The role of metacognition in prospective memory: anticipated task demands influence attention allocation strategies.

PubMed

Rummel, Jan; Meiser, Thorsten

2013-09-01

The present study investigates how individuals distribute their attentional resources between a prospective memory task and an ongoing task. Therefore, metacognitive expectations about the attentional demands of the prospective-memory task were manipulated while the factual demands were held constant. In Experiments 1a and 1b, we found attentional costs from a prospective-memory task with low factual demands to be significantly reduced when information about the low to-be-expected demands were provided, while prospective-memory performance remained largely unaffected. In Experiment 2, attentional monitoring in a more demanding prospective-memory task also varied with information about the to-be-expected demands (high vs. low) and again there were no equivalent changes in prospective-memory performance. These findings suggest that attention-allocation strategies of prospective memory rely on metacognitive expectations about prospective-memory task demands. Furthermore, the results suggest that attentional monitoring is only functional for prospective memory to the extent to which anticipated task demands reflect objective task demands. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Selective effects of acute alcohol intake on the prospective and retrospective components of a prospective-memory task with emotional targets.

PubMed

Walter, Nora T; Bayen, Ute J

2016-01-01

Prospective memory involves remembering to do something in the future and has a prospective component (remembering that something must be done) and a retrospective component (remembering what must be done and when it must be done). Initial studies reported an impairment in prospective-memory performance due to acute alcohol consumption. Retrospective-memory studies demonstrated that alcohol effects vary depending on the emotionality of the information that needs to be learned. The aim of the present study was to investigate possible differential effects of a mild acute alcohol dose (0.4 g/kg) on the prospective and retrospective components of prospective memory depending on cue valence. Seventy-five participants were allocated to an alcohol or placebo group and performed a prospective-memory task in which prospective-memory cue valence was manipulated (negative, neutral, positive). The multinomial model of event-based prospective memory (Smith and Bayen 2004) was used to measure alcohol and valence effects on the two prospective-memory components separately. Overall, no main effect of alcohol or valence on prospective-memory performance occurred. However, model-based analyses demonstrated a significantly higher retrospective component for positive compared with negative cues in the placebo group. In the alcohol group, the prospective component was weaker for negative than for neutral cues and the retrospective component was stronger for positive than for neutral cues. Group comparisons showed that the alcohol group had a significantly lower prospective component for negative cues and a lower retrospective component for neutral cues. This is the first study to demonstrate selective alcohol effects on prospective-memory components depending on prospective-memory cue valence.

Activity-based prospective memory in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Kumar, Devvarta; Nizamie, S Haque; Jahan, Masroor

2008-05-01

The study reports activity-based prospective memory as well as its clinical and neuropsychological correlates in schizophrenia. A total of 42 persons diagnosed with schizophrenia and 42 healthy controls were administered prospective memory, set-shifting, and verbal working memory tasks. The schizophrenia group was additionally administered various psychopathology rating scales. Group differences, with poorer performances of the schizophrenia group, were observed on the measures of prospective memory, working memory, and set shifting. The performance on prospective memory tasks correlated with the performance levels on verbal working memory and set-shifting tasks but not with the clinical measures. This study demonstrated impaired activity-based prospective memory in schizophrenia. The impairment can be due to deficits in various neuropsychological domains.

Visual attention and emotional memory: recall of aversive pictures is partially mediated by concurrent task performance.

PubMed

Pottage, Claire L; Schaefer, Alexandre

2012-02-01

The emotional enhancement of memory is often thought to be determined by attention. However, recent evidence using divided attention paradigms suggests that attention does not play a significant role in the formation of memories for aversive pictures. We report a study that investigated this question using a paradigm in which participants had to encode lists of randomly intermixed negative and neutral pictures under conditions of full attention and divided attention followed by a free recall test. Attention was divided by a highly demanding concurrent task tapping visual processing resources. Results showed that the advantage in recall for aversive pictures was still present in the DA condition. However, mediation analyses also revealed that concurrent task performance significantly mediated the emotional enhancement of memory under divided attention. This finding suggests that visual attentional processes play a significant role in the formation of emotional memories. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved

Prospective memory impairment in "ecstasy" (MDMA) users.

PubMed

Rendell, Peter G; Gray, Timothy J; Henry, Julie D; Tolan, Anne

2007-11-01

Considerable research indicates that "ecstasy" users perceive their memory for future intentions (prospective memory) to be impaired. However, only one empirical study to date has directly tested how this capacity is affected by ecstasy use, and this study provided relatively limited information regarding the extent, scope, or implications of problems experienced. The present study assessed prospective performance on a laboratory measure of prospective memory that closely represents the types of prospective memory tasks that actually occur in everyday life and provides an opportunity to investigate the different sorts of prospective memory failures that occur ("Virtual Week"). Ecstasy user group (27 current users and 34 nonusers) was between participants, and prospective memory task (regular, irregular, time-check) was within participants. A measure sensitive to specific aspects of psychopathology was also administered. Ecstasy users were significantly impaired on Virtual Week, and these deficits were of a comparable magnitude irrespective of the specific prospective memory task demands. The pattern of results was unchanged after controlling for marijuana use, level of psychopathology, and sleep quality. Further, prospective memory was shown to be significantly impaired for both relatively infrequent and relatively frequent ecstasy users, although for the latter group the magnitude of this deficit was greater. Prospective memory performance is sensitive to regular and even moderate ecstasy use. Importantly, ecstasy users experience generalized difficulties with prospective memory, suggesting that these deficits are likely to have important implications for day-to-day functioning.

Visual short-term memory always requires general attention.

PubMed

Morey, Candice C; Bieler, Malte

2013-02-01

The role of attention in visual memory remains controversial; while some evidence has suggested that memory for binding between features demands no more attention than does memory for the same features, other evidence has indicated cognitive costs or mnemonic benefits for explicitly attending to bindings. We attempted to reconcile these findings by examining how memory for binding, for features, and for features during binding is affected by a concurrent attention-demanding task. We demonstrated that performing a concurrent task impairs memory for as few as two visual objects, regardless of whether each object includes one or more features. We argue that this pattern of results reflects an essential role for domain-general attention in visual memory, regardless of the simplicity of the to-be-remembered stimuli. We then discuss the implications of these findings for theories of visual working memory.

Time estimation predicts mathematical intelligence.

PubMed

Kramer, Peter; Bressan, Paola; Grassi, Massimo

2011-01-01

Performing mental subtractions affects time (duration) estimates, and making time estimates disrupts mental subtractions. This interaction has been attributed to the concurrent involvement of time estimation and arithmetic with general intelligence and working memory. Given the extant evidence of a relationship between time and number, here we test the stronger hypothesis that time estimation correlates specifically with mathematical intelligence, and not with general intelligence or working-memory capacity. Participants performed a (prospective) time estimation experiment, completed several subtests of the WAIS intelligence test, and self-rated their mathematical skill. For five different durations, we found that time estimation correlated with both arithmetic ability and self-rated mathematical skill. Controlling for non-mathematical intelligence (including working memory capacity) did not change the results. Conversely, correlations between time estimation and non-mathematical intelligence either were nonsignificant, or disappeared after controlling for mathematical intelligence. We conclude that time estimation specifically predicts mathematical intelligence. On the basis of the relevant literature, we furthermore conclude that the relationship between time estimation and mathematical intelligence is likely due to a common reliance on spatial ability.

A single dose of cocaine enhances prospective memory performance.

PubMed

Hutten, Nadia Rpw; Kuypers, Kim Pc; van Wel, Janelle Hp; Theunissen, Eef L; Toennes, Stefan W; Verkes, Robbert-Jan; Ramaekers, Johannes G

2018-06-01

Prospective memory is the ability to recall intended actions or events at the right time or in the right context. While cannabis is known to impair prospective memory, the acute effect of cocaine is unknown. In addition, it is not clear whether changes in prospective memory represent specific alterations in memory processing or result from more general effects on cognition that spread across multiple domains such as arousal and attention. The main objective of the study was, therefore, to determine whether drug-induced changes in prospective memory are memory specific or associated with more general drug-induced changes in attention and arousal. A placebo-controlled, three-way, cross-over study including 15 regular poly-drug users was set up to test the influence of oral cocaine (300 mg) and vaporised cannabis (300+150 'booster' µg/kg bodyweight) on an event-based prospective memory task. Attentional performance was assessed using a divided attention task and subjective arousal was assessed with the Profile of Mood States questionnaire. Results showed that cocaine enhanced prospective memory, attention and arousal. Mean performance of prospective memory and attention, as well as levels of arousal were lowest during treatment with cannabis as compared with placebo and cocaine as evinced by a significantly increased trend across treatment conditions. Prospective memory performance was only weakly positively associated to measures of attention and arousal. Together, these results indicate that cocaine enhancement of prospective memory performance cannot be fully explained by parallel changes in arousal and attention levels, and is likely to represent a direct change in the neural network underlying prospective memory.

Parallel effects of memory set activation and search on timing and working memory capacity.

PubMed

Schweickert, Richard; Fortin, Claudette; Xi, Zhuangzhuang; Viau-Quesnel, Charles

2014-01-01

Accurately estimating a time interval is required in everyday activities such as driving or cooking. Estimating time is relatively easy, provided a person attends to it. But a brief shift of attention to another task usually interferes with timing. Most processes carried out concurrently with timing interfere with it. Curiously, some do not. Literature on a few processes suggests a general proposition, the Timing and Complex-Span Hypothesis: A process interferes with concurrent timing if and only if process performance is related to complex span. Complex-span is the number of items correctly recalled in order, when each item presented for study is followed by a brief activity. Literature on task switching, visual search, memory search, word generation and mental time travel supports the hypothesis. Previous work found that another process, activation of a memory set in long term memory, is not related to complex-span. If the Timing and Complex-Span Hypothesis is true, activation should not interfere with concurrent timing in dual-task conditions. We tested such activation in single-task memory search task conditions and in dual-task conditions where memory search was executed with concurrent timing. In Experiment 1, activating a memory set increased reaction time, with no significant effect on time production. In Experiment 2, set size and memory set activation were manipulated. Activation and set size had a puzzling interaction for time productions, perhaps due to difficult conditions, leading us to use a related but easier task in Experiment 3. In Experiment 3 increasing set size lengthened time production, but memory activation had no significant effect. Results here and in previous literature on the whole support the Timing and Complex-Span Hypotheses. Results also support a sequential organization of activation and search of memory. This organization predicts activation and set size have additive effects on reaction time and multiplicative effects on percent correct, which was found.

Sleep Improves Prospective Remembering by Facilitating Spontaneous-Associative Retrieval Processes

PubMed Central

Diekelmann, Susanne; Wilhelm, Ines; Wagner, Ullrich; Born, Jan

2013-01-01

Memories are of the past but for the future, enabling individuals to implement intended plans and actions at the appropriate time. Prospective memory is the specific ability to remember and execute an intended behavior at some designated point in the future. Although sleep is well-known to benefit the consolidation of memories for past events, its role for prospective memory is still not well understood. Here, we show that sleep as compared to wakefulness after prospective memory instruction enhanced the successful execution of prospective memories two days later. We further show that sleep benefited both components of prospective memory, i.e. to remember that something has to be done (prospective component) and to remember what has to be done (retrospective component). Finally, sleep enhanced prospective remembering particularly when attentional resources were reduced during task execution, suggesting that subjects after sleep were able to recruit additional spontaneous-associative retrieval processes to remember intentions successfully. Our findings indicate that sleep supports the maintenance of prospective memory over time by strengthening intentional memory representations, thus favoring the spontaneous retrieval of the intended action at the appropriate time. PMID:24143246

Working memory and the memory distortion component of hindsight bias.

PubMed

Calvillo, Dustin P

2012-01-01

One component of hindsight bias is memory distortion: Individuals' recollections of their predictions are biased towards known outcomes. The present study examined the role of working memory in the memory distortion component of hindsight bias. Participants answered almanac-like questions, completed a measure of working memory capacity, were provided with the correct answers, and attempted to recollect their original judgements in two conditions: with and without a concurrent working memory load. Participants' recalled judgements were more biased by feedback when they recalled these judgements with a concurrent memory load and working memory capacity was negatively correlated with memory distortion. These findings are consistent with reconstruction accounts of the memory distortion component of hindsight bias and, more generally, with dual process theories of cognition. These results also relate the memory distortion component of hindsight bias with other cognitive errors, such as source monitoring errors, the belief bias in syllogistic reasoning and anchoring effects. Implications for the separate components view of hindsight bias are discussed.

The Contribution of Prospective Memory Performance to the Neuropsychological Assessment of Mild Cognitive Impairment.

PubMed

Lee, Stephen; Ong, Ben; Pike, Kerryn E; Mullaly, Elizabeth; Rand, Elizabeth; Storey, Elsdon; Ames, David; Saling, Michael; Clare, Linda; Kinsella, Glynda J

2016-01-01

Prospective memory difficulties are a feature of the amnestic form of mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). Although comprehensive test batteries of prospective memory are suitable for clinical practice, they are lengthy, which has detracted from their widespread clinical use. Our aim was to investigate the utility of a brief screening measure of prospective memory, which can be incorporated into a clinical neuropsychological assessment. Seventy-seven healthy older adults (HOA) and 77 participants with aMCI were administered a neuropsychological test battery, including a prospective memory screening measure (Envelope Task), a retrospective memory measure (CVLT-II), and a multi-item subjective memory questionnaire (Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire; PRMQ) and a single-item subjective memory scale. Compared with HOA participants, participants with aMCI performed poorly on the Envelope Task (η(2) = .38), which provided good discrimination of the aMCI and HOA groups (AUC = .83). In the aMCI group, there was a small but significant relationship between the Envelope Task and the single-item subjective rating of memory, with the Envelope Task accounting for 5-6% of the variance in subjective memory after accounting for emotional status. This relationship of prospective memory and subjective memory was not significant for the multi-item questionnaire (PRMQ); and, retrospective memory was not a significant predictor of self-rated memory, single-item, or multi-item. A brief screening measure of prospective memory, the Envelope Task, provides useful support to traditional memory measures in detecting aMCI.

Modulation of Memory Consolidation by the Basolateral Amygdala or Nucleus Accumbens Shell Requires Concurrent Dopamine Receptor Activation in Both Brain Regions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LaLumiere, Ryan T.; Nawar, Erene M.; McGaugh, James L.

2005-01-01

Previous findings indicate that the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and the nucleus accumbens (NAc) interact in influencing memory consolidation. The current study investigated whether this interaction requires concurrent dopamine (DA) receptor activation in both brain regions. Unilateral, right-side cannulae were implanted into the BLA and the…

The influence of emotional cues on prospective memory: a systematic review with meta-analyses.

PubMed

Hostler, Thomas J; Wood, Chantelle; Armitage, Christopher J

2018-01-10

Remembering to perform a behaviour in the future, prospective memory, is essential to ensuring that people fulfil their intentions. Prospective memory involves committing to memory a cue to action (encoding), and later recognising and acting upon the cue in the environment (retrieval). Prospective memory performance is believed to be influenced by the emotionality of the cues, however the literature is fragmented and inconsistent. We conducted a systematic search to synthesise research on the influence of emotion on prospective memory. Sixty-seven effect sizes were extracted from 17 articles and hypothesised effects tested using three meta-analyses. Overall, prospective memory was enhanced when positively-valenced rather than neutral cues were presented (d = 0.32). In contrast, negatively-valenced cues did not enhance prospective memory overall (d = 0.07), but this effect was moderated by the timing of the emotional manipulation. Prospective memory performance was improved when negatively-valenced cues were presented during both encoding and retrieval (d = 0.40), but undermined when presented only during encoding (d = -0.25). Moderating effects were also found for cue-focality and whether studies controlled for the arousal level of the cues. The principal finding is that positively-valenced cues improve prospective memory performance and that timing of the manipulation can moderate emotional effects on prospective memory. We offer a new agenda for future empirical work and theorising in this area.

An investigation into prospective memory in children with developmental dyslexia.

PubMed

Khan, Azizuddin

2014-01-01

Developmental dyslexia hinders reading and writing acquisition of around 5-10% of the children all over the world. However, little is known about role of prospective memory among dyslexics. Prospective memory is realization of delayed intention. Realization of delayed intention requires self initiated process. The present study explored the role of memory (prospective and retrospective memory), meta-memory and attention among dyslexic's children. One hundred and fifteen children (51 dyslexics and 64 normal controls) participated in the study. Prospective and retrospective memory questionnaire, everyday attention questionnaire and meta-memory were administered on children. Analysis of variance was used to analyses the data. All the main effects were significant. Some interactions were also found to be significant. Results suggest that dyslexic's performance on memory (prospective and retrospective memory) was worse than normal control. Meta-memory influences both dyslexics and normal control on prospective and retrospective memory. However, meta-memory affected dyslexics much more than normal control group. Similarly, significant differential effects were observed for simple, difficult and mixed attentional condition among between dyslexics and normal control. Dyslexic's performance was deteriorated as compared to normal control group. The findings of the study are discussed in the light of the existing literature.

An investigation into prospective memory in children with developmental dyslexia

PubMed Central

Khan, Azizuddin

2014-01-01

Developmental dyslexia hinders reading and writing acquisition of around 5–10% of the children all over the world. However, little is known about role of prospective memory among dyslexics. Prospective memory is realization of delayed intention. Realization of delayed intention requires self initiated process. The present study explored the role of memory (prospective and retrospective memory), meta-memory and attention among dyslexic's children. One hundred and fifteen children (51 dyslexics and 64 normal controls) participated in the study. Prospective and retrospective memory questionnaire, everyday attention questionnaire and meta-memory were administered on children. Analysis of variance was used to analyses the data. All the main effects were significant. Some interactions were also found to be significant. Results suggest that dyslexic's performance on memory (prospective and retrospective memory) was worse than normal control. Meta-memory influences both dyslexics and normal control on prospective and retrospective memory. However, meta-memory affected dyslexics much more than normal control group. Similarly, significant differential effects were observed for simple, difficult and mixed attentional condition among between dyslexics and normal control. Dyslexic's performance was deteriorated as compared to normal control group. The findings of the study are discussed in the light of the existing literature. PMID:25538638

Endogenous-cue prospective memory involving incremental updating of working memory: an fMRI study.

PubMed

Halahalli, Harsha N; John, John P; Lukose, Ammu; Jain, Sanjeev; Kutty, Bindu M

2015-11-01

Prospective memory paradigms are conventionally classified on the basis of event-, time-, or activity-based intention retrieval. In the vast majority of such paradigms, intention retrieval is provoked by some kind of external event. However, prospective memory retrieval cues that prompt intention retrieval in everyday life are commonly endogenous, i.e., linked to a specific imagined retrieval context. We describe herein a novel prospective memory paradigm wherein the endogenous cue is generated by incremental updating of working memory, and investigated the hemodynamic correlates of this task. Eighteen healthy adult volunteers underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while they performed a prospective memory task where the delayed intention was triggered by an endogenous cue generated by incremental updating of working memory. Working memory and ongoing task control conditions were also administered. The 'endogenous-cue prospective memory condition' with incremental working memory updating was associated with maximum activations in the right rostral prefrontal cortex, and additional activations in the brain regions that constitute the bilateral fronto-parietal network, central and dorsal salience networks as well as cerebellum. In the working memory control condition, maximal activations were noted in the left dorsal anterior insula. Activation of the bilateral dorsal anterior insula, a component of the central salience network, was found to be unique to this 'endogenous-cue prospective memory task' in comparison to previously reported exogenous- and endogenous-cue prospective memory tasks without incremental working memory updating. Thus, the findings of the present study highlight the important role played by the dorsal anterior insula in incremental working memory updating that is integral to our endogenous-cue prospective memory task.

Age effects in emotional prospective memory: cue valence differentially affects the prospective and retrospective component.

PubMed

Schnitzspahn, Katharina M; Horn, Sebastian S; Bayen, Ute J; Kliegel, Matthias

2012-06-01

While first studies suggested that emotional task material may enhance prospective memory performance in young and older adults, the extent and mechanisms of this effect are under debate. The authors explored possible differential effects of cue valence on the prospective and retrospective component of prospective memory in young and older adults. Forty-five young and 41 older adults performed a prospective memory task in which emotional valence of the prospective memory cue was manipulated (positive, negative, neutral). The multinomial model of event-based prospective memory was used to analyze effects of valence and age on the two prospective memory components separately. Results revealed an interaction indicating that age differences were smaller in both emotional valence conditions. For older adults positive cues improved the prospective component, while negative cues improved the retrospective component. No main effect of valence was found for younger adults on an overt accuracy measure, but model-based analyses showed that the retrospective component was enhanced in the positive compared with the negative cue condition. The study extends the literature in demonstrating that processes underlying emotional effects on prospective memory may differ depending on valence and age. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved

Prospective memory function and cue salience in mild cognitive impairment: Findings from the Sydney Memory and Ageing Study.

PubMed

Thompson, Claire L; Henry, Julie D; Rendell, Peter G; Withall, Adrienne; Kochan, Nicole A; Sachdev, Perminder; Brodaty, Henry

2017-12-01

Prospective memory (PM) is crucial to the maintenance of functional independence in late adulthood and is consistently impaired in mild cognitive impairment (MCI). There remains a need for brief but valid measures of this construct that can be used as part of a comprehensive clinical assessment of cognition. Since the distinctiveness of PM cues is argued to determine the degree of strategic, controlled demands of PM paradigms, two variants of a brief measure were developed, one of which presented low-salience and the other high-salience PM cues. A large cohort of older adults with normal cognition or MCI was assessed with one of the two variants of our brief, novel measure of PM. Participants were asked to remember to execute PM tasks where the target cue was either high or low in salience, while concurrently engaged in an ongoing task of olfactory assessment. The task was able to discriminate between groups of participants with MCI or no cognitive impairment, albeit with a small effect size. The high-salience cue improved performance on the PM task; however, there was no interaction of cue salience with group. These results suggest that the temporal reliability and construct validity of very brief measures of the type used in this study need further exploration to determine their potential to provide meaningful insights into PM function. This measure may have utility as a brief screening tool, with identified deficits being followed up with a more comprehensive PM assessment.

The Role of Prospective Memory in Medication Adherence: A Review of an Emerging Literature

PubMed Central

Zogg, Jennifer B.; Woods, Steven Paul; Sauceda, John A.; Wiebe, John S.; Simoni, Jane M.

2013-01-01

Although neurocognitive impairment is an established risk factor for medication non-adherence, standard neurocognitive tests developed for clinical purposes may not fully capture the complexities of non-adherence behavior or effectively inform theory-driven interventions. Prospective memory, an innovative cognitive construct describing one’s ability to remember to do something at a later time, is an understudied factor in the detection and remediation of medication non-adherence. This review orients researchers to the construct of prospective memory, summarizes empirical evidence for prospective memory as a risk factor for non-adherence, discusses the relative merits of current measurement techniques, and highlights potential prospective memory-focused intervention strategies. A comprehensive literature review was conducted of published empirical studies investigating prospective memory and medication adherence. Overall, reviewed studies suggest that prospective memory is an important component of medication adherence, providing incremental ecological validity over established predictors. Findings indicate that prospective memory-based interventions might be an effective means of improving adherence. PMID:21487722

The Integration of Realistic Episodic Memories Relies on Different Working Memory Processes: Evidence from Virtual Navigation.

PubMed

Plancher, Gaën; Gyselinck, Valérie; Piolino, Pascale

2018-01-01

Memory is one of the most important cognitive functions in a person's life as it is essential for recalling personal memories and performing many everyday tasks. Although a huge number of studies have been conducted in the field, only a few of them investigated memory in realistic situations, due to methodological issues. The various tools that have been developed using virtual environments (VEs) have gained popularity in cognitive psychology and neuropsychology because they enable to create naturalistic and controlled situations, and are thus particularly adapted to the study of episodic memory (EM), for which an ecological evaluation is of prime importance. EM is the conscious recollection of personal events combined with their phenomenological and spatiotemporal encoding contexts. Using an original paradigm in a VE, the objective of the present study was to characterize the construction of episodic memories. While the concept of working memory has become central in the understanding of a wide range of cognitive functions, its role in the integration of episodic memories has seldom been assessed in an ecological context. This experiment aimed at filling this gap by studying how EM is affected by concurrent tasks requiring working memory resources in a realistic situation. Participants navigated in a virtual town and had to memorize as many elements in their spatiotemporal context as they could. During learning, participants had either to perform a concurrent task meant to prevent maintenance through the phonological loop, or a task aimed at preventing maintenance through the visuospatial sketchpad, or no concurrent task. EM was assessed in a recall test performed after learning through various scores measuring the what, where and when of the memories. Results showed that, compared to the control condition with no concurrent task, the prevention of maintenance through the phonological loop had a deleterious impact only on the encoding of central elements. By contrast, the prevention of visuo-spatial maintenance interfered both with the encoding of the temporal context and with the binding. These results suggest that the integration of realistic episodic memories relies on different working memory processes that depend on the nature of the traces.

Prospective memory in schizophrenia: relationship to medication management skills, neurocognition, and symptoms in individuals with schizophrenia.

PubMed

Raskin, Sarah A; Maye, Jacqueline; Rogers, Alexandra; Correll, David; Zamroziewicz, Marta; Kurtz, Matthew

2014-05-01

Impaired adherence to medication regimens is a serious concern for individuals with schizophrenia linked to relapse and poorer outcomes. One possible reason for poor adherence to medication is poor ability to remember future intentions, labeled prospective memory skills. It has been demonstrated in several studies that individuals with schizophrenia have impairments in prospective memory that are linked to everyday life skills. However, there have been no studies, to our knowledge, examining the relationship of a clinical measure of prospective memory to medication management skills, a key element of successful adherence. In this Study 41 individuals with schizophrenia and 25 healthy adults were administered a standardized test battery that included measures of prospective memory, medication management skills, neurocognition, and symptoms. Individuals with schizophrenia demonstrated impairments in prospective memory (both time and event-based) relative to healthy controls. Performance on the test of prospective memory was correlated with the standardized measure of medication management in individuals with schizophrenia. Moreover, the test of prospective memory predicted skills in medication adherence even after measures of neurocognition were accounted for. This suggests that prospective memory may play a key role in medication management skills and thus should be a target of cognitive remediation programs.

Minimizing the Disruptive Effects of Prospective Memory in Simulated Air Traffic Control

PubMed Central

Loft, Shayne; Smith, Rebekah E.; Remington, Roger

2015-01-01

Prospective memory refers to remembering to perform an intended action in the future. Failures of prospective memory can occur in air traffic control. In two experiments, we examined the utility of external aids for facilitating air traffic management in a simulated air traffic control task with prospective memory requirements. Participants accepted and handed-off aircraft and detected aircraft conflicts. The prospective memory task involved remembering to deviate from a routine operating procedure when accepting target aircraft. External aids that contained details of the prospective memory task appeared and flashed when target aircraft needed acceptance. In Experiment 1, external aids presented either adjacent or non-adjacent to each of the 20 target aircraft presented over the 40min test phase reduced prospective memory error by 11% compared to a condition without external aids. In Experiment 2, only a single target aircraft was presented a significant time (39min–42min) after presentation of the prospective memory instruction, and the external aids reduced prospective memory error by 34%. In both experiments, costs to the efficiency of non-prospective memory air traffic management (non-target aircraft acceptance response time, conflict detection response time) were reduced by non-adjacent aids compared to no aids or adjacent aids. In contrast, in both experiments, the efficiency of the prospective memory air traffic management (target aircraft acceptance response time) was facilitated by adjacent aids compared to non-adjacent aids. Together, these findings have potential implications for the design of automated alerting systems to maximize multi-task performance in work settings where operators monitor and control demanding perceptual displays. PMID:24059825

Objective measures of prospective memory do not correlate with subjective complaints in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Chan, Raymond C K; Wang, Ya; Ma, Zheng; Hong, Xiao-hong; Yuan, Yanbo; Yu, Xin; Li, Zhanjiang; Shum, David; Gong, Qi-yong

2008-08-01

While a number of studies have shown that individuals with schizophrenia are impaired on various types of prospective memory, few studies have examined the relationship between subjective and objective measures of this construct in this clinical group. The purpose of the current study was to explore the relationship between computer-based prospective memory tasks and the corresponding subjective complaints in patients with schizophrenia, individuals with schizotypal personality features, and healthy volunteers. The findings showed that patients with schizophrenia demonstrated significantly poorer performance in all domains of memory function except visual memory than individuals with schizotypal personality disorder and healthy controls. More importantly, there was a significant interaction effect of prospective memory type and group. Although patients with schizophrenia were found to show significantly poorer performance on computer-based measures of prospective memory than controls, their level of subjective complaint was not found to be significantly higher. While subjective complaints of prospective memory were found to associate significantly with self-reported executive dysfunctions, significant relationships were not found between these complaints and performance on a computer-based task of prospective memory and other objective measures of memory. Taken together, these findings suggest that subjective and objective measures of prospective memory are two distinct domains that might need to be assessed and addressed separately.

The Clinical Utility of Informants' Appraisals on Prospective and Retrospective Memory in Patients with Early Alzheimer's Disease

PubMed Central

Hsu, Yen-Hsuan; Huang, Ching-Feng; Tu, Min-Chien; Hua, Mau-Sun

2014-01-01

Increasing studies suggest the importance of including prospective memory measures in clinical evaluation of dementia due to its sensitivity and functional relevance. The Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRQM) is originally a self-rated memory inventory that offers a direct comparison between prospective and episodic memory. However, the informant's report has been recognized as a more valid source of cognitive complaints. We thus aimed to examine the validity of the informant-rated form of the PRMQ in assessing memory function of the patients and in detecting individuals with early dementia. The informants of 140 neurological outpatients with memory complaints completed the Taiwan version of the PRMQ. Tests of prospective memory, short-term memory, and general cognitive ability were also administered to non-demented participants and patients with early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Results showed significant relationships between the PRMQ ratings and objective cognitive measures, and showed that higher ratings on the PRMQ were associated with increasing odds of greater dementia severity. Receiver operative characteristic (ROC) curves showed an adequate ability of the PRMQ to identify patients with dementia (93% sensitivity and 84% specificity). Hierarchical regression revealed that the PRMQ has additional explanatory power for dementia status after controlling for age, education and objective memory test results, and that the prospective memory subscale owns predictive value for dementia beyond the retrospective memory subscale. The present study demonstrated the external validity and diagnostic value of informants' evaluation of their respective patients' prospective and retrospective memory functioning, and highlighted the important role of prospective memory in early dementia detection. The proxy-version of the PRMQ is a useful tool that captures prospective and episodic memory problems in patients with early AD, in combination with standardized cognitive testing. PMID:25383950

The Dynamic Multiprocess Framework: Evidence from Prospective Memory with Contextual Variability

PubMed Central

Scullin, Michael K.; McDaniel, Mark A.; Shelton, Jill Talley

2013-01-01

The ability to remember to execute delayed intentions is referred to as prospective memory. Previous theoretical and empirical work has focused on isolating whether a particular prospective memory task is supported either by effortful monitoring processes or by cue-driven spontaneous processes. In the present work, we advance the Dynamic Multiprocess Framework, which contends that both monitoring and spontaneous retrieval may be utilized dynamically to support prospective remembering. To capture the dynamic interplay between monitoring and spontaneous retrieval we had participants perform many ongoing tasks and told them that their prospective memory cue may occur in any context. Following either a 20-min or a 12-hr retention interval, the prospective memory cues were presented infrequently across three separate ongoing tasks. The monitoring patterns (measured as ongoing task cost relative to a between-subjects control condition) were consistent and robust across the three contexts. There was no evidence for monitoring prior to the initial prospective memory cue; however, individuals who successfully spontaneously retrieved the prospective memory intention, thereby realizing that prospective memory cues could be expected within that context, subsequently monitored. These data support the Dynamic Multiprocess Framework, which contends that individuals will engage monitoring when prospective memory cues are expected, disengage monitoring when cues are not expected, and that when monitoring is disengaged, a probabilistic spontaneous retrieval mechanism can support prospective remembering. PMID:23916951

Can concurrent memory load reduce distraction? A replication study and beyond.

PubMed

Gil-Gómez de Liaño, Beatriz; Stablum, Franca; Umiltà, Carlo

2016-01-01

The effects of concurrent working memory load in attentional processes have been 1 of the most puzzling issues in cognitive psychology. Studies have shown detrimental effects, no effects, and even beneficial effects of working memory load in different attentional tasks. In the present study we attempted to replicate Kim, Kim, and Chun's (2005, Experiment 3b) findings of beneficial effects of concurrent working memory load in a spatial Stroop-like task. In 3 experiments in which our sample was 3 times larger than that in the original Kim et al. study, we could not replicate their findings. The results are discussed in terms of what may have produced the conflicting results, trying to shed light on how working memory load affects attentional tasks. Also, we emphasize the importance of using adequately large samples in cognitive research. Although we acknowledge the relevance of meta-analyses to analyze conflicting results, in the present article we stress (perhaps more important) the power of an essential trademark in science for research development: replicability. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Relation between Working Memory Capacity and Auditory Stream Segregation in Children with Auditory Processing Disorder.

PubMed

Lotfi, Yones; Mehrkian, Saiedeh; Moossavi, Abdollah; Zadeh, Soghrat Faghih; Sadjedi, Hamed

2016-03-01

This study assessed the relationship between working memory capacity and auditory stream segregation by using the concurrent minimum audible angle in children with a diagnosed auditory processing disorder (APD). The participants in this cross-sectional, comparative study were 20 typically developing children and 15 children with a diagnosed APD (age, 9-11 years) according to the subtests of multiple-processing auditory assessment. Auditory stream segregation was investigated using the concurrent minimum audible angle. Working memory capacity was evaluated using the non-word repetition and forward and backward digit span tasks. Nonparametric statistics were utilized to compare the between-group differences. The Pearson correlation was employed to measure the degree of association between working memory capacity and the localization tests between the 2 groups. The group with APD had significantly lower scores than did the typically developing subjects in auditory stream segregation and working memory capacity. There were significant negative correlations between working memory capacity and the concurrent minimum audible angle in the most frontal reference location (0° azimuth) and lower negative correlations in the most lateral reference location (60° azimuth) in the children with APD. The study revealed a relationship between working memory capacity and auditory stream segregation in children with APD. The research suggests that lower working memory capacity in children with APD may be the possible cause of the inability to segregate and group incoming information.

Prospective Memory in a Language-Trained Chimpanzee ("Pan Troglodytes")

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beran, Michael J.; Perdue, Bonnie M.; Bramlett, Jessica L.; Menzel, Charles R.; Evans, Theodore A.

2012-01-01

Prospective memory involves the encoding, retention, and implementation of an intended future action. Although humans show many forms of prospective memory, less is known about the future oriented processes of nonhuman animals, or their ability to use prospective memory. In this experiment, a chimpanzee named Panzee, who had learned to associate…

Predictors of Time-Based Prospective Memory in Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mackinlay, Rachael J.; Kliegel, Matthias; Mantyla, Timo

2009-01-01

This study identified age differences in time-based prospective memory performance in school-aged children and explored possible cognitive correlates of age-related performance. A total of 56 7- to 12-year-olds performed a prospective memory task in which prospective memory accuracy, ongoing task performance, and time monitoring were assessed.…

Cue-Focused and Reflexive-Associative Processes in Prospective Memory Retrieval

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDaniel, Mark A.; Guynn, Melissa J.; Einstein, Gilles O.; Breneiser, Jennifer

2004-01-01

Several theories of event-based prospective memory were evaluated in 3 experiments. The results depended on the association between the target event and the intended action. For associated target-action pairs (a) preexposure of nontargets did not reduce prospective memory, (b) divided attention did not reduce prospective memory, (c) prospective…

A Multinomial Model of Event-Based Prospective Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Rebekah E.; Bayen, Ute J.

2004-01-01

Prospective memory is remembering to perform an action in the future. The authors introduce the 1st formal model of event-based prospective memory, namely, a multinomial model that includes 2 separate parameters related to prospective memory processes. The 1st measures preparatory attentional processes, and the 2nd measures retrospective memory…

Social importance enhances prospective memory: evidence from an event-based task.

PubMed

Walter, Stefan; Meier, Beat

2017-07-01

Prospective memory performance can be enhanced by task importance, for example by promising a reward. Typically, this comes at costs in the ongoing task. However, previous research has suggested that social importance (e.g., providing a social motive) can enhance prospective memory performance without additional monitoring costs in activity-based and time-based tasks. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of social importance in an event-based task. We compared four conditions: social importance, promising a reward, both social importance and promising a reward, and standard prospective memory instructions (control condition). The results showed enhanced prospective memory performance for all importance conditions compared to the control condition. Although ongoing task performance was slowed in all conditions with a prospective memory task when compared to a baseline condition with no prospective memory task, additional costs occurred only when both the social importance and reward were present simultaneously. Alone, neither social importance nor promising a reward produced an additional slowing when compared to the cost in the standard (control) condition. Thus, social importance and reward can enhance event-based prospective memory at no additional cost.

Prospective memory across adolescence: the effects of age and cue focality.

PubMed

Wang, Lijuan; Altgassen, Mareike; Liu, Wei; Xiong, Weirui; Akgün, Canan; Kliegel, Matthias

2011-01-01

The present study examined the role of controlled attention in age differences in event-based prospective memory performance across adolescence. The researchers tested whether presenting the prospective memory cue in or out of focal awareness of the ongoing task (resulting in low versus high demands for controlled attention, respectively) might affect age-related prospective memory performance. In total, 119 Chinese participants ages 13 to 20 took part in this study (60 adolescents: age M = 13.26 years, SD = 0.50; 23 boys; 59 young adults: age M = 19.70 years, SD = 0.87; 19 men). Findings demonstrated a significant interaction, F(1, 114) = 6.41, p < .05. No effect of age on prospective memory performance was revealed when a focal cue was used (F < 1), whereas there was a reliable age effect between adolescents and young adults when nonfocal prospective memory cues were presented, F(1, 59) = 16.13, p < .01. This pattern of results suggests that the interplay of both available resources of controlled attention and working memory, along with specific task demands, may contribute to possible age differences in prospective memory performance across adolescence. Results are discussed in the context of the multiprocess theory of prospective memory.

Prospective memory in schizophrenia: Relationship to medication management skills, neurocognition and symptoms in individuals with schizophrenia

PubMed Central

Raskin, S.; Maye, J.; Rogers, A.; Correll, D.; Zamroziewicz, M.; Kurtz, M.

2014-01-01

Objective Impaired adherence to medication regimens is a serious concern for individuals with schizophrenia linked to relapse and poorer outcomes. One possible reason for poor adherence to medication is poor ability to remember future intentions, labeled prospective memory skills. It has been demonstrated in several studies that individuals with schizophrenia have impairments in prospective memory that are linked to everyday life skills. However, there have been no studies, to our knowledge, examining the relationship of a clinical measure of prospective memory to medication management skills, a key element of successful adherence. Methods In this study 41 individuals with schizophrenia and 25 healthy adults were administered a standardized test battery that included measures of prospective memory, medication management skills, neurocognition and symptoms. Results Individuals with schizophrenia demonstrated impairments in prospective memory (both time and event-based) relative to healthy controls. Performance on the test of prospective memory was correlated with the standardized measure of medication management in individuals with schizophrenia. Moreover, the test of prospective memory predicted skills in medication adherence even after measures of neurocognition were accounted for. Conclusions This suggests that prospective memory may play a key role in medication management skills and thus should be a target of cognitive remediation programs. PMID:24188118

The cognitive processes underlying event-based prospective memory in school-age children and young adults: a formal model-based study.

PubMed

Smith, Rebekah E; Bayen, Ute J; Martin, Claudia

2010-01-01

Fifty children 7 years of age (29 girls, 21 boys), 53 children 10 years of age (29 girls, 24 boys), and 36 young adults (19 women, 17 men) performed a computerized event-based prospective memory task. All 3 groups differed significantly in prospective memory performance, with adults showing the best performance and with 7-year-olds showing the poorest performance. We used a formal multinomial process tree model of event-based prospective memory to decompose age differences in cognitive processes that jointly contribute to prospective memory performance. The formal modeling results demonstrate that adults differed significantly from the 7-year-olds and the 10-year-olds on both the prospective component and the retrospective component of the task. The 7-year-olds and the 10-year-olds differed only in the ability to recognize prospective memory target events. The prospective memory task imposed a cost to ongoing activities in all 3 age groups. Copyright 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

Location-based prospective memory.

PubMed

O'Rear, Andrea E; Radvansky, Gabriel A

2018-02-01

This study explores location-based prospective memory. People often have to remember to do things when in a particular location, such as buying tissues the next time they are in the supermarket. For event cognition theory, location is important for structuring events. However, because event cognition has not been used to examine prospective memory, the question remains of how multiple events will influence prospective memory performance. In our experiments, people delivered messages from store to store in a virtual shopping mall as an ongoing task. The prospective tasks were to do certain activities in certain stores. For Experiment 1, each trial involved one prospective memory task to be done in a single location at one of three delays. The virtual environment and location cues were effective for prospective memory, and performance was unaffected by delay. For Experiment 2, each trial involved two prospective memory tasks, given in either one or two instruction locations, and to be done in either one or two store locations. There was improved performance when people received instructions from two locations and did both tasks in one location relative to other combinations. This demonstrates that location-based event structure influences how well people perform on prospective memory tasks.

Infectious Cognition: Risk Perception Affects Socially Shared Retrieval-Induced Forgetting of Medical Information.

PubMed

Coman, Alin; Berry, Jessica N

2015-12-01

When speakers selectively retrieve previously learned information, listeners often concurrently, and covertly, retrieve their memories of that information. This concurrent retrieval typically enhances memory for mentioned information (the rehearsal effect) and impairs memory for unmentioned but related information (socially shared retrieval-induced forgetting, SSRIF), relative to memory for unmentioned and unrelated information. Building on research showing that anxiety leads to increased attention to threat-relevant information, we explored whether concurrent retrieval is facilitated in high-anxiety real-world contexts. Participants first learned category-exemplar facts about meningococcal disease. Following a manipulation of perceived risk of infection (low vs. high risk), they listened to a mock radio show in which some of the facts were selectively practiced. Final recall tests showed that the rehearsal effect was equivalent between the two risk conditions, but SSRIF was significantly larger in the high-risk than in the low-risk condition. Thus, the tendency to exaggerate consequences of news events was found to have deleterious consequences. © The Author(s) 2015.

The emotional startle effect is disrupted by a concurrent working memory task.

PubMed

King, Rosemary; Schaefer, Alexandre

2011-02-01

Working memory (WM) processes are often thought to play an important role in the cognitive regulation of negative emotions. However, little is known about how they influence emotional processing. We report two experiments that tested whether a concurrent working memory task could modulate the emotional startle eyeblink effect, a well-known index of emotional processing. In both experiments, emotionally negative and neutral pictures were viewed in two conditions: a "cognitive load" (CL) condition, in which participants had to actively maintain information in working memory (WM) while viewing the pictures, and a control "no load" (NL) condition. Picture-viewing instructions were identical across CL and NL. In both experiments, results showed a significant reduction of the emotional modulation of the startle eyeblink reflex in the CL condition compared to the NL condition. These findings suggest that a concurrent WM task disrupts emotional processing even when participants are directing visual focus on emotionally relevant information. Copyright © 2010 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

The role of working memory in decoding emotions.

PubMed

Phillips, Louise H; Channon, Shelley; Tunstall, Mary; Hedenstrom, Anna; Lyons, Kathryn

2008-04-01

Decoding facial expressions of emotion is an important aspect of social communication that is often impaired following psychiatric or neurological illness. However, little is known of the cognitive components involved in perceiving emotional expressions. Three dual task studies explored the role of verbal working memory in decoding emotions. Concurrent working memory load substantially interfered with choosing which emotional label described a facial expression (Experiment 1). A key factor in the magnitude of interference was the number of emotion labels from which to choose (Experiment 2). In contrast the ability to decide that two faces represented the same emotion in a discrimination task was relatively unaffected by concurrent working memory load (Experiment 3). Different methods of assessing emotion perception make substantially different demands on working memory. Implications for clinical disorders which affect both working memory and emotion perception are considered. (Copyright) 2008 APA.

Loads and loads and loads: the influence of prospective load, retrospective load, and ongoing task load in prospective memory.

PubMed

Meier, Beat; Zimmermann, Thomas D

2015-01-01

In prospective memory tasks different kinds of load can occur. Adding a prospective memory task can impose a load on ongoing task performance. Adding ongoing task load (OTL) can affect prospective memory performance. The existence of multiple target events increases prospective load (PL) and adding complexity to the to-be-remembered action increases retrospective load (RL). In two experiments, we systematically examined the effects of these different types of load on prospective memory performance. Results showed an effect of PL on costs in the ongoing task for categorical targets (Experiment 2), but not for specific targets (Experiment 1). RL and OTL both affected remembering the retrospective component of the prospective memory task. We suggest that PL can enhance costs in the ongoing task due to additional monitoring requirements. RL and OTL seem to impact the division of resources between the ongoing task and retrieval of the retrospective component, which may affect disengagement from the ongoing task. In general, the results demonstrate that the different types of load affect prospective memory differentially.

Loads and loads and loads: the influence of prospective load, retrospective load, and ongoing task load in prospective memory

PubMed Central

Meier, Beat; Zimmermann, Thomas D.

2015-01-01

In prospective memory tasks different kinds of load can occur. Adding a prospective memory task can impose a load on ongoing task performance. Adding ongoing task load (OTL) can affect prospective memory performance. The existence of multiple target events increases prospective load (PL) and adding complexity to the to-be-remembered action increases retrospective load (RL). In two experiments, we systematically examined the effects of these different types of load on prospective memory performance. Results showed an effect of PL on costs in the ongoing task for categorical targets (Experiment 2), but not for specific targets (Experiment 1). RL and OTL both affected remembering the retrospective component of the prospective memory task. We suggest that PL can enhance costs in the ongoing task due to additional monitoring requirements. RL and OTL seem to impact the division of resources between the ongoing task and retrieval of the retrospective component, which may affect disengagement from the ongoing task. In general, the results demonstrate that the different types of load affect prospective memory differentially. PMID:26082709

Personality and Cognitive Decline in Older Adults: Data From a Longitudinal Sample and Meta-Analysis

PubMed Central

Terracciano, Antonio; Stephan, Yannick; Sutin, Angelina R.

2016-01-01

Objectives: Personality traits are associated with risk of dementia; less is known about their association with the trajectory of cognitive functioning. This research examines the association between the 5 major dimensions of personality and cognitive function and decline in older adulthood and includes a meta-analysis of published studies. Method: Personality traits, objective and subjective memory, and cognitive status were collected in a large national sample (N = 13,987) with a 4-year follow-up period. For each trait, the meta-analysis pooled results from up to 5 prospective studies to examine personality and change in global cognition. Results: Higher Neuroticism was associated with worse performance on all cognitive measures and greater decline in memory, whereas higher Conscientiousness and Openness were associated with better memory performance concurrently and less decline over time. All traits were associated with subjective memory. Higher Conscientiousness and lower Extraversion were associated with better cognitive status and less decline. Although modest, these associations were generally larger than that of hypertension, diabetes, history of psychological treatment, obesity, smoking, and physical inactivity. The meta-analysis supported the association between Neuroticism and Conscientiousness and cognitive decline. Discussion: Personality is associated with cognitive decline in older adults, with effects comparable to established clinical and lifestyle risk factors. PMID:25583598

The Source of Adult Age Differences in Event-Based Prospective Memory: A Multinomial Modeling Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Rebekah E.; Bayen, Ute J.

2006-01-01

Event-based prospective memory involves remembering to perform an action in response to a particular future event. Normal younger and older adults performed event-based prospective memory tasks in 2 experiments. The authors applied a formal multinomial processing tree model of prospective memory (Smith & Bayen, 2004) to disentangle age differences…

Writing abilities and the role of working memory in children with symptoms of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder.

PubMed

Capodieci, Agnese; Serafini, Alice; Dessuki, Alice; Cornoldi, Cesare

2018-02-20

The writing abilities of children with ADHD symptoms were examined in a simple dictation task, and then in two conditions with concurrent verbal or visuospatial working memory (WM) loads. The children with ADHD symptoms generally made more spelling mistakes than controls, and the concurrent loads impaired their performance, but with partly different effects. The concurrent verbal WM task prompted an increase in the phonological errors, while the concurrent visuospatial WM task prompted more non-phonological errors, matching the Italian phonology, but not the Italian orthography. In the ADHD group, the children proving better able to cope with a concurrent verbal WM load had a better spelling performance too. The ADHD and control groups had a similar handwriting speed, but the former group's writing quality was poorer. Our results suggest that WM supports writing skills, and that children with ADHD symptoms have general writing difficulties, but strength in coping with concurrent verbal information may support their spelling performance.

Concurrent and prospective analyses of peer, television and social media influences on body dissatisfaction, eating disorder symptoms and life satisfaction in adolescent girls.

PubMed

Ferguson, Christopher J; Muñoz, Mónica E; Garza, Adolfo; Galindo, Mariza

2014-01-01

The degree to which media contributes to body dissatisfaction, life satisfaction and eating disorder symptoms in teenage girls continues to be debated. The current study examines television, social media and peer competition influences on body dissatisfaction, eating disorder symptoms and life satisfaction in a sample of 237 mostly Hispanic girls. 101 of these girls were reassessed in a later 6-month follow-up. Neither television exposure to thin ideal media nor social media predicted negative outcomes either concurrently nor prospectively with the exception of a small concurrent correlation between social media use and life satisfaction. Social media use was found to contribute to later peer competition in prospective analysis, however, suggesting potential indirect but not direct effects on body related outcomes. Peer competition proved to be a moderate strong predictor of negative outcomes both concurrently and prospectively. It is concluded that the negative influences of social comparison are focused on peers rather than television or social media exposure.

Social problem solving, autobiographical memory, trauma, and depression in women with borderline personality disorder and a history of suicide attempts.

PubMed

Maurex, Liselotte; Lekander, Mats; Nilsonne, Asa; Andersson, Eva E; Asberg, Marie; Ohman, Arne

2010-09-01

The primary aim of this study was to compare the retrieval of autobiographical memory and the social problem-solving performance of individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and a history of suicide attempts, with and without concurrent diagnoses of depression and/or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), to that of controls. Additionally, the relationships between autobiographical memory, social problem-solving skills, and various clinical characteristics were examined in the BPD group. Individuals with BPD who had made at least two suicide attempts were compared to controls with regard to specificity of autobiographical memory and social problem-solving skills. Autobiographical memory specificity and social problem-solving skills were further studied in the BPD group by comparing depressed participants to non-depressed participants; and autobiographical memory specificity was also studied by comparing participants with and without PTSD. A total of 47 women with a diagnosis of BPD and 30 controls completed the Autobiographical Memory Test, assessing memory specificity, and the means-end problem solving-procedure, measuring social problem-solving skills. The prevalence of suicidal/self-injurious behaviour, and the exposure to violence, was also assessed in the BPD group. Compared to controls, participants with BPD showed reduced specificity of autobiographical memory, irrespective of either concurrent depression, previous depression, or concurrent PTSD. The depressed BPD group displayed poor problem-solving skills. Further, an association between unspecific memory and poor problem-solving was displayed in the BPD group. Our results confirmed that reduced specificity of autobiographical memory is an important characteristic of BPD individuals with a history of suicide attempt, independent of depression, or PTSD. Reduced specificity of autobiographical memory was further related to poor social problem-solving capacity in the BPD group.

Control of cost in prospective memory: evidence for spontaneous retrieval processes.

PubMed

Scullin, Michael K; McDaniel, Mark A; Einstein, Gilles O

2010-01-01

To examine the processes that support prospective remembering, previous research has often examined whether the presence of a prospective memory task slows overall responding on an ongoing task. Although slowed task performance suggests that monitoring is present, this method does not clearly establish whether monitoring is functionally related to prospective memory performance. According to the multiprocess theory (McDaniel & Einstein, 2000), monitoring should be necessary to prospective memory performance with nonfocal cues but not with focal cues. To test this hypothesis, we varied monitoring by presenting items that were related (or unrelated) to the prospective memory task proximal to target events. Notably, whereas monitoring proximal to target events led to a large increase in nonfocal prospective memory performance, focal prospective remembering was high in the absence of monitoring, and monitoring in this condition provided no additional benefits. These results suggest that when monitoring is absent, spontaneous retrieval processes can support focal prospective remembering. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved).

Prospective memory failures in aviation: effects of cue salience, workload, and individual differences.

PubMed

Van Benthem, Kathleen D; Herdman, Chris M; Tolton, Rani G; LeFevre, Jo-Anne

2015-04-01

Prospective memory allows people to complete intended tasks in the future. Prospective memory failures, such as pilots forgetting to inform pattern traffic of their locations, can have fatal consequences. The present research examined the impact of system factors (memory cue salience and workload) and individual differences (pilot age, cognitive health, and expertise) on prospective memory for communication tasks in the cockpit. Pilots (N = 101) flew a Cessna 172 simulator at a non-towered aerodrome while maintaining communication with traffic and attending to flight parameters. Memory cue salience (the prominence of cues that signal an intended action) and workload were manipulated. Prospective memory was measured as radio call completion rates. Pilots' prospective memory was adversely affected by low-salience cues and high workload. An interaction of cue salience, pilots' age, and cognitive health reflected the effects of system and individual difference factors on prospective memory failures. For example, younger pilots with low levels of cognitive health completed 78% of the radio calls associated with low-salience memory cues, whereas older pilots with low cognitive health scores completed just 61% of similar radio calls. Our findings suggest that technologies designed to signal intended future tasks should target those tasks with inherently low-salience memory cues. In addition, increasing the salience of memory cues is most likely to benefit pilots with lower levels of cognitive health in high-workload conditions.

Improving prospective memory in persons with Parkinson disease: A randomized controlled trial

PubMed Central

Foster, Erin R.; McDaniel, Mark A.; Rendell, Peter G.

2017-01-01

Background Prospective memory is essential for productive and independent living and necessary for compliance with prescribed health behaviors. Parkinson disease (PD) can cause prospective memory deficits that are associated with activity limitations and reduced quality of life. Forming implementation intentions is an encoding strategy that may improve prospective memory in this population. Objective To determine the effect of implementation intentions on prospective memory performance in PD. Methods This was a laboratory-based randomized controlled trial. Participants with mild to moderate PD without dementia (N = 62) performed a computerized prospective memory test (Virtual Week) under standard instructions. One week later they were randomly allocated to perform it again while using either implementation intentions or a rehearsal encoding strategy. Results Prospective memory performance was better with the use of both strategies relative to standard instructions. This effect was larger for tasks with event-based compared to time-based cues. In addition, implementation intentions resulted in a larger effect than rehearsal for the non-repeated tasks. Conclusions Strategies that support full encoding of prospective memory cues and actions can improve prospective memory performance among people with PD, particularly for tasks with cues that are readily available in the environment. Implementation intentions may be more effective than rehearsal for non-repeated tasks, but this finding warrants verification. Future work should address transfer of strategy use from the laboratory to everyday life. Targeted strategies to manage prospective memory impairment could improve function and quality of life and significantly impact clinical care for people with PD. (NCT01469741) PMID:28176547

Experimental Effects of Acute Exercise on Prospective Memory and False Memory.

PubMed

Green, David; Loprinzi, Paul D

2018-01-01

Research demonstrates that acute exercise can enhance retrospective episodic memory performance. However, limited research has examined the effects of acute exercise on prospective memory, and no studies have examined the effects of exercise on false memory performance. This study examined the potential effects of acute exercise on prospective memory and false memory performance. A between-group randomized controlled trial was employed, with participants (college students; M age  = 20 years) randomized into an exercise group (15-minute acute bout of treadmill walking; N = 25) or a control group (15 minutes of sitting; N = 26). Prospective memory was assessed from two laboratory and two naturalistic assessments outside the lab. False memory was assessed using a word-list trial. There were no statistically significant differences in prospective memory based on group allocation (F Group×Time  = 1.17; P = 0.32; η 2  = 0.06). However, the control group recalled more false words and had a higher rate of false memory recognition (F Group×Time  = 3.15; P = 0.01; η 2  = 0.26). These findings indicate that acute moderate-intensity aerobic exercise is not associated with prospective memory performance but provides some suggestive evidence that acute exercise may reduce the rate of false memories.

Prospective memory in context: Moving through a familiar space.

PubMed

Smith, Rebekah E; Hunt, R Reed; Murray, Amy E

2017-02-01

Successful completion of delayed intentions is a common but important aspect of daily behavior. Such behavior requires not only memory for the intended action but also recognition of the opportunity to perform that action, known collectively as prospective memory. The fact that prospective memory tasks occur in the midst of other activities is captured in laboratory tasks by embedding the prospective memory task in an ongoing activity. In many cases the requirement to perform the prospective memory task results in a reduction in ongoing performance relative to when the ongoing task is performed alone. This is referred to as the cost to the ongoing task and reflects the allocation of attentional resources to the prospective memory task. The current study examined the pattern of cost across the ongoing task when the ongoing task provided contextual information that in turn allowed participants to anticipate when target events would occur within the ongoing task. The availability of contextual information reduced ongoing task response times overall, with an increase in response times closer to the target locations (Experiments 1-3). The fourth study, drawing on the Event Segmentation Theory, provided support for the proposal made by the Preparatory Attentional and Memory Processes theory of prospective memory that decisions about the allocation of attention to the prospective memory task are more likely to be made at points of transition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Spatial navigation, episodic memory, episodic future thinking, and theory of mind in children with autism spectrum disorder: evidence for impairments in mental simulation?

PubMed Central

Lind, Sophie E.; Bowler, Dermot M.; Raber, Jacob

2014-01-01

This study explored spatial navigation alongside several other cognitive abilities that are thought to share common underlying neurocognitive mechanisms (e.g., the capacity for self-projection, scene construction, or mental simulation), and which we hypothesized may be impaired in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Twenty intellectually high-functioning children with ASD (with a mean age of ~8 years) were compared to 20 sex, age, IQ, and language ability matched typically developing children on a series of tasks to assess spatial navigation, episodic memory, episodic future thinking (also known as episodic foresight or prospection), theory of mind (ToM), relational memory, and central coherence. This is the first study to explore these abilities concurrently within the same sample. Spatial navigation was assessed using the “memory island” task, which involves finding objects within a realistic, computer simulated, three-dimensional environment. Episodic memory and episodic future thinking were assessed using a past and future event description task. ToM was assessed using the “animations” task, in which children were asked to describe the interactions between two animated triangles. Relational memory was assessed using a recognition task involving memory for items (line drawings), patterned backgrounds, or combinations of items and backgrounds. Central coherence was assessed by exploring differences in performance across segmented and unsegmented versions of block design. Children with ASD were found to show impairments in spatial navigation, episodic memory, episodic future thinking, and central coherence, but not ToM or relational memory. Among children with ASD, spatial navigation was found to be significantly negatively related to the number of repetitive behaviors. In other words, children who showed more repetitive behaviors showed poorer spatial navigation. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed. PMID:25538661

Spatial navigation, episodic memory, episodic future thinking, and theory of mind in children with autism spectrum disorder: evidence for impairments in mental simulation?

PubMed

Lind, Sophie E; Bowler, Dermot M; Raber, Jacob

2014-01-01

This study explored spatial navigation alongside several other cognitive abilities that are thought to share common underlying neurocognitive mechanisms (e.g., the capacity for self-projection, scene construction, or mental simulation), and which we hypothesized may be impaired in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Twenty intellectually high-functioning children with ASD (with a mean age of ~8 years) were compared to 20 sex, age, IQ, and language ability matched typically developing children on a series of tasks to assess spatial navigation, episodic memory, episodic future thinking (also known as episodic foresight or prospection), theory of mind (ToM), relational memory, and central coherence. This is the first study to explore these abilities concurrently within the same sample. Spatial navigation was assessed using the "memory island" task, which involves finding objects within a realistic, computer simulated, three-dimensional environment. Episodic memory and episodic future thinking were assessed using a past and future event description task. ToM was assessed using the "animations" task, in which children were asked to describe the interactions between two animated triangles. Relational memory was assessed using a recognition task involving memory for items (line drawings), patterned backgrounds, or combinations of items and backgrounds. Central coherence was assessed by exploring differences in performance across segmented and unsegmented versions of block design. Children with ASD were found to show impairments in spatial navigation, episodic memory, episodic future thinking, and central coherence, but not ToM or relational memory. Among children with ASD, spatial navigation was found to be significantly negatively related to the number of repetitive behaviors. In other words, children who showed more repetitive behaviors showed poorer spatial navigation. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

The effects of concurrent cognitive load on phonological processing in adults who stutter.

PubMed

Jones, Robin M; Fox, Robert A; Jacewicz, Ewa

2012-12-01

To determine whether phonological processing in adults who stutter (AWS) is disrupted by increased amounts of cognitive load in a concurrent attention-demanding task. Nine AWS and 9 adults who do not stutter (AWNS) participated. Using a dual-task paradigm, the authors presented word pairs for rhyme judgments and, concurrently, letter strings for memory recall. The rhyme judgment task manipulated rhyming type (rhyming/nonrhyming) and orthographic representation (similar/dissimilar). The memory recall task varied stimulus complexity (no letters, 3 letters, 5 letters). Rhyme judgment accuracy and reaction time (RT) were used to assess phonological processing, and letter recall accuracy was used to measure memory recall. For rhyme judgments, AWS were as accurate as AWNS, and the increase in the cognitive load did not affect rhyme judgment accuracy of either group. Significant group differences were found in RTs (delays by AWS were 241 ms greater). RTs of AWS were also slower in the most demanding rhyme condition and varied with the complexity of the memory task. Accuracy of letter recall of AWS was comparatively worse in the most demanding 5-letter condition. Phonological and cognitive processing of AWS is more vulnerable to disruptions caused by increased amounts of cognitive load in concurrent attention-demanding tasks.

Improving everyday prospective memory performance in older adults: comparing cognitive process and strategy training.

PubMed

Brom, Sarah Susanne; Kliegel, Matthias

2014-09-01

Considering the importance of prospective memory for independence in old age recently, research has started to examine interventions to reduce prospective memory errors. Two general approaches can be proposed: (a) process training of executive control associated with prospective memory functioning, and/or (b) strategy training to reduce executive task demands. The present study was the first to combine and compare both training methods in a sample of 62 community-dwelling older adults (60-86 years) and to explore their effects on an ecologically valid everyday life prospective memory task (here: regular blood pressure monitoring). Even though the training of executive control was successful in enhancing the trained ability, clear transfer effects on prospective memory performance could only be found for the strategy training. However, participants with low executive abilities benefited particularly from the implementation intention strategy. Conceptually, this supports models suggesting interactions between task demands and individual differences in executive control in explaining individual differences in prospective memory performance. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

[Prospective memory - concepts, methods of assessment, neuroanatomical bases and its deficits in mental disorders].

PubMed

Wiłkość, Monika; Izdebski, Paweł; Zajac-Lamparska, Ludmiła

2013-01-01

In the last two decades of the last century there has been a shift in the studies on memory. In psychology of memory the criticism of the laboratory approach resulted in development of the ecological approach. One of the effects of this change was to initiate researches on memory that includes plans for the future, which has resulted in the distinction of the concept of prospective memory. Prospective memory is used in many aspects of everyday life. It deals with remembering intentions and plans, it is connected with remembering about specific task or activity in the future. There are three types of PM: event-based prospective memory, time-based prospective memory and activity-based prospective memory. Current research in this field have already established its own paradigm and tools measuring PM and there is still increasing scientific interest in this issue. Prospective memory assessment may be carried out in various ways. Among them, the most frequently used are: a) questionnaires, b) psychological tests, c) experimental procedures. Within the latter, the additional distinction can be introduced for: the experiments conducted under natural conditions and the laboratory procedures. In Polish literature, there are only a few articles on PM. The aim of this work is to review studies on assessment methods of PM. Its neuroanatomical bases and its functioning in different mental disorders are analyzed. The work is aimed to focus clinicians attention on prospective memory as an area which is important for complex diagnosis of cognitive processes.

Pushing typists back on the learning curve: Memory chunking in the hierarchical control of skilled typewriting.

PubMed

Yamaguchi, Motonori; Logan, Gordon D

2016-12-01

Hierarchical control of skilled performance depends on the ability of higher level control to process several lower level units as a single chunk. The present study investigated the development of hierarchical control of skilled typewriting, focusing on the process of memory chunking. In the first 3 experiments, skilled typists typed words or nonwords under concurrent memory load. Memory chunks developed and consolidated into long-term memory when the same typing materials were repeated in 6 consecutive trials, but chunks did not develop when repetitions were spaced. However, when concurrent memory load was removed during training, memory chunks developed more efficiently with longer lags between repetitions than shorter lags. From these results, it is proposed that memory chunking requires 2 representations of the same letter string to be maintained simultaneously in short-term memory: 1 representation from the current trial, and the other from an earlier trial that is either retained from the immediately preceding trial or retrieved from long-term memory (i.e., study state retrieval). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Towards an Understanding of Anticipatory Pleasure Deficits in Schizophrenia: Memory, Prospection, and Emotion Experience

PubMed Central

Painter, Janelle M.; Kring, Ann M.

2016-01-01

Anticipatory pleasure deficits have been observed in people with schizophrenia. Less is known about the extent to which interrelated processes that comprise anticipatory pleasure, including memory, prospection and emotion experience are disrupted. We asked people with (n=32) and without (n=29) schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder to provide memory and prospection narratives in response to specific cues. Half of the prospections followed a memory task, and half followed a control task. People with schizophrenia generated memories similar in content and experience as controls even as they described them less clearly. However, people with schizophrenia were less likely to explicitly reference the past in their prospections, and their prospections were less detailed and richly experienced than controls, regardless of the task completed before prospection. People with schizophrenia reported similar levels of positive emotion (current and predicted) in positive prospections that followed the memory task, but less positive emotion than controls in positive prospections that followed the control task. Taken together, these results suggest that people with schizophrenia experience difficulties drawing from past experiences and generating detailed prospections. However, asking people with schizophrenia to recall and describe memories prior to prospection may increase the likelihood of drawing from the past in prospections and may help boost current and predicted pleasure. General Scientific Summary People with schizophrenia experience difficulty anticipating future pleasure. This study supports the notion that the “feeling” part of anticipatory pleasure is intact when people with schizophrenia are first asked to generate memories. Thus, recalling and describing positive memories before thinking about the future may help people with schizophrenia to experience greater anticipatory pleasure. PMID:26950753

The Socialization of Children’s Memory: Linking Maternal Conversational Style to the Development of Children’s Autobiographical and Deliberate Memory Skills

PubMed Central

Langley, Hillary A.; Coffman, Jennifer L.; Ornstein, Peter A.

2017-01-01

Data from a large-scale, longitudinal research study with an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample were utilized to explore linkages between maternal elaborative conversational style and the development of children’s autobiographical and deliberate memory. Assessments were made when the children were 3, 5, and 6 years of age, and the results reveal concurrent and longitudinal linkages between maternal conversational style in a mother-child reminiscing task and children’s autobiographical memory performance. Maternal conversational style while reminiscing was also significantly related to children’s strategic behaviors and recall in two deliberate memory tasks, both concurrently and longitudinally. Results from this examination replicate and extend what is known about the linkages between maternal conversational style, children’s abilities to talk about previous experiences, and children’s deliberate memory skills as they transition from the preschool to early elementary school years. PMID:29270083

Relation between Working Memory Capacity and Auditory Stream Segregation in Children with Auditory Processing Disorder

PubMed Central

Lotfi, Yones; Mehrkian, Saiedeh; Moossavi, Abdollah; Zadeh, Soghrat Faghih; Sadjedi, Hamed

2016-01-01

Background: This study assessed the relationship between working memory capacity and auditory stream segregation by using the concurrent minimum audible angle in children with a diagnosed auditory processing disorder (APD). Methods: The participants in this cross-sectional, comparative study were 20 typically developing children and 15 children with a diagnosed APD (age, 9–11 years) according to the subtests of multiple-processing auditory assessment. Auditory stream segregation was investigated using the concurrent minimum audible angle. Working memory capacity was evaluated using the non-word repetition and forward and backward digit span tasks. Nonparametric statistics were utilized to compare the between-group differences. The Pearson correlation was employed to measure the degree of association between working memory capacity and the localization tests between the 2 groups. Results: The group with APD had significantly lower scores than did the typically developing subjects in auditory stream segregation and working memory capacity. There were significant negative correlations between working memory capacity and the concurrent minimum audible angle in the most frontal reference location (0° azimuth) and lower negative correlations in the most lateral reference location (60° azimuth) in the children with APD. Conclusion: The study revealed a relationship between working memory capacity and auditory stream segregation in children with APD. The research suggests that lower working memory capacity in children with APD may be the possible cause of the inability to segregate and group incoming information. PMID:26989281

The Effects of Age and Cue-Action Reminders on Event-Based Prospective Memory Performance in Preschoolers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kliegel, Matthias; Jager, Theodor

2007-01-01

The present study investigated event-based prospective memory in five age groups of preschoolers (i.e., 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds). Applying a laboratory-controlled prospective memory procedure, the data showed that event-based prospective memory performance improves across the preschool years, at least between 3 and 6 years of age. However,…

Prospective and Episodic Memory in Relation to Hippocampal Volume in Adults with Spina Bifida Myelomeningocele

PubMed Central

Treble-Barna, Amery; Juranek, Jenifer; Stuebing, Karla K.; Cirino, Paul T.; Dennis, Maureen; Fletcher, Jack M.

2014-01-01

The present study examined prospective and episodic memory in relation to age, functional independence, and hippocampal volume in younger to middle-aged adults with spina bifida myelomeningocele (SBM) and typically developing (TD) adults. Prospective and episodic memory, as well as hippocampal volume, were reduced in adults with SBM relative to TD adults. Neither memory performance nor hippocampal volume showed greater decrements in older adults. Lower hippocampal volume was associated with reduced prospective memory in adults with SBM, and this relation was specific to the hippocampus and not to a contrast structure, the amygdala. Prospective memory mediated the relation between hippocampal volume and functional independence in adults with SBM. The results add to emerging evidence for reduced memory function in adults with SBM, and provide quantitative evidence for compromised hippocampal macrostructure as a neural correlate of reduced memory in this population. PMID:25068670

Coding of Stimuli by Animals: Retrospection, Prospection, Episodic Memory and Future Planning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zentall, Thomas R.

2010-01-01

When animals code stimuli for later retrieval they can either code them in terms of the stimulus presented (as a retrospective memory) or in terms of the response or outcome anticipated (as a prospective memory). Although retrospective memory is typically assumed (as in the form of a memory trace), evidence of prospective coding has been found…

Time-based and event-based prospective memory in autism spectrum disorder: the roles of executive function and theory of mind, and time-estimation.

PubMed

Williams, David; Boucher, Jill; Lind, Sophie; Jarrold, Christopher

2013-07-01

Prospective memory (remembering to carry out an action in the future) has been studied relatively little in ASD. We explored time-based (carry out an action at a pre-specified time) and event-based (carry out an action upon the occurrence of a pre-specified event) prospective memory, as well as possible cognitive correlates, among 21 intellectually high-functioning children with ASD, and 21 age- and IQ-matched neurotypical comparison children. We found impaired time-based, but undiminished event-based, prospective memory among children with ASD. In the ASD group, time-based prospective memory performance was associated significantly with diminished theory of mind, but not with diminished cognitive flexibility. There was no evidence that time-estimation ability contributed to time-based prospective memory impairment in ASD.

Prospective memory: effects of divided attention on spontaneous retrieval.

PubMed

Harrison, Tyler L; Mullet, Hillary G; Whiffen, Katie N; Ousterhout, Hunter; Einstein, Gilles O

2014-02-01

We examined the effects of divided attention on the spontaneous retrieval of a prospective memory intention. Participants performed an ongoing lexical decision task with an embedded prospective memory demand, and also performed a divided-attention task during some segments of lexical decision trials. In all experiments, monitoring was highly discouraged, and we observed no evidence that participants engaged monitoring processes. In Experiment 1, performing a moderately demanding divided-attention task (a digit detection task) did not affect prospective memory performance. In Experiment 2, performing a more challenging divided-attention task (random number generation) impaired prospective memory. Experiment 3 showed that this impairment was eliminated when the prospective memory cue was perceptually salient. Taken together, the results indicate that spontaneous retrieval is not automatic and that challenging divided-attention tasks interfere with spontaneous retrieval and not with the execution of a retrieved intention.

A process-model based approach to prospective memory impairment in Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Kliegel, Matthias; Altgassen, Mareike; Hering, Alexandra; Rose, Nathan S

2011-07-01

The present review discusses the current state of research on the clinical neuropsychology of prospective memory in Parkinson's disease. To do so the paper is divided in two sections. In the first section, we briefly outline key features of the (partly implicit) rationale underlying the available literature on the clinical neuropsychology of prospective memory. Here, we present a conceptual model that guides our approach to the clinical neuropsychology of prospective memory in general and to the effects of Parkinson's disease on prospective memory in particular. In the second section, we use this model to guide our review of the available literature and suggest some open issues and future directions motivated by previous findings and the proposed conceptual model. The review suggests that certain phases of the prospective memory process (intention formation und initiation) are particularly impaired by Parkinson's disease. In addition, it is argued that prospective memory may be preserved when tasks involve specific features (e.g., focal cues) that reduce the need for strategic monitoring processes. In terms of suggestions for future directions, it is noted that intervention studies are needed which target the specific phases of the prospective memory process that are impaired in Parkinson's disease, such as planning interventions. Moreover, it is proposed that prospective memory deficits in Parkinson's disease should be explored in the context of a general impairment in the ability to form an intention and plan or coordinate an appropriate series of actions. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dissociation of Active Working Memory and Passive Recognition in Rhesus Monkeys

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Basile, Benjamin M.; Hampton, Robert R.

2013-01-01

Active cognitive control of working memory is central in most human memory models, but behavioral evidence for such control in nonhuman primates is absent and neurophysiological evidence, while suggestive, is indirect. We present behavioral evidence that monkey memory for familiar images is under active cognitive control. Concurrent cognitive…

Iconic memory requires attention

PubMed Central

Persuh, Marjan; Genzer, Boris; Melara, Robert D.

2012-01-01

Two experiments investigated whether attention plays a role in iconic memory, employing either a change detection paradigm (Experiment 1) or a partial-report paradigm (Experiment 2). In each experiment, attention was taxed during initial display presentation, focusing the manipulation on consolidation of information into iconic memory, prior to transfer into working memory. Observers were able to maintain high levels of performance (accuracy of change detection or categorization) even when concurrently performing an easy visual search task (low load). However, when the concurrent search was made difficult (high load), observers' performance dropped to almost chance levels, while search accuracy held at single-task levels. The effects of attentional load remained the same across paradigms. The results suggest that, without attention, participants consolidate in iconic memory only gross representations of the visual scene, information too impoverished for successful detection of perceptual change or categorization of features. PMID:22586389

Iconic memory requires attention.

PubMed

Persuh, Marjan; Genzer, Boris; Melara, Robert D

2012-01-01

Two experiments investigated whether attention plays a role in iconic memory, employing either a change detection paradigm (Experiment 1) or a partial-report paradigm (Experiment 2). In each experiment, attention was taxed during initial display presentation, focusing the manipulation on consolidation of information into iconic memory, prior to transfer into working memory. Observers were able to maintain high levels of performance (accuracy of change detection or categorization) even when concurrently performing an easy visual search task (low load). However, when the concurrent search was made difficult (high load), observers' performance dropped to almost chance levels, while search accuracy held at single-task levels. The effects of attentional load remained the same across paradigms. The results suggest that, without attention, participants consolidate in iconic memory only gross representations of the visual scene, information too impoverished for successful detection of perceptual change or categorization of features.

Theory of mind and switching predict prospective memory performance in adolescents.

PubMed

Altgassen, Mareike; Vetter, Nora C; Phillips, Louise H; Akgün, Canan; Kliegel, Matthias

2014-11-01

Research indicates ongoing development of prospective memory as well as theory of mind and executive functions across late childhood and adolescence. However, so far the interplay of these processes has not been investigated. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to investigate whether theory of mind and executive control processes (specifically updating, switching, and inhibition) predict prospective memory development across adolescence. In total, 42 adolescents and 41 young adults participated in this study. Young adults outperformed adolescents on tasks of prospective memory, theory of mind, and executive functions. Switching and theory of mind predicted prospective memory performance in adolescents. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Individual differences in event-based prospective memory: Evidence for multiple processes supporting cue detection.

PubMed

Brewer, Gene A; Knight, Justin B; Marsh, Richard L; Unsworth, Nash

2010-04-01

The multiprocess view proposes that different processes can be used to detect event-based prospective memory cues, depending in part on the specificity of the cue. According to this theory, attentional processes are not necessary to detect focal cues, whereas detection of nonfocal cues requires some form of controlled attention. This notion was tested using a design in which we compared performance on a focal and on a nonfocal prospective memory task by participants with high or low working memory capacity. An interaction was found, such that participants with high and low working memory performed equally well on the focal task, whereas the participants with high working memory performed significantly better on the nonfocal task than did their counterparts with low working memory. Thus, controlled attention was only necessary for detecting event-based prospective memory cues in the nonfocal task. These results have implications for theories of prospective memory, the processes necessary for cue detection, and the successful fulfillment of intentions.

Mild cognitive impairment and prospective memory: translating the evidence into neuropsychological practice.

PubMed

Kinsella, Glynda J; Pike, Kerryn E; Cavuoto, Marina G; Lee, Stephen D

2018-04-30

There has been a recent rapid development of research characterizing prospective memory performance in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in older age. However, this body of literature remains largely separated from routine clinical practice in neuropsychology. Furthermore, there is emerging evidence of effective interventions to improve prospective memory performance. Therefore, our objective in this article was to offer a clinical neuropsychological perspective on the existing research in order to facilitate the translation of the evidence-base into clinical practice. By conducting a critical review of the existing research related to prospective memory and MCI, we highlight how this data can be introduced into clinical practice, either within diagnostic assessment or clinical management. Prospective memory is impaired in older adults with MCI, with a pattern of performance that helps with differential diagnosis from healthy aging. Clinical neuropsychologists are encouraged to add prospective memory assessment to their toolbox for diagnostic evaluation of clients with MCI. Preliminary findings of prospective memory interventions in MCI are promising, but more work is required to determine how different approaches translate to increasing independence in everyday life.

Prospective Memory in Context: Moving through a Familiar Space

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Rebekah E.; Hunt, R. Reed; Murray, Amy E.

2017-01-01

Successful completion of delayed intentions is a common but important aspect of daily behavior. Such behavior requires not only memory for the intended action but also recognition of the opportunity to perform that action, known collectively as prospective memory. The fact that prospective memory tasks occur in the midst of other activities is…

Visual Working Memory Enhances the Neural Response to Matching Visual Input.

PubMed

Gayet, Surya; Guggenmos, Matthias; Christophel, Thomas B; Haynes, John-Dylan; Paffen, Chris L E; Van der Stigchel, Stefan; Sterzer, Philipp

2017-07-12

Visual working memory (VWM) is used to maintain visual information available for subsequent goal-directed behavior. The content of VWM has been shown to affect the behavioral response to concurrent visual input, suggesting that visual representations originating from VWM and from sensory input draw upon a shared neural substrate (i.e., a sensory recruitment stance on VWM storage). Here, we hypothesized that visual information maintained in VWM would enhance the neural response to concurrent visual input that matches the content of VWM. To test this hypothesis, we measured fMRI BOLD responses to task-irrelevant stimuli acquired from 15 human participants (three males) performing a concurrent delayed match-to-sample task. In this task, observers were sequentially presented with two shape stimuli and a retro-cue indicating which of the two shapes should be memorized for subsequent recognition. During the retention interval, a task-irrelevant shape (the probe) was briefly presented in the peripheral visual field, which could either match or mismatch the shape category of the memorized stimulus. We show that this probe stimulus elicited a stronger BOLD response, and allowed for increased shape-classification performance, when it matched rather than mismatched the concurrently memorized content, despite identical visual stimulation. Our results demonstrate that VWM enhances the neural response to concurrent visual input in a content-specific way. This finding is consistent with the view that neural populations involved in sensory processing are recruited for VWM storage, and it provides a common explanation for a plethora of behavioral studies in which VWM-matching visual input elicits a stronger behavioral and perceptual response. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Humans heavily rely on visual information to interact with their environment and frequently must memorize such information for later use. Visual working memory allows for maintaining such visual information in the mind's eye after termination of its retinal input. It is hypothesized that information maintained in visual working memory relies on the same neural populations that process visual input. Accordingly, the content of visual working memory is known to affect our conscious perception of concurrent visual input. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that visual input elicits an enhanced neural response when it matches the content of visual working memory, both in terms of signal strength and information content. Copyright © 2017 the authors 0270-6474/17/376638-10$15.00/0.

Planning sentences while doing other things at the same time: effects of concurrent verbal and visuospatial working memory load.

PubMed

Klaus, Jana; Mädebach, Andreas; Oppermann, Frank; Jescheniak, Jörg D

2017-04-01

This study investigated to what extent advance planning during sentence production is affected by a concurrent cognitive load. In two picture-word interference experiments in which participants produced subject-verb-object sentences while ignoring auditory distractor words, we assessed advance planning at a phonological (lexeme) and at an abstract-lexical (lemma) level under visuospatial or verbal working memory (WM) load. At the phonological level, subject and object nouns were found to be activated before speech onset with concurrent visuospatial WM load, but only subject nouns were found to be activated with concurrent verbal WM load, indicating a reduced planning scope as a function of type of WM load (Experiment 1). By contrast, at the abstract-lexical level, subject and object nouns were found to be activated regardless of type of concurrent load (Experiment 2). In both experiments, sentence planning had a more detrimental effect on concurrent verbal WM task performance than on concurrent visuospatial WM task performance. Overall, our results suggest that advance planning at the phonological level is more affected by a concurrently performed verbal WM task than advance planning at the abstract-lexical level. Also, they indicate an overlap of resources allocated to phonological planning in speech production and verbal WM.

Contributions of Hippocampus and Striatum to Memory-Guided Behavior Depend on Past Experience

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

The hippocampal and striatal memory systems are thought to operate independently and in parallel in supporting cognitive memory and habits, respectively. Much of the evidence for this principle comes from double dissociation data, in which damage to brain structure A causes deficits in Task 1 but not Task 2, whereas damage to structure B produces the reverse pattern of effects. Typically, animals are explicitly trained in one task. Here, we investigated whether this principle continues to hold when animals concurrently learn two types of tasks. Rats were trained on a plus maze in either a spatial navigation or a cue–response task (sequential training), whereas a third set of rats acquired both (concurrent training). Subsequently, the rats underwent either sham surgery or neurotoxic lesions of the hippocampus (HPC), medial dorsal striatum (DSM), or lateral dorsal striatum (DSL), followed by retention testing. Finally, rats in the sequential training condition also acquired the novel “other” task. When rats learned one task, HPC and DSL selectively supported spatial navigation and cue response, respectively. However, when rats learned both tasks, HPC and DSL additionally supported the behavior incongruent with the processing style of the corresponding memory system. Thus, in certain conditions, the hippocampal and striatal memory systems can operate cooperatively and in synergism. DSM significantly contributed to performance regardless of task or training procedure. Experience with the cue–response task facilitated subsequent spatial learning, whereas experience with spatial navigation delayed both concurrent and subsequent response learning. These findings suggest that there are multiple operational principles that govern memory networks. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Currently, we distinguish among several types of memories, each supported by a distinct neural circuit. The memory systems are thought to operate independently and in parallel. Here, we demonstrate that the hippocampus and the dorsal striatum memory systems operate independently and in parallel when rats learn one type of task at a time, but interact cooperatively and in synergism when rats concurrently learn two types of tasks. Furthermore, new learning is modulated by past experiences. These results can be explained by a model in which independent and parallel information processing that occurs in the separate memory-related neural circuits is supplemented by information transfer between the memory systems at the level of the cortex. PMID:27307234

Contributions of Hippocampus and Striatum to Memory-Guided Behavior Depend on Past Experience.

PubMed

Ferbinteanu, Janina

2016-06-15

The hippocampal and striatal memory systems are thought to operate independently and in parallel in supporting cognitive memory and habits, respectively. Much of the evidence for this principle comes from double dissociation data, in which damage to brain structure A causes deficits in Task 1 but not Task 2, whereas damage to structure B produces the reverse pattern of effects. Typically, animals are explicitly trained in one task. Here, we investigated whether this principle continues to hold when animals concurrently learn two types of tasks. Rats were trained on a plus maze in either a spatial navigation or a cue-response task (sequential training), whereas a third set of rats acquired both (concurrent training). Subsequently, the rats underwent either sham surgery or neurotoxic lesions of the hippocampus (HPC), medial dorsal striatum (DSM), or lateral dorsal striatum (DSL), followed by retention testing. Finally, rats in the sequential training condition also acquired the novel "other" task. When rats learned one task, HPC and DSL selectively supported spatial navigation and cue response, respectively. However, when rats learned both tasks, HPC and DSL additionally supported the behavior incongruent with the processing style of the corresponding memory system. Thus, in certain conditions, the hippocampal and striatal memory systems can operate cooperatively and in synergism. DSM significantly contributed to performance regardless of task or training procedure. Experience with the cue-response task facilitated subsequent spatial learning, whereas experience with spatial navigation delayed both concurrent and subsequent response learning. These findings suggest that there are multiple operational principles that govern memory networks. Currently, we distinguish among several types of memories, each supported by a distinct neural circuit. The memory systems are thought to operate independently and in parallel. Here, we demonstrate that the hippocampus and the dorsal striatum memory systems operate independently and in parallel when rats learn one type of task at a time, but interact cooperatively and in synergism when rats concurrently learn two types of tasks. Furthermore, new learning is modulated by past experiences. These results can be explained by a model in which independent and parallel information processing that occurs in the separate memory-related neural circuits is supplemented by information transfer between the memory systems at the level of the cortex. Copyright © 2016 the authors 0270-6474/16/366459-12$15.00/0.

The Development of Children's Early Memory Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haden, Catherine A.; Ornstein, Peter A.; O'Brien, Barbara S.; Elischberger, Holger B.; Tyler, Caroline S.; Burchinal, Margaret J.

2011-01-01

A multitask battery tapping nonverbal memory and language skills was used to assess 60 children at 18, 24, and 30 months of age. Analyses focused on the degree to which language, working memory, and deliberate memory skills were linked concurrently to children's Elicited Imitation task performance and whether the patterns of association varied…

Evidence for Two Attentional Components in Visual Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, Richard J.; Baddeley, Alan D.; Hitch, Graham J.

2014-01-01

How does executive attentional control contribute to memory for sequences of visual objects, and what does this reveal about storage and processing in working memory? Three experiments examined the impact of a concurrent executive load (backward counting) on memory for sequences of individually presented visual objects. Experiments 1 and 2 found…

Personality and Cognitive Decline in Older Adults: Data From a Longitudinal Sample and Meta-Analysis.

PubMed

Luchetti, Martina; Terracciano, Antonio; Stephan, Yannick; Sutin, Angelina R

2016-07-01

Personality traits are associated with risk of dementia; less is known about their association with the trajectory of cognitive functioning. This research examines the association between the 5 major dimensions of personality and cognitive function and decline in older adulthood and includes a meta-analysis of published studies. Personality traits, objective and subjective memory, and cognitive status were collected in a large national sample (N = 13,987) with a 4-year follow-up period. For each trait, the meta-analysis pooled results from up to 5 prospective studies to examine personality and change in global cognition. Higher Neuroticism was associated with worse performance on all cognitive measures and greater decline in memory, whereas higher Conscientiousness and Openness were associated with better memory performance concurrently and less decline over time. All traits were associated with subjective memory. Higher Conscientiousness and lower Extraversion were associated with better cognitive status and less decline. Although modest, these associations were generally larger than that of hypertension, diabetes, history of psychological treatment, obesity, smoking, and physical inactivity. The meta-analysis supported the association between Neuroticism and Conscientiousness and cognitive decline. Personality is associated with cognitive decline in older adults, with effects comparable to established clinical and lifestyle risk factors. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Concurrent and Prospective Effects of Psychopathic Traits on Affective and Cognitive Empathy in a Community Sample of Late Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brouns, Bart H. J.; de Wied, Minet Annette; Keijsers, Loes; Branje, Susan; van Goozen, Stephanie H. M.; Meeus, Wim H. J.

2013-01-01

Background: A deficit in affective rather than cognitive empathy is thought to be central to psychopathic traits. However, empirical evidence for empathy deficits in adolescents with psychopathic traits is limited. We investigated the concurrent and prospective effects of psychopathic traits on affective and cognitive trait empathy in late…

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

PubMed

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

2002-07-01

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

A Role for Memory in Prospective Timing informs Timing in Prospective Memory

PubMed Central

Waldum, Emily R; Sahakyan, Lili

2014-01-01

Time-based prospective memory (TBPM) tasks require the estimation of time in passing – known as prospective timing. Prospective timing is said to depend on an attentionally-driven internal clock mechanism, and is thought to be unaffected by memory for interval information (for reviews see, Block, Hancock, & Zakay, 2010; Block & Zakay, 1997). A prospective timing task that required a verbal estimate following the entire interval (Experiment 1) and a TBPM task that required production of a target response during the interval (Experiment 2) were used to test an alternative view that episodic memory does influence prospective timing. In both experiments, participants performed an ongoing lexical decision task of fixed duration while a varying number of songs were played in the background. Experiment 1 results revealed that verbal time estimates became longer the more songs participants remembered from the interval, suggesting that memory for interval information influences prospective time estimates. In Experiment 2, participants who were asked to perform the TBPM task without the aid of an external clock made their target responses earlier as the number of songs increased, indicating that prospective estimates of elapsed time increased as more songs were experienced. For participants who had access to a clock, changes in clock-checking coincided with the occurrence of song boundaries, indicating that participants used both song information and clock information to estimate time. Finally, ongoing task performance and verbal reports in both experiments further substantiate a role for episodic memory in prospective timing. PMID:22984950

Electrophysiological correlates of the maintenance of the representation of pitch objects in acoustic short-term memory.

PubMed

Guimond, Synthia; Vachon, François; Nolden, Sophie; Lefebvre, Christine; Grimault, Stephan; Jolicoeur, Pierre

2011-11-01

We studied the neuronal mechanisms that implement acoustic short-term memory (ASTM) for pitch using event-related potentials (ERP). Experiment 1 isolated an ERP component, the sustained anterior negativity (SAN), that increased in amplitude with increasing memory load in ASTM using stimuli with equal duration at all memory loads. The SAN load effect found in Experiment 1, when pitch had to be remembered to perform the task, was absent in Experiment 2 using the same sounds when memory was not required. In Experiment 3, the memory task was performed without or with concurrent articulatory suppression during the retention interval to prevent rehearsal via an articulatory loop. Load-related effects observed in Experiment 1 were found again, whether participants engaged in concurrent suppression or not. The results suggest that the SAN reflects activity required to maintain pitch objects in an ASTM system that is distinct from articulatory rehearsal. Copyright © 2011 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

The impact of Eysenck's extraversion-introversion personality dimension on prospective memory.

PubMed

Heffernan, T M; Ling, J

2001-09-01

Prospective memory (PM) is memory for future events. PM is a developing area of research (e.g., Brandimonte, Einstein & McDaniel, 1996) with recent work linking personality types and their utilisation of PM (Goschke & Kuhl, 1996; Searleman, 1996). The present study compared 28 extraverts and 28 introverts on their short- and long-term prospective memory using the Prospective Memory Scale developed by Hannon, Adams, Harrington, Fries-Dias & Gibson (1995). The main finding was that extraverts reported significantly fewer errors on short- and long-term PM than introverts, and this difference could not be explained in terms of the number of strategies used to support prospective remembering. These findings are discussed in relation to differences between the personality types.

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.

A Differential Deficit in Time- versus Event-based Prospective Memory in Parkinson's Disease

PubMed Central

Raskin, Sarah A.; Woods, Steven Paul; Poquette, Amelia J.; McTaggart, April B.; Sethna, Jim; Williams, Rebecca C.; Tröster, Alexander I.

2010-01-01

Objective The aim of the current study was to clarify the nature and extent of impairment in time- versus event-based prospective memory in Parkinson's disease (PD). Prospective memory is thought to involve cognitive processes that are mediated by prefrontal systems and are executive in nature. Given that individuals with PD frequently show executive dysfunction, it is important to determine whether these individuals may have deficits in prospective memory that could impact daily functions, such as taking medications. Although it has been reported that individuals with PD evidence impairment in prospective memory, it is still unclear whether they show a greater deficit for time- versus event-based cues. Method Fifty-four individuals with PD and 34 demographically similar healthy adults were administered a standardized measure of prospective memory that allows for a direct comparison of time-based and event-based cues. In addition, participants were administered a series of standardized measures of retrospective memory and executive functions. Results Individuals with PD demonstrated impaired prospective memory performance compared to the healthy adults, with a greater impairment demonstrated for the time-based tasks. Time-based prospective memory performance was moderately correlated with measures of executive functioning, but only the Stroop Neuropsychological Screening Test emerged as a unique predictor in a linear regression. Conclusions Findings are interpreted within the context of McDaniel and Einstein's (2000) multi-process theory to suggest that individuals with PD experience particular difficulty executing a future intention when the cue to execute the prescribed intention requires higher levels of executive control. PMID:21090895

Recognition Memory for Hue: Prototypical Bias and the Role of Labeling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kelly, Laura Jane; Heit, Evan

2017-01-01

How does the concurrent use of language affect perception and memory for exemplars? Labels cue more general category information than a specific exemplar. Applying labels can affect the resulting memory for an exemplar. Here 3 alternative hypotheses are proposed for the role of labeling an exemplar at encoding: (a) labels distort memory toward the…

Divided Attention Can Enhance Memory Encoding: The Attentional Boost Effect in Implicit Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spataro, Pietro; Mulligan, Neil W.; Rossi-Arnaud, Clelia

2013-01-01

Distraction during encoding has long been known to disrupt later memory performance. Contrary to this long-standing result, we show that detecting an infrequent target in a dual-task paradigm actually improves memory encoding for a concurrently presented word, above and beyond the performance reached in the full-attention condition. This absolute…

Is the Binding of Visual Features in Working Memory Resource-Demanding?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, Richard J.; Baddeley, Alan D.; Hitch, Graham J.

2006-01-01

The episodic buffer component of working memory is assumed to play a role in the binding of features into chunks. A series of experiments compared memory for arrays of colors or shapes with memory for bound combinations of these features. Demanding concurrent verbal tasks were used to investigate the role of general attentional processes,…

Concurrent Memory Load Can Make RSVP Search More Efficient

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gil-Gomez de Liano, Beatriz; Botella, Juan

2011-01-01

The detrimental effect of increased memory load on selective attention has been demonstrated in many situations. However, in search tasks over time using RSVP methods, it is not clear how memory load affects attentional processes; no effects as well as beneficial and detrimental effects of memory load have been found in these types of tasks. The…

The Future Orientation of Past Memory: The Role of BA 10 in Prospective and Retrospective Retrieval Modes.

PubMed

Underwood, Adam G; Guynn, Melissa J; Cohen, Anna-Lisa

2015-01-01

Klein made the provocative suggestion that the purpose of human episodic memory is to enable individuals to plan and prepare for the future. In other words, although episodic (retrospective) memory is about the past, it is not actually for the past; it is for the future. Within this focus, a natural subject for investigation is prospective memory, or memory to do things in the future. An important theoretical construct in the fields of both retrospective memory and prospective memory is that of a retrieval mode, or a neurocognitive set or readiness to treat environmental stimuli as potential retrieval cues. This construct was originally introduced in a theory of episodic (retrospective) memory and has more recently been invoked in a theory of how some prospective memory tasks are accomplished. To our knowledge, this construct has not been explicitly compared between the two literatures, and thus this is the purpose of the present article. Although we address the behavioral evidence for each construct, our primary goal is to assess the extent to which each retrieval mode appears to rely on a common neural region. Our review highlights the fact that a particular area of prefrontal cortex (BA 10) appears to play an important role in both retrospective and prospective retrieval modes. We suggest, based on this evidence and these ideas, that prospective memory research could profit from more active exploration of the relevance of theoretical constructs from the retrospective memory literature.

The Future Orientation of Past Memory: The Role of BA 10 in Prospective and Retrospective Retrieval Modes

PubMed Central

Underwood, Adam G.; Guynn, Melissa J.; Cohen, Anna-Lisa

2015-01-01

Klein made the provocative suggestion that the purpose of human episodic memory is to enable individuals to plan and prepare for the future. In other words, although episodic (retrospective) memory is about the past, it is not actually for the past; it is for the future. Within this focus, a natural subject for investigation is prospective memory, or memory to do things in the future. An important theoretical construct in the fields of both retrospective memory and prospective memory is that of a retrieval mode, or a neurocognitive set or readiness to treat environmental stimuli as potential retrieval cues. This construct was originally introduced in a theory of episodic (retrospective) memory and has more recently been invoked in a theory of how some prospective memory tasks are accomplished. To our knowledge, this construct has not been explicitly compared between the two literatures, and thus this is the purpose of the present article. Although we address the behavioral evidence for each construct, our primary goal is to assess the extent to which each retrieval mode appears to rely on a common neural region. Our review highlights the fact that a particular area of prefrontal cortex (BA 10) appears to play an important role in both retrospective and prospective retrieval modes. We suggest, based on this evidence and these ideas, that prospective memory research could profit from more active exploration of the relevance of theoretical constructs from the retrospective memory literature. PMID:26733844

Information Processing in Memory Tasks.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnston, William A.

The intensity of information processing engendered in different phases of standard memory tasks was examined in six experiments. Processing intensity was conceptualized as system capacity consumed, and was measured via a divided-attention procedure in which subjects performed a memory task and a simple reaction-time (RT) task concurrently. The…

The role of rostral prefrontal cortex in prospective memory: a voxel-based lesion study.

PubMed

Volle, Emmanuelle; Gonen-Yaacovi, Gil; Costello, Angela de Lacy; Gilbert, Sam J; Burgess, Paul W

2011-07-01

Patients with lesions in rostral prefrontal cortex (PFC) often experience problems in everyday-life situations requiring multitasking. A key cognitive component that is critical in multitasking situations is prospective memory, defined as the ability to carry out an intended action after a delay period filled with unrelated activity. The few functional imaging studies investigating prospective memory have shown consistent activation in both medial and lateral rostral PFC but also in more posterior prefrontal regions and non-frontal regions. The aim of this study was to determine regions that are necessary for prospective memory performance, using the human lesion approach. We designed an experimental paradigm allowing us to assess time-based (remembering to do something at a particular time) and event-based (remembering to do something in a particular situation) prospective memory, using two types of material, words and pictures. Time estimation tasks and tasks controlling for basic attention, inhibition and multiple instructions processing were also administered. We examined brain-behaviour relationships with a voxelwise lesion method in 45 patients with focal brain lesions and 107 control subjects using this paradigm. The results showed that lesions in the right polar prefrontal region (in Brodmann area 10) were specifically associated with a deficit in time-based prospective memory tasks for both words and pictures. This deficit could not be explained by impairments in basic attention, detection, inhibition or multiple instruction processing, and there was also no deficit in event-based prospective memory conditions. In addition to their prospective memory difficulties, these polar prefrontal patients were significantly impaired in time estimation ability compared to other patients. The same region was found to be involved using both words and pictures, suggesting that right rostral PFC plays a material nonspecific role in prospective memory. This is the first lesion study showing that rostral PFC is crucial for time-based prospective memory. The findings suggest that time-based and event-based prospective memory might be supported at least in part by distinct brain regions. Two particularly plausible explanations for the deficit rest upon a possible role for polar prefrontal structures in supporting in time estimation, and/or in retrieving an intention to act. More broadly, the results are consistent with the view that the deficit of rostral patients in multitasking situations might at least in part be explained by a deficit in prospective memory. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Event-Based Prospective Memory Is Independently Associated with Self-Report of Medication Management in Older Adults

PubMed Central

Woods, Steven Paul; Weinborn, Michael; Maxwell, Brenton R.; Gummery, Alice; Mo, Kevin; Ng, Amanda R. J.; Bucks, Romola S.

2014-01-01

Background Identifying potentially modifiable risk factors for medication non-adherence in older adults is important in order to enhance screening and intervention efforts designed to improve medication-taking behavior and health outcomes. The current study sought to determine the unique contribution of prospective memory (i.e., “remembering to remember”) to successful self-reported medication management in older adults. Methods Sixty-five older adults with current medication prescriptions completed a comprehensive research evaluation of sociodemographic, psychiatric, and neurocognitive functioning, which included the Memory for Adherence to Medication Scale (MAMS), Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ), and a performance-based measure of prospective memory that measured both semantically-related and semantically-unrelated cue-intention (i.e., when-what) pairings. Results A series of hierarchical regressions controlling for biopsychosocial, other neurocognitive, and medication-related factors showed that elevated complaints on the PM scale of the PRMQ and worse performance on an objective semantically-unrelated event-based prospective memory task were independent predictors of poorer medication adherence as measured by the MAMS. Conclusions Prospective memory plays an important role in self-report of successful medication management among older adults. Findings may have implications for screening for older individuals “at risk” of non-adherence, as well as the development of prospective memory-based interventions to improve medication adherence and, ultimately, long-term health outcomes in older adults. PMID:24410357

Prospective memory performance in non-psychotic first-degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia: a controlled study.

PubMed

Zhou, Fu-Chun; Hou, Wei-Min; Wang, Chuan-Yue; Ungvari, Gabor S; Chiu, Helen F K; Correll, Christoph U; Shum, David H K; Man, David; Liu, Deng-Tang; Xiang, Yu-Tao

2014-01-01

We aimed at investigating prospective memory and its socio-demographic and neurocognitive correlates in non-psychotic, first-degree relatives (FDRs) of patients with schizophrenia compared to patients with first episode schizophrenia (FES), and healthy controls (HCs). Forty-seven FES patients, 50 non-psychotic FDRs (23 offspring and 27 siblings) of patients with chronic schizophrenia (unrelated to the FES group) and 51 HCs were studied. The Chinese version of the Cambridge Prospective Memory Test (C-CAMPROMPT) was used to measure time-based prospective memory (TBPM) and event-based prospective memory (EBPM) performance. Other cognitive functions (involving respective memory and executive functions) were evaluated with standardized tests. After controlling for basic demographic characteristics including age, gender and educational level, there was a significant difference between FDRs, FES and HCs with respect to both TBPM (F(2,142) = 10.4, p<0.001) and EBPM (F(2,142) = 10.8, p<0.001). Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that lower scores of the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (HVLT-R) and the STROOP Word-Color Test (SWCT) contributed to TBPM impairment, while lower educational level and higher scores of the Color Trails Test-2 (CTT-2) contributed to EBPM deficit in FDRs. FDRs share similar but attenuated prospective memory impairments with schizophrenia patients, suggesting that prospective memory deficits may represent an endophenotype of schizophrenia.

Children's Cross-Ethnic Relationships in Elementary Schools: Concurrent and Prospective Associations between Ethnic Segregation and Social Status

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Travis M.; Rodkin, Philip C.

2013-01-01

This study examined whether ethnic segregation is concurrently (fall) and prospectively (fall to spring) associated with social status among 4th- and 5th-grade African American and European American children ("n" = 713, ages 9-11 years). Segregation measures were (a) same-ethnicity favoritism in peer affiliations and (b) cross-ethnicity…

Neural Correlates of Prospective Memory across the Lifespan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zollig, Jacqueline; West, Robert; Martin, Mike; Altgassen, Mareike; Lemke, Ulrike; Kliegel, Matthias

2007-01-01

Overview: Behavioural data reveal an inverted U-shaped function in the efficiency of prospective memory from childhood to young adulthood to later adulthood. However, prior research has not directly compared processes contributing to age-related variation in prospective memory across the lifespan, hence it is unclear whether the same factors…

How important is importance for prospective memory? A review

PubMed Central

Walter, Stefan; Meier, Beat

2014-01-01

Forgetting to carry out an intention as planned can have serious consequences in everyday life. People sometimes even forget intentions that they consider as very important. Here, we review the literature on the impact of importance on prospective memory performance. We highlight different methods used to manipulate the importance of a prospective memory task such as providing rewards, importance relative to other ongoing activities, absolute importance, and providing social motives. Moreover, we address the relationship between importance and other factors known to affect prospective memory and ongoing task performance such as type of prospective memory task (time-, event-, or activity-based), cognitive loads, and processing overlaps. Finally, we provide a connection to motivation, we summarize the effects of task importance and we identify important venues for future research. PMID:25018743

The development of prospective memory in young schoolchildren: the impact of ongoing task absorption, cue salience, and cue centrality.

PubMed

Kliegel, Matthias; Mahy, Caitlin E V; Voigt, Babett; Henry, Julie D; Rendell, Peter G; Aberle, Ingo

2013-12-01

This study presents evidence that 9- and 10-year-old children outperform 6- and 7-year-old children on a measure of event-based prospective memory and that retrieval-based factors systematically influence performance and age differences. All experiments revealed significant age effects in prospective memory even after controlling for ongoing task performance. In addition, the provision of a less absorbing ongoing task (Experiment 1), higher cue salience (Experiment 2), and cues appearing in the center of attention (Experiment 3) were each associated with better performance. Of particular developmental importance was an age by cue centrality (in or outside of the center of attention) interaction that emerged in Experiment 3. Thus, age effects were restricted to prospective memory cues appearing outside of the center of attention, suggesting that the development of prospective memory across early school years may be modulated by whether a cue requires overt monitoring beyond the immediate attentional context. Because whether a cue is in or outside of the center of attention might determine the amount of executive control needed in a prospective memory task, findings suggest that developing executive control resources may drive prospective memory development across primary school age. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Executive Resources and Item-Context Binding: Exploring the Influence of Concurrent Inhibition, Updating, and Shifting Tasks on Context Memory

PubMed Central

Nieznański, Marek; Obidziński, Michał; Zyskowska, Emilia; Niedziałkowska, Daria

2015-01-01

Previous research has demonstrated that context memory performance decreases as a result of cognitive load. However, the role of specific executive resources availability has not been specified yet. In a dual-task experiment, participants performed three kinds of concurrent task engaging: inhibition, updating, or shifting operations. In comparison with a no-load single-task condition, a significant decrease in item and context memory was observed, regardless of the kind of executive task. When executive load conditions were compared with non-specific cognitive load conditions, a significant interference effect was observed in the case of the inhibition task. The inhibition process appears to be an aspect of executive control, which relies on the same resource as item-context binding does, especially when binding refers to associations retrieved from long-term memory. PMID:26435761

Role of Working Memory in Typically Developing Children's Complex Sentence Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montgomery, James W.; Magimairaj, Beula M.; O'Malley, Michelle H.

2008-01-01

The influence of three mechanisms of working memory (phonological short-term memory (PSTM capacity), attentional resource control/allocation, and processing speed) on children's complex (and simple) sentence comprehension was investigated. Fifty two children (6-12 years) completed a nonword repetition task (indexing PSTM), concurrent verbal…

Reliability and Validity of a Scale for Rating Memory Impairment in Hospitalized Amnesiacs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knight, Robert G.; Godfrey, Hamish P. D.

1984-01-01

Investigated the reliability and concurrent validity of the Inpatient Memory Impairment Scale (IMIS), using a group of memory-impaired chronic alcoholic and Korsakoff patients (N=20). Analysis revealed that the IMIS had a high degree of internal consistency and that interrater reliability is also high. (LLL)

Proactive interference and concurrent inhibitory processes do not differentially affect item and associative recognition: Implication for the age-related associative memory deficit.

PubMed

Guez, Jonathan; Naveh-Benjamin, Moshe

2016-09-01

Previous studies have suggested an associative deficit hypothesis [Naveh-Benjamin, M. ( 2000 ). Adult age differences in memory performance: Tests of an associative deficit hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26, 1170-1187] to explain age-related episodic memory declines. The hypothesis attributes part of the deficient episodic memory performance in older adults to a difficulty in creating and retrieving cohesive episodes. In this article, we further evaluate this hypothesis by testing two alternative processes that potentially mediate associative memory deficits in older adults. Four experiments are presented that assess whether failure of inhibitory processes (proactive interference in Experiments 1 and 2), and concurrent inhibition (in Experiments 3 and 4) are mediating factors in age-related associative deficits. The results suggest that creating conditions that require the operation of inhibitory processes, or that interfere with such processes, cannot simulate associative memory deficit in older adults. Instead, such results support the idea that associative memory deficits reflect a unique binding failure in older adults. This failure seems to be independent of other cognitive processes, including inhibitory and other resource-demanding processes.

Memory styles and related abilities in presentation of self.

PubMed

Sehulster, J R

1995-01-01

The notion of a person's memory style (elaborated in Sehulster, 1988) was investigated as it relates to the presentation of self. A memory style is defined as a combination of a subject's (perceived) ability in verbal memory, auto- biographical memory, and prospective memory, as measured by the Memory Scale (Sehulster, 1981b). In addition to filling out the Memory Scale, 325 subjects completed a 72-item questionnaire that tapped descriptions of abilities and experiences. The range of abilities and experiences was drawn loosely from Gardner's (1985) notion of multiple intelligences. Distinct patterns of self-report were observed for different memory styles. For instance, a love of listening to music was associated with the memory style that is high in both verbal and autobiographical memory but low in prospective memory; a love for numbers and mathematics was associated with the memory style that is high in both verbal and prospective memory but low in autobiographical memory. The results suggest broad individual differences in information processing. Gender differences are discussed in relation to memory styles.

Prospective Memory across Adolescence: The Effects of Age and Cue Focality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Lijuan; Altgassen, Mareike; Liu, Wei; Xiong, Weirui; Akgun, Canan; Kliegel, Matthias

2011-01-01

The present study examined the role of controlled attention in age differences in event-based prospective memory performance across adolescence. The researchers tested whether presenting the prospective memory cue in or out of focal awareness of the ongoing task (resulting in low versus high demands for controlled attention, respectively) might…

From episodic to habitual prospective memory: ERP-evidence for a linear transition

PubMed Central

Meier, Beat; Matter, Sibylle; Baumann, Brigitta; Walter, Stefan; Koenig, Thomas

2014-01-01

Performing a prospective memory task repeatedly changes the nature of the task from episodic to habitual. The goal of the present study was to investigate the neural basis of this transition. In two experiments, we contrasted event-related potentials (ERPs) evoked by correct responses to prospective memory targets in the first, more episodic part of the experiment with those of the second, more habitual part of the experiment. Specifically, we tested whether the early, middle, or late ERP-components, which are thought to reflect cue detection, retrieval of the intention, and post-retrieval processes, respectively, would be changed by routinely performing the prospective memory task. The results showed a differential ERP effect in the middle time window (450–650 ms post-stimulus). Source localization using low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography analysis suggests that the transition was accompanied by an increase of activation in the posterior parietal and occipital cortex. These findings indicate that habitual prospective memory involves retrieval processes guided more strongly by parietal brain structures. In brief, the study demonstrates that episodic and habitual prospective memory tasks recruit different brain areas. PMID:25071519

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

PubMed

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

2017-11-01

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

Prospective memory, level of disability, and return to work in severe mental illness.

PubMed

Burton, Cynthia Z; Vella, Lea; Twamley, Elizabeth W

2018-02-25

Prospective memory (the ability to remember to do things) has clear implications for everyday functioning, including employment, in people with severe mental illnesses (SMI). This study aimed to evaluate prospective memory performance and its relationship to real-world functional variables in an employment-seeking sample of people with SMI (Clinical Trial registration number NCT00895258). 153 individuals with DSM-IV diagnosis of depression (n = 58), bipolar disorder (n = 37), or schizophrenia (n = 58) who were receiving outpatient psychiatric care at a university clinic enrolled in a trial of supported employment and completed a baseline assessment. Prospective memory was measured with the Memory for Intentions Test (MIST); real-world functional status included work history variables, clinical history variables, baseline functional capacity (UCSD Performance-based Skills Assessment-Brief), and work outcomes (weeks worked and wages earned during two years of supported employment). Participants with schizophrenia performed worse on the MIST than did those with affective disorders. Independent of diagnosis, education, and estimated intellectual functioning, prospective memory significantly predicted variance in measures of disability and illness burden (disability benefits, hospitalization history, current functional capacity), and work outcomes over two years of supported employment (weeks worked). Worse prospective memory appears to be associated with greater illness burden and functional disability in SMI. Mental health clinicians and employment specialists may counsel clients to use compensatory prospective memory strategies to improve work performance and decrease functional disability associated with SMI.

Google Calendar Enhances Prospective Memory in Alzheimer's Disease: A Case Report.

PubMed

El Haj, Mohamad; Gallouj, Karim; Antoine, Pascal

2017-01-01

We investigated whether an external memory aid (i.e., Google Calendar) would alleviate prospective memory compromise in a patient with mild Alzheimer's disease. The patient was asked in the baseline phase to perform three prospective targeted events (e.g., attending her weekly bridge game at the community club) and three prospective control events (e.g., buying her weekly magazine). The same six prospective events were assessed in the intervention phase but the targeted-events were cued by Google Calendar while the control-events were not. Results showed less omission of the targeted events in the training phase than in the baseline phase, suggesting a positive effect of Google Calendar. This case report offers a unique view into how smartphone calendars may alleviate prospective memory compromise in patients with mild Alzheimer's disease.

Prospective memory and aging: evidence for preserved spontaneous retrieval with exact but not related cues.

PubMed

Mullet, Hillary G; Scullin, Michael K; Hess, Theodore J; Scullin, Rachel B; Arnold, Kathleen M; Einstein, Gilles O

2013-12-01

We examined whether normal aging spares or compromises cue-driven spontaneous retrieval processes that support prospective remembering. In Experiment 1, young and older adults performed prospective-memory tasks that required either strategic monitoring processes for retrieval (nonfocal) or for which participants relied on spontaneous retrieval processes (focal). We found age differences for nonfocal, but not focal, prospective-memory performance. Experiments 2 and 3 used an intention-interference paradigm in which participants were asked to perform a prospective-memory task (e.g., press "Q" when the word money appears) in the context of an image-rating task and were then told to suspend their prospective-memory intention until after completing an intervening lexical-decision task. During the lexical-decision task, we presented the exact prospective-memory cue (e.g., money; Experiments 2 and 3) or a semantically related lure (e.g., wallet; Experiment 3), and we inferred spontaneous retrieval from slowed lexical-decision responses to these items relative to matched control items. Young and older adults showed significant slowing when the exact prospective-memory cue was presented. Only young adults, however, showed significant slowing to the semantically related lure items. Collectively, these results partially support the multiprocess theory prediction that aging spares spontaneous retrieval processes. Spontaneous retrieval processes may become less sensitive with aging, such that older adults are less likely to respond to cues that do not exactly match their encoded targets. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Evidence for two attentional components in visual working memory.

PubMed

Allen, Richard J; Baddeley, Alan D; Hitch, Graham J

2014-11-01

How does executive attentional control contribute to memory for sequences of visual objects, and what does this reveal about storage and processing in working memory? Three experiments examined the impact of a concurrent executive load (backward counting) on memory for sequences of individually presented visual objects. Experiments 1 and 2 found disruptive concurrent load effects of equivalent magnitude on memory for shapes, colors, and colored shape conjunctions (as measured by single-probe recognition). These effects were present only for Items 1 and 2 in a 3-item sequence; the final item was always impervious to this disruption. This pattern of findings was precisely replicated in Experiment 3 when using a cued verbal recall measure of shape-color binding, with error analysis providing additional insights concerning attention-related loss of early-sequence items. These findings indicate an important role for executive processes in maintaining representations of earlier encountered stimuli in an active form alongside privileged storage of the most recent stimulus. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Is masked priming modulated by memory load? A test of the automaticity of masked identity priming in lexical decision.

PubMed

Perea, Manuel; Marcet, Ana; Lozano, Mario; Gomez, Pablo

2018-05-29

One of the key assumptions of the masked priming lexical decision task (LDT) is that primes are processed without requiring attentional resources. Here, we tested this assumption by presenting a dual-task manipulation to increase memory load and measure the change in masked identity priming on the targets in the LDT. If masked priming does not require attentional resources, increased memory load should have no influence on the magnitude of the observed identity priming effects. We conducted two LDT experiments, using a within-subjects design, to investigate the effect of memory load (via a concurrent matching task Experiment 1 and a concurrent search task in Experiment 2) on masked identity priming. Results showed that the magnitude of masked identity priming on word targets was remarkably similar under high and low memory load. Thus, these experiments provide empirical evidence for the automaticity assumption of masked identity priming in the LDT.

Prospective memory in adults with spina bifida

PubMed Central

Dennis, Maureen; Nelson, Rebekah; Jewell, Derryn; Fletcher, Jack M.

2011-01-01

Introduction Individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders have been observed to show accelerated cognitive aging or even dementia as early as 30 and 40 years of age. Memory deficits are an important component of age-related cognitive loss. Methods In this study, we investigated prospective memory, which is often impaired in aging, in a group of 32 adults with spina bifida meningomyelocele (SBM), including members of the oldest living cohort successfully treated with shunts to divert excess cerebrospinal fluid, ventriculomegaly, and hydrocephalus, who are now around 50 years of age. Seventeen typically developing adults provided a comparison group. Results The SBM and comparison groups differed in the prospective memory total score as well as in both time-based and event-based subscores. Prospective memory was impaired in both older and younger individuals with SBM. However, the percentage of individuals with impaired or poor prospective memory was three times higher in the older SBM group than in the younger SBM group. The results are considered in relation to specific features of the complex brain reorganization in SBM. PMID:20393850

Patterns of prospective memory impairment among individuals with depression: the influence of cue type and delay interval.

PubMed

Li, Yanqi Ryan; Weinborn, Michael; Loft, Shayne; Maybery, Murray

2013-07-01

The present study investigated the impact of cue type and delay interval on prospective memory performance in depressed, compared to non-depressed, individuals using a clinically relevant measure, the Memory for Intentions Screening Test. The depressed group demonstrated impaired performance on time-based, but not event-based, prospective memory tasks relative to the nondepressed group. The depressed group also demonstrated impaired prospective memory on tasks with longer delay intervals (15 min), but not on tasks with shorter delay intervals (2 min). These data support theoretical frameworks that posit that depression is associated with deficits in cognitive initiative (i.e., reduced ability to voluntarily direct attention to relevant tasks) and thus that depressed individuals are susceptible to poor performance on strategically demanding tasks. The results also raise multiple avenues for developing interventions (e.g., implementation intentions) to improve prospective memory performance among individuals with depression, with potential implications for medication and other treatment adherence.

Time-Related Decay or Interference-Based Forgetting in Working Memory?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Portrat, Sophie; Barrouillet, Pierre; Camos, Valerie

2008-01-01

The time-based resource-sharing model of working memory assumes that memory traces suffer from a time-related decay when attention is occupied by concurrent activities. Using complex continuous span tasks in which temporal parameters are carefully controlled, P. Barrouillet, S. Bernardin, S. Portrat, E. Vergauwe, & V. Camos (2007) recently…

Prospective memory in dynamic environments: effects of load, delay, and phonological rehearsal

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stone, M.; Dismukes, K.; Remington, R.

2001-01-01

A new paradigm was developed to examine prospective memory performance in a visual-spatial task that resembles some aspects of the work of air traffic controllers. Two experiments examined the role of workload (number of aeroplanes that participants directed), delay (between receipt of prospective instructions and execution), and phonological rehearsal. High workload increased prospective memory errors but increasing delay from 1-3 or 5 minutes had no effect. Shadowing aurally presented text reduced prospective memory performance, presumably because it prevented verbal rehearsal of the prospective instructions. However, performance on the foreground task of directing aeroplanes to routine destinations was affected only by workload and not by opportunity for rehearsal. Our results suggest that ability to maintain performance on a routine foreground task while performing a secondary task--perhaps analogous to conversation--does not predict ability to retrieve a prospective intention to deviate from the routine.

Prospective memory in dynamic environments: effects of load, delay, and phonological rehearsal.

PubMed

Stone, M; Dismukes, K; Remington, R

2001-05-01

A new paradigm was developed to examine prospective memory performance in a visual-spatial task that resembles some aspects of the work of air traffic controllers. Two experiments examined the role of workload (number of aeroplanes that participants directed), delay (between receipt of prospective instructions and execution), and phonological rehearsal. High workload increased prospective memory errors but increasing delay from 1-3 or 5 minutes had no effect. Shadowing aurally presented text reduced prospective memory performance, presumably because it prevented verbal rehearsal of the prospective instructions. However, performance on the foreground task of directing aeroplanes to routine destinations was affected only by workload and not by opportunity for rehearsal. Our results suggest that ability to maintain performance on a routine foreground task while performing a secondary task--perhaps analogous to conversation--does not predict ability to retrieve a prospective intention to deviate from the routine.

Do Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders Compensate in Naturalistic Prospective Memory Tasks?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Altgassen, Mareike; Koban, Nancy; Kliegel, Matthias

2012-01-01

The present study is the first to directly compare event- and time-based prospective memory in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) using a contextual task mirroring real life demands of prospective memory. Twenty-five individuals with ASD and 25 age- and ability-matched controls completed the Dresden Breakfast task which required participants to…

Better imagined: Neural correlates of the episodic simulation boost to prospective memory performance.

PubMed

Spreng, R Nathan; Madore, Kevin P; Schacter, Daniel L

2018-05-01

Episodic simulation is an adaptive process that can support goal-directed activity and planning success. We investigated the neural architecture associated with the episodic simulation improvement to the likelihood of carrying out future actions by isolating the brain regions associated with this facilitation in a prospective memory paradigm. Participants performed a lexical decision task by making word/non-word judgments, with rarely occurring prospective memory target words requiring a pre-specified manual response. Prior to scanning, participants were given exposure to two lists of prospective memory targets: animals and tools. In a fully counterbalanced design, participants generated a rhyme to one target list and imagined their subsequent encounter (episodic simulation) with target words on the other list. Replicating prior behavioral work, episodic simulation improved subsequent prospective memory performance. Brain activation was assessed in a multivariate partial least squares analysis. Relative to lexical decision blocks with no prospective memory demand, sustained prospective memory replicated prior observations of frontal polar activation. Critically, maintaining the intention to respond to simulated targets, over and above rhyme targets, engaged middle frontal and angular gyri, and medial parietal and prefrontal cortices. Transient activity associated with prospective memory target hits revealed activation for simulated targets in medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate, lateral temporal lobe and inferior parietal lobule. In contrast, rhyme target hits engaged more left lateralized dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior insula. Episodic simulation, thus effectively shifts executive control strategy and boosts task performance. These results are consistent with a growing body of evidence implicating executive control and default network region interactions in adaptive, goal-directed behavior. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A systematic review of prospective memory in HIV disease: from the laboratory to daily life.

PubMed

Avci, Gunes; Sheppard, David P; Tierney, Savanna M; Kordovski, Victoria M; Sullivan, Kelli L; Woods, Steven Paul

2017-09-27

Prospective memory (PM) is described as the capacity to form and maintain an intention that is executed in response to a specific cue. Neural injury and associated neurocognitive disorders are common among persons living with HIV disease, who might therefore be susceptible to impairment in PM. This literature review utilized a structured qualitative approach to summarize and evaluate our current understanding of PM functioning in people living with HIV disease. 33 studies of PM in HIV+ persons met criteria for inclusion. Findings showed that HIV is associated with moderate deficits in PM, which appear to be largely independent of commonly observed comorbid factors. The pattern of PM deficits reveals dysregulation of strategic processes that is consistent with the frontal systems pathology and associated executive dysfunction that characterizes HIV-associated neural injury. The literature also suggests that HIV-associated PM deficits present a strong risk of concurrent problems in a wide range of health behaviors (e.g. medication non-adherence) and activities of daily living (e.g. employment). Early attempts to improve PM in HIV disease have revealed that supporting strategic processes might be effective for some individuals. HIV-associated PM deficits are common and exert a significant adverse effect on the daily lives and health of infected persons. Much work remains to be done to understand the cognitive architecture of HIV-associated PM deficits and the most efficient means to enhance PM functioning and improve health outcomes in persons living with HIV.

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

PubMed

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

2007-01-01

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

Impaired cue identification and intention retrieval underlie prospective memory deficits in patients with first-episode schizophrenia.

PubMed

Liu, Dengtang; Ji, Chengfeng; Zhuo, Kaiming; Song, Zhenhua; Wang, Yingchan; Mei, Li; Zhu, Dianming; Xiang, Qiong; Chen, Tianyi; Yang, Zhilei; Zhu, Guang; Wang, Ya; Cheung, Eric Fc; Xiang, Yu-Tao; Fan, Xiaoduo; Chan, Raymond Ck; Xu, Yifeng; Jiang, Kaida

2017-03-01

Schizophrenia is associated with impairment in prospective memory, the ability to remember to carry out an intended action in the future. It has been established that cue identification (detection of the cue event signaling that an intended action should be performed) and intention retrieval (retrieval of an intention from long-term memory following the recognition of a prospective cue) are two important processes underlying prospective memory. The purpose of this study was to examine prospective memory deficit and underlying cognitive processes in patients with first-episode schizophrenia. This study examined cue identification and intention retrieval components of event-based prospective memory using a dual-task paradigm in 30 patients with first-episode schizophrenia and 30 healthy controls. All participants were also administered a set of tests assessing working memory and retrospective memory. Both cue identification and intention retrieval were impaired in patients with first-episode schizophrenia compared with healthy controls ( ps < 0.05), with a large effect size for cue identification (Cohen's d = 0.98) and a medium effect size for intention retrieval (Cohen's d = 0.62). After controlling for working memory and retrospective memory, the difference in cue identification between patients and healthy controls remained significant. However, the difference in intention retrieval between the two groups was no longer significant. In addition, there was a significant inverse relationship between cue identification and negative symptoms ( r = -0.446, p = 0.013) in the patient group. These findings suggest that both cue identification and intention retrieval in event-based prospective memory are impaired in patients with first-episode schizophrenia. Cue identification and intention retrieval could be potentially used as biomarkers for early detection and treatment prognosis of schizophrenia. In addition, addressing cue identification deficit through cognitive enhancement training may potentially improve negative symptoms as well.

Fatigue - but not mTBI history, PTSD, or sleep quality - directly contributes to reduced prospective memory performance in Iraq and Afghanistan era Veterans.

PubMed

Rau, Holly K; Hendrickson, Rebecca; Roggenkamp, Hannah C; Peterson, Sarah; Parmenter, Brett; Cook, David G; Peskind, Elaine; Pagulayan, Kathleen F

2017-10-13

Memory problems that affect daily functioning are a frequent complaint among Veterans reporting a history of repetitive mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), especially in cohorts with comorbid PTSD. Here, we test the degree to which subjective sleep impairment and daytime fatigue account for the association of PTSD and self-reported mTBI history with prospective memory. 82 Veterans with and without personal history of repeated blast-related mTBI during deployment were administered the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), Memory for Intentions Test (MIST), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory (NSI), and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Relationships between self-reported mTBI, PTSD, self-reported poor sleep and daytime fatigue, and MIST performance were modeled using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Reported daytime fatigue was strongly associated with poorer prospective memory performance. Poor subjective sleep quality was strongly and positively associated with reported daytime fatigue, but had no significant direct effect on prospective memory performance. PTSD diagnosis and self-reported mTBI history were only associated with prospective memory via their impact on subjective sleep quality and daytime fatigue. Results suggest that daytime fatigue may be a mediating factor by which both mTBI and PTSD can interfere with prospective memory. Additional attention should be given to complaints of daytime fatigue, independent of subjective sleep quality, in the clinical care of those with a self-reported history of mTBI, and/or PTSD. Further research into whether interventions that decrease daytime fatigue lead to improvement in prospective memory and subjective cognitive functioning is warranted.

The Monkey game: A computerized verbal working memory task for self-reliant administration in primary school children.

PubMed

Van de Weijer-Bergsma, Eva; Kroesbergen, Evelyn H; Jolani, Shahab; Van Luit, Johannes E H

2016-06-01

In two studies, the psychometric properties of an online self-reliant verbal working memory task (the Monkey game) for primary school children (6-12 years of age) were examined. In Study 1, children (n = 5,203) from 31 primary schools participated. The participants completed computerized verbal and visual-spatial working memory tasks (i.e., the Monkey game and the Lion game) and a paper-and-pencil version of Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices. Reading comprehension and math achievement test scores were obtained from the schools. First, the internal consistency of the Monkey game was examined. Second, multilevel modeling was used to examine the effects of classroom membership. Multilevel multivariate regression analysis was used to examine the Monkey game's concurrent relationship with the Lion game and its predictive relationships with reading comprehension and math achievement. Also, age-related differences in performance were examined. In Study 2, the concurrent relationships between the Monkey game and two tester-led computerized working memory tasks were further examined (n = 140). Also, the 1- and 2-year stability of the Monkey game was investigated. The Monkey game showed excellent internal consistency, good concurrent relationships with the other working memory measures, and significant age differences in performance. Performance on the Monkey game was also predictive of subsequent reading comprehension and mathematics performance, even after controlling for individual differences in intelligence. Performance on the Monkey game was influenced by classroom membership. The Monkey game is a reliable and suitable instrument for the online computerized and self-reliant assessment of verbal working memory in primary school children.

State orientation and memory load impair prospective memory performance in older compared to younger persons.

PubMed

Kaschel, Reiner; Kazén, Miguel; Kuhl, Julius

2017-07-01

A modified event-based paradigm of prospective memory was applied to investigate intention initiation in older and younger participants under high versus low memory load (subsequent episodic word recall vs. recognition). State versus action orientation, a personality dimension related to intention enactment, was also measured. State-oriented persons show a superiority effect for the storage of intentions in an explicit format but have a paradoxical deficit in their actual enactment. We predicted an interaction between aging, personality, and memory load, with longer intention-initiation latencies and higher omission rates for older state-oriented participants under high memory load. Results were consistent with predictions and are interpreted according to current personality and prospective memory models of aging.

The Development of Time-Based Prospective Memory in Childhood: The Role of Working Memory Updating

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Voigt, Babett; Mahy, Caitlin E. V.; Ellis, Judi; Schnitzspahn, Katharina; Krause, Ivonne; Altgassen, Mareike; Kliegel, Matthias

2014-01-01

This large-scale study examined the development of time-based prospective memory (PM) across childhood and the roles that working memory updating and time monitoring play in driving age effects in PM performance. One hundred and ninety-seven children aged 5 to 14 years completed a time-based PM task where working memory updating load was…

Combined mnemonic strategy training and high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation for memory deficits in mild cognitive impairment.

PubMed

Hampstead, Benjamin M; Sathian, Krishnankutty; Bikson, Marom; Stringer, Anthony Y

2017-09-01

Memory deficits characterize Alzheimer's dementia and the clinical precursor stage known as mild cognitive impairment. Nonpharmacologic interventions hold promise for enhancing functioning in these patients, potentially delaying functional impairment that denotes transition to dementia. Previous findings revealed that mnemonic strategy training (MST) enhances long-term retention of trained stimuli and is accompanied by increased blood oxygen level-dependent signal in the lateral frontal and parietal cortices as well as in the hippocampus. The present study was designed to enhance MST generalization, and the range of patients who benefit, via concurrent delivery of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). This protocol describes a prospective, randomized controlled, four-arm, double-blind study targeting memory deficits in those with mild cognitive impairment. Once randomized, participants complete five consecutive daily sessions in which they receive either active or sham high definition tDCS over the left lateral prefrontal cortex, a region known to be important for successful memory encoding and that has been engaged by MST. High definition tDCS (active or sham) will be combined with either MST or autobiographical memory recall (comparable to reminiscence therapy). Participants undergo memory testing using ecologically relevant measures and functional magnetic resonance imaging before and after these treatment sessions as well as at a 3-month follow-up. Primary outcome measures include face-name and object-location association tasks. Secondary outcome measures include self-report of memory abilities as well as a spatial navigation task (near transfer) and prose memory (medication instructions; far transfer). Changes in functional magnetic resonance imaging will be evaluated during both task performance and the resting-state using activation and connectivity analyses. The results will provide important information about the efficacy of cognitive and neuromodulatory techniques as well as the synergistic interaction between these promising approaches. Exploratory results will examine patient characteristics that affect treatment efficacy, thereby identifying those most appropriate for intervention.

Working Memory and Processing Efficiency in Children's Reasoning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Halford, Graeme S.; And Others

A series of studies was conducted to determine whether children's reasoning is capacity-limited and whether any such capacity, if it exists, is based on the working memory system. An N-term series (transitive inference) was used as the primary task in an interference paradigm. A concurrent short-term memory load was employed as the secondary task.…

Evaluating Models of Working Memory through the Effects of Concurrent Irrelevant Information

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chein, Jason M.; Fiez, Julie A.

2010-01-01

Working memory is believed to play a central role in almost all domains of higher cognition, yet the specific mechanisms involved in working memory are still fiercely debated. We describe a neuroimaging experiment with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a companion behavioral experiment, and in both we seek to adjudicate between…

Bilingual Long-Term Working Memory: The Effects of Working Memory Loads on Writing Quality and Fluency.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ransdell, Sarah; Arecco, M. Rosario; Levy, C. Michael

2001-01-01

Discusses two experiments: the first examining multilinguals ability to maintain native language writing quality and fluency in the presence of unattended irrelevant speech while maintaining a concurrent 6-digit memory load; the second in which bilinguals reduced fluency during writing with a six-digit load only. Results are interpreted in terms…

Effects of cacheing on multitasking efficiency and programming strategy on an ELXSI 6400

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Montry, G.R.; Benner, R.E.

1985-12-01

The impact of a cache/shared memory architecture, and, in particular, the cache coherency problem, upon concurrent algorithm and program development is discussed. In this context, a simple set of programming strategies are proposed which streamline code development and improve code performance when multitasking in a cache/shared memory or distributed memory environment.

Consolidation of Prospective Memory: Effects of Sleep on Completed and Reinstated Intentions

PubMed Central

Barner, Christine; Seibold, Mitja; Born, Jan; Diekelmann, Susanne

2017-01-01

Sleep has been shown to facilitate the consolidation of prospective memory, which is the ability to execute intended actions at the appropriate time in the future. In a previous study, the sleep benefit for prospective memory was mainly expressed as a preservation of prospective memory performance under divided attention as compared to full attention. Based on evidence that intentions are only remembered as long as they have not been executed yet (cf. ‘Zeigarnik effect’), here we asked whether the enhancement of prospective memory by sleep vanishes if the intention is completed before sleep and whether completed intentions can be reinstated to benefit from sleep again. In Experiment 1, subjects learned cue-associate word pairs in the evening and were prospectively instructed to detect the cue words and to type in the associates in a lexical decision task (serving as ongoing task) 2 h later before a night of sleep or wakefulness. At a second surprise test 2 days later, sleep and wake subjects did not differ in prospective memory performance. Specifically, both sleep and wake groups detected fewer cue words under divided compared to full attention, indicating that sleep does not facilitate the consolidation of completed intentions. Unexpectedly, in Experiment 2, reinstating the intention, by instructing subjects about the second test after completion of the first test, was not sufficient to restore the sleep benefit. However, in Experiment 3, where subjects were instructed about both test sessions immediately after learning, sleep facilitated prospective memory performance at the second test after 2 days, evidenced by comparable cue word detection under divided attention and full attention in sleep participants, whereas wake participants detected fewer cue words under divided relative to full attention. Together, these findings show that for prospective memory to benefit from sleep, (i) the intention has to be active across the sleep period, and (ii) the intention should be induced in temporal proximity to the initial learning session. PMID:28111558

Prospective memory training in older adults and its relevance for successful aging.

PubMed

Hering, Alexandra; Rendell, Peter G; Rose, Nathan S; Schnitzspahn, Katharina M; Kliegel, Matthias

2014-11-01

In research on cognitive plasticity, two training approaches have been established: (1) training of strategies to improve performance in a given task (e.g., encoding strategies to improve episodic memory performance) and (2) training of basic cognitive processes (e.g., working memory, inhibition) that underlie a range of more complex cognitive tasks (e.g., planning) to improve both the training target and the complex transfer tasks. Strategy training aims to compensate or circumvent limitations in underlying processes, while process training attempts to augment or to restore these processes. Although research on both approaches has produced some promising findings, results are still heterogeneous and the impact of most training regimes for everyday life is unknown. We, therefore, discuss recent proposals of training regimes aiming to improve prospective memory (i.e., forming and realizing delayed intentions) as this type of complex cognition is highly relevant for independent living. Furthermore, prospective memory is associated with working memory and executive functions and age-related decline is widely reported. We review initial evidence suggesting that both training regimes (i.e., strategy and/or process training) can successfully be applied to improve prospective memory. Conceptual and methodological implications of the findings for research on age-related prospective memory and for training research in general are discussed.

Virtual reality-based prospective memory training program for people with acquired brain injury.

PubMed

Yip, Ben C B; Man, David W K

2013-01-01

Acquired brain injuries (ABI) may display cognitive impairments and lead to long-term disabilities including prospective memory (PM) failure. Prospective memory serves to remember to execute an intended action in the future. PM problems would be a challenge to an ABI patient's successful community reintegration. While retrospective memory (RM) has been extensively studied, treatment programs for prospective memory are rarely reported. The development of a treatment program for PM, which is considered timely, can be cost-effective and appropriate to the patient's environment. A 12-session virtual reality (VR)-based cognitive rehabilitation program was developed using everyday PM activities as training content. 37 subjects were recruited to participate in a pretest-posttest control experimental study to evaluate its treatment effectiveness. Results suggest that significantly better changes were seen in both VR-based and real-life PM outcome measures, related cognitive attributes such as frontal lobe functions and semantic fluency. VR-based training may be well accepted by ABI patients as encouraging improvement has been shown. Large-scale studies of a virtual reality-based prospective memory (VRPM) training program are indicated.

Gray Bananas and a Red Letter A - From Synesthetic Sensation to Memory Colors.

PubMed

Weiss, Franziska; Greenlee, Mark W; Volberg, Gregor

2018-01-01

Grapheme-color synesthesia is a condition in which objectively achromatic graphemes induce concurrent color experiences. While it was long thought that the colors emerge during perception, there is growing support for the view that colors are integral to synesthetes' cognitive representations of graphemes. In this work, we review evidence for two opposing theories positing either a perceptual or cognitive origin of concurrent colors: the cross-activation theory and the conceptual-mediation model. The review covers results on inducer and concurrent color processing as well as findings concerning the brain structure and grapheme-color mappings in synesthetes and trained mappings in nonsynesthetes. The results support different aspects of both theories. Finally, we discuss how research on memory colors could provide a new perspective in the debate about the level of processing at which the synesthetic colors occur.

BDNF val66met Polymorphism Affects Aging of Multiple Types of Memory

PubMed Central

Kennedy, Kristen M.; Reese, Elizabeth D.; Horn, Marci M.; Sizemore, April N.; Unni, Asha K.; Meerbrey, Michael E.; Kalich, Allan G.; Rodrigue, Karen M.

2014-01-01

The BDNF val66met polymorphism (rs6265) influences activity-dependent secretion of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in the synapse, which is crucial for learning and memory. Individuals homozygous or heterozygous for the met allele have lower BDNF secretion than val homozygotes and may be at risk for reduced declarative memory performance, but it remains unclear which types of declarative memory may be affected and how aging of memory across the lifespan is impacted by the BDNF val66met polymorphism. This cross-sectional study investigated the effects of BDNF polymorphism on multiple indices of memory (item, associative, prospective, subjective complaints) in a lifespan sample of 116 healthy adults aged 20-93 years. Advancing age showed a negative effect on item, associative and prospective memory, but not on subjective memory complaints. For item and prospective memory, there were significant age x BDNF group interactions, indicating the adverse effect of age on memory performance across the lifespan was much stronger in the BDNF met carriers than for the val homozygotes. BDNF met carriers also endorsed significantly greater subjective memory complaints, regardless of age, and showed a trend (p < .07) toward poorer associative memory performance compared to val homozygotes. These results suggest that genetic predisposition to the availability of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, by way of the BDNF val66met polymorphism, exerts an influence on multiple indices of episodic memory – in some cases in all individuals regardless of age (subjective memory and perhaps associative memory), in others as an exacerbation of age-related differences in memory across the lifespan (item and prospective memory). PMID:25264352

Executive control of stimulus-driven and goal-directed attention in visual working memory.

PubMed

Hu, Yanmei; Allen, Richard J; Baddeley, Alan D; Hitch, Graham J

2016-10-01

We examined the role of executive control in stimulus-driven and goal-directed attention in visual working memory using probed recall of a series of objects, a task that allows study of the dynamics of storage through analysis of serial position data. Experiment 1 examined whether executive control underlies goal-directed prioritization of certain items within the sequence. Instructing participants to prioritize either the first or final item resulted in improved recall for these items, and an increase in concurrent task difficulty reduced or abolished these gains, consistent with their dependence on executive control. Experiment 2 examined whether executive control is also involved in the disruption caused by a post-series visual distractor (suffix). A demanding concurrent task disrupted memory for all items except the most recent, whereas a suffix disrupted only the most recent items. There was no interaction when concurrent load and suffix were combined, suggesting that deploying selective attention to ignore the distractor did not draw upon executive resources. A final experiment replicated the independent interfering effects of suffix and concurrent load while ruling out possible artifacts. We discuss the results in terms of a domain-general episodic buffer in which information is retained in a transient, limited capacity privileged state, influenced by both stimulus-driven and goal-directed processes. The privileged state contains the most recent environmental input together with goal-relevant representations being actively maintained using executive resources.

Divided attention interferes with fulfilling activity-based intentions.

PubMed

Brewer, Gene A; Ball, B Hunter; Knight, Justin B; Dewitt, Michael R; Marsh, Richard L

2011-09-01

Two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of divided attention on activity-based prospective memory. After establishing a goal to fulfill an intention upon completion of an ongoing activity, successful completion of the intention generally suffered when attention was being devoted to an additional task (Experiment 1). Forming an implementation intention at encoding ameliorated the negative effects of divided attention (Experiment 2). The results from the present experiments demonstrate that activity-based prospective memory is susceptible to distraction and that implementing encoding strategies that enhance prospective memory performance can reduce this interference. The current work raises interesting questions about the similarities and differences between event- and activity-based prospective memories. Published by Elsevier B.V.

The role of cue detection for prospective memory development across the lifespan.

PubMed

Hering, Alexandra; Wild-Wall, Nele; Gajewski, Patrick D; Falkenstein, Michael; Kliegel, Matthias; Zinke, Katharina

2016-12-01

Behavioral findings suggest an inverted U-shaped pattern of prospective memory development across the lifespan. A key mechanism underlying this development is the ability to detect cues. We examined the influence of cue detection on prospective memory, combining behavioral and electrophysiological measures, in three age groups: adolescents (12-14 years), young (19-28 years), and old adults (66-77 years). Cue detection was manipulated by varying the distinctiveness (i.e., how easy it was to detect the cue based on color) of the prospective memory cue in a semantic judgment ongoing task. Behavioral results supported the pattern of an inverted U-shape with a pronounced prospective memory decrease in old adults. Adolescents and young adults showed a prospective memory specific modulation (larger amplitudes for the cues compared to other trials) already for the N1 component. No such specific modulation was evident in old adults for the early N1 component but only at the later P3b component. Adolescents showed differential modulations of the amplitude also for irrelevant information at the P3b, suggesting less efficient processing. In terms of conceptual implications, present findings underline the importance of cue detection for prospective remembering and reveal different developmental trajectories for cue detection. Our findings suggest that cue detection is not a unitary process but consists of multiple stages corresponding to several ERP components that differentially contribute to prospective memory performance across the lifespan. In adolescents resource allocation for detecting cues seemed successful initially but less efficient at later stages; whereas we found the opposite pattern for old adults. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Memory complaints in amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment: More prospective or retrospective?

PubMed

de Mendonça, Alexandre; Felgueiras, Helena; Verdelho, Ana; Câmara, Sara; Grilo, Cláudia; Maroco, João; Pereira, Antonina; Guerreiro, Manuela

2018-05-15

Patients with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI), usually considered an early stage of Alzheimer's disease, have deficits not only in retrospective memory (RM), that is, recalling of past events, words or people, but also on prospective memory (PM), the cognitive ability of remembering to execute delayed intentions in the future. This study investigated whether patients with aMCI refer more PM complaints as compared with RM complaints, and whether this might depend upon short-term vs long-term items or time-based vs event-based tasks. Patients with aMCI (n = 178) and healthy controls (n = 160) underwent the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ), a 16-item instrument to appraise differences between PM and RM complaints, as well as a general mental state examination, a subjective memory complaints questionnaire, objective memory tests, and assessment of depressive symptoms and activities of daily living. Patients with aMCI reported more memory complaints evaluated with the PRMQ (total score = 44.3 ± 10.8) as compared with controls (36.7 ± 9.8, P < 0.001). Using a mixed effect repeated-measures analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) showed that participants generally referred more retrospective than prospective memory complaints. Patients with aMCI had significantly more complaints on short-term memory as compared with long-term memory, and more complaints in time-based (auto-initiated) as compared with event-based tasks, than healthy controls. Patients with aMCI reported significantly more difficulties on short-term memory, presumably reflecting internal temporal lobe pathology typical of Alzheimer's disease, and more complaints on time-based tasks, which are cognitively very demanding, but did not seem particularly troubled regarding prospective memory. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Age Differences in Visual Working Memory Capacity: Not Based on Encoding Limitations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cowan, Nelson; AuBuchon, Angela M.; Gilchrist, Amanda L.; Ricker, Timothy J.; Saults, J. Scott

2011-01-01

Why does visual working memory performance increase with age in childhood? One recent study (Cowan et al., 2010b) ruled out the possibility that the basic cause is a tendency in young children to clutter working memory with less-relevant items (within a concurrent array, colored items presented in one of two shapes). The age differences in memory…

Memory Enhancement Induced by Post-Training Intrabasolateral Amygdala Infusions of [beta]-Adrenergic or Muscarinic Agonists Requires Activation of Dopamine Receptors: Involvement of Right, but Not Left, Basolateral Amygdala

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LaLumiere, Ryan T.; McGaugh, James L.

2005-01-01

Previous findings indicate that the noradrenergic, dopaminergic, and cholinergic innervations of the basolateral amygdala (BLA) modulate memory consolidation. The current study investigated whether memory enhancement induced by post-training intra-BLA infusions of a [beta]-adrenergic or muscarinic cholinergic agonist requires concurrent activation…

Attentional Distractor Interference May Be Diminished by Concurrent Working Memory Load in Normal Participants and Traumatic Brain Injury Patients

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Liano, Beatriz Gil-Gomez; Umilta, Carlo; Stablum, Franca; Tebaldi, Francesca; Cantagallo, Anna

2010-01-01

A reduction in congruency effects under working memory (WM) load has been previously described using different attentional paradigms (e.g., Kim, Kim, & Chun, 2005; Smilek, Enns, Eastwood, & Merikle, 2006). One hypothesis is that different types of WM load have different effects on attentional selection, depending on whether a specific memory load…

Pushing typists back on the learning curve: Memory chunking improves retrieval of prior typing episodes.

PubMed

Yamaguchi, Motonori; Randle, James M; Wilson, Thomas L; Logan, Gordon D

2017-09-01

Hierarchical control of skilled performance depends on chunking of several lower-level units into a single higher-level unit. The present study examined the relationship between chunking and recognition of trained materials in the context of typewriting. In 3 experiments, participants were trained with typing nonwords and were later tested on their recognition of the trained materials. In Experiment 1, participants typed the same words or nonwords in 5 consecutive trials while performing a concurrent memory task. In Experiment 2, participants typed the materials with lags between repetitions without a concurrent memory task. In both experiments, recognition of typing materials was associated with better chunking of the materials. Experiment 3 used the remember-know procedure to test the recollection and familiarity components of recognition. Remember judgments were associated with better chunking than know judgments or nonrecognition. These results indicate that chunking is associated with explicit recollection of prior typing episodes. The relevance of the existing memory models to chunking in typewriting was considered, and it is proposed that memory chunking improves retrieval of trained typing materials by integrating contextual cues into the memory traces. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

The Cognitive Processes Underlying Event-Based Prospective Memory in School-Age Children and Young Adults: A Formal Model-Based Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Rebekah E.; Bayen, Ute J.; Martin, Claudia

2010-01-01

Fifty children 7 years of age (29 girls, 21 boys), 53 children 10 years of age (29 girls, 24 boys), and 36 young adults (19 women, 17 men) performed a computerized event-based prospective memory task. All 3 groups differed significantly in prospective memory performance, with adults showing the best performance and with 7-year-olds showing the…

Intrusive images and voluntary memory for affective pictures: contextualization and dual-task interference.

PubMed

Krans, Julie; Langner, Oliver; Reinecke, Andrea; Pearson, David G

2013-12-01

The present study addressed the role of context information and dual-task interference during the encoding of negative pictures on intrusion development and voluntary recall. Healthy participants were shown negative pictures with or without context information. Pictures were either viewed alone or concurrently with a visuospatial or verbal task. Participants reported their intrusive images of the pictures in a diary. At follow-up, perceptual and contextual memory was tested. Participants in the context group reported more intrusive images and perceptual voluntary memory than participants in the no context group. No effects of the concurrent tasks were found on intrusive image frequency, but perceptual and contextual memory was affected according to the cognitive load of the task. The analogue method cannot be generalized to real-life trauma and the secondary tasks may differ in cognitive load. The findings challenge a dual memory model of PTSD but support an account in which retrieval strategy, rather than encoding processes, accounts for the experience of involuntary versus voluntary recall. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Optimizing NEURON Simulation Environment Using Remote Memory Access with Recursive Doubling on Distributed Memory Systems.

PubMed

Shehzad, Danish; Bozkuş, Zeki

2016-01-01

Increase in complexity of neuronal network models escalated the efforts to make NEURON simulation environment efficient. The computational neuroscientists divided the equations into subnets amongst multiple processors for achieving better hardware performance. On parallel machines for neuronal networks, interprocessor spikes exchange consumes large section of overall simulation time. In NEURON for communication between processors Message Passing Interface (MPI) is used. MPI_Allgather collective is exercised for spikes exchange after each interval across distributed memory systems. The increase in number of processors though results in achieving concurrency and better performance but it inversely affects MPI_Allgather which increases communication time between processors. This necessitates improving communication methodology to decrease the spikes exchange time over distributed memory systems. This work has improved MPI_Allgather method using Remote Memory Access (RMA) by moving two-sided communication to one-sided communication, and use of recursive doubling mechanism facilitates achieving efficient communication between the processors in precise steps. This approach enhanced communication concurrency and has improved overall runtime making NEURON more efficient for simulation of large neuronal network models.

Optimizing NEURON Simulation Environment Using Remote Memory Access with Recursive Doubling on Distributed Memory Systems

PubMed Central

Bozkuş, Zeki

2016-01-01

Increase in complexity of neuronal network models escalated the efforts to make NEURON simulation environment efficient. The computational neuroscientists divided the equations into subnets amongst multiple processors for achieving better hardware performance. On parallel machines for neuronal networks, interprocessor spikes exchange consumes large section of overall simulation time. In NEURON for communication between processors Message Passing Interface (MPI) is used. MPI_Allgather collective is exercised for spikes exchange after each interval across distributed memory systems. The increase in number of processors though results in achieving concurrency and better performance but it inversely affects MPI_Allgather which increases communication time between processors. This necessitates improving communication methodology to decrease the spikes exchange time over distributed memory systems. This work has improved MPI_Allgather method using Remote Memory Access (RMA) by moving two-sided communication to one-sided communication, and use of recursive doubling mechanism facilitates achieving efficient communication between the processors in precise steps. This approach enhanced communication concurrency and has improved overall runtime making NEURON more efficient for simulation of large neuronal network models. PMID:27413363

Functions of external cues in prospective memory.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1995-02-01

A simulation of an air traffic control task was the setting for an investigation of the functions of external cues in prospective memory. External cues can support the triggering of an action or memory for the content of the action. : We focused on m...

Prospective memory in an air traffic control simulation: External aids that signal when to act

PubMed Central

Loft, Shayne; Smith, Rebekah E.; Bhaskara, Adella

2011-01-01

At work and in our personal life we often need to remember to perform intended actions at some point in the future, referred to as Prospective Memory. Individuals sometimes forget to perform intentions in safety-critical work contexts. Holding intentions can also interfere with ongoing tasks. We applied theories and methods from the experimental literature to test the effectiveness of external aids in reducing prospective memory error and costs to ongoing tasks in an air traffic control simulation. Participants were trained to accept and hand-off aircraft, and to detect aircraft conflicts. For the prospective memory task participants were required to substitute alternative actions for routine actions when accepting target aircraft. Across two experiments, external display aids were provided that presented the details of target aircraft and associated intended actions. We predicted that aids would only be effective if they provided information that was diagnostic of target occurrence and in this study we examined the utility of aids that directly cued participants when to allocate attention to the prospective memory task. When aids were set to flash when the prospective memory target aircraft needed to be accepted, prospective memory error and costs to ongoing tasks of aircraft acceptance and conflict detection were reduced. In contrast, aids that did not alert participants specifically when the target aircraft were present provided no advantage compared to when no aids we used. These findings have practical implications for the potential relative utility of automated external aids for occupations where individuals monitor multi-item dynamic displays. PMID:21443381

Prospective memory in an air traffic control simulation: external aids that signal when to act.

PubMed

Loft, Shayne; Smith, Rebekah E; Bhaskara, Adella

2011-03-01

At work and in our personal life we often need to remember to perform intended actions at some point in the future, referred to as Prospective Memory. Individuals sometimes forget to perform intentions in safety-critical work contexts. Holding intentions can also interfere with ongoing tasks. We applied theories and methods from the experimental literature to test the effectiveness of external aids in reducing prospective memory error and costs to ongoing tasks in an air traffic control simulation. Participants were trained to accept and hand-off aircraft and to detect aircraft conflicts. For the prospective memory task, participants were required to substitute alternative actions for routine actions when accepting target aircraft. Across two experiments, external display aids were provided that presented the details of target aircraft and associated intended actions. We predicted that aids would only be effective if they provided information that was diagnostic of target occurrence, and in this study, we examined the utility of aids that directly cued participants when to allocate attention to the prospective memory task. When aids were set to flash when the prospective memory target aircraft needed to be accepted, prospective memory error and costs to ongoing tasks of aircraft acceptance and conflict detection were reduced. In contrast, aids that did not alert participants specifically when the target aircraft were present provided no advantage compared to when no aids were used. These findings have practical implications for the potential relative utility of automated external aids for occupations where individuals monitor multi-item dynamic displays.

BDNF val66met polymorphism affects aging of multiple types of memory.

PubMed

Kennedy, Kristen M; Reese, Elizabeth D; Horn, Marci M; Sizemore, April N; Unni, Asha K; Meerbrey, Michael E; Kalich, Allan G; Rodrigue, Karen M

2015-07-01

The BDNF val66met polymorphism (rs6265) influences activity-dependent secretion of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in the synapse, which is crucial for learning and memory. Individuals homozygous or heterozygous for the met allele have lower BDNF secretion than val homozygotes and may be at risk for reduced declarative memory performance, but it remains unclear which types of declarative memory may be affected and how aging of memory across the lifespan is impacted by the BDNF val66met polymorphism. This cross-sectional study investigated the effects of BDNF polymorphism on multiple indices of memory (item, associative, prospective, subjective complaints) in a lifespan sample of 116 healthy adults aged 20-93 years. Advancing age showed a negative effect on item, associative and prospective memory, but not on subjective memory complaints. For item and prospective memory, there were significant age×BDNF group interactions, indicating the adverse effect of age on memory performance across the lifespan was much stronger in the BDNF met carriers than for the val homozygotes. BDNF met carriers also endorsed significantly greater subjective memory complaints, regardless of age, and showed a trend (p<.07) toward poorer associative memory performance compared to val homozygotes. These results suggest that genetic predisposition to the availability of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, by way of the BDNF val66met polymorphism, exerts an influence on multiple indices of episodic memory - in some cases in all individuals regardless of age (subjective memory and perhaps associative memory), in others as an exacerbation of age-related differences in memory across the lifespan (item and prospective memory). This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Memory & Aging. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Interfering with memory for faces: The cost of doing two things at once.

PubMed

Wammes, Jeffrey D; Fernandes, Myra A

2016-01-01

We inferred the processes critical for episodic retrieval of faces by measuring susceptibility to memory interference from different distracting tasks. Experiment 1 examined recognition of studied faces under full attention (FA) or each of two divided attention (DA) conditions requiring concurrent decisions to auditorily presented letters. Memory was disrupted in both DA relative to FA conditions, a result contrary to a material-specific account of interference effects. Experiment 2 investigated whether the magnitude of interference depended on competition between concurrent tasks for common processing resources. Studied faces were presented either upright (configurally processed) or inverted (featurally processed). Recognition was completed under FA, or DA with one of two face-based distracting tasks requiring either featural or configural processing. We found an interaction: memory for upright faces was lower under DA when the distracting task required configural than featural processing, while the reverse was true for memory of inverted faces. Across experiments, the magnitude of memory interference was similar (a 19% or 20% decline from FA) regardless of whether the materials in the distracting task overlapped with the to-be-remembered information. Importantly, interference was significantly larger (42%) when the processing demands of the distracting and target retrieval task overlapped, suggesting a processing-specific account of memory interference.

Transparent Meta-Analysis: Does Aging Spare Prospective Memory with Focal vs. Non-Focal Cues?

PubMed Central

Uttl, Bob

2011-01-01

Background Prospective memory (ProM) is the ability to become aware of a previously-formed plan at the right time and place. For over twenty years, researchers have been debating whether prospective memory declines with aging or whether it is spared by aging and, most recently, whether aging spares prospective memory with focal vs. non-focal cues. Two recent meta-analyses examining these claims did not include all relevant studies and ignored prevalent ceiling effects, age confounds, and did not distinguish between prospective memory subdomains (e.g., ProM proper, vigilance, habitual ProM) (see Uttl, 2008, PLoS ONE). The present meta-analysis focuses on the following questions: Does prospective memory decline with aging? Does prospective memory with focal vs. non-focal cues decline with aging? Does the size of age-related declines with focal vs. non-focal cues vary across ProM subdomains? And are age-related declines in ProM smaller than age-related declines in retrospective memory? Methods and Findings A meta-analysis of event-cued ProM using data visualization and modeling, robust count methods, and conventional meta-analysis techniques revealed that first, the size of age-related declines in ProM with both focal and non-focal cues are large. Second, age-related declines in ProM with focal cues are larger in ProM proper and smaller in vigilance. Third, age-related declines in ProM proper with focal cues are as large as age-related declines in recall measures of retrospective memory. Conclusions The results are consistent with Craik's (1983) proposal that age-related declines on ProM tasks are generally large, support the distinction between ProM proper vs. vigilance, and directly contradict widespread claims that ProM, with or without focal cues, is spared by aging. PMID:21304905

Further validation of the Internet-based Dementia Risk Assessment.

PubMed

Brandt, Jason; Blehar, Justin; Anderson, Allan; Gross, Alden L

2014-01-01

Most approaches to the detection of presymptomatic or prodromal Alzheimer's disease require the costly collection and analysis of biological samples or neuroimaging measurements. The Dementia Risk Assessment (DRA) was developed to facilitate this detection by collecting self-report and proxy-report of dementia risk variables and episodic memory performance on a free Internet website. We now report two validation studies. In Study 1, 130 community-residing older adults seeking memory screening at senior health fairs were tested using the Mini-Cog, and were then observed while taking the DRA. They were compared to a demographically-matched subsample from our anonymous Internet sample. Participants seeking memory screening had more dementia risk factors and obtained lower scores on the DRA's recognition memory test (RMT) than their Internet controls. In addition, those who failed the Mini-Cog obtained much lower scores on the RMT than those who passed the Mini-Cog. In Study 2, 160 older adults seeking evaluation of cognitive difficulties took the DRA prior to diagnostic evaluations at outpatient dementia clinics. Patients who ultimately received the diagnosis of a dementia syndrome scored significantly lower on the RMT than those diagnosed with other conditions or deemed normal. Lower education, family history of dementia, presence of hypercholesterolemia and diabetes, and memory test score distinguished the dementia and no-dementia groups with around 82% accuracy. In addition, score on the RMT correlated highly with scores on other instruments widely used to detect cognitive decline. These findings support the concurrent validity of the DRA for detecting prevalent cognitive impairment. Prospective studies of cognitively normal persons who subsequently develop dementia will be necessary to establish its predictive validity.

Concurrent and prospective associations between facial affect recognition accuracy and childhood antisocial behavior.

PubMed

Bowen, Erica; Dixon, Louise

2010-01-01

This study examined the concurrent and prospective associations between children's ability to accurately recognize facial affect at age 8.5 and antisocial behavior at age 8.5 and 10.5 years in a sub sample of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children cohort (5,396 children; 2,644, 49% males). All observed effects were small. It was found that at age 8.5 years, in contrast to nonantisocial children; antisocial children were less accurate at decoding happy and sad expressions when presented at low intensity. In addition, concurrent antisocial behavior was associated with misidentifying expressions of fear as expressions of sadness. In longitudinal analyses, children who misidentified fear as anger exhibited a decreased risk of antisocial behavior 2 years later. The study suggests that concurrent rather than future antisocial behavior is associated with facial affect recognition accuracy. (c) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Ada Compiler Validation Summary Report: Certificate Number: 900121S1. 10251 Computer Sciences Corporation MC Ada V1.2.Beta/Concurrent Computer Corporation Concurrent/Masscomp 5600 Host To Concurrent/Masscomp 5600 (Dual 68020 Processor Configuration) Target

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-04-23

developed Ada Real - Time Operating System (ARTOS) for bare machine environments(Target), ACW 1.1I0. " ; - -M.UIECTTERMS Ada programming language, Ada...configuration) Operating System: CSC developed Ada Real - Time Operating System (ARTOS) for bare machine environments Memory Size: 4MB 2.2...Test Method Testing of the MC Ado V1.2.beta/ Concurrent Computer Corporation compiler and the CSC developed Ada Real - Time Operating System (ARTOS) for

Programming Models for Concurrency and Real-Time

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vitek, Jan

Modern real-time applications are increasingly large, complex and concurrent systems which must meet stringent performance and predictability requirements. Programming those systems require fundamental advances in programming languages and runtime systems. This talk presents our work on Flexotasks, a programming model for concurrent, real-time systems inspired by stream-processing and concurrent active objects. Some of the key innovations in Flexotasks are that it support both real-time garbage collection and region-based memory with an ownership type system for static safety. Communication between tasks is performed by channels with a linear type discipline to avoid copying messages, and by a non-blocking transactional memory facility. We have evaluated our model empirically within two distinct implementations, one based on Purdue’s Ovm research virtual machine framework and the other on Websphere, IBM’s production real-time virtual machine. We have written a number of small programs, as well as a 30 KLOC avionics collision detector application. We show that Flexotasks are capable of executing periodic threads at 10 KHz with a standard deviation of 1.2us and have performance competitive with hand coded C programs.

Phonological similarity effect in complex span task.

PubMed

Camos, Valérie; Mora, Gérôme; Barrouillet, Pierre

2013-01-01

The aim of our study was to test the hypothesis that two systems are involved in verbal working memory; one is specifically dedicated to the maintenance of phonological representations through verbal rehearsal while the other would maintain multimodal representations through attentional refreshing. This theoretical framework predicts that phonologically related phenomena such as the phonological similarity effect (PSE) should occur when the domain-specific system is involved in maintenance, but should disappear when concurrent articulation hinders its use. Impeding maintenance in the domain-general system by a concurrent attentional demand should impair recall performance without affecting PSE. In three experiments, we manipulated the concurrent articulation and the attentional demand induced by the processing component of complex span tasks in which participants had to maintain lists of either similar or dissimilar words. Confirming our predictions, PSE affected recall performance in complex span tasks. Although both the attentional demand and the articulatory requirement of the concurrent task impaired recall, only the induction of an articulatory suppression during maintenance made the PSE disappear. These results suggest a duality in the systems devoted to verbal maintenance in the short term, constraining models of working memory.

Time-Based and Event-Based Prospective Memory in Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Roles of Executive Function and Theory of Mind, and Time-Estimation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, David; Boucher, Jill; Lind, Sophie; Jarrold, Christopher

2013-01-01

Prospective memory (remembering to carry out an action in the future) has been studied relatively little in ASD. We explored time-based (carry out an action at a pre-specified time) and event-based (carry out an action upon the occurrence of a pre-specified event) prospective memory, as well as possible cognitive correlates, among 21…

Detecting event-based prospective memory cues occurring within and outside the focus of attention.

PubMed

Hicks, Jason L; Cook, Gabriel I; Marsh, Richard L

2005-01-01

Event-based prospective memory cues are environmental stimuli that are associated with a previously established intention to perform an activity. Such cues traditionally have been placed in materials that receive focal attention during an ongoing activity. This article reports a direct comparison of event-based cues that occurred either within the focus of attention or at the periphery of such attention. When the cue occurred outside focal attention, manipulating that cue changed event-based prospective memory. The identical manipulation had no effect on event-based responding if the cue occurred within focal attention. These results suggest that cue characteristics can compensate for attention being directed away from an aspect of an ongoing task that contains event-based prospective memory.

When Distraction Holds Relevance: A Prospective Memory Benefit for Older Adults.

PubMed

Lourenço, Joana S; Maylor, Elizabeth A

2015-06-09

Evidence is accumulating to show that age-related increases in susceptibility to distracting information can benefit older more than young adults in several cognitive tasks. Here we focus on prospective memory (i.e., remembering to carry out future intentions) and examine the effect of presenting distracting information that is intention-related as a function of age. Young and older adults performed an ongoing 1-back working memory task to a rapid stream of pictures superimposed with to-be-ignored letter strings. Participants were additionally instructed to respond to target pictures (namely, animals) and, for half of the participants, some strings prior to the targets were intention-related words (i.e., animals). Results showed that presenting intention-related distracting information during the ongoing task was particularly advantageous for target detection in older compared to young adults. Moreover, a prospective memory benefit was observed even for older adults who showed no explicit memory for the target distracter words. We speculate that intention-related distracter information enhanced the accessibility of the prospective memory task and suggest that when distracting information holds relevance to intentions it can serve a compensatory role in prospective remembering in older adults.

Gray Bananas and a Red Letter A — From Synesthetic Sensation to Memory Colors

PubMed Central

Weiss, Franziska; Volberg, Gregor

2018-01-01

Grapheme–color synesthesia is a condition in which objectively achromatic graphemes induce concurrent color experiences. While it was long thought that the colors emerge during perception, there is growing support for the view that colors are integral to synesthetes’ cognitive representations of graphemes. In this work, we review evidence for two opposing theories positing either a perceptual or cognitive origin of concurrent colors: the cross-activation theory and the conceptual-mediation model. The review covers results on inducer and concurrent color processing as well as findings concerning the brain structure and grapheme–color mappings in synesthetes and trained mappings in nonsynesthetes. The results support different aspects of both theories. Finally, we discuss how research on memory colors could provide a new perspective in the debate about the level of processing at which the synesthetic colors occur. PMID:29899968

Dividing time: concurrent timing of auditory and visual events by young and elderly adults.

PubMed

McAuley, J Devin; Miller, Jonathan P; Wang, Mo; Pang, Kevin C H

2010-07-01

This article examines age differences in individual's ability to produce the durations of learned auditory and visual target events either in isolation (focused attention) or concurrently (divided attention). Young adults produced learned target durations equally well in focused and divided attention conditions. Older adults, in contrast, showed an age-related increase in timing variability in divided attention conditions that tended to be more pronounced for visual targets than for auditory targets. Age-related impairments were associated with a decrease in working memory span; moreover, the relationship between working memory and timing performance was largest for visual targets in divided attention conditions.

Age-related cognitive task effects on gait characteristics: do different working memory components make a difference?

PubMed

Qu, Xingda

2014-10-27

Though it is well recognized that gait characteristics are affected by concurrent cognitive tasks, how different working memory components contribute to dual task effects on gait is still unknown. The objective of the present study was to investigate dual-task effects on gait characteristics, specifically the application of cognitive tasks involving different working memory components. In addition, we also examined age-related differences in such dual-task effects. Three cognitive tasks (i.e. 'Random Digit Generation', 'Brooks' Spatial Memory', and 'Counting Backward') involving different working memory components were examined. Twelve young (6 males and 6 females, 20 ~ 25 years old) and 12 older participants (6 males and 6 females, 60 ~ 72 years old) took part in two phases of experiments. In the first phase, each cognitive task was defined at three difficulty levels, and perceived difficulty was compared across tasks. The cognitive tasks perceived to be equally difficult were selected for the second phase. In the second phase, four testing conditions were defined, corresponding to a baseline and the three equally difficult cognitive tasks. Participants walked on a treadmill at their self-selected comfortable speed in each testing condition. Body kinematics were collected during treadmill walking, and gait characteristics were assessed using spatial-temporal gait parameters. Application of the concurrent Brooks' Spatial Memory task led to longer step times compared to the baseline condition. Larger step width variability was observed in both the Brooks' Spatial Memory and Counting Backward dual-task conditions than in the baseline condition. In addition, cognitive task effects on step width variability differed between two age groups. In particular, the Brooks' Spatial Memory task led to significantly larger step width variability only among older adults. These findings revealed that cognitive tasks involving the visuo-spatial sketchpad interfered with gait more severely in older versus young adults. Thus, dual-task training, in which a cognitive task involving the visuo-spatial sketchpad (e.g. the Brooks' Spatial Memory task) is concurrently performed with walking, could be beneficial to mitigate impairments in gait among older adults.

Multiple Types of Memory and Everyday Functional Assessment in Older Adults

PubMed Central

Beaver, Jenna

2017-01-01

Abstract Objective Current proxy measures for assessing everyday functioning (e.g., questionnaires, performance-based measures, and direct observation) show discrepancies in their rating of functional status. The present study investigated the relationship between multiple proxy measures of functional status and content memory (i.e., memory for information), temporal order memory, and prospective memory in an older adult sample. Method A total of 197 community-dwelling older adults who did (n = 45) or did not meet (n = 152) criteria for mild cognitive impairment (MCI), completed six different assessments of functional status (two questionnaires, two performance-based tasks, and two direct observation tasks) as well as experimental measures of content memory, prospective memory, and temporal order memory. Results After controlling for demographics and content memory, the temporal order and prospective memory measures explained a significant amount of variance in all proxy functional status measures. When all variables were entered into the regression analyses, content memory and prospective memory were found to be significant predictors of all measures of functional status, whereas temporal order memory was a significant predictor for the questionnaire and direct observation measures, but not performance-based measures. Conclusion The results suggest that direct observation and questionnaire measures may be able to capture components of everyday functioning that require context and temporal sequencing abilities, such as multi-tasking, that are not as well captured in many current laboratory performance-based measures of functional status. Future research should aim to inform the development and use of maximally effective and valid proxy measures of functional ability. PMID:28334170

Pharmacological evidence that both cognitive memory and habit formation contribute to within-session learning of concurrent visual discriminations

PubMed Central

Turchi, Janita; Devan, Bryan; Yin, Pingbo; Sigrist, Emmalynn; Mishkin, Mortimer

2010-01-01

The monkey's ability to learn a set of visual discriminations presented concurrently just once a day on successive days (24-hr ITI task) is based on habit formation, which is known to rely on a visuo-striatal circuit and to be independent of visuo-rhinal circuits that support one-trial memory. Consistent with this dissociation, we recently reported that performance on the 24-hr ITI task is impaired by a striatal-function blocking agent, the dopaminergic antagonist haloperidol, and not by a rhinal-function blocking agent, the muscarinic cholinergic antagonist scopolamine. In the present study, monkeys were trained on a short-ITI form of concurrent visual discrimination learning, one in which a set of stimulus pairs is repeated not only across daily sessions but also several times within each session (in this case, at about 4-min ITIs). Asymptotic discrimination learning rates in the non-drug condition were reduced by half, from ~11 trials/pair on the 24-hr ITI task to ~5 trials/pair on the 4-min ITI task, and this faster learning was impaired by systemic injections of either haloperidol or scopolamine. The results suggest that in the version of concurrent discrimination learning used here, the short ITIs within a session recruit both visuo-rhinal and visuo-striatal circuits, and that the final performance level is driven by both cognitive memory and habit formation working in concert. PMID:20144631

An Adaptive Flow Solver for Air-Borne Vehicles Undergoing Time-Dependent Motions/Deformations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Singh, Jatinder; Taylor, Stephen

1997-01-01

This report describes a concurrent Euler flow solver for flows around complex 3-D bodies. The solver is based on a cell-centered finite volume methodology on 3-D unstructured tetrahedral grids. In this algorithm, spatial discretization for the inviscid convective term is accomplished using an upwind scheme. A localized reconstruction is done for flow variables which is second order accurate. Evolution in time is accomplished using an explicit three-stage Runge-Kutta method which has second order temporal accuracy. This is adapted for concurrent execution using another proven methodology based on concurrent graph abstraction. This solver operates on heterogeneous network architectures. These architectures may include a broad variety of UNIX workstations and PCs running Windows NT, symmetric multiprocessors and distributed-memory multi-computers. The unstructured grid is generated using commercial grid generation tools. The grid is automatically partitioned using a concurrent algorithm based on heat diffusion. This results in memory requirements that are inversely proportional to the number of processors. The solver uses automatic granularity control and resource management techniques both to balance load and communication requirements, and deal with differing memory constraints. These ideas are again based on heat diffusion. Results are subsequently combined for visualization and analysis using commercial CFD tools. Flow simulation results are demonstrated for a constant section wing at subsonic, transonic, and a supersonic case. These results are compared with experimental data and numerical results of other researchers. Performance results are under way for a variety of network topologies.

Pharmacological evidence that both cognitive memory and habit formation contribute to within-session learning of concurrent visual discriminations.

PubMed

Turchi, Janita; Devan, Bryan; Yin, Pingbo; Sigrist, Emmalynn; Mishkin, Mortimer

2010-07-01

The monkey's ability to learn a set of visual discriminations presented concurrently just once a day on successive days (24-h ITI task) is based on habit formation, which is known to rely on a visuo-striatal circuit and to be independent of visuo-rhinal circuits that support one-trial memory. Consistent with this dissociation, we recently reported that performance on the 24-h ITI task is impaired by a striatal-function blocking agent, the dopaminergic antagonist haloperidol, and not by a rhinal-function blocking agent, the muscarinic cholinergic antagonist scopolamine. In the present study, monkeys were trained on a short-ITI form of concurrent visual discrimination learning, one in which a set of stimulus pairs is repeated not only across daily sessions but also several times within each session (in this case, at about 4-min ITIs). Asymptotic discrimination learning rates in the non-drug condition were reduced by half, from approximately 11 trials/pair on the 24-h ITI task to approximately 5 trials/pair on the 4-min ITI task, and this faster learning was impaired by systemic injections of either haloperidol or scopolamine. The results suggest that in the version of concurrent discrimination learning used here, the short ITIs within a session recruit both visuo-rhinal and visuo-striatal circuits, and that the final performance level is driven by both cognitive memory and habit formation working in concert.

Cumulative estrogen exposure and prospective memory in older women.

PubMed

Hesson, Jacqueline

2012-10-01

This study looked at cumulative lifetime estrogen exposure, as estimated with a mathematical index (Index of Cumulative Estrogen Exposure (ICEE)) that included variables (length of time on estrogen therapy, age at menarche and menopause, postmenopausal body mass index, time since menopause, nulliparity and duration of breastfeeding) known to influence estrogen levels across the life span, and performance on prospective and retrospective memory measures in a group of 50 postmenopausal women (mean age=69.3years) who, if they were current or former users of estrogen therapy, had started therapy within 5years of menopause. The ICEE was found to be a significant predictor of performance on the Prospective Memory task (F(1)=4.21, p=.046, η(p)(2)=.084). No significant relationship was noted between the ICEE and performance on measures of retrospective memory. The results suggest that the level of cumulative lifetime exposure to estrogen a woman has influences her prospective memory performance later in life and that the influence of reproductive and biological markers of endogenous estrogen exposure are relevant factors to consider when studying the effect of estrogen therapy on cognitive functioning in postmenopausal women. In addition, the finding that performance on a measure of prospective memory, but not performance on measures of retrospective memory, was associated with the ICEE adds further support to the theory that the frontal cortex may be especially sensitive to estrogen. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Intersensory Redundancy Enhances Memory in Bobwhite Quail Embryos

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lickliter, Robert; Bahrick, Lorraine E.; Honeycutt, Hunter

2004-01-01

Information presented concurrently and redundantly to 2 or more senses (intersensory redundancy) has been shown to recruit attention and promote perceptual learning of amodal stimulus properties in animal embryos and human infants. This study examined whether the facilitative effect of intersensory redundancy also extends to the domain of memory.…

Role of Working Memory in Children's Understanding Spoken Narrative: A Preliminary Investigation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montgomery, James W.; Polunenko, Anzhela; Marinellie, Sally A.

2009-01-01

The role of phonological short-term memory (PSTM), attentional resource capacity/allocation, and processing speed on children's spoken narrative comprehension was investigated. Sixty-seven children (6-11 years) completed a digit span task (PSTM), concurrent verbal processing and storage (CPS) task (resource capacity/allocation), auditory-visual…

Trauma Films, Information Processing, and Intrusive Memory Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holmes, Emily A.; Brewin, Chris R.; Hennessy, Richard G.

2004-01-01

Three experiments indexed the effect of various concurrent tasks, while watching a traumatic film, on intrusive memory development. Hypotheses were based on the dual-representation theory of posttraumatic stress disorder (C. R. Brewin, T. Dalgleish, & S. Joseph, 1996). Nonclinical participants viewed a trauma film under various encoding conditions…

Patterns of Brain-Electrical Activity during Declarative Memory Performance in 10-Month-Old Infants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morasch, Katherine C.; Bell, Martha Ann

2009-01-01

This study of infant declarative memory concurrently examined brain-electrical activity and deferred imitation performance in 10-month-old infants. Continuous electroencephalogram (EEG) measures were collected throughout the activity-matched baseline, encoding (modeling) and retrieval (delayed test) phases of a within-subjects deferred imitation…

Development of Working Memory for Verbal-Spatial Associations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cowan, Nelson; Saults, J. Scott; Morey, Candice C.

2006-01-01

Verbal-to-spatial associations in working memory may index a core capacity for abstract information limited in the amount concurrently retained. However, what look like associative, abstract representations could instead reflect verbal and spatial codes held separately and then used in parallel. We investigated this issue in two experiments on…

The Effects of a Concurrent Task on Human Optimization and Self Control

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reed, Phil; Thompson, Caitlin; Osborne, Lisa A.; McHugh, Louise

2011-01-01

Memory deficits have been shown to hamper decision making in a number of populations. In two experiments, participants were required to select one of three alternatives that varied in reinforcer amount and delay, and the effect of a concurrent task on a behavioral choice task that involved making either an impulsive, self-controlled, or optimal…

Working Memory Load and Reminder Effect on Event-Based Prospective Memory of High- and Low-Achieving Students in Math

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Youzhen; Lian, Rong; Yang, Lixian; Liu, Jianrong; Meng, Yingfang

2017-01-01

The effects of working memory (WM) demand and reminders on an event-based prospective memory (PM) task were compared between students with low and high achievement in math. WM load (1- and 2-back tasks) was manipulated as a within-subject factor and reminder (with or without reminder) as a between-subject factor. Results showed that high-achieving…

Do Working Memory Deficits Underlie Reading Problems in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)?

PubMed

Kofler, Michael J; Spiegel, Jamie A; Soto, Elia F; Irwin, Lauren N; Wells, Erica L; Austin, Kristin E

2018-06-19

Reading problems are common in children with ADHD and show strong covariation with these children's underdeveloped working memory abilities. In contrast, working memory training does not appear to improve reading performance for children with ADHD or neurotypical children. The current study bridges the gap between these conflicting findings, and combines dual-task methodology with Bayesian modeling to examine the role of working memory for explaining ADHD-related reading problems. Children ages 8-13 (M = 10.50, SD = 1.59) with and without ADHD (N = 78; 29 girls; 63% Caucasian/Non-Hispanic) completed a counterbalanced series of reading tasks that systematically manipulated concurrent working memory demands. Adding working memory demands produced disproportionate decrements in reading comprehension for children with ADHD (d = -0.67) relative to Non-ADHD children (d = -0.18); comprehension was significantly reduced in both groups when working memory demands were increased. These effects were robust to controls for foundational reading skills (decoding, sight word vocabulary) and comorbid reading disability. Concurrent working memory demands did not slow reading speed for either group. The ADHD group showed lower comprehension (d = 1.02) and speed (d = 0.69) even before adding working memory demands beyond those inherently required for reading. Exploratory conditional effects analyses indicated that underdeveloped working memory overlapped with 41% (comprehension) and 85% (speed) of these between-group differences. Reading problems in ADHD appear attributable, at least in part, to their underdeveloped working memory abilities. Combined with prior cross-sectional and longitudinal findings, the current experimental evidence positions working memory as a potential causal mechanism that is necessary but not sufficient for effectively understanding written language.

Sleep Deprivation and Time-Based Prospective Memory.

PubMed

Esposito, Maria José; Occhionero, Miranda; Cicogna, PierCarla

2015-11-01

To evaluate the effect of sleep deprivation on time-based prospective memory performance, that is, realizing delayed intentions at an appropriate time in the future (e.g., to take a medicine in 30 minutes). Between-subjects experimental design. The experimental group underwent 24 h of total sleep deprivation, and the control group had a regular sleep-wake cycle. Participants were tested at 08:00. Laboratory. Fifty healthy young adults (mean age 22 ± 2.1, 31 female). 24 h of total sleep deprivation. Participants were monitored by wrist actigraphy for 3 days before the experimental session. The following cognitive tasks were administered: one time-based prospective memory task and 3 reasoning tasks as ongoing activity. Objective and subjective vigilance was assessed by the psychomotor vigilance task and a visual analog scale, respectively. To measure the time-based prospective memory task we assessed compliance and clock checking behavior (time monitoring). Sleep deprivation negatively affected time-based prospective memory compliance (P < 0.001), objective vigilance (mean RT: P < 0.001; slowest 10% RT: P < 0.001; lapses: P < 0.005), and subjective vigilance (P < 0.0001). Performance on reasoning tasks and time monitoring behavior did not differ between groups. The results highlight the potential dangerous effects of total sleep deprivation on human behavior, particularly the ability to perform an intended action after a few minutes. Sleep deprivation strongly compromises time-based prospective memory compliance but does not affect time check frequency. Sleep deprivation may impair the mechanism that allows the integration of information related to time monitoring with the prospective intention. © 2015 Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC.

Hybrid Parallelism for Volume Rendering on Large-, Multi-, and Many-Core Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Howison, Mark; Bethel, E. Wes; Childs, Hank

2012-01-01

With the computing industry trending towards multi- and many-core processors, we study how a standard visualization algorithm, ray-casting volume rendering, can benefit from a hybrid parallelism approach. Hybrid parallelism provides the best of both worlds: using distributed-memory parallelism across a large numbers of nodes increases available FLOPs and memory, while exploiting shared-memory parallelism among the cores within each node ensures that each node performs its portion of the larger calculation as efficiently as possible. We demonstrate results from weak and strong scaling studies, at levels of concurrency ranging up to 216,000, and with datasets as large as 12.2 trillion cells.more » The greatest benefit from hybrid parallelism lies in the communication portion of the algorithm, the dominant cost at higher levels of concurrency. We show that reducing the number of participants with a hybrid approach significantly improves performance.« less

Motivated encoding selectively promotes memory for future inconsequential semantically-related events.

PubMed

Oyarzún, Javiera P; Packard, Pau A; de Diego-Balaguer, Ruth; Fuentemilla, Lluis

2016-09-01

Neurobiological models of long-term memory explain how memory for inconsequential events fades, unless these happen before or after other relevant (i.e., rewarding or aversive) or novel events. Recently, it has been shown in humans that retrospective and prospective memories are selectively enhanced if semantically related events are paired with aversive stimuli. However, it remains unclear whether motivating stimuli, as opposed to aversive, have the same effect in humans. Here, participants performed a three phase incidental encoding task where one semantic category was rewarded during the second phase. A memory test 24h after, but not immediately after encoding, revealed that memory for inconsequential items was selectively enhanced only if items from the same category had been previously, but not subsequently, paired with rewards. This result suggests that prospective memory enhancement of reward-related information requires, like previously reported for aversive memories, of a period of memory consolidation. The current findings provide the first empirical evidence in humans that the effects of motivated encoding are selectively and prospectively prolonged over time. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Working memory still needs verbal rehearsal.

PubMed

Lucidi, Annalisa; Langerock, Naomi; Hoareau, Violette; Lemaire, Benoît; Camos, Valérie; Barrouillet, Pierre

2016-02-01

The causal role of verbal rehearsal in working memory has recently been called into question. For example, the SOB-CS (Serial Order in a Box-Complex Span) model assumes that there is no maintenance process for the strengthening of items in working memory, but instead a process of removal of distractors that are involuntarily encoded and create interference with memory items. In the present study, we tested the idea that verbal working memory performance can be accounted for without assuming a causal role of the verbal rehearsal process. We demonstrate in two experiments using a complex span task and a Brown-Peterson paradigm that increasing the number of repetitions of the same distractor (the syllable ba that was read aloud at each of its occurrences on screen) has a detrimental effect on the concurrent maintenance of consonants whereas the maintenance of spatial locations remains unaffected. A detailed analysis of the tasks demonstrates that accounting for this effect within the SOB-CS model requires a series of unwarranted assumptions leading to undesirable further predictions contradicted by available experimental evidence. We argue that the hypothesis of a maintenance mechanism based on verbal rehearsal that is impeded by concurrent articulation still provides the simplest and most compelling account of our results.

Cognitive load during route selection increases reliance on spatial heuristics.

PubMed

Brunyé, Tad T; Martis, Shaina B; Taylor, Holly A

2018-05-01

Planning routes from maps involves perceiving the symbolic environment, identifying alternate routes and applying explicit strategies and implicit heuristics to select an option. Two implicit heuristics have received considerable attention, the southern route preference and initial segment strategy. This study tested a prediction from decision-making theory that increasing cognitive load during route planning will increase reliance on these heuristics. In two experiments, participants planned routes while under conditions of minimal (0-back) or high (2-back) working memory load. In Experiment 1, we examined how memory load impacts the southern route heuristic. In Experiment 2, we examined how memory load impacts the initial segment heuristic. Results replicated earlier results demonstrating a southern route preference (Experiment 1) and initial segment strategy (Experiment 2) and further demonstrated that evidence for heuristic reliance is more likely under conditions of concurrent working memory load. Furthermore, the extent to which participants maintained efficient route selection latencies in the 2-back condition predicted the magnitude of this effect. Together, results demonstrate that working memory load increases the application of heuristics during spatial decision making, particularly when participants attempt to maintain quick decisions while managing concurrent task demands.

Just one look: Direct gaze briefly disrupts visual working memory.

PubMed

Wang, J Jessica; Apperly, Ian A

2017-04-01

Direct gaze is a salient social cue that affords rapid detection. A body of research suggests that direct gaze enhances performance on memory tasks (e.g., Hood, Macrae, Cole-Davies, & Dias, Developmental Science, 1, 67-71, 2003). Nonetheless, other studies highlight the disruptive effect direct gaze has on concurrent cognitive processes (e.g., Conty, Gimmig, Belletier, George, & Huguet, Cognition, 115(1), 133-139, 2010). This discrepancy raises questions about the effects direct gaze may have on concurrent memory tasks. We addressed this topic by employing a change detection paradigm, where participants retained information about the color of small sets of agents. Experiment 1 revealed that, despite the irrelevance of the agents' eye gaze to the memory task at hand, participants were worse at detecting changes when the agents looked directly at them compared to when the agents looked away. Experiment 2 showed that the disruptive effect was relatively short-lived. Prolonged presentation of direct gaze led to recovery from the initial disruption, rather than a sustained disruption on change detection performance. The present study provides the first evidence that direct gaze impairs visual working memory with a rapidly-developing yet short-lived effect even when there is no need to attend to agents' gaze.

Multiple Types of Memory and Everyday Functional Assessment in Older Adults.

PubMed

Beaver, Jenna; Schmitter-Edgecombe, Maureen

2017-06-01

Current proxy measures for assessing everyday functioning (e.g., questionnaires, performance-based measures, and direct observation) show discrepancies in their rating of functional status. The present study investigated the relationship between multiple proxy measures of functional status and content memory (i.e., memory for information), temporal order memory, and prospective memory in an older adult sample. A total of 197 community-dwelling older adults who did (n = 45) or did not meet (n = 152) criteria for mild cognitive impairment (MCI), completed six different assessments of functional status (two questionnaires, two performance-based tasks, and two direct observation tasks) as well as experimental measures of content memory, prospective memory, and temporal order memory. After controlling for demographics and content memory, the temporal order and prospective memory measures explained a significant amount of variance in all proxy functional status measures. When all variables were entered into the regression analyses, content memory and prospective memory were found to be significant predictors of all measures of functional status, whereas temporal order memory was a significant predictor for the questionnaire and direct observation measures, but not performance-based measures. The results suggest that direct observation and questionnaire measures may be able to capture components of everyday functioning that require context and temporal sequencing abilities, such as multi-tasking, that are not as well captured in many current laboratory performance-based measures of functional status. Future research should aim to inform the development and use of maximally effective and valid proxy measures of functional ability. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

A Characterization of Individual Differences in Prospective Memory Monitoring Using the Complex Ongoing Serial Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Savine, Adam C.; McDaniel, Mark A.; Shelton, Jill Talley; Scullin, Michael K.

2012-01-01

Prospective memory--remembering to retrieve and execute future goals--is essential to daily life. Prospective remembering is often achieved through effortful monitoring; however, potential individual differences in monitoring patterns have not been characterized. We propose 3 candidate models to characterize the individual differences present in…

Control of Cost in Prospective Memory: Evidence for Spontaneous Retrieval Processes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scullin, Michael K.; McDaniel, Mark A.; Einstein, Gilles O.

2010-01-01

To examine the processes that support prospective remembering, previous research has often examined whether the presence of a prospective memory task slows overall responding on an ongoing task. Although slowed task performance suggests that monitoring is present, this method does not clearly establish whether monitoring is functionally related to…

Distinct Neural Circuits Support Transient and Sustained Processes in Prospective Memory and Working Memory

PubMed Central

West, Robert; Braver, Todd

2009-01-01

Current theories are divided as to whether prospective memory (PM) involves primarily sustained processes such as strategic monitoring, or transient processes such as the retrieval of intentions from memory when a relevant cue is encountered. The current study examined the neural correlates of PM using a functional magnetic resonance imaging design that allows for the decomposition of brain activity into sustained and transient components. Performance of the PM task was primarily associated with sustained responses in a network including anterior prefrontal cortex (lateral Brodmann area 10), and these responses were dissociable from sustained responses associated with active maintenance in working memory. Additionally, the sustained responses in anterior prefrontal cortex correlated with faster response times for prospective responses. Prospective cues also elicited selective transient activity in a region of interest along the right middle temporal gyrus. The results support the conclusion that both sustained and transient processes contribute to efficient PM and provide novel constraints on the functional role of anterior PFC in higher-order cognition. PMID:18854581

Peer victimization during adolescence: concurrent and prospective impact on symptoms of depression and anxiety.

PubMed

Stapinski, Lexine A; Araya, Ricardo; Heron, Jon; Montgomery, Alan A; Stallard, Paul

2015-01-01

Peer victimization is ubiquitous across schools and cultures, and has the potential for long-lasting effects on the well-being of victims. To date, research has focused on the consequences of peer victimization during childhood but neglected adolescence. Peer relationships and approval become increasingly important during adolescence; thus, peer victimization at this age may have a damaging psychological impact. Participants were 5030 adolescents aged 11-16 recruited from secondary schools in the UK. Self-report measures of victimization and symptoms of anxiety and depression were administered on three occasions over a 12-month period. Latent growth models examined concurrent and prospective victimization-related elevations in anxiety and depression symptoms above individual-specific growth trajectories. Peer victimization was associated with a concurrent elevation of 0.64 and 0.56 standard deviations in depression and anxiety scores, respectively. There was an independent delayed effect, with additional elevations in depression and anxiety (0.28 and 0.25 standard deviations) six months later. These concurrent and prospective associations were independent of expected symptom trajectories informed by individual risk factors. Adolescent peer victimization was associated with immediate and delayed elevations in anxiety and depression. Early intervention aimed at identifying and supporting victimized adolescents may prevent the development of these disorders.

Locality Aware Concurrent Start for Stencil Applications

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Shrestha, Sunil; Gao, Guang R.; Manzano Franco, Joseph B.

Stencil computations are at the heart of many physical simulations used in scientific codes. Thus, there exists a plethora of optimization efforts for this family of computations. Among these techniques, tiling techniques that allow concurrent start have proven to be very efficient in providing better performance for these critical kernels. Nevertheless, with many core designs being the norm, these optimization techniques might not be able to fully exploit locality (both spatial and temporal) on multiple levels of the memory hierarchy without compromising parallelism. It is no longer true that the machine can be seen as a homogeneous collection of nodesmore » with caches, main memory and an interconnect network. New architectural designs exhibit complex grouping of nodes, cores, threads, caches and memory connected by an ever evolving network-on-chip design. These new designs may benefit greatly from carefully crafted schedules and groupings that encourage parallel actors (i.e. threads, cores or nodes) to be aware of the computational history of other actors in close proximity. In this paper, we provide an efficient tiling technique that allows hierarchical concurrent start for memory hierarchy aware tile groups. Each execution schedule and tile shape exploit the available parallelism, load balance and locality present in the given applications. We demonstrate our technique on the Intel Xeon Phi architecture with selected and representative stencil kernels. We show improvement ranging from 5.58% to 31.17% over existing state-of-the-art techniques.« less

Self-projection in younger and older adults: a study of episodic memory, prospection, and theory of mind.

PubMed

Jarvis, Shoshana N; Miller, Jeremy K

2017-07-01

Self-projection is the ability to orient the self in different places in time and space. Episodic memory, prospection, and theory of mind (ToM) are all cognitive abilities that share an element of self-projection. Previous research has posited that each of these abilities stems from the same neural network. The current study compared performance of cognitively healthy older adults and younger adults on several self-projection tasks to examine the relatedness of these constructs behaviorally. Episodic memory and prospection were measured using an episodic interview task where the participants were asked to remember or imagine events that either had happened in the past or could happen in the future and then gave ratings describing the extent to which they were mentally experiencing the event and from what perspective they viewed it. ToM was measured by asking participants to make judgments regarding the intentions of characters described in stories that involved cognitive, affective, or ironic components. Our results demonstrate that aging influences episodic memory, prospection, and ToM similarly: older adult participants showed declines on each of these measures compared to younger adults. Further, we observed correlations between performance on the measures of episodic memory and prospection as well as between episodic memory and ToM, although no correlation between prospection and ToM was observed after controlling for chronological age. We discuss these results in the light of theories suggesting that each of these abilities is governed by a common brain system.

Socioeconomic Context and Emotional-Behavioral Achievement Links: Concurrent and Prospective Associations Among Low- and High-Income Youth

PubMed Central

Ansary, Nadia S.; McMahon, Thomas J.; Luthar, Suniya S.

2012-01-01

Temporal associations in the relationship between emotional-behavioral difficulty and academic achievement were explored in 2 samples followed from 6th through 8th grade. The first sample comprised 280 students entering an economically disadvantaged urban middle school and the second comprised 318 students entering an affluent suburban middle school. Among disadvantaged youth, emotional indices were concurrently associated with poorer achievement while prospective associations between substance use and achievement were evident. For privileged adolescents, only a significant concurrent relationship emerged between social anxiety and achievement, although nonsignificant trends in the data suggest other, albeit weak, associations. The findings are discussed in terms of similarities and differences in these temporal associations across 2 samples representing extremes of the socioeconomic continuum. PMID:23129975

The nature of working memory for Braille.

PubMed

Cohen, Henri; Voss, Patrice; Lepore, Franco; Scherzer, Peter

2010-05-26

Blind individuals have been shown on multiple occasions to compensate for their loss of sight by developing exceptional abilities in their remaining senses. While most research has been focused on perceptual abilities per se in the auditory and tactile modalities, recent work has also investigated higher-order processes involving memory and language functions. Here we examined tactile working memory for Braille in two groups of visually challenged individuals (completely blind subjects, CBS; blind with residual vision, BRV). In a first experimental procedure both groups were given a Braille tactile memory span task with and without articulatory suppression, while the BRV and a sighted group performed a visual version of the task. It was shown that the Braille tactile working memory (BrWM) of CBS individuals under articulatory suppression is as efficient as that of sighted individuals' visual working memory in the same condition. Moreover, the results suggest that BrWM may be more robust in the CBS than in the BRV subjects, thus pointing to the potential role of visual experience in shaping tactile working memory. A second experiment designed to assess the nature (spatial vs. verbal) of this working memory was then carried out with two new CBS and BRV groups having to perform the Braille task concurrently with a mental arithmetic task or a mental displacement of blocks task. We show that the disruption of memory was greatest when concurrently carrying out the mental displacement of blocks, indicating that the Braille tactile subsystem of working memory is likely spatial in nature in CBS. The results also point to the multimodal nature of working memory and show how experience can shape the development of its subcomponents.

The Nature of Working Memory for Braille

PubMed Central

Cohen, Henri; Voss, Patrice; Lepore, Franco; Scherzer, Peter

2010-01-01

Blind individuals have been shown on multiple occasions to compensate for their loss of sight by developing exceptional abilities in their remaining senses. While most research has been focused on perceptual abilities per se in the auditory and tactile modalities, recent work has also investigated higher-order processes involving memory and language functions. Here we examined tactile working memory for Braille in two groups of visually challenged individuals (completely blind subjects, CBS; blind with residual vision, BRV). In a first experimental procedure both groups were given a Braille tactile memory span task with and without articulatory suppression, while the BRV and a sighted group performed a visual version of the task. It was shown that the Braille tactile working memory (BrWM) of CBS individuals under articulatory suppression is as efficient as that of sighted individuals' visual working memory in the same condition. Moreover, the results suggest that BrWM may be more robust in the CBS than in the BRV subjects, thus pointing to the potential role of visual experience in shaping tactile working memory. A second experiment designed to assess the nature (spatial vs. verbal) of this working memory was then carried out with two new CBS and BRV groups having to perform the Braille task concurrently with a mental arithmetic task or a mental displacement of blocks task. We show that the disruption of memory was greatest when concurrently carrying out the mental displacement of blocks, indicating that the Braille tactile subsystem of working memory is likely spatial in nature in CBS. The results also point to the multimodal nature of working memory and show how experience can shape the development of its subcomponents. PMID:20520807

Prospective memory functioning among ecstasy/polydrug users: evidence from the Cambridge Prospective Memory Test (CAMPROMPT).

PubMed

Hadjiefthyvoulou, Florentia; Fisk, John E; Montgomery, Catharine; Bridges, Nikola

2011-06-01

Prospective memory (PM) deficits in recreational drug users have been documented in recent years. However, the assessment of PM has largely been restricted to self-reported measures that fail to capture the distinction between event-based and time-based PM. The aim of the present study is to address this limitation. Extending our previous research, we augmented the range laboratory measures of PM by employing the CAMPROMPT test battery to investigate the impact of illicit drug use on prospective remembering in a sample of cannabis only, ecstasy/polydrug and non-users of illicit drugs, separating event and time-based PM performance. We also administered measures of executive function and retrospective memory in order to establish whether ecstasy/polydrug deficits in PM were mediated by group differences in these processes. Ecstasy/polydrug users performed significantly worse on both event and time-based prospective memory tasks in comparison to both cannabis only and non-user groups. Furthermore, it was found that across the whole sample, better retrospective memory and executive functioning was associated with superior PM performance. Nevertheless, this association did not mediate the drug-related effects that were observed. Consistent with our previous study, recreational use of cocaine was linked to PM deficits. PM deficits have again been found among ecstasy/polydrug users, which appear to be unrelated to group differences in executive function and retrospective memory. However, the possibility that these are attributable to cocaine use cannot be excluded.

The Role of Extrinsic Rewards and Cue-Intention Association in Prospective Memory in Young Children.

PubMed

Sheppard, Daniel Patrick; Kretschmer, Anett; Knispel, Elisa; Vollert, Bianka; Altgassen, Mareike

2015-01-01

The current study examined, for the first time, the effect of cue-intention association, as well as the effects of promised extrinsic rewards, on prospective memory in young children, aged 5-years-old (n = 39) and 7-years-old (n = 40). Children were asked to name pictures for a toy mole, whilst also having to remember to respond differently to certain target pictures (prospective memory task). The level to which the target picture was associated with the intention was manipulated across two conditions (low- or high-association) for all participants, whilst half of the participants were promised a reward for good prospective memory performance. Results showed a main effect of age, with the 7-year-olds outperforming the 5-year-olds. Furthermore, there was a main effect of reward, with those promised a reward performing better than those who were not. No effect was found for cue-association, with the participants of both age groups performing equally well in both association conditions. No significant interactions were found between any of the variables. The potentially important role of reward in young children's everyday prospective memory tasks, and possible reasons for the lack of a reflexive-associative effect, are discussed.

Future thinking improves prospective memory performance and plan enactment in older adults.

PubMed

Altgassen, Mareike; Rendell, Peter G; Bernhard, Anka; Henry, Julie D; Bailey, Phoebe E; Phillips, Louise H; Kliegel, Matthias

2015-01-01

Efficient intention formation might improve prospective memory by reducing the need for resource-demanding strategic processes during the delayed performance interval. The present study set out to test this assumption and provides the first empirical assessment of whether imagining a future action improves prospective memory performance equivalently at different stages of the adult lifespan. Thus, younger (n = 40) and older (n = 40) adults were asked to complete the Dresden Breakfast Task, which required them to prepare breakfast in accordance with a set of rules and time restrictions. All participants began by generating a plan for later enactment; however, after making this plan, half of the participants were required to imagine themselves completing the task in the future (future thinking condition), while the other half received standard instructions (control condition). As expected, overall younger adults outperformed older adults. Moreover, both older and younger adults benefited equally from future thinking instructions, as reflected in a higher proportion of prospective memory responses and more accurate plan execution. Thus, for both younger and older adults, imagining the specific visual-spatial context in which an intention will later be executed may serve as an easy-to-implement strategy that enhances prospective memory function in everyday life.

Negative Prospective Memory in Alzheimer's Disease: "Do Not Perform That Action".

PubMed

El Haj, Mohamad; Coello, Yann; Kapogiannis, Dimitrios; Gallouj, Karim; Antoine, Pascal

2018-01-01

Relatively to "standard" prospective memory, i.e., remembering to perform a future action, little is known about negative prospective memory, i.e., remembering not to perform a future action. This study investigated the latter ability in Alzheimer's disease (AD). AD participants and healthy older adults were asked to click on the keyboard or not to click on it when a cue word was encountered. Results showed more omissions (i.e., forgetting to click the keyboard when the instruction was to do so) in AD participants than in healthy older adults, suggesting a prospective memory deficit. Interestingly, more commissions (i.e., clicking the keyboard when the instruction was not to do so) were also observed in AD participants than in healthy older adults. Similar levels of commissions and omissions were observed in AD participants and in healthy older adults. Also, commissions and omissions were correlated with performance on an inhibition assessment task. Our findings reveal that AD is characterized by not only difficulty in the retrieval of recent information, but also difficulty to inhibit no-longer appropriate stimulus-response associations previously learned, suggesting a specific deficit of negative prospective memory in AD.

A Connectionist/Control Architecture for Working Memory and Workload: Why Working Memory Is Not 7+ /-2

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-09-29

load on the centra and regional controllers. Strategy #S: Reduce message Chase. W.G., & Ericsson. K.A. ( 1082 ). Skill andInterference of concurrently...bypsycholocy Lf learning and motivation. Vol. Ia. strengthening region. to,.region connections on theNeYokAcdmcPs. innerlooip. Crowder, R.G. ( 1082

The Effects of Concurrent Verbal and Visual Tasks on Category Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miles, Sarah J.; Minda, John Paul

2011-01-01

Current theories of category learning posit separate verbal and nonverbal learning systems. Past research suggests that the verbal system relies on verbal working memory and executive functioning and learns rule-defined categories; the nonverbal system does not rely on verbal working memory and learns non-rule-defined categories (E. M. Waldron…

SAHAYOG: A Testbed for Load Sharing under Failure,

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-07-01

messages, shared memory and semaphores . To communicate using messages, processes create message queues using system-provided prim- itives. The message...The size of the memory that is to be shared is decided by the process when it makes a request for memory allocation. The semaphore option of IPC can be...used to prevent two or more concurrent processes from executing their critical sections at the same time. Semaphores must be used when the processes

A concurrent resolution expressing the sense of Congress that an appropriate site on Chaplains Hill in Arlington National Cemetery should be provided for a memorial marker to honor the memory of the Jewish chaplains who died while on active duty in the Armed Forces of the United States.

THOMAS, 112th Congress

Sen. Schumer, Charles E. [D-NY

2011-01-26

House - 06/24/2011 Referred to the Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs. (All Actions) Tracker: This bill has the status Agreed to in SenateHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Internalizing versus Externalizing Control: Different Ways to Perform a Time-Based Prospective Memory Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Tracy; Loft, Shayne; Humphreys, Michael S.

2014-01-01

"Time-based prospective memory" (PM) refers to performing intended actions at a future time. Participants with time-based PM tasks can be slower to perform ongoing tasks (costs) than participants without PM tasks because internal control is required to maintain the PM intention or to make prospective-timing estimates. However, external…

From memory to prospection: what are the overlapping and the distinct components between remembering and imagining?

PubMed Central

Zheng, Huimin; Luo, Jiayi; Yu, Rongjun

2014-01-01

Reflecting on past events and reflecting on future events are two fundamentally different processes, each traveling in the opposite direction of the other through conceptual time. But what we are able to imagine seems to be constrained by what we have previously experienced, suggesting a close link between memory and prospection. Recent theories suggest that recalling the past lies at the core of imagining and planning for the future. The existence of this link is supported by evidence gathered from neuroimaging, lesion, and developmental studies. Yet it is not clear exactly how the novel episodes people construct in their sense of the future develop out of their historical memories. There must be intermediary processes that utilize memory as a basis on which to generate future oriented thinking. Here, we review studies on goal-directed processing, associative learning, cognitive control, and creativity and link them with research on prospection. We suggest that memory cooperates with additional functions like goal-directed learning to construct and simulate novel events, especially self-referential events. The coupling between memory-related hippocampus and other brain regions may underlie such memory-based prospection. Abnormalities in this constructive process may contribute to mental disorders such as schizophrenia. PMID:25147532

[Early episodic memory impairments in Alzheimer's disease].

PubMed

Ergis, A-M; Eusop-Roussel, E

2008-05-01

Patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) show early episodic memory impairments. Such deficits reflect specific impairments affecting one or several stages of encoding, storage and retrieval processes. However, AD patients not only have great difficulty retrieving memories and information but also suffer from distortions of memory, as intrusions and false recognitions. Intrusions can be defined as the unintentional recall of inappropriate information in a laboratory-learning tasks such as word-list recall and story recall. False recognition refers to the erroneous recognition of information that was not previously presented. The first objective of this review is to present studies from the literature that allowed a better understanding of the nature of episodic memory deficits in AD, and to examine recent research on false memories. The second part of this review is aimed at presenting recent research conducted on prospective memory (PM) in Alzheimer's disease. Prospective memory situations involve forming intentions and then realizing those intentions at some appropriate time in the future. Everyday examples of prospective memory include remembering to buy bread on the way home from work, remembering to give friends a message upon next encountering them, and remembering to take medication. Patients suffering from AD show difficulties in performing prospective tasks in daily life, according to the complaints of their care givers, and these difficulties are massively present at the first stages of the disease. Nevertheless, very few studies have been dedicated to this subject, although the evaluation of PM could be helpful for the early diagnosis of AD.

Self-Reports of Increased Prospective and Retrospective Memory Problems in Adults with Developmental Dyslexia.

PubMed

Smith-Spark, James H; Zięcik, Adam P; Sterling, Christopher

2016-08-01

Short-term and working memory problems in dyslexia are well-documented, but other memory domains have received little empirical scrutiny, despite some evidence to suggest that they might be impaired. Prospective memory is memory for delayed intentions, whilst retrospective memory relates to memory for personally experienced past events. To gain an understanding of subjective everyday memory experience, a self-report measure designed to tap prospective and retrospective memory was administered to 28 adults with dyslexia and 26 IQ-matched adults without dyslexia. Adults with dyslexia reported experiencing significantly more frequent problems with memory than the adults without dyslexia. Group differences were found across seven out of the eight questionnaire scales. Further to these analyses, the participants' own ratings were compared with proxy ratings provided by close associates. The perception of poorer memory abilities in the participants did not differ between respondent types. The self-reported difficulties are, thus, unlikely to be the result of lowered self-esteem or metacognitive awareness. More frequent difficulties with both types of memory would seem, therefore, to be experienced by adults with dyslexia in everyday life. Further laboratory-based research is recommended to explore both memory domains in dyslexia and to identify the cognitive mechanisms by which these problems occur. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Evidence for spontaneous retrieval of suspended but not finished prospective memories.

PubMed

Scullin, Michael K; Einstein, Gilles O; McDaniel, Mark A

2009-06-01

McDaniel and Einstein (2007) argued that prospective memories can be retrieved through spontaneous retrieval processes stimulated by the presence of a target cue. To test this claim, we investigated whether presenting a prospective memory cue during a task that did not require an intention to be performed spontaneously triggered remembering of that intention. In two experiments, participants performed an image-rating task in which a prospective memory task (to press the "Q" key when a target word appeared) was embedded. Then, participants were told that their intention was finished or suspended. Finally, participants performed a lexical decision task in which each target (and a matched control) word appeared. RTs were slower to target words than to control words when the intention was suspended but not when it was finished. These results suggest that target cues associated with suspended intentions can spontaneously trigger remembering but that finished intentions are quickly deactivated.

Effects of 45-day -6° head-down bed rest on the time-based prospective memory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, SiYi; Zhou, RenLai; Xiu, LiChao; Chen, ShanGuang; Chen, XiaoPing; Tan, Cheng

2013-03-01

The research explored the effects of 45-day -6° head-down bed rest (HDBR) simulation of microgravity on the time-based prospective memory (PM) with 16 males. The time-based prospective memory task was performed on the 2nd day before HDBR, on the 11th, 20th, 32nd, and 40th days during HDBR, and on the 8th day after HDBR, and subjects' anxiety and depression feelings were recorded simultaneously using Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The results demonstrated that it showed decreased accuracy of PM responses and frequency of clock checks during and after bed rest; long term bed rest did not induce significant emotional changes. The deficit of prospective memory performance induced by long term HDBR may result from a lack of aerobic physical activity or changes in the prefrontal cortex, but it remains to be determined.

Prospective Elementary School Teachers' Views about Socioscientific Issues: A Concurrent Parallel Design Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Özden, Muhammet

2015-01-01

The purpose of this research is to examine the prospective elementary school teachers' perceptions on socioscientific issues. The research was conducted on prospective elementary school teachers studying at a university located in western Turkey. The researcher first taught the subjects of global warming and nuclear power plants from a perspective…

Visual-spatial processing and working-memory load as a function of negative and positive psychotic-like experiences.

PubMed

Abu-Akel, A; Reniers, R L E P; Wood, S J

2016-09-01

Patients with schizophrenia show impairments in working-memory and visual-spatial processing, but little is known about the dynamic interplay between the two. To provide insight into this important question, we examined the effect of positive and negative symptom expressions in healthy adults on perceptual processing while concurrently performing a working-memory task that requires the allocations of various degrees of cognitive resources. The effect of positive and negative symptom expressions in healthy adults (N = 91) on perceptual processing was examined in a dual-task paradigm of visual-spatial working memory (VSWM) under three conditions of cognitive load: a baseline condition (with no concurrent working-memory demand), a low VSWM load condition, and a high VSWM load condition. Participants overall performed more efficiently (i.e., faster) with increasing cognitive load. This facilitation in performance was unrelated to symptom expressions. However, participants with high-negative, low-positive symptom expressions were less accurate in the low VSWM condition compared to the baseline and the high VSWM load conditions. Attenuated, subclinical expressions of psychosis affect cognitive performance that is impaired in schizophrenia. The "resource limitations hypothesis" may explain the performance of the participants with high-negative symptom expressions. The dual-task of visual-spatial processing and working memory may be beneficial to assessing the cognitive phenotype of individuals with high risk for schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Memory Retrieval Given Two Independent Cues: Cue Selection or Parallel Access?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rickard, Timothy C.; Bajic, Daniel

2004-01-01

A basic but unresolved issue in the study of memory retrieval is whether multiple independent cues can be used concurrently (i.e., in parallel) to recall a single, common response. A number of empirical results, as well as potentially applicable theories, suggest that retrieval can proceed in parallel, though Rickard (1997) set forth a model that…

The Effects of Involvement, Message Appeal, and Viewing Conditions on Memory and Evaluation of TV Commercials.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nowak, Glen; Thorson, Esther

A study tested an information processing model that incorporates the concepts of episodic and semantic memory. The model was designed to provide for the concurrent study of three advertising and communication variables: product involvement, message appeal, and distraction in viewing conditions. Among the five hypotheses being tested were that…

Articulatory Suppression in Language Interpretation: Working Memory Capacity, Dual Tasking and Word Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Padilla, Francisca; Bajo, Maria Teresa; Macizo, Pedro

2005-01-01

How do interpreters manage to cope with the adverse effects of concurrent articulation while trying to comprehend the message in the source language? In Experiments 1-3, we explored three possible working memory (WM) functions that may underlie the ability to simultaneously comprehend and produce in the interpreters: WM storage capacity,…

Effects of ongoing task context and target typicality on prospective memory performance: the importance of associative cueing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nowinski, Jessica Lang; Dismukes, Key R.

2005-01-01

Two experiments examined whether prospective memory performance is influenced by contextual cues. In our automatic activation model, any information available at encoding and retrieval should aid recall of the prospective task. The first experiment demonstrated an effect of the ongoing task context; performance was better when information about the ongoing task present at retrieval was available at encoding. Performance was also improved by a strong association between the prospective memory target as it was presented at retrieval and the intention as it was encoded. Experiment 2 demonstrated boundary conditions of the ongoing task context effect, which implicate the association between the ongoing and prospective tasks formed at encoding as the source of the context effect. The results of this study are consistent with predictions based on automatic activation of intentions.

Glucocorticoids in the prefrontal cortex enhance memory consolidation and impair working memory by a common neural mechanism

PubMed Central

Barsegyan, Areg; Mackenzie, Scott M.; Kurose, Brian D.; McGaugh, James L.; Roozendaal, Benno

2010-01-01

It is well established that acute administration of adrenocortical hormones enhances the consolidation of memories of emotional experiences and, concurrently, impairs working memory. These different glucocorticoid effects on these two memory functions have generally been considered to be independently regulated processes. Here we report that a glucocorticoid receptor agonist administered into the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of male Sprague-Dawley rats both enhances memory consolidation and impairs working memory. Both memory effects are mediated by activation of a membrane-bound steroid receptor and depend on noradrenergic activity within the mPFC to increase levels of cAMP-dependent protein kinase. These findings provide direct evidence that glucocorticoid effects on both memory consolidation and working memory share a common neural influence within the mPFC. PMID:20810923

Full versus divided attention and implicit memory performance.

PubMed

Wolters, G; Prinsen, A

1997-11-01

Effects of full and divided attention during study on explicit and implicit memory performance were investigated in two experiments. Study time was manipulated in a third experiment. Experiment 1 showed that both similar and dissociative effects can be found in the two kinds of memory test, depending on the difficulty of the concurrent tasks used in the divided-attention condition. In this experiment, however, standard implicit memory tests were used and contamination by explicit memory influences cannot be ruled out. Therefore, in Experiments 2 and 3 the process dissociation procedure was applied. Manipulations of attention during study and of study time clearly affected the controlled (explicit) memory component, but had no effect on the automatic (implicit) memory component. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

Executive and Theory-of-Mind Contributions to Event-Based Prospective Memory in Children: Exploring the Self-Projection Hypothesis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ford, Ruth M.; Driscoll, Timothy; Shum, David; Macaulay, Catrin E.

2012-01-01

In two studies, 4- to 6-year-olds were asked to name pictures of animals for the benefit of a watching hand puppet (the ongoing task) but to refrain from naming and to remove from view any pictures of dogs (the prospective memory [PM] task). Children also completed assessments of verbal ability, cognitive inhibition, working memory, and…

Changing Behavior by Memory Aids: A Social Psychological Model of Prospective Memory and Habit Development Tested with Dynamic Field Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tobias, Robert

2009-01-01

This article presents a social psychological model of prospective memory and habit development. The model is based on relevant research literature, and its dynamics were investigated by computer simulations. Time-series data from a behavior-change campaign in Cuba were used for calibration and validation of the model. The model scored well in…

Parallel State Space Construction for a Model Checking Based on Maximality Semantics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

El Abidine Bouneb, Zine; Saīdouni, Djamel Eddine

2009-03-01

The main limiting factor of the model checker integrated in the concurrency verification environment FOCOVE [1, 2], which use the maximality based labeled transition system (noted MLTS) as a true concurrency model[3, 4], is currently the amount of available physical memory. Many techniques have been developed to reduce the size of a state space. An interesting technique among them is the alpha equivalence reduction. Distributed memory execution environment offers yet another choice. The main contribution of the paper is to show that the parallel state space construction algorithm proposed in [5], which is based on interleaving semantics using LTS as semantic model, may be adapted easily to the distributed implementation of the alpha equivalence reduction for the maximality based labeled transition systems.

Assessing risk-adjustment approaches under non-random selection.

PubMed

Luft, Harold S; Dudley, R Adams

2004-01-01

Various approaches have been proposed to adjust for differences in enrollee risk in health plans. Because risk-selection strategies may have different effects on enrollment, we simulated three types of selection--dumping, skimming, and stinting. Concurrent diagnosis-based risk adjustment, and a hybrid using concurrent adjustment for about 8% of the cases and prospective adjustment for the rest, perform markedly better than prospective or demographic adjustments, both in terms of R2 and the extent to which plans experience unwarranted gains or losses. The simulation approach offers a valuable tool for analysts in assessing various risk-adjustment strategies under different selection situations.

Not All Attention Orienting is Created Equal: Recognition Memory is Enhanced When Attention Orienting Involves Distractor Suppression

PubMed Central

Markant, Julie; Worden, Michael S.; Amso, Dima

2015-01-01

Learning through visual exploration often requires orienting of attention to meaningful information in a cluttered world. Previous work has shown that attention modulates visual cortex activity, with enhanced activity for attended targets and suppressed activity for competing inputs, thus enhancing the visual experience. Here we examined the idea that learning may be engaged differentially with variations in attention orienting mechanisms that drive driving eye movements during visual search and exploration. We hypothesized that attention orienting mechanisms that engaged suppression of a previously attended location will boost memory encoding of the currently attended target objects to a greater extent than those that involve target enhancement alone To test this hypothesis we capitalized on the classic spatial cueing task and the inhibition of return (IOR) mechanism (Posner, Rafal, & Choate, 1985; Posner, 1980) to demonstrate that object images encoded in the context of concurrent suppression at a previously attended location were encoded more effectively and remembered better than those encoded without concurrent suppression. Furthermore, fMRI analyses revealed that this memory benefit was driven by attention modulation of visual cortex activity, as increased suppression of the previously attended location in visual cortex during target object encoding predicted better subsequent recognition memory performance. These results suggest that not all attention orienting impacts learning and memory equally. PMID:25701278

Modality specificity and integration in working memory: Insights from visuospatial bootstrapping.

PubMed

Allen, Richard J; Havelka, Jelena; Falcon, Thomas; Evans, Sally; Darling, Stephen

2015-05-01

The question of how meaningful associations between verbal and spatial information might be utilized to facilitate working memory performance is potentially highly instructive for models of memory function. The present study explored how separable processing capacities within specialized domains might each contribute to this, by examining the disruptive impacts of simple verbal and spatial concurrent tasks on young adults' recall of visually presented digit sequences encountered either in a single location or within a meaningful spatial "keypad" configuration. The previously observed advantage for recall in the latter condition (the "visuospatial bootstrapping effect") consistently emerged across 3 experiments, indicating use of familiar spatial information in boosting verbal memory. The magnitude of this effect interacted with concurrent activity; articulatory suppression during encoding disrupted recall to a greater extent when digits were presented in single locations (Experiment 1), while spatial tapping during encoding had a larger impact on the keypad condition and abolished the visuospatial bootstrapping advantage (Experiment 2). When spatial tapping was performed during recall (Experiment 3), no task by display interaction was observed. Outcomes are discussed within the context of the multicomponent model of working memory, with a particular emphasis on cross-domain storage in the episodic buffer (Baddeley, 2000). (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Neural evidence of the strategic choice between working memory and episodic memory in prospective remembering.

PubMed

Lewis-Peacock, Jarrod A; Cohen, Jonathan D; Norman, Kenneth A

2016-12-01

Theories of prospective memory (PM) posit that it can be subserved either by working memory (WM) or episodic memory (EM). Testing and refining these multiprocess theories of PM requires a way of tracking participants' reliance on WM versus EM. Here we use multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to derive a trial-by-trial measure of WM use in prospective memory. We manipulated strategy demands by varying the degree of proactive interference (which impairs EM) and the memory load required to perform the secondary task (which impairs WM). For the condition in which participants were pushed to rely more on WM, our MVPA measures showed 1) greater WM use and 2) a trial-by-trial correlation between WM use and PM behavior. Finally, we also showed that MVPA measures of WM use are not redundant with other behavioral measures: in the condition in which participants were pushed more to rely on WM, using neural and behavioral measures together led to better prediction of PM accuracy than either measure on its own. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Acute stress affects prospective memory functions via associative memory processes.

PubMed

Szőllősi, Ágnes; Pajkossy, Péter; Demeter, Gyula; Kéri, Szabolcs; Racsmány, Mihály

2018-01-01

Recent findings suggest that acute stress can improve the execution of delayed intentions (prospective memory, PM). However, it is unclear whether this improvement can be explained by altered executive control processes or by altered associative memory functioning. To investigate this issue, we used physical-psychosocial stressors to induce acute stress in laboratory settings. Then participants completed event- and time-based PM tasks requiring the different contribution of control processes and a control task (letter fluency) frequently used to measure executive functions. According to our results, acute stress had no impact on ongoing task performance, time-based PM, and verbal fluency, whereas it enhanced event-based PM as measured by response speed for the prospective cues. Our findings indicate that, here, acute stress did not affect executive control processes. We suggest that stress affected event-based PM via associative memory processes. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Memory consolidation reconfigures neural pathways involved in the suppression of emotional memories

PubMed Central

Liu, Yunzhe; Lin, Wanjun; Liu, Chao; Luo, Yuejia; Wu, Jianhui; Bayley, Peter J.; Qin, Shaozheng

2016-01-01

The ability to suppress unwanted emotional memories is crucial for human mental health. Through consolidation over time, emotional memories often become resistant to change. However, how consolidation impacts the effectiveness of emotional memory suppression is still unknown. Using event-related fMRI while concurrently recording skin conductance, we investigated the neurobiological processes underlying the suppression of aversive memories before and after overnight consolidation. Here we report that consolidated aversive memories retain their emotional reactivity and become more resistant to suppression. Suppression of consolidated memories involves higher prefrontal engagement, and less concomitant hippocampal and amygdala disengagement. In parallel, we show a shift away from hippocampal-dependent representational patterns to distributed neocortical representational patterns in the suppression of aversive memories after consolidation. These findings demonstrate rapid changes in emotional memory organization with overnight consolidation, and suggest possible neurobiological bases underlying the resistance to suppression of emotional memories in affective disorders. PMID:27898050

Heterogeneous concurrent computing with exportable services

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sunderam, Vaidy

1995-01-01

Heterogeneous concurrent computing, based on the traditional process-oriented model, is approaching its functionality and performance limits. An alternative paradigm, based on the concept of services, supporting data driven computation, and built on a lightweight process infrastructure, is proposed to enhance the functional capabilities and the operational efficiency of heterogeneous network-based concurrent computing. TPVM is an experimental prototype system supporting exportable services, thread-based computation, and remote memory operations that is built as an extension of and an enhancement to the PVM concurrent computing system. TPVM offers a significantly different computing paradigm for network-based computing, while maintaining a close resemblance to the conventional PVM model in the interest of compatibility and ease of transition Preliminary experiences have demonstrated that the TPVM framework presents a natural yet powerful concurrent programming interface, while being capable of delivering performance improvements of upto thirty percent.

Memory-Guided Attention: Independent Contributions of the Hippocampus and Striatum.

PubMed

Goldfarb, Elizabeth V; Chun, Marvin M; Phelps, Elizabeth A

2016-01-20

Memory can strongly influence how attention is deployed in future encounters. Though memory dependent on the medial temporal lobes has been shown to drive attention, how other memory systems could concurrently and comparably enhance attention is less clear. Here, we demonstrate that both reinforcement learning and context memory facilitate attention in a visual search task. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we dissociate the mechanisms by which these memories guide attention: trial by trial, the hippocampus (not the striatum) predicted attention benefits from context memory, while the striatum (not the hippocampus) predicted facilitation from rewarded stimulus-response associations. Responses in these regions were also distinctly correlated with individual differences in each type of memory-guided attention. This study provides novel evidence for the role of the striatum in guiding attention, dissociable from hippocampus-dependent context memory.

Memory-Guided Attention: Independent Contributions of the Hippocampus and Striatum

PubMed Central

Goldfarb, Elizabeth V.; Chun, Marvin M.; Phelps, Elizabeth A.

2015-01-01

SUMMARY Memory can strongly influence how attention is deployed in future encounters. Though memory dependent on the medial temporal lobes has been shown to drive attention, how other memory systems could concurrently and comparably enhance attention is less clear. Here, we demonstrate that both reinforcement learning and context memory facilitate attention in a visual search task. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we dissociate the mechanisms by which these memories guide attention: trial by trial, the hippocampus (not the striatum) predicted attention benefits from context memory, while the striatum (not the hippocampus) predicted facilitation from rewarded stimulus-response associations. Responses in these regions were also distinctly correlated with individual differences in each type of memory-guided attention. This study provides novel evidence for the role of the striatum in guiding attention, dissociable from hippocampus-dependent context memory. PMID:26777274

An Adaptive Memory Interface Controller for Improving Bandwidth Utilization of Hybrid and Reconfigurable Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Castellana, Vito G.; Tumeo, Antonino; Ferrandi, Fabrizio

Emerging applications such as data mining, bioinformatics, knowledge discovery, social network analysis are irregular. They use data structures based on pointers or linked lists, such as graphs, unbalanced trees or unstructures grids, which generates unpredictable memory accesses. These data structures usually are large, but difficult to partition. These applications mostly are memory bandwidth bounded and have high synchronization intensity. However, they also have large amounts of inherent dynamic parallelism, because they potentially perform a task for each one of the element they are exploring. Several efforts are looking at accelerating these applications on hybrid architectures, which integrate general purpose processorsmore » with reconfigurable devices. Some solutions, which demonstrated significant speedups, include custom-hand tuned accelerators or even full processor architectures on the reconfigurable logic. In this paper we present an approach for the automatic synthesis of accelerators from C, targeted at irregular applications. In contrast to typical High Level Synthesis paradigms, which construct a centralized Finite State Machine, our approach generates dynamically scheduled hardware components. While parallelism exploitation in typical HLS-generated accelerators is usually bound within a single execution flow, our solution allows concurrently running multiple execution flow, thus also exploiting the coarser grain task parallelism of irregular applications. Our approach supports multiple, multi-ported and distributed memories, and atomic memory operations. Its main objective is parallelizing as many memory operations as possible, independently from their execution time, to maximize the memory bandwidth utilization. This significantly differs from current HLS flows, which usually consider a single memory port and require precise scheduling of memory operations. A key innovation of our approach is the generation of a memory interface controller, which dynamically maps concurrent memory accesses to multiple ports. We present a case study on a typical irregular kernel, Graph Breadth First search (BFS), exploring different tradeoffs in terms of parallelism and number of memories.« less

Predicting remembering and forgetting of autobiographical memories in children and adults: A 4-year prospective study

PubMed Central

Bauer, Patricia J.; Larkina, Marina

2015-01-01

Preservation and loss to forgetting of autobiographical memories is a focus in both the adult and developmental literatures. In both, there are comparative arguments regarding rates of forgetting. Children are assumed to forget autobiographical memories more rapidly than adults, and younger children are assumed to forget more rapidly than older children. Yet few studies can directly inform these comparisons: few feature children and adults, and few prospectively track the survival of specific autobiographical memories over time. In a 4-year prospective study, we obtained autobiographical memories from children 4, 6, and 8 years, and adults. We tested recall of different subsets of the events after 1, 2, and 3 years. Accelerated rates of forgetting were apparent among all child groups relative to adults; within the child groups, 4- and 6-year-olds had accelerated forgetting relative to 8-year-olds. The differences were especially pronounced in open-ended recall. The thematic coherence of initial memory reports also was a significant predictor of the survival of specific memories. The pattern of findings is consistent with suggestions that the adult distribution of autobiographical memories is achieved as the quality of memory traces increases (here measured by thematic coherence) and the rate of forgetting decreases. PMID:26566236

Concurrent Image Processing Executive (CIPE). Volume 1: Design overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, Meemong; Groom, Steven L.; Mazer, Alan S.; Williams, Winifred I.

1990-01-01

The design and implementation of a Concurrent Image Processing Executive (CIPE), which is intended to become the support system software for a prototype high performance science analysis workstation are described. The target machine for this software is a JPL/Caltech Mark 3fp Hypercube hosted by either a MASSCOMP 5600 or a Sun-3, Sun-4 workstation; however, the design will accommodate other concurrent machines of similar architecture, i.e., local memory, multiple-instruction-multiple-data (MIMD) machines. The CIPE system provides both a multimode user interface and an applications programmer interface, and has been designed around four loosely coupled modules: user interface, host-resident executive, hypercube-resident executive, and application functions. The loose coupling between modules allows modification of a particular module without significantly affecting the other modules in the system. In order to enhance hypercube memory utilization and to allow expansion of image processing capabilities, a specialized program management method, incremental loading, was devised. To minimize data transfer between host and hypercube, a data management method which distributes, redistributes, and tracks data set information was implemented. The data management also allows data sharing among application programs. The CIPE software architecture provides a flexible environment for scientific analysis of complex remote sensing image data, such as planetary data and imaging spectrometry, utilizing state-of-the-art concurrent computation capabilities.

Turn Off the Music! Music Impairs Visual Associative Memory Performance in Older Adults

PubMed Central

Reaves, Sarah; Graham, Brittany; Grahn, Jessica; Rabannifard, Parissa; Duarte, Audrey

2016-01-01

Purpose of the Study: Whether we are explicitly listening to it or not, music is prevalent in our environment. Surprisingly, little is known about the effect of environmental music on concurrent cognitive functioning and whether young and older adults are differentially affected by music. Here, we investigated the impact of background music on a concurrent paired associate learning task in healthy young and older adults. Design and Methods: Young and older adults listened to music or to silence while simultaneously studying face–name pairs. Participants’ memory for the pairs was then tested while listening to either the same or different music. Participants also made subjective ratings about how distracting they found each song to be. Results: Despite the fact that all participants rated music as more distracting to their performance than silence, only older adults’ associative memory performance was impaired by music. These results are most consistent with the theory that older adults’ failure to inhibit processing of distracting task-irrelevant information, in this case background music, contributes to their memory impairments. Implications: These data have important practical implications for older adults’ ability to perform cognitively demanding tasks even in what many consider to be an unobtrusive environment. PMID:26035876

Fluid mechanics moderate the effect of implementation intentions on a health prospective memory task in older adults.

PubMed

Brom, Sarah Susanne; Schnitzspahn, Katharina Marlene; Melzer, Marlen; Hagner, Franziska; Bernhard, Anka; Kliegel, Matthias

2014-03-01

The aim of the present study was to test if a cognitive strategy improves older adults' prospective memory performance in a naturalistic health task. Moreover, it was tested if a possible strategy effect is moderated by individual differences. Therefore, a group of older adults was asked to perform a task taken from the medication adherence literature (i.e., blood pressure monitoring). Half of them were asked to form implementation intentions. Additionally, crystallized pragmatics and fluid mechanics, conscientiousness, self-efficacy, and lifestyle factors were assessed as possible moderators. Results showed a strong positive strategy effect on prospective memory. Moreover, the effect was qualified by a significant interaction and only emerged for participants with low levels in fluid mechanics. No other moderator showed an effect. In conclusion, an enhancing effect of implementation intentions on prospective memory seems to be dependent on individual differences in cognitive capacity and less related to key motivational or personality variables.

Memory complaints in subjective cognitive impairment, amnestic mild cognitive impairment and mild Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Ryu, Seon Young; Lee, Sang Bong; Kim, Tae Woo; Lee, Taek Jun

2016-12-01

Memory complaints are a frequent phenomenon in elderly individuals and can lead to opportunistic help-seeking behavior. The aim of this study was to compare different aspects of memory complaints (i.e., prospective versus retrospective complaints) in individuals with subjective cognitive impairment (SCI), amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), and mild Alzheimer's disease (AD). The study included a total of 115 participants (mean age: 68.82 ± 8.83 years) with SCI (n = 34), aMCI (n = 46), and mild AD (n = 35). Memory complaints were assessed using the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ), which consists of 16 items that describe everyday memory failure of both prospective memory (PM) and retrospective memory (RM). For aMCI and AD subjects, informants also completed an informant-rating of the PRMQ. All participants completed detailed neuropsychological tests. Results show that PM complaints were equivalent among the three groups. However, RM complaints differed. Specifically, RM complaints in aMCI were higher than SCI, but similar to AD. Informant-reported memory complaints were higher for AD than aMCI. Our study suggests that RM complaints of memory complaints may be helpful in discriminating between SCI and aMCI, but both PM and RM complaints are of limited value in differentiating aMCI from AD.

The Royal Road to Time: How Understanding of the Evolution of Time in the Brain Addresses Memory, Dreaming, Flow, and Other Psychological Phenomena.

PubMed

Hancock, Peter A

2015-01-01

It has been claimed that dreams are the royal road to the unconscious mind. The present work argues that dreams and associated brain states such as memory, attention, flow, and perhaps even consciousness itself arise from diverse conflicts over control of time in the brain. Dreams are the brain's offline efforts to distill projections of the future, while memory represents the vestiges of the past successes and survived failures of those and other conscious projections. Memory thus acts to inform and improve the prediction of possible future states through the use of conscious prospects (planning) and unconscious prospective memory (dreams). When successful, these prospects result in states of flow for conscious planning and déjà vu for its unconscious comparator. In consequence, and contrary to normal expectation, memory is overwhelmingly oriented to deal with the future. Consciousness is the comparable process operating in the present moment. Thus past, present, and future are homeomorphic with the parts of memory (episodic and autobiographical) that recall a personal past, consciousness, and the differing dimensions of prospective memory to plan for future circumstances, respectively. Dreaming (i.e., unconscious prospective memory), has the luxury to run multiple "what if" simulations of many possible futures, essentially offline. I explicate these propositions and their relations to allied constructs such as déjà vu and flow. More generally, I propose that what appear to us as a range of normal psychological experiences are actually manifestations of an ongoing pathological battle for control within the brain. The landscape of this conflict is time. I suggest that there are at least 3 general systems bidding for this control, and in the process of evolution, each system has individually conferred a sequentially increasing survival advantage, but only at the expense of a still incomplete functional integration. Through juxtaposition of these respective brain systems, I endeavor to resolve some fundamental paradoxes and conundrums expressed in the basic psychological and behavioral processes of sleep, consciousness, and memory. The implication of this conceptual framework for the overall conception of time is then briefly adumbrated.

Valenced cues and contexts have different effects on event-based prospective memory.

PubMed

Graf, Peter; Yu, Martin

2015-01-01

This study examined the separate influence and joint influences on event-based prospective memory task performance due to the valence of cues and the valence of contexts. We manipulated the valence of cues and contexts with pictures from the International Affective Picture System. The participants, undergraduate students, showed higher performance when neutral compared to valenced pictures were used for cueing prospective memory. In addition, neutral pictures were more effective as cues when they occurred in a valenced context than in the context of neutral pictures, but the effectiveness of valenced cues did not vary across contexts that differed in valence. The finding of an interaction between cue and context valence indicates that their respective influence on event-based prospective memory task performance cannot be understood in isolation from each other. Our findings are not consistent with by the prevailing view which holds that the scope of attention is broadened and narrowed, respectively, by positively and negatively valenced stimuli. Instead, our findings are more supportive of the recent proposal that the scope of attention is determined by the motivational intensity associated with valenced stimuli. Consistent with this proposal, we speculate that the motivational intensity associated with different retrieval cues determines the scope of attention, that contexts with different valence values determine participants' task engagement, and that prospective memory task performance is determined jointly by attention scope and task engagement.

Valenced Cues and Contexts Have Different Effects on Event-Based Prospective Memory

PubMed Central

Graf, Peter; Yu, Martin

2015-01-01

This study examined the separate influence and joint influences on event-based prospective memory task performance due to the valence of cues and the valence of contexts. We manipulated the valence of cues and contexts with pictures from the International Affective Picture System. The participants, undergraduate students, showed higher performance when neutral compared to valenced pictures were used for cueing prospective memory. In addition, neutral pictures were more effective as cues when they occurred in a valenced context than in the context of neutral pictures, but the effectiveness of valenced cues did not vary across contexts that differed in valence. The finding of an interaction between cue and context valence indicates that their respective influence on event-based prospective memory task performance cannot be understood in isolation from each other. Our findings are not consistent with by the prevailing view which holds that the scope of attention is broadened and narrowed, respectively, by positively and negatively valenced stimuli. Instead, our findings are more supportive of the recent proposal that the scope of attention is determined by the motivational intensity associated with valenced stimuli. Consistent with this proposal, we speculate that the motivational intensity associated with different retrieval cues determines the scope of attention, that contexts with different valence values determine participants’ task engagement, and that prospective memory task performance is determined jointly by attention scope and task engagement. PMID:25647484

Concurrent Image Processing Executive (CIPE)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, Meemong; Cooper, Gregory T.; Groom, Steven L.; Mazer, Alan S.; Williams, Winifred I.

1988-01-01

The design and implementation of a Concurrent Image Processing Executive (CIPE), which is intended to become the support system software for a prototype high performance science analysis workstation are discussed. The target machine for this software is a JPL/Caltech Mark IIIfp Hypercube hosted by either a MASSCOMP 5600 or a Sun-3, Sun-4 workstation; however, the design will accommodate other concurrent machines of similar architecture, i.e., local memory, multiple-instruction-multiple-data (MIMD) machines. The CIPE system provides both a multimode user interface and an applications programmer interface, and has been designed around four loosely coupled modules; (1) user interface, (2) host-resident executive, (3) hypercube-resident executive, and (4) application functions. The loose coupling between modules allows modification of a particular module without significantly affecting the other modules in the system. In order to enhance hypercube memory utilization and to allow expansion of image processing capabilities, a specialized program management method, incremental loading, was devised. To minimize data transfer between host and hypercube a data management method which distributes, redistributes, and tracks data set information was implemented.

Concurrent array-based queue

DOEpatents

Heidelberger, Philip; Steinmacher-Burow, Burkhard

2015-01-06

According to one embodiment, a method for implementing an array-based queue in memory of a memory system that includes a controller includes configuring, in the memory, metadata of the array-based queue. The configuring comprises defining, in metadata, an array start location in the memory for the array-based queue, defining, in the metadata, an array size for the array-based queue, defining, in the metadata, a queue top for the array-based queue and defining, in the metadata, a queue bottom for the array-based queue. The method also includes the controller serving a request for an operation on the queue, the request providing the location in the memory of the metadata of the queue.

Working memory costs of task switching.

PubMed

Liefooghe, Baptist; Barrouillet, Pierre; Vandierendonck, André; Camos, Valérie

2008-05-01

Although many accounts of task switching emphasize the importance of working memory as a substantial source of the switch cost, there is a lack of evidence demonstrating that task switching actually places additional demands on working memory. The present study addressed this issue by implementing task switching in continuous complex span tasks with strictly controlled time parameters. A series of 4 experiments demonstrate that recall performance decreased as a function of the number of task switches and that the concurrent load of item maintenance had no influence on task switching. These results indicate that task switching induces a cost on working memory functioning. Implications for theories of task switching, working memory, and resource sharing are addressed.

Structural correlates of subjective and objective memory performance in multiple sclerosis.

PubMed

Pardini, Matteo; Bergamino, Maurizio; Bommarito, Giulia; Bonzano, Laura; Luigi Mancardi, Gian; Roccatagliata, Luca

2014-04-01

Subjective and objective memory deficits represent a frequent and ill-understood aspect of multiple sclerosis (MS), and a significant cause of disability and quality of life reduction. The aim of the study is to verify the role of hippocampal and temporal associative fibers' damage in MS-related memory complaints. To reach this aim, 25 patients with low disability relapsing-remitting MS and 19 healthy controls were included in the study. All subjects underwent 3D T1 structural imaging and Diffusion Tensor Imaging. Additionally, MS patients underwent neuropsychological evaluation of objective (Selective Reminding Test and Spatial Recall Test) and of subjective (Perceived Deficit Questionnaire, Retrospective and Prospective Memory Subscales) memory deficits. Normalized hippocampal volume (NHV) and mean Fractional Anisotropy (FA) for the uncinate fasciculus (UF) and for the ventral division of the cingulum bundle (VCB) were calculated for all subjects. We showed that, compared to controls, MS subjects presented with reduced right NHV and with reduced mean FA bilaterally in the UF and the VCB. In the MS group, verbal memory scores correlated with left NHV, spatial memory scores correlated with right NHV, while perceived retrospective and prospective memory deficits correlated with left VCB and left UF mean FA respectively. Our data confirm an early involvement of memory-related brain structures in MS patients. Our data suggest that verbal and nonverbal memory as well as perceived retrospective and prospective memory deficits are related to alterations of discrete anatomical structures in the low-disability phase of MS. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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

PubMed

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

2013-09-01

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

Ecstasy (MDMA) and memory function: a meta-analytic update.

PubMed

Laws, Keith R; Kokkalis, Joy

2007-08-01

A meta-analysis was conducted to examine the impact of recreational ecstasy use on short-term memory (STM), long-term memory (LTM), verbal and visual memory. We located 26 studies containing memory data for ecstasy and non-ecstasy users from which effect sizes could be derived. The analyses provided measures of STM and LTM in 610 and 439 ecstasy users and revealed moderate-to-large effect sizes (Cohen's d) of d = -0.63 and d = -0.87, respectively. The difference between STM versus LTM was non-significant. The effect size for verbal memory was large (d = -1.00) and significantly larger than the small effect size for visual memory (d = -0.27). Indeed, our analyses indicate that visual memory may be affected more by concurrent cannabis use. Finally, we found that the total lifetime number of ecstasy tablets consumed did not significantly predict memory performance. Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Caltech Concurrent Computation Program - Project description

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fox, G.; Otto, S.; Lyzenga, G.; Rogstad, D.

1985-01-01

The Caltech Concurrent Computation Program wwhich studies basic issues in computational science is described. The research builds on initial work where novel concurrent hardware, the necessary systems software to use it and twenty significant scientific implementations running on the initial 32, 64, and 128 node hypercube machines have been constructed. A major goal of the program will be to extend this work into new disciplines and more complex algorithms including general packages that decompose arbitrary problems in major application areas. New high-performance concurrent processors with up to 1024-nodes, over a gigabyte of memory and multigigaflop performance are being constructed. The implementations cover a wide range of problems in areas such as high energy and astrophysics, condensed matter, chemical reactions, plasma physics, applied mathematics, geophysics, simulation, CAD for VLSI, graphics and image processing. The products of the research program include the concurrent algorithms, hardware, systems software, and complete program implementations.

Obstructive sleep apnea exaggerates cognitive dysfunction in stroke patients.

PubMed

Zhang, Yan; Wang, Wanhua; Cai, Sijie; Sheng, Qi; Pan, Shenggui; Shen, Fang; Tang, Qing; Liu, Yang

2017-05-01

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is very common in stroke survivors. It potentially worsens the cognitive dysfunction and inhibits their functional recovery. However, whether OSA independently damages the cognitive function in stroke patients is unclear. A simple method for evaluating OSA-induced cognitive impairment is also missing. Forty-four stroke patients six weeks after onset and 24 non-stroke patients with snoring were recruited for the polysomnographic study of OSA and sleep architecture. Their cognitive status was evaluated with a validated Chinese version of Cambridge Prospective Memory Test. The relationship between memory deficits and respiratory, sleeping, and dementia-related clinical variables were analyzed with correlation and multiple linear regression tests. OSA significantly and independently damaged time- and event-based prospective memory in stroke patients, although it had less power than the stroke itself. The impairment of prospective memory was correlated with increased apnea-hypopnea index, decreased minimal and mean levels of peripheral oxygen saturation, and disrupted sleeping continuity (reduced sleep efficiency and increased microarousal index). The further regression analysis identified minimal levels of peripheral oxygen saturation and sleep efficiency to be the two most important predictors for the decreased time-based prospective memory in stroke patients. OSA independently contributes to the cognitive dysfunction in stroke patients, potentially through OSA-caused hypoxemia and sleeping discontinuity. The prospective memory test is a simple but sensitive method to detect OSA-induced cognitive impairment in stroke patients. Proper therapies of OSA might improve the cognitive function and increase the life quality of stroke patients. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Prospective Memory and Task Interference in a Continuous Monitoring Dynamic Display Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loft, Shayne; Remington, Roger W.

2010-01-01

Theories and methods from the prospective memory literature were used to anticipate how individuals would maintain and retrieve intentions in a continuous monitoring dynamic display task. Participants accepted aircraft into sectors and detected aircraft conflicts during an air traffic control simulation. They were sometimes required to substitute…

Monkeys Exhibit Prospective Memory in a Computerized Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Evans, Theodore A.; Beran, Michael J.

2012-01-01

Prospective memory (PM) involves forming intentions, retaining those intentions, and later executing those intended responses at the appropriate time. Few studies have investigated this capacity in animals. Monkeys performed a computerized task that assessed their ability to remember to make a particular response if they observed a PM cue embedded…

Individual Differences in Spatial Text Processing: High Spatial Ability Can Compensate for Spatial Working Memory Interference

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meneghetti, Chiara; Gyselinck, Valerie; Pazzaglia, Francesca; De Beni, Rossana

2009-01-01

The present study investigates the relation between spatial ability and visuo-spatial and verbal working memory in spatial text processing. In two experiments, participants listened to a spatial text (Experiments 1 and 2) and a non-spatial text (Experiment 1), at the same time performing a spatial or a verbal concurrent task, or no secondary task.…

Working Memory Units Are All in Your Head: Factors That Influence Whether Features or Objects Are the Favored Units

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vergauwe, Evie; Cowan, Nelson

2015-01-01

We compared two contrasting hypotheses of how multifeatured objects are stored in visual working memory (vWM); as integrated objects or as independent features. A new procedure was devised to examine vWM representations of several concurrently held objects and their features and our main measure was reaction time (RT), allowing an examination of…

Age Differences between Children and Young Adults in the Dynamics of Dual-Task Prioritization: Body (Balance) versus Mind (Memory)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schaefer, Sabine; Krampe, Ralf Th.; Lindenberger, Ulman; Baltes, Paul B.

2008-01-01

Task prioritization can lead to trade-off patterns in dual-task situations. The authors compared dual-task performances in 9- and 11-year-old children and young adults performing a cognitive task and a motor task concurrently. The motor task required balancing on an ankle-disc board. Two cognitive tasks measured working memory and episodic memory…

Not all attention orienting is created equal: recognition memory is enhanced when attention orienting involves distractor suppression.

PubMed

Markant, Julie; Worden, Michael S; Amso, Dima

2015-04-01

Learning through visual exploration often requires orienting of attention to meaningful information in a cluttered world. Previous work has shown that attention modulates visual cortex activity, with enhanced activity for attended targets and suppressed activity for competing inputs, thus enhancing the visual experience. Here we examined the idea that learning may be engaged differentially with variations in attention orienting mechanisms that drive eye movements during visual search and exploration. We hypothesized that attention orienting mechanisms that engaged suppression of a previously attended location would boost memory encoding of the currently attended target objects to a greater extent than those that involve target enhancement alone. To test this hypothesis we capitalized on the classic spatial cueing task and the inhibition of return (IOR) mechanism (Posner, 1980; Posner, Rafal, & Choate, 1985) to demonstrate that object images encoded in the context of concurrent suppression at a previously attended location were encoded more effectively and remembered better than those encoded without concurrent suppression. Furthermore, fMRI analyses revealed that this memory benefit was driven by attention modulation of visual cortex activity, as increased suppression of the previously attended location in visual cortex during target object encoding predicted better subsequent recognition memory performance. These results suggest that not all attention orienting impacts learning and memory equally. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Reminders Through Association

PubMed Central

Rogers, Todd; Milkman, Katherine L.

2017-01-01

People often fail to follow through on good intentions. While limited self-control is frequently the culprit, another cause is simply forgetting to enact intentions when opportunities arise. We introduce a novel, potent approach to facilitating follow-through: the reminders-through-association approach. This approach involves associating intentions (e.g., to mail a letter on your desk tomorrow) with distinctive cues that will capture attention when you have opportunities to act on those intentions (e.g., Valentine’s Day flowers that arrived late yesterday, which are sitting on your desk). We showed that cue-based reminders are more potent when the cues they employ are distinctive relative to (a) other regularly encountered stimuli and (b) other stimuli encountered concurrently. Further, they can be more effective than written or electronic reminder messages, and they are undervalued and underused. The reminders-through-association approach, developed by integrating and expanding on past research on self-control, reminders, and prospective memory, can be a powerful tool for policymakers and individuals. PMID:27207873

Computer Sciences and Data Systems, volume 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1987-01-01

Topics addressed include: software engineering; university grants; institutes; concurrent processing; sparse distributed memory; distributed operating systems; intelligent data management processes; expert system for image analysis; fault tolerant software; and architecture research.

Gait performance is not influenced by working memory when walking at a self-selected pace.

PubMed

Grubaugh, Jordan; Rhea, Christopher K

2014-02-01

Gait performance exhibits patterns within the stride-to-stride variability that can be indexed using detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA). Previous work employing DFA has shown that gait patterns can be influenced by constraints, such as natural aging or disease, and they are informative regarding a person's functional ability. Many activities of daily living require concurrent performance in the cognitive and gait domains; specifically working memory is commonly engaged while walking, which is considered dual-tasking. It is unknown if taxing working memory while walking influences gait performance as assessed by DFA. This study used a dual-tasking paradigm to determine if performance decrements are observed in gait or working memory when performed concurrently. Healthy young participants (N = 16) performed a working memory task (automated operation span task) and a gait task (walking at a self-selected speed on a treadmill) in single- and dual-task conditions. A second dual-task condition (reading while walking) was included to control for visual attention, but also introduced a task that taxed working memory over the long term. All trials involving gait lasted at least 10 min. Performance in the working memory task was indexed using five dependent variables (absolute score, partial score, speed error, accuracy error, and math error), while gait performance was indexed by quantifying the mean, standard deviation, and DFA α of the stride interval time series. Two multivariate analyses of variance (one for gait and one for working memory) were used to examine performance in the single- and dual-task conditions. No differences were observed in any of the gait or working memory dependent variables as a function of task condition. The results suggest the locomotor system is adaptive enough to complete a working memory task without compromising gait performance when walking at a self-selected pace.

Effects of motor congruence on visual working memory.

PubMed

Quak, Michel; Pecher, Diane; Zeelenberg, Rene

2014-10-01

Grounded-cognition theories suggest that memory shares processing resources with perception and action. The motor system could be used to help memorize visual objects. In two experiments, we tested the hypothesis that people use motor affordances to maintain object representations in working memory. Participants performed a working memory task on photographs of manipulable and nonmanipulable objects. The manipulable objects were objects that required either a precision grip (i.e., small items) or a power grip (i.e., large items) to use. A concurrent motor task that could be congruent or incongruent with the manipulable objects caused no difference in working memory performance relative to nonmanipulable objects. Moreover, the precision- or power-grip motor task did not affect memory performance on small and large items differently. These findings suggest that the motor system plays no part in visual working memory.

Do the Contents of Visual Working Memory Automatically Influence Attentional Selection During Visual Search?

PubMed Central

Woodman, Geoffrey F.; Luck, Steven J.

2007-01-01

In many theories of cognition, researchers propose that working memory and perception operate interactively. For example, in previous studies researchers have suggested that sensory inputs matching the contents of working memory will have an automatic advantage in the competition for processing resources. The authors tested this hypothesis by requiring observers to perform a visual search task while concurrently maintaining object representations in visual working memory. The hypothesis that working memory activation produces a simple but uncontrollable bias signal leads to the prediction that items matching the contents of working memory will automatically capture attention. However, no evidence for automatic attentional capture was obtained; instead, the participants avoided attending to these items. Thus, the contents of working memory can be used in a flexible manner for facilitation or inhibition of processing. PMID:17469973

Do the contents of visual working memory automatically influence attentional selection during visual search?

PubMed

Woodman, Geoffrey F; Luck, Steven J

2007-04-01

In many theories of cognition, researchers propose that working memory and perception operate interactively. For example, in previous studies researchers have suggested that sensory inputs matching the contents of working memory will have an automatic advantage in the competition for processing resources. The authors tested this hypothesis by requiring observers to perform a visual search task while concurrently maintaining object representations in visual working memory. The hypothesis that working memory activation produces a simple but uncontrollable bias signal leads to the prediction that items matching the contents of working memory will automatically capture attention. However, no evidence for automatic attentional capture was obtained; instead, the participants avoided attending to these items. Thus, the contents of working memory can be used in a flexible manner for facilitation or inhibition of processing.

The role of memory representation in the vigilance decrement.

PubMed

Caggiano, Daniel M; Parasuraman, Raja

2004-10-01

Working memory load is critically important for the overall level of performance on vigilance tasks. However, its role in a key aspect of vigilance-sensitivity decrement over time-is unclear. We used a dual-task procedure in which either a spatial or a nonspatial working memory task was performed simultaneously with a spatial vigilance task for 20 min. Sensitivity in the vigilance task declined over time when the concurrent task involved spatial working memory. In contrast, there was no sensitivity decrement with a nonspatial working memory task. The results provide the first evidence of a specific role for working memory representation in vigilance decrement. The findings are also consistent with a multiple resource theory in which separate resources for memory representation and cognitive control operations are differentially susceptible to depletion over time, depending on the demands of the task at hand.

Playing the computer game Tetris prior to viewing traumatic film material and subsequent intrusive memories: Examining proactive interference.

PubMed

James, Ella L; Lau-Zhu, Alex; Tickle, Hannah; Horsch, Antje; Holmes, Emily A

2016-12-01

Visuospatial working memory (WM) tasks performed concurrently or after an experimental trauma (traumatic film viewing) have been shown to reduce subsequent intrusive memories (concurrent or retroactive interference, respectively). This effect is thought to arise because, during the time window of memory consolidation, the film memory is labile and vulnerable to interference by the WM task. However, it is not known whether tasks before an experimental trauma (i.e. proactive interference) would also be effective. Therefore, we tested if a visuospatial WM task given before a traumatic film reduced intrusions. Findings are relevant to the development of preventative strategies to reduce intrusive memories of trauma for groups who are routinely exposed to trauma (e.g. emergency services personnel) and for whom tasks prior to trauma exposure might be beneficial. Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 conditions. In the Tetris condition (n = 28), participants engaged in the computer game for 11 min immediately before viewing a 12-min traumatic film, whereas those in the Control condition (n = 28) had no task during this period. Intrusive memory frequency was assessed using an intrusion diary over 1-week and an Intrusion Provocation Task at 1-week follow-up. Recognition memory for the film was also assessed at 1-week. Compared to the Control condition, participants in the Tetris condition did not report statistically significant difference in intrusive memories of the trauma film on either measure. There was also no statistically significant difference in recognition memory scores between conditions. The study used an experimental trauma paradigm and findings may not be generalizable to a clinical population. Compared to control, playing Tetris before viewing a trauma film did not lead to a statistically significant reduction in the frequency of later intrusive memories of the film. It is unlikely that proactive interference, at least with this task, effectively influences intrusive memory development. WM tasks administered during or after trauma stimuli, rather than proactively, may be a better focus for intrusive memory amelioration. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Division of attention as a function of the number of steps, visual shifts, and memory load

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chechile, R. A.; Butler, K.; Gutowski, W.; Palmer, E. A.

1986-01-01

The effects on divided attention of visual shifts and long-term memory retrieval during a monitoring task are considered. A concurrent vigilance task was standardized under all experimental conditions. The results show that subjects can perform nearly perfectly on all of the time-shared tasks if long-term memory retrieval is not required for monitoring. With the requirement of memory retrieval, however, there was a large decrease in accuracy for all of the time-shared activities. It was concluded that the attentional demand of longterm memory retrieval is appreciable (even for a well-learned motor sequence), and thus memory retrieval results in a sizable reduction in the capability of subjects to divide their attention. A selected bibliography on the divided attention literature is provided.

Memory consolidation in human sleep depends on inhibition of glucocorticoid release.

PubMed

Plihal, W; Born, J

1999-09-09

Early sleep dominated by slow-wave sleep has been found to be particularly relevant for declarative memory formation via hippocampo-neocortical networks. Concurrently, early nocturnal sleep is characterized by an inhibition of glucocorticoid release from the adrenals. Here, we show in healthy humans that this inhibition serves to support declarative memory consolidation during sleep. Elevating plasma glucocorticoid concentration during early sleep by administration of cortisol impaired consolidation of paired associate words, but not of non-declarative memory of visuomotor skills. Since glucocorticoid concentration was enhanced only during retention sleep, but not during acquisition or retrieval, a specific effect on the consolidation process is indicated. Blocking mineralocorticoid receptors by canrenoate did not affect memory, suggesting inactivation of glucocorticoid receptors to be the essential prerequisite for memory consolidation during early sleep.

Working memory training and semantic structuring improves remembering future events, not past events.

PubMed

Richter, Kim Merle; Mödden, Claudia; Eling, Paul; Hildebrandt, Helmut

2015-01-01

Objectives. Memory training in combination with practice in semantic structuring and word fluency has been shown to improve memory performance. This study investigated the efficacy of a working memory training combined with exercises in semantic structuring and word fluency and examined whether training effects generalize to other cognitive tasks. Methods. In this double-blind randomized control study, 36 patients with memory impairments following brain damage were allocated to either the experimental or the active control condition, with both groups receiving 9 hours of therapy. The experimental group received a computer-based working memory training and exercises in word fluency and semantic structuring. The control group received the standard memory therapy provided in the rehabilitation center. Patients were tested on a neuropsychological test battery before and after therapy, resulting in composite scores for working memory; immediate, delayed, and prospective memory; word fluency; and attention. Results. The experimental group improved significantly in working memory and word fluency. The training effects also generalized to prospective memory tasks. No specific effect on episodic memory could be demonstrated. Conclusion. Combined treatment of working memory training with exercises in semantic structuring is an effective method for cognitive rehabilitation of organic memory impairment. © The Author(s) 2014.

Modeling Criterion Shifts and Target Checking in Prospective Memory Monitoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horn, Sebastian S.; Bayen, Ute J.

2015-01-01

Event-based prospective memory (PM) involves remembering to perform intended actions after a delay. An important theoretical issue is whether and how people monitor the environment to execute an intended action when a target event occurs. Performing a PM task often increases the latencies in ongoing tasks. However, little is known about the…

Target Context Specification Can Reduce Costs in Nonfocal Prospective Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lourenço, Joana S.; White, Katherine; Maylor, Elizabeth A.

2013-01-01

Performing a nonfocal prospective memory (PM) task results in a cost to ongoing task processing, but the precise nature of the monitoring processes involved remains unclear. We investigated whether target context specification (i.e., explicitly associating the PM target with a subset of ongoing stimuli) can trigger trial-by-trial changes in task…

An Observation on the Spontaneous Noticing of Prospective Memory Event-Based Cues

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knight, Justin B.; Meeks, J. Thadeus; Marsh, Richard L.; Cook, Gabriel I.; Brewer, Gene A.; Hicks, Jason L.

2011-01-01

In event-based prospective memory, current theories make differing predictions as to whether intention-related material can be spontaneously noticed (i.e., noticed without relying on preparatory attentional processes). In 2 experiments, participants formed an intention that was contextually associated to the final phase of the experiment, and…

Proactive Control Processes in Event-Based Prospective Memory: Evidence from Intraindividual Variability and Ex-Gaussian Analyses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ball, B. Hunter; Brewer, Gene A.

2018-01-01

The present study implemented an individual differences approach in conjunction with response time (RT) variability and distribution modeling techniques to better characterize the cognitive control dynamics underlying ongoing task cost (i.e., slowing) and cue detection in event-based prospective memory (PM). Three experiments assessed the relation…

Accumulating Evidence about What Prospective Memory Costs Actually Reveal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Strickland, Luke; Heathcote, Andrew; Remington, Roger W.; Loft, Shayne

2017-01-01

Event-based prospective memory (PM) tasks require participants to substitute an atypical PM response for an ongoing task response when presented with PM targets. Responses to ongoing tasks are often slower with the addition of PM demands ("PM costs"). Prominent PM theories attribute costs to capacity-sharing between the ongoing and PM…

Stroop proactive control and task conflict are modulated by concurrent working memory load.

PubMed

Kalanthroff, Eyal; Avnit, Amir; Henik, Avishai; Davelaar, Eddy J; Usher, Marius

2015-06-01

Performance on the Stroop task reflects two types of conflict-informational (between the incongruent word and font color) and task (between the contextually relevant color-naming task and the irrelevant, but automatic, word-reading task). According to the dual mechanisms of control theory (DMC; Braver, 2012), variability in Stroop performance can result from variability in the deployment of a proactive task-demand control mechanism. Previous research has shown that when proactive control (PC) is diminished, both increased Stroop interference and a reversed Stroop facilitation (RF) are observed. Although the current DMC model accounts for the former effect, it does not predict the observed RF, which is considered to be behavioral evidence for task conflict in the Stroop task. Here we expanded the DMC model to account for Stroop RF. Assuming that a concurrent working memory (WM) task reduces PC, we predicted both increased interference and an RF. Nineteen participants performed a standard Stroop task combined with a concurrent n-back task, which was aimed at reducing available WM resources, and thus overloading PC. Although the results indicated common Stroop interference and facilitation in the low-load condition (zero-back), in the high-load condition (two-back), both increased Stroop interference and RF were observed, consistent with the model's prediction. These findings indicate that PC is modulated by concurrent WM load and serves as a common control mechanism for both informational and task Stroop conflicts.

Thought probes during prospective memory encoding: Evidence for perfunctory processes

PubMed Central

McDaniel, Mark A.; Dasse, Michelle N.; Lee, Ji hae; Kurinec, Courtney A.; Tami, Claudina; Krueger, Madison L.

2018-01-01

For nearly 50 years, psychologists have studied prospective memory, or the ability to execute delayed intentions. Yet, there remains a gap in understanding as to whether initial encoding of the intention must be elaborative and strategic, or whether some components of successful encoding can occur in a perfunctory, transient manner. In eight studies (N = 680), we instructed participants to remember to press the Q key if they saw words representing fruits (cue) during an ongoing lexical decision task. They then typed what they were thinking and responded whether they encoded fruits as a general category, as specific exemplars, or hardly thought about it at all. Consistent with the perfunctory view, participants often reported mind wandering (42.9%) and hardly thinking about the prospective memory task (22.5%). Even though participants were given a general category cue, many participants generated specific category exemplars (34.5%). Bayesian analyses of encoding durations indicated that specific exemplars came to mind in a perfunctory manner rather than via strategic, elaborative mechanisms. Few participants correctly guessed the research hypotheses and changing from fruit category cues to initial-letter cues eliminated reports of specific exemplar generation, thereby arguing against demand characteristics in the thought probe procedure. In a final experiment, encoding duration was unrelated to prospective memory performance; however, specific-exemplar encoders outperformed general-category encoders with no ongoing task monitoring costs. Our findings reveal substantial variability in intention encoding, and demonstrate that some components of prospective memory encoding can be done “in passing.” PMID:29874277

Thought probes during prospective memory encoding: Evidence for perfunctory processes.

PubMed

Scullin, Michael K; McDaniel, Mark A; Dasse, Michelle N; Lee, Ji Hae; Kurinec, Courtney A; Tami, Claudina; Krueger, Madison L

2018-01-01

For nearly 50 years, psychologists have studied prospective memory, or the ability to execute delayed intentions. Yet, there remains a gap in understanding as to whether initial encoding of the intention must be elaborative and strategic, or whether some components of successful encoding can occur in a perfunctory, transient manner. In eight studies (N = 680), we instructed participants to remember to press the Q key if they saw words representing fruits (cue) during an ongoing lexical decision task. They then typed what they were thinking and responded whether they encoded fruits as a general category, as specific exemplars, or hardly thought about it at all. Consistent with the perfunctory view, participants often reported mind wandering (42.9%) and hardly thinking about the prospective memory task (22.5%). Even though participants were given a general category cue, many participants generated specific category exemplars (34.5%). Bayesian analyses of encoding durations indicated that specific exemplars came to mind in a perfunctory manner rather than via strategic, elaborative mechanisms. Few participants correctly guessed the research hypotheses and changing from fruit category cues to initial-letter cues eliminated reports of specific exemplar generation, thereby arguing against demand characteristics in the thought probe procedure. In a final experiment, encoding duration was unrelated to prospective memory performance; however, specific-exemplar encoders outperformed general-category encoders with no ongoing task monitoring costs. Our findings reveal substantial variability in intention encoding, and demonstrate that some components of prospective memory encoding can be done "in passing."

A prospective study of severe hypoglycemia and long-term spatial memory in children with type 1 diabetes.

PubMed

Hershey, Tamara; Lillie, Rema; Sadler, Michelle; White, Neil H

2004-06-01

In a previous retrospective study, severe hypoglycemia (SH) was associated with decreased long-term spatial memory in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). In this study, we tested the hypothesis that prospectively ascertained SH would also be associated with decreased spatial long-term memory over time. Children with T1DM (n = 42) and sibling controls (n = 25) performed a spatial delayed response (SDR) task with short and long delays and other neuropsychological tests at baseline and after 15 months of monitoring. Extreme glycemic events and other medical complications were recorded prospectively during follow-up. Fourteen T1DM children experienced at least one episode of SH during the follow-up period (range = 1-5). After controlling for long-delay SDR performance at baseline, age, gender, and age of onset, the presence of SH during the prospective period was statistically associated with decreased long-delay SDR performance at follow-up (semipartial r = -0.38, p = 0.017). This relationship was not seen with short-delay SDR or with verbal or object memory, attention, or motor speed. These results, together with previously reported data, support the hypothesis that SH has specific, negative effects on spatial memory skills in T1DM children.

Automatic semantic encoding in verbal short-term memory: evidence from the concreteness effect.

PubMed

Campoy, Guillermo; Castellà, Judit; Provencio, Violeta; Hitch, Graham J; Baddeley, Alan D

2015-01-01

The concreteness effect in verbal short-term memory (STM) tasks is assumed to be a consequence of semantic encoding in STM, with immediate recall of concrete words benefiting from richer semantic representations. We used the concreteness effect to test the hypothesis that semantic encoding in standard verbal STM tasks is a consequence of controlled, attention-demanding mechanisms of strategic semantic retrieval and encoding. Experiment 1 analysed the effect of presentation rate, with slow presentations being assumed to benefit strategic, time-dependent semantic encoding. Experiments 2 and 3 provided a more direct test of the strategic hypothesis by introducing three different concurrent attention-demanding tasks. Although Experiment 1 showed a larger concreteness effect with slow presentations, the following two experiments yielded strong evidence against the strategic hypothesis. Limiting available attention resources by concurrent tasks reduced global memory performance, but the concreteness effect was equivalent to that found in control conditions. We conclude that semantic effects in STM result from automatic semantic encoding and provide tentative explanations for the interaction between the concreteness effect and the presentation rate.

Binding in visual working memory: the role of the episodic buffer.

PubMed

Baddeley, Alan D; Allen, Richard J; Hitch, Graham J

2011-05-01

The episodic buffer component of working memory is assumed to play a central role in the binding of features into objects, a process that was initially assumed to depend upon executive resources. Here, we review a program of work in which we specifically tested this assumption by studying the effects of a range of attentionally demanding concurrent tasks on the capacity to encode and retain both individual features and bound objects. We found no differential effect of concurrent load, even when the process of binding was made more demanding by separating the shape and color features spatially, temporally or across visual and auditory modalities. Bound features were however more readily disrupted by subsequent stimuli, a process we studied using a suffix paradigm. This suggested a need to assume a feature-based attentional filter followed by an object based storage process. Our results are interpreted within a modified version of the multicomponent working memory model. We also discuss work examining the role of the hippocampus in visual feature binding. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Does oxytocin lead to emotional interference during a working memory paradigm?

PubMed

Tollenaar, Marieke S; Ruissen, M; Elzinga, B M; de Bruijn, E R A

2017-12-01

Oxytocin administration may increase attention to emotional information. We hypothesized that this augmented emotional processing might in turn lead to interference on concurrent cognitive tasks. To test this hypothesis, we examined whether oxytocin administration would lead to heightened emotional interference during a working memory paradigm. Additionally, moderating effects of childhood maltreatment were explored. Seventy-eight healthy males received 24 IU of intranasal oxytocin or placebo in a randomized placebo-controlled double-blind between-subjects study. A working memory task was performed during which neutral, positive, and negative distractors were presented. The main outcome observed was that oxytocin did not enhance interference by emotional information during the working memory task. There was a non-significant trend for oxytocin to slow down performance irrespective of distractor valence, while accuracy was unaffected. Exploratory analyses showed that childhood maltreatment was related to lower overall accuracy, but in the placebo condition only. However, the maltreated group sample size was very small precluding any conclusions on its moderating effect. Despite oxytocin's previously proposed role in enhanced emotional processing, no proof was found that this would lead to reduced performance on a concurrent cognitive task. The routes by which oxytocin exerts its effects on cognitive and social-emotional processes remain to be fully elucidated.

Turn Off the Music! Music Impairs Visual Associative Memory Performance in Older Adults.

PubMed

Reaves, Sarah; Graham, Brittany; Grahn, Jessica; Rabannifard, Parissa; Duarte, Audrey

2016-06-01

Whether we are explicitly listening to it or not, music is prevalent in our environment. Surprisingly, little is known about the effect of environmental music on concurrent cognitive functioning and whether young and older adults are differentially affected by music. Here, we investigated the impact of background music on a concurrent paired associate learning task in healthy young and older adults. Young and older adults listened to music or to silence while simultaneously studying face-name pairs. Participants' memory for the pairs was then tested while listening to either the same or different music. Participants also made subjective ratings about how distracting they found each song to be. Despite the fact that all participants rated music as more distracting to their performance than silence, only older adults' associative memory performance was impaired by music. These results are most consistent with the theory that older adults' failure to inhibit processing of distracting task-irrelevant information, in this case background music, contributes to their memory impairments. These data have important practical implications for older adults' ability to perform cognitively demanding tasks even in what many consider to be an unobtrusive environment. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Working Memory in the Prefrontal Cortex

PubMed Central

Funahashi, Shintaro

2017-01-01

The prefrontal cortex participates in a variety of higher cognitive functions. The concept of working memory is now widely used to understand prefrontal functions. Neurophysiological studies have revealed that stimulus-selective delay-period activity is a neural correlate of the mechanism for temporarily maintaining information in working memory processes. The central executive, which is the master component of Baddeley’s working memory model and is thought to be a function of the prefrontal cortex, controls the performance of other components by allocating a limited capacity of memory resource to each component based on its demand. Recent neurophysiological studies have attempted to reveal how prefrontal neurons achieve the functions of the central executive. For example, the neural mechanisms of memory control have been examined using the interference effect in a dual-task paradigm. It has been shown that this interference effect is caused by the competitive and overloaded recruitment of overlapping neural populations in the prefrontal cortex by two concurrent tasks and that the information-processing capacity of a single neuron is limited to a fixed level, can be flexibly allocated or reallocated between two concurrent tasks based on their needs, and enhances behavioral performance when its allocation to one task is increased. Further, a metamemory task requiring spatial information has been used to understand the neural mechanism for monitoring its own operations, and it has been shown that monitoring the quality of spatial information represented by prefrontal activity is an important factor in the subject's choice and that the strength of spatially selective delay-period activity reflects confidence in decision-making. Although further studies are needed to elucidate how the prefrontal cortex controls memory resource and supervises other systems, some important mechanisms related to the central executive have been identified. PMID:28448453

Domain-general involvement of the posterior frontolateral cortex in time-based resource-sharing in working memory: An fMRI study.

PubMed

Vergauwe, Evie; Hartstra, Egbert; Barrouillet, Pierre; Brass, Marcel

2015-07-15

Working memory is often defined in cognitive psychology as a system devoted to the simultaneous processing and maintenance of information. In line with the time-based resource-sharing model of working memory (TBRS; Barrouillet and Camos, 2015; Barrouillet et al., 2004), there is accumulating evidence that, when memory items have to be maintained while performing a concurrent activity, memory performance depends on the cognitive load of this activity, independently of the domain involved. The present study used fMRI to identify regions in the brain that are sensitive to variations in cognitive load in a domain-general way. More precisely, we aimed at identifying brain areas that activate during maintenance of memory items as a direct function of the cognitive load induced by both verbal and spatial concurrent tasks. Results show that the right IFJ and bilateral SPL/IPS are the only areas showing an increased involvement as cognitive load increases and do so in a domain general manner. When correlating the fMRI signal with the approximated cognitive load as defined by the TBRS model, it was shown that the main focus of the cognitive load-related activation is located in the right IFJ. The present findings indicate that the IFJ makes domain-general contributions to time-based resource-sharing in working memory and allowed us to generate the novel hypothesis by which the IFJ might be the neural basis for the process of rapid switching. We argue that the IFJ might be a crucial part of a central attentional bottleneck in the brain because of its inability to upload more than one task rule at once. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Involved-Field Radiotherapy versus Elective Nodal Irradiation in Combination with Concurrent Chemotherapy for Locally Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Prospective Randomized Study

PubMed Central

Chen, Ming; Bao, Yong; Ma, Hong-Lian; Wang, Jin; Wang, Yan; Peng, Fang; Zhou, Qi-Chao; Xie, Cong-Hua

2013-01-01

This prospective randomized study is to evaluate the locoregional failure and its impact on survival by comparing involved field radiotherapy (IFRT) with elective nodal irradiation (ENI) in combination with concurrent chemotherapy for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer. It appears that higher dose could be delivered in IFRT arm than that in ENI arm, and IFRT did not increase the risk of initially uninvolved or isolated nodal failures. Both a tendency of improved locoregional progression-free survival and a significant increased overall survival rate are in favor of IFRT arm in this study. PMID:23762840

The effects of road traffic and aircraft noise exposure on children's episodic memory: the RANCH project.

PubMed

Matheson, Mark; Clark, Charlotte; Martin, Rocio; van Kempen, Elise; Haines, Mary; Barrio, Isabel Lopez; Hygge, Staffan; Stansfeld, Stephen

2010-01-01

Previous studies have found that chronic exposure to aircraft noise has a negative effect on children's performance on tests of episodic memory. The present study extended the design of earlier studies in three ways: firstly, by examining the effects of two noise sources, aircraft and road traffic, secondly, by examining exposure-effect relationships, and thirdly, by carrying out parallel field studies in three European countries, allowing cross-country comparisons to be made. A total of 2844 children aged between 8 years 10 months and 12 years 10 months (mean age 10 years 6 months) completed classroom-based tests of cued recall, recognition memory and prospective memory. Questionnaires were also completed by the children and their parents in order to provide information about socioeconomic context. Multilevel modeling analysis revealed aircraft noise to be associated with an impairment of recognition memory in a linear exposure-effect relationship. The analysis also found road traffic noise to be associated with improved performance on cued recall in a linear exposure-effect relationship. No significant association was found between exposure to aircraft noise and cued recall or prospective memory. Likewise, no significant association was found between road traffic noise and recognition or prospective memory. Taken together, these findings indicate that exposure to aircraft noise and road traffic noise can impact on certain aspects of children's episodic memory.

Is happiness good for your personality? Concurrent and prospective relations of the big five with subjective well-being.

PubMed

Soto, Christopher J

2015-02-01

The present research examined longitudinal relations of the Big Five personality traits with three core aspects of subjective well-being: life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect. Latent growth models and autoregressive models were used to analyze data from a large, nationally representative sample of 16,367 Australian residents. Concurrent and change correlations indicated that higher levels of subjective well-being were associated with higher levels of Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness, and with lower levels of Neuroticism. Moreover, personality traits prospectively predicted change in well-being, and well-being levels prospectively predicted personality change. Specifically, prospective trait effects indicated that individuals who were initially extraverted, agreeable, conscientious, and emotionally stable subsequently increased in well-being. Prospective well-being effects indicated that individuals with high initial levels of well-being subsequently became more agreeable, conscientious, emotionally stable, and introverted. These findings challenge the common assumption that associations of personality traits with subjective well-being are entirely, or almost entirely, due to trait influences on well-being. They support the alternative hypothesis that personality traits and well-being aspects reciprocally influence each other over time. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sancho Pitarch, Jose Carlos; Kerbyson, Darren; Lang, Mike

Increasing the core-count on current and future processors is posing critical challenges to the memory subsystem to efficiently handle concurrent memory requests. The current trend to cope with this challenge is to increase the number of memory channels available to the processor's memory controller. In this paper we investigate the effectiveness of this approach on the performance of parallel scientific applications. Specifically, we explore the trade-off between employing multiple memory channels per memory controller and the use of multiple memory controllers. Experiments conducted on two current state-of-the-art multicore processors, a 6-core AMD Istanbul and a 4-core Intel Nehalem-EP, for amore » wide range of production applications shows that there is a diminishing return when increasing the number of memory channels per memory controller. In addition, we show that this performance degradation can be efficiently addressed by increasing the ratio of memory controllers to channels while keeping the number of memory channels constant. Significant performance improvements can be achieved in this scheme, up to 28%, in the case of using two memory controllers with each with one channel compared with one controller with two memory channels.« less

Interlinkages between attachment and the Five-Factor Model of personality in middle childhood and young adulthood: a longitudinal approach.

PubMed

Fransson, Mari; Granqvist, Pehr; Bohlin, Gunilla; Hagekull, Berit

2013-01-01

In this paper, we examine concurrent and prospective links between attachment and the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality from middle childhood to young adulthood (n = 66). At age 8.5 years, attachment was measured with the Separation Anxiety Test and at 21 years with the Adult Attachment Interview, whereas the personality dimensions were assessed with questionnaires at both time points. The results showed that attachment and personality dimensions are meaningfully related, concurrently and longitudinally. Attachment security in middle childhood was positively related to extraversion and openness, both concurrently and prospectively. Unresolved/disorganized (U/d) attachment was negatively related to conscientiousness and positively related to openness in young adulthood. U/d attachment showed a unique contribution to openness above the observed temporal stability of openness. As attachment security was also associated with openness, the duality of this factor is discussed together with other theoretical considerations regarding attachment theory in relation to the FFM.

The Failure of Deactivating Intentions: Aftereffects of Completed Intentions in the Repeated Prospective Memory Cue Paradigm

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walser, Moritz; Fischer, Rico; Goschke, Thomas

2012-01-01

We used a newly developed experimental paradigm to investigate aftereffects of completed intentions on subsequent performance that required the maintenance and execution of new intentions. Participants performed an ongoing number categorization task and an additional prospective memory (PM) task, which required them to respond to PM cues that…

Age-Related Differences in the Temporal Dynamics of Prospective Memory Retrieval: A Lifespan Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mattli, Florentina; Zollig, Jacqueline; West, Robert

2011-01-01

The efficiency of prospective memory (PM) typically increases from childhood to young adulthood and then decreases in later adulthood. The current study used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to examine the development of the neural correlates of processes associated with the detection of a PM cue, switching from the ongoing activity to the…

The Role of Shifting, Updating, and Inhibition in Prospective Memory Performance in Young and Older Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schnitzspahn, Katharina M.; Stahl, Christoph; Zeintl, Melanie; Kaller, Christoph P.; Kliegel, Matthias

2013-01-01

Prospective memory performance shows a decline in late adulthood. The present article examines the role of 3 main executive function facets (i.e., shifting, updating, and inhibition) as possible developmental mechanisms associated with these age effects. One hundred seventy-five young and 110 older adults performed a battery of cognitive tests…

Task Interference in Time-Based, Event-Based, and Dual Intention Prospective Memory Conditions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hicks, Jason L.; Marsh, Richard L.; Cook, Gabriel I.

2005-01-01

Forming the intention to complete an activity later is the standard definition of a prospective memory task. Recently, a debate has arisen concerning the degree to which near-term intentions usurp resources away from other ongoing activities. In four experiments the authors tested how much interference was caused by holding a variety of different…

Frontal Lobe Involvement in a Task of Time-Based Prospective Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McFarland, Craig P.; Glisky, Elizabeth L.

2009-01-01

Time-based prospective memory (PM) has been found to be negatively affected by aging, possibly as a result of declining frontal lobe (FL) function. Despite a clear retrospective component to PM tasks, the medial temporal lobes (MTL) are thought to play only a secondary role in successful task completion. The present study investigated the role of…

The role of memory representation in the vigilance decrement

PubMed Central

CAGGIANO, DANIEL M.; PARASURAMAN, RAJA

2005-01-01

Working memory load is critically important for the overall level of performance on vigilance tasks. However, its role in a key aspect of vigilance—sensitivity decrement over time—is unclear. We used a dual-task procedure in which either a spatial or a nonspatial working memory task was performed simultaneously with a spatial vigilance task for 20 min. Sensitivity in the vigilance task declined over time when the concurrent task involved spatial working memory. In contrast, there was no sensitivity decrement with a nonspatial working memory task. The results provide the first evidence of a specific role for working memory representation in vigilance decrement. The findings are also consistent with a multiple resource theory in which separate resources for memory representation and cognitive control operations are differentially susceptible to depletion over time, depending on the demands of the task at hand. PMID:15732706

Concurrent validity and clinical usefulness of several individually administered tests of children's social-emotional cognition.

PubMed

McKown, Clark

2007-03-01

In this study, the validity of 5 tests of children's social-emotional cognition, defined as their encoding, memory, and interpretation of social information, was tested. Participants were 126 clinic-referred children between the ages of 5 and 17. All 5 tests were evaluated in terms of their (a) concurrent validity, (b) incremental validity, and (c) clinical usefulness in predicting social functioning. Tests included measures of nonverbal sensitivity, social language, and social problem solving. Criterion measures included parent and teacher report of social functioning. Analyses support the concurrent validity of all measures, and the incremental validity and clinical usefulness of tests of pragmatic language and problem solving.

Modeling and implementation of concurrent logic controllers with use of Petri nets, LSMs, and sequent calculus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tkacz, J.; Bukowiec, A.; Doligalski, M.

2017-08-01

The paper presentes the method of modeling and implementation of concurrent controllers. Concurrent controllers are specified by Petri nets. Then Petri nets are decomposed using symbolic deduction method of analysis. Formal methods like sequent calculus system with considered elements of Thelen's algorithm have been used here. As a result, linked state machines (LSMs) are received. Each FSM is implemented using methods of structural decomposition during process of logic synthesis. The method of multiple encoding of microinstruction has been applied. It leads to decreased number of Boolean function realized by combinational part of FSM. The additional decoder could be implemented with the use of memory blocks.

Sleep Shelters Verbal Memory from Different Kinds of Interference

PubMed Central

Sheth, Bhavin R.; Varghese, Reni; Truong, Thuy

2012-01-01

Study Objectives: Studies have shown that sleep shelters old verbal memories from associative interference arising from new, more recently acquired memories. Our objective is to extend the forms of interference for which sleep provides a sheltering benefit to non-associative and prospective interference, and to examine experimental conditions and memory strengths for which sleep before or after learning particularly affects verbal memory consolidation. Design: Acquiring paired word associates, retention across intervening sleep and wake, training on new, interfering word associates, and test recall of both sets. Setting: University laboratory. Participants: Healthy volunteers. Interventions: N/A. Measurements and Results: Comparing recall before and after intervening periods of sleep versus wake, we found that: (i) Sleep preferentially shields weakly encoded verbal memories from retroactive interference. (ii) Sleep immediately following learning helps shelter memory from associative and non-associative forms of retroactive interference. (iii) Sleep protects new verbal memories from prospective interference. (iv) Word associations acquired for the first time in the evening after a day spent in the wake state are encoded more strongly than word associations acquired in the morning following a night of sleep. Conclusions: The findings extend the known sleep protection from interference to non-associative as well as prospective interference, and limit the protection to weakly encoded word associations. Combined, our results suggest that sleep immediately after verbal learning isolates newly formed memory traces and renders them inaccessible, except by specific contextual cues. Memory isolation in sleep is a passive mechanism that can reasonably account for several experimental findings. Citation: Sheth BR; Varghese R; Truong T. Sleep shelters verbal memory from different kinds of interference. SLEEP 2012;35(7):985-996. PMID:22754045

Effects of cue frequency and repetition on prospective memory: an ERP investigation.

PubMed

Wilson, Jennifer; Cutmore, Tim R H; Wang, Ya; Chan, Raymond C K; Shum, David H K

2013-11-01

Prospective memory involves the formation and completion of delayed intentions and is essential for independent living. In this study (n = 33), event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to systematically evaluate the effects of PM cue frequency (10% versus 30%) and PM cue repetition (high versus low) on ERP modulations. PM cues elicited prospective positivity and frontal positivity but not N300, perhaps due to the semantic nature of the task. Results of this study revealed an interesting interaction between PM cue frequency and PM cue repetition for prospective positivity and frontal positivity, highlighting the importance of taking both factors into account when designing future studies. © 2013.

Finite Element Analysis in Concurrent Processing: Computational Issues

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sobieszczanski-Sobieski, Jaroslaw; Watson, Brian; Vanderplaats, Garrett

2004-01-01

The purpose of this research is to investigate the potential application of new methods for solving large-scale static structural problems on concurrent computers. It is well known that traditional single-processor computational speed will be limited by inherent physical limits. The only path to achieve higher computational speeds lies through concurrent processing. Traditional factorization solution methods for sparse matrices are ill suited for concurrent processing because the null entries get filled, leading to high communication and memory requirements. The research reported herein investigates alternatives to factorization that promise a greater potential to achieve high concurrent computing efficiency. Two methods, and their variants, based on direct energy minimization are studied: a) minimization of the strain energy using the displacement method formulation; b) constrained minimization of the complementary strain energy using the force method formulation. Initial results indicated that in the context of the direct energy minimization the displacement formulation experienced convergence and accuracy difficulties while the force formulation showed promising potential.

Comparison of memory and meta-memory abilities of children with cochlear implant and normal hearing peers.

PubMed

Engel-Yeger, Batya; Durr, Doris H; Josman, Naomi

2011-01-01

This study aimed (1) to compare visual memory and meta-memory abilities, including the use of strategies as context, of children with cochlear implant (CI) and children with normal hearing; (2) to examine the concurrent and construct validity of 'The Contextual Memory Test for Children' (CMT-CH). Twenty children with CI and 20 children with normal hearing, aged 8-10 years, participated in this study. Memory abilities were measured by two subtests of the Children's Memory Scale (CMS) and by CMT-CH, which also measures meta-memory abilities. Children with CI scored significantly lower in both tests of memory and meta-memory and showed less efficient use of context to memorise. Significant positive correlations were found between CMS and CMT-CH memory tests in both groups. Visual memory and meta-memory abilities may be impaired in children with CI. Evaluation and intervention for children with CI should refer to their memory and meta-memory abilities in order to measure the outcomes of CIs, and enhance language development academic achievements. Although more studies on CMT-CH should be performed, the CMT-CH may be used for the evaluation of visual memory of children with CI.

Distant memories: a prospective study of vantage point of trauma memories.

PubMed

Kenny, Lucy M; Bryant, Richard A; Silove, Derrick; Creamer, Mark; O'Donnell, Meaghan; McFarlane, Alexander C

2009-09-01

Adopting an observer perspective to recall trauma memories may function as a form of avoidance that maintains posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We conducted a prospective study to analyze the relationship between memory vantage point and PTSD symptoms. Participants (N= 947) identified the vantage point of their trauma memory and reported PTSD symptoms within 4 weeks of the trauma; 730 participants repeated this process 12 months later. Initially recalling the trauma from an observer vantage point was related to more severe PTSD symptoms at that time and 12 months later. Shifting from a field to an observer perspective a year after trauma was associated with greater PTSD severity at 12 months. These results suggest that remembering trauma from an observer vantage point is related to both immediate and ongoing PTSD symptoms.

Applications considerations in the system design of highly concurrent multiprocessors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lundstrom, Stephen F.

1987-01-01

A flow model processor approach to parallel processing is described, using very-high-performance individual processors, high-speed circuit switched interconnection networks, and a high-speed synchronization capability to minimize the effect of the inherently serial portions of applications on performance. Design studies related to the determination of the number of processors, the memory organization, and the structure of the networks used to interconnect the processor and memory resources are discussed. Simulations indicate that applications centered on the large shared data memory should be able to sustain over 500 million floating point operations per second.

Prospective memory in young and older adults: the effects of task importance and ongoing task load.

PubMed

Smith, Rebekah E; Hunt, R Reed

2014-01-01

Remembering to perform an action in the future, called prospective memory, often shows age-related differences in favor of young adults when tested in the laboratory. Recently Smith, Horn, and Bayen (2012; Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 19, 495) embedded a PM task in an ongoing color-matching task and manipulated the difficulty of the ongoing task by varying the number of colors on each trial of the task. Smith et al. found that age-related differences in PM performance (lower PM performance for older adults relative to young adults) persisted even when older adults could perform the ongoing task as well or better than the young adults. The current study investigates a possible explanation for the pattern of results reported by Smith et al. by including a manipulation of task emphasis: for half of the participants the prospective memory task was emphasize, while for the other half the ongoing color-matching task was emphasized. Older adults performed a 4-color version of the ongoing color-matching task, while young adults completed either the 4-color or a more difficult 6-color version of the ongoing task. Older adults failed to perform as well as the young adults on the prospective memory task regardless of task emphasis, even when older adults were performing as well or better than the young adults on the ongoing color-matching task. The current results indicate that the lack of an effect of ongoing task load on prospective memory task performance is not due to a perception that one or the other task is more important than the other.

Alcohol-related memory associations in positive and negative affect situations: drinking motives, working memory capacity, and prospective drinking.

PubMed

Salemink, Elske; Wiers, Reinout W

2014-03-01

Although studies on explicit alcohol cognitions have identified positive and negative reinforcing drinking motives that are differentially related to drinking indices, such a distinction has received less attention in studies on implicit cognitions. An alcohol-related Word-Sentence Association Task was used to assess implicit alcohol-related memory associations in positive and negative affect situations in 92 participants. Results revealed that enhancement motives were specifically associated with the endorsement of alcohol words in positive affect situations and coping motives were associated with the endorsement of alcohol words in negative affect situations. Furthermore, alcohol associations in positive affect situations predicted prospective alcohol use and number of binges, depending on levels of working memory capacity. The current findings shed more light on the underpinnings of alcohol use and suggest that implicit memory processes and working memory capacity might be important targets for intervention.

The Age Prospective Memory Paradox: Young Adults May Not Give Their Best outside of the Lab

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aberle, Ingo; Rendell, Peter G.; Rose, Nathan S.; McDaniel, Mark A.; Kliegel, Matthias

2010-01-01

Previous research has identified the age prospective memory paradox of age-related declines in laboratory settings in contrast to age benefits in naturalistic settings. Various factors are assumed to account for this paradox, yet empirical evidence on this issue is scarce. In 2 experiments, the present study examined the effect of task setting in…

On the Relationship Between Effort Toward an Ongoing Task and Cue Detection in Event-Based Prospective Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marsh, Richard L.; Hicks, Jason L.; Cook, Gabriel I.

2005-01-01

In recent theories of event-based prospective memory, researchers have debated what degree of resources are necessary to identify a cue as related to a previously established intention. In order to simulate natural variations in attention, the authors manipulated effort toward an ongoing cognitive task in which intention-related cues were embedded…

Focal/Nonfocal Cue Effects in Prospective Memory: Monitoring Difficulty or Different Retrieval Processes?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scullin, Michael K.; McDaniel, Mark A.; Shelton, Jill T.; Lee, Ji Hae

2010-01-01

We investigated whether focal/nonfocal effects (e.g., Einstein et al., 2005) in prospective memory (PM) are explained by cue differences in monitoring difficulty. In Experiment 1, we show that syllable cues (used in Einstein et al., 2005) are more difficult to monitor for than are word cues; however, initial-letter cues (in words) are similar in…

Dealing with Prospective Memory Demands While Performing an Ongoing Task: Shared Processing, Increased On-Task Focus, or Both?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rummel, Jan; Smeekens, Bridget A.; Kane, Michael J.

2017-01-01

Prospective memory (PM) is the cognitive ability to remember to fulfill intended action plans at the appropriate future moment. Current theories assume that PM fulfillment draws on attentional processes. Accordingly, pending PM intentions interfere with other ongoing tasks to the extent to which both tasks rely on the same processes. How do people…

Modulation of a Fronto-Parietal Network in Event-Based Prospective Memory: An rTMS Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bisiacchi, P. S.; Cona, G.; Schiff, S.; Basso, D.

2011-01-01

Event-based prospective memory (PM) is a multi-component process that requires remembering the delayed execution of an intended action in response to a pre-specified PM cue, while being actively engaged in an ongoing task. Some neuroimaging studies have suggested that both prefrontal and parietal areas are involved in the maintenance and…

Executive Functioning and Prospective Memory in Young Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mahy, Caitlin E. V.; Moses, Louis J.

2011-01-01

The current study examined the role of executive functioning (EF) in children's prospective memory (PM) by assessing the effect of delay and number of intentions to-be-remembered on PM, as well as relations between PM and EF. Ninety-six 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds completed a PM task and two executive function tasks. The PM task required children to…

The Role of Action Coordination for Prospective Memory: Task-Interruption Demands Affect Intention Realization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rummel, Jan; Wesslein, Ann-Katrin; Meiser, Thorsten

2017-01-01

Event-based prospective memory (PM) is the ability to remember to perform an intention in response to an environmental cue. Recent microstructure models postulate four distinguishable stages of successful event-based PM fulfillment. That is, (a) the event must be noticed, (b) the intention must be retrieved, (c) the context must be verified, and…

Failing to Forget: Prospective Memory Commission Errors Can Result from Spontaneous Retrieval and Impaired Executive Control

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scullin, Michael K.; Bugg, Julie M.

2013-01-01

Prospective memory (PM) research typically examines the ability to remember to execute delayed intentions but often ignores the ability to forget finished intentions. We had participants perform (or not perform; control group) a PM task and then instructed them that the PM task was finished. We later (re)presented the PM cue. Approximately 25% of…

Prospective Memory in an Air Traffic Control Simulation: External Aids that Signal when to Act

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loft, Shayne; Smith, Rebekah E.; Bhaskara, Adella

2011-01-01

At work and in our personal life we often need to remember to perform intended actions at some point in the future, referred to as Prospective Memory. Individuals sometimes forget to perform intentions in safety-critical work contexts. Holding intentions can also interfere with ongoing tasks. We applied theories and methods from the experimental…

Memory for Pro-Social Intentions: When Competing Motives Collide

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brandimonte, Maria A.; Ferrante, Donatella; Bianco, Carmela; Villani, Maria Grazia

2010-01-01

Memory for future actions, or "prospective memory" (PM), often involves remembering to do things "for others". The present article explores the motivational mechanisms underlying memory for pro-social intentions through the manipulation of the social relevance of goals and presence of material rewards during an activity-based PM task. Results…

Optical read/write memory system components

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kozma, A.

1972-01-01

The optical components of a breadboard holographic read/write memory system have been fabricated and the parameters specified of the major system components: (1) a laser system; (2) an x-y beam deflector; (3) a block data composer; (4) the read/write memory material; (5) an output detector array; and (6) the electronics to drive, synchronize, and control all system components. The objectives of the investigation were divided into three concurrent phases: (1) to supply and fabricate the major components according to the previously established specifications; (2) to prepare computer programs to simulate the entire holographic memory system so that a designer can balance the requirements on the various components; and (3) to conduct a development program to optimize the combined recording and reconstruction process of the high density holographic memory system.

Temporal texture of associative encoding modulates recall processes.

PubMed

Tibon, Roni; Levy, Daniel A

2014-02-01

Binding aspects of an experience that are distributed over time is an important element of episodic memory. In the current study, we examined how the temporal complexity of an experience may govern the processes required for its retrieval. We recorded event-related potentials during episodic cued recall following pair associate learning of concurrently and sequentially presented object-picture pairs. Cued recall success effects over anterior and posterior areas were apparent in several time windows. In anterior locations, these recall success effects were similar for concurrently and sequentially encoded pairs. However, in posterior sites clustered over parietal scalp the effect was larger for the retrieval of sequentially encoded pairs. We suggest that anterior aspects of the mid-latency recall success effects may reflect working-with-memory operations or direct access recall processes, while more posterior aspects reflect recollective processes which are required for retrieval of episodes of greater temporal complexity. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Observing the preservation and decline of abilities in dementias.

PubMed

Williams, Robert B; French, Laurence A; Ferrell, Richard B

2006-12-01

The Brief Cognitive Rating Scale facilitated observation of the preservation and decline of abilities due to dementias among 73 female and 52 male residents at nursing homes in a northeastern and southwestern state. They ranged in age from 41 to 102 years (M=78, SD = 10.5). Dementia diagnoses included presenile Alzheimers, senile Alzheimers, Vascular Dementia, Dementia secondary to Huntington's Disease, Dementia due to Pick's Disease, and Korsakoff Dementia secondary to chronic alcoholism. Their ratings on tasks of the scale were submitted to an order analysis procedure to explore the order of decline and preservation of abilities. Results for these nursing home residents show an apparent order: loss singly or concurrently of the abilities of concentration and recent memory, followed by past memory and functioning and self-care that also appeared to be unpredictably lost or preserved singly or concurrently by different individuals, and, finally, by orientation that was preserved in 82% of the subjects.

Is overall similarity classification less effortful than single-dimension classification?

PubMed

Wills, Andy J; Milton, Fraser; Longmore, Christopher A; Hester, Sarah; Robinson, Jo

2013-01-01

It is sometimes argued that the implementation of an overall similarity classification is less effortful than the implementation of a single-dimension classification. In the current article, we argue that the evidence securely in support of this view is limited, and report additional evidence in support of the opposite proposition--overall similarity classification is more effortful than single-dimension classification. Using a match-to-standards procedure, Experiments 1A, 1B and 2 demonstrate that concurrent load reduces the prevalence of overall similarity classification, and that this effect is robust to changes in the concurrent load task employed, the level of time pressure experienced, and the short-term memory requirements of the classification task. Experiment 3 demonstrates that participants who produced overall similarity classifications from the outset have larger working memory capacities than those who produced single-dimension classifications initially, and Experiment 4 demonstrates that instructions to respond meticulously increase the prevalence of overall similarity classification.

Adaptive choice between articulatory rehearsal and attentional refreshing in verbal working memory.

PubMed

Camos, Valérie; Mora, Gerome; Oberauer, Klaus

2011-02-01

Because both articulatory rehearsal and attentional refreshing aid in the maintenance of verbal information in the short term, the present study evaluated the adaptive use of these mechanisms, using a complex span paradigm. In Experiment 1, the phonological similarity of memory list words and the attentional demand of concurrent processing were manipulated. As was predicted, a phonological similarity effect (PSE) appeared only when the concurrent task was attention demanding, thus impairing the use of refreshing and encouraging rehearsal. To verify that PSE indicates the use of rehearsal, participants were instructed to use one of the two mechanisms in Experiments 2 and 3. In accordance wih Experiment 1, the PSE was observed only under rehearsal. Thus, adults could adaptively choose between the two mechanisms. When remembering phonologically confusable materials, they prefer refreshing in order to reduce the impact of phonological characteristics. When available attention is reduced, they favor a less attention-demanding mechanism, rehearsal.

Accessing long-term memory representations during visual change detection.

PubMed

Beck, Melissa R; van Lamsweerde, Amanda E

2011-04-01

In visual change detection tasks, providing a cue to the change location concurrent with the test image (post-cue) can improve performance, suggesting that, without a cue, not all encoded representations are automatically accessed. Our studies examined the possibility that post-cues can encourage the retrieval of representations stored in long-term memory (LTM). Participants detected changes in images composed of familiar objects. Performance was better when the cue directed attention to the post-change object. Supporting the role of LTM in the cue effect, the effect was similar regardless of whether the cue was presented during the inter-stimulus interval, concurrent with the onset of the test image, or after the onset of the test image. Furthermore, the post-cue effect and LTM performance were similarly influenced by encoding time. These findings demonstrate that monitoring the visual world for changes does not automatically engage LTM retrieval.

A Study of Shared-Memory Mutual Exclusion Protocols Using CADP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mateescu, Radu; Serwe, Wendelin

Mutual exclusion protocols are an essential building block of concurrent systems: indeed, such a protocol is required whenever a shared resource has to be protected against concurrent non-atomic accesses. Hence, many variants of mutual exclusion protocols exist in the shared-memory setting, such as Peterson's or Dekker's well-known protocols. Although the functional correctness of these protocols has been studied extensively, relatively little attention has been paid to their non-functional aspects, such as their performance in the long run. In this paper, we report on experiments with the performance evaluation of mutual exclusion protocols using Interactive Markov Chains. Steady-state analysis provides an additional criterion for comparing protocols, which complements the verification of their functional properties. We also carefully re-examined the functional properties, whose accurate formulation as temporal logic formulas in the action-based setting turns out to be quite involved.

Strategies for concurrent processing of complex algorithms in data driven architectures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stoughton, John W.; Mielke, Roland R.

1988-01-01

The purpose is to document research to develop strategies for concurrent processing of complex algorithms in data driven architectures. The problem domain consists of decision-free algorithms having large-grained, computationally complex primitive operations. Such are often found in signal processing and control applications. The anticipated multiprocessor environment is a data flow architecture containing between two and twenty computing elements. Each computing element is a processor having local program memory, and which communicates with a common global data memory. A new graph theoretic model called ATAMM which establishes rules for relating a decomposed algorithm to its execution in a data flow architecture is presented. The ATAMM model is used to determine strategies to achieve optimum time performance and to develop a system diagnostic software tool. In addition, preliminary work on a new multiprocessor operating system based on the ATAMM specifications is described.

Status and Prospects of ZnO-Based Resistive Switching Memory Devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Simanjuntak, Firman Mangasa; Panda, Debashis; Wei, Kung-Hwa; Tseng, Tseung-Yuen

2016-08-01

In the advancement of the semiconductor device technology, ZnO could be a prospective alternative than the other metal oxides for its versatility and huge applications in different aspects. In this review, a thorough overview on ZnO for the application of resistive switching memory (RRAM) devices has been conducted. Various efforts that have been made to investigate and modulate the switching characteristics of ZnO-based switching memory devices are discussed. The use of ZnO layer in different structure, the different types of filament formation, and the different types of switching including complementary switching are reported. By considering the huge interest of transparent devices, this review gives the concrete overview of the present status and prospects of transparent RRAM devices based on ZnO. ZnO-based RRAM can be used for flexible memory devices, which is also covered here. Another challenge in ZnO-based RRAM is that the realization of ultra-thin and low power devices. Nevertheless, ZnO not only offers decent memory properties but also has a unique potential to be used as multifunctional nonvolatile memory devices. The impact of electrode materials, metal doping, stack structures, transparency, and flexibility on resistive switching properties and switching parameters of ZnO-based resistive switching memory devices are briefly compared. This review also covers the different nanostructured-based emerging resistive switching memory devices for low power scalable devices. It may give a valuable insight on developing ZnO-based RRAM and also should encourage researchers to overcome the challenges.

Effects of perceptual and semantic cues on ERP modulations associated with prospective memory.

PubMed

Cousens, Ross; Cutmore, Timothy; Wang, Ya; Wilson, Jennifer; Chan, Raymond C K; Shum, David H K

2015-10-01

Prospective memory involves the formation and execution of intended actions and is essential for autonomous living. In this study (N=32), the effect of the nature of PM cues (semantic versus perceptual) on established event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited in PM tasks (N300 and prospective positivity) was investigated. PM cues defined by their perceptual features clearly elicited the N300 and prospective positivity whereas PM cues defined by semantic relatedness elicited prospective positivity. This calls into question the view that the N300 is a marker of general processes underlying detection of PM cues, but supports existing research showing that prospective positivity represents general post-retrieval processes that follow detection of PM cues. Continued refinement of ERP paradigms for understanding the neural correlates of PM is needed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Everyday and prospective memory deficits in ecstasy/polydrug users.

PubMed

Hadjiefthyvoulou, Florentia; Fisk, John E; Montgomery, Catharine; Bridges, Nikola

2011-04-01

The impact of ecstasy/polydrug use on real-world memory (i.e. everyday memory, cognitive failures and prospective memory [PM]) was investigated in a sample of 42 ecstasy/polydrug users and 31 non-ecstasy users. Laboratory-based PM tasks were administered along with self-reported measures of PM to test whether any ecstasy/polydrug-related impairment on the different aspects of PM was present. Self-reported measures of everyday memory and cognitive failures were also administered. Ecstasy/polydrug associated deficits were observed on both laboratory and self-reported measures of PM and everyday memory. The present study extends previous research by demonstrating that deficits in PM are real and cannot be simply attributed to self-misperceptions. The deficits observed reflect some general capacity underpinning both time- and event-based PM contexts and are not task specific. Among this group of ecstasy/polydrug users recreational use of cocaine was also prominently associated with PM deficits. Further research might explore the differential effects of individual illicit drugs on real-world memory.

Divergent effects of brain interleukin-1ß in mediating fever, lethargy, anorexia and conditioned fear memory.

PubMed

Baartman, Tamzyn L; Swanepoel, Tanya; Barrientos, Ruth M; Laburn, Helen P; Mitchell, Duncan; Harden, Lois M

2017-05-01

The influence of brain interleukin-1 (IL-1ß) on memory processes includes both detrimental and beneficial effects. To further explore the dynamics of brain IL-1ß in mediating learning and memory during acute sickness, we injected species-homologous rat IL-1ß (100ng/5μl) or vehicle (0.1% bovine serum albumin, 5μl) directly into the cisterna magna (i.c.m.) of male Sprague-Dawley rats. We measured, in parallel, body temperature, food intake, body mass, cage activity, as well as learning and memory using contextual fear conditioning. To investigate the effects of IL-1ß on learning and memory processes we used: (1) a retrograde experiment that involved injecting rats i.c.m. with IL-1ß immediately after training in the novel context, and (2) an anterograde experiment that involved injecting rats i.c.m. with IL-1ß two hours before training in the novel context. In addition, hypothalamic and hippocampal concentrations of IL-1β were measured at several time points following injection. Administration of IL-1ß induced fever, lethargy and anorexia for∼two-to-three days and increased the concentration of IL-1ß in the hippocampus and hypothalamus for at least eight hours. Training in the context immediately before IL-1ß administration (retrograde experiment), did not impair contextual and auditory fear memory. However, when training in the context occurred concurrently with elevated hippocampal IL-1ß levels, two hours after IL-1ß administration (anterograde experiment), contextual, but not auditory, fear memory was impaired. Our results show that there are instances where memory consolidation can occur concurrently with elevated levels of IL-1ß in the hippocampus, fever, anorexia and lethargy during acute short-term sickness. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Working Memory Load and Reminder Effect on Event-Based Prospective Memory of High- and Low-Achieving Students in Math.

PubMed

Chen, Youzhen; Lian, Rong; Yang, Lixian; Liu, Jianrong; Meng, Yingfang

The effects of working memory (WM) demand and reminders on an event-based prospective memory (PM) task were compared between students with low and high achievement in math. WM load (1- and 2-back tasks) was manipulated as a within-subject factor and reminder (with or without reminder) as a between-subject factor. Results showed that high-achieving students outperformed low-achieving students on all PM and n-back tasks. Use of a reminder improved PM performance and thus reduced prospective interference; the performance of ongoing tasks also improved for all students. Both PM and n-back performances in low WM load were better than in high WM load. High WM load had more influence on low-achieving students than on high-achieving students. Results suggest that low-achieving students in math were weak at PM and influenced more by high WM load. Thus, it is important to train these students to set up an obvious reminder for their PM and improve their WM.

Episodic Life Stress and the Development of Overgeneral Autobiographical Memory to Positive Cues in Youth.

PubMed

Feurer, Cope; Woody, Mary L; Tsypes, Aliona; Burkhouse, Katie L; Champagne, Katelynn; Gibb, Brandon E

2018-02-15

Overgeneral autobiographical memory (OGM) has been established as a risk factor for depression in both youth and adults, but questions remain as to how OGM develops. Although theorists have proposed that the experience of stressful life events may contribute to the development of OGM, no studies have examined the impact of negative life events on prospective changes in OGM. The goal of the current study was to address this gap in the literature. Participants included 251 mothers and their biological children (aged 8-14 years old at the initial assessment). Using a multi-wave prospective design with assessments every 6 months for 2 years, we found that episodic life stress predicted prospective decreases in youths' autobiographical memory specificity to positive, but not negative, cues. This study supports theories proposing that negative life events may contribute to the development of OGM, but suggest that, in youth, the impact of life stress on OGM may be specific to positive rather than negative memories.

Grip Strength Is Associated With Cognitive Performance in Schizophrenia and the General Population: A UK Biobank Study of 476559 Participants.

PubMed

Firth, Joseph; Stubbs, Brendon; Vancampfort, Davy; Firth, Josh A; Large, Matthew; Rosenbaum, Simon; Hallgren, Mats; Ward, Philip B; Sarris, Jerome; Yung, Alison R

2018-06-06

Handgrip strength may provide an easily-administered marker of cognitive functional status. However, further population-scale research examining relationships between grip strength and cognitive performance across multiple domains is needed. Additionally, relationships between grip strength and cognitive functioning in people with schizophrenia, who frequently experience cognitive deficits, has yet to be explored. Baseline data from the UK Biobank (2007-2010) was analyzed; including 475397 individuals from the general population, and 1162 individuals with schizophrenia. Linear mixed models and generalized linear mixed models were used to assess the relationship between grip strength and 5 cognitive domains (visual memory, reaction time, reasoning, prospective memory, and number memory), controlling for age, gender, bodyweight, education, and geographical region. In the general population, maximal grip strength was positively and significantly related to visual memory (coefficient [coeff] = -0.1601, standard error [SE] = 0.003), reaction time (coeff = -0.0346, SE = 0.0004), reasoning (coeff = 0.2304, SE = 0.0079), number memory (coeff = 0.1616, SE = 0.0092), and prospective memory (coeff = 0.3486, SE = 0.0092: all P < .001). In the schizophrenia sample, grip strength was strongly related to visual memory (coeff = -0.155, SE = 0.042, P < .001) and reaction time (coeff = -0.049, SE = 0.009, P < .001), while prospective memory approached statistical significance (coeff = 0.233, SE = 0.132, P = .078), and no statistically significant association was found with number memory and reasoning (P > .1). Grip strength is significantly associated with cognitive functioning in the general population and individuals with schizophrenia, particularly for working memory and processing speed. Future research should establish directionality, examine if grip strength also predicts functional and physical health outcomes in schizophrenia, and determine whether interventions which improve muscular strength impact on cognitive and real-world functioning.

Episodic Memory and Future Thinking During Early Childhood: Linking the Past and Future

PubMed Central

Cuevas, Kimberly; Rajan, Vinaya; Morasch, Katherine C.; Bell, Martha Ann

2015-01-01

Despite extensive examination of episodic memory and future thinking development, little is known about the concurrent emergence of these capacities during early childhood. In Experiment 1, 3-year-olds participated in an episodic memory hiding task [“what, when, where” (WWW) components] with an episodic future thinking component. In Experiment 2, a group of 4-year-olds (including children from Experiment 1) participated in the same task (different objects and locations), providing the first longitudinal investigation of episodic memory and future thinking. Although children exhibited age-related improvements in recall, recognition, and binding of the WWW episodic memory components, there were no age-related changes in episodic future thinking. At both ages, WWW episodic memory performance was higher than future thinking performance, and episodic future thinking and WWW memory components were unrelated. These findings suggest that the WWW components of episodic memory are potentially less fragile than the future components when assessed in a cognitively demanding task. PMID:25864990

Look before you leap: sensory memory improves decision making.

PubMed

Vlassova, Alexandra; Pearson, Joel

2013-09-01

Simple decisions require the processing and evaluation of perceptual and cognitive information, the formation of a decision, and often the execution of a motor response. This process involves the accumulation of evidence over time until a particular choice reaches a decision threshold. Using a random-dot-motion stimulus, we showed that simply delaying responses after the stimulus offset can almost double accuracy, even in the absence of new incoming visual information. However, under conditions in which the otherwise blank interval was filled with a sensory mask or concurrent working memory load was high, performance gains were lost. Further, memory and perception showed equivalent rates of evidence accumulation, suggesting a high-capacity memory store. We propose an account of continued evidence accumulation by sequential sampling from a simultaneously decaying memory trace. Memories typically decay with time, hence immediate inquiry trumps later recall from memory. However, the results we report here show the inverse: Inspecting a memory trumps viewing the actual object.

Negative affect improves the quality of memories: trading capacity for precision in sensory and working memory.

PubMed

Spachtholz, Philipp; Kuhbandner, Christof; Pekrun, Reinhard

2014-08-01

Research has shown that negative affect reduces working memory capacity. Commonly, this effect has been attributed to an allocation of resources to task-irrelevant thoughts, suggesting that negative affect has detrimental consequences for working memory performance. However, rather than simply being a detrimental effect, the affect-induced capacity reduction may reflect a trading of capacity for precision of stored representations. To test this hypothesis, we induced neutral or negative affect and concurrently measured the number and precision of representations stored in sensory and working memory. Compared with neutral affect, negative affect reduced the capacity of both sensory and working memory. However, in both memory systems, this decrease in capacity was accompanied by an increase in precision. These findings demonstrate that observers unintentionally trade capacity for precision as a function of affective state and indicate that negative affect can be beneficial for the quality of memories. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Episodic memory and future thinking during early childhood: Linking the past and future.

PubMed

Cuevas, Kimberly; Rajan, Vinaya; Morasch, Katherine C; Bell, Martha Ann

2015-07-01

Despite extensive examination of episodic memory and future thinking development, little is known about the concurrent emergence of these capacities during early childhood. In Experiment 1, 3-year-olds participated in an episodic memory hiding task ("what, when, where" [WWW] components) with an episodic future thinking component. In Experiment 2, a group of 4-year-olds (including children from Experiment 1) participated in the same task (different objects and locations), providing the first longitudinal investigation of episodic memory and future thinking. Although children exhibited age-related improvements in recall, recognition, and binding of the WWW episodic memory components, there were no age-related changes in episodic future thinking. At both ages, WWW episodic memory performance was higher than future thinking performance, and episodic future thinking and WWW memory components were unrelated. These findings suggest that the WWW components of episodic memory are potentially less fragile than the future components when assessed in a cognitively demanding task. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The temporal locus of the interaction between working memory consolidation and the attentional blink.

PubMed

Akyürek, Elkan G; Leszczyński, Marcin; Schubö, Anna

2010-11-01

An increase in concurrent working memory load has been shown to amplify the attentional blink. The present study investigated the temporal locus of this phenomenon, by using a dual rapid serial visual presentation paradigm that enabled the measurement of lateralized event-related potentials. The P3 component was shown to be affected by both working memory load and the lag between the target stimuli, consistent with current models of temporal attention and a functional explanation of the P3 in terms of memory consolidation. P3 amplitude was reduced for short target lags and high memory loads. The P2 component was affected by lag only, and not memory load. Importantly, the N2pc component was modulated also by both lag and memory load. The results showed that early attentional processing (as marked by the N2pc) was suppressed by increased involvement of working memory, a phenomenon not well predicted by many current theories of temporal attention. Copyright © 2010 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Auditory temporal preparation induced by rhythmic cues during concurrent auditory working memory tasks.

PubMed

Cutanda, Diana; Correa, Ángel; Sanabria, Daniel

2015-06-01

The present study investigated whether participants can develop temporal preparation driven by auditory isochronous rhythms when concurrently performing an auditory working memory (WM) task. In Experiment 1, participants had to respond to an auditory target presented after a regular or an irregular sequence of auditory stimuli while concurrently performing a Sternberg-type WM task. Results showed that participants responded faster after regular compared with irregular rhythms and that this effect was not affected by WM load; however, the lack of a significant main effect of WM load made it difficult to draw any conclusion regarding the influence of the dual-task manipulation in Experiment 1. In order to enhance dual-task interference, Experiment 2 combined the auditory rhythm procedure with an auditory N-Back task, which required WM updating (monitoring and coding of the information) and was presumably more demanding than the mere rehearsal of the WM task used in Experiment 1. Results now clearly showed dual-task interference effects (slower reaction times [RTs] in the high- vs. the low-load condition). However, such interference did not affect temporal preparation induced by rhythms, with faster RTs after regular than after irregular sequences in the high-load and low-load conditions. These results revealed that secondary tasks demanding memory updating, relative to tasks just demanding rehearsal, produced larger interference effects on overall RTs in the auditory rhythm task. Nevertheless, rhythm regularity exerted a strong temporal preparation effect that survived the interference of the WM task even when both tasks competed for processing resources within the auditory modality. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Dissociating rehearsal and refreshing in the maintenance of verbal information in 8-year-old children

PubMed Central

Mora, Gérome; Camos, Valérie

2015-01-01

Recent models of working memory suggest that two systems are involved in verbal working memory: one is dedicated to the maintenance of phonological representations through verbal rehearsal, while the other would maintain multimodal representations through attentional refreshing (Camos et al., 2009; Baddeley, 2012). Previous studies provided evidence on the existence of these two maintenance systems, on their independence, and how they affect recall performance in adults. However, only one study had already explored the relationships between these two systems in children ( Tam et al., 2010). The aim of the present study was to further examine how the two systems account for working memory performance in children. Eight-year-old children performed complex span tasks in which the availability of either the rehearsal or the refreshing was impeded by a concurrent articulation or an attention-demanding task, respectively. Moreover, the phonological similarity of the memoranda was manipulated. Congruently with studies showing that older children can used these maintenance systems, impeding any of the two systems reduced recall performance. Moreover, the manipulation of the two mechanisms did not interact, as previously observed in adults. This suggests that the two maintenance mechanisms are independent in 8-year-old children as they are in adults. However, the results concerning the phonological similarity effect (PSE) differed from what is observed in adults. Whereas the PSE relies only on the availability of rehearsal in adults, a more complex pattern appeared in children: the concurrent articulation as well as the concurrent task modulated the emergence of the PSE. PMID:25667577

Dissociating rehearsal and refreshing in the maintenance of verbal information in 8-year-old children.

PubMed

Mora, Gérome; Camos, Valérie

2015-01-01

Recent models of working memory suggest that two systems are involved in verbal working memory: one is dedicated to the maintenance of phonological representations through verbal rehearsal, while the other would maintain multimodal representations through attentional refreshing (Camos et al., 2009; Baddeley, 2012). Previous studies provided evidence on the existence of these two maintenance systems, on their independence, and how they affect recall performance in adults. However, only one study had already explored the relationships between these two systems in children ( Tam et al., 2010). The aim of the present study was to further examine how the two systems account for working memory performance in children. Eight-year-old children performed complex span tasks in which the availability of either the rehearsal or the refreshing was impeded by a concurrent articulation or an attention-demanding task, respectively. Moreover, the phonological similarity of the memoranda was manipulated. Congruently with studies showing that older children can used these maintenance systems, impeding any of the two systems reduced recall performance. Moreover, the manipulation of the two mechanisms did not interact, as previously observed in adults. This suggests that the two maintenance mechanisms are independent in 8-year-old children as they are in adults. However, the results concerning the phonological similarity effect (PSE) differed from what is observed in adults. Whereas the PSE relies only on the availability of rehearsal in adults, a more complex pattern appeared in children: the concurrent articulation as well as the concurrent task modulated the emergence of the PSE.

Your Earliest Memory May Be Earlier than You Think: Prospective Studies of Children's Dating of Earliest Childhood Memories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Qi; Peterson, Carole

2014-01-01

Theories of childhood amnesia and autobiographical memory development have been based on the assumption that the age estimates of earliest childhood memories are generally accurate, with an average age of 3.5 years among adults. It is also commonly believed that early memories will by default become inaccessible later on and this eventually…

Energy-aware Thread and Data Management in Heterogeneous Multi-core, Multi-memory Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Su, Chun-Yi

By 2004, microprocessor design focused on multicore scaling—increasing the number of cores per die in each generation—as the primary strategy for improving performance. These multicore processors typically equip multiple memory subsystems to improve data throughput. In addition, these systems employ heterogeneous processors such as GPUs and heterogeneous memories like non-volatile memory to improve performance, capacity, and energy efficiency. With the increasing volume of hardware resources and system complexity caused by heterogeneity, future systems will require intelligent ways to manage hardware resources. Early research to improve performance and energy efficiency on heterogeneous, multi-core, multi-memory systems focused on tuning a single primitivemore » or at best a few primitives in the systems. The key limitation of past efforts is their lack of a holistic approach to resource management that balances the tradeoff between performance and energy consumption. In addition, the shift from simple, homogeneous systems to these heterogeneous, multicore, multi-memory systems requires in-depth understanding of efficient resource management for scalable execution, including new models that capture the interchange between performance and energy, smarter resource management strategies, and novel low-level performance/energy tuning primitives and runtime systems. Tuning an application to control available resources efficiently has become a daunting challenge; managing resources in automation is still a dark art since the tradeoffs among programming, energy, and performance remain insufficiently understood. In this dissertation, I have developed theories, models, and resource management techniques to enable energy-efficient execution of parallel applications through thread and data management in these heterogeneous multi-core, multi-memory systems. I study the effect of dynamic concurrent throttling on the performance and energy of multi-core, non-uniform memory access (NUMA) systems. I use critical path analysis to quantify memory contention in the NUMA memory system and determine thread mappings. In addition, I implement a runtime system that combines concurrent throttling and a novel thread mapping algorithm to manage thread resources and improve energy efficient execution in multi-core, NUMA systems.« less

Prospective and retrospective duration memory in the hippocampus: is time in the foreground or background?

PubMed Central

MacDonald, Christopher J.

2014-01-01

Psychologists have long distinguished between prospective and retrospective timing to highlight the difference between our sense of duration during an experience in passing and our sense of duration in hindsight. Humans and other animals use prospective timing in the seconds-to-minutes range in order to learn durations, and can organize their behaviour based upon this knowledge when they know that duration information will be important ahead of time. By contrast, when durations are estimated after the fact, thus precluding the subject from consciously attending to temporal information, duration information must be extracted from other memory representations. The accumulated evidence from prospective timing research has generally led to the hippocampus (HPC) being casted in a supporting role with prefrontal–striatal, cortical or cerebellar circuits playing the lead. Here, I review findings from the animal and human literature that have led to this conclusion and consider that the contribution of the HPC to duration memory is understated because we have little understanding about how we remember duration. PMID:24446497

On the role of working memory in spatial contextual cueing.

PubMed

Travis, Susan L; Mattingley, Jason B; Dux, Paul E

2013-01-01

The human visual system receives more information than can be consciously processed. To overcome this capacity limit, we employ attentional mechanisms to prioritize task-relevant (target) information over less relevant (distractor) information. Regularities in the environment can facilitate the allocation of attention, as demonstrated by the spatial contextual cueing paradigm. When observers are exposed repeatedly to a scene and invariant distractor information, learning from earlier exposures enhances the search for the target. Here, we investigated whether spatial contextual cueing draws on spatial working memory resources and, if so, at what level of processing working memory load has its effect. Participants performed 2 tasks concurrently: a visual search task, in which the spatial configuration of some search arrays occasionally repeated, and a spatial working memory task. Increases in working memory load significantly impaired contextual learning. These findings indicate that spatial contextual cueing utilizes working memory resources.

Differential verbal, visual, and spatial working memory in written language production.

PubMed

Raulerson, Bascom A; Donovan, Michael J; Whiteford, Alison P; Kellogg, Ronald T

2010-02-01

The contributions of verbal, visual, and spatial working memory to written language production were investigated. Participants composed definitions for nouns while concurrently performing a task which required updating, storing, and retrieving information coded either verbally, visually, or spatially. The present study extended past findings by showing the linguistic encoding of planned conceptual content makes its largest demand on verbal working memory for both low and high frequency nouns. Kellogg, Olive, and Piolat in 2007 found that concrete nouns place substantial demands on visual working memory when imaging the nouns' referents during planning, whereas abstract nouns make no demand. The current study further showed that this pattern was not an artifact of visual working memory being sensitive to manipulation of just any lexical property of the noun prompts. In contrast to past results, writing made a small but detectible demand on spatial working memory.

The role of working memory in auditory selective attention.

PubMed

Dalton, Polly; Santangelo, Valerio; Spence, Charles

2009-11-01

A growing body of research now demonstrates that working memory plays an important role in controlling the extent to which irrelevant visual distractors are processed during visual selective attention tasks (e.g., Lavie, Hirst, De Fockert, & Viding, 2004). Recently, it has been shown that the successful selection of tactile information also depends on the availability of working memory (Dalton, Lavie, & Spence, 2009). Here, we investigate whether working memory plays a role in auditory selective attention. Participants focused their attention on short continuous bursts of white noise (targets) while attempting to ignore pulsed bursts of noise (distractors). Distractor interference in this auditory task, as measured in terms of the difference in performance between congruent and incongruent distractor trials, increased significantly under high (vs. low) load in a concurrent working-memory task. These results provide the first evidence demonstrating a causal role for working memory in reducing interference by irrelevant auditory distractors.

Shift work, job strain and changes in the body mass index among women: a prospective study.

PubMed

Fujishiro, Kaori; Lividoti Hibert, Eileen; Schernhammer, Eva; Rich-Edwards, Janet W

2017-06-01

The effects of job strain and shift work on weight gain have not been studied jointly. Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies on shift work and weight gain have reported different results. This study examines potential effect modification by job strain on the link between shift work and weight gain, and concurrent and delayed effects of shift work on weight gain. Data came from 52 622 women who participated in the Nurses' Health Study II, a prospective cohort study. Using linear regression, we modelled change in body mass index (BMI) over 4 years as a function of change in job strain, cumulative exposure to rotating night shift previously and during the 4 years (ie, previous and concurrent exposures) and the interaction between job strain and concurrent shift work exposure. Age, race/ethnicity, pregnancy history, baseline BMI, job types and health behaviours at baseline were controlled for. Job strain and rotating shift work, concurrent and previous, all had independent associations with BMI change during the 4-year period. There was no evidence for effect modification by job strain. Concurrent and previous exposures to rotating night shift had different associations with BMI change: an inverted U-shape for concurrent exposure (ranging from 0.01 to 0.14 kg/m 2 increase), a dose-response for previous exposure (-0.02 to 0.09 kg/m 2 ). Job strain and rotating night shift work have independent contributions to weight gain. Reducing job strain and supporting night shift workers are both important intervention goals. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Global Arrays

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Krishnamoorthy, Sriram; Daily, Jeffrey A.; Vishnu, Abhinav

2015-11-01

Global Arrays (GA) is a distributed-memory programming model that allows for shared-memory-style programming combined with one-sided communication, to create a set of tools that combine high performance with ease-of-use. GA exposes a relatively straightforward programming abstraction, while supporting fully-distributed data structures, locality of reference, and high-performance communication. GA was originally formulated in the early 1990’s to provide a communication layer for the Northwest Chemistry (NWChem) suite of chemistry modeling codes that was being developed concurrently.

A Prospective Study of Autobiographical Memory and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Following Cancer

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kangas, Maria; Henry, Jane L.; Bryant, Richard A.

2005-01-01

In this study, the authors investigated the relationship between autobiographical memory and the onset and maintenance of distressing memories following cancer. In Study 1, participants recently diagnosed with head, neck, or lung cancer were assessed for acute stress disorder (ASD). Participants with ASD reported fewer specific memories than did…

Involvement of the anterior cingulate cortex in time-based prospective memory task monitoring: An EEG analysis of brain sources using Independent Component and Measure Projection Analysis

PubMed Central

Burgos, Pablo; Kilborn, Kerry; Evans, Jonathan J.

2017-01-01

Objective Time-based prospective memory (PM), remembering to do something at a particular moment in the future, is considered to depend upon self-initiated strategic monitoring, involving a retrieval mode (sustained maintenance of the intention) plus target checking (intermittent time checks). The present experiment was designed to explore what brain regions and brain activity are associated with these components of strategic monitoring in time-based PM tasks. Method 24 participants were asked to reset a clock every four minutes, while performing a foreground ongoing word categorisation task. EEG activity was recorded and data were decomposed into source-resolved activity using Independent Component Analysis. Common brain regions across participants, associated with retrieval mode and target checking, were found using Measure Projection Analysis. Results Participants decreased their performance on the ongoing task when concurrently performed with the time-based PM task, reflecting an active retrieval mode that relied on withdrawal of limited resources from the ongoing task. Brain activity, with its source in or near the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), showed changes associated with an active retrieval mode including greater negative ERP deflections, decreased theta synchronization, and increased alpha suppression for events locked to the ongoing task while maintaining a time-based intention. Activity in the ACC was also associated with time-checks and found consistently across participants; however, we did not find an association with time perception processing per se. Conclusion The involvement of the ACC in both aspects of time-based PM monitoring may be related to different functions that have been attributed to it: strategic control of attention during the retrieval mode (distributing attentional resources between the ongoing task and the time-based task) and anticipatory/decision making processing associated with clock-checks. PMID:28863146

Functional neuroimaging studies of prospective memory: what have we learnt so far?

PubMed

Burgess, Paul W; Gonen-Yaacovi, Gil; Volle, Emmanuelle

2011-07-01

The complexity of the behaviour described by the term "prospective memory" meant that it was not at all clear, when the earliest studies were conducted, that this would prove a fruitful area for neuroimaging study. However, a consistent relation rapidly emerged between activation in rostral prefrontal cortex (approximating Brodmann Area 10) and performance of prospective memory paradigms. This consistency has greatly increased the accumulation of findings, since each study has offered perspectives on the previous ones. Considerable help too has come from broad agreement between functional neuroimaging findings and those from other methods (e.g. human lesion studies, electrophysiology). The result has been a quite startling degree of advance given the relatively few studies that have been conducted. These findings are summarised, along with those from other brain regions, and new directions suggested. Key points are that there is a medial-lateral dissociation within rostral PFC. Some (but not all) regions of medial rostral PFC are typically more active during performance of the ongoing task only, and lateral aspects are relatively more active during conditions involving delayed intentions. Some of these rostral PFC activations seem remarkably insensitive to the form of stimulus material presented, the nature of the ongoing task, the specifics of the intention, how easy or hard the PM cue is to detect, or the intended action is to recall. However there are other regions within rostral PFC where haemodynamic changes vary with alterations in these, and other, aspects of prospective memory paradigms. It is concluded that rostral PFC most likely plays a super-ordinate role during many stages of creating, maintaining and enacting delayed intentions, which in some cases may be linked to recent evidence showing that this brain region is involved in the control of stimulus-oriented vs. stimulus-independent attending. Other key brain regions activated during prospective memory paradigms appear to be the parietal lobe, especially Brodmann Area (BA) 40 and precuneus (BA 7), and the anterior cingulate (BA 32). These regions are often co-activated with lateral rostral PFC across a wide range of tasks, not just those involving prospective memory. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Interfering with free recall of words: Detrimental effects of phonological competition.

PubMed

Fernandes, Myra A; Wammes, Jeffrey D; Priselac, Sandra; Moscovitch, Morris

2016-09-01

We examined the effect of different distracting tasks, performed concurrently during memory retrieval, on recall of a list of words. By manipulating the type of material and processing (semantic, orthographic, and phonological) required in the distracting task, and comparing the magnitude of memory interference produced, we aimed to infer the kind of representation upon which retrieval of words depends. In Experiment 1, identifying odd digits concurrently during free recall disrupted memory, relative to a full attention condition, when the numbers were presented orthographically (e.g. nineteen), but not numerically (e.g. 19). In Experiment 2, a distracting task that required phonological-based decisions to either word or picture material produced large, but equivalent effects on recall of words. In Experiment 3, phonological-based decisions to pictures in a distracting task disrupted recall more than when the same pictures required semantically-based size estimations. In Experiment 4, a distracting task that required syllable decisions to line drawings interfered significantly with recall, while an equally difficult semantically-based color-decision task about the same line drawings, did not. Together, these experiments demonstrate that the degree of memory interference experienced during recall of words depends primarily on whether the distracting task competes for phonological representations or processes, and less on competition for semantic or orthographic or material-specific representations or processes. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In male rats with concurrent iron and (n-3) fatty acid deficiency, provision of either iron or (n-3) fatty acids alone alters monoamine metabolism and exacerbates the cognitive deficits associated with combined deficiency.

PubMed

Baumgartner, Jeannine; Smuts, Cornelius M; Malan, Linda; Arnold, Myrtha; Yee, Benjamin K; Bianco, Laura E; Boekschoten, Mark V; Müller, Michael; Langhans, Wolfgang; Hurrell, Richard F; Zimmermann, Michael B

2012-08-01

Concurrent deficiencies of iron (Fe) (ID) and (n-3) fatty acids [(n-3)FAD)] in rats can alter brain monoamine pathways and impair learning and memory. We examined whether repletion with Fe and DHA/EPA, alone and in combination, corrects the deficits in brain monoamine activity (by measuring monoamines and related gene expression) and spatial working and reference memory [by Morris water maze (MWM) testing] associated with deficiency. Using a 2 × 2 design, male rats with concurrent ID and (n-3)FAD [ID+(n-3)FAD] were fed an Fe+DHA/EPA, Fe+(n-3)FAD, ID+DHA/EPA, or ID+(n-3)FAD diet for 5 wk [postnatal d 56-91]. Biochemical measures and MWM performance after repletion were compared to age-matched control rats. The provision of Fe in combination with DHA/EPA synergistically increased Fe concentrations in the olfactory bulb (OB) (Fe x DHA/EPA interaction). Similarly, provision of DHA/EPA in combination with Fe resulted in higher brain DHA concentrations than provision of DHA alone in the frontal cortex (FC) and OB (P < 0.05). Dopamine (DA) receptor D1 was upregulated in the hippocampus of Fe+DHA/EPA rats (fold-change = 1.25; P < 0.05) and there were significant Fe x DHA/EPA interactions on serotonin (5-HT) in the OB and on the DA metabolite dihydroxyphenylacetic acid in the FC and striatum. Working memory performance was impaired in ID+DHA/EPA rats compared with controls (P < 0.05). In the reference memory task, Fe+DHA/EPA improved learning behavior, but Fe or DHA/EPA alone did not. These findings suggest that feeding either Fe or DHA/EPA alone to adult rats with both ID and (n-3)FAD affects the DA and 5-HT pathways differently than combined repletion and exacerbates the cognitive deficits associated with combined deficiency.

Positive and Negative Affect as Links Between Social Anxiety and Depression: Predicting Concurrent and Prospective Mood Symptoms in Unipolar and Bipolar Mood Disorders.

PubMed

Cohen, Jonah N; Taylor Dryman, M; Morrison, Amanda S; Gilbert, Kirsten E; Heimberg, Richard G; Gruber, June

2017-11-01

The co-occurrence of social anxiety and depression is associated with increased functional impairment and a more severe course of illness. Social anxiety disorder is unique among the anxiety disorders in sharing an affective profile with depression, characterized by low levels of positive affect (PA) and high levels of negative affect (NA). Yet it remains unclear how this shared affective profile contributes to the covariation of social anxiety and depressive symptoms. We examined whether self-reported PA and NA accounted for unique variance in the association between social anxiety and depressive symptoms across three groups (individuals with remitted bipolar disorder, type I [BD; n = 32], individuals with remitted major depressive disorder [MDD; n = 31], and nonpsychiatric controls [n = 30]) at baseline and follow-ups of 6 and 12 months. Low levels of PA, but not NA, accounted for unique variance in both concurrent and prospective associations between social anxiety and depression in the BD group; in contrast, high levels of NA, but not PA, accounted for unique variance in concurrent and prospective associations between social anxiety and depression in the MDD group. Limitations include that social anxiety and PA/NA were assessed concurrently and all measurement was self-report. Few individuals with MDD/BD met current diagnostic criteria for social anxiety disorder. There was some attrition at follow-up assessments. Results suggest that affective mechanisms may contribute to the high rates of co-occurrence of social anxiety and depression in both MDD and BD. Implications of the differential role of PA and NA in the relationship between social anxiety and depression in MDD and BD and considerations for treatment are discussed. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Concurrent Stereotactic Radiosurgery and Bevacizumab in Recurrent Malignant Gliomas: A Prospective Trial

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cabrera, Alvin R.; Cuneo, Kyle C.; Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

2013-08-01

Purpose: Virtually all patients with malignant glioma (MG) eventually recur. This study evaluates the safety of concurrent stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and bevacizumab (BVZ), an antiangiogenic agent, in treatment of recurrent MG. Methods and Materials: Fifteen patients with recurrent MG, treated at initial diagnosis with surgery and adjuvant radiation therapy/temozolomide and then at least 1 salvage chemotherapy regimen, were enrolled in this prospective trial. Lesions <3 cm in diameter were treated in a single fraction, whereas those 3 to 5 cm in diameter received 5 5-Gy fractions. BVZ was administered immediately before SRS and 2 weeks later. Neurocognitive testing (Mini-Mental Statusmore » Exam, Trail Making Test A/B), Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Brain (FACT-Br) quality-of-life assessment, physical exam, and dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) were performed immediately before SRS and 1 week and 2 months following completion of SRS. The primary endpoint was central nervous system (CNS) toxicity. Secondary endpoints included survival, quality of life, microvascular properties as measured by DCE-MRI, steroid usage, and performance status. Results: One grade 3 (severe headache) and 2 grade 2 CNS toxicities were observed. No patients experienced grade 4 to 5 toxicity or intracranial hemorrhage. Neurocognition, quality of life, and Karnofsky performance status did not change significantly with treatment. DCE-MRI results suggest a significant decline in tumor perfusion and permeability 1 week after SRS and further decline by 2 months. Conclusions: Treatment of recurrent MG with concurrent SRS and BVZ was not associated with excessive toxicity in this prospective trial. A randomized trial of concurrent SRS/BVZ versus conventional salvage therapy is needed to establish the efficacy of this approach.« less

Local concurrent error detection and correction in data structures using virtual backpointers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Li, C. C.; Chen, P. P.; Fuchs, W. K.

1987-01-01

A new technique, based on virtual backpointers, for local concurrent error detection and correction in linked data structures is presented. Two new data structures, the Virtual Double Linked List, and the B-tree with Virtual Backpointers, are described. For these structures, double errors can be detected in 0(1) time and errors detected during forward moves can be corrected in 0(1) time. The application of a concurrent auditor process to data structure error detection and correction is analyzed, and an implementation is described, to determine the effect on mean time to failure of a multi-user shared database system. The implementation utilizes a Sequent shared memory multiprocessor system operating on a shared databased of Virtual Double Linked Lists.

Local concurrent error detection and correction in data structures using virtual backpointers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Li, Chung-Chi Jim; Chen, Paul Peichuan; Fuchs, W. Kent

1989-01-01

A new technique, based on virtual backpointers, for local concurrent error detection and correction in linked data strutures is presented. Two new data structures, the Virtual Double Linked List, and the B-tree with Virtual Backpointers, are described. For these structures, double errors can be detected in 0(1) time and errors detected during forward moves can be corrected in 0(1) time. The application of a concurrent auditor process to data structure error detection and correction is analyzed, and an implementation is described, to determine the effect on mean time to failure of a multi-user shared database system. The implementation utilizes a Sequent shared memory multiprocessor system operating on a shared database of Virtual Double Linked Lists.

Decomposing the relationship between cognitive functioning and self-referent memory beliefs in older adulthood: What’s memory got to do with it?

PubMed Central

Payne, Brennan R.; Gross, Alden L.; Hill, Patrick L.; Parisi, Jeanine M.; Rebok, George W.; Stine-Morrow, Elizabeth A. L.

2018-01-01

With advancing age, episodic memory performance shows marked declines along with concurrent reports of lower subjective memory beliefs. Given that normative age-related declines in episodic memory co-occur with declines in other cognitive domains, we examined the relationship between memory beliefs and multiple domains of cognitive functioning. Confirmatory bi-factor structural equation models were used to parse the shared and independent variance among factors representing episodic memory, psychomotor speed, and executive reasoning in one large cohort study (Senior Odyssey, N = 462), and replicated using another large cohort of healthy older adults (ACTIVE, N = 2,802). Accounting for a general fluid cognitive functioning factor (comprised of the shared variance among measures of episodic memory, speed, and reasoning) attenuated the relationship between objective memory performance and subjective memory beliefs in both samples. Moreover, the general cognitive functioning factor was the strongest predictor of memory beliefs in both samples. These findings are consistent with the notion that dispositional memory beliefs may reflect perceptions of cognition more broadly. This may be one reason why memory beliefs have broad predictive validity for interventions that target fluid cognitive ability. PMID:27685541

Decomposing the relationship between cognitive functioning and self-referent memory beliefs in older adulthood: what's memory got to do with it?

PubMed

Payne, Brennan R; Gross, Alden L; Hill, Patrick L; Parisi, Jeanine M; Rebok, George W; Stine-Morrow, Elizabeth A L

2017-07-01

With advancing age, episodic memory performance shows marked declines along with concurrent reports of lower subjective memory beliefs. Given that normative age-related declines in episodic memory co-occur with declines in other cognitive domains, we examined the relationship between memory beliefs and multiple domains of cognitive functioning. Confirmatory bi-factor structural equation models were used to parse the shared and independent variance among factors representing episodic memory, psychomotor speed, and executive reasoning in one large cohort study (Senior Odyssey, N = 462), and replicated using another large cohort of healthy older adults (ACTIVE, N = 2802). Accounting for a general fluid cognitive functioning factor (comprised of the shared variance among measures of episodic memory, speed, and reasoning) attenuated the relationship between objective memory performance and subjective memory beliefs in both samples. Moreover, the general cognitive functioning factor was the strongest predictor of memory beliefs in both samples. These findings are consistent with the notion that dispositional memory beliefs may reflect perceptions of cognition more broadly. This may be one reason why memory beliefs have broad predictive validity for interventions that target fluid cognitive ability.

Differential short-term memorisation for vocal and instrumental rhythms.

PubMed

Klyn, Niall A M; Will, Udo; Cheong, Yong-Jeon; Allen, Erin T

2016-07-01

This study explores differential processing of vocal and instrumental rhythms in short-term memory with three decision (same/different judgments) and one reproduction experiment. In the first experiment, memory performance declined for delayed versus immediate recall, with accuracy for the two rhythms being affected differently: Musicians performed better than non-musicians on clapstick but not on vocal rhythms, and musicians were better on vocal rhythms in the same than in the different condition. Results for the second experiment showed that concurrent sub-vocal articulation and finger-tapping differentially affected the two rhythms and same/different decisions, but produced no evidence for articulatory loop involvement in delayed decision tasks. In a third experiment, which tested rhythm reproduction, concurrent sub-vocal articulation decreased memory performance, with a stronger deleterious effect on the reproduction of vocal than of clapstick rhythms. This suggests that the articulatory loop may only be involved in delayed reproduction not in decision tasks. The fourth experiment tested whether differences between filled and empty rhythms (continuous vs. discontinuous sounds) can explain the different memorisation of vocal and clapstick rhythms. Though significant differences were found for empty and filled instrumental rhythms, the differences between vocal and clapstick can only be explained by considering additional voice specific features.

PROspective MEmory Training to improve HEart failUre Self-care (PROMETHEUS): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

PubMed

Cameron, Jan; Rendell, Peter G; Ski, Chantal F; Kure, Christina E; McLennan, Skye N; Rose, Nathan S; Prior, David L; Thompson, David R

2015-04-29

Cognitive impairment is seen in up to three quarters of heart failure (HF) patients and has a significant negative impact on patients' health outcomes. Prospective memory, which is defined as memory to carry out future intentions, is important for functional independence in older adults and involves application of multiple cognitive processes that are often impaired in HF patients. The objective of this study is to examine the effects of prospective memory training on patients' engagement in HF self-care and health outcomes, carer strain and quality of life. The proposed study is a randomised, controlled trial in which 200 patients diagnosed with HF, and their carers will be recruited from 3 major hospitals across Melbourne. Eligible patients with HF will be randomised to receive either: 1) The Virtual Week Training Program - a computerised prospective memory (PM) training program (intervention) or 2) non-adaptive computer-based word puzzles (active control). HF patients' baseline cognitive function will be compared to a healthy control group (n = 60) living independently in the community. Patients will undergo a comprehensive assessment of PM, neuropsychological functioning, self-care, physical, and emotional functioning. Assessments will take place at baseline, 4 weeks and 12 months following intervention. Carers will complete measures assessing quality of life, strain, perceived control in the management of the patients' HF symptoms, and ratings of the patients' level of engagement in HF self-care behaviours. If the Virtual Week Training Program is effective in improving: 1) prospective memory; 2) self-care behaviours, and 3) wellbeing in HF patients, this study will enhance our understanding of impaired cognitive processes in HF and potentially is a mechanism to reduce healthcare costs. Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry #366376; 27 May 2014. https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=366376&isClinicalTrial=False .

Longitudinal Associations Between Teasing and Health-related Quality of Life Among Treatment-seeking Overweight and Obese Youth

PubMed Central

Steele, Ric G.

2012-01-01

Objectives To examine concurrent and prospective associations between perceptions of teasing and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) over the course of a behavioral/educational intervention and the subsequent year in a sample of overweight and obese children and adolescents. Method A clinical sample of 93 overweight or obese youths (ages 7–17 years) and 1 parent/guardian completed measures of teasing and HRQOL at pre- and posttreatment and follow-up assessments. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the factor structure of the measures and to assess prospective associations over a 15-month period. Results Results indicate that, concurrently, weight-related teasing is inversely associated with HRQOL and that, prospectively, HRQOL is inversely associated with subsequent teasing. Conclusions Study findings are suggestive of a directional relationship with lower quality of life predicting subsequent higher levels of teasing. Results suggest the potential for interventions designed to improve HRQOL to reduce teasing experiences for overweight and obese youth. PMID:22262915

Executive and Perceptual Distraction in Visual Working Memory

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

The contents of visual working memory are likely to reflect the influence of both executive control resources and information present in the environment. We investigated whether executive attention is critical in the ability to exclude unwanted stimuli by introducing concurrent potentially distracting irrelevant items to a visual working memory paradigm, and manipulating executive load using simple or more demanding secondary verbal tasks. Across 7 experiments varying in presentation format, timing, stimulus set, and distractor number, we observed clear disruptive effects of executive load and visual distraction, but relatively minimal evidence supporting an interactive relationship between these factors. These findings are in line with recent evidence using delay-based interference, and suggest that different forms of attentional selection operate relatively independently in visual working memory. PMID:28414499

Cognitive processing in the aftermath of relationship dissolution: Associations with concurrent and prospective distress and posttraumatic growth.

PubMed

Del Palacio-González, Adriana; Clark, David A; O'Sullivan, Lucia F

2017-12-01

Non-marital romantic relationship dissolution is amongst the most stressful life events experienced by young adults. Yet, some individuals experience posttraumatic growth following relationship dissolution. Little is known about the specific and differential contribution of trait-like and event-specific cognitive processing styles to each of these outcomes. A longitudinal design was employed in which trait-like (brooding and reflection) and dissolution-specific (intrusive and deliberate) cognitive processing was examined as predictors of growth (Posttraumatic Growth Inventory) and distress (Breakup Distress Scale) following a recent relationship dissolution. Initially, 148 participants completed measures of trait-like and dissolution-specific cognitive processing, growth, and distress (T1). A subsample completed a seven-month follow-up (T2). Higher frequency of relationship-dissolution intrusive thoughts predicted concurrent distress after accounting for brooding and relationship characteristics. Further, higher brooding and lower reflection predicted higher distress prospectively. Concurrent growth was predicted by both higher brooding and more deliberate relationship-dissolution thoughts. Prospectively, T1 dissolution intrusive thoughts predicted higher T2 deliberate thoughts, and the interaction between these two constructs predicted higher T2 growth. Therefore, deliberately thinking of the dissolution was related to positive psychological outcomes. In contrast, intrusive dissolution cognitions and a tendency for brooding had a mixed (paradoxical) association with psychological adjustment. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Multiprocessor system with multiple concurrent modes of execution

DOEpatents

Ahn, Daniel; Ceze, Luis H; Chen, Dong; Gara, Alan; Heidelberger, Philip; Ohmacht, Martin

2013-12-31

A multiprocessor system supports multiple concurrent modes of speculative execution. Speculation identification numbers (IDs) are allocated to speculative threads from a pool of available numbers. The pool is divided into domains, with each domain being assigned to a mode of speculation. Modes of speculation include TM, TLS, and rollback. Allocation of the IDs is carried out with respect to a central state table and using hardware pointers. The IDs are used for writing different versions of speculative results in different ways of a set in a cache memory.

Multiprocessor system with multiple concurrent modes of execution

DOEpatents

Ahn, Daniel; Ceze, Luis H.; Chen, Dong Chen; Gara, Alan; Heidelberger, Philip; Ohmacht, Martin

2016-11-22

A multiprocessor system supports multiple concurrent modes of speculative execution. Speculation identification numbers (IDs) are allocated to speculative threads from a pool of available numbers. The pool is divided into domains, with each domain being assigned to a mode of speculation. Modes of speculation include TM, TLS, and rollback. Allocation of the IDs is carried out with respect to a central state table and using hardware pointers. The IDs are used for writing different versions of speculative results in different ways of a set in a cache memory.

Impaired prospective memory but intact episodic memory in intellectually average 7- to 9-year-olds born very preterm and/or very low birth weight.

PubMed

Ford, Ruth M; Griffiths, Sarah; Neulinger, Kerryn; Andrews, Glenda; Shum, David H K; Gray, Peter H

2017-11-01

Relatively little is known about episodic memory (EM: memory for personally-experienced events) and prospective memory (PM: memory for intended actions) in children born very preterm (VP) or with very low birth weight (VLBW). This study evaluates EM and PM in mainstream-schooled 7- to 9-year-olds born VP (≤ 32 weeks) and/or VLBW (< 1500 g) and matches full-term children for comparison (n = 35 and n = 37, respectively). Additionally, participants were assessed for verbal and non-verbal ability, executive function (EF), and theory of mind (ToM). The results show that the VP/VLBW children were outperformed by the full-term children on the memory tests overall, with a significant univariate group difference in PM. Moreover, within the VP/VLBW group, the measures of PM, verbal ability and working memory all displayed reliable negative correlations with severity of neonatal illness. PM was found to be independent of EM and cognitive functioning, suggesting that this form of memory might constitute a domain of specific vulnerability for VP/VLBW children.

Remembering the dynamic changes in pain intensity and unpleasantness: a psychophysical study.

PubMed

Khoshnejad, Mina; Fortin, Marie C; Rohani, Farzan; Duncan, Gary H; Rainville, Pierre

2014-03-01

This study investigated the short-term memory of dynamic changes in acute pain using psychophysical methods. Pain intensity or unpleasantness induced by painful contact-heat stimuli of 8, 9, or 10s was rated continuously during the stimulus or after a 14-s delay using an electronic visual analog scale in 10 healthy volunteers. Because the continuous visual analog scale time courses contained large amounts of redundant information, a principal component analysis was applied to characterize the main features inherent to both the concurrent rating and retrospective evaluations. Three components explained about 90% of the total variance across all trials and subjects, with the first component reflecting the global perceptual profile, and the second and third components explaining finer perceptual aspects (eg, changes in slope at onset and offset and shifts in peak latency). We postulate that these 3 principal components may provide some information about the structure of the mental representations of what one perceives, stores, and remembers during the course of few seconds. Analysis performed on the components confirmed significant memory distortions and revealed that the discriminative information about pain dimensions in concurrent ratings was partly or completely lost in retrospective ratings. Importantly, our results highlight individual differences affecting these memory processes. These results provide further evidence of the important transformations underlying the processing of pain in explicit memory and raise fundamental questions about the conversion of dynamic nociceptive signals into a mental representation of pain in perception and memory. Copyright © 2013 International Association for the Study of Pain. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Knowledge of memory functions in European and Asian American adults and children: the relation to autobiographical memory.

PubMed

Wang, Qi; Koh, Jessie Bee Kim; Song, Qingfang; Hou, Yubo

2015-01-01

This study investigated explicit knowledge of autobiographical memory functions using a newly developed questionnaire. European and Asian American adults (N = 57) and school-aged children (N = 68) indicated their agreement with 13 statements about why people think about and share memories pertaining to four broad functions-self, social, directive and emotion regulation. Children were interviewed for personal memories concurrently with the memory function knowledge assessment and again 3 months later. It was found that adults agreed to the self, social and directive purposes of memory to a greater extent than did children, whereas European American children agreed to the emotion regulation purposes of memory to a greater extent than did European American adults. Furthermore, European American children endorsed more self and emotion regulation functions than did Asian American children, whereas Asian American adults endorsed more directive functions than did European American adults. Children's endorsement of memory functions, particularly social functions, was associated with more detailed and personally meaningful memories. These findings are informative for the understanding of developmental and cultural influences on memory function knowledge and of the relation of such knowledge to autobiographical memory development.

Prospective and retrospective memory are differentially related to self-rated omission and commission errors in medication adherence in multimorbidity.

PubMed

Ihle, Andreas; Inauen, Jennifer; Scholz, Urte; König, Claudia; Holzer, Barbara; Zimmerli, Lukas; Battegay, Edouard; Tobias, Robert; Kliegel, Matthias

2017-01-01

We investigated the relations of self-rated omission errors (i.e., forgetting to take one's medication) and commission errors (i.e., unnecessary repetitions of medication intake because of forgetting that it has already been taken) in medication adherence in multimorbidity to prospective and retrospective memory performance. Moreover, we examined whether these relations were moderated by the number of medications that had to be taken. Eighty-four patients with multimorbidity (aged 28-84 years, M = 62.4) reported medication adherence regarding the last seven days and the number of medications they had to take. In addition, we administered psychometric tests on prospective memory (PM) and retrospective memory performance. We found that reported omission errors in medication adherence were related significantly to lower PM performance. This relationship was increased in individuals with a lower number of medications. In comparison, reported commission errors in medication adherence were related significantly to lower retrospective memory performance. This relationship was increased in individuals with a larger number of medications. Present data suggest that omission errors in medication adherence in multimorbidity may reflect primarily PM errors, particularly if few medications have to be taken, while commission errors may reflect mainly retrospective memory failures, especially with a large number of medications that need to be taken as prescribed. From an applied neuropsychological perspective, these results underline the importance of trying to enhance PM and retrospective memory performance in patients with multimorbidity.

Effects of Learned Episodic Event Structure on Prospective Duration Judgments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Faber, Myrthe; Gennari, Silvia P.

2017-01-01

The field of psychology of time has typically distinguished between prospective timing and retrospective duration estimation: in prospective timing, participants attend to and encode time, whereas in retrospective estimation, estimates are based on the memory of what happened. Prior research on prospective timing has primarily focused on…

What Costs Do Reveal and Moving beyond the Cost Debate: Reply to Einstein and McDaniel (2010)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Rebekah E.

2010-01-01

Einstein et al. (2005) predicted no cost to an ongoing task when a prospective memory task met certain criteria. Smith, Hunt, McVay, and McConnell (2007) used prospective memory tasks that met these criteria and found a cost to the ongoing task, contrary to Einstein et al.'s prediction. Einstein and McDaniel (2010) correctly noted that there are…

A Meta-Analysis and Critical Review of Prospective Memory in Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Landsiedel, Julia; Williams, David M.; Abbot-Smith, Kirsten

2017-01-01

Prospective memory (PM) is the ability to remember to carry out a planned intention at an appropriate moment in the future. Research on PM in ASD has produced mixed results. We aimed to establish the extent to which two types of PM (event-based/time-based) are impaired in ASD. In part 1, a meta-analysis of all existing studies indicates a large…

The Influence of Emotional Material on Encoding and Retrieving Intentions: An ERP Study in Younger and Older Adults

PubMed Central

Hering, Alexandra; Kliegel, Matthias; Bisiacchi, Patrizia S.; Cona, Giorgia

2018-01-01

Prospective memory is a cognitive process that comprises the encoding and maintenance of an intention until the appropriate moment of its retrieval. It is of highly relevance for an independent everyday life, especially in older adults; however, there is ample evidence that prospective memory declines with increasing age. Because most studies have used neutral stimuli, it is still an open question how emotional factors influence age-related differences in prospective remembering. The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of emotional material on prospective memory encoding, monitoring, maintaining, and retrieval in younger and older adults using behavioral and electrophysiological measures. We tested 24 younger adults (M = 26.4 years) and 20 older adults (M = 68.1 years) using a picture one-back task as ongoing activity with an embedded prospective memory instruction. The experimental task consisted of three sessions. In each session, participants had to encode series of images that represented the prospective memory cues for the consecutive block. The images were either of pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral valence. The pictures used in the ongoing task were likewise of pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral valence. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded to assess the neural correlates of intention encoding, maintenance, and self-initiated retrieval. We did not find age differences between younger and older adults on the behavioral level. However, the ERP results revealed an interesting pattern that suggested for both age groups elevated attentional processing of emotional cues during encoding indicated by an elevated LPP for the emotional cues. Additionally, younger adults showed increased activity for unpleasant cues. During the maintenance phase, both age groups engaged in strategic monitoring especially for pleasant cues, which led to enhanced sustained positivity. During retrieval, older adults showed increased activity of ERP components related to cue detection and retrieval mainly for pleasant cues indicating enhanced relevance for those cues. In conclusion, emotional material may influence prospective remembering in older adults differently than in younger adults by supporting a mixture of top-down and bottom-up controlled processing. The results demonstrated a negativity bias in younger adults and a positivity bias in older adults. PMID:29503622

Event- and time-triggered remembering: the impact of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder on prospective memory performance in children.

PubMed

Talbot, Karley-Dale S; Kerns, Kimberly A

2014-11-01

The current study examined prospective memory (PM, both time-based and event-based) and time estimation (TR, a time reproduction task) in children with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study also investigated the influence of task performance and TR on time-based PM in children with ADHD relative to controls. A sample of 69 children, aged 8 to 13 years, completed the CyberCruiser-II time-based PM task, a TR task, and the Super Little Fisherman event-based PM task. PM performance was compared with children's TR abilities, parental reports of daily prospective memory disturbances (Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire for Children, PRMQC), and ADHD symptomatology (Conner's rating scales). Children with ADHD scored more poorly on event-based PM, time-based PM, and TR; interestingly, TR did not appear related to performance on time-based PM. In addition, it was found that PRMQC scores and ADHD symptom severity were related to performance on the time-based PM task but not to performance on the event-based PM task. These results provide some limited support for theories that propose a distinction between event-based PM and time-based PM. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Identification of a Functional Connectome for Long-Term Fear Memory in Mice

PubMed Central

Wheeler, Anne L.; Teixeira, Cátia M.; Wang, Afra H.; Xiong, Xuejian; Kovacevic, Natasa; Lerch, Jason P.; McIntosh, Anthony R.; Parkinson, John; Frankland, Paul W.

2013-01-01

Long-term memories are thought to depend upon the coordinated activation of a broad network of cortical and subcortical brain regions. However, the distributed nature of this representation has made it challenging to define the neural elements of the memory trace, and lesion and electrophysiological approaches provide only a narrow window into what is appreciated a much more global network. Here we used a global mapping approach to identify networks of brain regions activated following recall of long-term fear memories in mice. Analysis of Fos expression across 84 brain regions allowed us to identify regions that were co-active following memory recall. These analyses revealed that the functional organization of long-term fear memories depends on memory age and is altered in mutant mice that exhibit premature forgetting. Most importantly, these analyses indicate that long-term memory recall engages a network that has a distinct thalamic-hippocampal-cortical signature. This network is concurrently integrated and segregated and therefore has small-world properties, and contains hub-like regions in the prefrontal cortex and thalamus that may play privileged roles in memory expression. PMID:23300432

Greater loss of object than spatial mnemonic discrimination in aged adults.

PubMed

Reagh, Zachariah M; Ho, Huy D; Leal, Stephanie L; Noche, Jessica A; Chun, Amanda; Murray, Elizabeth A; Yassa, Michael A

2016-04-01

Previous studies across species have established that the aging process adversely affects certain memory-related brain regions earlier than others. Behavioral tasks targeted at the function of vulnerable regions can provide noninvasive methods for assessing the integrity of particular components of memory throughout the lifespan. The present study modified a previous task designed to separately but concurrently test detailed memory for object identity and spatial location. Memory for objects or items is thought to rely on perirhinal and lateral entorhinal cortices, among the first targets of Alzheimer's related neurodegeneration. In line with prior work, we split an aged adult sample into "impaired" and "unimpaired" groups on the basis of a standardized word-learning task. The "impaired" group showed widespread difficulty with memory discrimination, whereas the "unimpaired" group showed difficulty with object, but not spatial memory discrimination. These findings support the hypothesized greater age-related impacts on memory for objects or items in older adults, perhaps even with healthy aging. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Subjective and Objective Peer Approval Evaluations and Self-Esteem Development: A Test of Reciprocal, Prospective, and Long-Term Effects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gruenenfelder-Steiger, Andrea E.; Harris, Michelle A.; Fend, Helmut A.

2016-01-01

A large body of literature suggests a clear, concurrent association between peer approval and self-esteem in adolescence. However, little empirical work exists on either the prospective or reciprocal relation between peer approval and self-esteem during this age period. Moreover, it is unclear from past research whether both "subjectively…

The Associations of Financial Stress and Parenting Support Factors with Alcohol Behaviors During Young Adulthood

PubMed Central

Lawry, Charles; Li, Gu; Conger, Katherine J.; Russell, Stephen T.

2014-01-01

This study examined concurrent and prospective associations of financial stress (financial strain, lack of financial access, public assistance) and parenting support factors (relationship quality, living at home, financial support) with young adults’ alcohol behaviors (alcohol use, heavy drinking, and problematic drinking) over a 5-year period. Analyses of National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) data (N = 7,159) showed that, over the study period, alcohol use and heavy drinking declined while problematic drinking increased. In addition, living at home and parental relationship quality were associated with fewer concurrent and prospective alcohol behaviors whereas financial strain and parents’ financial support were associated with more alcohol behaviors. The implications for minimizing alcohol misuse in young adults amid uncertain economic conditions are discussed. PMID:26388681

Temporal association of cannabis use with symptoms in individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis.

PubMed

Corcoran, Cheryl M; Kimhy, David; Stanford, Arielle; Khan, Shamir; Walsh, Julie; Thompson, Judy; Schobel, Scott; Harkavy-Friedman, Jill; Goetz, Ray; Colibazzi, Tiziano; Cressman, Victoria; Malaspina, Dolores

2008-12-01

Cannabis use is reported to increase the risk for psychosis, but no prospective study has longitudinally examined drug use and symptoms concurrently in clinical high risk cases. We prospectively followed for up to 2 years 32 cases who met research criteria for prodromal psychosis to examine the relationship between substance use and clinical measures. Cases with a baseline history of cannabis use (41%) were older, but did not differ in clinical measures. Longitudinal assessments showed these cases had significantly more perceptual disturbances and worse functioning during epochs of increased cannabis use that were unexplained by concurrent use of other drugs or medications. These data demonstrate that cannabis use may be a risk factor for the exacerbation of subthreshold psychotic symptoms, specifically perceptual disturbances, in high risk cases.

AFL-1: A programming Language for Massively Concurrent Computers.

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-11-01

Bibliography Ackley, D.H., Hinton, G.E., Sejnowski, T.J., "A Learning Algorithm for boltzmann Machines", Cognitive Science, 1985, 9, 147-169. Agre...P.E., "Routines", Memo 828, MIT AI Laboratory, Many 1985. Ballard, D.H., Hayes, P.J., "Parallel Logical Inference", Conference of the Cognitive Science...34Experiments on Semantic Memory and Language Com- 125 prehension", in L.W. Greg (Ed.), Cognition in Learning and Memory, New York, Wiley, 1972._ Collins

Individual differences in episodic memory abilities predict successful prospective memory output monitoring.

PubMed

Hunter Ball, B; Pitães, Margarida; Brewer, Gene A

2018-02-07

Output monitoring refers to memory for one's previously completed actions. In the context of prospective memory (PM) (e.g., remembering to take medication), failures of output monitoring can result in repetitions and omissions of planned actions (e.g., over- or under-medication). To be successful in output monitoring paradigms, participants must flexibly control attention to detect PM cues as well as engage controlled retrieval of previous actions whenever a particular cue is encountered. The current study examined individual differences in output monitoring abilities in a group of younger adults differing in attention control (AC) and episodic memory (EM) abilities. The results showed that AC ability uniquely predicted successful cue detection on the first presentation, whereas EM ability uniquely predicted successful output monitoring on the second presentation. The current study highlights the importance of examining external correlates of PM abilities and contributes to the growing body of research on individual differences in PM.

Specificity in autobiographical memory narratives correlates with performance on the Autobiographical Memory Test and prospectively predicts depressive symptoms

PubMed Central

Sumner, Jennifer A.; Mineka, Susan; McAdams, Dan P.

2012-01-01

Reduced autobiographical memory specificity (AMS) is an important cognitive marker in depression that is typically measured with the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT; Williams & Broadbent, 1986). The AMT is widely used, but the overreliance on a single methodology for assessing AMS is a limitation in the field. The current study investigated memory narratives as an alternative measure of AMS in an undergraduate student sample selected for being high or low on a measure of depressive symptoms (N = 55). We employed a multi-method design to compare narrative- and AMT-based measures of AMS. Participants generated personally significant self-defining memory narratives, and also completed two versions of the AMT (with and without instructions to retrieve specific memories). Greater AMS in self-defining memory narratives correlated with greater AMS in performance on both versions of the AMT in the full sample, and the patterns of relationships between the different AMS measures were generally similar in low and high dysphoric participants. Furthermore, AMS in self-defining memory narratives was prospectively associated with depressive symptom levels. Specifically, greater AMS in self-defining memory narratives predicted fewer depressive symptoms at a 10-week follow-up over and above baseline symptom levels. Implications for future research and clinical applications are discussed. PMID:23240988

Specificity in autobiographical memory narratives correlates with performance on the autobiographical memory test and prospectively predicts depressive symptoms.

PubMed

Sumner, Jennifer A; Mineka, Susan; McAdams, Dan P

2013-01-01

Reduced autobiographical memory specificity (AMS) is an important cognitive marker in depression that is typically measured with the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT; Williams & Broadbent, 1986). The AMT is widely used, but the over-reliance on a single methodology for assessing AMS is a limitation in the field. The current study investigated memory narratives as an alternative measure of AMS in an undergraduate student sample selected for being high or low on a measure of depressive symptoms (N=55). We employed a multi-method design to compare narrative- and AMT-based measures of AMS. Participants generated personally significant self-defining memory narratives, and also completed two versions of the AMT (with and without instructions to retrieve specific memories). Greater AMS in self-defining memory narratives correlated with greater AMS in performance on both versions of the AMT in the full sample, and the patterns of relationships between the different AMS measures were generally similar in low and high dysphoric participants. Furthermore, AMS in self-defining memory narratives was prospectively associated with depressive symptom levels. Specifically, greater AMS in self-defining memory narratives predicted fewer depressive symptoms at a 10-week follow-up over and above baseline symptom levels. Implications for future research and clinical applications are discussed.

Memory, mental time travel and The Moustachio Quartet

PubMed Central

Wilkins, Clive

2017-01-01

Mental time travel allows us to revisit our memories and imagine future scenarios, and this is why memories are not only about the past, but they are also prospective. These episodic memories are not a fixed store of what happened, however, they are reassessed each time they are revisited and depend on the sequence in which events unfold. In this paper, we shall explore the complex relationships between memory and human experience, including through a series of novels ‘The Moustachio Quartet’ that can be read in any order. To do so, we shall integrate evidences from science and the arts to explore the subjective nature of memory and mental time travel, and argue that it has evolved primarily for prospection as opposed to retrospection. Furthermore, we shall question the notion that mental time travel is a uniquely human construct, and argue that some of the best evidence for the evolution of mental time travel comes from our distantly related cousins, the corvids, that cache food for the future and rely on long-lasting and highly accurate memories of what, where and when they stored their stashes of food. PMID:28479980

Memory, mental time travel and The Moustachio Quartet.

PubMed

Clayton, Nicola; Wilkins, Clive

2017-06-06

Mental time travel allows us to revisit our memories and imagine future scenarios, and this is why memories are not only about the past, but they are also prospective. These episodic memories are not a fixed store of what happened, however, they are reassessed each time they are revisited and depend on the sequence in which events unfold. In this paper, we shall explore the complex relationships between memory and human experience, including through a series of novels 'The Moustachio Quartet' that can be read in any order. To do so, we shall integrate evidences from science and the arts to explore the subjective nature of memory and mental time travel, and argue that it has evolved primarily for prospection as opposed to retrospection. Furthermore, we shall question the notion that mental time travel is a uniquely human construct, and argue that some of the best evidence for the evolution of mental time travel comes from our distantly related cousins, the corvids, that cache food for the future and rely on long-lasting and highly accurate memories of what, where and when they stored their stashes of food.

Does constraining memory maintenance reduce visual search efficiency?

PubMed

Buttaccio, Daniel R; Lange, Nicholas D; Thomas, Rick P; Dougherty, Michael R

2018-03-01

We examine whether constraining memory retrieval processes affects performance in a cued recall visual search task. In the visual search task, participants are first presented with a memory prompt followed by a search array. The memory prompt provides diagnostic information regarding a critical aspect of the target (its colour). We assume that upon the presentation of the memory prompt, participants retrieve and maintain hypotheses (i.e., potential target characteristics) in working memory in order to improve their search efficiency. By constraining retrieval through the manipulation of time pressure (Experiments 1A and 1B) or a concurrent working memory task (Experiments 2A, 2B, and 2C), we directly test the involvement of working memory in visual search. We find some evidence that visual search is less efficient under conditions in which participants were likely to be maintaining fewer hypotheses in working memory (Experiments 1A, 2A, and 2C), suggesting that the retrieval of representations from long-term memory into working memory can improve visual search. However, these results should be interpreted with caution, as the data from two experiments (Experiments 1B and 2B) did not lend support for this conclusion.

Brain substrates of implicit and explicit memory: the importance of concurrently acquired neural signals of both memory types.

PubMed

Voss, Joel L; Paller, Ken A

2008-11-01

A comprehensive understanding of human memory requires cognitive and neural descriptions of memory processes along with a conception of how memory processing drives behavioral responses and subjective experiences. One serious challenge to this endeavor is that an individual memory process is typically operative within a mix of other contemporaneous memory processes. This challenge is particularly disquieting in the context of implicit memory, which, unlike explicit memory, transpires without the subject necessarily being aware of memory retrieval. Neural correlates of implicit memory and neural correlates of explicit memory are often investigated in different experiments using very different memory tests and procedures. This strategy poses difficulties for elucidating the interactions between the two types of memory process that may result in explicit remembering, and for determining the extent to which certain neural processing events uniquely contribute to only one type of memory. We review recent studies that have succeeded in separately assessing neural correlates of both implicit memory and explicit memory within the same paradigm using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), with an emphasis on studies from our laboratory. The strategies we describe provide a methodological framework for achieving valid assessments of memory processing, and the findings support an emerging conceptualization of the distinct neurocognitive events responsible for implicit and explicit memory.

Prospective and retrospective episodic metamemory in posttraumatic stress disorder.

PubMed

Sacher, Mathilde; Tudorache, Andrei-Cristian; Clarys, David; Boudjarane, Mohamed; Landré, Lionel; El-Hage, Wissam

2018-03-14

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been consistently associated with episodic memory deficits. To some extent, these deficits could be related to an impairment of metamemory in individuals with PTSD. This research consequently aims at investigating prospective (feeling-of-knowing, FOK) and retrospective (confidence) metamemory judgments for episodic information in PTSD. Twenty participants with PTSD and without depression were compared to 30 healthy comparison participants on metamemory judgments during an episodic memory task. The concordance between metamemory judgments and recognition performance was then assessed by gamma correlations. The results confirmed that PTSD is associated with episodic memory impairment. Regarding metamemory, gamma correlations indicated that participants with PTSD failed to accurately predict their future memory performance as compared to the comparison group (mean FOK gamma correlations: .23 vs. .42, respectively). Furthermore, participants with PTSD made less accurate confidence judgments than comparison participants (mean confidence gamma correlations: .62 vs. .74, respectively). Our results demonstrate an alteration of both prospective and retrospective metamemory processes in PTSD, which could be of particular relevance to future therapeutic interventions focusing on metacognitive strategies.

The future orientation of constructive memory: an evolutionary perspective on therapeutic hypnosis and brief psychotherapy.

PubMed

Rossi, Ernest; Erickson-Klein, Roxanna; Rossi, Kathryn

2008-04-01

We explore a new distinction between the future, prospective memory system being investigated in current neuroscience and the past, retrospective memory system, which was the original theoretical foundation of therapeutic hypnosis, classical psychoanalysis, and psychotherapy. We then generalize a current evolutionary theory of sleep and dreaming, which focuses on the future, prospective memory system, to conceptualize a new evolutionary perspective on therapeutic hypnosis and brief psychotherapy. The implication of current neuroscience research is that activity-dependent gene expression and brain plasticity are the psychobiological basis of adaptive behavior, consciousness, and creativity in everyday life as well as psychotherapy. We summarize a case illustrating how this evolutionary perspective can be used to quickly resolve problems with past obstructive procrastination in school to facilitate current and future academic success.

Trajectories of Symptom Clusters, Performance Status, and Quality of Life During Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy in Patients With High-Grade Brain Cancers.

PubMed

Kim, Sang-Hee; Byun, Youngsoon

Symptom clusters must be identified in patients with high-grade brain cancers for effective symptom management during cancer-related therapy. The aims of this study were to identify symptom clusters in patients with high-grade brain cancers and to determine the relationship of each cluster with the performance status and quality of life (QOL) during concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). Symptoms were assessed using the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale, and the performance status was evaluated using the Karnofsky Performance Scale. Quality of life was assessed using the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General. This prospective longitudinal survey was conducted before CCRT and at 2 to 3 weeks and 4 to 6 weeks after the initiation of CCRT. A total of 51 patients with newly diagnosed primary malignant brain cancer were included. Six symptom clusters were identified, and 2 symptom clusters were present at each time point (ie, "negative emotion" and "neurocognitive" clusters before CCRT, "negative emotion and decreased vitality" and "gastrointestinal and decreased sensory" clusters at 2-3 weeks, and "body image and decreased vitality" and "gastrointestinal" clusters at 4-6 weeks). The symptom clusters at each time point demonstrated a significant relationship with the performance status or QOL. Differences were observed in symptom clusters in patients with high-grade brain cancers during CCRT. In addition, the symptom clusters were correlated with the performance status and QOL of patients, and these effects could change during CCRT. The results of this study will provide suggestions for interventions to treat or prevent symptom clusters in patients with high-grade brain cancer during CCRT.

The valence of event-based prospective memory cues or the context in which they occur affects their detection.

PubMed

Clark-Foos, Arlo; Brewer, Gene A; Marsh, Richard L; Meeks, J Thadeus; Cook, Gabriel I

2009-01-01

Event-based prospective memory tasks entail detecting cues or reminders in our environment related to previously established intentions. If they are detected at an opportune time, then the intention can be fulfilled. In Experiments 1a-1c, we gave people 3 different nonfocal intentions (e.g., respond to words denoting animals) and discovered that negatively valenced cues delivered the intention to mind less frequently than positively valenced cues. In Experiment 2, this effect was extended to valenced and neutral sentential contexts with convergent results that cues embedded in negatively valenced sentences evoked remembering the intention less often than in positive contexts. In addition, both classes of valence caused the intention to be forgotten more often than a more neutral context. We propose that valence has the ability to usurp attentional resources that otherwise would have supported successful prospective memory performance.

A procedure for testing prospective remembering in persons with neurological impairments.

PubMed

Titov, N; Knight, R G

2000-10-01

A video-based procedure for assessing prospective remembering (PR) in brain-injured clients is described. In this task, a list of instructions is given, each comprising an action (buy a hamburger) and a cue (at McDonalds), which are to be recalled while watching a videotape segment showing the view of a person walking through a shopping area. A group of 12 clients with varying degrees of memory impairment undergoing rehabilitation completed both a video test and a comparable task in real-life. Significant correlations were found between the two measures, indicating that a video-based analogue can be used to estimate prospective remembering in real life. Scores on the PR task were associated with accuracy of recall on a word-list task, but not with the Working Memory Index of the Wechsler Memory Scale-III, suggesting that the task is sensitive to levels of amnesic deficit.

Top-down modulation: Bridging selective attention and working memory

PubMed Central

Gazzaley, Adam; Nobre, Anna C.

2012-01-01

Selective attention, the ability to focus our cognitive resources on information relevant to our goals, influences working memory (WM) performance. Indeed, attention and working memory are increasingly viewed as overlapping constructs. Here, we review recent evidence from human neurophysiological studies demonstrating that top-down modulation serves as a common neural mechanism underlying these two cognitive operations. The core features include activity modulation in stimulus-selective sensory cortices with concurrent engagement of prefrontal and parietal control regions that function as sources of top-down signals. Notably, top-down modulation is engaged during both stimulus-present and stimulus-absent stages of WM tasks, i.e., expectation of an ensuing stimulus to be remembered, selection and encoding of stimuli, maintenance of relevant information in mind and memory retrieval. PMID:22209601

Prior task experience and comparable stimulus exposure nullify focal and nonfocal prospective memory retrieval differences.

PubMed

Hicks, Jason L; Franks, Bryan A; Spitler, Samantha N

2017-10-01

We explored the nature of focal versus nonfocal event-based prospective memory retrieval. In the context of a lexical decision task, people received an intention to respond to a single word (focal) in one condition and to a category label (nonfocal) for the other condition. Participants experienced both conditions, and their order was manipulated. The focal instruction condition was a single word presented multiple times. In Experiment 1, the stimuli in the nonfocal condition were different exemplars from a category, each presented once. In the nonfocal condition retrieval was poorer and reaction times were slower during the ongoing task as compared to the focal condition, replicating prior findings. In Experiment 2, the stimulus in the nonfocal condition was a single category exemplar repeated multiple times. When this single-exemplar nonfocal condition followed in time the single-item focal condition, focal versus nonfocal performance was virtually indistinguishable. These results demonstrate that people can modify their stimulus processing and expectations in event-based prospective memory tasks based on experience with the nature of prospective cues and with the ongoing task.

Influence of affective valence on working memory processes.

PubMed

Gotoh, Fumiko

2008-02-01

Recent research has revealed widespread effects of emotion on cognitive function and memory. However, the influence of affective valence on working or short-term memory remains largely unexplored. In two experiments, the present study examined the predictions that negative words would capture attention, that attention would be difficult to disengage from such negative words, and that the cost of attention switching would increase the time required to update information in working memory. Participants switched between two concurrent working memory tasks: word recognition and a working memory digit updating task. Experiment 1 showed substantial switching cost for negative words, relative to neutral words. Experiment 2 replicated the first experiment, using a self-report measure of anxiety to examine if switching cost is a function of an anxiety-related attention bias. Results did not support this hypothesis. In addition, Experiment 2 revealed switch costs for positive words without the effect of the attention bias from anxiety. The present study demonstrates the effect of affective valence on a specific component of working memory. Moreover, findings suggest why affective valence effects on working memory have not been found in previous research.

Distractor devaluation requires visual working memory.

PubMed

Goolsby, Brian A; Shapiro, Kimron L; Raymond, Jane E

2009-02-01

Visual stimuli seen previously as distractors in a visual search task are subsequently evaluated more negatively than those seen as targets. An attentional inhibition account for this distractor-devaluation effect posits that associative links between attentional inhibition and to-be-ignored stimuli are established during search, stored, and then later reinstantiated, implying that distractor devaluation may require visual working memory (WM) resources. To assess this, we measured distractor devaluation with and without a concurrent visual WM load. Participants viewed a memory array, performed a simple search task, evaluated one of the search items (or a novel item), and then viewed a memory test array. Although distractor devaluation was observed with low (and no) WM load, it was absent when WM load was increased. This result supports the notions that active association of current attentional states with stimuli requires WM and that memory for these associations plays a role in affective response.

Divided attention can enhance memory encoding: the attentional boost effect in implicit memory.

PubMed

Spataro, Pietro; Mulligan, Neil W; Rossi-Arnaud, Clelia

2013-07-01

Distraction during encoding has long been known to disrupt later memory performance. Contrary to this long-standing result, we show that detecting an infrequent target in a dual-task paradigm actually improves memory encoding for a concurrently presented word, above and beyond the performance reached in the full-attention condition. This absolute facilitation was obtained in 2 perceptual implicit tasks (lexical decision and word fragment completion) but not in a conceptual implicit task (semantic classification). In the case of recognition memory, the facilitation was relative, bringing accuracy in the divided attention condition up to the level of accuracy in the full attention condition. The findings follow from the hypothesis that the attentional boost effect reflects enhanced visual encoding of the study stimulus consequent to the transient orienting response to the dual-task target. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Does working memory load facilitate target detection?

PubMed

Fruchtman-Steinbok, Tom; Kessler, Yoav

2016-02-01

Previous studies demonstrated that increasing working memory (WM) load delays performance of a concurrent task, by distracting attention and thus interfering with encoding and maintenance processes. The present study used a version of the change detection task with a target detection requirement during the retention interval. In contrast to the above prediction, target detection was faster following a larger set-size, specifically when presented shortly after the memory array (up to 400 ms). The effect of set-size on target detection was also evident when no memory retention was required. The set-size effect was also found using different modalities. Moreover, it was only observed when the memory array was presented simultaneously, but not sequentially. These results were explained by increased phasic alertness exerted by the larger visual display. The present study offers new evidence of ongoing attentional processes in the commonly-used change detection paradigm. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Specificity and transfer effects in time production skill: examining the role of attention.

PubMed

Wohldmann, Erica L; Healy, Alice F; Bourne, Lyle E

2012-05-01

Two experiments examined transfer of a prospective, time production skill under conditions involving changes in concurrent task requirements. Positive transfer of the time production skill might be expected only when the attentional demands of the concurrent task were held constant from training to test. However, some positive transfer was found even when the concurrent task at retraining was made either easier or more difficult than the concurrent task learned during training. The amount and direction of transfer depended more on the pacing of the stimuli in the secondary task than on the difficulty of the secondary task, even though difficulty affects attentional demands more. These findings are consistent with the procedural reinstatement principle of skill learning, by which transfer from one task to another depends on an overlap in procedures required by the two skills.

Variation in Cognitive Failures: An Individual Differences Investigation of Everyday Attention and Memory Failures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Unsworth, Nash; Brewer, Gene A.; Spillers, Gregory J.

2012-01-01

The present study examined individual differences in everyday cognitive failures assessed by diaries. A large sample of participants completed various cognitive ability measures in the laboratory. Furthermore, a subset of these participants also recorded everyday cognitive failures (attention, retrospective memory, and prospective memory failures)…

Autobiographical Memory from a Life Span Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schroots, Johannes J. F.; van Dijkum, Cor; Assink, Marian H. J.

2004-01-01

This comparative study (i.e., three age groups, three measures) explores the distribution of retrospective and prospective autobiographical memory data across the lifespan, in particular the bump pattern of disproportionally higher recall of memories from the ages 10 to 30, as generally observed in older age groups, in conjunction with the…

Treatment of Unruptured Intracranial Aneurysms and Cognitive Performance: Preliminary Results of a Prospective Clinical Trial.

PubMed

Bründl, Elisabeth; Böhm, Christina; Lürding, Ralf; Schödel, Petra; Bele, Sylvia; Hochreiter, Andreas; Scheitzach, Judith; Zeman, Florian; Brawanski, Alexander; Schebesch, Karl-Michael

2016-10-01

Few studies have addressed the effect of treatment of unruptured intracranial aneurysm (UIA) on cognitive function. Neuropsychological assessment after UIA treatment is underreported, and prospective trials have repeatedly been demanded. In 2014, we conducted a prospective controlled study to evaluate the differences in cognitive processing caused by the treatment of anterior circulation UIAs. Thirty patients were enrolled until September 2015. Ten patients received endovascular aneurysm occlusion (EV), 10 patients were treated microsurgically (MS), and 10 patients with surgically treated degenerative lumbar spine disease (LD) served as control. All patients underwent extended standardized neuropsychological assessment before (t 1 ) and 6 weeks after treatment (t 2 ). Tests included verbal, visual, and visuospatial memory, psychomotor functioning, executive functioning, and its subdomains verbal fluency and cognitive flexibility. We statistically evaluated intragroup and intergroup changes. Intragroup comparisons and group-rate analysis showed no significant impairment in overall neuropsychological performance, either postinterventionally or postoperatively. However, the postoperative performance in cognitive processing speed, cognitive flexibility, and executive functioning was significantly worse in the MS group than in the EV (P = 0.038) and LD group (P = 0.02). Compared with the EV group, patients with MS showed significant postoperative impairment in a subtest for auditory-verbal memory (Wechsler Memory Scale, Fourth Edition, Logical Memory II; MS vs. EV P = 0.011). The MS group trended toward posttreatment impairment in subtests for verbal fluency and semantic memory (Regensburg Word Fluency Test; MS vs. EV P = 0.083) and in auditory-verbal memory (Wechsler Memory Scale, Fourth Edition, Logical Memory II; MS vs. LD P = 0.06). Our preliminary data showed no effect of anterior circulation UIA treatment on overall neuropsychological function but impaired short-term executive processing in surgically treated patients. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Hurricane-Related Exposure Experiences and Stressors, Other Life Events, and Social Support: Concurrent and Prospective Impact on Children's Persistent Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

La Greca, Annette M.; Silverman, Wendy K.; Lai, Betty; Jaccard, James

2010-01-01

Objective: We investigated the influence of hurricane exposure, stressors occurring during the hurricane and recovery period, and social support on children's persistent posttraumatic stress (PTS). Method: Using a 2-wave, prospective design, we assessed 384 children (54% girls; mean age = 8.74 years) 9 months posthurricane, and we reassessed 245…

The influence of cognitive load on spatial search performance.

PubMed

Longstaffe, Kate A; Hood, Bruce M; Gilchrist, Iain D

2014-01-01

During search, executive function enables individuals to direct attention to potential targets, remember locations visited, and inhibit distracting information. In the present study, we investigated these executive processes in large-scale search. In our tasks, participants searched a room containing an array of illuminated locations embedded in the floor. The participants' task was to press the switches at the illuminated locations on the floor so as to locate a target that changed color when pressed. The perceptual salience of the search locations was manipulated by having some locations flashing and some static. Participants were more likely to search at flashing locations, even when they were explicitly informed that the target was equally likely to be at any location. In large-scale search, attention was captured by the perceptual salience of the flashing lights, leading to a bias to explore these targets. Despite this failure of inhibition, participants were able to restrict returns to previously visited locations, a measure of spatial memory performance. Participants were more able to inhibit exploration to flashing locations when they were not required to remember which locations had previously been visited. A concurrent digit-span memory task further disrupted inhibition during search, as did a concurrent auditory attention task. These experiments extend a load theory of attention to large-scale search, which relies on egocentric representations of space. High cognitive load on working memory leads to increased distractor interference, providing evidence for distinct roles for the executive subprocesses of memory and inhibition during large-scale search.

Dual-task interference in visual working memory: A limitation in storage capacity but not in encoding or retrieval

PubMed Central

Fougnie, Daryl; Marois, René

2009-01-01

The concurrent maintenance of two visual working memory (VWM) arrays can lead to profound interference. It is unclear, however, whether these costs arise from limitations in VWM storage capacity (Fougnie & Marois, 2006), or from interference between the storage of one visual array and encoding or retrieval of another visual array (Cowan & Morey, 2007). Here, we show that encoding a VWM array does not interfere with maintenance of another VWM array unless the two displays exceed maintenance capacity (Experiments 1 and 2). Moreover, manipulating the extent to which encoding and maintenance can interfere with one another had no discernable effect on dual-task performance (Experiment 2). Finally, maintenance of a VWM array was not affected by retrieval of information from another VWM array (Experiment 3). Taken together, these findings demonstrate that dual-task interference between two concurrent VWM tasks is due to a capacity-limited store that is independent from encoding and retrieval processes. PMID:19933566

Construct and concurrent validity of the Cambridge neuropsychological automated tests in Portuguese older adults without neuropsychiatric diagnoses and with Alzheimer's disease dementia.

PubMed

Matos Gonçalves, Marta; Pinho, Maria Salomé; Simões, Mário R

2018-03-01

We aimed to analyze the construct and concurrent validity of the Rapid Visual Information Processing (RVP), Paired Associates Learning (PAL), Reaction Time (RTI), and Spatial Working Memory (SWM) tests from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB®). Inclusion criteria were checked in a first session. The CANTAB and additional pencil-and-paper tests were administered within 1 week. The participants (aged 69-96 years) were 137 Portuguese adults without neuropsychiatric diagnoses and 37 adults with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease dementia. Comparisons were made between the CANTAB tests and between these tests and the Rey Complex Figure Test (RCFT), Verbal Fluency (VF) test, and some Wechsler Memory Scale-III and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III subtests. Most intra-test correlations were stronger than the CANTAB inter-test correlations. The RVP correlated more with VF animals (.44), the PAL with RCFT immediate recall (-.52), the RTI with RVP mean latency (.42), and the SWM with Spatial Span backward (-.39).

Prospective memory and working memory: asymmetrical effects during frontal lobe TMS stimulation.

PubMed

Basso, Demis; Ferrari, Marcella; Palladino, Paola

2010-09-01

The role of working memory (WM) for the realization of an intended action (prospective memory, PM) has been debated in recent neuropsychological literature. The present study aimed to assess whether WM and PM share resources or are, alternatively, two distinct mechanisms. A verbal task was used, which manipulated the cognitive demand of both WM and PM dimensions on an event-based prospective task. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was also employed to clarify the causal contribution of frontal areas previously related to WM, to the PM process. The prospective task required the participant to respond whenever a word appeared which had been presented before the beginning of the task. Two ongoing tasks were administered: an updating WM task (in two conditions of medium and high WM demands) and a lexical decision task (representing a low WM demand). In the first two experiments, higher PM demand affected WM only at higher loads, but the PM load effect was independent of WM, showing asymmetrical behavioural effects. In the third experiment, single pulse TMS was applied to left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortices. When applied to the experimental sites, stimulation increased error rates of the PM task, while the effect was only marginal in the WM task. The effect was bilateral, since there was no difference between left and right stimulation sites. These findings demonstrated, from both behavioural and neurofunctional perspectives, that WM and PM processes are not based on the same memory system, but PM may require WM resources at high demand. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Multifaceted Prospective Memory Intervention to Improve Medication Adherence.

PubMed

Insel, Kathie C; Einstein, Gilles O; Morrow, Daniel G; Koerner, Kari M; Hepworth, Joseph T

2016-03-01

To test whether a multifaceted prospective memory intervention improved adherence to antihypertensive medications and to assess whether executive function and working memory processes moderated the intervention effects. Two-group longitudinal randomized control trial. Community. Individuals aged 65 and older without signs of dementia or symptoms of severe depression who were self-managing prescribed medication. After 4 weeks of initial adherence monitoring using a medication event monitoring system, individuals with 90% or less adherence were randomly assigned to groups. The prospective memory intervention was designed to provide strategies that switch older adults from relying on executive function and working memory processes (that show effects of cognitive aging) to mostly automatic associative processes (that are relatively spared with normal aging) for remembering to take medications. Strategies included establishing a routine, establishing cues strongly associated with medication taking actions, performing the action immediately upon thinking about it, using a medication organizer, and imagining medication taking to enhance encoding and improve cuing. There was significant improvement in adherence in the intervention group (57% at baseline to 78% after the intervention), but most of these gains were lost after 5 months. The control condition started at 68% and was stable during the intervention, but dropped to 62%. Executive function and working memory moderated the intervention effect, with the intervention producing greater benefit for those with lower executive function and working memory. The intervention improved adherence, but the benefits were not sustained. Further research is needed to determine how to sustain the substantial initial benefits. © 2016, Copyright the Authors Journal compilation © 2016, The American Geriatrics Society.

Primate Cognition: Attention, Episodic Memory, Prospective Memory, Self-Control, and Metacognition as Examples of Cognitive Control in Nonhuman Primates1

PubMed Central

Menzel, Charles R.; Parrish, Audrey E.; Perdue, Bonnie M.; Sayers, Ken; Smith, J. David; Washburn, David A.

2016-01-01

Primate Cognition is the study of cognitive processes, which represent internal mental processes involved in discriminations, decisions, and behaviors of humans and other primate species. Cognitive control involves executive and regulatory processes that allocate attention, manipulate and evaluate available information (and, when necessary, seek additional information), remember past experiences to plan future behaviors, and deal with distraction and impulsivity when they are threats to goal achievement. Areas of research that relate to cognitive control as it is assessed across species include executive attention, episodic memory, prospective memory, metacognition and self-control. Executive attention refers to the ability to control what sensory stimuli one attends to and how one regulates responses to those stimuli, especially in cases of conflict. Episodic memory refers to memory for personally experienced, autobiographical events. Prospective memory refers to the formation and implementation of future-intended actions, such as remembering what needs to be done later. Metacognition consists of control and monitoring processes that allow individuals to assess what information they have and what information they still need, and then if necessary to seek information. Self-control is a regulatory process whereby individuals forego more immediate or easier to obtain rewards for more delayed or harder to obtain rewards that are objectively more valuable. The behavioral complexity shown by nonhuman primates when given tests to assess these capacities indicates psychological continuities with human cognitive control capacities. However, more research is needed to clarify the proper interpretation of these behaviors with regard to possible cognitive constructs that may underlie such behaviors. PMID:27284790

Well Completion Methods for Aquifer Protection

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This presentation outlines how appropriate due diligence can be undertaken concurrent with leasing, site acquisition, permitting and development of prospect areas to identify and mitigate potential pathways of frac fluids other than intended target zones.

Preliminary evidence of improved cognitive performance following vestibular rehabilitation in children with combined ADHD (cADHD) and concurrent vestibular impairment.

PubMed

Lotfi, Younes; Rezazadeh, Nima; Moossavi, Abdollah; Haghgoo, Hojjat Allah; Rostami, Reza; Bakhshi, Enayatollah; Badfar, Faride; Moghadam, Sedigheh Farokhi; Sadeghi-Firoozabadi, Vahid; Khodabandelou, Yousef

2017-12-01

Balance function has been reported to be worse in ADHD children than in their normal peers. The present study hypothesized that an improvement in balance could result in better cognitive performance in children with ADHD and concurrent vestibular impairment. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of comprehensive vestibular rehabilitation therapy on the cognitive performance of children with combined ADHD and concurrent vestibular impairment. Subject were 54 children with combined ADHD. Those with severe vestibular impairment (n=33) were randomly assigned to two groups that were matched for age. A rehabilitation program comprising overall balance and gate, postural stability, and eye movement exercises was assigned to the intervention group. Subjects in the control group received no intervention for the same time period. Intervention was administered twice weekly for 12 weeks. Choice reaction time (CRT) and spatial working memory (SWM) subtypes of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) were completed pre- and post-intervention to determine the effects of vestibular rehabilitation on the cognitive performance of the subjects with ADHD and concurrent vestibular impairment. ANCOVA was used to compare the test results of the intervention and control group post-test. The percentage of correct trial scores for the CRT achieved by the intervention group post-test increased significantly compared to those of the control group (p=0.029). The CRT mean latency scores were significantly prolonged in the intervention group following intervention (p=0.007) compared to the control group. No significant change was found in spatial functioning of the subjects with ADHD following 12 weeks of intervention (p>0.05). The study highlights the effect of vestibular rehabilitation on the cognitive performance of children with combined ADHD and concurrent vestibular disorder. The findings indicate that attention can be affected by early vestibular rehabilitation, which is a basic program for improving memory function in such children. Appropriate vestibular rehabilitation programs based on the type of vestibular impairment of children can improve their cognitive ability to some extent in children with ADHD and concurrent vestibular impairment (p>0.05). Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Depression and Sexual Orientation During Young Adulthood: Diversity Among Sexual Minority Subgroups and the Role of Gender Nonconformity.

PubMed

Li, Gu; Pollitt, Amanda M; Russell, Stephen T

2016-04-01

Sexual minority individuals are at an elevated risk for depression compared to their heterosexual counterparts, yet less is known about how depression status varies across sexual minority subgroups (i.e., mostly heterosexuals, bisexuals, and lesbians and gay men). Moreover, studies on the role of young adult gender nonconformity in the relation between sexual orientation and depression are scarce and have yielded mixed findings. The current study examined the disparities between sexual minorities and heterosexuals during young adulthood in concurrent depression near the beginning of young adulthood and prospective depression 6 years later, paying attention to the diversity within sexual minority subgroups and the role of gender nonconformity. Drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 9421), we found that after accounting for demographics, sampling weight, and sampling design, self-identified mostly heterosexual and bisexual young adults, but not lesbians and gay men, reported significantly higher concurrent depression compared to heterosexuals; moreover, only mostly heterosexual young adults were more depressed than heterosexuals 6 years later. Furthermore, while young adult gender nonconforming behavior was associated with more concurrent depression regardless of sexual orientation, its negative impact on mental health decreased over time. Surprisingly, previous gender nonconformity predicted decreased prospective depression among lesbians and gay men whereas, among heterosexual individuals, increased gender nonconformity was not associated with prospective depression. Together, the results suggested the importance of investigating diversity and the influence of young adult gender nonconformity in future research on the mental health of sexual minorities.

The sensitivity of a virtual reality task to planning and prospective memory impairments: group differences and the efficacy of periodic alerts on performance.

PubMed

Sweeney, Siobhan; Kersel, Denyse; Morris, Robin G; Manly, Tom; Evans, Jonathan J

2010-04-01

Executive functions have been argued to be the most vulnerable to brain injury. In providing an analogue of everyday situations amenable to control and management virtual reality (VR) may offer better insights into planning deficits consequent upon brain injury. Here 17 participants with a non-progressive brain injury and reported executive difficulties in everyday life were asked to perform a VR task (working in a furniture storage unit) that emphasised planning, rule following and prospective memory tasks. When compared with an age and IQ-matched control group, the patients were significantly poorer in terms of their strategy, their time-based prospective memory, the overall time required and their propensity to break rules. An examination of sensitivity and specificity of the VR task to group membership (brain-injured or control) showed that, with specificity set at maximum, sensitivity was only modest (at just over 50%). A second component to the study investigated whether the patients' performance could be improved by periodic auditory alerts. Previous studies have demonstrated that such cues can improve performance on laboratory tests, executive tests and everyday prospective memory tasks. Here, no significant changes in performance were detected. Potential reasons for this finding are discussed, including symptom severity and differences in the tasks employed in previous studies.

An Element-Based Concurrent Partitioner for Unstructured Finite Element Meshes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ding, Hong Q.; Ferraro, Robert D.

1996-01-01

A concurrent partitioner for partitioning unstructured finite element meshes on distributed memory architectures is developed. The partitioner uses an element-based partitioning strategy. Its main advantage over the more conventional node-based partitioning strategy is its modular programming approach to the development of parallel applications. The partitioner first partitions element centroids using a recursive inertial bisection algorithm. Elements and nodes then migrate according to the partitioned centroids, using a data request communication template for unpredictable incoming messages. Our scalable implementation is contrasted to a non-scalable implementation which is a straightforward parallelization of a sequential partitioner.

Individual differences in working memory capacity determine the effects of oculomotor task load on concurrent word recall performance.

PubMed

Lee, Eun-Ju; Kwon, Gusang; Lee, Aekyoung; Ghajar, Jamshid; Suh, Minah

2011-07-05

In this study, the interaction between individual differences in working memory capacity, which were assessed by the Korean version of the California Verbal Learning Test (K-CVLT), and the effects of oculomotor task load on word recall performance are examined in a dual-task experiment. We hypothesized that varying levels of oculomotor task load should result in different demands on cognitive resources. The verbal working memory task used in this study involved a brief exposure to seven words to be remembered, followed by a 30-second delay during which the subject carried out an oculomotor task. Then, memory performance was assessed by having the subjects recall as many words as possible. Forty healthy normal subjects with no vision-related problems carried out four separate dual-tasks over four consecutive days of participation, wherein word recall performances were tested under unpredictable random SPEM (smooth pursuit eye movement), predictive SPEM, fixation, and eyes-closed conditions. The word recall performance of subjects with low K-CVLT scores was significantly enhanced under predictive SPEM conditions as opposed to the fixation and eyes-closed conditions, but performance was reduced under the random SPEM condition, thus reflecting an inverted-U relationship between the oculomotor task load and word recall performance. Subjects with high K-CVLT scores evidenced steady word recall performances, regardless of the type of oculomotor task performed. The concurrent oculomotor performance measured by velocity error did not differ significantly among the K-CVLT groups. However, the high-scoring subjects evidenced smaller phase errors under predictive SPEM conditions than did the low-scoring subjects; this suggests that different resource allocation strategies may be adopted, depending on individuals' working memory capacity. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Working memory dependence of spatial contextual cueing for visual search.

PubMed

Pollmann, Stefan

2018-05-10

When spatial stimulus configurations repeat in visual search, a search facilitation, resulting in shorter search times, can be observed that is due to incidental learning. This contextual cueing effect appears to be rather implicit, uncorrelated with observers' explicit memory of display configurations. Nevertheless, as I review here, this search facilitation due to contextual cueing depends on visuospatial working memory resources, and it disappears when visuospatial working memory is loaded by a concurrent delayed match to sample task. However, the search facilitation immediately recovers for displays learnt under visuospatial working memory load when this load is removed in a subsequent test phase. Thus, latent learning of visuospatial configurations does not depend on visuospatial working memory, but the expression of learning, as memory-guided search in repeated displays, does. This working memory dependence has also consequences for visual search with foveal vision loss, where top-down controlled visual exploration strategies pose high demands on visuospatial working memory, in this way interfering with memory-guided search in repeated displays. Converging evidence for the contribution of working memory to contextual cueing comes from neuroimaging data demonstrating that distinct cortical areas along the intraparietal sulcus as well as more ventral parieto-occipital cortex are jointly activated by visual working memory and contextual cueing. © 2018 The British Psychological Society.

Visual short-term memory load strengthens selective attention.

PubMed

Roper, Zachary J J; Vecera, Shaun P

2014-04-01

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

Multiple foci of spatial attention in multimodal working memory.

PubMed

Katus, Tobias; Eimer, Martin

2016-11-15

The maintenance of sensory information in working memory (WM) is mediated by the attentional activation of stimulus representations that are stored in perceptual brain regions. Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we measured tactile and visual contralateral delay activity (tCDA/CDA components) in a bimodal WM task to concurrently track the attention-based maintenance of information stored in anatomically segregated (somatosensory and visual) brain areas. Participants received tactile and visual sample stimuli on both sides, and in different blocks, memorized these samples on the same side or on opposite sides. After a retention delay, memory was unpredictably tested for touch or vision. In the same side blocks, tCDA and CDA components simultaneously emerged over the same hemisphere, contralateral to the memorized tactile/visual sample set. In opposite side blocks, these two components emerged over different hemispheres, but had the same sizes and onset latencies as in the same side condition. Our results reveal distinct foci of tactile and visual spatial attention that were concurrently maintained on task-relevant stimulus representations in WM. The independence of spatially-specific biasing mechanisms for tactile and visual WM content suggests that multimodal information is stored in distributed perceptual brain areas that are activated through modality-specific processes that can operate simultaneously and largely independently of each other. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The speed of our mental soundtracks: Tracking the tempo of involuntary musical imagery in everyday life.

PubMed

Jakubowski, Kelly; Farrugia, Nicolas; Halpern, Andrea R; Sankarpandi, Sathish K; Stewart, Lauren

2015-11-01

The study of spontaneous and everyday cognitions is an area of rapidly growing interest. One of the most ubiquitous forms of spontaneous cognition is involuntary musical imagery (INMI), the involuntarily retrieved and repetitive mental replay of music. The present study introduced a novel method for capturing temporal features of INMI within a naturalistic setting. This method allowed for the investigation of two questions of interest to INMI researchers in a more objective way than previously possible, concerning (1) the precision of memory representations within INMI and (2) the interactions between INMI and concurrent affective state. Over the course of 4 days, INMI tempo was measured by asking participants to tap to the beat of their INMI with a wrist-worn accelerometer. Participants documented additional details regarding their INMI in a diary. Overall, the tempo of music within INMI was recalled from long-term memory in a highly veridical form, although with a regression to the mean for recalled tempo that parallels previous findings on voluntary musical imagery. A significant positive relationship was found between INMI tempo and subjective arousal, suggesting that INMI interacts with concurrent mood in a similar manner to perceived music. The results suggest several parallels between INMI and voluntary imagery, music perceptual processes, and other types of involuntary memories.

Hippocampal α-Synuclein in Dementia with Lewy Bodies Contributes to Memory Impairment and Is Consistent with Spread of Pathology

PubMed Central

Roy, Subhojit; Galasko, Douglas R.; Hansen, Lawrence A.; Masliah, Eliezer

2017-01-01

Despite considerable research to uncover them, the anatomic and neuropathologic correlates of memory impairment in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) remain unclear. While some studies have implicated Lewy bodies in the neocortex, others have pointed to α-synuclein pathology in the hippocampus. We systematically examined hippocampal Lewy pathology and its distribution in hippocampal subfields in 95 clinically and neuropathologically characterized human cases of DLB, finding that α-synuclein pathology was highest in two hippocampal-related subregions: the CA2 subfield and the entorhinal cortex (EC). While the EC had numerous classic somatic Lewy bodies, CA2 contained mainly Lewy neurites in presumed axon terminals, suggesting the involvement of the EC → CA2 circuitry in the pathogenesis of DLB symptoms. Clinicopathological correlations with measures of verbal and visual memory supported a role for EC Lewy pathology, but not CA2, in causing these memory deficits. Lewy pathology in CA1—the main output region for CA2—correlated best with results from memory testing despite a milder pathology. This result indicates that CA1 may be more functionally relevant than CA2 in the context of memory impairment in DLB. These correlations remained significant after controlling for several factors, including concurrent Alzheimer's pathology (neuritic plaques and neurofibrillary tangles) and the interval between time of testing and time of death. Our data suggest that although hippocampal Lewy pathology in DLB is predominant in CA2 and EC, memory performance correlates most strongly with CA1 burden. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT This study provides a detailed neuropathologic analysis of hippocampal Lewy pathology in human patients with autopsy-confirmed dementia with Lewy bodies. The approach—informed by regional molecular markers, concurrent Alzheimer's pathology analysis, and relevant clinical data—helps tease out the relative contribution of Lewy pathology to memory dysfunction in the disease. Levels of Lewy pathology were found to be highest in the hippocampal CA2 subregion and entorhinal cortex, implicating a potentially overlooked circuit in disease pathogenesis. However, correlation with memory performance was strongest with CA1. This unexpected finding suggests that Lewy pathology must reach a critical burden across hippocampal circuitry to contribute to memory dysfunction beyond that related to other factors, notably coexisting Alzheimer's disease tau pathology. PMID:28039370

Forbidden Fruit and the Prediction of Cigarette Smoking

PubMed Central

SUSSMAN, STEVE; GRANA, RACHEL; POKHREL, PALLAV; ROHRBACH, LOUISE A.; SUN, PING

2011-01-01

The concept of “forbidden fruit” has been popularly associated with adolescent cigarette smoking in the US. However, only a few empirical studies have been conducted to investigate how this construct operates among adolescents. We examined the concurrent and prospective relationships between two related concepts of forbidden fruit and adolescent cigarette smoking behavior and intention. We found some support for forbidden fruit attitudes as concurrent and longitudinal predictors of smoking and intention to smoke. Implications of these findings are discussed. PMID:20590380

Reduced Autobiographical Memory Specificity Predicts Depression and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder after Recent Trauma

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kleim, Birgit; Ehlers, Anke

2008-01-01

In this prospective longitudinal study, the authors examined the relationship between reduced specificity in autobiographical memory retrieval and the development of depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and specific phobia after injury in an assault. Assault survivors (N = 203) completed the Autobiographical Memory Test (J. M. G.…

Maternal Reminiscing Style during Early Childhood Predicts the Age of Adolescents' Earliest Memories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jack, Fiona; MacDonald, Shelley; Reese, Elaine; Hayne, Harlene

2009-01-01

Individual differences in parental reminiscing style are hypothesized to have long-lasting effects on children's autobiographical memory development, including the age of their earliest memories. This study represents the first prospective test of this hypothesis. Conversations about past events between 17 mother-child dyads were recorded on…

Transient Relay Function of Midline Thalamic Nuclei during Long-Term Memory Consolidation in Humans

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thielen, Jan-Willem; Takashima, Atsuko; Rutters, Femke; Tendolkar, Indira; Fernández, Guillén

2015-01-01

To test the hypothesis that thalamic midline nuclei play a transient role in memory consolidation, we reanalyzed a prospective functional MRI study, contrasting recent and progressively more remote memory retrieval. We revealed a transient thalamic connectivity increase with the hippocampus, the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and a…

Selective verbal recognition memory impairments are associated with atrophy of the language network in non-semantic variants of primary progressive aphasia.

PubMed

Nilakantan, Aneesha S; Voss, Joel L; Weintraub, Sandra; Mesulam, M-Marsel; Rogalski, Emily J

2017-06-01

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is clinically defined by an initial loss of language function and preservation of other cognitive abilities, including episodic memory. While PPA primarily affects the left-lateralized perisylvian language network, some clinical neuropsychological tests suggest concurrent initial memory loss. The goal of this study was to test recognition memory of objects and words in the visual and auditory modality to separate language-processing impairments from retentive memory in PPA. Individuals with non-semantic PPA had longer reaction times and higher false alarms for auditory word stimuli compared to visual object stimuli. Moreover, false alarms for auditory word recognition memory were related to cortical thickness within the left inferior frontal gyrus and left temporal pole, while false alarms for visual object recognition memory was related to cortical thickness within the right-temporal pole. This pattern of results suggests that specific vulnerability in processing verbal stimuli can hinder episodic memory in PPA, and provides evidence for differential contributions of the left and right temporal poles in word and object recognition memory. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The effects of distinctiveness on memory and metamemory for face-name associations.

PubMed

Watier, Nicholas; Collin, Charles

2012-01-01

We examined the influence of face and name distinctiveness on memory and metamemory for face-name associations. Four types of monitoring judgements were solicited during encoding and retrieval of face-name pairs that contained distinct or typical faces (Experiment 1) or names (Experiment 2). The beneficial effects of distinctiveness on associative memory were symmetrical between faces and names, such that relative to their typical counterparts, distinct faces enhanced memory for names, and distinct names enhanced memory for faces. These effects were also apparent in metamemory. Estimates of prospective and retrospective memory performance were greater for face-name associations that contained a distinct face or name compared with a typical face or name, regardless of whether the distinct item was a cue or target. Moreover, the predictive validity of prospective monitoring improved with name distinctiveness, whereas the predictive validity of retrospective monitoring improved with facial distinctiveness. Our results indicate that distinctiveness affects not only the strength of the association between a face and a name, but also the ability to monitor that association.

Emotion socialization and child conduct problems: A comprehensive review and meta-analysis.

PubMed

Johnson, Ameika M; Hawes, David J; Eisenberg, Nancy; Kohlhoff, Jane; Dudeney, Joanne

2017-06-01

Decades of research have emphasized the role that coercive and ineffective discipline plays in shaping child and adolescent conduct problems, yet an emerging body of evidence has suggested that parents' emotion socialization behaviors (ESBs) (e.g., reactions to emotions, discussion of emotions, and emotion coaching) may also be implicated. This meta-analysis examined concurrent and longitudinal associations between parental ESBs and conduct problems, and tested for moderators of these associations. A systematic search identified 49 studies for which data on concurrent associations between ESBs and conduct problems were available (n=6270), and 14 studies reporting on prospective associations (n=1899). Parental ESBs were found to be significantly associated with concurrent (r=-0.08) and prospective (r =-0.11) conduct problems, in the order of small effect sizes. Key findings of moderator analyses were that ESBs were more strongly associated with conduct problems at younger ages and when ESBs were focused on the socialization of negative rather than positive emotions. Findings support the integration of ESBs into family-based models of antisocial behavior, and have the potential to inform the design of parent training interventions for the prevention and treatment of child conduct problems. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Do subjective memory complaints herald the onset of mild cognitive impairment in Parkinson disease?

PubMed

Erro, Roberto; Santangelo, Gabriella; Barone, Paolo; Picillo, Marina; Amboni, Marianna; Longo, Katia; Giordano, Flavio; Moccia, Marcello; Allocca, Roberto; Pellecchia, Maria Teresa; Vitale, Carmine

2014-12-01

Longitudinal studies on healthy participants have shown that subjective memory impairment (defined as subjective cognitive complaints with normal cognitive objective performance) might be a strong predictor of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Parkinson disease (PD) also manifests cognitive disturbances, but whether subjective memory complaints may predict the development of MCI in PD has not yet been explored. We prospectively screened newly diagnosed, untreated patients with PD in order to evaluate whether subjective memory complaints may predict development of MCI over a 2-year follow-up evaluation. We enrolled 76 de novo untreated patients with PD. Of the 76 patients, 23 (30.3%) complained memory issues. Among the patients cognitively unimpaired at baseline, those with subjective complaints were more likely to develop MCI at follow-up. The regression model confirmed that presence of subjective memory complaints at baseline was an independent predictor of development of MCI at follow-up. This is the first prospective study to explore the relationship between subjective and objective cognitive deficits in newly diagnosed, untreated patients. Our results provide preliminary evidence that subjective memory complaints might predict future development of MCI. © The Author(s) 2014.

Concurrent and Overlapping Surgery: Perspectives from Parents of Adolescents Undergoing Spinal Posterior Instrumented Fusion for Idiopathic Scoliosis.

PubMed

Bryant, Jessica; Markes, Alexander; Woolridge, Tiana; Cerruti, Dede; Dzeng, Elizabeth; Koenig, Barbara; Diab, Mohammad

2018-06-12

Prospective cross-sectional survey. To determine the perspectives of parents of patients undergoing posterior instrumented fusion for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) regarding simultaneous surgery and trainee participation. Simultaneous ("at the same time") surgery is under scrutiny by the public, government, payers and the medical community. The objective of this study is to determine the perspectives of parents of patients undergoing posterior instrumented fusion for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Our goal is to inform the national conversation on this subject with real patient and family voices. A survey was prospectively administered to 31 consecutive parents of patients undergoing posterior instrumented fusion for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis at a large academic medical center. "Overlapping" was defined as simultaneity during "noncritical" parts of an operation. "Concurrent" was defined as simultaneity that includes "critical" part(s) of an operation. Participants were asked to provide levels of agreement with overlapping and concurrent surgery and anesthesia, as well as with trainee involvement. On average, respondents "strongly agree" with the need to be informed about overlapping or concurrent surgery. They "disagree" with both overlapping and concurrent scheduling, and "disagree" with trainees operating without direct supervision, even for "non-critical" parts. Informing parents about the presence of a back-up surgeon or research demonstrating safety of simultaneous surgery did not make them agreeable to simultaneous scheduling. Parents have a strong desire to be informed of simultaneous spinal surgery as part of consent on behalf of their children. Their disagreement with simultaneous surgery, as well as with trainees operating without direct supervision, suggests discordance with current guidelines and practice and should inform the national conversation moving forward. N/A.

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.

Short-term memory and dual task performance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Regan, J. E.

1982-01-01

Two hypotheses concerning the way in which short-term memory interacts with another task in a dual task situation are considered. It is noted that when two tasks are combined, the activity of controlling and organizing performance on both tasks simultaneously may compete with either task for a resource; this resource may be space in a central mechanism or general processing capacity or it may be some task-specific resource. If a special relationship exists between short-term memory and control, especially if there is an identity relationship between short-term and a central controlling mechanism, then short-term memory performance should show a decrement in a dual task situation. Even if short-term memory does not have any particular identity with a controlling mechanism, but both tasks draw on some common resource or resources, then a tradeoff between the two tasks in allocating resources is possible and could be reflected in performance. The persistent concurrence cost in memory performance in these experiments suggests that short-term memory may have a unique status in the information processing system.

Shared processing in multiple object tracking and visual working memory in the absence of response order and task order confounds

PubMed Central

Howe, Piers D. L.

2017-01-01

To understand how the visual system represents multiple moving objects and how those representations contribute to tracking, it is essential that we understand how the processes of attention and working memory interact. In the work described here we present an investigation of that interaction via a series of tracking and working memory dual-task experiments. Previously, it has been argued that tracking is resistant to disruption by a concurrent working memory task and that any apparent disruption is in fact due to observers making a response to the working memory task, rather than due to competition for shared resources. Contrary to this, in our experiments we find that when task order and response order confounds are avoided, all participants show a similar decrease in both tracking and working memory performance. However, if task and response order confounds are not adequately controlled for we find substantial individual differences, which could explain the previous conflicting reports on this topic. Our results provide clear evidence that tracking and working memory tasks share processing resources. PMID:28410383

Shared processing in multiple object tracking and visual working memory in the absence of response order and task order confounds.

PubMed

Lapierre, Mark D; Cropper, Simon J; Howe, Piers D L

2017-01-01

To understand how the visual system represents multiple moving objects and how those representations contribute to tracking, it is essential that we understand how the processes of attention and working memory interact. In the work described here we present an investigation of that interaction via a series of tracking and working memory dual-task experiments. Previously, it has been argued that tracking is resistant to disruption by a concurrent working memory task and that any apparent disruption is in fact due to observers making a response to the working memory task, rather than due to competition for shared resources. Contrary to this, in our experiments we find that when task order and response order confounds are avoided, all participants show a similar decrease in both tracking and working memory performance. However, if task and response order confounds are not adequately controlled for we find substantial individual differences, which could explain the previous conflicting reports on this topic. Our results provide clear evidence that tracking and working memory tasks share processing resources.

Different effects of executive and visuospatial working memory on visual consciousness.

PubMed

De Loof, Esther; Poppe, Louise; Cleeremans, Axel; Gevers, Wim; Van Opstal, Filip

2015-11-01

Consciousness and working memory are two widely studied cognitive phenomena. Although they have been closely tied on a theoretical and neural level, empirical work that investigates their relation is largely lacking. In this study, the relationship between visual consciousness and different working memory components is investigated by using a dual-task paradigm. More specifically, while participants were performing a visual detection task to measure their visual awareness threshold, they had to concurrently perform either an executive or visuospatial working memory task. We hypothesized that visual consciousness would be hindered depending on the type and the size of the load in working memory. Results showed that maintaining visuospatial content in working memory hinders visual awareness, irrespective of the amount of information maintained. By contrast, the detection threshold was progressively affected under increasing executive load. Interestingly, increasing executive load had a generic effect on detection speed, calling into question whether its obstructing effect is specific to the visual awareness threshold. Together, these results indicate that visual consciousness depends differently on executive and visuospatial working memory.

A neural measure of precision in visual working memory.

PubMed

Ester, Edward F; Anderson, David E; Serences, John T; Awh, Edward

2013-05-01

Recent studies suggest that the temporary storage of visual detail in working memory is mediated by sensory recruitment or sustained patterns of stimulus-specific activation within feature-selective regions of visual cortex. According to a strong version of this hypothesis, the relative "quality" of these patterns should determine the clarity of an individual's memory. Here, we provide a direct test of this claim. We used fMRI and a forward encoding model to characterize population-level orientation-selective responses in visual cortex while human participants held an oriented grating in memory. This analysis, which enables a precise quantitative description of multivoxel, population-level activity measured during working memory storage, revealed graded response profiles whose amplitudes were greatest for the remembered orientation and fell monotonically as the angular distance from this orientation increased. Moreover, interparticipant differences in the dispersion-but not the amplitude-of these response profiles were strongly correlated with performance on a concurrent memory recall task. These findings provide important new evidence linking the precision of sustained population-level responses in visual cortex and memory acuity.

Visual and spatial working memory are not that dissociated after all: a time-based resource-sharing account.

PubMed

Vergauwe, Evie; Barrouillet, Pierre; Camos, Valérie

2009-07-01

Examinations of interference between visual and spatial materials in working memory have suggested domain- and process-based fractionations of visuo-spatial working memory. The present study examined the role of central time-based resource sharing in visuo-spatial working memory and assessed its role in obtained interference patterns. Visual and spatial storage were combined with both visual and spatial on-line processing components in computer-paced working memory span tasks (Experiment 1) and in a selective interference paradigm (Experiment 2). The cognitive load of the processing components was manipulated to investigate its impact on concurrent maintenance for both within-domain and between-domain combinations of processing and storage components. In contrast to both domain- and process-based fractionations of visuo-spatial working memory, the results revealed that recall performance was determined by the cognitive load induced by the processing of items, rather than by the domain to which those items pertained. These findings are interpreted as evidence for a time-based resource-sharing mechanism in visuo-spatial working memory.

Learning of goal-relevant and -irrelevant complex visual sequences in human V1.

PubMed

Rosenthal, Clive R; Mallik, Indira; Caballero-Gaudes, Cesar; Sereno, Martin I; Soto, David

2018-06-12

Learning and memory are supported by a network involving the medial temporal lobe and linked neocortical regions. Emerging evidence indicates that primary visual cortex (i.e., V1) may contribute to recognition memory, but this has been tested only with a single visuospatial sequence as the target memorandum. The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate whether human V1 can support the learning of multiple, concurrent complex visual sequences involving discontinous (second-order) associations. Two peripheral, goal-irrelevant but structured sequences of orientated gratings appeared simultaneously in fixed locations of the right and left visual fields alongside a central, goal-relevant sequence that was in the focus of spatial attention. Pseudorandom sequences were introduced at multiple intervals during the presentation of the three structured visual sequences to provide an online measure of sequence-specific knowledge at each retinotopic location. We found that a network involving the precuneus and V1 was involved in learning the structured sequence presented at central fixation, whereas right V1 was modulated by repeated exposure to the concurrent structured sequence presented in the left visual field. The same result was not found in left V1. These results indicate for the first time that human V1 can support the learning of multiple concurrent sequences involving complex discontinuous inter-item associations, even peripheral sequences that are goal-irrelevant. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Introducing concurrency in the Gaudi data processing framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clemencic, Marco; Hegner, Benedikt; Mato, Pere; Piparo, Danilo

2014-06-01

In the past, the increasing demands for HEP processing resources could be fulfilled by the ever increasing clock-frequencies and by distributing the work to more and more physical machines. Limitations in power consumption of both CPUs and entire data centres are bringing an end to this era of easy scalability. To get the most CPU performance per watt, future hardware will be characterised by less and less memory per processor, as well as thinner, more specialized and more numerous cores per die, and rather heterogeneous resources. To fully exploit the potential of the many cores, HEP data processing frameworks need to allow for parallel execution of reconstruction or simulation algorithms on several events simultaneously. We describe our experience in introducing concurrency related capabilities into Gaudi, a generic data processing software framework, which is currently being used by several HEP experiments, including the ATLAS and LHCb experiments at the LHC. After a description of the concurrent framework and the most relevant design choices driving its development, we describe the behaviour of the framework in a more realistic environment, using a subset of the real LHCb reconstruction workflow, and present our strategy and the used tools to validate the physics outcome of the parallel framework against the results of the present, purely sequential LHCb software. We then summarize the measurement of the code performance of the multithreaded application in terms of memory and CPU usage.

[Learning virtual routes: what does verbal coding do in working memory?].

PubMed

Gyselinck, Valérie; Grison, Élise; Gras, Doriane

2015-03-01

Two experiments were run to complete our understanding of the role of verbal and visuospatial encoding in the construction of a spatial model from visual input. In experiment 1 a dual task paradigm was applied to young adults who learned a route in a virtual environment and then performed a series of nonverbal tasks to assess spatial knowledge. Results indicated that landmark knowledge as asserted by the visual recognition of landmarks was not impaired by any of the concurrent task. Route knowledge, assessed by recognition of directions, was impaired both by a tapping task and a concurrent articulation task. Interestingly, the pattern was modulated when no landmarks were available to perform the direction task. A second experiment was designed to explore the role of verbal coding on the construction of landmark and route knowledge. A lexical-decision task was used as a verbal-semantic dual task, and a tone decision task as a nonsemantic auditory task. Results show that these new concurrent tasks impaired differently landmark knowledge and route knowledge. Results can be interpreted as showing that the coding of route knowledge could be grounded on both a coding of the sequence of events and on a semantic coding of information. These findings also point on some limits of Baddeley's working memory model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Errorless learning of prospective memory tasks: An experimental investigation in people with memory disorders

PubMed Central

Fish, Jessica E.; Manly, Tom; Kopelman, Michael D.; Morris, Robin G.

2015-01-01

The term prospective memory (PM) refers to memory for future intentions. PM problems are frequent in people with cognitive impairment and, because they are central to the realisation of many everyday goals, are important in rehabilitation. Event-based PM tasks (EBPM) are environmentally-cued and have primarily mnemonic demands, whereas time-based PM tasks (TBPM) require self-initiated retrieval, and have greater executive demands. Errorless learning (EL) is an encoding method that results in superior retrospective memory compared with “errorful” learning (EF). As this EL advantage (ELA) likely stems from its reduced explicit memory demands, and there is no such advantage for executive tasks, a greater ELA for EBPM than TBPM was predicted. Fourteen adults with neurological memory impairment completed PM tasks under four counterbalanced conditions: EL of EBPM, EL of TBPM, EF of EBPM, and EF of TBPM. A significant ELA was observed for EBPM (d = .63), but not TBPM (d = –.01). These results extend the evidence for EL within cognitive rehabilitation, by showing for the first time that the method can benefit future action in addition to retrospective memory. The clinical implications are also clear: errorless learning techniques may be usefully employed to support completion of day-to-day EBPM tasks. PMID:24894460

Future thinking instructions improve prospective memory performance in adolescents.

PubMed

Altgassen, Mareike; Kretschmer, Anett; Schnitzspahn, Katharina Marlene

2017-07-01

Studies on prospective memory (PM) development in adolescents point to age-related increases through to adulthood. The goal of the present study was to examine whether instructing adolescents to engage in an episodic prospection of themselves executing future actions (i.e., future thinking) when forming an intention would improve their PM performance and reduce age-related differences. Further, we set out to explore whether future thinking instructions result in stronger memory traces and/or stronger cue-context associations by evaluating retrospective memory for the PM cues after task completion and monitoring costs during PM task processing. Adolescents and young adults were allocated to either the future thinking, repeated-encoding or standard condition. As expected, adolescents had fewer correct PM responses than young adults. Across age groups, PM performance in the standard condition was lower than in the other encoding conditions. Importantly, the results indicate a significant interaction of age by encoding condition. While adolescents benefited most from future thinking instructions, young adults performed best in the repeated-encoding condition. The results also indicate that the beneficial effects of future thinking may result from deeper intention-encoding through the simulation of future task performance.

Memory function and supportive technology

PubMed Central

Charness, Neil; Best, Ryan; Souders, Dustin

2013-01-01

Episodic and working memory processes show pronounced age-related decline, with other memory processes such as semantic, procedural, and metamemory less affected. Older adults tend to complain the most about prospective and retrospective memory failures. We introduce a framework for deciding how to mitigate memory decline using augmentation and substitution and discuss techniques that change the user, through mnemonics training, and change the tool or environment, by providing environmental support. We provide examples of low-tech and high-tech memory supports and discuss constraints on the utility of high-tech systems including effectiveness of devices, attitudes toward memory aids, and reliability of systems. PMID:24379752

Memory: from the laboratory to everyday life.

PubMed

Schacter, Daniel L

2013-12-01

One of the key goals of memory research is to develop a basic understanding of the nature and characteristics of memory processes and systems. Another important goal is to develop useful applications of basic research to everyday life. This editorial considers two lines of work that illustrate some of the prospects for applying memory research to everyday life: interpolated quizzing to enhance learning in educational settings, and specificity training to enhance memory and associated functions in individuals who have difficulties remembering details of their past experiences.

HIV, prospective memory, and cerebrospinal fluid concentrations of quinolinic acid and phosphorylated Tau.

PubMed

Anderson, Albert M; Croteau, David; Ellis, Ronald J; Rosario, Debra; Potter, Michael; Guillemin, Gilles J; Brew, Bruce J; Woods, Steven Paul; Letendre, Scott L

2018-06-15

There is mounting evidence that prospective memory (PM) is impaired during HIV infection despite treatment. In this prospective study, 66 adults (43 HIV+ and 23 HIV negative) underwent PM assessment and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) examination. HIV+ participants had significantly lower PM but significantly higher CSF concentrations of CXCL10 and quinolinic acid (QUIN). Higher CSF phosphorylated Tau (pTau) was associated with worse PM. In a secondary analysis excluding outliers, higher QUIN correlated with higher pTau. CSF QUIN is thus elevated during HIV infection despite antiretroviral therapy and could indirectly contribute to impaired PM by influencing the formation of pTau. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cognitive Correlates of Vocabulary Growth in English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farnia, Fataneh; Geva, Esther

2011-01-01

This study modeled vocabulary trajectories in 91 English language learners (ELLs) with Punjabi, Tamil, or Portuguese home languages, and 50 English monolinguals (EL1) from Grades 1 to 6. The concurrent and longitudinal relationships between phonological awareness and phonological short-term memory and vocabulary were examined. ELLs underperformed…

Primate cognition: attention, episodic memory, prospective memory, self-control, and metacognition as examples of cognitive control in nonhuman primates.

PubMed

Beran, Michael J; Menzel, Charles R; Parrish, Audrey E; Perdue, Bonnie M; Sayers, Ken; Smith, J David; Washburn, David A

2016-09-01

Primate Cognition is the study of cognitive processes, which represent internal mental processes involved in discriminations, decisions, and behaviors of humans and other primate species. Cognitive control involves executive and regulatory processes that allocate attention, manipulate and evaluate available information (and, when necessary, seek additional information), remember past experiences to plan future behaviors, and deal with distraction and impulsivity when they are threats to goal achievement. Areas of research that relate to cognitive control as it is assessed across species include executive attention, episodic memory, prospective memory, metacognition, and self-control. Executive attention refers to the ability to control what sensory stimuli one attends to and how one regulates responses to those stimuli, especially in cases of conflict. Episodic memory refers to memory for personally experienced, autobiographical events. Prospective memory refers to the formation and implementation of future-intended actions, such as remembering what needs to be done later. Metacognition consists of control and monitoring processes that allow individuals to assess what information they have and what information they still need, and then if necessary to seek information. Self-control is a regulatory process whereby individuals forego more immediate or easier to obtain rewards for more delayed or harder to obtain rewards that are objectively more valuable. The behavioral complexity shown by nonhuman primates when given tests to assess these capacities indicates psychological continuities with human cognitive control capacities. However, more research is needed to clarify the proper interpretation of these behaviors with regard to possible cognitive constructs that may underlie such behaviors. WIREs Cogn Sci 2016, 7:294-316. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1397 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Comparisons on efficacy of elcatonin and limaprost alfadex in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis and concurrent osteoporosis: a preliminary study using a crossover design.

PubMed

Kanchiku, Tsukasa; Imajo, Yasuaki; Suzuki, Hidenori; Yoshida, Yuichiro; Taguchi, Toshihiko; Tominaga, Toshikatsu; Toyoda, Koichiro

2014-08-01

Multicenter prospective study with a crossover design. The objective of this study is to compare the efficacy of limaprost alfadex (LP) and elcatonin (EL) for lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) patients with concurrent osteoporosis. It has been increasingly important to improve quality of life by establishing appropriate conservative treatments for LSS patients with concurrent osteoporosis who will presumably continue to increase due to the percentage of the aging elevations, however there is no prospective study. A total of 19 patients with LSS and concurrent osteoporosis were enrolled in this study. The patients were divided into two groups and compared using a crossover design. The Japanese Orthopaedic Association Back Pain Evaluation Questionnaire (JOABPEQ) and short-form (SF)-8 health survey scale were used for clinical evaluations. There was a significant improvement of buttock-leg pain and numbness in the EL group. A significant improvement of impaired walking function was noted for the LP group according to the JOABPEQ while the rest of the items in the JOABPEQ showed no significant differences. The SF-8 health survey revealed that somatic pains and physical summary scores in the EL group and physical functioning and physical summary scores in the LP group tended to improve but not to any statistically significant extents. Concomitant uses of EL may be useful in patients who do not respond satisfactorily to the treatments of LP for 6-8 weeks.

Musical Ability and the Drake Music Memory Test

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Griffin, Lawrence R.; Eisenman, Russell

1972-01-01

Results show that the Drake Music Memory Test should be able to discriminate between the poorest and strongest prospects for success in profiting from musical instruction, although it may not be particularly useful in individual counseling. (Authors)

Christodoulou Memory of GW150914 - Prospects of Detection in LIGO and Future Detectors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johnson, Aaron; Kapadia, Shasvath; Kennefick, Daniel

2017-01-01

The event GW150914 produced strains of the order 10-21 in the two instruments comprising the Laser Interferometric Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO). The event has been interpreted as originating in a coalescing black hole binary, with individual components of about 30 solar masses each. A striking aspect of the coalescence deduced from the signal is the emission of 3 solar masses of energy in the oscillating gravitational wave. Theory predicts a DC component of the gravitational signal associated with the emission of such large amounts of gravitational wave energy known as the Christodoulou memory. The memory, as a non-linear component of the signal, is expected to be an order of magnitude smaller than the amplitude of the primary AC component of the gravitational waves. We discuss the prospects of detecting the Christodoulou memory in similar future signals, both with LIGO and with other detectors, including future space-based instruments.

Prospective Cognition in Rats

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crystal, Jonathon D.

2012-01-01

Efforts to develop animal models of memory are critical for understanding the neural substrate of memory. Memory is essential for daily life and enables information to be stored and retrieved after seconds to years. The ability to remember episodes from the past is thought to be related to the ability to plan for the future. Here we focus on a…

What Costs Do Reveal and Moving Beyond the Cost Debate: Reply to Einstein and McDaniel (in press)

PubMed Central

Smith, Rebekah E.

2010-01-01

Einstein et al., (2005) predicted no cost to an ongoing task when a prospective memory task meet certain criteria. Smith et al. (2007) used prospective memory tasks that met these criteria and found a cost to the ongoing task, contrary to Einstein et al.'s prediction. Einstein and McDaniel (in press) correctly note that there are limitations to using ongoing task performance as a measure of the processes that contribute to prospective memory performance, however, the alternatives suggested by Einstein and McDaniel all focus on ongoing task performance and therefore do not move beyond the cost debate. This article describes why the Smith et al. findings are important, provides recommendations for issues to consider when investigating cost, and discusses individual cost measures. Finally, noting the blurry distinction between Einstein and McDaniel's description of the reflexive associative processes and preparatory attentional processes and difficulties in extending the multiprocess view to nonlaboratory tasks, suggestions are made for moving beyond the cost debate. PMID:20852726

Naturalistic Assessment of Executive Function and Everyday Multitasking in Healthy Older Adults

PubMed Central

McAlister, Courtney; Schmitter-Edgecombe, Maureen

2013-01-01

Everyday multitasking and its cognitive correlates were investigated in an older adult population using a naturalistic task, the Day Out Task. Fifty older adults and 50 younger adults prioritized, organized, initiated and completed a number of subtasks in a campus apartment to prepare for a day out (e.g., gather ingredients for a recipe, collect change for a bus ride). Participants also completed tests assessing cognitive constructs important in multitasking. Compared to younger adults, the older adults took longer to complete the everyday tasks and more poorly sequenced the subtasks. Although they initiated, completed, and interweaved a similar number of subtasks, the older adults demonstrated poorer task quality and accuracy, completing more subtasks inefficiently. For the older adults, reduced prospective memory abilities were predictive of poorer task sequencing, while executive processes and prospective memory were predictive of inefficiently completed subtasks. The findings suggest that executive dysfunction and prospective memory difficulties may contribute to the age-related decline of everyday multitasking abilities in healthy older adults. PMID:23557096

Is prospective memory enhanced by cue-action semantic relatedness and enactment at encoding?

PubMed

Pereira, Antonina; Ellis, Judi; Freeman, Jayne

2012-09-01

Benefits and costs on prospective memory performance, of enactment at encoding and a semantic association between a cue-action word pair, were investigated in two experiments. Findings revealed superior performance for both younger and older adults following enactment, in contrast to verbal encoding, and when cue-action semantic relatedness was high. Although younger adults outperformed older adults, age did not moderate benefits of cue-action relatedness or enactment. Findings from a second experiment revealed that the inclusion of an instruction to perform a prospective memory task led to increments in response latency to items from the ongoing activity in which that task was embedded, relative to latencies when the ongoing task only was performed. However, this task interference 'cost' did not differ as a function of either cue-action relatedness or enactment. We argue that the high number of cue-action pairs employed here influenced meta-cognitive consciousness, hence determining attention allocation, in all experimental conditions. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Information processing biases concurrently and prospectively predict depressive symptoms in adolescents: Evidence from a self-referent encoding task.

PubMed

Connolly, Samantha L; Abramson, Lyn Y; Alloy, Lauren B

2016-01-01

Negative information processing biases have been hypothesised to serve as precursors for the development of depression. The current study examined negative self-referent information processing and depressive symptoms in a community sample of adolescents (N = 291, Mage at baseline = 12.34 ± 0.61, 53% female, 47.4% African-American, 49.5% Caucasian and 3.1% Biracial). Participants completed a computerised self-referent encoding task (SRET) and a measure of depressive symptoms at baseline and completed an additional measure of depressive symptoms nine months later. Several negative information processing biases on the SRET were associated with concurrent depressive symptoms and predicted increases in depressive symptoms at follow-up. Findings partially support the hypothesis that negative information processing biases are associated with depressive symptoms in a nonclinical sample of adolescents, and provide preliminary evidence that these biases prospectively predict increases in depressive symptoms.

Strategies for improving memory: a randomized trial of memory groups for older people, including those with mild cognitive impairment.

PubMed

Kinsella, Glynda J; Ames, David; Storey, Elsdon; Ong, Ben; Pike, Kerryn E; Saling, Michael M; Clare, Linda; Mullaly, Elizabeth; Rand, Elizabeth

2016-01-01

Governments are promoting the importance of maintaining cognitive health into older age to minimize risk of cognitive decline and dementia. Older people with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) are particularly vulnerable to memory challenges in daily activities and are seeking ways to maintain independent living. To evaluate the effectiveness of memory groups for improving memory strategies and memory ability of older people, especially those with aMCI. 113 healthy older adults (HOA) and 106 adults with aMCI were randomized to a six-week memory group or a waitlist control condition. Outcome was evaluated through knowledge and use of memory strategies, memory ability (self-report and neuropsychological tests), and wellbeing. Assessments included a six-month follow-up. Using intention to treat analyses, there were intervention effects for HOA and aMCI groups in strategy knowledge (HOA: η2= 0.20; aMCI: η2= 0.06), strategy use (HOA: η2= 0.18; aMCI: η2= 0.08), and wellbeing (HOA: η2= 0.11; aMCI: η2= 0.05). There were also intervention effects in the HOA group, but not the aMCI group, in self-reported memory ability (η2= 0.06) and prospective memory tests (η2= 0.02). By six-month follow-up, gains were found on most HOA outcomes. In the aMCI group gains were found in strategy use, and by this stage, gains in prospective memory were also found. Memory groups can engage older people in techniques for maintaining cognitive health and improve memory performance, but more modest benefits are seen for older adults with aMCI.

Real-world spatial regularities affect visual working memory for objects.

PubMed

Kaiser, Daniel; Stein, Timo; Peelen, Marius V

2015-12-01

Traditional memory research has focused on measuring and modeling the capacity of visual working memory for simple stimuli such as geometric shapes or colored disks. Although these studies have provided important insights, it is unclear how their findings apply to memory for more naturalistic stimuli. An important aspect of real-world scenes is that they contain a high degree of regularity: For instance, lamps appear above tables, not below them. In the present study, we tested whether such real-world spatial regularities affect working memory capacity for individual objects. Using a delayed change-detection task with concurrent verbal suppression, we found enhanced visual working memory performance for objects positioned according to real-world regularities, as compared to irregularly positioned objects. This effect was specific to upright stimuli, indicating that it did not reflect low-level grouping, because low-level grouping would be expected to equally affect memory for upright and inverted displays. These results suggest that objects can be held in visual working memory more efficiently when they are positioned according to frequently experienced real-world regularities. We interpret this effect as the grouping of single objects into larger representational units.

Maintenance of memory for melodies: Articulation or attentional refreshing?

PubMed

Nees, Michael A; Corrini, Ellen; Leong, Peri; Harris, Joanna

2017-12-01

Past research on the effects of articulatory suppression on working memory for nonverbal sounds has been characterized by discrepant findings, which suggests that multiple mechanisms may be involved in the rehearsal of nonverbal sounds. In two experiments we examined the potential roles of two theoretical mechanisms of verbal working memory-articulatory rehearsal and attentional refreshing-in the maintenance of memory for short melodies. In both experiments, participants performed a same-different melody comparison task. During an 8-s retention interval, interference tasks were introduced to suppress articulatory rehearsal, attentional refreshing, or both. In Experiment 1, only the conditions that featured articulatory suppression resulted in worse memory performance than in a control condition, and the suppression of both attentional refreshing and articulatory rehearsal concurrently did not impair memory more than articulatory suppression alone. Experiment 2 reproduced these findings and also confirmed that the locus of interference was articulatory and not auditory (i.e., the interference was not attributable to the sound of participants' own voices during articulatory suppression). Both experiments suggested that articulatory rehearsal played a role in the maintenance of melodies in memory, whereas attentional refreshing did not. We discuss potential theoretical implications regarding the mechanisms used for the rehearsal of nonverbal sounds in working memory.

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, aspirin, and cognitive function in the Baltimore longitudinal study of aging.

PubMed

Waldstein, Shari R; Wendell, Carrington Rice; Seliger, Stephen L; Ferrucci, Luigi; Metter, E Jeffrey; Zonderman, Alan B

2010-01-01

To examine the relations between the use of nonaspirin, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and aspirin and age-related change in multiple domains of cognitive function in community-dwelling individuals without dementia. Longitudinal, with measures obtained on one to 18 occasions over up to 45 years. General community. A volunteer sample of up to 2,300 participants from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging free of diagnosed dementia. At each visit, reported NSAID or aspirin use (yes/no) and tests of verbal and visual memory, attention, perceptuo-motor speed, confrontation naming, executive function, and mental status. Mixed-effects regression models revealed that NSAID use was associated with less prospective decline on the Blessed Information-Memory-Concentration (I-M-C) Test, a mental status test weighted for memory and concentration (P<.001), and Part B of the Trail Making Test, a test of perceptuo-motor speed and mental flexibility (P<.05). In contrast, aspirin use was related to greater prospective decline on the Blessed I-M-C Test (P<.05) and the Benton Visual Retention Test, a test of visual memory (P<.001). Consistent with studies of incident dementia, NSAID users without dementia displayed less prospective decline in cognitive function, but on only two cognitive measures. In contrast, aspirin use was associated with greater prospective cognitive decline on select measures, potentially reflecting its common use for vascular disease prophylaxis. Effect sizes were small, calling into question clinical significance, although overall public health significance may be meaningful.

Facing the Music or Burying Our Heads in the Sand?: Adaptive Emotion Regulation in Midlife and Late Life

PubMed Central

Waldinger, Robert J.; Schulz, Marc S.

2011-01-01

Defenses that keep threatening information out of awareness are posited to reduce anxiety at the cost of longer-term dysfunction. By contrast, socioemotional selectivity theory suggests that preference for positively-valenced information is a late-life manifestation of adaptive emotion regulation. Using longitudinal data on 61 men, we examined links between emotion regulation indices informed by these distinct conceptualizations: defenses in earlier adulthood and selective memory for positively-valenced images in late-life. Use of avoidant defenses in midlife predicted poorer memory for positive, negative, and neutral images nearly 4 decades later. Late-life satisfaction was positively linked with midlife engaging defenses but negatively linked at the trend level with concurrent positive memory bias. PMID:21544264

Parallel interactive retrieval of item and associative information from event memory.

PubMed

Cox, Gregory E; Criss, Amy H

2017-09-01

Memory contains information about individual events (items) and combinations of events (associations). Despite the fundamental importance of this distinction, it remains unclear exactly how these two kinds of information are stored and whether different processes are used to retrieve them. We use both model-independent qualitative properties of response dynamics and quantitative modeling of individuals to address these issues. Item and associative information are not independent and they are retrieved concurrently via interacting processes. During retrieval, matching item and associative information mutually facilitate one another to yield an amplified holistic signal. Modeling of individuals suggests that this kind of facilitation between item and associative retrieval is a ubiquitous feature of human memory. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Prospective memory after moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury: a multinomial modeling approach.

PubMed

Pavawalla, Shital P; Schmitter-Edgecombe, Maureen; Smith, Rebekah E

2012-01-01

Prospective memory (PM), which can be understood as the processes involved in realizing a delayed intention, is consistently found to be impaired after a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Although PM can be empirically dissociated from retrospective memory, it inherently involves both a prospective component (i.e., remembering that an action needs to be carried out) and retrospective components (i.e., remembering what action needs to be executed and when). This study utilized a multinomial processing tree model to disentangle the prospective (that) and retrospective recognition (when) components underlying PM after moderate-to-severe TBI. Seventeen participants with moderate to severe TBI and 17 age- and education-matched control participants completed an event-based PM task that was embedded within an ongoing computer-based color-matching task. The multinomial processing tree modeling approach revealed a significant group difference in the prospective component, indicating that the control participants allocated greater preparatory attentional resources to the PM task compared to the TBI participants. Participants in the TBI group were also found to be significantly more impaired than controls in the when aspect of the retrospective component. These findings indicated that the TBI participants had greater difficulty allocating the necessary preparatory attentional resources to the PM task and greater difficulty discriminating between PM targets and nontargets during task execution, despite demonstrating intact posttest recall and/or recognition of the PM tasks and targets.

Delayed matching to sample and concurrent learning in nonamnesic humans with alcohol dependence.

PubMed

Bowden, S C; Benedikt, R; Ritter, A J

1992-05-01

Small samples of alcohol-dependent subjects who showed no clinical signs of Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome were compared with nonalcohol-dependent controls on two animal memory tests which are performed poorly by human amnesics. Compared to the control subjects, the alcohol-dependent subjects' performance was impaired on a version of the delayed matching to sample task. On concurrent discrimination learning the overall group difference just failed to reach significance. The results are interpreted as suggesting that behavioural impairment may occur in alcohol-dependent subjects who are not clinically amnesic, and that the impairment is similar in type to that observed in cases of severe Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome.

Physical activity and quality of life in older women with a history of depressive symptoms.

PubMed

Heesch, Kristiann C; van Gellecum, Yolanda R; Burton, Nicola W; van Uffelen, Jannique G Z; Brown, Wendy J

2016-10-01

Physical activity (PA) is positively associated with health-related quality of life (HRQL) in older adults. It is not evident whether this association applies to older adults with poor mental health. This study examined associations between PA and HRQL in older women with a history of depressive symptoms. Participants were 555 Australian women born in 1921-1926 who reported depressive symptoms in 1999 on a postal survey for the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. They completed additional surveys in 2002, 2005 and 2008 that assessed HRQL and weekly minutes walking, in moderate PA, and in vigorous PA. Random effects mixed models were used to examine concurrent and prospective associations between PA and each of 10 HRQL measures (eight SF-36 subscales; two composite scales). In concurrent models, higher levels of PA were associated with better HRQL (p<0.001). The strongest associations were found for the bodily pain, physical functioning, general health perceptions, social functioning and vitality measures. Associations were attenuated in prospective models, more so for mental HRQL-related scales than for physical HRQL-related scales. However, strong associations (>3 point differences) were evident for physical functioning, general health, vitality and social functioning. For women in their 70s-80s with a history of depressive symptoms, PA is positively associated with HRQL concurrently, and to a lesser extent prospectively. This study extends previous work by showing significant associations in older women with a history of depressive symptoms. Incorporating PA into depression management of older women may improve their HRQL. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The MEOW lunar project for education and science based on concurrent engineering approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roibás-Millán, E.; Sorribes-Palmer, F.; Chimeno-Manguán, M.

2018-07-01

The use of concurrent engineering in the design of space missions allows to take into account in an interrelated methodology the high level of coupling and iteration of mission subsystems in the preliminary conceptual phase. This work presents the result of applying concurrent engineering in a short time lapse to design the main elements of the preliminary design for a lunar exploration mission, developed within ESA Academy Concurrent Engineering Challenge 2017. During this program, students of the Master in Space Systems at Technical University of Madrid designed a low cost satellite to find water on the Moon south pole as prospect of a future human lunar base. The resulting mission, The Moon Explorer And Observer of Water/Ice (MEOW) compromises a 262 kg spacecraft to be launched into a Geostationary Transfer Orbit as a secondary payload in the 2023/2025 time frame. A three months Weak Stability Boundary transfer via the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point allows for a high launch timeframe flexibility. The different aspects of the mission (orbit analysis, spacecraft design and payload) and possibilities of concurrent engineering are described.

Audiovisual integration facilitates monkeys' short-term memory.

PubMed

Bigelow, James; Poremba, Amy

2016-07-01

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

A motor similarity effect in object memory.

PubMed

Downing-Doucet, Frédéric; Guérard, Katherine

2014-08-01

In line with theories of embodied cognition (e.g., Versace et al. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 21, 522-560, 2009), several studies have suggested that the motor system used to interact with objects in our environment is involved in object recognition (e.g., Helbig, Graf, & Kiefer Experimental Brain Research, 174, 221-228, 2006). However, the role of the motor system in immediate memory for objects is more controversial. The objective of the present study was to investigate the role of the motor system in object memory by manipulating the similarity between the actions associated to series of objects to be retained in memory. In Experiment 1, we showed that lists of objects associated to dissimilar actions were better recalled than lists associated to similar actions. We then showed that this effect was abolished when participants were required to perform a concurrent motor suppression task (Experiment 2) and when the objects to be memorized were unmanipulable (Experiment 3). The motor similarity effect provides evidence for the role of motor affordances in object memory.

Attentional and non-attentional systems in the maintenance of verbal information in working memory: the executive and phonological loops

PubMed Central

Camos, Valérie; Barrouillet, Pierre

2014-01-01

Working memory is the structure devoted to the maintenance of information at short term during concurrent processing activities. In this respect, the question regarding the nature of the mechanisms and systems fulfilling this maintenance function is of particular importance and has received various responses in the recent past. In the time-based resource-sharing (TBRS) model, we suggest that only two systems sustain the maintenance of information at the short term, counteracting the deleterious effect of temporal decay and interference. A non-attentional mechanism of verbal rehearsal, similar to the one described by Baddeley in the phonological loop model, uses language processes to reactivate phonological memory traces. Besides this domain-specific mechanism, an executive loop allows the reconstruction of memory traces through an attention-based mechanism of refreshing. The present paper reviews evidence of the involvement of these two independent systems in the maintenance of verbal memory items. PMID:25426049

High intraocular pressure produces learning and memory impairments in rats.

PubMed

Yuan, Yuxiang; Chen, Zhiqi; Li, Lu; Li, Xing; Xia, Qian; Zhang, Hong; Duan, Qiming; Zhao, Yin

2017-11-15

Primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) is a leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. Previous MRI studies have revealed that POAG can be associated with alterations in hippocampal function. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate a relationship between chronic high intraocular pressure (IOP) and hippocampal changes in a rat model. We used behavioural tests to assess learning and memory ability, and additionally investigated the hippocampal expression of pathological amyloid beta (Aβ), phospho-tau, and related pathway proteins. Chronic high IOP impaired learning and memory in rats and concurrently increased Aβ and phospho-tau expression in the hippocampus by altering the activation of different kinase (GSK-3β, BACE1) and phosphatase (PP2A) proteins in the hippocampus. This study provides novel evidence for the relationship between high IOP and hippocampal alterations, especially in the context of learning and memory. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Familiarity enhances visual working memory for faces.

PubMed

Jackson, Margaret C; Raymond, Jane E

2008-06-01

Although it is intuitive that familiarity with complex visual objects should aid their preservation in visual working memory (WM), empirical evidence for this is lacking. This study used a conventional change-detection procedure to assess visual WM for unfamiliar and famous faces in healthy adults. Across experiments, faces were upright or inverted and a low- or high-load concurrent verbal WM task was administered to suppress contribution from verbal WM. Even with a high verbal memory load, visual WM performance was significantly better and capacity estimated as significantly greater for famous versus unfamiliar faces. Face inversion abolished this effect. Thus, neither strategic, explicit support from verbal WM nor low-level feature processing easily accounts for the observed benefit of high familiarity for visual WM. These results demonstrate that storage of items in visual WM can be enhanced if robust visual representations of them already exist in long-term memory.

Flexible attention allocation to visual and auditory working memory tasks: manipulating reward induces a trade-off.

PubMed

Morey, Candice Coker; Cowan, Nelson; Morey, Richard D; Rouder, Jeffery N

2011-02-01

Prominent roles for general attention resources are posited in many models of working memory, but the manner in which these can be allocated differs between models or is not sufficiently specified. We varied the payoffs for correct responses in two temporally-overlapping recognition tasks, a visual array comparison task and a tone sequence comparison task. In the critical conditions, an increase in reward for one task corresponded to a decrease in reward for the concurrent task, but memory load remained constant. Our results show patterns of interference consistent with a trade-off between the tasks, suggesting that a shared resource can be flexibly divided, rather than only fully allotted to either of the tasks. Our findings support a role for a domain-general resource in models of working memory, and furthermore suggest that this resource is flexibly divisible.

The Effects of a Distracting N-Back Task on Recognition Memory Are Reduced by Negative Emotional Intensity

PubMed Central

Buratto, Luciano G.; Pottage, Claire L.; Brown, Charity; Morrison, Catriona M.; Schaefer, Alexandre

2014-01-01

Memory performance is usually impaired when participants have to encode information while performing a concurrent task. Recent studies using recall tasks have found that emotional items are more resistant to such cognitive depletion effects than non-emotional items. However, when recognition tasks are used, the same effect is more elusive as recent recognition studies have obtained contradictory results. In two experiments, we provide evidence that negative emotional content can reliably reduce the effects of cognitive depletion on recognition memory only if stimuli with high levels of emotional intensity are used. In particular, we found that recognition performance for realistic pictures was impaired by a secondary 3-back working memory task during encoding if stimuli were emotionally neutral or had moderate levels of negative emotionality. In contrast, when negative pictures with high levels of emotional intensity were used, the detrimental effects of the secondary task were significantly attenuated. PMID:25330251

The effects of a distracting N-back task on recognition memory are reduced by negative emotional intensity.

PubMed

Buratto, Luciano G; Pottage, Claire L; Brown, Charity; Morrison, Catriona M; Schaefer, Alexandre

2014-01-01

Memory performance is usually impaired when participants have to encode information while performing a concurrent task. Recent studies using recall tasks have found that emotional items are more resistant to such cognitive depletion effects than non-emotional items. However, when recognition tasks are used, the same effect is more elusive as recent recognition studies have obtained contradictory results. In two experiments, we provide evidence that negative emotional content can reliably reduce the effects of cognitive depletion on recognition memory only if stimuli with high levels of emotional intensity are used. In particular, we found that recognition performance for realistic pictures was impaired by a secondary 3-back working memory task during encoding if stimuli were emotionally neutral or had moderate levels of negative emotionality. In contrast, when negative pictures with high levels of emotional intensity were used, the detrimental effects of the secondary task were significantly attenuated.

Variability in visual working memory ability limits the efficiency of perceptual decision making.

PubMed

Ester, Edward F; Ho, Tiffany C; Brown, Scott D; Serences, John T

2014-04-02

The ability to make rapid and accurate decisions based on limited sensory information is a critical component of visual cognition. Available evidence suggests that simple perceptual discriminations are based on the accumulation and integration of sensory evidence over time. However, the memory system(s) mediating this accumulation are unclear. One candidate system is working memory (WM), which enables the temporary maintenance of information in a readily accessible state. Here, we show that individual variability in WM capacity is strongly correlated with the speed of evidence accumulation in speeded two-alternative forced choice tasks. This relationship generalized across different decision-making tasks, and could not be easily explained by variability in general arousal or vigilance. Moreover, we show that performing a difficult discrimination task while maintaining a concurrent memory load has a deleterious effect on the latter, suggesting that WM storage and decision making are directly linked.

Reasoning and dyslexia: is visual memory a compensatory resource?

PubMed

Bacon, Alison M; Handley, Simon J

2014-11-01

Effective reasoning is fundamental to problem solving and achievement in education and employment. Protocol studies have previously suggested that people with dyslexia use reasoning strategies based on visual mental representations, whereas non-dyslexics use abstract verbal strategies. This research presents converging evidence from experimental and individual differences perspectives. In Experiment 1, dyslexic and non-dyslexic participants were similarly accurate on reasoning problems, but scores on a measure of visual memory ability only predicted reasoning accuracy for dyslexics. In Experiment 2, a secondary task loaded visual memory resources during concurrent reasoning. Dyslexics were significantly less accurate when reasoning under conditions of high memory load and showed reduced ability to subsequently recall the visual stimuli, suggesting that the memory and reasoning tasks were competing for the same visual cognitive resource. The results are consistent with an explanation based on limitations in the verbal and executive components of working memory in dyslexia and the use of compensatory visual strategies for reasoning. There are implications for cognitive activities that do not readily support visual thinking, whether in education, employment or less formal everyday settings. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Emotional stimuli exert parallel effects on attention and memory.

PubMed

Talmi, Deborah; Ziegler, Marilyne; Hawksworth, Jade; Lalani, Safina; Herman, C Peter; Moscovitch, Morris

2013-01-01

Because emotional and neutral stimuli typically differ on non-emotional dimensions, it has been difficult to determine conclusively which factors underlie the ability of emotional stimuli to enhance immediate long-term memory. Here we induced arousal by varying participants' goals, a method that removes many potential confounds between emotional and non-emotional items. Hungry and sated participants encoded food and clothing images under divided attention conditions. Sated participants attended to and recalled food and clothing images equivalently. Hungry participants performed worse on the concurrent tone-discrimination task when they viewed food relative to clothing images, suggesting enhanced attention to food images, and they recalled more food than clothing images. A follow-up regression analysis of the factors predicting memory for individual pictures revealed that food images had parallel effects on attention and memory in hungry participants, so that enhanced attention to food images did not predict their enhanced memory. We suggest that immediate long-term memory for food is enhanced in the hungry state because hunger leads to more distinctive processing of food images rendering them more accessible during retrieval.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is associated with limited executive resources in a working memory task

PubMed Central

Honzel, Nikki; Justus, Timothy; Swick, Diane

2015-01-01

Patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can show declines in working memory. A dual-task design was used to determine if these impairments are linked to executive control limitations. Participants performed a Sternberg memory task with either one or four letters. In the dual-task condition, the maintenance period was filled with an arrow flanker task. PTSD patients were less accurate on the working memory task than controls, especially in the dual-task condition. In the single-task condition, both groups showed similar patterns of brain potentials from 300–500 ms when discriminating old and new probes. However, when taxed with an additional task, the event-related potentials (ERPs) of the PTSD group no longer differentiated old and new probes. In contrast, interference resolution processes in both the single- and dual-task conditions of the flanker were intact. The lack of differentiation in the ERPs reflects impaired working memory performance under more difficult dual-task conditions. Exacerbated difficulty in performing a working memory task with concurrent task demands suggests a specific limitation in executive control resources in PTSD. PMID:24165904

The force on the flex: Global parallelism and portability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jordan, H. F.

1986-01-01

A parallel programming methodology, called the force, supports the construction of programs to be executed in parallel by an unspecified, but potentially large, number of processes. The methodology was originally developed on a pipelined, shared memory multiprocessor, the Denelcor HEP, and embodies the primitive operations of the force in a set of macros which expand into multiprocessor Fortran code. A small set of primitives is sufficient to write large parallel programs, and the system has been used to produce 10,000 line programs in computational fluid dynamics. The level of complexity of the force primitives is intermediate. It is high enough to mask detailed architectural differences between multiprocessors but low enough to give the user control over performance. The system is being ported to a medium scale multiprocessor, the Flex/32, which is a 20 processor system with a mixture of shared and local memory. Memory organization and the type of processor synchronization supported by the hardware on the two machines lead to some differences in efficient implementations of the force primitives, but the user interface remains the same. An initial implementation was done by retargeting the macros to Flexible Computer Corporation's ConCurrent C language. Subsequently, the macros were caused to directly produce the system calls which form the basis for ConCurrent C. The implementation of the Fortran based system is in step with Flexible Computer Corporations's implementation of a Fortran system in the parallel environment.

Timing and gender determine if acute pain impairs working memory performance.

PubMed

Hood, Anna; Pulvers, Kim; Spady, Thomas J

2013-11-01

The effects of pain on memory are complex, and little is known about the vulnerability of working memory (WM) performance when individuals complete a WM test while concurrently experiencing pain. Here, we subjected 78 healthy nonsmoking participants to either acute pain or a control condition while we administered a WM test. In this context, we also tested WM 20 minutes after pain in order to determine if timing of pain affected WM performance, and assessed objective and subjective measures of pain. We hypothesized that pain would impair WM performance during pain. Further, women's WM performance would be impaired more than men. Importantly, there was an interaction between gender and condition, with women exposed to pain experiencing impairments during but not after the cold pressor task. Our data imply that timing and gender are critically important in whether acute pain is costly to WM performance. Our findings have interesting clinical, professional, and educational implications, and understanding the influence of pain could help to improve the interpretation of WM tests in these diverse settings. Results of this study support the growing body of work that attests to the detrimental effect of pain on WM performance. Further, this study provides new evidence that concurrently experiencing cold pressor pain impairs WM in regularly menstruating women and women taking a contraceptive. Copyright © 2013 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Effect of Concurrent Semantic Categorization on Delayed Serial Recall

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Acheson, Daniel J.; MacDonald, Maryellen C.; Postle, Bradley R.

2011-01-01

The influence of semantic processing on the serial ordering of items in short-term memory was explored using a novel dual-task paradigm. Participants engaged in 2 picture-judgment tasks while simultaneously performing delayed serial recall. List material varied in the presence of phonological overlap (Experiments 1 and 2) and in semantic content…

Encoding and Retrieval During Bimanual Rhythmic Coordination

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shockley, Kevin; Turvey, Michael T.

2005-01-01

In 2 experiments, bimanual 1:1 rhythmic coordination was performed concurrently with encoding or retrieval of word lists. Effects of divided attention (DA) on coordination were indexed by changes in mean relative phase and recurrence measures of shared activity between the 2 limbs. Effects of DA on memory were indexed by deficits in recall…

Short-Term Memory and Auditory Processing Disorders: Concurrent Validity and Clinical Diagnostic Markers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maerlender, Arthur

2010-01-01

Auditory processing disorders (APDs) are of interest to educators and clinicians, as they impact school functioning. Little work has been completed to demonstrate how children with APDs perform on clinical tests. In a series of studies, standard clinical (psychometric) tests from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fourth Edition…

Horizontal Structure: A Neo-Piagetian Analysis of Structural Parallels across Domains.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKeough, Anne M.

An analysis of children's narrative composition and art revealed concurrent development at both a general structural level and at a fine-grained detail level. A three-part study investigated whether this general cognitive pattern would be maintained across a different range of tasks: literary composition, scientific reasoning, and working memory.…

Distributed Memory Compiler Methods for Irregular Problems - Data Copy Reuse and Runtime Partitioning

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-09-01

addition, support for Saltz was provided by NSF from NSF Grant ASC-8819374. i 1, introduction Over the past fewyers, ,we have devoped -methods needed to... network . In Third Conf. on Hypercube Concurrent Computers and Applications, pages 241-27278, 1988. [17] G. Fox, S. Hiranandani, K. Kennedy, C. Koelbel

Relations between prospective memory, cognitive abilities, and brain structure in adolescents who vary in prenatal drug exposure

PubMed Central

Robey, Alison; Buckingham-Howes, Stacy; Salmeron, Betty Jo; Black, Maureen M.; Riggins, Tracy

2014-01-01

This investigation examined how prospective memory (PM) relates to cognitive abilities (i.e., executive function, attention, working memory, and retrospective memory), and brain structure in adolescents who vary in prenatal drug exposure (PDE). The sample included 105 (55 female, 50 male) urban, primarily African American adolescents (mean age 15.5 years) from low socioeconomic status (SES) families; 56% (n=59) were prenatally exposed to drugs (heroin and/or cocaine) and 44% (n=46) were not prenatally exposed, but similar in age, gender, race, and SES. Executive functioning, attentional control, working memory, retrospective memory, and overall cognitive ability were assessed by validated performance measures. Executive functioning was also measured by caregiver report. A subset of 52 adolescents completed MRI scans, which provided measures of subcortical gray matter volumes and thickness of prefrontal, parietal and temporal cortices. Results revealed no differences in PM performance by PDE status, even after adjusting for age and IQ. Executive function, retrospective memory, cortical thickness in frontal and parietal regions, and volume of subcortical regions (i.e., putamen and hippocampus) were related to PM performance in the sample overall, even after adjusting for age, IQ, and total gray matter volume. Findings suggest that variations in PM ability during adolescence are robustly related to individual differences in cognitive abilities, in particular executive function and retrospective memory, and brain structure, but do not vary by PDE status. PMID:24630759

Adolescent cannabis use, change in neurocognitive function, and high-school graduation: A longitudinal study from early adolescence to young adulthood.

PubMed

Castellanos-Ryan, Natalie; Pingault, Jean-Baptiste; Parent, Sophie; Vitaro, Frank; Tremblay, Richard E; Séguin, Jean R

2017-10-01

The main objective of this prospective longitudinal study was to investigate bidirectional associations between adolescent cannabis use (CU) and neurocognitive performance in a community sample of 294 young men from ages 13 to 20 years. The results showed that in early adolescence, and prior to initiation to CU, poor short-term and working memory, but high verbal IQ, were associated with earlier age of onset of CU. In turn, age of CU onset and CU frequency across adolescence were associated with (a) specific neurocognitive decline in verbal IQ and executive function tasks tapping trial and error learning and reward processing by early adulthood and (b) lower rates of high-school graduation. The association between CU onset and change in neurocognitive function, however, was found to be accounted for by CU frequency. Whereas the link between CU frequency across adolescence and change in verbal IQ was explained (mediated) by high school graduation, the link between CU frequency and tasks tapping trial and error learning were independent from high school graduation, concurrent cannabis and other substance use, adolescent alcohol use, and externalizing behaviors. Findings support prevention efforts aimed at delaying onset and reducing frequency of CU.