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

PubMed

Bhatarah, Parveen; Ward, Geoff; Tan, Lydia

2006-03-01

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

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

PubMed

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

2013-05-01

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

The importance of mammillary body efferents for recency memory: towards a better understanding of diencephalic amnesia.

PubMed

Nelson, Andrew J D; Vann, Seralynne D

2017-07-01

Despite being historically one of the first brain regions linked to memory loss, there remains controversy over the core features of diencephalic amnesia as well as the critical site for amnesia to occur. The mammillary bodies and thalamus appear to be the primary locus of pathology in the cases of diencephalic amnesia, but the picture is complicated by the lack of patients with circumscribed damage. Impaired temporal memory is a consistent neuropsychological finding in Korsakoff syndrome patients, but again, it is unclear whether this deficit is attributable to pathology within the diencephalon or concomitant frontal lobe dysfunction. To address these issues, we used an animal model of diencephalic amnesia and examined the effect of mammillothalamic tract lesions on tests of recency memory. The mammillothalamic tract lesions severely disrupted recency judgements involving multiple items but left intact both recency and familiarity judgements for single items. Subsequently, we used disconnection procedures to assess whether this deficit reflects the indirect involvement of the prefrontal cortex. Crossed-lesion rats, with unilateral lesions of the mammillothalamic tract and medial prefrontal cortex in contralateral hemispheres, were unimpaired on the same recency tests. These results provide the first evidence for the selective importance of mammillary body efferents for recency memory. Moreover, this contribution to recency memory is independent of the prefrontal cortex. More broadly, these findings identify how specific diencephalic structures are vital for key elements of event memory.

Switching between simple cognitive tasks: the interaction of top-down and bottom-up factors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ruthruff, E.; Remington, R. W.; Johnston, J. C.

2001-01-01

How do top-down factors (e.g., task expectancy) and bottom-up factors (e.g., task recency) interact to produce an overall level of task readiness? This question was addressed by factorially manipulating task expectancy and task repetition in a task-switching paradigm. The effects of expectancy and repetition on response time tended to interact underadditively, but only because the traditional binary task-repetition variable lumps together all switch trials, ignoring variation in task lag. When the task-recency variable was scaled continuously, all 4 experiments instead showed additivity between expectancy and recency. The results indicated that expectancy and recency influence different stages of mental processing. One specific possibility (the configuration-execution model) is that task expectancy affects the time required to configure upcoming central operations, whereas task recency affects the time required to actually execute those central operations.

Serial Position Functions in General Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

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

2015-01-01

Serial position functions with marked primacy and recency effects are ubiquitous in episodic memory tasks. The demonstrations reported here explored whether bow-shaped serial position functions would be observed when people ordered exemplars from various categories along a specified dimension. The categories and dimensions were: actors and age;…

Bringing Order to Life Events: Memory for the Temporal Order of Autobiographical Events over an Extended Period in School-Aged Children and Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pathman, Thanujeni; Doydum, Ayzit; Bauer, Patricia J.

2013-01-01

Remembering temporal information associated with personal past events is critical. Yet little is known about the development of temporal order memory for naturally occurring events. In the current research, 8- to 10-year-old children and adults took photographs daily for 4 weeks. Later, they participated in a primacy/recency task (were shown 2 of…

Temporal context memory in high-functioning autism.

PubMed

Gras-Vincendon, Agnès; Mottron, Laurent; Salamé, Pierre; Bursztejn, Claude; Danion, Jean-Marie

2007-11-01

Episodic memory, i.e. memory for specific episodes situated in space and time, seems impaired in individuals with autism. According to weak central coherence theory, individuals with autism have general difficulty connecting contextual and item information which then impairs their capacity to memorize information in context. This study investigated temporal context memory for visual information in individuals with autism. Eighteen adolescents and adults with high-functioning autism (HFA) or Asperger syndrome (AS) and age- and IQ-matched typically developing participants were tested using a recency judgement task. The performance of the autistic group did not differ from that of the control group, nor did the performance between the AS and HFA groups. We conclude that autism in high-functioning individuals does not impair temporal context memory as assessed on this task. We suggest that individuals with autism are as efficient on this task as typically developing subjects because contextual memory performance here involves more automatic than organizational processing.

Memory monitoring by animals and humans

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, J. D.; Shields, W. E.; Allendoerfer, K. R.; Washburn, D. A.; Rumbaugh, D. M. (Principal Investigator)

1998-01-01

The authors asked whether animals and humans would use similarly an uncertain response to escape indeterminate memories. Monkeys and humans performed serial probe recognition tasks that produced differential memory difficulty across serial positions (e.g., primacy and recency effects). Participants were given an escape option that let them avoid any trials they wished and receive a hint to the trial's answer. Across species, across tasks, and even across conspecifics with sharper or duller memories, monkeys and humans used the escape option selectively when more indeterminate memory traces were probed. Their pattern of escaping always mirrored the pattern of their primary memory performance across serial positions. Signal-detection analyses confirm the similarity of the animals' and humans' performances. Optimality analyses assess their efficiency. Several aspects of monkeys' performance suggest the cognitive sophistication of their decisions to escape.

Unmasking the component-general and component-specific aspects of primary and secondary memory in the immediate free recall task.

PubMed

Gibson, Bradley S; Gondoli, Dawn M

2018-04-01

The immediate free recall (IFR) task has been commonly used to estimate the capacities of the primary memory (PM) and secondary memory (SM) components of working memory (WM). Using this method, the correlation between estimates of the PM and SM components has hovered around zero, suggesting that PM and SM represent fully distinct and dissociable components of WM. However, this conclusion has conflicted with more recent studies that have observed moderately strong, positive correlations between PM and SM when separate attention and retrieval tasks are used to estimate these capacities, suggesting that PM and SM represent at least some related capacities. The present study attempted to resolve this empirical discrepancy by investigating the extent to which the relation between estimates of PM and SM might be suppressed by a third variable that operates during the recall portion of the IFR task. This third variable was termed "strength of recency" (SOR) in the present study as it reflected differences in the extent to which individuals used the same experimentally-induced recency recall initiation strategy. As predicted, the present findings showed that the positive correlation between estimates of PM and SM grew from small to medium when the indirect effect of SOR was controlled across two separate sets of studies. This finding is important because it provides stronger support for the distinction between "component-general" and "component-specific" aspects of PM and SM; furthermore, a proof is presented that demonstrates a limitation of using regression techniques to differentiate general and specific aspects of these components.

Primacy Versus Recency in a Quantitative Model: Activity Is the Critical Distinction

PubMed Central

Greene, Anthony J.; Prepscius, Colin; Levy, William B.

2000-01-01

Behavioral and neurobiological evidence shows that primacy and recency are subserved by memory systems for intermediate- and short-term memory, respectively. A widely accepted explanation of recency is that in short-term memory, new learning overwrites old learning. Primacy is not as well understood, but many hypotheses contend that initial items are better encoded into long-term memory because they have had more opportunity to be rehearsed. A simple, biologically motivated neural network model supports an alternative hypothesis of the distinct processing requirements for primacy and recency given single-trial learning without rehearsal. Simulations of the model exhibit either primacy or recency, but not both simultaneously. The incompatibility of primacy and recency clarifies possible reasons for two neurologically distinct systems. Inhibition, and its control of activity, determines those list items that are acquired and retained. Activity levels that are too low do not provide sufficient connections for learning to occur, while higher activity diminishes capacity. High recurrent inhibition, and progressively diminishing activity, allows acquisition and retention of early items, while later items are never acquired. Conversely, low recurrent inhibition, and the resulting high activity, allows continuous acquisition such that acquisition of later items eventually interferes with the retention of early items. PMID:10706602

Conditions for positive and negative recencies in running memory-span recognition.

PubMed

Ruiz, R Marcos; Elosúa, M Rosa

2013-10-01

A positive recency effect in a running-span recognition procedure was obtained in Experiment 1 for hits and for intratrial false alarms. In running recall procedures, recency does not fit well with an active updating hypothesis. In Experiment 2, in which the beginning of the target set was marked with a cue upon presentation, the recency effects disappeared. In Experiments 3 and 4 participants were forced to maintain 2 items in memory until the last one was presented for recognition. These three items were the target set. When the last item presentation was uncertain-because of the variable length list-an unexpected negative recency effect appeared. An explanation for this change from positive to negative recency is offered based on the sharing of attentional resources put forward by others for similar procedures. © 2013.

Frontotemporal Functional Connectivity and Executive Functions Contribute to Episodic Memory Performance

PubMed Central

Blankenship, Tashauna L.; O'Neill, Meagan; Deater-Deckard, Kirby; Diana, Rachel A.; Bell, Martha Ann

2016-01-01

The contributions of hemispheric-specific electrophysiology (electroencephalogram or EEG) and independent executive functions (inhibitory control, working memory, cognitive flexibility) to episodic memory performance were examined using abstract paintings. Right hemisphere frontotemporal functional connectivity during encoding and retrieval, measured via EEG alpha coherence, statistically predicted performance on recency but not recognition judgments for the abstract paintings. Theta coherence, however, did not predict performance. Likewise, cognitive flexibility statistically predicted performance on recency judgments, but not recognition. These findings suggest that recognition and recency operate via separate electrophysiological and executive mechanisms. PMID:27388478

Restoring primacy in amnesic free recall: evidence for the recency theory of primacy.

PubMed

Dewar, Michaela; Brown, Gordon D A; Della Sala, Sergio

2011-09-01

Primacy and recency effects at immediate recall are thought to reflect the independent functioning of a long-term memory store (primacy) and a short-term memory store (recency). Key evidence for this theory comes from amnesic patients who show severe long-term memory storage deficits, coupled with profoundly attenuated primacy. Here we challenge this dominant dual-store theory of immediate recall by demonstrating that attenuated primacy in amnesic patients can reflect abnormal working memory rehearsal processes. D.A., a patient with severe amnesia, presented with profoundly attenuated primacy when using her preferred atypical noncumulative rehearsal strategy. In contrast, despite her severe amnesia, she showed normal primacy when her rehearsal was matched with that of controls via an externalized cumulative rehearsal schedule. Our data are in keeping with the "recency theory of primacy" and suggest that primacy at immediate recall is dependent upon medial temporal lobe involvement in cumulative rehearsal rather than long-term memory storage.

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

PubMed

Neath, Ian; Saint-Aubin, Jean

2011-06-01

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

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

PubMed Central

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

2011-01-01

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

A comparison of the effects of a secondary task and lorazepam on cognitive performance.

PubMed

File, S E

1992-01-01

In order to test whether the lorazepam-induced impairments in a variety of cognitive tasks were similar to those of divided attention, the effects of lorazepam (2.5 mg) in healthy volunteers were compared with those requiring subjects to perform an additional task (detecting silences superimposed onto classical music). Neither treatment impaired implicit memory or judgements of frequency. Both treatments impaired performance in tests of speed, lorazepam having the greatest effect on number cancellation and the additional task having the greatest effect on simple reaction time. Both treatments impaired performance in a coding task, in a test of explicit episodic memory and in judgements of recency (indicating impaired coding of contextual information). Lorazepam significantly reduced performance in a word completion task, but this was unimpaired in the group performing the additional task. In general, the pattern of results suggests that there are similarities between the effects of divided attention and lorazepam treatment, and that lorazepam-induced cognitive impairments are not restricted to explicit tests of episodic memory.

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

PubMed

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

2017-01-01

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

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

PubMed Central

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

2013-01-01

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

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

PubMed

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

2013-01-01

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

Dissociation of Short- and Long-Term Face Memory: Evidence from Long-Term Recency Effects in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bengner, T.; Malina, T.

2007-01-01

We tested whether memory deficits in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) are better described by a single- or dual-store memory model. To this aim, we analyzed the influence of TLE and proactive interference (PI) on immediate and 24-h long-term recency effects during face recognition in 16 healthy participants and 18 right and 21 left non-surgical TLE…

Humans and monkeys use different strategies to solve the same short-term memory tasks.

PubMed

Wittig, John H; Morgan, Barak; Masseau, Evan; Richmond, Barry J

2016-11-01

The neural mechanisms underlying human working memory are often inferred from studies using old-world monkeys. Humans use working memory to selectively memorize important information. We recently reported that monkeys do not seem to use selective memorization under experimental conditions that are common in monkey research, but less common in human research. Here we compare the performance of humans and monkeys under the same experimental conditions. Humans selectively remember important images whereas monkeys largely rely on recency information from nonselective memorization. Working memory studies in old-world monkeys must be interpreted cautiously when making inferences about the mechanisms underlying human working memory. © 2016 Wittig, et al.; Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.

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

PubMed

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

2007-05-01

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

Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) show robust primacy and recency in memory for lists from small, but not large, image sets.

PubMed

Basile, Benjamin M; Hampton, Robert R

2010-02-01

The combination of primacy and recency produces a U-shaped serial position curve typical of memory for lists. In humans, primacy is often thought to result from rehearsal, but there is little evidence for rehearsal in nonhumans. To further evaluate the possibility that rehearsal contributes to primacy in monkeys, we compared memory for lists of familiar stimuli (which may be easier to rehearse) to memory for unfamiliar stimuli (which are likely difficult to rehearse). Six rhesus monkeys saw lists of five images drawn from either large, medium, or small image sets. After presentation of each list, memory for one item was assessed using a serial probe recognition test. Across four experiments, we found robust primacy and recency with lists drawn from small and medium, but not large, image sets. This finding is consistent with the idea that familiar items are easier to rehearse and that rehearsal contributes to primacy, warranting further study of the possibility of rehearsal in monkeys. However, alternative interpretations are also viable and are discussed. Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Modalities of memory: is reading lips like hearing voices?

PubMed

Maidment, David W; Macken, Bill; Jones, Dylan M

2013-12-01

Functional similarities in verbal memory performance across presentation modalities (written, heard, lipread) are often taken to point to a common underlying representational form upon which the modalities converge. We show here instead that the pattern of performance depends critically on presentation modality and different mechanisms give rise to superficially similar effects across modalities. Lipread recency is underpinned by different mechanisms to auditory recency, and while the effect of an auditory suffix on an auditory list is due to the perceptual grouping of the suffix with the list, the corresponding effect with lipread speech is due to misidentification of the lexical content of the lipread suffix. Further, while a lipread suffix does not disrupt auditory recency, an auditory suffix does disrupt recency for lipread lists. However, this effect is due to attentional capture ensuing from the presentation of an unexpected auditory event, and is evident both with verbal and nonverbal auditory suffixes. These findings add to a growing body of evidence that short-term verbal memory performance is determined by modality-specific perceptual and motor processes, rather than by the storage and manipulation of phonological representations. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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.

Interference of the end: why recency bias in memory determines when a food is consumed again.

PubMed

Garbinsky, Emily N; Morewedge, Carey K; Shiv, Baba

2014-07-01

The results of three experiments reveal that memory for end enjoyment, rather than beginning enjoyment, of a pleasant gustatory experience determines how soon people desire to repeat that experience. We found that memory for end moments, when people are most satiated, interferes with memory for initial moments. Consequently, end moments are more influential than initial moments when people decide how long to wait until consuming a food again. The findings elucidate the role of memory in delay until repeated consumption, demonstrate how sensory-specific satiety and portion sizes influence future consumption, and suggest one process by which recency effects influence judgments and decisions based on past experiences. © The Author(s) 2014.

Updating of working memory in ecstasy polydrug users: Findings from fNIRS.

PubMed

Montgomery, Catharine; Fisk, John E; Roberts, Carl A

2017-05-01

Cognitive deficits are now well documented in ecstasy (MDMA) users with type and relative demand of task emerging as important factors. The updating component of executive processes appears to be particularly affected. The study reported here used functional near infrared spectroscopy imaging to investigate changes in cortical haemodynamics during memory updating. Twenty ecstasy users and 20 non-users completed verbal and spatial memory updating tasks and brain blood oxygenation and deoxygenation change was measured using functional near infrared spectroscopy. There was no interaction between group and difficulty on the updating tasks, though there was a significant main effect of difficulty on both tasks. The effects of group approached significance on the verbal updating task. There were significant differences in blood oxygenation and deoxygenation change at optodes centred over the right and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, with ecstasy users showing greater blood oxygenation than the other groups. The lack of a behavioural difference on both tasks but presence of blood oxygenation and deoxygenation changes in letter updating provides support for the notion that ecstasy-polydrug users are investing more effort to achieve the same behavioural output. Total lifetime dose was high, and recency of use was significantly related to most changes, suggesting that heavy and recent use may be particularly detrimental. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Electrophysiological Signals of Familiarity and Recency in the Infant Brain

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snyder, Kelly A.; Garza, John; Zolot, Liza; Kresse, Anna

2010-01-01

Electrophysiological work in nonhuman primates has established the existence of multiple types of signals in the temporal lobe that contribute to recognition memory, including information regarding a stimulus's relative novelty, familiarity, and recency of occurrence. We used high-density event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine whether young…

Using a Large-scale Neural Model of Cortical Object Processing to Investigate the Neural Substrate for Managing Multiple Items in Short-term Memory.

PubMed

Liu, Qin; Ulloa, Antonio; Horwitz, Barry

2017-11-01

Many cognitive and computational models have been proposed to help understand working memory. In this article, we present a simulation study of cortical processing of visual objects during several working memory tasks using an extended version of a previously constructed large-scale neural model [Tagamets, M. A., & Horwitz, B. Integrating electrophysiological and anatomical experimental data to create a large-scale model that simulates a delayed match-to-sample human brain imaging study. Cerebral Cortex, 8, 310-320, 1998]. The original model consisted of arrays of Wilson-Cowan type of neuronal populations representing primary and secondary visual cortices, inferotemporal (IT) cortex, and pFC. We added a module representing entorhinal cortex, which functions as a gating module. We successfully implemented multiple working memory tasks using the same model and produced neuronal patterns in visual cortex, IT cortex, and pFC that match experimental findings. These working memory tasks can include distractor stimuli or can require that multiple items be retained in mind during a delay period (Sternberg's task). Besides electrophysiology data and behavioral data, we also generated fMRI BOLD time series from our simulation. Our results support the involvement of IT cortex in working memory maintenance and suggest the cortical architecture underlying the neural mechanisms mediating particular working memory tasks. Furthermore, we noticed that, during simulations of memorizing a list of objects, the first and last items in the sequence were recalled best, which may implicate the neural mechanism behind this important psychological effect (i.e., the primacy and recency effect).

Learning and memory for sequences of pictures, words, and spatial locations: an exploration of serial position effects.

PubMed

Bonk, William J; Healy, Alice F

2010-01-01

A serial reproduction of order with distractors task was developed to make it possible to observe successive snapshots of the learning process at each serial position. The new task was used to explore the effect of several variables on serial memory performance: stimulus content (words, blanks, and pictures), presentation condition (spatial information vs. none), semantically categorized item clustering (grouped vs. ungrouped), and number of distractors relative to targets (none, equal, double). These encoding and retrieval variables, along with learning attempt number, affected both overall performance levels and the shape of the serial position function, although a large and extensive primacy advantage and a small 1-item recency advantage were found in each case. These results were explained well by a version of the scale-independent memory, perception, and learning model that accounted for improved performance by increasing the value of only a single parameter that reflects reduced interference from distant items.

Testing complex animal cognition: Concept learning, proactive interference, and list memory.

PubMed

Wright, Anthony A

2018-01-01

This article describes an approach for assessing and comparing complex cognition in rhesus monkeys and pigeons by training them in a sequence of synergistic tasks, each yielding a whole function for enhanced comparisons. These species were trained in similar same/different tasks with expanding training sets (8, 16, 32, 64, 128 … 1024 pictures) followed by novel-stimulus transfer eventually resulting in full abstract-concept learning. Concept-learning functions revealed better rhesus transfer throughout and full concept learning at the 128 set, versus pigeons at the 256 set. They were then tested in delayed same/different tasks for proactive interference by inserting occasional tests within trial-unique sessions where the test stimulus matched a previous sample stimulus (1, 2, 4, 8, 16 trials prior). Proactive-interference functions revealed time-based interference for pigeons (1, 10 s delays), but event-based interference for rhesus (no effect of 1, 10, 20 s delays). They were then tested in list-memory tasks by expanding the sample to four samples in trial-unique sessions (minimizing proactive interference). The four-item, list-memory functions revealed strong recency memory at short delays, gradually changing to strong primacy memory at long delays over 30 s for rhesus, and 10 s for pigeons. Other species comparisons and future directions are discussed. © 2018 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Sequential dynamics in visual short-term memory.

PubMed

Kool, Wouter; Conway, Andrew R A; Turk-Browne, Nicholas B

2014-10-01

Visual short-term memory (VSTM) is thought to help bridge across changes in visual input, and yet many studies of VSTM employ static displays. Here we investigate how VSTM copes with sequential input. In particular, we characterize the temporal dynamics of several different components of VSTM performance, including: storage probability, precision, variability in precision, guessing, and swapping. We used a variant of the continuous-report VSTM task developed for static displays, quantifying the contribution of each component with statistical likelihood estimation, as a function of serial position and set size. In Experiments 1 and 2, storage probability did not vary by serial position for small set sizes, but showed a small primacy effect and a robust recency effect for larger set sizes; precision did not vary by serial position or set size. In Experiment 3, the recency effect was shown to reflect an increased likelihood of swapping out items from earlier serial positions and swapping in later items, rather than an increased rate of guessing for earlier items. Indeed, a model that incorporated responding to non-targets provided a better fit to these data than alternative models that did not allow for swapping or that tried to account for variable precision. These findings suggest that VSTM is updated in a first-in-first-out manner, and they bring VSTM research into closer alignment with classical working memory research that focuses on sequential behavior and interference effects.

Sequential dynamics in visual short-term memory

PubMed Central

Conway, Andrew R. A.; Turk-Browne, Nicholas B.

2014-01-01

Visual short-term memory (VSTM) is thought to help bridge across changes in visual input, and yet many studies of VSTM employ static displays. Here we investigate how VSTM copes with sequential input. In particular, we characterize the temporal dynamics of several different components of VSTM performance, including: storage probability, precision, variability in precision, guessing, and swapping. We used a variant of the continuous-report VSTM task developed for static displays, quantifying the contribution of each component with statistical likelihood estimation, as a function of serial position and set size. In Experiments 1 and 2, storage probability did not vary by serial position for small set sizes, but showed a small primacy effect and a robust recency effect for larger set sizes; precision did not vary by serial position or set size. In Experiment 3, the recency effect was shown to reflect an increased likelihood of swapping out items from earlier serial positions and swapping in later items, rather than an increased rate of guessing for earlier items. Indeed, a model that incorporated responding to non-targets provided a better fit to these data than alternative models that did not allow for swapping or that tried to account for variable precision. These findings suggest that VSTM is updated in a first-in-first-out manner, and they bring VSTM research into closer alignment with classical working memory research that focuses on sequential behavior and interference effects. PMID:25228092

Spatial But Not Oculomotor Information Biases Perceptual Memory: Evidence From Face Perception and Cognitive Modeling.

PubMed

Wantz, Andrea L; Lobmaier, Janek S; Mast, Fred W; Senn, Walter

2017-08-01

Recent research put forward the hypothesis that eye movements are integrated in memory representations and are reactivated when later recalled. However, "looking back to nothing" during recall might be a consequence of spatial memory retrieval. Here, we aimed at distinguishing between the effect of spatial and oculomotor information on perceptual memory. Participants' task was to judge whether a morph looked rather like the first or second previously presented face. Crucially, faces and morphs were presented in a way that the morph reactivated oculomotor and/or spatial information associated with one of the previously encoded faces. Perceptual face memory was largely influenced by these manipulations. We considered a simple computational model with an excellent match (4.3% error) that expresses these biases as a linear combination of recency, saccade, and location. Surprisingly, saccades did not play a role. The results suggest that spatial and temporal rather than oculomotor information biases perceptual face memory. Copyright © 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Comparing cognition by integrating concept learning, proactive interference, and list memory.

PubMed

Wright, Anthony A; Kelly, Debbie M; Katz, Jeffrey S

2018-06-01

This article describes an approach for training a variety of species to learn the abstract concept of same/different, which in turn forms the basis for testing proactive interference and list memory. The stimulus set for concept-learning training was progressively doubled from 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 . . . to 1,024 different pictures with novel-stimulus transfer following learning. All species fully learned the same/different abstract concept: capuchin and rhesus monkeys learned more readily than pigeons; nutcrackers and magpies were at least equivalent to monkeys and transferred somewhat better following initial training sets. A similar task using the 1,024-picture set plus delays was used to test proactive interference on occasional trials. Pigeons revealed greater interference with 10-s than with 1-s delays, whereas delay time had no effect on rhesus monkeys, suggesting that the monkeys' interference was event based. This same single-item same/different task was expanded to a 4-item list memory task to test animal list memory. Humans were tested similarly with lists of kaleidoscope pictures. Delays between the list and test were manipulated, resulting in strong initial recency effects (i.e., strong 4th-item memory) at short delays and changing to a strong primacy effect (i.e., strong 1st-item memory) at long delays (pigeons 0-s to 10-s delays; monkeys 0-s to 30-s delays; humans 0-s to 100-s delays). Results and findings are discussed in terms of these species' cognition and memory comparisons, evolutionary implications, and future directions for testing other species in these synergistically related tasks.

Assessing Working Memory in Mild Cognitive Impairment with Serial Order Recall.

PubMed

Emrani, Sheina; Libon, David J; Lamar, Melissa; Price, Catherine C; Jefferson, Angela L; Gifford, Katherine A; Hohman, Timothy J; Nation, Daniel A; Delano-Wood, Lisa; Jak, Amy; Bangen, Katherine J; Bondi, Mark W; Brickman, Adam M; Manly, Jennifer; Swenson, Rodney; Au, Rhoda

2018-01-01

Working memory (WM) is often assessed with serial order tests such as repeating digits backward. In prior dementia research using the Backward Digit Span Test (BDT), only aggregate test performance was examined. The current research tallied primacy/recency effects, out-of-sequence transposition errors, perseverations, and omissions to assess WM deficits in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Memory clinic patients (n = 66) were classified into three groups: single domain amnestic MCI (aMCI), combined mixed domain/dysexecutive MCI (mixed/dys MCI), and non-MCI where patients did not meet criteria for MCI. Serial order/WM ability was assessed by asking participants to repeat 7 trials of five digits backwards. Serial order position accuracy, transposition errors, perseverations, and omission errors were tallied. A 3 (group)×5 (serial position) repeated measures ANOVA yielded a significant group×trial interaction. Follow-up analyses found attenuation of the recency effect for mixed/dys MCI patients. Mixed/dys MCI patients scored lower than non-MCI patients for serial position 3 (p < 0.003) serial position 4 (p < 0.002); and lower than both group for serial position 5 (recency; p < 0.002). Mixed/dys MCI patients also produced more transposition errors than both groups (p < 0.010); and more omissions (p < 0.020), and perseverations errors (p < 0.018) than non-MCI patients. The attenuation of a recency effect using serial order parameters obtained from the BDT may provide a useful operational definition as well as additional diagnostic information regarding working memory deficits in MCI.

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

PubMed

Lehmann, Martin; Hasselhorn, Marcus

2010-01-01

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

Serial position effects in recognition memory for odors: a reexamination.

PubMed

Miles, Christopher; Hodder, Kathryn

2005-10-01

Seven experiments examined recognition memory for sequentially presented odors. Following Reed (2000), participants were presented with a sequence of odors and then required to identify an odor from the sequence in a test probe comprising 2 odors. The pattern of results obtained by Reed (2000, although statistically marginal) demonstrated enhanced recognition for odors presented at the start (primacy) and end (recency) of the sequence: a result that we failed to replicate in any of the experiments reported here. Experiments 1 and 3 were designed to replicate Reed (2000), employing five-item and seven-item sequences, respectively, and each demonstrated significant recency, with evidence of primacy in Experiment 3 only. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1, with reduced interstimulus intervals, and produced a null effect of serial position. The ease with which the odors could be verbally labeled was manipulated in Experiments 4 and 5. Nameable odors produced a null effect of serial position (Experiment 4), and hard-to-name odors produced a pronounced recency effect (Experiment 5); nevertheless, overall rates of recognition were remarkably similar for the two experiments at around 70%. Articulatory suppression reduced recognition accuracy (Experiment 6), but recency was again present in the absence of primacy. Odor recognition performance was immune to the effects of an interleaved odor (Experiment 7), and, again, both primacy and recency effects were absent. There was no evidence of olfactory fatigue: Recognition accuracy improved across trials (Experiment 1). It is argued that the results of the experiments reported here are generally consistent with that body of work employing hard-to-name visual stimuli, where recency is obtained in the absence of primacy when the retention interval is short.

Age differences in autobiographical memory across the adult lifespan: older adults report stronger phenomenology.

PubMed

Luchetti, Martina; Sutin, Angelina R

2018-01-01

As an individual's life story evolves across adulthood, the subjective experience (phenomenology) of autobiographical memory likely changes. In addition to age at retrieval, both the recency of the memory and the age when a memory is formed may be particularly important to its phenomenology. The present work examines the effect of three temporal factors on phenomenology ratings: (a) age of the participant, (b) age at the event reported in the memory, and (c) memory age (recency). A large sample of Americans (N = 1120), stratified by chronological age, recalled and rated two meaningful memories, a Turning Point and an Early Childhood Memory. Ratings of phenomenology (e.g., vividness of turning points) were higher among older adults compared to younger adults. Memories of events from the reminiscence bump were more positive in valence than events from other time periods but did not differ on other phenomenological dimensions; recent memories had stronger phenomenology than remote memories. In contrast to phenomenology, narrative content was generally unrelated to participant age, age at the event, or memory age. Overall, the findings indicate age-related differences in how meaningful memories are re-experienced.

Morphological processing with deficient phonological short-term memory.

PubMed

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

2007-07-01

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

The neural dynamics of task context in free recall.

PubMed

Polyn, Sean M; Kragel, James E; Morton, Neal W; McCluey, Joshua D; Cohen, Zachary D

2012-03-01

Multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) is a powerful tool for relating theories of cognitive function to the neural dynamics observed while people engage in cognitive tasks. Here, we use the Context Maintenance and Retrieval model of free recall (CMR; Polyn et al., 2009a) to interpret variability in the strength of task-specific patterns of distributed neural activity as participants study and recall lists of words. The CMR model describes how temporal and source-related (here, encoding task) information combine in a contextual representation that is responsible for guiding memory search. Each studied word in the free-recall paradigm is associated with one of two encoding tasks (size and animacy) that have distinct neural representations during encoding. We find evidence for the context retrieval hypothesis central to the CMR model: Task-specific patterns of neural activity are reactivated during memory search, as the participant recalls an item previously associated with a particular task. Furthermore, we find that the fidelity of these task representations during study is related to task-shifting, the serial position of the studied item, and variability in the magnitude of the recency effect across participants. The CMR model suggests that these effects may be related to a central parameter of the model that controls the rate that an internal contextual representation integrates information from the surrounding environment. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

You look familiar, but I don’t care: Lure rejection in hybrid visual and memory search is not based on familiarity

PubMed Central

Wolfe, Jeremy M.; Boettcher, Sage E. P.; Josephs, Emilie L.; Cunningham, Corbin A.; Drew, Trafton

2015-01-01

In “hybrid” search tasks, observers hold multiple possible targets in memory while searching for those targets amongst distractor items in visual displays. Wolfe (2012) found that, if the target set is held constant over a block of trials, RTs in such tasks were a linear function of the number of items in the visual display and a linear function of the log of the number of items held in memory. However, in such tasks, the targets can become far more familiar than the distractors. Does this “familiarity” – operationalized here as the frequency and recency with which an item has appeared – influence performance in hybrid tasks In Experiment 1, we compared searches where distractors appeared with the same frequency as the targets to searches where all distractors were novel. Distractor familiarity did not have any reliable effect on search. In Experiment 2, most distractors were novel but some critical distractors were as common as the targets while others were 4× more common. Familiar distractors did not produce false alarm errors, though they did slightly increase response times (RTs). In Experiment 3, observers successfully searched for the new, unfamiliar item among distractors that, in many cases, had been seen only once before. We conclude that when the memory set is held constant for many trials, item familiarity alone does not cause observers to mistakenly confuse target with distractors. PMID:26191615

Short-term Memory as a Processing Shift

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewis-Smith, Marion Quinn

1975-01-01

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

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

PubMed Central

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

2015-01-01

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

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

PubMed

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

2015-01-01

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

Procedural and declarative memory performance, and the memory consolidation function of sleep, in recent and abstinent Ecstasy/MDMA users

PubMed Central

Blagrove, Mark; Seddon, Jennifer; George, Sophie; Parrott, Andrew C.; Stickgold, Robert; Walker, Matthew; Jones, Katy; Morgan, Michael J.

2013-01-01

This study assessed the effects of ecstasy/MDMA on declarative memory (Rivermead Behavioral Memory task - RBMT), on procedural learning (Finger Tapping Task - FTT), and on the memory consolidation function of sleep for these two tasks. Testing occurred in 2 afternoon testing sessions, 24 hours apart so that a full period of sleep was allowed between them. Groups were: Non-drug taking Controls (n=24); Recent Ecstasy/MDMA users, who had taken ecstasy and/or MDMA 2–3 days before the first testing session (n=25), and Abstinent Ecstasy/MDMA users, who had not taken ecstasy/MDMA for at least 8 days before the first session (n=17). The recent ecstasy/MDMA users performed significantly worse than controls on the RBMT (mean recall 76.1% of control group recall), but did not differ from controls on FTT performance. Correspondingly there was a significant regression between the continuous variable of recency of ecstasy/MDMA use and RBMT performance. However, there was an interaction between ecstasy/MDMA use and subsequent other drug use. Controls had similar RBMT scores to recent ecstasy/MDMA users who did not take other drugs 48 – 24 hours before testing, but scored significantly better than recent ecstasy/MDMA users who took various other drugs (mainly cannabis) 48 – 24 hours before testing. For both tasks the control, recent ecstasy/MDMA and abstinent ecstasy/MDMA users did not differ in their change of performance across 24 hours; there was thus no evidence that ecstasy/MDMA impairs the memory consolidation function of sleep for either declarative or procedural memory. For participants in the two ecstasy/MDMA groups greater lifetime consumption of ecstasy tablets was associated with significantly more deficits in procedural memory. Furthermore, greater lifetime consumption of ecstasy tablets and of cocaine, were also associated with significantly more deficits in declarative memory. PMID:20615932

Examination of long-term visual memorization capacity in the Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana).

PubMed

Qadri, Muhammad A J; Leonard, Kevin; Cook, Robert G; Kelly, Debbie M

2018-02-15

Clark's nutcrackers exhibit remarkable cache recovery behavior, remembering thousands of seed locations over the winter. No direct laboratory test of their visual memory capacity, however, has yet been performed. Here, two nutcrackers were tested in an operant procedure used to measure different species' visual memory capacities. The nutcrackers were incrementally tested with an ever-expanding pool of pictorial stimuli in a two-alternative discrimination task. Each picture was randomly assigned to either a right or a left choice response, forcing the nutcrackers to memorize each picture-response association. The nutcrackers' visual memorization capacity was estimated at a little over 500 pictures, and the testing suggested effects of primacy, recency, and memory decay over time. The size of this long-term visual memory was less than the approximately 800-picture capacity established for pigeons. These results support the hypothesis that nutcrackers' spatial memory is a specialized adaptation tied to their natural history of food-caching and recovery, and not to a larger long-term, general memory capacity. Furthermore, despite millennia of separate and divergent evolution, the mechanisms of visual information retention seem to reflect common memory systems of differing capacities across the different species tested in this design.

Relative recency influences object-in-context memory

PubMed Central

Tam, Shu K.E.; Bonardi, Charlotte; Robinson, Jasper

2015-01-01

In two experiments rats received training on an object-in-context (OIC) task, in which they received preexposure to object A in context x, followed by exposure to object B in context y. In a subsequent test both A and B are presented in either context x or context y. Usually more exploration is seen of the object that has not previously been paired with the test context, an effect attributed to the ability to remember where an object was encountered. However, in the typical version of this task, object A has also been encountered less recently than object B at test. This is precisely the arrangement in tests of ‘relatively recency’ (RR), in which more remotely presented objects are explored more than objects experienced more recently. RR could contaminate performance on the OIC task, by enhancing the OIC effect when animals are tested in context y, and masking it when the test is in context x. This possibility was examined in two experiments, and evidence for superior performance in context y was obtained. The implications of this for theoretical interpretations of recognition memory and the procedures used to explore it are discussed. PMID:25546721

Old-fashioned responses in an updating memory task.

PubMed

Ruiz, M; Elosúa, M R; Lechuga, M T

2005-07-01

Errors in a running memory task are analysed. Participants were presented with a variable-length list of items and were asked to report the last four items. It has been proposed (Morris & Jones, 1990) that this task requires two mechanisms: the temporal storage of the target set by the articulatory loop and its updating by the central executive. Two implicit assumptions in this proposal are (a) the preservation of serial order, and (b) participants' capacity to discard earlier items from the target subset as list presentation is running, and new items are appended. Order preservation within the updated target list and the inhibition of the outdated list items should imply a relatively higher rate of location errors for items from the medial positions of the target list and a lower rate of intrusion errors from the outdated and inhibited items from the pretarget positions. Contrary to these expectations, for both consonants (Experiment 1) and words (Experiment 2) we found recency effects and a relatively high rate of intrusions from the final pretarget positions, most of them from the very last. Similar effects were apparent with the embedded four-item lists for catch trials. These results are clearly at odds with the presumed updating by the central executive.

Amnesia, rehearsal, and temporal distinctiveness models of recall.

PubMed

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

2007-04-01

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

Relative Recency Judgments in Learning Disabled Children: A Semi-Automatic Process.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stein, Debra K.; And Others

The ability of 20 learning disabled (LD) and 20 non-LD students (mean age of 9 years) to process temporal order information was assessed by employing a relative recency judgment task. Ss were administered lists composed of pictures of everyday objects and were then asked to indicate which item appeared latest on the list (that is, most recently).…

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

PubMed

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

2017-06-01

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

Proactive interference in a semantic short-term memory deficit: role of semantic and phonological relatedness.

PubMed

Hamilton, A Cris; Martin, Randi C

2007-01-01

Previous research has indicated that patients with semantic short-term memory (STM) deficits demonstrate unusual intrusions of previously presented material during serial recall tasks (Martin and Lesch, 1996). These intrusions suggest excessive proactive interference (PI) from previous lists. Here, we explore one such patient's susceptibility to PI. Experiment 1 demonstrated patient M.L.'s extreme susceptibility to PI using a probe recognition task that manipulates the recency of negative probes (the recent negatives task). When stimuli consisted of letters, M.L. showed greatly exaggerated effects of PI, well outside of the range of healthy control participants. Experiment 2 used a variation of the recent negatives task to examine the relative contribution of semantic and phonological relatedness in PI. This task manipulated semantic and phonological relatedness of probes and recently presented list items. Relative to healthy control participants, patient M.L. showed exaggerated interference effects for both phonological and semantically related probes, both for probes related to the current list and for probes related to the previous list. These data have important implications for theories of semantic STM deficits. Specifically, these data suggest that it is not the rapid decay of semantic representations that is responsible for difficulties in short-term recall, but rather the abnormal persistence of previously presented material. We propose that this susceptibility to PI is the result of a deficit in control processes acting on STM.

A comparison of serial order short-term memory effects across verbal and musical domains.

PubMed

Gorin, Simon; Mengal, Pierre; Majerus, Steve

2018-04-01

Recent studies suggest that the mechanisms involved in the short-term retention of serial order information may be shared across short-term memory (STM) domains such as verbal and visuospatial STM. Given the intrinsic sequential organization of musical material, the study of STM for musical information may be particularly informative about serial order retention processes and their domain-generality. The present experiment examined serial order STM for verbal and musical sequences in participants with no advanced musical expertise and experienced musicians. Serial order STM for verbal information was assessed via a serial order reconstruction task for digit sequences. In the musical domain, serial order STM was assessed using a novel melodic sequence reconstruction task maximizing the retention of tone order information. We observed that performance for the verbal and musical tasks was characterized by sequence length as well as primacy and recency effects. Serial order errors in both tasks were characterized by similar transposition gradients and ratios of fill-in:infill errors. These effects were observed for both participant groups, although the transposition gradients and ratios of fill-in:infill errors showed additional specificities for musician participants in the musical task. The data support domain-general serial order STM effects but also suggest the existence of additional domain-specific effects. Implications for models of serial order STM in verbal and musical domains are discussed.

Putting Short-Term Memory into Context: Reply to Usher, Davelaar, Haarmann, and Goshen-Gottstein (2008)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kahana, Michael J.; Sederberg, Per B.; Howard, Marc W.

2008-01-01

The temporal context model posits that search through episodic memory is driven by associations between the multiattribute representations of items and context. Context, in turn, is a recency weighted sum of previous experiences or memories. Because recently processed items are most similar to the current representation of context, M. Usher, E. J.…

The Dynamics of Scaling: A Memory-Based Anchor Model of Category Rating and Absolute Identification

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Petrov, Alexander A.; Anderson, John R.

2005-01-01

A memory-based scaling model--ANCHOR--is proposed and tested. The perceived magnitude of the target stimulus is compared with a set of anchors in memory. Anchor selection is probabilistic and sensitive to similarity, base-level strength, and recency. The winning anchor provides a reference point near the target and thereby converts the global…

Memory factors in Rey AVLT: Implications for early staging of cognitive decline.

PubMed

Fernaeus, Sven-Erik; Ostberg, Per; Wahlund, Lars-Olof; Hellström, Ake

2014-12-01

Supraspan verbal list learning is widely used to assess dementia and related cognitive disorders where declarative memory deficits are a major clinical sign. While the overall learning rate is important for diagnosis, serial position patterns may give insight into more specific memory processes in patients with cognitive impairment. This study explored these patterns in a memory clinic clientele. One hundred eighty three participants took the Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). The major groups were patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), Vascular Dementia (VD), Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), and Subjective Cognitive Impairment (SCI) as well as healthy controls (HC). Raw scores for the five trials and five serial partitions were factor analysed. Three memory factors were found and interpreted as Primacy, Recency, and Resistance to Interference. AD and MCI patients had impaired scores in all factors. SCI patients were significantly impaired in the Resistance to Interference factor, and in the Recency factor at the first trial. The main conclusion is that serial position data from word list testing reflect specific memory capacities which vary with levels of cognitive impairment. © 2014 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

CE verbal episodic memory impairment in schizophrenia: a comparison with frontal lobe lesion patients.

PubMed

Christensen, Bruce K; Patrick, Regan E; Stuss, Donald T; Gillingham, Susan; Zipursky, Robert B

2013-01-01

Schizophrenia (SCZ)-related verbal memory impairment is hypothesized to be mediated, in part, by frontal lobe (FTL) dysfunction. However, little research has contrasted the performance of SCZ patients with that of patients exhibiting circumscribed frontal lesions. The current study compared verbal episodic memory in patients with SCZ and focal FTL lesions (left frontal, LF; right frontal, RF; and bi-frontal, BF) on a four-trial list learning task consisting of three lists of varying semantic organizational structure. Each dependent variable was examined at two levels: scores collapsed across all four trials and learning scores (i.e., trial 4-trial 1). Performance deficits were observed in each patient group across most dependent measures at both levels. Regarding patient group differences, SCZ patients outperformed LF/BF patients (i.e., either learning scores or scores collapsed across trial) on free recall, primacy, primary memory, secondary memory, and subjective organization, whereas they only outperformed RF patients on the semantically blocked list on recency and primary memory. Collectively, these results indicate that the pattern of memory performance is largely similar between patients with SCZ and those with RF lesions. These data support tentative arguments that verbal episodic memory deficits in SCZ may be mediated by frontal dysfunction in the right hemisphere.

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

PubMed

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

2015-09-01

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

The Biggest Loser Thinks Long-Term: Recency as a Predictor of Success in Weight Management.

PubMed

Koritzky, Gilly; Rice, Chantelle; Dieterle, Camille; Bechara, Antoine

2015-01-01

Only a minority of participants in behavioral weight management lose weight significantly. The ability to predict who is likely to benefit from weight management can improve the efficiency of obesity treatment. Identifying predictors of weight loss can also reveal potential ways to improve existing treatments. We propose a neuro-psychological model that is focused on recency: the reliance on recent information at the expense of time-distant information. Forty-four weight-management patients completed a decision-making task and their recency level was estimated by a mathematical model. Impulsivity and risk-taking were also measured for comparison. Weight loss was measured in the end of the 16-week intervention. Consistent with our hypothesis, successful dieters (n = 12) had lower recency scores than unsuccessful ones (n = 32; p = 0.006). Successful and unsuccessful dieters were similar in their demographics, intelligence, risk taking, impulsivity, and delay of gratification. We conclude that dieters who process time-distant information in their decision making are more likely to lose weight than those who are high in recency. We argue that having low recency facilitates future-oriented thinking, and thereby contributes to behavior change treatment adherence. Our findings underline the importance of choosing the right treatment for every individual, and outline a way to improve weight-management processes for more patients.

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

PubMed Central

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

2015-01-01

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

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

PubMed

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

2014-01-01

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

Recollection and Familiarity in Recognition Memory: Evidence from ROC Curves

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heathcote, Andrew; Raymond, Frances; Dunn, John

2006-01-01

Does recognition memory rely on discrete recollection, continuous evidence, or both? Is continuous evidence sensitive to only the recency and duration of study (familiarity), or is it also sensitive to details of the study episode? Dual process theories assume recognition is based on recollection and familiarity, with only recollection providing…

A Tale of Two Temporal Coding Strategies: Common and Dissociable Brain Regions Involved in Recency versus Associative Temporal Order Retrieval Strategies.

PubMed

Lieberman, Jennifer S; Kyle, Colin T; Schedlbauer, Amber; Stokes, Jared; Ekstrom, Arne D

2017-04-01

Numerous studies indicate the importance of the hippocampus to temporal order retrieval. However, behavioral studies suggest that there are different ways to retrieve temporal order information from encoded sequences, one involving an associative strategy (retrieving associations using neighboring items in a list) and another involving a recency strategy (determining which of two items came first). It remains unresolved, however, whether both strategies recruit the hippocampus or only associative strategies, consistent with the hippocampus's role in relational processing. To address this, we developed a paradigm in which we dissociated associative versus recency-based retrieval, involving the same stimulus presentation during retrieval. Associative retrieval involved an increase in RT (and decrease in performance) with greater distances between intervals, consistent with the need to retrieve intervening associations. Recency-based retrieval involved an increase in RT (and decrease in performance) with shorter distances between intervals, suggesting the use of a strength-based coding mechanism to retrieve information. We employed fMRI to determine the neural basis of the different strategies. Both strategies showed significant levels of hippocampal activation and connectivity that did not differ between tasks. In contrast, both univariate and connectivity pattern analyses revealed differences in extrahippocampal areas such as parietal and frontal cortices. A covariate analysis suggested that differences could not be explained by task difficulty alone. Together, these findings suggest that the hippocampus plays a role in both forms of temporal order retrieval, with neocortical networks mediating the different cognitive demands for associative versus recency-based temporal order retrieval.

Veridical and false recall in adults who stutter.

PubMed

Byrd, Courtney T; Sheng, Li; Ratner, Nan Bernstein; Gkalitsiou, Zoi

2015-02-01

This study used a false memory paradigm to explore the veridical and false recall of adults who stutter. Twelve adults who stutter and 12 age-matched typically fluent peers listened to and then verbally recalled lists of words that consisted of either semantic or phonological associates or an equal number of semantic and phonological associates (i.e., hybrid condition) of a single, unpresented critical "lure" word. Three parameters of recall performance were measured across these 3 conditions: (a) number of accurately recalled words, (b) order of recall (primacy vs. recency effect), and (c) number of critical lures produced (i.e., false memories). Significant group differences were noted in recall accuracy specific to list type and also list position as well as relative to critical lure productions. Results suggest that certain basic memory processes (i.e., recency effect) and the processing of gist semantic information are largely intact in adults who stutter, but recall of verbatim phonological information and subvocal rehearsal may be deficient.

A New Semantic List Learning Task to Probe Functioning of the Papez Circuit

PubMed Central

Schallmo, Michael-Paul; Kassel, Michelle T.; Weisenbach, Sara L.; Walker, Sara J.; Guidotti-Breting, Leslie M.; Rao, Julia A.; Hazlett, Kathleen E.; Considine, Ciaran M.; Sethi, Gurpriya; Vats, Naalti; Pecina, Marta; Welsh, Robert C.; Starkman, Monica N.; Giordani, Bruno; Langenecker, Scott A.

2016-01-01

Introduction List learning tasks are powerful clinical tools for studying memory, yet have been relatively underutilized within the functional imaging literature. This limits understanding of regions such as the Papez circuit which support memory performance in healthy, non-demented adults. Method The current study characterized list learning performance in 40 adults who completed a Semantic List Learning Task (SLLT) with a Brown-Peterson manipulation during functional MRI (fMRI). Cued recall with semantic cues, and recognition memory were assessed after imaging. Internal reliability and convergent and discriminant validity were evaluated. Results Subjects averaged 38% accuracy in recall (62% for recognition), with primacy but no recency effects observed. Validity and reliability were demonstrated by showing that the SLLT was correlated with the California Verbal Learning test (CVLT), but not with executive functioning tests, and high intraclass correlation coefficient across lists for recall (.91). fMRI measurements during Encoding (vs. Silent Rehearsal) revealed significant activation in bilateral hippocampus, parahippocampus, and bilateral anterior and posterior cingulate cortex. Post-hoc analyses showed increased activation in anterior and middle hippocampus, subgenual cingulate, and mammillary bodies specific to Encoding. In addition, increasing age was positively associated with increased activation in a diffuse network, particularly frontal cortex and specific Papez regions for correctly recalled words. Gender differences were specific to left inferior and superior frontal cortex. Conclusions This is a clinically relevant list learning task that can be used in studies of groups for which the Papez circuit is damaged or disrupted, in mixed or crossover studies at imaging and clinical sites. PMID:26313512

Moving and memorizing: motor planning modulates the recency effect in serial and free recall.

PubMed

Weigelt, Matthias; Rosenbaum, David A; Huelshorst, Sven; Schack, Thomas

2009-09-01

Motor planning has generally been studied in situations where participants carry out physical actions without a particular purpose. Yet in everyday life physical actions are usually carried out for higher-order goals. We asked whether two previously discovered motor planning phenomena--the end-state comfort effect and motor hysteresis--would hold up if the actions were carried out in the service of higher-order goals. The higher-order goal we chose to study was memorization. By focusing on memorization, we asked not only how and whether motor planning is affected by the need to memorize, but also how memory performance might depend on the cognitive demands of motor planning. We asked university-student participants to retrieve cups from a column of drawers and memorize as many letters as possible from the inside of the cups. The drawers were opened either in a random order (Experiment 1) or in a regular order (Experiments 2 and 3). The end-state comfort effect and motor hysteresis were replicated in these conditions, indicating that the effects hold up when physical actions are carried out for the sake of a higher-order goal. Surprisingly, one of the most reliable effects in memory research was eliminated, namely, the tendency of recent items to be recalled better than earlier items--the recency effect. This outcome was not an artifact of memory being uniformly poor, because the tendency of initial items to be recalled better than later items--the primacy effect--was obtained. Elimination of the recency effect was not due to the requirement that participants recall items in their correct order, for the recency effect was also eliminated when the items could be recalled in any order (Experiment 3). These and other aspects of the results support recent claims for tighter links between perceptual-motor control and intellectual (symbolic) processing than have been assumed in the past.

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

PubMed

Ward, Geoff; Maylor, Elizabeth A

2005-01-01

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

Working-memory load and temporal myopia in dynamic decision making.

PubMed

Worthy, Darrell A; Otto, A Ross; Maddox, W Todd

2012-11-01

We examined the role of working memory (WM) in dynamic decision making by having participants perform decision-making tasks under single-task or dual-task conditions. In 2 experiments participants performed dynamic decision-making tasks in which they chose 1 of 2 options on each trial. The decreasing option always gave a larger immediate reward but caused future rewards for both options to decrease. The increasing option always gave a smaller immediate reward but caused future rewards for both options to increase. In each experiment we manipulated the reward structure such that the decreasing option was the optimal choice in 1 condition and the increasing option was the optimal choice in the other condition. Behavioral results indicated that dual-task participants selected the immediately rewarding decreasing option more often, and single-task participants selected the increasing option more often, regardless of which option was optimal. Thus, dual-task participants performed worse on 1 type of task but better on the other type. Modeling results showed that single-task participants' data were most often best fit by a win-stay, lose-shift (WSLS) rule-based model that tracked differences across trials, and dual-task participants' data were most often best fit by a Softmax reinforcement learning model that tracked recency-weighted average rewards for each option. This suggests that manipulating WM load affects the degree to which participants focus on the immediate versus delayed consequences of their actions and whether they employ a rule-based WSLS strategy, but it does not necessarily affect how well people weigh the immediate versus delayed benefits when determining the long-term utility of each option.

The Biggest Loser Thinks Long-Term: Recency as a Predictor of Success in Weight Management

PubMed Central

Koritzky, Gilly; Rice, Chantelle; Dieterle, Camille; Bechara, Antoine

2015-01-01

Only a minority of participants in behavioral weight management lose weight significantly. The ability to predict who is likely to benefit from weight management can improve the efficiency of obesity treatment. Identifying predictors of weight loss can also reveal potential ways to improve existing treatments. We propose a neuro-psychological model that is focused on recency: the reliance on recent information at the expense of time-distant information. Forty-four weight-management patients completed a decision-making task and their recency level was estimated by a mathematical model. Impulsivity and risk-taking were also measured for comparison. Weight loss was measured in the end of the 16-week intervention. Consistent with our hypothesis, successful dieters (n = 12) had lower recency scores than unsuccessful ones (n = 32; p = 0.006). Successful and unsuccessful dieters were similar in their demographics, intelligence, risk taking, impulsivity, and delay of gratification. We conclude that dieters who process time-distant information in their decision making are more likely to lose weight than those who are high in recency. We argue that having low recency facilitates future-oriented thinking, and thereby contributes to behavior change treatment adherence. Our findings underline the importance of choosing the right treatment for every individual, and outline a way to improve weight-management processes for more patients. PMID:26696930

Semantic relatedness and similarity of biomedical terms: examining the effects of recency, size, and section of biomedical publications on the performance of word2vec.

PubMed

Zhu, Yongjun; Yan, Erjia; Wang, Fei

2017-07-03

Understanding semantic relatedness and similarity between biomedical terms has a great impact on a variety of applications such as biomedical information retrieval, information extraction, and recommender systems. The objective of this study is to examine word2vec's ability in deriving semantic relatedness and similarity between biomedical terms from large publication data. Specifically, we focus on the effects of recency, size, and section of biomedical publication data on the performance of word2vec. We download abstracts of 18,777,129 articles from PubMed and 766,326 full-text articles from PubMed Central (PMC). The datasets are preprocessed and grouped into subsets by recency, size, and section. Word2vec models are trained on these subtests. Cosine similarities between biomedical terms obtained from the word2vec models are compared against reference standards. Performance of models trained on different subsets are compared to examine recency, size, and section effects. Models trained on recent datasets did not boost the performance. Models trained on larger datasets identified more pairs of biomedical terms than models trained on smaller datasets in relatedness task (from 368 at the 10% level to 494 at the 100% level) and similarity task (from 374 at the 10% level to 491 at the 100% level). The model trained on abstracts produced results that have higher correlations with the reference standards than the one trained on article bodies (i.e., 0.65 vs. 0.62 in the similarity task and 0.66 vs. 0.59 in the relatedness task). However, the latter identified more pairs of biomedical terms than the former (i.e., 344 vs. 498 in the similarity task and 339 vs. 503 in the relatedness task). Increasing the size of dataset does not always enhance the performance. Increasing the size of datasets can result in the identification of more relations of biomedical terms even though it does not guarantee better precision. As summaries of research articles, compared with article bodies, abstracts excel in accuracy but lose in coverage of identifiable relations.

Dietary effects on object recognition: The impact of high-fat high-sugar diets on recollection and familiarity-based memory.

PubMed

Tran, Dominic M D; Westbrook, R Frederick

2018-05-31

Exposure to a high-fat high-sugar (HFHS) diet rapidly impairs novel-place- but not novel-object-recognition memory in rats (Tran & Westbrook, 2015, 2017). Three experiments sought to investigate the generality of diet-induced cognitive deficits by examining whether there are conditions under which object-recognition memory is impaired. Experiments 1 and 3 tested the strength of short- and long-term object-memory trace, respectively, by varying the interval of time between object familiarization and subsequent novel object test. Experiment 2 tested the effect of increasing working memory load on object-recognition memory by interleaving additional object exposures between familiarization and test in an n-back style task. Experiments 1-3 failed to detect any differences in object recognition between HFHS and control rats. Experiment 4 controlled for object novelty by separately familiarizing both objects presented at test, which included one remote-familiar and one recent-familiar object. Under these conditions, when test objects differed in their relative recency, HFHS rats showed a weaker memory trace for the remote object compared to chow rats. This result suggests that the diet leaves intact recollection judgments, but impairs familiarity judgments. We speculate that the HFHS diet adversely affects "where" memories as well as the quality of "what" memories, and discuss these effects in relation to recollection and familiarity memory models, hippocampal-dependent functions, and episodic food memories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

The Limits of Visual Working Memory in Children: Exploring Prioritization and Recency Effects with Sequential Presentation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berry, Ed D. J.; Waterman, Amanda H.; Baddeley, Alan D.; Hitch, Graham J.; Allen, Richard J.

2018-01-01

Recent research has demonstrated that, when instructed to prioritize a serial position in visual working memory (WM), adults are able to boost performance for this selected item, at a cost to nonprioritized items (e.g., Hu, Hitch, Baddeley, Zhang, & Allen, 2014). While executive control appears to play an important role in this ability, the…

Serial position effects in recall of television commercials.

PubMed

Terry, W Scott

2005-04-01

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

The recency ratio as predictor of early MCI.

PubMed

Bruno, Davide; Koscik, Rebecca L; Woodard, John L; Pomara, Nunzio; Johnson, Sterling C

2018-04-18

ABSTRACTObjectives:Individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) present poor immediate primacy recall accompanied by intact or exaggerated recency, which then tends to decline after a delay. Bruno et al. (Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, Vol. 38, 2016, pp. 967-973) have shown that higher ratio scores between immediate and delayed recency (i.e. the recency ratio; Rr) are associated with cognitive decline in high-functioning older individuals. We tested whether Rr predicted conversion to early mild cognitive impairment (early MCI) from a cognitively healthy baseline. Data were analyzed longitudinally with binomial regression. Baseline scores were used to predict conversion to early MCI after approximately nine years. Data were collected at the Wisconsin Registry of Alzheimer's Prevention, in Madison, Wisconsin. For the study, 427 individuals were included in the analysis; all participants were 50 years of age or older and cognitively intact at baseline, and were native English speakers. Memory data were collected using the Rey's Auditory Verbal Learning Test, and the early MCI diagnosis was obtained via consensus conference. Our results showed that higher Rr scores are correlated with greater risk of later early MCI diagnosis, and this association is independent of total recall performance. Rr is an emerging cognitive marker of cognitive decline.

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

PubMed

Bhatarah, Parveen; Ward, Geoff; Tan, Lydia

2008-01-01

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

The effect of pitch, rhythm, and familiarity on working memory and anxiety as measured by digit recall performance.

PubMed

Silverman, Michael J

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to isolate and quantitatively evaluate the effects of pitch and rhythm of unfamiliar and familiar melodies on working memory and anxiety as measured by sequential digit recall performance. Participants (N = 60) listened to 6 treatment conditions each consisting of 9 randomized monosyllabic digits. The digits were paired with (a) a familiar melody and pitch only, (b) a familiar melody and rhythm only, (c) a familiar melody with both pitch and rhythm, (d) an unfamiliar melody with pitch only, (e) an unfamiliar melody with rhythm only, and (f) an unfamiliar melody with both pitch and rhythm. The 6 different treatments were counterbalanced using a Latin square design in an attempt to control for order effects. Participants rated their state anxiety on a Likert-type scale before, midway through, and after the digits test. No statistically significant order, learning, or practice effects were found. A 3-way repeated-measures ANOVA indicated a statistically significant difference in digit recall performance across musical element conditions and groups. Results indicated that music majors outperformed nonmusic majors on the digit recall task. Participants were able to recall digits from the rhythm condition most accurately while recalling digits from pitch only and both pitch and rhythm conditions the least accurately. Graphic analysis of treatment as a function of sequential position indicated digit recall was best during conditions of primacy and recency. No main effects were found for the familiarity condition. Additionally, no main effects or interactions were found for the anxiety variable. The results of this study are congruent with existing working memory and music literature suggesting that pairing information with rhythm can facilitate recall, music majors outperform non-music majors, and recall accuracy is best in positions of primacy and recency. Implications for practice in therapy and education are made as well as suggestions for future research.

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

PubMed

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

2010-09-01

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

The Medial Dorsal Thalamic Nucleus and the Medial Prefrontal Cortex of the Rat Function Together to Support Associative Recognition and Recency but Not Item Recognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cross, Laura; Brown, Malcolm W.; Aggleton, John P.; Warburton, E. Clea

2013-01-01

In humans recognition memory deficits, a typical feature of diencephalic amnesia, have been tentatively linked to mediodorsal thalamic nucleus (MD) damage. Animal studies have occasionally investigated the role of the MD in single-item recognition, but have not systematically analyzed its involvement in other recognition memory processes. In…

On the importance of looking back: the role of recursive remindings in recency judgments and cued recall.

PubMed

Jacoby, Larry L; Wahlheim, Christopher N

2013-07-01

Suppose that you were asked which of two movies you had most recently seen. The results of the experiments reported here suggest that your answer would be more accurate if, when viewing the later movie, you were reminded of the earlier one. In the present experiments, we investigated the role of remindings in recency judgments and cued-recall performance. We did this by presenting a list composed of two instances from each of several different categories and later asking participants to select (Exp. 1) or to recall (Exp. 2) the more recently presented instance. Reminding was manipulated by varying instructions to look back over memory of earlier instances during the presentation of later instances. As compared to a control condition, cued-recall performance revealed facilitation effects when remindings occurred and were later recollected, but interference effects in their absence. The effects of reminding on recency judgments paralleled those on cued recall of more recently presented instances. We interpret these results as showing that reminding produces a recursive representation that embeds memory for an earlier-presented category instance into that of a later-presented one and, thereby, preserves their temporal order. Large individual differences in the probabilities of remindings and of their later recollection were observed. The widespread importance of recursive reminding for theory and for applied purposes is discussed.

Modulating effect of COMT Val(158)Met polymorphism on interference resolution during a working memory task.

PubMed

Jaspar, Mathieu; Dideberg, Vinciane; Bours, Vincent; Maquet, Pierre; Collette, Fabienne

2015-04-01

Genetic variability related to the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene has received increasing attention in the last 15years, in particular as a potential modulator of the neural substrates underlying inhibitory processes and updating in working memory (WM). In an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we administered a modified version of the Sternberg probe recency task (Sternberg, 1966) to 43 young healthy volunteers, varying the level of interference across successive items. The task was divided into two parts (high vs. low interference) to induce either proactive or reactive control processes. The participants were separated into three groups according to their COMT Val(158)Met genotype [Val/Val (VV); Val/Met (VM); Met/Met (MM)]. The general aim of the study was to determine whether COMT polymorphism has a modulating effect on the neural substrates of interference resolution during WM processing. Results indicate that interfering trials were associated with greater involvement of frontal cortices (bilateral medial frontal gyrus, left precentral and superior frontal gyri, right inferior frontal gyrus) in VV homozygous subjects (by comparison to Met allele carriers) only in the proactive condition of the task. In addition, analysis of peristimulus haemodynamic responses (PSTH) revealed that the genotype-related difference observed in the left SFG was specifically driven by a larger increase in activity from the storage to the recognition phase of the interfering trials in VV homozygous subjects. These results confirm the impact of COMT genotype on inhibitory processes during a WM task, with an advantage for Met allele carriers. Interestingly, this impact on frontal areas is present only when the level of interference is high, and especially during the transition from storage to recognition in the left superior frontal gyrus. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Price of Fame: The Impact of Stimulus Familiarity on Proactive Interference Resolution

PubMed Central

Prabhakaran, Ranjani; Thompson-Schill, Sharon L.

2013-01-01

Interference from previously learned information, known as proactive interference (PI), limits our memory retrieval abilities. Previous studies of PI resolution have focused on the role of short-term familiarity, or recency, in causing PI. In the present study, we investigated the impact of long-term stimulus familiarity on PI resolution processes. In two behavioral experiments and one event-related fMRI experiment, long-term familiarity was manipulated through the use of famous and nonfamous stimuli, and short-term familiarity was manipulated through the use of recent and nonrecent probe items in an item recognition task. The right middle frontal gyrus demonstrated greater sensitivity to famous stimuli, suggesting that long-term stimulus familiarity plays a role in influencing PI resolution processes. Further examination of the effect of long-term stimulus familiarity on PI resolution revealed a larger behavioral interference effect for famous stimuli, but only under speeded response conditions. Thus, models of memory retrieval—and of the cognitive control mechanisms that guide retrieval processes—should consider the impact of and interactions among sources of familiarity on multiple time scales. PMID:20429858

The price of fame: the impact of stimulus familiarity on proactive interference resolution.

PubMed

Prabhakaran, Ranjani; Thompson-Schill, Sharon L

2011-04-01

Interference from previously learned information, known as proactive interference (PI), limits our memory retrieval abilities. Previous studies of PI resolution have focused on the role of short-term familiarity, or recency, in causing PI. In the present study, we investigated the impact of long-term stimulus familiarity on PI resolution processes. In two behavioral experiments and one event-related fMRI experiment, long-term familiarity was manipulated through the use of famous and nonfamous stimuli, and short-term familiarity was manipulated through the use of recent and nonrecent probe items in an item recognition task. The right middle frontal gyrus demonstrated greater sensitivity to famous stimuli, suggesting that long-term stimulus familiarity plays a role in influencing PI resolution processes. Further examination of the effect of long-term stimulus familiarity on PI resolution revealed a larger behavioral interference effect for famous stimuli, but only under speeded response conditions. Thus, models of memory retrieval--and of the cognitive control mechanisms that guide retrieval processes--should consider the impact of and interactions among sources of familiarity on multiple time scales.

Primacy and Recency Effects for Taste

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Daniel, Thomas A.; Katz, Jeffrey S.

2018-01-01

Historically, much of what we know about human memory has been discovered in experiments using visual and verbal stimuli. In two experiments, participants demonstrated reliably high recognition for nonverbal liquids. In Experiment 1, participants showed high accuracy for recognizing tastes (bitter, salty, sour, sweet) over a 30-s delay in a…

The Price of Fame: The Impact of Stimulus Familiarity on Proactive Interference Resolution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prabhakaran, Ranjani; Thompson-Schill, Sharon L.

2011-01-01

Interference from previously learned information, known as proactive interference (PI), limits our memory retrieval abilities. Previous studies of PI resolution have focused on the role of short-term familiarity, or recency, in causing PI. In the present study, we investigated the impact of long-term stimulus familiarity on PI resolution…

Random Boolean networks for autoassociative memory: Optimization and sequential learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sherrington, D.; Wong, K. Y. M.

Conventional neural networks are based on synaptic storage of information, even when the neural states are discrete and bounded. In general, the set of potential local operations is much greater. Here we discuss some aspects of the properties of networks of binary neurons with more general Boolean functions controlling the local dynamics. Two specific aspects are emphasised; (i) optimization in the presence of noise and (ii) a simple model for short-term memory exhibiting primacy and recency in the recall of sequentially taught patterns.

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

PubMed

Jones, Tim; Oberauer, Klaus

2013-04-01

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

Sensitivity to monetary reward is most severely compromised in recently abstaining cocaine addicted individuals: A cross-sectional ERP study

PubMed Central

Parvaz, Muhammad A.; Maloney, Thomas; Moeller, Scott J.; Woicik, Patricia A.; Alia-Klein, Nelly; Telang, Frank; Wang, Gene-Jack; Squires, Nancy K.; Volkow, Nora D.; Goldstein, Rita Z.

2012-01-01

Recent studies suggest that drug addicted individuals have a dampened cortical response to non-drug rewards. However, it remains unclear whether recency of drug use impacts this impairment. Therefore, in this study, recency of cocaine use was objectively determined by measuring cocaine in urine on study day. Thirty-five individuals with current cocaine use disorder [CUD: 21 testing positive (CUD+) and 14 testing negative (CUD−) for cocaine in urine] and 23 healthy controls completed a sustained attention task with graded monetary incentives (0¢, 1¢ and 45¢). Unlike in controls, in both CUD subgroups P300 amplitude was not modulated by the varying amounts of money and the CUD− showed the most severe impairment as documented by the lowest P300 amplitudes and task accuracy. Moreover, while recency of drug use was associated with better accuracy and higher P300 amplitudes, chronic drug use was associated with lower sensitivity to money. These results extend our previous findings of decreased sustained sensitivity to monetary reward in CUD+ to recently abstaining individuals, where level of impairment was most severe. Taken together, these results support the self-medication hypothesis, where CUD may be self-administering cocaine to avoid or compensate for underlying cognitive and emotional difficulties albeit with a long-term detrimental effect on sensitivity to non-drug reward. PMID:22841343

A Free-Recall Demonstration versus a Lecture-Only Control: Learning Benefits

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balch, William R.

2012-01-01

On their first class day, introductory psychology students took a 14-question multiple-choice pretest on several principles of memory including primacy, recency, storage, retrieval, counterbalancing, and the free-recall method. I randomly preassigned students to come at one of two different times to the second class, 2 days later, when they either…

Becoming a better person: temporal remoteness biases autobiographical memories for moral events

PubMed Central

Escobedo, Jessica R.; Adolphs, Ralph

2010-01-01

Our autobiographical self depends on the differential recollection of our personal past, notably including memories of morally laden events. While both emotion and temporal recency are well known to influence memory, very little is known about how we remember moral events, and in particular about the distribution in time of memories for events that were blameworthy or praiseworthy. To investigate this issue in detail, we collected a novel database of 758 confidential, autobiographical narratives for personal moral events from 100 well-characterized healthy adults. Negatively valenced moral memories were significantly more remote than positively valenced memories, both as measured by the valence of the cue word that evoked the memory as well as by the content of the memory itself. The effect was independent of chronological age, ethnicity, gender, or personality, arguing for a general emotional bias in how we construct our moral autobiography. PMID:20677868

Improving Effectiveness of Monetary Weapon Systems in Afghanistan

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-03-22

Among these biases are anchoring, availability, recency, and cognitive dissonance . The reliance on the personal memory of the researcher’s... satisfaction with the program. The current tight U.S. economy has heightened the public’s awareness of where personal resources are spent. In...avoided until the fulfillment of contract obligations to the satisfaction of the contracting officer or their representative. During project

Sensitivity to monetary reward is most severely compromised in recently abstaining cocaine addicted individuals: a cross-sectional ERP study.

PubMed

Parvaz, Muhammad A; Maloney, Thomas; Moeller, Scott J; Woicik, Patricia A; Alia-Klein, Nelly; Telang, Frank; Wang, Gene-Jack; Squires, Nancy K; Volkow, Nora D; Goldstein, Rita Z

2012-07-30

Recent studies suggest that drug-addicted individuals have a dampened cortical response to non-drug rewards. However, it remains unclear whether recency of drug use impacts this impairment. Therefore, in this event-related potential study, recency of cocaine use was objectively determined by measuring cocaine in urine on study day. Thirty-five individuals with current cocaine use disorder [CUD: 21 testing positive (CUD+) and 14 testing negative (CUD-) for cocaine in urine] and 23 healthy controls completed a sustained attention task with graded monetary incentives (0¢, 1¢ and 45¢). Unlike in controls, in both CUD subgroups P300 amplitude was not modulated by the varying amounts of money and the CUD- showed the most severe impairment as documented by the lowest P300 amplitudes and task accuracy. Moreover, while recency of drug use was associated with better accuracy and higher P300 amplitudes, chronic drug use was associated with lower sensitivity to money. These results extend our previous findings of decreased sustained sensitivity to monetary reward in CUD+ to recently abstaining individuals, where level of impairment was most severe. Taken together, these results support the self-medication hypothesis, where CUD may be self-administering cocaine to avoid or compensate for underlying cognitive and emotional difficulties albeit with a long-term detrimental effect on sensitivity to non-drug reward. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Childhood Maltreatment and Its Effect on Neurocognitive Functioning: Timing and Chronicity Matter

PubMed Central

Cowell, Raquel A.; Cicchetti, Dante; Rogosch, Fred A.; Toth, Sheree L.

2015-01-01

Childhood maltreatment represents a complex stressor, with the developmental timing, duration, frequency, and type of maltreatment varying with each child (Barnett, Manly, & Cicchetti, 1993; Cicchetti & Manly, 2001). Multiple brain regions and neural circuits are disrupted by the experience of child maltreatment (Cicchetti & Toth, in press; DeBellis et al., 2002; McCrory & Viding, 2010; Teicher, Anderson, & Polcari, 2012). These neurobiological compromises indicate the impairment of a number of important cognitive functions, including working memory and inhibitory control. The present study extends prior research by examining the effect of childhood maltreatment on neurocognitive functioning based on developmental timing of maltreatment, including onset, chronicity, and recency, in a sample of 3- to 9-year-old nonmaltreated (n = 136) and maltreated children (n = 223). Maltreated children performed more poorly on inhibitory control and working memory tasks than nonmaltreated children. Group differences between maltreated children based on the timing of maltreatment and the chronicity of maltreatment also were evident. Specifically, children who were maltreated during infancy, and children with a chronic history of maltreatment, exhibited significantly poorer inhibitory control and working memory performance than children without a history of maltreatment. The results suggest that maltreatment occurring during infancy, a period of major brain organization, disrupts normative structure and function, and these deficits are further instantiated by the prolonged stress of chronic maltreatment during the early years of life. PMID:25997769

Recency and suffix effects in serial recall of musical stimuli.

PubMed

Greene, R L; Samuel, A G

1986-10-01

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

Robert Hooke's model of memory.

PubMed

Hintzman, Douglas L

2003-03-01

In 1682 the scientist and inventor Robert Hooke read a lecture to the Royal Society of London, in which he described a mechanistic model of human memory. Yet few psychologists today seem to have heard of Hooke's memory model. The lecture addressed questions of encoding, memory capacity, repetition, retrieval, and forgetting--some of these in a surprisingly modern way. Hooke's model shares several characteristics with the theory of Richard Semon, which came more than 200 years later, but it is more complete. Among the model's interesting properties are that (1) it allows for attention and other top-down influences on encoding; (2) it uses resonance to implement parallel, cue-dependent retrieval; (3) it explains memory for recency; (4) it offers a single-system account of repetition priming; and (5) the power law of forgetting can be derived from the model's assumptions in a straightforward way.

Short-Term Memory after All: Comment on Sederberg, Howard, and Kahana (2008)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Usher, Marius; Davelaar, Eddy J.; Haarmann, Henk J.; Goshen-Gottstein, Yonatan

2008-01-01

P. B. Sederberg, M. W. Howard, and M. J. Kahana have proposed an updated version of the temporal-context model (TCM-A). In doing so, they accepted the challenge of developing a single-store model to account for the dissociations between short- and long-term recency effects that were reviewed by E. J. Davelaar, Y. Goshen-Gottstein, A. Ashkenazi, H.…

The Isolation, Primacy, and Recency Effects Predicted by an Adaptive LTD/LTP Threshold in Postsynaptic Cells

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sikstrom, Sverker

2006-01-01

An item that stands out (is isolated) from its context is better remembered than an item consistent with the context. This isolation effect cannot be accounted for by increased attention, because it occurs when the isolated item is presented as the first item, or by impoverished memory of nonisolated items, because the isolated item is better…

Remembering your past: The effects of concussion on autobiographical memory recall.

PubMed

Barry, Nicole C; Tomes, Jennifer L

2015-01-01

To date, research focusing on long-term memory functioning post concussion is limited. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of concussion on long-term episodic autobiographical memory, once acute postconcussive symptoms have abated. Individuals with and without a history of concussion were asked to recall autobiographical memories from different life periods. The details, self-reported vividness, ease of recall, and completeness of these memories were assessed. Results indicated that although both control and previously concussed participants were equally able to recall autobiographical memories from all life periods, the transcribed memories of previously concussed participants were less detailed, were less complex, and revealed less active involvement in recollection. Specifically, memories of control participants contained more words and a higher proportion of pronouns, personal pronouns, cognitive process words, perceptual process words, and past-tense words. Deficits were found regardless of the frequency or recency of concussion. Concussion information, limitations, and implications of the current findings are discussed.

Age, memory type, and the phenomenology of autobiographical memory: findings from an Italian sample.

PubMed

Montebarocci, Ornella; Luchetti, Martina; Sutin, Angelina R

2014-01-01

The present research explored differences in phenomenology between two types of memories, a general self-defining memory and an earliest childhood memory. A sample of 76 Italian participants were selected and categorised into two age groups: 20-30 years and 31-40 years. The Memory Experiences Questionnaire (MEQ) was administered, taking note of latency and duration times of the narratives. Consistent with the literature, the self-defining memory differed significantly from the earliest childhood memory in terms of phenomenology, with the recency of the memory associated with more intense phenomenological experience. The self-defining memory took longer to retrieve and narrate than the earliest childhood memory. Meaningful differences also emerged between the two age groups: Participants in their 30s rated their self-defining memory as more vivid, coherent, and accessible than participants in their 20s. According to latency findings, these differences suggest an expanded period of identity consolidation for younger adults. Further applications of the MEQ should be carried out to replicate these results with other samples of young adults.

Interference Resolution in Emotional Working Memory as a Function of Alexithymia.

PubMed

Colligan, Sean M; Koven, Nancy S

2015-01-01

Although alexithymia is recognized as a set of traitlike deficits in emotion processing, research suggests there are concomitant cognitive issues as well, including what appears to be an unusual pattern of enhanced working memory (WM) despite broader executive dysfunction. It is unknown whether this enhancement includes the executive elements of WM and whether executive control of WM in alexithymia differs for emotional and neutral stimuli. This study examined how alexithymia moderates patterns of interference resolution in WM with valenced and nonvalenced stimuli. Participants (N = 93) completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and a recency probes WM task containing positive, negative, and neutral stimuli, with some trials containing proactive interference from previous trials. The reaction time difference between interference and noninterference trials indexed degree of interference resolution. Toronto Alexithymia Scale score moderated a within-subject effect such that, when valenced probes were used, there was less proactive interference in the positive relative to negative valence condition; this valence-based interference discrepancy was significant for a subset of highly alexithymic participants. Alexithymia did not moderate proactive interference to negative or neutral stimuli or accuracy of responses. These results suggest that, although alexithymia does not influence executive control in WM for nonemotional items, alexithymic people demonstrate an idiosyncratic response to positive stimuli that might indicate blunted reactivity.

Writing and overwriting short-term memory

PubMed Central

Killeen, Peter R.

2008-01-01

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

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

PubMed

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

2014-11-01

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

Focalised stimulation using high definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) to investigate declarative verbal learning and memory functioning.

PubMed

Nikolin, Stevan; Loo, Colleen K; Bai, Siwei; Dokos, Socrates; Martin, Donel M

2015-08-15

Declarative verbal learning and memory are known to be lateralised to the dominant hemisphere and to be subserved by a network of structures, including those located in frontal and temporal regions. These structures support critical components of verbal memory, including working memory, encoding, and retrieval. Their relative functional importance in facilitating declarative verbal learning and memory, however, remains unclear. To investigate the different functional roles of these structures in subserving declarative verbal learning and memory performance by applying a more focal form of transcranial direct current stimulation, "High Definition tDCS" (HD-tDCS). Additionally, we sought to examine HD-tDCS effects and electrical field intensity distributions using computer modelling. HD-tDCS was administered to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (LDLPFC), planum temporale (PT), and left medial temporal lobe (LMTL) to stimulate the hippocampus, during learning on a declarative verbal memory task. Sixteen healthy participants completed a single blind, intra-individual cross-over, sham-controlled study which used a Latin Square experimental design. Cognitive effects on working memory and sustained attention were additionally examined. HD-tDCS to the LDLPFC significantly improved the rate of verbal learning (p=0.03, η(2)=0.29) and speed of responding during working memory performance (p=0.02, η(2)=0.35), but not accuracy (p=0.12, η(2)=0.16). No effect of tDCS on verbal learning, retention, or retrieval was found for stimulation targeted to the LMTL or the PT. Secondary analyses revealed that LMTL stimulation resulted in increased recency (p=0.02, η(2)=0.31) and reduced mid-list learning effects (p=0.01, η(2)=0.39), suggesting an inhibitory effect on learning. HD-tDCS to the LDLPFC facilitates the rate of verbal learning and improved efficiency of working memory may underlie performance effects. This focal method of administrating tDCS has potential for probing and enhancing cognitive functioning. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Move Your Lamp Post: Recent Data Reflects Learner Knowledge Better than Older Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Galyardt, April; Goldin, Ilya

2015-01-01

In educational technology and learning sciences, there are multiple uses for a predictive model of whether a student will perform a task correctly or not. For example, an intelligent tutoring system may use such a model to estimate whether or not a student has mastered a skill. We analyze the significance of data recency in making such…

Type 2 Diabetes and Anxiety Symptoms Among Women in New Delhi, India

PubMed Central

Madhu, S. V.

2015-01-01

Objectives. We explored the relationship between mental health and type 2 diabetes among women in New Delhi, India, in 2011. Methods. We recruited a convenience sample of 184 diabetic women from 10 public and private clinics. They completed a finger-stick blood test and a questionnaire assessing demographic characteristics, depression and anxiety symptoms, and diabetes-related disabilities restricting their performance of daily tasks. A subsample of 30 women participated in follow-up qualitative interviews at their homes. Results. More than one quarter of our sample of diabetic women reported high levels of anxiety symptoms, whereas 18% reported high levels of depression symptoms. Anxiety symptoms were patterned according to recency of diabetes diagnosis, with 40% of women diagnosed less than 2 years before their interview reporting high anxiety symptom levels, as opposed to 23% of women diagnosed more than 2 years in the past. Depression and anxiety scores differed with respect to their relationship to recency of diagnosis, number of children, blood glucose level, and functional disabilities restricting performance of daily tasks. Conclusions. Screening for anxiety among people with diabetes has been overlooked in the past. Anxiety appears more prevalent than depression, especially during the first 2 years of the disease. PMID:26378851

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

PubMed

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

2016-08-01

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

Serial position functions in general knowledge.

PubMed

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

2015-11-01

Serial position functions with marked primacy and recency effects are ubiquitous in episodic memory tasks. The demonstrations reported here explored whether bow-shaped serial position functions would be observed when people ordered exemplars from various categories along a specified dimension. The categories and dimensions were: actors and age; animals and weight; basketball players and height; countries and area; and planets and diameter. In all cases, a serial position function was observed: People were more accurate to order the youngest and oldest actors, the lightest and heaviest animals, the shortest and tallest basketball players, the smallest and largest countries, and the smallest and largest planets, relative to intermediate items. The results support an explanation of serial position functions based on relative distinctiveness, which predicts that serial position functions will be observed whenever a set of items can be sensibly ordered along a particular dimension. The serial position function arises because the first and last items enjoy a benefit of having no competitors on 1 side and therefore have enhanced distinctiveness relative to mid-dimension items, which suffer by having many competitors on both sides. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Patterns of verbal memory performance in mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer disease, and normal aging.

PubMed

Greenaway, Melanie C; Lacritz, Laura H; Binegar, Dani; Weiner, Myron F; Lipton, Anne; Munro Cullum, C

2006-06-01

Individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) typically demonstrate memory loss that falls between normal aging (NA) and Alzheimer disease (AD), but little is known about the pattern of memory dysfunction in MCI. To explore this issue, California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) performance was examined across groups of MCI, AD, and NA. MCI subjects displayed a pattern of deficits closely resembling that of AD, characterized by reduced learning, rapid forgetting, increased recency recall, elevated intrusion errors, and poor recognition discriminability with increased false-positives. MCI performance was significantly worse than that of controls and better than that of AD patients across memory indices. Although qualitative analysis of CVLT profiles may be useful in individual cases, discriminant function analysis revealed that delayed recall and total learning were the best aspects of learning/memory on the CVLT in differentiating MCI, AD, and NA. These findings support the position that amnestic MCI represents an early point of decline on the continuum of AD that is different from normal aging.

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

PubMed

Peteranderl, Sonja; Oberauer, Klaus

2018-01-01

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

Deficits in object-in-place but not relative recency performance in the APPswe/PS1dE9 mouse model of Alzheimer's disease: Implications for object recognition.

PubMed

Bonardi, Charlotte; Pardon, Marie-Christine; Armstrong, Paul

2016-10-15

Performance was examined on three variants of the spontaneous object recognition (SOR) task, in 5-month old APPswe/PS1dE9 mice and wild-type littermate controls. A deficit was observed in an object-in-place (OIP) task, in which mice are preexposed to four different objects in specific locations, and then at test two of the objects swap locations (Experiment 2). Typically more exploration is seen of the objects which have switched location, which is taken as evidence of a retrieval-generated priming mechanism. However, no significant transgenic deficit was found in a relative recency (RR) task (Experiment 1), in which mice are exposed to two different objects in two separate sample phases, and then tested with both objects. Typically more exploration of the first-presented object is observed, which is taken as evidence of a self-generated priming mechanism. Nor was there any impairment in the simplest variant, the spontaneous object recognition (SOR) task, in which mice are preexposed to one object and then tested with the familiar and a novel object. This was true regardless of whether the sample-test interval was 5min (Experiment 1) or 24h (Experiments 1 and 2). It is argued that SOR performance depends on retrieval-generated priming as well as self-generated priming, and our preliminary evidence suggests that the retrieval-generated priming process is especially impaired in these young transgenic animals. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We'll Meet Again: Revealing Distributional and Temporal Patterns of Social Contact

PubMed Central

Pachur, Thorsten; Schooler, Lael J.; Stevens, Jeffrey R.

2014-01-01

What are the dynamics and regularities underlying social contact, and how can contact with the people in one's social network be predicted? In order to characterize distributional and temporal patterns underlying contact probability, we asked 40 participants to keep a diary of their social contacts for 100 consecutive days. Using a memory framework previously used to study environmental regularities, we predicted that the probability of future contact would follow in systematic ways from the frequency, recency, and spacing of previous contact. The distribution of contact probability across the members of a person's social network was highly skewed, following an exponential function. As predicted, it emerged that future contact scaled linearly with frequency of past contact, proportionally to a power function with recency of past contact, and differentially according to the spacing of past contact. These relations emerged across different contact media and irrespective of whether the participant initiated or received contact. We discuss how the identification of these regularities might inspire more realistic analyses of behavior in social networks (e.g., attitude formation, cooperation). PMID:24475073

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

PubMed

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

2008-07-01

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

Short term memory bowing effect is consistent with presentation rate dependent decay.

PubMed

Tarnow, Eugen

2010-12-01

I reanalyze the free recall data of Murdock, J Exp Psychol 64(5):482-488 (1962) and Murdock and Okada, J Verbal Learn and Verbal Behav 86:263-267 (1970) which show the famous bowing effect in which initial and recent items are recalled better than intermediate items (primacy and recency effects). Recent item recall probabilities follow a logarithmic decay with time of recall consistent with the tagging/retagging theory. The slope of the decay increases with increasing presentation rate. The initial items, with an effectively low presentation rate, decay with the slowest logarithmic slope, explaining the primacy effect. The finding that presentation rate limits the duration of short term memory suggests a basis for memory loss in busy adults, for the importance of slow music practice, for long term memory deficiencies for people with attention deficits who may be artificially increasing the presentation rates of their surroundings. A well-defined, quantitative measure of the primacy effect is introduced.

Homotaurine Effects on Hippocampal Volume Loss and Episodic Memory in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment.

PubMed

Spalletta, Gianfranco; Cravello, Luca; Gianni, Walter; Piras, Federica; Iorio, Mariangela; Cacciari, Claudia; Casini, Anna Rosa; Chiapponi, Chiara; Sancesario, Giuseppe; Fratangeli, Claudia; Orfei, Maria Donata; Caltagirone, Carlo; Piras, Fabrizio

2016-01-01

Homotaurine supplementation may have a positive effect on early Alzheimer's disease. Here, we investigated its potential neuroprotective effect on the hippocampus structure and episodic memory performances in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). Neuropsychological, clinical, and neuroimaging assessment in 11 treated and 22 untreated patients were performed at baseline and after 1 year. Magnetic resonance data were analyzed using voxel-based morphometry to explore significant differences (Family Wise Error corrected) between the two groups over time. Patients treated with homotaurine showed decreased volume loss in the left and right hippocampal tail, left and right fusiform gyrus, and right inferior temporal cortex which was associated with improved short-term episodic memory performance as measured by the recency effect of the Rey 15-word list learning test immediate recall. Thus, homotaurine supplementation in individuals with aMCI has a positive effect on hippocampus atrophy and episodic memory loss. Future studies should further clarify the mechanisms of its effects on brain morphometry.

Reflections of the social environment in chimpanzee memory: applying rational analysis beyond humans.

PubMed

Stevens, Jeffrey R; Marewski, Julian N; Schooler, Lael J; Gilby, Ian C

2016-08-01

In cognitive science, the rational analysis framework allows modelling of how physical and social environments impose information-processing demands onto cognitive systems. In humans, for example, past social contact among individuals predicts their future contact with linear and power functions. These features of the human environment constrain the optimal way to remember information and probably shape how memory records are retained and retrieved. We offer a primer on how biologists can apply rational analysis to study animal behaviour. Using chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes ) as a case study, we modelled 19 years of observational data on their social contact patterns. Much like humans, the frequency of past encounters in chimpanzees linearly predicted future encounters, and the recency of past encounters predicted future encounters with a power function. Consistent with the rational analyses carried out for human memory, these findings suggest that chimpanzee memory performance should reflect those environmental regularities. In re-analysing existing chimpanzee memory data, we found that chimpanzee memory patterns mirrored their social contact patterns. Our findings hint that human and chimpanzee memory systems may have evolved to solve similar information-processing problems. Overall, rational analysis offers novel theoretical and methodological avenues for the comparative study of cognition.

Reflections of the social environment in chimpanzee memory: applying rational analysis beyond humans

PubMed Central

Marewski, Julian N.; Schooler, Lael J.; Gilby, Ian C.

2016-01-01

In cognitive science, the rational analysis framework allows modelling of how physical and social environments impose information-processing demands onto cognitive systems. In humans, for example, past social contact among individuals predicts their future contact with linear and power functions. These features of the human environment constrain the optimal way to remember information and probably shape how memory records are retained and retrieved. We offer a primer on how biologists can apply rational analysis to study animal behaviour. Using chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) as a case study, we modelled 19 years of observational data on their social contact patterns. Much like humans, the frequency of past encounters in chimpanzees linearly predicted future encounters, and the recency of past encounters predicted future encounters with a power function. Consistent with the rational analyses carried out for human memory, these findings suggest that chimpanzee memory performance should reflect those environmental regularities. In re-analysing existing chimpanzee memory data, we found that chimpanzee memory patterns mirrored their social contact patterns. Our findings hint that human and chimpanzee memory systems may have evolved to solve similar information-processing problems. Overall, rational analysis offers novel theoretical and methodological avenues for the comparative study of cognition. PMID:27853606

Semantic Cuing and the Scale Insensitivity of Recency and Contiguity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Polyn, Sean M.; Erlikhman, Gennady; Kahana, Michael J.

2011-01-01

In recalling a set of previously experienced events, people exhibit striking effects of recency, contiguity, and similarity: Recent items tend to be recalled best and first, and items that were studied in neighboring positions or that are similar to one another in some other way tend to evoke one another during recall. Effects of recency and…

Verbal learning and memory impairments in posttraumatic stress disorder: the role of encoding strategies.

PubMed

Johnsen, Grethe E; Asbjørnsen, Arve E

2009-01-30

The present study examined mechanisms underlying verbal memory impairments in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Earlier studies have reported that the verbal learning and memory alterations in PTSD are related to impaired encoding, but the use of encoding and organizational strategies in patients with PTSD has not been fully explored. This study examined organizational strategies in 21 refugees/immigrants exposed to war and political violence who fulfilled DSM-IV criteria for chronic PTSD compared with a control sample of 21 refugees/immigrants with similar exposure, but without PTSD. The California Verbal Learning Test was administered to examine differences in organizational strategies and memory. The semantic clustering score was slightly reduced in both groups, but the serial cluster score was significantly impaired in the PTSD group and they also reported more items from the recency region of the list. In addition, intrusive errors were significantly increased in the PTSD group. The data support an assumption of changed memory strategies in patients with PTSD associated with a specific impairment in executive control. However, memory impairment and the use of ineffective learning strategies may not be related to PTSD symptomatology only, but also to self-reported symptoms of depression and general distress.

Learning and serial effects on verbal memory in mild cognitive impairment.

PubMed

Campos-Magdaleno, María; Díaz-Bóveda, Rosalía; Juncos-Rabadán, Onésimo; Facal, David; Pereiro, Arturo X

2016-01-01

The objective of this study was to examine different patterns of learning and episodic memory in 3 mild cognitive impairment (MCI) groups and a control group by administering the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) and using serial position effect as a principal variable. The study sample included 3 groups of patients with MCI (n = 90) divided into single-domain amnestic, multiple-domain amnestic, and multiple-domain nonamnestic MCI and a group of healthy controls (n = 60). We compared the performance of each group on several CVLT measures used in previous research, and we included a new measure that provides specific information about the serial effect. Data showed a similar pattern of learning and memory impairment in both amnestic MCI groups (i.e., no differences between the multiple-domain and single-domain subtypes); the recency effect was significantly higher in both amnestic MCI groups than in all other groups, and the primacy effect was only lower in the multiple-domain amnestic MCI subtype. Verbal learning and memory profiles of patients with amnestic MCI were very similar, independent of the presence of deficits in cognitive domains other than episodic memory. Results are discussed in light of the unitary-store model of memory.

Life-span retrieval of public events: Reminiscence bump for high-impact events, recency for others.

PubMed

Tekcan, Ali I; Boduroglu, Aysecan; Mutlutürk, Aysu; Aktan Erciyes, Aslı

2017-10-01

Although substantial evidence exists showing a reliable reminiscence bump for personal events, data regarding retrieval distributions for public events have been equivocal. The primary aim of the present study was to address life-span retrieval distributions of different types of public events in comparison to personal events, and to test whether the existing accounts of the bump can explain the distribution of public events. We asked a large national sample to report the most important, happiest, and saddest personal events and the most important, happiest, saddest, most proud, most fearful, and most shameful public events. We found a robust bump corresponding to the third decade of life for the happiest and the most important positive but not for the saddest and most important negative personal events. For the most important public events, a bump emerged only for the two most frequently mentioned events. Distributions of public events cued with emotions were marked by recency. These results point to potential differences in retrieval of important personal and public events. While the life-script framework well accounts for the findings regarding important personal events, a chronologically retroactive search seem to guide retrieval of public events. Reminiscence bump observed for the two public events suggest that age-at-event affects recall of public events to the degree that the events are high-impact ones that dominate nation's collective memory. Results provide further evidence that the bump is not unitary and points to importance of event type and memory elicitation method with regard to competing explanations of the phenomenon.

COGNITION, ACTION, AND OBJECT MANIPULATION

PubMed Central

Rosenbaum, David A.; Chapman, Kate M.; Weigelt, Matthias; Weiss, Daniel J.; van der Wel, Robrecht

2012-01-01

Although psychology is the science of mental life and behavior, it has paid little attention to the means by which mental life is translated into behavior. One domain where links between cognition and action have been explored is the manipulation of objects. This article reviews psychological research on this topic, with special emphasis on the tendency to grasp objects differently depending on what one plans to do with the objects. Such differential grasping has been demonstrated in a wide range of object manipulation tasks, including grasping an object in a way that reveals anticipation of the object's future orientation, height, and required placement precision. Differential grasping has also been demonstrated in a wide range of behaviors, including one-hand grasps, two-hand grasps, walking, and transferring objects from place to place as well as from person to person. The populations in whom the tendency has been shown are also diverse, including nonhuman primates as well as human adults, children, and babies. Meanwhile, the tendency is compromised in a variety of clinical populations and in children of a surprisingly advanced age. Verbal working memory is compromised as well if words are memorized while object manipulation tasks are performed; the recency portion of the serial position curve is reduced in this circumstance. In general, the research reviewed here points to rich connections between cognition and action as revealed through the study of object manipulation. Other implications concern affordances, Donders' Law, and naturalistic observation and the teaching of psychology. PMID:22448912

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

PubMed

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

2017-01-01

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

Free recall in Williams syndrome: is there a dissociation between short- and long-term memory?

PubMed

Brock, Jon; Brown, Gordon D A; Boucher, Jill

2006-04-01

Two experiments used the free recall paradigm to investigate verbal memory abilities in Williams syndrome (WS)--a rare genetic disorder. In an earlier free recall study, Vicari et al. (1996a) reported that, unlike TD controls, children with WS showed a recency effect but failed to show a primacy effect. These authors interpreted their findings as evidence for a dissociation between relatively strong verbal short-term memory and relatively impaired verbal long-term memory. In Experiment 1 of the current study, children with WS and TD controls showed comparable improvements in performance with repeated testing of the same material, indicating similar long-term learning of the test items. Neither group showed evidence of primacy effects. However, the extent of primacy effects in free recall is known to depend on the rehearsal strategy that participants adopt. In Experiment 2, therefore, participants were encouraged to engage in overt cumulative rehearsal. This manipulation resulted in significant and comparable primacy effects in both groups, although neither group demonstrated a significant change in overall performance. There was therefore no evidence from either experiment for a dissociation between short- and long-term verbal memory in WS.

Acute effects of alcohol on memory: impact of emotional context and serial position.

PubMed

Brown, Jennie; Brignell, Catherine M; Dhiman, Sharinjeet K; Curran, H Valerie; Kamboj, Sunjeev K

2010-03-01

Although the amnestic effects of alcohol in humans are well known, its effects on emotional memory are unclear. In this study, using a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled design, we examine narrative emotional episodic memory in healthy human female volunteers (n=32) who received either a single dose of alcohol (0.6g/kg), or a placebo and then viewed neutral story elements presented in either a neutral or emotional context. Memory was tested for gist and detail of the neutral elements 3days later in a surprise recognition test. Since alcohol modulates GABAergic neurotransmission and may exert its effects on emotion through the limbic system, we predicted that acute alcohol treatment would reduce the expected emotional memory-advantage for gist, leaving detail memory relatively unaffected. Furthermore, given previous findings showing that 'primacy' memory is enhanced by physiological arousal, we predicted that reduced arousal produced by alcohol would have the opposite effect and impair primacy memory relative to the middle or 'recency' sections of the narrative. Emotional arousal was expected to oppose this effect, so impaired primacy memory following alcohol was only expected in the neutral version of the narrative. Although there was a main effect of story phase (though not of story version), contrary to expectations, alcohol impaired primacy memory for emotionally encoded neutral material. The results suggest that under certain circumstances emotional context or physiological arousal make memories labile and susceptible to disruption through pharmacological manipulation during encoding. 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

When is Deceptive Message Production More Effortful than Truth-Telling? A Baker's Dozen of Moderators.

PubMed

Burgoon, Judee K

2015-01-01

Deception is thought to be more effortful than telling the truth. Empirical evidence from many quarters supports this general proposition. However, there are many factors that qualify and even reverse this pattern. Guided by a communication perspective, I present a baker's dozen of moderators that may alter the degree of cognitive difficulty associated with producing deceptive messages. Among sender-related factors are memory processes, motivation, incentives, and consequences. Lying increases activation of a network of brain regions related to executive memory, suppression of unwanted behaviors, and task switching that is not observed with truth-telling. High motivation coupled with strong incentives or the risk of adverse consequences also prompts more cognitive exertion-for truth-tellers and deceivers alike-to appear credible, with associated effects on performance and message production effort, depending on the magnitude of effort, communicator skill, and experience. Factors related to message and communication context include discourse genre, type of prevarication, expected response length, communication medium, preparation, and recency of target event/issue. These factors can attenuate the degree of cognitive taxation on senders so that truth-telling and deceiving are similarly effortful. Factors related to the interpersonal relationship among interlocutors include whether sender and receiver are cooperative or adversarial and how well-acquainted they are with one another. A final consideration is whether the unit of analysis is the utterance, turn at talk, episode, entire interaction, or series of interactions. Taking these factors into account should produce a more nuanced answer to the question of when deception is more difficult than truth-telling.

An examination of factors driving chinese gamblers' fallacy bias.

PubMed

Fong, Lawrence Hoc Nang; Law, Rob; Lam, Desmond

2014-09-01

Gambling is a leisure activity, which is enjoyed by many people around the world. Among these people, Chinese are known for their high propensity to gamble and are highly sought after by many casinos. In this exploratory study, the effect of two types of fallacy bias-positive recency and negative recency-on the betting behavior of Chinese gamblers is investigated. Although the influence of fallacy bias on a betting decision is well documented, little is known about the interaction of the factors that dictate fallacy bias. Drawing from an analysis of 2,645 betting decisions, the results show that Chinese gamblers primarily endorse positive recency, especially when the latest outcome is more frequent. This is contrary to most findings on Western subjects in which negative recency is more common. Current findings have meaningful implications to casino gaming entertainment businesses and public policymakers.

Stress, anxiety, depression, and epilepsy: investigating the relationship between psychological factors and seizures.

PubMed

Thapar, Ajay; Kerr, Michael; Harold, Gordon

2009-01-01

The goal of the study described here was to examine the interrelationship between psychological factors (anxiety, stress, and depression) and seizures. In this longitudinal cohort study, data on anxiety, depression, perceived stress, and seizure recency (time since last seizure) and frequency were collected at two time points using standard validated questionnaire measures. Empirically based models with psychological factors explaining change in (1) seizure recency and (2) seizure frequency scores across time were specified. We then tested how these psychological factors acted together in predicting seizure recency and frequency. Our data were used to test whether these models were valid for the study population. Latent variable structural equation modeling was used for the analysis. Four hundred thirty-three of the 558 individuals who initially consented to participate provided two waves of data for this analysis. Stress (beta=0.25, P<0.01), anxiety (beta=0.30, P<0.01), and depression (beta=0.30, P<0.01) all predicted change in seizure recency. However, it was depression that mediated the relationship of both anxiety and stress with modeled change in seizure recency (beta=0.19, P<0.01) and seizure frequency (beta=0.30, P<0.01) over time. Depression mediates the relationship between stress and anxiety and change in seizure recency and seizure frequency. These findings highlight the importance of depression management in addition to seizure management in the assessment and treatment of epilepsy in an adult population.

The Relationship of a Pilot's Educational Background, Aeronautical Experience and Recency of Experience to Performance In Initial Training at a Regional Airline

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shane, Nancy R.

The purpose of this study was to determine how a pilot's educational background, aeronautical experience and recency of experience relate to their performance during initial training at a regional airline. Results show that variables in pilots' educational background, aeronautical experience and recency of experience do predict performance in training. The most significant predictors include years since graduation from college, multi-engine time, total time and whether or not a pilot had military flying experience. Due to the pilot shortage, the pilots entering regional airline training classes since August 2013 have varied backgrounds, aeronautical experience and recency of experience. As explained by Edward Thorndike's law of exercise and the law of recency, pilots who are actively using their aeronautical knowledge and exercising their flying skills should exhibit strong performance in those areas and pilots who have not been actively using their aeronautical knowledge and exercising their flying skills should exhibit degraded performance in those areas. Through correlation, chi-square and multiple regression analysis, this study tests this theory as it relates to performance in initial training at a regional airline.

Event related potentials to digit learning: tracking neurophysiologic changes accompanying recall performance.

PubMed

Jongsma, Marijtje L A; Gerrits, Niels J H M; van Rijn, Clementina M; Quiroga, Rodrigo Quian; Maes, Joseph H R

2012-07-01

The aim of this study was to track recall performance and event-related potentials (ERPs) across multiple trials in a digit-learning task. When a sequence is practiced by repetition, the number of errors typically decreases and a learning curve emerges. Until now, almost all ERP learning and memory research has focused on effects after a single presentation and, therefore, fails to capture the dynamic changes that characterize a learning process. However, the current study used a free-recall task in which a sequence of ten auditory digits was presented repeatedly. Auditory sequences of ten digits were presented in a logical order (control sequences) or in a random order (experimental sequences). Each sequence was presented six times. Participants had to reproduce the sequence after each presentation. EEG recordings were made at the time of the digit presentations. Recall performance for the control sequences was close to asymptote right after the first learning trial, whereas performance for the experimental sequences initially displayed primacy and recency effects. However, these latter effects gradually disappeared over the six repetitions, resulting in near-asymptotic recall performance for all digits. The performance improvement for the middle items of the list was accompanied by an increase in P300 amplitude, implying a close correspondence between this ERP component and the behavioral data. These results, which were discussed in the framework of theories on the functional significance of the P300 amplitude, add to the scarce empirical data on the dynamics of ERP responses in the process of intentional learning. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Young Children's Memory for the Times of Personal Past Events

PubMed Central

Pathman, Thanujeni; Larkina, Marina; Burch, Melissa; Bauer, Patricia J.

2012-01-01

Remembering the temporal information associated with personal past events is critical for autobiographical memory, yet we know relatively little about the development of this capacity. In the present research, we investigated temporal memory for naturally occurring personal events in 4-, 6-, and 8-year-old children. Parents recorded unique events in which their children participated during a 4-month period. At test, children made relative recency judgments and estimated the time of each event using conventional time-scales (time of day, day of week, month of year, and season). Children also were asked to provide justifications for their time-scale judgments. Six- and 8-year-olds, but not 4-year-olds, accurately judged the order of two distinct events. There were age-related improvements in children's estimation of the time of events using conventional time-scales. Older children provided more justifications for their time-scale judgments compared to younger children. Relations between correct responding on the time-scale judgments and provision of meaningful justifications suggest that children may use that information to reconstruct the times associated with past events. The findings can be used to chart a developmental trajectory of performance in temporal memory for personal past events, and have implications for our understanding of autobiographical memory development. PMID:23687467

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

PubMed

Sanderson, David J; Bannerman, David M

2011-04-01

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

Visual distinctiveness can enhance recency effects.

PubMed

Bornstein, B H; Neely, C B; LeCompte, D C

1995-05-01

Experimental efforts to meliorate the modality effect have included attempts to make the visual stimulus more distinctive. McDowd and Madigan (1991) failed to find an enhanced recency effect in serial recall when the last item was made more distinct in terms of its color. In an attempt to extend this finding, three experiments were conducted in which visual distinctiveness was manipulated in a different manner, by combining the dimensions of physical size and coloration (i.e., whether the stimuli were solid or outlined in relief). Contrary to previous findings, recency was enhanced when the size and coloration of the last item differed from the other items in the list, regardless of whether the "distinctive" item was larger or smaller than the remaining items. The findings are considered in light of other research that has failed to obtain a similar enhanced recency effect, and their implications for current theories of the modality effect are discussed.

Individual Differences in Memory Search and Their Relation to Intelligence

PubMed Central

Healey, M. Karl; Crutchley, Patrick; Kahana, Michael J.

2014-01-01

Attempts to understand why memory predicts intelligence have not fully leveraged state-of-the-art measures of recall dynamics. Using data from a multi–session free recall study we examine individual differences in measures of recall initiation and post–initiation transitions. We identify four sources of variation: a recency factor reflecting variation in the tendency to initiate recall from an item near the end of the list, a primacy factor reflecting a tendency to initiate from the beginning of the list, a temporal factor corresponding to transitions mediated by temporal associations, and a semantic factor corresponding to semantically–mediated transitions. Together these four factors account for 83% of the variability in overall recall accuracy, suggesting they provide a nearly complete picture of recall dynamics. We also show that these sources of variability account for over 80% of the variance shared between memory and intelligence. The temporal association factor was the most influential in predicting both recall accuracy and intelligence. We outline a theory of how controlled drift of temporal context may be critical across a range of cognitive activities. PMID:24730719

Stress-related cortisol responsivity modulates prospective memory.

PubMed

Glienke, K; Piefke, M

2017-12-01

It is known that there is inter-individual variation in behavioural and physiological stress reactions to the same stressor. The present study aimed to examine the impact of cortisol responsivity on performance in a complex real life-like prospective memory (PM) paradigm by a re-analysis of data published previously, with a focus on the taxonomy of cognitive dimensions of PM. Twenty-one male subjects were stressed with the Socially Evaluated Cold Pressor Test (SECPT) before the planning of intentions. Another group of 20 males underwent a control procedure. Salivary cortisol was measured to assess the intensity of the biological stress response. Additionally, participants rated the subjective experience of stress on a 5-point rating scale. Stressed participants were post-hoc differentiated in high (n = 11) and low cortisol responders (n = 10). Cortisol niveau differed significantly between the two groups, whereas subjective stress ratings did not. PM performance of low cortisol responders was stable across time and the PM performance of controls declined. High cortisol responders showed a nominally weaker PM retrieval across the early trails and significantly improved only on the last trial. The data demonstrate for the first time that participants with a low cortisol responsivity may benefit from stress exposure before the planning phase of PM. PM performance of high cortisol responders shows a more inconsistent pattern, which may be interpreted in the sense of a recency effect in PM retrieval. Alternatively, high cortisol responses may have a deteriorating effect on PM retrieval, which disappeared on the last trials of the task as a result of the decrease of cortisol levels across time. Importantly, the data also demonstrate that the intensity of cortisol responses does not necessarily correspond to the intensity of the mental experience of stress. © 2017 British Society for Neuroendocrinology.

Generality of a congruity effect in judgements of relative order.

PubMed

Liu, Yang S; Chan, Michelle; Caplan, Jeremy B

2014-10-01

The judgement of relative order (JOR) procedure is used to investigate serial-order memory. Measuring response times, the wording of the instructions (whether the earlier or the later item was designated as the target) reversed the direction of search in subspan lists (Chan, Ross, Earle, & Caplan Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16(5), 945-951, 2009). If a similar congruity effect applied to above-span lists and, furthermore, with error rate as the measure, this could suggest how to model order memory across scales. Participants performed JORs on lists of nouns (Experiment 1: list lengths = 4, 6, 8, 10) or consonants (Experiment 2: list lengths = 4, 8). In addition to the usual distance, primacy, and recency effects, instructions interacted with serial position of the later probe in both experiments, not only in response time, but also in error rate, suggesting that availability, not just accessibility, is affected by instructions. The congruity effect challenges current memory models. We fitted Hacker's (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 6(6), 651-675, 1980) self-terminating search model to our data and found that a switch in search direction could explain the congruity effect for short lists, but not longer lists. This suggests that JORs may need to be understood via direct-access models, adapted to produce a congruity effect, or a mix of mechanisms.

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Improves Audioverbal Memory in Stroke Patients

PubMed Central

Kazuta, Toshinari; Takeda, Kotaro; Osu, Rieko; Tanaka, Satoshi; Oishi, Ayako; Kondo, Kunitsugu; Liu, Meigen

2017-01-01

Objective The aim of this study was to investigate whether anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the left temporoparietal area improved audioverbal memory performance in stroke patients. Design Twelve stroke patients with audioverbal memory impairment participated in a single-masked, crossover, and sham-controlled experiment. The anodal or sham transcranial direct current stimulation was applied during the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, which evaluates the ability to recall a list of 15 heard words over five trials. The number of correctly recalled words was compared between the anodal and sham conditions and the influence of transcranial direct current stimulation on serial position effect of the 15 words was also examined. Results The increase in the number of correctly recalled words from the first to the fifth trial was significantly greater in the anodal condition than in the sham condition (P < 0.01). There was a significant difference (P < 0.01) between the anodal and sham conditions in the number of correctly recalled words within the first five words (primacy region) over the second to fifth trial trials, but not in the middle (next five words) or recency (last five words) regions. Conclusions Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the left temporoparietal area improved audioverbal memory performance and induced the primacy effect in stroke patients. PMID:28085735

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Improves Audioverbal Memory in Stroke Patients.

PubMed

Kazuta, Toshinari; Takeda, Kotaro; Osu, Rieko; Tanaka, Satoshi; Oishi, Ayako; Kondo, Kunitsugu; Liu, Meigen

2017-08-01

The aim of this study was to investigate whether anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the left temporoparietal area improved audioverbal memory performance in stroke patients. Twelve stroke patients with audioverbal memory impairment participated in a single-masked, crossover, and sham-controlled experiment. The anodal or sham transcranial direct current stimulation was applied during the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, which evaluates the ability to recall a list of 15 heard words over five trials. The number of correctly recalled words was compared between the anodal and sham conditions and the influence of transcranial direct current stimulation on serial position effect of the 15 words was also examined. The increase in the number of correctly recalled words from the first to the fifth trial was significantly greater in the anodal condition than in the sham condition (P < 0.01). There was a significant difference (P < 0.01) between the anodal and sham conditions in the number of correctly recalled words within the first five words (primacy region) over the second to fifth trial trials, but not in the middle (next five words) or recency (last five words) regions. Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the left temporoparietal area improved audioverbal memory performance and induced the primacy effect in stroke patients.

Remembering the Leaders of China.

PubMed

Fu, Mingchen; Xue, Yan; DeSoto, K Andrew; Yuan, Ti-Fei

2016-01-01

In two studies, we examined Chinese students' memory for the names of the leaders of China. In Study 1, subjects were cued with the names of periods from China's history. Subjects listed as many leaders as possible from each period and put them in the correct ordinal position when they could (see Roediger and DeSoto, 2014). Results showed that within each period, a primacy effect and sometimes a recency effect emerged. Moreover, the average recall probability for leaders within a specific period was a function of the ordinal position of the period. In Study 2, we asked another group of subjects to identify the sources through which they were able to recall each leader. We found that most subjects remembered leaders due to class and coursework. We also found a relation between a leader's recall probability and the amount of information available on that leader on the Internet. Our findings further imply that the serial position function captures the form of collective memory.

Time perception, attention, and memory: a selective review.

PubMed

Block, Richard A; Gruber, Ronald P

2014-06-01

This article provides a selective review of time perception research, mainly focusing on the authors' research. Aspects of psychological time include simultaneity, successiveness, temporal order, and duration judgments. In contrast to findings at interstimulus intervals or durations less than 3.0-5.0 s, there is little evidence for an "across-senses" effect of perceptual modality (visual vs. auditory) at longer intervals or durations. In addition, the flow of time (events) is a pervasive perceptual illusion, and we review evidence on that. Some temporal information is encoded All rights reserved. relatively automatically into memory: People can judge time-related attributes such as recency, frequency, temporal order, and duration of events. Duration judgments in prospective and retrospective paradigms reveal differences between them, as well as variables that moderate the processes involved. An attentional-gate model is needed to account for prospective judgments, and a contextual-change model is needed to account for retrospective judgments. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A context-based theory of recency and contiguity in free recall

PubMed Central

Sederberg, Per B.; Howard, Marc W.; Kahana, Michael J.

2008-01-01

We present a new model of free recall based on Howard and Kahana’s (2002) temporal context model and Usher and McClelland’s (2001) leaky-accumulator decision model. In this model, contextual drift gives rise to both short-term and long-term recency effects, and contextual retrieval gives rise to short-term and long-term contiguity effects, Recall decisions are controlled by a race between competitive leaky-accumulators. The model captures the dynamics of immediate, delayed, and continual distractor free recall, demonstrating that dissociations between short- and long-term recency can naturally arise from a model that uses an internal contextual state as the sole cue for retrieval across time scales. PMID:18954208

Autobiographical memory: a clinical perspective.

PubMed

Urbanowitsch, Nadja; Gorenc, Lina; Herold, Christina J; Schröder, Johannes

2013-12-10

Autobiographical memory (ABM) comprises memories of one's own past that are characterized by a sense of subjective time and autonoetic awareness. Although ABM deficits are among the primary symptoms of patients with major psychiatric conditions such as mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer Disease (AD) or chronic schizophrenia large clinical studies are scarce. We therefore summarize and discuss the results of our clinical studies on ABM deficits in the respective conditions. In these studies ABM was assessed by using the same instrument - i.e., the Erweitertes Autobiographisches Gedächtnis Inventar (E-AGI) - thus allowing a direct comparison between diagnostic groups. Episodic ABM, especially the richness of details was impaired already in MCI and in beginning AD. Semantic memories were spared until moderate stages, indicating a dissociation between both memory systems. A recency effect was detectable in cognitively unimpaired subjects and vanished in patients with AD. A similar pattern of deficits was found in patients with chronic schizophrenia but not in patients with major depression. These ABM deficits were not accounted for by gender, or education level and did not apply for the physiological ageing process in otherwise healthy elderly. In conclusion, ABM deficits are frequently found in AD and chronic schizophrenia and primarily involve episodic rather than semantic memories. This dissociation corresponds to the multiple trace theory which hypothesized that these memory functions refer to distinct neuronal systems. The semi-structured interview E-AGI used to discern ABM changes provided a sufficient reliability measures, moreover potential effects of a number of important confounders could be falsified so far. These findings underline the relevance of ABM-assessments in clinical practice.

Central executive involvement in children's spatial memory.

PubMed

Ang, Su Yin; Lee, Kerry

2008-11-01

Previous research with adults found that spatial short-term and working memory tasks impose similar demands on executive resources. We administered spatial short-term and working memory tasks to 8- and 11-year-olds in three separate experiments. In Experiments 1 and 2 an executive suppression task (random number generation) was found to impair performances on a short-term memory task (Corsi blocks), a working memory task (letter rotation), and a spatial visualisation task (paper folding). In Experiment 3 an articulatory suppression task only impaired performance on the working memory task. These results suggest that short-term and working memory performances are dependent on executive resources. The degree to which the short-term memory task was dependent on executive resources was expected to be related to the amount of experience children have had with such tasks. Yet we found no significant age-related suppression effects. This was attributed to differences in employment of cognitive strategies by the older children.

An Account of Performance in Accessing Information Stored in Long-Term Memory. A Fixed-Links Model Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Altmeyer, Michael; Schweizer, Karl; Reiss, Siegbert; Ren, Xuezhu; Schreiner, Michael

2013-01-01

Performance in working memory and short-term memory tasks was employed for predicting performance in a long-term memory task in order to find out about the underlying processes. The types of memory were represented by versions of the Posner Task, the Backward Counting Task and the Sternberg Task serving as measures of long-term memory, working…

Impacts of wildfire recency and frequency on an Appalachian oak forest

Treesearch

Melissa A. Thomas-Van Gundy; Katharina U. Wood; James S. Rentch

2015-01-01

Cabwaylingo State Forest in southern West Virginia has experienced numerous anthropogenic wildfires over the past 36 years. In this case study, we assessed the relationship between fire frequency and recency and stand composition and structure, with emphasis on oak and its competitors. Frequent and recent fire was significantly correlated with reduced red maple...

The Bay Area Verbal Learning Test (BAVLT): Normative Data and the Effects of Repeated Testing, Simulated Malingering, and Traumatic Brain Injury

PubMed Central

Woods, David L.; Wyma, John M.; Herron, Timothy J.; Yund, E. William

2017-01-01

Verbal learning tests (VLTs) are widely used to evaluate memory deficits in neuropsychiatric and developmental disorders. However, their validity has been called into question by studies showing significant differences in VLT scores obtained by different examiners. Here we describe the computerized Bay Area Verbal Learning Test (BAVLT), which minimizes inter-examiner differences by incorporating digital list presentation and automated scoring. In the 10-min BAVLT, a 12-word list is presented on three acquisition trials, followed by a distractor list, immediate recall of the first list, and, after a 30-min delay, delayed recall and recognition. In Experiment 1, we analyzed the performance of 195 participants ranging in age from 18 to 82 years. Acquisition trials showed strong primacy and recency effects, with scores improving over repetitions, particularly for mid-list words. Inter-word intervals (IWIs) increased with successive words recalled. Omnibus scores (summed over all trials except recognition) were influenced by age, education, and sex (women outperformed men). In Experiment 2, we examined BAVLT test-retest reliability in 29 participants tested with different word lists at weekly intervals. High intraclass correlation coefficients were seen for omnibus and acquisition scores, IWIs, and a categorization index reflecting semantic reorganization. Experiment 3 examined the performance of Experiment 2 participants when feigning symptoms of traumatic brain injury. Although 37% of simulated malingerers showed abnormal (p < 0.05) omnibus z-scores, z-score cutoffs were ineffective in discriminating abnormal malingerers from control participants with abnormal scores. In contrast, four malingering indices (recognition scores, primacy/recency effects, learning rate across acquisition trials, and IWIs) discriminated the two groups with 80% sensitivity and 80% specificity. Experiment 4 examined the performance of a small group of patients with mild or severe TBI. Overall, both patient groups performed within the normal range, although significant performance deficits were seen in some patients. The BAVLT improves the speed and replicability of verbal learning assessments while providing comprehensive measures of retrieval timing, semantic organization, and primacy/recency effects that clarify the nature of performance. PMID:28127280

Visuospatial and verbal memory in mental arithmetic.

PubMed

Clearman, Jack; Klinger, Vojtěch; Szűcs, Dénes

2017-09-01

Working memory allows complex information to be remembered and manipulated over short periods of time. Correlations between working memory and mathematics achievement have been shown across the lifespan. However, only a few studies have examined the potentially distinct contributions of domain-specific visuospatial and verbal working memory resources in mental arithmetic computation. Here we aimed to fill this gap in a series of six experiments pairing addition and subtraction tasks with verbal and visuospatial working memory and interference tasks. In general, we found higher levels of interference between mental arithmetic and visuospatial working memory tasks than between mental arithmetic and verbal working memory tasks. Additionally, we found that interference that matched the working memory domain of the task (e.g., verbal task with verbal interference) lowered working memory performance more than mismatched interference (verbal task with visuospatial interference). Findings suggest that mental arithmetic relies on domain-specific working memory resources.

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.

The Effects of Recency and Story Content on Children's Moral Judgments.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moran, James D., III; McCullers, John C.

To investigate the effects of recency and specific story content on the development of moral reasoning, 16 stories were read to children at ages 4, 7, and 11 years and to college freshmen (a total of 24 participants per age level). Stories contained either positive or negative intention and either positive or negative consequences in one of four…

Intact and impaired conceptual memory processes in amnesia.

PubMed

Keane, M M; Gabrieli, J D; Monti, L A; Fleischman, D A; Cantor, J M; Noland, J S

1997-01-01

To examine the status of conceptual memory processes in amnesia, a conceptual memory task with implicit or explicit task instructions was given to amnesic and control groups. After studying a list of category exemplars, participants saw category labels and were asked to generate as many exemplars as possible (an implicit memory task) or to generate exemplars that had been in the prior study list (an explicit memory task). After incidental deep or shallow encoding of exemplars, amnesic patients showed normal implicit memory performance (priming), a normal levels-of-processing effect on priming, and impaired explicit memory performance. After intentional encoding of exemplars, amnesic patients showed impaired implicit and explicit memory performance. Results suggest that although amnesic patients can show impairments on implicit and explicit conceptual memory tasks, their deficit does not generalize to all conceptual memory tasks.

Effects of Divided Attention at Retrieval on Conceptual Implicit Memory

PubMed Central

Prull, Matthew W.; Lawless, Courtney; Marshall, Helen M.; Sherman, Annabella T. K.

2016-01-01

This study investigated whether conceptual implicit memory is sensitive to process-specific interference at the time of retrieval. Participants performed the implicit memory test of category exemplar generation (CEG; Experiments 1 and 3), or the matched explicit memory test of category-cued recall (Experiment 2), both of which are conceptually driven memory tasks, under one of two divided attention (DA) conditions in which participants simultaneously performed a distracting task. The distracting task was either syllable judgments (dissimilar processes), or semantic judgments (similar processes) on unrelated words. Compared to full attention (FA) in which no distracting task was performed, DA had no effect on CEG priming overall, but reduced category-cued recall similarly regardless of distractor task. Analyses of distractor task performance also revealed differences between implicit and explicit memory retrieval. The evidence suggests that, whereas explicit memory retrieval requires attentional resources and is disrupted by semantic and phonological distracting tasks, conceptual implicit memory is automatic and unaffected even when distractor and memory tasks involve similar processes. PMID:26834678

Effects of Divided Attention at Retrieval on Conceptual Implicit Memory.

PubMed

Prull, Matthew W; Lawless, Courtney; Marshall, Helen M; Sherman, Annabella T K

2016-01-01

This study investigated whether conceptual implicit memory is sensitive to process-specific interference at the time of retrieval. Participants performed the implicit memory test of category exemplar generation (CEG; Experiments 1 and 3), or the matched explicit memory test of category-cued recall (Experiment 2), both of which are conceptually driven memory tasks, under one of two divided attention (DA) conditions in which participants simultaneously performed a distracting task. The distracting task was either syllable judgments (dissimilar processes), or semantic judgments (similar processes) on unrelated words. Compared to full attention (FA) in which no distracting task was performed, DA had no effect on CEG priming overall, but reduced category-cued recall similarly regardless of distractor task. Analyses of distractor task performance also revealed differences between implicit and explicit memory retrieval. The evidence suggests that, whereas explicit memory retrieval requires attentional resources and is disrupted by semantic and phonological distracting tasks, conceptual implicit memory is automatic and unaffected even when distractor and memory tasks involve similar processes.

The Multifold Relationship Between Memory and Decision Making: An Individual-differences Study

PubMed Central

Del Missier, Fabio; Mäntylä, Timo; Hansson, Patrik; Bruine de Bruin, Wändi; Parker, Andrew M.; Nilsson, Lars-Göran

2014-01-01

Several judgment and decision-making tasks are assumed to involve memory functions, but significant knowledge gaps on the memory processes underlying these tasks remain. In a study on 568 adults between 25 to 80 years, hypotheses were tested on the specific relationships between individual differences in working memory, episodic memory, and semantic memory, respectively, and six main components of decision-making competence. In line with the hypotheses, working memory was positively related with the more cognitively-demanding tasks (Resistance to Framing, Applying Decision Rules, and Under/Overconfidence), whereas episodic memory was positively associated with a more experience-based judgment task (Recognizing Social Norms). Furthermore, semantic memory was positively related with two more knowledge-based decision-making tasks (Consistency in Risk Perception and Resistance to Sunk Costs). Finally, the age-related decline observed in some of the decision-making tasks was (partially or totally) mediated by the age-related decline in working memory or episodic memory. These findings are discussed in relation to the functional roles fulfilled by different memory processes in judgment and decision-making tasks. PMID:23565790

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).

Decreased susceptibility to false memories from misinformation in hormonal contraception users.

PubMed

Petersen, Nicole; Patihis, Lawrence; Nielsen, Shawn E

2015-01-01

Sex hormones are increasingly implicated in memory formation. Recent literature has documented a relationship between hormones and emotional memory and sex differences, which are likely related to hormones, have long been demonstrated in a variety of mnemonic domains, including false memories. Hormonal contraception (HC), which alters sex hormones, has been associated with a bias towards gist memory and away from detailed memory in women who use it during an emotional memory task. Here, we investigated whether HC was associated with changes in susceptibility to false memories, which may be related to the formation of gist memories. We tested false memory susceptibility using two well-validated false memory paradigms: the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) task, and a story-based misinformation task. We found that hormonal contraceptive users were less susceptible to false memories compared to non-users in the misinformation task, and no differences were seen between groups on the DRM task. We hypothesise that the differences in false memories from the misinformation task may be related to hormonal contraceptive users' memory bias away from details, towards gist memory.

Sex differences in episodic memory: the impact of verbal and visuospatial ability.

PubMed

Herlitz, A; Airaksinen, E; Nordström, E

1999-10-01

The impact of verbal and visuospatial ability on sex differences in episodic memory was investigated. One hundred men and 100 women, 2040 years old, participated in a series of verbal and visuospatial tasks. Episodic memory was assessed in tasks that, to a greater or lesser extent, were verbal or visuospatial in nature. Results showed that women excelled in verbal production tasks and that men performed at a superior level on a mental rotation task. In addition, women tended to perform at a higher level than men on most episodic memory tasks. Taken together, the results demonstrated that (a) women perform at a higher level than men on most verbal episodic memory tasks and on some episodic memory tasks with a visuospatial component, and (b) women's higher performance on episodic memory tasks cannot fully be explained by their superior performance on verbal production tasks.

Mixed-initiative control of intelligent systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Borchardt, G. C.

1987-01-01

Mixed-initiative user interfaces provide a means by which a human operator and an intelligent system may collectively share the task of deciding what to do next. Such interfaces are important to the effective utilization of real-time expert systems as assistants in the execution of critical tasks. Presented here is the Incremental Inference algorithm, a symbolic reasoning mechanism based on propositional logic and suited to the construction of mixed-initiative interfaces. The algorithm is similar in some respects to the Truth Maintenance System, but replaces the notion of 'justifications' with a notion of recency, allowing newer values to override older values yet permitting various interested parties to refresh these values as they become older and thus more vulnerable to change. A simple example is given of the use of the Incremental Inference algorithm plus an overview of the integration of this mechanism within the SPECTRUM expert system for geological interpretation of imaging spectrometer data.

Unstable Memories Create a High-Level Representation that Enables Learning Transfer.

PubMed

Mosha, Neechi; Robertson, Edwin M

2016-01-11

A memory is unstable, making it susceptible to interference and disruption, after its acquisition [1-4]. The function or possible benefit of a memory being unstable at its acquisition is not well understood. Potentially, instability may be critical for the communication between recently acquired memories, which would allow learning in one task to be transferred to the other subsequent task [1, 5]. Learning may be transferred between any memories that are unstable, even between different types of memory. Here, we test the link between a memory being unstable and the transfer of learning to a different type of memory task. We measured how learning in one task transferred to and thus improved learning in a subsequent task. There was transfer from a motor skill to a word list task and, vice versa, from a word list to a motor skill task. What was transferred was a high-level relationship between elements, rather than knowledge of the individual elements themselves. Memory instability was correlated with subsequent transfer, suggesting that transfer was related to the instability of the memory. Using different methods, we stabilized the initial memory, preventing it from being susceptible to interference, and found that these methods consistently prevented transfer to the subsequent memory task. This suggests that the transfer of learning across diverse tasks is due to a high-level representation that can only be formed when a memory is unstable. Our work has identified an important function of memory instability. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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.

Working Memory Training Improves Dual-Task Performance on Motor Tasks.

PubMed

Kimura, Takehide; Kaneko, Fuminari; Nagahata, Keita; Shibata, Eriko; Aoki, Nobuhiro

2017-01-01

The authors investigated whether working memory training improves motor-motor dual-task performance consisted of upper and lower limb tasks. The upper limb task was a simple reaction task and the lower limb task was an isometric knee extension task. 45 participants (age = 21.8 ± 1.6 years) were classified into a working memory training group (WM-TRG), dual-task training group, or control group. The training duration was 2 weeks (15 min, 4 times/week). Our results indicated that working memory capacity increased significantly only in the WM-TRG. Dual-task performance improved in the WM-TRG and dual-task training group. Our study provides the novel insight that working memory training improves dual-task performance without specific training on the target motor task.

Working Memory Capacity and Resistance to Interference

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oberauer, Klaus; Lange, Elke; Engle, Randall W.

2004-01-01

Single-task and dual-task versions of verbal and spatial serial order memory tasks were administered to 120 students tested for working memory capacity with four previously validated measures. In the dual-task versions, similarity between the memory material and the material of the secondary processing task was varied. With verbal material, three…

Cognitive load and task condition in event- and time-based prospective memory: an experimental investigation.

PubMed

Khan, Azizuddin; Sharma, Narendra K; Dixit, Shikha

2008-09-01

Prospective memory is memory for the realization of delayed intention. Researchers distinguish 2 kinds of prospective memory: event- and time-based (G. O. Einstein & M. A. McDaniel, 1990). Taking that distinction into account, the present authors explored participants' comparative performance under event- and time-based tasks. In an experimental study of 80 participants, the authors investigated the roles of cognitive load and task condition in prospective memory. Cognitive load (low vs. high) and task condition (event- vs. time-based task) were the independent variables. Accuracy in prospective memory was the dependent variable. Results showed significant differential effects under event- and time-based tasks. However, the effect of cognitive load was more detrimental in time-based prospective memory. Results also revealed that time monitoring is critical in successful performance of time estimation and so in time-based prospective memory. Similarly, participants' better performance on the event-based prospective memory task showed that they acted on the basis of environment cues. Event-based prospective memory was environmentally cued; time-based prospective memory required self-initiation.

Effects of emotionally valenced working memory taxation on negative memories.

PubMed

Tsai, Cynthia; McNally, Richard J

2014-03-01

Memories enter a labile state during recollection. Thus, memory changes that occur during recollection can affect future instances of its activation. Having subjects perform a secondary task that taxes working memory while they recall a negative emotional memory often reduces its vividness and emotional intensity during subsequent recollections. However, researchers have not manipulated the emotional valence of the secondary task itself. Subjects viewed a video depicting the aftermath of three fatal road traffic accidents, establishing the same negative emotional memory for all subjects. We then tested their memory for the video after randomly assigning them to no secondary task or a delayed match-to-sample secondary task involving photographs of positive, negative, or neutral emotional valence. The positive secondary task reduced memory for details about the video, whereas negative and neutral tasks did not. We did not assess the vividness and emotionality of the subjects' memory of the video. Having subjects recall a stressful experience while performing a positively valent secondary task can decrement details of the memory and perhaps its emotionality. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Context-Based Theory of Recency and Contiguity in Free Recall

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sederberg, Per B.; Howard, Marc W.; Kahana, Michael J.

2008-01-01

The authors present a new model of free recall on the basis of M. W. Howard and M. J. Kahana's temporal context model and M. Usher and J. L. McClelland's leaky-accumulator decision model. In this model, contextual drift gives rise to both short-term and long-term recency effects, and contextual retrieval gives rise to short-term and long-term…

Autobiographical Memory: A Clinical Perspective

PubMed Central

Urbanowitsch, Nadja; Gorenc, Lina; Herold, Christina J.; Schröder, Johannes

2013-01-01

Autobiographical memory (ABM) comprises memories of one’s own past that are characterized by a sense of subjective time and autonoetic awareness. Although ABM deficits are among the primary symptoms of patients with major psychiatric conditions such as mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer Disease (AD) or chronic schizophrenia large clinical studies are scarce. We therefore summarize and discuss the results of our clinical studies on ABM deficits in the respective conditions. In these studies ABM was assessed by using the same instrument – i.e., the Erweitertes Autobiographisches Gedächtnis Inventar (E-AGI) – thus allowing a direct comparison between diagnostic groups. Episodic ABM, especially the richness of details was impaired already in MCI and in beginning AD. Semantic memories were spared until moderate stages, indicating a dissociation between both memory systems. A recency effect was detectable in cognitively unimpaired subjects and vanished in patients with AD. A similar pattern of deficits was found in patients with chronic schizophrenia but not in patients with major depression. These ABM deficits were not accounted for by gender, or education level and did not apply for the physiological ageing process in otherwise healthy elderly. In conclusion, ABM deficits are frequently found in AD and chronic schizophrenia and primarily involve episodic rather than semantic memories. This dissociation corresponds to the multiple trace theory which hypothesized that these memory functions refer to distinct neuronal systems. The semi-structured interview E-AGI used to discern ABM changes provided a sufficient reliability measures, moreover potential effects of a number of important confounders could be falsified so far. These findings underline the relevance of ABM-assessments in clinical practice. PMID:24339804

Elaboration versus suppression of cued memories: influence of memory recall instruction and success on parietal lobe, default network, and hippocampal activity.

PubMed

Gimbel, Sarah I; Brewer, James B

2014-01-01

Functional imaging studies of episodic memory retrieval consistently report task-evoked and memory-related activity in the medial temporal lobe, default network and parietal lobe subregions. Associated components of memory retrieval, such as attention-shifts, search, retrieval success, and post-retrieval processing also influence regional activity, but these influences remain ill-defined. To better understand how top-down control affects the neural bases of memory retrieval, we examined how regional activity responses were modulated by task goals during recall success or failure. Specifically, activity was examined during memory suppression, recall, and elaborative recall of paired-associates. Parietal lobe was subdivided into dorsal (BA 7), posterior ventral (BA 39), and anterior ventral (BA 40) regions, which were investigated separately to examine hypothesized distinctions in sub-regional functional responses related to differential attention-to-memory and memory strength. Top-down suppression of recall abolished memory strength effects in BA 39, which showed a task-negative response, and BA 40, which showed a task-positive response. The task-negative response in default network showed greater negatively-deflected signal for forgotten pairs when task goals required recall. Hippocampal activity was task-positive and was influenced by memory strength only when task goals required recall. As in previous studies, we show a memory strength effect in parietal lobe and hippocampus, but we show that this effect is top-down controlled and sensitive to whether the subject is trying to suppress or retrieve a memory. These regions are all implicated in memory recall, but their individual activity patterns show distinct memory-strength-related responses when task goals are varied. In parietal lobe, default network, and hippocampus, top-down control can override the commonly identified effects of memory strength.

Elaboration versus Suppression of Cued Memories: Influence of Memory Recall Instruction and Success on Parietal Lobe, Default Network, and Hippocampal Activity

PubMed Central

Gimbel, Sarah I.; Brewer, James B.

2014-01-01

Functional imaging studies of episodic memory retrieval consistently report task-evoked and memory-related activity in the medial temporal lobe, default network and parietal lobe subregions. Associated components of memory retrieval, such as attention-shifts, search, retrieval success, and post-retrieval processing also influence regional activity, but these influences remain ill-defined. To better understand how top-down control affects the neural bases of memory retrieval, we examined how regional activity responses were modulated by task goals during recall success or failure. Specifically, activity was examined during memory suppression, recall, and elaborative recall of paired-associates. Parietal lobe was subdivided into dorsal (BA 7), posterior ventral (BA 39), and anterior ventral (BA 40) regions, which were investigated separately to examine hypothesized distinctions in sub-regional functional responses related to differential attention-to-memory and memory strength. Top-down suppression of recall abolished memory strength effects in BA 39, which showed a task-negative response, and BA 40, which showed a task-positive response. The task-negative response in default network showed greater negatively-deflected signal for forgotten pairs when task goals required recall. Hippocampal activity was task-positive and was influenced by memory strength only when task goals required recall. As in previous studies, we show a memory strength effect in parietal lobe and hippocampus, but we show that this effect is top-down controlled and sensitive to whether the subject is trying to suppress or retrieve a memory. These regions are all implicated in memory recall, but their individual activity patterns show distinct memory-strength-related responses when task goals are varied. In parietal lobe, default network, and hippocampus, top-down control can override the commonly identified effects of memory strength. PMID:24586492

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.

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

A Potential Spatial Working Memory Training Task to Improve Both Episodic Memory and Fluid Intelligence

PubMed Central

Rudebeck, Sarah R.; Bor, Daniel; Ormond, Angharad; O’Reilly, Jill X.; Lee, Andy C. H.

2012-01-01

One current challenge in cognitive training is to create a training regime that benefits multiple cognitive domains, including episodic memory, without relying on a large battery of tasks, which can be time-consuming and difficult to learn. By giving careful consideration to the neural correlates underlying episodic and working memory, we devised a computerized working memory training task in which neurologically healthy participants were required to monitor and detect repetitions in two streams of spatial information (spatial location and scene identity) presented simultaneously (i.e. a dual n-back paradigm). Participants’ episodic memory abilities were assessed before and after training using two object and scene recognition memory tasks incorporating memory confidence judgments. Furthermore, to determine the generalizability of the effects of training, we also assessed fluid intelligence using a matrix reasoning task. By examining the difference between pre- and post-training performance (i.e. gain scores), we found that the trainers, compared to non-trainers, exhibited a significant improvement in fluid intelligence after 20 days. Interestingly, pre-training fluid intelligence performance, but not training task improvement, was a significant predictor of post-training fluid intelligence improvement, with lower pre-training fluid intelligence associated with greater post-training gain. Crucially, trainers who improved the most on the training task also showed an improvement in recognition memory as captured by d-prime scores and estimates of recollection and familiarity memory. Training task improvement was a significant predictor of gains in recognition and familiarity memory performance, with greater training improvement leading to more marked gains. In contrast, lower pre-training recollection memory scores, and not training task improvement, led to greater recollection memory performance after training. Our findings demonstrate that practice on a single working memory task can potentially improve aspects of both episodic memory and fluid intelligence, and that an extensive training regime with multiple tasks may not be necessary. PMID:23209740

A potential spatial working memory training task to improve both episodic memory and fluid intelligence.

PubMed

Rudebeck, Sarah R; Bor, Daniel; Ormond, Angharad; O'Reilly, Jill X; Lee, Andy C H

2012-01-01

One current challenge in cognitive training is to create a training regime that benefits multiple cognitive domains, including episodic memory, without relying on a large battery of tasks, which can be time-consuming and difficult to learn. By giving careful consideration to the neural correlates underlying episodic and working memory, we devised a computerized working memory training task in which neurologically healthy participants were required to monitor and detect repetitions in two streams of spatial information (spatial location and scene identity) presented simultaneously (i.e. a dual n-back paradigm). Participants' episodic memory abilities were assessed before and after training using two object and scene recognition memory tasks incorporating memory confidence judgments. Furthermore, to determine the generalizability of the effects of training, we also assessed fluid intelligence using a matrix reasoning task. By examining the difference between pre- and post-training performance (i.e. gain scores), we found that the trainers, compared to non-trainers, exhibited a significant improvement in fluid intelligence after 20 days. Interestingly, pre-training fluid intelligence performance, but not training task improvement, was a significant predictor of post-training fluid intelligence improvement, with lower pre-training fluid intelligence associated with greater post-training gain. Crucially, trainers who improved the most on the training task also showed an improvement in recognition memory as captured by d-prime scores and estimates of recollection and familiarity memory. Training task improvement was a significant predictor of gains in recognition and familiarity memory performance, with greater training improvement leading to more marked gains. In contrast, lower pre-training recollection memory scores, and not training task improvement, led to greater recollection memory performance after training. Our findings demonstrate that practice on a single working memory task can potentially improve aspects of both episodic memory and fluid intelligence, and that an extensive training regime with multiple tasks may not be necessary.

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

PubMed

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

2011-09-01

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

Temporal grouping effects in musical short-term memory.

PubMed

Gorin, Simon; Mengal, Pierre; Majerus, Steve

2018-07-01

Recent theoretical accounts of verbal and visuo-spatial short-term memory (STM) have proposed the existence of domain-general mechanisms for the maintenance of serial order information. These accounts are based on the observation of similar behavioural effects across several modalities, such as temporal grouping effects. Across two experiments, the present study aimed at extending these findings, by exploring a STM modality that has received little interest so far, STM for musical information. Given its inherent rhythmic, temporal and serial organisation, the musical domain is of interest for investigating serial order STM processes such as temporal grouping. In Experiment 1, the data did not allow to determine the presence or the absence of temporal grouping effects. In Experiment 2, we observed that temporal grouping of tone sequences during encoding improves short-term recognition for serially presented probe tones. Furthermore, the serial position curves included micro-primacy and micro-recency effects, which are the hallmark characteristic of temporal grouping. Our results suggest that the encoding of serial order information in musical STM may be supported by temporal positional coding mechanisms similar to those reported in the verbal domain.

From Brown-Peterson to continual distractor via operation span: A SIMPLE account of complex span.

PubMed

Neath, Ian; VanWormer, Lisa A; Bireta, Tamra J; Surprenant, Aimée M

2014-09-01

Three memory tasks-Brown-Peterson, complex span, and continual distractor-all alternate presentation of a to-be-remembered item and a distractor activity, but each task is associated with a different memory system, short-term memory, working memory, and long-term memory, respectively. SIMPLE, a relative local distinctiveness model, has previously been fit to data from both the Brown-Peterson and continual distractor tasks; here we use the same version of the model to fit data from a complex span task. Despite the many differences between the tasks, including unpredictable list length, SIMPLE fit the data well. Because SIMPLE posits a single memory system, these results constitute yet another demonstration that performance on tasks originally thought to tap different memory systems can be explained without invoking multiple memory systems.

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

PubMed

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

1979-07-01

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

Is the Link from Working Memory to Analogy Causal? No Analogy Improvements following Working Memory Training Gains

PubMed Central

Richey, J. Elizabeth; Phillips, Jeffrey S.; Schunn, Christian D.; Schneider, Walter

2014-01-01

Analogical reasoning has been hypothesized to critically depend upon working memory through correlational data [1], but less work has tested this relationship through experimental manipulation [2]. An opportunity for examining the connection between working memory and analogical reasoning has emerged from the growing, although somewhat controversial, body of literature suggests complex working memory training can sometimes lead to working memory improvements that transfer to novel working memory tasks. This study investigated whether working memory improvements, if replicated, would increase analogical reasoning ability. We assessed participants’ performance on verbal and visual analogy tasks after a complex working memory training program incorporating verbal and spatial tasks [3], [4]. Participants’ improvements on the working memory training tasks transferred to other short-term and working memory tasks, supporting the possibility of broad effects of working memory training. However, we found no effects on analogical reasoning. We propose several possible explanations for the lack of an impact of working memory improvements on analogical reasoning. PMID:25188356

Long-Term Episodic Memory in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Skowronek, Jeffrey S.; Leichtman, Michelle D.; Pillemer, David B.

2008-01-01

Twenty-nine grade-matched 4th-8th-grade males, 12 with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (age M = 12.2 years, SD = 1.48), and 17 without (age M = 11.5, SD = 1.59), completed two working memory tasks (digit span and the Simon game) and three long-term episodic memory tasks (a personal event memory task, story memory task, and picture…

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Acute Alcohol Effects on Repetition Priming and Word Recognition Memory with Equivalent Memory Cues

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ray, Suchismita; Bates, Marsha E.

2006-01-01

Acute alcohol intoxication effects on memory were examined using a recollection-based word recognition memory task and a repetition priming task of memory for the same information without explicit reference to the study context. Memory cues were equivalent across tasks; encoding was manipulated by varying the frequency of occurrence (FOC) of words…

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.

Spatial working memory load affects counting but not subitizing in enumeration.

PubMed

Shimomura, Tomonari; Kumada, Takatsune

2011-08-01

The present study investigated whether subitizing reflects capacity limitations associated with two types of working memory tasks. Under a dual-task situation, participants performed an enumeration task in conjunction with either a spatial (Experiment 1) or a nonspatial visual (Experiment 2) working memory task. Experiment 1 showed that spatial working memory load affected the slope of a counting function but did not affect subitizing performance or subitizing range. Experiment 2 showed that nonspatial visual working memory load affected neither enumeration efficiency nor subitizing range. Furthermore, in both spatial and nonspatial memory tasks, neither subitizing efficiency nor subitizing range was affected by amount of imposed memory load. In all the experiments, working memory load failed to influence slope, subitizing range, or overall reaction time. These findings suggest that subitizing is performed without either spatial or nonspatial working memory. A possible mechanism of subitizing with independent capacity of working memory is discussed.

Improving older adults' memory performance using prior task success.

PubMed

Geraci, Lisa; Miller, Tyler M

2013-06-01

Holding negative aging stereotypes can lead older adults to perform poorly on memory tests. We attempted to improve older adults' memory performance by giving them task experience that would counter their negative performance expectations. Before participating in a memory experiment, younger and older adults were given a cognitive task that they could either successfully complete, not successfully complete, or they were given no prior task. For older adults, recall was significantly higher and self-reported anxiety was significantly lower for the prior task success group relative to the other groups. There was no effect of prior task experience on younger adults' memory performance. Results suggest that older adults' memory can be improved with a single successful prior task experience. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Semantic and Visual Memory After Alcohol Abuse.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Donat, Dennis C.

1986-01-01

Compared the relative performance of 40 patients with a history of alcohol abuse on tasks of short-term semantic and visual memory. Performance on the visual memory tasks was impaired significantly relative to the semantic memory task in a within-subjects analysis of variance. Semantic memory was unimpaired. (Author/ABB)

Correcting Memory Improves Accuracy of Predicted Task Duration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roy, Michael M.; Mitten, Scott T.; Christenfeld, Nicholas J. S.

2008-01-01

People are often inaccurate in predicting task duration. The memory bias explanation holds that this error is due to people having incorrect memories of how long previous tasks have taken, and these biased memories cause biased predictions. Therefore, the authors examined the effect on increasing predictive accuracy of correcting memory through…

The Effect of Prior Task Success on Older Adults' Memory Performance: Examining the Influence of Different Types of Task Success.

PubMed

Geraci, Lisa; Hughes, Matthew L; Miller, Tyler M; De Forrest, Ross L

2016-01-01

Negative aging stereotypes can lead older adults to perform poorly on memory tests. Yet, memory performance can be improved if older adults have a single successful experience on a cognitive test prior to participating in a memory experiment (Geraci & Miller, 2013, Psychology and Aging, 28, 340-345). The current study examined the effects of different types of prior task experience on subsequent memory performance. Before participating in a verbal free recall experiment, older adults in Experiment 1 successfully completed either a verbal or a visual cognitive task or no task. In Experiment 2, they successfully completed either a motor task or no task before participating in the free recall experiment. Results from Experiment 1 showed that relative to control (no prior task), participants who had prior success, either on a verbal or a visual task, had better subsequent recall performance. Experiment 2 showed that prior success on a motor task, however, did not lead to a later memory advantage relative to control. These findings demonstrate that older adults' memory can be improved by a successful prior task experience so long as that experience is in a cognitive domain.

Degrading emotional memories induced by a virtual reality paradigm.

PubMed

Cuperus, Anne A; Laken, Maarten; van den Hout, Marcel A; Engelhard, Iris M

2016-09-01

In Eye Movement and Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, a dual-task approach is used: patients make horizontal eye movements while they recall aversive memories. Studies showed that this reduces memory vividness and/or emotionality. A strong explanation is provided by working memory theory, which suggests that other taxing dual-tasks are also effective. Experiment 1 tested whether a visuospatial task which was carried out while participants were blindfolded taxes working memory. Experiment 2 tested whether this task degrades negative memories induced by a virtual reality (VR) paradigm. In experiment 1, participants responded to auditory cues with or without simultaneously carrying out the visuospatial task. In experiment 2, participants recalled negative memories induced by a VR paradigm. The experimental group simultaneously carried out the visuospatial task, and a control group merely recalled the memories. Changes in self-rated memory vividness and emotionality were measured. The slowing down of reaction times due to the visuospatial task indicated that its cognitive load was greater than the load of the eye movements task in previous studies. The task also led to reductions in emotionality (but not vividness) of memories induced by the VR paradigm. Weaknesses are that only males were tested in experiment 1, and the effectiveness of the VR fear/trauma induction was not assessed with ratings of mood or intrusions in experiment 2. The results suggest that the visuospatial task may be applicable in clinical settings, and the VR paradigm may provide a useful method of inducing negative memories. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

How age affects memory task performance in clinically normal hearing persons.

PubMed

Vercammen, Charlotte; Goossens, Tine; Wouters, Jan; van Wieringen, Astrid

2017-05-01

The main objective of this study is to investigate memory task performance in different age groups, irrespective of hearing status. Data are collected on a short-term memory task (WAIS-III Digit Span forward) and two working memory tasks (WAIS-III Digit Span backward and the Reading Span Test). The tasks are administered to young (20-30 years, n = 56), middle-aged (50-60 years, n = 47), and older participants (70-80 years, n = 16) with normal hearing thresholds. All participants have passed a cognitive screening task (Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA)). Young participants perform significantly better than middle-aged participants, while middle-aged and older participants perform similarly on the three memory tasks. Our data show that older clinically normal hearing persons perform equally well on the memory tasks as middle-aged persons. However, even under optimal conditions of preserved sensory processing, changes in memory performance occur. Based on our data, these changes set in before middle age.

To Switch or Not to Switch: Role of Cognitive Control in Working Memory Training in Older Adults.

PubMed

Basak, Chandramallika; O'Connell, Margaret A

2016-01-01

It is currently not known what are the best working memory training strategies to offset the age-related declines in fluid cognitive abilities. In this randomized clinical double-blind trial, older adults were randomly assigned to one of two types of working memory training - one group was trained on a predictable memory updating task (PT) and another group was trained on a novel, unpredictable memory updating task (UT). Unpredictable memory updating, compared to predictable, requires greater demands on cognitive control (Basak and Verhaeghen, 2011a). Therefore, the current study allowed us to evaluate the role of cognitive control in working memory training. All participants were assessed on a set of near and far transfer tasks at three different testing sessions - before training, immediately after the training, and 1.5 months after completing the training. Additionally, individual learning rates for a comparison working memory task (performed by both groups) and the trained task were computed. Training on unpredictable memory updating, compared to predictable, significantly enhanced performance on a measure of episodic memory, immediately after the training. Moreover, individuals with faster learning rates showed greater gains in this episodic memory task and another new working memory task; this effect was specific to UT. We propose that the unpredictable memory updating training, compared to predictable memory updating training, may a better strategy to improve selective cognitive abilities in older adults, and future studies could further investigate the role of cognitive control in working memory training.

What Do We Really Know about Cognitive Inhibition? Task Demands and Inhibitory Effects across a Range of Memory and Behavioural Tasks

PubMed Central

Noreen, Saima; MacLeod, Malcolm D.

2015-01-01

Our study explores inhibitory control across a range of widely recognised memory and behavioural tasks. Eighty-seven never-depressed participants completed a series of tasks designed to measure inhibitory control in memory and behaviour. Specifically, a variant of the selective retrieval-practice and the Think/No-Think tasks were employed as measures of memory inhibition. The Stroop-Colour Naming and the Go/No-Go tasks were used as measures of behavioural inhibition. Participants completed all 4 tasks. Task presentation order was counterbalanced across 3 separate testing sessions for each participant. Standard inhibitory forgetting effects emerged on both memory tasks but the extent of forgetting across these tasks was not correlated. Furthermore, there was no relationship between memory inhibition tasks and either of the main behavioural inhibition measures. At a time when cognitive inhibition continues to gain acceptance as an explanatory mechanism, our study raises fundamental questions about what we actually know about inhibition and how it is affected by the processing demands of particular inhibitory tasks. PMID:26270470

What Do We Really Know about Cognitive Inhibition? Task Demands and Inhibitory Effects across a Range of Memory and Behavioural Tasks.

PubMed

Noreen, Saima; MacLeod, Malcolm D

2015-01-01

Our study explores inhibitory control across a range of widely recognised memory and behavioural tasks. Eighty-seven never-depressed participants completed a series of tasks designed to measure inhibitory control in memory and behaviour. Specifically, a variant of the selective retrieval-practice and the Think/No-Think tasks were employed as measures of memory inhibition. The Stroop-Colour Naming and the Go/No-Go tasks were used as measures of behavioural inhibition. Participants completed all 4 tasks. Task presentation order was counterbalanced across 3 separate testing sessions for each participant. Standard inhibitory forgetting effects emerged on both memory tasks but the extent of forgetting across these tasks was not correlated. Furthermore, there was no relationship between memory inhibition tasks and either of the main behavioural inhibition measures. At a time when cognitive inhibition continues to gain acceptance as an explanatory mechanism, our study raises fundamental questions about what we actually know about inhibition and how it is affected by the processing demands of particular inhibitory tasks.

Memory Systems Do Not Divide on Consciousness: Reinterpreting Memory in Terms of Activation and Binding

PubMed Central

Reder, Lynne M.; Park, Heekyeong; Kieffaber, Paul D.

2009-01-01

There is a popular hypothesis that performance on implicit and explicit memory tasks reflects 2 distinct memory systems. Explicit memory is said to store those experiences that can be consciously recollected, and implicit memory is said to store experiences and affect subsequent behavior but to be unavailable to conscious awareness. Although this division based on awareness is a useful taxonomy for memory tasks, the authors review the evidence that the unconscious character of implicit memory does not necessitate that it be treated as a separate system of human memory. They also argue that some implicit and explicit memory tasks share the same memory representations and that the important distinction is whether the task (implicit or explicit) requires the formation of a new association. The authors review and critique dissociations from the behavioral, amnesia, and neuroimaging literatures that have been advanced in support of separate explicit and implicit memory systems by highlighting contradictory evidence and by illustrating how the data can be accounted for using a simple computational memory model that assumes the same memory representation for those disparate tasks. PMID:19210052

Working-memory training improves developmental dyslexia in Chinese children.

PubMed

Luo, Yan; Wang, Jing; Wu, Hanrong; Zhu, Dongmei; Zhang, Yu

2013-02-15

Although plasticity in the neural system underlies working memory, and working memory can be improved by training, there is thus far no evidence that children with developmental dyslexia can benefit from working-memory training. In the present study, thirty dyslexic children aged 8-11 years were recruited from an elementary school in Wuhan, China. They received working-memory training, including training in visuospatial memory, verbal memory, and central executive tasks. The difficulty of the tasks was adjusted based on the performance of each subject, and the training sessions lasted 40 minutes per day, for 5 weeks. The results showed that working-memory training significantly enhanced performance on the nontrained working memory tasks such as the visuospatial, the verbal domains, and central executive tasks in children with developmental dyslexia. More importantly, the visual rhyming task and reading fluency task were also significantly improved by training. Progress on working memory measures was related to changes in reading skills. These experimental findings indicate that working memory is a pivotal factor in reading development among children with developmental dyslexia, and interventions to improve working memory may help dyslexic children to become more proficient in reading.

Working Memory Integration Processes in Benign Childhood Epilepsy with Centrotemporal Spikes.

PubMed

Kárpáti, Judit; Donauer, Nándor; Somogyi, Eszter; Kónya, Anikó

2015-12-01

Benign epilepsy of childhood with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS) is the most frequent focal epilepsy in children; however, the pattern of affected memory processes remains controversial. Previous studies in BECTS imply deficits in complex working memory tasks, but not in simple modality-specific tasks. We studied working memory processes in children with BECTS by comparing performance in memory binding tasks of different complexities. We compared 17 children with BECTS (aged 6 to 13 years) to 17 healthy children matched for age, sex, and intelligence quotient. We measured spatial and verbal memory components separately and jointly on three single-binding tasks (binding of what and where; what and when; and where and when) and a combined-binding task (integration of what, where, and when). We also evaluated basic visuospatial memory functions with subtests of the Children's Memory Scale, and intellectual abilities with verbal tasks of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition and the Raven Progressive Matrices. We found no difference between the BECTS and control groups in single-binding tasks; however, the children with BECTS performed significantly worse on the combined task, which included integration of spatial, verbal, and temporal information. We found no deficits in their intellectual abilities or basic visuospatial memory functions. Children with BECTS may have intact simple maintenance processes of working memory, but difficulty with high-level functions requiring attentional and executive resources. Our findings imply no specific memory dysfunction in BECTS, but suggest difficulties in integrating information within working memory, and possible frontal lobe disturbances.

Rehearsal development as development of iterative recall processes.

PubMed

Lehmann, Martin

2015-01-01

Although much is known about the critical importance of active verbal rehearsal for successful recall, knowledge about the mechanisms of rehearsal and their respective development in children is very limited. To be able to rehearse several items together, these items have to be available, or, if presented and rehearsed previously, retrieved from memory. Therefore, joint rehearsal of several items may itself be considered recall. Accordingly, by analyzing free recall, one cannot only gain insight into how recall and rehearsal unfold, but also into how principles that govern children's recall govern children's rehearsal. Over a period of three and a half years (beginning at grade 3) 54 children were longitudinally assessed seven times on several overt rehearsal free recall trials. A first set of analyses on recall revealed significant age-related increases in the primacy effect and an age-invariant recency effect. In the middle portion of the list, wave-shaped recall characteristics emerged and increased with age, indicating grouping of the list into subsequences. In a second set of analyses, overt rehearsal behavior was decomposed into distinct rehearsal sets. Analyses of these sets revealed that the distribution of rehearsals within each set resembled the serial position curves with one- or two-item primacy and recency effects and wave-shaped rehearsal patterns in between. In addition, rehearsal behavior throughout the list was characterized by a decreasing tendency to begin rehearsal sets with the first list item. This result parallels the phenomenon of beginning recall with the first item on short lists and with the last item on longer lists.

Rehearsal development as development of iterative recall processes

PubMed Central

Lehmann, Martin

2015-01-01

Although much is known about the critical importance of active verbal rehearsal for successful recall, knowledge about the mechanisms of rehearsal and their respective development in children is very limited. To be able to rehearse several items together, these items have to be available, or, if presented and rehearsed previously, retrieved from memory. Therefore, joint rehearsal of several items may itself be considered recall. Accordingly, by analyzing free recall, one cannot only gain insight into how recall and rehearsal unfold, but also into how principles that govern children’s recall govern children’s rehearsal. Over a period of three and a half years (beginning at grade 3) 54 children were longitudinally assessed seven times on several overt rehearsal free recall trials. A first set of analyses on recall revealed significant age-related increases in the primacy effect and an age-invariant recency effect. In the middle portion of the list, wave-shaped recall characteristics emerged and increased with age, indicating grouping of the list into subsequences. In a second set of analyses, overt rehearsal behavior was decomposed into distinct rehearsal sets. Analyses of these sets revealed that the distribution of rehearsals within each set resembled the serial position curves with one- or two-item primacy and recency effects and wave-shaped rehearsal patterns in between. In addition, rehearsal behavior throughout the list was characterized by a decreasing tendency to begin rehearsal sets with the first list item. This result parallels the phenomenon of beginning recall with the first item on short lists and with the last item on longer lists. PMID:25870569

Effects of Task Instruction on Autobiographical Memory Specificity in Young and Older Adults

PubMed Central

Ford, Jaclyn Hennessey; Rubin, David C.; Giovanello, Kelly S.

2013-01-01

Older adults tend to retrieve autobiographical information that is overly general (i.e. not restricted to a single event, termed the overgenerality effect) relative to young adults’ specific memories. A vast majority of studies that have reported overgenerality effects explicitly instruct participants to retrieve specific memories, thereby requiring participants to maintain task goals, inhibit inappropriate responses, and control their memory search. Since these processes are impaired in healthy aging, it is important to determine whether such task instructions influence the magnitude of the overgenerality effect in older adults. In the current study, participants retrieved autobiographical memories during presentation of musical clips. Task instructions were manipulated to separate age-related differences in the specificity of underlying memory representations from age-related differences in following task instructions. Whereas young adults modulated memory specificity based on task demands, older adults did not. These findings suggest that reported rates of overgenerality in older adults’ memories may include age-related differences in memory representation, as well as differences in task compliance. Such findings provide a better understanding of the underlying cognitive mechanisms involved in age-related changes in autobiographical memory and may also be valuable for future research examining effects of overgeneral memory on general well-being. PMID:23915176

The Influence of Levels of Processing on Recall from Working Memory and Delayed Recall Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

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

2011-01-01

Recent research in working memory has highlighted the similarities involved in retrieval from complex span tasks and episodic memory tasks, suggesting that these tasks are influenced by similar memory processes. In the present article, the authors manipulated the level of processing engaged when studying to-be-remembered words during a reading…

A critical evaluation of monkey models of amnesia and dementia.

PubMed

Ridley, R M; Baker, H F

1991-01-01

In this review we consider various models of amnesia and dementia in monkeys and examine the validity of such models. In Section 2 we describe the various types of memory tests (tasks) available for use with monkeys and discuss the extent to which these tasks assess different facets of memory according to present theories of human memory. We argue that the rules which govern correct task performance are best regarded as a form of semantic rather than procedural memory, and that when information about stimulus attributes or reward associations is stored long-term then that knowledge is semantic. The demonstration of episodic memory in monkeys is problematic and the term recognition memory has been used too loosely. In particular, it is difficult to dissociate episodic memory for stimulus events from the use of semantic memory for the rule of the task, since dysfunction of either can produce impairment on performance of the same task. Tasks can also be divided into those which assess memory for stimulus-reward associations (evaluative memory) and those which tax stimulus-response associations including spatial and conditional responding (non-evaluative memory). This dissociation cuts across the distinction between semantic and episodic memory. In Section 3 we examine the usefulness of the classification of tasks described in Section 2 in clarifying our understanding of the contribution of the temporal lobes and the cholinergic system to memory. We conclude that evaluative and non-evaluative memory are mediated by separate parallel systems involving the amygdala and hippocampus, respectively.

Assessing the Effects of Momentary Priming on Memory Retention During an Interference Task

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schutte, Paul C.

2007-01-01

A memory aid, that used brief (33ms) presentations of previously learned information (target words), was assessed on its ability to reinforce memory for target words while the subject was performing an interference task. The interference task required subjects to learn new words and thus interfered with their memory of the target words. The brief presentation (momentary memory priming) was hypothesized to refresh the subjects memory of the target words. 143 subjects, in a within subject design, were given a 33ms presentation of the target memory words during the interference task in a treatment condition and a blank 33ms presentation in the control condition. The primary dependent measure, memory loss over the interference trial, was not significantly different between the two conditions. The memory prime did not appear to hinder the subjects performance on the interference task. This paper describes the experiment and the results along with suggestions for future research.

The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) Task: A Simple Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate False Memories in the Laboratory.

PubMed

Pardilla-Delgado, Enmanuelle; Payne, Jessica D

2017-01-31

The Deese, Roediger and McDermott (DRM) task is a false memory paradigm in which subjects are presented with lists of semantically related words (e.g., nurse, hospital, etc.) at encoding. After a delay, subjects are asked to recall or recognize these words. In the recognition memory version of the task, subjects are asked whether they remember previously presented words, as well as related (but never presented) critical lure words ('doctor'). Typically, the critical word is recognized with high probability and confidence. This false memory effect has been robustly demonstrated across short (e.g., immediate, 20 min) and long (e.g., 1, 7, 60 d) delays between encoding and memory testing. A strength of using this task to study false memory is its simplicity and short duration. If encoding and retrieval components of the task occur in the same session, the entire task can take as little as 2 - 30 min. However, although the DRM task is widely considered a 'false memory' paradigm, some researchers consider DRM illusions to be based on the activation of semantic memory networks in the brain, and argue that such semantic gist-based false memory errors may actually be useful in some scenarios (e.g., remembering the forest for the trees; remembering that a word list was about "doctors", even though the actual word "doctor" was never presented for study). Remembering the gist of experience (instead of or along with individual details) is arguably an adaptive process and this task has provided a great deal of knowledge about the constructive, adaptive nature of memory. Therefore, researchers should use caution when discussing the overall reach and implications of their experiments when using this task to study 'false memory', as DRM memory errors may not adequately reflect false memories in the real world, such as false memory in eyewitness testimony, or false memories of sexual abuse.

Evidence for modality-independent order coding in working memory.

PubMed

Depoorter, Ann; Vandierendonck, André

2009-03-01

The aim of the present study was to investigate the representation of serial order in working memory, more specifically whether serial order is coded by means of a modality-dependent or a modality-independent order code. This was investigated by means of a series of four experiments based on a dual-task methodology in which one short-term memory task was embedded between the presentation and recall of another short-term memory task. Two aspects were varied in these memory tasks--namely, the modality of the stimulus materials (verbal or visuo-spatial) and the presence of an order component in the task (an order or an item memory task). The results of this study showed impaired primary-task recognition performance when both the primary and the embedded task included an order component, irrespective of the modality of the stimulus materials. If one or both of the tasks did not contain an order component, less interference was found. The results of this study support the existence of a modality-independent order code.

No Acute Effects of Choline Bitartrate Food Supplements on Memory in Healthy, Young, Human Adults.

PubMed

Lippelt, D P; van der Kint, S; van Herk, K; Naber, M

2016-01-01

Choline is a dietary component and precursor of acetylcholine, a crucial neurotransmitter for memory-related brain functions. In two double-blind, placebo-controlled cross-over experiments, we investigated whether the food supplement choline bitartrate improved declarative memory and working memory in healthy, young students one to two hours after supplementation. In experiment 1, 28 participants performed a visuospatial working memory task. In experiment 2, 26 participants performed a declarative picture memorization task. In experiment 3, 40 participants performed a verbal working memory task in addition to the visuospatial working memory and declarative picture task. All tasks were conducted approximately 60 minutes after the ingestion of 2.0-2.5g of either choline bitartrate or placebo. We found that choline did not significantly enhance memory performance during any of the tasks. The null hypothesis that choline does not improve memory performance as compared to placebo was strongly supported by Bayesian statistics. These results are in contrast with animal studies suggesting that choline supplementation boosts memory performance and learning. We conclude that choline likely has no acute effects on cholinergic memory functions in healthy human participants.

No Acute Effects of Choline Bitartrate Food Supplements on Memory in Healthy, Young, Human Adults

PubMed Central

Lippelt, D. P.; van der Kint, S.; van Herk, K.; Naber, M.

2016-01-01

Choline is a dietary component and precursor of acetylcholine, a crucial neurotransmitter for memory-related brain functions. In two double-blind, placebo-controlled cross-over experiments, we investigated whether the food supplement choline bitartrate improved declarative memory and working memory in healthy, young students one to two hours after supplementation. In experiment 1, 28 participants performed a visuospatial working memory task. In experiment 2, 26 participants performed a declarative picture memorization task. In experiment 3, 40 participants performed a verbal working memory task in addition to the visuospatial working memory and declarative picture task. All tasks were conducted approximately 60 minutes after the ingestion of 2.0–2.5g of either choline bitartrate or placebo. We found that choline did not significantly enhance memory performance during any of the tasks. The null hypothesis that choline does not improve memory performance as compared to placebo was strongly supported by Bayesian statistics. These results are in contrast with animal studies suggesting that choline supplementation boosts memory performance and learning. We conclude that choline likely has no acute effects on cholinergic memory functions in healthy human participants. PMID:27341028

Effects of age on a real-world What-Where-When memory task

PubMed Central

Mazurek, Adèle; Bhoopathy, Raja Meenakshi; Read, Jenny C. A.; Gallagher, Peter; Smulders, Tom V.

2015-01-01

Many cognitive abilities decline with aging, making it difficult to detect pathological changes against a background of natural changes in cognition. Most of the tests to assess cognitive decline are artificial tasks that have little resemblance to the problems faced by people in everyday life. This means both that people may have little practice doing such tasks (potentially contributing to the decline in performance) and that the tasks may not be good predictors of real-world cognitive problems. In this study, we test the performance of young people (18–25 years) and older people (60+-year-olds) on a novel, more ecologically valid test of episodic memory: the real-world What-Where-When (WWW) memory test. We also compare them on a battery of other cognitive tests, including working memory, psychomotor speed, executive function, and episodic memory. Older people show the expected age-related declines on the test battery. In the WWW memory task, older people were more likely to fail to remember any WWW combination than younger people were, although they did not significantly differ in their overall WWW score due to some older people performing as well as or better than most younger people. WWW memory performance was significantly predicted by other measures of episodic memory, such as the single-trial learning and long-term retention in the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning task and Combined Object Location Memory in the Object Relocation task. Self-reported memory complaints also predicted performance on the WWW task. These findings confirm that our real-world WWW memory task is a valid measure of episodic memory, with high ecological validity, which may be useful as a predictor of everyday memory abilities. The task will require a bit more development to improve its sensitivity to cognitive declines in aging and to potentially distinguish between mentally healthy older adults and those with early signs of cognitive pathologies. PMID:26042030

Sleep-dependent consolidation patterns reveal insights into episodic memory structure.

PubMed

Oyanedel, Carlos N; Sawangjit, Anuck; Born, Jan; Inostroza, Marion

2018-05-18

Episodic memory formation is considered a genuinely hippocampal function. Its study in rodents has relied on two different task paradigms, i.e. the so called "what-where-when" (WW-When) task and "what-where-which" (WW-Which) task. The WW-When task aims to assess the memory for an episode as an event bound into its context defined by spatial and distinct temporal information, the WW-Which task lacks the temporal component and introduces, instead, an "occasion setter" marking the broader contextual configuration in which the event occurred. Whether both tasks measure episodic memory in an equivalent manner in terms of recollection has been controversially discussed. Here, we compared in two groups of rats the consolidating effects of sleep on episodic-like memory between both task paradigms. Sampling and test phases were separated by a 90-min morning retention interval which did or did not allow for spontaneous sleep. Results show that sleep is crucial for the consolidation of the memory on both tasks. However, consolidating effects of sleep were stronger for the WW-Which than WW-When task. Comparing performance during the post-sleep test phase revealed that WW-When memory only gradually emerged during the 3-min test period whereas WW-Which memory was readily expressed already from the first minute onward. Separate analysis of the temporal and spatial components of WW-When performance showed that the delayed episodic memory on this task originated from the temporal component which also did not emerge until the third minute of the test phase, whereas the spatial component already showed up in the first minute. In conclusion, sleep differentially affects consolidation on the two episodic-like memory tasks, with the delayed expression of WW-When memory after sleep resulting from preferential coverage of temporal aspects by this task. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Effects of working memory load on visual selective attention: behavioral and electrophysiological evidence.

PubMed

Pratt, Nikki; Willoughby, Adrian; Swick, Diane

2011-01-01

Working memory and attention interact in a way that enables us to focus on relevant items and maintain current goals. The influence of working memory on attention has been noted in several studies using dual task designs. Multitasking increases the demands on working memory and reduces the amount of resources available for cognitive control functions such as resolving stimulus conflict. However, few studies have investigated the temporal activation of the cortex while multitasking. The present study addresses the extent to which working memory load influences early (P1) and late (P300) attention-sensitive event-related potential components using a dual task paradigm. Participants performed an arrow flanker task alone (single task condition) or concurrently with a Sternberg memory task (dual task condition). In the flanker task, participants responded to the direction of a central arrow surrounded by congruent or incongruent arrows. In the dual task condition, participants were presented with a Sternberg task that consisted of either four or seven consonants to remember prior to a short block of flanker trials. Participants were slower and less accurate on incongruent versus congruent trials. Furthermore, accuracy on incongruent trials was reduced in both dual task conditions. Likewise, P300 amplitude to incongruent flanker stimuli decreased when working memory load increased. These findings suggest that interference from incongruent flankers was more difficult to suppress when working memory was taxed. In addition, P1 amplitude was diminished on all flanker trials in the dual task condition. This result indicates that top-down attentional control over early visual processing is diminished by increasing demands on working memory. Both the behavioral and electrophysiological results suggest that working memory is critical in maintaining attentional focus and resolving conflict.

Effects of Working Memory Load on Visual Selective Attention: Behavioral and Electrophysiological Evidence

PubMed Central

Pratt, Nikki; Willoughby, Adrian; Swick, Diane

2011-01-01

Working memory and attention interact in a way that enables us to focus on relevant items and maintain current goals. The influence of working memory on attention has been noted in several studies using dual task designs. Multitasking increases the demands on working memory and reduces the amount of resources available for cognitive control functions such as resolving stimulus conflict. However, few studies have investigated the temporal activation of the cortex while multitasking. The present study addresses the extent to which working memory load influences early (P1) and late (P300) attention-sensitive event-related potential components using a dual task paradigm. Participants performed an arrow flanker task alone (single task condition) or concurrently with a Sternberg memory task (dual task condition). In the flanker task, participants responded to the direction of a central arrow surrounded by congruent or incongruent arrows. In the dual task condition, participants were presented with a Sternberg task that consisted of either four or seven consonants to remember prior to a short block of flanker trials. Participants were slower and less accurate on incongruent versus congruent trials. Furthermore, accuracy on incongruent trials was reduced in both dual task conditions. Likewise, P300 amplitude to incongruent flanker stimuli decreased when working memory load increased. These findings suggest that interference from incongruent flankers was more difficult to suppress when working memory was taxed. In addition, P1 amplitude was diminished on all flanker trials in the dual task condition. This result indicates that top-down attentional control over early visual processing is diminished by increasing demands on working memory. Both the behavioral and electrophysiological results suggest that working memory is critical in maintaining attentional focus and resolving conflict. PMID:21716633

Effects of Stress and Task Difficulty on Working Memory and Cortical Networking.

PubMed

Kim, Yujin; Woo, Jihwan; Woo, Minjung

2017-12-01

This study investigated interactive effects of stress and task difficulty on working memory and cortico-cortical communication during memory encoding. Thirty-eight adolescent participants (mean age of 15.7 ± 1.5 years) completed easy and hard working memory tasks under low- and high-stress conditions. We analyzed the accuracy and reaction time (RT) of working memory performance and inter- and intrahemispheric electroencephalogram coherences during memory encoding. Working memory accuracy was higher, and RT shorter, in the easy versus the hard task. RT was shorter under the high-stress (TENS) versus low-stress (no-TENS) condition, while there was no difference in memory accuracy between the two stress conditions. For electroencephalogram coherence, we found higher interhemispheric coherence in all bands but only at frontal electrode sites in the easy versus the hard task. On the other hand, intrahemispheric coherence was higher in the left hemisphere in the easy (versus hard task) and higher in the right hemisphere (with one exception) in the hard (versus easy task). Inter- and intracoherences were higher in the low- versus high-stress condition. Significant interactions between task difficulty and stress condition were observed in coherences of the beta frequency band. The difference in coherence between low- and high-stress conditions was greater in the hard compared with the easy task, with lower coherence under the high-stress condition relative to the low-stress condition. Stress seemed to cause a decrease in cortical network communications between memory-relevant cortical areas as task difficulty increased.

What's the Problem? Familiarity Working Memory, and Transfer in a Problem-Solving Task.

PubMed

Kole, James A; Snyder, Hannah R; Brojde, Chandra L; Friend, Angela

2015-01-01

The contributions of familiarity and working memory to transfer were examined in the Tower of Hanoi task. Participants completed 3 different versions of the task: a standard 3-disk version, a clothing exchange task that included familiar semantic content, and a tea ceremony task that included unfamiliar semantic content. The constraints on moves were equivalent across tasks, and each could be solved with the same sequence of movements. Working memory demands were manipulated by the provision of a (static or dynamic) visual representation of the problem. Performance was equivalent for the standard Tower of Hanoi and clothing exchange tasks but worse for the tea ceremony task, and it decreased with increasing working memory demands. Furthermore, the standard Tower of Hanoi task and clothing exchange tasks independently, additively, and equivalently transferred to subsequent tasks, whereas the tea ceremony task did not. The results suggest that both familiarity and working memory demands determine overall level of performance, whereas familiarity influences transfer.

Use of immersive virtual reality to assess episodic memory: A validation study in older adults.

PubMed

Corriveau Lecavalier, Nick; Ouellet, Émilie; Boller, Benjamin; Belleville, Sylvie

2018-05-29

Virtual reality (VR) allows for the creation of ecological environments that could be used for cognitive assessment and intervention. This study comprises two parts that describe and assess an immersive VR task, the Virtual Shop, which can be used to measure episodic memory. Part 1 addresses its applicability in healthy older adults by measuring presence, motivation, and cybersickness symptoms. Part 2 addresses its construct validity by investigating correlations between performance in the VR task and on a traditional experimental memory task, and by measuring whether the VR task is sensitive to age-related memory differences. Fifty-seven older and 20 younger adults were assessed in the Virtual Shop, in which they memorised and fetched 12 familiar items. Part 1 showed high levels of presence, higher levels of motivation for the VR than for the traditional task, and negligible cybersickness symptoms. Part 2 indicates that memory performance in the VR task is positively correlated with performance on a traditional memory task for both age groups, and age-related differences were found on the VR and traditional memory tasks. Thus, the use of VR is feasible in older adults and the Virtual Shop is a valid task to assess and train episodic memory in this population.

Predictors of Processing-Based Task Performance in Bilingual and Monolingual Children

PubMed Central

Buac, Milijana; Gross, Megan; Kaushanskaya, Margarita

2016-01-01

In the present study we examined performance of bilingual Spanish-English-speaking and monolingual English-speaking school-age children on a range of processing-based measures within the framework of Baddeley’s working memory model. The processing-based measures included measures of short-term memory, measures of working memory, and a novel word-learning task. Results revealed that monolinguals outperformed bilinguals on the short-term memory tasks but not the working memory and novel word-learning tasks. Further, children’s vocabulary skills and socioeconomic status (SES) were more predictive of processing-based task performance in the bilingual group than the monolingual group. Together, these findings indicate that processing-based tasks that engage verbal working memory rather than short-term memory may be better-suited for diagnostic purposes with bilingual children. However, even verbal working memory measures are sensitive to bilingual children’s language-specific knowledge and demographic characteristics, and therefore may have limited clinical utility. PMID:27179914

Discrepancy of performance among working memory-related tasks in autism spectrum disorders was caused by task characteristics, apart from working memory, which could interfere with task execution.

PubMed

Nakahachi, Takayuki; Iwase, Masao; Takahashi, Hidetoshi; Honaga, Eiko; Sekiyama, Ryuji; Ukai, Satoshi; Ishii, Ryouhei; Ishigami, Wataru; Kajimoto, Osami; Yamashita, Ko; Hashimoto, Ryota; Tanii, Hisashi; Shimizu, Akira; Takeda, Masatoshi

2006-06-01

Working memory performance has been inconsistently reported in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Several studies in ASD have found normal performance in digit span and poor performance in digit symbol task although these are closely related with working memory. It is assumed that poor performance in digit symbol could be explained by confirmatory behavior, which is induced due to the vague memory representation of number-symbol association. Therefore it was hypothesized that the performance of working memory task, in which vagueness did not cause confirmatory behavior, would be normal in ASD. For this purpose, the Advanced Trail Making Test (ATMT) was used. The performance of digit span, digit symbol and ATMT was compared between ASD and normal control. The digit span, digit symbol and ATMT was given to 16 ASD subjects and 28 IQ-, age- and sex-matched control subjects. The scores of these tasks were compared. A significantly lower score for ASD was found only in digit symbol compared with control subjects. There were no significant difference in digit span and working memory estimated by ATMT. Discrepancy of scores among working memory-related tasks was demonstrated in ASD. Poor digit symbol performance, normal digit span and normal working memory in ATMT implied that ASD subjects would be intact in working memory itself, and that superficial working memory dysfunction might be observed due to confirmatory behavior in digit symbol. Therefore, to evaluate working memory in ASD, tasks that could stimulate psychopathology specific to ASD should be avoided.

The effect of strategic memory training in older adults: who benefits most?

PubMed

Rosi, Alessia; Del Signore, Federica; Canelli, Elisa; Allegri, Nicola; Bottiroli, Sara; Vecchi, Tomaso; Cavallini, Elena

2017-12-07

Previous research has suggested that there is a degree of variability among older adults' response to memory training, such that some individuals benefit more than others. The aim of the present study was to identify the profile of older adults who were likely to benefit most from a strategic memory training program that has previously proved to be effective in improving memory in healthy older adults. In total, 44 older adults (60-83 years) participated in a strategic memory training. We examined memory training benefits by measuring changes in memory practiced (word list learning) and non-practiced tasks (grocery list and associative learning). In addition, a battery of cognitive measures was administered in order to assess crystallized and fluid abilities, short-term memory, working memory, and processing speed. Results confirmed the efficacy of the training in improving performance in both practiced and non-practiced memory tasks. For the practiced memory tasks, results showed that memory baseline performance and crystallized ability predicted training gains. For the non-practiced memory tasks, analyses showed that memory baseline performance was a significant predictor of gain in the grocery list learning task. For the associative learning task, the significant predictors were memory baseline performance, processing speed, and marginally the age. Our results indicate that older adults with a higher baseline memory capacity and with more efficient cognitive resources were those who tended to benefit most from the training. The present study provides new avenues in designing personalized intervention according to the older adults' cognitive profile.

Material-specific difficulties in episodic memory tasks in mild traumatic brain injury.

PubMed

Tsirka, Vassiliki; Simos, Panagiotis; Vakis, Antonios; Vourkas, Michael; Arzoglou, Vasileios; Syrmos, Nikolaos; Stavropoulos, Stavros; Micheloyannis, Sifis

2010-03-01

The study examines acute, material-specific secondary memory performance in 26 patients with mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) and 26 healthy controls, matched on demographic variables and indexes of crystallized intelligence. Neuropsychological tests were used to evaluate primary and secondary memory, executive functions, and verbal fluency. Participants were also tested on episodic memory tasks involving words, pseudowords, pictures of common objects, and abstract kaleidoscopic images. Patients showed reduced performance on episodic memory measures, and on tasks associated with visuospatial processing and executive function (Trail Making Test part B, semantic fluency). Significant differences between groups were also noted for correct rejections and response bias on the kaleidoscope task. MTBI patients' reduced performance on memory tasks for complex, abstract stimuli can be attributed to a dysfunction in the strategic component of memory process.

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.

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

PubMed

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

2015-01-01

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

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

PubMed

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

2013-07-01

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

Sensitivity of negative subsequent memory and task-negative effects to age and associative memory performance.

PubMed

de Chastelaine, Marianne; Mattson, Julia T; Wang, Tracy H; Donley, Brian E; Rugg, Michael D

2015-07-01

The present fMRI experiment employed associative recognition to investigate the relationships between age and encoding-related negative subsequent memory effects and task-negative effects. Young, middle-aged and older adults (total n=136) were scanned while they made relational judgments on visually presented word pairs. In a later memory test, the participants made associative recognition judgments on studied, rearranged (items studied on different trials) and new pairs. Several regions, mostly localized to the default mode network, demonstrated negative subsequent memory effects in an across age-group analysis. All but one of these regions also demonstrated task-negative effects, although there was no correlation between the size of the respective effects. Whereas negative subsequent memory effects demonstrated a graded attenuation with age, task-negative effects declined markedly between the young and the middle-aged group, but showed no further reduction in the older group. Negative subsequent memory effects did not correlate with memory performance within any age group. By contrast, in the older group only, task-negative effects predicted later memory performance. The findings demonstrate that negative subsequent memory and task-negative effects depend on dissociable neural mechanisms and likely reflect distinct cognitive processes. The relationship between task-negative effects and memory performance in the older group might reflect the sensitivity of these effects to variations in amount of age-related neuropathology. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Memory. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The composite complex span: French validation of a short working memory task.

PubMed

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

2016-03-01

Most studies in individual differences in the field of working memory research use complex span tasks to measure working memory capacity. Various complex span tasks based on different materials have been developed, and these tasks have proven both reliable and valid; several complex span tasks are often combined to provide a domain-general estimate of working memory capacity with even better psychometric properties. The present work sought to address two issues. Firstly, having participants perform several full-length complex span tasks in succession makes for a long and tedious procedure. Secondly, few complex span tasks have been translated and validated in French. We constructed a French working memory task labeled the Composite Complex Span (CCS). The CCS includes shortened versions of three classic complex span tasks: the reading span, symmetry span, and operation span. We assessed the psychometric properties of the CCS, including test-retest reliability and convergent validity, with Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices and with an alpha span task; the CCS demonstrated satisfying qualities in a sample of 1,093 participants. This work provides evidence that shorter versions of classic complex span tasks can yield valid working memory estimates. The materials and normative data for the CCS are also included.

Dual Tasking and Working Memory in Alcoholism: Relation to Frontocerebellar Circuitry

PubMed Central

Chanraud, Sandra; Pitel, Anne-Lise; Rohlfing, Torsten; Pfefferbaum, Adolf; Sullivan, Edith V

2010-01-01

Controversy exists regarding the role of cerebellar systems in cognition and whether working memory compromise commonly marking alcoholism can be explained by compromise of nodes of corticocerebellar circuitry. We tested 17 alcoholics and 31 age-matched controls with dual-task, working memory paradigms. Interference tasks competed with verbal and spatial working memory tasks using low (three item) or high (six item) memory loads. Participants also underwent structural MRI to obtain volumes of nodes of the frontocerebellar system. On the verbal working memory task, both groups performed equally. On the spatial working memory with the high-load task, the alcoholic group was disproportionately more affected by the arithmetic distractor than were controls. In alcoholics, volumes of the left thalamus and left cerebellar Crus I volumes were more robust predictors of performance in the spatial working memory task with the arithmetic distractor than the left frontal superior cortex. In controls, volumes of the right middle frontal gyrus and right cerebellar Crus I were independent predictors over the left cerebellar Crus I, left thalamus, right superior parietal cortex, or left middle frontal gyrus of spatial working memory performance with tracking interference. The brain–behavior correlations suggest that alcoholics and controls relied on the integrity of certain nodes of corticocerebellar systems to perform these verbal and spatial working memory tasks, but that the specific pattern of relationships differed by group. The resulting brain structure–function patterns provide correlational support that components of this corticocerebellar system not typically related to normal performance in dual-task conditions may be available to augment otherwise dampened performance by alcoholics. PMID:20410871

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.

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.

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…

Effects of Propranolol, a β-noradrenergic Antagonist, on Memory Consolidation and Reconsolidation in Mice

PubMed Central

Villain, Hélène; Benkahoul, Aïcha; Drougard, Anne; Lafragette, Marie; Muzotte, Elodie; Pech, Stéphane; Bui, Eric; Brunet, Alain; Birmes, Philippe; Roullet, Pascal

2016-01-01

Memory reconsolidation impairment using the β-noradrenergic receptor blocker propranolol is a promising novel treatment avenue for patients suffering from pathogenic memories, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, in order to better inform targeted treatment development, the effects of this compound on memory need to be better characterized via translational research. We examined the effects of systemic propranolol administration in mice undergoing a wide range of behavioral tests to determine more specifically which aspects of the memory consolidation and reconsolidation are impaired by propranolol. We found that propranolol (10 mg/kg) affected memory consolidation in non-aversive tasks (object recognition and object location) but not in moderately (Morris water maze (MWM) to highly (passive avoidance, conditioned taste aversion) aversive tasks. Further, propranolol impaired memory reconsolidation in the most and in the least aversive tasks, but not in the moderately aversive task, suggesting its amnesic effect was not related to task aversion. Moreover, in aquatic object recognition and location tasks in which animals were forced to behave (contrary to the classic versions of the tasks); propranolol did not impair memory reconsolidation. Taken together our results suggest that the memory impairment observed after propranolol administration may result from a modification of the emotional valence of the memory rather than a disruption of the contextual component of the memory trace. This is relevant to the use of propranolol to block memory reconsolidation in individuals with PTSD, as such a treatment would not erase the traumatic memory but only reduce the emotional valence associated with this event. PMID:27014009

Information and processes underlying semantic and episodic memory across tasks, items, and individuals.

PubMed

Cox, Gregory E; Hemmer, Pernille; Aue, William R; Criss, Amy H

2018-04-01

The development of memory theory has been constrained by a focus on isolated tasks rather than the processes and information that are common to situations in which memory is engaged. We present results from a study in which 453 participants took part in five different memory tasks: single-item recognition, associative recognition, cued recall, free recall, and lexical decision. Using hierarchical Bayesian techniques, we jointly analyzed the correlations between tasks within individuals-reflecting the degree to which tasks rely on shared cognitive processes-and within items-reflecting the degree to which tasks rely on the same information conveyed by the item. Among other things, we find that (a) the processes involved in lexical access and episodic memory are largely separate and rely on different kinds of information, (b) access to lexical memory is driven primarily by perceptual aspects of a word, (c) all episodic memory tasks rely to an extent on a set of shared processes which make use of semantic features to encode both single words and associations between words, and (d) recall involves additional processes likely related to contextual cuing and response production. These results provide a large-scale picture of memory across different tasks which can serve to drive the development of comprehensive theories of memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Components of working memory and visual selective attention.

PubMed

Burnham, Bryan R; Sabia, Matthew; Langan, Catherine

2014-02-01

Load theory (Lavie, N., Hirst, A., De Fockert, J. W., & Viding, E. [2004]. Load theory of selective attention and cognitive control. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 339-354.) proposes that control of attention depends on the amount and type of load that is imposed by current processing. Specifically, perceptual load should lead to efficient distractor rejection, whereas working memory load (dual-task coordination) should hinder distractor rejection. Studies support load theory's prediction that working memory load will lead to larger distractor effects; however, these studies used secondary tasks that required only verbal working memory and the central executive. The present study examined which other working memory components (visual, spatial, and phonological) influence visual selective attention. Subjects completed an attentional capture task alone (single-task) or while engaged in a working memory task (dual-task). Results showed that along with the central executive, visual and spatial working memory influenced selective attention, but phonological working memory did not. Specifically, attentional capture was larger when visual or spatial working memory was loaded, but phonological working memory load did not affect attentional capture. The results are consistent with load theory and suggest specific components of working memory influence visual selective attention. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Is lorazepam-induced amnesia specific to the type of memory or to the task used to assess it?

PubMed

File, S E; Sharma, R; Shaffer, J

1992-01-01

Retrieval tasks can be classified along a continuum from conceptually driven (relying on the encoded meaning of the material) to data driven (relying on the perceptual record and surface features of the material). Since most explicit memory tests are conceptually driven and most implicit memory tests are data driven there has been considerable confounding of the memory system being assessed and the processing required by the retrieval task. The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate the effects of lorazepam on explicit memory, using both types of retrieval task. Lorazepam (2.5 mg) or matched placebo was administered to healthy volunteers and changes in subjective mood ratings and in performance in tests of memory were measured. Lorazepam made subjects significantly more drowsy, feeble, clumsy, muzzy, lethargic and mentally slow. Lorazepam significantly impaired recognition memory for slides, impaired the number of words remembered when the retrieval was cued by the first two letters and reduced the number of pictures remembered when retention was cued with picture fragments. Thus episodic memory was impaired whether the task used was conceptually driven (as in slide recognition) or data driven, as in the other two tasks. Analyses of covariance indicated that the memory impairments were independent of increased sedation, as assessed by self-ratings. In contrast to the deficits in episodic memory, there were no lorazepam-induced impairments in tests of semantic memory, whether this was measured in the conceptually driven task of category generation or in the data-driven task of wordstem completion.

Impairment on a self-ordered working memory task in patients with early-acquired hippocampal atrophy.

PubMed

Geva, Sharon; Cooper, Janine M; Gadian, David G; Mishkin, Mortimer; Vargha-Khadem, Faraneh

2016-08-01

One of the features of both adult-onset and developmental forms of amnesia resulting from bilateral medial temporal lobe damage, or even from relatively selective damage to the hippocampus, is the sparing of working memory. Recently, however, a number of studies have reported deficits on working memory tasks in patients with damage to the hippocampus and in macaque monkeys with neonatal hippocampal lesions. These studies suggest that successful performance on working memory tasks with high memory load require the contribution of the hippocampus. Here we compared performance on a working memory task (the Self-ordered Pointing Task), between patients with early onset hippocampal damage and a group of healthy controls. Consistent with the findings in the monkeys with neonatal lesions, we found that the patients were impaired on the task, but only on blocks of trials with intermediate memory load. Importantly, only intermediate to high memory load blocks yielded significant correlations between task performance and hippocampal volume. Additionally, we found no evidence of proactive interference in either group, and no evidence of an effect of time since injury on performance. We discuss the role of the hippocampus and its interactions with the prefrontal cortex in serving working memory. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Weight and See: Loading Working Memory Improves Incidental Identification of Irrelevant Faces

PubMed Central

Carmel, David; Fairnie, Jake; Lavie, Nilli

2012-01-01

Are task-irrelevant stimuli processed to a level enabling individual identification? This question is central both for perceptual processing models and for applied settings (e.g., eye-witness testimony). Lavie’s load theory proposes that working memory actively maintains attentional prioritization of relevant over irrelevant information. Loading working memory thus impairs attentional prioritization, leading to increased processing of task-irrelevant stimuli. Previous research has shown that increased working memory load leads to greater interference effects from response-competing distractors. Here we test the novel prediction that increased processing of irrelevant stimuli under high working memory load should lead to a greater likelihood of incidental identification of entirely irrelevant stimuli. To test this, we asked participants to perform a word-categorization task while ignoring task-irrelevant images. The categorization task was performed during the retention interval of a working memory task with either low or high load (defined by memory set size). Following the final experimental trial, a surprise question assessed incidental identification of the irrelevant image. Loading working memory was found to improve identification of task-irrelevant faces, but not of building stimuli (shown in a separate experiment to be less distracting). These findings suggest that working memory plays a critical role in determining whether distracting stimuli will be subsequently identified. PMID:22912623

Autobiographical Memory Task in Assessing Dementia

PubMed Central

Dreyfus, Denise Maue; Roe, Catherine M.; Morris, John C.

2009-01-01

Objective To appraise the relationship of a task assessing memory for recent autobiographical events and those of two commonly used brief memory tasks with the results of a clinical assessment for dementia. Design, Setting, and Participants We compared correlations between a task assessing recall of recent autobiographical events and two frequently-used brief clinical memory measures with dementia ratings by clinicians. Participants were enrolled in Washington University Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center studies, were aged 60 years or above, and took part in assessments between May 2002 and August 2005 (N=425). Main Outcome Measures Nonparametric, rank-based Spearman correlations, adjusted for age and education, between the Clinical Dementia Rating Sum of Boxes (CDR-SB) and scores on the autobiographical recall query and two clinical memory tasks taken from the Mini-Mental State Exam and the Short Blessed Test. Results The autobiographical recall task and each of the other brief clinical measures correlated significantly with the CDR-SB (p<.0001). The autobiographical recall task had a significantly higher correlation (p<.0001) with the CDR-SB than the two commonly-used clinical memory measures. Conclusions Clinicians may find autobiographical memories an important indicator of clinical memory function and the autobiographical query a useful tool when assessing for dementia. PMID:20625094

Working Memory Costs of Task Switching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liefooghe, Baptist; Barrouillet, Pierre; Vandierendonck, Andre; Camos, Valerie

2008-01-01

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…

Contribution of underlying processes to improved visuospatial working memory associated with physical activity.

PubMed

Ji, Qingchun; Wang, Yingying; Guo, Wei; Zhou, Chenglin

2017-01-01

Working memory is critical for various cognitive processes and can be separated into two stages: short-term memory storage and manipulation processing. Although previous studies have demonstrated that increased physical activity (PA) improves working memory and that males outperform females on visuospatial working memory tasks, few studies have determined the contribution of the two underlying stages to the visuospatial working memory improvement associated with PA. Thus, the aims of the present study were to verify the relationship between physical activity and visuospatial working memory, determine whether one or both stages were affected by PA, and investigate any sex differences. A total of 56 undergraduate students were recruited for this study. Their scores on the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) were used to separate them into either a lower PA ( n  = 26; IPAQ score ≤3,000 metabolic equivalent [MET]-min/week) or higher PA ( n  = 30; IPAQ score >3,000 MET-min/week) group. Participants were required to complete three tasks: a visuospatial working memory task, a task that examines the short-term memory storage stage, and a mental rotation task that examines the active manipulation stage. Participants in the higher PA group maintained similar accuracy but displayed significantly faster reaction times (RT) than those in the lower PA group on the visuospatial working memory and manipulation tasks. By contrast, no difference was observed between groups on the short-term memory storage task. In addition, no effects of sex were detected. Our results confirm that PA was positively to visuospatial working memory and that this positive relationship was associated with more rapid cognitive processing during the manipulation stage, with little or no relationship between PA and the memory storage stage of visuospatial working memory.

Strategic trade-offs between quality and quantity in working memory

PubMed Central

Fougnie, Daryl; Cormiea, Sarah M.; Kanabar, Anish; Alvarez, George A.

2016-01-01

Is working memory capacity determined by an immutable limit—e.g. four memory storage slots? The fact that performance is typically unaffected by task instructions has been taken as support for such structural models of memory. Here, we modified a standard working memory task to incentivize participants to remember more items. Participants were asked to remember a set of colors over a short retention interval. In one condition, participants reported a random item’s color using a color wheel. In the modified task, participants responded to all items and their response was only considered correct if all responses were on the correct half of the color wheel. We looked for a trade-off between quantity and quality—participants storing more items, but less precisely, when required to report them all. This trade-off was observed when tasks were blocked, when task-type was cued after encoding, but not when task-type was cued during the response, suggesting that task differences changed how items were actively encoded and maintained. This strategic control over the contents of working memory challenges models that assume inflexible limits on memory storage. PMID:26950383

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.

Cognitive effects of methylphenidate and levodopa in healthy volunteers.

PubMed

Linssen, A M W; Sambeth, A; Vuurman, E F P M; Riedel, W J

2014-02-01

Our previous study showed enhanced declarative memory consolidation after acute methylphenidate (MPH) administration. The primary aim of the current study was to investigate the duration of this effect. Secondary, the dopaminergic contribution of MPH effects, the electrophysiological correlates of declarative memory, and the specificity of memory enhancing effects of MPH to declarative memory were assessed. Effects of 40 mg of MPH on memory performance were compared to 100mg of levodopa (LEV) in a placebo-controlled crossover study with 30 healthy volunteers. Memory performance testing included a word learning test, the Sternberg memory scanning task, a paired associates learning task, and a spatial working memory task. During the word learning test, event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were measured. MPH failed to enhance retention of words at a 30 min delay, but it improved 24 h delayed memory recall relative to PLA and LEV. Furthermore, during encoding, the P3b and P600 ERP latencies were prolonged and the P600 amplitude was larger after LEV compared to PLA and MPH. MPH speeded response times on the Sternberg Memory Scanning task and improved performance on the Paired Associates Learning task, relative to LEV, but not PLA. Performance on the Spatial working memory task was not affected by the treatments. These findings suggest that MPH and LEV might have opposite effects on memory. © 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V. and ECNP.

Monitoring supports performance in a dual-task paradigm involving a risky decision-making task and a working memory task

PubMed Central

Gathmann, Bettina; Schiebener, Johannes; Wolf, Oliver T.; Brand, Matthias

2015-01-01

Performing two cognitively demanding tasks at the same time is known to decrease performance. The current study investigates the underlying executive functions of a dual-tasking situation involving the simultaneous performance of decision making under explicit risk and a working memory task. It is suggested that making a decision and performing a working memory task at the same time should particularly require monitoring—an executive control process supervising behavior and the state of processing on two tasks. To test the role of a supervisory/monitoring function in such a dual-tasking situation we investigated 122 participants with the Game of Dice Task plus 2-back task (GDT plus 2-back task). This dual task requires participants to make decisions under risk and to perform a 2-back working memory task at the same time. Furthermore, a task measuring a set of several executive functions gathered in the term concept formation (Modified Card Sorting Test, MCST) and the newly developed Balanced Switching Task (BST), measuring monitoring in particular, were used. The results demonstrate that concept formation and monitoring are involved in the simultaneous performance of decision making under risk and a working memory task. In particular, the mediation analysis revealed that BST performance partially mediates the influence of MCST performance on the GDT plus 2-back task. These findings suggest that monitoring is one important subfunction for superior performance in a dual-tasking situation including decision making under risk and a working memory task. PMID:25741308

Task-relevant perceptual features can define categories in visual memory too.

PubMed

Antonelli, Karla B; Williams, Carrick C

2017-11-01

Although Konkle, Brady, Alvarez, and Oliva (2010, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 139(3), 558) claim that visual long-term memory (VLTM) is organized on underlying conceptual, not perceptual, information, visual memory results from visual search tasks are not well explained by this theory. We hypothesized that when viewing an object, any task-relevant visual information is critical to the organizational structure of VLTM. In two experiments, we examined the organization of VLTM by measuring the amount of retroactive interference created by objects possessing different combinations of task-relevant features. Based on task instructions, only the conceptual category was task relevant or both the conceptual category and a perceptual object feature were task relevant. Findings indicated that when made task relevant, perceptual object feature information, along with conceptual category information, could affect memory organization for objects in VLTM. However, when perceptual object feature information was task irrelevant, it did not contribute to memory organization; instead, memory defaulted to being organized around conceptual category information. These findings support the theory that a task-defined organizational structure is created in VLTM based on the relevance of particular object features and information.

Verbal makes it positive, spatial makes it negative: working memory biases judgments, attention, and moods.

PubMed

Storbeck, Justin; Watson, Philip

2014-12-01

Prior research has suggested that emotion and working memory domains are integrated, such that positive affect enhances verbal working memory, whereas negative affect enhances spatial working memory (Gray, 2004; Storbeck, 2012). Simon (1967) postulated that one feature of emotion and cognition integration would be reciprocal connectedness (i.e., emotion influences cognition and cognition influences emotion). We explored whether affective judgments and attention to affective qualities are biased by the activation of verbal and spatial working memory mind-sets. For all experiments, participants completed a 2-back verbal or spatial working memory task followed by an endorsement task (Experiments 1 & 2), word-pair selection task (Exp. 3), or attentional dot-probe task (Exp. 4). Participants who had an activated verbal, compared with spatial, working memory mind-set were more likely to endorse pictures (Exp. 1) and words (Exp. 2) as being more positive and to select the more positive word pair out of a set of word pairs that went 'together best' (Exp. 3). Additionally, people who completed the verbal working memory task took longer to disengage from positive stimuli, whereas those who completed the spatial working memory task took longer to disengage from negative stimuli (Exp. 4). Interestingly, across the 4 experiments, we observed higher levels of self-reported negative affect for people who completed the spatial working memory task, which was consistent with their endorsement and attentional bias toward negative stimuli. Therefore, emotion and working memory may have a reciprocal connectedness allowing for bidirectional influence.

Memory Indexing: A Novel Method for Tracing Memory Processes in Complex Cognitive Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Renkewitz, Frank; Jahn, Georg

2012-01-01

We validate an eye-tracking method applicable for studying memory processes in complex cognitive tasks. The method is tested with a task on probabilistic inferences from memory. It provides valuable data on the time course of processing, thus clarifying previous results on heuristic probabilistic inference. Participants learned cue values of…

Examining the influence of a spatially irrelevant working memory load on attentional allocation.

PubMed

McDonnell, Gerald P; Dodd, Michael D

2013-08-01

The present study examined the influence of holding task-relevant gaze cues in working memory during a target detection task. Gaze cues shift attention in gaze-consistent directions, even when they are irrelevant to a primary detection task. It is unclear, however, whether gaze cues need to be perceived online to elicit these effects, or how these effects may be moderated if the gaze cues are relevant to a secondary task. In Experiment 1, participants encoded a face for a subsequent memory task, after which they performed an unrelated target detection task. Critically, gaze direction was irrelevant to the target detection task, but memory for the perceived face was tested at trial conclusion. Surprisingly, participants exhibited inhibition-of-return (IOR) and not facilitation, with slower response times for the gazed-at location. In Experiments 2, presentation duration and cue-target stimulus-onset asynchrony were manipulated and we continued to observe IOR with no early facilitation. Experiment 3 revealed facilitation but not IOR when the memory task was removed; Experiment 4 also revealed facilitation when the gaze cue memory task was replaced with arrows cues. The present experiments provide an important dissociation between perceiving cues online versus holding them in memory as it relates to attentional allocation. 2013 APA, all rights reserved

Training the removal of negative information from working memory: A preliminary investigation of a working memory bias modification task.

PubMed

Robinaugh, Donald J; Crane, Margaret E; Enock, Philip M; McNally, Richard J

2016-01-01

Rumination in depressed adults is associated with a bias toward retaining negative information in working memory. We developed a task designed to modify this cognitive bias by having subjects repeatedly practice removing negative words from working memory, thereby enabling them to retain positive and neutral words. To assess the efficacy of this task, we recruited 60 adults who reported elevated repetitive negative thought (RNT) and randomly assigned them to receive a single administration of either the working memory bias modification (WMBM) task or a control task. Subjects in the WMBM condition exhibited greater reduction in proactive interference for negative information than did those in the control condition. These results suggest that the WMBM task reduces biased retention of negative information in working memory and, thus, may be useful in investigating the possible causal role of this cognitive bias in RNT or depression.

Impaired Attentional Disengagement from Stimuli Matching the Contents of Working Memory in Social Anxiety

PubMed Central

Moriya, Jun; Sugiura, Yoshinori

2012-01-01

Although many cognitive models in anxiety propose that an impaired top-down control enhances the processing of task-irrelevant stimuli, few studies have paid attention to task-irrelevant stimuli under a cognitive load task. In the present study, we investigated the effects of the working memory load on attention to task-irrelevant stimuli in trait social anxiety. The results showed that as trait social anxiety increased, participants were unable to disengage from task-irrelevant stimuli identical to the memory cue under low and high working memory loads. Impaired attentional disengagement was positively correlated with trait social anxiety. This impaired attentional disengagement was related to trait social anxiety, but not state anxiety. Our findings suggest that socially anxious people have difficulty in disengaging attention from a task-irrelevant memory cue owing to an impaired top-down control under a working memory load. PMID:23071765

The Effects of Valence and Arousal on Associative Working Memory and Long-Term Memory

PubMed Central

Bergmann, Heiko C.; Rijpkema, Mark; Fernández, Guillén; Kessels, Roy P. C.

2012-01-01

Background Emotion can either facilitate or impair memory, depending on what, when and how memory is tested and whether the paradigm at hand is administered as a working memory (WM) or a long-term memory (LTM) task. Whereas emotionally arousing single stimuli are more likely to be remembered, memory for the relationship between two or more component parts (i.e., relational memory) appears to be worse in the presence of emotional stimuli, at least in some relational memory tasks. The current study investigated the effects of both valence (neutral vs. positive vs. negative) and arousal (low vs. high) in an inter-item WM binding and LTM task. Methodology/Principal Findings A five-pair delayed-match-to-sample (WM) task was administered. In each trial, study pairs consisted of one neutral picture and a second picture of which the emotional qualities (valence and arousal levels) were manipulated. These pairs had to be remembered across a delay interval of 10 seconds. This was followed by a probe phase in which five pairs were tested. After completion of this task, an unexpected single item LTM task as well as an LTM task for the pairs was assessed. As expected, emotional arousal impaired WM processing. This was reflected in lower accuracy for pairs consisting of high-arousal pictures compared to pairs with low-arousal pictures. A similar effect was found for the associative LTM task. However, the arousal effect was modulated by affective valence for the WM but not the LTM task; pairs with low-arousal negative pictures were not processed as well in the WM task. No significant differences were found for the single-item LTM task. Conclusions/Significance The present study provides additional evidence that processes during initial perception/encoding and post-encoding processes, the time interval between study and test and the interaction between valence and arousal might modulate the effects of “emotion” on associative memory. PMID:23300724

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.

Long-term memory-based control of attention in multi-step tasks requires working memory: evidence from domain-specific interference

PubMed Central

Foerster, Rebecca M.; Carbone, Elena; Schneider, Werner X.

2014-01-01

Evidence for long-term memory (LTM)-based control of attention has been found during the execution of highly practiced multi-step tasks. However, does LTM directly control for attention or are working memory (WM) processes involved? In the present study, this question was investigated with a dual-task paradigm. Participants executed either a highly practiced visuospatial sensorimotor task (speed stacking) or a verbal task (high-speed poem reciting), while maintaining visuospatial or verbal information in WM. Results revealed unidirectional and domain-specific interference. Neither speed stacking nor high-speed poem reciting was influenced by WM retention. Stacking disrupted the retention of visuospatial locations, but did not modify memory performance of verbal material (letters). Reciting reduced the retention of verbal material substantially whereas it affected the memory performance of visuospatial locations to a smaller degree. We suggest that the selection of task-relevant information from LTM for the execution of overlearned multi-step tasks recruits domain-specific WM. PMID:24847304

Cognitive Correlates of Perseverations in Individuals with Memory Impairment.

PubMed

Kavé, Gitit; Heinik, Jeremia

2017-02-01

This study examines which cognitive measure best accounts for perseverations in individuals with memory impairment. The sample included 85 individuals, of whom 21 had subjective memory concerns, 27 had mild cognitive impairment, and 37 had Alzheimer's disease. Participants produced responses on a semantic category fluency task and on the ideational fluency (IF) task from the Cambridge Cognitive Examination-Revised. Measures of word finding, working memory, and abstract thinking were also assessed. Significant group differences in percentage of perseverations emerged on both tasks. No cognitive measure accounted for the percentage of perseverations on the semantic fluency task. A measure of abstract thinking was the best predictor of the percentage of perseverations on the IF task, followed by a measure of working memory. The underlying cognitive mechanisms that lead to perseverations differ across tasks, with perseverations on the IF task reflecting both conceptual deficits and working memory limitations. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

ERP correlates of object recognition memory in Down syndrome: Do active and passive tasks measure the same thing?

PubMed

Van Hoogmoed, A H; Nadel, L; Spanò, G; Edgin, J O

2016-02-01

Event related potentials (ERPs) can help to determine the cognitive and neural processes underlying memory functions and are often used to study populations with severe memory impairment. In healthy adults, memory is typically assessed with active tasks, while in patient studies passive memory paradigms are generally used. In this study we examined whether active and passive continuous object recognition tasks measure the same underlying memory process in typically developing (TD) adults and in individuals with Down syndrome (DS), a population with known hippocampal impairment. We further explored how ERPs in these tasks relate to behavioral measures of memory. Data-driven analysis techniques revealed large differences in old-new effects in the active versus passive task in TD adults, but no difference between these tasks in DS. The group with DS required additional processing in the active task in comparison to the TD group in two ways. First, the old-new effect started 150 ms later. Second, more repetitions were required to show the old-new effect. In the group with DS, performance on a behavioral measure of object-location memory was related to ERP measures across both tasks. In total, our results suggest that active and passive ERP memory measures do not differ in DS and likely reflect the use of implicit memory, but not explicit processing, on both tasks. Our findings highlight the need for a greater understanding of the comparison between active and passive ERP paradigms before they are inferred to measure similar functions across populations (e.g., infants or intellectual disability). Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Memory systems, processes, and tasks: taxonomic clarification via factor analysis.

PubMed

Bruss, Peter J; Mitchell, David B

2009-01-01

The nature of various memory systems was examined using factor analysis. We reanalyzed data from 11 memory tasks previously reported in Mitchell and Bruss (2003). Four well-defined factors emerged, closely resembling episodic and semantic memory and conceptual and perceptual implicit memory, in line with both memory systems and transfer-appropriate processing accounts. To explore taxonomic issues, we ran separate analyses on the implicit tasks. Using a cross-format manipulation (pictures vs. words), we identified 3 prototypical tasks. Word fragment completion and picture fragment identification tasks were "factor pure," tapping perceptual processes uniquely. Category exemplar generation revealed its conceptual nature, yielding both cross-format priming and a picture superiority effect. In contrast, word stem completion and picture naming were more complex, revealing attributes of both processes.

To search or to like: Mapping fixations to differentiate two forms of incidental scene memory.

PubMed

Choe, Kyoung Whan; Kardan, Omid; Kotabe, Hiroki P; Henderson, John M; Berman, Marc G

2017-10-01

We employed eye-tracking to investigate how performing different tasks on scenes (e.g., intentionally memorizing them, searching for an object, evaluating aesthetic preference) can affect eye movements during encoding and subsequent scene memory. We found that scene memorability decreased after visual search (one incidental encoding task) compared to intentional memorization, and that preference evaluation (another incidental encoding task) produced better memory, similar to the incidental memory boost previously observed for words and faces. By analyzing fixation maps, we found that although fixation map similarity could explain how eye movements during visual search impairs incidental scene memory, it could not explain the incidental memory boost from aesthetic preference evaluation, implying that implicit mechanisms were at play. We conclude that not all incidental encoding tasks should be taken to be similar, as different mechanisms (e.g., explicit or implicit) lead to memory enhancements or decrements for different incidental encoding tasks.

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

PubMed

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

2012-10-01

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

Different Ways to Cue a Coherent Memory System: A Theory for Episodic, Semantic, and Procedural Tasks.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Humphreys, Michael S.; And Others

1989-01-01

An associative theory of memory is proposed to serve as a counterexample to claims that dissociations among episodic, semantic, and procedural memory tasks necessitate separate memory systems. The theory is based on task analyses of matching (recognition and familiarity judgments), retrieval (cued recall), and production (free association). (TJH)

Complex Span versus Updating Tasks of Working Memory: The Gap Is Not that Deep

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schmiedek, Florian; Hildebrandt, Andrea; Lovden, Martin; Wilhelm, Oliver; Lindenberger, Ulman

2009-01-01

How to best measure working memory capacity is an issue of ongoing debate. Besides established complex span tasks, which combine short-term memory demands with generally unrelated secondary tasks, there exists a set of paradigms characterized by continuous and simultaneous updating of several items in working memory, such as the n-back, memory…

Computer Game Play Reduces Intrusive Memories of Experimental Trauma via Reconsolidation-Update Mechanisms.

PubMed

James, Ella L; Bonsall, Michael B; Hoppitt, Laura; Tunbridge, Elizabeth M; Geddes, John R; Milton, Amy L; Holmes, Emily A

2015-08-01

Memory of a traumatic event becomes consolidated within hours. Intrusive memories can then flash back repeatedly into the mind's eye and cause distress. We investigated whether reconsolidation-the process during which memories become malleable when recalled-can be blocked using a cognitive task and whether such an approach can reduce these unbidden intrusions. We predicted that reconsolidation of a reactivated visual memory of experimental trauma could be disrupted by engaging in a visuospatial task that would compete for visual working memory resources. We showed that intrusive memories were virtually abolished by playing the computer game Tetris following a memory-reactivation task 24 hr after initial exposure to experimental trauma. Furthermore, both memory reactivation and playing Tetris were required to reduce subsequent intrusions (Experiment 2), consistent with reconsolidation-update mechanisms. A simple, noninvasive cognitive-task procedure administered after emotional memory has already consolidated (i.e., > 24 hours after exposure to experimental trauma) may prevent the recurrence of intrusive memories of those emotional events. © The Author(s) 2015.

Computer Game Play Reduces Intrusive Memories of Experimental Trauma via Reconsolidation-Update Mechanisms

PubMed Central

James, Ella L.; Bonsall, Michael B.; Hoppitt, Laura; Tunbridge, Elizabeth M.; Geddes, John R.; Milton, Amy L.

2015-01-01

Memory of a traumatic event becomes consolidated within hours. Intrusive memories can then flash back repeatedly into the mind’s eye and cause distress. We investigated whether reconsolidation—the process during which memories become malleable when recalled—can be blocked using a cognitive task and whether such an approach can reduce these unbidden intrusions. We predicted that reconsolidation of a reactivated visual memory of experimental trauma could be disrupted by engaging in a visuospatial task that would compete for visual working memory resources. We showed that intrusive memories were virtually abolished by playing the computer game Tetris following a memory-reactivation task 24 hr after initial exposure to experimental trauma. Furthermore, both memory reactivation and playing Tetris were required to reduce subsequent intrusions (Experiment 2), consistent with reconsolidation-update mechanisms. A simple, noninvasive cognitive-task procedure administered after emotional memory has already consolidated (i.e., > 24 hours after exposure to experimental trauma) may prevent the recurrence of intrusive memories of those emotional events. PMID:26133572

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.

Your brain on speed: cognitive performance of a spatial working memory task is not affected by walking speed

PubMed Central

Kline, Julia E.; Poggensee, Katherine; Ferris, Daniel P.

2014-01-01

When humans walk in everyday life, they typically perform a range of cognitive tasks while they are on the move. Past studies examining performance changes in dual cognitive-motor tasks during walking have produced a variety of results. These discrepancies may be related to the type of cognitive task chosen, differences in the walking speeds studied, or lack of controlling for walking speed. The goal of this study was to determine how young, healthy subjects performed a spatial working memory task over a range of walking speeds. We used high-density electroencephalography to determine if electrocortical activity mirrored changes in cognitive performance across speeds. Subjects stood (0.0 m/s) and walked (0.4, 0.8, 1.2, and 1.6 m/s) with and without performing a Brooks spatial working memory task. We hypothesized that performance of the spatial working memory task and the associated electrocortical activity would decrease significantly with walking speed. Across speeds, the spatial working memory task caused subjects to step more widely compared with walking without the task. This is typically a sign that humans are adapting their gait dynamics to increase gait stability. Several cortical areas exhibited power fluctuations time-locked to memory encoding during the cognitive task. In the somatosensory association cortex, alpha power increased prior to stimulus presentation and decreased during memory encoding. There were small significant reductions in theta power in the right superior parietal lobule and the posterior cingulate cortex around memory encoding. However, the subjects did not show a significant change in cognitive task performance or electrocortical activity with walking speed. These findings indicate that in young, healthy subjects walking speed does not affect performance of a spatial working memory task. These subjects can devote adequate cortical resources to spatial cognition when needed, regardless of walking speed. PMID:24847239

I. WORKING MEMORY CAPACITY IN CONTEXT: MODELING DYNAMIC PROCESSES OF BEHAVIOR, MEMORY, AND DEVELOPMENT.

PubMed

Simmering, Vanessa R

2016-09-01

Working memory is a vital cognitive skill that underlies a broad range of behaviors. Higher cognitive functions are reliably predicted by working memory measures from two domains: children's performance on complex span tasks, and infants' performance in looking paradigms. Despite the similar predictive power across these research areas, theories of working memory development have not connected these different task types and developmental periods. The current project takes a first step toward bridging this gap by presenting a process-oriented theory, focusing on two tasks designed to assess visual working memory capacity in infants (the change-preference task) versus children and adults (the change detection task). Previous studies have shown inconsistent results, with capacity estimates increasing from one to four items during infancy, but only two to three items during early childhood. A probable source of this discrepancy is the different task structures used with each age group, but prior theories were not sufficiently specific to explain how performance relates across tasks. The current theory focuses on cognitive dynamics, that is, how memory representations are formed, maintained, and used within specific task contexts over development. This theory was formalized in a computational model to generate three predictions: 1) capacity estimates in the change-preference task should continue to increase beyond infancy; 2) capacity estimates should be higher in the change-preference versus change detection task when tested within individuals; and 3) performance should correlate across tasks because both rely on the same underlying memory system. I also tested a fourth prediction, that development across tasks could be explained through increasing real-time stability, realized computationally as strengthening connectivity within the model. Results confirmed these predictions, supporting the cognitive dynamics account of performance and developmental changes in real-time stability. The monograph concludes with implications for understanding memory, behavior, and development in a broader range of cognitive development. © 2016 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Menstrual cycle phase effects on memory and Stroop task performance.

PubMed

Hatta, Takeshi; Nagaya, Keiko

2009-10-01

The present study examined differences in Stroop and memory task performances modulated by gonadal steroid hormones during the menstrual cycle in women. Thirty women with regular menstrual cycles performed a logical memory task (Wechsler Memory Scale) and the Stroop task. The results showed a significant difference in Stroop task performance between low and high levels of estradiol and progesterone during the menstrual cycle, but there was no significant difference in memory performance between the two phases, nor was there any significant mood change that might have influenced cognitive performance. These findings suggest that sex-related hormone modulation selectively affects cognitive functions depending on the type of task and low level secretion of estradiol appears to contribute to reducing the level of attention that relates to the prefrontal cortex.

A scale-invariant internal representation of time.

PubMed

Shankar, Karthik H; Howard, Marc W

2012-01-01

We propose a principled way to construct an internal representation of the temporal stimulus history leading up to the present moment. A set of leaky integrators performs a Laplace transform on the stimulus function, and a linear operator approximates the inversion of the Laplace transform. The result is a representation of stimulus history that retains information about the temporal sequence of stimuli. This procedure naturally represents more recent stimuli more accurately than less recent stimuli; the decrement in accuracy is precisely scale invariant. This procedure also yields time cells that fire at specific latencies following the stimulus with a scale-invariant temporal spread. Combined with a simple associative memory, this representation gives rise to a moment-to-moment prediction that is also scale invariant in time. We propose that this scale-invariant representation of temporal stimulus history could serve as an underlying representation accessible to higher-level behavioral and cognitive mechanisms. In order to illustrate the potential utility of this scale-invariant representation in a variety of fields, we sketch applications using minimal performance functions to problems in classical conditioning, interval timing, scale-invariant learning in autoshaping, and the persistence of the recency effect in episodic memory across timescales.

Blocked vs. interleaved presentation and proactive interference in episodic memory.

PubMed

Del Missier, Fabio; Sassano, Alessia; Coni, Valentina; Salomonsson, Martina; Mäntylä, Timo

2018-05-01

Although a number of theoretical accounts of proactive interference (PI) in episodic memory have been proposed, existing empirical evidence does not support conclusively a single view yet. In two experiments we tested the predictions of the temporal discrimination theory of PI against alternative accounts by manipulating the presentation schedule of study materials (lists blocked by category vs. interleaved). In line with the temporal discrimination theory, we observed a clear buildup of (and release from) PI in the blocked condition, in which all the lists of the same category were presented sequentially. In the interleaved condition, with alternating lists of different categories, a more gradual and smoother buildup of PI was observed. When participants were left free to choose their presentation schedule, they spontaneously adopted an interleaved schedule, resulting again in more gradual PI. After longer delays, we observed recency effects at the list level in overall recall and, in the blocked condition, PI-related effects. The overall pattern of findings agrees with the predictions of the temporal discrimination theory of PI, complemented with categorical processing of list items, but not with alternative accounts, shedding light on the dynamics and underpinnings of PI under diverse presentation schedules and over different time scales.

An evaluation of nonclinical dissociation utilizing a virtual environment shows enhanced working memory and attention.

PubMed

Saidel-Goley, Isaac N; Albiero, Erin E; Flannery, Kathleen A

2012-02-01

Dissociation is a mental process resulting in the disruption of memory, perception, and sometimes identity. At a nonclinical level, only mild dissociative experiences occur. The nature of nonclinical dissociation is disputed in the literature, with some asserting that it is a beneficial information processing style and others positing that it is a psychopathological phenomenon. The purpose of this study was to further the understanding of nonclinical dissociation with respect to memory and attention, by including a more ecologically valid virtual reality (VR) memory task along with standard neuropsychological tasks. Forty-five undergraduate students from a small liberal arts college in the northeast participated for course credit. The participants completed a battery of tasks including two standard memory tasks, a standard attention task, and an experimental VR memory task; the VR task included immersion in a virtual apartment, followed by incidental object-location recall for objects in the virtual apartment. Support for the theoretical model portraying nonclinical dissociation as a beneficial information processing style was found in this study. Dissociation scores were positively correlated with working memory scores and attentional processing scores on the standard neuropsychological tasks. In terms of the VR task, dissociation scores were positively correlated with more false positive memories that could be the result of a tendency of nonclinical highly dissociative individuals to create more elaborative schemas. This study also demonstrates that VR paradigms add to the prediction of cognitive functioning in testing protocols using standard neuropsychological tests, while simultaneously increasing ecological validity.

The cost of proactive interference is constant across presentation conditions.

PubMed

Endress, Ansgar D; Siddique, Aneela

2016-10-01

Proactive interference (PI) severely constrains how many items people can remember. For example, Endress and Potter (2014a) presented participants with sequences of everyday objects at 250ms/picture, followed by a yes/no recognition test. They manipulated PI by either using new images on every trial in the unique condition (thus minimizing PI among items), or by re-using images from a limited pool for all trials in the repeated condition (thus maximizing PI among items). In the low-PI unique condition, the probability of remembering an item was essentially independent of the number of memory items, showing no clear memory limitations; more traditional working memory-like memory limitations appeared only in the high-PI repeated condition. Here, we ask whether the effects of PI are modulated by the availability of long-term memory (LTM) and verbal resources. Participants viewed sequences of 21 images, followed by a yes/no recognition test. Items were presented either quickly (250ms/image) or sufficiently slowly (1500ms/image) to produce LTM representations, either with or without verbal suppression. Across conditions, participants performed better in the unique than in the repeated condition, and better for slow than for fast presentations. In contrast, verbal suppression impaired performance only with slow presentations. The relative cost of PI was remarkably constant across conditions: relative to the unique condition, performance in the repeated condition was about 15% lower in all conditions. The cost of PI thus seems to be a function of the relative strength or recency of target items and interfering items, but relatively insensitive to other experimental manipulations. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Functional connectivity of hippocampal and prefrontal networks during episodic and spatial memory based on real-world environments.

PubMed

Robin, Jessica; Hirshhorn, Marnie; Rosenbaum, R Shayna; Winocur, Gordon; Moscovitch, Morris; Grady, Cheryl L

2015-01-01

Several recent studies have compared episodic and spatial memory in neuroimaging paradigms in order to understand better the contribution of the hippocampus to each of these tasks. In the present study, we build on previous findings showing common neural activation in default network areas during episodic and spatial memory tasks based on familiar, real-world environments (Hirshhorn et al. (2012) Neuropsychologia 50:3094-3106). Following previous demonstrations of the presence of functionally connected sub-networks within the default network, we performed seed-based functional connectivity analyses to determine how, depending on the task, the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex differentially couple with one another and with distinct whole-brain networks. We found evidence for a medial prefrontal-parietal network and a medial temporal lobe network, which were functionally connected to the prefrontal and hippocampal seeds, respectively, regardless of the nature of the memory task. However, these two networks were functionally connected with one another during the episodic memory task, but not during spatial memory tasks. Replicating previous reports of fractionation of the default network into stable sub-networks, this study also shows how these sub-networks may flexibly couple and uncouple with one another based on task demands. These findings support the hypothesis that episodic memory and spatial memory share a common medial temporal lobe-based neural substrate, with episodic memory recruiting additional prefrontal sub-networks. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Memory modulates journey-dependent coding in the rat hippocampus

PubMed Central

Ferbinteanu, J.; Shirvalkar, P.; Shapiro, M. L.

2011-01-01

Neurons in the rat hippocampus signal current location by firing in restricted areas called place fields. During goal-directed tasks in mazes, place fields can also encode past and future positions through journey-dependent activity, which could guide hippocampus-dependent behavior and underlie other temporally extended memories, such as autobiographical recollections. The relevance of journey-dependent activity for hippocampal-dependent memory, however, is not well understood. To further investigate the relationship between hippocampal journey-dependent activity and memory we compared neural firing in rats performing two mnemonically distinct but behaviorally identical tasks in the plus maze: a hippocampus-dependent spatial navigation task, and a hippocampus-independent cue response task. While place, prospective, and retrospective coding reflected temporally extended behavioral episodes in both tasks, memory strategy altered coding differently before and after the choice point. Before the choice point, when discriminative selection of memory strategy was critical, a switch between the tasks elicited a change in a field’s coding category, so that a field that signaled current location in one task coded pending journeys in the other task. After the choice point, however, when memory strategy became irrelevant, the fields preserved coding categories across tasks, so that the same field consistently signaled either current location or the recent journeys. Additionally, on the start arm firing rates were affected at comparable levels by task and journey, while on the goal arm firing rates predominantly encoded journey. The data demonstrate a direct link between journey-dependent coding and memory, and suggest that episodes are encoded by both population and firing rate coding. PMID:21697365

The Developmental Influence of Primary Memory Capacity on Working Memory and Academic Achievement

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

In this study, we investigate the development of primary memory capacity among children. Children between the ages of 5 and 8 completed 3 novel tasks (split span, interleaved lists, and a modified free-recall task) that measured primary memory by estimating the number of items in the focus of attention that could be spontaneously recalled in serial order. These tasks were calibrated against traditional measures of simple and complex span. Clear age-related changes in these primary memory estimates were observed. There were marked individual differences in primary memory capacity, but each novel measure was predictive of simple span performance. Among older children, each measure shared variance with reading and mathematics performance, whereas for younger children, the interleaved lists task was the strongest single predictor of academic ability. We argue that these novel tasks have considerable potential for the measurement of primary memory capacity and provide new, complementary ways of measuring the transient memory processes that predict academic performance. The interleaved lists task also shared features with interference control tasks, and our findings suggest that young children have a particular difficulty in resisting distraction and that variance in the ability to resist distraction is also shared with measures of educational attainment. PMID:26075630

The developmental influence of primary memory capacity on working memory and academic achievement.

PubMed

Hall, Debbora; Jarrold, Christopher; Towse, John N; Zarandi, Amy L

2015-08-01

In this study, we investigate the development of primary memory capacity among children. Children between the ages of 5 and 8 completed 3 novel tasks (split span, interleaved lists, and a modified free-recall task) that measured primary memory by estimating the number of items in the focus of attention that could be spontaneously recalled in serial order. These tasks were calibrated against traditional measures of simple and complex span. Clear age-related changes in these primary memory estimates were observed. There were marked individual differences in primary memory capacity, but each novel measure was predictive of simple span performance. Among older children, each measure shared variance with reading and mathematics performance, whereas for younger children, the interleaved lists task was the strongest single predictor of academic ability. We argue that these novel tasks have considerable potential for the measurement of primary memory capacity and provide new, complementary ways of measuring the transient memory processes that predict academic performance. The interleaved lists task also shared features with interference control tasks, and our findings suggest that young children have a particular difficulty in resisting distraction and that variance in the ability to resist distraction is also shared with measures of educational attainment. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

The Structure of Working Memory Abilities across the Adult Life Span

PubMed Central

Hale, Sandra; Rose, Nathan S.; Myerson, Joel; Strube, Michael J; Sommers, Mitchell; Tye-Murray, Nancy; Spehar, Brent

2010-01-01

The present study addresses three questions regarding age differences in working memory: (1) whether performance on complex span tasks decreases as a function of age at a faster rate than performance on simple span tasks; (2) whether spatial working memory decreases at a faster rate than verbal working memory; and (3) whether the structure of working memory abilities is different for different age groups. Adults, ages 20–89 (n=388), performed three simple and three complex verbal span tasks and three simple and three complex spatial memory tasks. Performance on the spatial tasks decreased at faster rates as a function of age than performance on the verbal tasks, but within each domain, performance on complex and simple span tasks decreased at the same rates. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that domain-differentiated models yielded better fits than models involving domain-general constructs, providing further evidence of the need to distinguish verbal and spatial working memory abilities. Regardless of which domain-differentiated model was examined, and despite the faster rates of decrease in the spatial domain, age group comparisons revealed that the factor structure of working memory abilities was highly similar in younger and older adults and showed no evidence of age-related dedifferentiation. PMID:21299306

A test of the reward-value hypothesis.

PubMed

Smith, Alexandra E; Dalecki, Stefan J; Crystal, Jonathon D

2017-03-01

Rats retain source memory (memory for the origin of information) over a retention interval of at least 1 week, whereas their spatial working memory (radial maze locations) decays within approximately 1 day. We have argued that different forgetting functions dissociate memory systems. However, the two tasks, in our previous work, used different reward values. The source memory task used multiple pellets of a preferred food flavor (chocolate), whereas the spatial working memory task provided access to a single pellet of standard chow-flavored food at each location. Thus, according to the reward-value hypothesis, enhanced performance in the source memory task stems from enhanced encoding/memory of a preferred reward. We tested the reward-value hypothesis by using a standard 8-arm radial maze task to compare spatial working memory accuracy of rats rewarded with either multiple chocolate or chow pellets at each location using a between-subjects design. The reward-value hypothesis predicts superior accuracy for high-valued rewards. We documented equivalent spatial memory accuracy for high- and low-value rewards. Importantly, a 24-h retention interval produced equivalent spatial working memory accuracy for both flavors. These data are inconsistent with the reward-value hypothesis and suggest that reward value does not explain our earlier findings that source memory survives unusually long retention intervals.

Oscillatory lower body negative pressure impairs working memory task-related functional hyperemia in healthy volunteers.

PubMed

Merchant, Sana; Medow, Marvin S; Visintainer, Paul; Terilli, Courtney; Stewart, Julian M

2017-04-01

Neurovascular coupling (NVC) describes the link between an increase in task-related neural activity and increased cerebral blood flow denoted "functional hyperemia." We previously showed induced cerebral blood flow oscillations suppressed functional hyperemia; conversely functional hyperemia also suppressed cerebral blood flow oscillations. We used lower body negative pressure (OLBNP) oscillations to force oscillations in middle cerebral artery cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFv). Here, we used N-back testing, an intellectual memory challenge as a neural activation task, to test the hypothesis that OLBNP-induced oscillatory cerebral blood flow can reduce functional hyperemia and NVC produced by a working memory task and can interfere with working memory. We used OLBNP (-30 mmHg) at 0.03, 0.05, and 0.10 Hz and measured spectral power of CBFv at all frequencies. Neither OLBNP nor N-back, alone or combined, affected hemodynamic parameters. 2-Back power and OLBNP individually were compared with 2-back power during OLBNP. 2-Back alone produced a narrow band increase in oscillatory arterial pressure (OAP) and oscillatory cerebral blood flow power centered at 0.0083 Hz. Functional hyperemia in response to 2-back was reduced to near baseline and 2-back memory performance was decreased by 0.03-, 0.05-, and 0.10-Hz OLBNP. OLBNP alone produced increased oscillatory power at frequencies of oscillation not suppressed by added 2-back. However, 2-back preceding OLBNP suppressed OLBNP power. OLBNP-driven oscillatory CBFv blunts NVC and memory performance, while memory task reciprocally interfered with forced CBFv oscillations. This shows that induced cerebral blood flow oscillations suppress functional hyperemia and functional hyperemia suppresses cerebral blood flow oscillations. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We show that induced cerebral blood flow oscillations suppress functional hyperemia produced by a working memory task as well as memory task performance. We conclude that oscillatory cerebral blood flow produces causal reductions of memory task neurovascular coupling and memory task performance. Reductions of functional hyperemia are constrained by autoregulation. Copyright © 2017 the American Physiological Society.

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.

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.

Strategic trade-offs between quantity and quality in working memory.

PubMed

Fougnie, Daryl; Cormiea, Sarah M; Kanabar, Anish; Alvarez, George A

2016-08-01

Is working memory capacity determined by an immutable limit-for example, 4 memory storage slots? The fact that performance is typically unaffected by task instructions has been taken as support for such structural models of memory. Here, we modified a standard working memory task to incentivize participants to remember more items. Participants were asked to remember a set of colors over a short retention interval. In 1 condition, participants reported a random item's color using a color wheel. In the modified task, participants responded to all items and their response was only considered correct if all responses were on the correct half of the color wheel. We looked for a trade-off between quantity and quality-participants storing more items, but less precisely, when required to report them all. This trade-off was observed when tasks were blocked and when task-type was cued after encoding, but not when task-type was cued during the response, suggesting that task differences changed how items were actively encoded and maintained. This strategic control over the contents of working memory challenges models that assume inflexible limits on memory storage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Memory and mood during MDMA intoxication, with and without memantine pretreatment.

PubMed

de Sousa Fernandes Perna, E B; Theunissen, E L; Kuypers, K P C; Heckman, P; de la Torre, R; Farre, M; Ramaekers, J G

2014-12-01

Previous studies have shown that single doses of MDMA can affect mood and impair memory in humans. The neuropharmacological mechanisms involved in MDMA-induced memory impairment are not clear. Memantine, an NMDA and alpha 7 nicotinic acetylcholine (ACh) receptor antagonist, was able to reverse MDMA-induced memory impairment in rats. This study investigated whether treatment with memantine can prevent MDMA-induced memory impairment in humans. 15 subjects participated in a double-blind, placebo controlled, within-subject design. Subjects received both pre-treatment (placebo/memantine 20 mg) (T1) and treatment (placebo/MDMA 75 mg) (T2) on separate test days. T1 preceded T2 by 120 min. Memory function was assessed 90 min after T2 by means of a Visual Verbal Learning Task, a Prospective Memory Task, the Sternberg Memory Task and the Abstract Visual Pattern Learning Task. Profile of Mood State and psychomotor performance were also assessed to control whether MDMA and memantine interactions would selectively pertain to memory or transfer to other domains as well. MDMA significantly impaired performance in the visual verbal learning task and abstract visual pattern learning task. Pre-treatment with memantine did not prevent MDMA-induced memory impairment in these two tasks. Both positive (vigour, arousal, elation) and negative mood effects (anxiety) were increased by MDMA. The responses were not altered by pretreatment with memantine which had no effect on memory or mood when given alone. These preliminary results suggest that memantine does not reverse MDMA-induced memory impairment and mood in humans. This article is part of the Special Issue entitled 'CNS Stimulants'. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Working memory training may increase working memory capacity but not fluid intelligence.

PubMed

Harrison, Tyler L; Shipstead, Zach; Hicks, Kenny L; Hambrick, David Z; Redick, Thomas S; Engle, Randall W

2013-12-01

Working memory is a critical element of complex cognition, particularly under conditions of distraction and interference. Measures of working memory capacity correlate positively with many measures of real-world cognition, including fluid intelligence. There have been numerous attempts to use training procedures to increase working memory capacity and thereby performance on the real-world tasks that rely on working memory capacity. In the study reported here, we demonstrated that training on complex working memory span tasks leads to improvement on similar tasks with different materials but that such training does not generalize to measures of fluid intelligence.

Interference with olfactory memory by visual and verbal tasks.

PubMed

Annett, J M; Cook, N M; Leslie, J C

1995-06-01

It has been claimed that olfactory memory is distinct from memory in other modalities. This study investigated the effectiveness of visual and verbal tasks in interfering with olfactory memory and included methodological changes from other recent studies. Subjects were allocated to one of four experimental conditions involving interference tasks [no interference task; visual task; verbal task; visual-plus-verbal task] and presented 15 target odours. Either recognition of the odours or free recall of the odour names was tested on one occasion, either within 15 minutes of presentation or one week later. Recognition and recall performance both showed effects of interference of visual and verbal tasks but there was no effect for time of testing. While the results may be accommodated within a dual coding framework, further work is indicated to resolve theoretical issues relating to task complexity.

A Processing Approach to the Working Memory/Long-Term Memory Distinction: Evidence from the Levels-of-Processing Span Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rose, Nathan S.; Craik, Fergus I. M.

2012-01-01

Recent theories suggest that performance on working memory (WM) tasks involves retrieval from long-term memory (LTM). To examine whether WM and LTM tests have common principles, Craik and Tulving's (1975) levels-of-processing paradigm, which is known to affect LTM, was administered as a WM task: Participants made uppercase, rhyme, or…

Assessing working memory and language comprehension in Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

MacDonald, M C; Almor, A; Henderson, V W; Kempler, D; Andersen, E S

2001-07-01

Studies of language impairments in patients with Alzheimer's disease have often assumed that impairments in linguistic working memory underlie comprehension deficits. Assessment of this hypothesis has been hindered both by vagueness of key terms such as "working memory" and by limitations of available working memory tasks, in that many such tasks either seem to have little relationship to language comprehension or are too confusing or difficult for Alzheimer's patients. Four experiments investigated the usefulness of digit ordering, a new task assessing linguistic working memory and/or language processing skill, in normal adults and patients with probable Alzheimer's disease. The digit ordering task was shown to be strongly correlated with the degree of dementia in Alzheimer's patients. The task correlated with measures of language processing on which patients and normal controls performed differently. The results are interpreted as indicating that linguistic representations, linguistic processing, and linguistic working memory are intertwined, such that a deficit of one (e.g., working memory) cannot be said to "cause" a deficit in the other. The implications of this approach are explored in terms of task demands in comprehension and memory measures, and interpretation of previous results in the literature. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

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.

Memory Reactivation Predicts Resistance to Retroactive Interference: Evidence from Multivariate Classification and Pattern Similarity Analyses

PubMed Central

Rugg, Michael D.

2016-01-01

Memory reactivation—the reinstatement of processes and representations engaged when an event is initially experienced—is believed to play an important role in strengthening and updating episodic memory. The present study examines how memory reactivation during a potentially interfering event influences memory for a previously experienced event. Participants underwent fMRI during the encoding phase of an AB/AC interference task in which some words were presented twice in association with two different encoding tasks (AB and AC trials) and other words were presented once (DE trials). The later memory test required retrieval of the encoding tasks associated with each of the study words. Retroactive interference was evident for the AB encoding task and was particularly strong when the AC encoding task was remembered rather than forgotten. We used multivariate classification and pattern similarity analysis (PSA) to measure reactivation of the AB encoding task during AC trials. The results demonstrated that reactivation of generic task information measured with multivariate classification predicted subsequent memory for the AB encoding task regardless of whether interference was strong and weak (trials for which the AC encoding task was remembered or forgotten, respectively). In contrast, reactivation of neural patterns idiosyncratic to a given AB trial measured with PSA only predicted memory when the strength of interference was low. These results suggest that reactivation of features of an initial experience shared across numerous events in the same category, but not features idiosyncratic to a particular event, are important in resisting retroactive interference caused by new learning. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Reactivating a previously encoded memory is believed to provide an opportunity to strengthen the memory, but also to return the memory to a labile state, making it susceptible to interference. However, there is debate as to how memory reactivation elicited by a potentially interfering event influences subsequent retrieval of the memory. The findings of the current study indicate that reactivating features idiosyncratic to a particular experience during interference only influences subsequent memory when interference is relatively weak. Critically, reactivation of generic contextual information predicts subsequent source memory when retroactive interference is either strong and weak. The results indicate that reactivation of generic information about a prior episode mitigates forgetting due to retroactive interference. PMID:27076433

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Correlates of First-Episode Psychoses during Attentional and Memory Task Performance.

PubMed

Del Casale, Antonio; Kotzalidis, Georgios D; Rapinesi, Chiara; Sorice, Serena; Girardi, Nicoletta; Ferracuti, Stefano; Girardi, Paolo

2016-01-01

The nature of the alteration of the response to cognitive tasks in first-episode psychosis (FEP) still awaits clarification. We used activation likelihood estimation, an increasingly used method in evaluating normal and pathological brain function, to identify activation changes in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of FEP during attentional and memory tasks. We included 11 peer-reviewed fMRI studies assessing FEP patients versus healthy controls (HCs) during performance of attentional and memory tasks. Our database comprised 290 patients with FEP, matched with 316 HCs. Between-group analyses showed that HCs, compared to FEP patients, exhibited hyperactivation of the right middle frontal gyrus (Brodmann area, BA, 9), right inferior parietal lobule (BA 40), and right insula (BA 13) during attentional task performances and hyperactivation of the left insula (BA 13) during memory task performances. Right frontal, parietal, and insular dysfunction during attentional task performance and left insular dysfunction during memory task performance are significant neural functional FEP correlates. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Sleep in Children Enhances Preferentially Emotional Declarative But Not Procedural Memories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prehn-Kristensen, Alexander; Goder, Robert; Chirobeja, Stefania; Bressman, Inka; Ferstl, Roman; Baving, Lioba

2009-01-01

Although the consolidation of several memory systems is enhanced by sleep in adults, recent studies suggest that sleep supports declarative memory but not procedural memory in children. In the current study, the influence of sleep on emotional declarative memory (recognition task) and procedural memory (mirror tracing task) in 20 healthy children…

The Metamemory Approach to Confidence: A Test Using Semantic Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brewer, William F.; Sampaio, Cristina

2012-01-01

The metamemory approach to memory confidence was extended and elaborated to deal with semantic memory tasks. The metamemory approach assumes that memory confidence is based on the products and processes of a completed memory task, as well as metamemory beliefs that individuals have about how their memory products and processes relate to memory…

Production of False Memories in Collaborative Memory Tasks Using the DRM Paradigm

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saraiva, Magda; Albuquerque, Pedro B.; Arantes, Joana

2017-01-01

Studies on collaborative memory have revealed an interesting phenomenon called collaborative inhibition (CI) (i.e., nominal groups recall more information than collaborative groups). However, the results of studies on false memories in collaborative memory tasks are controversial. This study aimed to understand the production of false memories in…

Visual Working Memory Capacity and Proactive Interference

PubMed Central

Hartshorne, Joshua K.

2008-01-01

Background Visual working memory capacity is extremely limited and appears to be relatively immune to practice effects or the use of explicit strategies. The recent discovery that visual working memory tasks, like verbal working memory tasks, are subject to proactive interference, coupled with the fact that typical visual working memory tasks are particularly conducive to proactive interference, suggests that visual working memory capacity may be systematically under-estimated. Methodology/Principal Findings Working memory capacity was probed behaviorally in adult humans both in laboratory settings and via the Internet. Several experiments show that although the effect of proactive interference on visual working memory is significant and can last over several trials, it only changes the capacity estimate by about 15%. Conclusions/Significance This study further confirms the sharp limitations on visual working memory capacity, both in absolute terms and relative to verbal working memory. It is suggested that future research take these limitations into account in understanding differences across a variety of tasks between human adults, prelinguistic infants and nonlinguistic animals. PMID:18648493

Visual working memory capacity and proactive interference.

PubMed

Hartshorne, Joshua K

2008-07-23

Visual working memory capacity is extremely limited and appears to be relatively immune to practice effects or the use of explicit strategies. The recent discovery that visual working memory tasks, like verbal working memory tasks, are subject to proactive interference, coupled with the fact that typical visual working memory tasks are particularly conducive to proactive interference, suggests that visual working memory capacity may be systematically under-estimated. Working memory capacity was probed behaviorally in adult humans both in laboratory settings and via the Internet. Several experiments show that although the effect of proactive interference on visual working memory is significant and can last over several trials, it only changes the capacity estimate by about 15%. This study further confirms the sharp limitations on visual working memory capacity, both in absolute terms and relative to verbal working memory. It is suggested that future research take these limitations into account in understanding differences across a variety of tasks between human adults, prelinguistic infants and nonlinguistic animals.

Pillars of judgment: how memory abilities affect performance in rule-based and exemplar-based judgments.

PubMed

Hoffmann, Janina A; von Helversen, Bettina; Rieskamp, Jörg

2014-12-01

Making accurate judgments is an essential skill in everyday life. Although how different memory abilities relate to categorization and judgment processes has been hotly debated, the question is far from resolved. We contribute to the solution by investigating how individual differences in memory abilities affect judgment performance in 2 tasks that induced rule-based or exemplar-based judgment strategies. In a study with 279 participants, we investigated how working memory and episodic memory affect judgment accuracy and strategy use. As predicted, participants switched strategies between tasks. Furthermore, structural equation modeling showed that the ability to solve rule-based tasks was predicted by working memory, whereas episodic memory predicted judgment accuracy in the exemplar-based task. Last, the probability of choosing an exemplar-based strategy was related to better episodic memory, but strategy selection was unrelated to working memory capacity. In sum, our results suggest that different memory abilities are essential for successfully adopting different judgment strategies. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

The Role of Anterior Nuclei of the Thalamus: A Subcortical Gate in Memory Processing: An Intracerebral Recording Study.

PubMed

Štillová, Klára; Jurák, Pavel; Chládek, Jan; Chrastina, Jan; Halámek, Josef; Bočková, Martina; Goldemundová, Sabina; Říha, Ivo; Rektor, Ivan

2015-01-01

To study the involvement of the anterior nuclei of the thalamus (ANT) as compared to the involvement of the hippocampus in the processes of encoding and recognition during visual and verbal memory tasks. We studied intracerebral recordings in patients with pharmacoresistent epilepsy who underwent deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the ANT with depth electrodes implanted bilaterally in the ANT and compared the results with epilepsy surgery candidates with depth electrodes implanted bilaterally in the hippocampus. We recorded the event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by the visual and verbal memory encoding and recognition tasks. P300-like potentials were recorded in the hippocampus by visual and verbal memory encoding and recognition tasks and in the ANT by the visual encoding and visual and verbal recognition tasks. No significant ERPs were recorded during the verbal encoding task in the ANT. In the visual and verbal recognition tasks, the P300-like potentials in the ANT preceded the P300-like potentials in the hippocampus. The ANT is a structure in the memory pathway that processes memory information before the hippocampus. We suggest that the ANT has a specific role in memory processes, especially memory recognition, and that memory disturbance should be considered in patients with ANT-DBS and in patients with ANT lesions. ANT is well positioned to serve as a subcortical gate for memory processing in cortical structures.

Electrophysiological Repetition Effects in Persons with Mild Cognitive Impairment depend upon Working Memory Demand.

PubMed

Broster, Lucas S; Jenkins, Shonna L; Holmes, Sarah D; Edwards, Matthew G; Jicha, Gregory A; Jiang, Yang

2018-05-07

Forms of implicit memory, including repetition effects, are preserved relative to explicit memory in clinical Alzheimer's disease. Consequently, cognitive interventions for persons with Alzheimer's disease have been developed that leverage this fact. However, despite the clinical robustness of behavioral repetition effects, altered neural mechanisms of repetition effects are studied as biomarkers of both clinical Alzheimer's disease and pre-morbid Alzheimer's changes in the brain. We hypothesized that the clinical preservation of behavioral repetition effects results in part from concurrent operation of discrete memory systems. We developed two experiments that included probes of emotional repetition effects differing in that one included an embedded working memory task. We found that neural repetition effects manifested in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment, the earliest form of clinical Alzheimer's disease, during emotional working memory tasks, but they did not manifest during the task that lacked the embedded working memory manipulation. Specifically, the working memory task evoked neural repetition effects in the P600 time-window, but the same neural mechanism was only minimally implicated in the task without a working memory component. We also found that group differences in behavioral repetition effects were smaller in the experiment with a working memory task. We suggest that cross-domain cognitive challenge can expose "defunct" neural capabilities of individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

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.

Musical and Verbal Memory in Alzheimer's Disease: A Study of Long-Term and Short-Term Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Menard, Marie-Claude; Belleville, Sylvie

2009-01-01

Musical memory was tested in Alzheimer patients and in healthy older adults using long-term and short-term memory tasks. Long-term memory (LTM) was tested with a recognition procedure using unfamiliar melodies. Short-term memory (STM) was evaluated with same/different judgment tasks on short series of notes. Musical memory was compared to verbal…

Memory as embodiment: The case of modality and serial short-term memory.

PubMed

Macken, Bill; Taylor, John C; Kozlov, Michail D; Hughes, Robert W; Jones, Dylan M

2016-10-01

Classical explanations for the modality effect-superior short-term serial recall of auditory compared to visual sequences-typically recur to privileged processing of information derived from auditory sources. Here we critically appraise such accounts, and re-evaluate the nature of the canonical empirical phenomena that have motivated them. Three experiments show that the standard account of modality in memory is untenable, since auditory superiority in recency is often accompanied by visual superiority in mid-list serial positions. We explain this simultaneous auditory and visual superiority by reference to the way in which perceptual objects are formed in the two modalities and how those objects are mapped to speech motor forms to support sequence maintenance and reproduction. Specifically, stronger obligatory object formation operating in the standard auditory form of sequence presentation compared to that for visual sequences leads both to enhanced addressability of information at the object boundaries and reduced addressability for that in the interior. Because standard visual presentation does not lead to such object formation, such sequences do not show the boundary advantage observed for auditory presentation, but neither do they suffer loss of addressability associated with object information, thereby affording more ready mapping of that information into a rehearsal cohort to support recall. We show that a range of factors that impede this perceptual-motor mapping eliminate visual superiority while leaving auditory superiority unaffected. We make a general case for viewing short-term memory as an embodied, perceptual-motor process. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Conflict monitoring and adjustment in the task-switching paradigm under different memory load conditions: an ERP/sLORETA analysis.

PubMed

Deng, Yuqin; Wang, Yan; Ding, Xiaoqian; Tang, Yi-Yuan

2015-02-11

The aim of the present study was to examine electrophysiological and behavioral changes caused by different memory loads in a task-switching paradigm. A total of 31 healthy individuals were subjected to a task, in which the stimulus-response reversal paradigm was combined with the task-switching paradigm. The event-related potentials were recorded and the N2 component, an index of conflict processing, was measured. In addition, the neural sources of N2 were further analyzed by standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography. The event-related potential results showed that high memory load triggered a higher N2 mean amplitude. Moreover, the standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography data showed that high memory load caused an increase in current densities at the anterior cingulate cortex and the prefrontal cortex in the task-switching paradigm. In summary, our findings provide electrophysiological evidence to interpret possible influences of memory loads on conflict monitoring and modulation during the task switching. These results imply that the working memory load overrules the influence of task-switching performance on the intensification of cognitive control.

Verbal memory and verbal fluency tasks used for language localization and lateralization during magnetoencephalography.

PubMed

Pirmoradi, Mona; Jemel, Boutheina; Gallagher, Anne; Tremblay, Julie; D'Hondt, Fabien; Nguyen, Dang Khoa; Béland, Renée; Lassonde, Maryse

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to develop a presurgical magnetoencephalography (MEG) protocol to localize and lateralize expressive and receptive language function as well as verbal memory in patients with epilepsy. Two simple language tasks and a different analytical procedure were developed. Ten healthy participants and 13 epileptic patients completed two language tasks during MEG recording: a verbal memory task and a verbal fluency task. As a first step, principal component analyses (PCA) were performed on source data from the group of healthy participants to identify spatiotemporal factors that were relevant to these paradigms. Averaged source data were used to localize areas activated during each task and a laterality index (LI) was computed on an individual basis for both groups, healthy participants and patients, using sensor data. PCA revealed activation in the left temporal lobe (300 ms) during the verbal memory task, and from the frontal lobe (210 ms) to the temporal lobe (500 ms) during the verbal fluency task in healthy participants. Averaged source data showed activity in the left hemisphere (250-750 ms), in Wernicke's area, for all participants. Left hemisphere dominance was demonstrated better using the verbal memory task than the verbal fluency task (F1,19=4.41, p=0.049). Cohen's kappa statistic revealed 93% agreement (k=0.67, p=0.002) between LIs obtained from MEG sensor data and fMRI, the IAT, electrical cortical stimulation or handedness with the verbal memory task for all participants. At 74%, agreement results for the verbal fluency task did not reach statistical significance. Analysis procedures yielded interesting findings with both tasks and localized language-related activation. However, based on source localization and laterality indices, the verbal memory task yielded better results in the context of the presurgical evaluation of epileptic patients. The verbal fluency task did not add any further information to the verbal memory task as regards language localization and lateralization for most patients and healthy participants that would facilitate decision making prior to surgery. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The role of rewarding and novel events in facilitating memory persistence in a separate spatial memory task.

PubMed

Salvetti, Beatrice; Morris, Richard G M; Wang, Szu-Han

2014-01-15

Many insignificant events in our daily life are forgotten quickly but can be remembered for longer when other memory-modulating events occur before or after them. This phenomenon has been investigated in animal models in a protocol in which weak memories persist longer if exploration in a novel context is introduced around the time of memory encoding. This study aims to understand whether other types of rewarding or novel tasks, such as rewarded learning in a T-maze and novel object recognition, can also be effective memory-modulating events. Rats were trained in a delayed matching-to-place task to encode and retrieve food locations in an event arena. Weak encoding with only one food pellet at the sample location induced memory encoding but forgetting over 24 h. When this same weak encoding was followed by a rewarded task in a T-maze, the memory persisted for 24 h. Moreover, the same persistence of memory over 24 h could be achieved by exploration in a novel box or by a rewarded T-maze task after a "non-rewarded" weak encoding. When the one-pellet weak encoding was followed by novel object exploration, the memory did not persist at 24 h. Together, the results confirm that place encoding is possible without explicit reward, and that rewarded learning in a separate task lacking novelty can be an effective memory-modulating event. The behavioral and neurobiological implications are discussed.

Age differences in perceptions of memory strategy effectiveness for recent and remote memory.

PubMed

Lineweaver, Tara T; Horhota, Michelle; Crumley, Jessica; Geanon, Catherine T; Juett, Jacqueline J

2018-03-01

We examined whether young and older adults hold different beliefs about the effectiveness of memory strategies for specific types of memory tasks and whether memory strategies are perceived to be differentially effective for young, middle-aged, and older targets. Participants rated the effectiveness of five memory strategies for 10 memory tasks at three target ages (20, 50, and 80 years old). Older adults did not strongly differentiate strategy effectiveness, viewing most strategies as similarly effective across memory tasks. Young adults held strategy-specific beliefs, endorsing external aids and physical health as more effective than a positive attitude or internal strategies, without substantial differentiation based on task. We also found differences in anticipated strategy effectiveness for targets of different ages. Older adults described cognitive and physical health strategies as more effective for older than middle-aged targets, whereas young adults expected these strategies to be equally effective for middle-aged and older target adults.

Individual differences in working memory: introduction to the special section.

PubMed

Miyake, A

2001-06-01

This special section includes a set of 5 articles that examine the nature of inter- and intraindividual differences in working memory, using working memory span tasks as the main research tools. These span tasks are different from traditional short-term memory spans (e.g., digit or word span) in that they require participants to maintain some target memory items (e.g., words) while simultaneously performing some other tasks (e.g., reading sentences). In this introduction, a brief discussion of these working memory span tasks and their characteristics is provided first. This is followed by an overview of 2 major theoretical issues that are addressed by the subsequent articles--(a) the factors influencing the inter- and intraindividual differences in working memory performance and (b) the domain generality versus domain specificity of working memory--and also of some important issues that must be kept in mind when readers try to evaluate the claims regarding these 2 theoretical issues.

Non-Interfering Effects of Active Post-Encoding Tasks on Episodic Memory Consolidation in Humans

PubMed Central

Varma, Samarth; Takashima, Atsuko; Krewinkel, Sander; van Kooten, Maaike; Fu, Lily; Medendorp, W. Pieter; Kessels, Roy P. C.; Daselaar, Sander M.

2017-01-01

So far, studies that investigated interference effects of post-learning processes on episodic memory consolidation in humans have used tasks involving only complex and meaningful information. Such tasks require reallocation of general or encoding-specific resources away from consolidation-relevant activities. The possibility that interference can be elicited using a task that heavily taxes our limited brain resources, but has low semantic and hippocampal related long-term memory processing demands, has never been tested. We address this question by investigating whether consolidation could persist in parallel with an active, encoding-irrelevant, minimally semantic task, regardless of its high resource demands for cognitive processing. We distinguish the impact of such a task on consolidation based on whether it engages resources that are: (1) general/executive, or (2) specific/overlapping with the encoding modality. Our experiments compared subsequent memory performance across two post-encoding consolidation periods: quiet wakeful rest and a cognitively demanding n-Back task. Across six different experiments (total N = 176), we carefully manipulated the design of the n-Back task to target general or specific resources engaged in the ongoing consolidation process. In contrast to previous studies that employed interference tasks involving conceptual stimuli and complex processing demands, we did not find any differences between n-Back and rest conditions on memory performance at delayed test, using both recall and recognition tests. Our results indicate that: (1) quiet, wakeful rest is not a necessary prerequisite for episodic memory consolidation; and (2) post-encoding cognitive engagement does not interfere with memory consolidation when task-performance has minimal semantic and hippocampally-based episodic memory processing demands. We discuss our findings with reference to resource and reactivation-led interference theories. PMID:28424596

A functional MRI study of working memory task in euthymic bipolar disorder: evidence for task-specific dysfunction.

PubMed

Monks, Paul J; Thompson, Jill M; Bullmore, Edward T; Suckling, John; Brammer, Michael J; Williams, Steve C R; Simmons, Andrew; Giles, Nicola; Lloyd, Adrian J; Harrison, C Louise; Seal, Marc; Murray, Robin M; Ferrier, I Nicol; Young, Allan H; Curtis, Vivienne A

2004-12-01

Even when euthymic bipolar disorder patients can have persistent deficits in working memory, but the neural basis of this deficit remains unclear. We undertook an functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation of euthymic bipolar disorder patients performing two working memory paradigms; the two-back and Sternberg tasks, selected to examine the central executive and the phonological loop respectively. We hypothesized that neuronal dysfunction would be specific to the network underlying the executive rather than the phonological loop component of working memory. Twelve right-handed euthymic bipolar I males receiving lithium carbonate monotherapy were matched with 12 controls. The two-back task comprised a single working memory load contrasted with baseline vigilance condition. The Sternberg paradigm used a parametric design incorporating variable working memory load with fixed delay between presentation of an array of items to be remembered and a target item. Functional activation data were acquired during performance of the tasks and were analysed to produce brain activation maps representing significant group differences in activation (ANOVA). Load-response curves were derived from the Sternberg task data set. There were no significant between-group differences (t-test) in performance of the two-back task, or in 2 x 5 group by memory load ANOVA for the performance data from Sternberg task. In the two-back task, compared with controls bipolar disorder patients showed reductions in bilateral frontal, temporal and parietal activation, and increased activations with the left precentral, right medial frontal and left supramarginal gyri. No between-group differences were observed in the Sternberg task at any working memory load. Our findings support the notion that, in euthymic bipolar disorder, failure to engage fronto-executive function underpins the core neuropsychological deficits. Blackwell Munksgaard, 2004

Non-Interfering Effects of Active Post-Encoding Tasks on Episodic Memory Consolidation in Humans.

PubMed

Varma, Samarth; Takashima, Atsuko; Krewinkel, Sander; van Kooten, Maaike; Fu, Lily; Medendorp, W Pieter; Kessels, Roy P C; Daselaar, Sander M

2017-01-01

So far, studies that investigated interference effects of post-learning processes on episodic memory consolidation in humans have used tasks involving only complex and meaningful information. Such tasks require reallocation of general or encoding-specific resources away from consolidation-relevant activities. The possibility that interference can be elicited using a task that heavily taxes our limited brain resources, but has low semantic and hippocampal related long-term memory processing demands, has never been tested. We address this question by investigating whether consolidation could persist in parallel with an active, encoding-irrelevant, minimally semantic task, regardless of its high resource demands for cognitive processing. We distinguish the impact of such a task on consolidation based on whether it engages resources that are: (1) general/executive, or (2) specific/overlapping with the encoding modality. Our experiments compared subsequent memory performance across two post-encoding consolidation periods: quiet wakeful rest and a cognitively demanding n-Back task. Across six different experiments (total N = 176), we carefully manipulated the design of the n-Back task to target general or specific resources engaged in the ongoing consolidation process. In contrast to previous studies that employed interference tasks involving conceptual stimuli and complex processing demands, we did not find any differences between n-Back and rest conditions on memory performance at delayed test, using both recall and recognition tests. Our results indicate that: (1) quiet, wakeful rest is not a necessary prerequisite for episodic memory consolidation; and (2) post-encoding cognitive engagement does not interfere with memory consolidation when task-performance has minimal semantic and hippocampally-based episodic memory processing demands. We discuss our findings with reference to resource and reactivation-led interference theories.

Hippocampal-dependent memory in the plus-maze discriminative avoidance task: The role of spatial cues and CA1 activity.

PubMed

Leão, Anderson H F F; Medeiros, André M; Apolinário, Gênedy K S; Cabral, Alícia; Ribeiro, Alessandra M; Barbosa, Flávio F; Silva, Regina H

2016-05-01

The plus-maze discriminative avoidance task (PMDAT) has been used to investigate interactions between aversive memory and an anxiety-like response in rodents. Suitable performance in this task depends on the activity of the basolateral amygdala, similar to other aversive-based memory tasks. However, the role of spatial cues and hippocampal-dependent learning in the performance of PMDAT remains unknown. Here, we investigated the role of proximal and distal cues in the retrieval of this task. Animals tested under misplaced proximal cues had diminished performance, and animals tested under both misplaced proximal cues and absent distal cues could not discriminate the aversive arm. We also assessed the role of the dorsal hippocampus (CA1) in this aversive memory task. Temporary bilateral inactivation of dorsal CA1 was conducted with muscimol (0.05 μg, 0.1 μg, and 0.2 μg) prior to the training session. While the acquisition of the task was not altered, muscimol impaired the performance in the test session and reduced the anxiety-like response in the training session. We also performed a spreading analysis of a fluorophore-conjugated muscimol to confirm selective inhibition of CA1. In conclusion, both distal and proximal cues are required to retrieve the task, with the latter being more relevant to spatial orientation. Dorsal CA1 activity is also required for aversive memory formation in this task, and interfered with the anxiety-like response as well. Importantly, both effects were detected by different parameters in the same paradigm, endorsing the previous findings of independent assessment of aversive memory and anxiety-like behavior in the PMDAT. Taken together, these findings suggest that the PMDAT probably requires an integration of multiple systems for memory formation, resembling an episodic-like memory rather than a pure conditioning behavior. Furthermore, the concomitant and independent assessment of emotionality and memory in rodents is relevant to elucidate how these memory systems interact during aversive memory formation. Thus, the PMDAT can be useful for studying hippocampal-dependent memory when it involves emotional content. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Thinking about thinking: Neural mechanisms and effects on memory.

PubMed

Bonhage, Corinna; Weber, Friederike; Exner, Cornelia; Kanske, Philipp

2016-02-15

It is a well-established finding that memory encoding is impaired if an external secondary task (e.g. tone discrimination) is performed simultaneously. Yet, while studying we are also often engaged in internal secondary tasks such as planning, ruminating, or daydreaming. It remains unclear whether such a secondary internal task has similar effects on memory and what the neural mechanisms underlying such an influence are. We therefore measured participants' blood oxygenation level dependent responses while they learned word-pairs and simultaneously performed different types of secondary tasks (i.e., internal, external, and control). Memory performance decreased in both internal and external secondary tasks compared to the easy control condition. However, while the external task reduced activity in memory-encoding related regions (hippocampus), the internal task increased neural activity in brain regions associated with self-reflection (anterior medial prefrontal cortex), as well as in regions associated with performance monitoring and the perception of salience (anterior insula, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex). Resting-state functional connectivity analyses confirmed that anterior medial prefrontal cortex and anterior insula/dorsal anterior cingulate cortex are part of the default mode network and salience network, respectively. In sum, a secondary internal task impairs memory performance just as a secondary external task, but operates through different neural mechanisms. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Symbiosis of executive and selective attention in working memory

PubMed Central

Vandierendonck, André

2014-01-01

The notion of working memory (WM) was introduced to account for the usage of short-term memory resources by other cognitive tasks such as reasoning, mental arithmetic, language comprehension, and many others. This collaboration between memory and other cognitive tasks can only be achieved by a dedicated WM system that controls task coordination. To that end, WM models include executive control. Nevertheless, other attention control systems may be involved in coordination of memory and cognitive tasks calling on memory resources. The present paper briefly reviews the evidence concerning the role of selective attention in WM activities. A model is proposed in which selective attention control is directly linked to the executive control part of the WM system. The model assumes that apart from storage of declarative information, the system also includes an executive WM module that represents the current task set. Control processes are automatically triggered when particular conditions in these modules are met. As each task set represents the parameter settings and the actions needed to achieve the task goal, it will depend on the specific settings and actions whether selective attention control will have to be shared among the active tasks. Only when such sharing is required, task performance will be affected by the capacity limits of the control system involved. PMID:25152723

Symbiosis of executive and selective attention in working memory.

PubMed

Vandierendonck, André

2014-01-01

The notion of working memory (WM) was introduced to account for the usage of short-term memory resources by other cognitive tasks such as reasoning, mental arithmetic, language comprehension, and many others. This collaboration between memory and other cognitive tasks can only be achieved by a dedicated WM system that controls task coordination. To that end, WM models include executive control. Nevertheless, other attention control systems may be involved in coordination of memory and cognitive tasks calling on memory resources. The present paper briefly reviews the evidence concerning the role of selective attention in WM activities. A model is proposed in which selective attention control is directly linked to the executive control part of the WM system. The model assumes that apart from storage of declarative information, the system also includes an executive WM module that represents the current task set. Control processes are automatically triggered when particular conditions in these modules are met. As each task set represents the parameter settings and the actions needed to achieve the task goal, it will depend on the specific settings and actions whether selective attention control will have to be shared among the active tasks. Only when such sharing is required, task performance will be affected by the capacity limits of the control system involved.

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

PubMed

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

2016-10-01

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

Ego Depletion Does Not Interfere With Working Memory Performance.

PubMed

Singh, Ranjit K; Göritz, Anja S

2018-01-01

Ego depletion happens if exerting self-control reduces a person's capacity to subsequently control themselves. Previous research has suggested that ego depletion not only interferes with subsequent self-control but also with working memory. However, recent meta-analytical evidence casts doubt onto this. The present study tackles the question if ego depletion does interfere with working memory performance. We induced ego depletion in two ways: using an e-crossing task and using a Stroop task. We then measured working memory performance using the letter-number sequencing task. There was no evidence of ego depletion interfering with working memory performance. Several aspects of our study render this null finding highly robust. We had a large and heterogeneous sample of N = 1,385, which provided sufficient power. We deployed established depletion tasks from two task families (e-crossing task and Stroop), thus making it less likely that the null finding is due to a specific depletion paradigm. We derived several performance scores from the working memory task and ran different analyses to maximize the chances of finding an effect. Lastly, we controlled for two potential moderators, the implicit theories about willpower and dispositional self-control capacity, to ensure that a possible effect on working memory is not obscured by an interaction effect. In sum, this experiment strengthens the position that ego depletion works but does not affect working memory performance.

Ego Depletion Does Not Interfere With Working Memory Performance

PubMed Central

Singh, Ranjit K.; Göritz, Anja S.

2018-01-01

Ego depletion happens if exerting self-control reduces a person’s capacity to subsequently control themselves. Previous research has suggested that ego depletion not only interferes with subsequent self-control but also with working memory. However, recent meta-analytical evidence casts doubt onto this. The present study tackles the question if ego depletion does interfere with working memory performance. We induced ego depletion in two ways: using an e-crossing task and using a Stroop task. We then measured working memory performance using the letter-number sequencing task. There was no evidence of ego depletion interfering with working memory performance. Several aspects of our study render this null finding highly robust. We had a large and heterogeneous sample of N = 1,385, which provided sufficient power. We deployed established depletion tasks from two task families (e-crossing task and Stroop), thus making it less likely that the null finding is due to a specific depletion paradigm. We derived several performance scores from the working memory task and ran different analyses to maximize the chances of finding an effect. Lastly, we controlled for two potential moderators, the implicit theories about willpower and dispositional self-control capacity, to ensure that a possible effect on working memory is not obscured by an interaction effect. In sum, this experiment strengthens the position that ego depletion works but does not affect working memory performance. PMID:29706923

The facilitative effects of glucose ingestion on memory retrieval in younger and older adults: is task difficulty or task domain critical?

PubMed

Riby, Leigh M; McMurtrie, Hazel; Smallwood, Jonathan; Ballantyne, Carrie; Meikle, Andrew; Smith, Emily

2006-02-01

The ingestion of a glucose-containing drink has been shown to improve cognitive performance, particularly memory functioning. However, it remains unclear as to the extent to which task domain and task difficulty moderate the glucose enhancement effect. The aim of this research was to determine whether boosts in performance are restricted to particular classes of memory (episodic v. semantic) or to tasks of considerable cognitive load. A repeated measures (25 g glucose v. saccharin), counterbalanced, double-blind design was used with younger and older adults. Participants performed a battery of episodic (e.g. paired associate learning) and semantic memory (e.g. category verification) tasks under low and high cognitive load. Electrophysiological measures (heart rate and galvanic skin response) of arousal and mental effort were also gathered. The results indicated that whilst glucose appeared to aid episodic remembering, cognitive load did not exaggerate the facilitative effect. For semantic memory, there was little evidence to suggest that glucose can boost semantic memory retrieval even when the load was manipulated. One exception was that glucose facilitated performance during the difficult category fluency task. Regardless, the present findings are consistent with the domain-specific account in which glucose acts primarily on the hippocampal region, which is known to support episodic memory. The possible contribution of the hippocampus in semantic memory processing is also discussed.

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.

Recognition memory span in autopsy-confirmed Dementia with Lewy Bodies and Alzheimer's Disease.

PubMed

Salmon, David P; Heindel, William C; Hamilton, Joanne M; Vincent Filoteo, J; Cidambi, Varun; Hansen, Lawrence A; Masliah, Eliezer; Galasko, Douglas

2015-08-01

Evidence from patients with amnesia suggests that recognition memory span tasks engage both long-term memory (i.e., secondary memory) processes mediated by the diencephalic-medial temporal lobe memory system and working memory processes mediated by fronto-striatal systems. Thus, the recognition memory span task may be particularly effective for detecting memory deficits in disorders that disrupt both memory systems. The presence of unique pathology in fronto-striatal circuits in Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) compared to AD suggests that performance on the recognition memory span task might be differentially affected in the two disorders even though they have quantitatively similar deficits in secondary memory. In the present study, patients with autopsy-confirmed DLB or AD, and Normal Control (NC) participants, were tested on separate recognition memory span tasks that required them to retain increasing amounts of verbal, spatial, or visual object (i.e., faces) information across trials. Results showed that recognition memory spans for verbal and spatial stimuli, but not face stimuli, were lower in patients with DLB than in those with AD, and more impaired relative to NC performance. This was despite similar deficits in the two patient groups on independent measures of secondary memory such as the total number of words recalled from long-term storage on the Buschke Selective Reminding Test. The disproportionate vulnerability of recognition memory span task performance in DLB compared to AD may be due to greater fronto-striatal involvement in DLB and a corresponding decrement in cooperative interaction between working memory and secondary memory processes. Assessment of recognition memory span may contribute to the ability to distinguish between DLB and AD relatively early in the course of disease. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Recognition Memory Span in Autopsy-Confirmed Dementia with Lewy Bodies and Alzheimer’s Disease

PubMed Central

Salmon, David P.; Heindel, William C.; Hamilton, Joanne M.; Filoteo, J. Vincent; Cidambi, Varun; Hansen, Lawrence A.; Masliah, Eliezer; Galasko, Douglas

2016-01-01

Evidence from patients with amnesia suggests that recognition memory span tasks engage both long-term memory (i.e., secondary memory) processes mediated by the diencephalic-medial temporal lobe memory system and working memory processes mediated by fronto-striatal systems. Thus, the recognition memory span task may be particularly effective for detecting memory deficits in disorders that disrupt both memory systems. The presence of unique pathology in fronto-striatal circuits in Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) compared to AD suggests that performance on the recognition memory span task might be differentially affected in the two disorders even though they have quantitatively similar deficits in secondary memory. In the present study, patients with autopsy-confirmed DLB or AD, and normal control (NC) participants, were tested on separate recognition memory span tasks that required them to retain increasing amounts of verbal, spatial, or visual object (i.e., faces) information across trials. Results showed that recognition memory spans for verbal and spatial stimuli, but not face stimuli, were lower in patients with DLB than in those with AD, and more impaired relative to NC performance. This was despite similar deficits in the two patient groups on independent measures of secondary memory such as the total number of words recalled from Long-Term Storage on the Buschke Selective Reminding Test. The disproportionate vulnerability of recognition memory span task performance in DLB compared to AD may be due to greater fronto-striatal involvement in DLB and a corresponding decrement in cooperative interaction between working memory and secondary memory processes. Assessment of recognition memory span may contribute to the ability to distinguish between DLB and AD relatively early in the course of disease. PMID:26184443

A dedicated system for topographical working memory: evidence from domain-specific interference tests.

PubMed

Piccardi, L; Nori, R; Boccia, M; Barbetti, S; Verde, P; Guariglia, C; Ferlazzo, F

2015-08-01

In the present study, we used single- and dual-task conditions to investigate the nature of topographical working memory to better understand what type of task can hamper performance during navigation. During dual-task conditions, we considered four different sources of interference: motor (M), spatial motor (SM), verbal (i.e. articulatory suppression AS) and spatial environmental (SE). In order to assess the nature of topographical working memory, we used the Walking Corsi Test, asking the participants to perform two tasks simultaneously (M, SM, AS and SE). Our results showed that only spatial-environmental interference hampers the execution of a topographical working memory task, suggesting a task-domain-specific effect. We also found general gender differences in the topographical working memory capabilities: men were more proficient than women, regardless of the type of interferences. However, like men, women performed worse when a spatial-environmental interference was present.

Dissociating word stem completion and cued recall as a function of divided attention at retrieval.

PubMed

Clarke, A J Benjamin; Butler, Laurie T

2008-10-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the widely held, but largely untested, view that implicit memory (repetition priming) reflects an automatic form of retrieval. Specifically, in Experiment 1 we explored whether a secondary task (syllable monitoring), performed during retrieval, would disrupt performance on explicit (cued recall) and implicit (stem completion) memory tasks equally. Surprisingly, despite substantial memory and secondary costs to cued recall when performed with a syllable-monitoring task, the same manipulation had no effect on stem completion priming or on secondary task performance. In Experiment 2 we demonstrated that even when using a particularly demanding version of the stem completion task that incurred secondary task costs, the corresponding disruption to implicit memory performance was minimal. Collectively, the results are consistent with the view that implicit memory retrieval requires little or no processing capacity and is not seemingly susceptible to the effects of dividing attention at retrieval.

Encoding processes during retrieval tasks.

PubMed

Buckner, R L; Wheeler, M E; Sheridan, M A

2001-04-01

Episodic memory encoding is pervasive across many kinds of task and often arises as a secondary processing effect in tasks that do not require intentional memorization. To illustrate the pervasive nature of information processing that leads to episodic encoding, a form of incidental encoding was explored based on the "Testing" phenomenon: The incidental-encoding task was an episodic memory retrieval task. Behavioral data showed that performing a memory retrieval task was as effective as intentional instructions at promoting episodic encoding. During fMRI imaging, subjects viewed old and new words and indicated whether they remembered them. Relevant to encoding, the fate of the new words was examined using a second, surprise test of recognition after the imaging session. fMRI analysis of those new words that were later remembered revealed greater activity in left frontal regions than those that were later forgotten - the same pattern of results as previously observed for traditional incidental and intentional episodic encoding tasks. This finding may offer a partial explanation for why repeated testing improves memory performance. Furthermore, the observation of correlates of episodic memory encoding during retrieval tasks challenges some interpretations that arise from direct comparisons between "encoding tasks" and "retrieval tasks" in imaging data. Encoding processes and their neural correlates may arise in many tasks, even those nominally labeled as retrieval tasks by the experimenter.

Rethinking the connection between working memory and language impairment.

PubMed

Archibald, Lisa M D; Harder Griebeling, Katherine

2016-05-01

Working memory deficits have been found for children with specific language impairment (SLI) on tasks imposing increasing short-term memory load with or without additional, consistent (and simple) processing load. To examine the processing function of working memory in children with low language (LL) by employing tasks imposing increasing processing loads with constant storage demands individually adjusted based on each participant's short-term memory capacity. School-age groups with LL (n = 17) and typical language with either average (n = 28) or above-average nonverbal intelligence (n = 15) completed complex working memory-span tasks varying processing load while keeping storage demands constant, varying storage demands while keeping processing load constant, simple storage-span tasks, and measures of language and nonverbal intelligence. Teachers completed questionnaires about cognition and learning. Significantly lower scores were found for the LL than either matched group on storage-based tasks, but no group differences were found on the tasks varying processing load. Teachers' ratings of oral expression and mathematics abilities discriminated those who did or did not complete the most challenging cognitive tasks. The results implicate a deficit in the phonological storage but not in the central executive component of working memory for children with LL. Teacher ratings may reveal personality traits related to perseverance of effort in cognitive research. © 2015 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

Activation of the occipital cortex and deactivation of the default mode network during working memory in the early blind.

PubMed

Park, Hae-Jeong; Chun, Ji-Won; Park, Bumhee; Park, Haeil; Kim, Joong Il; Lee, Jong Doo; Kim, Jae-Jin

2011-05-01

Although blind people heavily depend on working memory to manage daily life without visual information, it is not clear yet whether their working memory processing involves functional reorganization of the memory-related cortical network. To explore functional reorganization of the cortical network that supports various types of working memory processes in the early blind, we investigated activation differences between 2-back tasks and 0-back tasks using fMRI in 10 congenitally blind subjects and 10 sighted subjects. We used three types of stimulus sequences: words for a verbal task, pitches for a non-verbal task, and sound locations for a spatial task. When compared to the sighted, the blind showed additional activations in the occipital lobe for all types of stimulus sequences for working memory and more significant deactivation in the posterior cingulate cortex of the default mode network. The blind had increased effective connectivity from the default mode network to the left parieto-frontal network and from the occipital cortex to the right parieto-frontal network during the 2-back tasks than the 0-back tasks. These findings suggest not only cortical plasticity of the occipital cortex but also reorganization of the cortical network for the executive control of working memory.

Subthalamic nucleus stimulation selectively improves motor and visual memory performance in Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Mollion, Hélène; Dominey, Peter Ford; Broussolle, Emmanuel; Ventre-Dominey, Jocelyne

2011-09-01

Although the treatment of Parkinson's disease via subthalamic stimulation yields remarkable improvements in motor symptoms, its effects on memory function are less clear. In this context, we previously demonstrated dissociable effects of levodopa therapy on parkinsonian performance in spatial and nonspatial visual working memory. Here we used the same protocol with an additional, purely motor task to investigate visual memory and motor performance in 2 groups of patients with Parkinson's disease with or without subthalamic stimulation. In each stimulation condition, subjects performed a simple motor task and 3 successive cognitive tasks: 1 conditional color-response association task and 2 visual (spatial and nonspatial) working memory tasks. The Parkinson's groups were compared with a control group of age-matched healthy subjects. Our principal results demonstrated that (1) in the motor task, stimulated patients were significantly improved with respect to nonstimulated patients and did not differ significantly from healthy controls, and (2) in the cognitive tasks, stimulated patients were significantly improved with respect to nonstimulated patients, but both remained significantly impaired when compared with healthy controls. These results demonstrate selective effects of subthalamic stimulation on parkinsonian disorders of motor and visual memory functions, with clear motor improvement for stimulated patients and a partial improvement for their visual memory processing. Copyright © 2011 Movement Disorder Society.

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

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

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

2003-12-01

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

Short-term and working memory impairments in aphasia.

PubMed

Potagas, Constantin; Kasselimis, Dimitrios; Evdokimidis, Ioannis

2011-08-01

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

A Comparison of the Effects of Temporary Hippocampal Lesions on Single and Dual Context Versions of the Olfactory Sequence Memory Task

PubMed Central

Sill, Orriana C.; Smith, David M.

2012-01-01

In recent years, many animal models of memory have focused on one or more of the various components of episodic memory. For example, the odor sequence memory task requires subjects to remember individual items and events (the odors) and the temporal aspects of the experience (the sequence of odor presentation). The well-known spatial context coding function of the hippocampus, as exemplified by place cell firing, may reflect the ‘where’ component of episodic memory. In the present study, we added a contextual component to the odor sequence memory task by training rats to choose the earlier odor in one context and the later odor in another context and we compared the effects of temporary hippocampal lesions on performance of the original single context task and the new dual context task. Temporary lesions significantly impaired the single context task, although performance remained significantly above chance levels. In contrast, performance dropped all the way to chance when temporary lesions were used in the dual context task. These results demonstrate that rats can learn a dual context version of the odor sequence learning task which requires the use of contextual information along with the requirement to remember the ‘what’ and ‘when’ components of the odor sequence. Moreover, the additional requirement of context-dependent expression of the ‘what-when’ memory made the task fully dependent on the hippocampus. Moreover, the addition of the contextual component made the task fully dependent on the hippocampus. PMID:22687149

The roles of working memory and intervening task difficulty in determining the benefits of repetition

PubMed Central

Bui, Dung C.; Maddox, Geoffrey B.; Balota, David A.

2014-01-01

Memory is better when learning events are spaced, as compared with massed (i.e., the spacing effect). Recent theories posit that retrieval of an item’s earlier presentation contributes to the spacing effect, which suggests that individual differences in the ability to retrieve an earlier event may influence the benefit of spaced repetition. The present study examined (1) the difficulty of task demands between repetitions, which should modulate the ability to retrieve the earlier information, and (2) individual differences in working memory in a spaced repetition paradigm. Across two experiments, participants studied a word set twice, each separated by an interval where duration was held constant, and the difficulty of the intervening task was manipulated. After a short retention interval following the second presentation, participants recalled the word set. Those who scored high on working memory measures benefited more from repeated study than did those who scored lower on working memory measures, regardless of task difficulty. Critically, a crossover interaction was observed between working memory and intervening task difficulty: Individuals with low working memory scores benefited more when task difficulty was easy than when it was difficult, but individuals with high working memory scores produced the opposite effect. These results suggest that individual differences in working memory should be considered in optimizing the benefits of repetition learning. PMID:23224905

Effect of anxiety on memory for emotional information in older adults.

PubMed

Herrera, Sara; Montorio, Ignacio; Cabrera, Isabel

2017-04-01

Several studies have shown that anxiety is associated with a better memory of negative events. However, this anxiety-related memory bias has not been studied in the elderly, in which there is a preferential processing of positive information. To study the effect of anxiety in a recognition task and an autobiographical memory task in 102 older adults with high and low levels of trait anxiety. Negative, positive and neutral pictures were used in the recognition task. In the autobiographical memory task, memories of the participants' lives were recorded, how they felt when thinking about them, and the personal relevance of these memories. In the recognition task, no anxiety-related bias was found toward negative information. Individuals with high trait anxiety were found to remember less positive pictures than those with low trait anxiety. In the autobiographical memory task, both groups remembered negative and positive events equally. However, people with high trait anxiety remembered life experiences with more negative emotions, especially when remembering negative events. Individuals with low trait anxiety tended to feel more positive emotions when remembering their life experiences and most of these referred to feeling positive emotions when remembering negative events. Older adults with anxiety tend to recognize less positive information and to present more negative emotions when remembering life events; while individuals without anxiety have a more positive experience of negative memories.

Practice makes imperfect: Working memory training can harm recognition memory performance

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

Matzen, Laura E.; Trumbo, Michael C.; Haass, Michael J.

There is a great deal of debate concerning the benefits of working memory (WM) training and whether that training can transfer to other tasks. Although a consistent finding is that WM training programs elicit a short-term near-transfer effect (i.e., improvement in WM skills), results are inconsistent when considering persistence of such improvement and far transfer effects. In this study, we compared three groups of participants: a group that received WM training, a group that received training on how to use a mental imagery memory strategy, and a control group that received no training. Although the WM training group improved onmore » the trained task, their posttraining performance on nontrained WM tasks did not differ from that of the other two groups. In addition, although the imagery training group’s performance on a recognition memory task increased after training, the WM training group’s performance on the task decreased after training. Participants’ descriptions of the strategies they used to remember the studied items indicated that WM training may lead people to adopt memory strategies that are less effective for other types of memory tasks. Our results indicate that WM training may have unintended consequences for other types of memory performance.« less

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

Method matters: Systematic effects of testing procedure on visual working memory sensitivity

PubMed Central

Makovski, Tal; Watson, Leah M.; Koutstaal, Wilma; Jiang, Yuhong V.

2010-01-01

Visual working memory (WM) is traditionally considered a robust form of visual representation that survives changes in object motion, observer's position, and other visual transients. This study presents data that are inconsistent with the traditional view. We show that memory sensitivity is dramatically influenced by small variations in the testing procedure, supporting the idea that representations in visual WM are susceptible to interference from testing. In this study, participants were shown an array of colors to remember. After a short retention interval, memory for one of the items was tested with either a same-different task or a 2-alternative-forced-choice (2AFC) task. Memory sensitivity was much lower in the 2AFC task than in the same-different task. This difference was found regardless of encoding similarity or whether visual WM required a fine memory resolution or a coarse resolution. The 2AFC disadvantage was reduced when participants were informed shortly before testing which item would be probed. The 2AFC disadvantage diminished in perceptual tasks and was not found in tasks probing visual long-term memory. These results support memory models that acknowledge the labile nature of visual WM, and have implications for the format of visual WM and its assessment. PMID:20854011

Dreaming of a Learning Task is Associated with Enhanced Sleep-Dependent Memory Consolidation

PubMed Central

Wamsley, Erin J.; Tucker, Matthew; Payne, Jessica D.; Benavides, Joseph; Stickgold, Robert

2010-01-01

Summary It is now well established that post-learning sleep is beneficial for human memory performance [1–5]. Meanwhile, human and animal studies demonstrate that learning-related neural activity is re-expressed during post-training non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM) [6–9]. NREM sleep processes appear to be particularly beneficial for hippocampus-dependent forms of memory [1–3, 10]. These observations suggest that learning triggers the reactivation and reorganization of memory traces during sleep, a systems-level process that in turn enhances behavioral performance. Here, we hypothesized that dreaming about a learning experience during NREM sleep would be associated with improved performance on a hippocampus-dependent spatial memory task. Subjects (n=99) were trained on a virtual navigation task, and then retested on the same task 5 hours after initial training. Improved performance at retest was strongly associated with task-related dream imagery during an intervening afternoon nap. Task-related thoughts during wakefulness, in contrast, did not predict improved performance. These observations suggest that sleep-dependent memory consolidation in humans is facilitated by the offline reactivation of recently formed memories, and furthermore, that dream experiences reflect this memory processing. That similar effects were not seen during wakefulness suggests that these mnemonic processes are specific to the sleep state. PMID:20417102

The Role of Anterior Nuclei of the Thalamus: A Subcortical Gate in Memory Processing: An Intracerebral Recording Study

PubMed Central

Štillová, Klára; Jurák, Pavel; Chládek, Jan; Chrastina, Jan; Halámek, Josef; Bočková, Martina; Goldemundová, Sabina; Říha, Ivo; Rektor, Ivan

2015-01-01

Objective To study the involvement of the anterior nuclei of the thalamus (ANT) as compared to the involvement of the hippocampus in the processes of encoding and recognition during visual and verbal memory tasks. Methods We studied intracerebral recordings in patients with pharmacoresistent epilepsy who underwent deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the ANT with depth electrodes implanted bilaterally in the ANT and compared the results with epilepsy surgery candidates with depth electrodes implanted bilaterally in the hippocampus. We recorded the event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by the visual and verbal memory encoding and recognition tasks. Results P300-like potentials were recorded in the hippocampus by visual and verbal memory encoding and recognition tasks and in the ANT by the visual encoding and visual and verbal recognition tasks. No significant ERPs were recorded during the verbal encoding task in the ANT. In the visual and verbal recognition tasks, the P300-like potentials in the ANT preceded the P300-like potentials in the hippocampus. Conclusions The ANT is a structure in the memory pathway that processes memory information before the hippocampus. We suggest that the ANT has a specific role in memory processes, especially memory recognition, and that memory disturbance should be considered in patients with ANT-DBS and in patients with ANT lesions. ANT is well positioned to serve as a subcortical gate for memory processing in cortical structures. PMID:26529407

Hey Teacher, Don't Leave Them Kids Alone: Action Is Better for Memory than Reading.

PubMed

Hainselin, Mathieu; Picard, Laurence; Manolli, Patrick; Vankerkore-Candas, Sophie; Bourdin, Béatrice

2017-01-01

There is no consensus on how the enactment effect (EE), although it is robust, enhances memory. Researchers are currently investigating the cognitive processes underlying this effect, mostly during adulthood; the link between EE and crucial function identified in adulthood such as episodic memory and binding process remains elusive. Therefore, this study aims to verify the existence of EE in 6-10 years old and assess cognitive functions potentially linked to this effect in order to shed light on the mechanisms underlying the EE during childhood. Thirty-five children (15 second graders and 20 fifth graders) were included in this study. They encoded 24 action phrases from a protocol adapted from Hainselin et al. (2014). Encoding occurred under four conditions: Verbal Task, Listening Task, Experimenter-Performed Task, and Subject-Performed Task. Memory performance was assessed for free and cued recall, as well as source memory abilities. ANOVAS were conducted to explore age-related effects on the different scores according to encoding conditions. Correlations between EE scores (Subject-Performed Task/Listening Task) and binding memory scores (short-term binding and episodic memory) were run. Both groups benefited from EE. However, in both groups, performance did not significantly differ between Subject-Performed Task and Experimenter-Performed Task. A positive correlation was found between EE and episodic memory score for second graders and a moderate negative correlation was found between EE and binding scores for fifth graders. Our results confirm the existence of EE in 6 and 10 year olds, but they do not support the multimodal theory (Engelkamp, 2001) or the "glue" theory (Kormi-Nouri and Nilsson, 2001). This suggests instead that episodic memory might not underlie EE during early childhood.

Augmented Reality for the Assessment of Children's Spatial Memory in Real Settings

PubMed Central

Juan, M.-Carmen; Mendez-Lopez, Magdalena; Perez-Hernandez, Elena; Albiol-Perez, Sergio

2014-01-01

Short-term memory can be defined as the capacity for holding a small amount of information in mind in an active state for a short period of time. Although some instruments have been developed to study spatial short-term memory in real environments, there are no instruments that are specifically designed to assess visuospatial short-term memory in an attractive way to children. In this paper, we present the ARSM (Augmented Reality Spatial Memory) task, the first Augmented Reality task that involves a user's movement to assess spatial short-term memory in healthy children. The experimental procedure of the ARSM task was designed to assess the children's skill to retain visuospatial information. They were individually asked to remember the real place where augmented reality objects were located. The children (N = 76) were divided into two groups: preschool (5–6 year olds) and primary school (7–8 year olds). We found a significant improvement in ARSM task performance in the older group. The correlations between scores for the ARSM task and traditional procedures were significant. These traditional procedures were the Dot Matrix subtest for the assessment of visuospatial short-term memory of the computerized AWMA-2 battery and a parent's questionnaire about a child's everyday spatial memory. Hence, we suggest that the ARSM task has high verisimilitude with spatial short-term memory skills in real life. In addition, we evaluated the ARSM task's usability and perceived satisfaction. The study revealed that the younger children were more satisfied with the ARSM task. This novel instrument could be useful in detecting visuospatial short-term difficulties that affect specific developmental navigational disorders and/or school academic achievement. PMID:25438146

Augmented reality for the assessment of children's spatial memory in real settings.

PubMed

Juan, M-Carmen; Mendez-Lopez, Magdalena; Perez-Hernandez, Elena; Albiol-Perez, Sergio

2014-01-01

Short-term memory can be defined as the capacity for holding a small amount of information in mind in an active state for a short period of time. Although some instruments have been developed to study spatial short-term memory in real environments, there are no instruments that are specifically designed to assess visuospatial short-term memory in an attractive way to children. In this paper, we present the ARSM (Augmented Reality Spatial Memory) task, the first Augmented Reality task that involves a user's movement to assess spatial short-term memory in healthy children. The experimental procedure of the ARSM task was designed to assess the children's skill to retain visuospatial information. They were individually asked to remember the real place where augmented reality objects were located. The children (N = 76) were divided into two groups: preschool (5-6 year olds) and primary school (7-8 year olds). We found a significant improvement in ARSM task performance in the older group. The correlations between scores for the ARSM task and traditional procedures were significant. These traditional procedures were the Dot Matrix subtest for the assessment of visuospatial short-term memory of the computerized AWMA-2 battery and a parent's questionnaire about a child's everyday spatial memory. Hence, we suggest that the ARSM task has high verisimilitude with spatial short-term memory skills in real life. In addition, we evaluated the ARSM task's usability and perceived satisfaction. The study revealed that the younger children were more satisfied with the ARSM task. This novel instrument could be useful in detecting visuospatial short-term difficulties that affect specific developmental navigational disorders and/or school academic achievement.

Assessing Surgeon Behavior Change after Anastomotic Leak in Colorectal Surgery

PubMed Central

Simianu, Vlad V.; Basu, Anirban; Alfonso-Cristancho, Rafael; Thirlby, Richard C.; Flaxman, Abraham D.; Flum, David R.

2016-01-01

Background Recency effect suggests that people disproportionately value events from the immediate past when making decisions, but the extent of this impact on surgeons’ decisions is unknown. This study evaluates for recency effect in surgeons by examining use of preventative leak testing before and after colorectal operations with anastomotic leaks. Materials and Methods Prospective cohort of adult patients (≥18 years) undergoing elective colorectal operations at Washington State hospitals participating in the Surgical Care and Outcomes Assessment Program (2006–2013). The main outcome measure was surgeons’ change in leak testing from 6 months before to 6 months after an anastomotic leak occurred. Results Across 4,854 elective colorectal operations performed by 282 surgeons at 44 hospitals, there was a leak rate of 2.6% (n=124). The 40 leaks (32%) in which the anastomosis was not tested occurred across 25 surgeons. While the ability to detect an overall difference in use of leak testing was limited by small sample size, 9 (36%) of 25 surgeons increased their leak testing by 5 percent points or more after leaks in cases where the anastomosis was not tested. Surgeons who increased their leak testing more frequently performed operations for diverticulitis (45% vs 33%), more frequently began their cases laparoscopically (65% vs 37%), and had longer mean operative times (195±99 vs 148±87 minutes), all p<0.001. Conclusions Recency effect was demonstrated by only one-third of eligible surgeons. Understanding the extent to which clinical decisions may be influenced by recency effect may be important in crafting quality improvement initiatives that require clinician behavior change. PMID:27664886

Effects of emotional stimuli on working memory processes in male criminal offenders with borderline and antisocial personality disorder.

PubMed

Prehn, Kristin; Schulze, Lars; Rossmann, Sabine; Berger, Christoph; Vohs, Knut; Fleischer, Monika; Hauenstein, Karlheinz; Keiper, Peter; Domes, Gregor; Herpertz, Sabine C

2013-02-01

OBJECTIVE. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the influence of concurrently presented emotional stimuli on cognitive task processing in violent criminal offenders primarily characterized by affective instability. METHODS. Fifteen male criminal offenders with antisocial and borderline personality disorder (ASPD and BPD) and 17 healthy controls underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing a working memory task with low and high working memory load. In a second experimental run, to investigate the interaction of emotion and cognition, we presented emotionally neutral, low, or high salient social scenes in the background of the task. RESULTS. During the memory task without pictures, both groups did not differ in general task performance and neural representation of working memory processes. During the memory task with emotional background pictures, however, ASPD-BPD subjects compared to healthy controls showed delayed responses and enhanced activation of the left amygdala in the presence of emotionally high salient pictures independent of working memory load. CONCLUSIONS. These results illustrate an interaction of emotion and cognition in affective instable individuals with enhanced reactivity to emotionally salient stimuli which might be an important factor regarding the understanding of aggressive and violent behaviour in these individuals.

Visuomotor learning in cerebellar patients.

PubMed

Timmann, D; Shimansky, Y; Larson, P S; Wunderlich, D A; Stelmach, G E; Bloedel, J R

1996-11-01

The aim of the present study was to demonstrate that patients with pathology affecting substantial regions of the cerebellum can improve their performance in a series of two-dimensional tracing tasks, thus supporting the view that this type of motor behavior can be acquired even when the integrity of this structure is compromised. Eight patients with chronic, isolated cerebellar lesions and eight age- and sex-matched healthy controls were tested. Three patients had mild, five had moderate upper limb ataxia. The experiment was divided into two parts. In the first, subjects traced an irregularly shaped outline over 20 consecutive trials ('Trace 1' task). Next, subjects were asked to redraw the object without any underlying template as a guide ('Memory 1' task). In the second part of the study, subjects were asked to trace a different, irregularly shaped outline over 20 consecutive trials ('Trace 2' task). Next, they were required to redraw it by memory with its axis rotated 90 degrees ('Memory 2' task). In each of the memory tasks the template was placed over the drawn image after each trial and shown to the subjects. The error of performance was determined by calculating three different measurements, each focused on different aspects of the task. Based on these measurements, the cerebellar patients showed improvement in both memory tasks. In the 'Memory 1' task the calculated error decreased significantly for the patients with mild ataxia. In the 'Memory 2' task all cerebellar patients improved their performance substantially enough to reduce significantly the magnitude of all three error measurements. The experiments demonstrate that patients with cerebellar lesions are capable of improving substantially their performance of a complex motor task involving the recall of memorized shapes and the visuomotor control of a tracing movement.

Effects of working memory contents and perceptual load on distractor processing: When a response-related distractor is held in working memory.

PubMed

Koshino, Hideya

2017-01-01

Working memory and attention are closely related. Recent research has shown that working memory can be viewed as internally directed attention. Working memory can affect attention in at least two ways. One is the effect of working memory load on attention, and the other is the effect of working memory contents on attention. In the present study, an interaction between working memory contents and perceptual load in distractor processing was investigated. Participants performed a perceptual load task in a standard form in one condition (Single task). In the other condition, a response-related distractor was maintained in working memory, rather than presented in the same stimulus display as a target (Dual task). For the Dual task condition, a significant compatibility effect was found under high perceptual load; however, there was no compatibility effect under low perceptual load. These results suggest that the way the contents of working memory affect visual search depends on perceptual load. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Neuroanatomical correlates of encoding in episodic memory: levels of processing effect.

PubMed Central

Kapur, S; Craik, F I; Tulving, E; Wilson, A A; Houle, S; Brown, G M

1994-01-01

Cognitive studies of memory processes demonstrate that memory for stimuli is a function of how they are encoded; stimuli processed semantically are better remembered than those processed in a perceptual or shallow fashion. This study investigates the neural correlates of this cognitive phenomenon. Twelve subjects performed two different cognitive tasks on a series of visually presented nouns. In one task, subjects detected the presence or absence of the letter a; in the other, subjects categorized each noun as living or nonliving. Positron emission tomography (PET) scans using 15O-labeled water were obtained during both tasks. Subjects showed substantially better recognition memory for nouns seen in the living/nonliving task, compared to nouns seen in the a-checking task. Comparison of the PET images between the two cognitive tasks revealed a significant activation in the left inferior prefrontal cortex (Brodmann's areas 45, 46, 47, and 10) in the semantic task as compared to the perceptual task. We propose that memory processes are subserved by a wide neurocognitive network and that encoding processes involve preferential activation of the structures in the left inferior prefrontal cortex. PMID:8134340

Neuroanatomical correlates of encoding in episodic memory: levels of processing effect.

PubMed

Kapur, S; Craik, F I; Tulving, E; Wilson, A A; Houle, S; Brown, G M

1994-03-15

Cognitive studies of memory processes demonstrate that memory for stimuli is a function of how they are encoded; stimuli processed semantically are better remembered than those processed in a perceptual or shallow fashion. This study investigates the neural correlates of this cognitive phenomenon. Twelve subjects performed two different cognitive tasks on a series of visually presented nouns. In one task, subjects detected the presence or absence of the letter a; in the other, subjects categorized each noun as living or nonliving. Positron emission tomography (PET) scans using 15O-labeled water were obtained during both tasks. Subjects showed substantially better recognition memory for nouns seen in the living/nonliving task, compared to nouns seen in the a-checking task. Comparison of the PET images between the two cognitive tasks revealed a significant activation in the left inferior prefrontal cortex (Brodmann's areas 45, 46, 47, and 10) in the semantic task as compared to the perceptual task. We propose that memory processes are subserved by a wide neurocognitive network and that encoding processes involve preferential activation of the structures in the left inferior prefrontal cortex.

The case for testing memory with both stories and word lists prior to dbs surgery for Parkinson's Disease.

PubMed

Zahodne, Laura B; Bowers, Dawn; Price, Catherine C; Bauer, Russell M; Nisenzon, Anne; Foote, Kelly D; Okun, Michael S

2011-04-01

Patients seeking deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery for Parkinson's disease (PD) typically undergo neuropsychological assessment to determine candidacy for surgery, with poor memory performance interpreted as a contraindication. Patients with PD may exhibit worse memory for word lists than for stories due to the lack of inherent organization in a list of unrelated words. Unfortunately, word list and story tasks are typically developed from different normative datasets, and the existence of a memory performance discrepancy in PD has been challenged. We compared recall of stories and word lists in 35 non-demented PD candidates for DBS. We administered commonly used neuropsychological measures of word list and story memory (Hopkins Verbal Learning Test, Logical Memory), along with a second word list task that was co-normed with the story task. Age-corrected scores were higher for the story task than for both word list tasks. Compared to story recall, word list recall correlated more consistently with motor severity and composite measures of processing speed, working memory, and executive functioning. These results support the classic view of fronto-subcortical contributions to memory in PD and suggest that executive deficits may influence word list recall more than story recall. We recommend a multi-componential memory battery in the neuropsychological assessment of DBS candidates to characterize both mesial temporal and frontal-executive memory processes. One should not rely solely on a word list task because patients exhibiting poor memory for word lists may perform better with stories and therefore deserve an interdisciplinary discussion for DBS surgery.

Self-guided strategy-adaption training for older adults: Transfer effects to everyday tasks.

PubMed

Bottiroli, Sara; Cavallini, Elena; Dunlosky, John; Vecchi, Tomaso; Hertzog, Christopher

2017-09-01

The goal of the present research was to examine the potential of a learner-oriented approach to improving older adults' performance in tasks that are similar to real-life situations that require strategic deployment of cognitive resources. A crucial element of this approach involves encouraging older adults to explicitly analyze tasks to consider how to adapt trained skills to a new task context. In an earlier study, a specialist-directed intervention produced training gains and transfer to some untrained memory tasks. In the present study, older adults received a manual instructing them about principles of task analysis, two memory strategies, and strategy adaptation. Self-guided strategy-adaption training involved practicing some memory tasks as well as instructions on how the trained skills could be applied to new tasks that were not practiced. The criterion tasks involved practice tasks, non-practiced tasks that were discussed in the manual, and transfer tasks that were never mentioned in the manual. Two of the tests were from the Everyday Cognition Battery (inductive reasoning and working memory). As compared to a waiting-list control group, older adults assigned to self-guided strategy-adaption training showed memory improvements on tasks that were practiced or discussed during training. Most important, the learner-oriented approach produced transfer to the everyday tasks. Our findings show the potential of instructing task appraisal processes as a basis for fostering transfer, including improving older adults' performance in simulated everyday tasks. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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.

Cultural differences in visual attention: Implications for distraction processing.

PubMed

Amer, Tarek; Ngo, K W Joan; Hasher, Lynn

2017-05-01

We investigated differences between participants of East Asian and Western descent in attention to and implicit memory for irrelevant words which participants were instructed to ignore while completing a target task (a Stroop Task in Experiment 1 and a 1-back task on pictures in Experiment 2). Implicit memory was measured using two conceptual priming tasks (category generation in Experiment 1 and general knowledge in Experiment 2). Participants of East Asian descent showed reliable implicit memory for previous distractors relative to those of Western descent with no evidence of differences on target task performance. We also found differences in a Corsi Block spatial memory task in both studies, with superior performance by the East Asian group. Our findings suggest that cultural differences in attention extend to task-irrelevant background information, and demonstrate for the first time that such information can boost performance when it becomes relevant on a subsequent task. © 2016 The British Psychological Society.

Chronic treatment with sulbutiamine improves memory in an object recognition task and reduces some amnesic effects of dizocilpine in a spatial delayed-non-match-to-sample task.

PubMed

Bizot, Jean-Charles; Herpin, Alexandre; Pothion, Stéphanie; Pirot, Sylvain; Trovero, Fabrice; Ollat, Hélène

2005-07-01

The effect of a sulbutiamine chronic treatment on memory was studied in rats with a spatial delayed-non-match-to-sample (DNMTS) task in a radial maze and a two trial object recognition task. After completion of training in the DNMTS task, animals were subjected for 9 weeks to daily injections of either saline or sulbutiamine (12.5 or 25 mg/kg). Sulbutiamine did not modify memory in the DNMTS task but improved it in the object recognition task. Dizocilpine, impaired both acquisition and retention of the DNMTS task in the saline-treated group, but not in the two sulbutiamine-treated groups, suggesting that sulbutiamine may counteract the amnesia induced by a blockade of the N-methyl-D-aspartate glutamate receptors. Taken together, these results are in favor of a beneficial effect of sulbutiamine on working and episodic memory.

Study on memories of temporal lobes and the principles of lateralization using near infrared spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kamakura, Katsutoshi

2007-01-01

In this study we measured the variation of brain blood quantity (Oxy-Hb, Deoxy-Hb and Total-Hb) in the temporal lobes using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) when the tasks of the memories were presented to the subjects. The memories are classified into the short-term memory (STM) and the long-term memory (LTM) including the episodic and semantic memories. The subjects joined in this study are 11 persons who are university students including graduate students. We used the language task of letter-number sequencing, also reverse sequencing to measure STM and the task of the episodic memory to measure LTM. As a result of analysis, concerning the episodic memory, the variation of Oxy-Hb in the left temporal lobe was larger than that of Oxy-Hb in the right temporal lobe. The result might suggest that the episodic memory has a relationship with cerebral dominance concerning language area in the left temporal lobe. It seems that the episodic memory meditated with the function of language used in this study is much stored in the left temporal lobe than in the right temporal lobe. This result coincides with the principles of lateralization. The variation of Oxy-Hb in the language task of letter-number sequencing was smaller than that of Oxy-Hb in the language task of the episodic memory.

The effects of autobiographical memory and visual perspective on working memory.

PubMed

Cheng, Zenghu; She, Yugui

2018-08-01

The present research aims to explore whether recalling and writing about autobiographical memory from different perspectives (first-person perspective vs. third-person perspective) could affect cognitive function. The participants first performed a working memory task to evaluate their working memory capacity as a baseline and then were instructed to recall (Study 1) or write about (Study 2) personal events (failures vs. successes) from the first-person perspective or the third-person perspective. Finally, they performed the working memory task again. The results suggested that autobiographical memory and perspective influence working memory interactively. When recalling a success, the participants who recalled from the third-person perspective performed better than those who recalled from the first-person perspective on the working memory capacity task; when recalling a failure, the opposite was true.

Recognition memory, self-other source memory, and theory-of-mind in children with autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Lind, Sophie E; Bowler, Dermot M

2009-09-01

This study investigated semantic and episodic memory in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), using a task which assessed recognition and self-other source memory. Children with ASD showed undiminished recognition memory but significantly diminished source memory, relative to age- and verbal ability-matched comparison children. Both children with and without ASD showed an "enactment effect", demonstrating significantly better recognition and source memory for self-performed actions than other-person-performed actions. Within the comparison group, theory-of-mind (ToM) task performance was significantly correlated with source memory, specifically for other-person-performed actions (after statistically controlling for verbal ability). Within the ASD group, ToM task performance was not significantly correlated with source memory (after controlling for verbal ability). Possible explanations for these relations between source memory and ToM are considered.

Working memory in children assessed with serial chaining and Simon tasks.

PubMed

Parrish, Audrey E; Perdue, Bonnie M; Kelly, Andrew J; Beran, Michael J

2018-06-06

In the serial chaining task, participants are required to produce a sequence of responses to stimuli in the correct order, and sometimes must determine the sequence at trial outset if stimuli are masked after the first response is made. Similarly, the Simon memory span task presents a participant with a sequence of colors, and the participant must recreate the sequence after the full series is shown. In efforts to directly link the comparative literature on sequential planning behavior and working memory span with the developmental literature, we presented preschool children with the serial chaining task using masked Arabic numerals (N = 44) and the Simon memory span task (N = 65). Older children outperformed younger children in each task, sequencing a longer string of numbers in the serial chaining task and remembering a greater number of items in the Simon task. Controlling for the role of age, there was a significant positive relationship between task scores. These results highlight the emergence of working memory skills that might underlie planning capacities in children using a task developed for nonhuman animals, and the results indicate that improvement in general executive functions could be measured using either or both of these tasks among human children and nonhuman species. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

PubMed

Vandierendonck, André

2016-01-01

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

Self-help memory training for healthy older adults in a residential care center: specific and transfer effects on performance and beliefs.

PubMed

Cavallini, Elena; Bottiroli, Sara; Capotosto, Emanuela; De Beni, Rossana; Pavan, Giorgio; Vecchi, Tomaso; Borella, Erika

2015-08-01

Cognitive flexibility has repeatedly been shown to improve after training programs in community-dwelling older adults, but few studies have focused on healthy older adults living in other settings. This study investigated the efficacy of self-help training for healthy older adults in a residential care center on memory tasks they practiced (associative and object list learning tasks) and any transfer to other tasks (grocery lists, face-name learning, figure-word pairing, word lists, and text learning). Transfer effects on everyday life (using a problem-solving task) and on participants' beliefs regarding their memory (efficacy and control) were also examined. With the aid of a manual, the training adopted a learner-oriented approach that directly encouraged learners to generalize strategic behavior to new tasks. The maintenance of any training benefits was assessed after 6 months. The study involved 34 residential care center residents (aged 70-99 years old) with no cognitive impairments who were randomly assigned to two programs: the experimental group followed the self-help training program, whereas the active control group was involved in general cognitive stimulation activities. Training benefits emerged in the trained group for the tasks that were practiced. Transfer effects were found in memory and everyday problem-solving tasks and on memory beliefs. The effects of training were generally maintained in both practiced and unpracticed memory tasks. These results demonstrate that learner-oriented self-help training enhances memory performance and memory beliefs, in the short term at least, even in residential care center residents. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Long-Term Memory and the Control of Attentional Control

PubMed Central

Mayr, Ulrich; Kuhns, David; Hubbard, Jason

2014-01-01

Task-switch costs and in particular the switch-cost asymmetry (i.e., the larger costs of switching to a dominant than a non-dominant task) are usually explained in terms of trial-to-trial carry-over of task-specific control settings. Here we argue that task switches are just one example of situations that trigger a transition from working-memory maintenance to updating, thereby opening working memory to interference from long-term memory. We used a new paradigm that requires selecting a spatial location either on the basis of a central cue (i.e., endogenous control of attention) or a peripheral, sudden onset (i.e., exogenous control of attention). We found a strong cost asymmetry that occurred even after short interruptions of otherwise single-task blocks (Exp. 1-3), but that was much stronger when participants had experienced the competing task under conditions of conflict (Exp. 1-2). Experiment 3 showed that the asymmetric costs were due to interruptions per se, rather than to associative interference tied to specific interruption activities. Experiment 4 generalized the basic pattern across interruptions varying in length or control demands and Experiment 5 across primary tasks with response-selection conflict rather than attentional conflict. Combined, the results support a model in which costs of selecting control settings arise when (a) potentially interfering memory traces have been encoded in long-term memory and (b) working-memory is forced from a maintenance mode into an updating mode (e.g., through task interruptions), thereby allowing unwanted retrieval of the encoded memory traces. PMID:24650696

The role of state anxiety in children's memories for pain.

PubMed

Noel, Melanie; Chambers, Christine T; McGrath, Patrick J; Klein, Raymond M; Stewart, Sherry H

2012-06-01

To investigate the impact of experimentally manipulated state anxiety and the influence of anxiety-related variables on children's memories for pain. A total of 110 children (60 boys) between the ages of 8 and 12 years were randomly assigned to complete a state anxiety induction task or a control task. Following experimental manipulation, children completed a laboratory pain task, pain ratings, and questionnaire measures of anxiety-related variables. 2 weeks later, children provided pain ratings based on their memories of the pain task. The experimental manipulation effectively induced state anxiety; however, pain memories did not differ between groups. Irrespective of group assignment, children with higher state anxiety had more negative pain memories. State anxiety uniquely predicted children's pain memories over and above other well established factors. Anxiety sensitivity and trait anxiety were significant predictors of recalled pain-related fear. These data highlight the importance of anxiety in the development of children's memories for pain.

Working memory capacity and task goals modulate error-related ERPs.

PubMed

Coleman, James R; Watson, Jason M; Strayer, David L

2018-03-01

The present study investigated individual differences in information processing following errant behavior. Participants were initially classified as high or as low working memory capacity using the Operation Span Task. In a subsequent session, they then performed a high congruency version of the flanker task under both speed and accuracy stress. We recorded ERPs and behavioral measures of accuracy and response time in the flanker task with a primary focus on processing following an error. The error-related negativity was larger for the high working memory capacity group than for the low working memory capacity group. The positivity following an error (Pe) was modulated to a greater extent by speed-accuracy instruction for the high working memory capacity group than for the low working memory capacity group. These data help to explicate the neural bases of individual differences in working memory capacity and cognitive control. © 2017 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Effects of Hearing Status and Sign Language Use on Working Memory

PubMed Central

Sarchet, Thomastine; Trani, Alexandra

2016-01-01

Deaf individuals have been found to score lower than hearing individuals across a variety of memory tasks involving both verbal and nonverbal stimuli, particularly those requiring retention of serial order. Deaf individuals who are native signers, meanwhile, have been found to score higher on visual-spatial memory tasks than on verbal-sequential tasks and higher on some visual-spatial tasks than hearing nonsigners. However, hearing status and preferred language modality (signed or spoken) frequently are confounded in such studies. That situation is resolved in the present study by including deaf students who use spoken language and sign language interpreting students (hearing signers) as well as deaf signers and hearing nonsigners. Three complex memory span tasks revealed overall advantages for hearing signers and nonsigners over both deaf signers and deaf nonsigners on 2 tasks involving memory for verbal stimuli (letters). There were no differences among the groups on the task involving visual-spatial stimuli. The results are consistent with and extend recent findings concerning the effects of hearing status and language on memory and are discussed in terms of language modality, hearing status, and cognitive abilities among deaf and hearing individuals. PMID:26755684

Cingulo-opercular activity affects incidental memory encoding for speech in noise.

PubMed

Vaden, Kenneth I; Teubner-Rhodes, Susan; Ahlstrom, Jayne B; Dubno, Judy R; Eckert, Mark A

2017-08-15

Correctly understood speech in difficult listening conditions is often difficult to remember. A long-standing hypothesis for this observation is that the engagement of cognitive resources to aid speech understanding can limit resources available for memory encoding. This hypothesis is consistent with evidence that speech presented in difficult conditions typically elicits greater activity throughout cingulo-opercular regions of frontal cortex that are proposed to optimize task performance through adaptive control of behavior and tonic attention. However, successful memory encoding of items for delayed recognition memory tasks is consistently associated with increased cingulo-opercular activity when perceptual difficulty is minimized. The current study used a delayed recognition memory task to test competing predictions that memory encoding for words is enhanced or limited by the engagement of cingulo-opercular activity during challenging listening conditions. An fMRI experiment was conducted with twenty healthy adult participants who performed a word identification in noise task that was immediately followed by a delayed recognition memory task. Consistent with previous findings, word identification trials in the poorer signal-to-noise ratio condition were associated with increased cingulo-opercular activity and poorer recognition memory scores on average. However, cingulo-opercular activity decreased for correctly identified words in noise that were not recognized in the delayed memory test. These results suggest that memory encoding in difficult listening conditions is poorer when elevated cingulo-opercular activity is not sustained. Although increased attention to speech when presented in difficult conditions may detract from more active forms of memory maintenance (e.g., sub-vocal rehearsal), we conclude that task performance monitoring and/or elevated tonic attention supports incidental memory encoding in challenging listening conditions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Unimodal and crossmodal working memory representations of visual and kinesthetic movement trajectories.

PubMed

Seemüller, Anna; Fiehler, Katja; Rösler, Frank

2011-01-01

The present study investigated whether visual and kinesthetic stimuli are stored as multisensory or modality-specific representations in unimodal and crossmodal working memory tasks. To this end, angle-shaped movement trajectories were presented to 16 subjects in delayed matching-to-sample tasks either visually or kinesthetically during encoding and recognition. During the retention interval, a secondary visual or kinesthetic interference task was inserted either immediately or with a delay after encoding. The modality of the interference task interacted significantly with the encoding modality. After visual encoding, memory was more impaired by a visual than by a kinesthetic secondary task, while after kinesthetic encoding the pattern was reversed. The time when the secondary task had to be performed interacted with the encoding modality as well. For visual encoding, memory was more impaired, when the secondary task had to be performed at the beginning of the retention interval. In contrast, memory after kinesthetic encoding was more affected, when the secondary task was introduced later in the retention interval. The findings suggest that working memory traces are maintained in a modality-specific format characterized by distinct consolidation processes that take longer after kinesthetic than after visual encoding. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Remembering to learn: independent place and journey coding mechanisms contribute to memory transfer.

PubMed

Bahar, Amir S; Shapiro, Matthew L

2012-02-08

The neural mechanisms that integrate new episodes with established memories are unknown. When rats explore an environment, CA1 cells fire in place fields that indicate locations. In goal-directed spatial memory tasks, some place fields differentiate behavioral histories ("journey-dependent" place fields) while others do not ("journey-independent" place fields). To investigate how these signals inform learning and memory for new and familiar episodes, we recorded CA1 and CA3 activity in rats trained to perform a "standard" spatial memory task in a plus maze and in two new task variants. A "switch" task exchanged the start and goal locations in the same environment; an "altered environment" task contained unfamiliar local and distal cues. In the switch task, performance was mildly impaired, new firing maps were stable, but the proportion and stability of journey-dependent place fields declined. In the altered environment, overall performance was strongly impaired, new firing maps were unstable, and stable proportions of journey-dependent place fields were maintained. In both tasks, memory errors were accompanied by a decline in journey codes. The different dynamics of place and journey coding suggest that they reflect separate mechanisms and contribute to distinct memory computations. Stable place fields may represent familiar relationships among environmental features that are required for consistent memory performance. Journey-dependent activity may correspond with goal-directed behavioral sequences that reflect expectancies that generalize across environments. The complementary signals could help link current events with established memories, so that familiarity with either a behavioral strategy or an environment can inform goal-directed learning.

REMEMBERING TO LEARN: INDEPENDENT PLACE AND JOURNEY CODING MECHANISMS CONTRIBUTE TO MEMORY TRANSFER

PubMed Central

Bahar, Amir S.; Shapiro, Matthew L.

2012-01-01

The neural mechanisms that integrate new episodes with established memories are unknown. When rats explore an environment, CA1 cells fire in place fields that indicate locations. In goal-directed spatial memory tasks, some place fields differentiate behavioral histories (journey-dependent place fields) while others do not (journey-independent place fields). To investigate how these signals inform learning and memory for new and familiar episodes, we recorded CA1 and CA3 activity in rats trained to perform a standard spatial memory task in a plus maze and in two new task variants. A switch task exchanged the start and goal locations in the same environment; an altered environment task contained unfamiliar local and distal cues. In the switch task, performance was mildly impaired, new firing maps were stable, but the proportion and stability of journey-dependent place fields declined. In the altered environment, overall performance was strongly impaired, new firing maps were unstable, and stable proportions of journey-dependent place fields were maintained. In both tasks, memory errors were accompanied by a decline in journey codes. The different dynamics of place and journey coding suggest that they reflect separate mechanisms and contribute to distinct memory computations. Stable place fields may represent familiar relationships among environmental features that are required for consistent memory performance. Journey-dependent activity may correspond with goal directed behavioral sequences that reflect expectancies that generalize across environments. The complementary signals could help link current events with established memories, so that familiarity with either a behavioral strategy or an environment can inform goal-directed learning. PMID:22323731

Developing a hippocampal neural prosthetic to facilitate human memory encoding and recall.

PubMed

Hampson, Robert E; Song, Dong; Robinson, Brian S; Fetterhoff, Dustin; Dakos, Alexander S; Roeder, Brent M; She, Xiwei; Wicks, Robert T; Witcher, Mark R; Couture, Daniel E; Laxton, Adrian W; Munger-Clary, Heidi; Popli, Gautam; Sollman, Myriam J; Whitlow, Christopher T; Marmarelis, Vasilis Z; Berger, Theodore W; Deadwyler, Sam A

2018-06-01

We demonstrate here the first successful implementation in humans of a proof-of-concept system for restoring and improving memory function via facilitation of memory encoding using the patient's own hippocampal spatiotemporal neural codes for memory. Memory in humans is subject to disruption by drugs, disease and brain injury, yet previous attempts to restore or rescue memory function in humans typically involved only nonspecific, modulation of brain areas and neural systems related to memory retrieval. We have constructed a model of processes by which the hippocampus encodes memory items via spatiotemporal firing of neural ensembles that underlie the successful encoding of short-term memory. A nonlinear multi-input, multi-output (MIMO) model of hippocampal CA3 and CA1 neural firing is computed that predicts activation patterns of CA1 neurons during the encoding (sample) phase of a delayed match-to-sample (DMS) human short-term memory task. MIMO model-derived electrical stimulation delivered to the same CA1 locations during the sample phase of DMS trials facilitated short-term/working memory by 37% during the task. Longer term memory retention was also tested in the same human subjects with a delayed recognition (DR) task that utilized images from the DMS task, along with images that were not from the task. Across the subjects, the stimulated trials exhibited significant improvement (35%) in both short-term and long-term retention of visual information. These results demonstrate the facilitation of memory encoding which is an important feature for the construction of an implantable neural prosthetic to improve human memory.

Developing a hippocampal neural prosthetic to facilitate human memory encoding and recall

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hampson, Robert E.; Song, Dong; Robinson, Brian S.; Fetterhoff, Dustin; Dakos, Alexander S.; Roeder, Brent M.; She, Xiwei; Wicks, Robert T.; Witcher, Mark R.; Couture, Daniel E.; Laxton, Adrian W.; Munger-Clary, Heidi; Popli, Gautam; Sollman, Myriam J.; Whitlow, Christopher T.; Marmarelis, Vasilis Z.; Berger, Theodore W.; Deadwyler, Sam A.

2018-06-01

Objective. We demonstrate here the first successful implementation in humans of a proof-of-concept system for restoring and improving memory function via facilitation of memory encoding using the patient’s own hippocampal spatiotemporal neural codes for memory. Memory in humans is subject to disruption by drugs, disease and brain injury, yet previous attempts to restore or rescue memory function in humans typically involved only nonspecific, modulation of brain areas and neural systems related to memory retrieval. Approach. We have constructed a model of processes by which the hippocampus encodes memory items via spatiotemporal firing of neural ensembles that underlie the successful encoding of short-term memory. A nonlinear multi-input, multi-output (MIMO) model of hippocampal CA3 and CA1 neural firing is computed that predicts activation patterns of CA1 neurons during the encoding (sample) phase of a delayed match-to-sample (DMS) human short-term memory task. Main results. MIMO model-derived electrical stimulation delivered to the same CA1 locations during the sample phase of DMS trials facilitated short-term/working memory by 37% during the task. Longer term memory retention was also tested in the same human subjects with a delayed recognition (DR) task that utilized images from the DMS task, along with images that were not from the task. Across the subjects, the stimulated trials exhibited significant improvement (35%) in both short-term and long-term retention of visual information. Significance. These results demonstrate the facilitation of memory encoding which is an important feature for the construction of an implantable neural prosthetic to improve human memory.

Contrasting single and multi-component working-memory systems in dual tasking.

PubMed

Nijboer, Menno; Borst, Jelmer; van Rijn, Hedderik; Taatgen, Niels

2016-05-01

Working memory can be a major source of interference in dual tasking. However, there is no consensus on whether this interference is the result of a single working memory bottleneck, or of interactions between different working memory components that together form a complete working-memory system. We report a behavioral and an fMRI dataset in which working memory requirements are manipulated during multitasking. We show that a computational cognitive model that assumes a distributed version of working memory accounts for both behavioral and neuroimaging data better than a model that takes a more centralized approach. The model's working memory consists of an attentional focus, declarative memory, and a subvocalized rehearsal mechanism. Thus, the data and model favor an account where working memory interference in dual tasking is the result of interactions between different resources that together form a working-memory system. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Task positive and default mode networks during a working memory in children with primary monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis and healthy controls.

PubMed

Zhang, Kaihua; Ma, Jun; Lei, Du; Wang, Mengxing; Zhang, Jilei; Du, Xiaoxia

2015-10-01

Nocturnal enuresis is a common developmental disorder in children, and primary monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis (PMNE) is the dominant subtype. This study investigated brain functional abnormalities that are specifically related to working memory in children with PMNE using function magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in combination with an n-back task. Twenty children with PMNE and 20 healthy children, group-matched for age and sex, participated in this experiment. Several brain regions exhibited reduced activation during the n-back task in children with PMNE, including the right precentral gyrus and the right inferior parietal lobule extending to the postcentral gyrus. Children with PMNE exhibited decreased cerebral activation in the task-positive network, increased task-related cerebral deactivation during a working memory task, and longer response times. Patients exhibited different brain response patterns to different levels of working memory and tended to compensate by greater default mode network deactivation to sustain normal working memory function. Our results suggest that children with PMNE have potential working memory dysfunction.

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

PubMed

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

2017-05-01

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

Working memory plasticity and aging.

PubMed

Rhodes, Rebecca E; Katz, Benjamin

2017-02-01

The present research explores how the trajectory of learning on a working memory task changes throughout the life span, and whether gains in working memory performance are exclusively a question of initial working memory capacity (WMC) or whether age exerts an independent effect. In a large, cross-sectional study of younger, middle-aged, and older adults, we examined learning on a widely used working memory task-the dual n-back task-over 20 sessions of practice. We found that, while all age groups improved on the task, older adults demonstrated less improvement on the task, and also reached a lower asymptotic maximum performance than younger adults. After controlling for initial WMC, we found that age exerted independent effects on training gains and asymptotic performance; older adults tended to improve less and reached lower levels of performance than younger adults. The difference between younger and older adults' rates of learning depended in part on initial WMC. These results suggest that age-related effects on working memory include not only effects on capacity, but also plasticity and the ability to improve on a task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Eighteen-month-olds' memory interference and distraction in a modified A-not-B task is not associated with their anticipatory looking in a false-belief task.

PubMed

Zmyj, Norbert; Prinz, Wolfgang; Daum, Moritz M

2015-01-01

Infants' performance in non-verbal false-belief tasks is often interpreted as if they have understood false beliefs. This view has been questioned by a recent account that explains infants' performance in non-verbal false-belief tasks as the result of susceptibility to memory interference and distraction. We tested this alternative account by investigating the relationship between infants' false-belief understanding, susceptibility to memory interference and distraction, and general cognitive development in 18-month-old infants (N = 22). False-belief understanding was tested in an anticipatory looking paradigm of a standard false-belief task. Susceptibility to memory interference and distraction was tested in a modified A-not-B task. Cognitive development was measured via the Mental Scale of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. We did not find any relationship between infants' performance in the false-belief task and the A-not-B task, even after controlling for cognitive development. This study shows that there is no ubiquitous relation between susceptibility to memory interference and distraction and performance in a false-belief task in infancy.

Eighteen-month-olds’ memory interference and distraction in a modified A-not-B task is not associated with their anticipatory looking in a false-belief task

PubMed Central

Zmyj, Norbert; Prinz, Wolfgang; Daum, Moritz M.

2015-01-01

Infants’ performance in non-verbal false-belief tasks is often interpreted as if they have understood false beliefs. This view has been questioned by a recent account that explains infants’ performance in non-verbal false-belief tasks as the result of susceptibility to memory interference and distraction. We tested this alternative account by investigating the relationship between infants’ false-belief understanding, susceptibility to memory interference and distraction, and general cognitive development in 18-month-old infants (N = 22). False-belief understanding was tested in an anticipatory looking paradigm of a standard false-belief task. Susceptibility to memory interference and distraction was tested in a modified A-not-B task. Cognitive development was measured via the Mental Scale of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. We did not find any relationship between infants’ performance in the false-belief task and the A-not-B task, even after controlling for cognitive development. This study shows that there is no ubiquitous relation between susceptibility to memory interference and distraction and performance in a false-belief task in infancy. PMID:26157409

A comparison of the effects of temporary hippocampal lesions on single and dual context versions of the olfactory sequence memory task.

PubMed

Sill, Orriana C; Smith, David M

2012-08-01

In recent years, many animal models of memory have focused on one or more of the various components of episodic memory. For example, the odor sequence memory task requires subjects to remember individual items and events (the odors) and the temporal aspects of the experience (the sequence of odor presentation). The well-known spatial context coding function of the hippocampus, as exemplified by place cell firing, may reflect the "where" component of episodic memory. In the present study, we added a contextual component to the odor sequence memory task by training rats to choose the earlier odor in one context and the later odor in another context and we compared the effects of temporary hippocampal lesions on performance of the original single context task and the new dual context task. Temporary lesions significantly impaired the single context task, although performance remained significantly above chance levels. In contrast, performance dropped all the way to chance when temporary lesions were used in the dual context task. These results demonstrate that rats can learn a dual context version of the odor sequence learning task that requires the use of contextual information along with the requirement to remember the "what" and "when" components of the odor sequence. Moreover, the addition of the contextual component made the task fully dependent on the hippocampus.

Characterizing “fibrofog”: Subjective appraisal, objective performance, and task-related brain activity during a working memory task

PubMed Central

Walitt, Brian; Čeko, Marta; Khatiwada, Manish; Gracely, John L.; Rayhan, Rakib; VanMeter, John W.; Gracely, Richard H.

2016-01-01

The subjective experience of cognitive dysfunction (“fibrofog”) is common in fibromyalgia. This study investigated the relation between subjective appraisal of cognitive function, objective cognitive task performance, and brain activity during a cognitive task using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Sixteen fibromyalgia patients and 13 healthy pain-free controls completed a battery of questionnaires, including the Multiple Ability Self-Report Questionnaire (MASQ), a measure of self-perceived cognitive difficulties. Participants were evaluated for working memory performance using a modified N-back working memory task while undergoing Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) fMRI measurements. Fibromyalgia patients and controls did not differ in working memory performance. Subjective appraisal of cognitive function was associated with better performance (accuracy) on the working memory task in healthy controls but not in fibromyalgia patients. In fibromyalgia patients, increased perceived cognitive difficulty was positively correlated with the severity of their symptoms. BOLD response during the working memory task did not differ between the groups. BOLD response correlated with task accuracy in control subjects but not in fibromyalgia patients. Increased subjective cognitive impairment correlated with decreased BOLD response in both groups but in different anatomic regions. In conclusion, “fibrofog” appears to be better characterized by subjective rather than objective impairment. Neurologic correlates of this subjective experience of impairment might be separate from those involved in the performance of cognitive tasks. PMID:26955513

Characterizing "fibrofog": Subjective appraisal, objective performance, and task-related brain activity during a working memory task.

PubMed

Walitt, Brian; Čeko, Marta; Khatiwada, Manish; Gracely, John L; Rayhan, Rakib; VanMeter, John W; Gracely, Richard H

2016-01-01

The subjective experience of cognitive dysfunction ("fibrofog") is common in fibromyalgia. This study investigated the relation between subjective appraisal of cognitive function, objective cognitive task performance, and brain activity during a cognitive task using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Sixteen fibromyalgia patients and 13 healthy pain-free controls completed a battery of questionnaires, including the Multiple Ability Self-Report Questionnaire (MASQ), a measure of self-perceived cognitive difficulties. Participants were evaluated for working memory performance using a modified N-back working memory task while undergoing Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) fMRI measurements. Fibromyalgia patients and controls did not differ in working memory performance. Subjective appraisal of cognitive function was associated with better performance (accuracy) on the working memory task in healthy controls but not in fibromyalgia patients. In fibromyalgia patients, increased perceived cognitive difficulty was positively correlated with the severity of their symptoms. BOLD response during the working memory task did not differ between the groups. BOLD response correlated with task accuracy in control subjects but not in fibromyalgia patients. Increased subjective cognitive impairment correlated with decreased BOLD response in both groups but in different anatomic regions. In conclusion, "fibrofog" appears to be better characterized by subjective rather than objective impairment. Neurologic correlates of this subjective experience of impairment might be separate from those involved in the performance of cognitive tasks.

The neural correlates of age effects on verbal-spatial binding in working memory.

PubMed

Meier, Timothy B; Nair, Veena A; Meyerand, Mary E; Birn, Rasmus M; Prabhakaran, Vivek

2014-06-01

In this study, we investigated the neural correlates of age-related differences in the binding of verbal and spatial information utilizing event-related working memory tasks. Twenty-one right handed younger adults and twenty-one right handed older adults performed two versions of a dual task of verbal and spatial working memory. In the unbound dual task version letters and locations were presented simultaneously in separate locations, while in the bound dual task version each letter was paired with a specific location. In order to identify binding-specific differences, mixed-effects ANOVAs were run with the interaction of age and task as the effect of interest. Although older adults performed worse in the bound task than younger adults, there was no significant interaction between task and age on working memory performance. However, interactions of age and task were observed in brain activity analyses. Older adults did not display the greater unbound than bound task activity that younger adults did at the encoding phase in bilateral inferior parietal lobule, right putamen, and globus pallidus as well as at the maintenance phase in the cerebellum. We conclude that the binding of letters and locations in working memory is not as efficient in older adults as it is in younger adults, possibly due to the decline of cognitive control processes that are specific to working memory binding. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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.

Effects of Working Memory Capacity on Metacognitive Monitoring: A Study of Group Differences Using a Listening Span Test.

PubMed

Komori, Mie

2016-01-01

Monitoring is an executive function of working memory that serves to update novel information, focusing attention on task-relevant targets, and eliminating task-irrelevant noise. The present research used a verbal working memory task to examine how working memory capacity limits affect monitoring. Participants performed a Japanese listening span test that included maintenance of target words and listening comprehension. On each trial, participants responded to the target word and then immediately estimated confidence in recall performance for that word (metacognitive judgment). The results confirmed significant differences in monitoring accuracy between high and low capacity groups in a multi-task situation. That is, confidence judgments were superior in high vs. low capacity participants in terms of absolute accuracy and discrimination. The present research further investigated how memory load and interference affect underestimation of successful recall. The results indicated that the level of memory load that reduced word recall performance and led to an underconfidence bias varied according to participants' memory capacity. In addition, irrelevant information associated with incorrect true/ false decisions (secondary task) and word recall within the current trial impaired monitoring accuracy in both participant groups. These findings suggest that interference from unsuccessful decisions only influences low, but not high, capacity participants. Therefore, monitoring accuracy, which requires high working memory capacity, improves metacognitive abilities by inhibiting task-irrelevant noise and focusing attention on detecting task-relevant targets or useful retrieval cues, which could improve actual cognitive performance.

Searching for the right word: Hybrid visual and memory search for words

PubMed Central

Boettcher, Sage E. P.; Wolfe, Jeremy M.

2016-01-01

In “Hybrid Search” (Wolfe 2012) observers search through visual space for any of multiple targets held in memory. With photorealistic objects as stimuli, response times (RTs) increase linearly with the visual set size and logarithmically with memory set size even when over 100 items are committed to memory. It is well established that pictures of objects are particularly easy to memorize (Brady, Konkle, Alvarez, & Olivia, 2008). Would hybrid search performance be similar if the targets were words or phrases where word order can be important and where the processes of memorization might be different? In Experiment One, observers memorized 2, 4, 8, or 16 words in 4 different blocks. After passing a memory test, confirming memorization of the list, observers searched for these words in visual displays containing 2 to 16 words. Replicating Wolfe (2012), RTs increased linearly with the visual set size and logarithmically with the length of the word list. The word lists of Experiment One were random. In Experiment Two, words were drawn from phrases that observers reported knowing by heart (E.G. “London Bridge is falling down”). Observers were asked to provide four phrases ranging in length from 2 words to a phrase of no less than 20 words (range 21–86). Words longer than 2 characters from the phrase constituted the target list. Distractor words were matched for length and frequency. Even with these strongly ordered lists, results again replicated the curvilinear function of memory set size seen in hybrid search. One might expect serial position effects; perhaps reducing RTs for the first (primacy) and/or last (recency) members of a list (Atkinson & Shiffrin 1968; Murdock, 1962). Surprisingly we showed no reliable effects of word order. Thus, in “London Bridge is falling down”, “London” and “down” are found no faster than “falling”. PMID:25788035

Working memory deficits in children with reading difficulties: memory span and dual task coordination.

PubMed

Wang, Shinmin; Gathercole, Susan E

2013-05-01

The current study investigated the cause of the reported problems in working memory in children with reading difficulties. Verbal and visuospatial simple and complex span tasks, and digit span and reaction times tasks performed singly and in combination, were administered to 46 children with single word reading difficulties and 45 typically developing children matched for age and nonverbal ability. Children with reading difficulties had pervasive deficits in the simple and complex span tasks and had poorer abilities to coordinate two cognitive demanding tasks. These findings indicate that working memory problems in children with reading difficulties may reflect a core deficit in the central executive. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Estimated capacity of object files in visual short-term memory is not improved by retrieval cueing.

PubMed

Saiki, Jun; Miyatsuji, Hirofumi

2009-03-23

Visual short-term memory (VSTM) has been claimed to maintain three to five feature-bound object representations. Some results showing smaller capacity estimates for feature binding memory have been interpreted as the effects of interference in memory retrieval. However, change-detection tasks may not properly evaluate complex feature-bound representations such as triple conjunctions in VSTM. To understand the general type of feature-bound object representation, evaluation of triple conjunctions is critical. To test whether interference occurs in memory retrieval for complete object file representations in a VSTM task, we cued retrieval in novel paradigms that directly evaluate the memory for triple conjunctions, in comparison with a simple change-detection task. In our multiple object permanence tracking displays, observers monitored for a switch in feature combination between objects during an occlusion period, and we found that a retrieval cue provided no benefit with the triple conjunction tasks, but significant facilitation with the change-detection task, suggesting that low capacity estimates of object file memory in VSTM reflect a limit on maintenance, not retrieval.

Working memory binding and episodic memory formation in aging, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer's dementia.

PubMed

van Geldorp, Bonnie; Heringa, Sophie M; van den Berg, Esther; Olde Rikkert, Marcel G M; Biessels, Geert Jan; Kessels, Roy P C

2015-01-01

Recent studies indicate that in both normal and pathological aging working memory (WM) performance deteriorates, especially when associations have to be maintained. However, most studies typically do not assess the relationship between WM and episodic memory formation. In the present study, we examined WM and episodic memory formation in normal aging and in patients with early Alzheimer's disease (mild cognitive impairment, MCI; and Alzheimer's dementia, AD). In the first study, 26 young adults (mean age 29.6 years) were compared to 18 middle-aged adults (mean age 52.2 years) and 25 older adults (mean age 72.8 years). We used an associative delayed-match-to-sample WM task, which requires participants to maintain two pairs of faces and houses presented on a computer screen for short (3 s) or long (6 s) maintenance intervals. After the WM task, an unexpected subsequent associative memory task was administered (two-alternative forced choice). In the second study, 27 patients with AD and 19 patients with MCI were compared to 25 older controls, using the same paradigm as that in Experiment 1. Older adults performed worse than both middle-aged and young adults. No effect of delay was observed in the healthy adults, and pairs that were processed during long maintenance intervals were not better remembered in the subsequent memory task. In the MCI and AD patients, longer maintenance intervals hampered the task performance. Also, both patient groups performed significantly worse than controls on the episodic memory task as well as the associative WM task. Aging and AD present with a decline in WM binding, a finding that extends similar results in episodic memory. Longer delays in the WM task did not affect episodic memory formation. We conclude that WM deficits are found when WM capacity is exceeded, which may occur during associative processing.

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…

The Multifold Relationship between Memory and Decision Making: An Individual-Differences Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Del Missier, Fabio; Mäntylä, Timo; Hansson, Patrik; Bruine de Bruin, Wändi; Parker, Andrew M.; Nilsson, Lars-Göran

2013-01-01

Several judgment and decision-making tasks are assumed to involve memory functions, but significant knowledge gaps on the memory processes underlying these tasks remain. In a study on 568 adults between 25 and 80 years of age, hypotheses were tested on the specific relationships between individual differences in working memory, episodic memory,…

Team performance in networked supervisory control of unmanned air vehicles: effects of automation, working memory, and communication content.

PubMed

McKendrick, Ryan; Shaw, Tyler; de Visser, Ewart; Saqer, Haneen; Kidwell, Brian; Parasuraman, Raja

2014-05-01

Assess team performance within a net-worked supervisory control setting while manipulating automated decision aids and monitoring team communication and working memory ability. Networked systems such as multi-unmanned air vehicle (UAV) supervision have complex properties that make prediction of human-system performance difficult. Automated decision aid can provide valuable information to operators, individual abilities can limit or facilitate team performance, and team communication patterns can alter how effectively individuals work together. We hypothesized that reliable automation, higher working memory capacity, and increased communication rates of task-relevant information would offset performance decrements attributed to high task load. Two-person teams performed a simulated air defense task with two levels of task load and three levels of automated aid reliability. Teams communicated and received decision aid messages via chat window text messages. Task Load x Automation effects were significant across all performance measures. Reliable automation limited the decline in team performance with increasing task load. Average team spatial working memory was a stronger predictor than other measures of team working memory. Frequency of team rapport and enemy location communications positively related to team performance, and word count was negatively related to team performance. Reliable decision aiding mitigated team performance decline during increased task load during multi-UAV supervisory control. Team spatial working memory, communication of spatial information, and team rapport predicted team success. An automated decision aid can improve team performance under high task load. Assessment of spatial working memory and the communication of task-relevant information can help in operator and team selection in supervisory control systems.

Relationships between episodic memory performance prediction and sociodemographic variables among healthy older adults.

PubMed

de Oliveira, Glaucia Martins; Cachioni, Meire; Falcão, Deusivania; Batistoni, Samila; Lopes, Andrea; Guimarães, Vanessa; Lima-Silva, Thais Bento; Neri, Anita Liberalesso; Yassuda, Mônica Sanches

2015-01-01

Previous studies have suggested that performance prediction, an aspect of metamemory, may be associated with objective performance on memory tasks. The objective of the study was to describe memory prediction before performing an episodic memory task, in community-dwelling older adults, stratified by sex, age group and educational level. Additionally, the association between predicted and objective performance on a memory task was investigated. The study was based on data from 359 participants in the FIBRA study carried out at Ermelino Matarazzo, São Paulo. Memory prediction was assessed by posing the question: "If someone showed you a sheet with drawings of 10 pictures to observe for 30 seconds, how many pictures do you think you could remember without seeing the sheet?". Memory performance was assessed by the memorization of 10 black and white pictures from the Brief Cognitive Screening Battery (BCSB). No differences were found between men and women, nor for age group and educational level, in memory performance prediction before carrying out the memory task. There was a modest association (rho=0.11, p=0.041) between memory prediction and performance in immediate memory. On multivariate linear regression analyses, memory performance prediction was moderately significantly associated with immediate memory (p=0.061). In this study, sociodemographic variables did not influence memory prediction, which was only modestly associated with immediate memory on the Brief Cognitive Screening Battery (BCSB).

The relationship between different exercise modes and visuospatial working memory in older adults: a cross-sectional study.

PubMed

Guo, Wei; Wang, Biye; Lu, Yue; Zhu, Qin; Shi, Zhihao; Ren, Jie

2016-01-01

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between different exercise modes and visuospatial working memory in healthy older adults. A cross-sectional design was adopted. A total of 111 healthy older adults were enrolled in the study. They were classified by the exercise-related questionnaire to be in an open-skill group, closed-skill group or sedentary group. In experiment 1, the participants performed a visuospatial working memory task. The results indicated that both closed-skill (p < 0.05) and open-skill (p < 0.01) groups reached a higher accuracy than the sedentary group. Experiment 2 examined whether the exercise-induced benefit of working memory was manifested in passive maintenance or active manipulation of working memory which was assessed by visuospatial short-term memory task and visuospatial mental rotation task, respectively. The results showed that the open-skill (p < 0.01) group was more accurate than the sedentary group in the visuospatial short-term memory task, whereas the group difference in the visuospatial mental rotation task was not significant. These findings combined to suggest that physical exercise was associated with better visuospatial working memory in older adults. Furthermore, open-skill exercises that demand higher cognitive processing showed selective benefit for passive maintenance of working memory.

Effects of memory load on hemispheric asymmetries of colour memory.

PubMed

Clapp, Wes; Kirk, Ian J; Hausmann, Markus

2007-03-01

Hemispheric asymmetries in colour perception have been a matter of debate for some time. Recent evidence suggests that lateralisation of colour processing may be largely task specific. Here we investigated hemispheric asymmetries during different types and phases of a delayed colour-matching (recognition) memory task. A total of 11 male and 12 female right-handed participants performed colour-memory tasks. The task involved presentation of a set of colour stimuli (encoding), and subsequent indication (forced choice) of which colours in a larger set had previously appeared at the retrieval or recognition phase. The effect of memory load (set size), and the effect of lateralisation at the encoding or retrieval phases were investigated. Overall, the results indicate a right hemisphere advantage in colour processing, which was particularly pronounced in high memory load conditions, and was seen in males rather than female participants. The results suggest that verbal (mnemonic) strategies can significantly affect the magnitude of hemispheric asymmetries in a non-verbal task.

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

PubMed

Sheremata, Summer L; Shomstein, Sarah

2017-08-01

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

Early Life Manipulations Alter Learning and Memory in Rats

PubMed Central

Kosten, Therese A; Kim, Jeansok J; Lee, Hongjoo J.

2012-01-01

Much research shows early life manipulations have enduring behavioral, neural, and hormonal effects. However, findings of learning and memory performance vary widely across studies. We reviewed studies in which pre-weaning rat pups were exposed to stressors and tested on learning and memory tasks in adulthood. Tasks were classified as aversive conditioning, inhibitory learning, or spatial/relational memory. Variables of duration, type, and timing of neonatal manipulation and sex and strain of animals were examined to determine if any predict enhanced or impaired performance. Brief separations enhanced and prolonged separations impaired performance on spatial/relational tasks. Performance was impaired in aversive conditioning and enhanced in inhibitory learning tasks regardless of manipulation duration. Opposing effects on performance for spatial/relational memory also depended upon timing of manipulation. Enhanced performance was likely if the manipulation occurred during postnatal week 3 but performance was impaired if it was confined to the first two postnatal weeks. Thus, the relationship between early life experiences and adulthood learning and memory performance is multifaceted and decidedly task-dependent. PMID:22819985

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.

Visuospatial deficits in schizophrenia: central executive and memory subsystems impairments.

PubMed

Leiderman, Eduardo A; Strejilevich, Sergio A

2004-06-01

Object and spatial visual working memory are impaired in schizophrenic patients. It is not clear if the impairments reside in each memory subsystem alone or also in the central executive component that coordinates these processes. In order to elucidate which memory component is impaired, we developed a paradigm with single spatial and object working memory tasks and dual ones with two different delays (5 and 30 s). Fifteen schizophrenic patients and 14 control subjects performed these tests. Schizophrenic patients had a poorer performance compared to normal controls in all tasks and in all time delays. Both schizophrenics and controls performed significantly worse in the object task than in the spatial task. The performance was even worse in the dual task compared to the singles ones in schizophrenic patients but not in controls. These data suggest that visuospatial performance deficits in schizophrenia are due to both visuospatial memory subsystems impairments and central executive ones. The pattern of deficits observed points to a codification or evocation deficit and not to a maintenance one.

Electrophysiological indices of altered working memory processes in long-term ecstasy users.

PubMed

Nulsen, Claire; Fox, Allison; Hammond, Geoff

2011-10-01

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of light long-term ecstasy consumption on verbal short-term and working memory and to identify the cognitive processes contributing to task performance. Electroencephalogram was recorded while ecstasy users (N = 11), polydrug users (N = 13), and non-users (N = 13) completed forward and backward serial recognition tasks designed to engage verbal short-term memory and verbal working memory, respectively. All three groups displayed significantly lower digit-backward span than digit-forward span with ecstasy users displaying the greatest difference. The parietally distributed P3b was significantly smaller in the digits backward task than in the digits forward task in non-ecstasy-using controls. Ecstasy users did not show the reduced P3b component in the backward task that was seen in both non-ecstasy-using control groups. Ecstasy users' performance was suppressed more by the concurrent processing demands of the working memory task than that of the non-ecstasy-using controls. Non-ecstasy-using controls showed differential event-related potential wave forms in the short-term and working memory tasks, and this pattern was not seen in the ecstasy users. This is consistent with a reduction in the cognitive resources allocated to processing in working memory in ecstasy users. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Rivastigmine but not vardenafil reverses cannabis-induced impairment of verbal memory in healthy humans.

PubMed

Theunissen, E L; Heckman, P; de Sousa Fernandes Perna, E B; Kuypers, K P C; Sambeth, A; Blokland, A; Prickaerts, J; Toennes, S W; Ramaekers, J G

2015-01-01

One of the most often reported cognitive deficits of acute cannabis administration is an impaired recall of previously learned information. The aim of the present study was to determine whether cannabis-induced memory impairment in humans is mediated via glutamatergic or cholinergic pathways. Fifteen occasional cannabis users participated in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, six-way cross-over study. On separate test days, subjects received combinations of pretreatment (placebo, vardenafil 20 mg or rivastigmine 3 mg) and treatment (placebo or 1,376 mg cannabis/kg body weight). Cognitive tests were administered immediately after inhalation of treatment was finished and included measures of memory (visual verbal learning task, prospective memory test, Sternberg memory test), perceptual-motor control (critical tracking task), attention (divided attention task) and motor impulsivity (stop signal task). The results of this study demonstrate that subjects under the influence of cannabis were impaired in all memory tasks, in critical tracking, divided attention and the stop signal task. Pretreatment with rivastigmine attenuated the effect of cannabis on delayed recall and showed a trend towards significance on immediate recall. When cannabis was given in combination with vardenafil, there were no significant interaction effects in any of the tasks. The present data therefore suggest that acetylcholine plays an important role in cannabis-induced memory impairment, whereas similar results for glutamate have not been demonstrated in this study.

Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) on Human Memory.

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

Matzen, Laura E.; Trumbo, Michael Christopher Stefan

Training a person in a new knowledge base or skill set is extremely time consuming and costly, particularly in highly specialized domains such as the military and the intelligence community. Recent research in cognitive neuroscience has suggested that a technique called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has the potential to revolutionize training by enabling learners to acquire new skills faster, more efficiently, and more robustly (Bullard et al., 2011). In this project, we tested the effects of tDCS on two types of memory performance that are critical for learning new skills: associative memory and working memory. Associative memory is memorymore » for the relationship between two items or events. It forms the foundation of all episodic memories, so enhancing associative memory could provide substantial benefits to the speed and robustness of learning new information. We tested the effects of tDCS on associative memory, using a real-world associative memory task: remembering the links between faces and names. Working memory refers to the amount of information that can be held in mind and processed at one time, and it forms the basis for all higher-level cognitive processing. We investigated the degree of transfer between various working memory tasks (the N-back task as a measure of verbal working memory, the rotation-span task as a measure of visuospatial working memory, and Raven's progressive matrices as a measure of fluid intelligence) in order to determine if tDCS-induced facilitation of performance is task-specific or general.« less

The Effect of Noise on the Relationship Between Auditory Working Memory and Comprehension in School-Age Children.

PubMed

Sullivan, Jessica R; Osman, Homira; Schafer, Erin C

2015-06-01

The objectives of the current study were to examine the effect of noise (-5 dB SNR) on auditory comprehension and to examine its relationship with working memory. It was hypothesized that noise has a negative impact on information processing, auditory working memory, and comprehension. Children with normal hearing between the ages of 8 and 10 years were administered working memory and comprehension tasks in quiet and noise. The comprehension measure comprised 5 domains: main idea, details, reasoning, vocabulary, and understanding messages. Performance on auditory working memory and comprehension tasks were significantly poorer in noise than in quiet. The reasoning, details, understanding, and vocabulary subtests were particularly affected in noise (p < .05). The relationship between auditory working memory and comprehension was stronger in noise than in quiet, suggesting an increased contribution of working memory. These data suggest that school-age children's auditory working memory and comprehension are negatively affected by noise. Performance on comprehension tasks in noise is strongly related to demands placed on working memory, supporting the theory that degrading listening conditions draws resources away from the primary task.

Statistical Mechanics Model of the Speed - Accuracy Tradeoff in Spatial and Lexical Memory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaufman, Miron; Allen, Philip

2000-03-01

The molar neural network model of P. Allen, M. Kaufman, A. F. Smith, R. E. Popper, Psychology and Aging 13, 501 (1998) and Experimental Aging Research, 24, 307 (1998) is extended to incorporate reaction times. In our model the entropy associated with a particular task determines the reaction time. We use this molar neural model to directly analyze experimental data on episodic (spatial) memory and semantic (lexical) memory tasks. In particular we are interested in the effect of aging on the two types of memory. We find that there is no difference in performance levels for lexical memory tasks between younger and older adults. In the case spatial memory tasks we find that aging has a detrimental effect on the performance level. This work is supported by NIH/NIA grant AG09282-06.

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

PubMed

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

2011-06-01

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

Developmental gender differences in children in a virtual spatial memory task.

PubMed

León, Irene; Cimadevilla, José Manuel; Tascón, Laura

2014-07-01

Behavioral achievements are the product of brain maturation. During postnatal development, the medial temporal lobe completes its maturation, and children acquire new memory abilities. In recent years, virtual reality-based tasks have been introduced in the neuropsychology field to assess different cognitive functions. In this work, desktop virtual reality tasks are combined with classic psychometric tests to assess spatial abilities in 4- to 10-year-old children. Fifty boys and 50 girls 4-10-years of age participated in this study. Spatial reference memory and spatial working memory were assessed using a desktop virtual reality-based task. Other classic psychometric tests were also included in this work (e.g., the Corsi Block Tapping Test, digit tests, 10/36 Spatial Recall Test). In general terms, 4- and 5-year-old groups showed poorer performance than the older groups. However, 5-year-old children showed basic spatial navigation abilities with little difficulty. In addition, boys outperformed girls from the 6-8-year-old groups. Gender differences only emerged in the reference-memory version of the spatial task, whereas both sexes displayed similar performances in the working-memory version. There was general improvement in the performance of different tasks in children older than 5 years. However, results also suggest that brain regions involved in allocentric memory are functional even at the age of 5. In addition, the brain structures underlying reference memory mature later in girls than those required for the working memory.

Decoding memory features from hippocampal spiking activities using sparse classification models.

PubMed

Dong Song; Hampson, Robert E; Robinson, Brian S; Marmarelis, Vasilis Z; Deadwyler, Sam A; Berger, Theodore W

2016-08-01

To understand how memory information is encoded in the hippocampus, we build classification models to decode memory features from hippocampal CA3 and CA1 spatio-temporal patterns of spikes recorded from epilepsy patients performing a memory-dependent delayed match-to-sample task. The classification model consists of a set of B-spline basis functions for extracting memory features from the spike patterns, and a sparse logistic regression classifier for generating binary categorical output of memory features. Results show that classification models can extract significant amount of memory information with respects to types of memory tasks and categories of sample images used in the task, despite the high level of variability in prediction accuracy due to the small sample size. These results support the hypothesis that memories are encoded in the hippocampal activities and have important implication to the development of hippocampal memory prostheses.

Functional neuroanatomy associated with the interaction between emotion and cognition in explicit memory tasks in patients with generalized anxiety disorder.

PubMed

Moon, Chung-Man; Yang, Jong-Chul; Jeong, Gwang-Woo

2017-01-01

The functional neuroanatomy for explicit memory in conjunction with the major anxiety symptoms in patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) has not yet been clearly identified. To investigate the brain activation patterns on the interaction between emotional and cognitive function during the explicit memory tasks, as well as its correlation with clinical characteristics in GAD. The participants comprised GAD patients and age-matched healthy controls. The fMR images were obtained while the participants performed an explicit memory task with neutral and anxiety-inducing words. Patients showed significantly decreased functional activities in the putamen, head of the caudate nucleus, hippocampus, and middle cingulate gyrus during the memory tasks with the neutral and anxiety-inducing words, whereas the precentral gyrus and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex were significantly increased only in the memory tasks with the anxiety-inducing words. Also, the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal changes in the hippocampus were positively correlated with the recognition accuracy for both neutral and anxiety-inducing words. This study identified the brain areas associated with the interaction between emotional regulation and cognitive function in the explicit memory tasks in patients with GAD. These findings would be helpful to understand the neural mechanism on the explicit memory-related cognitive deficits and emotional dysfunction with GAD symptoms. © The Foundation Acta Radiologica 2016.

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

PubMed

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

2011-05-01

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

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Semantic Memory as a Presymptomatic Biomarker of Alzheimer’s Disease Risk

PubMed Central

Sugarman, Michael A.; Woodard, John L.; Nielson, Kristy A.; Seidenberg, Michael; Smith, J. Carson; Durgerian, Sally; Rao, Stephen M.

2011-01-01

Extensive research efforts have been directed toward strategies for predicting risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) prior to the appearance of observable symptoms. Existing approaches for early detection of AD vary in terms of their efficacy, invasiveness, and ease of implementation. Several non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging strategies have been developed for predicting decline in cognitively healthy older adults. This review will survey a number of studies, beginning with the development of a famous name discrimination task used to identify neural regions that participate in semantic memory retrieval and to test predictions of several key theories of the role of the hippocampus in memory. This task has revealed medial temporal and neocortical contributions to recent and remote memory retrieval, and it has been used to demonstrate compensatory neural recruitment in older adults, apolipoprotein E ε4 carriers, and amnestic mild cognitive impairment patients. Recently, we have also found that the famous name discrimination task provides predictive value for forecasting episodic memory decline among asymptomatic older adults. Other studies investigating the predictive value of semantic memory tasks will also be presented. We suggest several advantages associated with the use of semantic processing tasks, particularly those based on person identification, in comparison to episodic memory tasks to study AD risk. Future directions for research and potential clinical uses of semantic memory paradigms are also discussed. PMID:21996618

Working memory capacity and redundant information processing efficiency.

PubMed

Endres, Michael J; Houpt, Joseph W; Donkin, Chris; Finn, Peter R

2015-01-01

Working memory capacity (WMC) is typically measured by the amount of task-relevant information an individual can keep in mind while resisting distraction or interference from task-irrelevant information. The current research investigated the extent to which differences in WMC were associated with performance on a novel redundant memory probes (RMP) task that systematically varied the amount of to-be-remembered (targets) and to-be-ignored (distractor) information. The RMP task was designed to both facilitate and inhibit working memory search processes, as evidenced by differences in accuracy, response time, and Linear Ballistic Accumulator (LBA) model estimates of information processing efficiency. Participants (N = 170) completed standard intelligence tests and dual-span WMC tasks, along with the RMP task. As expected, accuracy, response-time, and LBA model results indicated memory search and retrieval processes were facilitated under redundant-target conditions, but also inhibited under mixed target/distractor and redundant-distractor conditions. Repeated measures analyses also indicated that, while individuals classified as high (n = 85) and low (n = 85) WMC did not differ in the magnitude of redundancy effects, groups did differ in the efficiency of memory search and retrieval processes overall. Results suggest that redundant information reliably facilitates and inhibits the efficiency or speed of working memory search, and these effects are independent of more general limits and individual differences in the capacity or space of working memory.

Evaluative and Taxonomic Encoding in Children's Memory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kail, Robert V., Jr.; Schroll, John T.

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the development of evaluative and taxonomic encoding in children's memory. The task used was a modification of the Wickens short-term memory task in which subjects' recall of words is tested following a distraction task. The first experiment found that 11-year-old children, but not 8-year-old children,…

Inactivation of Medial Prefrontal Cortex or Acute Stress Impairs Odor Span in Rats

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davies, Don A.; Molder, Joel J.; Greba, Quentin; Howland, John G.

2013-01-01

The capacity of working memory is limited and is altered in brain disorders including schizophrenia. In rodent working memory tasks, capacity is typically not measured (at least not explicitly). One task that does measure working memory capacity is the odor span task (OST) developed by Dudchenko and colleagues. In separate experiments, the effects…

Increased Task Demand during Spatial Memory Testing Recruits the Anterior Cingulate Cortex

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carr, Joshua K.; Fournier, Neil M.; Lehmann, Hugo

2016-01-01

We examined whether increasing retrieval difficulty in a spatial memory task would promote the recruitment of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) similar to what is typically observed during remote memory retrieval. Rats were trained on the hidden platform version of the Morris Water Task and tested three or 30 d later. Retrieval difficulty was…

Working Memory Deficits in Children with Reading Difficulties: Memory Span and Dual Task Coordination

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Shinmin; Gathercole, Susan E.

2013-01-01

The current study investigated the cause of the reported problems in working memory in children with reading difficulties. Verbal and visuospatial simple and complex span tasks, and digit span and reaction times tasks performed singly and in combination, were administered to 46 children with single word reading difficulties and 45 typically…

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…

Normal aging affects movement execution but not visual motion working memory and decision-making delay during cue-dependent memory-based smooth-pursuit.

PubMed

Fukushima, Kikuro; Barnes, Graham R; Ito, Norie; Olley, Peter M; Warabi, Tateo

2014-07-01

Aging affects virtually all functions including sensory/motor and cognitive activities. While retinal image motion is the primary input for smooth-pursuit, its efficiency/accuracy depends on cognitive processes. Elderly subjects exhibit gain decrease during initial and steady-state pursuit, but reports on latencies are conflicting. Using a cue-dependent memory-based smooth-pursuit task, we identified important extra-retinal mechanisms for initial pursuit in young adults including cue information priming and extra-retinal drive components (Ito et al. in Exp Brain Res 229:23-35, 2013). We examined aging effects on parameters for smooth-pursuit using the same tasks. Elderly subjects were tested during three task conditions as previously described: memory-based pursuit, simple ramp-pursuit just to follow motion of a single spot, and popping-out of the correct spot during memory-based pursuit to enhance retinal image motion. Simple ramp-pursuit was used as a task that did not require visual motion working memory. To clarify aging effects, we then compared the results with the previous young subject data. During memory-based pursuit, elderly subjects exhibited normal working memory of cue information. Most movement-parameters including pursuit latencies differed significantly between memory-based pursuit and simple ramp-pursuit and also between young and elderly subjects. Popping-out of the correct spot motion was ineffective for enhancing initial pursuit in elderly subjects. However, the latency difference between memory-based pursuit and simple ramp-pursuit in individual subjects, which includes decision-making delay in the memory task, was similar between the two groups. Our results suggest that smooth-pursuit latencies depend on task conditions and that, although the extra-retinal mechanisms were functional for initial pursuit in elderly subjects, they were less effective.

Musical and verbal semantic memory: two distinct neural networks?

PubMed

Groussard, M; Viader, F; Hubert, V; Landeau, B; Abbas, A; Desgranges, B; Eustache, F; Platel, H

2010-02-01

Semantic memory has been investigated in numerous neuroimaging and clinical studies, most of which have used verbal or visual, but only very seldom, musical material. Clinical studies have suggested that there is a relative neural independence between verbal and musical semantic memory. In the present study, "musical semantic memory" is defined as memory for "well-known" melodies without any knowledge of the spatial or temporal circumstances of learning, while "verbal semantic memory" corresponds to general knowledge about concepts, again without any knowledge of the spatial or temporal circumstances of learning. Our aim was to compare the neural substrates of musical and verbal semantic memory by administering the same type of task in each modality. We used high-resolution PET H(2)O(15) to observe 11 young subjects performing two main tasks: (1) a musical semantic memory task, where the subjects heard the first part of familiar melodies and had to decide whether the second part they heard matched the first, and (2) a verbal semantic memory task with the same design, but where the material consisted of well-known expressions or proverbs. The musical semantic memory condition activated the superior temporal area and inferior and middle frontal areas in the left hemisphere and the inferior frontal area in the right hemisphere. The verbal semantic memory condition activated the middle temporal region in the left hemisphere and the cerebellum in the right hemisphere. We found that the verbal and musical semantic processes activated a common network extending throughout the left temporal neocortex. In addition, there was a material-dependent topographical preference within this network, with predominantly anterior activation during musical tasks and predominantly posterior activation during semantic verbal tasks. Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Working memory subsystems and task complexity in young boys with Fragile X syndrome.

PubMed

Baker, S; Hooper, S; Skinner, M; Hatton, D; Schaaf, J; Ornstein, P; Bailey, D

2011-01-01

Working memory problems have been targeted as core deficits in individuals with Fragile X syndrome (FXS); however, there have been few studies that have examined working memory in young boys with FXS, and even fewer studies that have studied the working memory performance of young boys with FXS across different degrees of complexity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the phonological loop and visual-spatial working memory in young boys with FXS, in comparison to mental age-matched typical boys, and to examine the impact of complexity of the working memory tasks on performance. The performance of young boys (7 to 13-years-old) with FXS (n = 40) was compared with that of mental age and race matched typically developing boys (n = 40) on measures designed to test the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad across low, moderate and high degrees of complexity. Multivariate analyses were used to examine group differences across the specific working memory systems and degrees of complexity. Results suggested that boys with FXS showed deficits in phonological loop and visual-spatial working memory tasks when compared with typically developing mental age-matched boys. For the boys with FXS, the phonological loop was significantly lower than the visual-spatial sketchpad; however, there was no significant difference in performance across the low, moderate and high degrees of complexity in the working memory tasks. Reverse tasks from both the phonological loop and visual-spatial sketchpad appeared to be the most challenging for both groups, but particularly for the boys with FXS. These findings implicate a generalised deficit in working memory in young boys with FXS, with a specific disproportionate impairment in the phonological loop. Given the lack of differentiation on the low versus high complexity tasks, simple span tasks may provide an adequate estimate of working memory until greater involvement of the central executive is achieved. © 2010 The Authors. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Working memory subsystems and task complexity in young boys with Fragile X syndrome

PubMed Central

Baker, S.; Hooper, S.; Skinner, M.; Hatton, D.; Schaaf, J.; Ornstein, P.; Bailey, D.

2011-01-01

Background Working memory problems have been targeted as core deficits in individuals with Fragile X syndrome (FXS); however, there have been few studies that have examined working memory in young boys with FXS, and even fewer studies that have studied the working memory performance of young boys with FXS across different degrees of complexity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the phonological loop and visual–spatial working memory in young boys with FXS, in comparison to mental age-matched typical boys, and to examine the impact of complexity of the working memory tasks on performance. Methods The performance of young boys (7 to 13-years-old) with FXS (n = 40) was compared with that of mental age and race matched typically developing boys (n = 40) on measures designed to test the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad across low, moderate and high degrees of complexity. Multivariate analyses were used to examine group differences across the specific working memory systems and degrees of complexity. Results Results suggested that boys with FXS showed deficits in phonological loop and visual–spatial working memory tasks when compared with typically developing mental age-matched boys. For the boys with FXS, the phonological loop was significantly lower than the visual–spatial sketchpad; however, there was no significant difference in performance across the low, moderate and high degrees of complexity in the working memory tasks. Reverse tasks from both the phonological loop and visual–spatial sketchpad appeared to be the most challenging for both groups, but particularly for the boys with FXS. Conclusions These findings implicate a generalised deficit in working memory in young boys with FXS, with a specific disproportionate impairment in the phonological loop. Given the lack of differentiation on the low versus high complexity tasks, simple span tasks may provide an adequate estimate of working memory until greater involvement of the central executive is achieved. PMID:21121991

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.

Task-relevant output signals are sent from monkey dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to the superior colliculus during a visuospatial working memory task.

PubMed

Johnston, Kevin; Everling, Stefan

2009-05-01

Visuospatial working memory is one of the most extensively investigated functions of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Theories of prefrontal cortical function have suggested that this area exerts cognitive control by modulating the activity of structures to which it is connected. Here, we used the oculomotor system as a model in which to characterize the output signals sent from the DLPFC to a target structure during a classical spatial working memory task. We recorded the activity of identified DLPFC-superior colliculus (SC) projection neurons while monkeys performed a memory-guided saccade task in which they were required to generate saccades toward remembered stimulus locations. DLPFC neurons sent signals related to all aspects of the task to the SC, some of which were spatially tuned. These data provide the first direct evidence that the DLPFC sends task-relevant information to the SC during a spatial working memory task, and further support a role for the DLPFC in the direct modulation of other brain areas.

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

PubMed

Purser, Harry R M; Jarrold, Christopher

2013-05-01

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

Inter-individual Differences in Exercise-Induced Spatial Working Memory Improvement: A Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study.

PubMed

Yamazaki, Yudai; Sato, Daisuke; Yamashiro, Koya; Tsubaki, Atsuhiro; Yamaguchi, Yui; Takehara, Nana; Maruyama, Atsuo

2017-01-01

Acute aerobic exercise at a mild intensity improves cognitive function. However, the response to exercise exhibits inter-individual differences, and the mechanisms underlying these differences remain unclear. The objective of this study was to determine potential factors in the brain that underlie differential responses to exercise in terms of cognitive improvement using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Fourteen healthy subjects participated in these experiments. Participants performed a low intensity cycling exercise at 30% maximal oxygen uptake (VO 2peak ) for 10 min and performed a spatial memory task before and after exercising (5 and 30 min). The spatial memory task comprised two levels of difficulty (low: 1-dot EXERCISE, high: 3-dot EXERCISE). Cortical oxy-hemoglobin (O 2 Hb) levels were recorded using near-infrared spectroscopy during both the exercise and the spatial memory task phases. Regions of interests included the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), and frontopolar area (FPA). The participants were divided into two groups depending on whether they were responders (improved task reaction time) or non-responders (no improvement). Subsequently, we analyzed the group characteristics and differences in the change in O 2 Hb levels during exercise and spatial working memory tasks. Acute mild exercise significantly improved mean reaction times in the 1-dot memory task but not in the 3-dot task across the participants. In the 1-dot EXERCISE, 10 subjects were responders and four subjects were non-responders, whereas in the 3-dot EXERCISE, seven subjects were non-responders. In responders, during exercise, we found higher O 2 Hb levels in the right VLPFC response for the 1-dot memory task. Acute mild exercise caused inter-individual differences in spatial memory improvement, which were associated with changes in O 2 Hb activity in the prefrontal area during the exercise phase but not during the actual spatial memory task. Therefore, individuals who respond with higher reactivity to mild intensity exercise in the VLPFC might obtain larger spatial working memory improvements following exercise than non-responders.

Negative Reinforcement Impairs Overnight Memory Consolidation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stamm, Andrew W.; Nguyen, Nam D.; Seicol, Benjamin J.; Fagan, Abigail; Oh, Angela; Drumm, Michael; Lundt, Maureen; Stickgold, Robert; Wamsley, Erin J.

2014-01-01

Post-learning sleep is beneficial for human memory. However, it may be that not all memories benefit equally from sleep. Here, we manipulated a spatial learning task using monetary reward and performance feedback, asking whether enhancing the salience of the task would augment overnight memory consolidation and alter its incorporation into…

Rethinking the Connection between Working Memory and Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Archibald, Lisa M. D.; Harder Griebeling, Katherine

2016-01-01

Background: Working memory deficits have been found for children with specific language impairment (SLI) on tasks imposing increasing short-term memory load with or without additional, consistent (and simple) processing load. Aims: To examine the processing function of working memory in children with low language (LL) by employing tasks imposing…

Stress and binge drinking: A toxic combination for the teenage brain.

PubMed

Goldstein, Aaron; Déry, Nicolas; Pilgrim, Malcolm; Ioan, Miruna; Becker, Suzanna

2016-09-01

Young adult university students frequently binge on alcohol and have high stress levels. Based on findings in rodents, we predicted that heavy current alcohol use and elevated stress and depression scores would be associated with deficits on high interference memory tasks, while early onset, prolonged binge patterns would lead to broader cognitive deficits on tests of associative encoding and executive functions. We developed the Concentration Memory Task, a novel computerized version of the Concentration card game with a high degree of interference. We found that young adults with elevated stress, depression, and alcohol consumption scores were impaired in the Concentration Memory Task. We also analyzed data from a previous study, and found that higher alcohol consumption scores were associated with impaired performance on another high interference memory task, based on Kirwan and Stark's Mnemonic Similarity Test. On the other hand, adolescent onset of binge drinking predicted poorer performance on broader range of memory tests, including a more systematic test of spatial recognition memory, and an associative learning task. Our results are broadly consistent with findings in rodents that acute alcohol and stress exposure suppress neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus, which in turn impairs performance in high interference memory tasks, while adolescent onset binge drinking causes more extensive brain damage and cognitive deficits. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Memory and subjective workload assessment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Staveland, L.; Hart, S.; Yeh, Y. Y.

1986-01-01

Recent research suggested subjective introspection of workload is not based upon specific retrieval of information from long term memory, and only reflects the average workload that is imposed upon the human operator by a particular task. These findings are based upon global ratings of workload for the overall task, suggesting that subjective ratings are limited in ability to retrieve specific details of a task from long term memory. To clarify the limits memory imposes on subjective workload assessment, the difficulty of task segments was varied and the workload of specified segments was retrospectively rated. The ratings were retrospectively collected on the manipulations of three levels of segment difficulty. Subjects were assigned to one of two memory groups. In the Before group, subjects knew before performing a block of trials which segment to rate. In the After group, subjects did not know which segment to rate until after performing the block of trials. The subjective ratings, RTs (reaction times) and MTs (movement times) were compared within group, and between group differences. Performance measures and subjective evaluations of workload reflected the experimental manipulations. Subjects were sensitive to different difficulty levels, and recalled the average workload of task components. Cueing did not appear to help recall, and memory group differences possibly reflected variations in the groups of subjects, or an additional memory task.

Similar prefrontal cortical activities between general fluid intelligence and visuospatial working memory tasks in preschool children as revealed by optical topography.

PubMed

Kuwajima, Mariko; Sawaguchi, Toshiyuki

2010-10-01

General fluid intelligence (gF) is a major component of intellect in both adults and children. Whereas its neural substrates have been studied relatively thoroughly in adults, those are poorly understood in children, particularly preschoolers. Here, we hypothesized that gF and visuospatial working memory share a common neural system within the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) during the preschool years (4-6 years). At the behavioral level, we found that gF positively and significantly correlated with abilities (especially accuracy) in visuospatial working memory. Optical topography revealed that the LPFC of preschoolers was activated and deactivated during the visuospatial working memory task and the gF task. We found that the spatio-temporal features of neural activity in the LPFC were similar for both the visuospatial working memory task and the gF task. Further, 2 months of training for the visuospatial working memory task significantly increased gF in the preschoolers. These findings suggest that a common neural system in the LPFC is recruited to improve the visuospatial working memory and gF in preschoolers. Efficient recruitment of this neural system may be important for good performance in these functions in preschoolers, and behavioral training using this system would help to increase gF at these ages.

Comparing the benefits of caffeine, naps and placebo on verbal, motor and perceptual memory.

PubMed

Mednick, Sara C; Cai, Denise J; Kanady, Jennifer; Drummond, Sean P A

2008-11-03

Caffeine, the world's most common psychoactive substance, is used by approximately 90% of North Americans everyday. Little is known, however, about its benefits for memory. Napping has been shown to increase alertness and promote learning on some memory tasks. We directly compared caffeine (200mg) with napping (60-90min) and placebo on three distinct memory processes: declarative verbal memory, procedural motor skills, and perceptual learning. In the verbal task, recall and recognition for unassociated words were tested after a 7h retention period (with a between-session nap or drug intervention). A second, different, word list was administered post-intervention and memory was tested after a 20min retention period. The non-declarative tasks (finger tapping task (FTT) and texture discrimination task (TDT)) were trained before the intervention and then retested afterwards. Naps enhanced recall of words after a 7h and 20min retention interval relative to both caffeine and placebo. Caffeine significantly impaired motor learning compared to placebo and naps. Napping produced robust perceptual learning compared with placebo; however, naps and caffeine were not significantly different. These findings provide evidence of the limited benefits of caffeine for memory improvement compared with napping. We hypothesize that impairment from caffeine may be restricted to tasks that contain explicit information; whereas strictly implicit learning is less compromised.

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.

Hormonal modulation of novelty processing in women: Enhanced under working memory load with high dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate-to-dehydroepiandrosterone ratios.

PubMed

do Vale, Sónia; Selinger, Lenka; Martins, João Martin; Bicho, Manuel; do Carmo, Isabel; Escera, Carles

2016-11-10

Several studies have suggested that dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEAS) may enhance working memory and attention, yet current evidence is still inconclusive. The balance between both forms of the hormone might be crucial regarding the effects that DHEA and DHEAS exert on the central nervous system. To test the hypothesis that higher DHEAS-to-DHEA ratios might enhance working memory and/or involuntary attention, we studied the DHEAS-to-DHEA ratio in relation to involuntary attention and working memory processing by recording the electroencephalogram of 22 young women while performing a working memory load task and a task without working memory load in an audio-visual oddball paradigm. DHEA and DHEAS were measured in saliva before each task. We found that a higher DHEAS-to-DHEA ratio was related to enhanced auditory novelty-P3 amplitudes during performance of the working memory task, indicating an increased processing of the distracter, while on the other hand there was no difference in the processing of the visual target. These results suggest that the balance between DHEAS and DHEA levels modulates involuntary attention during the performance of a task with cognitive load without interfering with the processing of the task-relevant visual stimulus. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Shielding cognition from nociception with working memory.

PubMed

Legrain, Valéry; Crombez, Geert; Plaghki, Léon; Mouraux, André

2013-01-01

Because pain often signals the occurrence of potential tissue damage, nociceptive stimuli have the capacity to capture attention and interfere with ongoing cognitive activities. Working memory is known to guide the orientation of attention by maintaining goal priorities active during the achievement of a task. This study investigated whether the cortical processing of nociceptive stimuli and their ability to capture attention are under the control of working memory. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants performed primary tasks on visual targets that required or did not require rehearsal in working memory (1-back vs 0-back conditions). The visual targets were shortly preceded by task-irrelevant tactile stimuli. Occasionally, in order to distract the participants, the tactile stimuli were replaced by novel nociceptive stimuli. In the 0-back conditions, task performance was disrupted by the occurrence of the nociceptive distracters, as reflected by the increased reaction times in trials with novel nociceptive distracters as compared to trials with standard tactile distracters. In the 1-back conditions, such a difference disappeared suggesting that attentional capture and task disruption induced by nociceptive distracters were suppressed by working memory, regardless of task demands. Most importantly, in the conditions involving working memory, the magnitude of nociceptive ERPs, including ERP components at early latency, were significantly reduced. This indicates that working memory is able to modulate the cortical processing of nociceptive input already at its earliest stages, and could explain why working memory reduces consequently ability of nociceptive stimuli to capture attention and disrupt performance of the primary task. It is concluded that protecting cognitive processing against pain interference is best guaranteed by keeping out of working memory pain-related information. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contributions of Language and Memory Demands to Verbal Memory Performance in Language-Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Isaki, Emi; Spaulding, Tammie J.; Plante, Elena

2008-01-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance of adults with language-based learning disorders (L/LD) and normal language controls on verbal short-term and verbal working memory tasks. Eighteen adults with L/LD and 18 normal language controls were compared on verbal short-term memory and verbal working memory tasks under low,…

Musicians have better memory than nonmusicians: A meta-analysis.

PubMed

Talamini, Francesca; Altoè, Gianmarco; Carretti, Barbara; Grassi, Massimo

2017-01-01

Several studies have found that musicians perform better than nonmusicians in memory tasks, but this is not always the case, and the strength of this apparent advantage is unknown. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis with the aim of clarifying whether musicians perform better than nonmusicians in memory tasks. Education Source; PEP (WEB)-Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing; Psychology and Behavioral Science (EBSCO); PsycINFO (Ovid); PubMed; ScienceDirect-AllBooks Content (Elsevier API); SCOPUS (Elsevier API); SocINDEX with Full Text (EBSCO) and Google Scholar were searched for eligible studies. The selected studies involved two groups of participants: young adult musicians and nonmusicians. All the studies included memory tasks (loading long-term, short-term or working memory) that contained tonal, verbal or visuospatial stimuli. Three meta-analyses were run separately for long-term memory, short-term memory and working memory. We collected 29 studies, including 53 memory tasks. The results showed that musicians performed better than nonmusicians in terms of long-term memory, g = .29, 95% CI (.08-.51), short-term memory, g = .57, 95% CI (.41-.73), and working memory, g = .56, 95% CI (.33-.80). To further explore the data, we included a moderator (the type of stimulus presented, i.e., tonal, verbal or visuospatial), which was found to influence the effect size for short-term and working memory, but not for long-term memory. In terms of short-term and working memory, the musicians' advantage was large with tonal stimuli, moderate with verbal stimuli, and small or null with visuospatial stimuli. The three meta-analyses revealed a small effect size for long-term memory, and a medium effect size for short-term and working memory, suggesting that musicians perform better than nonmusicians in memory tasks. Moreover, the effect of the moderator suggested that, the type of stimuli influences this advantage.

Musicians have better memory than nonmusicians: A meta-analysis

PubMed Central

Altoè, Gianmarco; Carretti, Barbara; Grassi, Massimo

2017-01-01

Background Several studies have found that musicians perform better than nonmusicians in memory tasks, but this is not always the case, and the strength of this apparent advantage is unknown. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis with the aim of clarifying whether musicians perform better than nonmusicians in memory tasks. Methods Education Source; PEP (WEB)—Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing; Psychology and Behavioral Science (EBSCO); PsycINFO (Ovid); PubMed; ScienceDirect—AllBooks Content (Elsevier API); SCOPUS (Elsevier API); SocINDEX with Full Text (EBSCO) and Google Scholar were searched for eligible studies. The selected studies involved two groups of participants: young adult musicians and nonmusicians. All the studies included memory tasks (loading long-term, short-term or working memory) that contained tonal, verbal or visuospatial stimuli. Three meta-analyses were run separately for long-term memory, short-term memory and working memory. Results We collected 29 studies, including 53 memory tasks. The results showed that musicians performed better than nonmusicians in terms of long-term memory, g = .29, 95% CI (.08–.51), short-term memory, g = .57, 95% CI (.41–.73), and working memory, g = .56, 95% CI (.33–.80). To further explore the data, we included a moderator (the type of stimulus presented, i.e., tonal, verbal or visuospatial), which was found to influence the effect size for short-term and working memory, but not for long-term memory. In terms of short-term and working memory, the musicians’ advantage was large with tonal stimuli, moderate with verbal stimuli, and small or null with visuospatial stimuli. Conclusions The three meta-analyses revealed a small effect size for long-term memory, and a medium effect size for short-term and working memory, suggesting that musicians perform better than nonmusicians in memory tasks. Moreover, the effect of the moderator suggested that, the type of stimuli influences this advantage. PMID:29049416

Temporal production and visuospatial processing.

PubMed

Benuzzi, Francesca; Basso, Gianpaolo; Nichelli, Paolo

2005-12-01

Current models of prospective timing hypothesize that estimated duration is influenced either by the attentional load or by the short-term memory requirements of a concurrent nontemporal task. In the present study, we addressed this issue with four dual-task experiments. In Exp. 1, the effect of memory load on both reaction time and temporal production was proportional to the number of items of a visuospatial pattern to hold in memory. In Exps. 2, 3, and 4, a temporal production task was combined with two visual search tasks involving either pre-attentive or attentional processing. Visual tasks interfered with temporal production: produced intervals were lengthened proportionally to the display size. In contrast, reaction times increased with display size only when a serial, effortful search was required. It appears that memory and perceptual set size, rather than nonspecific attentional or short-term memory load, can influence prospective timing.

Potentiation of motor sub-networks for motor control but not working memory: Interaction of dACC and SMA revealed by resting-state directed functional connectivity

PubMed Central

Diwadkar, Vaibhav A.; Asemi, Avisa; Burgess, Ashley; Chowdury, Asadur; Bressler, Steven L.

2017-01-01

The dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex (dACC) and the Supplementary Motor Area (SMA) are known to interact during motor coordination behavior. We previously discovered that the directional influences underlying this interaction in a visuo-motor coordination task are asymmetric, with the dACC→SMA influence being significantly greater than that in the reverse direction. To assess the specificity of this effect, here we undertook an analysis of the interaction between dACC and SMA in two distinct contexts. In addition to the motor coordination task, we also assessed these effects during a (n-back) working memory task. We applied directed functional connectivity analysis to these two task paradigms, and also to the rest condition of each paradigm, in which rest blocks were interspersed with task blocks. We report here that the previously known asymmetric interaction between dACC and SMA, with dACC→SMA dominating, was significantly larger in the motor coordination task than the memory task. Moreover the asymmetry between dACC and SMA was reversed during the rest condition of the motor coordination task, but not of the working memory task. In sum, the dACC→SMA influence was significantly greater in the motor task than the memory task condition, and the SMA→dACC influence was significantly greater in the motor rest than the memory rest condition. We interpret these results as suggesting that the potentiation of motor sub-networks during the motor rest condition supports the motor control of SMA by dACC during the active motor task condition. PMID:28278267

Memory binding and white matter integrity in familial Alzheimer’s disease

PubMed Central

Saarimäki, Heini; Bastin, Mark E.; Londoño, Ana C.; Pettit, Lewis; Lopera, Francisco; Della Sala, Sergio; Abrahams, Sharon

2015-01-01

Binding information in short-term and long-term memory are functions sensitive to Alzheimer’s disease. They have been found to be affected in patients who meet criteria for familial Alzheimer’s disease due to the mutation E280A of the PSEN1 gene. However, only short-term memory binding has been found to be affected in asymptomatic carriers of this mutation. The neural correlates of this dissociation are poorly understood. The present study used diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging to investigate whether the integrity of white matter structures could offer an account. A sample of 19 patients with familial Alzheimer’s disease, 18 asymptomatic carriers and 21 non-carrier controls underwent diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging, neuropsychological and memory binding assessment. The short-term memory binding task required participants to detect changes across two consecutive screens displaying arrays of shapes, colours, or shape-colour bindings. The long-term memory binding task was a Paired Associates Learning Test. Performance on these tasks were entered into regression models. Relative to controls, patients with familial Alzheimer’s disease performed poorly on both memory binding tasks. Asymptomatic carriers differed from controls only in the short-term memory binding task. White matter integrity explained poor memory binding performance only in patients with familial Alzheimer’s disease. White matter water diffusion metrics from the frontal lobe accounted for poor performance on both memory binding tasks. Dissociations were found in the genu of corpus callosum which accounted for short-term memory binding impairments and in the hippocampal part of cingulum bundle which accounted for long-term memory binding deficits. The results indicate that white matter structures in the frontal and temporal lobes are vulnerable to the early stages of familial Alzheimer’s disease and their damage is associated with impairments in two memory binding functions known to be markers for Alzheimer’s disease. PMID:25762465

Memory binding and white matter integrity in familial Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Parra, Mario A; Saarimäki, Heini; Bastin, Mark E; Londoño, Ana C; Pettit, Lewis; Lopera, Francisco; Della Sala, Sergio; Abrahams, Sharon

2015-05-01

Binding information in short-term and long-term memory are functions sensitive to Alzheimer's disease. They have been found to be affected in patients who meet criteria for familial Alzheimer's disease due to the mutation E280A of the PSEN1 gene. However, only short-term memory binding has been found to be affected in asymptomatic carriers of this mutation. The neural correlates of this dissociation are poorly understood. The present study used diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging to investigate whether the integrity of white matter structures could offer an account. A sample of 19 patients with familial Alzheimer's disease, 18 asymptomatic carriers and 21 non-carrier controls underwent diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging, neuropsychological and memory binding assessment. The short-term memory binding task required participants to detect changes across two consecutive screens displaying arrays of shapes, colours, or shape-colour bindings. The long-term memory binding task was a Paired Associates Learning Test. Performance on these tasks were entered into regression models. Relative to controls, patients with familial Alzheimer's disease performed poorly on both memory binding tasks. Asymptomatic carriers differed from controls only in the short-term memory binding task. White matter integrity explained poor memory binding performance only in patients with familial Alzheimer's disease. White matter water diffusion metrics from the frontal lobe accounted for poor performance on both memory binding tasks. Dissociations were found in the genu of corpus callosum which accounted for short-term memory binding impairments and in the hippocampal part of cingulum bundle which accounted for long-term memory binding deficits. The results indicate that white matter structures in the frontal and temporal lobes are vulnerable to the early stages of familial Alzheimer's disease and their damage is associated with impairments in two memory binding functions known to be markers for Alzheimer's disease. © The Author (2015). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Task-set switching under cue-based versus memory-based switching conditions in younger and older adults.

PubMed

Kray, Jutta

2006-08-11

Adult age differences in task switching and advance preparation were examined by comparing cue-based and memory-based switching conditions. Task switching was assessed by determining two types of costs that occur at the general (mixing costs) and specific (switching costs) level of switching. Advance preparation was investigated by varying the time interval until the next task (short, middle, very long). Results indicated that the implementation of task sets was different for cue-based switching with random task sequences and memory-based switching with predictable task sequences. Switching costs were strongly reduced under cue-based switching conditions, indicating that task-set cues facilitate the retrieval of the next task. Age differences were found for mixing costs and for switching costs only under cue-based conditions in which older adults showed smaller switching costs than younger adults. It is suggested that older adults adopt a less extreme bias between two tasks than younger adults in situations associated with uncertainty. For cue-based switching with random task sequences, older adults are less engaged in a complete reconfiguration of task sets because of the probability of a further task change. Furthermore, the reduction of switching costs was more pronounced for cue- than memory-based switching for short preparation intervals, whereas the reduction of switch costs was more pronounced for memory- than cue-based switching for longer preparation intervals at least for older adults. Together these findings suggest that the implementation of task sets is functionally different for the two types of task-switching conditions.

Preservation of memory-based automaticity in reading for older adults.

PubMed

Rawson, Katherine A; Touron, Dayna R

2015-12-01

Concerning age-related effects on cognitive skill acquisition, the modal finding is that older adults do not benefit from practice to the same extent as younger adults in tasks that afford a shift from slower algorithmic processing to faster memory-based processing. In contrast, Rawson and Touron (2009) demonstrated a relatively rapid shift to memory-based processing in the context of a reading task. The current research extended beyond this initial study to provide more definitive evidence for relative preservation of memory-based automaticity in reading tasks for older adults. Younger and older adults read short stories containing unfamiliar noun phrases (e.g., skunk mud) followed by disambiguating information indicating the combination's meaning (either the normatively dominant meaning or an alternative subordinate meaning). Stories were repeated across practice blocks, and then the noun phrases were presented in novel sentence frames in a transfer task. Both age groups shifted from computation to retrieval after relatively few practice trials (as evidenced by convergence of reading times for dominant and subordinate items). Most important, both age groups showed strong evidence for memory-based processing of the noun phrases in the transfer task. In contrast, older adults showed minimal shifting to retrieval in an alphabet arithmetic task, indicating that the preservation of memory-based automaticity in reading was task-specific. Discussion focuses on important implications for theories of memory-based automaticity in general and for specific theoretical accounts of age effects on memory-based automaticity, as well as fruitful directions for future research. (c) 2015 APA, 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

Happiness increases verbal and spatial working memory capacity where sadness does not: Emotion, working memory and executive control.

PubMed

Storbeck, Justin; Maswood, Raeya

2016-08-01

The effects of emotion on working memory and executive control are often studied in isolation. Positive mood enhances verbal and impairs spatial working memory, whereas negative mood enhances spatial and impairs verbal working memory. Moreover, positive mood enhances executive control, whereas negative mood has little influence. We examined how emotion influences verbal and spatial working memory capacity, which requires executive control to coordinate between holding information in working memory and completing a secondary task. We predicted that positive mood would improve both verbal and spatial working memory capacity because of its influence on executive control. Positive, negative and neutral moods were induced followed by completing a verbal (Experiment 1) or spatial (Experiment 2) working memory operation span task to assess working memory capacity. Positive mood enhanced working memory capacity irrespective of the working memory domain, whereas negative mood had no influence on performance. Thus, positive mood was more successful holding information in working memory while processing task-irrelevant information, suggesting that the influence mood has on executive control supersedes the independent effects mood has on domain-specific working memory.

MnemoCity Task: Assessment of Childrens Spatial Memory Using Stereoscopy and Virtual Environments.

PubMed

Rodríguez-Andrés, David; Juan, M-Carmen; Méndez-López, Magdalena; Pérez-Hernández, Elena; Lluch, Javier

2016-01-01

This paper presents the MnemoCity task, which is a 3D application that introduces the user into a totally 3D virtual environment to evaluate spatial short-term memory. A study has been carried out to validate the MnemoCity task for the assessment of spatial short-term memory in children, by comparing the children's performance in the developed task with current approaches. A total of 160 children participated in the study. The task incorporates two types of interaction: one based on standard interaction and another one based on natural interaction involving physical movement by the user. There were no statistically significant differences in the results of the task using the two types of interaction. Furthermore, statistically significant differences were not found in relation to gender. The correlations between scores were obtained using the MnemoCity task and a traditional procedure for assessing spatial short-term memory. Those results revealed that the type of interaction used did not affect the performance of children in the MnemoCity task.

High and low schizotypal female subjects do not differ in spatial memory abilities in a virtual reality task.

PubMed

García-Montes, José Manuel; Noguera, Carmen; Alvarez, Dolores; Ruiz, Marina; Cimadevilla Redondo, José Manuel

2014-01-01

Schizotypy is a psychological construct related to schizophrenia. The exact relationship between both entities is not clear. In recent years, schizophrenia has been associated with hippocampal abnormalities and spatial memory problems. The aim of this study was to determine possible links between high schizotypy (HS) and low schizotypy (LS) and spatial abilities, using virtual reality tasks. We hypothesised that the HS group would exhibit a lower performance in spatial memory tasks than the LS group. Two groups of female students were formed according to their score on the ESQUIZO-Q-A questionnaire. HS and LS subjects were tested on two different tasks: the Boxes Room task, a spatial memory task sensitive to hippocampal alterations and a spatial recognition task. Data showed that both groups mastered both tasks. Groups differed in personality features but not in spatial performance. These results provide valuable information about the schizotypy-schizophrenia connections. Schizotypal subjects are not impaired on spatial cognition and, accordingly, the schizotypy-schizophrenia relationship is not straightforward.

Assessing surgeon behavior change after anastomotic leak in colorectal surgery.

PubMed

Simianu, Vlad V; Basu, Anirban; Alfonso-Cristancho, Rafael; Thirlby, Richard C; Flaxman, Abraham D; Flum, David R

2016-10-01

Recency effect suggests that people disproportionately value events from the immediate past when making decisions, but the extent of this impact on surgeons' decisions is unknown. This study evaluates for recency effect in surgeons by examining use of preventative leak testing before and after colorectal operations with anastomotic leaks. Prospective cohort of adult patients (≥18 y) undergoing elective colorectal operations at Washington State hospitals participating in the Surgical Care and Outcomes Assessment Program (2006-2013). The main outcome measure was surgeons' change in leak testing from 6 mo before to 6 mo after an anastomotic leak occurred. Across 4854 elective colorectal operations performed by 282 surgeons at 44 hospitals, there was a leak rate of 2.6% (n = 124). The 40 leaks (32%) in which the anastomosis was not tested occurred across 25 surgeons. While the ability to detect an overall difference in use of leak testing was limited by small sample size, nine (36%) of 25 surgeons increased their leak testing by 5% points or more after leaks in cases where the anastomosis was not tested. Surgeons who increased their leak testing more frequently performed operations for diverticulitis (45% versus 33%), more frequently began their cases laparoscopically (65% versus 37%), and had longer mean operative times (195 ± 99 versus 148 ± 87 min), all P < 0.001. Recency effect was demonstrated by only one-third of eligible surgeons. Understanding the extent to which clinical decisions may be influenced by recency effect may be important in crafting quality improvement initiatives that require clinician behavior change. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Episodic, semantic and procedural memory in a case of amnesia at an early age.

PubMed

Ostergaard, A L

1987-01-01

The patient C.C. developed an amnesic syndrome at the age of 10 yr. Like adult amnesics, C.C. demonstrated impaired episodic memory for both verbal and visual materials although immediate memory span was spared. However, striking deficits were also observed on a wide variety of semantic memory tasks, including reading vocabulary and verbal fluency tests, semantic classification and lexical decision tasks and tests of verbal intelligence. On the other hand, C.C. showed normal learning and retention of two procedural tasks. It was argued that this evidence is inconsistent with the view that the amnesic syndrome represents a selective defect of episodic memory that leaves semantic memory relatively unaffected.

An enhanced Ada run-time system for real-time embedded processors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sims, J. T.

1991-01-01

An enhanced Ada run-time system has been developed to support real-time embedded processor applications. The primary focus of this development effort has been on the tasking system and the memory management facilities of the run-time system. The tasking system has been extended to support efficient and precise periodic task execution as required for control applications. Event-driven task execution providing a means of task-asynchronous control and communication among Ada tasks is supported in this system. Inter-task control is even provided among tasks distributed on separate physical processors. The memory management system has been enhanced to provide object allocation and protected access support for memory shared between disjoint processors, each of which is executing a distinct Ada program.

ERP Correlates of Target-Distracter Differentiation in Repeated Runs of a Continuous Recognition Task with Emotional and Neutral Faces

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Treese, Anne-Cecile; Johansson, Mikael; Lindgren, Magnus

2010-01-01

The emotional salience of faces has previously been shown to induce memory distortions in recognition memory tasks. This event-related potential (ERP) study used repeated runs of a continuous recognition task with emotional and neutral faces to investigate emotion-induced memory distortions. In the second and third runs, participants made more…

Reasoning and Memory: People Make Varied Use of the Information Available in Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hardman, Kyle O.; Cowan, Nelson

2016-01-01

Working memory (WM) is used for storing information in a highly accessible state so that other mental processes, such as reasoning, can use that information. Some WM tasks require that participants not only store information, but also reason about that information to perform optimally on the task. In this study, we used visual WM tasks that had…

Working Memory in Early-School-Age Children with Asperger's Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cui, Jifang; Gao, Dingguo; Chen, Yinghe; Zou, Xiaobing; Wang, Ya

2010-01-01

Using a battery of working memory span tasks and n-back tasks, this study aimed to explore working memory functions in early-school-age children with Asperger's syndrome (AS). Twelve children with AS and 29 healthy children matched on age and IQ were recruited. Results showed: (a) children with AS performed better in digit and word recall tasks,…

Is the Use of Information and Communication Technology Related to Performance in Working Memory Tasks? Evidence from Seventh-Grade Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garcia, Lucy; Nussbaum, Miguel; Preiss, David D.

2011-01-01

The main purpose of this study was to assess whether seventh-grade students use of information and communication technology (ICT) was related to performance on working memory tasks. In addition, the study tested whether the relationship between ICT use and performance on working memory tasks interacted with seventh-grade students' socioeconomic…

Simple and Complex Memory Spans and Their Relation to Fluid Abilities: Evidence from List-Length Effects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Unsworth, Nash; Engle, Randall W.

2006-01-01

Complex (working memory) span tasks have generally shown larger and more consistent correlations with higher-order cognition than have simple (or short-term memory) span tasks. The relation between verbal complex and simple verbal span tasks to fluid abilities as a function of list-length was examined. The results suggest that the simple…

Role of Working Memory in Explaining the Performance of Individuals with Specific Reading Comprehension Difficulties: A Meta-Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carretti, Barbara; Borella, Erika; Cornoldi, Cesare; De Beni, Rossana

2009-01-01

It is well established that working memory is related to reading comprehension ability. However, its role in explaining specific reading comprehension difficulties is still under debate: the issue mainly concerns whether the contribution of working memory is dependent on task modality (verbal tasks being more predictive than visuo-spatial tasks)…

Feature-based memory-driven attentional capture: visual working memory content affects visual attention.

PubMed

Olivers, Christian N L; Meijer, Frank; Theeuwes, Jan

2006-10-01

In 7 experiments, the authors explored whether visual attention (the ability to select relevant visual information) and visual working memory (the ability to retain relevant visual information) share the same content representations. The presence of singleton distractors interfered more strongly with a visual search task when it was accompanied by an additional memory task. Singleton distractors interfered even more when they were identical or related to the object held in memory, but only when it was difficult to verbalize the memory content. Furthermore, this content-specific interaction occurred for features that were relevant to the memory task but not for irrelevant features of the same object or for once-remembered objects that could be forgotten. Finally, memory-related distractors attracted more eye movements but did not result in longer fixations. The results demonstrate memory-driven attentional capture on the basis of content-specific representations. Copyright 2006 APA.

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.

Changes in brain activation during working memory and facial recognition tasks in patients with bipolar disorder with Lamotrigine monotherapy.

PubMed

Haldane, Morgan; Jogia, Jigar; Cobb, Annabel; Kozuch, Eliza; Kumari, Veena; Frangou, Sophia

2008-01-01

Verbal working memory and emotional self-regulation are impaired in Bipolar Disorder (BD). Our aim was to investigate the effect of Lamotrigine (LTG), which is effective in the clinical management of BD, on the neural circuits subserving working memory and emotional processing. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging data from 12 stable BD patients was used to detect LTG-induced changes as the differences in brain activity between drug-free and post-LTG monotherapy conditions during a verbal working memory (N-back sequential letter task) and an angry facial affect recognition task. For both tasks, LGT monotherapy compared to baseline was associated with increased activation mostly within the prefrontal cortex and cingulate gyrus, in regions normally engaged in verbal working memory and emotional processing. Therefore, LTG monotherapy in BD patients may enhance cortical function within neural circuits involved in memory and emotional self-regulation.

Memory development in the second year: for events or locations?

PubMed

Russell, James; Thompson, Doreen

2003-04-01

We employed an object-placement/object-removal design, inspired by recent work on 'episodic-like' memory in scrub jays (Clayton, N. S., & Dickinson, A. (1998). Episodic-like memory during cache recovery by scrub jays. Nature, 395, 272-274), to examine the possibility that children in the second year of life have event-based memories. In one task, a successful search could have been due to the recall of an object-removal event. In the second task, a successful search could only have been caused by recall of where objects were located. Success was general in the oldest group of children (21-25 months), while performance was broadly similar on the two tasks. The parsimonious interpretation of this outcome is that the first task was performed by location memory, not by event memory. We place these data in the context of object permanence development.

Effects of verbal and nonverbal interference on spatial and object visual working memory.

PubMed

Postle, Bradley R; Desposito, Mark; Corkin, Suzanne

2005-03-01

We tested the hypothesis that a verbal coding mechanism is necessarily engaged by object, but not spatial, visual working memory tasks. We employed a dual-task procedure that paired n-back working memory tasks with domain-specific distractor trials inserted into each interstimulus interval of the n-back tasks. In two experiments, object n-back performance demonstrated greater sensitivity to verbal distraction, whereas spatial n-back performance demonstrated greater sensitivity to motion distraction. Visual object and spatial working memory may differ fundamentally in that the mnemonic representation of featural characteristics of objects incorporates a verbal (perhaps semantic) code, whereas the mnemonic representation of the location of objects does not. Thus, the processes supporting working memory for these two types of information may differ in more ways than those dictated by the "what/where" organization of the visual system, a fact more easily reconciled with a component process than a memory systems account of working memory function.

The effects of working memory on brain-computer interface performance.

PubMed

Sprague, Samantha A; McBee, Matthew T; Sellers, Eric W

2016-02-01

The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the relationship between working memory and BCI performance. Participants took part in two separate sessions. The first session consisted of three computerized tasks. The List Sorting Working Memory Task was used to measure working memory, the Picture Vocabulary Test was used to measure general intelligence, and the Dimensional Change Card Sort Test was used to measure executive function, specifically cognitive flexibility. The second session consisted of a P300-based BCI copy-spelling task. The results indicate that both working memory and general intelligence are significant predictors of BCI performance. This suggests that working memory training could be used to improve performance on a BCI task. Working memory training may help to reduce a portion of the individual differences that exist in BCI performance allowing for a wider range of users to successfully operate the BCI system as well as increase the BCI performance of current users. Copyright © 2015 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of verbal and nonverbal interference on spatial and object visual working memory

PubMed Central

POSTLE, BRADLEY R.; D’ESPOSITO, MARK; CORKIN, SUZANNE

2005-01-01

We tested the hypothesis that a verbal coding mechanism is necessarily engaged by object, but not spatial, visual working memory tasks. We employed a dual-task procedure that paired n-back working memory tasks with domain-specific distractor trials inserted into each interstimulus interval of the n-back tasks. In two experiments, object n-back performance demonstrated greater sensitivity to verbal distraction, whereas spatial n-back performance demonstrated greater sensitivity to motion distraction. Visual object and spatial working memory may differ fundamentally in that the mnemonic representation of featural characteristics of objects incorporates a verbal (perhaps semantic) code, whereas the mnemonic representation of the location of objects does not. Thus, the processes supporting working memory for these two types of information may differ in more ways than those dictated by the “what/where” organization of the visual system, a fact more easily reconciled with a component process than a memory systems account of working memory function. PMID:16028575

The impact of multiple memory formation on dendritic complexity in the hippocampus and anterior cingulate cortex assessed at recent and remote time points

PubMed Central

Wartman, Brianne C.; Holahan, Matthew R.

2014-01-01

Consolidation processes, involving synaptic and systems level changes, are suggested to stabilize memories once they are formed. At the synaptic level, dendritic structural changes are associated with long-term memory storage. At the systems level, memory storage dynamics between the hippocampus and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) may be influenced by the number of sequentially encoded memories. The present experiment utilized Golgi-Cox staining and neuron reconstruction to examine recent and remote structural changes in the hippocampus and ACC following training on three different behavioral procedures. Rats were trained on one hippocampal-dependent task only (a water maze task), two hippocampal-dependent tasks (a water maze task followed by a radial arm maze task), or one hippocampal-dependent and one non-hippocampal-dependent task (a water maze task followed by an operant conditioning task). Rats were euthanized recently or remotely. Brains underwent Golgi-Cox processing and neurons were reconstructed using Neurolucida software (MicroBrightField, Williston, VT, USA). Rats trained on two hippocampal-dependent tasks displayed increased dendritic complexity compared to control rats, in neurons examined in both the ACC and hippocampus at recent and remote time points. Importantly, this behavioral group showed consistent, significant structural differences in the ACC compared to the control group at the recent time point. These findings suggest that taxing the demand placed upon the hippocampus, by training rats on two hippocampal-dependent tasks, engages synaptic and systems consolidation processes in the ACC at an accelerated rate for recent and remote storage of spatial memories. PMID:24795581

Overlap in the functional neural systems involved in semantic and episodic memory retrieval.

PubMed

Rajah, M N; McIntosh, A R

2005-03-01

Neuroimaging and neuropsychological data suggest that episodic and semantic memory may be mediated by distinct neural systems. However, an alternative perspective is that episodic and semantic memory represent different modes of processing within a single declarative memory system. To examine whether the multiple or the unitary system view better represents the data we conducted a network analysis using multivariate partial least squares (PLS ) activation analysis followed by covariance structural equation modeling (SEM) of positron emission tomography data obtained while healthy adults performed episodic and semantic verbal retrieval tasks. It is argued that if performance of episodic and semantic retrieval tasks are mediated by different memory systems, then there should differences in both regional activations and interregional correlations related to each type of retrieval task, respectively. The PLS results identified brain regions that were differentially active during episodic retrieval versus semantic retrieval. Regions that showed maximal differences in regional activity between episodic retrieval tasks were used to construct separate functional models for episodic and semantic retrieval. Omnibus tests of these functional models failed to find a significant difference across tasks for both functional models. The pattern of path coefficients for the episodic retrieval model were not different across tasks, nor were the path coefficients for the semantic retrieval model. The SEM results suggest that the same memory network/system was engaged across tasks, given the similarities in path coefficients. Therefore, activation differences between episodic and semantic retrieval may ref lect variation along a continuum of processing during task performance within the context of a single memory system.

Shared and distinct contributions of rostrolateral prefrontal cortex to analogical reasoning and episodic memory retrieval.

PubMed

Westphal, Andrew J; Reggente, Nicco; Ito, Kaori L; Rissman, Jesse

2016-03-01

Rostrolateral prefrontal cortex (RLPFC) is widely appreciated to support higher cognitive functions, including analogical reasoning and episodic memory retrieval. However, these tasks have typically been studied in isolation, and thus it is unclear whether they involve common or distinct RLPFC mechanisms. Here, we introduce a novel functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task paradigm to compare brain activity during reasoning and memory tasks while holding bottom-up perceptual stimulation and response demands constant. Univariate analyses on fMRI data from twenty participants identified a large swath of left lateral prefrontal cortex, including RLPFC, that showed common engagement on reasoning trials with valid analogies and memory trials with accurately retrieved source details. Despite broadly overlapping recruitment, multi-voxel activity patterns within left RLPFC reliably differentiated these two trial types, highlighting the presence of at least partially distinct information processing modes. Functional connectivity analyses demonstrated that while left RLPFC showed consistent coupling with the fronto-parietal control network across tasks, its coupling with other cortical areas varied in a task-dependent manner. During the memory task, this region strengthened its connectivity with the default mode and memory retrieval networks, whereas during the reasoning task it coupled more strongly with a nearby left prefrontal region (BA 45) associated with semantic processing, as well as with a superior parietal region associated with visuospatial processing. Taken together, these data suggest a domain-general role for left RLPFC in monitoring and/or integrating task-relevant knowledge representations and showcase how its function cannot solely be attributed to episodic memory or analogical reasoning computations. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Virtual Shop: A new immersive virtual reality environment and scenario for the assessment of everyday memory.

PubMed

Ouellet, Émilie; Boller, Benjamin; Corriveau-Lecavalier, Nick; Cloutier, Simon; Belleville, Sylvie

2018-06-01

Assessing and predicting memory performance in everyday life is a common assignment for neuropsychologists. However, most traditional neuropsychological tasks are not conceived to capture everyday memory performance. The Virtual Shop is a fully immersive task developed to assess memory in a more ecological way than traditional neuropsychological assessments. Two studies were undertaken to assess the feasibility of the Virtual Shop and to appraise its ecological and construct validity. In study 1, 20 younger and 19 older adults completed the Virtual Shop task to evaluate its level of difficulty and the way the participants interacted with the VR material. The construct validity was examined with the contrasted-group method, by comparing the performance of younger and older adults. In study 2, 35 individuals with subjective cognitive decline completed the Virtual Shop task. Performance was correlated with an existing questionnaire evaluating everyday memory in order to appraise its ecological validity. To add further support to its construct validity, performance was correlated with traditional episodic memory and executive tasks. All participants successfully completed the Virtual Shop. The task had an appropriate level of difficulty that helped differentiate younger and older adults, supporting the feasibility and construct validity of the task. The performance on the Virtual Shop was significantly and moderately correlated with the performance on the questionnaire and on the traditional memory and executive tasks. Results support the feasibility and both the ecological and construct validity of the Virtual Shop. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Deficits of long-term memory in ecstasy users are related to cognitive complexity of the task.

PubMed

Brown, John; McKone, Elinor; Ward, Jeff

2010-03-01

Despite animal evidence that methylenedioxymethamphetamine (ecstasy) causes lasting damage in brain regions related to long-term memory, results regarding human memory performance have been variable. This variability may reflect the cognitive complexity of the memory tasks. However, previous studies have tested only a limited range of cognitive complexity. Furthermore, comparisons across different studies are made difficult by regional variations in ecstasy composition and patterns of use. The objective of this study is to evaluate ecstasy-related deficits in human verbal memory over a wide range of cognitive complexity using subjects drawn from a single geographical population. Ecstasy users were compared to non-drug using controls on verbal tasks with low cognitive complexity (stem completion), moderate cognitive complexity (stem-cued recall and word list learning) and high cognitive complexity (California Verbal Learning Test, Verbal Paired Associates and a novel Verbal Triplet Associates test). Where significant differences were found, both groups were also compared to cannabis users. More cognitively complex memory tasks were associated with clearer ecstasy-related deficits than low complexity tasks. In the most cognitively demanding task, ecstasy-related deficits remained even after multiple learning opportunities, whereas the performance of cannabis users approached that of non-drug using controls. Ecstasy users also had weaker deliberate strategy use than both non-drug and cannabis controls. Results were consistent with the proposal that ecstasy-related memory deficits are more reliable on tasks with greater cognitive complexity. This could arise either because such tasks require a greater contribution from the frontal lobe or because they require greater interaction between multiple brain regions.

Parietal EEG alpha suppression time of memory retrieval reflects memory load while the alpha power of memory maintenance is a composite of the visual process according to simultaneous and successive Sternberg memory tasks.

PubMed

Okuhata, Shiho; Kusanagi, Takuya; Kobayashi, Tetsuo

2013-10-25

The present study investigated EEG alpha activity during visual Sternberg memory tasks using two different stimulus presentation modes to elucidate how the presentation mode affected parietal alpha activity. EEGs were recorded from 10 healthy adults during the Sternberg tasks in which memory items were presented simultaneously and successively. EEG power and suppression time (ST) in the alpha band (8-13Hz) were computed for the memory maintenance and retrieval phases. The alpha activity differed according to the presentation mode during the maintenance phase but not during the retrieval phase. Results indicated that parietal alpha power recorded during the maintenance phase did not reflect the memory load alone. In contrast, ST during the retrieval phase increased with the memory load for both presentation modes, indicating a serial memory scanning process, regardless of the presentation mode. These results indicate that there was a dynamic transition in the memory process from the maintenance phase, which was sensitive to external factors, toward the retrieval phase, during which the process converged on the sequential scanning process, the Sternberg task essentially required. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Changes in Brain Network Efficiency and Working Memory Performance in Aging

PubMed Central

Stanley, Matthew L.; Simpson, Sean L.; Dagenbach, Dale; Lyday, Robert G.; Burdette, Jonathan H.; Laurienti, Paul J.

2015-01-01

Working memory is a complex psychological construct referring to the temporary storage and active processing of information. We used functional connectivity brain network metrics quantifying local and global efficiency of information transfer for predicting individual variability in working memory performance on an n-back task in both young (n = 14) and older (n = 15) adults. Individual differences in both local and global efficiency during the working memory task were significant predictors of working memory performance in addition to age (and an interaction between age and global efficiency). Decreases in local efficiency during the working memory task were associated with better working memory performance in both age cohorts. In contrast, increases in global efficiency were associated with much better working performance for young participants; however, increases in global efficiency were associated with a slight decrease in working memory performance for older participants. Individual differences in local and global efficiency during resting-state sessions were not significant predictors of working memory performance. Significant group whole-brain functional network decreases in local efficiency also were observed during the working memory task compared to rest, whereas no significant differences were observed in network global efficiency. These results are discussed in relation to recently developed models of age-related differences in working memory. PMID:25875001

Changes in brain network efficiency and working memory performance in aging.

PubMed

Stanley, Matthew L; Simpson, Sean L; Dagenbach, Dale; Lyday, Robert G; Burdette, Jonathan H; Laurienti, Paul J

2015-01-01

Working memory is a complex psychological construct referring to the temporary storage and active processing of information. We used functional connectivity brain network metrics quantifying local and global efficiency of information transfer for predicting individual variability in working memory performance on an n-back task in both young (n = 14) and older (n = 15) adults. Individual differences in both local and global efficiency during the working memory task were significant predictors of working memory performance in addition to age (and an interaction between age and global efficiency). Decreases in local efficiency during the working memory task were associated with better working memory performance in both age cohorts. In contrast, increases in global efficiency were associated with much better working performance for young participants; however, increases in global efficiency were associated with a slight decrease in working memory performance for older participants. Individual differences in local and global efficiency during resting-state sessions were not significant predictors of working memory performance. Significant group whole-brain functional network decreases in local efficiency also were observed during the working memory task compared to rest, whereas no significant differences were observed in network global efficiency. These results are discussed in relation to recently developed models of age-related differences in working memory.

The effect of functional hearing loss and age on long- and short-term visuospatial memory: evidence from the UK biobank resource.

PubMed

Rönnberg, Jerker; Hygge, Staffan; Keidser, Gitte; Rudner, Mary

2014-01-01

The UK Biobank offers cross-sectional epidemiological data collected on >500,000 individuals in the UK between 40 and 70 years of age. Using the UK Biobank data, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of functional hearing loss and hearing aid usage on visuospatial memory function. This selection of variables resulted in a sub-sample of 138,098 participants after discarding extreme values. A digit triplets functional hearing test was used to divide the participants into three groups: poor, insufficient and normal hearers. We found negative relationships between functional hearing loss and both visuospatial working memory (i.e., a card pair matching task) and visuospatial, episodic long-term memory (i.e., a prospective memory task), with the strongest association for episodic long-term memory. The use of hearing aids showed a small positive effect for working memory performance for the poor hearers, but did not have any influence on episodic long-term memory. Age also showed strong main effects for both memory tasks and interacted with gender and education for the long-term memory task. Broader theoretical implications based on a memory systems approach will be discussed and compared to theoretical alternatives.

Effects of HD-tDCS on memory and metamemory for general knowledge questions that vary by difficulty

PubMed Central

Chua, Elizabeth F.; Ahmed, Rifat; Garcia, Sandry

2016-01-01

Background The ability to monitor one’s own memory is an important feature of normal memory and is an aspect of ‘metamemory’. Lesion studies have shown dissociations between memory and metamemory, but only single dissociations have been shown using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). One potential reason that only single dissociations have been shown is that tDCS effects may be moderated by task difficulty. Objective/Hypothesis We used high definition (HD) tDCS to test for dissociable roles of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior temporal lobe (ATL) in semantic long-term memory and metamemory tasks. We also tested whether general knowledge question difficulty moderated the effects of HD-tDCS. Methods Across 3 sessions, participants received active HD-tDCS over the left DLPFC or left ATL, or sham HD-tDCS during general knowledge recall and recognition tests, and a ‘feeling-of-knowing’ metamemory task. General knowledge questions were blocked by difficulty. Repeated measures ANOVAs were used to examine the effects of HD-tDCS on memory and metamemory tasks by memory question difficulty. Results HD-tDCS over the ATL led to improved recall compared to DLPFC and sham HD-tDCS, and this occurred only for medium difficulty questions. In contrast, for non-recalled questions, HD-tDCS over the DLPFC led to improved recognition accuracy and improved feeling-of-knowing accuracy compared to ATL and sham HD-tDCS, and this was not moderated by memory question difficulty. Conclusion(s) HD-tDCS can be used to dissociate the roles of the ATL and DLPFC in different memory and ‘metamemory’ tasks. The effects of HD-tDCS on task may be moderated by task difficulty, depending on the nature of the task and site of stimulation. PMID:27876306

Effects of HD-tDCS on memory and metamemory for general knowledge questions that vary by difficulty.

PubMed

Chua, Elizabeth F; Ahmed, Rifat; Garcia, Sandry M

The ability to monitor one's own memory is an important feature of normal memory and is an aspect of 'metamemory'. Lesion studies have shown dissociations between memory and metamemory, but only single dissociations have been shown using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). One potential reason that only single dissociations have been shown is that tDCS effects may be moderated by task difficulty. We used high definition (HD) tDCS to test for dissociable roles of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior temporal lobe (ATL) in semantic long-term memory and metamemory tasks. We also tested whether general knowledge question difficulty moderated the effects of HD-tDCS. Across 3 sessions, participants received active HD-tDCS over the left DLPFC or left ATL, or sham HD-tDCS during general knowledge recall and recognition tests, and a 'feeling-of-knowing' metamemory task. General knowledge questions were blocked by difficulty. Repeated measures ANOVAs were used to examine the effects of HD-tDCS on memory and metamemory tasks by memory question difficulty. HD-tDCS over the ATL led to improved recall compared to DLPFC and sham HD-tDCS, and this occurred only for medium difficulty questions. In contrast, for non-recalled questions, HD-tDCS over the DLPFC led to improved recognition accuracy and improved feeling-of-knowing accuracy compared to ATL and sham HD-tDCS, and this was not moderated by memory question difficulty. HD-tDCS can be used to dissociate the roles of the ATL and DLPFC in different memory and 'metamemory' tasks. The effects of HD-tDCS on task may be moderated by task difficulty, depending on the nature of the task and site of stimulation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Working Memory and Reasoning Benefit from Different Modes of Large-scale Brain Dynamics in Healthy Older Adults.

PubMed

Lebedev, Alexander V; Nilsson, Jonna; Lövdén, Martin

2018-07-01

Researchers have proposed that solving complex reasoning problems, a key indicator of fluid intelligence, involves the same cognitive processes as solving working memory tasks. This proposal is supported by an overlap of the functional brain activations associated with the two types of tasks and by high correlations between interindividual differences in performance. We replicated these findings in 53 older participants but also showed that solving reasoning and working memory problems benefits from different configurations of the functional connectome and that this dissimilarity increases with a higher difficulty load. Specifically, superior performance in a typical working memory paradigm ( n-back) was associated with upregulation of modularity (increased between-network segregation), whereas performance in the reasoning task was associated with effective downregulation of modularity. We also showed that working memory training promotes task-invariant increases in modularity. Because superior reasoning performance is associated with downregulation of modular dynamics, training may thus have fostered an inefficient way of solving the reasoning tasks. This could help explain why working memory training does little to promote complex reasoning performance. The study concludes that complex reasoning abilities cannot be reduced to working memory and suggests the need to reconsider the feasibility of using working memory training interventions to attempt to achieve effects that transfer to broader cognition.

Beyond a mask and against the bottleneck: retroactive dual-task interference during working memory consolidation of a masked visual target.

PubMed

Nieuwenstein, Mark; Wyble, Brad

2014-06-01

While studies on visual memory commonly assume that the consolidation of a visual stimulus into working memory is interrupted by a trailing mask, studies on dual-task interference suggest that the consolidation of a stimulus can continue for several hundred milliseconds after a mask. As a result, estimates of the time course of working memory consolidation differ more than an order of magnitude. Here, we contrasted these opposing views by examining if and for how long the processing of a masked display of visual stimuli can be disturbed by a trailing 2-alternative forced choice task (2-AFC; a color discrimination task or a visual or auditory parity judgment task). The results showed that the presence of the 2-AFC task produced a pronounced retroactive interference effect that dissipated across stimulus onset asynchronies of 250-1,000 ms, indicating that the processing elicited by the 2-AFC task interfered with the gradual consolidation of the earlier shown stimuli. Furthermore, this interference effect occurred regardless of whether the to-be-remembered stimuli comprised a string of letters or an unfamiliar complex visual shape, and it occurred regardless of whether these stimuli were masked. Conversely, the interference effect was reduced when the memory load for the 1st task was reduced, or when the 2nd task was a color detection task that did not require decision making. Taken together, these findings show that the formation of a durable and consciously accessible working memory trace for a briefly shown visual stimulus can be disturbed by a trailing 2-AFC task for up to several hundred milliseconds after the stimulus has been masked. By implication, the current findings challenge the common view that working memory consolidation involves an immutable central processing bottleneck, and they also make clear that consolidation does not stop when a stimulus is masked. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Corvid caching: Insights from a cognitive model.

PubMed

van der Vaart, Elske; Verbrugge, Rineke; Hemelrijk, Charlotte K

2011-07-01

Caching and recovery of food by corvids is well-studied, but some ambiguous results remain. To help clarify these, we built a computational cognitive model. It is inspired by similar models built for humans, and it assumes that memory strength depends on frequency and recency of use. We compared our model's behavior to that of real birds in previously published experiments. Our model successfully replicated the outcomes of two experiments on recovery behavior and two experiments on cache site choice. Our "virtual birds" reproduced declines in recovery accuracy across sessions, revisits to previously emptied cache sites, a lack of correlation between caching and recovery order, and a preference for caching in safe locations. The model also produced two new explanations. First, that Clark's nutcrackers may become less accurate as recovery progresses not because of differential memory for different cache sites, as was once assumed, but because of chance effects. And second, that Western scrub jays may choose their cache sites not on the basis of negative recovery experiences only, as was previously thought, but on the basis of positive recovery experiences instead. Alternatively, both "punishment" and "reward" may be playing a role. We conclude with a set of new insights, a testable prediction, and directions for future work. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved

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.…

Working Memory Involved in Predicting Future Outcomes Based on Past Experiences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dretsch, Michael N.; Tipples, Jason

2008-01-01

Deficits in working memory have been shown to contribute to poor performance on the Iowa Gambling Task [IGT: Bechara, A., & Martin, E.M. (2004). "Impaired decision making related to working memory deficits in individuals with substance addictions." "Neuropsychology," 18, 152-162]. Similarly, a secondary memory load task has been shown to impair…

Distinct Transfer Effects of Training Different Facets of Working Memory Capacity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

von Bastian, Claudia C.; Oberauer, Klaus

2013-01-01

The impact of working memory training on a broad set of transfer tasks was examined. Each of three groups of participants trained one specific functional category of working memory capacity: storage and processing, relational integration, and supervision. A battery comprising tests to measure working memory, task shifting, inhibition, and…

Effects of Anxiety on Memory Storage and Updating in Young Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Visu-Petra, Laura; Cheie, Lavinia; Benga, Oana; Alloway, Tracy Packiam

2011-01-01

The relationship between trait anxiety and memory functioning in young children was investigated. Two studies were conducted, using tasks tapping verbal and visual-spatial short-term memory (Study 1) and working memory (Study 2) in preschoolers. On the verbal storage tasks, there was a detrimental effect of anxiety on processing efficiency…

Differential Age Effects on Spatial and Visual Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oosterman, Joukje M.; Morel, Sascha; Meijer, Lisette; Buvens, Cleo; Kessels, Roy P. C.; Postma, Albert

2011-01-01

The present study was intended to compare age effects on visual and spatial working memory by using two versions of the same task that differed only in presentation mode. The working memory task contained both a simultaneous and a sequential presentation mode condition, reflecting, respectively, visual and spatial working memory processes. Young…

Applying the Concept of Working Memory to Foreign Language Listening Comprehension.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Service, Elisabet

Memory research has recently moved from looking at performance in highly artificial laboratory tasks to examination of tasks in everyday life. One consequence is the development of the concept of "working memory." For the learner, foreign language comprehension makes great demands on working memory capacity. Comprehension of a message requires…

Distinct roles of hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex in spatial and nonspatial memory.

PubMed

Sapiurka, Maya; Squire, Larry R; Clark, Robert E

2016-12-01

In earlier work, patients with hippocampal damage successfully path integrated, apparently by maintaining spatial information in working memory. In contrast, rats with hippocampal damage were unable to path integrate, even when the paths were simple and working memory might have been expected to support performance. We considered possible ways to understand these findings. We tested rats with either hippocampal lesions or lesions of medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) on three tasks of spatial or nonspatial memory: path integration, spatial alternation, and a nonspatial alternation task. Rats with mPFC lesions were impaired on both spatial and nonspatial alternation but performed normally on path integration. By contrast, rats with hippocampal lesions were impaired on path integration and spatial alternation but performed normally on nonspatial alternation. We propose that rodent neocortex is limited in its ability to construct a coherent spatial working memory of complex environments. Accordingly, in tasks such as path integration and spatial alternation, working memory cannot depend on neocortex alone. Rats may accomplish many spatial memory tasks by relying on long-term memory. Alternatively, they may accomplish these tasks within working memory through sustained coordination between hippocampus and other cortical brain regions such as mPFC, in the case of spatial alternation, or parietal cortex in the case of path integration. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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

PubMed

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

2008-01-01

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

The influence of time on task on mind wandering and visual working memory.

PubMed

Krimsky, Marissa; Forster, Daniel E; Llabre, Maria M; Jha, Amishi P

2017-12-01

Working memory relies on executive resources for successful task performance, with higher demands necessitating greater resource engagement. In addition to mnemonic demands, prior studies suggest that internal sources of distraction, such as mind wandering (i.e., having off-task thoughts) and greater time on task, may tax executive resources. Herein, the consequences of mnemonic demand, mind wandering, and time on task were investigated during a visual working memory task. Participants (N=143) completed a delayed-recognition visual working memory task, with mnemonic load for visual objects manipulated across trials (1 item=low load; 2 items=high load) and subjective mind wandering assessed intermittently throughout the experiment using a self-report Likert-type scale (1=on-task, 6=off-task). Task performance (correct/incorrect response) and self-reported mind wandering data were evaluated by hierarchical linear modeling to track trial-by-trial fluctuations. Performance declined with greater time on task, and the rate of decline was steeper for high vs low load trials. Self-reported mind wandering increased over time, and significantly varied asa function of both load and time on task. Participants reported greater mind wandering at the beginning of the experiment for low vs. high load trials; however, with greater time on task, more mind wandering was reported during high vs. low load trials. These results suggest that the availability of executive resources in support of working memory maintenance processes fluctuates in a demand-sensitive manner with time on task, and may be commandeered by mind wandering. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Encoding and choice in the task span paradigm.

PubMed

Reiman, Kaitlin M; Weaver, Starla M; Arrington, Catherine M

2015-03-01

Cognitive control during sequences of planned behaviors requires both plan-level processes such as generating, maintaining, and monitoring the plan, as well as task-level processes such as selecting, establishing and implementing specific task sets. The task span paradigm (Logan in J Exp Psychol Gen 133:218-236, 2004) combines two common cognitive control paradigms, task switching and working memory span, to investigate the integration of plan-level and task-level processes during control of sequential behavior. The current study expands past task span research to include measures of encoding processes and choice behavior with volitional sequence generation, using the standard task span as well as a novel voluntary task span paradigm. In two experiments, we consider how sequence complexity, defined separately for plan-level and task-level complexity, influences sequence encoding (Experiment 1), sequence choice (Experiment 2), sequence memory, and task performance of planned sequences of action. Results indicate that participants were sensitive to sequence complexity, but that different aspects of behavior are most strongly influenced by different types of complexity. Hierarchical complexity at the plan level best predicts voluntary sequence generation and memory; while switch frequency at the task level best predicts encoding of externally defined sequences and task performance. Furthermore, performance RTs were similar for externally and internally defined plans, whereas memory was improved for internally defined sequences. Finally, participants demonstrated a significant sequence choice bias in the voluntary task span. Consistent with past research on choice behavior, volitional selection of plans was markedly influenced by both the ease of memory and performance.

The Contributions of Primary and Secondary Memory to Working Memory Capacity: An Individual Differences Analysis of Immediate Free Recall

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Unsworth, Nash; Spillers, Gregory J.; Brewer, Gene A.

2010-01-01

The present study tested the dual-component model of working memory capacity (WMC) by examining estimates of primary memory and secondary memory from an immediate free recall task. Participants completed multiple measures of WMC and general intellectual ability as well as multiple trials of an immediate free recall task. It was demonstrated that…

Age differences between children and young adults in the dynamics of dual-task prioritization: body (balance) versus mind (memory).

PubMed

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

2008-05-01

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 at difficulty levels individually adjusted during the course of extensive training. Adults showed performance decrements in both task domains under dual-task conditions. In contrast, children showed decrements only in the cognitive tasks but actually swayed less under dual-task than under single-task conditions and continued to reduce their body sway even when instructed to focus on the cognitive task. The authors argue that children perform closer to their stability boundaries in the balance task and therefore prioritize protection of their balance under dual-task conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).

The default mode network and the working memory network are not anti-correlated during all phases of a working memory task.

PubMed

Piccoli, Tommaso; Valente, Giancarlo; Linden, David E J; Re, Marta; Esposito, Fabrizio; Sack, Alexander T; Di Salle, Francesco

2015-01-01

The default mode network and the working memory network are known to be anti-correlated during sustained cognitive processing, in a load-dependent manner. We hypothesized that functional connectivity among nodes of the two networks could be dynamically modulated by task phases across time. To address the dynamic links between default mode network and the working memory network, we used a delayed visuo-spatial working memory paradigm, which allowed us to separate three different phases of working memory (encoding, maintenance, and retrieval), and analyzed the functional connectivity during each phase within and between the default mode network and the working memory network networks. We found that the two networks are anti-correlated only during the maintenance phase of working memory, i.e. when attention is focused on a memorized stimulus in the absence of external input. Conversely, during the encoding and retrieval phases, when the external stimulation is present, the default mode network is positively coupled with the working memory network, suggesting the existence of a dynamically switching of functional connectivity between "task-positive" and "task-negative" brain networks. Our results demonstrate that the well-established dichotomy of the human brain (anti-correlated networks during rest and balanced activation-deactivation during cognition) has a more nuanced organization than previously thought and engages in different patterns of correlation and anti-correlation during specific sub-phases of a cognitive task. This nuanced organization reinforces the hypothesis of a direct involvement of the default mode network in cognitive functions, as represented by a dynamic rather than static interaction with specific task-positive networks, such as the working memory network.

The Default Mode Network and the Working Memory Network Are Not Anti-Correlated during All Phases of a Working Memory Task

PubMed Central

Piccoli, Tommaso; Valente, Giancarlo; Linden, David E. J.; Re, Marta; Esposito, Fabrizio; Sack, Alexander T.; Salle, Francesco Di

2015-01-01

Introduction The default mode network and the working memory network are known to be anti-correlated during sustained cognitive processing, in a load-dependent manner. We hypothesized that functional connectivity among nodes of the two networks could be dynamically modulated by task phases across time. Methods To address the dynamic links between default mode network and the working memory network, we used a delayed visuo-spatial working memory paradigm, which allowed us to separate three different phases of working memory (encoding, maintenance, and retrieval), and analyzed the functional connectivity during each phase within and between the default mode network and the working memory network networks. Results We found that the two networks are anti-correlated only during the maintenance phase of working memory, i.e. when attention is focused on a memorized stimulus in the absence of external input. Conversely, during the encoding and retrieval phases, when the external stimulation is present, the default mode network is positively coupled with the working memory network, suggesting the existence of a dynamically switching of functional connectivity between “task-positive” and “task-negative” brain networks. Conclusions Our results demonstrate that the well-established dichotomy of the human brain (anti-correlated networks during rest and balanced activation-deactivation during cognition) has a more nuanced organization than previously thought and engages in different patterns of correlation and anti-correlation during specific sub-phases of a cognitive task. This nuanced organization reinforces the hypothesis of a direct involvement of the default mode network in cognitive functions, as represented by a dynamic rather than static interaction with specific task-positive networks, such as the working memory network. PMID:25848951

Sleep-Effects on Implicit and Explicit Memory in Repeated Visual Search

PubMed Central

Assumpcao, Leonardo; Gais, Steffen

2013-01-01

In repeated visual search tasks, facilitation of reaction times (RTs) due to repetition of the spatial arrangement of items occurs independently of RT facilitation due to improvements in general task performance. Whereas the latter represents typical procedural learning, the former is a kind of implicit memory that depends on the medial temporal lobe (MTL) memory system and is impaired in patients with amnesia. A third type of memory that develops during visual search is the observers’ explicit knowledge of repeated displays. Here, we used a visual search task to investigate whether procedural memory, implicit contextual cueing, and explicit knowledge of repeated configurations, which all arise independently from the same set of stimuli, are influenced by sleep. Observers participated in two experimental sessions, separated by either a nap or a controlled rest period. In each of the two sessions, they performed a visual search task in combination with an explicit recognition task. We found that (1) across sessions, MTL-independent procedural learning was more pronounced for the nap than rest group. This confirms earlier findings, albeit from different motor and perceptual tasks, showing that procedural memory can benefit from sleep. (2) Likewise, the sleep group compared with the rest group showed enhanced context-dependent configural learning in the second session. This is a novel finding, indicating that the MTL-dependent, implicit memory underlying contextual cueing is also sleep-dependent. (3) By contrast, sleep and wake groups displayed equivalent improvements in explicit recognition memory in the second session. Overall, the current study shows that sleep affects MTL-dependent as well as MTL-independent memory, but it affects different, albeit simultaneously acquired, forms of MTL-dependent memory differentially. PMID:23936363