Examination of verbal memory and recall time in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

PubMed

Kourakis, Iosif E; Katachanakis, Constantinos N; Vlahonikolis, Ioannis G; Paritsis, Nicolaos K

2004-01-01

In this study 22 7- to 11-year-old children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 44 age-matched controls recruited from the same classrooms were given a 4-item delayed serial recall task using numbers or phrases. Although both groups showed similar recall accuracy rates, ADHD children required significantly longer times to retrieve and articulate their answers than children from the control group, regardless of age. The findings are discussed in relation to theories of executive function deficits in ADHD.

Dissociation of verbal working memory system components using a delayed serial recall task.

PubMed

Chein, J M; Fiez, J A

2001-11-01

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate the neural substrates of component processes in verbal working memory. Based on behavioral research using manipulations of verbal stimulus type to dissociate storage, rehearsal, and executive components of verbal working memory, we designed a delayed serial recall task requiring subjects to encode, maintain, and overtly recall sets of verbal items for which phonological similarity, articulatory length, and lexical status were manipulated. By using a task with temporally extended trials, we were able to exploit the temporal resolution afforded by fMRI to partially isolate neural contributions to encoding, maintenance, and retrieval stages of task performance. Several regions commonly associated with maintenance, including supplementary motor, premotor, and inferior frontal areas, were found to be active across all three trial stages. Additionally, we found that left inferior frontal and supplementary motor regions showed patterns of stimulus and temporal sensitivity implicating them in distinct aspects of articulatory rehearsal, while no regions showed a pattern of sensitivity consistent with a role in phonological storage. Regional modulation by task difficulty was further investigated as a measure of executive processing. We interpret our findings as they relate to notions about the cognitive architecture underlying verbal working memory performance.

Effects of donepezil on verbal memory after semantic processing in healthy older adults.

PubMed

FitzGerald, David B; Crucian, Gregory P; Mielke, Jeannine B; Shenal, Brian V; Burks, David; Womack, Kyle B; Ghacibeh, Georges; Drago, Valeria; Foster, Paul S; Valenstein, Edward; Heilman, Kenneth M

2008-06-01

To learn if acetylcholinesterase inhibitors alter verbal recall by improving semantic encoding in a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial. Cholinergic supplementation has been shown to improve delayed recall in adults with Alzheimer disease. With functional magnetic resonance imaging, elderly adults, when compared with younger participants, have reduced cortical activation with semantic processing. There have been no studies investigating the effects of cholinergic supplementation on semantic encoding in healthy elderly adults. Twenty elderly participants (mean age 71.5, SD+/-5.2) were recruited. All underwent memory testing before and after receiving donepezil (5 mg, n=11 or 10 mg, n=1) or placebo (n=8) for 6 weeks. Memory was tested using a Levels of Processing task, where a series of words are presented serially. Subjects were either asked to count consonants in a word (superficially process) or decide if the word was "pleasant" or "unpleasant" (semantically process). After 6 weeks of donepezil or placebo treatment, immediate and delayed recall of superficially and semantically processed words was compared with baseline performance. Immediate and delayed recall of superficially processed words did not show significant changes in either treatment group. With semantic processing, both immediate and delayed recall performance improved in the donepezil group. Our results suggest that when using semantic encoding, older normal subjects may be aided by anticholinesterase treatment. However, this treatment does not improve recall of superficially encoded words.

Examining the relationship between free recall and immediate serial recall: the serial nature of recall and the effect of test expectancy.

PubMed

Bhatarah, Parveen; Ward, Geoff; Tan, Lydia

2008-01-01

In two experiments, we examined the relationship between free recall and immediate serial recall (ISR), using a within-subjects (Experiment 1) and a between-subjects (Experiment 2) design. In both experiments, participants read aloud lists of eight words and were precued or postcued to respond using free recall or ISR. The serial position curves were U-shaped for free recall and showed extended primacy effects with little or no recency for ISR, and there was little or no difference between recall for the precued and the postcued conditions. Critically, analyses of the output order showed that although the participants started their recall from different list positions in the two tasks, the degree to which subsequent recall was serial in a forward order was strikingly similar. We argue that recalling in a serial forward order is a general characteristic of memory and that performance on ISR and free recall is underpinned by common memory mechanisms.

Modality independence of order coding in working memory: Evidence from cross-modal order interference at recall.

PubMed

Vandierendonck, André

2016-01-01

Working memory researchers do not agree on whether order in serial recall is encoded by dedicated modality-specific systems or by a more general modality-independent system. Although previous research supports the existence of autonomous modality-specific systems, it has been shown that serial recognition memory is prone to cross-modal order interference by concurrent tasks. The present study used a serial recall task, which was performed in a single-task condition and in a dual-task condition with an embedded memory task in the retention interval. The modality of the serial task was either verbal or visuospatial, and the embedded tasks were in the other modality and required either serial or item recall. Care was taken to avoid modality overlaps during presentation and recall. In Experiment 1, visuospatial but not verbal serial recall was more impaired when the embedded task was an order than when it was an item task. Using a more difficult verbal serial recall task, verbal serial recall was also more impaired by another order recall task in Experiment 2. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis of modality-independent order coding. The implications for views on short-term recall and the multicomponent view of working memory are discussed.

Association of physical fitness and fatness with cognitive function in women with fibromyalgia.

PubMed

Soriano-Maldonado, Alberto; Artero, Enrique G; Segura-Jiménez, Víctor; Aparicio, Virgina A; Estévez-López, Fernando; Álvarez-Gallardo, Inmaculada C; Munguía-Izquierdo, Diego; Casimiro-Andújar, Antonio J; Delgado-Fernández, Manuel; Ortega, Francisco B

2016-09-01

This study assessed the association of fitness and fatness with cognitive function in women with fibromyalgia, and the independent influence of their single components on cognitive tasks. A total of 468 women with fibromyalgia were included. Speed of information processing and working memory (Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task), as well as immediate and delayed recall, verbal learning and delayed recognition (Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test) were assessed. Aerobic fitness, muscle strength, flexibility and motor agility were assessed with the Senior Fitness Test battery. Body mass index, percent body fat, fat-mass index and waist circumference were measured. Aerobic fitness was associated with attention and working memory (all, p < 0.05). All fitness components were generally associated with delayed recall, verbal learning and delayed recognition (all, p < 0.05). Aerobic fitness showed the most powerful association with attention, working memory, delayed recall and verbal learning, while motor agility was the most powerful indicator of delayed recognition. None of the fatness parameters were associated with any of the outcomes (all, p > 0.05). Our results suggest that fitness, but not fatness, is associated with cognitive function in women with fibromyalgia. Aerobic fitness appears to be the most powerful fitness component regarding the cognitive tasks evaluated.

Articulatory rehearsal is more than refreshing memory traces.

PubMed

Nishiyama, Ryoji; Ukita, Jun

2013-01-01

This study examined whether additional articulatory rehearsal induced temporary durability of phonological representations, using a 10-s delayed nonword free recall task. Three experiments demonstrated that cumulative rehearsal between the offset of the last study item and the start of the filled delay (Experiments 1 and 3) and a fixed rehearsal of the immediate item during the subsequent interstimulus interval (Experiments 2 and 3) improved free recall performance. These results suggest that an additional rehearsal helps to stabilize phonological representations for a short period. Furthermore, the analyses of serial position curves suggested that the frequency of the articulation affected the durability of the phonological representation. The significance of these findings as clues of the mechanism maintaining verbal information (i.e., verbal working memory) is discussed.

Nonverbal Short-Term Serial Order Memory in Autism Spectrum Disorder

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

To clarify the role of item and order memory in the serial recall of adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we carried out 2 experiments in which adults with ASD and comparison participants matched on chronological age and verbal IQ saw sequences of 7 dots appear sequentially in a 3 × 4 grid. In Experiment 1 (serial recall), they had to recall the locations and the presentation order of the dots by tapping locations on an empty grid. In Experiment 2, (order reconstruction) the studied dots were provided at test and participants had to touch them in their order of appearance at study. Experiment 1 revealed diminished item and order recall in the ASD group; Experiment 2 revealed diminished order recall only when verbal IQ was controlled. The results support the view that people with ASD have particular difficulty with serial order recall but may use their language ability to achieve better serial recall performance. PMID:27732024

The Functional Determinants of Short-Term Memory: Evidence from Perceptual-Motor Interference in Verbal Serial Recall

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hughes, Robert W.; Marsh, John E.

2017-01-01

A functional, perceptual-motor, account of serial short-term memory (STM) is examined by investigating the way in which an irrelevant spoken sequence interferes with verbal serial recall. Even with visual list-presentation, verbal serial recall is particularly susceptible to disruption by irrelevant spoken stimuli that have the same identity…

How Children Choose among Serial Recall Strategies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGilly, Kate; Siegler, Robert S.

1989-01-01

Investigated the serial recall strategies of 96 children aged 5-8 years by applying a theoretical and methodological approach originally developed to investigate preschoolers' arithmetic strategies. Results indicated the use of multiple approaches for serial recall and adaptive strategy choices. (RJC)

Background instrumental music and serial recall.

PubMed

Nittono, H

1997-06-01

Although speech and vocal music are consistently shown to impair serial recall for visually presented items, instrumental music does not always produce a significant disruption. This study investigated the features of instrumental music that would modulate the disruption in serial recall. 24 students were presented sequences of nine digits and required to recall the digits in order of presentation. Instrumental music as played either forward or backward during the task. Forward music caused significantly more disruption than did silence, whereas the reversed music did not. Some higher-order factor may be at work in the effect of background music on serial recall.

Rehearsal in serial recall: An unworkable solution to the nonexistent problem of decay.

PubMed

Lewandowsky, Stephan; Oberauer, Klaus

2015-10-01

We examine the explanatory roles that have been ascribed to various forms of rehearsal or refreshing in short-term memory (STM) and working memory paradigms, usually in conjunction with the assumption that memories decay over time if they are not rehearsed. Notwithstanding the popularity of the rehearsal notion, there have been few detailed examinations of its underlying mechanisms. We explicitly implemented rehearsal in a decay model and explored its role by simulation in several benchmark paradigms ranging from immediate serial recall to complex span and delayed recall. The results show that articulatory forms of rehearsal often fail to counteract temporal decay. Rapid attentional refreshing performs considerably better, but so far there is scant empirical evidence that people engage in refreshing during STM tasks. Combining articulatory rehearsal and refreshing as 2 independent maintenance processes running in parallel leads to worse performance than refreshing alone. We conclude that theoretical reliance on articulatory rehearsal as a causative agent in memory may be unwise and that explanatory appeals to rehearsal are insufficient unless buttressed by quantitative modeling. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Nonverbal short-term serial order memory in autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

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

2016-10-01

To clarify the role of item and order memory in the serial recall of adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we carried out 2 experiments in which adults with ASD and comparison participants matched on chronological age and verbal IQ saw sequences of 7 dots appear sequentially in a 3 × 4 grid. In Experiment 1 (serial recall), they had to recall the locations and the presentation order of the dots by tapping locations on an empty grid. In Experiment 2, (order reconstruction) the studied dots were provided at test and participants had to touch them in their order of appearance at study. Experiment 1 revealed diminished item and order recall in the ASD group; Experiment 2 revealed diminished order recall only when verbal IQ was controlled. The results support the view that people with ASD have particular difficulty with serial order recall but may use their language ability to achieve better serial recall performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Common Modality Effects in Immediate Free Recall and Immediate Serial Recall

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grenfell-Essam, Rachel; Ward, Geoff; Tan, Lydia

2017-01-01

In 2 experiments, participants were presented with lists of between 2 and 12 words for either immediate free recall (IFR) or immediate serial recall (ISR). Auditory recall advantages at the end of the list (modality effects) and visual recall advantages early in the list (inverse modality effects) were observed in both tasks and the extent and…

Serial-position effects on a free-recall task in bilinguals.

PubMed

Yoo, Jeewon; Kaushanskaya, Margarita

2016-01-01

In this study, we examined mechanisms that underlie free-recall performance in bilinguals' first language (L1) and second language (L2) through the prism of serial-position effects. On free-recall tasks, a typical pattern of performance follows a U-shaped serial-position curve, where items from the beginning of the list (the primacy effect) and items from the end of the list (the recency effect) are recalled with higher accuracy than items from the middle of the list. The present study contrasted serial-position effects on the free-recall task in Korean-English bilinguals' L1 vs. L2 and examined the relationship between an independent working memory (WM) measure and serial-position effects in bilinguals' two languages. Results revealed stronger pre-recency (primacy and middle) effects in L1 than in L2, but similar recency effects in the two languages. A close association was observed between WM and recall performance in the pre-recency region in the L1 but not in the L2. Together, these findings suggest that linguistic knowledge constrains free-recall performance in bilinguals, but only in the pre-recency region.

Eye movements and serial memory for visual-spatial information: does time spent fixating contribute to recall?

PubMed

Saint-Aubin, Jean; Tremblay, Sébastien; Jalbert, Annie

2007-01-01

This research investigated the nature of encoding and its contribution to serial recall for visual-spatial information. In order to do so, we examined the relationship between fixation duration and recall performance. Using the dot task--a series of seven dots spatially distributed on a monitor screen is presented sequentially for immediate recall--performance and eye-tracking data were recorded during the presentation of the to-be-remembered items. When participants were free to move their eyes at their will, both fixation durations and probability of correct recall decreased as a function of serial position. Furthermore, imposing constant durations of fixation across all serial positions had a beneficial impact (though relatively small) on item but not order recall. Great care was taken to isolate the effect of fixation duration from that of presentation duration. Although eye movement at encoding contributes to immediate memory, it is not decisive in shaping serial recall performance. Our results also provide further evidence that the distinction between item and order information, well-established in the verbal domain, extends to visual-spatial information.

Repetition Learning in the Immediate Serial Recall of Visual and Auditory Materials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Page, Mike P. A.; Cumming, Nick; Norris, Dennis; Hitch, Graham J.; McNeil, Alan M.

2006-01-01

In 5 experiments, a Hebb repetition effect, that is, improved immediate serial recall of an (unannounced) repeating list, was demonstrated in the immediate serial recall of visual materials, even when use of phonological short-term memory was blocked by concurrent articulation. The learning of a repeatedly presented letter list in one modality…

Semantic contribution to verbal short-term memory: are pleasant words easier to remember than neutral words in serial recall and serial recognition?

PubMed

Monnier, Catherine; Syssau, Arielle

2008-01-01

In the four experiments reported here, we examined the role of word pleasantness on immediate serial recall and immediate serial recognition. In Experiment 1, we compared verbal serial recall of pleasant and neutral words, using a limited set of items. In Experiment 2, we replicated Experiment 1 with an open set of words (i.e., new items were used on every trial). In Experiments 3 and 4, we assessed immediate serial recognition of pleasant and neutral words, using item sets from Experiments 1 and 2. Pleasantness was found to have a facilitation effect on both immediate serial recall and immediate serial recognition. This study supplies some new supporting arguments in favor of a semantic contribution to verbal short-term memory performance. The pleasantness effect observed in immediate serial recognition showed that, contrary to a number of earlier findings, performance on this task can also turn out to be dependent on semantic factors. The results are discussed in relation to nonlinguistic and psycholinguistic models of short-term memory.

Examining the relationship between free recall and immediate serial recall: the effects of list length and output order.

PubMed

Ward, Geoff; Tan, Lydia; Grenfell-Essam, Rachel

2010-09-01

In 4 experiments, participants were presented with lists of between 1 and 15 words for tests of immediate memory. For all tasks, participants tended to initiate recall with the first word on the list for short lists. As the list length was increased, so there was a decreased tendency to start with the first list item; and, when free to do so, participants showed an increased tendency to start with one of the last 4 list items. In all tasks, the start position strongly influenced the shape of the resultant serial position curves: When recall started at Serial Position 1, elevated recall of early list items was observed; when recall started toward the end of the list, there were extended recency effects. These results occurred under immediate free recall (IFR) and different variants of immediate serial recall (ISR) and reconstruction of order (RoO) tasks. We argue that these findings have implications for the relationship between IFR and ISR and between rehearsal and recall. (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Reactivation in Working Memory: An Attractor Network Model of Free Recall

PubMed Central

Lansner, Anders; Marklund, Petter; Sikström, Sverker; Nilsson, Lars-Göran

2013-01-01

The dynamic nature of human working memory, the general-purpose system for processing continuous input, while keeping no longer externally available information active in the background, is well captured in immediate free recall of supraspan word-lists. Free recall tasks produce several benchmark memory phenomena, like the U-shaped serial position curve, reflecting enhanced memory for early and late list items. To account for empirical data, including primacy and recency as well as contiguity effects, we propose here a neurobiologically based neural network model that unifies short- and long-term forms of memory and challenges both the standard view of working memory as persistent activity and dual-store accounts of free recall. Rapidly expressed and volatile synaptic plasticity, modulated intrinsic excitability, and spike-frequency adaptation are suggested as key cellular mechanisms underlying working memory encoding, reactivation and recall. Recent findings on the synaptic and molecular mechanisms behind early LTP and on spiking activity during delayed-match-to-sample tasks support this view. PMID:24023690

Reactivation in working memory: an attractor network model of free recall.

PubMed

Lansner, Anders; Marklund, Petter; Sikström, Sverker; Nilsson, Lars-Göran

2013-01-01

The dynamic nature of human working memory, the general-purpose system for processing continuous input, while keeping no longer externally available information active in the background, is well captured in immediate free recall of supraspan word-lists. Free recall tasks produce several benchmark memory phenomena, like the U-shaped serial position curve, reflecting enhanced memory for early and late list items. To account for empirical data, including primacy and recency as well as contiguity effects, we propose here a neurobiologically based neural network model that unifies short- and long-term forms of memory and challenges both the standard view of working memory as persistent activity and dual-store accounts of free recall. Rapidly expressed and volatile synaptic plasticity, modulated intrinsic excitability, and spike-frequency adaptation are suggested as key cellular mechanisms underlying working memory encoding, reactivation and recall. Recent findings on the synaptic and molecular mechanisms behind early LTP and on spiking activity during delayed-match-to-sample tasks support this view.

Can the effects of temporal grouping explain the similarities and differences between free recall and serial recall?

PubMed

Spurgeon, Jessica; Ward, Geoff; Matthews, William J; Farrell, Simon

2015-04-01

Temporal grouping can provide a principled explanation for changes in the serial position curves and output orders that occur with increasing list length in immediate free recall (IFR) and immediate serial recall (ISR). To test these claims, we examined the effects of temporal grouping on the order of recall in IFR and ISR of lists of between one and 12 words. Consistent with prior research, there were significant effects of temporal grouping in the ISR task with mid-length lists using serial recall scoring, and no overall grouping advantage in the IFR task with longer list lengths using free recall scoring. In all conditions, there was a general tendency to initiate recall with either the first list item or with one of the last four items, and then to recall in a forward serial order. In the grouped IFR conditions, when participants started with one of the last four words, there were particularly heightened tendencies to initiate recall with the first item of the most recent group. Moreover, there was an increased degree of forward-ordered transitions within groups than across groups in IFR. These findings are broadly consistent with Farrell's model, in which lists of items in immediate memory are parsed into distinct groups and participants initiate recall with the first item of a chosen cluster, but also highlight shortcomings of that model. The data support the claim that grouping may offer an important element in the theoretical integration of IFR and ISR.

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.

Examining the Relationship between Free Recall and Immediate Serial Recall: The Effect of Concurrent Task Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bhatarah, Parveen; Ward, Geoff; Tan, Lydia

2006-01-01

In 3 experiments, participants saw lists of 16 words for free recall with or without a 6-digit immediate serial recall (ISR) task after each word. Free recall was performed under standard visual silent and spoken-aloud conditions (Experiment 1), overt rehearsal conditions (Experiment 2), and fixed rehearsal conditions (Experiment 3). The authors…

Serial-Position Effects on a Free-Recall Task in Bilinguals

PubMed Central

Yoo, Jeewon; Kaushanskaya, Margarita

2015-01-01

In this study, we examined mechanisms that underlie free-recall performance in bilinguals’ first language (L1) and second language (L2) through the prism of serial-position effects. On free-recall tasks, a typical pattern of performance follows a U-shaped serial-position curve, where items from the beginning of the list (the primacy effect) and items from the end of the list (the recency effect) are recalled with higher accuracy than items from the middle of the list. The present study contrasted serial-position effects on the free-recall task in Korean-English bilinguals’ L1 vs. L2 and examined the relationship between an independent working memory (WM) measure and serial-position effects in bilinguals’ two languages. Results revealed stronger pre-recency (primacy and middle) effects in L1 than in L2, but similar recency effects in the two languages. A close association was observed between WM and recall performance in the pre-recency region in the L1 but not in the L2. Together, these findings suggest that linguistic knowledge constrains free-recall performance in bilinguals, but only in the pre-recency region. PMID:25730660

The dynamics of access to groups in working memory.

PubMed

Farrell, Simon; Lelièvre, Anna

2012-11-01

The finding that participants leave a pause between groups when attempting serial recall of temporally grouped lists has been taken to indicate access to a hierarchical representation of the list in working memory. An alternative explanation is that the dynamics of serial recall solely reflect output (rather than memorial) processes, with the temporal pattern at input merely suggesting a basis for the pattern of output buffering. Three experiments are presented here that disentangle input structure from output buffering in serial recall. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to recall a subset of visually presented digits from a temporally grouped list in their original order, where either within-group position or group position was kept constant. In Experiment 2, participants performed more standard serial recall of spoken digits, and input and output position were dissociated by asking participants to initiate recall from a post-cued position in the list. In Experiment 3, participants were asked to serially recall temporally grouped lists of visually presented digits where the grouping structure was unpredictable, under either articulatory suppression or silent conditions. The 3 experiments point to a tight linkage between implied memorial structures (i.e., the pattern of grouping at encoding) and the output structure implied by retrieval times and call into question a purely motoric account of the dynamics of recall.

Examining the Relationship between Free Recall and Immediate Serial Recall: The Role of List Length, Strategy Use, and Test Expectancy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grenfell-Essam, Rachel; Ward, Geoff

2012-01-01

Recent findings suggest that the immediate free recall (IFR) of short lists is similar to immediate serial recall (ISR). These findings were obtained using a methodology in which participants did not know the list length in advance of each list, and this uncertainty may have encouraged participants to adopt atypical recall strategies. Therefore,…

Serial Recall, Word Frequency, and Mixed Lists: The Influence of Item Arrangement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Leonie M.; Roodenrys, Steven

2012-01-01

Studies of the effect of word frequency in the serial recall task show that lists of high-frequency words are better recalled than lists of low-frequency words; however, when high- and low-frequency words are alternated within a list, there is no difference in the level of recall for the two types of words, and recall is intermediate between lists…

Memory as a hologram: an analysis of learning and recall.

PubMed

Franklin, Donald R J; Mewhort, D J K

2015-03-01

We present a holographic theory of human memory. According to the theory, a subject's vocabulary resides in a dynamic distributed representation-a hologram. Studying or recalling a word alters both the existing representation of that word in the hologram and all words associated with it. Recall is always prompted by a recall cue (either a start instruction or the word just recalled). Order of report is a joint function of the item and associative information residing in the hologram at the time the report is made. We apply the model to archival data involving simple free recall, learning in multitrial free recall, simple serial recall, and learning in multitrial serial recall. The model captures accuracy and order of report in both free and serial recall. It also captures learning and subjective organisation in multitrial free recall. We offer the model as an alternative to the short- and long-term account of memory postulated in the modal model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

When Does Between-Sequence Phonological Similarity Promote Irrelevant Sound Disruption?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marsh, John E.; Vachon, Francois; Jones, Dylan M.

2008-01-01

Typically, the phonological similarity between to-be-recalled items and TBI auditory stimuli has no impact if recall in serial order is required. However, in the present study, the authors have shown that the free recall, but not serial recall, of lists of phonologically related to-be-remembered items was disrupted by an irrelevant sound stream…

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…

Executive dysfunction affects word list recall performance: Evidence from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases.

PubMed

Consonni, Monica; Rossi, Stefania; Cerami, Chiara; Marcone, Alessandra; Iannaccone, Sandro; Francesco Cappa, Stefano; Perani, Daniela

2017-03-01

The Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) is widely used in clinical practice to evaluate verbal episodic memory. While there is evidence that RAVLT performance can be influenced by executive dysfunction, the way executive disorders affect the serial position curve (SPC) has not been yet explored. To this aim, we analysed immediate and delayed recall performances of 13 non-demented amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients with a specific mild executive dysfunction (ALSci) and compared their performances to those of 48 healthy controls (HC) and 13 cognitively normal patients with ALS. Moreover, to control for the impact of a severe dysexecutive syndrome and a genuine episodic memory deficit on the SPC, we enrolled 15 patients with a diagnosis of behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and 18 patients with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD). Results documented that, compared to cognitively normal subjects, ALSci patients had a selective mid-list impairment for immediate recall scores. The bvFTD group obtained low performances with a selectively increased forgetting rate for terminal items, whereas the AD group showed a disproportionately large memory loss on the primary and middle part of the SPC for immediate recall scores and were severely impaired in the delayed recall trial. These results suggested that subtle executive dysfunctions might influence the recall of mid-list items, possibly reflecting deficiency in control strategies at retrieval of word lists, whereas severer dysexecutive syndrome might also affect the recall of terminal items possibly due to attention deficit or retroactive interference. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

Rehearsal in immediate serial recall.

PubMed

Tan, Lydia; Ward, Geoff

2008-06-01

We report for the first time overt rehearsal data in immediate serial recall (ISR) undertaken at three presentation rates (1, 2.5, and 5 sec/word). Two groups of participants saw lists of six words for ISR and were required either to engage in overt rehearsal or to remain silent after reading aloud the word list during its presentation. Typical ISR serial position effects were obtained for both groups, and recall increased with slower rates. When participants rehearsed, they tended to do so in a cumulative forward order up to Serial Position 4, after which the amount of rehearsal decreased substantially. There were similarities between rehearsal and recall data: Both broke down toward the end of longer sequences, and there were strong positive correlations between the maximum sequence of participants' rehearsals and their ISR performance. We interpret these data as suggesting that similar mechanisms underpin both rehearsal and recall in ISR.

Effects of language dominance on item and order memory in free recall, serial recall and order reconstruction.

PubMed

Francis, Wendy S; Baca, Yuzeth

2014-01-01

Spanish-English bilinguals (N = 144) performed free recall, serial recall and order reconstruction tasks in both English and Spanish. Long-term memory for both item and order information was worse in the less fluent language (L2) than in the more fluent language (L1). Item scores exhibited a stronger disadvantage for the L2 in serial recall than in free recall. Relative order scores were lower in the L2 for all three tasks, but adjusted scores for free and serial recall were equivalent across languages. Performance of English-speaking monolinguals (N = 72) was comparable to bilingual performance in the L1, except that monolinguals had higher adjusted order scores in free recall. Bilingual performance patterns in the L2 were consistent with the established effects of concurrent task performance on these memory tests, suggesting that the cognitive resources required for processing words in the L2 encroach on resources needed to commit item and order information to memory. These findings are also consistent with a model in which item memory is connected to the language system, order information is processed by separate mechanisms and attention can be allocated differentially to these two systems.

Serial position effects are sensitive predictors of conversion from MCI to Alzheimer's disease dementia.

PubMed

Egli, Simone C; Beck, Irene R; Berres, Manfred; Foldi, Nancy S; Monsch, Andreas U; Sollberger, Marc

2014-10-01

It is unclear whether the predictive strength of established cognitive variables for progression to Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) varies depending on time to conversion. We investigated which cognitive variables were best predictors, and which of these variables remained predictive for patients with longer times to conversion. Seventy-five participants with MCI were assessed on measures of learning, memory, language, and executive function. Relative predictive strengths of these measures were analyzed using Cox regression models. Measures of word-list position-namely, serial position scores-together with Short Delay Free Recall of word-list learning best predicted conversion to AD dementia. However, only serial position scores predicted those participants with longer time to conversion. Results emphasize that the predictive strength of cognitive variables varies depending on time to conversion to dementia. Moreover, finer measures of learning captured by serial position scores were the most sensitive predictors of AD dementia. Copyright © 2014 The Alzheimer's Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Forgetting in Immediate Serial Recall: Decay, Temporal Distinctiveness, or Interference?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oberauer, Klaus; Lewandowsky, Stephan

2008-01-01

Three hypotheses of forgetting from immediate memory were tested: time-based decay, decreasing temporal distinctiveness, and interference. The hypotheses were represented by 3 models of serial recall: the primacy model, the SIMPLE (scale-independent memory, perception, and learning) model, and the SOB (serial order in a box) model, respectively.…

Examining the Relationship between Immediate Serial Recall and Immediate Free Recall: Common Effects of Phonological Loop Variables but Only Limited Evidence for the Phonological Loop

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spurgeon, Jessica; Ward, Geoff; Matthews, William J.

2014-01-01

We examined the contribution of the phonological loop to immediate free recall (IFR) and immediate serial recall (ISR) of lists of between one and 15 words. Following Baddeley (1986, 2000, 2007, 2012), we assumed that visual words could be recoded into the phonological store when presented silently but that recoding would be prevented by…

Examining the relationship between immediate serial recall and immediate free recall: common effects of phonological loop variables but only limited evidence for the phonological loop.

PubMed

Spurgeon, Jessica; Ward, Geoff; Matthews, William J

2014-07-01

We examined the contribution of the phonological loop to immediate free recall (IFR) and immediate serial recall (ISR) of lists of between one and 15 words. Following Baddeley (1986, 2000, 2007, 2012), we assumed that visual words could be recoded into the phonological store when presented silently but that recoding would be prevented by concurrent articulation (CA; Experiment 1). We further assumed that the use of the phonological loop would be evidenced by greater serial recall for lists of phonologically dissimilar words relative to lists of phonologically similar words (Experiments 2A and 2B). We found that in both tasks, (a) CA reduced recall; (b) participants recalled short lists from the start of the list, leading to enhanced forward-ordered recall; (c) participants were increasingly likely to recall longer lists from the end of the list, leading to extended recency effects; (d) there were significant phonological similarity effects in ISR and IFR when both were analyzed using serial recall scoring; (e) these were reduced by free recall scoring and eliminated by CA; and (f) CA but not phonological similarity affected the tendency to initiate recall with the first list item. We conclude that similar mechanisms underpin ISR and IFR. Critically, the phonological loop is not strictly necessary for the forward-ordered recall of short lists on both tasks but may augment recall by increasing the accessibility of the list items (relative to CA), and in so doing, the order of later items is preserved better in phonologically dissimilar than in phonologically similar lists. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Visual and Phonological Similarity Effects in Verbal Immediate Serial Recall: A Test with Kanji Materials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saito, Satoru; Logie, Robert H.; Morita, Aiko; Law, Anna

2008-01-01

In a series of three experiments, native speakers of Japanese performed serial ordered written recall of visually presented Japanese kanji characters that varied systematically in visual and phonological similarity. Overall effects of phonological similarity were observed for retention of serial order under silent reading in Experiments 1 and 3…

Fine motor movements while drawing during the encoding phase of a serial verbal recall task reduce working memory performance.

PubMed

Tindle, Richard; Longstaff, Mitchell G

2016-02-01

The time-based resource-sharing (TBRS) model of working memory indicates that secondary tasks that capture attention for relatively long periods can result in the interference of working memory processing and maintenance. The current study investigates if discrete and continuous movements have differing effects on a concurrent, verbal serial recall task. In the listening condition, participants were asked to recall spoken words presented in lists of six. In the drawing conditions, participants performed the same task while producing discrete (star) or continuous (circle) movements. As hypothesised, participants recalled more words overall in the listening condition compared to the combined drawing conditions. The prediction that the continuous movement condition would reduce recall compared to listening was also supported. Fine-grained analysis at each serial position revealed significantly more words were recalled at mid serial positions in the listening condition, with worst recall for the continuous condition at position 5 compared to the listening and discrete conditions. Kinematic analysis showed that participants increased the size and speed of the continuous movements resulting in a similar duration and number of strokes for each condition. The duration of brief pauses in the discrete condition was associated with the number of words recalled. The results indicate that fine motor movements reduced working memory performance; however, it was not merely performing a movement but the type of the movement that determined how resources were diverted. In the context of the TBRS, continuous movements could be capturing attention for longer periods relative to discrete movements, reducing verbal serial recall. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Short-Term Memory Stages in Sign vs. Speech: The Source of the Serial Span Discrepancy

PubMed Central

Hall, Matthew L.

2011-01-01

Speakers generally outperform signers when asked to recall a list of unrelated verbal items. This phenomenon is well established, but its source has remained unclear. In this study, we evaluate the relative contribution of the three main processing stages of short-term memory – perception, encoding, and recall – in this effect. The present study factorially manipulates whether American Sign Language (ASL) or English was used for perception, memory encoding, and recall in hearing ASL-English bilinguals. Results indicate that using ASL during both perception and encoding contributes to the serial span discrepancy. Interestingly, performing recall in ASL slightly increased span, ruling out the view that signing is in general a poor choice for short-term memory. These results suggest that despite the general equivalence of sign and speech in other memory domains, speech-based representations are better suited for the specific task of perception and memory encoding of a series of unrelated verbal items in serial order through the phonological loop. This work suggests that interpretation of performance on serial recall tasks in English may not translate straightforwardly to serial tasks in sign language. PMID:21450284

Representation of Item Position in Immediate Serial Recall: Evidence from Intrusion Errors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fischer-Baum, Simon; McCloskey, Michael

2015-01-01

In immediate serial recall, participants are asked to recall novel sequences of items in the correct order. Theories of the representations and processes required for this task differ in how order information is maintained; some have argued that order is represented through item-to-item associations, while others have argued that each item is…

Three more semantic serial position functions and a SIMPLE explanation.

PubMed

Kelley, Matthew R; Neath, Ian; Surprenant, Aimée M

2013-05-01

There are innumerable demonstrations of serial position functions-with characteristic primacy and recency effects-in episodic tasks, but there are only a handful of such demonstrations in semantic memory tasks, and those demonstrations have used only two types of stimuli. Here, we provide three more examples of serial position functions when recalling from semantic memory. Participants were asked to reconstruct the order of (1) two cartoon theme song lyrics, (2) the seven Harry Potter books, and (3) two sets of movies, and all three demonstrations yielded conventional-looking serial position functions with primacy and recency effects. The data were well-fit by SIMPLE, a local distinctiveness model of memory that was originally designed to account for serial position effects in short- and long-term episodic memory. According to SIMPLE, serial position functions in both episodic and semantic memory tasks arise from the same type of processing: Items that are more separated from their close neighbors in psychological space at the time of recall will be better remembered. We argue that currently available evidence suggests that serial position functions observed when recalling items that are presumably in semantic memory arise because of the same processes as those observed when recalling items that are presumably in episodic memory.

The death of recency: Relationship between end-state comfort and serial position effects in serial recall: Logan and Fischman (2011) revisited.

PubMed

Logan, Samuel W; Fischman, Mark G

2015-12-01

Two experiments examined the dynamic interaction between cognitive resources in short-term memory and bimanual object manipulation by extending recent research by Logan and Fischman (2011). In Experiment 1, 16 participants completed a bimanual end-state comfort task and a memory task requiring serial recall of 12 words or pictures. The end-state comfort task involved moving two glasses between two shelves. Participants viewed the items, performed the end-state comfort task, and then serially recalled the items. Recall was evaluated by the presence or absence of primacy and recency effects. The end-state comfort effect (ESCE) was assessed by the percentage of initial hand positions that allowed the hands to end comfortably. The main findings indicated that the ESCE was disrupted; the primacy effect remained intact; and the recency effect disappeared regardless of the type of memory item recalled. In Experiment 2, 16 participants viewed six items, performed an end-state comfort task, viewed another six items, and then serially recalled all 12 items. Results were essentially the same as in Experiment 1. Findings suggest that executing a bimanual end-state comfort task, regardless of when it is completed during a memory task, diminishes the recency effect irrespective of the type of memory item. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Effect of Rate of Presentation on Digit Serial Recall in Reading Retarded Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gan, Jennifer; Tymchuk, Alexander J.

This study examined the effect of presentation rate on accuracy of digit serial recall and on serial position curves of digit strings of different lengths with 18 boys classified as reading retarded and a comparison group of children (ages for both groups averaged 11 years) who read at grade level. The results indicated that normal children…

Is scanning in probed order recall articulatory?

PubMed

Farrell, Simon; Lelièvre, Anna

2009-09-01

We consider how theories of serial recall might apply to other short-term memory tasks involving recall of order. In particular, we consider the possibility that when participants are cued to recall an item at an arbitrary position in a sequence, they covertly serially recall the list up to the cued position. One question is whether such "scanning" is articulatory in nature. Two experiments are presented in which the syllabic length of words preceding and following target positions were manipulated, to test the prediction of an articulatory-based mechanism that time to recall an item at a particular position will depend on the number of preceding long words. Although latency was dependent on target position, no word length effects on latency were observed. Additionally, the effects of word length on accuracy replicate recent demonstrations in serial recall that recall accuracy is dependent on the word length of all list items, not just that of target items, in line with distinctiveness assumptions. It is concluded that if scanning does occur, it is not carried out by covert or overt articulation.

Retroactive Effects of Irrelevant Speech on Serial Recall From Short-Term Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norris, Dennis; Baddeley, Alan D.; Page, Michael P. A.

2004-01-01

The authors report 5 serial-recall experiments. In 4 of the 5 experiments, they show that irrelevant sound (IS) has a retroactive effect on material already in memory. In Experiment 1, IS presented during a filled retention interval had a reliable effect on list recall. Four further experiments, 3 of which used retroactive IS, showed that IS…

Sequential dependencies in recall of sequences: filling in the blanks.

PubMed

Farrell, Simon; Hurlstone, Mark J; Lewandowsky, Stephan

2013-08-01

Sequential dependencies can provide valuable information about the processes supporting memory, particularly memory for serial order. Earlier analyses have suggested that anticipation errors-reporting items ahead of their correct position in the sequence-tend to be followed by recall of the displaced item, consistent with primacy gradient models of serial recall. However, a more recent analysis instead suggests that anticipation errors are followed by further anticipation errors, consistent with chaining models. We report analyses of 21 conditions from published serial recall data sets, in which we observed a systematic pattern whereby anticipations tended to be followed by the "filling in" of displaced items. We note that cases where a different pattern held tended to apply to recall of longer lists under serial learning conditions or to conditions where participants were free to skip over items. Although the different patterns that can be observed might imply a dissociation (e.g., between short- and long-term memory), we show that these different patterns are naturally predicted by Farrell's (Psychological Review 119:223-271, 2012) model of short-term and episodic memory and relate to whether or not spontaneously formed groups of items can be skipped over during recall.

Lexicality and phonological similarity: a challenge for the retrieval-based account of serial recall?

PubMed

Fallon, Anthony B; Mak, Eva; Tehan, Gerald; Daly, Charmaine

2005-01-01

The retrieval-based account of serial recall (Saint-Aubin & Poirier, 2000) attributes lexicality, phonological similarity, and articulatory suppression effects to a process where long-term representations are used to reconstruct degraded phonological traces. Two experiments tested this assumption by manipulating these factors in the recall of four- and five-item lists of words and non-words. Lexicality enhanced item recall (IR), but only affected position accuracy (PA) for five-item lists under suppression. Phonological similarity influenced both words and non-words, and produced impaired PA in silent and suppressed conditions. Consistent with the retrieval-based account, words and non-words of high word-likeness appear subject to redintegration. However, some findings, like suppression not reducing the phonological similarity impairment in suppressed conditions, present challenges for the retrieval-based account and other models of serial recall.

Recency and suffix effects in serial recall of musical stimuli.

PubMed

Greene, R L; Samuel, A G

1986-10-01

Auditory presentation of verbal items leads to larger recency effects in recall than visual presentation. This enhanced recency can be eliminated if a stimulus suffix (an irrelevant sound) follows the last item. Four experiments tested the hypothesis that recency and suffix effects in serial recall result from a speech-specific process. It was demonstrated that serial recall of musical notes played on a piano exhibited substantial recency effects. These recency effects were reduced when the list items were followed by either a piano chord or the word start. However, a white-noise suffix had no effect on recency. This pattern of data is consistent with current work on auditory perception and places constraints on theories of recency and suffix effects.

Issues with the SIMPLE Model: Comment on Brown, Neath, and Chater (2007)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murdock, Bennet

2008-01-01

Comments on the article A temporal ratio model of memory by Brown, Neath, and Chater. SIMPLE (G. D. A. Brown, I. Neath, & N. Chater, 2007) attempts to explain data from serial recall and free recall in the same theoretical framework. While it can fit the free-recall serial-position curves that are the cornerstone of the 2-store buffer model, it…

Redintegration and the Benefits of Long-Term Knowledge in Verbal Short-Term Memory: An Evaluation of Schweickert's (1993) Multinomial Processing Tree Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thorn, Annabel S. C.; Gathercole, Susan E.; Frankish, Clive R.

2005-01-01

The impact of four long-term knowledge variables on serial recall accuracy was investigated. Serial recall was tested for high and low frequency words and high and low phonotactic frequency nonwords in 2 groups: monolingual English speakers and French-English bilinguals. For both groups the recall advantage for words over nonwords reflected more…

Effect of parental family history of Alzheimer's disease on serial position profiles.

PubMed

La Rue, Asenath; Hermann, Bruce; Jones, Jana E; Johnson, Sterling; Asthana, Sanjay; Sager, Mark A

2008-07-01

An exaggerated recency effect (ie, disproportionate recall of last-presented items) has been consistently observed in the word list learning of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Our study sought to determine whether there were similar alterations in serial position learning among asymptomatic persons at risk for AD as a result of parental family history. Subjects included 623 asymptomatic middle-aged children of patients with AD (median, 53 years) and 157 control participants whose parents survived to at least age 70 without AD or other memory disorders. All participants were administered the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, which requires learning and recall of 15 unrelated nouns. There was no significant difference in total words recalled between the AD children and control groups. However, compared with controls, AD children exhibited a significantly greater tendency to recall words from the end (recency) versus beginning (primacy) of the list. Serial position effects were unrelated to apolipoprotein allele epsilon 4 or depressive symptoms. Asymptomatic persons at risk for AD by virtue of family history do not show a difference in total words recalled compared with controls, but they exhibit a distinctly different serial position curve, suggesting greater reliance on immediate as opposed to episodic memory. This is the same serial position pattern observed in mild AD, seen here in reduced severity. Longitudinal follow-up is planned to determine whether changes in serial position patterns are a meaningful marker for preclinical detection of AD.

Monkey prefrontal neurons during Sternberg task performance: full contents of working memory or most recent item?

PubMed

Konecky, R O; Smith, M A; Olson, C R

2017-06-01

To explore the brain mechanisms underlying multi-item working memory, we monitored the activity of neurons in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex while macaque monkeys performed spatial and chromatic versions of a Sternberg working-memory task. Each trial required holding three sequentially presented samples in working memory so as to identify a subsequent probe matching one of them. The monkeys were able to recall all three samples at levels well above chance, exhibiting modest load and recency effects. Prefrontal neurons signaled the identity of each sample during the delay period immediately following its presentation. However, as each new sample was presented, the representation of antecedent samples became weak and shifted to an anomalous code. A linear classifier operating on the basis of population activity during the final delay period was able to perform at approximately the level of the monkeys on trials requiring recall of the third sample but showed a falloff in performance on trials requiring recall of the first or second sample much steeper than observed in the monkeys. We conclude that delay-period activity in the prefrontal cortex robustly represented only the most recent item. The monkeys apparently based performance of this classic working-memory task on some storage mechanism in addition to the prefrontal delay-period firing rate. Possibilities include delay-period activity in areas outside the prefrontal cortex and changes within the prefrontal cortex not manifest at the level of the firing rate. NEW & NOTEWORTHY It has long been thought that items held in working memory are encoded by delay-period activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Here we describe evidence contrary to that view. In monkeys performing a serial multi-item working memory task, dorsolateral prefrontal neurons encode almost exclusively the identity of the sample presented most recently. Information about earlier samples must be encoded outside the prefrontal cortex or represented within the prefrontal cortex in a cryptic code. Copyright © 2017 the American Physiological Society.

Phonological Similarity in Serial Recall: Constraints on Theories of Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewandowsky, Stephan; Farrell, Simon

2008-01-01

In short-term serial recall, similar-sounding items are remembered more poorly than items that do not sound alike. When lists mix similar and dissimilar items, performance on the dissimilar items is of considerable theoretical interest. Farrell and Lewandowsky [Farrell, S., & Lewandowsky, S. (2003). Dissimilar items benefit from phonological…

Auditory Word Serial Recall Benefits from Orthographic Dissimilarity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pattamadilok, Chotiga; Lafontaine, Helene; Morais, Jose; Kolinsky, Regine

2010-01-01

The influence of orthographic knowledge has been consistently observed in speech recognition and metaphonological tasks. The present study provides data suggesting that such influence also pervades other cognitive domains related to language abilities, such as verbal working memory. Using serial recall of auditory seven-word lists, we observed…

Serial recall of colors: Two models of memory for serial order applied to continuous visual stimuli.

PubMed

Peteranderl, Sonja; Oberauer, Klaus

2018-01-01

This study investigated the effects of serial position and temporal distinctiveness on serial recall of simple visual stimuli. Participants observed lists of five colors presented at varying, unpredictably ordered interitem intervals, and their task was to reproduce the colors in their order of presentation by selecting colors on a continuous-response scale. To control for the possibility of verbal labeling, articulatory suppression was required in one of two experimental sessions. The predictions were derived through simulation from two computational models of serial recall: SIMPLE represents the class of temporal-distinctiveness models, whereas SOB-CS represents event-based models. According to temporal-distinctiveness models, items that are temporally isolated within a list are recalled more accurately than items that are temporally crowded. In contrast, event-based models assume that the time intervals between items do not affect recall performance per se, although free time following an item can improve memory for that item because of extended time for the encoding. The experimental and the simulated data were fit to an interference measurement model to measure the tendency to confuse items with other items nearby on the list-the locality constraint-in people as well as in the models. The continuous-reproduction performance showed a pronounced primacy effect with no recency, as well as some evidence for transpositions obeying the locality constraint. Though not entirely conclusive, this evidence favors event-based models over a role for temporal distinctiveness. There was also a strong detrimental effect of articulatory suppression, suggesting that verbal codes can be used to support serial-order memory of simple visual stimuli.

Examining the relationship between free recall and immediate serial recall: Similar patterns of rehearsal and similar effects of word length, presentation rate, and articulatory suppression.

PubMed

Bhatarah, Parveen; Ward, Geoff; Smith, Jessica; Hayes, Louise

2009-07-01

In five experiments, rehearsal and recall phenomena were examined using the free recall and immediate serial recall (ISR) tasks. In Experiment 1, participants were presented with lists of eight words, were precued or postcued to respond using free recall or ISR, and rehearsed out loud during presentation. The patterns of rehearsal were similar in all the conditions, and there was little difference between recall in the precued and postcued conditions. In Experiment 2, both free recall and ISR were sensitive to word length and presentation rate and showed similar patterns of rehearsal. In Experiment 3, both tasks were sensitive to word length and articulatory suppression. The word length effects generalized to 6-item (Experiment 4) and 12-item (Experiment 5) lists. These findings suggest that the two tasks are underpinned by highly similar rehearsal and recall processes.

Postcategorical auditory distraction in short-term memory: Insights from increased task load and task type.

PubMed

Marsh, John E; Yang, Jingqi; Qualter, Pamela; Richardson, Cassandra; Perham, Nick; Vachon, François; Hughes, Robert W

2018-06-01

Task-irrelevant speech impairs short-term serial recall appreciably. On the interference-by-process account, the processing of physical (i.e., precategorical) changes in speech yields order cues that conflict with the serial-ordering process deployed to perform the serial recall task. In this view, the postcategorical properties (e.g., phonology, meaning) of speech play no role. The present study reassessed the implications of recent demonstrations of auditory postcategorical distraction in serial recall that have been taken as support for an alternative, attentional-diversion, account of the irrelevant speech effect. Focusing on the disruptive effect of emotionally valent compared with neutral words on serial recall, we show that the distracter-valence effect is eliminated under conditions-high task-encoding load-thought to shield against attentional diversion whereas the general effect of speech (neutral words compared with quiet) remains unaffected (Experiment 1). Furthermore, the distracter-valence effect generalizes to a task that does not require the processing of serial order-the missing-item task-whereas the effect of speech per se is attenuated in this task (Experiment 2). We conclude that postcategorical auditory distraction phenomena in serial short-term memory (STM) are incidental: they are observable in such a setting but, unlike the acoustically driven irrelevant speech effect, are not integral to it. As such, the findings support a duplex-mechanism account over a unitary view of auditory distraction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

The dynamics of free recall and their relation to rehearsal between 8 and 10 years of age.

PubMed

Lehmann, Martin; Hasselhorn, Marcus

2010-01-01

The present study longitudinally examined changes in recall in children between the ages of 8 and 10 years. Given the increasingly sophisticated use of memory strategies during this developmental period, correspondences between study and recall dynamics were of particular interest. Seventy-six children performed free-recall tasks on 5 occasions over a 2-year period. Video and audio analyses revealed that children tended to recall items successively from nearby serial positions. This so-called lag-recency effect was particularly pronounced when items from nearby serial positions were conjunctly rehearsed during study. Implications for understanding study-recall correspondences are discussed in relation to other developmental changes of this period including memory capacity.

Serial reconstruction of order and serial recall in verbal short-term memory.

PubMed

Quinlan, Philip T; Roodenrys, Steven; Miller, Leonie M

2017-10-01

We carried out a series of experiments on verbal short-term memory for lists of words. In the first experiment, participants were tested via immediate serial recall, and word frequency and list set size were manipulated. With closed lists, the same set of items was repeatedly sampled, and with open lists, no item was presented more than once. In serial recall, effects of word frequency and set size were found. When a serial reconstruction-of-order task was used, in a second experiment, robust effects of word frequency emerged, but set size failed to show an effect. The effects of word frequency in order reconstruction were further examined in two final experiments. The data from these experiments revealed that the effects of word frequency are robust and apparently are not exclusively indicative of output processes. In light of these findings, we propose a multiple-mechanisms account in which word frequency can influence both retrieval and preretrieval processes.

Amnesia, rehearsal, and temporal distinctiveness models of recall.

PubMed

Brown, Gordon D A; Della Sala, Sergio; Foster, Jonathan K; Vousden, Janet I

2007-04-01

Classical amnesia involves selective memory impairment for temporally distant items in free recall (impaired primacy) together with relative preservation of memory for recency items. This abnormal serial position curve is traditionally taken as evidence for a distinction between different memory processes, with amnesia being associated with selectively impaired long-term memory. However recent accounts of normal serial position curves have emphasized the importance of rehearsal processes in giving rise to primacy effects and have suggested that a single temporal distinctiveness mechanism can account for both primacy and recency effects when rehearsal is considered. Here we explore the pattern of strategic rehearsal in a patient with very severe amnesia. When the patient's rehearsal pattern is taken into account, a temporal distinctiveness model can account for the serial position curve in both amnesic and control free recall. The results are taken as consistent with temporal distinctiveness models of free recall, and they motivate an emphasis on rehearsal patterns in understanding amnesic deficits in free recall.

Why do participants initiate free recall of short lists of words with the first list item? Toward a general episodic memory explanation.

PubMed

Spurgeon, Jessica; Ward, Geoff; Matthews, William J

2014-11-01

Participants who are presented with a short list of words for immediate free recall (IFR) show a strong tendency to initiate their recall with the 1st list item and then proceed in forward serial order. We report 2 experiments that examined whether this tendency was underpinned by a short-term memory store, of the type that is argued by some to underpin recency effects in IFR. In Experiment 1, we presented 3 groups of participants with lists of between 2 and 12 words for IFR, delayed free recall, and continuous-distractor free recall. The to-be-remembered words were simultaneously spoken and presented visually, and the distractor task involved silently solving a series of self-paced, visually presented mathematical equations (e.g., 3 + 2 + 4 = ?). The tendency to initiate recall at the start of short lists was greatest in IFR but was also present in the 2 other recall conditions. This finding was replicated in Experiment 2, where the to-be-remembered items were presented visually in silence and the participants spoke aloud their answers to computer-paced mathematical equations. Our results necessitate that a short-term buffer cannot be fully responsible for the tendency to initiate recall from the beginning of a short list; rather, they suggest that the tendency represents a general property of episodic memory that occurs across a range of time scales. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Cross-Linguistic Differences in the Immediate Serial Recall of Consonants versus Vowels

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kissling, Elizabeth M.

2012-01-01

The current study investigated native English and native Arabic speakers' phonological short-term memory for sequences of consonants and vowels. Phonological short-term memory was assessed in immediate serial recall tasks conducted in Arabic and English for both groups. Participants (n = 39) heard series of six consonant-vowel syllables and wrote…

Verbal Labeling and Serial Position Recall.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hagen, John W.; Mesibov, Gary

The effect of verbal labeling in a serial position short term memory task was investigated. Forty female college students were given 16 trials each. Eight trials involved only central items which had to be recalled. The other eight trials involved both central and incidental items. Half of the subjects verbalized the names of the central items as…

Linguistic Familiarity in Short-Term Memory: A Role for (Co-)Articulatory Fluency?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woodward, Amelia J.; Macken, William J.; Jones, Dylan M.

2008-01-01

Enhanced serial recall for linguistically familiar material is usually attributed to a process of item redintegration. The possibility tested here is that familiarity influences memory at the sequence level by enhancing the fluency with which items may be assembled into sequences. Experiment 1 showed that with practice, serial recall of nonwords…

The Dynamics of Access to Groups in Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farrell, Simon; Lelievre, Anna

2012-01-01

The finding that participants leave a pause between groups when attempting serial recall of temporally grouped lists has been taken to indicate access to a hierarchical representation of the list in working memory. An alternative explanation is that the dynamics of serial recall solely reflect output (rather than memorial) processes, with the…

Working Memory for Patterned Sequences of Auditory Objects in a Songbird

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Comins, Jordan A.; Gentner, Timothy Q.

2010-01-01

The capacity to remember sequences is critical to many behaviors, such as navigation and communication. Adult humans readily recall the serial order of auditory items, and this ability is commonly understood to support, in part, the speech processing for language comprehension. Theories of short-term serial recall posit either use of absolute…

Superior serial memory in the blind: a case of cognitive compensatory adjustment.

PubMed

Raz, Noa; Striem, Ella; Pundak, Golan; Orlov, Tanya; Zohary, Ehud

2007-07-03

In the absence of vision, perception of space is likely to be highly dependent on memory. As previously stated, the blind tend to code spatial information in the form of "route-like" sequential representations [1-3]. Thus, serial memory, indicating the order in which items are encountered, may be especially important for the blind to generate a mental picture of the world. In accordance, we find that the congenitally blind are remarkably superior to sighted peers in serial memory tasks. Specifically, subjects heard a list of 20 words and were instructed to recall the words according to their original order in the list. The blind recalled more words than the sighted (indicating better item memory), but their greatest advantage was in recalling longer word sequences (according to their original order). We further show that the serial memory superiority of the blind is not merely a result of their advantage in item recall per se (as we additionally confirm via a separate recognition memory task). These results suggest the refinement of a specific cognitive ability to compensate for blindness in humans.

A matter of emphasis: Linguistic stress habits modulate serial recall.

PubMed

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

2015-04-01

Models of short-term memory for sequential information rely on item-level, feature-based descriptions to account for errors in serial recall. Transposition errors within alternating similar/dissimilar letter sequences derive from interactions between overlapping features. However, in two experiments, we demonstrated that the characteristics of the sequence are what determine the fates of items, rather than the properties ascribed to the items themselves. Performance in alternating sequences is determined by the way that the sequences themselves induce particular prosodic rehearsal patterns, and not by the nature of the items per se. In a serial recall task, the shapes of the canonical "saw-tooth" serial position curves and transposition error probabilities at successive input-output distances were modulated by subvocal rehearsal strategies, despite all item-based parameters being held constant. We replicated this finding using nonalternating lists, thus demonstrating that transpositions are substantially influenced by prosodic features-such as stress-that emerge during subvocal rehearsal.

Does pointing facilitate the recall of serial positions in visuospatial working memory?

PubMed

Spataro, Pietro; Marques, Valeria R S; Longobardi, Emiddia; Rossi-Arnaud, Clelia

2015-09-01

The present study examined the question of whether pointing enhances the serial recall of visuospatial positions. Thirty-six participants were presented with 40 target arrays varying in length from five to eight items, with each position appearing sequentially in red for 1 s. The task was to reproduce the order of presentation of the positions on a blank matrix. Results showed that, for five-, six-, and seven-item arrays, order memory was significantly better in the passive view than in the pointing condition, and the serial position curves displayed both recency and priority effects. Interestingly, the advantage of the passive-view condition was more pronounced in the early than in the late positions. For eight-item arrays, no significant differences were found between the passive view and the pointing conditions. Overall, the present data provide no evidence in support of the view that pointing facilitates the recall of serial positions.

Conditional recall and the frequency effect in the serial recall task: an examination of item-to-item associativity.

PubMed

Miller, Leonie M; Roodenrys, Steven

2012-11-01

The frequency effect in short-term serial recall is influenced by the composition of lists. In pure lists, a robust advantage in the recall of high-frequency (HF) words is observed, yet in alternating mixed lists, HF and low-frequency (LF) words are recalled equally well. It has been argued that the preexisting associations between all list items determine a single, global level of supportive activation that assists item recall. Preexisting associations between items are assumed to be a function of language co-occurrence; HF-HF associations are high, LF-LF associations are low, and mixed associations are intermediate in activation strength. This account, however, is based on results when alternating lists with equal numbers of HF and LF words were used. It is possible that directional association between adjacent list items is responsible for the recall patterns reported. In the present experiment, the recall of three forms of mixed lists-those with equal numbers of HF and LF items and pure lists-was examined to test the extent to which item-to-item associations are present in serial recall. Furthermore, conditional probabilities were used to examine more closely the evidence for a contribution, since correct-in-position scoring may mask recall that is dependent on the recall of prior items. The results suggest that an item-to-item effect is clearly present for early but not late list items, and they implicate an additional factor, perhaps the availability of resources at output, in the recall of late list items.

Extended recency effect extended: blocking, presentation mode, and retention interval.

PubMed

Glidden, L M; Pawelski, C; Mar, H; Zigman, W

1979-07-01

The effect of blocking of stimulus items on the free recall of EMR adolescents was examined. In Experiment 1 a multitrial free-recall list of 15 pictures was presented either simultaneously in groups of 3, or sequentially, one at a time. Consistent ordering was used in both conditions, so that on each trial, each item in each set of 3 pictures was presented contiguously with the other 2 items from that set. In addition, recall came immediately or after a filled or unfilled delay of 24.5 seconds. Results showed that simultaneous presentation led to higher recall, subjective organization, and clustering than did sequential presentation, but analysis of serial-position curves showed a much reduced extended recency effect in comparison with previous studies. Experiment 2 was designed to determine whether the cause of the reduced extended recency was the use of pictures rather than words as stimuli. Stimuli were presented either as pictures, as pictures with auditory labels, or as words with auditory labels, with both simultaneous and consistent ordering for all conditions. Results indicated a strong extended recency effect for all groups, eliminating presentation mode as a causal factor in the data of Experiment 1. We concluded that blocking leads to increased organization and recall over a variety of presentation modes, rates, and block sizes.

Examining the relationship between free recall and immediate serial recall: the effect of concurrent task performance.

PubMed

Bhatarah, Parveen; Ward, Geoff; Tan, Lydia

2006-03-01

In 3 experiments, participants saw lists of 16 words for free recall with or without a 6-digit immediate serial recall (ISR) task after each word. Free recall was performed under standard visual silent and spoken-aloud conditions (Experiment 1), overt rehearsal conditions (Experiment 2), and fixed rehearsal conditions (Experiment 3). The authors found that in each experiment, there was no effect of ISR on the magnitude of the recency effect, but interleaved ISR disrupted free recall of those words that would otherwise be rehearsed. The authors conclude that ISR and recency cannot both be outputs from a unitary limited-capacity short-term memory store and discuss the possibility that the process of rehearsal may be common to both tasks.

Semantic effects in sentence recall: the contribution of immediate vs delayed recall in language assessment.

PubMed

Polišenská, Kamila; Chiat, Shula; Comer, Amanda; McKenzie, Kirsty

2014-01-01

Sentence recall is increasingly used to assess language. It is widely debated what the task is actually testing, but one rarely explored aspect is the contribution of semantics to sentence recall. The few studies that have examined the role of semantics in sentence recall have employed an 'intrusion paradigm', following Potter and Lombardi (1990), and their paradigm relies on interference errors with conclusions based on an analysis of error patterns. We have instead manipulated the semantic plausibility of whole sentences to investigate the effects of semantics on immediate and delayed sentence recall. In Study 1, adults recalled semantically plausible and implausible sentences either immediately or after distracter tasks varying in lexical retrieval demands (backward counting and picture naming). Results revealed significant effects of plausibility, delay, and a significant interaction indicating increasing reliance on semantics as the demands of the distracter tasks increased. Study 2, conducted with 6-year-old children, employed delay conditions that were modified to avoid floor effects (delay with silence and forward counting) and a similar pattern of results emerged. This novel methodology provided robust evidence showing the effectiveness of delayed recall in the assessment of semantics and the effectiveness of immediate recall in the assessment of morphosyntax. The findings from our study clarify the linguistic mechanisms involved in immediate and delayed sentence recall, with implications for the use of recall tasks in language assessment. The reader will be able to: (i) define the difference between immediate and delayed sentence recall and different types of distractors, (ii) explain the utility of immediate and delayed recall sentence recall in language assessment, (iii) discuss suitability of delayed recall for the assessment of semantics. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Recall Latencies, Confidence, and Output Positions of True and False Memories: Implications for Recall and Metamemory Theories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jou, Jerwen

2008-01-01

Recall latency, recall accuracy rate, and recall confidence were examined in free recall as a function of recall output serial position using a modified Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm to test a strength-based theory against the dual-retrieval process theory of recall output sequence. The strength theory predicts the item output sequence to be…

Digit-color synaesthesia only enhances memory for colors in a specific context: A new method of duration thresholds to measure serial recall.

PubMed

Teichmann, A Lina; Nieuwenstein, Mark R; Rich, Anina N

2017-08-01

For digit-color synaesthetes, digits elicit vivid experiences of color that are highly consistent for each individual. The conscious experience of synaesthesia is typically unidirectional: Digits evoke colors but not vice versa. There is an ongoing debate about whether synaesthetes have a memory advantage over non-synaesthetes. One key question in this debate is whether synaesthetes have a general superiority or whether any benefit is specific to a certain type of material. Here, we focus on immediate serial recall and ask digit-color synaesthetes and controls to memorize digit and color sequences. We developed a sensitive staircase method manipulating presentation duration to measure participants' serial recall of both overlearned and novel sequences. Our results show that synaesthetes can activate digit information to enhance serial memory for color sequences. When color sequences corresponded to ascending or descending digit sequences, synaesthetes encoded these sequences at a faster rate than their non-synaesthetes counterparts and faster than non-structured color sequences. However, encoding color sequences is approximately 200 ms slower than encoding digit sequences directly, independent of group and condition, which shows that the translation process is time consuming. These results suggest memory advantages in synaesthesia require a modified dual-coding account, in which secondary (synaesthetically linked) information is useful only if it is more memorable than the primary information to be recalled. Our study further shows that duration thresholds are a sensitive method to measure subtle differences in serial recall performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Serial and Free Recall: Common Effects and Common Mechanisms? A Reply to Murdock (2008)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Gordon D. A.; Chater, Nick; Neath, Ian

2008-01-01

Reply to comments on an article "Issues With the SIMPLE Model: Comment on Brown, Neath, and Chater" (2007) by Bennet Murdock on the current authors' original article "A temporal ratio model of memory" by Brown, Neath, and Chater. Does a single mechanism underpin serial and free recall? B. Murdock (2008) argued against the claim, embodied in the…

Auditory Attentional Capture during Serial Recall: Violations at Encoding of an Algorithm-Based Neural Model?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hughes, Robert W.; Vachon, Francois; Jones, Dylan M.

2005-01-01

A novel attentional capture effect is reported in which visual-verbal serial recall was disrupted if a single deviation in the interstimulus interval occurred within otherwise regularly presented task-irrelevant spoken items. The degree of disruption was the same whether the temporal deviant was embedded in a sequence made up of a repeating item…

On the Function of Stress Rhythms in Speech: Evidence of a Link with Grouping Effects on Serial Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boucher, Victor J.

2006-01-01

Language learning requires a capacity to recall novel series of speech sounds. Research shows that prosodic marks create grouping effects enhancing serial recall. However, any restriction on memory affecting the reproduction of prosody would limit the set of patterns that could be learned and subsequently used in speech. By implication, grouping…

Effects of Orthographic and Phonological Word Length on Memory for Lists Shown at RSVP and STM Rates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coltheart, Veronika; Mondy, Stephen; Dux, Paul E.; Stephenson, Lisa

2004-01-01

This article reports 3 experiments in which effects of orthographic and phonological word length on memory were examined for short lists shown at rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) and short-term memory (STM) rates. Only visual-orthographic length reduced RSVP serial recall, whereas both orthographic and phonological length lowered recall for…

The Relation of Verbal and Nonverbal Encoding to Serial Recall Performance in Middle and Lower Class Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lacher, Miriam R.

Effects of lower versus middle class parental occupation, verbal intelligence, and action content of pictured stimuli upon nonverbal serial recall were investigated in white first-graders attending a semi-rural elementary school in southeastern Michigan. Forty lower class and 20 middle class children, (half boys and half girls) were grouped on the…

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.

The development of memory maintenance strategies: training cumulative rehearsal and interactive imagery in children aged between 5 and 9.

PubMed

Miller, Sadie; McCulloch, Samantha; Jarrold, Christopher

2015-01-01

The current study explored the extent to which children above and below the age of 7 years are able to benefit from either training in cumulative rehearsal or in the use of interactive imagery when carrying out working memory tasks. Twenty-four 5- to 6-year-olds nd 24 8- to 9-year olds were each assigned to one of three training groups who either received cumulative rehearsal, interactive imagery, or passive labeling training. Participants' ability to maintain material during a filled delay was then assessed, and the nature of the distraction that was imposed during this delay was varied to shed further light on the mechanisms that individuals used to maintain the memoranda in working memory in the face of this distraction. The results suggest that the rehearsal training employed here did improve recall by virtue of encouraging rehearsal strategies, in a way that was not observed among participants receiving interactive imagery training. The fact that these effects were not mediated by age group counts against the view that younger individuals are either unable to rehearse, or show impoverished verbal serial recall because they do not spontaneously engage in rehearsal.

The development of memory maintenance strategies: training cumulative rehearsal and interactive imagery in children aged between 5 and 9

PubMed Central

Miller, Sadie; McCulloch, Samantha; Jarrold, Christopher

2015-01-01

The current study explored the extent to which children above and below the age of 7 years are able to benefit from either training in cumulative rehearsal or in the use of interactive imagery when carrying out working memory tasks. Twenty-four 5- to 6-year-olds nd 24 8- to 9-year olds were each assigned to one of three training groups who either received cumulative rehearsal, interactive imagery, or passive labeling training. Participants’ ability to maintain material during a filled delay was then assessed, and the nature of the distraction that was imposed during this delay was varied to shed further light on the mechanisms that individuals used to maintain the memoranda in working memory in the face of this distraction. The results suggest that the rehearsal training employed here did improve recall by virtue of encouraging rehearsal strategies, in a way that was not observed among participants receiving interactive imagery training. The fact that these effects were not mediated by age group counts against the view that younger individuals are either unable to rehearse, or show impoverished verbal serial recall because they do not spontaneously engage in rehearsal. PMID:25983705

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.

A constrained rasch model of trace redintegration in serial recall.

PubMed

Roodenrys, Steven; Miller, Leonie M

2008-04-01

The notion that verbal short-term memory tasks, such as serial recall, make use of information in long-term as well as in short-term memory is instantiated in many models of these tasks. Such models incorporate a process in which degraded traces retrieved from a short-term store are reconstructed, or redintegrated (Schweickert, 1993), through the use of information in long-term memory. This article presents a conceptual and mathematical model of this process based on a class of item-response theory models. It is demonstrated that this model provides a better fit to three sets of data than does the multinomial processing tree model of redintegration (Schweickert, 1993) and that a number of conceptual accounts of serial recall can be related to the parameters of the model.

A cognitive psychometric model for the psychodiagnostic assessment of memory-related deficits.

PubMed

Alexander, Gregory E; Satalich, Timothy A; Shankle, W Rodman; Batchelder, William H

2016-03-01

Clinical tests used for psychodiagnostic purposes, such as the well-known Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale: Cognitive subscale (ADAS-Cog), include a free-recall task. The free-recall task taps into latent cognitive processes associated with learning and memory components of human cognition, any of which might be impaired with the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). A Hidden Markov model of free recall is developed to measure latent cognitive processes used during the free-recall task. In return, these cognitive measurements give us insight into the degree to which normal cognitive functions are differentially impaired by medical conditions, such as AD and related disorders. The model is used to analyze the free-recall data obtained from healthy elderly participants, participants diagnosed as having mild cognitive impairment, and participants diagnosed with early AD. The model is specified hierarchically to handle item differences because of the serial position curve in free recall, as well as within-group individual differences in participants' recall abilities. Bayesian hierarchical inference is used to estimate the model. The model analysis suggests that the impaired patients have the following: (1) long-term memory encoding deficits, (2) short-term memory (STM) retrieval deficits for all but very short time intervals, (3) poorer transfer into long-term memory for items successfully retrieved from STM, and (4) poorer retention of items encoded into long-term memory after longer delays. Yet, impaired patients appear to have no deficit in immediate recall of encoded words in long-term memory or for very short time intervals in STM. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Phonological short-term store impairment after cerebellar lesion: a single case study.

PubMed

Chiricozzi, Francesca R; Clausi, Silvia; Molinari, Marco; Leggio, Maria G

2008-01-01

The cerebellum is a recent addition to the growing list of cerebral areas involved in the multifaceted structural system that sustains verbal working memory (vWM), but its contribution is still a matter of debate. Here, we present a patient with a selective deficit of vWM resulting from a bilateral cerebellar ischemic lesion. After this acute event, the patient had impaired immediate and delayed word-serial recall and auditory-verbal delayed recognition. The digit span, however, was completely preserved. To investigate the cerebellar contribution to vWM, four experiments addressing the function of different vWM phonological loop components were performed 18 months after the lesion, and results were compared with normative data or, when needed, with a small group of matched controls. In Experiment 1, digit span was assessed with different presentation and response modalities using lists of digits of varying lengths. In Experiment 2, the articulatory rehearsal system was analyzed by measurement of word length and articulatory suppression effects. Experiment 3 was devoted to analyzing the phonological short-term store (ph-STS) by the recency effect, the phonological similarity effect, short-term forgetting, and unattended speech. Data suggested a possible key role of the semantic component of the processed material, which was tested in Experiment 4, in which word and nonword-serial recall with or without interpolating activity were analyzed. The patient showed noticeably reduced scores in the tasks that primarily or exclusively engaged activity of the ph-STS, namely those of Experiment 3, and good performance in the tests that investigated the recirculation of verbal information. This pattern of results implicates the ph-STS as the cognitive locus of the patient's deficit. This report demonstrates a cerebellar role in encoding and/or strengthening the phonological traces in vWM.

Redintegration and the benefits of long-term knowledge in verbal short-term memory: an evaluation of Schweickert's (1993) multinomial processing tree model.

PubMed

Thorn, Annabel S C; Gathercole, Susan E; Frankish, Clive R

2005-03-01

The impact of four long-term knowledge variables on serial recall accuracy was investigated. Serial recall was tested for high and low frequency words and high and low phonotactic frequency nonwords in 2 groups: monolingual English speakers and French-English bilinguals. For both groups the recall advantage for words over nonwords reflected more fully correct recalls with fewer recall attempts that consisted of fragments of the target memory items (one or two of the three target phonemes recalled correctly); completely incorrect recalls were equivalent for the 2 list types. However, word frequency (for both groups), nonword phonotactic frequency (for the monolingual group), and language familiarity all influenced the proportions of completely incorrect recalls that were made. These results are not consistent with the view that long-term knowledge influences on immediate recall accuracy can be exclusively attributed to a redintegration process of the type specified in multinomial processing tree model of immediate recall. The finding of a differential influence on completely incorrect recalls of these four long-term knowledge variables suggests instead that the beneficial effects of long-term knowledge on short-term recall accuracy are mediated by more than one mechanism.

Autistic traits and attention to speech: Evidence from typically developing individuals.

PubMed

Korhonen, Vesa; Werner, Stefan

2017-04-01

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder have a preference for attending to non-speech stimuli over speech stimuli. We are interested in whether non-speech preference is only a feature of diagnosed individuals, and whether we can we test implicit preference experimentally. In typically developed individuals, serial recall is disrupted more by speech stimuli than by non-speech stimuli. Since behaviour of individuals with autistic traits resembles that of individuals with autism, we have used serial recall to test whether autistic traits influence task performance during irrelevant speech sounds. The errors made on the serial recall task during speech or non-speech sounds were counted as a measure of speech or non-speech preference in relation to no sound condition. We replicated the serial order effect and found the speech to be more disruptive than the non-speech sounds, but were unable to find any associations between the autism quotient scores and the non-speech sounds. Our results may indicate a learnt behavioural response to speech sounds.

Speeded Probed Recall Is Affected by Grouping.

PubMed

Morra, Sergio; Epidendio, Valentina

2015-01-01

Most of the evidence from previous studies on speeded probed recall supported primacy-gradient models of serial order representation. Two experiments investigated the effect of grouping on speeded probed recall. Six-word lists, followed by a number between 1 and 6, were presented for speeded recall of the word in the position indicated by the number. Grouping was manipulated through interstimulus intervals. In both experiments, a significant Position × Grouping interaction was found in RT. It is concluded that the results are not consistent with models of order representation only based on a primacy gradient. Possible alternative representations of serial order are also discussed; a case is made for a holistic order representation.

A comparative study of working memory: immediate serial spatial recall in baboons (Papio papio) and humans.

PubMed

Fagot, Joël; De Lillo, Carlo

2011-12-01

Two experiments assessed if non-human primates can be meaningfully compared to humans in a non-verbal test of serial recall. A procedure was used that was derived from variations of the Corsi test, designed to test the effects of sequence structure and movement path length in humans. Two baboons were tested in Experiment 1. The monkeys showed several attributes of human serial recall. These included an easier recall of sequences with a shorter number of items and of sequences characterized by a shorter path length when the number of items was kept constant. However, the accuracy and speed of processing did not indicate that the monkeys were able to benefit from the spatiotemporal structure of sequences. Humans tested in Experiment 2 showed a quantitatively longer memory span, and, in contrast with monkeys, benefitted from sequence structure. The results are discussed in relation to differences in how human and non-human primates segment complex visual patterns. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Exploring the Retrieval Dynamics of Delayed and Final Free Recall: Further Evidence for Temporal-Contextual Search

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Unsworth, Nash

2008-01-01

Retrieval dynamics in free recall were explored based on a two-stage search model that relies on temporal-contextual cues. Participants were tested on both delayed and final free recall and correct recalls, errors, and latency measures were examined. In delayed free recall, participants began recall with the first word presented and tended to…

Immediate list recall as a measure of short-term episodic memory: insights from the serial position effect and item response theory.

PubMed

Gavett, Brandon E; Horwitz, Julie E

2012-03-01

The serial position effect shows that two interrelated cognitive processes underlie immediate recall of a supraspan word list. The current study used item response theory (IRT) methods to determine whether the serial position effect poses a threat to the construct validity of immediate list recall as a measure of verbal episodic memory. Archival data were obtained from a national sample of 4,212 volunteers aged 28-84 in the Midlife Development in the United States study. Telephone assessment yielded item-level data for a single immediate recall trial of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). Two parameter logistic IRT procedures were used to estimate item parameters and the Q(1) statistic was used to evaluate item fit. A two-dimensional model better fit the data than a unidimensional model, supporting the notion that list recall is influenced by two underlying cognitive processes. IRT analyses revealed that 4 of the 15 RAVLT items (1, 12, 14, and 15) were misfit (p < .05). Item characteristic curves for items 14 and 15 decreased monotonically, implying an inverse relationship between the ability level and the probability of recall. Elimination of the four misfit items provided better fit to the data and met necessary IRT assumptions. Performance on a supraspan list learning test is influenced by multiple cognitive abilities; failure to account for the serial position of words decreases the construct validity of the test as a measure of episodic memory and may provide misleading results. IRT methods can ameliorate these problems and improve construct validity.

Free recall of word lists under total sleep deprivation and after recovery sleep.

PubMed

de Almeida Valverde Zanini, Gislaine; Tufik, Sérgio; Andersen, Monica Levy; da Silva, Raquel Cristina Martins; Bueno, Orlando Francisco Amodeo; Rodrigues, Camila Cruz; Pompéia, Sabine

2012-02-01

One task that has been used to assess memory effects of prior total sleep deprivation (TSD) is the immediate free recall of word lists; however, results have been mixed. A possible explanation for this is task impurity, since recall of words from different serial positions reflects use of distinct types of memory (last words: short-term memory; first and intermediate words: episodic memory). Here we studied the effects of 2 nights of TSD on immediate free recall of semantically unrelated word lists considering the serial position curve. Random allocation to a 2-night TSD protocol followed by one night of recovery sleep or to a control group. Study conducted under continuous behavioral monitoring. 24 young, healthy male volunteers. 2 nights of total sleep deprivation (TSD) and one night of recovery sleep. Participants were shown five 15 unrelated word-lists at baseline, after one and 2 nights of TSD, and after one night of recovery sleep. We also investigated the development of recall strategies (learning) and susceptibility to interference from previous lists. No free recall impairment occurred during TSD, irrespective of serial position. Interference was unchanged. Both groups developed recall strategies, but task learning occurred earlier in controls and was evident in the TSD group only after sleep recovery. Prior TSD spared episodic memory, short-term phonological memory, and interference, allowed the development of recall strategies, but may have decreased the advantage of using these strategies, which returned to normal after recovery sleep.

Short-Term Serial Tactual Recall: Effects of Grouping on Tactually Probed Recall of Braille Letters and Nonsense Shapes by Blind Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Millar, Susanna

1978-01-01

This research tested the hypothesis that grouping has adverse effects on the recall of tactual shapes but facilitates the recall of tactual letters on the assumption that this depends on different processes. A further question was the relation of grouping to letter recall span (set-size).

Serial Learning Process: Test of Chaining, Position, and Dual-Process Hypotheses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Giurintano, S. L.

1973-01-01

The chaining, position, and dual-process hypotheses of serial learning (SL) as well as serial recall, reordering, and relearning of paired-associate learning were examined to establish learning patterns. Results provide evidence for dual-process hypothesis. (DS)

Representation of item position in immediate serial recall: Evidence from intrusion errors.

PubMed

Fischer-Baum, Simon; McCloskey, Michael

2015-09-01

In immediate serial recall, participants are asked to recall novel sequences of items in the correct order. Theories of the representations and processes required for this task differ in how order information is maintained; some have argued that order is represented through item-to-item associations, while others have argued that each item is coded for its position in a sequence, with position being defined either by distance from the start of the sequence, or by distance from both the start and the end of the sequence. Previous researchers have used error analyses to adjudicate between these different proposals. However, these previous attempts have not allowed researchers to examine the full set of alternative proposals. In the current study, we analyzed errors produced in 2 immediate serial recall experiments that differ in the modality of input (visual vs. aural presentation of words) and the modality of output (typed vs. spoken responses), using new analysis methods that allow for a greater number of alternative hypotheses to be considered. We find evidence that sequence positions are represented relative to both the start and the end of the sequence, and show a contribution of the end-based representation beyond the final item in the sequence. We also find limited evidence for item-to-item associations, suggesting that both a start-end positional scheme and item-to-item associations play a role in representing item order in immediate serial recall. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Further evidence that similar principles govern recall from episodic and semantic memory: the Canadian prime ministerial serial position function.

PubMed

Neath, Ian; Saint-Aubin, Jean

2011-06-01

The serial position function, with its characteristic primacy and recency effects, is one of the most ubiquitous findings in episodic memory tasks. In contrast, there are only two demonstrations of such functions in tasks thought to tap semantic memory. Here, we provide a third demonstration, showing that free recall of the prime ministers of Canada also results in a serial position function. Scale Independent Memory, Perception, and Learning (SIMPLE), a local distinctiveness model of memory that was designed to account for serial position effects in episodic memory, fit the data. According to SIMPLE, serial position functions observed in episodic and semantic memory all reflect the relative distinctiveness principle: items will be well remembered to the extent that they are more distinct than competing items at the time of retrieval. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).

The functional determinants of short-term memory: Evidence from perceptual-motor interference in verbal serial recall.

PubMed

Hughes, Robert W; Marsh, John E

2017-04-01

A functional, perceptual-motor, account of serial short-term memory (STM) is examined by investigating the way in which an irrelevant spoken sequence interferes with verbal serial recall. Even with visual list-presentation, verbal serial recall is particularly susceptible to disruption by irrelevant spoken stimuli that have the same identity as-but that are order-incongruent with-the to-be-remembered items. We test the view that such interference is because of the obligatory perceptual organization of the spoken stimuli yielding a sequence that competes with a subvocal motor-plan assembled to support the reproduction of the to-be-remembered list. In support of this view, the interference can be eliminated without changing either the identities or objective serial order of the spoken stimuli but merely by promoting a subjective perceptual organization that strips them of their order-incongruent relation to the to-be-remembered list (Experiment 1). The interference is also eliminated if subvocal motor sequence-planning is impeded via articulatory suppression (Experiment 2). The results are in line with the view that performance-limits in verbal serial STM are because of having to exploit perceptual and motor processes for purposes for which they did not evolve, not the inherently limited capacity of structures or mechanisms dedicated to storage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

The Role of Covert Retrieval in Working Memory Span Tasks: Evidence from Delayed Recall Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCabe, David P.

2008-01-01

The current study examined delayed recall of items that had been processed during simple and complex span tasks. Three experiments were reported showing that despite more items being recalled initially from a simple span task (i.e., word span) than a complex span task (i.e., operation span), on a delayed recall test more items were recalled that…

Free Recall of Word Lists under Total Sleep Deprivation and after Recovery Sleep

PubMed Central

de Almeida Valverde Zanini, Gislaine; Tufik, Sérgio; Andersen, Monica Levy; da Silva, Raquel Cristina Martins; Bueno, Orlando Francisco Amodeo; Rodrigues, Camila Cruz; Pompéia, Sabine

2012-01-01

Study Objectives: One task that has been used to assess memory effects of prior total sleep deprivation (TSD) is the immediate free recall of word lists; however, results have been mixed. A possible explanation for this is task impurity, since recall of words from different serial positions reflects use of distinct types of memory (last words: short-term memory; first and intermediate words: episodic memory). Here we studied the effects of 2 nights of TSD on immediate free recall of semantically unrelated word lists considering the serial position curve. Design: Random allocation to a 2-night TSD protocol followed by one night of recovery sleep or to a control group. Setting: Study conducted under continuous behavioral monitoring. Participants: 24 young, healthy male volunteers. Intervention: 2 nights of total sleep deprivation (TSD) and one night of recovery sleep. Measurements and Results: Participants were shown five 15 unrelated word-lists at baseline, after one and 2 nights of TSD, and after one night of recovery sleep. We also investigated the development of recall strategies (learning) and susceptibility to interference from previous lists. No free recall impairment occurred during TSD, irrespective of serial position. Interference was unchanged. Both groups developed recall strategies, but task learning occurred earlier in controls and was evident in the TSD group only after sleep recovery. Conclusion: Prior TSD spared episodic memory, short-term phonological memory, and interference, allowed the development of recall strategies, but may have decreased the advantage of using these strategies, which returned to normal after recovery sleep. Citation: Zanini GAV; Tufik S; Andersen ML; da Silva RCM; Bueno OFA; Rodrigues CC; Pompéia S. Free recall of word lists under total sleep deprivation and after recovery sleep. SLEEP 2012;35(2):223-230. PMID:22294812

Phonological memory and vocabulary learning in children with focal lesions

PubMed Central

Gupta, Prahlad; MacWhinney, Brian; Feldman, Heidi M.; Sacco, Kelley

2014-01-01

Eleven children with early focal lesions were compared with 70 age-matched controls to assess their performance in repeating non-words, in learning new words, and in immediate serial recall, a triad of abilities that are believed to share a dependence on serial ordering mechanisms (e.g., Baddeley, Gathercole, & Papagno, 1998; Gupta, in press-a). Results for the experimental group were also compared with other assessments previously reported for the same children by MacWhinney, Feldman, Sacco, and Valdés-Pérez (2000). The children with brain injury showed substantial impairment relative to controls in the experimental tasks, in contrast with relatively unimpaired performance on measures of vocabulary and non-verbal intelligence. The relationships between word learning, non-word repetition, and immediate serial recall were similar to those observed in several other populations. These results support previous reports that there are persistent processing impairments following early brain injury, despite developmental plasticity. They also suggest that word learning, non-word repetition, and immediate serial recall may be relatively demanding tasks, and that their relationship is a fundamental aspect of the cognitive system. PMID:14585293

Short-term and long-term collaboration benefits on individual recall in younger and older adults

PubMed Central

Stern, Yaakov

2011-01-01

A recent study of younger adults suggests that, compared to repeated individual recall trials, repeated collaborative recall trials produce better individual recall after a short delay (Blumen & Rajaram, 2008). Our study was designed to determine if such collaboration benefits would remain after a one-week delay, in both younger and older adults. Sixty younger (M age = 24.60) and 60 older (M age = 67.35) adults studied a list of words and then completed either two collaborative recall trials followed by two individual recall trials, or four individual recall trials. A five-min delay was inserted between the first three recall trials. The fourth recall trial was administered 1 week later. Collaborative recall was completed in groups of three individuals working together. Both younger and older adults benefitted from repeated collaborative recall trials to a greater extent than repeated individual recall trials, and such collaboration benefits remained after a one-week delay. This is the first demonstration of collaboration benefits on later individual recall at delays as long as 1 week, in both younger and older adults. Findings are discussed within the context of the negative effects of collaboration associated with group memory (collaborative inhibition) and the positive effects of collaboration associated with later individual memory (collaboration benefits). PMID:21264617

Short-term and long-term collaboration benefits on individual recall in younger and older adults.

PubMed

Blumen, Helena M; Stern, Yaakov

2011-01-01

A recent study of younger adults suggests that, compared to repeated individual recall trials, repeated collaborative recall trials produce better individual recall after a short delay (Blumen & Rajaram, 2008). Our study was designed to determine if such collaboration benefits would remain after a one-week delay, in both younger and older adults. Sixty younger (M age = 24.60) and 60 older (M age = 67.35) adults studied a list of words and then completed either two collaborative recall trials followed by two individual recall trials, or four individual recall trials. A five-min delay was inserted between the first three recall trials. The fourth recall trial was administered 1 week later. Collaborative recall was completed in groups of three individuals working together. Both younger and older adults benefitted from repeated collaborative recall trials to a greater extent than repeated individual recall trials, and such collaboration benefits remained after a one-week delay. This is the first demonstration of collaboration benefits on later individual recall at delays as long as 1 week, in both younger and older adults. Findings are discussed within the context of the negative effects of collaboration associated with group memory (collaborative inhibition) and the positive effects of collaboration associated with later individual memory (collaboration benefits).

Word frequency effects in immediate serial recall of pure and mixed lists: tests of the associative link hypothesis.

PubMed

Saint-Aubin, Jean; LeBlanc, Jacinthe

2005-12-01

In immediate serial recall, high-frequency words are better recalled than low-frequency words. Recently, it has been suggested that high-frequency words are better recalled because of their better long-term associative links, and not because of the intrinsic properties of their long-term representations. In the experiment reported here, recall performance was compared for pure lists of high- and low-frequency words, and for mixed lists composed of either one low- and five high-frequency words or the reverse. The usual advantage of high-frequency words was found with pure lists and this advantage was reduced, but still significant with mixed lists composed of five low-frequency words. However, the low-frequency word included in a high-frequency list was recalled just as well as high-frequency words. Results are challenging for the associative link hypothesis and are best interpreted within an item-based reconstruction hypothesis, along with a distinctiveness account.

Four-hour delayed memory recall for stories: Theoretical and clinical implications of measuring accelerated long-term forgetting.

PubMed

Ladowsky-Brooks, Ricki L

2016-01-01

It has been noted that clinical neuropsychological assessment is "blind" to certain abnormalities of consolidation that occur beyond standard 30-min delay intervals. For example, normal forgetting at 30-min delays has been followed by enhanced forgetting at longer delays in temporal-lobe epilepsy, termed accelerated long-term forgetting (ALF). To evaluate whether ALF could be identified in the neuropsychological assessment of a small sample of examinees with head injuries or other neurological diagnoses (n = 42), a 4-hr delayed recall condition was added to the Logical Memory subtest of the Wechsler Memory Scale-Third Edition. A small percentage of examinees (5/42 or 11%), despite exhibiting unimpaired story recall immediately and after 30-min delays, showed increased forgetting when compared with the average retention of stories (M = 0.83, SD = 0.17) after a 4-hr delay. Three of these 5 examinees also had impaired scores on 20-min delayed recall of the California Verbal Learning Test-Second Edition (CVLT-II) and would have been identified as having memory impairment without an extended, 4-hr delayed recall. In fact, the highest correlation among memory indexes was between 4-hr delayed recall of stories and delayed recall of the CVLT-II word list (r = .59, p < .0001), suggesting different consolidation rates for relational and nonrelational material.

The processing of spatial information in short-term memory: insights from eye tracking the path length effect.

PubMed

Guérard, Katherine; Tremblay, Sébastien; Saint-Aubin, Jean

2009-10-01

Serial memory for spatial locations increases as the distance between successive stimuli locations decreases. This effect, known as the path length effect [Parmentier, F. B. R., Elford, G., & Maybery, M. T. (2005). Transitional information in spatial serial memory: Path characteristics affect recall performance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition, 31, 412-427], was investigated in a systematic manner using eye tracking and interference procedures to explore the mechanisms responsible for the processing of spatial information. In Experiment 1, eye movements were monitored during a spatial serial recall task--in which the participants have to remember the location of spatially and temporally separated dots on the screen. In the experimental conditions, eye movements were suppressed by requiring participants to incessantly move their eyes between irrelevant locations. Ocular suppression abolished the path length effect whether eye movements were prevented during item presentation or during a 7s retention interval. In Experiment 2, articulatory suppression was combined with a spatial serial recall task. Although articulatory suppression impaired performance, it did not alter the path length effect. Our results suggest that rehearsal plays a key role in serial memory for spatial information, though the effect of path length seems to involve other processes located at encoding, such as the time spent fixating each location and perceptual organization.

Validity and Normative Data for the Biber Figure Learning Test: A Visual Supraspan Memory Measure.

PubMed

Gifford, Katherine A; Liu, Dandan; Neal, Jacquelyn E; Acosta, Lealani Mae Y; Bell, Susan P; Wiggins, Margaret E; Wisniewski, Kristi M; Godfrey, Mary; Logan, Laura A; Hohman, Timothy J; Pechman, Kimberly R; Libon, David J; Blennow, Kaj; Zetterberg, Henrik; Jefferson, Angela L

2018-05-01

The Biber Figure Learning Test (BFLT), a visuospatial serial figure learning test, was evaluated for biological correlates and psychometric properties, and normative data were generated. Nondemented individuals ( n = 332, 73 ± 7, 41% female) from the Vanderbilt Memory & Aging Project completed a comprehensive neuropsychological protocol. Adjusted regression models related BFLT indices to structural brain magnetic resonance imaging and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) markers of brain health. Regression-based normative data were generated. Lower BFLT performances (Total Learning, Delayed Recall, Recognition) related to smaller medial temporal lobe volumes and higher CSF tau concentrations but not CSF amyloid. BFLT indices were most strongly correlated with other measures of verbal and nonverbal memory and visuospatial skills. The BFLT provides a comprehensive assessment of all aspects of visuospatial learning and memory and is sensitive to biomarkers of unhealthy brain aging. Enhanced normative data enriches the clinical utility of this visual serial figure learning test for use with older adults.

Evidence against decay in verbal working memory.

PubMed

Oberauer, Klaus; Lewandowsky, Stephan

2013-05-01

The article tests the assumption that forgetting in working memory for verbal materials is caused by time-based decay, using the complex-span paradigm. Participants encoded 6 letters for serial recall; each letter was preceded and followed by a processing period comprising 4 trials of difficult visual search. Processing duration, during which memory could decay, was manipulated via search set size. This manipulation increased retention interval by up to 100% without having any effect on recall accuracy. This result held with and without articulatory suppression. Two experiments using a dual-task paradigm showed that the visual search process required central attention. Thus, even when memory maintenance by central attention and by articulatory rehearsal was prevented, a large delay had no effect on memory performance, contrary to the decay notion. Most previous experiments that manipulated the retention interval and the opportunity for maintenance processes in complex span have confounded these variables with time pressure during processing periods. Three further experiments identified time pressure as the variable that affected recall. We conclude that time-based decay does not contribute to the capacity limit of verbal working memory. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Spatio-Temporal Structure, Path Characteristics, and Perceptual Grouping in Immediate Serial Spatial Recall

PubMed Central

De Lillo, Carlo; Kirby, Melissa; Poole, Daniel

2016-01-01

Immediate serial spatial recall measures the ability to retain sequences of locations in short-term memory and is considered the spatial equivalent of digit span. It is tested by requiring participants to reproduce sequences of movements performed by an experimenter or displayed on a monitor. Different organizational factors dramatically affect serial spatial recall but they are often confounded or underspecified. Untangling them is crucial for the characterization of working-memory models and for establishing the contribution of structure and memory capacity to spatial span. We report five experiments assessing the relative role and independence of factors that have been reported in the literature. Experiment 1 disentangled the effects of spatial clustering and path-length by manipulating the distance of items displayed on a touchscreen monitor. Long-path sequences segregated by spatial clusters were compared with short-path sequences not segregated by clusters. Recall was more accurate for sequences segregated by clusters independently from path-length. Experiment 2 featured conditions where temporal pauses were introduced between or within cluster boundaries during the presentation of sequences with the same paths. Thus, the temporal structure of the sequences was either consistent or inconsistent with a hierarchical representation based on segmentation by spatial clusters but the effect of structure could not be confounded with effects of path-characteristics. Pauses at cluster boundaries yielded more accurate recall, as predicted by a hierarchical model. In Experiment 3, the systematic manipulation of sequence structure, path-length, and presence of path-crossings of sequences showed that structure explained most of the variance, followed by the presence/absence of path-crossings, and path-length. Experiments 4 and 5 replicated the results of the previous experiments in immersive virtual reality navigation tasks where the viewpoint of the observer changed dynamically during encoding and recall. This suggested that the effects of structure in spatial span are not dependent on perceptual grouping processes induced by the aerial view of the stimulus array typically afforded by spatial recall tasks. These results demonstrate the independence of coding strategies based on structure from effects of path characteristics and perceptual grouping in immediate serial spatial recall. PMID:27891101

Beginning at the beginning: Recall order and the number of words to be recalled.

PubMed

Tan, Lydia; Ward, Geoff; Paulauskaite, Laura; Markou, Maria

2016-08-01

When participants are asked to recall a short list of words in any order that they like, they tend to initiate recall with the first list item and proceed in forward order, even when this is not a task requirement. The current research examined whether this tendency might be influenced by varying the number of items that are to be recalled. In 3 experiments, participants were presented with short lists of between 4 and 6 words and instructed to recall 1, 2, 3, or all of the items from the lists. Data were collected using immediate free recall (IFR, Experiment 1), immediate serial recall (ISR, Experiment 2), and a variant of ISR that we call ISR-free (Experiment 3), in which participants had to recall words in their correct serial positions but were free to output the words in any order. For all 3 tasks, the tendency to begin recall with the first list item occurred only when participants were required to recall as many items from the list as they could. When participants were asked to recall only 1 or 2 items, they tended to initiate recall with end-of-list items. It is argued that these findings show for the first time a manipulation that eliminates the initial tendency to recall in forward order, provide some support for recency-based accounts of IFR and help explain differences between single-response and multiple-response immediate memory tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Age-related deficits in free recall: the role of rehearsal.

PubMed

Ward, Geoff; Maylor, Elizabeth A

2005-01-01

Age-related deficits have been consistently observed in free recall. Recent accounts of episodic memory suggest that these deficits could result from differential patterns of rehearsal. In the present study, 20 young and 20 older adults (mean ages 21 and 72 years, respectively) were presented with lists of 20 words for immediate free recall using the overt rehearsal methodology. The young outperformed the older adults at all serial positions. There were significant age-related differences in the patterns of overt rehearsals: Young adults rehearsed a greater number of different words than did older adults, they rehearsed words to more recent serial positions, and their rehearsals were more widely distributed throughout the list. Consistent with a recency-based account of episodic memory, age deficits in free recall are largely attributable to age differences in the recency, frequency, and distribution of rehearsals.

Comparing different instructed-refreshing schedules: evidence for cumulative, forward-order refreshing of verbal lists.

PubMed

Vergauwe, Evie

2018-04-23

Refreshing is one of the mechanisms proposed to maintain information in human working memory. The mechanism is assumed to operate serially, boosting the items of a memory list one after the other. In the current study, we test the most straightforward implementation of serial refreshing, by which refreshing spontaneously reproduces the order of presentation, starting with the first memory item and cycling through the list in a forward fashion, to support short-term memory of a list. Therefore, we examined verbal serial recall performance under different instructed-refreshing schedules that varied in their similarity to cumulative, forward-order refreshing. This was done by manipulating whether instructed refreshing started with the first memory item, and whether instructed refreshing proceeded in forward order through the list. We expected recall performance to be poorer as participants were required to think of the list items in a way that was more dissimilar to what they would have done spontaneously. However, across four experiments, we observed that recall performance was not drastically affected by the nature of instructed refreshing and thus, we did not find any evidence that cumulative, forward-order refreshing supports serial verbal WM performance. © 2018 New York Academy of Sciences.

Motor cortical encoding of serial order in a context-recall task.

PubMed

Carpenter, A F; Georgopoulos, A P; Pellizzer, G

1999-03-12

The neural encoding of serial order was studied in the motor cortex of monkeys performing a context-recall memory scanning task. Up to five visual stimuli were presented successively on a circle (list presentation phase), and then one of them (test stimulus) changed color; the monkeys had to make a single motor response toward the stimulus that immediately followed the test stimulus in the list. Correct performance in this task depends on memorization of the serial order of the stimuli during their presentation. It was found that changes in neural activity during the list presentation phase reflected the serial order of the stimuli; the effect on cell activity of the serial order of stimuli during their presentation was at least as strong as the effect of motor direction on cell activity during the execution of the motor response. This establishes the serial order of stimuli in a motor task as an important determinant of motor cortical activity during stimulus presentation and in the absence of changes in peripheral motor events, in contrast to the commonly held view of the motor cortex as just an "upper motor neuron."

Working Memory in Children with Cochlear Implants: Problems are in Storage, not Processing

PubMed Central

Nittrouer, Susan; Caldwell-Tarr, Amanda; Lowenstein, Joanna H

2013-01-01

Background There is growing consensus that hearing loss and consequent amplification likely interact with cognitive systems. A phenomenon often examined in regards to these potential interactions is working memory, modeled as consisting of one component responsible for storage of information and another component responsible for processing of that information. Signal degradation associated with cochlear implants should selectively inhibit storage without affecting processing. This study examined two hypotheses: (1) A single task can be used to measure storage and processing in working memory, with recall accuracy indexing storage and rate of recall indexing processing; (2) Storage is negatively impacted for children with CIs, but not processing. Method Two experiments were conducted. Experiment 1 included adults and children, 8 and 6 years of age, with NH. Procedures tested the prediction that accuracy of recall could index storage and rate of recall could index processing. Both measures were obtained during a serial-recall task using word lists designed to manipulate storage and processing demands independently: non-rhyming nouns were the standard condition; rhyming nouns were predicted to diminish storage capacity; and non-rhyming adjectives were predicted to increase processing load. Experiment 2 included 98 8-year-olds, 48 with NH and 50 with CIs, in the same serial-recall task using the non-rhyming and rhyming nouns. Results Experiment 1 showed that recall accuracy was poorest for the rhyming nouns and rate of recall was slowest for the non-rhyming adjectives, demonstrating that storage and processing can be indexed separately within a single task. In Experiment 2, children with CIs showed less accurate recall of serial order than children with NH, but rate of recall did not differ. Recall accuracy and rate of recall were not correlated in either experiment, reflecting independence of these mechanisms. Conclusions It is possible to measure the operations of storage and processing mechanisms in working memory in a single task, and only storage is impaired for children with CIs. These findings suggest that research and clinical efforts should focus on enhancing the saliency of representation for children with CIs. Direct instruction of syntax and semantics could facilitate storage in real-world working memory tasks. PMID:24090697

Working memory in children with cochlear implants: problems are in storage, not processing.

PubMed

Nittrouer, Susan; Caldwell-Tarr, Amanda; Lowenstein, Joanna H

2013-11-01

There is growing consensus that hearing loss and consequent amplification likely interact with cognitive systems. A phenomenon often examined in regards to these potential interactions is working memory, modeled as consisting of one component responsible for storage of information and another component responsible for processing of that information. Signal degradation associated with cochlear implants should selectively inhibit storage without affecting processing. This study examined two hypotheses: (1) A single task can be used to measure storage and processing in working memory, with recall accuracy indexing storage and rate of recall indexing processing; (2) Storage is negatively impacted for children with CIs, but not processing. Two experiments were conducted. Experiment 1 included adults and children, 8 and 6 years of age, with NH. Procedures tested the prediction that accuracy of recall could index storage and rate of recall could index processing. Both measures were obtained during a serial-recall task using word lists designed to manipulate storage and processing demands independently: non-rhyming nouns were the standard condition; rhyming nouns were predicted to diminish storage capacity; and non-rhyming adjectives were predicted to increase processing load. Experiment 2 included 98 8-year-olds, 48 with NH and 50 with CIs, in the same serial-recall task using the non-rhyming and rhyming nouns. Experiment 1 showed that recall accuracy was poorest for the rhyming nouns and rate of recall was slowest for the non-rhyming adjectives, demonstrating that storage and processing can be indexed separately within a single task. In Experiment 2, children with CIs showed less accurate recall of serial order than children with NH, but rate of recall did not differ. Recall accuracy and rate of recall were not correlated in either experiment, reflecting independence of these mechanisms. It is possible to measure the operations of storage and processing mechanisms in working memory in a single task, and only storage is impaired for children with CIs. These findings suggest that research and clinical efforts should focus on enhancing the saliency of representation for children with CIs. Direct instruction of syntax and semantics could facilitate storage in real-world working memory tasks. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Memantine for the prevention of cognitive dysfunction in patients receiving whole-brain radiotherapy: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

PubMed Central

Brown, Paul D.; Pugh, Stephanie; Laack, Nadia N.; Wefel, Jeffrey S.; Khuntia, Deepak; Meyers, Christina; Choucair, Ali; Fox, Sherry; Suh, John H.; Roberge, David; Kavadi, Vivek; Bentzen, Soren M.; Mehta, Minesh P.; Watkins-Bruner, Deborah

2013-01-01

Background To determine the protective effects of memantine on cognitive function in patients receiving whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT). Methods Adult patients with brain metastases received WBRT and were randomized to receive placebo or memantine (20 mg/d), within 3 days of initiating radiotherapy for 24 weeks. Serial standardized tests of cognitive function were performed. Results Of 554 patients who were accrued, 508 were eligible. Grade 3 or 4 toxicities and study compliance were similar in the 2 arms. There was less decline in delayed recall in the memantine arm at 24 weeks (P = .059), but the difference was not statistically significant, possibly because there were only 149 analyzable patients at 24 weeks, resulting in only 35% statistical power. The memantine arm had significantly longer time to cognitive decline (hazard ratio 0.78, 95% confidence interval 0.62–0.99, P = .01); the probability of cognitive function failure at 24 weeks was 53.8% in the memantine arm and 64.9% in the placebo arm. Superior results were seen in the memantine arm for executive function at 8 (P = .008) and 16 weeks (P = .0041) and for processing speed (P = .0137) and delayed recognition (P = .0149) at 24 weeks. Conclusions Memantine was well tolerated and had a toxicity profile very similar to placebo. Although there was less decline in the primary endpoint of delayed recall at 24 weeks, this lacked statistical significance possibly due to significant patient loss. Overall, patients treated with memantine had better cognitive function over time; specifically, memantine delayed time to cognitive decline and reduced the rate of decline in memory, executive function, and processing speed in patients receiving WBRT. RTOG 0614, ClinicalTrials.gov number CT00566852. PMID:23956241

Memantine for the prevention of cognitive dysfunction in patients receiving whole-brain radiotherapy: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

PubMed

Brown, Paul D; Pugh, Stephanie; Laack, Nadia N; Wefel, Jeffrey S; Khuntia, Deepak; Meyers, Christina; Choucair, Ali; Fox, Sherry; Suh, John H; Roberge, David; Kavadi, Vivek; Bentzen, Soren M; Mehta, Minesh P; Watkins-Bruner, Deborah

2013-10-01

To determine the protective effects of memantine on cognitive function in patients receiving whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT). Adult patients with brain metastases received WBRT and were randomized to receive placebo or memantine (20 mg/d), within 3 days of initiating radiotherapy for 24 weeks. Serial standardized tests of cognitive function were performed. Of 554 patients who were accrued, 508 were eligible. Grade 3 or 4 toxicities and study compliance were similar in the 2 arms. There was less decline in delayed recall in the memantine arm at 24 weeks (P = .059), but the difference was not statistically significant, possibly because there were only 149 analyzable patients at 24 weeks, resulting in only 35% statistical power. The memantine arm had significantly longer time to cognitive decline (hazard ratio 0.78, 95% confidence interval 0.62-0.99, P = .01); the probability of cognitive function failure at 24 weeks was 53.8% in the memantine arm and 64.9% in the placebo arm. Superior results were seen in the memantine arm for executive function at 8 (P = .008) and 16 weeks (P = .0041) and for processing speed (P = .0137) and delayed recognition (P = .0149) at 24 weeks. Memantine was well tolerated and had a toxicity profile very similar to placebo. Although there was less decline in the primary endpoint of delayed recall at 24 weeks, this lacked statistical significance possibly due to significant patient loss. Overall, patients treated with memantine had better cognitive function over time; specifically, memantine delayed time to cognitive decline and reduced the rate of decline in memory, executive function, and processing speed in patients receiving WBRT. RTOG 0614, ClinicalTrials.gov number CT00566852.

Serial position effects in free memory recall--An ERP-study.

PubMed

Wiswede, Daniel; Rüsseler, Jascha; Münte, Thomas F

2007-05-01

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) elicited by recalled and non-recalled words were recorded from 18 female subjects to investigate primacy and recency effects in free memory recall. The typical pattern of a serial position curve (SPC) was obtained with words presented at first and final positions in a list recalled better than words presented in the middle of a list. A marked positivity is seen in the ERPs for words on Primacy, but not on Recency positions at frontocentral electrodes. In contrast, ERP amplitudes on parietal electrodes resemble the SPC seen in behavioral data: P300 amplitude is largest for words on Primacy and Recency positions and attenuated on Plateau positions. Furthermore, subjects with a clear Primacy effect in behavioral data show a distinct frontal positive slow wave for Primacy words only, whereas subjects without a clear primacy effect show a frontal "difference due to subsequent memory" (DM) effect for Primacy and Plateau words. These results are discussed in the framework of working memory and distinctiveness.

The Influence of Emotion on Immediate and Delayed Retention: Levinger and Clark Reconsidered.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parkin, Alan J.; And Others

1982-01-01

Examined effect of emotion on recall of self-generated paired associates under conditions of immediate and delayed retention. Results showed that, with immediate retention, recall of associates to emotional stimuli was significantly lower than to neutral stimuli and, with delayed retention, associations to emotional stimuli were better recalled.…

Length, Lexicality, and Articulatory Suppression in Immediate Recall: Evidence against the Articulatory Loop

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Romani, C.; McAlpine, S.; Olson, A.; Tsouknida, E.; Martin, R.

2005-01-01

Influential models of short-term memory have attributed the fact that short words are recalled better than longer words in serial recall (the length effect) to articulatory rehearsal. Crucial for this link is the finding that the length effect disappears under articulatory suppression. We show, instead, that, under suppression, the length effect…

The Distinctiveness of the Word-Length Effect

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hulme, Charles; Neath, Ian; Stuart, George; Shostak, Lisa; Surprenant, Aimee M.; Brown, Gordon D. A.

2006-01-01

The authors report 2 experiments that compare the serial recall of pure lists of long words, pure lists of short words, and lists of long or short words containing just a single isolated word of a different length. In both experiments for pure lists, there was a substantial recall advantage for short words; the isolated words were recalled better…

Effects of voice timbre and accompaniment on working memory as measured by sequential monosyllabic digit recall performance.

PubMed

Silverman, Michael J; Schwartzberg, Edward T

2014-01-01

Information is often paired with music in an attempt to facilitate recall and enhance learning. However, there is a lack of basic research investigating how music carrying information might facilitate recall and subsequent learning. The purpose of the current study was to determine the effects of voice timbre and accompaniment on working memory as measured by recall performance on a sequential digit recall task. Specific research questions were as follows: (a) How might female and male voice timbres affect serial recall? (b) How might piano, guitar, and no accompaniment affect serial recall? (c) Do music majors have enhanced recall accuracy when compared to nonmusic majors? The recall of information paired with six different melodies was tested on 60 university students. Melodies were composed and recorded using female and male voices with three levels of accompaniment: guitar, piano, and no accompaniment. Participants had more accurate recall during the male voice and piano and no accompaniment conditions and least accurate recall during the female voice and guitar accompaniment conditions. As participants had most accurate recall during the male voice and with piano or no accompaniment, clinicians are encouraged to consider using no accompaniment or piano accompaniment when initially teaching social and academic information paired with music for later recall. When possible, vocal timbre (i.e., the potential benefit of male voicing) should also be considered. Implications for clinical practice, limitations of the study, and suggestions for future research are provided. © the American Music Therapy Association 2014. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Delayed recall, hippocampal volume and Alzheimer neuropathology: findings from the Nun Study.

PubMed

Mortimer, J A; Gosche, K M; Riley, K P; Markesbery, W R; Snowdon, D A

2004-02-10

To examine the associations of hippocampal volume and the severity of neurofibrillary lesions determined at autopsy with delayed verbal recall performance evaluated an average of 1 year prior to death. Hippocampal volumes were computed using postmortem brain MRI from the first 56 scanned participants of the Nun Study. Quantitative neuropathologic studies included lesion counts, Braak staging, and determination of whether neuropathologic criteria for Alzheimer disease (AD) were met. Multiple regression was used to assess the association of hippocampal volume and neuropathologic lesions with the number of words (out of 10) recalled on the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease Delayed Word Recall Test administered an average of 1 year prior to death. When entered separately, hippocampal volume, Braak stage, and the mean neurofibrillary tangle counts in the CA-1 region of the hippocampus and the subiculum were strongly associated with the number of words recalled after a delay, adjusting for age and education. When hippocampal volume was entered together with each neuropathologic index, only hippocampal volume retained a significant association with the delayed recall measure. The association between hippocampal volume and the number of words recalled was present in both demented and nondemented individuals as well as in those with and without substantial AD neurofibrillary pathology. The association of neurofibrillary tangles with delayed verbal recall may reflect associated hippocampal atrophy.

10-Minute Delayed Recall from the Modified Mini-Mental State Test Predicts Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology

PubMed Central

Lyness, Scott A.; Lee, Ae Young; Zarow, Chris; Teng, Evelyn L.; Chui, Helena C.

2014-01-01

We compared the sensitivity and specificity of two delayed recall scores from the Modified Mini-Mental State (3MS) test with consensus clinical diagnosis to differentiate cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) versus non-AD pathologies. At a memory disorders clinic, 117 cognitively impaired patients were administered a baseline 3MS test and received a contemporaneous consensus clinical diagnosis. Their brains were examined after death about 5 years later. Using logistic regression with forward selection to predict pathologically defined AD versus non-AD, 10-min delayed recall entered first (p = 0.001), followed by clinical diagnosis (p = 0.02); 1-min delayed recall did not enter. 10-min delayed recall scores ≤4 (score range = 0–9) were 87% sensitive and 47% specific in predicting AD pathology; consensus clinical diagnosis was 82% sensitive and 45% specific. For the 57 patients whose initial Mini-Mental State Examination scores were ≥19 (the median), 3MS 10-min delayed recall scores ≤4 showed some loss of sensitivity (80%) but a substantial gain in specificity (77%). In conclusion, 10-min delayed recall score on the brief 3MS test distinguished between AD versus non-AD pathology about 5 years before death at least as well as consensus clinical diagnosis that requires much more comprehensive information and complex deliberation. PMID:24240637

10-minute delayed recall from the modified mini-mental state test predicts Alzheimer's disease pathology.

PubMed

Lyness, Scott A; Lee, Ae Young; Zarow, Chris; Teng, Evelyn L; Chui, Helena C

2014-01-01

We compared the sensitivity and specificity of two delayed recall scores from the Modified Mini-Mental State (3MS) test with consensus clinical diagnosis to differentiate cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease (AD) versus non-AD pathologies. At a memory disorders clinic, 117 cognitively impaired patients were administered a baseline 3MS test and received a contemporaneous consensus clinical diagnosis. Their brains were examined after death about 5 years later. Using logistic regression with forward selection to predict pathologically defined AD versus non-AD, 10-min delayed recall entered first (p = 0.001), followed by clinical diagnosis (p = 0.02); 1-min delayed recall did not enter. 10-min delayed recall scores ≤4 (score range = 0-9) were 87% sensitive and 47% specific in predicting AD pathology; consensus clinical diagnosis was 82% sensitive and 45% specific. For the 57 patients whose initial Mini-Mental State Examination scores were ≥19 (the median), 3MS 10-min delayed recall scores ≤4 showed some loss of sensitivity (80%) but a substantial gain in specificity (77%). In conclusion, 10-min delayed recall score on the brief 3MS test distinguished between AD versus non-AD pathology about 5 years before death at least as well as consensus clinical diagnosis that requires much more comprehensive information and complex deliberation.

Chronic Effects of Boxing: Diffusion Tensor Imaging and Cognitive Findings

PubMed Central

Wilde, Elisabeth A.; Hunter, Jill V.; Li, Xiaoqi; Amador, Cristian; Hanten, Gerri; Newsome, Mary R.; Wu, Trevor C.; McCauley, Stephen R.; Vogt, Gregory S.; Chu, Zili David; Biekman, Brian

2016-01-01

Abstract We used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to evaluate the effects of boxing on brain structure and cognition in 10 boxers (8 retired, 2 active; mean age = 45.7 years; standard deviation [SD] = 9.71) and 9 participants (mean age = 43.44; SD = 9.11) in noncombative sports. Evans Index (maximum width of the anterior horns of the lateral ventricles/maximal width of the internal diameter of the skull) was significantly larger in the boxers (F = 4.52; p = 0.050; Cohen's f = 0.531). Word list recall was impaired in the boxers (F(1,14) = 10.70; p = 0.006; f = 0.84), whereas implicit memory measured by faster reaction time (RT) to a repeating sequence of numbers than to a random sequence was preserved (t = 2.52; p < 0.04). Fractional anisotropy (FA) and the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measured by tractography did not significantly differ between groups. However, DTI metrics were significantly correlated with declarative memory (e.g., left ventral striatum ADC with delayed recall, r = −0.74; p = 0.02) and with RT to the repeating number sequence (r = 0.70; p = 0.04) in the boxers. Years of boxing had the most consistent, negative correlations with FA, ranging from −0.65 for the right ventral striatum to −0.92 for the right cerebral peduncle. Years of boxing was negatively related to the number of words consistently recalled over trials (r = −0.74; p = 0.02), delayed recall (r = −0.83; p = 0.003), and serial RT (r = 0.66; p = 0.05). We conclude that microstructural integrity of white matter tracts is related to declarative memory and response speed in boxers and to the extent of boxing exposure. Implications for chronic traumatic encephalopathy are discussed. PMID:26414735

Chronic Effects of Boxing: Diffusion Tensor Imaging and Cognitive Findings.

PubMed

Wilde, Elisabeth A; Hunter, Jill V; Li, Xiaoqi; Amador, Cristian; Hanten, Gerri; Newsome, Mary R; Wu, Trevor C; McCauley, Stephen R; Vogt, Gregory S; Chu, Zili David; Biekman, Brian; Levin, Harvey S

2016-04-01

We used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to evaluate the effects of boxing on brain structure and cognition in 10 boxers (8 retired, 2 active; mean age = 45.7 years; standard deviation [SD] = 9.71) and 9 participants (mean age = 43.44; SD = 9.11) in noncombative sports. Evans Index (maximum width of the anterior horns of the lateral ventricles/maximal width of the internal diameter of the skull) was significantly larger in the boxers (F = 4.52; p = 0.050; Cohen's f = 0.531). Word list recall was impaired in the boxers (F(1,14) = 10.70; p = 0.006; f = 0.84), whereas implicit memory measured by faster reaction time (RT) to a repeating sequence of numbers than to a random sequence was preserved (t = 2.52; p < 0.04). Fractional anisotropy (FA) and the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measured by tractography did not significantly differ between groups. However, DTI metrics were significantly correlated with declarative memory (e.g., left ventral striatum ADC with delayed recall, r = -0.74; p = 0.02) and with RT to the repeating number sequence (r = 0.70; p = 0.04) in the boxers. Years of boxing had the most consistent, negative correlations with FA, ranging from -0.65 for the right ventral striatum to -0.92 for the right cerebral peduncle. Years of boxing was negatively related to the number of words consistently recalled over trials (r = -0.74; p = 0.02), delayed recall (r = -0.83; p = 0.003), and serial RT (r = 0.66; p = 0.05). We conclude that microstructural integrity of white matter tracts is related to declarative memory and response speed in boxers and to the extent of boxing exposure. Implications for chronic traumatic encephalopathy are discussed.

The relation between working memory and language comprehension in signers and speakers.

PubMed

Emmorey, Karen; Giezen, Marcel R; Petrich, Jennifer A F; Spurgeon, Erin; O'Grady Farnady, Lucinda

2017-06-01

This study investigated the relation between linguistic and spatial working memory (WM) resources and language comprehension for signed compared to spoken language. Sign languages are both linguistic and visual-spatial, and therefore provide a unique window on modality-specific versus modality-independent contributions of WM resources to language processing. Deaf users of American Sign Language (ASL), hearing monolingual English speakers, and hearing ASL-English bilinguals completed several spatial and linguistic serial recall tasks. Additionally, their comprehension of spatial and non-spatial information in ASL and spoken English narratives was assessed. Results from the linguistic serial recall tasks revealed that the often reported advantage for speakers on linguistic short-term memory tasks does not extend to complex WM tasks with a serial recall component. For English, linguistic WM predicted retention of non-spatial information, and both linguistic and spatial WM predicted retention of spatial information. For ASL, spatial WM predicted retention of spatial (but not non-spatial) information, and linguistic WM did not predict retention of either spatial or non-spatial information. Overall, our findings argue against strong assumptions of independent domain-specific subsystems for the storage and processing of linguistic and spatial information and furthermore suggest a less important role for serial encoding in signed than spoken language comprehension. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Encoding Specificity in Second Language Acquisition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dorobish, Sherry A.; Walls, Richard T.

1998-01-01

Examines what types of cues serve as the most effective recall prompts for Japanese college students studying English. Findings show that English cues, picture cues, and Romanji cues all produced better immediate and delayed recall than no cues at all. However, in delayed recall, Romanji cues worked significantly better to facilitate the recall of…

Semantic Memory Is Key to Binding Phonology: Converging Evidence from Immediate Serial Recall in Semantic Dementia and Healthy Participants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoffman, Paul; Jefferies, Elizabeth; Ehsan, Sheeba; Jones, Roy W.; Lambon Ralph, Matthew A.

2009-01-01

Patients with semantic dementia (SD) make numerous phoneme migration errors when recalling lists of words they no longer fully understand, suggesting that word meaning makes a critical contribution to phoneme binding in verbal short-term memory. Healthy individuals make errors that appear similar when recalling lists of nonwords, which also lack…

First Things First: Similar List Length and Output Order Effects for Verbal and Nonverbal Stimuli

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cortis, Cathleen; Dent, Kevin; Kennett, Steffan; Ward, Geoff

2015-01-01

When participants are presented with a short list of unrelated words and they are instructed that they may recall in any order, they nevertheless show a very strong tendency to recall in forward serial order. Thus, if asked to recall "in any orde"r: "hat, mouse, tea, stairs," participants often respond "hat, mouse, tea,…

List blocking and longer retention intervals reveal an influence of gist processing for lexically ambiguous critical lures

PubMed Central

McNabb, Jaimie; Hutchison, Keith A.

2016-01-01

In two experiments, we examined veridical and false memory for lists of associates from two meanings (e.g., stumble, trip, harvest, pumpkin, etc.) that converged upon a single, lexically ambiguous critical lure (e.g., fall), in order to compare the activation-monitoring and fuzzy-trace false memory accounts. In Experiment 1, we presented study lists that were blocked or alternated by meaning (within subjects), followed by a free recall test completed immediately or after a 2.5-min delay. Correct recall was greater for blocked than for alternated lists. Critical-lure false recall was greater for blocked lists on an immediate test, whereas both list types produced equivalent false recall on a delayed test. In Experiment 2, lists blocked and alternated by meaning were presented via a between-subjects design, in order to eliminate possible list-type carryover effects. Correct recall replicated the result from Experiment 1; however, blocking lists increased false recall on delayed, but not on immediate, tests. Across the experiments, clustering correct recall by meaning increased across the delay selectively for the alternated lists. Our results suggest that thematic (i.e., gist) processes are influential for false recall, especially following a delay, a pattern consistent with fuzzy-trace theory. PMID:26105976

Accelerated long-term forgetting in children with temporal lobe epilepsy.

PubMed

Gascoigne, Michael B; Smith, Mary Lou; Barton, Belinda; Webster, Richard; Gill, Deepak; Lah, Suncica

2014-07-01

Adults with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) have been found to have accelerated long-term forgetting, but this phenomenon has not yet been investigated in children. Although deficits in recall of materials after short (20- to 30-minute) delays have been shown to slowly emerge from childhood to adolescence in patients with TLE, it is unknown whether such a trend will also be found in recall of materials after long delays. This study examined the presence of accelerated long-term forgetting in children with TLE and how it relates to chronological age. Twenty-three children with TLE and 58 healthy controls of similar age, sex distribution and socioeconomic status completed a battery of neuropsychological tests, including standardised tests of story recall and design location, as well as two experimental tests requiring the learning of words and design locations to a criterion, both of which assessed recall after short (30-min) and long (7-day) delays. Word recall at the 7-day delay (relative to the 30-min recall) was significantly poorer in the TLE group, compared to the control group. The TLE group also exhibited worse 30-min recall performance on a standardised test of story recall. Individual patient analyses revealed dissociation between performance on the experimental and standardised verbal memory tests; children who were impaired on the experimental test (7-day delay) were not impaired on the standardised test (30-min delay). Compared to controls, patients with a left-hemisphere seizure focus recalled fewer words at short and long delays while patients with an abnormal hippocampus recalled fewer words at the long delay. No between-group differences were found with respect to the design location task. Age negatively correlated with the recall of words after short- and long-term delays within the TLE group, where older age was associated with worse memory. This association was not present in the control group. To our knowledge, this is the first study to show evidence of accelerated long-term forgetting in children with TLE, which could not be explained by poor performance on standardised memory tests. Additionally, these results suggest that the developmental trajectory of long-term memory in children with TLE is similar to that of short-term memory: deficits emerge gradually, therefore older children are more likely to present with long-term memory deficits. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

From brief gaps to very long pauses: temporal isolation does not benefit serial recall.

PubMed

Nimmo, Lisa M; Lewandowsky, Stephan

2005-12-01

Theoretical explanations of short-term memory for serial order can be classified on the basis of whether or not they invoke time as a causal variable. According to time-based accounts, such as temporal distinctiveness theories, there is an intimate link between time and memory. Event-based theories, by contrast, postulate processes such as interference or rehearsal to account for seemingly temporal phenomena in short-term memory. We report an experiment that examined whether extended temporal isolation benefits serial recall performance. Regardless of whether the participants were quiet or performed articulatory suppression during list presentation, temporal isolation did not benefit memory even if items were separated from their neighbors by up to 7 sec. These findings challenge time-based theories of short-term memory.

Hebb learning, verbal short-term memory, and the acquisition of phonological forms in children.

PubMed

Mosse, Emma K; Jarrold, Christopher

2008-04-01

Recent work using the Hebb effect as a marker for implicit long-term acquisition of serial order has demonstrated a functional equivalence across verbal and visuospatial short-term memory. The current study extends this observation to a sample of five- to six-year-olds using verbal and spatial immediate serial recall and also correlates the magnitude of Hebb learning with explicit measures of word and nonword paired-associate learning. Comparable Hebb effects were observed in both domains, but only nonword learning was significantly related to the magnitude of Hebb learning. Nonword learning was also independently related to individuals' general level of verbal serial recall. This suggests that vocabulary acquisition depends on both a domain-specific short-term memory system and a domain-general process of learning through repetition.

The primacy model: a new model of immediate serial recall.

PubMed

Page, M P; Norris, D

1998-10-01

A new model of immediate serial recall is presented: the primacy model. The primacy model stores order information by means of the assumption that the strength of activation of successive list items decreases across list position to form a primacy gradient. Ordered recall is supported by a repeated cycle of operations involving a noisy choice of the most active item followed by suppression of the chosen item. Word-length and list-length effects are attributed to a decay process that occurs both during input, when effective rehearsal is prevented, and during output. The phonological similarity effect is attributed to a second stage of processing at which phonological confusions occur. The primacy model produces accurate simulations of the effects of word length, list length, and phonological similarity.

The deployment of attention in short-term memory tasks: trade-offs between immediate and delayed deployment.

PubMed

Bunting, Michael F; Cowan, Nelson; Colflesh, Greg H

2008-06-01

Memory at times depends on attention, as when attention is used to encode incoming, serial verbal information. When encoding and rehearsal are difficult or when attention is divided during list presentation, more attention is needed in the time following the presentation and just preceding the response. Across 12 experimental conditions observed in several experiments, we demonstrated this by introducing a nonverbal task with three levels of effort (no task, a natural nonverbal task, or an unnatural version of the task) during a brief retention interval in a short-term digit recall task. Interference from the task during the retention interval was greater when resources were drawn away from the encoding of the stimuli by other factors, including unpredictability of the end point of the list, rapid presentation, and a secondary task during list presentation. When those conditions complicate encoding of the list, we argue, attention is needed after the list so that the contents of passive memory (i.e., postcategorical phonological storage and/or precategorical sensory memory) may be retrieved and become the focus of attention for recall.

Online Modulation of Selective Attention is not Impaired in Healthy Aging.

PubMed

Sekuler, Robert; Huang, Jie; Sekuler, Allison B; Bennett, Patrick J

2017-01-01

Background/Study Context: Reduced processing speed pervades a great many aspects of human aging and cognition. However, little is known about one aspect of cognitive aging in which speed is of the essence, namely, the speed with which older adults can deploy attention in response to a cue. The authors compared rapid temporal modulation of cued visual attention in younger (M age  = 22.3 years) and older (M age  = 68.9 years) adults. On each trial of a short-term memory task, a cue identified which of two briefly presented stimuli was task relevant and which one should be ignored. After a short delay, subjects demonstrated recall by reproducing from memory the task-relevant stimulus. This produced estimates of (i) accuracy with which the task-relevant stimulus was recalled, (ii) the influence of stimuli encountered on previous trials (a prototype effect), and (iii) the influence of the trial's task-irrelevant stimulus. For both groups, errors in recall were considerably smaller when selective attention was cued before rather than after presentation of the stimuli. Both groups showed serial position effects to the same degree, and both seemed equally adept at exploiting the stimuli encountered on previous trials as a means of supplementing recall accuracy on the current trial. Younger and older subjects may not differ reliably in capacity for cue-directed temporal modulation of selective attention, or in ability to draw on previously seen stimuli as memory support.

Impact of auditory selective attention on verbal short-term memory and vocabulary development.

PubMed

Majerus, Steve; Heiligenstein, Lucie; Gautherot, Nathalie; Poncelet, Martine; Van der Linden, Martial

2009-05-01

This study investigated the role of auditory selective attention capacities as a possible mediator of the well-established association between verbal short-term memory (STM) and vocabulary development. A total of 47 6- and 7-year-olds were administered verbal immediate serial recall and auditory attention tasks. Both task types probed processing of item and serial order information because recent studies have shown this distinction to be critical when exploring relations between STM and lexical development. Multiple regression and variance partitioning analyses highlighted two variables as determinants of vocabulary development: (a) a serial order processing variable shared by STM order recall and a selective attention task for sequence information and (b) an attentional variable shared by selective attention measures targeting item or sequence information. The current study highlights the need for integrative STM models, accounting for conjoined influences of attentional capacities and serial order processing capacities on STM performance and the establishment of the lexical language network.

Serial Position Effects in Nonword Repetition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gupta, P.; Lipinski, J.; Abbs, B.; Lin, P.H.

2005-01-01

A growing body of research has emphasized the linkage between performance in immediate serial recall of lists, nonword repetition, and word learning. Recently, it has been reported that primacy and recency effects are obtained in repetition of individual syllables within nonwords (Gupta, in press). Five experiments examined whether such…

Moderate psychosocial stress appears not to impair recall of words learned 4 weeks prior to stress exposure.

PubMed

Wolf, Oliver T; Schommer, Nicole C; Hellhammer, Dirk H; Reischies, Friedel M; Kirschbaum, Clemens

2002-02-01

Recent studies in humans have reported that recall of previously learned material is especially sensitive to the disruptive effects of pharmacologically induced cortisol elevations. Whether similar effects occur after exposure to psychosocial stress remains to be shown. Moreover it is unknown whether stress before or after the initial learning interacts with the later effects of repeated stress on delayed recall (e.g. state-dependent learning). Forty subjects participated in the present experiment. They learned a word list either one hour before or 10 min after exposure to a psychosocial laboratory stressor. Delayed recall was tested 4 weeks later, again either before or after stress. Salivary cortisol levels increased significantly in response to both stress exposures. Stress had no effects on the initial learning and also did not impair delayed recall. Moreover there was no evidence for state-dependent learning. The current data seem to be in conflict with previous studies demonstrating that delayed recall is especially sensitive to elevated cortisol levels. Several reasons for these discrepancies are discussed. Among them is the small sample size, the moderate cortisol increase in response to the second stress exposure but also the long recall delay, which might lead to memory traces less susceptible to stress.

The spacing effect in immediate and delayed free recall.

PubMed

Godbole, Namrata R; Delaney, Peter F; Verkoeijen, Peter P J L

2014-01-01

Spacing repetitions improves learning relative to massing repetitions (the spacing effect). While most studies have examined the spacing effect at short retention intervals, there are contradictory claims about its fate at a delay. Certain empirical findings suggest that the spacing effect persists at a delay. However, a recent theoretical account proposes that in free recall the spacing effect should disappear at a delay. The few studies that have examined the spacing effect at a delay are sub-optimally designed, preventing an unbiased conclusion. The current study used incidental learning and controlled recency and encoding strategy in order to examine the effect of delay on the recall of spaced items within a free recall paradigm. The results demonstrated that the spacing effect persists after a delay. The results point to an important dissociation between intentional forgetting and context-change designs (which produce more forgetting of spaced than massed items) and the passage of time (which produces similar forgetting of spaced and massed items).

Auditory attentional capture during serial recall: violations at encoding of an algorithm-based neural model?

PubMed

Hughes, Robert W; Vachon, François; Jones, Dylan M

2005-07-01

A novel attentional capture effect is reported in which visual-verbal serial recall was disrupted if a single deviation in the interstimulus interval occurred within otherwise regularly presented task-irrelevant spoken items. The degree of disruption was the same whether the temporal deviant was embedded in a sequence made up of a repeating item or a sequence of changing items. Moreover, the effect was evident during the presentation of the to-be-remembered sequence but not during rehearsal just prior to recall, suggesting that the encoding of sequences is particularly susceptible. The results suggest that attentional capture is due to a violation of an algorithm rather than an aggregate-based neural model and further undermine an attentional capture-based account of the classical changing-state irrelevant sound effect. ((c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved).

Roles of hippocampal subfields in verbal and visual episodic memory.

PubMed

Zammit, Andrea R; Ezzati, Ali; Zimmerman, Molly E; Lipton, Richard B; Lipton, Michael L; Katz, Mindy J

2017-01-15

Selective hippocampal (HC) subfield atrophy has been reported in older adults with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. The goal of this study was to investigate the associations between the volume of hippocampal subfields and visual and verbal episodic memory in cognitively normal older adults. This study was conducted on a subset of 133 participants from the Einstein Aging Study (EAS), a community-based study of non-demented older adults systematically recruited from the Bronx, N.Y. All participants completed comprehensive EAS neuropsychological assessment. Visual episodic memory was assessed using the Complex Figure Delayed Recall subtest from the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS). Verbal episodic memory was assessed using Delayed Recall from the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT). All participants underwent 3T MRI brain scanning with subsequent automatic measurement of the hemispheric hippocampal subfield volumes (CA1, CA2-CA3, CA4-dente gyrus, presubiculum, and subiculum). We used linear regressions to model the association between hippocampal subfield volumes and visual and verbal episodic memory tests while adjusting for age, sex, education, and total intracranial volume. Participants had a mean age of 78.9 (SD=5.1) and 60.2% were female. Total hippocampal volume was associated with Complex Figure Delayed Recall (β=0.31, p=0.001) and FCSRT Delayed Recall (β=0.27, p=0.007); subiculum volume was associated with Complex Figure Delayed Recall (β=0.27, p=0.002) and FCSRT Delayed Recall (β=0.24, p=0.010); CA1 was associated with Complex Figure Delayed Recall (β=0.26, p<0.002) and FCSRT Delayed Recall (β=0.20, p=0.025). Our findings confirm previous research on the specific roles of CA1 and subiculum in episodic memory. Our results suggest that hippocampal subfields have sensitive roles in the process of visual and verbal episodic memory. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Alterations in working memory as a function of leukoaraiosis in dementia.

PubMed

Lamar, Melissa; Price, Catherine C; Libon, David J; Penney, Dana L; Kaplan, Edith; Grossman, Murray; Heilman, Kenneth M

2007-01-28

Dementia research suggests executive dysfunction is best understood within the context of disease-specific neuropathology. Leukoaraiosis (LA) results in executive dysfunction yet little is known about its impact on specific aspects of working memory (WM). This study aimed to investigate the relationship between MRI LA severity and WM in dementia. A visual rating scale was used to assign patients with dementia into groups with minimal-mild LA (Low LA; n=34) and moderate-severe LA (High LA; n=32). A modified Digit Span Backward Task consisting of 3-, 4-, and 5-span trials measured specific components of WM. Short-term storage and rehearsal in WM were assessed by the total number of digits reported regardless of recall order (ANY-ORDER; e.g., 47981 recalled '18943', score=4). Mental manipulation in the form of disengagement and temporal re-ordering was assessed by the total number of digits recalled in correct position (SERIAL-ORDER; e.g., 47981 recalled '18943', score=3). There was no difference between LA groups on ANY-ORDER comparisons. The High LA group obtained lower SERIAL-ORDER scores than the Low LA group. Stepwise regression analyses were conducted that first entered MMSE scores then composite z-scores reflecting executive functioning, language and memory. ANY-ORDER performance variance was explained solely by dementia severity. SERIAL-ORDER performance variance was further explained by executive dysfunction. Results suggest that high degrees of LA do not interfere with immediate (digit) recall but do interfere with disengagement and temporal re-ordering. LA may disconnect the frontal lobes from subcortical and cortical structures that form the neuronal networks critical for these WM functions.

Delineating the contribution of long-term associations to immediate recall.

PubMed

Saint-Aubin, Jean; Guérard, Katherine; Chamberland, Cindy; Malenfant, Amélie

2014-01-01

In the present study we examined the contribution of semantic associative links to short-term recall performance by using the separation effect first introduced in free recall studies (Glanzer, 1969). Pairs of associated words were inserted in the to-be-remembered lists. In two experiments associated words were better recalled than non-associated words, and were better recalled when they were adjacent in the list than when they were separated by one non-associated item. In addition results showed that forward associative links among pair members were as beneficial to immediate serial recall as backward associative links. Finally the benefit of associative links among pair members was observed with both forward and backward recall.

Serial recall, word frequency, and mixed lists: the influence of item arrangement.

PubMed

Miller, Leonie M; Roodenrys, Steven

2012-11-01

Studies of the effect of word frequency in the serial recall task show that lists of high-frequency words are better recalled than lists of low-frequency words; however, when high- and low-frequency words are alternated within a list, there is no difference in the level of recall for the two types of words, and recall is intermediate between lists of pure frequency. This pattern has been argued to arise from the development of a network of activated long-term representations of list items that support the redintegration of all list items in a nondirectional and nonspecific way. More recently, it has been proposed that the frequency effect might be a product of the coarticulation of items at word boundaries and their influence on rehearsal rather than a consequence of memory representations. The current work examines recall performance in mixed lists of an equal number of high- and low-frequency items arranged in contiguous segments (i.e., HHHLLL and LLLHHH), under quiet and articulatory suppression conditions, to test whether the effect is (a) nondirectional and (b) dependent on articulatory processes. These experiments demonstrate that neither explanation is satisfactory, although the results suggest that the effect is mnemonic. A language-based approach to short-term memory is favored with emphasis on the role of speech production processes at output.

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…

Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory: Quality and Quantity of Retention Over Time

PubMed Central

LePort, Aurora K. R.; Stark, Shauna M.; McGaugh, James L.; Stark, Craig E. L.

2016-01-01

Individuals who have Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM) are able to recall, with considerable accuracy, details of daily experiences that occurred over many previous decades. The present study parametrically investigates the quantity and quality of details of autobiographical memories acquired 1-week, 1-month, 1-year, and 10-years prior in HSAMs and controls. In addition, we tested the consistency of details provided at the 1-week delay by testing the subjects 1 month later with a surprise assessment. At the 1-week delay, HSAMs and controls recalled an equivalent number of events. In contrast, HSAM recall performance was superior at more remote delays, with remarkable consistency following a 1-month delay. Further, we revealed a relationship between the consistency of recall and HSAMs’ obsessive–compulsive tendencies. These data suggest that HSAMs experience normal encoding, yet enhanced consolidation and later recall of autobiographical events. PMID:26834661

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)

Lexical and Semantic Binding in Verbal Short-Term Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jefferies, Elizabeth; Frankish, Clive R.; Ralph, Matthew A. Lambon

2006-01-01

Semantic dementia patients make numerous phoneme migration errors in their immediate serial recall of poorly comprehended words. In this study, similar errors were induced in the word recall of healthy participants by presenting unpredictable mixed lists of words and nonwords. This technique revealed that lexicality, word frequency, imageability,…

Free Recall of Differentially Arousing Words.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Osborne, John W.

Subjects in an independent groups free learning experiment recalled list of low- or high-arousal words, matched for imagery and frequency and exposed randomly for 3 seconds and 9 seconds. Extrapolating neural consolidation theory to previous work on serial position effects led to the predictions that (1) arousal facilitates primacy; (2) arousal…

The effect of paired pitch, rhythm, and speech on working memory as measured by sequential digit recall.

PubMed

Silverman, Michael J

2007-01-01

Educational and therapeutic objectives are often paired with music to facilitate the recall of information. The purpose of this study was to isolate and determine the effect of paired pitch, rhythm, and speech on undergraduate's memory as measured by sequential digit recall performance. Participants (N = 120) listened to 4 completely counterbalanced treatment conditions each consisting of 9 randomized monosyllabic digits paired with speech, pitch, rhythm, and the combination of pitch and rhythm. No statistically significant learning or order effects were found across the 4 trials. A 3-way repeated-measures ANOVA indicated a statistically significant difference in digit recall performance across treatment conditions, positions, groups, and treatment by position. No other comparisons resulted in statistically significant differences. Participants were able to recall digits from the rhythm condition most accurately while recalling digits from the speech and pitch only conditions the least accurately. Consistent with previous research, the music major participants scored significantly higher than non-music major participants and the main effect associated with serial position indicated that recall performance was best during primacy and recency positions. Analyses indicated an interaction between serial position and treatment condition, also a result consistent with previous research. The results of this study suggest that pairing information with rhythm can facilitate recall but pairing information with pitch or the combination of pitch and rhythm may not enhance recall more than speech when participants listen to an unfamiliar musical selection only once. Implications for practice in therapy and education are made as well as suggestions for future research.

Retention-error patterns in complex alphanumeric serial-recall tasks.

PubMed

Mathy, Fabien; Varré, Jean-Stéphane

2013-01-01

We propose a new method based on an algorithm usually dedicated to DNA sequence alignment in order to both reliably score short-term memory performance on immediate serial-recall tasks and analyse retention-error patterns. There can be considerable confusion on how performance on immediate serial list recall tasks is scored, especially when the to-be-remembered items are sampled with replacement. We discuss the utility of sequence-alignment algorithms to compare the stimuli to the participants' responses. The idea is that deletion, substitution, translocation, and insertion errors, which are typical in DNA, are also typical putative errors in short-term memory (respectively omission, confusion, permutation, and intrusion errors). We analyse four data sets in which alphanumeric lists included a few (or many) repetitions. After examining the method on two simple data sets, we show that sequence alignment offers 1) a compelling method for measuring capacity in terms of chunks when many regularities are introduced in the material (third data set) and 2) a reliable estimator of individual differences in short-term memory capacity. This study illustrates the difficulty of arriving at a good measure of short-term memory performance, and also attempts to characterise the primary factors underpinning remembering and forgetting.

Adding Recognition Discriminability Index to the Delayed Recall Is Useful to Predict Conversion from Mild Cognitive Impairment to Alzheimer's Disease in the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative.

PubMed

Russo, María J; Campos, Jorge; Vázquez, Silvia; Sevlever, Gustavo; Allegri, Ricardo F

2017-01-01

Background: Ongoing research is focusing on the identification of those individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) who are most likely to convert to Alzheimer's disease (AD). We investigated whether recognition memory tasks in combination with delayed recall measure of episodic memory and CSF biomarkers can predict MCI to AD conversion at 24-month follow-up. Methods: A total of 397 amnestic-MCI subjects from Alzheimer's disease Neuroimaging Initiative were included. Logistic regression modeling was done to assess the predictive value of all RAVLT measures, risk factors such as age, sex, education, APOE genotype, and CSF biomarkers for progression to AD. Estimating adjusted odds ratios was used to determine which variables would produce an optimal predictive model, and whether adding tests of interaction between the RAVLT Delayed Recall and recognition measures (traditional score and d-prime) would improve prediction of the conversion from a-MCI to AD. Results: 112 (28.2%) subjects developed dementia and 285 (71.8%) subjects did not. Of the all included variables, CSF Aβ1-42 levels, RAVLT Delayed Recall, and the combination of RAVLT Delayed Recall and d-prime were predictive of progression to AD (χ 2 = 38.23, df = 14, p < 0.001). Conclusions: The combination of RAVLT Delayed Recall and d-prime measures may be predictor of conversion from MCI to AD in the ADNI cohort, especially in combination with amyloid biomarkers. A predictive model to help identify individuals at-risk for dementia should include not only traditional episodic memory measures (delayed recall or recognition), but also additional variables (d-prime) that allow the homogenization of the assessment procedures in the diagnosis of MCI.

Adding Recognition Discriminability Index to the Delayed Recall Is Useful to Predict Conversion from Mild Cognitive Impairment to Alzheimer's Disease in the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative

PubMed Central

Russo, María J.; Campos, Jorge; Vázquez, Silvia; Sevlever, Gustavo; Allegri, Ricardo F.; Weiner, Michael W.

2017-01-01

Background: Ongoing research is focusing on the identification of those individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) who are most likely to convert to Alzheimer's disease (AD). We investigated whether recognition memory tasks in combination with delayed recall measure of episodic memory and CSF biomarkers can predict MCI to AD conversion at 24-month follow-up. Methods: A total of 397 amnestic-MCI subjects from Alzheimer's disease Neuroimaging Initiative were included. Logistic regression modeling was done to assess the predictive value of all RAVLT measures, risk factors such as age, sex, education, APOE genotype, and CSF biomarkers for progression to AD. Estimating adjusted odds ratios was used to determine which variables would produce an optimal predictive model, and whether adding tests of interaction between the RAVLT Delayed Recall and recognition measures (traditional score and d-prime) would improve prediction of the conversion from a-MCI to AD. Results: 112 (28.2%) subjects developed dementia and 285 (71.8%) subjects did not. Of the all included variables, CSF Aβ1-42 levels, RAVLT Delayed Recall, and the combination of RAVLT Delayed Recall and d-prime were predictive of progression to AD (χ2 = 38.23, df = 14, p < 0.001). Conclusions: The combination of RAVLT Delayed Recall and d-prime measures may be predictor of conversion from MCI to AD in the ADNI cohort, especially in combination with amyloid biomarkers. A predictive model to help identify individuals at-risk for dementia should include not only traditional episodic memory measures (delayed recall or recognition), but also additional variables (d-prime) that allow the homogenization of the assessment procedures in the diagnosis of MCI. PMID:28344552

The effect of long-term working memory through personalization applied to free recall: uncurbing the primacy-effect enthusiasm.

PubMed

Guida, Alessandro; Gras, Doriane; Noel, Yvonnick; Le Bohec, Olivier; Quaireau, Christophe; Nicolas, Serge

2013-05-01

In this study, a personalization method (Guida, Tardieu, & Nicolas, European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 21: 862-896 2009) was applied to a free-recall task. Fifteen pairs of words, composed of an object and a location, were presented to 93 participants, who had to mentally associate each pair and subsequently recall the objects. A 30-s delay was introduced on half of the trials, the presentation rate was manipulated (5 or 10 s per item), and verbal and visuospatial working memory tests were administered to test for their effects on the serial curve. Two groups were constituted: a personalized group, for whom the locations were well-known places on their university campus, and a nonpersonalized group, for whom the locations did not refer to known places. Since personalization putatively operationalizes long-term working memory (Ericsson & Kintsch, Psychological Review, 102: 211-245 1995)-namely, the capacity to store information reliably and rapidly in long-term memory-and if we take a dual-store approach to memory, the personalization advantage would be expected to be greater for pre-recency than for recency items. Overall, the results were compatible with long-term working memory theory. They contribute to validating the personalization method as a methodology to characterize the contribution of long-term memory storage to performance in working memory tasks.

Association of KIBRA rs17070145 polymorphism with episodic memory in the early stages of a human neurodevelopmental disorder.

PubMed

Vyas, Nora S; Ahn, Kwangmi; Stahl, Daniel R; Caviston, Paul; Simic, Mima; Netherwood, Siobhan; Puri, Basant K; Lee, Yohan; Aitchison, Katherine J

2014-12-15

A common T/C polymorphism within the ninth intron of the KIBRA gene (rs17070145) is thought to influence memory in humans. Since cognitive impairment, including memory, is a core feature of schizophrenia, we attempted to investigate this association in an independent sample of adolescent patients with early-onset schizophrenia (EOS; onset before age 18) probands and their healthy siblings. In a sample of 25 pairs of EOS proband-healthy full sibling, we sought to investigate the association of KIBRA with memory performance. Episodic memory was measured using immediate and delayed recall measures of the California Verbal Learning Test. EOS underperformed at immediate and delayed recall compared with siblings. In a combined analysis (TT vs. TC/CC) assuming a C dominant model of inheritance, we found a main effect of genotype where individuals with TT genotype outperformed non-TT-carriers at immediate and delayed recall. A genotype by group interaction showed that EOS with TT genotype did not show a memory advantage over siblings with TT or non-TT-carriers at immediate or delayed recall. Siblings with TT genotype showed enhanced immediate recall (not delayed recall) compared with non-TT-carriers. This study demonstrates an association between the KIBRA gene and episodic memory (immediate free recall) and suggests a differential effect of this genetic variant in EOS and healthy siblings. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Examining the Relationship between Free Recall and Immediate Serial Recall: The Effects of List Length and Output Order

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ward, Geoff; Tan, Lydia; Grenfell-Essam, Rachel

2010-01-01

In 4 experiments, participants were presented with lists of between 1 and 15 words for tests of immediate memory. For all tasks, participants tended to initiate recall with the first word on the list for short lists. As the list length was increased, so there was a decreased tendency to start with the first list item; and, when free to do so,…

A comparison of pecking generated by serial, delay, and trace autoshaping procedures1

PubMed Central

Newlin, Robert J.; LoLordo, Vincent M.

1976-01-01

Pigeons were exposed to serial, delay, and trace autoshaping procedures. In Experiment I, all conditioned stimuli (CSs) were changes in illumination of the response key. The number of trials to acquisition of the keypeck increased from serial, to 4-sec delay, 8-sec delay, and 8-sec trace procedures, in that order. In Experiment II, which used a longer intertrial interval, trials to criterion increased from 8-sec delay, to 28-sec delay, 8-sec trace, and 28-sec trace procedures, in that order. In Experiment III, two groups received serial procedures in which the first CS was either a tone or a houselight, and the second was a keylight. The tone group acquired the key peck more rapidly than the houselight group. Early in conditioning in these experiments, and when the conditioned stimulus was a change in the keylight, there was a short latency to the onset of pecking and pecking was directed at the CS. After extensive conditioning, or when the CS was relatively diffuse, pecking still occurred, but had a longer latency and was not reliably directed toward the conditioned stimulus. PMID:16811907

The impact of path crossing on visuo-spatial serial memory: encoding or rehearsal effect?

PubMed

Parmentier, Fabrice B R; Andrés, Pilar

2006-11-01

The determinants of visuo-spatial serial memory have been the object of little research, despite early evidence that not all sequences are equally remembered. Recently, empirical evidence was reported indicating that the complexity of the path formed by the to-be-remembered locations impacted on recall performance, defined for example by the presence of crossings in the path formed by successive locations (Parmentier, Elford, & Maybery, 2005). In this study, we examined whether this effect reflects rehearsal or encoding processes. We examined the effect of a retention interval and spatial interference on the ordered recall of spatial sequences with and without path crossings. Path crossings decreased recall performance, as did a retention interval. In line with the encoding hypothesis, but in contrast with the rehearsal hypothesis, the effect of crossing was not affected by the retention interval nor by tapping. The possible nature of the impact of path crossing on encoding mechanisms is discussed.

Modelling Transposition Latencies: Constraints for Theories of Serial Order Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farrell, Simon; Lewandowsky, Stephan

2004-01-01

Several competing theories of short-term memory can explain serial recall performance at a quantitative level. However, most theories to date have not been applied to the accompanying pattern of response latencies, thus ignoring a rich and highly diagnostic aspect of performance. This article explores and tests the error latency predictions of…

Does Emotion Help or Hinder Immediate Memory?: Arousal Versus Priority-Binding Mechanisms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hadley, Christopher B.; MacKay, Donald G.

2006-01-01

People recall taboo words better than neutral words in many experimental contexts. The present rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) experiments demonstrated this taboo-superiority effect for immediate recall of mixed lists containing taboo and neutral words matched for familiarity, length, and category coherence. Under binding theory (MacKay et…

Precategorical Acoustic Storage and the Perception of Speech

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frankish, Clive

2008-01-01

Theoretical accounts of both speech perception and of short term memory must consider the extent to which perceptual representations of speech sounds might survive in relatively unprocessed form. This paper describes a novel version of the serial recall task that can be used to explore this area of shared interest. In immediate recall of digit…

Automatic and Controlled Processing in Sentence Recall: The Role of Long-Term and Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jefferies, E.; Lambon Ralph, M.A.; Baddeley, A.D.

2004-01-01

Immediate serial recall is better for sentences than word lists presumably because of the additional support that meaningful material receives from long-term memory. This may occur automatically, without the involvement of attention, or may require additional attentionally demanding processing. For example, the episodic buffer model (Baddeley,…

The contributions of encoding, retention, and recall to the Hebb effect.

PubMed

Oberauer, Klaus; Meyer, Nadine

2009-10-01

The article reports an experiment testing whether the Hebb repetition effect-the gradual improvement of immediate serial recall when the same list is repeated several times-depends on overt recall of the repeated lists. Previous reports which suggest that recall is critical confound the recall manipulation with retention interval. The present experiment orthogonally varies retention interval (0 or 9 s) and whether the list is to be recalled after the retention interval. Hebb repetition learning is assessed in a final test phase. A repetition effect was obtained in all four experimental conditions; it was larger for recalled than non-recalled lists, whereas retention interval had no effect. The results show that encoding is sufficient to generate cumulative long-term learning, which is strengthened by recall. Rehearsal, if it takes place in the retention interval at all, does not have the same effect on long-term learning as overt recall.

Selective attention and the three-process memory model for the interpretation of verbal free recall in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

PubMed

Christidi, Foteini; Zalonis, Ioannis; Smyrnis, Nikolaos; Evdokimidis, Ioannis

2012-09-01

The present study investigates selective attention and verbal free recall in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and examines the contribution of selective attention, encoding, consolidation, and retrieval memory processes to patients' verbal free recall. We examined 22 non-demented patients with sporadic ALS and 22 demographically related controls using Stroop Neuropsychological Screening Test (SNST; selective attention) and Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT; immediate & delayed verbal free recall). The item-specific deficit approach (ISDA) was applied to RAVLT to evaluate encoding, consolidation, and retrieval difficulties. ALS patients performed worse than controls on SNST (p < .001) and RAVLT immediate and delayed recall (p < .001) and showed deficient encoding (p = .001) and consolidation (p = .002) but not retrieval (p = .405). Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that SNST and ISDA indices accounted for: (a) 91.1% of the variance in RAVLT immediate recall, with encoding (p = .016), consolidation (p < .001), and retrieval (p = .032) significantly contributing to the overall model and the SNST alone accounting for 41.6%; and (b) 85.2% of the variance in RAVLT delayed recall, with consolidation (p < .001) and retrieval (p = .008) significantly contributing to the overall model and the SNST alone accounting for 39.8%. Thus, selective attention, encoding, and consolidation, and to a lesser extent of retrieval, influenced both immediate and delayed verbal free recall. Concluding, selective attention and the memory processes of encoding, consolidation, and retrieval should be considered while interpreting patients' impaired free recall. (JINS, 2012, 18, 1-10).

Why Do Participants Initiate Free Recall of Short Lists of Words with the First List Item? Toward a General Episodic Memory Explanation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spurgeon, Jessica; Ward, Geoff; Matthews, William J.

2014-01-01

Participants who are presented with a short list of words for immediate free recall (IFR) show a strong tendency to initiate their recall with the 1st list item and then proceed in forward serial order. We report 2 experiments that examined whether this tendency was underpinned by a short-term memory store, of the type that is argued by some to…

The Effects of Test Trial and Processing Level on Immediate and Delayed Retention.

PubMed

Chang, Sau Hou

2017-03-01

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of test trial and processing level on immediate and delayed retention. A 2 × 2 × 2 mixed ANOVAs was used with two between-subject factors of test trial (single test, repeated test) and processing level (shallow, deep), and one within-subject factor of final recall (immediate, delayed). Seventy-six college students were randomly assigned first to the single test (studied the stimulus words three times and took one free-recall test) and the repeated test trials (studied the stimulus words once and took three consecutive free-recall tests), and then to the shallow processing level (asked whether each stimulus word was presented in capital letter or in small letter) and the deep processing level (whether each stimulus word belonged to a particular category) to study forty stimulus words. The immediate test was administered five minutes after the trials, whereas the delayed test was administered one week later. Results showed that single test trial recalled more words than repeated test trial in immediate final free-recall test, participants in deep processing performed better than those in shallow processing in both immediate and delayed retention. However, the dominance of single test trial and deep processing did not happen in delayed retention. Additional study trials did not further enhance the delayed retention of words encoded in deep processing, but did enhance the delayed retention of words encoded in shallow processing.

The Effects of Test Trial and Processing Level on Immediate and Delayed Retention

PubMed Central

Chang, Sau Hou

2017-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of test trial and processing level on immediate and delayed retention. A 2 × 2 × 2 mixed ANOVAs was used with two between-subject factors of test trial (single test, repeated test) and processing level (shallow, deep), and one within-subject factor of final recall (immediate, delayed). Seventy-six college students were randomly assigned first to the single test (studied the stimulus words three times and took one free-recall test) and the repeated test trials (studied the stimulus words once and took three consecutive free-recall tests), and then to the shallow processing level (asked whether each stimulus word was presented in capital letter or in small letter) and the deep processing level (whether each stimulus word belonged to a particular category) to study forty stimulus words. The immediate test was administered five minutes after the trials, whereas the delayed test was administered one week later. Results showed that single test trial recalled more words than repeated test trial in immediate final free-recall test, participants in deep processing performed better than those in shallow processing in both immediate and delayed retention. However, the dominance of single test trial and deep processing did not happen in delayed retention. Additional study trials did not further enhance the delayed retention of words encoded in deep processing, but did enhance the delayed retention of words encoded in shallow processing. PMID:28344679

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…

Reading Time Allocation Strategies and Working Memory Using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Busler, Jessica N.; Lazarte, Alejandro A.

2017-01-01

Rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) is a useful method for controlling the timing of text presentations and studying how readers' characteristics, such as working memory (WM) and reading strategies for time allocation, influence text recall. In the current study, a modified version of RSVP (Moving Window RSVP [MW-RSVP]) was used to induce…

Verbal Working Memory and Language Production: Common Approaches to the Serial Ordering of Verbal Information

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Acheson, Daniel J.; MacDonald, Maryellen C.

2009-01-01

Verbal working memory (WM) tasks typically involve the language production architecture for recall; however, language production processes have had a minimal role in theorizing about WM. A framework for understanding verbal WM results is presented here. In this framework, domain-specific mechanisms for serial ordering in verbal WM are provided by…

Delayed Recall and Working Memory MMSE Domains Predict Delirium following Cardiac Surgery.

PubMed

Price, Catherine C; Garvan, Cynthia; Hizel, Loren P; Lopez, Marcos G; Billings, Frederic T

2017-01-01

Reduced preoperative cognition is a risk factor for postoperative delirium. The significance for type of preoperative cognitive deficit, however, has yet to be explored and could provide important insights into mechanisms and prediction of delirium. Our goal was to determine if certain cognitive domains from the general cognitive screener, the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE), predict delirium after cardiac surgery. Patients completed a preoperative MMSE prior to undergoing elective cardiac surgery. Following surgery, delirium was assessed throughout ICU stay using the Confusion Assessment Method for ICU delirium and the Richmond Agitation and Sedation Scale. Cardiac surgery patients who developed delirium (n = 137) had lower total MMSE scores than patients who did not develop delirium (n = 457). In particular, orientation to place, working memory, delayed recall, and language domain scores were lower. Of these, only the working memory and delayed recall domains predicted delirium in a regression model adjusting for history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, age, sex, and duration of cardiopulmonary bypass. For each word not recalled on the three-word delayed recall assessment, the odds of delirium increased by 50%. For each item missed on the working memory index, the odds of delirium increased by 36%. Of the patients who developed delirium, 47% had a primary impairment in memory, 21% in working memory, and 33% in both domains. The area under the receiver operating characteristics curve using only the working memory and delayed recall domains was 0.75, compared to 0.76 for total MMSE score. Delirium risk is greater for individuals with reduced MMSE scores on the delayed recall and working memory domains. Research should address why patients with memory and executive vulnerabilities are more prone to postoperative delirium than those with other cognitive limitations.

Retrieval practice improves memory in survivors of severe traumatic brain injury.

PubMed

Sumowski, James F; Coyne, Julia; Cohen, Amanda; Deluca, John

2014-02-01

To investigate whether retrieval practice (RP) improves delayed recall after short and long delays in survivors of severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) relative to massed restudy (MR) and spaced restudy (SR). 3(learning condition: MR, SR, RP)×2(delayed recall: 30min, 1wk) within-subject experiment. Nonprofit medical rehabilitation research center. Memory-impaired (<5th percentile) survivors of severe TBI (N=10). During RP, patients are quizzed on to-be-learned information shortly after it is presented, such that patients practice retrieval. MR consists of repeated restudy (ie, cramming). SR consists of restudy trials separated in time (ie, distributed learning). Forty-eight verbal paired associates (VPAs) were equally divided across 3 learning conditions (16 per condition). Delayed recall for one half of the VPAs was assessed after 30 minutes (8 per condition) and for the other half after 1 week (8 per condition). There was a large effect of learning condition after the short delay (P<.001, η(2)=.72), with much better recall of VPAs studied through RP (46.3%) relative to MR (12.5%) and SR (15.0%). This large effect of learning condition remained after the long delay (P=.001, η(2)=.56), as patients recalled 11.3% of the VPAs studied through RP, but nothing through MR (0.0%) and only 1.3% through SR. That is, RP was essentially the only learning condition to result in successful recall after 1 week, with most patients recalling at least 1 VPA. The robust effect of RP among TBI survivors with severe memory impairment engenders confidence that this strategy would work outside the laboratory to improve memory in real-life settings. Future randomized controlled trials of RP training are needed. Copyright © 2014 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

On the function of stress rhythms in speech: evidence of a link with grouping effects on serial memory.

PubMed

Boucher, Victor J

2006-01-01

Language learning requires a capacity to recall novel series of speech sounds. Research shows that prosodic marks create grouping effects enhancing serial recall. However, any restriction on memory affecting the reproduction of prosody would limit the set of patterns that could be learned and subsequently used in speech. By implication, grouping effects of prosody would also be limited to reproducible patterns. This view of the role of prosody and the contribution of memory processes in the organization of prosodic patterns is examined by evaluating the correspondence between a reported tendency to restrict stress intervals in speech and size limits on stress-grouping effects. French speech is used where stress defines the endpoints of groups. In Experiment 1, 40 speakers recalled novel series of syllables containing stress-groups of varying size. Recall was not enhanced by groupings exceeding four syllables, which corresponded to a restriction on the reproducibility of stress-groups. In Experiment 2, the subjects produced given sentences containing phrases of differing length. The results show a strong tendency to insert stress within phrases that exceed four syllables. Since prosody can arise in the recall of syntactically unstructured lists, the results offer initial support for viewing memory processes as a factor of stress-rhythm organization.

The Effect of Sign Language Rehearsal on Deaf Subjects' Immediate and Delayed Recall of English Word Lists.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bonvillian, John D.; And Others

1987-01-01

The relationship between sign language rehearsal and written free recall was examined by having deaf college students rehearse the sign language equivalents of printed English words. Studies of both immediate and delayed memory suggested that word recall increased as a function of total rehearsal frequency and frequency of appearance in rehearsal…

Remembering Plurals: Unit of Coding and Form of Coding during Serial Recall.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Der Molen, Hugo; Morton, John

1979-01-01

Adult females recalled lists of six words, including some plural nouns, presented visually in sequence. A frequent error was to detach the plural from its root. This supports a morpheme-based as opposed to a unitary word code. Evidence for a primarily phonological coding of the plural morpheme was obtained. (Author/RD)

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…

Investigating the Phonological Similarity Effect: Syllable Structure and the Position of Common Phonemes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nimmo, Lisa M.; Roodenrys, Steven

2004-01-01

The aim of the present research was to determine whether the effect that phonological similarity has on immediate serial recall is influenced by the consistency and position of phonemes within words. In comparison to phonologically dissimilar lists, when the stimulus lists rhyme there is a facilitative effect on the recall of item information and…

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.

Role of serial order in the impact of talker variability on short-term memory: testing a perceptual organization-based account.

PubMed

Hughes, Robert W; Marsh, John E; Jones, Dylan M

2011-11-01

In two experiments, we examined the impact of the degree of match between sequential auditory perceptual organization processes and the demands of a short-term memory task (memory for order vs. item information). When a spoken sequence of digits was presented so as to promote its perceptual partitioning into two distinct streams by conveying it in alternating female (F) and male (M) voices (FMFMFMFM)--thereby disturbing the perception of true temporal order--recall of item order was greatly impaired (as compared to recall of item identity). Moreover, an order error type consistent with the formation of voice-based streams was committed more quickly in the alternating-voice condition (Exp. 1). In contrast, when the perceptual organization of the sequence mapped well onto an optimal two-group serial rehearsal strategy--by presenting the two voices in discrete clusters (FFFFMMMM)--order, but not item, recall was enhanced (Exp. 2). The results are consistent with the view that the degree of compatibility between perceptual and deliberate sequencing processes is a key determinant of serial short-term memory performance. Alternative accounts of talker variability effects in short-term memory, based on the concept of a dedicated phonological short-term store and a capacity-limited focus of attention, are also reviewed.

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

The similar effects of verbal and non-verbal intervening tasks on word recall in an elderly population.

PubMed

Williams, B R; Sullivan, S K; Morra, L F; Williams, J R; Donovick, P J

2014-01-01

Vulnerability to retroactive interference has been shown to increase with cognitive aging. Consistent with the findings of memory and aging literature, the authors of the California Verbal Learning Test-II (CVLT-II) suggest that a non-verbal task be administered during the test's delay interval to minimize the effects of retroactive interference on delayed recall. The goal of the present study was to determine the extent to which retroactive interference caused by non-verbal and verbal intervening tasks affects recall of verbal information in non-demented, older adults. The effects of retroactive interference on recall of words during Long-Delay recall on the California Verbal Learning Test-II (CVLT-II) were evaluated. Participants included 85 adults age 60 and older. During a 20-minute delay interval on the CVLT-II, participants received either a verbal (WAIS-III Vocabulary or Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-IIIB) or non-verbal (Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices or WAIS-III Block Design) intervening task. Similarly to previous research with young adults (Williams & Donovick, 2008), older adults recalled the same number of words across all groups, regardless of the type of intervening task. These findings suggest that the administration of verbal intervening tasks during the CVLT-II do not elicit more retroactive interference than non-verbal intervening tasks, and thus verbal tasks need not be avoided during the delay interval of the CVLT-II.

Longitudinal study of accelerated long-term forgetting in children with genetic generalized epilepsy: Evidence of ongoing deficits.

PubMed

Grayson-Collins, Jasmin; Gascoigne, Michael B; Barton, Belinda; Webster, Richard; Gill, Deepak; Lah, Suncica

2017-09-15

Accelerated long-term forgetting (ALF) is a recently described memory disorder characterised by adequate recall after short, but not long delays. Currently, the prevailing conceptualisation of ALF is of a seizure related phenomenon. The main aim of this study was to assess whether ALF subsides as epilepsy severity and seizures abate in children with genetic generalized epilepsy (GGE). Eighteen children with GGE were compared over time to 29 healthy controls on a range of cognitive measures. The primary outcome was a modified version of the California Verbal Learning Test for Children with a long delay (seven day) recall component. At approximately two years follow up, ALF was apparent, although epilepsy severity subsided and seizures resolved in many children. This result contrasts with the dominant conceptualisation of ALF being a seizure related phenomenon. Moreover, at follow-up, worse recall at the long delay was related to greater epilepsy severity at baseline and earlier age of seizure onset, but not to being seizure free at follow-up. While at follow-up worse recall at the long delay related to the worse baseline recall at the long delay, this recall did not relate to scores obtained on standardised memory tests at baseline. Our study suggests that ALF may not be seizure related and identifies factors associated with risk of ALF in children with GGE. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Feedback in the OSCE: What Do Residents Remember?

PubMed

Humphrey-Murto, Susan; Mihok, Marika; Pugh, Debra; Touchie, Claire; Halman, Samantha; Wood, Timothy J

2016-01-01

The move to competency-based education has heightened the importance of direct observation of clinical skills and effective feedback. The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is widely used for assessment and affords an opportunity for both direct observation and feedback to occur simultaneously. For feedback to be effective, it should include direct observation, assessment of performance, provision of feedback, reflection, decision making, and use of feedback for learning and change. If one of the goals of feedback is to engage students to think about their performance (i.e., reflection), it would seem imperative that they can recall this feedback both immediately and into the future. This study explores recall of feedback in the context of an OSCE. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to (a) determine the amount and the accuracy of feedback that trainees remember immediately after an OSCE, as well as 1 month later, and (b) assess whether prompting immediate recall improved delayed recall. Internal medicine residents received 2 minutes of verbal feedback from physician examiners in the context of an OSCE. The feedback was audio-recorded and later transcribed. Residents were randomly allocated to the immediate recall group (immediate-RG; n = 10) or the delayed recall group (delayed-RG; n = 8). The immediate-RG completed a questionnaire prompting recall of feedback received immediately after the OSCE, and then again 1 month later. The delayed-RG completed a questionnaire only 1 month after the OSCE. The total number and accuracy of feedback points provided by examiners were compared to the points recalled by residents. Results comparing recall at 1 month between the immediate-RG and the delayed-RG were also studied. Physician examiners provided considerably more feedback points (M = 16.3) than the residents recalled immediately after the OSCE (M = 2.61, p < .001). There was no significant difference between the number of feedback points recalled upon completion of the OSCE (2.61) compared to 1 month later (M = 1.96, p = .06, Cohen's d = .70). Prompting immediate recall did not improve later recall. The mean accuracy score for feedback recall immediately after the OSCE was 4.3/9 or "somewhat representative," and at 1 month the score dropped to 3.5/9 or "not representative" (ns). Residents recall very few feedback points immediately after the OSCE and 1 month later. The feedback points that are recalled are neither very accurate nor representative of the feedback actually provided.

Categorization skills and recall in brain damaged children: a multiple case study.

PubMed

Mello, Claudia Berlim de; Muszkat, Mauro; Xavier, Gilberto Fernando; Bueno, Orlando Francisco Amodeo

2009-09-01

During development, children become capable of categorically associating stimuli and of using these relationships for memory recall. Brain damage in childhood can interfere with this development. This study investigated categorical association of stimuli and recall in four children with brain damages. The etiology, topography and timing of the lesions were diverse. Tasks included naming and immediate recall of 30 perceptually and semantically related figures, free sorting, delayed recall, and cued recall of the same material. Traditional neuropsychological tests were also employed. Two children with brain damage sustained in middle childhood relied on perceptual rather than on categorical associations in making associations between figures and showed deficits in delayed or cued recall, in contrast to those with perinatal lesions. One child exhibited normal performance in recall despite categorical association deficits. The present results suggest that brain damaged children show deficits in categorization and recall that are not usually identified in traditional neuropsychological tests.

Preschoolers can make highly accurate judgments of learning.

PubMed

Lipowski, Stacy L; Merriman, William E; Dunlosky, John

2013-08-01

Preschoolers' ability to make judgments of learning (JOLs) was examined in 3 experiments in which they were taught proper names for animals. In Experiment 1, when judgments were made immediately after studying, nearly every child predicted subsequent recall of every name. When judgments were made after a delay, fewer showed this response tendency. The delayed JOLs of those who predicted at least 1 recall failure were still overconfident, however, and were not correlated with final recall. In Experiment 2, children received a second study trial with feedback, made JOLs after a delay, and completed an additional forced-choice judgment task. In this task, an animal whose name had been recalled was pitted against an animal whose name had not been recalled, and the children chose the one they were more likely to remember later. Compared with Experiment 1, more children predicted at least 1 recall failure and predictions were moderately accurate. In the forced-choice task, animal names that had just been successfully recalled were typically chosen over ones that had not. Experiment 3 examined the effect of providing an additional retrieval attempt on delayed JOLs. Half of the children received a single study session, and half received an additional study session with feedback. Children in the practice group showed less overconfidence than those in the no-practice group. Taken together, the results suggest that, with minimal task experience, most preschoolers understand that they will not remember everything and that if they cannot recall something at present, they are unlikely to recall it in the future. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).

The Effects of Aging on Time Reproduction in Delayed Free-Recall

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rakitin, B.C.; Stern, Y.; Malapani, C.

2005-01-01

The experiments presented here demonstrate that normal aging amplifies differences in time production occurring in delayed free-recall testing. Experiment 1 compared the time production ability of two healthy aged groups as well as college-aged participants. During the test session, which followed a 24-h delay and omitted all feedback and examples…

Hyperactivity, drugs and attention deficit.

PubMed

Pozzi, M; Hartley, L

1984-09-01

Thirty-two hyperactive children who were under imipramine or methylphenidate medication took part in the experiment. The children were asked to learn a set of paired associate pictures containing a salient, central, figure and a secondary figure below. Free recall of all pictures was scored both immediately and seven days later. The children were subdivided into four groups according to the classical state-dependent learning paradigm. Group 1 was withdrawn from medication on both trials, groups 2 and 3 were withdrawn from medication on the first or second trial and group 4 received medication on both trials. No drug effects were found in immediate total recall. Delayed free recall was improved when original learning was under the drug state. This result was related to the proposal that arousing words are better remembered in delayed recall. Delayed recall of the secondary stimuli was particularly improved by the drugs during learning. Drug state dependency of the children's memory was also shown.

Tell Me Everything You Discussed: Children's Memory for Dyadic Conversations after a 1-Week or a 3-Week Delay.

PubMed

Lawson, Monica; London, Kamala

2015-08-01

In child abuse investigations, children are often asked to recount previous conversations related to the allegations (i.e., "conversational testimony"). To explore children's ability to provide conversational testimony, we staged a semi-structured novel dyadic conversation between an adult researcher and 8-year-old children (n = 90). Children's gist recall and recognition memory for their own statements, their conversational partner's statements, and question-answer pairs were tested after either a 1-week or a 3-week delay. The results revealed that children recounted a minority of the conversation, although children recalled more after a short delay (7%) than after a long delay (4%). A majority of children's free recall statements were accurate (68%); however, approximately one-third of their free recall statements were incorrect. Children almost exclusively recounted their own statements, and rarely recalled any of the adult's statements or the question-answer pairs during free recall. Reports of the adult's statements and question-answer pairs increased with cued recall questioning, but remained minimal. During recognition testing, children were able to distinguish between true and false recognition items for their own statements and the adult's statements, but performed at chance level on recognition items concerning question-answer pairs. Forensic implications of the results are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Memory and Obstructive Sleep Apnea: A Meta-Analysis

PubMed Central

Wallace, Anna; Bucks, Romola S.

2013-01-01

Study Objectives: To examine episodic memory performance in individuals with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Design Meta-analysis was used to synthesize results from individual studies examining the impact of OSA on episodic memory performance. The performance of individuals with OSA was compared to healthy controls or normative data. Participants Forty-two studies were included, comprising 2,294 adults with untreated OSA and 1,364 healthy controls. Studies that recorded information about participants at baseline prior to treatment interventions were included in the analysis. Measurements Participants were assessed with tasks that included a measure of episodic memory: immediate recall, delayed recall, learning, and/or recognition memory. Results: The results of the meta-analyses provide evidence that individuals with OSA are significantly impaired when compared to healthy controls on verbal episodic memory (immediate recall, delayed recall, learning, and recognition) and visuo-spatial episodic memory (immediate and delayed recall), but not visual immediate recall or visuo-spatial learning. When patients were compared to norms, negative effects of OSA were found only in verbal immediate and delayed recall. Conclusions: This meta-analysis contributes to understanding of the nature of episodic memory deficits in individuals with OSA. Impairments to episodic memory are likely to affect the daily functioning of individuals with OSA. Citation Wallace A; Bucks RS. Memory and obstructive sleep apnea: a meta-analysis. SLEEP 2013;36(2):203-220. PMID:23372268

The effect of selective attention and a stimulus prefix on the output order of immediate free recall of short and long lists.

PubMed

Grenfell-Essam, Rachel; Ward, Geoff

2015-03-01

Participants tend to initiate immediate free recall (IFR) of short lists of words with the first word in the list (Serial Position 1 [SP1]) and then proceed in forward serial order. Two potential explanations for this finding were examined: that the first items have increased selective attention (Experiment 1A and 1B) and enhanced temporal distinctiveness (Experiment 2) relative to subsequent list items. In Experiments 1A and 1B, participants were presented with lists of colored words for IFR. The experimental group was told that some trials would contain a red word and that when this occurred, they should output this word first in recall before recalling as many other words as they could. This instruction was designed to shift attention away from SP1 and toward the red item. The control group participants received identical stimuli but were unaware of the importance of the colored words and had no output order constraints. The overall recall of SP1 was not greatly affected in either experiment. In Experiment 2, participants were presented with lists containing between 2 and 12 words. Half of the trials contained a triple word stimulus prefix. For short lists in IFR, the overall recall of SP1 and the tendency to initiate recall with SP1 were reduced but far from eliminated by the stimulus prefix. We argue that our findings may be explained within a grouping interpretation in which the tendency to initiate recall with the first to-be-remembered item may reflect participants' tendency to output the first word in a highly salient participant-determined group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Immediate and delayed recall of a small-scale spatial array.

PubMed

Tlauka, Michael; Donaldson, Phillip; Bonnar, Daniel

2015-01-01

The study examined people's spatial memory of a small-scale array of objects. Earlier work has primarily relied on short-retention intervals, and to date it is not known whether performance is affected by longer intervals between learning and recall. In the present investigation, university students studied seven target objects. Recall was tested immediately after learning and after an interval of seven days. Performance was found to be similar in the immediate and delayed conditions, and the results suggested that recall was facilitated by egocentric and intrinsic cues. The findings are discussed with reference to recent investigations that have shown task parameters can influence spatial recall.

Chunk Limits and Length Limits in Immediate Recall: A Reconciliation

PubMed Central

Chen, Zhijian; Cowan, Nelson

2008-01-01

Whereas some research on immediate recall of verbal lists has suggested that it is limited by the number of chunks that can be recalled (e.g., Tulving & Patkau, 1962; Cowan, Chen, & Rouder, 2004), other research has suggested that it is limited by the length of the material to be recalled (e.g., Baddeley, Thomson, & Buchanan, 1975). We investigated this question by teaching new paired associations between words to create two-word chunks. The results suggest that both chunk capacity limits and length limits come into play. For the free recall of 12-word lists, 6 pre-learned pairs could be recalled about as well as 6 pre-exposed singletons, suggesting a chunk limit. However, for the serially-ordered recall of 8-word lists, 4 pre-learned pairs could be recalled about as well as 8 pre-exposed singletons, suggesting a length limit. Other conditions yielded intermediate results suggesting that sometimes both limits may operate together. PMID:16393043

Multiple Roles for Time in Short-Term Memory: Evidence from Serial Recall of Order and Timing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farrell, Simon

2008-01-01

Three experiments are reported that examine the relationship between short-term memory for time and order information, and the more specific claim that order memory is driven by a timing signal. Participants were presented with digits spaced irregularly in time and postcued (Experiments 1 and 2) or precued (Experiment 3) to recall the order or…

Short-Term Memory Stages in Sign vs. Speech: The Source of the Serial Span Discrepancy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hall, Matthew L.; Bavelier, Daphne

2011-01-01

Speakers generally outperform signers when asked to recall a list of unrelated verbal items. This phenomenon is well established, but its source has remained unclear. In this study, we evaluate the relative contribution of the three main processing stages of short-term memory--perception, encoding, and recall--in this effect. The present study…

Paced Reading in Semantic Dementia: Word Knowledge Contributes to Phoneme Binding in Rapid Speech Production

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jefferies, Elizabeth; Grogan, John; Mapelli, Cristina; Isella, Valeria

2012-01-01

Patients with semantic dementia (SD) show deficits in phoneme binding in immediate serial recall: when attempting to reproduce a sequence of words that they no longer fully understand, they show frequent migrations of phonemes between items (e.g., cap, frog recalled as "frap, cog"). This suggests that verbal short-term memory emerges directly from…

Laminar Cortical Dynamics of Cognitive and Motor Working Memory, Sequence Learning and Performance: Toward a Unified Theory of How the Cerebral Cortex Works

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grossberg, Stephen; Pearson, Lance R.

2008-01-01

How does the brain carry out working memory storage, categorization, and voluntary performance of event sequences? The LIST PARSE neural model proposes an answer that unifies the explanation of cognitive, neurophysiological, and anatomical data. It quantitatively simulates human cognitive data about immediate serial recall and free recall, and…

The word-length effect and disyllabic words.

PubMed

Lovatt, P; Avons, S E; Masterson, J

2000-02-01

Three experiments compared immediate serial recall of disyllabic words that differed on spoken duration. Two sets of long- and short-duration words were selected, in each case maximizing duration differences but matching for frequency, familiarity, phonological similarity, and number of phonemes, and controlling for semantic associations. Serial recall measures were obtained using auditory and visual presentation and spoken and picture-pointing recall. In Experiments 1a and 1b, using the first set of items, long words were better recalled than short words. In Experiments 2a and 2b, using the second set of items, no difference was found between long and short disyllabic words. Experiment 3 confirmed the large advantage for short-duration words in the word set originally selected by Baddeley, Thomson, and Buchanan (1975). These findings suggest that there is no reliable advantage for short-duration disyllables in span tasks, and that previous accounts of a word-length effect in disyllables are based on accidental differences between list items. The failure to find an effect of word duration casts doubt on theories that propose that the capacity of memory span is determined by the duration of list items or the decay rate of phonological information in short-term memory.

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.

Memory consolidation in aging and MCI after 1 week

PubMed Central

Walsh, Christine M; Wilkins, Sarah; Bettcher, Brianne Magouirk; Butler, Christopher R; Miller, Bruce L; Kramer, Joel H

2014-01-01

Objective To assess consolidation in amnestic mild cognitive (aMCI) impairment, controlling for differences in initial learning and using a protracted delay period for recall. Methods Fifteen individuals with MCI were compared to fifteen healthy older adult controls on a story learning task. Subjects were trained to criteria to equalize initial learning across subjects. Recall was tested at both the 30-minute typically used delay and a 1-week delay used to target consolidation. Results Using repeated measures ANOVAs adjusted for age, we found group × time point interactions across the entire task between the final trial and 30-minute delay, and again between the 30-minute and 1-week delay periods, with MCI having greater declines in recall as compared to controls. Significant group main effects were also found, with MCI recalling less than controls. Conclusion Consolidation was impaired in aMCI as compared to controls. Our findings indicate that MCI-related performance typically measured at 30 minutes underestimates MCI-associated memory deficits. This is the first study to isolate consolidation by controlling for initial learning differences and using a protracted delay period to target consolidation in an MCI sample. PMID:24219610

Short-term Memory in Childhood Dyslexia: Deficient Serial Order in Multiple Modalities.

PubMed

Cowan, Nelson; Hogan, Tiffany P; Alt, Mary; Green, Samuel; Cabbage, Kathryn L; Brinkley, Shara; Gray, Shelley

2017-08-01

In children with dyslexia, deficits in working memory have not been well-specified. We assessed second-grade children with dyslexia, with and without concomitant specific language impairment, and children with typical development. Immediate serial recall of lists of phonological (non-word), lexical (digit), spatial (location) and visual (shape) items were included. For the latter three modalities, we used not only standard span but also running span tasks, in which the list length was unpredictable to limit mnemonic strategies. Non-word repetition tests indicated a phonological memory deficit in children with dyslexia alone compared with those with typical development, but this difference vanished when these groups were matched for non-verbal intelligence and language. Theoretically important deficits in serial order memory in dyslexic children, however, persisted relative to matched typically developing children. The deficits were in recall of (1) spoken digits in both standard and running span tasks and (2) spatial locations, in running span only. Children with dyslexia with versus without language impairment, when matched on non-verbal intelligence, had comparable serial order memory, but differed in phonology. Because serial orderings of verbal and spatial elements occur in reading, the careful examination of order memory may allow a deeper understanding of dyslexia and its relation to language impairment. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Rehearsal significantly improves immediate and delayed recall on the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test.

PubMed

Hessen, Erik

2011-10-01

A repeated observation during memory assessment with the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) is that patients who spontaneously employ a memory rehearsal strategy by repeating the word list more than once achieve better scores than patients who only repeat the word list once. This observation led to concern about the ability of the standard test procedure of RAVLT and similar tests in eliciting the best possible recall scores. The purpose of the present study was to test the hypothesis that a rehearsal recall strategy of repeating the word list more than once would result in improved scores of recall on the RAVLT. We report on differences in outcome after standard administration and after experimental administration on Immediate and Delayed Recall measures from the RAVLT of 50 patients. The experimental administration resulted in significantly improved scores for all the variables employed. Additionally, it was found that patients who failed effort screening showed significantly poorer improvement on Delayed Recall compared with those who passed the effort screening. The general clear improvement both in raw scores and T-scores demonstrates that recall performance can be significantly influenced by the strategy of the patient or by small variations in instructions by the examiner.

Phonological and Visual Similarity Effects in Chinese and English Language Users: Implications for the Use of Cognitive Resources in Short-Term Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cole, Rachel L.; Pickering, Susan J.

2010-01-01

This study investigated the encoding strategies employed by Chinese and English language users when recalling sequences of pictured objects. The working memory performance of native English participants (n = 14) and Chinese speakers of English as a second language (Chinese ESL; n = 14) was compared using serial recall of visually-presented…

Evidence of Anticipatory Eye Movements in the Spatial Hebb Repetition Effect: Insights for Modeling Sequence Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tremblay, Sebastien; Saint-Aubin, Jean

2009-01-01

In the present study, the authors offer a window onto the mechanisms that drive the Hebb repetition effect through the analysis of eye movement and recall performance. In a spatial serial recall task in which sequences of dots are to be remembered in order, when one particular series is repeated every 4 trials, memory performance markedly improves…

The Relationship between Semantic Short-Term Memory and Immediate Serial Recall of Known and Unknown Words and Nonwords: Data from Two Chinese Individuals with Aphasia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Winsy; Low, Sam-Po

2008-01-01

The present study investigated verbal recall of semantically preserved and degraded words and nonwords by taking into consideration the status of one's semantic short-term memory (STM). Two experiments were conducted on 2 Chinese individuals with aphasia. The first experiment showed that they had largely preserved phonological processing abilities…

Concreteness effects in short-term memory: a test of the item-order hypothesis.

PubMed

Roche, Jaclynn; Tolan, G Anne; Tehan, Gerald

2011-12-01

The following experiments explore word length and concreteness effects in short-term memory within an item-order processing framework. This framework asserts order memory is better for those items that are relatively easy to process at the item level. However, words that are difficult to process benefit at the item level for increased attention/resources being applied. The prediction of the model is that differential item and order processing can be detected in episodic tasks that differ in the degree to which item or order memory are required by the task. The item-order account has been applied to the word length effect such that there is a short word advantage in serial recall but a long word advantage in item recognition. The current experiment considered the possibility that concreteness effects might be explained within the same framework. In two experiments, word length (Experiment 1) and concreteness (Experiment 2) are examined using forward serial recall, backward serial recall, and item recognition. These results for word length replicate previous studies showing the dissociation in item and order tasks. The same was not true for the concreteness effect. In all three tasks concrete words were better remembered than abstract words. The concreteness effect cannot be explained in terms of an item-order trade off. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved.

Serial position effects in recall of television commercials.

PubMed

Terry, W Scott

2005-04-01

Does the position of a television commercial in a block of commercials determine how well it will be recalled? The findings of naturalistic studies can be affected by uncontrolled presentation, viewing, and retention variables. In the present article, college students viewed lists of 15 commercials in a laboratory simulation and recalled the product brand names. In an immediate test, the first commercials in a list were well recalled (a primacy effect), as were the last items (a recency effect), in comparison with the recall of middle items. In an end-of-session test, the primacy effect persisted, but the recency effect disappeared. Embedding lists within a television program again produced better recall of the first items during end-of-session tests of recall and recognition. These results offered convergent validity for the naturalistic studies of commercial memory, and they supported the usefulness of combining laboratory and field methods to answer questions about everyday memory.

Interference effects on commonly used memory tasks.

PubMed

Brophy, Linda M; Jackson, Martin; Crowe, Simon F

2009-02-01

This paper reports two studies which investigated the effect of interference on delayed recall scores of the WMS-III and other commonly used memory measures. In Study 1, participants completed the immediate and delayed components of the WMS-III, with or without the introduction of conceptually similar memory tasks between the recall trials. In Study 2, this order of administration was reversed, with the WMS-III subtests used as the interference items. The results indicated that the introduction of interference items during the delay negatively affected delayed recall performance on almost all sub-tests. In addition, equal effects of proactive and retroactive interference were demonstrated. These findings raise concerns regarding the standardization process for memory tasks and highlight the need to consider interference effects in clinical practice, and stand as a caution in the use of memory-related materials during the delay interval in memory testing.

Pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic analysis of mnesic effects of lorazepam in healthy volunteers.

PubMed

Blin, O; Jacquet, A; Callamand, S; Jouve, E; Habib, M; Gayraud, D; Durand, A; Bruguerolle, B; Pisano, P

1999-10-01

To describe the pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic modelling of the psychomotor and mnesic effects of a single 2 mg oral dose of lorazepam in healthy volunteers. This was a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled two-way cross-over study. The effect of lorazepam was examined with the following tasks: choice reaction time, immediate and delayed cued recall of paired words and immediate and delayed free recall and recognition of pictures. The mean calculated EC50 values derived from the PK/PD modelling of the different tests ranged from 12.2 to 15.3 ng ml-1. On the basis of the statistical comparison of the EC50 values, the delayed recall trials seemed to be more impaired than the immediate recall trials; similar observations were made concerning the recognition vs recall tasks. The parameter values derived from PK/PD modelling, and especially the EC50 values, may provide sensitive indices that can be used, rather than the raw data derived from pharmacodynamic measurements, to compare CNS effects of benzodiazepines.

Learning of serial digits leads to frontal activation in functional MR imaging.

PubMed

Karakaş, Hakki Muammer; Karakaş, Sirel

2006-03-01

Clinical studies have shown that performance on the serial digit learning test (SDLT) is dependent upon the mesial temporal lobes, which are responsible for learning and its consolidation. However, an effective SDLT performance is also dependent upon sequencing, temporal ordering, and the utilization of mnemonic strategies. All of these processes are among the functions of the frontal lobes; in spite of this, the relationship between SDLT performance and the frontal lobes has not been demonstrated with previously used mapping techniques. The aim of this study was to investigate the areas of the brain that are activated by SDLT performance. Ten healthy, right handed volunteers (mean age, 20.1 years; SD: 3.3) who had 12 years of education were studied with a 1.0 T MR imaging scanner. BOLD (blood oxygen level dependent) contrast and a modified SDLT were used. Activated loci were automatically mapped using a proportional grid. In learning, the most consistent activation was observed in B-a-7 of the right (80%) and the left hemispheres (50%). In recall, the most consistent activation was observed in B-a-7 of the right hemisphere (60%). Activations were observed in 2.5+/-0.97 Talairach volumes in learning, whereas they encompassed 1.7+/-0.95 volumes in recall. The difference between both phases (learning and recall) regarding total activated volume was significant (p < 0.05). The prefrontal activation during SDLT performance was not related to learning or to recall, but to a function that is common to both of these cognitive processes. A candidate for this common factor may be the executive functions, which also include serial position processing and temporal ordering.

Recoding between two types of STM representation revealed by the dynamics of memory search.

PubMed

Leszczyński, Marcin; Myers, Nicholas E; Akyürek, Elkan G; Schubö, Anna

2012-03-01

Visual STM (VSTM) is thought to be related to visual attention in several ways. Attention controls access to VSTM during memory encoding and plays a role in the maintenance of stored information by strengthening memorized content. We investigated the involvement of visual attention in recall from VSTM. In two experiments, we measured electrophysiological markers of attention in a memory search task with varying intervals between VSTM encoding and recall, and so we were able to track recoding of representations in memory. Results confirmed the involvement of attention in VSTM recall. However, the amplitude of the N2pc and N3rs components, which mark orienting of attention and search within VSTM, decreased as a function of delay. Conversely, the amplitude of the P3 and sustained posterior contralateral negativity components increased as a function of delay, effectively the opposite of the N2pc and N3rs modulations. These effects were only observed when verbal memory was not taxed. Thus, the results suggested that gradual recoding from visuospatial orienting of attention into verbal recall mechanisms takes place from short to long retention intervals. Interestingly, recall at longer delays was faster than at short delays, indicating that verbal representation is coupled with faster responses. These results extend the orienting-of-attention hypothesis by including an account of representational recoding during short-term consolidation and its consequences for recall from VSTM.

A buffer model of memory encoding and temporal correlations in retrieval.

PubMed

Lehman, Melissa; Malmberg, Kenneth J

2013-01-01

Atkinson and Shiffrin's (1968) dual-store model of memory includes structural aspects of memory along with control processes. The rehearsal buffer is a process by which items are kept in mind and long-term episodic traces are formed. The model has been both influential and controversial. Here, we describe a novel variant of Atkinson and Shiffrin's buffer model within the framework of the retrieving effectively from memory theory (REM; Shiffrin & Steyvers, 1997) that accounts for findings previously thought to be difficult for such models to explain. This model assumes a limited-capacity buffer where information is stored about items, along with information about associations between items and between items and the context in which they are studied. The strength of association between items and context is limited by the number of items simultaneously occupying the buffer (Lehman & Malmberg, 2009). The contents of the buffer are managed by complementary processes of rehearsal and compartmentalization (Lehman & Malmberg, 2011). New findings that directly test a priori predictions of the model are reported, including serial position effects and conditional and first recall probabilities in immediate and delayed free recall, in a continuous distractor paradigm, and in experiments using list-length manipulations of single-item and paired-item study lists.

Specific Verbal Memory Measures May Distinguish Alzheimer's Disease from Dementia with Lewy Bodies.

PubMed

Bussè, Cinzia; Anselmi, Pasquale; Pompanin, Sara; Zorzi, Giovanni; Fragiacomo, Federica; Camporese, Giulia; Di Bernardo, Gian Antonio; Semenza, Carlo; Caffarra, Paolo; Cagnin, Annachiara

2017-01-01

Standard measures of commonly used memory tests may not be appropriate to distinguish different neurodegenerative diseases affecting memory. To study whether specific measures of verbal memory obtained with the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning test (RAVLT) could help distinguish dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) from Alzheimer's disease (AD). Twenty-nine DLB and 32 AD patients participated in the study and were followed longitudinally for 3 years until the diagnosis was confirmed according to standard clinical criteria. Twenty-eight healthy elderly subjects served as controls. The following verbal memory measures were evaluated: verbal learning (VL), verbal forgetting (VF), percentage of verbal forgetting (VF%), and serial position effects of the immediate recall performance. DLB and AD groups have comparable performances at the RAVLT immediate and delayed recall tasks. However, VL was higher in DLB than AD while VF% was greater in AD. With a VF% cut-off ≥75%, AD and DLB patients were differently distributed, with 58% of AD versus 21% of DLB above this cut-off. The recency effect was significant higher in AD than DLB. DLB patients had a better performance in VL than AD, but worse VF and recency effect. These specific measures of verbal memory could be used as cognitive markers in the differential diagnosis between these two conditions.

Sensitivity and specificity of the 3-item memory test in the assessment of post traumatic amnesia.

PubMed

Andriessen, Teuntje M J C; de Jong, Ben; Jacobs, Bram; van der Werf, Sieberen P; Vos, Pieter E

2009-04-01

To investigate how the type of stimulus (pictures or words) and the method of reproduction (free recall or recognition after a short or a long delay) affect the sensitivity and specificity of a 3-item memory test in the assessment of post traumatic amnesia (PTA). Daily testing was performed in 64 consecutively admitted traumatic brain injured patients, 22 orthopedically injured patients and 26 healthy controls until criteria for resolution of PTA were reached. Subjects were randomly assigned to a test with visual or verbal stimuli. Short delay reproduction was tested after an interval of 3-5 minutes, long delay reproduction was tested after 24 hours. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated over the first 4 test days. The 3-word test showed higher sensitivity than the 3-picture test, while specificity of the two tests was equally high. Free recall was a more effortful task than recognition for both patients and controls. In patients, a longer delay between registration and recall resulted in a significant decrease in the number of items reproduced. Presence of PTA is best assessed with a memory test that incorporates the free recall of words after a long delay.

Questioning the rule of thumb: can verbal tasks be administered during the CVLT-II delay interval?

PubMed

Williams, Bethany R; Donovick, Peter J

2008-09-01

In the manual for the California Verbal Learning Test - II (CVLT-II), the authors suggest that nonverbal, rather than verbal, tasks be administered during the delay interval between administrations of the Short- and Long-Delay Recall trials of this test. They contend that this method minimizes the retroactive interference produced by intervening tasks. The purpose of the current study was to compare the extent to which verbal and nonverbal intervening tasks produce retroactive interference on CVLT-II List A recall following the long-delay. Participants in the present study were 120 undergraduate students. All participants completed the CVLT-II, and were randomly assigned to a group in which they were administered either a verbal (WAIS-III Vocabulary or Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test - IIIB) or nonverbal (Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices or WAIS-III Block Design) intervening task during the long-delay interval of the CVLT-II. Statistical analyses revealed that regardless of the type of intervening task given, participants in all groups recalled the same number of words and produced a similar number of intrusions during the CVLT-II recall trials. This indicates that not all verbal tasks produce retroactive effects beyond those produced by nonverbal tasks.

Association of KIBRA and memory.

PubMed

Bates, Timothy C; Price, Jackie F; Harris, Sarah E; Marioni, Riccardo E; Fowkes, F Gerry R; Stewart, Marlene C; Murray, Gordon D; Whalley, Lawrence J; Starr, John M; Deary, Ian J

2009-07-24

We report on the association of KIBRA with memory in two samples of older individuals assessed on either memory for semantically unrelated word stimuli (Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, n=2091), or a measure of semantically related material (the WAIS Logical Memory Test of prose-passage recall, n=542). SNP rs17070145 was associated with delayed recall of semantically unrelated items, but not with immediate recall for these stimuli, nor with either immediate or delayed recall for semantically related material. The pattern of results suggests a role for the T-->C substitution in intron 9 of KIBRA in a component of episodic memory involved in long-term storage but independent of processes shared with immediate recall such as rehearsal involved in acquisition and rehearsal or processes.

Assessment of free and cued recall in Alzheimer's disease and vascular and frontotemporal dementia with 24-item Grober and Buschke test.

PubMed

Cerciello, Milena; Isella, Valeria; Proserpi, Alice; Papagno, Costanza

2017-01-01

Alzheimer's disease (AD), vascular dementia (VaD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are the most common forms of dementia. It is well known that memory deficits in AD are different from those in VaD and FTD, especially with respect to cued recall. The aim of this clinical study was to compare the memory performance in 15 AD, 10 VaD and 9 FTD patients and 20 normal controls by means of a 24-item Grober-Buschke test [8]. The patients' groups were comparable in terms of severity of dementia. We considered free and total recall (free plus cued) both in immediate and delayed recall and computed an Index of Sensitivity to Cueing (ISC) [8] for immediate and delayed trials. We assessed whether cued recall predicted the subsequent free recall across our patients' groups. We found that AD patients recalled fewer items from the beginning and were less sensitive to cueing supporting the hypothesis that memory disorders in AD depend on encoding and storage deficit. In immediate recall VaD and FTD showed a similar memory performance and a stronger sensitivity to cueing than AD, suggesting that memory disorders in these patients are due to a difficulty in spontaneously implementing efficient retrieval strategies. However, we found a lower ISC in the delayed recall compared to the immediate trials in VaD than FTD due to a higher forgetting in VaD.

Number Frequency in L1 Differentially Affects Immediate Serial Recall of Numbers in L2 between Beginning and Intermediate Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sumioka, Norihiko; Williams, Atsuko; Yamada, Jun

2016-01-01

A list number recall test in English (L2) was administered to both Japanese (L1) students with beginning-level English proficiency who attended evening high school and Japanese college students with intermediate-level English proficiency. The major findings were that, only for the high school group, the small numbers 1 and 2 in middle positions of…

Redintegration, task difficulty, and immediate serial recall tasks.

PubMed

Ritchie, Gabrielle; Tolan, Georgina Anne; Tehan, Gerald

2015-03-01

While current theoretical models remain somewhat inconclusive in their explanation of short-term memory (STM), many theories suggest at least a contribution of long-term memory (LTM) to the short-term system. A number of researchers refer to this process as redintegration (e.g., Schweickert, 1993). Under short-term recall conditions, the current study investigated the effects of redintegration and task difficulty in order to extend research conducted by Neale and Tehan (2007). Thirty participants in Experiment 1 and 26 participants in Experiment 2 completed a serial recall task in which retention interval, presentation rate, and articulatory suppression were used to modify task difficulty. Redintegration was examined by manipulating the characteristics of the to-be-remembered items; lexicality in Experiment 1 and wordlikeness in Experiment 2. Responses were scored based on correct-in-position recall, item scoring, and order accuracy scoring. In line with the Neale and Tehan results, as the difficulty of the task increased so did the effects of redintegration. This was evident in that the advantage for words in Experiment 1 and wordlikeness in Experiment 2 decreased as task difficulty increased. This relationship was observed for item but not order memory, and findings were discussed in relation to the theory of redintegration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Phonological working memory in German children with poor reading and spelling abilities.

PubMed

Steinbrink, Claudia; Klatte, Maria

2008-11-01

Deficits in verbal short-term memory have been identified as one factor underlying reading and spelling disorders. However, the nature of this deficit is still unclear. It has been proposed that poor readers make less use of phonological coding, especially if the task can be solved through visual strategies. In the framework of Baddeley's phonological loop model, this study examined serial recall performance in German second-grade children with poor vs good reading and spelling abilities. Children were presented with four-item lists of common nouns for immediate serial recall. Word length and phonological similarity as well as presentation modality (visual vs auditory) and type of recall (visual vs verbal) were varied as within-subject factors in a mixed design. Word length and phonological similarity effects did not differ between groups, thus indicating equal use of phonological coding and rehearsal in poor and good readers. However, in all conditions, except the one that combined visual presentation and visual recall, overall performance was significantly lower in poor readers. The results suggest that the poor readers' difficulties do not arise from an avoidance of the phonological loop, but from its inefficient use. An alternative account referring to unstable phonological representations in long-term memory is discussed. Copyright (c) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An appreciation of Bruce and Young's (1986) serial stage model of face naming after 25 years.

PubMed

Hanley, J Richard

2011-11-01

The current status of Bruce and Young's (1986) serial model of face naming is discussed 25 years after its original publication. In the first part of the paper, evidence for and against the serial model is reviewed. It is argued that there is no compelling reason why we should abandon Bruce and Young's claim that recall of a name is contingent upon prior retrieval of semantic information about the person. The current status of the claim that people's names are more difficult to recall than the names of objects is then evaluated. Finally, an account of the anatomical location in the brain of Bruce and Young's three processing stages (face familiarity, retrieval of semantic information, retrieval of names) is suggested. In particular, there is evidence that biographical knowledge about familiar people is stored in the right anterior temporal lobes (ATL) and that the left temporal pole (TP) is heavily involved in retrieval of the names of familiar people. The issue of whether these brain areas play a similar role in object processing is also discussed. ©2011 The British Psychological Society.

SKOOL versus ZOOL: effects of orthographic and phonological long-term memory on nonword immediate serial recall.

PubMed

Tree, Jeremy J; Longmore, Chris; Majerus, Steve; Evans, Nicky

2011-07-01

In a now-classic study Besner and Davelaar (1982) reported an advantage of pseudohomophone (PSH) over nonword recall in a visual immediate serial recall (ISR) task, which remained under articulatory suppression (AS), and interpreted the findings as indicating PSH items obtain support from stored phonological long-term memory (LTM) representations even when phonological rehearsal is disrupted. However, one key question relating to this PSH effect remains: could the results have been contaminated by a potential confound of orthographic familiarity (i.e., PSH items often look like the word they sound like)? As a result, the present study examined the impact of orthography on PSH ISR. Our findings indicate that PSH accuracy was consistently higher for items that had an orthographic similarity to the parent word, and this effect did not interact with concurrent task. We therefore argue that PSH items in ISR obtain independent support from both orthographic and phonological LTM representations. The present study demonstrates the critical impact of orthographic LTM representations on visual nonword ISR, and we suggest that this may be a fruitful avenue for further research.

Effects of semantic relatedness on recall of stimuli preceding emotional oddballs.

PubMed

Smith, Ryan M; Beversdorf, David Q

2008-07-01

Semantic and episodic memory networks function as highly interconnected systems, both relying on the hippocampal/medial temporal lobe complex (HC/MTL). Episodic memory encoding triggers the retrieval of semantic information, serving to incorporate contextual relationships between the newly acquired memory and existing semantic representations. While emotional material augments episodic memory encoding at the time of stimulus presentation, interactions between emotion and semantic memory that contribute to subsequent episodic recall are not well understood. Using a modified oddball task, we examined the modulatory effects of negative emotion on semantic interactions with episodic memory by measuring the free-recall of serially presented neutral or negative words varying in semantic relatedness. We found increased free-recall for words related to and preceding emotionally negative oddballs, suggesting that negative emotion can indirectly facilitate episodic free-recall by enhancing semantic contributions during encoding. Our findings demonstrate the ability of emotion and semantic memory to interact to mutually enhance free-recall.

The impact of cognitive load on delayed recall.

PubMed

Camos, Valérie; Portrat, Sophie

2015-08-01

Recent studies have suggested that long-term retention of items studied in a working memory span task depends on the refreshing of memory items-more specifically, on the number of refreshing opportunities. However, it was previously shown that refreshing depends on the cognitive load of the concurrent task introduced in the working memory span task. Thus, cognitive load should determine the long-term retention of items assessed in a delayed-recall test if such retention relies on refreshing. In two experiments, while the amount of refreshing opportunities remained constant, we varied the cognitive load of the concurrent task by either introducing tasks differing in their attentional demands or varying the pace of the concurrent task. To verify that this effect was related to refreshing and not to any maintenance mechanism, we also manipulated the availability of subvocal rehearsal. Replicating previous results, increasing cognitive load reduced immediate recall. This increase also had a detrimental effect on delayed recall. Conversely, the addition of concurrent articulation reduced immediate but not delayed recall. This study shows that both working and episodic memory traces depend on the cognitive load of the concurrent task, whereas the use of rehearsal affects only working memory performance. These findings add further evidence of the dissociation between subvocal rehearsal and attentional refreshing.

Methylphenidate significantly improves declarative memory functioning of adults with ADHD.

PubMed

Verster, Joris C; Bekker, Evelijne M; Kooij, J J Sandra; Buitelaar, Jan K; Verbaten, Marinus N; Volkerts, Edmund R; Olivier, Berend

2010-10-01

Declarative memory deficits are common in untreated adults with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but limited evidence exists to support improvement after treatment with methylphenidate. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of methylphenidate on memory functioning of adults with ADHD. Eighteen adults with ADHD who were clinical responders to methylphenidate participated in this randomized crossover trial. After 3 days of no treatment, patients received in random order either their usual methylphenidate dose (mean: 14.7 mg; range: 10-30 mg) or placebo, separated by a 6-7-day washout period. Patients performed an immediate word recall test 1 h after treatment administration. Three hours after intake, patients performed the second part of the memory test (delayed word recall and a recognition test). Delayed recognition and immediate recall was similar on treatment and on placebo. Delayed word recall was significantly better in the methylphenidate than in the placebo condition (F (1, 17) = 7.0, p <  0.017). A significant correlation was found between prestudy CES-D depression scores and difference scores on delayed recall (r = 0.602, p <  0.008). Methylphenidate improves declarative memory functioning in patients with ADHD. New studies should further examine whether subclinical depressive symptoms mediate the effect of methylphenidate on declarative memory.

High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Level Relates to Working Memory, Immediate and Delayed Cued Recall in Brazilian Older Adults: The Role of Cognitive Reserve.

PubMed

Ihle, Andreas; Gouveia, Élvio R; Gouveia, Bruna R; Freitas, Duarte L; Jurema, Jefferson; Tinôco, Maria A; Kliegel, Matthias

2017-01-01

The present study set out to investigate the relation of the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) level to cognitive performance and its interplay with key markers of cognitive reserve in a large sample of older adults. We assessed tests of working memory, immediate and delayed cued recall in 701 older adults from Amazonas, Brazil. The HDL-C level was derived from fasting blood samples. In addition, we interviewed individuals on their education, past occupation, and cognitive leisure activity. A critically low HDL-C level (<40 mg/dL) was significantly related to lower performance in working memory, immediate and delayed cued recall. Moderation analyses suggested that the relations of the HDL-C level to working memory and delayed cued recall were negligible in individuals with longer education, a higher cognitive level of the job, and greater engagement in cognitive leisure activity. Cognitive reserve accumulated during the life course may reduce the detrimental influences of a critically low HDL-C level on cognitive functioning in old age. © 2017 S. Karger AG, Basel.

The association of visual memory with hippocampal volume.

PubMed

Zammit, Andrea R; Ezzati, Ali; Katz, Mindy J; Zimmerman, Molly E; Lipton, Michael L; Sliwinski, Martin J; Lipton, Richard B

2017-01-01

In this study we investigated the role of hippocampal volume (HV) in visual memory. Participants were a subsample of older adults (> = 70 years) from the Einstein Aging Study. Visual performance was measured using the Complex Figure (CF) copy and delayed recall tasks from the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status. Linear regressions were fitted to study associations between HV and visual tasks. Participants' (n = 113, mean age = 78.9 years) average scores on the CF copy and delayed recall were 17.4 and 11.6, respectively. CF delayed recall was associated with total (β = .031, p = 0.001) and left (β = 0.031, p = 0.001) and right HVs (β = 0.24, p = 0.012). CF delayed recall remained significantly associated with left HV even after we also included right HV (β = 0.27, p = 0.025) and the CF copy task (β = 0.30, p = 0.009) in the model. CF copy did not show any significant associations with HV. Our results suggest that left HV contributes in retrieval of visual memory in older adults.

Reading Comprehension in Quiet and in Noise: Effects on Immediate and Delayed Recall in Relation to Tinnitus and High-Frequency Hearing Thresholds.

PubMed

Brännström, K Jonas; Waechter, Sebastian

2018-06-01

A common complaint by people with tinnitus is that they experience that the tinnitus causes attention and concentration problems. Previous studies have examined how tinnitus influences cognitive performance on short and intensive cognitive tasks but without proper control of hearing status. To examine the impact tinnitus and high-frequency hearing thresholds have on reading comprehension in quiet and in background noise. A between-group design with matched control participants. One group of participants with tinnitus (n = 20) and an age and gender matched control group without tinnitus (n = 20) participated. Both groups had normal hearing thresholds (20 dB HL at frequencies 0.125 to 8 kHz). Measurements were made assessing hearing thresholds and immediate and delayed recall using a reading comprehension test in quiet and in noise. All participants completed the Swedish version of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and participants with tinnitus also completed the Tinnitus Questionnaire. The groups did not differ in immediate nor delayed recall. Accounting for the effect of age, a significant positive correlation was found between best ear high-frequency pure tone average (HF-PTA; 10000, 12500, and 14000 Hz) and the difference score between immediate and delayed recall in noise. Tinnitus seems to have no effect on immediate and delayed recall in quiet or in background noise when hearing status is controlled for. The detrimental effect of background noise on the processes utilized for efficient encoding into long-term memory is larger in participants with better HF-PTA. More specifically, when reading in noise, participants with better HF-PTA seem to recall less information than participants with poorer HF-PTA. American Academy of Audiology.

Information transfer rate with serial and simultaneous visual display formats

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matin, Ethel; Boff, Kenneth R.

1988-04-01

Information communication rate for a conventional display with three spatially separated windows was compared with rate for a serial display in which data frames were presented sequentially in one window. For both methods, each frame contained a randomly selected digit with various amounts of additional display 'clutter.' Subjects recalled the digits in a prescribed order. Large rate differences were found, with faster serial communication for all levels of the clutter factors. However, the rate difference was most pronounced for highly cluttered displays. An explanation for the latter effect in terms of visual masking in the retinal periphery was supported by the results of a second experiment. The working hypothesis that serial displays can speed information transfer for automatic but not for controlled processing is discussed.

Chronic stress and sex differences on the recall of fear conditioning and extinction.

PubMed

Baran, Sarah E; Armstrong, Charles E; Niren, Danielle C; Hanna, Jeffery J; Conrad, Cheryl D

2009-03-01

Chronic stress effects and sex differences were examined on conditioned fear extinction. Male and female Sprague-Dawley rats were chronically stressed by restraint (6 h/d/21 d), conditioned to tone and footshock, followed by extinction after 1 h and 24 h delays. Chronic stress impaired the recall of fear extinction in males, as evidenced by high freezing to tone after the 24 h delay despite exposure to the previous 1 h delay extinction trials, and this effect was not due to ceiling effects from overtraining during conditioning. In contrast, chronic stress attenuated the recall of fear conditioning acquisition in females, regardless of exposure to the 1 h extinction exposure. Since freezing to tone was reinstated following unsignalled footshocks, the deficit in the stressed rats reflected impaired recall rather than impaired consolidation. Sex differences in fear conditioning and extinction were observed in nonstressed controls as well, with control females resisting extinction to tone. Analysis of contextual freezing showed that all groups (control, stress, male, female) increased freezing immediately after the first tone extinction trial, demonstrating contextual discrimination. These findings show that chronic stress and sex interact to influence fear conditioning, with chronic stress impairing the recall of delayed fear extinction in males to implicate the medial prefrontal cortex, disrupting the recall of the fear conditioning acquisition in females to implicate the amygdala, and nonstressed controls exhibiting sex differences in fear conditioning and extinction, which may involve the amygdala and/or corticosterone levels.

Feature bindings endure without attention: evidence from an explicit recall task.

PubMed

Gajewski, Daniel A; Brockmole, James R

2006-08-01

Are integrated objects the unit of capacity of visual working memory, or is continued attention needed to maintain bindings between independently stored features? In a delayed recall task, participants reported the color and shape of a probed item from a memory array. During the delay, attention was manipulated with an exogenous cue. Recall was elevated at validly cued positions, indicating that the cue affected item memory. On invalid trials, participants most frequently recalled either both features (perfect object memory) or neither of the two features (no object memory); the frequency with which only one feature was recalled was significantly lower than predicted by feature independence as determined in a single-feature recall task. These data do not support the view that features are remembered independently when attention is withdrawn. Instead, integrated objects are stored in visual working memory without need for continued attention.

Impact of hippocampal subfield histopathology in episodic memory impairment in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy and hippocampal sclerosis.

PubMed

Comper, Sandra Mara; Jardim, Anaclara Prada; Corso, Jeana Torres; Gaça, Larissa Botelho; Noffs, Maria Helena Silva; Lancellotti, Carmen Lúcia Penteado; Cavalheiro, Esper Abrão; Centeno, Ricardo Silva; Yacubian, Elza Márcia Targas

2017-10-01

The objective of the study was to analyze preoperative visual and verbal episodic memories in a homogeneous series of patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) and unilateral hippocampal sclerosis (HS) submitted to corticoamygdalohippocampectomy and its association with neuronal cell density of each hippocampal subfield. The hippocampi of 72 right-handed patients were collected and prepared for histopathological examination. Hippocampal sclerosis patterns were determined, and neuronal cell density was calculated. Preoperatively, two verbal and two visual memory tests (immediate and delayed recalls) were applied, and patients were divided into two groups, left and right MTLE (36/36). There were no statistical differences between groups regarding demographic and clinical data. Cornu Ammonis 4 (CA4) neuronal density was significantly lower in the right hippocampus compared with the left (p=0.048). The groups with HS presented different memory performance - the right HS were worse in visual memory test [Complex Rey Figure, immediate (p=0.001) and delayed (p=0.009)], but better in one verbal task [RAVLT delayed (p=0.005)]. Multiple regression analysis suggested that the verbal memory performance of the group with left HS was explained by CA1 neuronal density since both tasks were significantly influenced by CA1 [Logical Memory immediate recall (p=0.050) and Logical Memory and RAVLT delayed recalls (p=0.004 and p=0.001, respectively)]. For patients with right HS, both CA1 subfield integrity (p=0.006) and epilepsy duration (p=0.012) explained Complex Rey Figure immediate recall performance. Ultimately, epilepsy duration also explained the performance in the Complex Rey Figure delayed recall (p<0.001). Cornu Ammonis 1 (CA1) hippocampal subfield was related to immediate and delayed recalls of verbal memory tests in left HS, while CA1 and epilepsy duration were associated with visual memory performance in patients with right HS. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Primacy Performance of Normal and Retarded Children: Stimulus Familiarity or Spatial Memory?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swanson, Lee

1978-01-01

Explores the effect of stimulus familiarity on the spatial primacy performance of normal and retarded children. Assumes that serial recall tasks reflect spatial memory rather than verbal rehearsal. (BD)

Encoding Speed, Rehearsal, and Probed Recall of Dyslexic Boys

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spring, Carl; Capps, Carolyn

1974-01-01

The interaction of reading ability with serial position indicates that short-term storage is equally robust for dyslexics and normals but that long-term storage is impaired for dyslexics. (Author/BJG)

Focused attention improves working memory: implications for flexible-resource and discrete-capacity models.

PubMed

Souza, Alessandra S; Rerko, Laura; Lin, Hsuan-Yu; Oberauer, Klaus

2014-10-01

Performance in working memory (WM) tasks depends on the capacity for storing objects and on the allocation of attention to these objects. Here, we explored how capacity models need to be augmented to account for the benefit of focusing attention on the target of recall. Participants encoded six colored disks (Experiment 1) or a set of one to eight colored disks (Experiment 2) and were cued to recall the color of a target on a color wheel. In the no-delay condition, the recall-cue was presented after a 1,000-ms retention interval, and participants could report the retrieved color immediately. In the delay condition, the recall-cue was presented at the same time as in the no-delay condition, but the opportunity to report the color was delayed. During this delay, participants could focus attention exclusively on the target. Responses deviated less from the target's color in the delay than in the no-delay condition. Mixture modeling assigned this benefit to a reduction in guessing (Experiments 1 and 2) and transposition errors (Experiment 2). We tested several computational models implementing flexible or discrete capacity allocation, aiming to explain both the effect of set size, reflecting the limited capacity of WM, and the effect of delay, reflecting the role of attention to WM representations. Both models fit the data better when a spatially graded source of transposition error is added to its assumptions. The benefits of focusing attention could be explained by allocating to this object a higher proportion of the capacity to represent color.

Learning and memory performance in breast cancer survivors 2 to 6 years post-treatment: the role of encoding versus forgetting.

PubMed

Root, James C; Andreotti, Charissa; Tsu, Loretta; Ellmore, Timothy M; Ahles, Tim A

2016-06-01

Our previous retrospective analysis of clinically referred breast cancer survivors' performance on learning and memory measures found a primary weakness in initial encoding of information into working memory with intact retention and recall of this same information at a delay. This suggests that survivors may misinterpret cognitive lapses as being due to forgetting when, in actuality, they were not able to properly encode this information at the time of initial exposure. Our objective in this study was to replicate and extend this pattern of performance to a research sample to increase the generalizability of this finding in a sample in which subjects were not clinically referred for cognitive issues. We contrasted learning and memory performance between breast cancer survivors on endocrine therapy 2 to 6 years post-treatment with age- and education-matched healthy controls. We then stratified lower- and higher-performing breast cancer survivors to examine specific patterns of learning and memory performance. Contrasts were generated for four aggregate visual and verbal memory variables from the California Verbal Learning Test-2 (CVLT-2) and the Brown Location Test (BLT): Single-trial Learning: Trial 1 performance, Multiple-trial Learning: Trial 5 performance, Delayed Recall: Long-delay Recall performance, and Memory Errors: False-positive errors. As predicted, breast cancer survivors' performance as a whole was significantly lower on Single-trial Learning than the healthy control group but exhibited no significant difference in Delayed Recall. In the secondary analysis contrasting lower- and higher-performing survivors on cognitive measures, the same pattern of lower Single-trial Learning performance was exhibited in both groups, with the additional finding of significantly weaker Multiple-trial Learning performance in the lower-performing breast cancer group and intact Delayed Recall performance in both groups. As with our earlier finding of weaker initial encoding with intact recall in a cohort of clinically referred breast cancer survivors, our results indicate this same profile in a research sample of breast cancer survivors. Further, when the breast cancer group was stratified by lower and higher performance, both groups exhibited significantly lower performance on initial encoding, with more pronounced encoding weakness in the lower-performing group. As in our previous research, survivors did not lose successfully encoded information over longer delays, either in the lower- or higher-performing group, again arguing against memory decay in survivors. The finding of weaker initial encoding of information together with intact delayed recall in survivors points to specific treatment interventions in rehabilitation of cognitive dysfunction. The finding of weaker initial encoding of information together with intact delayed recall in survivors points to specific treatment interventions in rehabilitation of cognitive dysfunction and is discussed.

Explanations of grouping in immediate ordered recall.

PubMed

Frick, R W

1989-09-01

This article is about grouping in immediate ordered recall. The following findings are reported: (1) grouping a presentation improves recall, even when steps are taken to prevent rehearsal; (2) grouping primarily improves recall of the items adjoining the grouping, creating primacy and recency within groups; and (3) this primacy and recency are found even when single, isolated errors in recall are considered. These results suggest that the effects of grouping cannot be fully explained by rehearsal, chunking, or the number of directions in which an item can be transposed. It is suggested instead that (1) the auditory short-term store contains an unparsed and uncategorized representation that must be parsed and categorized just prior to recall, in a process of recovery; (2) items adjoining the boundary of a presentation are more easily recovered; and (3) grouping creates a boundary within the presentation. To support this explanation, a final experiment demonstrates an interaction between type of stimuli and serial position, with grouping most improving recall of adjoining phonemes.

Recall of short word lists presented visually at fast rates: effects of phonological similarity and word length.

PubMed

Coltheart, V; Langdon, R

1998-03-01

Phonological similarity of visually presented list items impairs short-term serial recall. Lists of long words are also recalled less accurately than are lists of short words. These results have been attributed to phonological recoding and rehearsal. If subjects articulate irrelevant words during list presentation, both phonological similarity and word length effects are abolished. Experiments 1 and 2 examined effects of phonological similarity and recall instructions on recall of lists shown at fast rates (from one item per 0.114-0.50 sec), which might not permit phonological encoding and rehearsal. In Experiment 3, recall instructions and word length were manipulated using fast presentation rates. Both phonological similarity and word length effects were observed, and they were not dependent on recall instructions. Experiments 4 and 5 investigated the effects of irrelevant concurrent articulation on lists shown at fast rates. Both phonological similarity and word length effects were removed by concurrent articulation, as they were with slow presentation rates.

Word Recall: Cognitive Performance Within Internet Surveys

PubMed Central

Craig, Benjamin M; Jim, Heather S

2015-01-01

Background The use of online surveys for data collection has increased exponentially, yet it is often unclear whether interview-based cognitive assessments (such as face-to-face or telephonic word recall tasks) can be adapted for use in application-based research settings. Objective The objective of the current study was to compare and characterize the results of online word recall tasks to those of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and determine the feasibility and reliability of incorporating word recall tasks into application-based cognitive assessments. Methods The results of the online immediate and delayed word recall assessment, included within the Women’s Health and Valuation (WHV) study, were compared to the results of the immediate and delayed recall tasks of Waves 5-11 (2000-2012) of the HRS. Results Performance on the WHV immediate and delayed tasks demonstrated strong concordance with performance on the HRS tasks (ρc=.79, 95% CI 0.67-0.91), despite significant differences between study populations (P<.001) and study design. Sociodemographic characteristics and self-reported memory demonstrated similar relationships with performance on both the HRS and WHV tasks. Conclusions The key finding of this study is that the HRS word recall tasks performed similarly when used as an online cognitive assessment in the WHV. Online administration of cognitive tests, which has the potential to significantly reduce participant and administrative burden, should be considered in future research studies and health assessments. PMID:26543924

Eye Movements and Overt Rehearsal in Word Recall

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Geiselman, Ralph E.; Bellezza, Francis S.

1977-01-01

Rates of overt rehearsal and eye movement were compared to each other, and were also compared as predictors of immediate and delayed recall. Concludes that total looking time was the best predictor of long-term retention and that recall performance following overt rehearsal was different from recall performance following silent study. (Editor/RK)

Recall Memory in Children with Down Syndrome and Typically Developing Peers Matched on Developmental Age

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Milojevich, H.; Lukowski, A.

2016-01-01

Background: Whereas research has indicated that children with Down syndrome (DS) imitate demonstrated actions over short delays, it is presently unknown whether children with DS recall information over lengthy delays at levels comparable with typically developing (TD) children matched on developmental age. Method: In the present research, 10…

The Effect of Learner-Generated Illustrations on the Immediate and Delayed Recall of English Idioms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aeineh, Afrouz; Moeeni, Saeed; Merati, Hamideh

2014-01-01

The present study investigated the effect of learner generated illustrations on the immediate and delayed idiom recall of Iranian EFL (English as a foreign language) learners. To accomplish this end, 40 female students participated in this study. A placement test (Quick Placement Test, Version 2) was administered to the participants to ascertain…

Age Differences in Free Recall Rehearsal Strategies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sanders, Raymond E.; And Others

1980-01-01

Young adults' rehearsal was serially and categorically organized. Older adults' rehearsal was nonstrategic. Results show that direct strategy measures provide more information about processes underlying age differences in memory than do outcome measures alone. (Author)

Testing the effectiveness of cognitive interventions in alleviating accelerated long term forgetting (ALF).

PubMed

Ricci, Monica; Wong, Toh; Nikpour, Armin; Miller, Laurie A

2017-10-23

It is well established that when retrieval or other forms of testing follow shortly after the acquisition of new information, long-term memory is improved in healthy subjects (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006). It is not known whether such early interventions would alleviate ALF, a condition in which early retention is normal, but there is a steep decline over longer intervals. A different behavioral intervention (i.e., an interposed recall of a story after a longer delay) was found to prevent subsequent memory loss in a single case with ALF (Jansari, Davis, McGibbon, Firminger, & Kapur, 2010; McGibbon & Jansari, 2013), but this has yet to be replicated. In the present study, we sought to test the effectiveness of early rehearsal as well as a later interposed recall on long term memory. Three men with ALF and 10 matched, healthy males (mean age = 67 yr; mean education = 15 yr) were compared for story recall following 3 early intervention conditions. There were two early rehearsal conditions: Repeated-Recall (2 additional recalls were requested in the initial 30 min interval) and Repeated Recall With Discussion (2 additional recalls plus discussion occurred in the initial 30 min interval) as well as a Control condition, in which there was no additional rehearsal in the first 30 min. Memory for 6 stories (2 in each condition) was tested at 0 min, 30 min, 1 day, 1 week and 4 weeks. In addition, to evaluate the possible sustaining effect of an additional retrieval ("booster recall") between 1 wk and 4 wk delays, 1 story from each of the early intervention conditions was recalled at 2 weeks' delay. Consistent with the profile characteristic of ALF, nonparametric statistics revealed no group differences at 0 or 30 min recalls. For Control stories, the ALF group's recall was impaired by 24 h delay. For stories in either of the early rehearsal conditions, the patients showed better retention, performing within normal limits until the 4 week recall. The "booster recall" session at 2 weeks benefitted the patients' retention at 4 weeks, with patients' mean recall remaining within normal limits only for those stories recalled at 2 weeks. These results indicate that behavioral interventions including early rehearsal in the first several min and a booster recall at a much later time point help to prevent ALF. Confirmation of the usefulness of these interventions in other cases and investigating whether these cognitive techniques can be extended to "real world" applications are the logical next steps. Crown Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The MoCA-Memory Index Score: An Efficient Alternative to Paragraph Recall for the Detection of Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment.

PubMed

Kaur, Antarpreet; Edland, Steven D; Peavy, Guerry M

2018-01-01

To compare ability of 2 measures of delayed memory (word list, story paragraph) to discriminate Normal Control (NC) subjects from those with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). Demographic, neuropsychological, and diagnostic data contributed by 34 Alzheimer's Disease Centers to the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center characterized 2717 individuals with a diagnosis of either NC (n=2205) or aMCI (n=512). The Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Memory Index Score (MoCA-MIS) assessed delayed word recall, and the Craft Story 21, delayed story recall. Logistic regression and receiver operator characteristic curves controlling for age, sex, and education assessed the ability of each test to differentiate NCs from subjects with aMCI. The MoCA-MIS had significantly better sensitivity and specificity (area under the receiver operator characteristic curve 0.83 vs. 0.80, P=0.004). At sensitivity 80%, the specificity of the MoCA-MIS was 69.1%, compared with 62.8% for the Craft Story. These data suggest that the MoCA-MIS, a recall score from items within the MoCA, is better at discriminating NCs from subjects with aMCI than the Craft Story. Word recall may be an efficient alternative to paragraph recall for diagnostic screening within clinical practice and research settings.

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.

Strong and long: effects of word length on phonological binding in verbal short-term memory.

PubMed

Jefferies, Elizabeth; Frankish, Clive; Noble, Katie

2011-02-01

This study examined the effects of item length on the contribution of linguistic knowledge to immediate serial recall (ISR). Long words are typically recalled more poorly than short words, reflecting the greater demands that they place on phonological encoding, rehearsal, and production. However, reverse word length effects--that is, better recall of long than short words--can also occur in situations in which phonological maintenance is difficult, suggesting that long words derive greater support from long-term lexical knowledge. In this study, long and short words and nonwords (containing one vs. three syllables) were presented for immediate serial recall in (a) pure lists and (b) unpredictable mixed lists of words and nonwords. The mixed-list paradigm is known to disrupt the phonological stability of words, encouraging their phonemes to recombine with the elements of other list items. In this situation, standard length effects were seen for nonwords, while length effects for words were absent or reversed. A detailed error analysis revealed that long words were more robust to the mixed-list manipulation than short words: Their phonemes were less likely to be omitted and to recombine with phonemes from other list items. These findings support an interactive view of short-term memory, in which long words derive greater benefits from lexical knowledge than short words-especially when their phonological integrity is challenged by the inclusion of nonwords in mixed lists.

Different verbal learning strategies in autism spectrum disorder: evidence from the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test.

PubMed

Bowler, Dermot M; Limoges, Elyse; Mottron, Laurent

2009-06-01

The Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, which requires the free recall of the same list of 15 unrelated words over 5 trials, was administered to 21 high-functioning adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 21 matched typical individuals. The groups showed similar overall levels of free recall, rates of learning over trials and subjective organisation of their recall. However, the primacy portion of the serial position curve of the ASD participants showed slower growth over trials than that of the typical participants. The implications of this finding for our understanding of memory in ASD are discussed.

Thinking in Pictures as a cognitive account of autism.

PubMed

Kunda, Maithilee; Goel, Ashok K

2011-09-01

We analyze the hypothesis that some individuals on the autism spectrum may use visual mental representations and processes to perform certain tasks that typically developing individuals perform verbally. We present a framework for interpreting empirical evidence related to this "Thinking in Pictures" hypothesis and then provide comprehensive reviews of data from several different cognitive tasks, including the n-back task, serial recall, dual task studies, Raven's Progressive Matrices, semantic processing, false belief tasks, visual search, spatial recall, and visual recall. We also discuss the relationships between the Thinking in Pictures hypothesis and other cognitive theories of autism including Mindblindness, Executive Dysfunction, Weak Central Coherence, and Enhanced Perceptual Functioning.

Visual distraction and visuo-spatial memory: a sandwich effect.

PubMed

Tremblay, Sébastien; Nicholls, Alastair P; Parmentier, Fabrice B R; Jones, Dylan M

2005-01-01

The functional characteristics of visuo-spatial serial memory and its sensitivity to irrelevant visual information are examined in the present study, through the investigation of the sandwich effect (e.g., Hitch, 1975). The memory task was one of serial recall for the position of a sequence of seven spatially and temporally separated dots. The presence of irrelevant dots interpolated with to-be-remembered dots affected performance over most serial positions (Experiment 1) but that effect was significantly reduced when the interpolated dots were distinct from the to-be-remembered dots by colour and shape (Experiment 2). Parallels are made between verbal and spatial serial memory, and the reduction of the sandwich effect is discussed in terms of the contribution of perceptual organisation and attentional factors in short-term memory.

Individual Differences in Working Memory Capacity and Episodic Retrieval: Examining the Dynamics of Delayed and Continuous Distractor Free Recall

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Unsworth, Nash

2007-01-01

Two experiments explored the possibility that individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC) partially reflect differences in the size of the search set from which items are retrieved. High- and low-WMC individuals were tested in delayed (Experiment 1) and continuous distractor (Experiment 2) free recall with varying list lengths. Across…

Magic Memories: Young Children's Verbal Recall after a 6-Year Delay

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jack, Fiona; Simcock, Gabrielle; Hayne, Harlene

2012-01-01

This report describes the first prospective study specifically designed to assess children's verbal memory for a unique event 6 years after it occurred. Forty-six 27- to 51-month-old children took part in a unique event and were interviewed about it twice, after 24-hr and 6-year delays. During the 6-year interview, 9 children verbally recalled the…

Elevated cortisol levels in Cushing's disease are associated with cognitive decrements.

PubMed

Starkman, M N; Giordani, B; Berent, S; Schork, M A; Schteingart, D E

2001-01-01

The objective of this study was to use Cushing's disease as a unique human model to elucidate the cognitive deficits resulting from exposure to chronic stress-level elevations of endogenous cortisol. Forty-eight patients with a first episode of acute, untreated Cushing's disease and 38 healthy control subjects were studied. Scores for four of five verbal IQ subtests were significantly lower in patients with Cushing's disease; their scores were significantly lower for only one nonverbal performance IQ subtest (block design). Verbal, but not visual, learning and delayed recall at 30 minutes were significantly decreased among patients with Cushing's disease. Although verbal delayed recall was significantly lower in these patients, the retention index (percentage), which compares the amount of initially learned material to that recalled after the delay, was not significantly decreased. There was no significant association between depression scores and cognitive performance. A higher degree of cortisol elevation was associated with poorer performance on several subtests of learning, delayed recall, and visual-spatial ability. Chronically elevated levels of glucocorticoids have deleterious effects on particular domains of cognition. Verbal learning and other verbal functions seem more vulnerable than nonverbal functions. The results suggest that both the neocortex and hippocampus are affected.

A model linking immediate serial recall, the Hebb repetition effect and the learning of phonological word forms

PubMed Central

Page, M. P. A.; Norris, D.

2009-01-01

We briefly review the considerable evidence for a common ordering mechanism underlying both immediate serial recall (ISR) tasks (e.g. digit span, non-word repetition) and the learning of phonological word forms. In addition, we discuss how recent work on the Hebb repetition effect is consistent with the idea that learning in this task is itself a laboratory analogue of the sequence-learning component of phonological word-form learning. In this light, we present a unifying modelling framework that seeks to account for ISR and Hebb repetition effects, while being extensible to word-form learning. Because word-form learning is performed in the service of later word recognition, our modelling framework also subsumes a mechanism for word recognition from continuous speech. Simulations of a computational implementation of the modelling framework are presented and are shown to be in accordance with data from the Hebb repetition paradigm. PMID:19933143

The contribution to immediate serial recall of rehearsal, search speed, access to lexical memory, and phonological coding: an investigation at the construct level.

PubMed

Tehan, Gerald; Fogarty, Gerard; Ryan, Katherine

2004-07-01

Rehearsal speed has traditionally been seen to be the prime determinant of individual differences in memory span. Recent studies, in the main using young children as the participant population, have suggested other contributors to span performance. In the present research, we used structural equation modeling to explore, at the construct level, individual differences in immediate serial recall with respect to rehearsal, search, phonological coding, and speed of access to lexical memory. We replicated standard short-term phenomena; we showed that the variables that influence children's span performance influence adult performance in the same way; and we showed that speed of access to lexical memory and facility with phonological codes appear to be more potent sources of individual differences in immediate memory than is either rehearsal speed or search factors.

Vulnerability to the Irrelevant Sound Effect in Adult ADHD.

PubMed

Pelletier, Marie-France; Hodgetts, Helen M; Lafleur, Martin F; Vincent, Annick; Tremblay, Sébastien

2016-04-01

An ecologically valid adaptation of the irrelevant sound effect paradigm was employed to examine the relative roles of short-term memory, selective attention, and sustained attention in ADHD. In all, 32 adults with ADHD and 32 control participants completed a serial recall task in silence or while ignoring irrelevant background sound. Serial recall performance in adults with ADHD was reduced relative to controls in both conditions. The degree of interference due to irrelevant sound was greater for adults with ADHD. Furthermore, a positive correlation was observed between task performance under conditions of irrelevant sound and the extent of attentional problems reported by patients on a clinical symptom scale. The results demonstrate that adults with ADHD exhibit impaired short-term memory and a low resistance to distraction; however, their capacity for sustained attention is preserved as the impact of irrelevant sound diminished over the course of the task. © The Author(s) 2013.

Levels of processing in working memory: differential involvement of frontotemporal networks.

PubMed

Rose, Nathan S; Craik, Fergus I M; Buchsbaum, Bradley R

2015-03-01

How does the brain maintain to-be-remembered information in working memory (WM), particularly when the focus of attention is drawn to processing other information? Cognitive models of WM propose that when items are displaced from focal attention recall involves retrieval from long-term memory (LTM). In this fMRI study, we tried to clarify the role of LTM in performance on a WM task and the type of representation that is used to maintain an item in WM during rehearsal-filled versus distractor-filled delays. Participants made a deep or shallow levels-of-processing (LOP) decision about a single word at encoding and tried to recall the word after a delay filled with either rehearsal of the word or a distracting math task. Recalling one word after 10 sec of distraction demonstrated behavioral and neural indices of retrieval from LTM (i.e., LOP effects and medial-temporal lobe activity). In contrast, recall after rehearsal activated cortical areas that reflected reporting the word from focal attention. In addition, areas that showed an LOP effect at encoding (e.g., left ventrolateral VLPFC and the anterior temporal lobes [ATLs]) were reactivated at recall, especially when recall followed distraction. Moreover, activity in left VLPFC during encoding, left ATL during the delay, and left hippocampus during retrieval predicted recall success after distraction. Whereas shallow LOP and rehearsal-related areas supported active maintenance of one item in focal attention, the behavioral processes and neural substrates that support LTM supported recall of one item after it was displaced from focal attention.

Further differentiating item and order information in semantic memory: students' recall of words from the "CU Fight Song", Harry Potter book titles, and Scooby Doo theme song.

PubMed

Overstreet, Michael F; Healy, Alice F; Neath, Ian

2017-01-01

University of Colorado (CU) students were tested for both order and item information in their semantic memory for the "CU Fight Song". Following an earlier study by Overstreet and Healy [(2011). Item and order information in semantic memory: Students' retention of the "CU fight song" lyrics. Memory & Cognition, 39, 251-259. doi: 10.3758/s13421-010-0018-3 ], a symmetrical bow-shaped serial position function (with both primacy and recency advantages) was found for reconstructing the order of the nine lines in the song, whereas a function with no primacy advantage was found for recalling a missing word from each line. This difference between order and item information was found even though students filled in missing words without any alternatives provided and missing words came from the beginning, middle, or end of each line. Similar results were found for CU students' recall of the sequence of Harry Potter book titles and the lyrics of the Scooby Doo theme song. These findings strengthen the claim that the pronounced serial position function in semantic memory occurs largely because of the retention of order, rather than item, information.

The semantic-similarity effect in children: influence of long-term knowledge on verbal short-term memory.

PubMed

Monnier, Catherine; Bonthoux, Françoise

2011-11-01

The present research was designed to highlight the relation between children's categorical knowledge and their verbal short-term memory (STM) performance. To do this, we manipulated the categorical organization of the words composing lists to be memorized by 5- and 9-year-old children. Three types of word list were drawn up: semantically similar context-dependent (CD) lists, semantically similar context-independent (CI) lists, and semantically dissimilar lists. In line with the procedure used by Poirier and Saint-Aubin (1995), the dissimilar lists were produced using words from the semantically similar lists. Both 5- and 9-year-old children showed better recall for the semantically similar CD lists than they did for the unrelated lists. In the semantic similar CI condition, semantic similarity enhanced immediate serial recall only at age 9 but contributed to item information memory both at ages 5 and 9. These results, which indicate a semantic influence of long-term memory (LTM) on serial recall from age 5, are discussed in the light of current models of STM. Moreover, we suggest that differences between results at 5 and 9 years are compatible with pluralist models of development. ©2011 The British Psychological Society.

Associations between immunological function and memory recall in healthy adults.

PubMed

Wang, Grace Y; Taylor, Tamasin; Sumich, Alexander; Merien, Fabrice; Borotkanics, Robert; Wrapson, Wendy; Krägeloh, Chris; Siegert, Richard J

2017-12-01

Studies in clinical and aging populations support associations between immunological function, cognition and mood, although these are not always in line with animal models. Moreover, very little is known about the relationship between immunological measures and cognition in healthy young adults. The present study tested associations between the state of immune system and memory recall in a group of relatively healthy adults. Immediate and delayed memory recall was assessed in 30 participants using the computerised cognitive battery. CD4, CD8 and CD69 subpopulations of lymphocytes, Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and cortisol were assessed with blood assays. Correlation analysis showed significant negative relationships between CD4 and the short and long delay memory measures. IL-6 showed a significant positive correlation with long-delay recall. Generalized linear models found associations between differences in all recall challenges and CD4. A multivariate generalized linear model including CD4 and IL-6 exhibited a stronger association. Results highlight the interactions between CD4 and IL-6 in relation to memory function. Further study is necessary to determine the underlying mechanisms of the associations between the state of immune system and cognitive performance. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Orienting task effects on EDR and free recall in three age groups.

PubMed

Zelinski, E M; Walsh, D A; Thompson, L W

1978-03-01

The present investigation was designed to examine the effects of orienting task-controlled processing on electrodermal response and free recall at two delay intervals for 94 young, 49 young-old (age 55 to 70), and 61 old-old (age 71 to 85) individuals. Subjects were presented with a list of 25 words and performed one of the following tasks: semantic, nonsemantic, or passive listening, presented in an incidental memory paradigm, or intentional memorization. Recall was obtained 2 min or 48 hours after list presentation. At the 2-min delay, the pattern of recall across tasks for the young-old and old-old subjects was similar to that of college students. Overall, the old-old recalled fewer words than the young and young-old, while the young-old recalled as many words as the young. After 48 hours, the task-related recall pattern was observed only in the young group. The skin conductance data indicated that task effects were similar across the three age groups and that response magnitude was lower in the old-old than the two younger groups. No differences in skin conductance were found between the young and young-old. Age differences in memory processing suggest that difficulties in delayed retrieval of semantically encoded words may increase during late adult years. Differences in electrodermal responses in the old-old compared to the young and young-old suggest that the range of autonomic responsivitiy to task demands may become restricted in advanced age.

What Infant Memory Tells Us about Infantile Amnesia: Long-Term Recall and Deferred Imitation

PubMed Central

Meltzoff, Andrew N.

2013-01-01

Long-term recall memory was assessed using a nonverbal method requiring subjects to reenact a past event from memory (deferred imitation). A large sample of infants (N = 192), evenly divided between 14- and 16-months old, was tested across two experiments. A delay of 2 months was used in Experiment 1 and a delay of 4 months in Experiment 2. In both experiments two treatment groups were used, In one treatment group, motor practice (immediate imitation) was allowed before the delay was imposed; in the other group, subjects were prevented from motor practice before the delay. Age-matched control groups were used lo assess the spontaneous production of the target acts in the absence of exposure to the model in both experiments. The results demonstrated significant deferred imitation for both treatment groups at both delay intervals, and moreover showed that infants retained and imitated multiple acts. These findings suggest that infants have a nonverbal declarative memory system that supports the recall of past events across long-term delays. The implications of these findings for the multiple memory system debate in cognitive science and neuroscience and for theories of infantile amnesia are considered. PMID:7622990

Getting the hang of it: preferential gist over verbatim story recall and the roles of attentional capacity and the episodic buffer in Alzheimer disease.

PubMed

Foldi, Nancy S

2011-01-01

Story recall in Alzheimer disease (AD) is typically used as a measure of episodic memory, but the degree to which recall is dependent on available attentional resources is not fully understood. The current study investigated how measures of attention were associated to verbatim recall (exact reproduction) or gist recall (relevant semantic meaning). Sixteen participants with AD and 16 age-matched healthy older adults recalled a story on immediate free recall and recognition. Controls recalled more units overall than AD. A group X response interaction revealed more gist than verbatim recall in AD, but those with mild disease generated approximately the same number gist responses as controls. For each group, qualitatively different attentional resources were associated with recall units. In controls, verbatim units correlated positively with primacy serial position items of the California Verbal Learning Test II (CVLTII), suggesting that episodic buffer resources may be associated with story recall. In AD, gist units were positively correlated with digits forward, but inversely related to the CVLTII primacy region items, suggesting reliance on low-level capacity resources. Possible explanations of the impaired performance in AD may be a bias in favor of gist processing, poor verbatim encoding, and/or processing failure at the level of the episodic buffer.

Health Literacy, Cognitive Abilities, and Mortality Among Elderly Persons

PubMed Central

Wolf, Michael S.; Feinglass, Joseph; Thompson, Jason A.

2008-01-01

Background Low health literacy and low cognitive abilities both predict mortality, but no study has jointly examined these relationships. Methods We conducted a prospective cohort study of 3,260 community-dwelling adults age 65 and older. Participants were interviewed in 1997 and administered the Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults and the Mini Mental Status Examination. Mortality was determined using the National Death Index through 2003. Measurements and Main Results In multivariate models with only literacy (not cognition), the adjusted hazard ratio was 1.50 (95% confidence of interval [CI] 1.24–1.81) for inadequate versus adequate literacy. In multivariate models without literacy, delayed recall of 3 items and the ability to serial subtract numbers were associated with higher mortality (e.g., adjusted hazard ratios [AHR] 1.74 [95% CI 1.30–2.34] for recall of zero versus 3 items, and 1.32 [95% CI 1.09–1.60] for 0–2 vs 5 correct subtractions). In multivariate analysis with both literacy and cognition, the AHRs for the cognition items were similar, but the AHR for inadequate literacy decreased to 1.27 (95% CI 1.03 – 1.57). Conclusions Both health literacy and cognitive abilities independently predict mortality. Interventions to improve patient knowledge and self-management skills should consider both the reading level and cognitive demands of the materials. PMID:18330654

A randomized, controlled, single-blind, 6-month pilot study to evaluate the efficacy of MS-Line!: a cognitive rehabilitation programme for patients with multiple sclerosis.

PubMed

Gich, Jordi; Freixanet, Jordi; García, Rafael; Vilanova, Joan Carles; Genís, David; Silva, Yolanda; Montalban, Xavier; Ramió-Torrentà, Lluís

2015-09-01

MS-Line! was created to provide an effective treatment for cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. To assess the efficacy of MS-Line!. A randomized, controlled, single-blind, 6-month pilot study. Patients were randomly assigned to an experimental group (cognitive rehabilitation with the programme) or to a control group (no cognitive rehabilitation). Randomization was stratified by cognitive impairment level. Cognitive assessment included: selective reminding test, 10/36 spatial recall test (10/36 SPART), symbol digit modalities test, paced auditory serial addition test, word list generation (WLG), FAS test, subtests of WAIS-III, Boston naming test (BNT), and trail making test (TMT). Forty-three patients (22 in the experimental group, 21 in the control group) were analyzed. Covariance analysis showed significant differences in 10/36 SPART (P=0.0002), 10/36 SPART delayed recall (P=0.0021), WLG (P=0.0123), LNS (P=0.0413), BNT (P=0.0007) and TMT-A (P=0.010) scores between groups. The study showed a significant improvement related to learning and visual memory, executive functions, attention and information processing speed, and naming ability in those patients who received cognitive rehabilitation. The results suggest that MS-Line! is effective in improving cognitive impairment in MS patients. © The Author(s), 2015.

Task Difficulty Differentially Affects Two Measures of Processing Load: The Pupil Response during Sentence Processing and Delayed Cued Recall of the Sentences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zekveld, Adriana A.; Festen, Joost M.; Kramer, Kramera

2013-01-01

Purpose: In this study, the authors assessed the influence of masking level (29% or 71% sentence perception) and test modality on the processing load during language perception as reflected by the pupil response. In addition, the authors administered a delayed cued stimulus recall test to examine whether processing load affected the encoding of…

Neural Correlates of Verbal Episodic Memory and Lexical Retrieval in Logopenic Variant Primary Progressive Aphasia.

PubMed

Win, Khaing T; Pluta, John; Yushkevich, Paul; Irwin, David J; McMillan, Corey T; Rascovsky, Katya; Wolk, David; Grossman, Murray

2017-01-01

Objective: Logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia (lvPPA) is commonly associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. But lvPPA patients display different cognitive and anatomical profile from the common clinical AD patients, whose verbal episodic memory is primarily affected. Reports of verbal episodic memory difficulty in lvPPA are inconsistent, and we hypothesized that their lexical retrieval impairment contributes to verbal episodic memory performance and is associated with left middle temporal gyrus atrophy. Methods: We evaluated patients with lvPPA ( n = 12) displaying prominent word-finding and repetition difficulties, and a demographically-matched cohort of clinical Alzheimer's disease (AD, n = 26), and healthy seniors ( n = 16). We assessed lexical retrieval with confrontation naming and verbal episodic memory with delayed free recall. Whole-brain regressions related naming and delayed free recall to gray matter atrophy. Medial temporal lobe (MTL) subfields were examined using high in-plane resolution imaging. Results: lvPPA patients had naming and delayed free recall impairments, but intact recognition memory. In lvPPA, delayed free recall was related to naming; both were associated with left middle temporal gyrus atrophy but not MTL atrophy. Despite cerebrospinal fluid evidence consistent with AD pathology, examination of MTL subfields revealed no atrophy in lvPPA. While AD patients displayed impaired delayed free recall, this deficit did not correlate with naming. Regression analyses related delayed free recall deficits in clinical AD patients to MTL subfield atrophy, and naming to left middle temporal gyrus atrophy. Conclusion: Unlike amnestic AD patients, MTL subfields were not affected in lvPPA patients. Verbal episodic memory deficit observed in lvPPA was unlikely to be due to a hippocampal-mediated mechanism but appeared to be due to poor lexical retrieval. Relative sparing of MTL volume and intact recognition memory are consistent with previous reports of hippocampal-sparing variant cases of AD pathology, where neurofibrillary tangles are disproportionately distributed in cortical areas with relative sparing of the hippocampus. This suggests that AD neuropathology in lvPPA may originate in neuronal networks outside of the MTL, which deviates from the typical Braak staging pattern of spreading pathology in clinical AD.

Children's Recall and Recognition of Sex Role Stereotyped and Discrepant Information.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trepanier-Street, Mary L.; Kropp, Jerri Jaudon

1987-01-01

Investigated the influence of differing levels of sex role stereotyped and discrepant information on immediate and delayed memory. Compared kindergarten and second-grade children's recall and recognition of stereotyped, moderately discrepant, and highly discrepant pictures. Results suggested significantly better recall of highly discrepant…

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.

"Fragment errors" in deep dysgraphia: further support for a lexical hypothesis.

PubMed

Bormann, Tobias; Wallesch, Claus-W; Blanken, Gerhard

2008-07-01

In addition to various lexical errors, the writing of patients with deep dysgraphia may include a large number of segmental spelling errors, which increase towards the end of the word. Frequently, these errors involve deletion of two or more letters resulting in so-called "fragment errors". Different positions have been brought forward regarding their origin, including rapid decay of activation in the graphemic buffer and an impairment of more central (i.e., lexical or semantic) processing. We present data from a patient (M.D.) with deep dysgraphia who showed an increase of segmental spelling errors towards the end of the word. Several tasks were carried out to explore M.D.'s underlying functional impairment. Errors affected word-final positions in tasks like backward spelling and fragment completion. In a delayed copying task, length of the delay had no influence. In addition, when asked to recall three serially presented letters, a task which had not been carried out before, M.D. exhibited a preference for the first and the third letter and poor performance for the second letter. M.D.'s performance on these tasks contradicts the rapid decay account and instead supports a lexical-semantic account of segmental errors in deep dysgraphia. In addition, the results fit well with an implemented computational model of deep dysgraphia and segmental spelling errors.

Self-testing produces superior recall of both familiar and unfamiliar muscle information.

PubMed

Dobson, John L; Linderholm, Tracy; Yarbrough, Mary Beth

2015-12-01

Dozens of studies have found learning strategies based on the "testing effect" promote greater recall than those that rely solely on reading; however, the advantages of testing are often only observed after a delay (e.g., 2-7 days later). In contrast, our research, which has focused on kinesiology students learning kinesiology information that is generally familiar to them, has consistently demonstrated that testing-based strategies produce greater recall both immediately and after a delay. In an attempt to understand the discrepancies in the literature, the purpose of the present study was to determine if the time-related advantages of a testing-based learning strategy vary with one's familiarity with the to-be-learned information. Participants used both read-only and testing-based strategies to repeatedly study three different sets of information: 1) previously studied human muscle information (familiar information), 2) a mix of previously studied and previously unstudied human muscle information (mixed information), and 3) previously unstudied muscle information that is unique to sharks (unfamiliar information). Learning was evaluated via free recall assessments administered immediately after studying and again after a 1-wk delay and a 3-wk delay. Across those three assessments, the read-only strategy resulted in mean scores of 29.26 ± 1.43, 15.17 ± 1.29, and 5.33 ± 0.77 for the familiar, mixed, and unfamiliar information, respectively, whereas the testing-based strategy produced scores of 34.57 ± 1.58, 16.90 ± 1.31, and 8.33 ± 0.95, respectively. The results indicate that the testing-based strategy produced greater recall immediately and up through the 3-wk delay regardless of the participants' level of familiarity with the muscle information. Copyright © 2015 The American Physiological Society.

Individual prediction of change in delayed recall of prose passages after left-sided anterior temporal lobectomy.

PubMed

Jokeit, H; Ebner, A; Holthausen, H; Markowitsch, H J; Moch, A; Pannek, H; Schulz, R; Tuxhorn, I

1997-08-01

Prognostic variables for individual memory outcome after left anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL) were studied in 27 patients with refractory temporal lobe epilepsy. The difference between pre- and postoperative performance in the delayed recall of two prose passages (Story A and B) from the Wechsler Memory Scale served as measure of postoperative memory change. Fifteen independent clinical, neuropsychological, and electrophysiological variables were submitted to a multiple linear regression analysis. Preoperative immediate and delayed recall of story content and right hemisphere Wada memory performance for pictorial and verbal items explained very well postoperative memory changes in recall of Story B. Delayed recall of Story B, but not of Story A, had high concurrent validity to other measures of memory. Patients who became seizure-free did not differ in memory change from patients who continued to have seizures after ATL. The variables age at epilepsy onset and probable age at temporal lobe damage provided complementary information for individual prediction but with less effectiveness than Wada test data. Our model confirmed that good preoperative memory functioning and impaired right hemispheric Wada memory performance for pictorial items predict a high risk of memory loss after left ATL. The analyses demonstrate that the combination of independent measures delivers more information than Wada test performance or any other variable alone. The suggested function can be used routinely to estimate the individual severity of verbal episodic memory impairment that might occur after left-sided ATL and offers a rational basis for the counseling of patients.

Text Recall in Adulthood: The Role of Intellectual Abilities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hultsch, David F.; And Others

1984-01-01

Examines age-related predictive relationships among an array of psychometric intellectual ability markers and text recall performance. Women from three age groups (ranging from 21 to 78 years) read and recalled four narratives at three delay intervals and completed a battery of intellectual ability tests. (Author/CB)

Assessment of recall error in self-reported food consumption histories among adults-Particularly delay of interviews decrease completeness of food histories-Germany, 2013.

PubMed

Gertler, Maximilian; Czogiel, Irina; Stark, Klaus; Wilking, Hendrik

2017-01-01

Poor recall during investigations of foodborne outbreaks may lead to misclassifications in exposure ascertainment. We conducted a simulation study to assess the frequency and determinants of recall errors. Lunch visitors in a cafeteria using exclusively cashless payment reported their consumption of 13 food servings available daily in the three preceding weeks using a self-administered paper-questionnaire. We validated this information using electronic payment information. We calculated associated factors on misclassification of recall according to time, age, sex, education level, dietary habits and type of servings. We included 145/226 (64%) respondents who reported 27,095 consumed food items. Sensitivity of recall was 73%, specificity 96%. In multivariable analysis, for each additional day of recall period, the adjusted chance for false-negative recall increased by 8% (OR: 1.1;95%-CI: 1.06, 1.1), for false-positive recall by 3% (OR: 1.03;95%-CI: 1.02, 1.05), for indecisive recall by 12% (OR: 1.1;95%-CI: 1.08, 1.15). Sex and education-level had minor effects. Forgetting to report consumed foods is more frequent than reporting food-items actually not consumed. Bad recall is strongly enhanced by delay of interviews and may make hypothesis generation and testing very challenging. Side dishes are more easily missed than main courses. If available, electronic payment data can improve food-history information.

Construct validity of the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test in older adults with memory complaints.

PubMed

Clerici, Francesca; Ghiretti, Roberta; Di Pucchio, Alessandra; Pomati, Simone; Cucumo, Valentina; Marcone, Alessandra; Vanacore, Nicola; Mariani, Claudio; Cappa, Stefano Francesco

2017-06-01

The Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT) is the memory test recommended by the International Working Group on Alzheimer's disease (AD) for the detection of amnestic syndrome of the medial temporal type in prodromal AD. Assessing the construct validity and internal consistency of the Italian version of the FCSRT is thus crucial. The FCSRT was administered to 338 community-dwelling participants with memory complaints (57% females, age 74.5 ± 7.7 years), including 34 with AD, 203 with Mild Cognitive Impairment, and 101 with Subjective Memory Impairment. Internal Consistency was estimated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. To assess convergent validity, five FCSRT scores (Immediate Free Recall, Immediate Total Recall, Delayed Free Recall, Delayed Total Recall, and Index of Sensitivity of Cueing) were correlated with three well-validated memory tests: Story Recall, Rey Auditory Verbal Learning test, and Rey Complex Figure (RCF) recall (partial correlation analysis). To assess divergent validity, a principal component analysis (an exploratory factor analysis) was performed including, in addition to the above-mentioned memory tasks, the following tests: Word Fluencies, RCF copy, Clock Drawing Test, Trail Making Test, Frontal Assessment Battery, Raven Coloured Progressive Matrices, and Stroop Colour-Word Test. Cronbach's alpha coefficients for immediate recalls (IFR and ITR) and delayed recalls (DFR and DTR) were, respectively, .84 and .81. All FCSRT scores were highly correlated with those of the three well-validated memory tests. The factor analysis showed that the FCSRT does not load on the factors saturated by non-memory tests. These findings indicate that the FCSRT has a good internal consistency and has an excellent construct validity as an episodic memory measure. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

Part-set cueing impairment & facilitation in semantic memory.

PubMed

Kelley, Matthew R; Parihar, Sushmeena A

2018-01-19

The present study explored the influence of part-set cues in semantic memory using tests of "free" recall, reconstruction of order, and serial recall. Nine distinct categories of information were used (e.g., Zodiac signs, Harry Potter books, Star Wars films, planets). The results showed part-set cueing impairment for all three "free" recall sets, whereas part-set cueing facilitation was evident for five of the six ordered sets. Generally, the present results parallel those often observed across episodic tasks, which could indicate that similar mechanisms contribute to part-set cueing effects in both episodic and semantic memory. A novel anchoring explanation of part-set cueing facilitation in order and spatial tasks is provided.

Save the last dance for me: unwanted serial position effects in jury evaluations.

PubMed

Bruine de Bruin, Wändi

2005-03-01

Whenever competing options are considered in sequence, their evaluations may be affected by order of appearance. Such serial position effects would threaten the fairness of competitions using jury evaluations. Randomization cannot reduce potential order effects, but it does give candidates an equal chance of being assigned to preferred serial positions. Whether, or what, serial position effects emerge may depend on the cognitive demands of the judgment task. In end-of-sequence procedures, final scores are not given until all candidates have performed, possibly burdening judges' memory. If judges' evaluations are based on how well they remember performances, serial position effects may resemble those found with free recall. Candidates may also be evaluated step-by-step, immediately after each performance. This procedure should not burden memory, though it may produce different serial position effects. Yet, this paper reports similar serial position effects with end-of-sequence and step-by-step procedures used for the Eurovision Song Contest: Ratings increased with serial position. The linear order effect was replicated in the step-by-step judgments of World and European Figure Skating Contests. It is proposed that, independent of the evaluation procedure, judges' initial impressions of sequentially appearing candidates may be formed step-by-step, yielding serial position effects.

Spatial working memory in immersive virtual reality foraging: path organization, traveling distance and search efficiency in humans (Homo sapiens).

PubMed

De Lillo, Carlo; Kirby, Melissa; James, Frances C

2014-05-01

Search and serial recall tasks were used in the present study to characterize the factors affecting the ability of humans to keep track of a set of spatial locations while traveling in an immersive virtual reality foraging environment. The first experiment required the exhaustive exploration of a set of locations following a procedure previously used with other primate and non-primate species to assess their sensitivity to the geometric arrangement of foraging sites. The second experiment assessed the dependency of search performance on search organization by requiring the participants to recall specific trajectories throughout the foraging space. In the third experiment, the distance between the foraging sites was manipulated in order to contrast the effects of organization and traveling distance on recall accuracy. The results show that humans benefit from the use of organized search patterns when attempting to monitor their travel though either a clustered "patchy" space or a matrix of locations. Their ability to recall a series of locations is dependent on whether the order in which they are explored conformed or did not conform to specific organization principles. Moreover, the relationship between search efficiency and search organization is not confounded by effects of traveling distance. These results indicate that in humans, organizational factors may play a large role in their ability to forage efficiently. The extent to which such dependency may pertain to other primates and could be accounted for by visual organization processes is discussed on the basis of previous studies focused on perceptual grouping, search, and serial recall in non-human species. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

[Usefulness of the 10 pictures reminding test for memory assessment for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment and anxiety/depression].

PubMed

Federico, D; Thomas-Anterion, C; Borg, C; Foyatier Michel, N; Dirson, S; Laurent, B

2008-10-01

Episodic memory is often considered to be essential in the neuropsychological examination of elderly people consulting in the memory clinics. Therefore, the performance of three different episodic memory tests were compared in Alzheimer's disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and anxiety/depression. Seventy-six patients with AD, 46 with MCI, and 36 with anxiety/depression performed three memory tests: (1) three-words immediate and delayed recall of the MMSE test; (2) 10-pictures reminding test; (3) 16-items free and cued reminding test. Patients with AD and MCI differed from the depressed/anxious participants on all subcomponents of the memory tests. Only the three-words immediate and delayed recall in the MMSE test as well as the immediate recall (encoding) of the free and cued reminding test (16-items) did not differ between AD and MCI. Significant correlations were also evidenced between the free and cued recall of the 10 pictures and the score of the 16-items for all patients. Scores of total and free recalls distinguished the three group of patients; also, a trend was observed for the free recall between the patients with AD and MCI. The three-words immediate and delayed recall of the MMSE test is linked with hippocampic dysfunction. Also, the present study suggests that the 10-pictures reminding test, is a simple and reliable test for investigating memory, in addition to other evaluation tests. Finally, further studies would be necessary to assess the sensitivity and specificity of the tests.

Sleep can reduce the testing effect: it enhances recall of restudied items but can leave recall of retrieved items unaffected.

PubMed

Bäuml, Karl-Heinz T; Holterman, Christoph; Abel, Magdalena

2014-11-01

The testing effect refers to the finding that retrieval practice in comparison to restudy of previously encoded contents can improve memory performance and reduce time-dependent forgetting. Naturally, long retention intervals include both wake and sleep delay, which can influence memory contents differently. In fact, sleep immediately after encoding can induce a mnemonic benefit, stabilizing and strengthening the encoded contents. We investigated in a series of 5 experiments whether sleep influences the testing effect. After initial study of categorized item material (Experiments 1, 2, and 4A), paired associates (Experiment 3), or educational text material (Experiment 4B), subjects were asked to restudy encoded contents or engage in active retrieval practice. A final recall test was conducted after a 12-hr delay that included diurnal wakefulness or nocturnal sleep. The results consistently showed typical testing effects after the wake delay. However, these testing effects were reduced or even eliminated after sleep, because sleep benefited recall of restudied items but left recall of retrieved items unaffected. The findings are consistent with the bifurcation model of the testing effect (Kornell, Bjork, & Garcia, 2011), according to which the distribution of memory strengths across items is shifted differentially by retrieving and restudying, with retrieval strengthening items to a much higher degree than restudy does. On the basis of this model, most of the retrieved items already fall above recall threshold in the absence of sleep, so additional sleep-induced strengthening may not improve recall of retrieved items any further. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Individual differences in working memory capacity and search efficiency.

PubMed

Miller, Ashley L; Unsworth, Nash

2018-05-29

In two experiments, we examined how various learning conditions impact the relation between working memory capacity (WMC) and memory search abilities. Experiment 1 employed a delayed free recall task with semantically related words to induce the buildup of proactive interference (PI) and revealed that the buildup of PI differentially impacted recall accuracy and recall latency for low-WMC and high-WMC individuals. Namely, the buildup of PI impaired recall accuracy and slowed recall latency for low-WMC individuals to a greater extent than what was observed for high-WMC individuals. To provide a circumstance in which previously learned information remains relevant over the course of learning, Experiment 2 required participants to complete a multitrial delayed free recall task with unrelated words. Results revealed that with increased practice with the same word list, WMC-related differences were eventually eliminated in interresponse times (IRTs) and recall accuracy, but not recall latency. Thus, despite still accumulating larger search sets, low-WMC individuals searched LTM as efficiently as high-WMC individuals. Collectively, these results are consistent with the notion that under normal free recall conditions, low-WMC individuals search LTM less efficiently than do high-WMC individuals because of their reliance on noisy temporal-contextual cues at retrieval. However, it appears that under conditions in which previously learned items remain relevant at recall, this tendency to rely on vague self-generated retrieval cues can actually facilitate the ability to accurately and quickly recall information.

A normative study of the Italian printed word version of the free and cued selective reminding test.

PubMed

Girtler, N; De Carli, F; Amore, M; Arnaldi, D; Bosia, L E; Bruzzaniti, C; Cappa, S F; Cocito, L; Colazzo, G; Ghio, L; Magi, E; Mancardi, G L; Nobili, F; Pardini, M; Picco, A; Rissotto, R; Serrati, C; Brugnolo, A

2015-07-01

According to the new research criteria for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, episodic memory impairment, not significantly improved by cueing, is the core neuropsychological marker, even at a pre-dementia stage. The FCSRT assesses verbal learning and memory using semantic cues and is widely used in Europe. Standardization values for the Italian population are available for the colored picture version, but not for the 16-item printed word version. In this study, we present age- and education-adjusted normative data for FCSRT-16 obtained using linear regression techniques and generalized linear model, and critical values for classifying sub-test performance into equivalent scores. Six scores were derived from the performance of 194 normal subjects (MMSE score, range 27-30, mean 29.5 ± 0.5) divided per decade (from 20 to 90), per gender and per level of education (4 levels: 3-5, 6-8, 9-13, >13 years): immediate free recall (IFR), immediate total recall (ITR), recognition phase (RP), delayed free recall (DFR), delayed total recall (DTR), Index of Sensitivity of Cueing (ISC), number of intrusions. This study confirms the effect of age and education, but not of gender on immediate and delayed free and cued recall. The Italian version of the FCSRT-16 can be useful for both clinical and research purposes.

Translating working memory into action: behavioral and neural evidence for using motor representations in encoding visuo-spatial sequences.

PubMed

Langner, Robert; Sternkopf, Melanie A; Kellermann, Tanja S; Grefkes, Christian; Kurth, Florian; Schneider, Frank; Zilles, Karl; Eickhoff, Simon B

2014-07-01

The neurobiological organization of action-oriented working memory is not well understood. To elucidate the neural correlates of translating visuo-spatial stimulus sequences into delayed (memory-guided) sequential actions, we measured brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging while participants encoded sequences of four to seven dots appearing on fingers of a left or right schematic hand. After variable delays, sequences were to be reproduced with the corresponding fingers. Recall became less accurate with longer sequences and was initiated faster after long delays. Across both hands, encoding and recall activated bilateral prefrontal, premotor, superior and inferior parietal regions as well as the basal ganglia, whereas hand-specific activity was found (albeit to a lesser degree during encoding) in contralateral premotor, sensorimotor, and superior parietal cortex. Activation differences after long versus short delays were restricted to motor-related regions, indicating that rehearsal during long delays might have facilitated the conversion of the memorandum into concrete motor programs at recall. Furthermore, basal ganglia activity during encoding selectively predicted correct recall. Taken together, the results suggest that to-be-reproduced visuo-spatial sequences are encoded as prospective action representations (motor intentions), possibly in addition to retrospective sensory codes. Overall, our study supports and extends multi-component models of working memory, highlighting the notion that sensory input can be coded in multiple ways depending on what the memorandum is to be used for. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Do Aging and Dual-Tasking Impair the Capacity to Store and Retrieve Visuospatial Information Needed to Guide Perturbation-Evoked Reach-To-Grasp Reactions?

PubMed Central

Cheng, Kenneth C.; Pratt, Jay; Maki, Brian E.

2013-01-01

A recent study involving young adults showed that rapid perturbation-evoked reach-to-grasp balance-recovery reactions can be guided successfully with visuospatial-information (VSI) retained in memory despite: 1) a reduction in endpoint accuracy due to recall-delay (time between visual occlusion and perturbation-onset, PO) and 2) slowing of the reaction when performing a concurrent cognitive task during the recall-delay interval. The present study aimed to determine whether this capacity is compromised by effects of aging. Ten healthy older adults were tested with the previous protocol and compared with the previously-tested young adults. Reactions to recover balance by grasping a small handhold were evoked by unpredictable antero-posterior platform-translation (barriers deterred stepping reactions), while using liquid-crystal goggles to occlude vision post-PO and for varying recall-delay times (0-10s) prior to PO (the handhold was moved unpredictably to one of four locations 2s prior to vision-occlusion). Subjects also performed a spatial- or non-spatial-memory cognitive task during the delay-time in a subset of trials. Results showed that older adults had slower reactions than the young across all experimental conditions. Both age groups showed similar reduction in medio-lateral end-point accuracy when recall-delay was longest (10s), but differed in the effect of recall delay on vertical hand elevation. For both age groups, engaging in either the non-spatial or spatial-memory task had similar (slowing) effects on the arm reactions; however, the older adults also showed a dual-task interference effect (poorer cognitive-task performance) that was specific to the spatial-memory task. This provides new evidence that spatial working memory plays a role in the control of perturbation-evoked balance-recovery reactions. The delays in completing the reaction that occurred when performing either cognitive task suggest that such dual-task situations in daily life could increase risk of falling in seniors, particularly when combined with the general age-related slowing that was observed across all experimental conditions. PMID:24223942

Components of visual search in childhood-onset schizophrenia and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

PubMed

Karatekin, C; Asarnow, R F

1998-10-01

This study tested the hypotheses that visual search impairments in schizophrenia are due to a delay in initiation of search or a slow rate of serial search. We determined the specificity of these impairments by comparing children with schizophrenia to children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and age-matched normal children. The hypotheses were tested within the framework of feature integration theory by administering children tasks tapping parallel and serial search. Search rate was estimated from the slope of the search functions, and duration of the initial stages of search from time to make the first saccade on each trial. As expected, manual response times were elevated in both clinical groups. Contrary to expectation, ADHD, but not schizophrenic, children were delayed in initiation of serial search. Finally, both groups showed a clear dissociation between intact parallel search rates and slowed serial search rates.

A Causal Model of Sentence Recall: Effects of Familiarity, Concreteness, Comprehensibility, and Interestingness.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sadoski, Mark; And Others

1993-01-01

Presents and tests a theoretically derived causal model of the recall of sentences. Notes that the causal model identifies familiarity and concreteness as causes of comprehensibility; familiarity, concreteness, and comprehensibility as causes of interestingness; and all the identified variables as causes of both immediate and delayed recall.…

Diagnosing criterion-level effects on memory: what aspects of memory are enhanced by repeated retrieval?

PubMed

Vaughn, Kalif E; Rawson, Katherine A

2011-09-01

Previous research has shown that increasing the criterion level (i.e., the number of times an item must be correctly retrieved during practice) improves subsequent memory, but which specific components of memory does increased criterion level enhance? In two experiments, we examined the extent to which the criterion level affects associative memory, target memory, and cue memory. Participants studied Lithuanian-English word pairs via cued recall with restudy until items were correctly recalled one to five times. In Experiment 1, participants took one of four recall tests and one of three recognition tests after a 2-day delay. In Experiment 2, participants took only recognition tests after a 1-week delay. In both experiments, increasing the criterion level enhanced associative memory, as indicated by enhanced performance on forward and backward cued-recall tests and on tests of associative recognition. An increased criterion level also improved target memory, as indicated by enhanced free recall and recognition of targets, and improved cue memory, as indicated by enhanced free recall and recognition of cues.

Building Schema through Writing: The Effects of Writing as a Pre-Reading Activity on Delayed Recall of Narrative Text.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marino, Jacqueline L.; And Others

Drawing upon research on the composing process and schema theory, a study explored the effects of a generative writing task presented prior to reading on the delayed recall of fourth grade students. The purpose of the study was to determine if a writing task that required the learner to identify with events in a text to be read later would assist…

[Efficacy of the keyword mnemonic method in adults].

PubMed

Campos, Alfredo; Pérez-Fabello, María José; Camino, Estefanía

2010-11-01

Two experiments were used to assess the efficacy of the keyword mnemonic method in adults. In Experiment 1, immediate and delayed recall (at a one-day interval) were assessed by comparing the results obtained by a group of adults using the keyword mnemonic method in contrast to a group using the repetition method. The mean age of the sample under study was 59.35 years. Subjects were required to learn a list of 16 words translated from Latin into Spanish. Participants who used keyword mnemonics that had been devised by other experimental participants of the same characteristics, obtained significantly higher immediate and delayed recall scores than participants in the repetition method. In Experiment 2, other participants had to learn a list of 24 Latin words translated into Spanish by using the keyword mnemonic method reinforced with pictures. Immediate and delayed recall were significantly greater in the keyword mnemonic method group than in the repetition method group.

Memory evaluation in mild cognitive impairment using recall and recognition tests.

PubMed

Bennett, Ilana J; Golob, Edward J; Parker, Elizabeth S; Starr, Arnold

2006-11-01

Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a selective episodic memory deficit that often indicates early Alzheimer's disease. Episodic memory function in MCI is typically defined by deficits in free recall, but can also be tested using recognition procedures. To assess both recall and recognition in MCI, MCI (n = 21) and older comparison (n = 30) groups completed the USC-Repeatable Episodic Memory Test. Subjects memorized two verbally presented 15-item lists. One list was used for three free recall trials, immediately followed by yes/no recognition. The second list was used for three-alternative forced-choice recognition. Relative to the comparison group, MCI had significantly fewer hits and more false alarms in yes/no recognition, and were less accurate in forced-choice recognition. Signal detection analysis showed that group differences were not due to response bias. Discriminant function analysis showed that yes/no recognition was a better predictor of group membership than free recall or forced-choice measures. MCI subjects recalled fewer items than comparison subjects, with no group differences in repetitions, intrusions, serial position effects, or measures of recall strategy (subjective organization, recall consistency). Performance deficits on free recall and recognition in MCI suggest a combination of both tests may be useful for defining episodic memory impairment associated with MCI and early Alzheimer's disease.

Distinct neural systems underlying reduced emotional enhancement for positive and negative stimuli in early Alzheimer's disease

PubMed Central

Mistridis, Panagiota; Taylor, Kirsten I.; Kissler, Johanna M.; Monsch, Andreas U.; Kressig, Reto W.; Kivisaari, Sasa L.

2014-01-01

Emotional information is typically better remembered than neutral content, and previous studies suggest that this effect is subserved particularly by the amygdala together with its interactions with the hippocampus. However, it is not known whether amygdala damage affects emotional memory performance at immediate and delayed recall, and whether its involvement is modulated by stimulus valence. Moreover, it is unclear to what extent more distributed neocortical regions involved in e.g., autobiographical memory, also contribute to emotional processing. We investigated these questions in a group of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), which affects the amygdala, hippocampus and neocortical regions. Healthy controls (n = 14), patients with AD (n = 15) and its putative prodrome amnestic mild cognitive impairment (n = 11) completed a memory task consisting of immediate and delayed free recall of a list of positive, negative and neutral words. Memory performance was related to brain integrity in region of interest and whole-brain voxel-based morphometry analyses. In the brain-behavioral analyses, the left amygdala volume predicted the immediate recall of both positive and negative material, whereas at delay, left and right amygdala volumes were associated with performance with positive and negative words, respectively. Whole-brain analyses revealed additional associations between left angular gyrus integrity and the immediate recall of positive words as well as between the orbitofrontal cortex and the delayed recall of negative words. These results indicate that emotional memory impairments in AD may be underpinned by damage to regions implicated in emotional processing as well as frontoparietal regions, which may exert their influence via autobiographical memories and organizational strategies. PMID:24478669

Schizophrenia patients demonstrate a dissociation on declarative and non-declarative memory tests.

PubMed

Perry, W; Light, G A; Davis, H; Braff, D L

2000-12-15

Declarative memory refers to the recall and recognition of factual information. In contrast, non-declarative memory entails a facilitation of memory based on prior exposure and is typically assessed with priming and perceptual-motor sequencing tasks. In this study, schizophrenia patients were compared to normal comparison subjects on two computerized memory tasks: the Word-stem Priming Test (n=30) and the Pattern Sequence Learning Test (n=20). Word-stem Priming includes recall, recognition (declarative) and priming (non-declarative) components of memory. The schizophrenia patients demonstrated an impaired performance on recall of words with relative improvement during the recognition portion of the test. Furthermore, they performed normally on the priming portion of the test. Thus, on tests of declarative memory, the patients had retrieval deficits with intact performance on the non-declarative memory component. The Pattern Sequence Learning Test utilizes a serial reaction time paradigm to assess non-declarative memory. The schizophrenia patients' serial reaction time was significantly slower than that of comparison subjects. However, the patients' rate of acquisition was not different from the normal comparison group. The data suggest that patients with schizophrenia process more slowly than normal, but have an intact non-declarative memory. The schizophrenia patients' dissociation on declarative vs. non-declarative memory tests is discussed in terms of possible underlying structural impairment.

Grain size of recall practice for lengthy text material: fragile and mysterious effects on memory.

PubMed

Wissman, Kathryn T; Rawson, Katherine A

2015-03-01

The current research evaluated the extent to which the grain size of recall practice for lengthy text material affects recall during practice and subsequent memory. The grain size hypothesis states that a smaller vs. larger grain size will increase retrieval success during practice that in turn will enhance subsequent memory for lengthy text material. Participants were prompted to recall directly after studying each section (section recall) or after all sections had been studied (whole-text recall) during practice, and then all participants completed a final test after a delay. Results across 7 experiments (including 587 participants and 1,394 recall protocols) partially disconfirmed the predictions of the grain size hypothesis: Although the smaller grain size produced sizable recall advantages during practice as expected (ds from 1.02 to 1.87 across experiments), the advantage was substantially or completely attenuated across a delay. Experiments 2-7 falsified several plausible methodological and theoretical explanations for the fragility of the effect, indicating that it was not due to particular text materials, retrieval from working memory during practice, the length of the retention interval, the spacing between study and practice recall, a disproportionate increase in recall of unimportant details, or a deficit in integration of ideas across text sections. In sum, results conclusively establish an initially sizable but mysteriously fragile effect of grain size, for which an explanation remains elusive. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

Recall initiation strategies must be controlled in training studies that use immediate free recall tasks to measure the components of working memory capacity across time.

PubMed

Gibson, Bradley S; Gondoli, Dawn M; Johnson, Ann C; Robison, Matthew K

2014-01-01

There has been great interest in using working memory (WM) training regimens as an alternative treatment for ADHD, but it has recently been concluded that existing training regimens may not be optimally designed because they target the primary memory component but not the secondary component of WM capacity. This conclusion requires the ability to accurately measure changes in primary and secondary memory abilities over time. The immediate free recall task has been used in previous studies to measure these changes; however, one concern with these tasks is that the recall order required on training exercises may influence the recall strategy used during free recall, which may in turn influence the relative number of items recalled from primary and secondary memory. To address this issue, previous training studies have explicitly controlled recall strategy before and after training. However, the necessity of controlling for recall strategies has not been explicitly tested. The present study investigated the effects of forward-serial-order training on free recall performance under conditions in which recall strategy was not controlled using a sample of adolescents with ADHD. Unlike when recall order was controlled, the main findings showed selective improvement of the secondary memory component (as opposed to the primary memory component) when recall order was uncontrolled. This finding advances our understanding of WM training by highlighting the importance of controlling for recall strategies when free recall tasks are used to measure changes in the primary and secondary components of WM across time.

The Hebb repetition effect in simple and complex memory span.

PubMed

Oberauer, Klaus; Jones, Timothy; Lewandowsky, Stephan

2015-08-01

The Hebb repetition effect refers to the finding that immediate serial recall is improved over trials for memory lists that are surreptitiously repeated across trials, relative to new lists. We show in four experiments that the Hebb repetition effect is also observed with a complex-span task, in which encoding or retrieval of list items alternates with an unrelated processing task. The interruption of encoding or retrieval by the processing task did not reduce the size of the Hebb effect, demonstrating that incidental long-term learning forms integrated representations of lists, excluding the interleaved processing events. Contrary to the assumption that complex-span performance relies more on long-term memory than standard immediate serial recall (simple span), the Hebb effect was not larger in complex-span than in simple-span performance. The Hebb effect in complex span was also not modulated by the opportunity for refreshing list items, questioning a role of refreshing for the acquisition of the long-term memory representations underlying the effect.

Reading time allocation strategies and working memory using rapid serial visual presentation.

PubMed

Busler, Jessica N; Lazarte, Alejandro A

2017-09-01

Rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) is a useful method for controlling the timing of text presentations and studying how readers' characteristics, such as working memory (WM) and reading strategies for time allocation, influence text recall. In the current study, a modified version of RSVP (Moving Window RSVP [MW-RSVP]) was used to induce longer pauses at the ends of clauses and ends of sentences when reading texts with multiple embedded clauses. We studied if WM relates to allocation of time at end of clauses or sentences in a self-paced reading task and in 2 MW-RSVP reading conditions (Constant MW-RSVP and Paused MW-RSVP) in which the reading rate was kept constant or pauses were induced. Higher WM span readers were more affected by the restriction of time allocation in the MW-RSVP conditions. In addition, the recall of both higher and lower WM-span readers benefited from the paused MW-RSVP presentation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Retention of Text Material under Cued and Uncued Recall and Open and Closed Book Conditions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nevid, Jeffrey S.; Pyun, Yea Seul; Cheney, Brianna

2016-01-01

Evidence supports the benefits of effortful processing in strengthening retention of newly learned material. The present study compared two forms of effortful processing, uncued (free) recall and cued recall, under both open and closed book conditions, on both immediate and delayed (one-week) test performance. Participants read a section of a…

What can we learn about immediate memory from the development of children's free recall?

PubMed Central

Jarrold, Christopher; Hall, Debbora; Harvey, Caroline E.; Tam, Helen; Towse, John N.; Zarandi, Amy L.

2015-01-01

We ask the question: Which aspects of immediate memory performance improve with age? In two studies, we reexamine the widely held view that primary memory capacity estimates derived from children's immediate free recall are age invariant. This was done by assessing children's immediate free-recall accuracy while also measuring the order in which they elected to recall items (Experiment 1) and by encouraging children to begin free recall with items from towards the end of the presented list (Experiment 2). Across samples aged between 5 and 8 years we replicated the previously reported age-related changes in free-recall serial position functions when aggregated across all trials of the standard task, including an absence of age differences in the recency portion of this curve. However, we also show that this does not reflect the fact that primary memory capacity is constant across age. Instead, when we incorporate order of report information, clear age differences are evident in the recall of list-final items that are output at the start of a participant's response. In addition, the total amount that individuals recalled varied little across different types of free-recall tasks. These findings have clear implications for the use of immediate free recall as a means of providing potential indices of primary memory capacity and in the study of the development of immediate memory. PMID:25486388

What can we learn about immediate memory from the development of children's free recall?

PubMed

Jarrold, Christopher; Hall, Debbora; Harvey, Caroline E; Tam, Helen; Towse, John N; Zarandi, Amy L

2015-01-01

We ask the question: Which aspects of immediate memory performance improve with age? In two studies, we reexamine the widely held view that primary memory capacity estimates derived from children's immediate free recall are age invariant. This was done by assessing children's immediate free-recall accuracy while also measuring the order in which they elected to recall items (Experiment 1) and by encouraging children to begin free recall with items from towards the end of the presented list (Experiment 2). Across samples aged between 5 and 8 years we replicated the previously reported age-related changes in free-recall serial position functions when aggregated across all trials of the standard task, including an absence of age differences in the recency portion of this curve. However, we also show that this does not reflect the fact that primary memory capacity is constant across age. Instead, when we incorporate order of report information, clear age differences are evident in the recall of list-final items that are output at the start of a participant's response. In addition, the total amount that individuals recalled varied little across different types of free-recall tasks. These findings have clear implications for the use of immediate free recall as a means of providing potential indices of primary memory capacity and in the study of the development of immediate memory.

Prestimulus brain activity predicts primacy in list learning

PubMed Central

Galli, Giulia; Choy, Tsee Leng; Otten, Leun J.

2012-01-01

Brain activity immediately before an event can predict whether the event will later be remembered. This indicates that memory formation is influenced by anticipatory mechanisms engaged ahead of stimulus presentation. Here, we asked whether anticipatory processes affect the learning of short word lists, and whether such activity varies as a function of serial position. Participants memorized lists of intermixed visual and auditory words with either an elaborative or rote rehearsal strategy. At the end of each list, a distraction task was performed followed by free recall. Recall performance was better for words in initial list positions and following elaborative rehearsal. Electrical brain activity before auditory words predicted later recall in the elaborative rehearsal condition. Crucially, anticipatory activity only affected recall when words occurred in initial list positions. This indicates that anticipatory processes, possibly related to general semantic preparation, contribute to primacy effects. PMID:22888370

Shiraz Verbal Learning Test (SVLT): Normative Data for Neurologically Intact Speakers of Persian.

PubMed

Rahmani, Fahimeh; Haghshenas, Hassan; Mehrabanpour, Abdolrasoul; Mani, Arash; Mahmoodi, Mohammad

2017-08-01

Memory assessment plays an important role in the diagnosis of neurodegenerative disorders. Several tests, such as the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT), have been developed for this purpose, yet a variety of different factors can affect one's performance on such tests, the most important of which are demographic and cultural variables. The present study examined the norming process performed on the CVLT-revised and aimed to devise a new test, the Shiraz Verbal Learning Test (SVLT), to better meet the needs of speakers of Persian. In order to collect normative data, a group of 1275 Persian-speaking individuals consisting of both sexes (676 women and 599 men) aged 20-89 years old were selected for this study. The results of Pearson's Correlation analysis indicated that there was a significant negative correlation between age and SVLT performance and a positive one between education and SVLT performance (p < .001) among the whole sample. Moreover, between-group analyses showed that the female participants performed significantly better than their male counterparts on nearly all subtests (Total Trails 1-5, Short-Delay Free Recall, Short-Delay Cued Recall, Long-Delay Free Recall, Long-Delay Cued Recall, and Total Learning Slope), with the only exception being Long-Delay Yes/No Recognition. These results suggest that the SVLT has the potential to be further developed among different culture and language groups. This test can also be used for clinical and research purposes for patients with neuropsychiatric disorders who need further neuropsychological assessment. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Is "Learning" episodic memory? Distinct cognitive and neuroanatomic correlates of immediate recall during learning trials in neurologically normal aging and neurodegenerative cohorts.

PubMed

Casaletto, K B; Marx, G; Dutt, S; Neuhaus, J; Saloner, R; Kritikos, L; Miller, B; Kramer, J H

2017-07-28

Although commonly interpreted as a marker of episodic memory during neuropsychological exams, relatively little is known regarding the neurobehavior of "total learning" immediate recall scores. Medial temporal lobes are clearly associated with delayed recall performances, yet immediate recall may necessitate networks beyond traditional episodic memory. We aimed to operationalize cognitive and neuroanatomic correlates of total immediate recall in several aging syndromes. Demographically-matched neurologically normal adults (n=91), individuals with Alzheimer's disease (n=566), logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia (PPA) (n=34), behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (n=97), semantic variant PPA (n=71), or nonfluent/agrammatic variant PPA (n=39) completed a neurocognitive battery, including the CVLT-Short Form trials 1-4 Total Immediate Recall; a majority subset also completed a brain MRI. Regressions covaried for age and sex, and MMSE in cognitive and total intracranial volume in neuroanatomic models. Neurologically normal adults demonstrated a heterogeneous pattern of cognitive associations with total immediate recall (executive, speed, delayed recall), such that no singular cognitive or neuroanatomic correlate uniquely predicted performance. Within the clinical cohorts, there were syndrome-specific cognitive and neural associations with total immediate recall; e.g., semantic processing was the strongest cognitive correlate in svPPA (partial r=0.41), while frontal volumes was the only meaningful neural correlate in bvFTD (partial r=0.20). Medial temporal lobes were not independently associated with total immediate recall in any group (ps>0.05). Multiple neurobehavioral systems are associated with "total learning" immediate recall scores that importantly differ across distinct clinical syndromes. Conventional memory networks may not be sufficient or even importantly contribute to total immediate recall in many syndromes. Interpreting learning scores as equivalent to episodic memory may be erroneous. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

When does word meaning affect immediate serial recall in semantic dementia?

PubMed

Jefferies, Elizabeth; Jones, Roy; Bateman, David; Ralph, Matthew A Lambon

2004-03-01

Patients with semantic dementia can show superior immediate recall of words that they still understand relatively well, as compared with more semantically degraded words, suggesting that conceptual knowledge makes a major contribution to phonological short-term memory. However, a number of studies have failed to show such a recall difference, challenging this view. We examined the effect of several methodological factors on the recall of known and degraded words in 4 patients with semantic dementia, in order to investigate possible reasons for this discrepancy. In general, our patients did exhibit poorer recall of the degraded words and made more phonological errors on these items. In addition, set size affected the magnitude of the recall advantage for known words. This finding suggests that semantic degradation influenced the rate of learning in the immediate recall task when the same items were presented repeatedly. The methods used to select known and degraded items also impacted on the recall difference. List length, however, did not affect the advantage for known words. The coherence of items in phonological short-term memory was affected by their semantic status, but not by the length of the material to be retained. The implications of these findings for the role of semantic and phonological representations in verbal short-term memory are discussed.

Retrieval practice improves memory in multiple sclerosis: clinical application of the testing effect.

PubMed

Sumowski, James F; Chiaravalloti, Nancy; Deluca, John

2010-03-01

The testing effect is a robust cognitive phenomenon by which memory retrieval on a test improves subsequent recall more than restudying. Also known as retrieval practice, the testing effect has been studied almost exclusively in healthy undergraduates. The current study investigated whether retrieval practice during testing leads to better delayed recall than restudy among persons with multiple sclerosis (MS), a neurologic disease associated with memory dysfunction. In a within-subjects design, 32 persons with MS and 16 demographically matched healthy controls (HC) studied 48 verbal paired associates (VPA) divided across 3 learning conditions: massed restudy (MR), spaced restudy (SR), and spaced testing (ST). Delayed VPA cued recall was measured after 45 min. There was a large main effect of learning condition (etap2 = .54, p < .001) such that both MS and HC participants produced better delayed recall for VPAs learned through ST relative to MR and SR; and SR relative to MR. This same pattern was observed for MS participants with objective memory impairment (n = 16), thereby providing the first evidence that retrieval practice improves memory more than restudy among persons with neurologically based memory impairment. Copyright 2010 APA, all rights reserved

Biomarker validation of a cued recall memory deficit in prodromal Alzheimer disease.

PubMed

Wagner, M; Wolf, S; Reischies, F M; Daerr, M; Wolfsgruber, S; Jessen, F; Popp, J; Maier, W; Hüll, M; Frölich, L; Hampel, H; Perneczky, R; Peters, O; Jahn, H; Luckhaus, C; Gertz, H-J; Schröder, J; Pantel, J; Lewczuk, P; Kornhuber, J; Wiltfang, J

2012-02-07

To compare cued recall measures with other memory and nonmemory tests regarding their association with a biomarker profile indicative of Alzheimer disease (AD) in CSF among patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Data were obtained by the German Dementia Competence Network. A total of 185 memory clinic patients fulfilling broad criteria for MCI (1 SD deficit in memory tests or in nonmemory tests) were assessed with an extended neuropsychological battery, which included the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT), the word list learning task from the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease neuropsychological battery (CERAD-NP), and the Logical Memory (LM) paragraph recall test from the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised. CSF was obtained from all patients. A total of 74 out of 185 subjects with MCI (40%) had a CSF profile consistent with AD (Aβ(1-42)/tau ratio; CSF AD+ group). FCSRT measures reflecting both free and cued recall discriminated best between CSF AD+ and CSF AD- patients, and significantly improved CSF AD classification accuracy, as compared with CERAD delayed recall and LM delayed recall. Cued recall deficits are most closely associated with CSF biomarkers indicative of AD in subjects with MCI. This novel finding complements results from prospective clinical studies and provides further empirical support for cued recall as a specific indicator of prodromal AD, in line with recently proposed research criteria.

Consolidation and restoration of memory traces in working memory.

PubMed

De Schrijver, Sébastien; Barrouillet, Pierre

2017-10-01

Consolidation is the process through which ephemeral sensory traces are transformed into more stable short-term memory traces. It has been shown that consolidation plays a crucial role in working memory (WM) performance, by strengthening memory traces that then better resist interference and decay. In a recent study, Bayliss, Bogdanovs, and Jarrold (Journal of Memory and Language, 81, 34-50, 2015) argued that this process is separate from the processes known to restore WM traces after degradation, such as attentional refreshing and verbal rehearsal. In the present study, we investigated the relationship between the two types of processes in the context of WM span tasks. Participants were presented with series of letters for serial recall, each letter being followed by four digits for parity judgment. Consolidation opportunity was manipulated by varying the delay between each letter and the first digit to be processed, while opportunities for restoration were manipulated by varying the pace at which the parity task had to be performed (i.e., its cognitive load, or CL). Increasing the time available for either consolidation or restoration resulted in higher WM spans, with some substitutability between the two processes. Accordingly, when consolidation time was added to restoration time in the calculation of CL, the new resulting index, called extended CL, proved a very good predictor of recall performance, a finding also observed when verbal rehearsal was prevented by articulatory suppression. This substitutability between consolidation and restoration suggests that both processes may rely on the same mechanisms.

Does music training facilitate the mnemonic effect of song? An exploration of musicians and nonmusicians with and without Alzheimer's dementia.

PubMed

Baird, Amee; Samson, Séverine; Miller, Laurie; Chalmers, Kerry

2017-02-01

The efficacy of using sung words as a mnemonic device for verbal memory has been documented in persons with probable Alzheimer's dementia (AD), but it is not yet known whether this effect is related to music training. Given that music training can enhance cognitive functioning, we explored the effects of music training and modality (sung vs. spoken) on verbal memory in persons with and without AD. We used a mixed factorial design to compare learning (5 trials), delayed recall (30-min and, 24-hour), and recognition of sung versus spoken information in 22 healthy elderly (15 musicians), and 11 people with AD (5 musicians). Musicians with AD showed better total learning (over 5 trials) of sung information than nonmusicians with AD. There were no significant differences in delayed recall and recognition accuracy (of either modality) between musicians with and without AD, suggesting that music training may facilitate memory function in AD. Analysis of individual performances showed that two of the five musicians with AD were able to recall some information on delayed recall, whereas the nonmusicians with AD recalled no information on delay. The only significant finding in regard to modality (sung vs. spoken) was that total learning was significantly worse for sung than spoken information for nonmusicians with AD. This may be due to the need to recode information presented in song into spoken recall, which may be more cognitively demanding for this group. This is the first study to demonstrate that music training modulates memory of sung and spoken information in AD. The mechanism underlying these results is unclear, but may be due to music training, higher cognitive abilities, or both. Our findings highlight the need for further research into the potentially protective effect of music training on cognitive abilities in our aging population.

Memory performance on the story recall test and prediction of cognitive dysfunction progression in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's dementia.

PubMed

Park, Jong-Hwan; Park, Hyuntae; Sohn, Sang Wuk; Kim, Sungjae; Park, Kyung Won

2017-10-01

To determine the factors that influence diagnosis and differentiation of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's dementia (AD) by comparing memory test results at baseline with those at 1-2-year follow up. We consecutively recruited 23 healthy participants, 44 MCI patients and 27 patients with very mild AD according to the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Diseases and Stroke/Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorder Association criteria for probable Alzheimer's disease and Petersen's clinical diagnostic criteria. We carried out detailed neuropsychological tests, including the Story Recall Test (SRT) and the Seoul Verbal Learning Test, for all participants. We defined study participants as the "progression group" as follows: (i) participants who showed conversion to dementia from the MCI state; and (ii) those with dementia who showed more than a three-point decrement in their Mini-Mental State Examination scores with accompanying functional decline from baseline status, which were ascertained by physician's clinical judgment. The SRT delayed recall scores were significantly lower in the patients with mild AD than in those with MCI and after progression. Lower (relative risk 1.1, 95% confidence interval 0.1-1.6) and higher SRT delayed recall scores (relative risk 2.1, confidence interval 1.0-2.8), and two-test combined immediate and delayed recall scores (relative risk 2.0, confidence interval 0.9-2.3; and relative risk 2.8, confidence interval 1.1-4.2, respectively) were independent predictors of progression in a stepwise multiple adjusted Cox proportional hazards model, with age, sex, depression and educational level forced into the model. The present study suggests that the SRT delayed recall score independently predicts progression to dementia in patients with MCI. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2017; 17: 1603-1609. © 2016 Japan Geriatrics Society.

Task difficulty differentially affects two measures of processing load: the pupil response during sentence processing and delayed cued recall of the sentences.

PubMed

Zekveld, Adriana A; Festen, Joost M; Kramer, Sophia E

2013-08-01

In this study, the authors assessed the influence of masking level (29% or 71% sentence perception) and test modality on the processing load during language perception as reflected by the pupil response. In addition, the authors administered a delayed cued stimulus recall test to examine whether processing load affected the encoding of the stimuli in memory. Participants performed speech and text reception threshold tests, during which the pupil response was measured. In the cued recall test, the first half of correctly perceived sentences was presented, and participants were asked to complete the sentences. Reading and listening span tests of working memory capacity were presented as well. Regardless of test modality, the pupil response indicated higher processing load in the 29% condition than in the 71% correct condition. Cued recall was better for the 29% condition. The consistent effect of masking level on the pupil response during listening and reading support the validity of the pupil response as a measure of processing load during language perception. The absent relation between pupil response and cued recall may suggest that cued recall is not directly related to processing load, as reflected by the pupil response.

The natural history of antismoking advertising recall: the influence of broadcasting parameters, emotional intensity and executional features.

PubMed

Dunlop, Sally M; Perez, Donna; Cotter, Trish

2014-05-01

The necessary first steps for televised media campaign effects are population exposure and recall. To maximise the impact of campaign funding, it is critical to identify modifiable factors that increase the efficiency of an advertisement reaching the target audience and of their recalling that advertisement. Data come from a serial cross-sectional telephone survey with weekly interviews of adult smokers and recent quitters from the state of New South Wales, Australia, collected between April 2005 and December 2010 (total n=13 301). Survey data were merged with commercial TV ratings data (Gross Rating Points (GRPs)) to estimate individuals' exposure to antismoking campaigns. Multivariable logistic regression analyses indicated that GRPs and broadcasting recency were positively associated with advertisement recall, such that advertisements broadcast more at higher levels or in more recent weeks were more likely to be recalled. Advertisements were more likely to be recalled in their launch phase than in following periods. Controlling for broadcasting parameters, advertisements higher in emotional intensity were more likely to be recalled than those low in emotion; and emotionally intense advertisements required fewer GRPs to achieve high levels of recall than lower emotion advertisements. There was some evidence for a diminishing effect of increased GRPs on recall. In order to achieve sufficient levels of population recall of antismoking campaigns, advertisements need to be broadcast at adequate levels in relatively frequent cycles. Advertisements with highly emotional content may offer the most efficient means by which to increase population recall.

Visual memory in unilateral spatial neglect: immediate recall versus delayed recognition.

PubMed

Moreh, Elior; Malkinson, Tal Seidel; Zohary, Ehud; Soroker, Nachum

2014-09-01

Patients with unilateral spatial neglect (USN) often show impaired performance in spatial working memory tasks, apart from the difficulty retrieving "left-sided" spatial data from long-term memory, shown in the "piazza effect" by Bisiach and colleagues. This study's aim was to compare the effect of the spatial position of a visual object on immediate and delayed memory performance in USN patients. Specifically, immediate verbal recall performance, tested using a simultaneous presentation of four visual objects in four quadrants, was compared with memory in a later-provided recognition task, in which objects were individually shown at the screen center. Unlike healthy controls, USN patients showed a left-side disadvantage and a vertical bias in the immediate free recall task (69% vs. 42% recall for right- and left-sided objects, respectively). In the recognition task, the patients correctly recognized half of "old" items, and their correct rejection rate was 95.5%. Importantly, when the analysis focused on previously recalled items (in the immediate task), no statistically significant difference was found in the delayed recognition of objects according to their original quadrant of presentation. Furthermore, USN patients were able to recollect the correct original location of the recognized objects in 60% of the cases, well beyond chance level. This suggests that the memory trace formed in these cases was not only semantic but also contained a visuospatial tag. Finally, successful recognition of objects missed in recall trials points to formation of memory traces for neglected contralesional objects, which may become accessible to retrieval processes in explicit memory.

Recall memory in children with Down syndrome and typically developing peers matched on developmental age.

PubMed

Milojevich, H; Lukowski, A

2016-01-01

Whereas research has indicated that children with Down syndrome (DS) imitate demonstrated actions over short delays, it is presently unknown whether children with DS recall information over lengthy delays at levels comparable with typically developing (TD) children matched on developmental age. In the present research, 10 children with DS and 10 TD children participated in a two-session study to examine basic processes associated with hippocampus-dependent recall memory. At the first session, the researcher demonstrated how to complete a three-step action sequence with novel stimuli; immediate imitation was permitted as an index of encoding. At the second session, recall memory was assessed for previously modelled sequences; children were also presented with two novel three-step control sequences. The results indicated that group differences were not apparent in the encoding of the events or the forgetting of information over time. Group differences were also not observed when considering the recall of individual target actions at the 1-month delay, although TD children produced more target actions overall at the second session relative to children with DS. Group differences were found when considering memory for temporal order information, such that TD children evidenced recall relative to novel control sequences, whereas children with DS did not. These findings suggest that children with DS may have difficulty with mnemonic processes associated with consolidation/storage and/or retrieval processes relative to TD children. © 2015 MENCAP and International Association of the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Associations between basal cortisol levels and memory retrieval in healthy young individuals.

PubMed

Ackermann, Sandra; Hartmann, Francina; Papassotiropoulos, Andreas; de Quervain, Dominique J F; Rasch, Björn

2013-11-01

Cortisol is known to affect memory processes. On the one hand, stress-induced or pharmacologically induced elevations of cortisol levels enhance memory consolidation. On the other hand, such experimentally induced elevations of cortisol levels have been shown to impair memory retrieval. However, the effects of individual differences in basal cortisol levels on memory processes remain largely unknown. Here we tested whether individual differences in cortisol levels predict picture learning and recall in a large sample. A total of 1225 healthy young women and men viewed two different sets of emotional and neutral pictures on two consecutive days. Both sets were recalled after a short delay (10 min). On Day 2, the pictures seen on Day 1 were additionally recalled, resulting in a long-delay (20 hr) recall condition. Cortisol levels were measured three times on Days 1 and 2 via saliva samples before encoding, between encoding and recall as well as after recall testing. We show that stronger decreases in cortisol levels during retrieval testing were associated with better recall performance of pictures, regardless of emotional valence of the pictures or length of the retention interval (i.e., 10 min vs. 20 hr). In contrast, average cortisol levels during retrieval were not related to picture recall. Remarkably during encoding, individual differences in average cortisol levels as well as changes in cortisol did not predict memory recall. Our results support previous findings indicating that higher cortisol levels during retrieval testing hinders recall of episodic memories and extend this view onto interindividual changes in basal cortisol levels.

The effects of acute hypoglycaemia on memory acquisition and recall and prospective memory in type 1 diabetes.

PubMed

Warren, R E; Zammitt, N N; Deary, I J; Frier, B M

2007-01-01

Global memory performance is impaired during acute hypoglycaemia. This study assessed whether moderate hypoglycaemia disrupts learning and recall in isolation, and utilised a novel test of prospective memory which may better reflect the role of memory in daily life than conventional tests. Thirty-six subjects with type 1 diabetes participated, 20 with normal hypoglycaemia awareness (NHA) and 16 with impaired hypoglycaemia awareness (IHA). Each underwent a hypoglycaemic clamp with target blood glucose 2.5 mmol/l. Prior to hypoglycaemia, subjects attempted to memorise instructions for a prospective memory task, and recall was assessed during hypoglycaemia. Subjects then completed the learning and immediate recall stages of three conventional memory tasks (word recall, story recall, visual recall) during hypoglycaemia. Euglycaemia was restored and delayed memory for the conventional tasks was tested. The same procedures were completed in euglycaemic control studies (blood glucose 4.5 mmol/l). Hypoglycaemia impaired performance significantly on the prospective memory task (p = 0.004). Hypoglycaemia also significantly impaired both immediate and delayed recall for the word and story recall tasks (p < 0.01 in each case). There was no significant deterioration of performance on the visual memory task. The effect of hypoglycaemia did not differ significantly between subjects with NHA and IHA. Impaired performance on the prospective memory task during hypoglycaemia demonstrates that recall is disrupted by hypoglycaemia. Impaired performance on the conventional memory tasks demonstrates that learning is also disrupted by hypoglycaemia. Results of the prospective memory task support the relevance of these findings to the everyday lives of people with diabetes.

Boosting Maintenance in Working Memory with Temporal Regularities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Plancher, Gaën; Lévêque, Yohana; Fanuel, Lison; Piquandet, Gaëlle; Tillmann, Barbara

2018-01-01

Music cognition research has provided evidence for the benefit of temporally regular structures guiding attention over time. The present study investigated whether maintenance in working memory can benefit from an isochronous rhythm. Participants were asked to remember series of 6 letters for serial recall. In the rhythm condition of Experiment…

Part-Set Cuing Facilitation for Spatial Information

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cole, Sydni M.; Reysen, Matthew B.; Kelley, Matthew R.

2013-01-01

Part-set cuing "inhibition" refers to the counterintuitive finding that hints--specifically, part of the set of to-be-remembered information--often impair memory performance in free recall tasks. Although inhibition is the most commonly reported result, part-set cuing "facilitation" has been shown with serial order tasks. The…

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

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

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

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…

Serial Recall and Nonword Repetition in Reading Disabled Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roodenrys, Steven; Stokes, Julie

2001-01-01

Examines the performance on verbal short-term memory tasks of specifically reading disabled children relative to reading-age matched and chronological-age matched control groups. Examines memory span for words, highly wordlike nonwords and less wordlike nonwords, speech rates for these items, and nonword repetition. Suggests that there is a…

Evidence against Decay in Verbal Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oberauer, Klaus; Lewandowsky, Stephan

2013-01-01

The article tests the assumption that forgetting in working memory for verbal materials is caused by time-based decay, using the complex-span paradigm. Participants encoded 6 letters for serial recall; each letter was preceded and followed by a processing period comprising 4 trials of difficult visual search. Processing duration, during which…

Drift in Neural Population Activity Causes Working Memory to Deteriorate Over Time.

PubMed

Schneegans, Sebastian; Bays, Paul M

2018-05-23

Short-term memories are thought to be maintained in the form of sustained spiking activity in neural populations. Decreases in recall precision observed with increasing number of memorized items can be accounted for by a limit on total spiking activity, resulting in fewer spikes contributing to the representation of each individual item. Longer retention intervals likewise reduce recall precision, but it is unknown what changes in population activity produce this effect. One possibility is that spiking activity becomes attenuated over time, such that the same mechanism accounts for both effects of set size and retention duration. Alternatively, reduced performance may be caused by drift in the encoded value over time, without a decrease in overall spiking activity. Human participants of either sex performed a variable-delay cued recall task with a saccadic response, providing a precise measure of recall latency. Based on a spike integration model of decision making, if the effects of set size and retention duration are both caused by decreased spiking activity, we would predict a fixed relationship between recall precision and response latency across conditions. In contrast, the drift hypothesis predicts no systematic changes in latency with increasing delays. Our results show both an increase in latency with set size, and a decrease in response precision with longer delays within each set size, but no systematic increase in latency for increasing delay durations. These results were quantitatively reproduced by a model based on a limited neural resource in which working memories drift rather than decay with time. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Rapid deterioration over seconds is a defining feature of short-term memory, but what mechanism drives this degradation of internal representations? Here, we extend a successful population coding model of working memory by introducing possible mechanisms of delay effects. We show that a decay in neural signal over time predicts that the time required for memory retrieval will increase with delay, whereas a random drift in the stored value predicts no effect of delay on retrieval time. Testing these predictions in a multi-item memory task with an eye movement response, we identified drift as a key mechanism of memory decline. These results provide evidence for a dynamic spiking basis for working memory, in contrast to recent proposals of activity-silent storage. Copyright © 2018 Schneegans and Bays.

Situation models and memory: the effects of temporal and causal information on recall sequence.

PubMed

Brownstein, Aaron L; Read, Stephen J

2007-10-01

Participants watched an episode of the television show Cheers on video and then reported free recall. Recall sequence followed the sequence of events in the story; if one concept was observed immediately after another, it was recalled immediately after it. We also made a causal network of the show's story and found that recall sequence followed causal links; effects were recalled immediately after their causes. Recall sequence was more likely to follow causal links than temporal sequence, and most likely to follow causal links that were temporally sequential. Results were similar at 10-minute and 1-week delayed recall. This is the most direct and detailed evidence reported on sequential effects in recall. The causal network also predicted probability of recall; concepts with more links and concepts on the main causal chain were most likely to be recalled. This extends the causal network model to more complex materials than previous research.

Beyond initial encoding: measures of the post-encoding status of memory traces predict long-term recall during infancy.

PubMed

Pathman, Thanujeni; Bauer, Patricia J

2013-02-01

The first years of life are witness to rapid changes in long-term recall ability. In the current research we contributed to an explanation of the changes by testing the absolute and relative contributions to long-term recall of encoding and post-encoding processes. Using elicited imitation, we sampled the status of 16-, 20-, and 24-month-old infants' memory representations at various time points after experience of events. In Experiment 1, infants were tested immediately, 1 week after encoding, and again after 1 month. The measure of 1-week trace status was a unique predictor of 1-month delayed recall. In Experiment 2, infants were tested immediately, 15 min, 48 h, and 2 weeks after encoding and again 1 month later. The measures of 15-min and 48-h trace strength contributed unique variance in 1-month delayed recall. The findings highlight the need to consider post-encoding processes in explanations of variability in long-term memory during infancy. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The influence of levels of processing on recall from working memory and delayed recall tasks.

PubMed

Loaiza, Vanessa M; McCabe, David P; Youngblood, Jessie L; Rose, Nathan S; Myerson, Joel

2011-09-01

Recent research in working memory has highlighted the similarities involved in retrieval from complex span tasks and episodic memory tasks, suggesting that these tasks are influenced by similar memory processes. In the present article, the authors manipulated the level of processing engaged when studying to-be-remembered words during a reading span task (Experiment 1) and an operation span task (Experiment 2) in order to assess the role of retrieval from secondary memory during complex span tasks. Immediate recall from both span tasks was greater for items studied under deep processing instructions compared with items studied under shallow processing instructions regardless of trial length. Recall was better for deep than for shallow levels of processing on delayed recall tests as well. These data are consistent with the primary-secondary memory framework, which suggests that to-be-remembered items are displaced from primary memory (i.e., the focus of attention) during the processing phases of complex span tasks and therefore must be retrieved from secondary memory. (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved.

Dissociating the two faces of selective memory retrieval.

PubMed

Dobler, Ina M; Bäuml, Karl-Heinz T

2012-07-01

Research in the past four decades has repeatedly shown that selective retrieval of some (non-target) memories can impair subsequent retrieval of other (target) information, a finding known as retrieval-induced forgetting. More recently, however, there is evidence that selective retrieval can both impair and enhance recall of related memories (K-H. T. Bäuml & Samenieh, 2010). To identify possible experimental dissociations between the detrimental and the beneficial effects of memory retrieval, we examined retrieval dynamics in listwise directed forgetting, varying the delay between preceding non-target and subsequent target recall. When target recall immediately followed non-target recall, we replicated the prior work and found detrimental effects of memory retrieval on to-be-remembered items but beneficial effects on to-be-forgotten items. In contrast, when a delay was introduced between non-target and target recall, the detrimental effects were present but the beneficial effects were absent. The results demonstrate a first experimental dissociation between the two effects of memory retrieval. They are consistent with a recent two-factor account of the two faces of selective memory retrieval.

Working Memory Capacity and Recall from Long-Term Memory: Examining the Influences of Encoding Strategies, Study Time Allocation, Search Efficiency, and Monitoring Abilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Unsworth, Nash

2016-01-01

The relation between working memory capacity (WMC) and recall from long-term memory (LTM) was examined in the current study. Participants performed multiple measures of delayed free recall varying in presentation duration and self-reported their strategy usage after each task. Participants also performed multiple measures of WMC. The results…

Similarities between the irrelevant sound effect and the suffix effect.

PubMed

Hanley, J Richard; Bourgaize, Jake

2018-03-29

Although articulatory suppression abolishes the effect of irrelevant sound (ISE) on serial recall when sequences are presented visually, the effect persists with auditory presentation of list items. Two experiments were designed to test the claim that, when articulation is suppressed, the effect of irrelevant sound on the retention of auditory lists resembles a suffix effect. A suffix is a spoken word that immediately follows the final item in a list. Even though participants are told to ignore it, the suffix impairs serial recall of auditory lists. In Experiment 1, the irrelevant sound consisted of instrumental music. The music generated a significant ISE that was abolished by articulatory suppression. It therefore appears that, when articulation is suppressed, irrelevant sound must contain speech for it to have any effect on recall. This is consistent with what is known about the suffix effect. In Experiment 2, the effect of irrelevant sound under articulatory suppression was greater when the irrelevant sound was spoken by the same voice that presented the list items. This outcome is again consistent with the known characteristics of the suffix effect. It therefore appears that, when rehearsal is suppressed, irrelevant sound disrupts the acoustic-perceptual encoding of auditorily presented list items. There is no evidence that the persistence of the ISE under suppression is a result of interference to the representation of list items in a postcategorical phonological store.

Testing a dynamic-field account of interactions between spatial attention and spatial working memory.

PubMed

Johnson, Jeffrey S; Spencer, John P

2016-05-01

Studies examining the relationship between spatial attention and spatial working memory (SWM) have shown that discrimination responses are faster for targets appearing at locations that are being maintained in SWM, and that location memory is impaired when attention is withdrawn during the delay. These observations support the proposal that sustained attention is required for successful retention in SWM: If attention is withdrawn, memory representations are likely to fail, increasing errors. In the present study, this proposal was reexamined in light of a neural-process model of SWM. On the basis of the model's functioning, we propose an alternative explanation for the observed decline in SWM performance when a secondary task is performed during retention: SWM representations drift systematically toward the location of targets appearing during the delay. To test this explanation, participants completed a color discrimination task during the delay interval of a spatial-recall task. In the critical shifting-attention condition, the color stimulus could appear either toward or away from the midline reference axis, relative to the memorized location. We hypothesized that if shifting attention during the delay leads to the failure of SWM representations, there should be an increase in the variance of recall errors, but no change in directional errors, regardless of the direction of the shift. Conversely, if shifting attention induces drift of SWM representations-as predicted by the model-systematic changes in the patterns of spatial-recall errors should occur that would depend on the direction of the shift. The results were consistent with the latter possibility-recall errors were biased toward the locations of discrimination targets appearing during the delay.

Testing a Dynamic Field Account of Interactions between Spatial Attention and Spatial Working Memory

PubMed Central

Johnson, Jeffrey S.; Spencer, John P.

2016-01-01

Studies examining the relationship between spatial attention and spatial working memory (SWM) have shown that discrimination responses are faster for targets appearing at locations that are being maintained in SWM, and that location memory is impaired when attention is withdrawn during the delay. These observations support the proposal that sustained attention is required for successful retention in SWM: if attention is withdrawn, memory representations are likely to fail, increasing errors. In the present study, this proposal is reexamined in light of a neural process model of SWM. On the basis of the model's functioning, we propose an alternative explanation for the observed decline in SWM performance when a secondary task is performed during retention: SWM representations drift systematically toward the location of targets appearing during the delay. To test this explanation, participants completed a color-discrimination task during the delay interval of a spatial recall task. In the critical shifting attention condition, the color stimulus could appear either toward or away from the memorized location relative to a midline reference axis. We hypothesized that if shifting attention during the delay leads to the failure of SWM representations, there should be an increase in the variance of recall errors but no change in directional error, regardless of the direction of the shift. Conversely, if shifting attention induces drift of SWM representations—as predicted by the model—there should be systematic changes in the pattern of spatial recall errors depending on the direction of the shift. Results were consistent with the latter possibility—recall errors were biased toward the location of discrimination targets appearing during the delay. PMID:26810574

Mental and physical activities delay cognitive decline in older persons with dementia.

PubMed

Cheng, Sheung-Tak; Chow, Pizza K; Song, You-Qiang; Yu, Edwin C S; Chan, Alfred C M; Lee, Tatia M C; Lam, John H M

2014-01-01

To examine the effects of cognitive stimulation (mahjong) and physical exercise (tai chi [TC]) on cognitive performance in persons with dementia. Cluster-randomized open-label controlled design. Nursing homes. One hundred ten residents, most of whom were cholinesterase-inhibitor naive. Inclusion criteria were Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) = 10-24 and suffering from at least very mild dementia (Clinical Dementia Rating ≥ 0.5). Exclusion criteria were being bedbound, audio/visual impairment, regular activity participation before study, or contraindications for physical or group activities. Homes were randomized into three conditions (mahjong, TC, and simple handicrafts [control]). Activities were conducted three times weekly for 12 weeks. Primary outcome was MMSE. Secondary outcomes were immediate/delayed recall, categorical fluency, and digit span. Various biological risk factors, including apolipoprotein E ε4 allele, were included as covariates. Measures were collected at 0 (baseline), 3 (posttreatment), 6, and 9 months. Intent-to-treat analyses were performed using mixed-effects regression. Mahjong's effect varied by time for MMSE, delayed recall, and forward digit span. TC had similar effects but not for delayed recall. The typical pattern was that control participants deteriorated while mahjong and TC participants maintained their abilities over time, leading to enlarged treatment effects as time progressed. By 9 months, mahjong and TC differed from control by 4.5 points (95% confidence interval: 2.0-6.9; d = 0.48) and 3.7 points (95% confidence interval: 1.4-6.0; d = 0.40), respectively, on MMSE. No treatment effects were observed for immediate recall and backward digit span. Mahjong and TC can preserve functioning or delay decline in certain cognitive domains, even in those with significant cognitive impairment. Copyright © 2014 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

First things first: similar list length and output order effects for verbal and nonverbal stimuli.

PubMed

Cortis, Cathleen; Dent, Kevin; Kennett, Steffan; Ward, Geoff

2015-07-01

When participants are presented with a short list of unrelated words and they are instructed that they may recall in any order, they nevertheless show a very strong tendency to recall in forward serial order. Thus, if asked to recall in any order: "hat, mouse, tea, stairs," participants often respond "hat, mouse, tea, stairs" even though there was no forward order requirement of the task. In 4 experiments, we examined whether this tendency is language-specific, reflecting mechanisms involved with speech perception, speech production, and/or verbal short-term memory. Specifically, we examined whether we would observe similar findings when participants were asked to recall, in any order, lists of between 1 and 15 nonverbal stimuli, such as visuospatial locations (Experiment 1, Experiment 3, Experiment 4), or touched facial locations (Experiment 2). Contrary to a language-specific explanation, we found corresponding tendencies (albeit somewhat reduced) in the immediate free recall of these nonverbal stimuli. We conclude that the tendency to initiate recall of a short sequence of items with the first item is a general property of memory, which may be augmented by verbal coding. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

Pre- and postoperative memory of dichotically presented words in patients with complex partial seizures.

PubMed

Christianson, S A; Nilsson, L G; Silfvenius, H

1989-01-01

Dichotic listening tests were used to determine cerebral hemisphere memory functions in patients with complex partial seizures before, 10 days after, and 1-3 yr after right (RTE) or left (LTE) temporal-lobe excisions. Control subjects were also tested on two occasions. The tests consisted of presenting a series of 12-word lists and 7-word lists alternately to the two ears while backward speech was presented to the other ear. Measures of immediate free recall, final free recall, final cued recall, and serial recall were employed. The results revealed: (a) that both groups of patients were inferior the control group in tests tapping long-term memory functions rather than short-term memory functions, (b) a right-ear advantage for RTE patients at postoperative testing, (c) that the LTE group was more affected by surgery than the RTE group, and (d) a general improvement in recall performance from early to late postoperative testing. Taken together, these results indicate that the present dichotic test can be used as a non-invasive hemisphere memory test to complement invasive techniques for diagnosis of patients considered for epilepsy surgery.

Effects of Serial and Concurrent Training on Receptive Identification Tasks: A Systematic Replication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wunderlich, Kara L.; Vollmer, Timothy R.

2017-01-01

The current study compared the use of serial and concurrent methods to train multiple exemplars when teaching receptive language skills, providing a systematic replication of Wunderlich, Vollmer, Donaldson, and Phillips (2014). Five preschoolers diagnosed with developmental delays or autism spectrum disorders were taught to receptively identify…

Witness memory and alcohol: The effects of state-dependent recall.

PubMed

Schreiber Compo, Nadja; Carol, Rolando N; Evans, Jacqueline R; Pimentel, Pamela; Holness, Howard; Nichols-Lopez, Kristin; Rose, Stefan; Furton, Kenneth G

2017-04-01

Many real-world eyewitnesses are under the influence of alcohol either at the time of the crime, the interview, or both. Only recently has empirical research begun to examine the effects of alcohol on witness memory, yielding mixed results. The present study tested the importance of state-dependent memory in the context of alcohol's effects on encoding versus retrieval of a witnessed event, while simultaneously informing real-world investigative practices: Should witnesses sober up before an interview? Participants (N = 249) were randomized to a control, placebo, or alcohol condition at encoding and to either an immediate retrieval condition (in the same state) or a 1-week delay control, placebo, or alcohol retrieval condition. They recalled a witnessed mock crime using open ended and cued recall formats. After a delay, witnesses intoxicated at both encoding and retrieval provided less accurate information than witnesses in sober or placebo groups at both times. There was no advantage of state-dependent memory but intoxicated witnesses were best when recalling immediately compared to 1 week later (sober, placebo, or reintoxicated). Findings have direct implications for the timing of intoxicated witnesses' interviews such that moderately intoxicated witnesses may not benefit from a sobering delay but rather, should be interviewed immediately. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

The Development of the Picture-Superiority Effect

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whitehouse, Andrew J. O.; Maybery, Murray T.; Durkin, Kevin

2006-01-01

When pictures and words are presented serially in an explicit memory task, recall of the pictures is superior. While this effect is well established in the adult population, little is known of the development of this picture-superiority effect in typical development. This task was administered to 80 participants from middle childhood to…

Auditory Distraction in Semantic Memory: A Process-Based Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marsh, John E.; Hughes, Robert W.; Jones, Dylan M.

2008-01-01

Five experiments demonstrate auditory-semantic distraction in tests of memory for semantic category-exemplars. The effects of irrelevant sound on category-exemplar recall are shown to be functionally distinct from those found in the context of serial short-term memory by showing sensitivity to: The lexical-semantic, rather than acoustic,…

Disruption of Attention by Irrelevant Stimuli in Serial Recall

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lange, Elke B.

2005-01-01

In four experiments the behavioral consequences of an involuntary attentional distraction concerning memory performance was investigated. The working memory model of Cowan (1995) predicts a performance deficit for memory representations that are held in an active state when the focus of attention is distracted by a change in physical properties.…

Spoken Word Recognition and Serial Recall of Words from Components in the Phonological Network

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Siew, Cynthia S. Q.; Vitevitch, Michael S.

2016-01-01

Network science uses mathematical techniques to study complex systems such as the phonological lexicon (Vitevitch, 2008). The phonological network consists of a "giant component" (the largest connected component of the network) and "lexical islands" (smaller groups of words that are connected to each other, but not to the giant…

Encoding Strategy Changes and Spacing Effects in the Free Recall of Unmixed Lists

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Delaney, P.F.; Knowles, M.E.

2005-01-01

Memory for repeated items often improves when repetitions are separated by other items-a phenomenon called the spacing effect. In two experiments, we explored the complex interaction between study strategies, serial position, and spacing effects. When people studied several unmixed lists, they initially used mainly rote rehearsal, but some people…

Traumatic events: prevalence and delayed recall in the general population.

PubMed

Elliott, D M

1997-10-01

A random sample of 724 individuals across the United States were mailed a questionnaire containing demographic information, an abridged version of the Traumatic Events Survey (D. M. Elliott, 1992), and questions regarding memory for traumatic events. Of these, 505 (70%) completed the survey. Among respondents who reported some form of trauma (72%), delayed recall of the event was reported by 32%. This phenomenon was most common among individuals who observed the murder or suicide of a family member, sexual abuse survivors, and combat veterans. The severity of the trauma was predictive of memory status, but demographic variables were not. The most commonly reported trigger to recall of the trauma was some form of media presentation (i.e., television show, movie), whereas psychotherapy was the least commonly reported trigger.

The effect of path length and display size on memory for spatial information.

PubMed

Guérard, Katherine; Tremblay, Sébastien

2012-01-01

In serial memory for spatial information, some studies showed that recall performance suffers when the distance between successive locations increases relatively to the size of the display in which they are presented (the path length effect; e.g., Parmentier et al., 2005) but not when distance is increased by enlarging the size of the display (e.g., Smyth & Scholey, 1994). In the present study, we examined the effect of varying the absolute and relative distance between to-be-remembered items on memory for spatial information. We manipulated path length using small (15″) and large (64″) screens within the same design. In two experiments, we showed that distance was disruptive mainly when it is varied relatively to a fixed reference frame, though increasing the size of the display also had a small deleterious effect on recall. The insertion of a retention interval did not influence these effects, suggesting that rehearsal plays a minor role in mediating the effects of distance on serial spatial memory. We discuss the potential role of perceptual organization in light of the pattern of results.

Interference between maintenance and processing in working memory: the effect of item-distractor similarity in complex span.

PubMed

Oberauer, Klaus; Farrell, Simon; Jarrold, Christopher; Pasiecznik, Kazimir; Greaves, Martin

2012-05-01

Four experiments examined the effect of phonological similarity between items and distractors on complex span performance. Item-distractor similarity benefited serial recall when distractors followed the items they were similar to, but not when distractors preceded the items they were similar to. These findings are predicted by C-SOB (contextual serial order in a box), a computational model of complex span. The model assumes that distractors are involuntarily encoded into memory, being associated to the preceding item's list position. Distractors interfere with items by superposition of distributed representations that are associated to the same position. Superposition distorts item memory; this distortion is less severe when the distractor is similar to the item. Further support for the assumption that distractors are encoded at the position of the preceding item comes from the finding that intrusions of distractors at recall tended to come from the position of the target item. In addition, intruding distractors tend to replace items to which they are similar, showing that lack of distinctiveness also contributes to interference. (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved.

Newly-acquired words are more phonologically robust in verbal short-term memory when they have associated semantic representations.

PubMed

Savill, Nicola; Ellis, Andrew W; Jefferies, Elizabeth

2017-04-01

Verbal short-term memory (STM) is a crucial cognitive function central to language learning, comprehension and reasoning, yet the processes that underlie this capacity are not fully understood. In particular, although STM primarily draws on a phonological code, interactions between long-term phonological and semantic representations might help to stabilise the phonological trace for words ("semantic binding hypothesis"). This idea was first proposed to explain the frequent phoneme recombination errors made by patients with semantic dementia when recalling words that are no longer fully understood. However, converging evidence in support of semantic binding is scant: it is unusual for studies of healthy participants to examine serial recall at the phoneme level and also it is difficult to separate the contribution of phonological-lexical knowledge from effects of word meaning. We used a new method to disentangle these influences in healthy individuals by training new 'words' with or without associated semantic information. We examined phonological coherence in immediate serial recall (ISR), both immediately and the day after training. Trained items were more likely to be recalled than novel nonwords, confirming the importance of phonological-lexical knowledge, and items with semantic associations were also produced more accurately than those with no meaning, at both time points. For semantically-trained items, there were fewer phoneme ordering and identity errors, and consequently more complete target items were produced in both correct and incorrect list positions. These data show that lexical-semantic knowledge improves the robustness of verbal STM at the sub-item level, even when the effect of phonological familiarity is taken into account. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sequential processing deficits in schizophrenia: relationship to neuropsychology and genetics.

PubMed

Hill, S Kristian; Bjorkquist, Olivia; Carrathers, Tarra; Roseberry, Jarett E; Hochberger, William C; Bishop, Jeffrey R

2013-12-01

Utilizing a combination of neuropsychological and cognitive neuroscience approaches may be essential for characterizing cognitive deficits in schizophrenia and eventually assessing cognitive outcomes. This study was designed to compare the stability of select exemplars for these approaches and their correlations in schizophrenia patients with stable treatment and clinical profiles. Reliability estimates for serial order processing were comparable to neuropsychological measures and indicate that experimental serial order processing measures may be less susceptible to practice effects than traditional neuropsychological measures. Correlations were moderate and consistent with a global cognitive factor. Exploratory analyses indicated a potentially critical role of the Met allele of the Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met polymorphism in externally paced sequential recall. Experimental measures of serial order processing may reflect frontostriatal dysfunction and be a useful supplement to large neuropsychological batteries. © 2013.

Sequential Processing Deficits in Schizophrenia: Relationship to Neuropsychology and Genetics

PubMed Central

Hill, S. Kristian; Bjorkquist, Olivia; Carrathers, Tarra; Roseberry, Jarett E.; Hochberger, William C.; Bishop, Jeffrey R.

2014-01-01

Utilizing a combination of neuropsychological and cognitive neuroscience approaches may be essential for characterizing cognitive deficits in schizophrenia and eventually assessing cognitive outcomes. This study was designed to compare the stability of select exemplars for these approaches and their correlations in schizophrenia patients with stable treatment and clinical profiles. Reliability estimates for serial order processing were comparable to neuropsychological measures and indicate that experimental serial order processing measures may be less susceptible to practice effects than traditional neuropsychological measures. Correlations were moderate and consistent with a global cognitive factor. Exploratory analyses indicated a potentially critical role of the Met allele of the Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met polymorphism in externally paced sequential recall. Experimental measures of serial order processing may reflect frontostriatal dysfunction and be a useful supplement to large neuropsychological batteries. PMID:24119464

Serial-position effects for items and relations in short-term memory.

PubMed

Jones, Tim; Oberauer, Klaus

2013-04-01

Two experiments used immediate probed recall of words to investigate serial-position effects. Item memory was tested through probing with a semantic category. Relation memory was tested through probing with the word's spatial location of presentation. Input order and output order were deconfounded by presenting and probing items in different orders. Primacy and recency effects over input position were found for both item memory and relation memory. Both item and relation memory declined over output position. The finding of a U-shaped input position function for item memory rules out an explanation purely in terms of positional confusions (e.g., edge effects). Either these serial-position effects arise from variations in the intrinsic memory strength of the items, or they arise from variations in the strength of item-position bindings, together with retrieval by scanning.

Number Frequency in L1 Differentially Affects Immediate Serial Recall of Numbers in L2 Between Beginning and Intermediate Learners.

PubMed

Sumioka, Norihiko; Williams, Atsuko; Yamada, Jun

2016-12-01

A list number recall test in English (L2) was administered to both Japanese (L1) students with beginning-level English proficiency who attended evening high school and Japanese college students with intermediate-level English proficiency. The major findings were that, only for the high school group, the small numbers 1 and 2 in middle positions of lists were recalled better than the large numbers 8 and 9 and there was a significant correlation between number frequency in Japanese and recall performance. Equally intriguing was that in both groups for adjacent transposition errors, smaller numbers tended to appear in the first position and large numbers in the second; also, omission errors were commonly seen for larger numbers. These phenomena are interpreted as reflecting frequency and/or frequency-related effects. Briefly discussed were the bilingual short-term memory system, effects of number value, generality and implications of the findings, and weaknesses of the study.

Alpha-band rhythm suppression during memory recall reflecting memory performance.

PubMed

Yokosawa, Koichi; Kimura, Keisuke; Chitose, Ryota; Momiki, Takuya; Kuriki, Shinya

2016-08-01

Alpha-band rhythm is thought to be involved in memory processes, similarly to other spontaneous brain rhythms. Ten right-handed healthy volunteers participated in our proposed sequential short-term memory task that provides a serial position effect in accuracy rate. We recorded alpha-band rhythms by magnetoencephalography during performance of the task and observed that the amplitude of the rhythm was suppressed dramatically in the memory recall period. The suppressed region was estimated to be in the occipital lobe, suggesting that alpha-band rhythm is suppressed by activation of the occipital attentional network. Additionally, the alpha-band suppression reflected accuracy rate, that is, the amplitude was suppressed more when recalling items with higher accuracy rate. The sensors with a significant correlation between alpha-band amplitude and accuracy rate were located widely from the frontal to occipital regions mainly in the right hemisphere. The results suggests that alpha-band rhythm is involved in memory recall and can be index of memory performance.

Time-limited effects of emotional arousal on item and source memory.

PubMed

Wang, Bo; Sun, Bukuan

2015-01-01

Two experiments investigated the time-limited effects of emotional arousal on consolidation of item and source memory. In Experiment 1, participants memorized words (items) and the corresponding speakers (sources) and then took an immediate free recall test. Then they watched a neutral, positive, or negative video 5, 35, or 50 min after learning, and 24 hours later they took surprise memory tests. Experiment 2 was similar to Experiment 1 except that (a) a reality monitoring task was used; (b) elicitation delays of 5, 30, and 45 min were used; and (c) delayed memory tests were given 60 min after learning. Both experiments showed that, regardless of elicitation delay, emotional arousal did not enhance item recall memory. Second, both experiments showed that negative arousal enhanced delayed item recognition memory only at the medium elicitation delay, but not in the shorter or longer delays. Positive arousal enhanced performance only in Experiment 1. Third, regardless of elicitation delay, emotional arousal had little effect on source memory. These findings have implications for theories of emotion and memory, suggesting that emotion effects are contingent upon the nature of the memory task and elicitation delay.

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)

Visual similarity in short-term recall for where and when.

PubMed

Jalbert, Annie; Saint-Aubin, Jean; Tremblay, Sébastien

2008-03-01

Two experiments examined the effects of visual similarity on short-term recall for where and when in the visual spatial domain. A series of squares of similar or dissimilar colours were serially presented at various locations on the screen. At recall, all coloured squares were simultaneously presented in a random order at the bottom of the screen, and the locations used for presentation were indicated by white squares. Participants were asked to place the colours at their appropriate location in their presentation order. Performance for location (where) and order (when) was assessed separately. Results revealed that similarity severely hinders both memory for what was where and memory for what was when, under quiet and articulatory suppression conditions. These results provide further evidence that similarity has a major impact on processing relational information in memory.

Effects of Severe Bothersome Tinnitus on Cognitive Function Measured with Standardized Tests

PubMed Central

Pierce, Katherine J.; Kallogjeri, Dorina; Piccirillo, Jay F.; Garcia, Keith S.; Nicklaus, Joyce E.; Burton, Harold

2012-01-01

Neurocognitive tests compared abilities in people with bothersome tinnitus against an age, gender, and education matched normative population. Participants between 18 and 60 years had subjective, unilateral or bilateral, non-pulsatile tinnitus for >6 months, and a Tinnitus Handicap Inventory score of ≥38. Results from a first testing session showed deficits in learning, learning rates, immediate recall of heard words, and use of a serial order encoding strategy. Initial reliance on serial order encoding and later, increased intrusion of incorrect words towards normal levels might indicate a less demanding strategy to compensate for weakness in associative memory for semantic categories. PMID:22168528

Nitrogen narcosis and tactile shape memory in low visibility.

PubMed

van Wijk, Charles H; Meintjes, W A J

2014-01-01

Commercial diving often occurs in low visibility, where divers are reliant on their tactile senses. This study examined the effect of nitrogen narcosis on tactile memory for shapes as well as the influence of psychological and biographical factors on this relationship. This crossover study tested 139 commercial divers in a dry hyperbaric chamber at 101.325 and 607.95 kPa (1 and 6 atmospheres absolute/atm abs). Divers memorized shapes while blindfolded, using their tactile senses only. Delayed recall was measured at the surface after each dive. Psychological and biographical data were also collected. A significant effect of hyperbaric pressure on tactile memory was demonstrated, and a further effect of sequence of testing found. Thus, divers' delayed shape recall deteriorated by 8% after learning material at depth, compared to learning on the surface. There were also significant but small effects of psychological and biographical markers on tactile memory performance, with lower trait anxiety associated with better recall, and lower education associated with poorer recall. The findings emphasize the importance of utilizing other forms of recording of events or objects at depth, particularly in conditions of low visibility during deeper diving, to aid memory encoding and subsequent recall at the surface.

Dual-memory processes in crack cocaine dependents: The effects of childhood neglect on recall.

PubMed

Tractenberg, Saulo G; Viola, Thiago W; Gomes, Carlos F A; Wearick-Silva, Luis Eduardo; Kristensen, Christian H; Stein, Lilian M; Grassi-Oliveira, Rodrigo

2015-01-01

Exposure to adversities during sensitive periods of neurodevelopment is associated with the subsequent development of substance dependence and exerts harmful, long-lasting effects upon memory functioning. In this study, we investigated the relationship between childhood neglect (CN) and memory using a dual-process model that quantifies recollective and non-recollective retrieval processes in crack cocaine dependents. Eighty-four female crack cocaine-dependent inpatients who did (N = 32) or did not (N = 52) report a history of CN received multiple opportunities to study and recall a short list composed of familiar and concrete words and then received a delayed-recall test. Crack cocaine dependents with a history of CN showed worse performance on free-recall tests than did dependents without a history of CN; this finding was associated with declines in recollective retrieval (direct access) rather than non-recollective retrieval. In addition, we found no evidence of group differences in forgetting rates between immediate- and delayed-recall tests. The results support developmental models of traumatology and suggest that neglect of crack cocaine dependents in early life disrupts the adult memory processes that support the retrieval of detailed representations of events from the past.

[Analysis of intrusion errors in free recall].

PubMed

Diesfeldt, H F A

2017-06-01

Extra-list intrusion errors during five trials of the eight-word list-learning task of the Amsterdam Dementia Screening Test (ADST) were investigated in 823 consecutive psychogeriatric patients (87.1% suffering from major neurocognitive disorder). Almost half of the participants (45.9%) produced one or more intrusion errors on the verbal recall test. Correct responses were lower when subjects made intrusion errors, but learning slopes did not differ between subjects who committed intrusion errors and those who did not so. Bivariate regression analyses revealed that participants who committed intrusion errors were more deficient on measures of eight-word recognition memory, delayed visual recognition and tests of executive control (the Behavioral Dyscontrol Scale and the ADST-Graphical Sequences as measures of response inhibition). Using hierarchical multiple regression, only free recall and delayed visual recognition retained an independent effect in the association with intrusion errors, such that deficient scores on tests of episodic memory were sufficient to explain the occurrence of intrusion errors. Measures of inhibitory control did not add significantly to the explanation of intrusion errors in free recall, which makes insufficient strength of memory traces rather than a primary deficit in inhibition the preferred account for intrusion errors in free recall.

Effect of organizational strategy on visual memory in patients with schizophrenia.

PubMed

Kim, Myung-Sun; Namgoong, Yoon; Youn, Tak

2008-08-01

The aim of the present study was to examine how copy organization mediated immediate recall among patients with schizophrenia using the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (ROCF). The Boston Qualitative Scoring System (BQSS) was applied for qualitative and quantitative analyses of ROCF performances. Subjects included 20 patients with schizophrenia and 20 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. During the copy condition, the schizophrenia group and the control group differed in fragmentation; during the immediate recall condition, the two groups differed in configural presence and planning; and during the delayed recall condition, they differed in several qualitative measurements, including configural presence, cluster presence/placement, detail presence/placement, fragmentation, planning, and neatness. The two groups also differed in several quantitative measurements, including immediate presence and accuracy, immediate retention, delayed retention, and organization. Although organizational strategies used during the copy condition mediated the difference between the two groups during the immediate recall condition, group also had a significant direct effect on immediate recall. Schizophrenia patients are deficient in visual memory, and a piecemeal approach to the figure and organizational deficit seem to be related to the visual memory deficit. But schizophrenia patients also appeared to have some memory problems, including retention and/or retrieval deficits.

Mental simulation of drawing actions enhances delayed recall of a complex figure.

PubMed

De Lucia, Natascia; Trojano, Luigi; Senese, Vincenzo Paolo; Conson, Massimiliano

2016-10-01

Motor simulation implies that the same motor representations involved in action execution are re-enacted during observation or imagery of actions. Neurofunctional data suggested that observation of letters or abstract paintings can elicit simulation of writing or drawing gestures. We performed four behavioural experiments on right-handed healthy participants to test whether observation of a static and complex geometrical figure implies re-enactment of drawing actions. In Experiment 1, participants had to observe the stimulus without explicit instruction (observation-only condition), while performing irrelevant finger tapping (motor dual task), or while articulating irrelevant verbal material (verbal dual task). Delayed drawing of the stimulus was less accurate in the motor dual-task (interfering with simulation of hand actions) than in verbal dual-task and observation-only conditions. In Experiment 2, delayed drawing in the observation only was as accurate as when participants encoded the stimulus by copying it; in both conditions, accuracy was higher than when participants were instructed to observe the stimulus to recall it later verbally (observe to recall), thus being discouraged from engaging motor simulation. In Experiment 3, delayed drawing was as accurate in the observation-only condition as when participants imagined copying the stimulus; accuracy in both conditions was higher than in the observe-to-recall condition. In Experiment 4, in the observe-only condition participants who observed the stimulus with their right arm hidden behind their back were significantly less accurate than participants who had their left arm hidden. These findings converge in suggesting that mere observation of a geometrical stimulus can activate motor simulation and re-enactment of drawing actions.

Genetic architecture of learning and delayed recall: a twin study of episodic memory.

PubMed

Panizzon, Matthew S; Lyons, Michael J; Jacobson, Kristen C; Franz, Carol E; Grant, Michael D; Eisen, Seth A; Xian, Hong; Kremen, William S

2011-07-01

Although episodic memory is often conceptualized as consisting of multiple component processes, there is a lack of understanding as to whether these processes are influenced by the same or different genetic determinants. The aim of the present study was to utilize multivariate twin analyses to elucidate the degree to which learning and delayed recall, two critical measures of episodic memory performance, have common or different genetic and environmental influences. Participants from the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging (314 monozygotic twin pairs, 259 dizygotic twin pairs, and 47 unpaired twins) were assessed using the second edition of the California Verbal Learning Test. Mean age at the time of the evaluation was 55.4 years (SD = 2.5). Model fitting revealed the presence of a higher-order latent factor influencing learning, short- and long-delay free recall, with a heritability of .36. The best-fitting model also indicated specific genetic influences on learning, which accounted for 10% of the overall variance. Given that learning involves the acquisition and retrieval of information, whereas delayed recall involves only retrieval, we conclude that these specific effects are likely to reflect genes that are specific to acquisition processes. These results demonstrate that even in nonclinical populations, it is possible to differentiate component processes in episodic memory. These different genetic influences may have implications for gene association studies, as well as other genetic studies of cognitive aging and disorders of episodic memory such as Alzheimer's disease or mild cognitive impairment. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved.

Data-driven methodology illustrating mechanisms underlying word list recall: applications to clinical research.

PubMed

Longenecker, Julia; Kohn, Philip; Liu, Stanley; Zoltick, Brad; Weinberger, Daniel R; Elvevåg, Brita

2010-09-01

Word list learning tasks such as the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT; Delis, Kramer, Kaplan, & Ober, 1987) are widely used to investigate recall strategies. Participants who recall the most words generally employ semantic techniques, whereas those with poor recall (e.g., patients with schizophrenia) rely on serial techniques. However, these conclusions are based on formulas that assume that categories reflect semantic associations, bind strategy to overall performance, and neglect strategy changes over 5 trials. Therefore, we derived novel measures-independent of recall performance-to compute strategies across trials and identify whether diagnosis predicts recall strategy. Participants were included on the basis of performance on the CVLT (i.e., total words recalled over 5 trials). The 50 highest and 50 lowest performers among healthy volunteers (n = 100) and patients with schizophrenia (n = 100) were selected. Novel measures of recall and transition probability were calculated and analyzed by permutation tests. Recall patterns and strategies of patients resembled those of controls with similar performance levels: Regardless of diagnosis, low performers were more likely to recall the first 2 and last 4 items from the list; high performers increased engagement of semantically based transitions across the 5 trials, whereas low performers did not. Cognitive strategy must be considered independent of overall performance before attributing poor performance to degraded learning processes. Our results demonstrate the importance of departing from global scoring techniques, especially when working with clinical populations such as patients with schizophrenia for whom episodic memory deficits are a hallmark feature. Copyright 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

Rehearsal development as development of iterative recall processes.

PubMed

Lehmann, Martin

2015-01-01

Although much is known about the critical importance of active verbal rehearsal for successful recall, knowledge about the mechanisms of rehearsal and their respective development in children is very limited. To be able to rehearse several items together, these items have to be available, or, if presented and rehearsed previously, retrieved from memory. Therefore, joint rehearsal of several items may itself be considered recall. Accordingly, by analyzing free recall, one cannot only gain insight into how recall and rehearsal unfold, but also into how principles that govern children's recall govern children's rehearsal. Over a period of three and a half years (beginning at grade 3) 54 children were longitudinally assessed seven times on several overt rehearsal free recall trials. A first set of analyses on recall revealed significant age-related increases in the primacy effect and an age-invariant recency effect. In the middle portion of the list, wave-shaped recall characteristics emerged and increased with age, indicating grouping of the list into subsequences. In a second set of analyses, overt rehearsal behavior was decomposed into distinct rehearsal sets. Analyses of these sets revealed that the distribution of rehearsals within each set resembled the serial position curves with one- or two-item primacy and recency effects and wave-shaped rehearsal patterns in between. In addition, rehearsal behavior throughout the list was characterized by a decreasing tendency to begin rehearsal sets with the first list item. This result parallels the phenomenon of beginning recall with the first item on short lists and with the last item on longer lists.

Rehearsal development as development of iterative recall processes

PubMed Central

Lehmann, Martin

2015-01-01

Although much is known about the critical importance of active verbal rehearsal for successful recall, knowledge about the mechanisms of rehearsal and their respective development in children is very limited. To be able to rehearse several items together, these items have to be available, or, if presented and rehearsed previously, retrieved from memory. Therefore, joint rehearsal of several items may itself be considered recall. Accordingly, by analyzing free recall, one cannot only gain insight into how recall and rehearsal unfold, but also into how principles that govern children’s recall govern children’s rehearsal. Over a period of three and a half years (beginning at grade 3) 54 children were longitudinally assessed seven times on several overt rehearsal free recall trials. A first set of analyses on recall revealed significant age-related increases in the primacy effect and an age-invariant recency effect. In the middle portion of the list, wave-shaped recall characteristics emerged and increased with age, indicating grouping of the list into subsequences. In a second set of analyses, overt rehearsal behavior was decomposed into distinct rehearsal sets. Analyses of these sets revealed that the distribution of rehearsals within each set resembled the serial position curves with one- or two-item primacy and recency effects and wave-shaped rehearsal patterns in between. In addition, rehearsal behavior throughout the list was characterized by a decreasing tendency to begin rehearsal sets with the first list item. This result parallels the phenomenon of beginning recall with the first item on short lists and with the last item on longer lists. PMID:25870569

TIMEDELN: A programme for the detection and parametrization of overlapping resonances using the time-delay method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Little, Duncan A.; Tennyson, Jonathan; Plummer, Martin; Noble, Clifford J.; Sunderland, Andrew G.

2017-06-01

TIMEDELN implements the time-delay method of determining resonance parameters from the characteristic Lorentzian form displayed by the largest eigenvalues of the time-delay matrix. TIMEDELN constructs the time-delay matrix from input K-matrices and analyses its eigenvalues. This new version implements multi-resonance fitting and may be run serially or as a high performance parallel code with three levels of parallelism. TIMEDELN takes K-matrices from a scattering calculation, either read from a file or calculated on a dynamically adjusted grid, and calculates the time-delay matrix. This is then diagonalized, with the largest eigenvalue representing the longest time-delay experienced by the scattering particle. A resonance shows up as a characteristic Lorentzian form in the time-delay: the programme searches the time-delay eigenvalues for maxima and traces resonances when they pass through different eigenvalues, separating overlapping resonances. It also performs the fitting of the calculated data to the Lorentzian form and outputs resonance positions and widths. Any remaining overlapping resonances can be fitted jointly. The branching ratios of decay into the open channels can also be found. The programme may be run serially or in parallel with three levels of parallelism. The parallel code modules are abstracted from the main physics code and can be used independently.

Test-retest reliability and practice effects of a rapid screen of mild traumatic brain injury.

PubMed

De Monte, Veronica Eileen; Geffen, Gina Malke; Kwapil, Karleigh

2005-07-01

Test-retest reliabilities and practice effects of measures from the Rapid Screen of Concussion (RSC), in addition to the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (Digit Symbol), were examined. Twenty five male participants were tested three times; each testing session scheduled a week apart. The test-retest reliability estimates for most measures were reasonably good, ranging from .79 to .97. An exception was the delayed word recall test, which has had a reliability estimate of .66 for the first retest, and .59 for the second retest. Practice effects were evident from Times 1 to 2 on the sentence comprehension and delayed recall subtests of the RSC, Digit Symbol and a composite score. There was also a practice effect of the same magnitude found from Time 2 to Time 3 on Digit Symbol, delayed recall and the composite score. Statistics on measures for both the first and second retest intervals, with associated practice effects, are presented to enable the calculation of reliable change indices (RCI). The RCI may be used to assess any improvement in cognitive functioning after mild Traumatic Brain Injury.

[The Amsterdam Dementia Screening Test in cognitively healthy and clinical samples. An update of normative data].

PubMed

van Toutert, Meta; Diesfeldt, Han; Hoek, Dirk

2016-10-01

The six tests in the Amsterdam Dementia Screening Test (ADST) examine the cognitive domains of episodic memory (delayed picture recognition, word learning), orientation, category fluency (animals and occupations), constructional ability (figure copying) and executive function (alternating sequences). New normative data were collected in a sample of 102 elderly volunteers (aged 65-94), including subjects with medical or other health conditions, except dementia or frank cognitive impairment (MMSE > 24). Included subjects were independent in complex instrumental activities of daily living.Fluency, not the other tests, needed adjustment for age and education. A deficit score (0-1) was computed for each test. Summation (range 0-6) proved useful in differentiating patients with dementia (N = 741) from normal elderly (N = 102).Positive and negative predictive power across a range of summed deficit scores and base rates are displayed in Bayesian probability tables.In the normal elderly, delayed recall for eight words was tested and adjusted for initial recall. A recognition test mixed the target words with eight distractors. Delayed recognition was adjusted for immediate and delayed recall.The ADST and the normative data in this paper help the clinical neuropsychologist to make decisions concerning the presence or absence of neurocognitive disorder in individual elderly examinees.

Research on Nonlinear Time Series Forecasting of Time-Delay NN Embedded with Bayesian Regularization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Weijin; Xu, Yusheng; Xu, Yuhui; Wang, Jianmin

Based on the idea of nonlinear prediction of phase space reconstruction, this paper presented a time delay BP neural network model, whose generalization capability was improved by Bayesian regularization. Furthermore, the model is applied to forecast the imp&exp trades in one industry. The results showed that the improved model has excellent generalization capabilities, which not only learned the historical curve, but efficiently predicted the trend of business. Comparing with common evaluation of forecasts, we put on a conclusion that nonlinear forecast can not only focus on data combination and precision improvement, it also can vividly reflect the nonlinear characteristic of the forecasting system. While analyzing the forecasting precision of the model, we give a model judgment by calculating the nonlinear characteristic value of the combined serial and original serial, proved that the forecasting model can reasonably 'catch' the dynamic characteristic of the nonlinear system which produced the origin serial.

Effects of electroconvulsive therapy and magnetic seizure therapy on acute memory retrieval.

PubMed

Polster, Julia D; Kayser, Sarah; Bewernick, Bettina H; Hurlemann, René; Schlaepfer, Thomas E

2015-03-01

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is currently the most effective treatment for severe depression. However, it is frequently associated with negative cognitive side effects. Magnetic seizure therapy (MST) depicts an alternative, although experimental, convulsive treatment for major depression. Initial results suggest comparable antidepressant effects accompanied by a better side effect profile. However, no studies up to now have addressed acute retrieval disruption after MST in comparison to ECT. Therefore, we intended to broaden insight into the side effect profile of MST compared to ECT by examining the disruption of acute verbal memory processes after treatment. Twenty depressed patients were randomly assigned to either MST (10 patients) or ECT (10 patients) treatment. On 2 treatment days and 2 treatment-free days, the patients memorized words using a controlled learning paradigm derived from the Batchelder and Riefer storage retrieval model. Four hours after memorization, the patients were asked to retrieve words freely (delayed recall) and a second time with the help of an additional cue constructed out of a hypernymic category (cued recall). By comparing memory performance on treatment days to control days, treatment-induced memory disruption was evaluated. After ECT, delayed recall was disturbed, whereas after MST, it was not. However, this difference in performance was no longer apparent upon cue application (cued recall). This study demonstrates that ECT-induced acute memory disruption measured by delayed recall is absent after MST, confirming its superior side effect profile. We hope that confirming advantages of MST over ECT will improve therapy options for patients with severe depression.

Children's Recall and Recognition of Sex Role Stereotyped and Discrepant Information.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trepanier-Street, Mary L.; Kropp, Jerri Jaudon

Two studies were conducted to investigate the influence of differing levels of sex role stereotyped and discrepant information on the immediate and delayed memory of young children. Specifically, kindergarten and 2nd-grade children's recall and recognition of stereotyped, moderately discrepant, and highly discrepant pictures were compared. In…

Assessing Working Memory in Mild Cognitive Impairment with Serial Order Recall.

PubMed

Emrani, Sheina; Libon, David J; Lamar, Melissa; Price, Catherine C; Jefferson, Angela L; Gifford, Katherine A; Hohman, Timothy J; Nation, Daniel A; Delano-Wood, Lisa; Jak, Amy; Bangen, Katherine J; Bondi, Mark W; Brickman, Adam M; Manly, Jennifer; Swenson, Rodney; Au, Rhoda

2018-01-01

Working memory (WM) is often assessed with serial order tests such as repeating digits backward. In prior dementia research using the Backward Digit Span Test (BDT), only aggregate test performance was examined. The current research tallied primacy/recency effects, out-of-sequence transposition errors, perseverations, and omissions to assess WM deficits in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Memory clinic patients (n = 66) were classified into three groups: single domain amnestic MCI (aMCI), combined mixed domain/dysexecutive MCI (mixed/dys MCI), and non-MCI where patients did not meet criteria for MCI. Serial order/WM ability was assessed by asking participants to repeat 7 trials of five digits backwards. Serial order position accuracy, transposition errors, perseverations, and omission errors were tallied. A 3 (group)×5 (serial position) repeated measures ANOVA yielded a significant group×trial interaction. Follow-up analyses found attenuation of the recency effect for mixed/dys MCI patients. Mixed/dys MCI patients scored lower than non-MCI patients for serial position 3 (p < 0.003) serial position 4 (p < 0.002); and lower than both group for serial position 5 (recency; p < 0.002). Mixed/dys MCI patients also produced more transposition errors than both groups (p < 0.010); and more omissions (p < 0.020), and perseverations errors (p < 0.018) than non-MCI patients. The attenuation of a recency effect using serial order parameters obtained from the BDT may provide a useful operational definition as well as additional diagnostic information regarding working memory deficits in MCI.

Practice Effects on Story Memory and List Learning Tests in the Neuropsychological Assessment of Older Adults

PubMed Central

Gurnani, Ashita S.; Saurman, Jessica L.; Chapman, Kimberly R.; Steinberg, Eric G.; Martin, Brett; Chaisson, Christine E.; Mez, Jesse; Tripodis, Yorghos; Stern, Robert A.

2016-01-01

Two of the most commonly used methods to assess memory functioning in studies of cognitive aging and dementia are story memory and list learning tests. We hypothesized that the most commonly used story memory test, Wechsler's Logical Memory, would generate more pronounced practice effects than a well validated but less common list learning test, the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (NAB) List Learning test. Two hundred eighty-seven older adults, ages 51 to 100 at baseline, completed both tests as part of a larger neuropsychological test battery on an annual basis. Up to five years of recall scores from participants who were diagnosed as cognitively normal (n = 96) or with mild cognitive impairment (MCI; n = 72) or Alzheimer's disease (AD; n = 121) at their most recent visit were analyzed with linear mixed effects regression to examine the interaction between the type of test and the number of times exposed to the test. Other variables, including age at baseline, sex, education, race, time (years) since baseline, and clinical diagnosis were also entered as fixed effects predictor variables. The results indicated that both tests produced significant practice effects in controls and MCI participants; in contrast, participants with AD declined or remained stable. However, for the delayed—but not the immediate—recall condition, Logical Memory generated more pronounced practice effects than NAB List Learning (b = 0.16, p < .01 for controls). These differential practice effects were moderated by clinical diagnosis, such that controls and MCI participants—but not participants with AD—improved more on Logical Memory delayed recall than on delayed NAB List Learning delayed recall over five annual assessments. Because the Logical Memory test is ubiquitous in cognitive aging and neurodegenerative disease research, its tendency to produce marked practice effects—especially on the delayed recall condition—suggests a threat to its validity as a measure of new learning, an essential construct for dementia diagnosis. PMID:27711147

Selective attention affects implicit and explicit memory for familiar pictures at different delay conditions.

PubMed

Ballesteros, Soledad; Reales, José M; García, Eulalio; Carrasco, Marisa

2006-02-01

Three experiments investigated the effects of two variables -selective attention during encoding and delay between study and test- on implicit (picture fragment completion and object naming) and explicit (free recall and recognition) memory tests. Experiments 1 and 2 consistently indicated that (a) at all delays (immediate to 1 month), picture-fragment identification threshold was lower for the attended than the unattended pictures; (b) the attended pictures were recalled and recognized better than the unattended; and (c) attention and delay interacted in both memory tests. For implicit memory, performance decreased as delay increased for both attended and unattended pictures, but priming was more pronounced and lasted longer for the attended pictures; it was still present after a 1-month delay. For explicit memory, performance decreased as delay increased for attended pictures, but for unattended pictures performance was consistent throughout delay. By using a perceptual object naming task, Experiment 3 showed reliable implicit and explicit memory for attended but not for unattended pictures. This study indicates that picture repetition priming requires attention at the time of study and that neither delay nor attention dissociate performance in explicit and implicit memory tests; both types of memory require attention, but explicit memory does so to a larger degree.

Verbal Working Memory in Older Adults: The Roles of Phonological Capacities and Processing Speed

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nittrouer, Susan; Lowenstein, Joanna H.; Wucinich, Taylor; Moberly, Aaron C.

2016-01-01

Purpose: This study examined the potential roles of phonological sensitivity and processing speed in age-related declines of verbal working memory. Method: Twenty younger and 25 older adults with age-normal hearing participated. Two measures of verbal working memory were collected: digit span and serial recall of words. Processing speed was…

Interference between Maintenance and Processing in Working Memory: The Effect of Item-Distractor Similarity in Complex Span

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oberauer, Klaus; Farrell, Simon; Jarrold, Christopher; Pasiecznik, Kazimir; Greaves, Martin

2012-01-01

Four experiments examined the effect of phonological similarity between items and distractors on complex span performance. Item-distractor similarity benefited serial recall when distractors followed the items they were similar to, but not when distractors preceded the items they were similar to. These findings are predicted by C-SOB (contextual…

Memory Asymmetry of Forward and Backward Associations in Recognition Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Jiongjiong; Zhao, Peng; Zhu, Zijian; Mecklinger, Axel; Fang, Zhiyong; Li, Han

2013-01-01

There is an intensive debate on whether memory for serial order is symmetric. The objective of this study was to explore whether associative asymmetry is modulated by memory task (recognition vs. cued recall). Participants were asked to memorize word triples (Experiments 1-2) or pairs (Experiments 3-6) during the study phase. They then recalled…

Effects of Experimentally Imposed Noise on Task Performance of Black Children Attending Day Care Centers Near Elevated Subway Trains.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hambrick-Dixon, Priscilla Janet

1986-01-01

Investigates whether an experimentally imposed 80dB (A) noise affected psychomotor, serial memory words and pictures, incidental memory, visual recall, paired associates, perceptual learning, and coding performance of five-year-old Black children attending day care centers near and far from elevated subways. (HOD)

Revisiting Evidence for Modularity and Functional Equivalence across Verbal and Spatial Domains in Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guerard, Katherine; Tremblay, Sebastien

2008-01-01

The authors revisited evidence in favor of modularity and of functional equivalence between the processing of verbal and spatial information in short-term memory. This was done by investigating the patterns of intrusions, omissions, transpositions, and fill-ins in verbal and spatial serial recall and order reconstruction tasks under control,…

The Ineluctable Modality of the Audible: Perceptual Determinants of Auditory Verbal Short-Term Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maidment, David W.; Macken, William J.

2012-01-01

Classical cognitive accounts of verbal short-term memory (STM) invoke an abstract, phonological level of representation which, although it may be derived differently via different modalities, is itself amodal. Key evidence for this view is that serial recall of phonologically similar verbal items (e.g., the letter sounds "b",…

Probed Serial Recall in Williams Syndrome: Lexical Influences on Phonological Short-Term Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brock, Jan; McCormack, Teresa; Boucher, Jill

2005-01-01

Williams syndrome is a genetic disorder that, it has been claimed, results in an unusual pattern of linguistic strengths and weaknesses. The current study investigated the hypothesis that there is a reduced influence of lexical knowledge on phonological short-term memory in Williams syndrome. Fourteen children with Williams syndrome and 2…

Timeless Memory: Evidence against Temporal Distinctiveness Models of Short-Term Memory for Serial Order

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewandowsky, Stephan; Brown, Gordon D. A.; Wright, Tarryn; Nimmo, Lisa M.

2006-01-01

According to temporal distinctiveness models, items that are temporally isolated from their neighbors during list presentation are more distinct and thus should be recalled better. Event-based theories, by contrast, deny that time plays a role at encoding and predict no beneficial effect of temporal isolation, although they acknowledge that a…

Impact of Auditory Selective Attention on Verbal Short-Term Memory and Vocabulary Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Majerus, Steve; Heiligenstein, Lucie; Gautherot, Nathalie; Poncelet, Martine; Van der Linden, Martial

2009-01-01

This study investigated the role of auditory selective attention capacities as a possible mediator of the well-established association between verbal short-term memory (STM) and vocabulary development. A total of 47 6- and 7-year-olds were administered verbal immediate serial recall and auditory attention tasks. Both task types probed processing…

A Left-Ear Disadvantage for the Presentation of Irrelevant Sound: Manipulations of Task Requirements and Changing State

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hadlington, Lee J.; Bridges, Andrew M.; Beaman, C. Philip

2006-01-01

Three experiments attempted to clarify the effect of altering the spatial presentation of irrelevant auditory information. Previous research using serial recall tasks demonstrated a left-ear disadvantage for the presentation of irrelevant sounds (Hadlington, Bridges, & Darby, 2004). Experiments 1 and 2 examined the effects of manipulating the…

Nonword Repetition and Serial Recall: Equivalent Measures of Verbal Short-Term Memory?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Archibald, Lisa M. D.; Gathercole, Susan E.

2007-01-01

Evidence that the abilities to repeat nonwords and to learn language are very closely related to one another has led to widespread interest in the cognitive processes underlying nonword repetition. One suggestion is that nonword repetition is a relatively pure measure of phonological short-term memory closely associated with other measures of…

Word Length Effects in Long-Term Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tehan, Gerald; Tolan, Georgina Anne

2007-01-01

The word length effect has been a central feature of theorising about immediate memory. The notion that short-term memory traces rapidly decay unless refreshed by rehearsal is based primarily upon the finding that serial recall for short words is better than that for long words. The decay account of the word length effect has come under pressure…

Task demand influences relationships among sex, clustering strategy, and recall: 16-word versus 9-word list learning tests.

PubMed

Sunderaraman, Preeti; Blumen, Helena M; DeMatteo, David; Apa, Zoltan L; Cosentino, Stephanie

2013-06-01

We compared the relationships among sex, clustering strategy, and recall across different task demands using the 16-word California Verbal Learning Test-Second Edition (CVLT-II) and the 9-word Philadelphia (repeatable) Verbal Learning Test (PrVLT). Women generally score higher than men on verbal memory tasks, possibly because women tend to use semantic clustering. This sex difference has been established via word-list learning tests such as the CVLT-II. In a retrospective between-group study, we compared how 2 separate groups of cognitively healthy older adults performed on a longer and a shorter verbal learning test. The group completing the CVLT-II had 36 women and 26 men; the group completing the PrVLT had 27 women and 21 men. Overall, multiple regression analyses revealed that semantic clustering was significantly associated with total recall on both tests' lists (P<0.001). Sex differences in recall and semantic clustering diminished with the shorter PrVLT word list. Semantic clustering uniquely influenced recall on both the longer and shorter word lists. However, serial clustering and sex influenced recall depending on the length of the word list (ie, the task demand). These findings suggest a complex nonlinear relationship among verbal memory, clustering strategies, and task demand.

Task Demand Influences Relationships Among Sex, Clustering Strategy, and Recall: 16-Word Versus 9-Word List Learning Tests

PubMed Central

Sunderaraman, Preeti; Blumen, Helena M.; DeMatteo, David; Apa, Zoltan; Cosentino, Stephanie

2013-01-01

Objective We compared the relationships among sex, clustering strategy, and recall across different task demands using the 16-word California Verbal Learning Test–Second Edition (CVLT-II) and the 9-word Philadelphia (repeatable) Verbal Learning Test (PrVLT). Background Women generally score higher than men on verbal memory tasks, possibly because women tend to use semantic clustering. This sex difference has been established via word-list learning tests such as the CVLT-II. Methods In a retrospective between-group study, we compared how 2 separate groups of cognitively healthy older adults performed on a longer and a shorter verbal learning test. The group completing the CVLT-II had 36 women and 26 men; the group completing the PrVLT had 27 women and 21 men. Results Overall, multiple regression analyses revealed that semantic clustering was significantly associated with total recall on both tests’ lists (P < 0.001). Sex differences in recall and semantic clustering diminished with the shorter PrVLT word list. Conclusions Semantic clustering uniquely influenced recall on both the longer and shorter word lists. However, serial clustering and sex influenced recall depending on the length of the word list (ie, the task demand). These findings suggest a complex nonlinear relationship among verbal memory, clustering strategies, and task demand. PMID:23812171

How many dimensions underlie judgments of learning and recall? Evidence from state-trace methodology.

PubMed

Jang, Yoonhee; Nelson, Thomas O

2005-08-01

The authors used state-trace methodology to investigate whether a single dimension (e.g., strength) is sufficient to account for recall and judgments of learning (JOLs) or whether multiple dimensions (e.g., intrinsic and extrinsic factors) are needed. The authors separately manipulated the independent variables of intrinsic and extrinsic cues, determining their state traces for recall and JOLs. In contrast to the supposition that intrinsic cues have similar effects on both recall and JOLs whereas extrinsic cues affect JOLs less strongly than recall (i.e., 2 dimensions underlying recall and JOLs), the authors found repeated support for the sufficiency of a single dimension for both recall and JOLs (not only immediate JOLs but also delayed JOLs) across a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic cues. ((c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved).

Preliminary data on the effect of culture on the assessment of Alzheimer's disease-related verbal memory impairment with the International Shopping List Test.

PubMed

Lim, Yen Ying; Pietrzak, Robert H; Snyder, Peter J; Darby, David; Maruff, Paul

2012-03-01

The International Shopping List Test (ISLT) is a measure of verbal learning and memory, developed specifically for use in people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. In this report, we describe two studies that examined the ISLT's ability to detect memory impairment and memory decline in patients with mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) from a range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds. In Study 1, the performance of Australian-English-speaking adults with mild AD was compared with that of native Australian-English- and Korean-speaking patients with mild AD. Compared with controls, patients with AD from both language groups showed large but equivalent impairments in total recall, delayed recall, rate of learning, and primacy and retention-weighted recall (RWR) measures on the ISLT. In Study 2, the rate of deterioration in verbal memory over 1 year was examined in groups of native Canadian-English, French, and Korean speakers with mild AD using the total recall, delayed recall, and RWR measures. Rates of change on all three measures were equivalent across the language groups, although the magnitude of deterioration was most pronounced for the total recall and RWR measures. Taken together, these results suggest that the ISLT is valid and reliable for the assessment of verbal learning and memory impairment and decline in patients with mild AD from diverse language groups.

Collaborative remembering revisited: Study context access modulates collaborative inhibition and later benefits for individual memory.

PubMed

Abel, Magdalena; Bäuml, Karl-Heinz T

2017-11-01

Collaborating groups typically show reduced recall relative to nominal groups, i.e., to the cumulated non-redundant recall of the same number of people remembering in isolation-a finding termed collaborative inhibition. Motivated by the results of several previous studies, this study examined in two experiments whether access to study context at test influences the effects of collaboration. In both experiments, subjects collaborated in triads or recalled previously studied material in isolation. Experiment 1 applied short versus prolonged retention intervals to vary access to study context at test, whereas Experiment 2 used the list-method directed forgetting task and applied remember versus forget instructions to modulate context access. In both experiments, collaborative inhibition was present when access to study context at test was intact (i.e., after the short delay and the remember instruction) but was eliminated when the access was impaired (i.e., after the prolonged delay and the forget instruction). Also, post-collaborative gains for individual recall were greater when context access was impaired and collaborative inhibition was eliminated. The findings demonstrate a critical role of access to study context at test for collaborative inhibition, indicating that impaired context access may reflect a general boundary condition for the recall impairment. The possible role of context reactivation processes for beneficial effects of social recall is discussed.

No evidence of age-related increases in unconscious plagiarism during free recall.

PubMed

Perfect, Timothy John; Defeldre, Anne-Catherine; Elliman, Rachel; Dehon, Hedwige

2011-07-01

In three experiments younger and older participants took part in a group generation task prior to a delayed recall task. In each, participants were required to recall the items that they had generated, avoiding plagiarism errors. All studies showed the same pattern: older adults did not plagiarise their partners any more than younger adults did. However, older adults were more likely than younger adults to intrude with entirely novel items not previously generated by anyone. These findings stand in opposition to the single previous demonstration of age-related increases in plagiarism during recall.

Early memories come in small packages: episodic memory in young children and adults.

PubMed

Tustin, Karen; Hayne, Harlene

2016-11-01

In two experiments, 3-year-old children were tested using an operant train procedure based on one originally developed by Carolyn Rovee-Collier. Children's behavioral and verbal recall of the event was assessed after a 24 hr (Experiment 1) and a 1-year delay (Experiment 2). After the 1-year delay, their mothers' verbal recall of the same event was also assessed. After both delays, children exhibited excellent nonverbal memory. Children also exhibited verbal, episodic memory of the same event, but their verbal reports were lean relative to those of their mothers, suggesting that the memories may be more vulnerable to forgetting over the long term. These data have important implications for memory development and childhood amnesia. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Physical Therapy for a Child With Infantile Idiopathic Scoliosis and Motor Delay.

PubMed

Hall, Rhea K; Rapport, Mary Jane

2017-07-01

The purpose of this case report is to describe physical therapy (PT) for a child with infantile idiopathic scoliosis and motor delay. A 10-month-old boy with a 28° left thoracolumbar scoliosis was referred for PT and was seen weekly in his home over a 6-month period following a diagnosis of scoliosis and delayed gross motor milestones. Before the initiation of PT, the child was scheduled to undergo serial casting for correction of the spinal curve and was not yet rolling or transitioning in or out of sitting. By the end of the 6-month intervention period, the spinal curve had resolved to 12° without the need for serial casting and the child was walking independently. PT appeared to have a positive effect on reduction of the spinal curve and achievement of gross motor milestones.

Incidental Learning and Explicit Recall in Upper Extremity Prosthesis Use: Insights Into Functional Rehabilitation Challenges.

PubMed

Hughey, Laura; Wheaton, Lewis A

2016-01-01

Loss of an upper extremity and the resulting rehabilitation often requires individuals to learn how to use a prosthetic device for activities of daily living. It remains unclear how prostheses affect motor learning outcomes. The authors' aim was to evaluate whether incidental motor learning and explicit recall is affected in intact persons either using prostheses (n = 10) or the sound limb (n = 10), and a chronic amputee on a modified serial reaction time task. Latency and accuracy of task completion were recorded over six blocks, with a distractor task between blocks 5 and 6. Participants were also asked to recall the sequence immediately following the study and at a 24-hr follow-up. Prosthesis users demonstrate patterns consistent with implicit learning, with sustained error patterns with the distal terminal device. More intact individuals were able to explicitly recall the sequence initially, however there was no significant difference 24 hr following the study. Acute incidental motor learning does not appear to diminish task related error patterns or accompany with explicit recall in prosthesis users, which could present limitations for acute training of prosthesis use in amputees. This suggests differing mechanisms of visuospatial sequential learning and motor control with prostheses.

Collaborative memory in a serial combination procedure.

PubMed

Ditta, Annie Stanfield; Steyvers, Mark

2013-01-01

This article describes a new approach for studying collaborative memory that examines people's editing processes for naturally occurring memory errors. In this approach, memories of individuals are combined via a chaining method in which each participant indirectly receives information from the previous participant. Participants were asked to individually study word lists and recall as many words as possible in an online setting. Once a participant completed the recall task, his/her answers were provided for the next participant as suggested answers for their own recall. However, that participant was allowed to add or subtract words from the provided list of suggested answers. The final answer of the group was an aggregate of recalled words based on the answer given by the last participant in the chain. Results showed that participants displayed a very high accuracy of recall throughout the chain, although they were not able to replicate the entire study list or eliminate all errors by the end of the chain. This procedure has the advantage that it allows examination of the memory-editing processes individuals utilise when they communicate information indirectly, independent from social factors that arise in face-to-face group memory settings.

Spatial transposition gradients in visual working memory.

PubMed

Rerko, Laura; Oberauer, Klaus; Lin, Hsuan-Yu

2014-01-01

In list memory, access to individual items reflects limits of temporal distinctiveness. This is reflected in the finding that neighbouring list items tend to be confused most often. This article investigates the analogous effect of spatial proximity in a visual working-memory task. Items were presented in different locations varying in spatial distance. A retro-cue indicated the location of the item relevant for the subsequent memory test. In two recognition experiments, probes matching spatially close neighbours of the relevant item led to more false alarms than probes matching distant neighbours or non-neighbouring memory items. In two probed-recall experiments, one with simultaneous, the other with sequential memory item presentation, items closer to the cued location were more frequently chosen for recall than more distant items. These results reflect a spatial transposition gradient analogous to the temporal transposition gradient in serial recall and challenge fixed-capacity models of visual working memory (WM).

The Auditory Verbal Learning Test (Rey AVLT): An Arabic Version

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sharoni, Varda; Natur, Nazeh

2014-01-01

The goals of this study were to adapt the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) into Arabic, to compare recall functioning among age groups (6:0 to 17:11), and to compare gender differences on various memory dimensions (immediate and delayed recall, learning rate, recognition, proactive interferences, and retroactive interferences). This…

Encyclopedic Memory: Long-Term Memory Capacity for Knowledge Vocabulary in Middle School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lieury, Alain; Lorant, Sonia

2013-01-01

This article is a synthesis of unpublished and published experiments showing that elementary memory scores (words and pictures immediate recall; delayed recall, recognition), which are very sensitive to aging and in pharmacological protocols, have little or no correlation with school achievement. The alternative assumption developed is that school…

A nonmusician with severe Alzheimer's dementia learns a new song.

PubMed

Baird, Amee; Umbach, Heidi; Thompson, William Forde

2017-02-01

The hallmark symptom of Alzheimer's Dementia (AD) is impaired memory, but memory for familiar music can be preserved. We explored whether a non-musician with severe AD could learn a new song. A 91 year old woman (NC) with severe AD was taught an unfamiliar song. We assessed her delayed song recall (24 hours and 2 weeks), music cognition, two word recall (presented within a familiar song lyric, a famous proverb, or as a word stem completion task), and lyrics and proverb completion. NC's music cognition (pitch and rhythm perception, recognition of familiar music, completion of lyrics) was relatively preserved. She recalled 0/2 words presented in song lyrics or proverbs, but 2/2 word stems, suggesting intact implicit memory function. She could sing along to the newly learnt song on immediate and delayed recall (24 hours and 2 weeks later), and with intermittent prompting could sing it alone. This is the first detailed study of preserved ability to learn a new song in a non-musician with severe AD, and contributes to observations of relatively preserved musical abilities in people with dementia.

Retrieval practice as an effective memory strategy in children and adolescents with traumatic brain injury.

PubMed

Coyne, Julia H; Borg, Jacquelyn M; DeLuca, John; Glass, Leslie; Sumowski, James F

2015-04-01

To investigate whether retrieval practice (RP) is a more effective memory strategy than restudy in children and adolescents with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Three × two within-subjects experiment: 3 (learning condition: massed restudy [MR], spaced restudy [SR], retrieval practice [RP]) × 2 (stimulus type: verbal paired associates [VPAs] and face-name pairs [FNPs]). The dependent measure was delayed recall of VPAs and FNPs. Subacute pediatric neurorehabilitation center. Pediatric survivors of TBI (N=15) aged 8 to 16 years with below-average memory. During RP, participants were quizzed on to-be-learned information (VPAs and FNPs) shortly after it was presented, such that they practiced retrieval during the learning phase. MR consisted of repeated restudy (tantamount to cramming). SR consisted of restudy trials separated in time (ie, distributed learning). Delayed recall of 24 VPAs and 24 FNPs after a 25-minute delay. VPAs and FNPs were equally divided across 3 learning conditions (16 per condition). There was a large main effect of learning condition on delayed recall (P<.001; ηp(2)=.84), with better mean recall of VPAs and FNPs studied through RP (6.23±1.39) relative to MR (3.60±1.53; P<.001) and SR (4.77±1.39; P<.001). Moreover, RP was the single best learning strategy for every participant. Memory problems and related academic learning difficulties are common after pediatric TBI. Herein, we identify RP as a promising and simple strategy to support learning and improve memory in children and adolescents with TBI. Our experimental findings were quite robust and set the stage for subsequent randomized controlled trials of RP in pediatric TBI. Copyright © 2015 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Neurogranin, a synaptic protein, is associated with memory independent of Alzheimer biomarkers.

PubMed

Casaletto, Kaitlin B; Elahi, Fanny M; Bettcher, Brianne M; Neuhaus, John; Bendlin, Barbara B; Asthana, Sanjay; Johnson, Sterling C; Yaffe, Kristine; Carlsson, Cynthia; Blennow, Kaj; Zetterberg, Henrik; Kramer, Joel H

2017-10-24

To determine the association between synaptic functioning as measured via neurogranin in CSF and cognition relative to established Alzheimer disease (AD) biomarkers in neurologically healthy older adults. We analyzed CSF concentrations of neurogranin, β-amyloid (Aβ42), phosphorylated tau (p-tau), and total tau (t-tau) among 132 neurologically normal older adults (mean 64.5, range 55-85), along with bilateral hippocampal volumes and a measure of episodic memory (Auditory Verbal Learning Test, delayed recall). Univariable analyses examined the relationship between neurogranin and the other AD-related biomarkers. Multivariable regression models examined the relationship between neurogranin and delayed recall, adjusting for age and sex, and interaction terms (neurogranin × AD biomarkers). Higher neurogranin concentrations were associated with older age (ρ = 0.20, p = 0.02), lower levels of p-tau and t-tau, and smaller hippocampal volumes ( p < 0.03), but not with CSF Aβ42 ( p = 0.18). In addition, CSF neurogranin demonstrated a significant relationship with memory performance independent of the AD-related biomarkers; individuals with the lowest CSF neurogranin concentrations performed better on delayed recall than those with medium or high CSF neurogranin concentrations ( p < 0.01). Notably, CSF p-tau, t-tau, and Aβ42 and hippocampal volumes were not significantly associated with delayed recall scores ( p > 0.40), and did not interact with neurogranin to predict memory ( p > 0.10). Synaptic dysfunction (assessed via neurogranin) may be an early pathologic process in age-related neurodegeneration, and a sensitive marker of age-related cognitive abilities, potentially preceding or even acting independently from AD pathogenesis. Synaptic functioning may be a useful early marker of cognitive aging and possibly a target for future brain aging interventions. © 2017 American Academy of Neurology.

Short-term retention of a single word relies on retrieval from long-term memory when both rehearsal and refreshing are disrupted.

PubMed

Rose, Nathan S; Buchsbaum, Bradley R; Craik, Fergus I M

2014-07-01

Many working memory (WM) models propose that the focus of attention (or primary memory) has a capacity limit of one to four items, and therefore, that performance on WM tasks involves retrieving some items from long-term (or secondary) memory (LTM). In the present study, we present evidence suggesting that recall of even one item on a WM task can involve retrieving it from LTM. The WM task required participants to make a deep (living/nonliving) or shallow ("e"/no "e") level-of-processing (LOP) judgment on one word and to recall the word after a 10-s delay on each trial. During the delay, participants either rehearsed the word or performed an easy or a hard math task. When the to-be-remembered item could be rehearsed, recall was fast and accurate. When it was followed by a math task, recall was slower, error-prone, and benefited from a deeper LOP at encoding, especially for the hard math condition. The authors suggest that a covert-retrieval mechanism may have refreshed the item during easy math, and that the hard math condition shows that even a single item cannot be reliably held in WM during a sufficiently distracting task--therefore, recalling the item involved retrieving it from LTM. Additionally, performance on a final free recall (LTM) test was better for items recalled following math than following rehearsal, suggesting that initial recall following math involved elaborative retrieval from LTM, whereas rehearsal did not. The authors suggest that the extent to which performance on WM tasks involves retrieval from LTM depends on the amounts of disruption to both rehearsal and covert-retrieval/refreshing maintenance mechanisms.

Remembering a criminal conversation: beyond eyewitness testimony.

PubMed

Campos, Laura; Alonso-Quecuty, María L

2006-01-01

Unlike the important body of work on eyewitness memory, little research has been done on the accuracy and completeness of "earwitness" memory for conversations. The present research examined the effects of mode of presentation (audiovisual/ auditory-only) on witnesses' free recall for utterances in a criminal conversation at different retention intervals (immediate/delayed) within a single experiment. Different forms of correct recall (verbatim/gist) of the verbal information as well as different types of errors (distortions/fabrications) were also examined. It was predicted that participants in the audiovisual modality would provide more correct information, and fewer errors than participants in the auditory-only modality. Participants' recall was predicted to be impaired over time, dropping to a greater extent after a delay in the auditory-only modality. Results confirmed these hypotheses. Interpretations of the overall findings are offered within the context of dual-coding theory, and within the theoretical frameworks of source monitoring and fuzzy-trace theory.

Compound cuing in free recall.

PubMed

Lohnas, Lynn J; Kahana, Michael J

2014-01-01

According to the retrieved context theory of episodic memory, the cue for recall of an item is a weighted sum of recently activated cognitive states, including previously recalled and studied items as well as their associations. We show that this theory predicts there should be compound cuing in free recall. Specifically, the temporal contiguity effect should be greater when the 2 most recently recalled items were studied in contiguous list positions. A meta-analysis of published free recall experiments demonstrates evidence for compound cuing in both conditional response probabilities and interresponse times. To help rule out a rehearsal-based account of these compound cuing effects, we conducted an experiment with immediate, delayed, and continual-distractor free recall conditions. Consistent with retrieved context theory but not with a rehearsal-based account, compound cuing was present in all conditions, and was not significantly influenced by the presence of interitem distractors.

Compound cueing in free recall

PubMed Central

Lohnas, Lynn J.; Kahana, Michael J.

2013-01-01

According to the retrieved context theory of episodic memory, the cue for recall of an item is a weighted sum of recently activated cognitive states, including previously recalled and studied items as well as their associations. We show that this theory predicts there should be compound cueing in free recall. Specifically, the temporal contiguity effect should be greater when the two most recently recalled items were studied in contiguous list positions. A meta-analysis of published free recall experiments demonstrates evidence for compound cueing in both conditional response probabilities and inter-response times. To help rule out a rehearsal-based account of these compound cueing effects, we conducted an experiment with immediate, delayed and continual-distractor free recall conditions. Consistent with retrieved context theory but not with a rehearsal-based account, compound cueing was present in all conditions, and was not significantly influenced by the presence of interitem distractors. PMID:23957364

The influence of learning methods on collaboration: prior repeated retrieval enhances retrieval organization, abolishes collaborative inhibition, and promotes post-collaborative memory.

PubMed

Congleton, Adam R; Rajaram, Suparna

2011-11-01

Research on collaborative memory has unveiled the counterintuitive yet robust phenomenon that collaboration impairs group recall. A candidate explanation for this collaborative inhibition effect is the disruption of people's idiosyncratic retrieval strategies during collaboration, and it is hypothesized that employing methods that improve one's organization protects against retrieval disruption. Here it is investigated how one's learning method during the study phase--defined as either repeatedly studying or repeatedly retrieving information--influences retrieval organization and what effects this has on collaborative recall and post-collaborative individual recall. Results show that repeated retrieval consistently eliminated collaborative inhibition. This enabled participants to gain the most from re-exposure to materials recalled by their partners that they themselves did not recall and led to improvements in their individual memory following collaboration. This repeated retrieval advantage stemmed from the preferential manner in which this learning method strengthened retrieval organization. Findings are also discussed that reveal a relationship between retrieval organization and the interaction observed between learning method and short versus long delay seen in the testing effect literature. Finally, results show that the elusive benefits of cross-cuing during collaboration may be best detected with a longer study-test delay. Together, these findings illuminate when and how collaboration can enhance memory.

Role of processing speed and depressed mood on encoding, storage, and retrieval memory functions in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia.

PubMed

Brébion, Gildas; David, Anthony S; Bressan, Rodrigo A; Pilowsky, Lyn S

2007-01-01

The role of various types of slowing of processing speed, as well as the role of depressed mood, on each stage of verbal memory functioning in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia was investigated. Mixed lists of high- and low-frequency words were presented, and immediate and delayed free recall and recognition were required. Two levels of encoding were studied by contrasting the relatively automatic encoding of the high-frequency words and the more effortful encoding of the low-frequency words. Storage was studied by contrasting immediate and delayed recall. Retrieval was studied by contrasting free recall and recognition. Three tests of motor and cognitive processing speed were administered as well. Regression analyses involving the three processing speed measures revealed that cognitive speed was the only predictor of the recall and recognition of the low-frequency words. Furthermore, slowing in cognitive speed accounted for the deficit in recall and recognition of the low-frequency words relative to a healthy control group. Depressed mood was significantly associated with recognition of the low-frequency words. Neither processing speed nor depressed mood was associated with storage efficiency. It is concluded that both cognitive speed slowing and depressed mood impact on effortful encoding processes.

Prevalence of impaired memory in hospitalized adults and associations with in-hospital sleep loss.

PubMed

Calev, Hila; Spampinato, Lisa M; Press, Valerie G; Meltzer, David O; Arora, Vineet M

2015-07-01

Effective inpatient teaching requires intact patient memory, but studies suggest hospitalized adults may have memory deficits. Sleep loss among inpatients could contribute to memory impairment. To assess memory in older hospitalized adults, and to test the association between sleep quantity, sleep quality, and memory, in order to identify a possible contributor to memory deficits in these patients. Prospective cohort study. General medicine and hematology/oncology inpatient wards. Fifty-nine hospitalized adults at least 50 years of age with no diagnosed sleep disorder. Immediate memory and memory after a 24-hour delay were assessed using a word recall and word recognition task from the University of Southern California Repeatable Episodic Memory Test. A vignette-based memory task was piloted as an alternative test more closely resembling discharge instructions. Sleep duration and efficiency overnight in the hospital were measured using actigraphy. Mean immediate recall was 3.8 words out of 15 (standard deviation = 2.1). Forty-nine percent of subjects had poor memory, defined as immediate recall score of 3 or lower. Median immediate recognition was 11 words out of 15 (interquartile range [IQR] = 9-13). Median delayed recall score was 1 word, and median delayed recognition was 10 words (IQR = 8-12). In-hospital sleep duration and efficiency were not significantly associated with memory. The medical vignette score was correlated with immediate recall (r = 0.49, P < 0.01). About half of the inpatients studied had poor memory while in the hospital, signaling that hospitalization might not be an ideal teachable moment. In-hospital sleep was not associated with memory scores. © 2015 Society of Hospital Medicine.

Utility of behavioral versus cognitive measures in differentiating between subtypes of frontotemporal lobar degeneration and Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Heidler-Gary, Jennifer; Gottesman, Rebecca; Newhart, Melissa; Chang, Shannon; Ken, Lynda; Hillis, Argye E

2007-01-01

We hypothesized that a modified version of the Frontal Behavioral Inventory (FBI-mod), along with a few cognitive tests, would be clinically useful in distinguishing between clinically defined Alzheimer's disease (AD) and subtypes of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD): frontotemporal dementia (dysexecutive type), progressive nonfluent aphasia, and semantic dementia. We studied 80 patients who were diagnosed with AD (n = 30) or FTLD (n = 50), on the basis of a comprehensive neuropsychological battery, imaging, neurological examination, and history. We found significant between-group differences on the FBI-mod, two subtests of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (verbal learning and delayed recall), and the Trail Making Test Part B (one measure of 'executive functioning'). AD was characterized by relatively severe impairment in verbal learning, delayed recall, and executive functioning, with relatively normal scores on the FBI-mod. Frontotemporal dementia was characterized by relatively severe impairment on the FBI-mod and executive functioning in the absence of severe impairment in verbal learning and recall. Progressive nonfluent aphasia was characterized by severe impairment in executive functioning with relatively normal scores on verbal learning and recall and FBI-mod. Finally, semantic dementia was characterized by relatively severe deficits in delayed recall, but relatively normal performance on new learning, executive functioning, and on FBI-mod. Discriminant function analysis confirmed that the FBI-mod, in conjunction with the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, and the Trail Making Test Part B categorized the majority of patients as subtypes of FTLD or AD in the same way as a full neuropsychological battery, neurological examination, complete history, and imaging. These tests may be useful for efficient clinical diagnosis, although progressive nonfluent aphasia and semantic dementia are likely to be best distinguished by language tests not included in standard neuropsychological test batteries.

Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) impairs encoding but not retrieval of verbal information.

PubMed

Ranganathan, Mohini; Radhakrishnan, Rajiv; Addy, Peter H; Schnakenberg-Martin, Ashley M; Williams, Ashley H; Carbuto, Michelle; Elander, Jacqueline; Pittman, Brian; Andrew Sewell, R; Skosnik, Patrick D; D'Souza, Deepak Cyril

2017-10-03

Cannabis and agonists of the brain cannabinoid receptor (CB 1 R) produce acute memory impairments in humans. However, the extent to which cannabinoids impair the component processes of encoding and retrieval has not been established in humans. The objective of this analysis was to determine whether the administration of Δ 9 -Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive constituent of cannabis, impairs encoding and/or retrieval of verbal information. Healthy subjects were recruited from the community. Subjects were administered the Rey-Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) either before administration of THC (experiment #1) (n=38) or while under the influence of THC (experiment #2) (n=57). Immediate and delayed recall on the RAVLT was compared. Subjects received intravenous THC, in a placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized manner at doses known to produce behavioral and subjective effects consistent with cannabis intoxication. Total immediate recall, short delayed recall, and long delayed recall were reduced in a statistically significant manner only when the RAVLT was administered to subjects while they were under the influence of THC (experiment #2) and not when the RAVLT was administered prior. THC acutely interferes with encoding of verbal memory without interfering with retrieval. These data suggest that learning information prior to the use of cannabis or cannabinoids is not likely to disrupt recall of that information. Future studies will be necessary to determine whether THC impairs encoding of non-verbal information, to what extent THC impairs memory consolidation, and the role of other cannabinoids in the memory-impairing effects of cannabis. Cannabinoids, Neural Synchrony, and Information Processing (THC-Gamma) http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/study/NCT00708994 NCT00708994 Pharmacogenetics of Cannabinoid Response http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00678730 NCT00678730. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Health Literacy and Cognitive Performance among Older Adults

PubMed Central

Federman, Alex D.; Sano, Mary; Wolf, Michael S.; Siu, Albert L.; Halm, Ethan A.

2009-01-01

Objectives Specific cognitive abilities may explain the association of health literacy with health status. We studied the relationship between health literacy and memory and verbal fluency in older adults. Design Cross-sectional cohort. Setting Twenty senior centers and apartment buildings in New York City, NY. Participants Independently living, English and Spanish-speaking adults ages 60 and older (n=414). Measurements Health literacy was measured using the Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (S-TOFHLA). The associations of S-TOFHLA scores with immediate and delayed recall (Wechsler Memory Scale II), verbal fluency (Animal Naming), and global cognitive function (Mini Mental Status Exam, MMSE), were modeled with multivariable logistic and linear regression. Results Health literacy was inadequate in 24.3%. Impairment of immediate recall occurred in 20.4%; delayed recall, 15.0%; verbal fluency, 9.9%; and MMSE, 17.4%. Abnormal cognitive function was strongly associated with inadequate health literacy: immediate recall (AOR 3.44, 95% CI 1.71 to 6.94, p<.0001); delayed recall (AOR 3.48, 95% CI 1.58 to 7.67, p = .002); and verbal fluency (AOR 3.47, 95% CI 1.44 to 8.38, p=.006). These associations persisted in subgroups that excluded individuals with normal age-adjusted MMSE scores. Conclusion Memory and verbal fluency are strongly associated with health literacy, independently of education and health status, even among those with subtle cognitive dysfunction. Reducing the cognitive burden of health information might mitigate the detrimental effects of limited health literacy in older adults. Research that examines the impact of materials tailored to older adults' cognitive limitations on health literacy and health outcomes is needed. PMID:19515101

Ecological assessment of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer disease using the Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test.

PubMed

Bolló-Gasol, S; Piñol-Ripoll, G; Cejudo-Bolivar, J C; Llorente-Vizcaino, A; Peraita-Adrados, H

2014-01-01

The Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test (RBMT) is a short, ecologically-valid memory test battery that can provide data about a subject's memory function in daily life. We used RBMT to examine daily memory function in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzheimer disease (AD), and in healthy controls. We also evaluated differences between the memory profiles of subjects whose MCI remained stable after 1 year and those with conversion to AD. Sample of 91 subjects older than 60 years: 30 controls, 27 MCI subjects and 34 AD patients. Subjects were assessed using MMSE and RBMT. The 40 men and 51 women in the sample had a mean age of 74.29±6.71 and 5.87±2.93 years of education. For the total profile and screening RBMT scores (P<.001) and total MMSE scores (P<.05), control subjects scored significantly higher than those with MCI, who in turn scored higher than AD patients. In all subtests, the control group (P<.001) and MCI group (P<.05) were distinguishable from the AD group. Prospective, retrospective, and orientation subtests found differences between the MCI and control groups (P<.05). MCI subjects who progressed to AD scored lower at baseline on the total RBMT and MMSE, and on name recall, belongings, story-immediate recall, route-delayed recall, orientation (P<.05), face recognition, story-delayed recall, and messages-delayed recall sections (P<.01). RBMT is an ecologically-valid episodic memory test that can be used to differentiate between controls, MCI subjects, and AD subjects. It can also be used to detect patients with MCI who will experience progression to AD. Copyright © 2012 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Prevalence of Impaired Memory in Hospitalized Adults and Associations with In-Hospital Sleep Loss

PubMed Central

Calev, Hila; Spampinato, Lisa M; Press, Valerie G; Meltzer, David O; Arora, Vineet M

2015-01-01

Background Effective inpatient teaching requires intact patient memory, but studies suggest hospitalized adults may have memory deficits. Sleep loss among inpatients could contribute to memory impairment. Objective To assess memory in older hospitalized adults, and to test the association between sleep quantity, sleep quality and memory, in order to identify a possible contributor to memory deficits in these patients. Design Prospective cohort study Setting General medicine and hematology/oncology inpatient wards Patients 59 hospitalized adults at least 50 years of age with no diagnosed sleep disorder. Measurements Immediate memory and memory after a 24-hour delay were assessed using a word recall and word recognition task from the University of Southern California Repeatable Episodic Memory Test (USC-REMT). A vignette-based memory task was piloted as an alternative test more closely resembling discharge instructions. Sleep duration and efficiency overnight in the hospital were measured using actigraphy. Results Mean immediate recall was 3.8 words out of 15 (SD=2.1). Forty-nine percent of subjects had poor memory, defined as immediate recall score of 3 or lower. Median immediate recognition was 11 words out of 15 (IQR=9, 13). Median delayed recall score was 1 word and median delayed recognition was 10 words (IQR= 8–12). In-hospital sleep duration and efficiency were not significantly associated with memory. The medical vignette score was correlated with immediate recall (r=0.49, p<0.01) Conclusions About half of inpatients studied had poor memory while in the hospital, signaling that hospitalization might not be an ideal teachable moment. In-hospital sleep was not associated with memory scores. PMID:25872763

Multimedia in the informed consent process for endoscopic sinus surgery: A randomized control trial.

PubMed

Siu, Jennifer M; Rotenberg, Brian W; Franklin, Jason H; Sowerby, Leigh J

2016-06-01

To determine patient recall of specific risks associated with endoscopic sinus surgery and whether an adjunct multimedia education module is an effective patient tool in enhancing the standard informed consent process. Prospective, randomized, controlled trial. Fifty consecutive adult patients scheduled for endoscopic sinus surgery at a rhinology clinic of a tertiary care hospital were recruited for this study. Informed consent was studied by comparing the number of risks recalled when patients had a verbal discussion in conjunction with a 6-minute interactive module or the verbal discussion alone. Early recall was measured immediately following the informed consent process, and delayed recall was measured 3 to 4 weeks after patient preference details were also collected. Early risk recall in the multimedia group was significantly higher than the control group (P = .0036); however, there was no difference between the groups in delayed risk recall. Seventy-six percent of participants expressed interest in viewing the multimedia module if available online between the preoperative and procedural day. Sixty-eight percent of patients preferred having the multimedia module as an adjunct to the informed consent process as opposed to the multimedia consent process alone. There is an early improvement in overall risk recall in patients who complete an interactive multimedia module, with a clear patient preference for this method. Here we emphasize the well-known challenges of patient education and demonstrate the effectiveness of integrating technology into clinical practice in order to enhance the informed consent process. 1b Laryngoscope, 126:1273-1278, 2016. © 2015 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.

What Models of Verbal Working Memory Can Learn from Phonological Theory: Decomposing the Phonological Similarity Effect

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schweppe, Judith; Grice, Martine; Rummer, Ralf

2011-01-01

Despite developments in phonology over the last few decades, models of verbal working memory make reference to phoneme-sized phonological units, rather than to the features of which they are composed. This study investigates the influence on short-term retention of such features by comparing the serial recall of lists of syllables with varying…

Looking for an Explanation for the Low Sign Span. Is Order Involved?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gozzi, Marta; Geraci, Carlo; Cecchetto, Carlo; Perugini, Marco; Papagno, Costanza

2011-01-01

Although signed and speech-based languages have a similar internal organization of verbal short-term memory, sign span is lower than word span. We investigated whether this is due to the fact that signs are not suited for serial recall, as proposed by Bavelier, Newport, Hall, Supalla, and Boutla (2008. Ordered short-term memory differs in signers…

Effects of Verbal Coding on Learning Disabled and Normal Readers Visual Short-Term Memory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swanson, Lee

The hypothesis that reading difficulty of learning disabled (LD) children is attributable to deficiencies in verbal encoding was investigated with 60 LD and normal children (mean CA=9.1, mean IQ=103.5). Ss were compared on recall of a serial short-term memory task after pre-training of named and unnamed stimulus conditions. Data suggested that…

The Impact of Semantic Impairment on Verbal Short-Term Memory in Stroke Aphasia and Semantic Dementia: A Comparative Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jefferies, Elizabeth; Hoffman, Paul; Jones, Roy; Lambon Ralph, Matthew A.

2008-01-01

This study presents the first direct comparison of immediate serial recall in semantic dementia (SD) and transcortical sensory aphasia (TSA). Previous studies of the effect of semantic impairment on verbal short-term memory (STM) have led to important theoretical advances. However, different conclusions have been drawn from these two groups. This…

Speech Timing and Verbal Short-Term Memory: Evidence for Contrasting Deficits in Down Syndrome and Williams Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jarrold, Christopher; Cowan, Nelson; Hewes, Alexa K.; Riby, Deborah M.

2004-01-01

This study explored the degree of verbal short-term memory deficit among individuals with Down syndrome and Williams syndrome, and the extent to which any such impairment could be accounted for by a relative slowing of rehearsal and output processes. Measures of serial recall and detailed assessments of speeded articulation for short and long…

The Effect of Old Age on Supra-Span Learning of Visuo-Spatial Sequences under Incidental and Intentional Encoding Instructions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gagnon, Sylvain; Bedard, Marie-Josee; Turcotte, Josee

2005-01-01

Recent findings [Turcotte, Gagnon, & Poirier, 2005. The effect of old age on the learning of supra-span sequences. "Psychology and Aging," 20, 251-260.] indicate that incidental learning of visuo-spatial supra-span sequences through immediate serial recall declines with old age (Hebb's paradigm). In this study, we examined whether…

Language differences in verbal short-term memory do not exclusively originate in the process of subvocal rehearsal.

PubMed

Thorn, A S; Gathercole, S E

2001-06-01

Language differences in verbal short-term memory were investigated in two experiments. In Experiment 1, bilinguals with high competence in English and French and monolingual English adults with extremely limited knowledge of French were assessed on their serial recall of words and nonwords in both languages. In all cases recall accuracy was superior in the language with which individuals were most familiar, a first-language advantage that remained when variation due to differential rates of articulation in the two languages was taken into account. In Experiment 2, bilinguals recalled lists of English and French words with and without concurrent articulatory suppression. First-language superiority persisted under suppression, suggesting that the language differences in recall accuracy were not attributable to slower rates of subvocal rehearsal in the less familiar language. The findings indicate that language-specific differences in verbal short-term memory do not exclusively originate in the subvocal rehearsal process. It is suggested that one source of language-specific variation might relate to the use of long-term knowledge to support short-term memory performance.

Red, green, blue equals 1, 2, 3: Digit-color synesthetes can use structured digit information to boost recall of color sequences.

PubMed

Teichmann, A Lina; Nieuwenstein, Mark R; Rich, Anina N

2015-01-01

Digit-color synesthetes report experiencing colors when perceiving letters and digits. The conscious experience is typically unidirectional (e.g., digits elicit colors but not vice versa) but recent evidence shows subtle bidirectional effects. We examined whether short-term memory for colors could be affected by the order of presentation reflecting more or less structure in the associated digits. We presented a stream of colored squares and asked participants to report the colors in order. The colors matched each synesthete's colors for digits 1-9 and the order of the colors corresponded either to a sequence of numbers (e.g., [red, green, blue] if 1 = red, 2 = green, 3 = blue) or no systematic sequence. The results showed that synesthetes recalled sequential color sequences more accurately than pseudo-randomized colors, whereas no such effect was found for the non-synesthetic controls. Synesthetes did not differ from non-synesthetic controls in recall of color sequences overall, providing no evidence of a general advantage in memory for serial recall of colors.

Understanding the dynamics of correct and error responses in free recall: evidence from externalized free recall.

PubMed

Unsworth, Nash; Brewer, Gene A; Spillers, Gregory J

2010-06-01

The dynamics of correct and error responses in a variant of delayed free recall were examined in the present study. In the externalized free recall paradigm, participants were presented with lists of words and were instructed to subsequently recall not only the words that they could remember from the most recently presented list, but also any other words that came to mind during the recall period. Externalized free recall is useful for elucidating both sampling and postretrieval editing processes, thereby yielding more accurate estimates of the total number of error responses, which are typically sampled and subsequently edited during free recall. The results indicated that the participants generally sampled correct items early in the recall period and then transitioned to sampling more erroneous responses. Furthermore, the participants generally terminated their search after sampling too many errors. An examination of editing processes suggested that the participants were quite good at identifying errors, but this varied systematically on the basis of a number of factors. The results from the present study are framed in terms of generate-edit models of free recall.

An Examination of Adolescent Recall of Anti-Smoking Messages: Attitudes, Message Type, and Message Perceptions.

PubMed

Bigsby, Elisabeth; Monahan, Jennifer L; Ewoldsen, David R

2017-04-01

Delayed message recall may be influenced by currently held accessible attitudes, the nature of the message, and message perceptions (perception of bias and message elaboration). This study examined the potential of message perceptions to mediate the influence of valenced attitude accessibility and message type on unaided recall of anti-smoking Public Service Announcements (PSAs). In a field experiment, ninth grade students (N = 244) watched three PSAs and responded to items on laptop computers. Twelve weeks later, follow-up telephone surveys were conducted to assess unaided recall. Both valenced attitude accessibility and message type were associated with message perceptions. However, only perception of message bias partially mediated the relationship between message type and unaided recall.

Stimulation of the human medial temporal lobe between learning and recall selectively enhances forgetting

PubMed Central

Merkow, Maxwell B.; Burke, John F.; Ramayya, Ashwin G.; Sharan, Ashwini D.; Sperling, Michael R.; Kahana, Michael J.

2017-01-01

Background Direct electrical stimulation applied to the human medial temporal lobe (MTL) typically disrupts performance on memory tasks, however, the mechanism underlying this effect is not known. Objective To study the effects of MTL stimulation on memory performance Methods We studied the effects of MTL stimulation on memory in five patients undergoing invasive electrocorticographic monitoring during various phases of a memory task (encoding, distractor, recall). Results We found that MTL stimulation disrupted memory performance in a timing-dependent manner; we observed greater forgetting when applying stimulation during the delay between encoding and recall, compared to when it was applied during encoding or recall. Conclusions The results suggest that recall is most dependent on the MTL between learning and retrieval. PMID:28073638

The MMSE orientation for time domain is a strong predictor of subsequent cognitive decline in the elderly.

PubMed

Guerrero-Berroa, Elizabeth; Luo, Xiaodong; Schmeidler, James; Rapp, Michael A; Dahlman, Karen; Grossman, Hillel T; Haroutunian, Vahram; Beeri, Michal Schnaider

2009-12-01

The mini-mental state exam (MMSE) has been used to address questions such as determination of appropriate cutoff scores for differentiation of individuals with intact cognitive function from patients with dementia and rate of cognitive decline. However, little is known about the relationship of performance in specific cognitive domains to subsequent overall decline. To examine the specific and/or combined contribution of four MMSE domains (orientation for time, orientation for place, delayed recall, and attention) to prediction of overall cognitive decline on the MMSE. Linear mixed models were applied to 505 elderly nursing home residents (mean age = 85, > 12 years education = 27%; 79% F, mean follow-up = 3.20 years) to examine the relationship between baseline scores of these domains and total MMSE scores over time. Orientation for time was the only domain significantly associated with MMSE decline over time. Combination of poor delayed recall with either attention or orientation for place was associated with significantly increased decline on the MMSE. The MMSE orientation for time predicts overall decline on MMSE scores over time. A good functioning domain added to good functioning delayed recall was associated with slower rate of decline. Copyright (c) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Effects of lorazepam on visual perceptual abilities.

PubMed

Pompéia, S; Pradella-Hallinan, M; Manzano, G M; Bueno, O F A

2008-04-01

To evaluate the effects of an acute dose of the benzodiazepine (BZ) lorazepam in young healthy volunteers on five distinguishable visual perception abilities determined by previous factor-analytic studies. This was a double-blind, cross-over design study of acute oral doses of lorazepam (2 mg) and placebo in young healthy volunteers. We focused on a set of paper-and-pencil tests of visual perceptual abilities that load on five correlated but distinguishable factors (Spatial Visualization, Spatial Relations, Perceptual Speed, Closure Speed, and Closure Flexibility). Some other tests (DSST, immediate and delayed recall of prose; measures of subjective mood alterations) were used to control for the classic BZ-induced effects. Lorazepam impaired performance in the DSST and delayed recall of prose, increased subjective sedation and impaired tasks of all abilities except Spatial Visualization and Closure Speed. Only impairment in Perceptual Speed (Identical Pictures task) and delayed recall of prose were not explained by sedation. Acute administration of lorazepam, in a dose that impaired episodic memory, selectively affected different visual perceptual abilities before and after controlling for sedation. Central executive demands and sedation did not account for results, so impairment in the Identical Pictures task may be attributed to lorazepam's visual processing alterations. 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Efficacy of a medical food in mild Alzheimer's disease: A randomized, controlled trial.

PubMed

Scheltens, Philip; Kamphuis, Patrick J G H; Verhey, Frans R J; Olde Rikkert, Marcel G M; Wurtman, Richard J; Wilkinson, David; Twisk, Jos W R; Kurz, Alexander

2010-01-01

To investigate the effect of a medical food on cognitive function in people with mild Alzheimer's disease (AD). A total of 225 drug-naïve AD patients participated in this randomized, double-blind controlled trial. Patients were randomized to active product, Souvenaid, or a control drink, taken once-daily for 12 weeks. Primary outcome measures were the delayed verbal recall task of the Wechsler Memory Scale-revised, and the 13-item modified Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-cognitive subscale at week 12. At 12 weeks, significant improvement in the delayed verbal recall task was noted in the active group compared with control (P = .021). Modified Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-cognitive subscale and other outcome scores (e.g., Clinician Interview Based Impression of Change plus Caregiver Input, 12-item Neuropsychiatric Inventory, Alzheimer's disease Co-operative Study-Activities of Daily Living, Quality of Life in Alzheimer's Disease) were unchanged. The control group neither deteriorated nor improved. Compliance was excellent (95%) and the product was well tolerated. Supplementation with a medical food including phosphatide precursors and cofactors for 12 weeks improved memory (delayed verbal recall) in mild AD patients. This proof-of-concept study justifies further clinical trials. 2010 The Alzheimer's Association. All rights reserved.

Retrieval does not always enhance suggestibility: testing can improve witness identification performance.

PubMed

LaPaglia, Jessica A; Chan, Jason C K

2012-12-01

Verbally recalling the appearance of a perpetrator and the details of an event can sometimes hinder later eyewitness memory performance. In two experiments, we investigated the effects of verbally recalling a face on people's ability to resist subsequent misinformation about that face. Participants watched a video of a theft and then completed either a recall test or a distractor activity. After a delay, some participants heard a piece of misinformation. Memory was assessed with a recall test in Experiment 1 and with a target-present lineup in Experiment 2. In both experiments, initial testing reduced eyewitness suggestibility for the face.

Comprehension as a Basis for Metacognitive Judgments: Effects of Effort after Meaning on Recall and Metacognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zaromb, Franklin M.; Karpicke, Jeffrey D.; Roediger, Henry L., III

2010-01-01

We examined free recall and metacognitive judgments of ambiguous sentences studied with and without clues to facilitate their comprehension. Sentences were either studied without clues, with clues meaningfully embedded, or with clues following a 10-s interval delay. After presentation, subjects made judgments of comprehension (JCOMPs) or judgments…

Self-Testing Produces Superior Recall of Both Familiar and Unfamiliar Muscle Information

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dobson, John L.; Linderholm, Tracy; Yarbrough, Mary Beth

2015-01-01

Dozens of studies have found learning strategies based on the "testing effect" promote greater recall than those that rely solely on reading; however, the advantages of testing are often only observed after a delay (e.g., 2-7 days later). In contrast, our research, which has focused on kinesiology students learning kinesiology…

A Developmental Study of Short-Term Memory Characteristics for Kinesthetic Movement Information.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ashby, Alan A.

Age-related characteristics of children's short-term retention of kinesthetic movement information were examined in this study. Three age levels (6-, 8-, and 10-year old children) were tested for recall of preselected location movements on a linear slide apparatus. Immediate and delayed recall were used in 16 trials. The results indicate that…

The Influence of Levels of Processing on Recall from Working Memory and Delayed Recall Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loaiza, Vanessa M.; McCabe, David P.; Youngblood, Jessie L.; Rose, Nathan S.; Myerson, Joel

2011-01-01

Recent research in working memory has highlighted the similarities involved in retrieval from complex span tasks and episodic memory tasks, suggesting that these tasks are influenced by similar memory processes. In the present article, the authors manipulated the level of processing engaged when studying to-be-remembered words during a reading…

PRECISION TIME-DELAY CIRCUIT

DOEpatents

Creveling, R.

1959-03-17

A tine-delay circuit which produces a delay time in d. The circuit a capacitor, an te back resistance, connected serially with the anode of the diode going to ground. At the start of the time delay a negative stepfunction is applied to the series circuit and initiates a half-cycle transient oscillatory voltage terminated by a transient oscillatory voltage of substantially higher frequency. The output of the delay circuit is taken at the junction of the inductor and diode where a sudden voltage rise appears after the initiation of the higher frequency transient oscillations.

Conversion disorder in children and adolescents: a disorder of cognitive control.

PubMed

Kozlowska, Kasia; Palmer, Donna M; Brown, Kerri J; Scher, Stephen; Chudleigh, Catherine; Davies, Fiona; Williams, Leanne M

2015-03-01

To assess cognitive function in children and adolescents presenting with acute conversion symptoms. Fifty-seven participants aged 8.5-18 years (41 girls and 16 boys) with conversion symptoms and 57 age- and gender-matched healthy controls completed the IntegNeuro neurocognitive battery, an estimate of intelligence, and self-report measures of subjective emotional distress. Participants with conversion symptoms showed poorer performance within attention, executive function, and memory domains. Poorer performance was reflected in more errors on specific tests: Switching of Attention (t(79) = 2.17, p = .03); Verbal Interference (t(72) = 2.64, p = .01); Go/No-Go (t(73) = 2.20, p = .03); Memory Recall and Verbal Learning (interference errors for memory recall; t(61) = 3.13, p < .01); and short-delay recall (t(75) = 2.05, p < .01) and long-delay recall (t(62) = 2.24, p = .03). Poorer performance was also reflected in a reduced span of working memory on the Digit Span Test for both forward recall span (t(103) = -3.64, p < .001) and backward recall span (t(100) = -3.22, p < .01). There was no difference between participants and controls on IQ estimate (t(94) = -589, p = .56), and there was no correlation between cognitive function and perceived distress. Children and adolescents with acute conversion symptoms have a reduced capacity to manipulate and retain information, to block interfering information, and to inhibit responses, all of which are required for effective attention, executive function, and memory. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

Non-goal-directed recall of specific events in apes after long delays.

PubMed

Lewis, Amy; Call, Josep; Berntsen, Dorthe

2017-07-12

We examined if apes spontaneously remember one-time, distinctive events across long delays when probed by discriminant cues. Apes witnessed an experimenter hide a cache of food, which they could then retrieve. They retrieved one of two food types; one more distinctive than the other. Two, 10 or 50 weeks later, the apes returned to the same enclosure and found a piece of the previously hidden food on the ground. An experimenter who had not hidden the food was also present. Apes immediately searched the location where the food was previously hidden (no food was here), showing recall of the event. One week later, apes returned to the same enclosure, with the same food on the ground, but now the experimenter that had hidden the food was present. Again, apes immediately searched the hiding location. Apes that had not witnessed the hiding event did not search. There was no significant effect of food type, and retention declined from exposure to the two-week delay, then levelled, consistent with the forgetting curve in humans (Ebbinghaus, H. 1964 Memory: a contribution to experimental psychology (transl. H.A. Ruger & C.E. Bussenvis). New York, NY: Dover. (Original work published 1885.)). This is the first study to show apes can recall a one-time, non-goal-directed event longer than two weeks ago and that apes' recall declines in accordance with a standard retention function. © 2017 The Author(s).

Incidental Learning: A Brief, Valid Measure of Memory Based on the WAIS-IV Vocabulary and Similarities Subtests.

PubMed

Spencer, Robert J; Reckow, Jaclyn; Drag, Lauren L; Bieliauskas, Linas A

2016-12-01

We assessed the validity of a brief incidental learning measure based on the Similarities and Vocabulary subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV). Most neuropsychological assessments for memory require intentional learning, but incidental learning occurs without explicit instruction. Incidental memory tests such as the WAIS-III Symbol Digit Coding subtest have existed for many years, but few memory studies have used a semantically processed incidental learning model. We conducted a retrospective analysis of 37 veterans with traumatic brain injury, referred for outpatient neuropsychological testing at a Veterans Affairs hospital. As part of their evaluation, the participants completed the incidental learning tasks. We compared their incidental learning performance to their performance on traditional memory measures. Incidental learning scores correlated strongly with scores on the California Verbal Learning Test-Second Edition (CVLT-II) and Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised (BVMT-R). After we conducted a partial correlation that controlled for the effects of age, incidental learning correlated significantly with the CVLT-II Immediate Free Recall, CVLT-II Short-Delay Recall, CVLT-II Long-Delay Recall, and CVLT-II Yes/No Recognition Hits, and with the BVMT-R Delayed Recall and BVMT-R Recognition Discrimination Index. Our incidental learning procedures derived from subtests of the WAIS-IV Edition are an efficient and valid way of measuring memory. These tasks add minimally to testing time and capitalize on the semantic encoding that is inherent in completing the Similarities and Vocabulary subtests.

Immediate and delayed incorporations of events into dreams: further replication and implications for dream function.

PubMed

Nielsen, Tore A; Kuiken, Don; Alain, Geneviève; Stenstrom, Philippe; Powell, Russell A

2004-12-01

The incorporation of memories into dreams is characterized by two types of temporal effects: the day-residue effect, involving immediate incorporations of events from the preceding day, and the dream-lag effect, involving incorporations delayed by about a week. This study was designed to replicate these two effects while controlling several prior methodological problems and to provide preliminary information about potential functions of delayed event incorporations. Introductory Psychology students were asked to recall dreams at home for 1 week. Subsequently, they were instructed to select a single dream and to retrieve past events related to it that arose from one of seven randomly determined days prior to the dream (days 1-7). They then rated both their confidence in recall of events and the extent of correspondence between events and dreams. Judges evaluated qualities of the reported events using scales derived from theories about the function of delayed incorporations. Average ratings of correspondences between dreams and events were high for predream days 1 and 2, low for days 3 and 4 and high again for days 5-7, but only for participants who rated their confidence in recall of events as high and only for females. Delayed incorporations were more likely than immediate incorporations to refer to events characterized by interpersonal interactions, spatial locations, resolved problems and positive emotions. The findings are consistent with the possibility that processes with circaseptan (about 7 days) morphology underlie dream incorporation and that these processes subserve the functions of socio-emotional adaptation and memory consolidation.

Changes in Cognitive Function in Patients with Primary Insomnia.

PubMed

Guo, Hui; Wei, Meijie; Ding, Wantao

2017-06-25

Neuropsychological evidence is not sufficient concerning whether there is cognitive impairment in patients with primary insomnia. Further study is needed in this regard. To measure the changes in cognitive functioning in patients with primary insomnia. 40 patients with insomnia (insomnia group) and 48 normal sleepers (control group) were tested using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), episodic memory test, and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). The insomnia group had significantly lower scores than the control group in the naming ( t =3.17, p= 0.002), immediate memory ( t =3.33, p= 0.001), and delayed recall ( t =6.05, p= 0.001) sections of the MoCA, as well as a lower overall score on the MoCA ( t =3.24, p= 0.002). Participants with different degrees of insomnia also had significantly different scores in naming ( F =7.56, p= 0.001), language ( F =3.22, p= 0.045), total score ( F =6.72, p= 0.002), delayed memory ( F =8.41, p= 0.001), and delayed recall (F=22.67, p= 0.001) sections of the MoCA. The age of primary insomnia patients was correlated to MoCA total score, immediate memory, delayed recall, and delayed recognition function, also with statistical significance. The years of education of primary insomnia patients was also significantly correlated to overall MoCA score, as well as visuospatial and executive function, naming, attention, language, and abstraction sections of the MoCA. Primary insomnia patients have cognitive impairment. The more severe the insomnia is, the wider the range of and the more serious the degree of cognitive impairment is.

Memory as embodiment: The case of modality and serial short-term memory.

PubMed

Macken, Bill; Taylor, John C; Kozlov, Michail D; Hughes, Robert W; Jones, Dylan M

2016-10-01

Classical explanations for the modality effect-superior short-term serial recall of auditory compared to visual sequences-typically recur to privileged processing of information derived from auditory sources. Here we critically appraise such accounts, and re-evaluate the nature of the canonical empirical phenomena that have motivated them. Three experiments show that the standard account of modality in memory is untenable, since auditory superiority in recency is often accompanied by visual superiority in mid-list serial positions. We explain this simultaneous auditory and visual superiority by reference to the way in which perceptual objects are formed in the two modalities and how those objects are mapped to speech motor forms to support sequence maintenance and reproduction. Specifically, stronger obligatory object formation operating in the standard auditory form of sequence presentation compared to that for visual sequences leads both to enhanced addressability of information at the object boundaries and reduced addressability for that in the interior. Because standard visual presentation does not lead to such object formation, such sequences do not show the boundary advantage observed for auditory presentation, but neither do they suffer loss of addressability associated with object information, thereby affording more ready mapping of that information into a rehearsal cohort to support recall. We show that a range of factors that impede this perceptual-motor mapping eliminate visual superiority while leaving auditory superiority unaffected. We make a general case for viewing short-term memory as an embodied, perceptual-motor process. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Schooling, Local Knowledge and Working Memory: A Study among Three Contemporary Hunter-Gatherer Societies.

PubMed

Reyes-García, Victoria; Pyhälä, Aili; Díaz-Reviriego, Isabel; Duda, Romain; Fernández-Llamazares, Álvaro; Gallois, Sandrine; Guèze, Maximilien; Napitupulu, Lucentezza

2016-01-01

Researchers have analysed whether school and local knowledge complement or substitute each other, but have paid less attention to whether those two learning models use different cognitive strategies. In this study, we use data collected among three contemporary hunter-gatherer societies with relatively low levels of exposure to schooling yet with high levels of local ecological knowledge to test the association between i) schooling and ii) local ecological knowledge and verbal working memory. Participants include 94 people (24 Baka, 25 Punan, and 45 Tsimane') from whom we collected information on 1) schooling and school related skills (i.e., literacy and numeracy), 2) local knowledge and skills related to hunting and medicinal plants, and 3) working memory. To assess working memory, we applied a multi-trial free recall using words relevant to each cultural setting. People with and without schooling have similar levels of accurate and inaccurate recall, although they differ in their strategies to organize recall: people with schooling have higher results for serial clustering, suggesting better learning with repetition, whereas people without schooling have higher results for semantic clustering, suggesting they organize recall around semantically meaningful categories. Individual levels of local ecological knowledge are not related to accurate recall or organization recall, arguably due to overall high levels of local ecological knowledge. While schooling seems to favour some organization strategies this might come at the expense of some other organization strategies.

The impact of injection anxiety on education of travelers about common travel risks.

PubMed

Noble, Lorraine M; Farquharson, Lorna; O'Dwyer, Niamh A; Behrens, Ron H

2014-01-01

Despite many travelers receiving at least one vaccination during the pre-travel consultation, little is known about travelers' fear of injections and the impact this may have on educating travelers about health risks associated with their trip. This study aimed to investigate: (1) the prevalence of injection anxiety in travelers attending a pre-travel consultation, (2) whether anxiety due to anticipating a vaccination adversely affects recall of information and advice, and (3) whether clinicians can recognize travelers' anxiety, and how they respond to anxious travelers. Consecutive adult travelers (N = 105) attending one of two inner-city travel clinics completed self-report measures of state anxiety, injection anxiety, and symptoms of needle phobia immediately before and after their pre-travel consultation. Clinicians were also asked to rate travelers' anxiety and report any anxiety management strategies. Standardized information was presented during the consultation and recall of information and advice was assessed immediately post-consultation. Delayed recall (24 hours) was assessed for a subsample (20%) of participants. More than one third of travelers reported feeling nervous or afraid when having an injection (39%). Travelers' state anxiety was related to their psychological and physiological reactions to needles, and reduced significantly post-consultation. Recall of information and advice varied, with failure of recall ranging from 2 to 70% across 15 items, and delayed recall being significantly lower. No relationship was found between recall and anxiety. Clinician-rated anxiety moderately correlated with travelers' self-reported anxiety. A significant proportion of travelers experienced injection anxiety when attending the pre-travel consultation, with some travelers reporting symptoms consistent with criteria for Blood Injection Injury phobia. There were important gaps in recall of information and advice about common travel risks. Although no relationship was found between recall and anxiety, this may have been due to the sample and setting. © 2013 International Society of Travel Medicine.

Functional dissociation of ventral frontal and dorsomedial default mode network components during resting state and emotional autobiographical recall

PubMed Central

Bado, Patricia; Engel, Annerose; de Oliveira-Souza, Ricardo; Bramati, Ivanei E; Paiva, Fernando F; Basilio, Rodrigo; Sato, João R; Tovar-Moll, Fernanda; Moll, Jorge

2014-01-01

Humans spend a substantial share of their lives mind-wandering. This spontaneous thinking activity usually comprises autobiographical recall, emotional, and self-referential components. While neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that a specific brain “default mode network” (DMN) is consistently engaged by the “resting state” of the mind, the relative contribution of key cognitive components to DMN activity is still poorly understood. Here we used fMRI to investigate whether activity in neural components of the DMN can be differentially explained by active recall of relevant emotional autobiographical memories as compared with the resting state. Our study design combined emotional autobiographical memory, neutral memory and resting state conditions, separated by a serial subtraction control task. Shared patterns of activation in the DMN were observed in both emotional autobiographical and resting conditions, when compared with serial subtraction. Directly contrasting autobiographical and resting conditions demonstrated a striking dissociation within the DMN in that emotional autobiographical retrieval led to stronger activation of the dorsomedial core regions (medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex), whereas the resting state condition engaged a ventral frontal network (ventral striatum, subgenual and ventral anterior cingulate cortices) in addition to the IPL. Our results reveal an as yet unreported dissociation within the DMN. Whereas the dorsomedial component can be explained by emotional autobiographical memory, the ventral frontal one is predominantly associated with the resting state proper, possibly underlying fundamental motivational mechanisms engaged during spontaneous unconstrained ideation. Hum Brain Mapp 35:3302–3313, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. PMID:25050426

A common neural substrate for language production and verbal working memory.

PubMed

Acheson, Daniel J; Hamidi, Massihullah; Binder, Jeffrey R; Postle, Bradley R

2011-06-01

Verbal working memory (VWM), the ability to maintain and manipulate representations of speech sounds over short periods, is held by some influential models to be independent from the systems responsible for language production and comprehension [e.g., Baddeley, A. D. Working memory, thought, and action. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2007]. We explore the alternative hypothesis that maintenance in VWM is subserved by temporary activation of the language production system [Acheson, D. J., & MacDonald, M. C. Verbal working memory and language production: Common approaches to the serial ordering of verbal information. Psychological Bulletin, 135, 50-68, 2009b]. Specifically, we hypothesized that for stimuli lacking a semantic representation (e.g., nonwords such as mun), maintenance in VWM can be achieved by cycling information back and forth between the stages of phonological encoding and articulatory planning. First, fMRI was used to identify regions associated with two different stages of language production planning: the posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG) for phonological encoding (critical for VWM of nonwords) and the middle temporal gyrus (MTG) for lexical-semantic retrieval (not critical for VWM of nonwords). Next, in the same subjects, these regions were targeted with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) during language production and VWM task performance. Results showed that rTMS to the pSTG, but not the MTG, increased error rates on paced reading (a language production task) and on delayed serial recall of nonwords (a test of VWM). Performance on a lexical-semantic retrieval task (picture naming), in contrast, was significantly sensitive to rTMS of the MTG. Because rTMS was guided by language production-related activity, these results provide the first causal evidence that maintenance in VWM directly depends on the long-term representations and processes used in speech production.

The effect of response modality on immediate serial recall in dementia of the Alzheimer type.

PubMed

Macé, Anne-Laure; Ergis, Anne-Marie; Caza, Nicole

2012-09-01

Contrary to traditional models of verbal short-term memory (STM), psycholinguistic accounts assume that temporary retention of verbal materials is an intrinsic property of word processing. Therefore, memory performance will depend on the nature of the STM tasks, which vary according to the linguistic representations they engage. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of response modality on verbal STM performance in individuals with dementia of the Alzheimer Type (DAT), and its relationship with the patients' word-processing deficits. Twenty individuals with mild DAT and 20 controls were tested on an immediate serial recall (ISR) task using the same items across two response modalities (oral and picture pointing) and completed a detailed language assessment. When scoring of ISR performance was based on item memory regardless of item order, a response modality effect was found for all participants, indicating that they recalled more items with picture pointing than with oral response. However, this effect was less marked in patients than in controls, resulting in an interaction. Interestingly, when recall of both item and order was considered, results indicated similar performance between response modalities in controls, whereas performance was worse for pointing than for oral response in patients. Picture-naming performance was also reduced in patients relative to controls. However, in the word-to-picture matching task, a similar pattern of responses was found between groups for incorrectly named pictures of the same items. The finding of a response modality effect in item memory for all participants is compatible with the assumption that semantic influences are greater in picture pointing than in oral response, as predicted by psycholinguistic models. Furthermore, patients' performance was modulated by their word-processing deficits, showing a reduced advantage relative to controls. Overall, the response modality effect observed in this study for item memory suggests that verbal STM performance is intrinsically linked with word processing capacities in both healthy controls and individuals with mild DAT, supporting psycholinguistic models of STM.

The Effects of Stimulus Presentation Rate on the Short-Term Memory of Learning Disabled Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tarver, Sara G.; Ellsworth, Patricia S.

To test the hypothesis that the developmental lag in verbal rehearsal which has been documented for the learning disabled is due to a naming speed deficit (i.e., slow retrieval of stimulus names), the serial recall performance of 64 learning disabled children at four grade levels (1, 3, 5, and 7) was compared under three stimulus presentation…

Verbal Short-Term Memory Reflects the Organization of Long-Term Memory: Further Evidence from Short-Term Memory for Emotional Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Majerus, Steve; D'Argembeau, Arnaud

2011-01-01

Many studies suggest that long-term lexical-semantic knowledge is an important determinant of verbal short-term memory (STM) performance. This study explored the impact of emotional valence on word immediate serial recall as a further lexico-semantic long-term memory (LTM) effect on STM. This effect is particularly interesting for the study of…

Stimulation of the human medial temporal lobe between learning and recall selectively enhances forgetting.

PubMed

Merkow, Maxwell B; Burke, John F; Ramayya, Ashwin G; Sharan, Ashwini D; Sperling, Michael R; Kahana, Michael J

Direct electrical stimulation applied to the human medial temporal lobe (MTL) typically disrupts performance on memory tasks, however, the mechanism underlying this effect is not known. To study the effects of MTL stimulation on memory performance. We studied the effects of MTL stimulation on memory in five patients undergoing invasive electrocorticographic monitoring during various phases of a memory task (encoding, distractor, recall). We found that MTL stimulation disrupted memory performance in a timing-dependent manner; we observed greater forgetting when applying stimulation during the delay between encoding and recall, compared to when it was applied during encoding or recall. The results suggest that recall is most dependent on the MTL between learning and retrieval. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effects of serial and concurrent training on receptive identification tasks: A Systematic replication.

PubMed

Wunderlich, Kara L; Vollmer, Timothy R

2017-07-01

The current study compared the use of serial and concurrent methods to train multiple exemplars when teaching receptive language skills, providing a systematic replication of Wunderlich, Vollmer, Donaldson, and Phillips (2014). Five preschoolers diagnosed with developmental delays or autism spectrum disorders were taught to receptively identify letters or letter sounds. Subjects learned the target stimuli slightly faster in concurrent training and a high degree of generalization was obtained following both methods of training, indicating that both the serial and concurrent methods of training are efficient and effective instructional procedures. © 2017 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Sleep Can Reduce the Testing Effect: It Enhances Recall of Restudied Items but Can Leave Recall of Retrieved Items Unaffected

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bäuml, Karl-Heinz T.; Holterman, Christoph; Abel, Magdalena

2014-01-01

The testing effect refers to the finding that retrieval practice in comparison to restudy of previously encoded contents can improve memory performance and reduce time-dependent forgetting. Naturally, long retention intervals include both wake and sleep delay, which can influence memory contents differently. In fact, sleep immediately after…

Within-session spacing improves delayed recall in children.

PubMed

Zigterman, Jessica R; Simone, Patricia M; Bell, Matthew C

2015-01-01

Multiple retrievals of a memory over a spaced manner improve long-term memory performance in infants, children, younger and older adults; however, few studies have examined spacing effects with young school-age children. To expand the understanding of the spacing benefit in children, the current study presented weakly associated English word-pairs to children aged 7-11 and cued their recall two times immediately (massed), after a delay of 5 or 10 items (spaced) or not at all (control). After this encoding session with or without two retrievals, participants were tested two times for memory of all word-pairs: immediately and 30 minutes after the encoding session. Multiple retrievals significantly improved memory on the tests. However, words repeated in a spaced design were remembered at higher rates than those that were massed, while gap size between repetitions (5 or 10) did not differentially impact performance. The data show that a within-session spacing strategy can benefit children's ability to remember word-pairs after 30 minutes. Thus, asking students to recall what they have learned within a lesson is a technique that can be used in a classroom to improve long-term recall.

Imaging systems level consolidation of novel associate memories: A longitudinal neuroimaging study

PubMed Central

Smith, Jason F; Alexander, Gene E; Chen, Kewei; Husain, Fatima T; Kim, Jieun; Pajor, Nathan; Horwitz, Barry

2010-01-01

Previously, a standard theory of systems level memory consolidation was developed to describe how memory recall becomes independent of the medial temporal memory system. More recently, an extended consolidation theory was proposed that predicts seven changes in regional neural activity and inter-regional functional connectivity. Using longitudinal event related functional magnetic resonance imaging of an associate memory task, we simultaneously tested all predictions and additionally tested for consolidation related changes in recall of associate memories at a sub-trial temporal resolution, analyzing cue, delay and target periods of each trial separately. Results consistent with the theoretical predictions were observed though two inconsistent results were also obtained. In particular, while recall-related delay period activity decreased with consolidation as predicted, visual cue activity increased for consolidated memories. Though the extended theory of memory consolidation is largely supported by our study, these results suggest the extended theory needs further refinement and the medial temporal memory system has multiple, temporally distinct roles in associate memory recall. Neuroimaging analysis at a sub-trial temporal resolution, as used here, may further clarify the role of the hippocampal complex in memory consolidation. PMID:19948227

A context-based theory of recency and contiguity in free recall

PubMed Central

Sederberg, Per B.; Howard, Marc W.; Kahana, Michael J.

2008-01-01

We present a new model of free recall based on Howard and Kahana’s (2002) temporal context model and Usher and McClelland’s (2001) leaky-accumulator decision model. In this model, contextual drift gives rise to both short-term and long-term recency effects, and contextual retrieval gives rise to short-term and long-term contiguity effects, Recall decisions are controlled by a race between competitive leaky-accumulators. The model captures the dynamics of immediate, delayed, and continual distractor free recall, demonstrating that dissociations between short- and long-term recency can naturally arise from a model that uses an internal contextual state as the sole cue for retrieval across time scales. PMID:18954208

Memory is preserved in older adults taking AT1 receptor blockers.

PubMed

Ho, Jean K; Nation, Daniel A

2017-04-26

Prior work suggests that some but not all antihypertensive treatments may benefit cognition and risk for Alzheimer's disease, independent of stroke. Angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) have been highlighted as one antihypertensive drug class that may confer greatest benefit. The participants comprised 1626 nondemented adults, aged 55-91 years, recruited from Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative sites. Three groups were compared: ARB users (HTN-ARBs), other antihypertensive drug users (HTN-Other), and normotensives. In post hoc analyses, we also examined (1) users of ARBs and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs), (2) users of blood-brain barrier (BBB)-crossing ARBs and users of non-BBB-crossing ARBs, and (3) users of BBB-crossing ARBs and ACEIs (BBB crossers) and users of non-BBB-crossing ARBs and ACEIs (BBB noncrossers). Groups were compared regarding cognition and magnetic resonance imaging measures of brain volume and white matter hyperintensities (WMH), using analysis of covariance and multilevel models. At baseline, the HTN-Other group performed worse than normotensives on Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) Immediate Recall (p = 0.002), Delayed Recall (p < 0.001), Recognition Memory (p = 0.001), and Trails A (p < 0.001) and B (p = 0.01). ARB users performed better than the HTN-Other group on Recognition Memory (p = 0.04) and worse than normotensives on Trails A (p = 0.04). The HTN-Other group performed worse than normotensives on Logical Memory Immediate (p = 0.02) and Delayed Recall over the 3-year follow-up (p = 0.007). Over the follow-up period, those taking BBB-crossing ARBs performed better than the HTN-Other group on AVLT Delayed Recall (p = 0.04), Logical Memory Immediate (p = 0.02), and Delayed Recall (p = 0.05). They also had fewer WMH than the HTN-Other group (p = 0.008) and those taking non-BBB-crossing ARBs (p = 0.05). There were no group differences in brain volume. Users of BBB-crossing medications (ARBs or ACEIs) showed better performance on AVLT Delayed Recall over time than all other groups, including normotensives (all p < 0.01), and had less WMH volume over time than the BBB noncrossers group (p = 0.03), although they had more WMH volume than normotensives (p = 0.01). The BBB noncrossers group performed worse than normotensives on Logical Memory Delayed Recall over time (p = 0.01), but the BBB crossers group was not significantly different (p = 0.13). Hypertensive participants demonstrated worse baseline memory and executive function, as well as greater memory decline, over the 3-year follow-up than normotensives, unless they were ARB users, who showed preserved memory compared with those taking other antihypertensive drugs. Users of BBB-crossing ARBs showed superior memory performance over time compared with other antihypertensive drug users and had less WMH volume. Users of BBB-crossing medications (ARBs or ACEIs) showed better list-learning memory performance over time than all other groups, including normotensives, and had less WMH volume over time than users of non-BBB-crossing medications. These findings demonstrate that ARBs, especially those of the BBB-crossing variety, are associated with greater memory preservation and less WMH volume than other antihypertensive medications.

Working memory capacity and recall from long-term memory: Examining the influences of encoding strategies, study time allocation, search efficiency, and monitoring abilities.

PubMed

Unsworth, Nash

2016-01-01

The relation between working memory capacity (WMC) and recall from long-term memory (LTM) was examined in the current study. Participants performed multiple measures of delayed free recall varying in presentation duration and self-reported their strategy usage after each task. Participants also performed multiple measures of WMC. The results suggested that WMC and LTM recall were related, and part of this relation was due to effective strategy use. However, adaptive changes in strategy use and study time allocation were not related to WMC. Examining multiple variables with structural equation modeling suggested that the relation between WMC and LTM recall was due to variation in effective strategy use, search efficiency, and monitoring abilities. Furthermore, all variables were shown to account for individual differences in LTM recall. These results suggest that the relation between WMC and recall from LTM is due to multiple strategic factors operating at both encoding and retrieval. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

A remember-know analysis of the semantic serial position function.

PubMed

Kelley, Matthew R; Neath, Ian; Surprenant, Aimée M

2014-01-01

Did the serial position functions observed in certain semantic memory tasks (e.g., remembering the order of books or films) arise because they really tapped episodic memory? To address this issue, participants were asked to make "remember-know" judgments as they reconstructed the release order of the 7 Harry Potter books and 2 sets of movies. For both classes of stimuli, the "remember" and "know" serial position functions were indistinguishable, and all showed the characteristic U-shape with marked primacy and recency effects. These results are inconsistent with a multiple memory systems view, which predicts recency effects only for "remember" responses and no recency effects for "know" responses. However, the data were consistent with a general memory principle account: the relative distinctiveness principle. According to this view, performance on both episodic and semantic memory tasks arises from the same type of processing: Items that are more separated from their close neighbors in psychological space at the time of recall will be better remembered.

The effect of study time distribution on learning and retention: a Goldilocks principle for presentation rate.

PubMed

de Jonge, Mario; Tabbers, Huib K; Pecher, Diane; Zeelenberg, René

2012-03-01

In 2 experiments, we investigated the effect of presentation rate on both immediate (5 min) and delayed (2 days) cued recall of paired associates. Word pairs were presented for a total of 16 s per pair, with presentation duration of individual presentations varying from 1 to 16 s. In Experiment 1, participants studied word pairs with presentation rates of 16 × 1 s, 8 × 2 s, 4 × 4 s, 2 × 8 s, or 1 × 16 s. A nonmonotonic relationship was found between presentation rate and cued recall performance. Both short (e.g., 1 s) and long (e.g., 16 s) presentation durations resulted in poor immediate and delayed recall, compared with intermediate presentation durations. In Experiment 2, we replicated these general findings. Moreover, we showed that the 4 s condition resulted in less proportional forgetting than the 1 s and the 16 s conditions. 2012 APA, all rights reserved

Executive function deficits in short-term abstinent cannabis users.

PubMed

McHale, Sue; Hunt, Nigel

2008-07-01

Few cognitive tasks are adequately sensitive to show the small decrements in performance in abstinent chronic cannabis users. In this series of three experiments we set out to demonstrate a variety of tasks that are sufficiently sensitive to show differences in visual memory, verbal memory, everyday memory and executive function between controls and cannabis users. A series of three studies explored cognitive function deficits in cannabis users (phonemic verbal fluency, visual recognition and immediate and delayed recall, and prospective memory) in short-term abstinent cannabis users. Participants were selected using snowball sampling, with cannabis users being compared to a standard control group and a tobacco-use control group. The cannabis users, compared to both control groups, had deficits on verbal fluency, visual recognition, delayed visual recall, and short- and long-interval prospective memory. There were no differences for immediate visual recall. These findings suggest that cannabis use leads to impaired executive function. Further research needs to explore the longer term impact of cannabis use. Copyright 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Benefits of double reading of screening mammograms: retrospective study on a consecutive series.

PubMed

Caumo, F; Brunelli, S; Zorzi, M; Baglio, I; Ciatto, S; Montemezzi, S

2011-06-01

The purpose of this study was to assess the performance of delayed second reading of screening mammograms when added to real-time reading plus immediate assessment. The study setting was the mammography screening programme of an Italian Local Health Unit. Recall rate and cancer detection rate at first reading or informed second reading only were assessed in a cohort of 23,629 women aged 50-69 years screened during 2007-2008. Incremental recall rate, incremental cancer detection rate and incremental cost of second reading were determined. Recall rate was 13.0% at first and 2.7% at second reading (incremental recall rate +21.1%). Overall, recalls were more frequent in the younger decade and in the presence of denser breasts. Cancer detection rate was 7.06‰ (n=167) at first and 0.93‰ (n=22) at second reading (incremental cancer detection rate +13.1%). Compared with first reading, second reading detected more cancers depicted as isolated microcalcifications and distortions (40.9% vs. 16.2%, p=0.02) and at a lower stage (stage 0-I 81.8% vs. 69.5%, p=0.34). The cost of adding delayed second reading was + 3.65 per screened individual or 3,926.61 per incremental cancer detected. The study confirms the efficacy of second reading, even as an adjunct to real-time single reading plus immediate assessment. Incremental recall rate is acceptable in view of the incremental cancer detection rate, and both figures are within the range of literature reports on double-reading performance.

Recalled Aspects of Original Encoding Strategies Influence Episodic Feeling of Knowing

PubMed Central

Hertzog, Christopher; Fulton, Erika K.; Sinclair, Starlette M.; Dunlosky, John

2013-01-01

We tested the hypothesis that feeling of knowing (FOK) after a failed recall attempt is influenced by recalling aspects of the original encoding strategy. Individuals were instructed to use interactive imagery to encode unrelated word pairs. We manipulated item concreteness (abstract versus concrete) and item repetition at study (1 versus 3). Participants orally described the mediator produced immediately after studying each item, if any. After a delay they were given cued recall, made FOK ratings, and attempted to recall their original mediator. Concreteness and item repetition enhanced strategy recall, which had a large effect on FOKs. Controlling on strategy recall reduced the predictive validity of FOKs for recognition memory, indicating that access to original aspects of encoding influenced FOK accuracy. Confidence judgments (CJs) for correctly recognized items covaried with FOKs, but FOKs did not fully track strategy recall associations with CJs, suggesting emergent effects of strategy cues elicited by recognition tests not accessed at the time of the FOK judgment. In summary, cue-generated access to aspects of the original encoding strategy strongly influenced episodic FOK, although other influences are also implicated. PMID:23835601

Recalled aspects of original encoding strategies influence episodic feelings of knowing.

PubMed

Hertzog, Christopher; Fulton, Erika K; Sinclair, Starlette M; Dunlosky, John

2014-01-01

We tested the hypothesis that the feeling of knowing (FOK) after a failed recall attempt is influenced by recalling aspects of the original encoding strategy. Individuals were instructed to use interactive imagery to encode unrelated word pairs. We manipulated item concreteness (abstract vs. concrete) and item repetitions at study (one vs. three). Participants orally described the mediator produced immediately after studying each item, if any. After a delay, they were given cued recall, made FOK ratings, and attempted to recall their original mediator. Concreteness and item repetition enhanced strategy recall, which had a large effect on FOKs. Controlling on strategy recall reduced the predictive validity of FOKs for recognition memory, indicating that access to the original aspects of encoding influenced FOK accuracy. Confidence judgments (CJs) for correctly recognized items covaried with FOKs, but FOKs did not fully track the strategy recall associations with CJs, suggesting emergent effects of strategy cues that were elicited by recognition tests but not accessed at the time of the FOK judgment. In summary, cue-generated access to aspects of the original encoding strategy strongly influenced episodic FOKs, although other influences were also implicated.

Timing matters: negative emotion elicited 5 min but not 30 min or 45 min after learning enhances consolidation of internal-monitoring source memory.

PubMed

Wang, Bo; Bukuan, Sun

2015-05-01

Two experiments examined the time-dependent effects of negative emotion on consolidation of item and internal-monitoring source memory. In Experiment 1, participants (n=121) learned a list of words. They were asked to read aloud half of the words and to think about the remaining half. They were instructed to memorize each word and its associative cognitive operation ("reading" versus "thinking"). Immediately following learning they conducted free recall and then watched a 3-min either neutral or negative video clip when 5 min, 30 min or 45 min had elapsed after learning. Twenty-four hours later they returned to take surprise tests for item and source memory. Experiment 2 was similar to Experiment 1 except that participants, without conducting an immediate test of free recall, took tests of source memory for all encoded words both immediately and 24 h after learning. Experiment 1 showed that negative emotion enhanced consolidation of item memory (as measured by retention ratio of free recall) regardless of delay of emotion elicitation and that negative emotion enhanced consolidation of source memory when it was elicited at a 5 min delay but reduced consolidation of source memory when it was elicited at a 30 min delay; when elicited at a 45 min delay, negative emotion had little effect. Furthermore, Experiment 2 replicated the enhancement effect on source memory in the 5 min delay even when participants were tested on all the encoded words. The current study partially replicated prior studies on item memory and extends the literature by providing evidence for a time-dependent effect of negative emotion on consolidation of source memory based on internal monitoring. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Verbal short-term memory as an articulatory system: evidence from an alternative paradigm.

PubMed

Cheung, Him; Wooltorton, Lana

2002-01-01

In a series of experiments, the role of articulatory rehearsal in verbal [corrected] short-term memory was examined via a shadowing-plus-recall paradigm. In this paradigm, subjects shadowed a word target presented closely after an auditory memory list before they recalled the list. The phonological relationship between the shadowing target and the final item on the memory list was manipulated. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that targets sounding similar to the list-final memory item generally took longer to shadow than unrelated targets. This inhibitory effect of phonological relatedness was more pronounced with tense- than lax-vowel pseudoword recall lists. The interaction between vowel tenseness and phonological relatedness was replicated in Experiment 3 using shorter lists of real words. In Experiment 4, concurrent articulation was applied during list learning to block rehearsal; consequently, neither the phonological relatedness effect nor its interaction with vowel tenseness emerged. Experiments 5 and 6 manipulated the occurrence frequencies and lexicality of the recall items, respectively, instead of vowel tenseness. Unlike vowel tenseness, these non-articulatory memory factors failed to interact with the phonological relatedness effect. Experiment 7 orthogonally manipulated the vowel tenseness and frequencies of the recall items; slowing in shadowing times due to phonological relatedness was modulated by vowel tenseness but not frequency. Taken together, these results suggest that under the present paradigm, the modifying effect of vowel tenseness on the magnitude of slowing in shadowing due to phonological relatedness is indicative of a prominent articulatory component in verbal short-term retention. The shadowing-plus-recall approach avoids confounding overt recall into internal memory processing, which is an inherent problem of the traditional immediate serial recall and span tasks.

Rapid cognitive screening in multiple sclerosis accomplished by the Free Recall and Recognition Test.

PubMed

Claesson, I M; Ytterberg, C; Johansson, S; Almkvist, O; von Koch, L

2007-03-01

This study sought to investigate the feasibility of the Free Recall and Recognition Test (FRRT) as a practical screening tool for cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis (MS). Persons with MS (n = 227) were consecutively recruited and assessed with four cognitive tests; FRRT, Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT), and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Disease severity was assessed by the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS). The FRRT, which was completed by 99% of the cohort in approximately 5 minutes per assessment, correlated significantly with the other cognitive tests, as well as with the disease severity rating. A cut-off of 4 for the FRRT recall rendered 90% sensitivity and 25% specificity, and a cut-off of 4.2 for the FRRT recognition resulted in 70% sensitivity and 51% specificity. We conclude that the FRRT proved feasible as a practical screening tool for cognitive impairment in MS within a clinical setting.

Tactile Ranschburg effects: facilitation and inhibitory repetition effects analogous to verbal memory.

PubMed

Roe, Daisy; Miles, Christopher; Johnson, Andrew J

2017-07-01

The present paper examines the effect of within-sequence item repetitions in tactile order memory. Employing an immediate serial recall procedure, participants reconstructed a six-item sequence tapped upon their fingers by moving those fingers in the order of original stimulation. In Experiment 1a, within-sequence repetition of an item separated by two-intervening items resulted in a significant reduction in recall accuracy for that repeated item (i.e., the Ranschburg effect). In Experiment 1b, within-sequence repetition of an adjacent item resulted in significant recall facilitation for that repeated item. These effects mirror those reported for verbal stimuli (e.g., Henson, 1998a . Item repetition in short-term memory: Ranschburg repeated. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 24(5), 1162-1181. doi:doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.24.5.1162). These data are the first to demonstrate the Ranschburg effect with non-verbal stimuli and suggest further cross-modal similarities in order memory.

Remembering the Leaders of China.

PubMed

Fu, Mingchen; Xue, Yan; DeSoto, K Andrew; Yuan, Ti-Fei

2016-01-01

In two studies, we examined Chinese students' memory for the names of the leaders of China. In Study 1, subjects were cued with the names of periods from China's history. Subjects listed as many leaders as possible from each period and put them in the correct ordinal position when they could (see Roediger and DeSoto, 2014). Results showed that within each period, a primacy effect and sometimes a recency effect emerged. Moreover, the average recall probability for leaders within a specific period was a function of the ordinal position of the period. In Study 2, we asked another group of subjects to identify the sources through which they were able to recall each leader. We found that most subjects remembered leaders due to class and coursework. We also found a relation between a leader's recall probability and the amount of information available on that leader on the Internet. Our findings further imply that the serial position function captures the form of collective memory.

Symptoms of ADHD in children with high-functioning autism are related to impaired verbal working memory and verbal delayed recall.

PubMed

Andersen, Per Normann; Hovik, Kjell Tore; Skogli, Erik Winther; Egeland, Jens; Oie, Merete

2013-01-01

Symptoms similar to those found in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) often occur in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The objective of the current study was to compare verbal working memory, acquisition and delayed recall in children with High-Functioning Autism (HFA) to children with ADHD and typically developing children (TDC). Thirty-eight children with HFA, 79 with ADHD and 50 TDC (age 8-17) were assessed with a letter/number sequencing task and a verbal list-learning task. To investigate the possible influence of attention problems in children with HFA, we divided the HFA group into children with (HFA+) or without (HFA-) "attention problems" according to the Child Behaviour Checklist 6-18. The children with HFA+ displayed significant impairment compared to TDC on all three neurocognitive measures, while the children with HFA- were significantly impaired compared to TDC only on the working memory and acquisition measures. In addition, the HFA+ group scored significantly below the HFA- group and the ADHD group on the verbal working memory and delayed recall measures. The results support the proposition that children with HFA+, HFA-, and ADHD differ not only on a clinical level but also on a neurocognitive level which may have implications for treatment.

Episodic Memory in Alzheimer Disease, Frontotemporal Dementia, and Dementia With Lewy Bodies/Parkinson Disease Dementia: Disentangling Retrieval From Consolidation.

PubMed

Economou, Alexandra; Routsis, Christopher; Papageorgiou, Sokratis G

2016-01-01

Differences in episodic memory performance in patients with Alzheimer disease (AD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB)/Parkinson disease with dementia (PDD) are inconsistent and task dependent. The inconsistencies may be attributed to the different tasks drawing on different memory processes. Few studies have examined episodic memory impairment in the above groups using memory tests that facilitate encoding, to distinguish memory deficits due to impairment of specific processes. We examined the memory performance of 106 AD patients, 51 FTD patients, 26 DLB/PDD patients, and 37 controls using the Five-Words Test, a 5-item memory test that facilitates encoding. The patient groups did not differ in modified Mini Mental State Examination scores. AD patients scored lowest on the Five-Words Test overall, and showed the greatest reduction from immediate total recall to delayed free recall relative to the other 2 groups, consistent with a predominantly consolidation deficit. DLB/PDD patients showed the largest improvement from delayed free to delayed total recall relative to the other 2 groups, consistent with a predominantly retrieval deficit. Deficits in both consolidation and retrieval underlie the memory impairment of the patients, to different extents, and contribute to the theoretical understanding of the nature of the memory impairment of the patient groups.

The Benefit of Self-Testing and Interleaving for Synthesizing Concepts across Multiple Physiology Texts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Linderholm, Tracy; Dobson, John; Yarbrough, Mary Beth

2016-01-01

A testing-based learning strategy is one that relies on the act of recalling (i.e., testing) information after exposure, and interleaving is a strategy in which the learning materials are presented in a serial order (e.g., "texts 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3") versus a blocked order (e.g., "texts 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3").…

Language proficiency and metacognition as predictors of spontaneous rehearsal in children.

PubMed

Bebko, James M; McMorris, Carly A; Metcalfe, Alisa; Ricciuti, Christina; Goldstein, Gayle

2014-03-01

Despite decades of research on fundamental memory strategies such as verbal rehearsal, the potential underlying skills associated with the emergence of rehearsal are still not fully understood. Two studies examined the relative roles of language proficiency and metamemory in predicting rehearsal use, as well as the prediction of metamemory performance by language proficiency. In Study 1, 59 children, 5 to 8 years old, were administered a serial recall task, 2 language measures, a nonverbal cognitive measure, and a rapid automatized naming (RAN) task. Language proficiency, RAN, and age were significant individual predictors of rehearsal use. In hierarchical regression analyses, language proficiency mediated almost completely the age → rehearsal use relation. In addition, automatized naming was a strong but partial mediator of the contribution of language proficiency to rehearsal use. In Study 2, 54 children were administered a metamemory test, a language measure, and a serial recall task. Metamemory skills and, again, language proficiency significantly predicted rehearsal use in the task. The predictive strength of metamemory skills was mediated by the children's language proficiency. The mutually supportive roles of automatized naming, language, and metamemory in the emergence of spontaneous cumulative verbal rehearsal are discussed in the context of the resulting model, along with the minimal roles of age and aspects of intelligence.

Speech Recognition in Adults With Cochlear Implants: The Effects of Working Memory, Phonological Sensitivity, and Aging.

PubMed

Moberly, Aaron C; Harris, Michael S; Boyce, Lauren; Nittrouer, Susan

2017-04-14

Models of speech recognition suggest that "top-down" linguistic and cognitive functions, such as use of phonotactic constraints and working memory, facilitate recognition under conditions of degradation, such as in noise. The question addressed in this study was what happens to these functions when a listener who has experienced years of hearing loss obtains a cochlear implant. Thirty adults with cochlear implants and 30 age-matched controls with age-normal hearing underwent testing of verbal working memory using digit span and serial recall of words. Phonological capacities were assessed using a lexical decision task and nonword repetition. Recognition of words in sentences in speech-shaped noise was measured. Implant users had only slightly poorer working memory accuracy than did controls and only on serial recall of words; however, phonological sensitivity was highly impaired. Working memory did not facilitate speech recognition in noise for either group. Phonological sensitivity predicted sentence recognition for implant users but not for listeners with normal hearing. Clinical speech recognition outcomes for adult implant users relate to the ability of these users to process phonological information. Results suggest that phonological capacities may serve as potential clinical targets through rehabilitative training. Such novel interventions may be particularly helpful for older adult implant users.

Speech Recognition in Adults With Cochlear Implants: The Effects of Working Memory, Phonological Sensitivity, and Aging

PubMed Central

Harris, Michael S.; Boyce, Lauren; Nittrouer, Susan

2017-01-01

Purpose Models of speech recognition suggest that “top-down” linguistic and cognitive functions, such as use of phonotactic constraints and working memory, facilitate recognition under conditions of degradation, such as in noise. The question addressed in this study was what happens to these functions when a listener who has experienced years of hearing loss obtains a cochlear implant. Method Thirty adults with cochlear implants and 30 age-matched controls with age-normal hearing underwent testing of verbal working memory using digit span and serial recall of words. Phonological capacities were assessed using a lexical decision task and nonword repetition. Recognition of words in sentences in speech-shaped noise was measured. Results Implant users had only slightly poorer working memory accuracy than did controls and only on serial recall of words; however, phonological sensitivity was highly impaired. Working memory did not facilitate speech recognition in noise for either group. Phonological sensitivity predicted sentence recognition for implant users but not for listeners with normal hearing. Conclusion Clinical speech recognition outcomes for adult implant users relate to the ability of these users to process phonological information. Results suggest that phonological capacities may serve as potential clinical targets through rehabilitative training. Such novel interventions may be particularly helpful for older adult implant users. PMID:28384805

Breaking It Down: Knowledge Transfer in a Multimedia Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mariano, Gina

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of segmentation on immediate and delayed recall and transfer in a multimedia learning environment. The independent variables of segmentation and non-segmentation, as well as immediate and delayed transfer assessments, were manipulated to assess the effects of segmentation on the participant's…

Odor Memory and Discrimination Covary as a Function of Delay between Encoding and Recall in Rats.

PubMed

Hackett, Chelsea; Choi, Christina; O'Brien, Brenna; Shin, Philip; Linster, Christiane

2015-06-01

Nonassociative odor learning paradigms are often used to assess memory, social recognition and neuromodulation of olfactory pathways. We here use a modified object recognition paradigm to investigate how an important task parameter, delay between encoding and recall trials, affects the properties of this memory. We show that both memory for a previously investigated odorant and discrimination of a novel odorant decay with delay time and that rats can remember an odorant for up to 45min after a single trial encoding event. The number of odorants that can be encoded, as well as the specificity of the encoded memory, decrease with increased delay and also depend on stimulus concentration. Memory for an odorant and discrimination of a novel odorant decay at approximately the same rate, whereas the specificity of the formed memory decays faster than the memory itself. These results have important implications for the interpretation of behavioral data obtained with this paradigm. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Beyond Capacity Limitations: Determinants of Word Recall Performance on Verbal Working Memory Span Tasks in Children With SLI

PubMed Central

Mainela-Arnold, Elina; Evans, Julia L.

2016-01-01

Reduced verbal working memory capacity has been proposed as a possible account of language impairments in specific language impairment (SLI). Studies have shown, however, that differences in strength of linguistic representations in the form of word frequency affect list recall and performance on verbal working memory tasks. This suggests that verbal memory capacity and long-term linguistic knowledge may not be distinct constructs. It has been suggested that linguistic representations in SLI are weak in ways that result in a breakdown in language processing on tasks that require manipulation of unfamiliar material. In this study, the effects of word frequency, long-term linguistic knowledge, and serial order position on recall performance in the competing language processing task (CLPT) were investigated in 10 children with SLI and 10 age-matched peers (age 8 years 6 months to 12 years 4 months). The children with SLI recalled significantly fewer target words on the CLPT as compared with their age-matched controls. The SLI group did not differ, however, in their ability to recall target words having high word frequency but were significantly poorer in their ability to recall words on the CLPT having low word frequency. Differences in receptive and expressive language abilities also appeared closely related to performance on the CLPT, suggesting that working memory capacity is not distinct from language knowledge and that degraded linguistic representations may have an effect on performance on verbal working memory span tasks in children with SLI. PMID:16378481

Schooling, Local Knowledge and Working Memory: A Study among Three Contemporary Hunter-Gatherer Societies

PubMed Central

Reyes-García, Victoria; Pyhälä, Aili; Díaz-Reviriego, Isabel; Duda, Romain; Fernández-Llamazares, Álvaro; Gallois, Sandrine; Guèze, Maximilien; Napitupulu, Lucentezza

2016-01-01

Researchers have analysed whether school and local knowledge complement or substitute each other, but have paid less attention to whether those two learning models use different cognitive strategies. In this study, we use data collected among three contemporary hunter-gatherer societies with relatively low levels of exposure to schooling yet with high levels of local ecological knowledge to test the association between i) schooling and ii) local ecological knowledge and verbal working memory. Participants include 94 people (24 Baka, 25 Punan, and 45 Tsimane’) from whom we collected information on 1) schooling and school related skills (i.e., literacy and numeracy), 2) local knowledge and skills related to hunting and medicinal plants, and 3) working memory. To assess working memory, we applied a multi-trial free recall using words relevant to each cultural setting. People with and without schooling have similar levels of accurate and inaccurate recall, although they differ in their strategies to organize recall: people with schooling have higher results for serial clustering, suggesting better learning with repetition, whereas people without schooling have higher results for semantic clustering, suggesting they organize recall around semantically meaningful categories. Individual levels of local ecological knowledge are not related to accurate recall or organization recall, arguably due to overall high levels of local ecological knowledge. While schooling seems to favour some organization strategies this might come at the expense of some other organization strategies. PMID:26735297

Revisiting the rise and fall of false recall: presentation rate effects depend on retention interval.

PubMed

Smith, Troy A; Kimball, Daniel R

2012-01-01

Leading theories of false memory predict that veridical and false recall of lists of semantically associated words can be dissociated by varying the presentation speed during study. Specifically, as presentation rate increases from milliseconds to seconds, veridical recall is predicted to increase monotonically while false recall is predicted to show a rapid rise and then a slow decrease--a pattern shown by McDermott and Watson (2001) in a study using immediate recall tests. In three experiments we tested the generality of the effects of rapid presentation rates on veridical and false memory. In Experiments 1 and 2 participants exhibited high levels of false recall on a delayed recall test, even for very fast stimulus onset asynchronies (SOA)--contrary to predictions from leading theories of false memory. When we switched to an immediate recall test in Experiment 3 we replicated the pattern predicted by the theories and observed by McDermott and Watson. Follow-up analyses further showed that the relative output position of false recalls is not affected by presentation rate, contrary to predictions from fuzzy trace theory. Implications for theories of false memory, including activation monitoring theory and fuzzy trace theory, are discussed.

Automated pictographic illustration of discharge instructions with Glyph: impact on patient recall and satisfaction

PubMed Central

Perri-Moore, Seneca; Kuang, Jinqiu; Bray, Bruce E; Ngo, Long; Doig, Alexa; Zeng-Treitler, Qing

2016-01-01

Objectives First, to evaluate the effect of standard vs pictograph-enhanced discharge instructions on patients’ immediate and delayed recall of and satisfaction with their discharge instructions. Second, to evaluate the effect of automated pictograph enhancement on patient satisfaction with their discharge instructions. Materials and Methods Glyph, an automated healthcare informatics system, was used to automatically enhance patient discharge instructions with pictographs. Glyph was developed at the University of Utah by our research team. Patients in a cardiovascular medical unit were randomized to receive pictograph-enhanced or standard discharge instructions. Measures of immediate and delayed recall and satisfaction with discharge instructions were compared between two randomized groups: pictograph (n = 71) and standard (n = 73). Results Study participants who received pictograph-enhanced discharge instructions recalled 35% more of their instructions at discharge than those who received standard discharge instructions. The ratio of instructions at discharge was: standard = 0.04 ± 0.03 and pictograph-enhanced = 0.06 ± 0.03. The ratio of instructions at 1 week post discharge was: standard = 0.04 ± 0.02 and pictograph-enhanced 0.04 ± 0.02. Additionally, study participants who received pictograph-enhanced discharge instructions were more satisfied with the understandability of their instructions at 1 week post-discharge than those who received standard discharge instructions. Discussion Pictograph-enhanced discharge instructions have the potential to increase patient understanding of and satisfaction with discharge instructions. Conclusion It is feasible to automatically illustrate discharge instructions and provide them to patients in a timely manner without interfering with clinical work. Illustrations in discharge instructions were found to improve patients’ short-term recall of discharge instructions and delayed satisfaction (1-week post hospitalization) with the instructions. Therefore, it is likely that patients’ understanding of and interaction with their discharge instructions is improved by the addition of illustrations. PMID:27234601

Automated pictographic illustration of discharge instructions with Glyph: impact on patient recall and satisfaction.

PubMed

Hill, Brent; Perri-Moore, Seneca; Kuang, Jinqiu; Bray, Bruce E; Ngo, Long; Doig, Alexa; Zeng-Treitler, Qing

2016-11-01

First, to evaluate the effect of standard vs pictograph-enhanced discharge instructions on patients' immediate and delayed recall of and satisfaction with their discharge instructions. Second, to evaluate the effect of automated pictograph enhancement on patient satisfaction with their discharge instructions. Glyph, an automated healthcare informatics system, was used to automatically enhance patient discharge instructions with pictographs. Glyph was developed at the University of Utah by our research team. Patients in a cardiovascular medical unit were randomized to receive pictograph-enhanced or standard discharge instructions. Measures of immediate and delayed recall and satisfaction with discharge instructions were compared between two randomized groups: pictograph (n = 71) and standard (n = 73). Study participants who received pictograph-enhanced discharge instructions recalled 35% more of their instructions at discharge than those who received standard discharge instructions. The ratio of instructions at discharge was: standard = 0.04 ± 0.03 and pictograph-enhanced = 0.06 ± 0.03. The ratio of instructions at 1 week post discharge was: standard = 0.04 ± 0.02 and pictograph-enhanced 0.04 ± 0.02. Additionally, study participants who received pictograph-enhanced discharge instructions were more satisfied with the understandability of their instructions at 1 week post-discharge than those who received standard discharge instructions. Pictograph-enhanced discharge instructions have the potential to increase patient understanding of and satisfaction with discharge instructions. It is feasible to automatically illustrate discharge instructions and provide them to patients in a timely manner without interfering with clinical work. Illustrations in discharge instructions were found to improve patients' short-term recall of discharge instructions and delayed satisfaction (1-week post hospitalization) with the instructions. Therefore, it is likely that patients' understanding of and interaction with their discharge instructions is improved by the addition of illustrations. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association 2015. This work is written by US Government employees and is in the public domain in the United States.