Groups of rats were submitted to one of two different WM tasks in a radial maze: a WM task involving the repetitive presentation of a same pair of arms expected to induce a high level of proactive interference (PI) (HIWM task), or a task using a different pair in each trial expected to induce a low level of PI (LIWM task). Performance was effectively lower in the HIWM group than in LIWM in the final trial of each training session, indicative of a “within-session/short-term” PI effect. However, we also observed a different “between-session/long-term” PI effect between the two groups: while performance of LIWM trained rats remained stable over days, the performance of HIWM rats dropped after 10 days of training, and this impairment was visible from the very first trial of the day, hence not attributable to within-session PI. We also showed that a 24 hour-gap across training sessions known to allow consolidation processes to unfold, was a necessary and sufficient condition for the long-term PI effect to occur. These findings suggest that in the HIWM task, WM content was not entirely reset between training sessions and that, in specific conditions, WM content can outlast its purpose by being stored more permanently, generating a long-term deleterious effect of PI. The alternative explanation is that WM content could be transferred and

Phonological Short-Term and Working Memory in Bilinguals' Native and Second Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaushanskaya, Margarita; Yoo, Jeewon

2013-01-01

The goal of the current study was to examine bilinguals' phonological short-term and working memory performance in their native/first (L1) and second (L2) languages. Korean-English bilinguals were tested in both Korean (L1) and English (L2). Short-term memory (STM) was measured via a nonword repetition task, where participants repeated…

Transmodal comparison of auditory, motor, and visual post-processing with and without intentional short-term memory maintenance.

PubMed

Bender, Stephan; Behringer, Stephanie; Freitag, Christine M; Resch, Franz; Weisbrod, Matthias

2010-12-01

To elucidate the contributions of modality-dependent post-processing in auditory, motor and visual cortical areas to short-term memory. We compared late negative waves (N700) during the post-processing of single lateralized stimuli which were separated by long intertrial intervals across the auditory, motor and visual modalities. Tasks either required or competed with attention to post-processing of preceding events, i.e. active short-term memory maintenance. N700 indicated that cortical post-processing exceeded short movements as well as short auditory or visual stimuli for over half a second without intentional short-term memory maintenance. Modality-specific topographies pointed towards sensory (respectively motor) generators with comparable time-courses across the different modalities. Lateralization and amplitude of auditory/motor/visual N700 were enhanced by active short-term memory maintenance compared to attention to current perceptions or passive stimulation. The memory-related N700 increase followed the characteristic time-course and modality-specific topography of the N700 without intentional memory-maintenance. Memory-maintenance-related lateralized negative potentials may be related to a less lateralised modality-dependent post-processing N700 component which occurs also without intentional memory maintenance (automatic memory trace or effortless attraction of attention). Encoding to short-term memory may involve controlled attention to modality-dependent post-processing. Similar short-term memory processes may exist in the auditory, motor and visual systems. Copyright © 2010 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Regularization in Short-Term Memory for Serial Order

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Botvinick, Matthew; Bylsma, Lauren M.

2005-01-01

Previous research has shown that short-term memory for serial order can be influenced by background knowledge concerning regularities of sequential structure. Specifically, it has been shown that recall is superior for sequences that fit well with familiar sequencing constraints. The authors report a corresponding effect pertaining to serial…

Short-term memory predictions across the lifespan: monitoring span before and after conducting a task.

PubMed

Bertrand, Julie Marilyne; Moulin, Chris John Anthony; Souchay, Céline

2017-05-01

Our objective was to explore metamemory in short-term memory across the lifespan. Five age groups participated in this study: 3 groups of children (4-13 years old), and younger and older adults. We used a three-phase task: prediction-span-postdiction. For prediction and postdiction phases, participants reported with a Yes/No response if they could recall in order a series of images. For the span task, they had to actually recall such series. From 4 years old, children have some ability to monitor their short-term memory and are able to adjust their prediction after experiencing the task. However, accuracy still improves significantly until adolescence. Although the older adults had a lower span, they were as accurate as young adults in their evaluation, suggesting that metamemory is unimpaired for short-term memory tasks in older adults. •We investigate metamemory for short-term memory tasks across the lifespan. •We find younger children cannot accurately predict their span length. •Older adults are accurate in predicting their span length. •People's metamemory accuracy was related to their short-term memory span.

The Neural Substrates of Recognition Memory for Verbal Information: Spanning the Divide between Short- and Long-Term Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buchsbaum, Bradley R.; Padmanabhan, Aarthi; Berman, Karen Faith

2011-01-01

One of the classic categorical divisions in the history of memory research is that between short-term and long-term memory. Indeed, because memory for the immediate past (a few seconds) and memory for the relatively more remote past (several seconds and beyond) are assumed to rely on distinct neural systems, more often than not, memory research…

Reduced short-term memory capacity in Alzheimer's disease: the role of phonological, lexical, and semantic processing.

PubMed

Caza, Nicole; Belleville, Sylvie

2008-05-01

Individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) are often reported to have reduced verbal short-term memory capacity, typically attributed to their attention/executive deficits. However, these individuals also tend to show progressive impairment of semantic, lexical, and phonological processing which may underlie their low short-term memory capacity. The goals of this study were to assess the contribution of each level of representation (phonological, lexical, and semantic) to immediate serial recall performance in 18 individuals with AD, and to examine how these linguistic effects on short-term memory were modulated by their reduced capacity to manipulate information in short-term memory associated with executive dysfunction. Results showed that individuals with AD had difficulty recalling items that relied on phonological representations, which led to increased lexicality effects relative to the control group. This finding suggests that patients have a greater reliance on lexical/semantic information than controls, possibly to make up for deficits in retention and processing of phonological material. This lexical/semantic effect was not found to be significantly correlated with patients' capacity to manipulate verbal material in short-term memory, indicating that language processing and executive deficits may independently contribute to reducing verbal short-term memory capacity in AD.

Enhanced Visual Short-Term Memory for Angry Faces

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, Margaret C.; Wu, Chia-Yun; Linden, David E. J.; Raymond, Jane E.

2009-01-01

Although some views of face perception posit independent processing of face identity and expression, recent studies suggest interactive processing of these 2 domains. The authors examined expression-identity interactions in visual short-term memory (VSTM) by assessing recognition performance in a VSTM task in which face identity was relevant and…

Conceptual short-term memory (CSTM) supports core claims of Christiansen and Chater.

PubMed

Potter, Mary C

2016-01-01

Rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of words or pictured scenes provides evidence for a large-capacity conceptual short-term memory (CSTM) that momentarily provides rich associated material from long-term memory, permitting rapid chunking (Potter 1993; 2009; 2012). In perception of scenes as well as language comprehension, we make use of knowledge that briefly exceeds the supposed limits of working memory.

Short-term memory load and pronunciation rate

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schweickert, Richard; Hayt, Cathrin

1988-01-01

In a test of short-term memory recall, two subjects attempted to recall various lists. For unpracticed subjects, the time it took to read the list is a better predictor of immediate recall than the number of items on the list. For practiced subjects, the two predictors do about equally well. If the items that must be recalled are unfamiliar, it is advantageous to keep the items short to pronounce. On the other hand, if the same items will be encountered over and over again, it is advantageous to make them distinctive, even at the cost of adding to the number of syllables.

Short-Term Memory Limitations in Children: Capacity or Processing Deficits?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chi, Michelene T. H.

1976-01-01

Evaluates the assertion that short-term memory (STM) capacity increases with age and concludes that the STM capacity limitation in children is due to the deficits in the processing strategies and speeds, which presumably improve with age through cumulative learning. (JM) Available from: Memory and Cognition, Psychonomic Society, 1018 West 34…

The functional neuroanatomy of multitasking: combining dual tasking with a short term memory task.

PubMed

Deprez, Sabine; Vandenbulcke, Mathieu; Peeters, Ron; Emsell, Louise; Amant, Frederic; Sunaert, Stefan

2013-09-01

Insight into the neural architecture of multitasking is crucial when investigating the pathophysiology of multitasking deficits in clinical populations. Presently, little is known about how the brain combines dual-tasking with a concurrent short-term memory task, despite the relevance of this mental operation in daily life and the frequency of complaints related to this process, in disease. In this study we aimed to examine how the brain responds when a memory task is added to dual-tasking. Thirty-three right-handed healthy volunteers (20 females, mean age 39.9 ± 5.8) were examined with functional brain imaging (fMRI). The paradigm consisted of two cross-modal single tasks (a visual and auditory temporal same-different task with short delay), a dual-task combining both single tasks simultaneously and a multi-task condition, combining the dual-task with an additional short-term memory task (temporal same-different visual task with long delay). Dual-tasking compared to both individual visual and auditory single tasks activated a predominantly right-sided fronto-parietal network and the cerebellum. When adding the additional short-term memory task, a larger and more bilateral frontoparietal network was recruited. We found enhanced activity during multitasking in components of the network that were already involved in dual-tasking, suggesting increased working memory demands, as well as recruitment of multitask-specific components including areas that are likely to be involved in online holding of visual stimuli in short-term memory such as occipito-temporal cortex. These results confirm concurrent neural processing of a visual short-term memory task during dual-tasking and provide evidence for an effective fMRI multitasking paradigm. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The case against specialized visual-spatial short-term memory.

PubMed

Morey, Candice C

2018-05-24

The dominant paradigm for understanding working memory, or the combination of the perceptual, attentional, and mnemonic processes needed for thinking, subdivides short-term memory (STM) according to whether memoranda are encoded in aural-verbal or visual formats. This traditional dissociation has been supported by examples of neuropsychological patients who seem to selectively lack STM for either aural-verbal, visual, or spatial memoranda, and by experimental research using dual-task methods. Though this evidence is the foundation of assumptions of modular STM systems, the case it makes for a specialized visual STM system is surprisingly weak. I identify the key evidence supporting a distinct verbal STM system-patients with apparent selective damage to verbal STM and the resilience of verbal short-term memories to general dual-task interference-and apply these benchmarks to neuropsychological and experimental investigations of visual-spatial STM. Contrary to the evidence on verbal STM, patients with apparent visual or spatial STM deficits tend to experience a wide range of additional deficits, making it difficult to conclude that a distinct short-term store was damaged. Consistently with this, a meta-analysis of dual-task visual-spatial STM research shows that robust dual-task costs are consistently observed regardless of the domain or sensory code of the secondary task. Together, this evidence suggests that positing a specialized visual STM system is not necessary. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

No effect of transcranial direct current stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on short-term memory.

PubMed

Wang, Jing; Wen, Jian-Bing; Li, Xiao-Li

2018-01-01

Short-term memory refers to the capacity for holding information in mind for a short period of time with conscious memorization. It is an important ability for daily life and is impaired in several neurological and psychiatric disorders. Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) was reported to enhance the capability of short-term memory in healthy subjects. However, results were not consistent and what is the possible impact factor is not known. One important factor that may significantly influence the effect of tDCS is the timing of tDCS administration. In order to explore whether tDCS impact short-term memory and the optimal timing of tDCS administration, we applied anodal tDCS to the left DLPFC to explore the modulatory effect of online and off-line tDCS on digit span as well as visual short-term memory performance in healthy subjects. Results showed tDCS of the left DLPFC did not influence intentional digit span memory performance, whether before the task or during the task. In addition, tDCS of the DLPFC administered before the task showed no effect on visual short-term memory, while there was a trend of increase in false alarm when tDCS of the DLPFC administered during the task. These results did not provide evidence for the enhancement of short-term memory by tDCS of the left DLPFC in healthy subjects, but it suggested an importance of administration time for visual short-term memory. Further studies are required to taking into account the baseline performance of subjects and time-dependence feature of tDCS. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Feature bindings are maintained in visual short-term memory without sustained focused attention.

PubMed

Delvenne, Jean-François; Cleeremans, Axel; Laloyaux, Cédric

2010-01-01

Does the maintenance of feature bindings in visual short-term memory (VSTM) require sustained focused attention? This issue was investigated in three experiments, in which memory for single features (i.e., colors or shapes) was compared with memory for feature bindings (i.e., the link between the color and shape of an object). Attention was manipulated during the memory retention interval with a retro-cue, which allows attention to be directed and focused on a subset of memory items. The retro-cue was presented 700 ms after the offset of the memory display and 700 ms before the onset of the test display. If the maintenance of feature bindings - but not of individual features - in memory requires sustained focused attention, the retro-cue should not affect memory performance. Contrary to this prediction, we found that both memory for feature bindings and memory for individual features were equally improved by the retro-cue. Therefore, this finding does not support the view that the sustained focused attention is needed to properly maintain feature bindings in VSTM.

Facilitative Effects of Forgetting from Short-Term Memory on Growth of Long-Term Memory in Retardates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sperber, Richard D.

1976-01-01

Competing explanations of the beneficial effect of spacing in retardate discrimination learning were tested. Results are inconsistent with consolidation and rehearsal theories but support the prediction of the Geber, Greenfield, and House spacing model that forgetting from short-term memory facilities retardate learning. (Author/SB)

Upregulation of CREB-mediated transcription enhances both short- and long-term memory.

PubMed

Suzuki, Akinobu; Fukushima, Hotaka; Mukawa, Takuya; Toyoda, Hiroki; Wu, Long-Jun; Zhao, Ming-Gao; Xu, Hui; Shang, Yuze; Endoh, Kengo; Iwamoto, Taku; Mamiya, Nori; Okano, Emiko; Hasegawa, Shunsuke; Mercaldo, Valentina; Zhang, Yue; Maeda, Ryouta; Ohta, Miho; Josselyn, Sheena A; Zhuo, Min; Kida, Satoshi

2011-06-15

Unraveling the mechanisms by which the molecular manipulation of genes of interest enhances cognitive function is important to establish genetic therapies for cognitive disorders. Although CREB is thought to positively regulate formation of long-term memory (LTM), gain-of-function effects of CREB remain poorly understood, especially at the behavioral level. To address this, we generated four lines of transgenic mice expressing dominant active CREB mutants (CREB-Y134F or CREB-DIEDML) in the forebrain that exhibited moderate upregulation of CREB activity. These transgenic lines improved not only LTM but also long-lasting long-term potentiation in the CA1 area in the hippocampus. However, we also observed enhanced short-term memory (STM) in contextual fear-conditioning and social recognition tasks. Enhanced LTM and STM could be dissociated behaviorally in these four lines of transgenic mice, suggesting that the underlying mechanism for enhanced STM and LTM are distinct. LTM enhancement seems to be attributable to the improvement of memory consolidation by the upregulation of CREB transcriptional activity, whereas higher basal levels of BDNF, a CREB target gene, predicted enhanced shorter-term memory. The importance of BDNF in STM was verified by microinfusing BDNF or BDNF inhibitors into the hippocampus of wild-type or transgenic mice. Additionally, increasing BDNF further enhanced LTM in one of the lines of transgenic mice that displayed a normal BDNF level but enhanced LTM, suggesting that upregulation of BDNF and CREB activity cooperatively enhances LTM formation. Our findings suggest that CREB positively regulates memory consolidation and affects memory performance by regulating BDNF expression.

Neurotrophins play differential roles in short and long-term recognition memory.

PubMed

Callaghan, Charlotte K; Kelly, Aine M

2013-09-01

The neurotrophin family of proteins are believed to mediate various forms of synaptic plasticity in the adult brain. Here we have assessed the roles of these proteins in object recognition memory in the rat, using icv infusions of function-blocking antibodies or the tyrosine kinase antagonist, tyrphostin AG879, to block Trk receptors. We report that tyrphostin AG879 impairs both short-term and long-term recognition memory, indicating a requirement for Trk receptor activation in both processes. The effect of inhibition of each of the neurotrophins with activity-blocking neutralising antibodies was also tested. Treatment with anti-BDNF, anti-NGF or anti-NT4 had no effect on short-term memory, but blocked long-term recognition memory. Treatment with anti-NT3 had no effect on either process. We also assessed changes in expression of neurotrophins and their respective receptors in the hippocampus, dentate gyrus and perirhinal cortex over a 24 h period following training in the object recognition task. We observed time-dependent changes in expression of the Trk receptors and their ligands in the dentate gyrus and perirhinal cortex. The data are consistent with a pivotal role for neurotrophic factors in the expression of recognition memory. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Presentation Modality and Proactive Interference in Children's Short-Term Memory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Douglas, Joan Delahanty

This study examined the role of visual and auditory presentation in memory encoding processes of 80 second-grade children, using the release-from-proactive-interference short-term memory (STM) paradigm. Words were presented over three trials within one of the presentation modes and one taxonomic category, followed by a fourth trial in which the…

Motivation and short-term memory in visual search: Attention's accelerator revisited.

PubMed

Schneider, Daniel; Bonmassar, Claudia; Hickey, Clayton

2018-05-01

A cue indicating the possibility of cash reward will cause participants to perform memory-based visual search more efficiently. A recent study has suggested that this performance benefit might reflect the use of multiple memory systems: when needed, participants may maintain the to-be-remembered object in both long-term and short-term visual memory, with this redundancy benefitting target identification during search (Reinhart, McClenahan & Woodman, 2016). Here we test this compelling hypothesis. We had participants complete a memory-based visual search task involving a reward cue that either preceded presentation of the to-be-remembered target (pre-cue) or followed it (retro-cue). Following earlier work, we tracked memory representation using two components of the event-related potential (ERP): the contralateral delay activity (CDA), reflecting short-term visual memory, and the anterior P170, reflecting long-term storage. We additionally tracked attentional preparation and deployment in the contingent negative variation (CNV) and N2pc, respectively. Results show that only the reward pre-cue impacted our ERP indices of memory. However, both types of cue elicited a robust CNV, reflecting an influence on task preparation, both had equivalent impact on deployment of attention to the target, as indexed in the N2pc, and both had equivalent impact on visual search behavior. Reward prospect thus has an influence on memory-guided visual search, but this does not appear to be necessarily mediated by a change in the visual memory representations indexed by CDA. Our results demonstrate that the impact of motivation on search is not a simple product of improved memory for target templates. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The role of early visual cortex in visual short-term memory and visual attention.

PubMed

Offen, Shani; Schluppeck, Denis; Heeger, David J

2009-06-01

We measured cortical activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging to probe the involvement of early visual cortex in visual short-term memory and visual attention. In four experimental tasks, human subjects viewed two visual stimuli separated by a variable delay period. The tasks placed differential demands on short-term memory and attention, but the stimuli were visually identical until after the delay period. Early visual cortex exhibited sustained responses throughout the delay when subjects performed attention-demanding tasks, but delay-period activity was not distinguishable from zero when subjects performed a task that required short-term memory. This dissociation reveals different computational mechanisms underlying the two processes.

How emotional pictures influence visuospatial binding in short-term memory in ageing and Alzheimer's disease?

PubMed

Borg, Céline; Leroy, Nicolas; Favre, Emilie; Laurent, Bernard; Thomas-Antérion, Catherine

2011-06-01

The present study examines the prediction that emotion can facilitate short-term memory. Nevertheless, emotion also recruits attention to process information, thereby disrupting short-term memory when tasks involve high attentional resources. In this way, we aimed to determine whether there is a differential influence of emotional information on short-term memory in ageing and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Fourteen patients with mild AD, 14 healthy older participants (NC), and 14 younger adults (YA) performed two tasks. In the first task, involving visual short-term memory, participants were asked to remember a picture among four different pictures (negative or neutral) following a brief delay. The second task, a binding memory task, required the recognition by participants of a picture according to its spatial location. The attentional cost involved was higher than for the first task. The pattern of results showed that visual memory performance was better for negative stimuli than for neutral ones, irrespective of the group. In contrast, binding memory performance was essentially poorer for the location of negative pictures in the NC group, and for the location of both negative and neutral stimuli in the AD group, in comparison to the YA group. Taken together, these results show that emotion has beneficial effects on visual short-term memory in ageing and AD. In contrast, emotion does not improve their performances in the binding condition. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Selective deficit of spatial short-term memory: Role of storage and rehearsal mechanisms.

PubMed

Bonnì, Sonia; Perri, Roberta; Fadda, Lucia; Tomaiuolo, Francesco; Koch, Giacomo; Caltagirone, Carlo; Carlesimo, Giovanni Augusto

2014-10-01

We report the neuropsychological and MRI investigation of a patient (GP) who developed a selective impairment of spatial short-term memory (STM) following damage to the dorso-mesial areas of the right frontal lobe. We assessed in this patient spatial STM with an experimental procedure that evaluated immediate and 5-20 s delayed recall of verbal, visual and spatial stimuli. The patient scored significantly worse than normal controls on tests that required delayed recall of spatial data. This could not be ascribed to a deficit of spatial episodic long-term memory because amnesic patients performed normally on these tests. Conversely, the patient scored in the normal range on tests of immediate recall of verbal, visual and spatial data and tests of delayed recall of verbal and visual data. Comparison with a previously described patient who had a selective deficit in immediate spatial recall and an ischemic lesion that affected frontal and parietal dorso-mesial areas in the right hemisphere (Carlesimo GA, Perri R, Turriziani P, Tomaiuolo F, Caltagirone C. Remembering what but not where: independence of spatial and visual working memory in the human brain. Cortex. 2001 Sep; 37(4):519-34) suggests that the right parietal areas are involved in the short-term storage of spatial information and that the dorso-mesial regions of the right frontal underlie mechanisms for the delayed maintenance of the same data.

Relational and conjunctive binding functions dissociate in short-term memory.

PubMed

Parra, Mario A; Fabi, Katia; Luzzi, Simona; Cubelli, Roberto; Hernandez Valdez, Maria; Della Sala, Sergio

2015-02-01

Remembering complex events requires binding features within unified objects (conjunctions) and holding associations between objects (relations). Recent studies suggest that the two functions dissociate in long-term memory (LTM). Less is known about their functional organization in short-term memory (STM). The present study investigated this issue in patient AE affected by a stroke which caused damage to brain regions known to be relevant for relational functions both in LTM and in STM (i.e., the hippocampus). The assessment involved a battery of standard neuropsychological tasks and STM binding tasks. One STM binding task (Experiment 1) presented common objects and common colors forming either pairs (relations) or integrated objects (conjunctions). Free recall of relations or conjunctions was assessed. A second STM binding task used random polygons and non-primary colors instead (Experiment 2). Memory was assessed by selecting the features that made up the relations or the conjunctions from a set of single polygons and a set of single colors. The neuropsychological assessment revealed impaired delayed memory in AE. AE's pronounced relational STM binding deficits contrasted with his completely preserved conjunctive binding functions in both Experiments 1 and 2. Only 2.35% and 1.14% of the population were expected to have a discrepancy more extreme than that presented by AE in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively. Processing relations and conjunctions of very elementary nonspatial features in STM led to dissociating performances in AE. These findings may inform current theories of memory decline such as those linked to cognitive aging.

Association between Early Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Symptoms and Current Verbal and Visuo-Spatial Short-Term Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gau, Susan Shur-Fen; Chiang, Huey-Ling

2013-01-01

Deficits in short-term memory are common in adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but their current ADHD symptoms cannot well predict their short-term performance. Taking a developmental perspective, we wanted to clarify the association between ADHD symptoms at early childhood and short-term memory in late childhood and…

Working memory and arithmetic calculation in children: the contributory roles of processing speed, short-term memory, and reading.

PubMed

Berg, Derek H

2008-04-01

The cognitive underpinnings of arithmetic calculation in children are noted to involve working memory; however, cognitive processes related to arithmetic calculation and working memory suggest that this relationship is more complex than stated previously. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the relative contributions of processing speed, short-term memory, working memory, and reading to arithmetic calculation in children. Results suggested four important findings. First, processing speed emerged as a significant contributor of arithmetic calculation only in relation to age-related differences in the general sample. Second, processing speed and short-term memory did not eliminate the contribution of working memory to arithmetic calculation. Third, individual working memory components--verbal working memory and visual-spatial working memory--each contributed unique variance to arithmetic calculation in the presence of all other variables. Fourth, a full model indicated that chronological age remained a significant contributor to arithmetic calculation in the presence of significant contributions from all other variables. Results are discussed in terms of directions for future research on working memory in arithmetic calculation.

Poor Phonemic Discrimination Does Not Underlie Poor Verbal Short-Term Memory in Down Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Purser, Harry R. M.; Jarrold, Christopher

2013-01-01

Individuals with Down syndrome tend to have a marked impairment of verbal short-term memory. The chief aim of this study was to investigate whether phonemic discrimination contributes to this deficit. The secondary aim was to investigate whether phonological representations are degraded in verbal short-term memory in people with Down syndrome…

Repetition Suppression and Reactivation in Auditory–Verbal Short-Term Recognition Memory

PubMed Central

D'Esposito, Mark

2009-01-01

The neural response to stimulus repetition is not uniform across brain regions, stimulus modalities, or task contexts. For instance, it has been observed in many functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies that sometimes stimulus repetition leads to a relative reduction in neural activity (repetition suppression), whereas in other cases repetition results in a relative increase in activity (repetition enhancement). In the present study, we hypothesized that in the context of a verbal short-term recognition memory task, repetition-related “increases” should be observed in the same posterior temporal regions that have been previously associated with “persistent activity” in working memory rehearsal paradigms. We used fMRI and a continuous recognition memory paradigm with short lags to examine repetition effects in the posterior and anterior regions of the superior temporal cortex. Results showed that, consistent with our hypothesis, the 2 posterior temporal regions consistently associated with working memory maintenance, also show repetition increases during short-term recognition memory. In contrast, a region in the anterior superior temporal lobe showed repetition suppression effects, consistent with previous research work on perceptual adaptation in the auditory–verbal domain. We interpret these results in light of recent theories of the functional specialization along the anterior and posterior axes of the superior temporal lobe. PMID:18987393

Repetition suppression and reactivation in auditory-verbal short-term recognition memory.

PubMed

Buchsbaum, Bradley R; D'Esposito, Mark

2009-06-01

The neural response to stimulus repetition is not uniform across brain regions, stimulus modalities, or task contexts. For instance, it has been observed in many functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies that sometimes stimulus repetition leads to a relative reduction in neural activity (repetition suppression), whereas in other cases repetition results in a relative increase in activity (repetition enhancement). In the present study, we hypothesized that in the context of a verbal short-term recognition memory task, repetition-related "increases" should be observed in the same posterior temporal regions that have been previously associated with "persistent activity" in working memory rehearsal paradigms. We used fMRI and a continuous recognition memory paradigm with short lags to examine repetition effects in the posterior and anterior regions of the superior temporal cortex. Results showed that, consistent with our hypothesis, the 2 posterior temporal regions consistently associated with working memory maintenance, also show repetition increases during short-term recognition memory. In contrast, a region in the anterior superior temporal lobe showed repetition suppression effects, consistent with previous research work on perceptual adaptation in the auditory-verbal domain. We interpret these results in light of recent theories of the functional specialization along the anterior and posterior axes of the superior temporal lobe.

The short- and long-term consequences of directed forgetting in a working memory task.

PubMed

Festini, Sara B; Reuter-Lorenz, Patricia A

2013-01-01

Directed forgetting requires the voluntary control of memory. Whereas many studies have examined directed forgetting in long-term memory (LTM), the mechanisms and effects of directed forgetting within working memory (WM) are less well understood. The current study tests how directed forgetting instructions delivered in a WM task influence veridical memory, as well as false memory, over the short and long term. In a modified item recognition task Experiment 1 tested WM only and demonstrated that directed forgetting reduces false recognition errors and semantic interference. Experiment 2 replicated these WM effects and used a surprise LTM recognition test to assess the long-term effects of directed forgetting in WM. Long-term veridical memory for to-be-remembered lists was better than memory for to-be-forgotten lists-the directed forgetting effect. Moreover, fewer false memories emerged for to-be-forgotten information than for to-be-remembered information in LTM as well. These results indicate that directed forgetting during WM reduces semantic processing of to-be-forgotten lists over the short and long term. Implications for theories of false memory and the mechanisms of directed forgetting within working memory are discussed.

The Precategorical Nature of Visual Short-Term Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quinlan, Philip T.; Cohen, Dale J.

2016-01-01

We conducted a series of recognition experiments that assessed whether visual short-term memory (VSTM) is sensitive to shared category membership of to-be-remembered (tbr) images of common objects. In Experiment 1 some of the tbr items shared the same basic level category (e.g., hand axe): Such items were no better retained than others. In the…

Poor phonemic discrimination does not underlie poor verbal short-term memory in Down syndrome.

PubMed

Purser, Harry R M; Jarrold, Christopher

2013-05-01

Individuals with Down syndrome tend to have a marked impairment of verbal short-term memory. The chief aim of this study was to investigate whether phonemic discrimination contributes to this deficit. The secondary aim was to investigate whether phonological representations are degraded in verbal short-term memory in people with Down syndrome relative to control participants. To answer these questions, two tasks were used: a discrimination task, in which memory load was as low as possible, and a short-term recognition task that used the same stimulus items. Individuals with Down syndrome were found to perform significantly better than a nonverbal-matched typically developing group on the discrimination task, but they performed significantly more poorly than that group on the recognition task. The Down syndrome group was outperformed by an additional vocabulary-matched control group on the discrimination task but was outperformed to a markedly greater extent on the recognition task. Taken together, the results strongly indicate that phonemic discrimination ability is not central to the verbal short-term memory deficit associated with Down syndrome. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Get the gist? The effects of processing depth on false recognition in short-term and long-term memory.

PubMed

Flegal, Kristin E; Reuter-Lorenz, Patricia A

2014-07-01

Gist-based processing has been proposed to account for robust false memories in the converging-associates task. The deep-encoding processes known to enhance verbatim memory also strengthen gist memory and increase distortions of long-term memory (LTM). Recent research has demonstrated that compelling false memory illusions are relatively delay-invariant, also occurring under canonical short-term memory (STM) conditions. To investigate the contributions of gist to false memory at short and long delays, processing depth was manipulated as participants encoded lists of four semantically related words and were probed immediately, following a filled 3- to 4-s retention interval, or approximately 20 min later, in a surprise recognition test. In two experiments, the encoding manipulation dissociated STM and LTM on the frequency, but not the phenomenology, of false memory. Deep encoding at STM increases false recognition rates at LTM, but confidence ratings and remember/know judgments are similar across delays and do not differ as a function of processing depth. These results suggest that some shared and some unique processes underlie false memory illusions at short and long delays.

Neural activity in the hippocampus predicts individual visual short-term memory capacity.

PubMed

von Allmen, David Yoh; Wurmitzer, Karoline; Martin, Ernst; Klaver, Peter

2013-07-01

Although the hippocampus had been traditionally thought to be exclusively involved in long-term memory, recent studies raised controversial explanations why hippocampal activity emerged during short-term memory tasks. For example, it has been argued that long-term memory processes might contribute to performance within a short-term memory paradigm when memory capacity has been exceeded. It is still unclear, though, whether neural activity in the hippocampus predicts visual short-term memory (VSTM) performance. To investigate this question, we measured BOLD activity in 21 healthy adults (age range 19-27 yr, nine males) while they performed a match-to-sample task requiring processing of object-location associations (delay period  =  900 ms; set size conditions 1, 2, 4, and 6). Based on individual memory capacity (estimated by Cowan's K-formula), two performance groups were formed (high and low performers). Within whole brain analyses, we found a robust main effect of "set size" in the posterior parietal cortex (PPC). In line with a "set size × group" interaction in the hippocampus, a subsequent Finite Impulse Response (FIR) analysis revealed divergent hippocampal activation patterns between performance groups: Low performers (mean capacity  =  3.63) elicited increased neural activity at set size two, followed by a drop in activity at set sizes four and six, whereas high performers (mean capacity  =  5.19) showed an incremental activity increase with larger set size (maximal activation at set size six). Our data demonstrated that performance-related neural activity in the hippocampus emerged below capacity limit. In conclusion, we suggest that hippocampal activity reflected successful processing of object-location associations in VSTM. Neural activity in the PPC might have been involved in attentional updating. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Monkeys have a limited form of short-term memory in audition.

PubMed

Scott, Brian H; Mishkin, Mortimer; Yin, Pingbo

2012-07-24

A stimulus trace may be temporarily retained either actively [i.e., in working memory (WM)] or by the weaker mnemonic process we will call passive short-term memory, in which a given stimulus trace is highly susceptible to "overwriting" by a subsequent stimulus. It has been suggested that WM is the more robust process because it exploits long-term memory (i.e., a current stimulus activates a stored representation of that stimulus, which can then be actively maintained). Recent studies have suggested that monkeys may be unable to store acoustic signals in long-term memory, raising the possibility that they may therefore also lack auditory WM. To explore this possibility, we tested rhesus monkeys on a serial delayed match-to-sample (DMS) task using a small set of sounds presented with ~1-s interstimulus delays. Performance was accurate whenever a match or a nonmatch stimulus followed the sample directly, but it fell precipitously if a single nonmatch stimulus intervened between sample and match. The steep drop in accuracy was found to be due not to passive decay of the sample's trace, but to retroactive interference from the intervening nonmatch stimulus. This "overwriting" effect was far greater than that observed previously in serial DMS with visual stimuli. The results, which accord with the notion that WM relies on long-term memory, indicate that monkeys perform serial DMS in audition remarkably poorly and that whatever success they had on this task depended largely, if not entirely, on the retention of stimulus traces in the passive form of short-term memory.

Fragile visual short-term memory is an object-based and location-specific store.

PubMed

Pinto, Yaïr; Sligte, Ilja G; Shapiro, Kimron L; Lamme, Victor A F

2013-08-01

Fragile visual short-term memory (FM) is a recently discovered form of visual short-term memory. Evidence suggests that it provides rich and high-capacity storage, like iconic memory, yet it exists, without interference, almost as long as visual working memory. In the present study, we sought to unveil the functional underpinnings of this memory storage. We found that FM is only completely erased when the new visual scene appears at the same location and consists of the same objects as the to-be-recalled information. This result has two important implications: First, it shows that FM is an object- and location-specific store, and second, it suggests that FM might be used in everyday life when the presentation of visual information is appropriately designed.

Consequence of preterm birth in early adolescence: the role of language on auditory short-term memory.

PubMed

Fraello, David; Maller-Kesselman, Jill; Vohr, Betty; Katz, Karol H; Kesler, Shelli; Schneider, Karen; Reiss, Allan; Ment, Laura; Spann, Marisa N

2011-06-01

This study tested the hypothesis that preterm early adolescents' short-term memory is compromised when presented with increasingly complex verbal information and that associated neuroanatomical volumes would differ between preterm and term groups. Forty-nine preterm and 20 term subjects were evaluated at age 12 years with neuropsychological measures and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). There were no differences between groups in simple short-term and working memory. Preterm subjects performed lower on learning and short-term memory tests that included increased verbal complexity. They had reduced right parietal, left temporal, and right temporal white matter volumes and greater bilateral frontal gray and right frontal white matter volumes. There was a positive association between complex working memory and the left hippocampus and frontal white matter in term subjects. While not correlated, memory scores and volumes of cortical regions known to subserve language and memory were reduced in preterm subjects. This study provides evidence of possible mechanisms for learning problems in former preterm infants.

Language and Short-Term Memory: The Role of Perceptual-Motor Affordance

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

The advantage for real words over nonwords in serial recall—the lexicality effect—is typically attributed to support for item-level phonology, either via redintegration, whereby partially degraded short-term traces are “cleaned up” via support from long-term representations of the phonological material or via the more robust temporary activation of long-term lexical phonological knowledge that derives from its combination with established lexical and semantic levels of representation. The much smaller effect of lexicality in serial recognition, where the items are re-presented in the recognition cue, is attributed either to the minimal role for redintegration from long-term memory or to the minimal role for item memory itself in such retrieval conditions. We show that the reduced lexicality effect in serial recognition is not a function of the retrieval conditions, but rather because previous demonstrations have used auditory presentation, and we demonstrate a robust lexicality effect for visual serial recognition in a setting where auditory presentation produces no such effect. Furthermore, this effect is abolished under conditions of articulatory suppression. We argue that linguistic knowledge affects the readiness with which verbal material is segmentally recoded via speech motor processes that support rehearsal and therefore affects tasks that involve recoding. On the other hand, auditory perceptual organization affords sequence matching in the absence of such a requirement for segmental recoding and therefore does not show such effects of linguistic knowledge. PMID:24797440

Language and short-term memory: the role of perceptual-motor affordance.

PubMed

Macken, Bill; Taylor, John C; Jones, Dylan M

2014-09-01

The advantage for real words over nonwords in serial recall--the lexicality effect--is typically attributed to support for item-level phonology, either via redintegration, whereby partially degraded short-term traces are "cleaned up" via support from long-term representations of the phonological material or via the more robust temporary activation of long-term lexical phonological knowledge that derives from its combination with established lexical and semantic levels of representation. The much smaller effect of lexicality in serial recognition, where the items are re-presented in the recognition cue, is attributed either to the minimal role for redintegration from long-term memory or to the minimal role for item memory itself in such retrieval conditions. We show that the reduced lexicality effect in serial recognition is not a function of the retrieval conditions, but rather because previous demonstrations have used auditory presentation, and we demonstrate a robust lexicality effect for visual serial recognition in a setting where auditory presentation produces no such effect. Furthermore, this effect is abolished under conditions of articulatory suppression. We argue that linguistic knowledge affects the readiness with which verbal material is segmentally recoded via speech motor processes that support rehearsal and therefore affects tasks that involve recoding. On the other hand, auditory perceptual organization affords sequence matching in the absence of such a requirement for segmental recoding and therefore does not show such effects of linguistic knowledge.

Comparison of the effects of dose-dependent zinc chloride on short-term and long-term memory in young male rats.

PubMed

Moazedi, A A; Ghotbeddin, Z; Parham, G H

2007-08-15

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of dose-dependent of zinc chloride on short-term and long-term memory in a shuttle box. Young Wistar rats (94+/-10 g) (age 27-30 days) consumed zinc chloride drinking water in five different doses (20, 30, 50, 70 and 100 mg kg(-1) day(-1)) for two weeks by gavage. After 14 days on experimental diets, a shuttle box used to test short- and long-term memory. Two criteria considering for behavioral test, including latency in entering dark chamber and time spent in the dark chamber. This experiment shows that after 2 weeks oral administration of ZnCl2 with (20, 30 and 50 mg kg(-1) day(-1)) doses, the rat's working (short-term) has been improved (p<0.05). Whereas ZnCl2 with 30 mg kg(-1) day(-1) dose has been more effected than other doses (p<0.001). But rat which received ZnCl2 with 100 mg kg(-1) day(-1), has been shown significant impairment in working memory (p<0.05) and there was no significant difference in reference (long-term) memory for any of groups. In general, this study has demonstrated that zinc chloride consumption with 30 mg kg(-1) day(-1) dose for two weeks was more effective than other doses on short-term memory. But consumption of ZnCl2 with 100 mg kg(-1) day(-1) dose for two week had the negative effect on short-term memory. On the other hand, zinc supplementation did not have an effect on long-term memory.

Short-term memory for spatial configurations in the tactile modality: a comparison with vision.

PubMed

Picard, Delphine; Monnier, Catherine

2009-11-01

This study investigates the role of acquisition constraints on the short-term retention of spatial configurations in the tactile modality in comparison with vision. It tests whether the sequential processing of information inherent to the tactile modality could account for limitation in short-term memory span for tactual-spatial information. In addition, this study investigates developmental aspects of short-term memory for tactual- and visual-spatial configurations. A total of 144 child and adult participants were assessed for their memory span in three different conditions: tactual, visual, and visual with a limited field of view. The results showed lower tactual-spatial memory span than visual-spatial, regardless of age. However, differences in memory span observed between the tactile and visual modalities vanished when the visual processing of information occurred within a limited field. These results provide evidence for an impact of acquisition constraints on the retention of spatial information in the tactile modality in both childhood and adulthood.

Theta coupling between V4 and prefrontal cortex predicts visual short-term memory performance.

PubMed

Liebe, Stefanie; Hoerzer, Gregor M; Logothetis, Nikos K; Rainer, Gregor

2012-01-29

Short-term memory requires communication between multiple brain regions that collectively mediate the encoding and maintenance of sensory information. It has been suggested that oscillatory synchronization underlies intercortical communication. Yet, whether and how distant cortical areas cooperate during visual memory remains elusive. We examined neural interactions between visual area V4 and the lateral prefrontal cortex using simultaneous local field potential (LFP) recordings and single-unit activity (SUA) in monkeys performing a visual short-term memory task. During the memory period, we observed enhanced between-area phase synchronization in theta frequencies (3-9 Hz) of LFPs together with elevated phase locking of SUA to theta oscillations across regions. In addition, we found that the strength of intercortical locking was predictive of the animals' behavioral performance. This suggests that theta-band synchronization coordinates action potential communication between V4 and prefrontal cortex that may contribute to the maintenance of visual short-term memories.

Short-term depression and transient memory in sensory cortex.

PubMed

Gillary, Grant; Heydt, Rüdiger von der; Niebur, Ernst

2017-12-01

Persistent neuronal activity is usually studied in the context of short-term memory localized in central cortical areas. Recent studies show that early sensory areas also can have persistent representations of stimuli which emerge quickly (over tens of milliseconds) and decay slowly (over seconds). Traditional positive feedback models cannot explain sensory persistence for at least two reasons: (i) They show attractor dynamics, with transient perturbations resulting in a quasi-permanent change of system state, whereas sensory systems return to the original state after a transient. (ii) As we show, those positive feedback models which decay to baseline lose their persistence when their recurrent connections are subject to short-term depression, a common property of excitatory connections in early sensory areas. Dual time constant network behavior has also been implemented by nonlinear afferents producing a large transient input followed by much smaller steady state input. We show that such networks require unphysiologically large onset transients to produce the rise and decay observed in sensory areas. Our study explores how memory and persistence can be implemented in another model class, derivative feedback networks. We show that these networks can operate with two vastly different time courses, changing their state quickly when new information is coming in but retaining it for a long time, and that these capabilities are robust to short-term depression. Specifically, derivative feedback networks with short-term depression that acts differentially on positive and negative feedback projections are capable of dynamically changing their time constant, thus allowing fast onset and slow decay of responses without requiring unrealistically large input transients.

Temporal information processing in short- and long-term memory of patients with schizophrenia.

PubMed

Landgraf, Steffen; Steingen, Joerg; Eppert, Yvonne; Niedermeyer, Ulrich; van der Meer, Elke; Krueger, Frank

2011-01-01

Cognitive deficits of patients with schizophrenia have been largely recognized as core symptoms of the disorder. One neglected factor that contributes to these deficits is the comprehension of time. In the present study, we assessed temporal information processing and manipulation from short- and long-term memory in 34 patients with chronic schizophrenia and 34 matched healthy controls. On the short-term memory temporal-order reconstruction task, an incidental or intentional learning strategy was deployed. Patients showed worse overall performance than healthy controls. The intentional learning strategy led to dissociable performance improvement in both groups. Whereas healthy controls improved on a performance measure (serial organization), patients improved on an error measure (inappropriate semantic clustering) when using the intentional instead of the incidental learning strategy. On the long-term memory script-generation task, routine and non-routine events of everyday activities (e.g., buying groceries) had to be generated in either chronological or inverted temporal order. Patients were slower than controls at generating events in the chronological routine condition only. They also committed more sequencing and boundary errors in the inverted conditions. The number of irrelevant events was higher in patients in the chronological, non-routine condition. These results suggest that patients with schizophrenia imprecisely access temporal information from short- and long-term memory. In short-term memory, processing of temporal information led to a reduction in errors rather than, as was the case in healthy controls, to an improvement in temporal-order recall. When accessing temporal information from long-term memory, patients were slower and committed more sequencing, boundary, and intrusion errors. Together, these results suggest that time information can be accessed and processed only imprecisely by patients who provide evidence for impaired time comprehension

Effect of iron and zinc deficiency on short term memory in children.

PubMed

Umamaheswari, K; Bhaskaran, Mythily; Krishnamurthy, Gautham; Vasudevan, Hemamalini; Vasudevan, Kavita

2011-04-01

To evaluate the effect of iron and zinc deficiency on short term memory of children in the age group of 6-11 years and to assess the response to supplementation therapy. Interventional study. 100 children in the age group of 6-11 years (subdivided into 6-8 yr and 9-11 yr groups) from an urban corporation school. After collection of demographic data, the study children underwent hematological assessment which included serum iron, serum zinc, and hemoglobin estimation. Based on the results, they were divided into Iron deficient, Zinc deficient, and Combined deficiency groups. Verbal and nonverbal memory assessment was done in all the children. Iron (2mg/kg bodyweight in two divided doses) and zinc (5mg once-a-day) supplementation for a period of 3 months for children in the deficient group. All children with iron and zinc deficiency in both the age groups had memory deficits. Combined deficiency in 9-11 years group showed severe degree of affectation in verbal (P<0.01) and non-verbal memory (P<0.01), and improved after supplementation (P = 0.05 and P< 0.01, respectively). In 6-8 years group, only non-verbal form of memory (P =0.02) was affected, which improved after supplementation. Iron and zinc deficiency is associated with memory deficits in children. There is a marked improvement in memory after supplementation. Post supplementation IQ scores do not show significant improvement in deficient groups in 6-8 year olds.

Short-term memory for spatial, sequential and duration information.

PubMed

Manohar, Sanjay G; Pertzov, Yoni; Husain, Masud

2017-10-01

Space and time appear to play key roles in the way that information is organized in short-term memory (STM). Some argue that they are crucial contexts within which other stored features are embedded, allowing binding of information that belongs together within STM. Here we review recent behavioral, neurophysiological and imaging studies that have sought to investigate the nature of spatial, sequential and duration representations in STM, and how these might break down in disease. Findings from these studies point to an important role of the hippocampus and other medial temporal lobe structures in aspects of STM, challenging conventional accounts of involvement of these regions in only long-term memory.

Audiovisual integration facilitates monkeys' short-term memory.

PubMed

Bigelow, James; Poremba, Amy

2016-07-01

Many human behaviors are known to benefit from audiovisual integration, including language and communication, recognizing individuals, social decision making, and memory. Exceptionally little is known about the contributions of audiovisual integration to behavior in other primates. The current experiment investigated whether short-term memory in nonhuman primates is facilitated by the audiovisual presentation format. Three macaque monkeys that had previously learned an auditory delayed matching-to-sample (DMS) task were trained to perform a similar visual task, after which they were tested with a concurrent audiovisual DMS task with equal proportions of auditory, visual, and audiovisual trials. Parallel to outcomes in human studies, accuracy was higher and response times were faster on audiovisual trials than either unisensory trial type. Unexpectedly, two subjects exhibited superior unimodal performance on auditory trials, a finding that contrasts with previous studies, but likely reflects their training history. Our results provide the first demonstration of a bimodal memory advantage in nonhuman primates, lending further validation to their use as a model for understanding audiovisual integration and memory processing in humans.

A direct comparison of short-term audiomotor and visuomotor memory.

PubMed

Ward, Amanda M; Loucks, Torrey M; Ofori, Edward; Sosnoff, Jacob J

2014-04-01

Audiomotor and visuomotor short-term memory are required for an important variety of skilled movements but have not been compared in a direct manner previously. Audiomotor memory capacity might be greater to accommodate auditory goals that are less directly related to movement outcome than for visually guided tasks. Subjects produced continuous isometric force with the right index finger under auditory and visual feedback. During the first 10 s of each trial, subjects received continuous auditory or visual feedback. For the following 15 s, feedback was removed but the force had to be maintained accurately. An internal effort condition was included to test memory capacity in the same manner but without external feedback. Similar decay times of ~5-6 s were found for vision and audition but the decay time for internal effort was ~4 s. External feedback thus provides an advantage in maintaining a force level after feedback removal, but may not exclude some contribution from a sense of effort. Short-term memory capacity appears longer than certain previous reports but there may not be strong distinctions in capacity across different sensory modalities, at least for isometric force.

About the Distinction between Working Memory and Short-Term Memory.

PubMed

Aben, Bart; Stapert, Sven; Blokland, Arjan

2012-01-01

The theoretical concepts short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) have been used to refer to the maintenance and the maintenance plus manipulation of information, respectively. Although they are conceptually different, the use of the terms STM and WM in literature is not always strict. STM and WM are different theoretical concepts that are assumed to reflect different cognitive functions. However, correlational studies have not been able to separate both constructs consistently and there is evidence for a large or even complete overlap. The emerging view from neurobiological studies is partly different, although there are conceptual problems troubling the interpretation of findings. In this regard, there is a crucial role for the tasks that are used to measure STM or WM (simple and complex span tasks, respectively) and for the cognitive load reflected by factors like attention and processing speed that may covary between and within these tasks. These conceptual issues are discussed based on several abstract models for the relation between STM and WM.

The impact of interference on short-term memory for visual orientation.

PubMed

Rademaker, Rosanne L; Bloem, Ilona M; De Weerd, Peter; Sack, Alexander T

2015-12-01

Visual short-term memory serves as an efficient buffer for maintaining no longer directly accessible information. How robust are visual memories against interference? Memory for simple visual features has proven vulnerable to distractors containing conflicting information along the relevant stimulus dimension, leading to the idea that interacting feature-specific channels at an early stage of visual processing support memory for simple visual features. Here we showed that memory for a single randomly orientated grating was susceptible to interference from a to-be-ignored distractor grating presented midway through a 3-s delay period. Memory for the initially presented orientation became noisier when it differed from the distractor orientation, and response distributions were shifted toward the distractor orientation (by ∼3°). Interestingly, when the distractor was rendered task-relevant by making it a second memory target, memory for both retained orientations showed reduced reliability as a function of increased orientation differences between them. However, the degree to which responses to the first grating shifted toward the orientation of the task-relevant second grating was much reduced. Finally, using a dichoptic display, we demonstrated that these systematic biases caused by a consciously perceived distractor disappeared once the distractor was presented outside of participants' awareness. Together, our results show that visual short-term memory for orientation can be systematically biased by interfering information that is consciously perceived. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Color Cues and Rehearsal in Short-Term Memory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sabo, Ruth A.; Hagen, John W.

A short term memory task was used to explore the effects of color cues and of a condition that permitted rehearsal as compared to one that did not. Eighty subjects per grade at grades 3, 5, and 7 were tested. A stimulus array consisted of five cards, each of which contained pictures that could be designated as central or incidental. The stimulus…

Retinoid hyposignaling contributes to aging-related decline in hippocampal function in short-term/working memory organization and long-term declarative memory encoding in mice.

PubMed

Mingaud, Frédérique; Mormede, Cécile; Etchamendy, Nicole; Mons, Nicole; Niedergang, Betty; Wietrzych, Marta; Pallet, Véronique; Jaffard, Robert; Krezel, Wojciech; Higueret, Paul; Marighetto, Aline

2008-01-02

An increasing body of evidence indicates that the vitamin A metabolite retinoic acid (RA) plays a role in adult brain plasticity by activating gene transcription through nuclear receptors. Our previous studies in mice have shown that a moderate downregulation of retinoid-mediated transcription contributed to aging-related deficits in hippocampal long-term potentiation and long-term declarative memory (LTDM). Here, knock-out, pharmacological, and nutritional approaches were used in a series of radial-arm maze experiments with mice to further assess the hypothesis that retinoid-mediated nuclear events are causally involved in preferential degradation of hippocampal function in aging. Molecular and behavioral findings confirmed our hypothesis. First, a lifelong vitamin A supplementation, like short-term RA administration, was shown to counteract the aging-related hippocampal (but not striatal) hypoexpression of a plasticity-related retinoid target-gene, GAP43 (reverse transcription-PCR analyses, experiment 1), as well as short-term/working memory (STWM) deterioration seen particularly in organization demanding trials (STWM task, experiment 2). Second, using a two-stage paradigm of LTDM, we demonstrated that the vitamin A supplementation normalized memory encoding-induced recruitment of (hippocampo-prefrontal) declarative memory circuits, without affecting (striatal) procedural memory system activity in aged mice (Fos neuroimaging, experiment 3A) and alleviated their LTDM impairment (experiment 3B). Finally, we showed that (knock-out, experiment 4) RA receptor beta and retinoid X receptor gamma, known to be involved in STWM (Wietrzych et al., 2005), are also required for LTDM. Hence, aging-related retinoid signaling hypoexpression disrupts hippocampal cellular properties critically required for STWM organization and LTDM formation, and nutritional vitamin A supplementation represents a preventive strategy. These findings are discussed within current neurobiological

Assessment and Treatment of Short-Term and Working Memory Impairments in Stroke Aphasia: A Practical Tutorial

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salis, Christos; Kelly, Helen; Code, Chris

2015-01-01

Background: Aphasia following stroke refers to impairments that affect the comprehension and expression of spoken and/or written language, and co-occurring cognitive deficits are common. In this paper we focus on short-term and working memory impairments that impact on the ability to retain and manipulate auditory-verbal information. Evidence from…

Proactive Interference and Directed Forgetting in Short-Term Motor Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burwitz, Leslie

1974-01-01

The present study was designed to test the effect of instructions to forget prior motor learning and the results were relevant to the understanding of short-term motor memory (STMM) proactive interference (PI). (Author/RK)

Visual Processing during Short-Term Memory Binding in Mild Alzheimer's Disease.

PubMed

Fernández, Gerardo; Orozco, David; Agamennoni, Osvaldo; Schumacher, Marcela; Sañudo, Silvana; Biondi, Juan; Parra, Mario A

2018-01-01

Patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) typically present with attentional and oculomotor abnormalities that can have an impact on visual processing and associated cognitive functions. Over the last few years, we have witnessed a shift toward the analyses of eye movement behaviors as a means to further our understanding of the pathophysiology of common disorders such as AD. However, little work has been done to unveil the link between eye moment abnormalities and poor performance on cognitive tasks known to be markers for AD patients, such as the short-term memory-binding task. We analyzed eye movement fixation behaviors of thirteen healthy older adults (Controls) and thirteen patients with probable mild AD while they performed the visual short-term memory binding task. The short-term memory binding task asks participants to detect changes across two consecutive arrays of two bicolored object whose features (i.e., colors) have to be remembered separately (i.e., Unbound Colors), or combined within integrated objects (i.e., Bound Colors). Patients with mild AD showed the well-known pattern of selective memory binding impairments. This was accompanied by significant impairments in their eye movements only when they processed Bound Colors. Patients with mild AD remarkably decreased their mean gaze duration during the encoding of color-color bindings. These findings open new windows of research into the pathophysiological mechanisms of memory deficits in AD patients and the link between its phenotypic expressions (i.e., oculomotor and cognitive disorders). We discuss these findings considering current trends regarding clinical assessment, neural correlates, and potential avenues for robust biomarkers.

How Emotional Pictures Influence Visuospatial Binding in Short-Term Memory in Ageing and Alzheimer's Disease?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Borg, Celine; Leroy, Nicolas; Favre, Emilie; Laurent, Bernard; Thomas-Anterion, Catherine

2011-01-01

The present study examines the prediction that emotion can facilitate short-term memory. Nevertheless, emotion also recruits attention to process information, thereby disrupting short-term memory when tasks involve high attentional resources. In this way, we aimed to determine whether there is a differential influence of emotional information on…

Short-Term Memory for Order but Not for Item Information Is Impaired in Developmental Dyslexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hachmann, Wibke M.; Bogaerts, Louisa; Szmalec, Arnaud; Woumans, Evy; Duyck, Wouter; Job, Remo

2014-01-01

Recent findings suggest that people with dyslexia experience difficulties with the learning of serial order information during the transition from short-to long-term memory (Szmalec et al. "Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition" 37(5): 1270-1279, 2011). At the same time, models of short-term memory…

Differential age-related effects on conjunctive and relational visual short-term memory binding.

PubMed

Bastin, Christine

2017-12-28

An age-related associative deficit has been described in visual short-term binding memory tasks. However, separate studies have suggested that ageing disrupts relational binding (to associate distinct items or item and context) more than conjunctive binding (to integrate features within an object). The current study directly compared relational and conjunctive binding with a short-term memory task for object-colour associations in 30 young and 30 older adults. Participants studied a number of object-colour associations corresponding to their individual object span level in a relational task in which objects were associated to colour patches and a conjunctive task where colour was integrated into the object. Memory for individual items and for associations was tested with a recognition memory test. Evidence for an age-related associative deficit was observed in the relational binding task, but not in the conjunctive binding task. This differential impact of ageing on relational and conjunctive short-term binding is discussed by reference to two underlying age-related cognitive difficulties: diminished hippocampally dependent binding and attentional resources.

The role of short-term memory impairment in nonword repetition, real word repetition, and nonword decoding: A case study.

PubMed

Peter, Beate

2018-01-01

In a companion study, adults with dyslexia and adults with a probable history of childhood apraxia of speech showed evidence of difficulty with processing sequential information during nonword repetition, multisyllabic real word repetition and nonword decoding. Results suggested that some errors arose in visual encoding during nonword reading, all levels of processing but especially short-term memory storage/retrieval during nonword repetition, and motor planning and programming during complex real word repetition. To further investigate the role of short-term memory, a participant with short-term memory impairment (MI) was recruited. MI was confirmed with poor performance during a sentence repetition and three nonword repetition tasks, all of which have a high short-term memory load, whereas typical performance was observed during tests of reading, spelling, and static verbal knowledge, all with low short-term memory loads. Experimental results show error-free performance during multisyllabic real word repetition but high counts of sequence errors, especially migrations and assimilations, during nonword repetition, supporting short-term memory as a locus of sequential processing deficit during nonword repetition. Results are also consistent with the hypothesis that during complex real word repetition, short-term memory is bypassed as the word is recognized and retrieved from long-term memory prior to producing the word.

Task set induces dynamic reallocation of resources in visual short-term memory.

PubMed

Sheremata, Summer L; Shomstein, Sarah

2017-08-01

Successful interaction with the environment requires the ability to flexibly allocate resources to different locations in the visual field. Recent evidence suggests that visual short-term memory (VSTM) resources are distributed asymmetrically across the visual field based upon task demands. Here, we propose that context, rather than the stimulus itself, determines asymmetrical distribution of VSTM resources. To test whether context modulates the reallocation of resources to the right visual field, task set, defined by memory-load, was manipulated to influence visual short-term memory performance. Performance was measured for single-feature objects embedded within predominantly single- or two-feature memory blocks. Therefore, context was varied to determine whether task set directly predicts changes in visual field biases. In accord with the dynamic reallocation of resources hypothesis, task set, rather than aspects of the physical stimulus, drove improvements in performance in the right- visual field. Our results show, for the first time, that preparation for upcoming memory demands directly determines how resources are allocated across the visual field.

A Test of Tactile Concentration and Short-Term Memory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kainthola, S. D.; Singh, T. B.

1992-01-01

Twenty students and 45 adults with visual impairments or blindness were administered a test of tactile concentration and short-term memory involving the reproduction of the order of finger stimulation using the Finger Knocking Box. Reliability and validity scores indicated encouraging results with use of the instrument. (JDD)

Monkeys have a limited form of short-term memory in audition

PubMed Central

Scott, Brian H.; Mishkin, Mortimer; Yin, Pingbo

2012-01-01

A stimulus trace may be temporarily retained either actively [i.e., in working memory (WM)] or by the weaker mnemonic process we will call passive short-term memory, in which a given stimulus trace is highly susceptible to “overwriting” by a subsequent stimulus. It has been suggested that WM is the more robust process because it exploits long-term memory (i.e., a current stimulus activates a stored representation of that stimulus, which can then be actively maintained). Recent studies have suggested that monkeys may be unable to store acoustic signals in long-term memory, raising the possibility that they may therefore also lack auditory WM. To explore this possibility, we tested rhesus monkeys on a serial delayed match-to-sample (DMS) task using a small set of sounds presented with ∼1-s interstimulus delays. Performance was accurate whenever a match or a nonmatch stimulus followed the sample directly, but it fell precipitously if a single nonmatch stimulus intervened between sample and match. The steep drop in accuracy was found to be due not to passive decay of the sample’s trace, but to retroactive interference from the intervening nonmatch stimulus. This “overwriting” effect was far greater than that observed previously in serial DMS with visual stimuli. The results, which accord with the notion that WM relies on long-term memory, indicate that monkeys perform serial DMS in audition remarkably poorly and that whatever success they had on this task depended largely, if not entirely, on the retention of stimulus traces in the passive form of short-term memory. PMID:22778411

The relationship between vocabulary and short-term memory measures in monolingual and bilingual speakers

PubMed Central

Kaushanskaya, Margarita; Blumenfeld, Henrike K.; Marian, Viorica

2012-01-01

Previous studies have indicated that bilingualism may influence the efficiency of lexical access in adults. The goals of this research were (1) to compare bilingual and monolingual adults on their native-language vocabulary performance, and (2) to examine the relationship between short-term memory skills and vocabulary performance in monolinguals and bilinguals. In Experiment 1, English-speaking monolingual adults and simultaneous English–Spanish bilingual adults were administered measures of receptive English vocabulary and of phonological short-term memory. In Experiment 2, monolingual adults were compared to sequential English–Spanish bilinguals, and were administered the same measures as in Experiment 1, as well as a measure of expressive English vocabulary. Analyses revealed comparable levels of performance on the vocabulary and the short-term memory measures in the monolingual and the bilingual groups across both experiments. There was a stronger effect of digit-span in the bilingual group than in the monolingual group, with high-span bilinguals outperforming low-span bilinguals on vocabulary measures. Findings indicate that bilingual speakers may rely on short-term memory resources to support word retrieval in their native language more than monolingual speakers. PMID:22518091

Tc1 mouse model of trisomy-21 dissociates properties of short- and long-term recognition memory.

PubMed

Hall, Jessica H; Wiseman, Frances K; Fisher, Elizabeth M C; Tybulewicz, Victor L J; Harwood, John L; Good, Mark A

2016-04-01

The present study examined memory function in Tc1 mice, a transchromosomic model of Down syndrome (DS). Tc1 mice demonstrated an unusual delay-dependent deficit in recognition memory. More specifically, Tc1 mice showed intact immediate (30sec), impaired short-term (10-min) and intact long-term (24-h) memory for objects. A similar pattern was observed for olfactory stimuli, confirming the generality of the pattern across sensory modalities. The specificity of the behavioural deficits in Tc1 mice was confirmed using APP overexpressing mice that showed the opposite pattern of object memory deficits. In contrast to object memory, Tc1 mice showed no deficit in either immediate or long-term memory for object-in-place information. Similarly, Tc1 mice showed no deficit in short-term memory for object-location information. The latter result indicates that Tc1 mice were able to detect and react to spatial novelty at the same delay interval that was sensitive to an object novelty recognition impairment. These results demonstrate (1) that novelty detection per se and (2) the encoding of visuo-spatial information was not disrupted in adult Tc1 mice. The authors conclude that the task specific nature of the short-term recognition memory deficit suggests that the trisomy of genes on human chromosome 21 in Tc1 mice impacts on (perirhinal) cortical systems supporting short-term object and olfactory recognition memory. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Errors in nonword repetition: bridging short- and long-term memory.

PubMed

Santos, F H; Bueno, O F A; Gathercole, S E

2006-03-01

According to the working memory model, the phonological loop is the component of working memory specialized in processing and manipulating limited amounts of speech-based information. The Children's Test of Nonword Repetition (CNRep) is a suitable measure of phonological short-term memory for English-speaking children, which was validated by the Brazilian Children's Test of Pseudoword Repetition (BCPR) as a Portuguese-language version. The objectives of the present study were: i) to investigate developmental aspects of the phonological memory processing by error analysis in the nonword repetition task, and ii) to examine phoneme (substitution, omission and addition) and order (migration) errors made in the BCPR by 180 normal Brazilian children of both sexes aged 4-10, from preschool to 4th grade. The dominant error was substitution [F(3,525) = 180.47; P < 0.0001]. The performance was age-related [F(4,175) = 14.53; P < 0.0001]. The length effect, i.e., more errors in long than in short items, was observed [F(3,519) = 108.36; P < 0.0001]. In 5-syllable pseudowords, errors occurred mainly in the middle of the stimuli, before the syllabic stress [F(4,16) = 6.03; P = 0.003]; substitutions appeared more at the end of the stimuli, after the stress [F(12,48) = 2.27; P = 0.02]. In conclusion, the BCPR error analysis supports the idea that phonological loop capacity is relatively constant during development, although school learning increases the efficiency of this system. Moreover, there are indications that long-term memory contributes to holding memory trace. The findings were discussed in terms of distinctiveness, clustering and redintegration hypotheses.

The Roles of Phonological Short-Term Memory and Working Memory in L2 Grammar and Vocabulary Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Katherine I.; Ellis, Nick C.

2012-01-01

This study analyzed phonological short-term memory (PSTM) and working memory (WM) and their relationship with vocabulary and grammar learning in an artificial foreign language. Nonword repetition, nonword recognition, and listening span were used as memory measures. Participants learned the singular forms of vocabulary for an artificial foreign…

Intact short-term memory and impaired executive functions in obsessive compulsive disorder.

PubMed

Demeter, Gyula; Racsmány, Mihály; Csigó, Katalin; Harsányi, András; Németh, Attila; Döme, László

2013-01-30

Previous neuropsychological studies produced inconsistent results with tasks tapping short-term verbal and visual-spatial memory and executive functions in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of deficits in these cognitive domains. A further goal was to describe the distribution of patients in different impairment ranges for all functions, and clarify the relationship between symptom severity and cognitive impairments. Thirty patients with OCD (DSM-IV) and 30 healthy volunteers were compared using well-known neuropsychological tasks. We assessed short-term verbal memory with the Digit Span Forward and Digit Span Backward Tasks, short-term visual-spatial memory with the Corsi Block Tapping Task, while we measured the level of executive functions with the StroopTask and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Compared with a matched healthy control group, the performance of OCD patients was in the impaired range only in the two executive tasks. We find a significant positive correlations between the Y-BOCS (Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale) total scores and the number of perseverative responses (r(28) = 0.409, p < 0.05) and perseverative errors (r(28) = 0.385, p < 0.05) in the WCST. Our results gave evidence that executive functions are impaired while short-term memory is intact in OCD. This is in line with neuropsychological model of OCD that the deficit of cognitive and behavioral inhibition are responsible for the main cognitive findings of this disorder, most prevalently the deficit in set shifting and prepotent response inhibition.

A Computerized Evaluation of Sensory Memory and Short-term Memory Impairment After Rapid Ascent to 4280 m.

PubMed

Shi, Qing Hai; Ge, Di; Zhao, Wei; Ma, Xue; Hu, Ke Yan; Lu, Yao; Liu, Zheng Xiang; Ran, Ji Hua; Li, Xiao Ling; Zhou, Yu; Fu, Jian Feng

2016-06-01

To evaluate the effect of acute high-altitude exposure on sensory and short-term memory using interactive software, we transported 30 volunteers in a sport utility vehicle to a 4280 m plateau within 3 h. We measured their memory performance on the plain (initial arrival) and 3 h after arrival on the plateau using six measures. Memory performance was significantly poorer on the plateau by four of the six measures. Furthermore, memory performance was significantly poorer in the acute mountain sickness (AMS) group than in the non-AMS group by five of the six measures. These findings indicate that rapid ascent to 4280 m and remaining at this altitude for 3 h resulted in decreased sensory and short-term memory, particularly among participants who developed AMS. Copyright © 2016 The Editorial Board of Biomedical and Environmental Sciences. Published by China CDC. All rights reserved.

Visual short-term memory load strengthens selective attention.

PubMed

Roper, Zachary J J; Vecera, Shaun P

2014-04-01

Perceptual load theory accounts for many attentional phenomena; however, its mechanism remains elusive because it invokes underspecified attentional resources. Recent dual-task evidence has revealed that a concurrent visual short-term memory (VSTM) load slows visual search and reduces contrast sensitivity, but it is unknown whether a VSTM load also constricts attention in a canonical perceptual load task. If attentional selection draws upon VSTM resources, then distraction effects-which measure attentional "spill-over"-will be reduced as competition for resources increases. Observers performed a low perceptual load flanker task during the delay period of a VSTM change detection task. We observed a reduction of the flanker effect in the perceptual load task as a function of increasing concurrent VSTM load. These findings were not due to perceptual-level interactions between the physical displays of the two tasks. Our findings suggest that perceptual representations of distractor stimuli compete with the maintenance of visual representations held in memory. We conclude that access to VSTM determines the degree of attentional selectivity; when VSTM is not completely taxed, it is more likely for task-irrelevant items to be consolidated and, consequently, affect responses. The "resources" hypothesized by load theory are at least partly mnemonic in nature, due to the strong correspondence they share with VSTM capacity.

Are There Multiple Visual Short-Term Memory Stores?

PubMed Central

Sligte, Ilja G.; Scholte, H. Steven; Lamme, Victor A. F.

2008-01-01

Background Classic work on visual short-term memory (VSTM) suggests that people store a limited amount of items for subsequent report. However, when human observers are cued to shift attention to one item in VSTM during retention, it seems as if there is a much larger representation, which keeps additional items in a more fragile VSTM store. Thus far, it is not clear whether the capacity of this fragile VSTM store indeed exceeds the traditional capacity limits of VSTM. The current experiments address this issue and explore the capacity, stability, and duration of fragile VSTM representations. Methodology/Principal Findings We presented cues in a change-detection task either just after off-set of the memory array (iconic-cue), 1,000 ms after off-set of the memory array (retro-cue) or after on-set of the probe array (post-cue). We observed three stages in visual information processing 1) iconic memory with unlimited capacity, 2) a four seconds lasting fragile VSTM store with a capacity that is at least a factor of two higher than 3) the robust and capacity-limited form of VSTM. Iconic memory seemed to depend on the strength of the positive after-image resulting from the memory display and was virtually absent under conditions of isoluminance or when intervening light masks were presented. This suggests that iconic memory is driven by prolonged retinal activation beyond stimulus duration. Fragile VSTM representations were not affected by light masks, but were completely overwritten by irrelevant pattern masks that spatially overlapped the memory array. Conclusions/Significance We find that immediately after a stimulus has disappeared from view, subjects can still access information from iconic memory because they can see an after-image of the display. After that period, human observers can still access a substantial, but somewhat more limited amount of information from a high-capacity, but fragile VSTM that is overwritten when new items are presented to the eyes. What

Are there multiple visual short-term memory stores?

PubMed

Sligte, Ilja G; Scholte, H Steven; Lamme, Victor A F

2008-02-27

Classic work on visual short-term memory (VSTM) suggests that people store a limited amount of items for subsequent report. However, when human observers are cued to shift attention to one item in VSTM during retention, it seems as if there is a much larger representation, which keeps additional items in a more fragile VSTM store. Thus far, it is not clear whether the capacity of this fragile VSTM store indeed exceeds the traditional capacity limits of VSTM. The current experiments address this issue and explore the capacity, stability, and duration of fragile VSTM representations. We presented cues in a change-detection task either just after off-set of the memory array (iconic-cue), 1,000 ms after off-set of the memory array (retro-cue) or after on-set of the probe array (post-cue). We observed three stages in visual information processing 1) iconic memory with unlimited capacity, 2) a four seconds lasting fragile VSTM store with a capacity that is at least a factor of two higher than 3) the robust and capacity-limited form of VSTM. Iconic memory seemed to depend on the strength of the positive after-image resulting from the memory display and was virtually absent under conditions of isoluminance or when intervening light masks were presented. This suggests that iconic memory is driven by prolonged retinal activation beyond stimulus duration. Fragile VSTM representations were not affected by light masks, but were completely overwritten by irrelevant pattern masks that spatially overlapped the memory array. We find that immediately after a stimulus has disappeared from view, subjects can still access information from iconic memory because they can see an after-image of the display. After that period, human observers can still access a substantial, but somewhat more limited amount of information from a high-capacity, but fragile VSTM that is overwritten when new items are presented to the eyes. What is left after that is the traditional VSTM store, with a limit of

Visual Motor Short Term Memory in Educationally Subnormal Boys.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sugden, D. A.

1978-01-01

This investigation attempted to describe the developmental sequence of visual motor short term memory in mentally handicapped boys (mental ages 6, 9, and 12) during conditions of rest and interpolated activity, and to explore their use of spontaneous rehearsal strategies. Results are compared with those for normal boys. (Author/SJL)

Trial-to-Trial Carryover in Auditory Short-Term Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Visscher, Kristina M.; Kahana, Michael J.; Sekuler, Robert

2009-01-01

Using a short-term recognition memory task, the authors evaluated the carryover across trials of 2 types of auditory information: the characteristics of individual study sounds (item information) and the relationships between the study sounds (study set homogeneity). On each trial, subjects heard 2 successive broadband study sounds and then…

Short term memory and working memory in blind versus sighted children.

PubMed

Withagen, Ans; Kappers, Astrid M L; Vervloed, Mathijs P J; Knoors, Harry; Verhoeven, Ludo

2013-07-01

There is evidence that blind people may strengthen their memory skills to compensate for absence of vision. However, which aspects of memory are involved is open to debate and a developmental perspective is generally lacking. In the present study, we compared the short term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) of 10-year-old blind children and sighted children. STM was measured using digit span forward, name learning, and word span tasks; WM was measured using listening span and digit span backward tasks. The blind children outperformed their sighted peers on both STM and WM tasks. The enhanced capacity of the blind children on digit span and other STM tasks confirms the results of earlier research; the significantly better performance of the blind children relative to their sighted peers on verbal WM tasks is a new interesting finding. Task characteristics, including the verbal nature of the WM tasks and strategies used to perform these tasks, are discussed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Verbal short-term memory in individuals with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion: specific deficit in serial order retention capacities?

PubMed

Majerus, Steve; Van der Linden, Martial; Braissand, Vérane; Eliez, Stephan

2007-03-01

Many researchers have recently explored the cognitive profile of velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS), a neurodevelopmental disorder linked to a 22q11.2 deletion. However, verbal short-term memory has not yet been systematically investigated. We explored verbal short-term memory abilities in a group of 11 children and adults presenting with VCFS and two control groups, matched on either CA or vocabulary knowledge, by distinguishing short-term memory for serial order and item information. The VCFS group showed impaired performance on the serial order short-term memory tasks compared to both control groups. Relative to the vocabulary-matched control group, item short-term memory was preserved. The implication of serial order short-term memory deficits on other aspects of cognitive development in VCFS (e.g., language development, numerical cognition) is discussed.

A Spiking Working Memory Model Based on Hebbian Short-Term Potentiation

PubMed Central

Fiebig, Florian

2017-01-01

A dominant theory of working memory (WM), referred to as the persistent activity hypothesis, holds that recurrently connected neural networks, presumably located in the prefrontal cortex, encode and maintain WM memory items through sustained elevated activity. Reexamination of experimental data has shown that prefrontal cortex activity in single units during delay periods is much more variable than predicted by such a theory and associated computational models. Alternative models of WM maintenance based on synaptic plasticity, such as short-term nonassociative (non-Hebbian) synaptic facilitation, have been suggested but cannot account for encoding of novel associations. Here we test the hypothesis that a recently identified fast-expressing form of Hebbian synaptic plasticity (associative short-term potentiation) is a possible mechanism for WM encoding and maintenance. Our simulations using a spiking neural network model of cortex reproduce a range of cognitive memory effects in the classical multi-item WM task of encoding and immediate free recall of word lists. Memory reactivation in the model occurs in discrete oscillatory bursts rather than as sustained activity. We relate dynamic network activity as well as key synaptic characteristics to electrophysiological measurements. Our findings support the hypothesis that fast Hebbian short-term potentiation is a key WM mechanism. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Working memory (WM) is a key component of cognition. Hypotheses about the neural mechanism behind WM are currently under revision. Reflecting recent findings of fast Hebbian synaptic plasticity in cortex, we test whether a cortical spiking neural network model with such a mechanism can learn a multi-item WM task (word list learning). We show that our model can reproduce human cognitive phenomena and achieve comparable memory performance in both free and cued recall while being simultaneously compatible with experimental data on structure, connectivity, and

Areas of Left Perisylvian Cortex Mediate Auditory-Verbal Short-Term Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koenigs, Michael; Acheson, Daniel J.; Barbey, Aron K.; Solomon, Jeffrey; Postle, Bradley R.; Grafman, Jordan

2011-01-01

A contentious issue in memory research is whether verbal short-term memory (STM) depends on a neural system specifically dedicated to the temporary maintenance of information, or instead relies on the same brain areas subserving the comprehension and production of language. In this study, we examined a large sample of adults with acquired brain…

Verbal Short-term Memory in Down's Syndrome: An Articulatory Loop Deficit?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vicari, S.; Marotta, L.; Carlesimo, G. A.

2004-01-01

Verbal short-term memory, as measured by digit or word span, is generally impaired in individuals with Down's syndrome (DS) compared to mental age-matched controls. Moving from the working memory model, the present authors investigated the hypothesis that impairment in some of the articulatory loop sub-components is at the base of the deficient…

Differential functions of NR2A and NR2B in short-term and long-term memory in rats.

PubMed

Jung, Ye-Ha; Suh, Yoo-Hun

2010-08-23

N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) are glutamate receptors implicated in synaptic plasticity and memory function. The specific functions of NMDA receptor subunits NR2A and NR2B have not yet been fully determined in the different types of memory. Nine Wistar rats (8-weeks-old) were subjected to the Morris water maze task to evaluate the memory behaviorally. Quantitative analysis of NR1, NR2A, and NR2B levels in the right and left forebrain of rats was performed and subunit associations with different types of memory were investigated using the Morris water maze task. Right forebrain NR2A expression was significantly increased and correlated with faster escape time onto a hidden platform, indicating involvement of short-term memory, because of the training time interval. Right forebrain NR2B expression was positively associated with long-term memory lasting 24-h (h). In the left forebrain, NR2B expression was positively related to 72-h long-term memory. In conclusion, the functions of NR2A and NR2B receptors were differentially specialized in short-term and long-term memory, depending on the right or left forebrain.

In search of consolidation of short-term memory in nonhuman animals.

PubMed

Calder, Amanda; White, K Geoffrey

2014-03-01

Wixted (Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 235 – 269, 2004) has argued that forgetting is due to consolidation failure. Previous research with humans and nonhuman animals has reported evidence for consolidation in intermediate or long-term memory (LTM). The present study examines whether consolidation occurs in short-term memory in pigeons. Delayed matching-to-sample accuracy was reduced when retroactive interference (an extraneous task in Experiment 1 or houselight illumination in Experiment 2) was interpolated in the retention interval. Accuracy was not greater, however, when interference occurred at the end of the retention interval, as compared with when it occurred at the beginning. That is, there was no evidence for consolidation in short-term memory for pigeons. We did find, however, the beginning–end effect originally reported by Roberts and Grant (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 4, 219–236, 1978) and the recovery from forgetting reported by White and Brown (Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 96, 177–189, 2011). The results are discussed in relation to temporal distinctiveness theory as an alternative to consolidation.

The hard fall effect: high working memory capacity leads to a higher, but less robust short-term memory performance.

PubMed

Thomassin, Noémylle; Gonthier, Corentin; Guerraz, Michel; Roulin, Jean-Luc

2015-01-01

Participants with a high working memory span tend to perform better than low spans in a variety of tasks. However, their performance is paradoxically more impaired when they have to perform two tasks at once, a phenomenon that could be labeled the "hard fall effect." The present study tested whether this effect exists in a short-term memory task, and investigated the proposal that the effect is due to high spans using efficient facilitative strategies under simple task conditions. Ninety-eight participants performed a spatial short-term memory task under simple and dual task conditions; stimuli presentation times either allowed for the use of complex facilitative strategies or not. High spans outperformed low spans only under simple task conditions when presentation times allowed for the use of facilitative strategies. These results indicate that the hard fall effect exists on a short-term memory task and may be caused by individual differences in strategy use.

The retention and disruption of color information in human short-term visual memory.

PubMed

Nemes, Vanda A; Parry, Neil R A; Whitaker, David; McKeefry, Declan J

2012-01-27

Previous studies have demonstrated that the retention of information in short-term visual perceptual memory can be disrupted by the presentation of masking stimuli during interstimulus intervals (ISIs) in delayed discrimination tasks (S. Magnussen & W. W. Greenlee, 1999). We have exploited this effect in order to determine to what extent short-term perceptual memory is selective for stimulus color. We employed a delayed hue discrimination paradigm to measure the fidelity with which color information was retained in short-term memory. The task required 5 color normal observers to discriminate between spatially non-overlapping colored reference and test stimuli that were temporally separated by an ISI of 5 s. The points of subjective equality (PSEs) on the resultant psychometric matching functions provided an index of performance. Measurements were made in the presence and absence of mask stimuli presented during the ISI, which varied in hue around the equiluminant plane in DKL color space. For all reference stimuli, we found a consistent mask-induced, hue-dependent shift in PSE compared to the "no mask" conditions. These shifts were found to be tuned in color space, only occurring for a range of mask hues that fell within bandwidths of 29-37 deg. Outside this range, masking stimuli had little or no effect on measured PSEs. The results demonstrate that memory masking for color exhibits selectivity similar to that which has already been demonstrated for other visual attributes. The relatively narrow tuning of these interference effects suggests that short-term perceptual memory for color is based on higher order, non-linear color coding. © ARVO

Hearing loss is negatively related to episodic and semantic long-term memory but not to short-term memory.

PubMed

Rönnberg, Jerker; Danielsson, Henrik; Rudner, Mary; Arlinger, Stig; Sternäng, Ola; Wahlin, Ake; Nilsson, Lars-Göran

2011-04-01

To test the relationship between degree of hearing loss and different memory systems in hearing aid users. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to study the relationship between auditory and visual acuity and different cognitive and memory functions in an age-hetereogenous subsample of 160 hearing aid users without dementia, drawn from the Swedish prospective cohort aging study known as Betula (L.-G. Nilsson et al., 1997). Hearing loss was selectively and negatively related to episodic and semantic long-term memory (LTM) but not short-term memory (STM) performance. This held true for both ears, even when age was accounted for. Visual acuity alone, or in combination with auditory acuity, did not contribute to any acceptable SEM solution. The overall relationships between hearing loss and memory systems were predicted by the ease of language understanding model (J. Rönnberg, 2003), but the exact mechanisms of episodic memory decline in hearing aid users (i.e., mismatch/disuse, attentional resources, or information degradation) remain open for further experiments. The hearing aid industry should strive to design signal processing algorithms that are cognition friendly.

Enhanced stability of car-following model upon incorporation of short-term driving memory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Da-Wei; Shi, Zhong-Ke; Ai, Wen-Huan

2017-06-01

Based on the full velocity difference model, a new car-following model is developed to investigate the effect of short-term driving memory on traffic flow in this paper. Short-term driving memory is introduced as the influence factor of driver's anticipation behavior. The stability condition of the newly developed model is derived and the modified Korteweg-de Vries (mKdV) equation is constructed to describe the traffic behavior near the critical point. Via numerical method, evolution of a small perturbation is investigated firstly. The results show that the improvement of this new car-following model over the previous ones lies in the fact that the new model can improve the traffic stability. Starting and breaking processes of vehicles in the signalized intersection are also investigated. The numerical simulations illustrate that the new model can successfully describe the driver's anticipation behavior, and that the efficiency and safety of the vehicles passing through the signalized intersection are improved by considering short-term driving memory.

Weighted integration of short-term memory and sensory signals in the oculomotor system.

PubMed

Deravet, Nicolas; Blohm, Gunnar; de Xivry, Jean-Jacques Orban; Lefèvre, Philippe

2018-05-01

Oculomotor behaviors integrate sensory and prior information to overcome sensory-motor delays and noise. After much debate about this process, reliability-based integration has recently been proposed and several models of smooth pursuit now include recurrent Bayesian integration or Kalman filtering. However, there is a lack of behavioral evidence in humans supporting these theoretical predictions. Here, we independently manipulated the reliability of visual and prior information in a smooth pursuit task. Our results show that both smooth pursuit eye velocity and catch-up saccade amplitude were modulated by visual and prior information reliability. We interpret these findings as the continuous reliability-based integration of a short-term memory of target motion with visual information, which support modeling work. Furthermore, we suggest that saccadic and pursuit systems share this short-term memory. We propose that this short-term memory of target motion is quickly built and continuously updated, and constitutes a general building block present in all sensorimotor systems.

The contribution of short-term memory capacity to reading ability in adolescents with cochlear implants.

PubMed

Edwards, Lindsey; Aitkenhead, Lynne; Langdon, Dawn

2016-11-01

This study aimed to establish the relationship between short-term memory capacity and reading skills in adolescents with cochlear implants. A between-groups design compared a group of young people with cochlear implants with a group of hearing peers on measures of reading, and auditory and visual short-term memory capacity. The groups were matched for non-verbal IQ and age. The adolescents with cochlear implants were recruited from the Cochlear Implant Programme at a specialist children's hospital. The hearing participants were recruited from the same schools as those attended by the implanted adolescents. Participants were 18 cochlear implant users and 14 hearing controls, aged between 12 and 18 years. All used English as their main language and had no significant learning disability or neuro-developmental disorder. Short-term memory capacity was assessed in the auditory modality using Forward and Reverse Digit Span from the WISC IV UK, and visually using Forward and Reverse Memory from the Leiter-R. Individual word reading, reading comprehension and pseudoword decoding were assessed using the WIAT II UK. A series of ANOVAs revealed that the adolescents with cochlear implants had significantly poorer auditory short-term memory capacity and reading skills (on all measures) compared with their hearing peers. However, when Forward Digit Span was entered into the analyses as a covariate, none of the differences remained statistically significant. Deficits in immediate auditory memory persist into adolescence in deaf children with cochlear implants. Short-term auditory memory capacity is an important neurocognitive process in the development of reading skills after cochlear implantation in childhood that remains evident in later adolescence. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Functional interplay of top-down attention with affective codes during visual short-term memory maintenance.

PubMed

Kuo, Bo-Cheng; Lin, Szu-Hung; Yeh, Yei-Yu

2018-06-01

Visual short-term memory (VSTM) allows individuals to briefly maintain information over time for guiding behaviours. Because the contents of VSTM can be neutral or emotional, top-down influence in VSTM may vary with the affective codes of maintained representations. Here we investigated the neural mechanisms underlying the functional interplay of top-down attention with affective codes in VSTM using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Participants were instructed to remember both threatening and neutral objects in a cued VSTM task. Retrospective cues (retro-cues) were presented to direct attention to the hemifield of a threatening object (i.e., cue-to-threat) or a neutral object (i.e., cue-to-neutral) during VSTM maintenance. We showed stronger activity in the ventral occipitotemporal cortex and amygdala for attending threatening relative to neutral representations. Using multivoxel pattern analysis, we found better classification performance for cue-to-threat versus cue-to-neutral objects in early visual areas and in the amygdala. Importantly, retro-cues modulated the strength of functional connectivity between the frontoparietal and early visual areas. Activity in the frontoparietal areas became strongly correlated with the activity in V3a-V4 coding the threatening representations instructed to be relevant for the task. Together, these findings provide the first demonstration of top-down modulation of activation patterns in early visual areas and functional connectivity between the frontoparietal network and early visual areas for regulating threatening representations during VSTM maintenance. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Exogenous Attention Influences Visual Short-Term Memory in Infants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ross-Sheehy, Shannon; Oakes, Lisa M.; Luck, Steven J.

2011-01-01

Two experiments examined the hypothesis that developing visual attentional mechanisms influence infants' Visual Short-Term Memory (VSTM) in the context of multiple items. Five- and 10-month-old infants (N = 76) received a change detection task in which arrays of three differently colored squares appeared and disappeared. On each trial one square…

The Role of Short-Term Memory on Language Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Li-Yuch

Two studies assessed the impact of short-term memory on English as a Second Language learning. The first involved 20 graduate students at a Taiwanese university, who were randomly divided into treatment and control groups. It investigated differences in the performance of phrase recollection when the information was chunked versus unchunked.…

Visual Short-Term Memory During Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kerzel, Dirk; Ziegler, Nathalie E.

2005-01-01

Visual short-term memory (VSTM) was probed while observers performed smooth pursuit eye movements. Smooth pursuit keeps a moving object stabilized in the fovea. VSTM capacity for position was reduced during smooth pursuit compared with a condition with eye fixation. There was no difference between a condition in which the items were approximately…

PKA increases in the olfactory bulb act as unconditioned stimuli and provide evidence for parallel memory systems: pairing odor with increased PKA creates intermediate- and long-term, but not short-term, memories.

PubMed

Grimes, Matthew T; Harley, Carolyn W; Darby-King, Andrea; McLean, John H

2012-02-21

Neonatal odor-preference memory in rat pups is a well-defined associative mammalian memory model dependent on cAMP. Previous work from this laboratory demonstrates three phases of neonatal odor-preference memory: short-term (translation-independent), intermediate-term (translation-dependent), and long-term (transcription- and translation-dependent). Here, we use neonatal odor-preference learning to explore the role of olfactory bulb PKA in these three phases of mammalian memory. PKA activity increased normally in learning animals 10 min after a single training trial. Inhibition of PKA by Rp-cAMPs blocked intermediate-term and long-term memory, with no effect on short-term memory. PKA inhibition also prevented learning-associated CREB phosphorylation, a transcription factor implicated in long-term memory. When long-term memory was rescued through increased β-adrenoceptor activation, CREB phosphorylation was restored. Intermediate-term and long-term, but not short-term odor-preference memories were generated by pairing odor with direct PKA activation using intrabulbar Sp-cAMPs, which bypasses β-adrenoceptor activation. Higher levels of Sp-cAMPs enhanced memory by extending normal 24-h retention to 48-72 h. These results suggest that increased bulbar PKA is necessary and sufficient for the induction of intermediate-term and long-term odor-preference memory, and suggest that PKA activation levels also modulate memory duration. However, short-term memory appears to use molecular mechanisms other than the PKA/CREB pathway. These mechanisms, which are also recruited by β-adrenoceptor activation, must operate in parallel with PKA activation.

Short-Term Memory Trace in Rapidly Adapting Synapses of Inferior Temporal Cortex

PubMed Central

Sugase-Miyamoto, Yasuko; Liu, Zheng; Wiener, Matthew C.; Optican, Lance M.; Richmond, Barry J.

2008-01-01

Visual short-term memory tasks depend upon both the inferior temporal cortex (ITC) and the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Activity in some neurons persists after the first (sample) stimulus is shown. This delay-period activity has been proposed as an important mechanism for working memory. In ITC neurons, intervening (nonmatching) stimuli wipe out the delay-period activity; hence, the role of ITC in memory must depend upon a different mechanism. Here, we look for a possible mechanism by contrasting memory effects in two architectonically different parts of ITC: area TE and the perirhinal cortex. We found that a large proportion (80%) of stimulus-selective neurons in area TE of macaque ITCs exhibit a memory effect during the stimulus interval. During a sequential delayed matching-to-sample task (DMS), the noise in the neuronal response to the test image was correlated with the noise in the neuronal response to the sample image. Neurons in perirhinal cortex did not show this correlation. These results led us to hypothesize that area TE contributes to short-term memory by acting as a matched filter. When the sample image appears, each TE neuron captures a static copy of its inputs by rapidly adjusting its synaptic weights to match the strength of their individual inputs. Input signals from subsequent images are multiplied by those synaptic weights, thereby computing a measure of the correlation between the past and present inputs. The total activity in area TE is sufficient to quantify the similarity between the two images. This matched filter theory provides an explanation of what is remembered, where the trace is stored, and how comparison is done across time, all without requiring delay period activity. Simulations of a matched filter model match the experimental results, suggesting that area TE neurons store a synaptic memory trace during short-term visual memory. PMID:18464917

Memory timeline: Brain ERP C250 (not P300) is an early biomarker of short-term storage.

PubMed

Chapman, Robert M; Gardner, Margaret N; Mapstone, Mark; Dupree, Haley M; Antonsdottir, Inga M

2015-04-16

Brain event-related potentials (ERPs) offer a quantitative link between neurophysiological activity and cognitive performance. ERPs were measured while young adults performed a task that required storing a relevant stimulus in short-term memory. Using principal components analysis, ERP component C250 (maximum at 250 ms post-stimulus) was extracted from a set of ERPs that were separately averaged for various task conditions, including stimulus relevancy and stimulus sequence within a trial. C250 was more positive in response to task-specific stimuli that were successfully stored in short-term memory. This relationship between C250 and short-term memory storage of a stimulus was confirmed by a memory probe recall test where the behavioral recall of a stimulus was highly correlated with its C250 amplitude. ERP component P300 (and its subcomponents of P3a and P3b, which are commonly thought to represent memory operations) did not show a pattern of activation reflective of storing task-relevant stimuli. C250 precedes the P300, indicating that initial short-term memory storage may occur earlier than previously believed. Additionally, because C250 is so strongly predictive of a stimulus being stored in short-term memory, C250 may provide a strong index of early memory operations. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effect of acoustic similarity on short-term auditory memory in the monkey

PubMed Central

Scott, Brian H.; Mishkin, Mortimer; Yin, Pingbo

2013-01-01

Recent evidence suggests that the monkey’s short-term memory in audition depends on a passively retained sensory trace as opposed to a trace reactivated from long-term memory for use in working memory. Reliance on a passive sensory trace could render memory particularly susceptible to confusion between sounds that are similar in some acoustic dimension. If so, then in delayed matching-to-sample, the monkey’s performance should be predicted by the similarity in the salient acoustic dimension between the sample and subsequent test stimulus, even at very short delays. To test this prediction and isolate the acoustic features relevant to short-term memory, we examined the pattern of errors made by two rhesus monkeys performing a serial, auditory delayed match-to-sample task with interstimulus intervals of 1 s. The analysis revealed that false-alarm errors did indeed result from similarity-based confusion between the sample and the subsequent nonmatch stimuli. Manipulation of the stimuli showed that removal of spectral cues was more disruptive to matching behavior than removal of temporal cues. In addition, the effect of acoustic similarity on false-alarm response was stronger at the first nonmatch stimulus than at the second one. This pattern of errors would be expected if the first nonmatch stimulus overwrote the sample’s trace, and suggests that the passively retained trace is not only vulnerable to similarity-based confusion but is also highly susceptible to overwriting. PMID:23376550

Effect of acoustic similarity on short-term auditory memory in the monkey.

PubMed

Scott, Brian H; Mishkin, Mortimer; Yin, Pingbo

2013-04-01

Recent evidence suggests that the monkey's short-term memory in audition depends on a passively retained sensory trace as opposed to a trace reactivated from long-term memory for use in working memory. Reliance on a passive sensory trace could render memory particularly susceptible to confusion between sounds that are similar in some acoustic dimension. If so, then in delayed matching-to-sample, the monkey's performance should be predicted by the similarity in the salient acoustic dimension between the sample and subsequent test stimulus, even at very short delays. To test this prediction and isolate the acoustic features relevant to short-term memory, we examined the pattern of errors made by two rhesus monkeys performing a serial, auditory delayed match-to-sample task with interstimulus intervals of 1 s. The analysis revealed that false-alarm errors did indeed result from similarity-based confusion between the sample and the subsequent nonmatch stimuli. Manipulation of the stimuli showed that removal of spectral cues was more disruptive to matching behavior than removal of temporal cues. In addition, the effect of acoustic similarity on false-alarm response was stronger at the first nonmatch stimulus than at the second one. This pattern of errors would be expected if the first nonmatch stimulus overwrote the sample's trace, and suggests that the passively retained trace is not only vulnerable to similarity-based confusion but is also highly susceptible to overwriting. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Short-Term Memory for Temporal Intervals: Contrasting Explanations of the Choose-Short Effect in Pigeons

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pinto, Carlos; Machado, Armando

2011-01-01

To better understand short-term memory for temporal intervals, we re-examined the choose-short effect. In Experiment 1, to contrast the predictions of two models of this effect, the subjective shortening and the coding models, pigeons were exposed to a delayed matching-to-sample task with three sample durations (2, 6 and 18 s) and retention…

Attention restores discrete items to visual short-term memory.

PubMed

Murray, Alexandra M; Nobre, Anna C; Clark, Ian A; Cravo, André M; Stokes, Mark G

2013-04-01

When a memory is forgotten, is it lost forever? Our study shows that selective attention can restore forgotten items to visual short-term memory (VSTM). In our two experiments, all stimuli presented in a memory array were designed to be equally task relevant during encoding. During the retention interval, however, participants were sometimes given a cue predicting which of the memory items would be probed at the end of the delay. This shift in task relevance improved recall for that item. We found that this type of cuing improved recall for items that otherwise would have been irretrievable, providing critical evidence that attention can restore forgotten information to VSTM. Psychophysical modeling of memory performance has confirmed that restoration of information in VSTM increases the probability that the cued item is available for recall but does not improve the representational quality of the memory. We further suggest that attention can restore discrete items to VSTM.

Working Memory, Short-Term Memory, and Reading Disabilities: A Selective Meta-Analysis of the Literature

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swanson, H. Lee; Zheng, Xinhua; Jerman, Olga

2009-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to synthesize research that compares children with and without reading disabilities (RD) on measures of short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM). Across a broad age, reading, and IQ range, 578 effect sizes (ESs) were computed, yielding a mean ES across studies of -0.89 (SD = 1.03). A total of 257 ESs…

Short term memory may be the depletion of the readily releasable pool of presynaptic neurotransmitter vesicles of a metastable long term memory trace pattern.

PubMed

Tarnow, Eugen

2009-09-01

The Tagging/Retagging model of short term memory was introduced earlier (Tarnow in Cogn Neurodyn 2(4):347-353, 2008) to explain the linear relationship between response time and correct response probability for word recall and recognition: At the initial stimulus presentation the words displayed tag the corresponding long term memory locations. The tagging process is linear in time and takes about one second to reach a tagging level of 100%. After stimulus presentation the tagging level decays logarithmically with time to 50% after 14 s and to 20% after 220 s. If a probe word is reintroduced the tagging level has to return to 100% for the word to be properly identified, which leads to a delay in response time. This delay is proportional to the tagging loss. The tagging level is directly related to the probability of correct word recall and recognition. Evidence presented suggests that the tagging level is the level of depletion of the Readily Releasable Pool (RRP) of neurotransmitter vesicles at presynaptic terminals. The evidence includes the initial linear relationship between tagging level and time as well as the subsequent logarithmic decay of the tagging level. The activation of a short term memory may thus be the depletion of RRP (exocytosis) and short term memory decay may be the ensuing recycling of the neurotransmitter vesicles (endocytosis). The pattern of depleted presynaptic terminals corresponds to the long term memory trace.

Understanding the function of visual short-term memory: transsaccadic memory, object correspondence, and gaze correction.

PubMed

Hollingworth, Andrew; Richard, Ashleigh M; Luck, Steven J

2008-02-01

Visual short-term memory (VSTM) has received intensive study over the past decade, with research focused on VSTM capacity and representational format. Yet, the function of VSTM in human cognition is not well understood. Here, the authors demonstrate that VSTM plays an important role in the control of saccadic eye movements. Intelligent human behavior depends on directing the eyes to goal-relevant objects in the world, yet saccades are very often inaccurate and require correction. The authors hypothesized that VSTM is used to remember the features of the current saccade target so that it can be rapidly reacquired after an errant saccade, a task faced by the visual system thousands of times each day. In 4 experiments, memory-based gaze correction was accurate, fast, automatic, and largely unconscious. In addition, a concurrent VSTM load interfered with memory-based gaze correction, but a verbal short-term memory load did not. These findings demonstrate that VSTM plays a direct role in a fundamentally important aspect of visually guided behavior, and they suggest the existence of previously unknown links between VSTM representations and the occulomotor system. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved.

The effect of visual arrangement on visuospatial short-term memory: Insights from children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.

PubMed

Attout, Lucie; Noël, Marie-Pascale; Rousselle, Laurence

2018-04-11

Recent models of visuospatial (VSSP) short-term memory postulate the existence of two dissociable mechanisms depending on whether VSSP information is presented simultaneously or sequentially. However, they do not specify to what extent VSSP short-term memory is under the influence of general VSSP processing. This issue was examined in people with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, a genetic condition involving a VSSP deficit. The configuration of VSSP information was manipulated (structured vs. unstructured) to explore the impact of arrangement on VSSP short-term memory. Two presentation modes were used to see whether the VSSP arrangement has the same impact on simultaneous and sequential short-term memory. Compared to children matched on chronological age, children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome showed impaired performance only for structured arrangement, regardless of the presentation mode, suggesting an influence of VSSP processing on VSSP short-term memory abilities. A revised cognitive architecture for a model of VSSP short-term memory is proposed.

Short-Term and Working Memory Impairments in Early-Implanted, Long-Term Cochlear Implant Users Are Independent of Audibility and Speech Production.

PubMed

AuBuchon, Angela M; Pisoni, David B; Kronenberger, William G

2015-01-01

To determine whether early-implanted, long-term cochlear implant (CI) users display delays in verbal short-term and working memory capacity when processes related to audibility and speech production are eliminated. Twenty-three long-term CI users and 23 normal-hearing controls each completed forward and backward digit span tasks under testing conditions that differed in presentation modality (auditory or visual) and response output (spoken recall or manual pointing). Normal-hearing controls reproduced more lists of digits than the CI users, even when the test items were presented visually and the responses were made manually via touchscreen response. Short-term and working memory delays observed in CI users are not due to greater demands from peripheral sensory processes such as audibility or from overt speech-motor planning and response output organization. Instead, CI users are less efficient at encoding and maintaining phonological representations in verbal short-term memory using phonological and linguistic strategies during memory tasks.

Short-Term and Working Memory Impairments in Early-Implanted, Long-Term Cochlear Implant Users Are Independent of Audibility and Speech Production

PubMed Central

AuBuchon, Angela M.; Pisoni, David B.; Kronenberger, William G.

2015-01-01

OBJECTIVES Determine if early-implanted, long-term cochlear implant (CI) users display delays in verbal short-term and working memory capacity when processes related to audibility and speech production are eliminated. DESIGN Twenty-three long-term CI users and 23 normal-hearing controls each completed forward and backward digit span tasks under testing conditions which differed in presentation modality (auditory or visual) and response output (spoken recall or manual pointing). RESULTS Normal-hearing controls reproduced more lists of digits than the CI users, even when the test items were presented visually and the responses were made manually via touchscreen response. CONCLUSIONS Short-term and working memory delays observed in CI users are not due to greater demands from peripheral sensory processes such as audibility or from overt speech-motor planning and response output organization. Instead, CI users are less efficient at encoding and maintaining phonological representations in verbal short-term memory utilizing phonological and linguistic strategies during memory tasks. PMID:26496666

Study of short term memory status in adult bipolar disorder patients in south Indian population.

PubMed

Aslam, Mohammed; Siddiq, Mohamed; Dhundasi, Salim A; Das, Kusal K; Kulkarni, B R

2011-01-01

The present study was undertaken to establish short term memory status in bipolar disorder cases as compared with normal age and sex matched control group in Bijapur (Karnataka). Results showed that a significant decrease in short term memory status in bipolar disorder cases as compared to their control group .Loss of attention, decreased processing speed and executive function patterns may be the probable causes of such observations.

A Critical Role for the Nucleus Reuniens in Long-Term, But Not Short-Term Associative Recognition Memory Formation.

PubMed

Barker, Gareth R I; Warburton, Elizabeth Clea

2018-03-28

Recognition memory for single items requires the perirhinal cortex (PRH), whereas recognition of an item and its associated location requires a functional interaction among the PRH, hippocampus (HPC), and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Although the precise mechanisms through which these interactions are effected are unknown, the nucleus reuniens (NRe) has bidirectional connections with each regions and thus may play a role in recognition memory. Here we investigated, in male rats, whether specific manipulations of NRe function affected performance of recognition memory for single items, object location, or object-in-place associations. Permanent lesions in the NRe significantly impaired long-term, but not short-term, object-in-place associative recognition memory, whereas single item recognition memory and object location memory were unaffected. Temporary inactivation of the NRe during distinct phases of the object-in-place task revealed its importance in both the encoding and retrieval stages of long-term associative recognition memory. Infusions of specific receptor antagonists showed that encoding was dependent on muscarinic and nicotinic cholinergic neurotransmission, whereas NMDA receptor neurotransmission was not required. Finally, we found that long-term object-in-place memory required protein synthesis within the NRe. These data reveal a specific role for the NRe in long-term associative recognition memory through its interactions with the HPC and mPFC, but not the PRH. The delay-dependent involvement of the NRe suggests that it is not a simple relay station between brain regions, but, rather, during high mnemonic demand, facilitates interactions between the mPFC and HPC, a process that requires both cholinergic neurotransmission and protein synthesis. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Recognizing an object and its associated location, which is fundamental to our everyday memory, requires specific hippocampal-cortical interactions, potentially facilitated by the

Recovery of an injured cingulum concurrent with improvement of short-term memory in a patient with mild traumatic brain injury.

PubMed

Jang, Sung Ho; Kim, Seong Ho; Seo, Jeong Pyo

2018-01-01

We reported on a patient with mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) who showed recovery of an injured cingulum concurrent with improvement of short-term memory, which was demonstrated on follow-up diffusion tensor tractography (DTT). A 55-year-old male patient suffered head trauma resulting from falling from approximately 2 m while working at a construction site. The patient showed mild memory impairment (especially short-term memory impairment) at 3 months after onset: Memory Assessment Scale (global memory: 95 (37%ile), short-term memory: 75 (5%ile), verbal memory: 80 (9%ile) and visual memory: 112 (79%ile)). By contrast, at 2 years after onset, his mild memory impairment had improved to a normal state: Memory Assessment Scale (global memory: 104 (61%ile), short-term memory: 95 (37%ile), verbal memory: 101 (53%ile) and visual memory: 106 (66%ile)). On 3-month DTT, discontinuation of the right anterior cingulum was observed over the genu of the corpus callosum, while on 2-year DTT, the discontinued right anterior cingulum was elongated to the right basal forebrain. In conclusion, recovery of an injured cingulum concurrent with improvement of short-term memory was demonstrated in a patient with mild TBI.

Monkey Visual Short-Term Memory Directly Compared to Humans

PubMed Central

Elmore, L. Caitlin; Wright, Anthony A.

2015-01-01

Two adult rhesus monkeys were trained to detect which item in an array of memory items had changed using the same stimuli, viewing times, and delays as used with humans. Although the monkeys were extensively trained, they were less accurate than humans with the same array sizes (2, 4, & 6 items), with both stimulus types (colored squares, clip art), and showed calculated memory capacities of about one item (or less). Nevertheless, the memory results from both monkeys and humans for both stimulus types were well characterized by the inverse power-law of display size. This characterization provides a simple and straightforward summary of a fundamental process of visual short-term memory (how VSTM declines with memory load) that emphasizes species similarities based upon similar functional relationships. By more closely matching of monkey testing parameters to those of humans, the similar functional relationships strengthen the evidence suggesting similar processes underlying monkey and human VSTM. PMID:25706544

A Spiking Working Memory Model Based on Hebbian Short-Term Potentiation.

PubMed

Fiebig, Florian; Lansner, Anders

2017-01-04

A dominant theory of working memory (WM), referred to as the persistent activity hypothesis, holds that recurrently connected neural networks, presumably located in the prefrontal cortex, encode and maintain WM memory items through sustained elevated activity. Reexamination of experimental data has shown that prefrontal cortex activity in single units during delay periods is much more variable than predicted by such a theory and associated computational models. Alternative models of WM maintenance based on synaptic plasticity, such as short-term nonassociative (non-Hebbian) synaptic facilitation, have been suggested but cannot account for encoding of novel associations. Here we test the hypothesis that a recently identified fast-expressing form of Hebbian synaptic plasticity (associative short-term potentiation) is a possible mechanism for WM encoding and maintenance. Our simulations using a spiking neural network model of cortex reproduce a range of cognitive memory effects in the classical multi-item WM task of encoding and immediate free recall of word lists. Memory reactivation in the model occurs in discrete oscillatory bursts rather than as sustained activity. We relate dynamic network activity as well as key synaptic characteristics to electrophysiological measurements. Our findings support the hypothesis that fast Hebbian short-term potentiation is a key WM mechanism. Working memory (WM) is a key component of cognition. Hypotheses about the neural mechanism behind WM are currently under revision. Reflecting recent findings of fast Hebbian synaptic plasticity in cortex, we test whether a cortical spiking neural network model with such a mechanism can learn a multi-item WM task (word list learning). We show that our model can reproduce human cognitive phenomena and achieve comparable memory performance in both free and cued recall while being simultaneously compatible with experimental data on structure, connectivity, and neurophysiology of the underlying

Visual short-term memory deficits in REM sleep behaviour disorder mirror those in Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Rolinski, Michal; Zokaei, Nahid; Baig, Fahd; Giehl, Kathrin; Quinnell, Timothy; Zaiwalla, Zenobia; Mackay, Clare E; Husain, Masud; Hu, Michele T M

2016-01-01

Individuals with REM sleep behaviour disorder are at significantly higher risk of developing Parkinson's disease. Here we examined visual short-term memory deficits--long associated with Parkinson's disease--in patients with REM sleep behaviour disorder without Parkinson's disease using a novel task that measures recall precision. Visual short-term memory for sequentially presented coloured bars of different orientation was assessed in 21 patients with polysomnography-proven idiopathic REM sleep behaviour disorder, 26 cases with early Parkinson's disease and 26 healthy controls. Three tasks using the same stimuli controlled for attentional filtering ability, sensorimotor and temporal decay factors. Both patients with REM sleep behaviour disorder and Parkinson's disease demonstrated a deficit in visual short-term memory, with recall precision significantly worse than in healthy controls with no deficit observed in any of the control tasks. Importantly, the pattern of memory deficit in both patient groups was specifically explained by an increase in random responses. These results demonstrate that it is possible to detect the signature of memory impairment associated with Parkinson's disease in individuals with REM sleep behaviour disorder, a condition associated with a high risk of developing Parkinson's disease. The pattern of visual short-term memory deficit potentially provides a cognitive marker of 'prodromal' Parkinson's disease that might be useful in tracking disease progression and for disease-modifying intervention trials. © The Author (2015). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain.

An Agent-Based Model for the Role of Short-Term Memory Enhancement in the Emergence of Grammatical Agreement.

PubMed

Vera, Javier

2018-01-01

What is the influence of short-term memory enhancement on the emergence of grammatical agreement systems in multi-agent language games? Agreement systems suppose that at least two words share some features with each other, such as gender, number, or case. Previous work, within the multi-agent language-game framework, has recently proposed models stressing the hypothesis that the emergence of a grammatical agreement system arises from the minimization of semantic ambiguity. On the other hand, neurobiological evidence argues for the hypothesis that language evolution has mainly related to an increasing of short-term memory capacity, which has allowed the online manipulation of words and meanings participating particularly in grammatical agreement systems. Here, the main aim is to propose a multi-agent language game for the emergence of a grammatical agreement system, under measurable long-range relations depending on the short-term memory capacity. Computer simulations, based on a parameter that measures the amount of short-term memory capacity, suggest that agreement marker systems arise in a population of agents equipped at least with a critical short-term memory capacity.

Contribution of visuospatial attention, short-term memory and executive functions to performance in number interval bisection.

PubMed

Ranzini, Mariagrazia; Carbè, Katia; Gevers, Wim

2017-05-01

Number interval bisection consists of estimating the mid-number within a pair (1-9=>5). Healthy adults and right-brain damage patients can show biased performance in this task, underestimating and overestimating the mid-number, respectively. The role of visuospatial attention during this task, and its interplay with other cognitive abilities (e.g., working memory) is still object of debate. In this study we explored the relation between visuospatial attention and individual differences in working memory and executive functions during number interval bisection. To manipulate the deployment of visuospatial attention, healthy participants tracked a dot moving to the left or moving to the right while bisecting numerical intervals. We also collected information concerning verbal and visuospatial short-term memory span, and concerning verbal and visuospatial fluency scores. Beside replicating what is typically observed in this task (e.g., underestimation bias), a correlation was observed between verbal short-term memory and bisection bias, and an interesting relation between performance in the number interval bisection, verbal short-term memory, and visuospatial attention. Specifically, performance of those participants with low verbal span was affected by the direction of the moving dot, underestimating at a larger extent when the dot moved leftward than rightward. Finally, it was also observed that participants' verbal fluency ability contributed in the generation of biases in the numerical task. The finding of the involvement of abilities belonging to the verbal domain contributes to unveil the multi-componential nature of number interval bisection. Considering the debate on the nature of number interval bisection and its use in the clinical assessment of deficits following brain damage, this finding may be interesting also from a clinical perspective. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Near-infrared spectroscopic study on the effects of chewing on short-term memory.

PubMed

Wada, Mayumi; Hoshi, Yoko; Iguchi, Yoshinobu; Kida, Ikuhiro

2011-12-01

Using near-infrared spectroscopy, we examined whether chewing gum improves performance in a short-term memory task - immediate recall of random eight-digit numbers - by assessing cerebral hemodynamic response in the prefrontal cortex. We found that the oxyhemoglobin concentration during and after chewing gum was higher than that before chewing; further, the concentration increased during the task, and this increase was reduced with chewing, although non-significantly. Chewing did not improve task performance. Therefore, chewing-induced hemodynamic responses were unrelated to the performance in short-term memory tasks. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Identifying Early Links between Temperament, Short-Term and Working Memory in Preschoolers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Visu-Petra, Laura; Cheie, Lavinia; Câmpan, Maria; Scutelnicu, Ioana; Benga, Oana

2018-01-01

The present study aimed to investigate early interrelationships between temperament, short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM), while also relating them to incipient anxious traits in a sample of 4-7-year-olds. Preschoolers were evaluated using verbal and visuospatial STM and WM tasks, while parental reports were used to assess children's…

Influence of acute high-intensity aerobic interval exercise bout on selective attention and short-term memory tasks.

PubMed

Alves, Christiano R R; Tessaro, Victor H; Teixeira, Luis A C; Murakava, Karina; Roschel, Hamilton; Gualano, Bruno; Takito, Monica Y

2014-02-01

Acute moderate intensity continuous aerobic exercise can improve specific cognitive functions, such as short-term memory and selective attention. Moreover, high-intensity interval training (HIT) has been recently proposed as a time-efficient alternative to traditional cardiorespiratory exercise. However, considering previous speculations that the exercise intensity affects cognition in a U-shaped fashion, it was hypothesized that a HIT session may impair cognitive performance. Therefore, this study assessed the effects of an acute HIT session on selective attention and short-term memory tasks. 22 healthy middle-aged individuals (M age = 53.7 yr.) engaged in both (1) a HIT session, 10 1 min. cycling bouts at the intensity corresponding to 80% of the reserve heart rate interspersed by 1 min. active pauses cycling at 60% of the reserve heart rate and (2) a control session, consisting of an active condition with low-intensity active stretching exercise. Before and after each experimental session, cognitive performance was assessed by the Victoria Version of the Stroop test (a selective attention test) and the Digit Span test (a short-term memory test). Following the HIT session, the time to complete the Stroop "Color word" test was significantly lower when compared with that of the control session. The performances in the other subtasks of the Stroop test as well as in the Digit Span test were not significantly different. A HIT session can improve cognitive function.

Congenital amusia: a short-term memory deficit for non-verbal, but not verbal sounds.

PubMed

Tillmann, Barbara; Schulze, Katrin; Foxton, Jessica M

2009-12-01

Congenital amusia refers to a lifelong disorder of music processing and is linked to pitch-processing deficits. The present study investigated congenital amusics' short-term memory for tones, musical timbres and words. Sequences of five events (tones, timbres or words) were presented in pairs and participants had to indicate whether the sequences were the same or different. The performance of congenital amusics confirmed a memory deficit for tone sequences, but showed normal performance for word sequences. For timbre sequences, amusics' memory performance was impaired in comparison to matched controls. Overall timbre performance was found to be correlated with melodic contour processing (as assessed by the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia). The present findings show that amusics' deficits extend to non-verbal sound material other than pitch, in this case timbre, while not affecting memory for verbal material. This is in line with previous suggestions about the domain-specificity of congenital amusia.

Subthreshold pharmacological and genetic approaches to analyzing CaV2.1-mediated NMDA receptor signaling in short-term memory.

PubMed

Takahashi, Eiki; Niimi, Kimie; Itakura, Chitoshi

2010-10-25

Ca(V)2.1 is highly expressed in the nervous system and plays an essential role in the presynaptic modulation of neurotransmitter release machinery. Recently, the antiepileptic drug levetiracetam was reported to inhibit presynaptic Ca(V)2.1 functions, reducing glutamate release in the hippocampus, although the precise physiological role of Ca(V)2.1-regulated synaptic functions in cognitive performance at the system level remains unknown. This study examined whether Ca(V)2.1 mediates hippocampus-dependent spatial short-term memory using the object location and Y-maze tests, and perirhinal cortex-dependent nonspatial short-term memory using the object recognition test, via a combined pharmacological and genetic approach. Heterozygous rolling Nagoya (rol/+) mice carrying the Ca(V)2.1alpha(1) mutation had normal spatial and nonspatial short-term memory. A 100mg/kg dose of levetiracetam, which is ineffective in wild-type controls, blocked spatial short-term memory in rol/+ mice. At 5mg/kg, the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor blocker (+/-)-3-(2-carboxypiperazin-4-yl)-propyl-1-phosphonic acid (CPP), which is ineffective in wild-type controls, also blocked the spatial short-term memory in rol/+ mice. Furthermore, a combination of subthreshold doses of levetiracetam (25 mg/kg) and CPP (2.5mg/kg) triggered a spatial short-term memory deficit in rol/+ mice, but not in wild-type controls. Similar patterns of nonspatial short-term memory were observed in wild-type and rol/+ mice when injected with levetiracetam (0-300 mg/kg). These results indicate that Ca(V)2.1-mediated NMDA receptor signaling is critical in hippocampus-dependent spatial short-term memory and differs in various regions. The combination subthreshold pharmacological and genetic approach presented here is easily performed and can be used to study functional signaling pathways in neuronal circuits. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Protocol for Short- and Longer-term Spatial Learning and Memory in Mice

PubMed Central

Willis, Emily F.; Bartlett, Perry F.; Vukovic, Jana

2017-01-01

Studies on the role of the hippocampus in higher cognitive functions such as spatial learning and memory in rodents are reliant upon robust and objective behavioral tests. This protocol describes one such test—the active place avoidance (APA) task. This behavioral task involves the mouse continuously integrating visual cues to orientate itself within a rotating arena in order to actively avoid a shock zone, the location of which remains constant relative to the room. This protocol details the step-by-step procedures for a novel paradigm of the hippocampal-dependent APA task, measuring acquisition of spatial learning during a single 20-min trial (i.e., short-term memory), with spatial memory encoding and retrieval (i.e., long-term memory) assessed by trials conducted over consecutive days. Using the APA task, cognitive flexibility can be assessed using the reversal learning paradigm, as this increases the cognitive load required for efficient performance in the task. In addition to a detailed experimental protocol, this paper also describes the range of its possible applications, the expected key results, as well as the analytical methods to assess the data, and the pitfalls/troubleshooting measures. The protocol described herein is highly robust and produces replicable results, thus presenting an important paradigm that enables the assessment of subtle short-term changes in spatial learning and memory, such as those observed for many experimental interventions. PMID:29089878

A Visual Short-Term Memory Advantage for Objects of Expertise

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curby, Kim M.; Glazek, Kuba; Gauthier, Isabel

2009-01-01

Visual short-term memory (VSTM) is limited, especially for complex objects. Its capacity, however, is greater for faces than for other objects; this advantage may stem from the holistic nature of face processing. If the holistic processing explains this advantage, object expertise--which also relies on holistic processing--should endow experts…

Neural circuit mechanisms of short-term memory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goldman, Mark

Memory over time scales of seconds to tens of seconds is thought to be maintained by neural activity that is triggered by a memorized stimulus and persists long after the stimulus is turned off. This presents a challenge to current models of memory-storing mechanisms, because the typical time scales associated with cellular and synaptic dynamics are two orders of magnitude smaller than this. While such long time scales can easily be achieved by bistable processes that toggle like a flip-flop between a baseline and elevated-activity state, many neuronal systems have been observed experimentally to be capable of maintaining a continuum of stable states. For example, in neural integrator networks involved in the accumulation of evidence for decision making and in motor control, individual neurons have been recorded whose activity reflects the mathematical integral of their inputs; in the absence of input, these neurons sustain activity at a level proportional to the running total of their inputs. This represents an analog form of memory whose dynamics can be conceptualized through an energy landscape with a continuum of lowest-energy states. Such continuous attractor landscapes are structurally non-robust, in seeming violation of the relative robustness of biological memory systems. In this talk, I will present and compare different biologically motivated circuit motifs for the accumulation and storage of signals in short-term memory. Challenges to generating robust memory maintenance will be highlighted and potential mechanisms for ameliorating the sensitivity of memory networks to perturbations will be discussed. Funding for this work was provided by NIH R01 MH065034, NSF IIS-1208218, Simons Foundation 324260, and a UC Davis Ophthalmology Research to Prevent Blindness Grant.

Selective impact of disease on short-term and long-term components of self-reported memory: a population-based HUNT study

PubMed Central

Almkvist, Ove; Bosnes, Ole; Bosnes, Ingunn; Stordal, Eystein

2017-01-01

Background Subjective memory is commonly considered to be a unidimensional measure. However, theories of performance-based memory suggest that subjective memory could be divided into more than one dimension. Objective To divide subjective memory into theoretically related components of memory and explore the relationship to disease. Methods In this study, various aspects of self-reported memory were studied with respect to demographics and diseases in the third wave of the HUNT epidemiological study in middle Norway. The study included all individuals 55 years of age or older, who responded to a nine-item questionnaire on subjective memory and questionnaires on health (n=18 633). Results A principle component analysis of the memory items resulted in two memory components; the criterion used was an eigenvalue above 1, which accounted for 54% of the total variance. The components were interpreted as long-term memory (LTM; the first component; 43% of the total variance) and short-term memory (STM; the second component; 11% of the total variance). Memory impairment was significantly related to all diseases (except Bechterew’s disease), most strongly to brain infarction, heart failure, diabetes, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and whiplash. For most diseases, the STM component was more affected than the LTM component; however, in cancer, the opposite pattern was seen. Conclusions Subjective memory impairment as measured in HUNT contained two components, which were differentially associated with diseases. PMID:28490551

A Probabilistic Clustering Theory of the Organization of Visual Short-Term Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Orhan, A. Emin; Jacobs, Robert A.

2013-01-01

Experimental evidence suggests that the content of a memory for even a simple display encoded in visual short-term memory (VSTM) can be very complex. VSTM uses organizational processes that make the representation of an item dependent on the feature values of all displayed items as well as on these items' representations. Here, we develop a…

Arousal Modulates Activity in the Medial Temporal Lobe during a Short-Term Relational Memory Task

PubMed Central

Thoresen, Christian; Jensen, Jimmy; Sigvartsen, Niels Petter B.; Bolstad, Ingeborg; Server, Andres; Nakstad, Per H.; Andreassen, Ole A.; Endestad, Tor

2011-01-01

This study investigated the effect of arousal on short-term relational memory and its underlying cortical network. Seventeen healthy participants performed a picture by location, short-term relational memory task using emotional pictures. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure the blood-oxygenation-level dependent signal relative to task. Subjects’ own ratings of the pictures were used to obtain subjective arousal ratings. Subjective arousal was found to have a dose-dependent effect on activations in the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, and in higher order visual areas. Serial position analyses showed that high arousal trials produced a stronger primacy and recency effect than low arousal trials. The results indicate that short-term relational memory may be facilitated by arousal and that this may be modulated by a dose–response function in arousal-driven neuronal regions. PMID:22291626

Word Associated Arousal as an Encoding Dimension in Short Term Memory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hayduk, Allan W.; Osborne, John W.

1981-01-01

The fact that a significant amount of release from proactive interference was obtained with subjects in this study by shifting between differentially arousing categories of words suggested that rated word arousal is an encoding dimension in short-term memory. (CM)

Short-Term Memory Retrievals and Expectation in On-Line Sentence Comprehension: The Effects of Recent Linguistic Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bartek, Brian D.

2011-01-01

Understanding how short-term memory shapes sentence comprehension processes is a long-standing topic in psycholinguistics. This thesis pursues new insights on two facets of short-term memory's role in sentence comprehension: (a) The first four experiments search for, and obtain, concrete evidence that locality effects, or increased integration…

Different importance of the volatile and non-volatile fractions of an olfactory signature for individual social recognition in rats versus mice and short-term versus long-term memory.

PubMed

Noack, Julia; Richter, Karin; Laube, Gregor; Haghgoo, Hojjat Allah; Veh, Rüdiger W; Engelmann, Mario

2010-11-01

When tested in the olfactory cued social recognition/discrimination test, rats and mice differ in their retention of a recognition memory for a previously encountered conspecific juvenile: Rats are able to recognize a given juvenile for approximately 45 min only whereas mice show not only short-term, but also long-term recognition memory (≥ 24 h). Here we modified the social recognition/social discrimination procedure to investigate the neurobiological mechanism(s) underlying the species differences. We presented a conspecific juvenile repeatedly to the experimental subjects and monitored the investigation duration as a measure for recognition. Presentation of only the volatile fraction of the juvenile olfactory signature was sufficient for both short- and long-term recognition in mice but not rats. Applying additional volatile, mono-molecular odours to the "to be recognized" juveniles failed to affect short-term memory in both species, but interfered with long-term recognition in mice. Finally immunocytochemical analysis of c-Fos as a marker for cellular activation, revealed that juvenile exposure stimulated areas involved in the processing of olfactory signals in both the main and the accessory olfactory bulb in mice. In rats, we measured an increased c-Fos synthesis almost exclusively in cells of the accessory olfactory bulb. Our data suggest that the species difference in the retention of social recognition memory is based on differences in the processing of the volatile versus non-volatile fraction of the individuals' olfactory signature. The non-volatile fraction is sufficient for retaining a short-term social memory only. Long-term social memory - as observed in mice - requires a processing of both the volatile and non-volatile fractions of the olfactory signature. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Verbal Short-Term Memory Performance in Pupils with Down Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abdelhameed, Hala; Porter, Jill

2010-01-01

Research has shown that verbal short-term memory span is shorter in individuals with Down syndrome than in typically developing individuals of equivalent mental age, but little attention has been given to variations within or across groups. Differences in the environment and in particular educational experiences may play a part in the relative…

Parallel Consolidation of Simple Features into Visual Short-Term Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mance, Irida; Becker, Mark W.; Liu, Taosheng

2012-01-01

Although considerable research has examined the storage limits of visual short-term memory (VSTM), little is known about the initial formation (i.e., the consolidation) of VSTM representations. A few previous studies have estimated the capacity of consolidation to be one item at a time. Here we used a sequential-simultaneous manipulation to…

The phonological neighbourhood effect on short-term memory for order.

PubMed

Clarkson, L; Roodenrys, S; Miller, L M; Hulme, C

2017-03-01

There is a growing body of literature that suggests that long-term memory (LTM) and short-term memory (STM) structures that were once thought to be distinct are actually co-dependent, and that LTM can aid retrieval from STM. The mechanism behind this effect is commonly argued to act on item memory but not on order memory. The aim of the current study was to examine whether LTM could exert an influence on STM for order by examining an effect attributed to LTM, the phonological neighbourhood effect, in a task that reduced the requirement to retain item information. In Experiment 1, 18 participants completed a serial reconstruction task where neighbourhood density alternated within the lists. In Experiment 2, 22 participants completed a serial reconstruction task using pure lists of dense and sparse neighbourhood words. In Experiment 3, 22 participants completed a reconstruction task with both mixed and pure lists. There was a significant effect of neighbourhood density with better recall for dense than sparse neighbourhood words in pure lists but not in mixed lists. Results suggest that LTM exerts an influence prior to that proposed by many models of memory for order.

Spatiotemporal proximity effects in visual short-term memory examined by target-nontarget analysis.

PubMed

Sapkota, Raju P; Pardhan, Shahina; van der Linde, Ian

2016-08-01

Visual short-term memory (VSTM) is a limited-capacity system that holds a small number of objects online simultaneously, implying that competition for limited storage resources occurs (Phillips, 1974). How the spatial and temporal proximity of stimuli affects this competition is unclear. In this 2-experiment study, we examined the effect of the spatial and temporal separation of real-world memory targets and erroneously selected nontarget items examined during location-recognition and object-recall tasks. In Experiment 1 (the location-recognition task), our test display comprised either the picture or name of 1 previously examined memory stimulus (rendered above as the stimulus-display area), together with numbered square boxes at each of the memory-stimulus locations used in that trial. Participants were asked to report the number inside the square box corresponding to the location at which the cued object was originally presented. In Experiment 2 (the object-recall task), the test display comprised a single empty square box presented at 1 memory-stimulus location. Participants were asked to report the name of the object presented at that location. In both experiments, nontarget objects that were spatially and temporally proximal to the memory target were confused more often than nontarget objects that were spatially and temporally distant (i.e., a spatiotemporal proximity effect); this effect generalized across memory tasks, and the object feature (picture or name) that cued the test-display memory target. Our findings are discussed in terms of spatial and temporal confusion "fields" in VSTM, wherein objects occupy diffuse loci in a spatiotemporal coordinate system, wherein neighboring locations are more susceptible to confusion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Short- and long-term memory in Drosophila require cAMP signaling in distinct neuron types.

PubMed

Blum, Allison L; Li, Wanhe; Cressy, Mike; Dubnau, Josh

2009-08-25

A common feature of memory and its underlying synaptic plasticity is that each can be dissected into short-lived forms involving modification or trafficking of existing proteins and long-term forms that require new gene expression. An underlying assumption of this cellular view of memory consolidation is that these different mechanisms occur within a single neuron. At the neuroanatomical level, however, different temporal stages of memory can engage distinct neural circuits, a notion that has not been conceptually integrated with the cellular view. Here, we investigated this issue in the context of aversive Pavlovian olfactory memory in Drosophila. Previous studies have demonstrated a central role for cAMP signaling in the mushroom body (MB). The Ca(2+)-responsive adenylyl cyclase RUTABAGA is believed to be a coincidence detector in gamma neurons, one of the three principle classes of MB Kenyon cells. We were able to separately restore short-term or long-term memory to a rutabaga mutant with expression of rutabaga in different subsets of MB neurons. Our findings suggest a model in which the learning experience initiates two parallel associations: a short-lived trace in MB gamma neurons, and a long-lived trace in alpha/beta neurons.

Persistent Short-Term Memory Defects Following Sleep Deprivation in a Drosophila Model of Parkinson Disease

PubMed Central

Seugnet, Laurent; Galvin, James E.; Suzuki, Yasuko; Gottschalk, Laura; Shaw, Paul J.

2009-01-01

Study Objectives: Parkinson disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder in the United States. It is associated with motor deficits, sleep disturbances, and cognitive impairment. The pathology associated with PD and the effects of sleep deprivation impinge, in part, upon common molecular pathways suggesting that sleep loss may be particularly deleterious to the degenerating brain. Thus we investigated the long-term consequences of sleep deprivation on short-term memory using a Drosophila model of Parkinson disease. Participants: Transgenic strains of Drosophila melanogaster. Design: Using the GAL4-UAS system, human α-synuclein was expressed throughout the nervous system of adult flies. α-Synuclein expressing flies (αS flies) and the corresponding genetic background controls were sleep deprived for 12 h at age 16 days and allowed to recover undisturbed for at least 3 days. Short-term memory was evaluated using aversive phototaxis suppression. Dopaminergic systems were assessed using mRNA profiling and immunohistochemistry. Measurments and Results: When sleep deprived at an intermediate stage of the pathology, αS flies showed persistent short-term memory deficits that lasted ≥ 3 days. Cognitive deficits were not observed in younger αS flies nor in genetic background controls. Long-term impairments were not associated with accelerated loss of dopaminergic neurons. However mRNA expression of the dopamine receptors dDA1 and DAMB were significantly increased in sleep deprived αS flies. Blocking D1-like receptors during sleep deprivation prevented persistent short-term memory deficits. Importantly, feeding flies the polyphenolic compound curcumin blocked long-term learning deficits. Conclusions: These data emphasize the importance of sleep in a degenerating/reorganizing brain and shows that pathological processes induced by sleep deprivation can be dissected at the molecular and cellular level using Drosophila genetics. Citation: Seugnet L

Attentional control constrains visual short-term memory: Insights from developmental and individual differences

PubMed Central

Astle, D.E.; Nobre, A.C.; Scerif, G.

2014-01-01

The mechanisms by which attentional control biases mnemonic representations have attracted much interest but remain poorly understood. As attention and memory develop gradually over childhood and variably across individuals, assessing how participants of different ages and ability attend to mnemonic contents can elucidate their interplay. In Experiment 1, 7-, 10-year-olds and adults were asked to report whether a probe item had been part of a previously presented four-item array. The initial array could either be uncued, preceded (“pre-cued”) or followed (“retro-cued”) by a spatial cue orienting attention to one of the potential item locations. Performance across groups was significantly improved by both cue types and individual differences in children’s retrospective attentional control predicted their visual short-term and working memory span, whereas their basic ability to remember in the absence of cues did not. Experiment 2 imposed a variable delay between the array and the subsequent orienting cue. Cueing benefits were greater in adults compared to 10-year-olds, but they persisted even when cues followed the array by nearly 3 seconds, suggesting that orienting operated on durable short-term representations for both age groups. The findings indicate that there are substantial developmental and individual differences in the ability to control attention to memory and that in turn these differences constrain visual short-term memory capacity. PMID:20680889

Attentional control constrains visual short-term memory: insights from developmental and individual differences.

PubMed

Astle, Duncan E; Nobre, Anna C; Scerif, Gaia

2012-01-01

The mechanisms by which attentional control biases mnemonic representations have attracted much interest but remain poorly understood. As attention and memory develop gradually over childhood and variably across individuals, assessing how participants of different ages and ability attend to mnemonic contents can elucidate their interplay. In Experiment 1, 7-year-olds, 10-year-olds, and adults were asked to report whether a probe item had been part of a previously presented four-item array. The initial array could either be uncued, be preceded ("precued"), or followed ("retrocued") by a spatial cue orienting attention to one of the potential item locations. Performance across groups was significantly improved by both cue types, and individual differences in children's retrospective attentional control predicted their visual short-term and working memory span, whereas their basic ability to remember in the absence of cues did not. Experiment 2 imposed a variable delay between the array and the subsequent orienting cue. Cueing benefits were greater in adults than in 10-year-olds, but they persisted even when cues followed the array by nearly 3 seconds, suggesting that orienting operated on durable short-term representations for both age groups. The findings indicate that there are substantial developmental and individual differences in the ability to control attention to memory and that in turn these differences constrain visual short-term memory capacity.

Aggregated effects of combining daily milk consumption and aerobic exercise on short-term memory and sustained attention among female students.

PubMed

Leong, In-Tyng; Moghadam, Sedigheh; Hashim, Hairul A

2015-02-01

Regular aerobic exercise and milk consumption have been found to have positive effects on certain cognitive functions such as short-term memory and sustained attention. However, aggregated effects of combining these modalities have not been explored. This study examined the combined effects of milk supplementation and aerobic exercise on the short-term memory and sustained attention of female students aged 16 yr. (N = 81). The intervention involved serving of 250 ml of regular milk during school days and/or a 1-hr. aerobic exercise period twice per week for 6 weeks. The Digit Span Test and Digit Vigilance Test were used to measure short-term memory and sustained attention, respectively. The combination group (milk and exercise) and exercise group performed significantly better than did the milk and control groups in terms of short-term memory. No significant interaction or group differences were found for sustained attention. The results suggest benefits of regular exercise for students' short-term memory.

Short-term memory for event duration: modality specificity and goal dependency.

PubMed

Takahashi, Kohske; Watanabe, Katsumi

2012-11-01

Time perception is involved in various cognitive functions. This study investigated the characteristics of short-term memory for event duration by examining how the length of the retention period affects inter- and intramodal duration judgment. On each trial, a sample stimulus was followed by a comparison stimulus, after a variable delay period (0.5-5 s). The sample and comparison stimuli were presented in the visual or auditory modality. The participants determined whether the comparison stimulus was longer or shorter than the sample stimulus. The distortion pattern of subjective duration during the delay period depended on the sensory modality of the comparison stimulus but was not affected by that of the sample stimulus. When the comparison stimulus was visually presented, the retained duration of the sample stimulus was shortened as the delay period increased. Contrarily, when the comparison stimulus was presented in the auditory modality, the delay period had little to no effect on the retained duration. Furthermore, whenever the participants did not know the sensory modality of the comparison stimulus beforehand, the effect of the delay period disappeared. These results suggest that the memory process for event duration is specific to sensory modality and that its performance is determined depending on the sensory modality in which the retained duration will be used subsequently.

Short-term memory loss over time without retroactive stimulus interference.

PubMed

Cowan, Nelson; AuBuchon, Angela M

2008-02-01

A key question in cognitive psychology is whether information in short-term memory is lost as a function of time. Lewandowsky, Duncan, and Brown (2004) argued against that memory loss because forgetting in serial recall occurred to the same extent across serial positions regardless of the rate of recall. However, we believe Lewandowsky et al. (2004) only prevented one of two types of rehearsal; they did not prevent nonarticulatory rehearsal via attention. To prevent articulatory and nonarticulatory rehearsal without introducing interference, we presented unevenly timed stimuli for serial recall and, on some trials, required that the timing of stimuli be reproduced in the response. In those trials only, evidence of memory loss over time emerged. Further research is needed to identify whether this memory loss is decay or lost distinctiveness.

Verbal Rehearsal and Short-Term Memory in Reading-disabled Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Torgesen, Joseph; Goldman, Tina

1977-01-01

To determine whether the frequently found short-term memory deficits in poor readers reflect a lack of ability or inclination to use efficient task strategies, the performances of second-grade good and poor readers were compared on a task which allowed direct observation of the use of verbal rehearsal as a mnemonic strategy. (Author/JMB)

Limitless capacity: a dynamic object-oriented approach to short-term memory.

PubMed

Macken, Bill; Taylor, John; Jones, Dylan

2015-01-01

The notion of capacity-limited processing systems is a core element of cognitive accounts of limited and variable performance, enshrined within the short-term memory construct. We begin with a detailed critical analysis of the conceptual bases of this view and argue that there are fundamental problems - ones that go to the heart of cognitivism more generally - that render it untenable. In place of limited capacity systems, we propose a framework for explaining performance that focuses on the dynamic interplay of three aspects of any given setting: the particular task that must be accomplished, the nature and form of the material upon which the task must be performed, and the repertoire of skills and perceptual-motor functions possessed by the participant. We provide empirical examples of the applications of this framework in areas of performance typically accounted for by reference to capacity-limited short-term memory processes.

Conceptual short term memory in perception and thought.

PubMed

Potter, Mary C

2012-01-01

Conceptual short term memory (CSTM) is a theoretical construct that provides one answer to the question of how perceptual and conceptual processes are related. CSTM is a mental buffer and processor in which current perceptual stimuli and their associated concepts from long term memory (LTM) are represented briefly, allowing meaningful patterns or structures to be identified (Potter, 1993, 1999, 2009). CSTM is different from and complementary to other proposed forms of working memory: it is engaged extremely rapidly, has a large but ill-defined capacity, is largely unconscious, and is the basis for the unreflective understanding that is characteristic of everyday experience. The key idea behind CSTM is that most cognitive processing occurs without review or rehearsal of material in standard working memory and with little or no conscious reasoning. When one perceives a meaningful stimulus such as a word, picture, or object, it is rapidly identified at a conceptual level and in turn activates associated information from LTM. New links among concurrently active concepts are formed in CSTM, shaped by parsing mechanisms of language or grouping principles in scene perception and by higher-level knowledge and current goals. The resulting structure represents the gist of a picture or the meaning of a sentence, and it is this structure that we are conscious of and that can be maintained in standard working memory and consolidated into LTM. Momentarily activated information that is not incorporated into such structures either never becomes conscious or is rapidly forgotten. This whole cycle - identification of perceptual stimuli, memory recruitment, structuring, consolidation in LTM, and forgetting of non-structured material - may occur in less than 1 s when viewing a pictured scene or reading a sentence. The evidence for such a process is reviewed and its implications for the relation of perception and cognition are discussed.

Visuospatial and Verbal Short-Term Memory Correlates of Vocabulary Ability in Preschool Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stokes, Stephanie F.; Klee, Thomas; Kornisch, Myriam; Furlong, Lisa

2017-01-01

Background: Recent studies indicate that school-age children's patterns of performance on measures of verbal and visuospatial short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) differ across types of neurodevelopmental disorders. Because these disorders are often characterized by early language delay, administering STM and WM tests to toddlers could…

Decoding attended information in short-term memory: an EEG study.

PubMed

LaRocque, Joshua J; Lewis-Peacock, Jarrod A; Drysdale, Andrew T; Oberauer, Klaus; Postle, Bradley R

2013-01-01

For decades it has been assumed that sustained, elevated neural activity--the so-called active trace--is the neural correlate of the short-term retention of information. However, a recent fMRI study has suggested that this activity may be more related to attention than to retention. Specifically, a multivariate pattern analysis failed to find evidence that information that was outside the focus of attention, but nonetheless in STM, was retained in an active state. Here, we replicate and extend this finding by querying the neural signatures of attended versus unattended information within STM with electroencephalograpy (EEG), a method sensitive to oscillatory neural activity to which the previous fMRI study was insensitive. We demonstrate that in the delay-period EEG activity, there is information only about memory items that are also in the focus of attention. Information about items outside the focus of attention is not detectable. This result converges with the fMRI findings to suggest that, contrary to conventional wisdom, an active memory trace may be unnecessary for the short-term retention of information.

Visual short-term memory for oriented, colored objects.

PubMed

Shin, Hongsup; Ma, Wei Ji

2017-08-01

A central question in the study of visual short-term memory (VSTM) has been whether its basic units are objects or features. Most studies addressing this question have used change detection tasks in which the feature value before the change is highly discriminable from the feature value after the change. This approach assumes that memory noise is negligible, which recent work has shown not to be the case. Here, we investigate VSTM for orientation and color within a noisy-memory framework, using change localization with a variable magnitude of change. A specific consequence of the noise is that it is necessary to model the inference (decision) stage. We find that (a) orientation and color have independent pools of memory resource (consistent with classic results); (b) an irrelevant feature dimension is either encoded but ignored during decision-making, or encoded with low precision and taken into account during decision-making; and (c) total resource available in a given feature dimension is lower in the presence of task-relevant stimuli that are neutral in that feature dimension. We propose a framework in which feature resource comes both in packaged and in targeted form.

Low-Complexity Discriminative Feature Selection From EEG Before and After Short-Term Memory Task.

PubMed

Behzadfar, Neda; Firoozabadi, S Mohammad P; Badie, Kambiz

2016-10-01

A reliable and unobtrusive quantification of changes in cortical activity during short-term memory task can be used to evaluate the efficacy of interfaces and to provide real-time user-state information. In this article, we investigate changes in electroencephalogram signals in short-term memory with respect to the baseline activity. The electroencephalogram signals have been analyzed using 9 linear and nonlinear/dynamic measures. We applied statistical Wilcoxon examination and Davis-Bouldian criterion to select optimal discriminative features. The results show that among the features, the permutation entropy significantly increased in frontal lobe and the occipital second lower alpha band activity decreased during memory task. These 2 features reflect the same mental task; however, their correlation with memory task varies in different intervals. In conclusion, it is suggested that the combination of the 2 features would improve the performance of memory based neurofeedback systems. © EEG and Clinical Neuroscience Society (ECNS) 2016.

Divergent short- and long-term effects of acute stress in object recognition memory are mediated by endogenous opioid system activation.

PubMed

Nava-Mesa, Mauricio O; Lamprea, Marisol R; Múnera, Alejandro

2013-11-01

Acute stress induces short-term object recognition memory impairment and elicits endogenous opioid system activation. The aim of this study was thus to evaluate whether opiate system activation mediates the acute stress-induced object recognition memory changes. Adult male Wistar rats were trained in an object recognition task designed to test both short- and long-term memory. Subjects were randomly assigned to receive an intraperitoneal injection of saline, 1 mg/kg naltrexone or 3 mg/kg naltrexone, four and a half hours before the sample trial. Five minutes after the injection, half the subjects were submitted to movement restraint during four hours while the other half remained in their home cages. Non-stressed subjects receiving saline (control) performed adequately during the short-term memory test, while stressed subjects receiving saline displayed impaired performance. Naltrexone prevented such deleterious effect, in spite of the fact that it had no intrinsic effect on short-term object recognition memory. Stressed subjects receiving saline and non-stressed subjects receiving naltrexone performed adequately during the long-term memory test; however, control subjects as well as stressed subjects receiving a high dose of naltrexone performed poorly. Control subjects' dissociated performance during both memory tests suggests that the short-term memory test induced a retroactive interference effect mediated through light opioid system activation; such effect was prevented either by low dose naltrexone administration or by strongly activating the opioid system through acute stress. Both short-term memory retrieval impairment and long-term memory improvement observed in stressed subjects may have been mediated through strong opioid system activation, since they were prevented by high dose naltrexone administration. Therefore, the activation of the opioid system plays a dual modulating role in object recognition memory. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights

Orienting Attention within Visual Short-Term Memory: Development and Mechanisms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shimi, Andria; Nobre, Anna C.; Astle, Duncan; Scerif, Gaia

2014-01-01

How does developing attentional control operate within visual short-term memory (VSTM)? Seven-year-olds, 11-year-olds, and adults (total n = 205) were asked to report whether probe items were part of preceding visual arrays. In Experiment 1, central or peripheral cues oriented attention to the location of to-be-probed items either prior to…

Developmental Changes in Infants' Visual Short-Term Memory for Location

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oakes, Lisa M.; Hurley, Karinna B.; Ross-Sheehy, Shannon; Luck, Steven J.

2011-01-01

To examine the development of visual short-term memory (VSTM) for location, we presented 6- to 12-month-old infants (N = 199) with two side-by-side stimulus streams. In each stream, arrays of colored circles continually appeared, disappeared, and reappeared. In the "changing" stream, the location of one or more items changed in each cycle; in the…

Olfactory short-term memory encoding and maintenance - an event-related potential study.

PubMed

Lenk, Steffen; Bluschke, Annet; Beste, Christian; Iannilli, Emilia; Rößner, Veit; Hummel, Thomas; Bender, Stephan

2014-09-01

This study examined whether the memory encoding and short term maintenance of olfactory stimuli is associated with neurophysiological activation patterns which parallel those described for sensory modalities such as vision and auditory. We examined olfactory event-related potentials in an olfactory change detection task in twenty-four healthy adults and compared the measured activation to that found during passive olfactory stimulation. During the early olfactory post-processing phase, we found a sustained negativity over bilateral frontotemporal areas in the passive perception condition which was enhanced in the active memory task. There was no significant lateralization in either experimental condition. During the maintenance interval at the end of the delay period, we still found sustained activation over bilateral frontotemporal areas which was more negative in trials with correct - as compared to incorrect - behavioural responses. This was complemented by a general significantly stronger frontocentral activation. Summarizing, we were able to show that olfactory short term memory involves a parallel sequence of activation as found in other sensory modalities. In addition to olfactory-specific frontotemporal activations in the memory encoding phase, we found slow cortical potentials over frontocentral areas during the memory maintenance phase indicating the activation of a supramodal memory maintenance system. These findings could represent the neurophysiological underpinning of the 'olfactory flacon', the olfactory counter-part to the visual sketchpad and phonological loop embedded in Baddeley's working memory model. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The neural response in short-term visual recognition memory for perceptual conjunctions.

PubMed

Elliott, R; Dolan, R J

1998-01-01

Short-term visual memory has been widely studied in humans and animals using delayed matching paradigms. The present study used positron emission tomography (PET) to determine the neural substrates of delayed matching to sample for complex abstract patterns over a 5-s delay. More specifically, the study assessed any differential neural response associated with remembering individual perceptual properties (color only and shape only) compared to conjunction between these properties. Significant activations associated with short-term visual memory (all memory conditions compared to perceptuomotor control) were observed in extrastriate cortex, medial and lateral parietal cortex, anterior cingulate, inferior frontal gyrus, and the thalamus. Significant deactivations were observed throughout the temporal cortex. Although the requirement to remember color compared to shape was associated with subtly different patterns of blood flow, the requirement to remember perceptual conjunctions between these features was not associated with additional specific activations. These data suggest that visual memory over a delay of the order of 5 s is mainly dependent on posterior perceptual regions of the cortex, with the exact regions depending on the perceptual aspect of the stimuli to be remembered.

Selective impact of disease on short-term and long-term components of self-reported memory: a population-based HUNT study.

PubMed

Almkvist, Ove; Bosnes, Ole; Bosnes, Ingunn; Stordal, Eystein

2017-05-09

Subjective memory is commonly considered to be a unidimensional measure. However, theories of performance-based memory suggest that subjective memory could be divided into more than one dimension. To divide subjective memory into theoretically related components of memory and explore the relationship to disease. In this study, various aspects of self-reported memory were studied with respect to demographics and diseases in the third wave of the HUNT epidemiological study in middle Norway. The study included all individuals 55 years of age or older, who responded to a nine-item questionnaire on subjective memory and questionnaires on health (n=18 633). A principle component analysis of the memory items resulted in two memory components; the criterion used was an eigenvalue above 1, which accounted for 54% of the total variance. The components were interpreted as long-term memory (LTM; the first component; 43% of the total variance) and short-term memory (STM; the second component; 11% of the total variance). Memory impairment was significantly related to all diseases (except Bechterew's disease), most strongly to brain infarction, heart failure, diabetes, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and whiplash. For most diseases, the STM component was more affected than the LTM component; however, in cancer, the opposite pattern was seen. Subjective memory impairment as measured in HUNT contained two components, which were differentially associated with diseases. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Representations of temporal information in short-term memory: Are they modality-specific?

PubMed

Bratzke, Daniel; Quinn, Katrina R; Ulrich, Rolf; Bausenhart, Karin M

2016-10-01

Rattat and Picard (2012) reported that the coding of temporal information in short-term memory is modality-specific, that is, temporal information received via the visual (auditory) modality is stored as a visual (auditory) code. This conclusion was supported by modality-specific interference effects on visual and auditory duration discrimination, which were induced by secondary tasks (visual tracking or articulatory suppression), presented during a retention interval. The present study assessed the stability of these modality-specific interference effects. Our study did not replicate the selective interference pattern but rather indicated that articulatory suppression not only impairs short-term memory for auditory but also for visual durations. This result pattern supports a crossmodal or an abstract view of temporal encoding. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Verbal Short-Term Memory Span in Children: Long-Term Modality Dependent Effects of Intrauterine Growth Restriction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Geva, R.; Eshel, R.; Leitner, Y.; Fattal-Valevski, A.; Harel, S.

2008-01-01

Background: Recent reports showed that children born with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) are at greater risk of experiencing verbal short-term memory span (STM) deficits that may impede their learning capacities at school. It is still unknown whether these deficits are modality dependent. Methods: This long-term, prospective design study…

Spatial short-term memory is impaired in dependent betel quid chewers.

PubMed

Chiu, Meng-Chun; Shen, Bin; Li, Shuo-Heng; Ho, Ming-Chou

2016-08-01

Betel quid is regarded as a human carcinogen by the World Health Organization. It remains unknown whether chewing betel quid has a chronic effect on healthy betel quid chewers' memory. The present study aims to investigate whether chewing betel quid can affect short-term memory (STM). Three groups of participants (24 dependent chewers, 24 non-dependent chewers, and 24 non-chewers) were invited to carry out the matrix span task, the object span task, and the digit span task. All span tasks' results were adopted to assess spatial STM, visual STM, and verbal STM, respectively. Besides, there are three set sizes (small, medium, and large) in each span task. For the matrix span task, results showed that the dependent chewers had worse performances than the non-dependent chewers and the non-chewers at medium and large set sizes. For the object span task and digit span task, there were no differences in between groups. In each group, recognition performances were worse with the increasing set size and showing successful manipulation of memory load. The current study provided the first evidence that dependent betel quid chewing can selectively impair spatial STM rather than visual STM and verbal STM. Theoretical and practical implications of this result are discussed.

The role of central attention in retrieval from visual short-term memory.

PubMed

Magen, Hagit

2017-04-01

The role of central attention in visual short-term memory (VSTM) encoding and maintenance is well established, yet its role in retrieval has been largely unexplored. This study examined the involvement of central attention in retrieval from VSTM using a dual-task paradigm. Participants performed a color change-detection task. Set size varied between 1 and 3 items, and the memory sample was maintained for either a short or a long delay period. A secondary tone discrimination task was introduced at the end of the delay period, shortly before the appearance of a central probe, and occupied central attention while participants were searching within VSTM representations. Similarly to numerous previous studies, reaction time increased as a function of set size reflecting the occurrence of a capacity-limited memory search. When the color targets were maintained over a short delay, memory was searched for the most part without the involvement of central attention. However, with a longer delay period, the search relied entirely on the operation of central attention. Taken together, this study demonstrates that central attention is involved in retrieval from VSTM, but the extent of its involvement depends on the duration of the delay period. Future studies will determine whether the type of memory search (parallel or serial) carried out during retrieval depends on the nature of the attentional mechanism involved the task.

Experimental Effects of Acute Exercise on Iconic Memory, Short-Term Episodic, and Long-Term Episodic Memory.

PubMed

Yanes, Danielle; Loprinzi, Paul D

2018-06-11

The present experiment evaluated the effects of acute exercise on iconic memory and short- and long-term episodic memory. A two-arm, parallel-group randomized experiment was employed ( n = 20 per group; M age = 21 year). The experimental group engaged in an acute bout of moderate-intensity treadmill exercise for 15 min, while the control group engaged in a seated, time-matched computer task. Afterwards, the participants engaged in a paragraph-level episodic memory task (20 min delay and 24 h delay recall) as well as an iconic memory task, which involved 10 trials (at various speeds from 100 ms to 800 ms) of recalling letters from a 3 × 3 array matrix. For iconic memory, there was a significant main effect for time (F = 42.9, p < 0.001, η² p = 0.53) and a trend towards a group × time interaction (F = 2.90, p = 0.09, η² p = 0.07), but no main effect for group (F = 0.82, p = 0.37, η² p = 0.02). The experimental group had higher episodic memory scores at both the baseline (19.22 vs. 17.20) and follow-up (18.15 vs. 15.77), but these results were not statistically significant. These findings provide some suggestive evidence hinting towards an iconic memory and episodic benefit from acute exercise engagement.

Persistent spatial information in the frontal eye field during object-based short-term memory.

PubMed

Clark, Kelsey L; Noudoost, Behrad; Moore, Tirin

2012-08-08

Spatial attention is known to gate entry into visual short-term memory, and some evidence suggests that spatial signals may also play a role in binding features or protecting object representations during memory maintenance. To examine the persistence of spatial signals during object short-term memory, the activity of neurons in the frontal eye field (FEF) of macaque monkeys was recorded during an object-based delayed match-to-sample task. In this task, monkeys were trained to remember an object image over a brief delay, regardless of the locations of the sample or target presentation. FEF neurons exhibited visual, delay, and target period activity, including selectivity for sample location and target location. Delay period activity represented the sample location throughout the delay, despite the irrelevance of spatial information for successful task completion. Furthermore, neurons continued to encode sample position in a variant of the task in which the matching stimulus never appeared in their response field, confirming that FEF maintains sample location independent of subsequent behavioral relevance. FEF neurons also exhibited target-position-dependent anticipatory activity immediately before target onset, suggesting that monkeys predicted target position within blocks. These results show that FEF neurons maintain spatial information during short-term memory, even when that information is irrelevant for task performance.

Mouse model for deficiency of methionine synthase reductase exhibits short-term memory impairment and disturbances in brain choline metabolism.

PubMed

Jadavji, Nafisa M; Bahous, Renata H; Deng, Liyuan; Malysheva, Olga; Grand'maison, Marilyn; Bedell, Barry J; Caudill, Marie A; Rozen, Rima

2014-07-15

Hyperhomocysteinaemia can contribute to cognitive impairment and brain atrophy. MTRR (methionine synthase reductase) activates methionine synthase, which catalyses homocysteine remethylation to methionine. Severe MTRR deficiency results in homocystinuria with cognitive and motor impairments. An MTRR polymorphism may influence homocysteine levels and reproductive outcomes. The goal of the present study was to determine whether mild hyperhomocysteinaemia affects neurological function in a mouse model with Mtrr deficiency. Mtrr+/+, Mtrr+/gt and Mtrrgt/gt mice (3 months old) were assessed for short-term memory, brain volumes and hippocampal morphology. We also measured DNA methylation, apoptosis, neurogenesis, choline metabolites and expression of ChAT (choline acetyltransferase) and AChE (acetylcholinesterase) in the hippocampus. Mtrrgt/gt mice exhibited short-term memory impairment on two tasks. They had global DNA hypomethylation and decreased choline, betaine and acetylcholine levels. Expression of ChAT and AChE was increased and decreased respectively. At 3 weeks of age, they showed increased neurogenesis. In the cerebellum, mutant mice had DNA hypomethylation, decreased choline and increased expression of ChAT. Our work demonstrates that mild hyperhomocysteinaemia is associated with memory impairment. We propose a mechanism whereby a deficiency in methionine synthesis leads to hypomethylation and compensatory disturbances in choline metabolism in the hippocampus. This disturbance affects the levels of acetylcholine, a critical neurotransmitter in learning and memory.

Phonological Short-Term Memory, Working Memory and Foreign Language Performance in Intensive Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kormos, Judit; Safar, Anna

2008-01-01

In our research we addressed the question what the relationship is between phonological short-term and working memory capacity and performance in an end-of-year reading, writing, listening, speaking and use of English test. The participants of our study were 121 secondary school students aged 15-16 in the first intensive language training year of…

Memory integration in amnesia: Prior knowledge supports verbal short-term memory

PubMed Central

Race, Elizabeth; Palombo, Daniela J.; Cadden, Margaret; Burke, Keely; Verfaellie, Mieke

2015-01-01

Short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM) have traditionally been considered cognitively distinct. However, it is known that STM can improve when to-be-remembered information appears in contexts that make contact with prior knowledge, suggesting a more interactive relationship between STM and LTM. The current study investigated whether the ability to leverage LTM in support of STM critically depends on the integrity of the hippocampus. Specifically, we investigated whether the hippocampus differentially supports between-domain versus within-domain STM–LTM integration given prior evidence that the representational domain of the elements being integrated in memory is a critical determinant of whether memory performance depends on the hippocampus. In Experiment 1, we investigated hippocampal contributions to within-domain STM–LTM integration by testing whether immediate verbal recall of words improves in MTL amnesic patients when words are presented in familiar verbal contexts (meaningful sentences) compared to unfamiliar verbal contexts (random word lists). Patients demonstrated a robust sentence superiority effect, whereby verbal STM performance improved in familiar compared to unfamiliar verbal contexts, and the magnitude of this effect did not differ from that in controls. In Experiment 2, we investigated hippocampal contributions to between-domain STM–LTM integration by testing whether immediate verbal recall of digits improves in MTL amnesic patients when digits are presented in a familiar visuospatial context (a typical keypad layout) compared to an unfamiliar visuospatial context (a random keypad layout). Immediate verbal recall improved in both patients and controls when digits were presented in the familiar compared to the unfamiliar keypad array, indicating a preserved ability to integrate activated verbal information with stored visuospatial knowledge. Together, these results demonstrate that immediate verbal recall in amnesia can benefit

A neural theory of visual attention and short-term memory (NTVA).

PubMed

Bundesen, Claus; Habekost, Thomas; Kyllingsbæk, Søren

2011-05-01

The neural theory of visual attention and short-term memory (NTVA) proposed by Bundesen, Habekost, and Kyllingsbæk (2005) is reviewed. In NTVA, filtering (selection of objects) changes the number of cortical neurons in which an object is represented so that this number increases with the behavioural importance of the object. Another mechanism of selection, pigeonholing (selection of features), scales the level of activation in neurons coding for a particular feature. By these mechanisms, behaviourally important objects and features are likely to win the competition to become encoded into visual short-term memory (VSTM). The VSTM system is conceived as a feedback mechanism that sustains activity in the neurons that have won the attentional competition. NTVA accounts both for a wide range of attentional effects in human performance (reaction times and error rates) and a wide range of effects observed in firing rates of single cells in the primate visual system. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

How high is visual short-term memory capacity for object layout?

PubMed

Sanocki, Thomas; Sellers, Eric; Mittelstadt, Jeff; Sulman, Noah

2010-05-01

Previous research measuring visual short-term memory (VSTM) suggests that the capacity for representing the layout of objects is fairly high. In four experiments, we further explored the capacity of VSTM for layout of objects, using the change detection method. In Experiment 1, participants retained most of the elements in displays of 4 to 8 elements. In Experiments 2 and 3, with up to 20 elements, participants retained many of them, reaching a capacity of 13.4 stimulus elements. In Experiment 4, participants retained much of a complex naturalistic scene. In most cases, increasing display size caused only modest reductions in performance, consistent with the idea of configural, variable-resolution grouping. The results indicate that participants can retain a substantial amount of scene layout information (objects and locations) in short-term memory. We propose that this is a case of remote visual understanding, where observers' ability to integrate information from a scene is paramount.

Physical exercise prevents short and long-term deficits on aversive and recognition memory and attenuates brain oxidative damage induced by maternal deprivation.

PubMed

Neves, Ben-Hur; Menezes, Jefferson; Souza, Mauren Assis; Mello-Carpes, Pâmela B

2015-12-01

It is known from previous research that physical exercise prevents long-term memory deficits induced by maternal deprivation in rats. But we could not assume similar effects of physical exercise on short-term memory, as short- and long-term memories are known to result from some different memory consolidation processes. Here we demonstrated that, in addition to long-term memory deficit, the short-term memory deficit resultant from maternal deprivation in object recognition and aversive memory tasks is also prevented by physical exercise. Additionally, one of the mechanisms by which the physical exercise influences the memory processes involves its effects attenuating the oxidative damage in the maternal deprived rats' hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.

Examining the Effect of Interference on Short-Term Memory Recall of Arabic Abstract and Concrete Words Using Free, Cued, and Serial Recall Paradigms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alduais, Ahmed Mohammed Saleh; Almukhaizeem, Yasir Saad

2015-01-01

Purpose: To see if there is a correlation between interference and short-term memory recall and to examine interference as a factor affecting memory recalling of Arabic and abstract words through free, cued, and serial recall tasks. Method: Four groups of undergraduates in King Saud University, Saudi Arabia participated in this study. The first…

An Approach toward the Development of a Functional Encoding Model of Short Term Memory during Reading.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herndon, Mary Anne

1978-01-01

In a model of the functioning of short term memory, the encoding of information for subsequent storage in long term memory is simulated. In the encoding process, semantically equivalent paragraphs are detected for recombination into a macro information unit. (HOD)

Treadmill exercise alleviates short-term memory impairment in 6-hydroxydopamine-induced Parkinson's rats.

PubMed

Cho, Han-Sam; Shin, Mal-Soon; Song, Wook; Jun, Tae-Won; Lim, Baek-Vin; Kim, Young-Pyo; Kim, Chang-Ju

2013-01-01

Progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in substantia nigra is a key pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. In the present study, we investigated the effects of treadmill exercise on short-term memory, apoptotic dopaminergic neuronal cell death and fiber loss in the nigrostriatum, and cell proliferation in the hippocampal dentate gyrus of Parkinson's rats. Parkinson's rats were made by injection of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) into the striatum using stereotaxic instrument. Four weeks after 6-OHDA injection, the rats in the 6-OHDA-injection group exhibited significant rotational asymmetry following apomorphine challenge. The rats in the exercise groups were put on the treadmill to run for 30 min once a day for 14 consecutive days starting 4 weeks after 6-OHDA injection. In the present results, extensive degeneration of the dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra with loss of dopaminergic fibers in the striatum were produced in the rats without treadmill running, which resulted in short-term memory impairment. However, the rats performing treadmill running for 2 weeks alleviated nigrostriatal dopaminergic cell loss and alleviated short-term memory impairment with increasing cell proliferation in the hippocampal dentate gyrus of Parkinson's rats. The present results show that treadmill exercise may provide therapeutic value for the Parkinson's disease.

ERP C250 shows the elderly (cognitively normal, Alzheimer's disease) store more stimuli in short-term memory than Young Adults do.

PubMed

Chapman, Robert M; Gardner, Margaret N; Mapstone, Mark; Klorman, Rafael; Porsteinsson, Anton P; Dupree, Haley M; Antonsdottir, Inga M; Kamalyan, Lily

2016-06-01

To determine how aging and dementia affect the brain's initial storing of task-relevant and irrelevant information in short-term memory. We used brain Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) to measure short-term memory storage (ERP component C250) in 36 Young Adults, 36 Normal Elderly, and 36 early-stage AD subjects. Participants performed the Number-Letter task, a cognitive paradigm requiring memory storage of a first relevant stimulus to compare it with a second stimulus. In Young Adults, C250 was more positive for the first task-relevant stimulus compared to all other stimuli. C250 in Normal Elderly and AD subjects was roughly the same to relevant and irrelevant stimuli in Intratrial Parts 1-3 but not 4. The AD group had lower C250 to relevant stimuli in part 1. Both normal aging and dementia cause less differentiation of relevant from irrelevant information in initial storage. There was a large aging effect involving differences in the pattern of C250 responses of the Young Adult versus the Normal Elderly/AD groups. Also, a potential dementia effect was obtained. C250 is a candidate tool for measuring short-term memory performance on a biological level, as well as a potential marker for memory changes due to normal aging and dementia. Copyright © 2016 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Modulation of working memory updating: Does long-term memory lexical association matter?

PubMed

Artuso, Caterina; Palladino, Paola

2016-02-01

The aim of the present study was to investigate how working memory updating for verbal material is modulated by enduring properties of long-term memory. Two coexisting perspectives that account for the relation between long-term representation and short-term performance were addressed. First, evidence suggests that performance is more closely linked to lexical properties, that is, co-occurrences within the language. Conversely, other evidence suggests that performance is linked more to long-term representations which do not entail lexical/linguistic representations. Our aim was to investigate how these two kinds of long-term memory associations (i.e., lexical or nonlexical) modulate ongoing working memory activity. Therefore, we manipulated (between participants) the strength of the association in letters based on either frequency of co-occurrences (lexical) or contiguity along the sequence of the alphabet (nonlexical). Results showed a cost in working memory updating for strongly lexically associated stimuli only. Our findings advance knowledge of how lexical long-term memory associations between consonants affect working memory updating and, in turn, contribute to the study of factors which impact the updating process across memory systems.

Medial temporal lobe contributions to short-term memory for faces

PubMed Central

Race, Elizabeth; LaRocque, Karen F.; Keane, Margaret M.; Verfaellie, Mieke

2015-01-01

The role of the medial temporal lobes (MTL) in short-term memory (STM) remains a matter of debate. While imaging studies commonly show hippocampal activation during short-delay memory tasks, evidence from amnesic patients with MTL lesions is mixed. It has been argued that apparent STM impairments in amnesia may reflect long-term memory (LTM) contributions to performance. We challenge this conclusion by demonstrating that MTL amnesic patients show impaired delayed matching-to-sample (DMS) for faces in a task that meets both a traditional delay-based and a recently proposed distractor-based criterion for classification as a STM task. In Experiment 1, we demonstrate that our face DMS task meets the proposed distractor-based criterion for STM classification, in that extensive processing of delay-period distractor stimuli disrupts performance of healthy individuals. In Experiment 2, MTL amnesic patients with lesions extending into anterior subhippocampal cortex, but not patients with lesions limited to the hippocampus, show impaired performance on this task without distraction at delays as short as 8s, within temporal range of delay-based STM classification, in the context of intact perceptual matching performance. Experiment 3 provides support for the hypothesis that STM for faces relies on configural processing by showing that the extent to which healthy participants’ performance is disrupted by interference depends on the configural demands of the distractor task. Together, these findings are consistent with the notion that the amnesic impairment in STM for faces reflects a deficit in configural processing associated with subhippocampal cortices and provide novel evidence that the MTL supports cognition beyond the LTM domain. PMID:23937185

Medial temporal lobe contributions to short-term memory for faces.

PubMed

Race, Elizabeth; LaRocque, Karen F; Keane, Margaret M; Verfaellie, Mieke

2013-11-01

The role of the medial temporal lobes (MTL) in short-term memory (STM) remains a matter of debate. Whereas imaging studies commonly show hippocampal activation during short-delay memory tasks, evidence from amnesic patients with MTL lesions is mixed. It has been argued that apparent STM impairments in amnesia may reflect long-term memory (LTM) contributions to performance. We challenge this conclusion by demonstrating that MTL amnesic patients show impaired delayed matching-to-sample (DMS) for faces in a task that meets both a traditional delay-based and a recently proposed distractor-based criterion for classification as an STM task. In Experiment 1, we demonstrate that our face DMS task meets the proposed distractor-based criterion for STM classification, in that extensive processing of delay-period distractor stimuli disrupts performance of healthy individuals. In Experiment 2, MTL amnesic patients with lesions extending into anterior subhippocampal cortex, but not patients with lesions limited to the hippocampus, show impaired performance on this task without distraction at delays as short as 8 s, within temporal range of delay-based STM classification, in the context of intact perceptual matching performance. Experiment 3 provides support for the hypothesis that STM for faces relies on configural processing by showing that the extent to which healthy participants' performance is disrupted by interference depends on the configural demands of the distractor task. Together, these findings are consistent with the notion that the amnesic impairment in STM for faces reflects a deficit in configural processing associated with subhippocampal cortices and provide novel evidence that the MTL supports cognition beyond the LTM domain. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Color relations increase the capacity of visual short-term memory.

PubMed

Sanocki, Thomas; Sulman, Noah

2011-01-01

Do color relations such as similarity or harmony influence the ease with which colored patterns can be perceived and held in mind? We tested the influence of a relation supported in research on color harmony--similarity of hue--on the capacity of visual short-term memory (VSTM) for colors in patterns. Palettes of 4 similar-hue colors were rated as more pleasant (harmonious) than dissimilar-color palettes. The palettes were used in a VSTM color task. Patterns of 9 to 15 colored squares were presented, and accuracy of color change detection was measured. Memory performance was higher overall for similar-color palettes than for dissimilar-color palettes (experiments 1 and 3). Is this due to color similarity per se, or due to the harmony between colors in similar palettes? A final experiment provided strong support for the importance of color similarity as opposed to harmony. Overall, the advantages for color similarity, in terms of number of color squares held in memory (memory capacity) were 26% to 45% over dissimilar colors. The results indicate that color relations can have a strong impact on the capacity for perceiving and retaining color patterns.

Variation in Parasympathetic Dysregulation Moderates Short-term Memory Problems in Childhood Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

PubMed

Ward, Anthony R; Alarcón, Gabriela; Nigg, Joel T; Musser, Erica D

2015-11-01

Although attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with impairment in working memory and short-term memory, up to half of individual children with ADHD perform within a normative range. Heterogeneity in other ADHD-related mechanisms, which may compensate for or combine with cognitive weaknesses, is a likely explanation. One candidate is the robustness of parasympathetic regulation (as indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia; RSA). Theory and data suggest that a common neural network is likely tied to both heart-rate regulation and certain cognitive functions (including aspects of working and short-term memory). Cardiac-derived indices of parasympathetic reactivity were collected during short-term memory (STM) storage and rehearsal tasks from 243 children (116 ADHD, 127 controls). ADHD was associated with lower STM performance, replicating previous work. In addition, RSA reactivity moderated the association between STM and ADHD - both as a category and a dimension - independent of comorbidity. Specifically, conditional effects revealed that high levels of withdrawal interacted with weakened STM but high levels of augmentation moderated a positive association predicting ADHD. Thus, variations in parasympathetic reactivity may help explain neuropsychological heterogeneity in ADHD.

Differences in short-term memory span of social sciences, science and engineering, and business majors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khan, Naeem Ullah

This study investigated the difference in the short-term memory span of students of three major groups, namely Social Sciences, Science and Engineering, and Business. This study was designed to answer the following two questions: (1) Is there a difference between short-term memory span, measured by digit span, among the students in or intended for Social Sciences, Science and Engineering, and Business majors? (2) Is there a difference of short-term memory span, measured by word span, among students in or intended for Social Sciences, Science and Engineering, and Business majors? For answering these two questions, inferential and descriptive statistics were used. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the means of the scores of digit span and word span among the three major groups. The means of digit span and word span among the three groups were compared to find out if a statistically significant difference existed among them or not. The observations were recorded at the level of significance at alpha = .05, and highly significant at alpha = .01. The answer to the first question is yes. The results of this study showed a statistically significant difference in the means of the digit span of the three major groups of students in or intended for Social Sciences, Science and Engineering, and Business. The mean scaled score for digit span was 12.88 for Social Sciences, 14.27 for Science and Engineering, and 15.33 for Business majors, respectively. The means of the free recalls word span of the three groups was 7.23 for Social Sciences, 7.89 for Science and Engineering, and 7.12 for Business majors, respectively. No significant difference was observed in the means of the word span of the three groups. In general observations, it is noted that students want to stay in the subjects or majors in which they can perform well or feel comfortable. In addition to this, students are screened in the school system due to levels of performance or selection pressure

Monkeys Rely on Recency of Stimulus Repetition When Solving Short-Term Memory Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wittig, John H., Jr.; Richmond, Barry J.

2014-01-01

Seven monkeys performed variants of two short-term memory tasks that others have used to differentiate between selective and nonselective memory mechanisms. The first task was to view a list of sequentially presented images and identify whether a test matched any image from the list, but not a distractor from a preceding list. Performance was best…

The strengths and weaknesses in verbal short-term memory and visual working memory in children with hearing impairment and additional language learning difficulties.

PubMed

Willis, Suzi; Goldbart, Juliet; Stansfield, Jois

2014-07-01

To compare verbal short-term memory and visual working memory abilities of six children with congenital hearing-impairment identified as having significant language learning difficulties with normative data from typically hearing children using standardized memory assessments. Six children with hearing loss aged 8-15 years were assessed on measures of verbal short-term memory (Non-word and word recall) and visual working memory annually over a two year period. All children had cognitive abilities within normal limits and used spoken language as the primary mode of communication. The language assessment scores at the beginning of the study revealed that all six participants exhibited delays of two years or more on standardized assessments of receptive and expressive vocabulary and spoken language. The children with hearing-impairment scores were significantly higher on the non-word recall task than the "real" word recall task. They also exhibited significantly higher scores on visual working memory than those of the age-matched sample from the standardized memory assessment. Each of the six participants in this study displayed the same pattern of strengths and weaknesses in verbal short-term memory and visual working memory despite their very different chronological ages. The children's poor ability to recall single syllable words in relation to non-words is a clinical indicator of their difficulties in verbal short-term memory. However, the children with hearing-impairment do not display generalized processing difficulties and indeed demonstrate strengths in visual working memory. The poor ability to recall words, in combination with difficulties with early word learning may be indicators of children with hearing-impairment who will struggle to develop spoken language equal to that of their normally hearing peers. This early identification has the potential to allow for target specific intervention that may remediate their difficulties. Copyright © 2014. Published

Specific deficit of colour-colour short-term memory binding in sporadic and familial Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Parra, Mario A; Sala, Sergio Della; Abrahams, Sharon; Logie, Robert H; Méndez, Luis Guillermo; Lopera, Francisco

2011-06-01

Short-term memory binding of visual features which are processed across different dimensions (shape-colour) is impaired in sporadic Alzheimer's disease, familial Alzheimer's disease, and in asymptomatic carriers of familial Alzheimer's disease. This study investigated whether Alzheimer's disease also impacts on within-dimension binding processes. The study specifically explored whether visual short-term memory binding of features of the same type (colour-colour) is sensitive to Alzheimer's disease. We used a neuropsychological battery and a short-term memory binding task to assess patients with sporadic Alzheimer's disease (Experiment 1), familial Alzheimer's disease (Experiment 2) due to the mutation E280A of the Presenilin-1 gene and asymptomatic carriers of the mutation. The binding task assessed change detection within arrays of unicoloured objects (Colour Only) or bicoloured objects the colours of which had to be remembered separately (Unbound Colours) or together (Bound Colours). Performance on the Bound Colours condition (1) explained the largest proportion of variance between patients (sporadic and familial Alzheimer's disease), (2) combined more sensitivity and specificity for the disease than other more traditional neuropsychological tasks, (3) identified asymptomatic carriers of the mutation even when traditional neuropsychological measures and other measures of short-term memory did not and, (4) contrary to shape-colour binding, correlated with measures of hippocampal functions. Colour-colour binding and shape-colour binding both appear to be sensitive to AD even though they seem to rely on different brain mechanisms. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Visual short-term memory for high resolution associations is impaired in patients with medial temporal lobe damage.

PubMed