Positive Arousal Enhances the Consolidation of Item Memory

2015 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Wang
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Memory Consolidation ◽  
Source Memory ◽  
Emotional Arousal ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Memory Test ◽  
Learning Phase ◽  
Item Memory ◽  
Memory Tests ◽  
Immediate Memory

Emotional arousal induced after learning has been shown to modulate memory consolidation. However, it is unclear whether the effect of postlearning arousal can extend to different aspects of memory. This study examined the effect of postlearning positive arousal on both item memory and source memory. Participants learned a list of neutral words and took an immediate memory test. Then they watched a positive or a neutral videoclip and took delayed memory tests after either 25 minutes or 1 week had elapsed after the learning phase. In both delay conditions, positive arousal enhanced consolidation of item memory as measured by overall recognition. Furthermore, positive arousal enhanced consolidation of familiarity but not recollection. However, positive arousal appeared to have no effect on consolidation of source memory. These findings have implications for building theoretical models of the effect of emotional arousal on consolidation of episodic memory and for applying postlearning emotional arousal as a technique of memory intervention.

Executive Control on Memory Test Performance across Life: Test of Memory Strategies

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Abellán-Martínez ◽  
Miguel Ángel Castellanos López ◽  
María Luisa Delgado-Losada ◽  
Raquel Yubero ◽  
Nuria Paúl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Executive Functions ◽  
Test Performance ◽  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Cognitive Strategies ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Memory Test ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Memory Tests ◽  
Memory Strategies

Abstract The ability to generate memory strategies is a key factor in performance of episodic memory tests. There is evidence about the inefficient use of memory strategies in old adults. However, a question remains unresolved: Worse performance on memory test in the older people is due to an inability to mobilize cognitive strategies or to an episodic memory deficit? In this study we tried to answer it by using the Test of Memory Strategies (TMS), which parametrically reduces the need of executive functions on memory tests. The test consists of five experimental conditions (TMS1–5) where a progressive external organization of the material reduces the need to mobilize memory strategies. TMS was applied to a sample of 180 participants (n = 180) divided into three age groups (25–45; 46–65; 66–85). The results showed an increased performance in all groups groups (F(2, 177) = 14.79, p < .001) across conditions (F(3.88,674.04) = 292.48, p < .001), without group differences in those conditions with a maximum reduction of the need of executive functions (F(7.61,674.04) = 1.95, p = .053). However, middle age and older adults showed more difficulties in establishing cognitive strategies, in the initial conditions. These results lead to the conclusion that the typical pattern of low performance on episodic memory tasks in the older population may be due to the deterioration of executive functions and not mainly to a primary decline of memory process.

scholarly journals Predicting memory formation over multiple study episodes

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolin Sievers ◽  
Louis Renoult
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Source Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Test Phase ◽  
Item Memory ◽  
Retrieval Cues ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Optimal Encoding ◽  
Encoding Variability ◽  
Study Participants

Repeated study typically improves episodic memory performance. Two different types of explanations of this phenomenon have been put forward: 1) reactivating the same representations strengthens and stabilizes memories, or, in contrast, 2) greater encoding variability - through changes in context - benefits memory by promoting richer traces and a larger variety of retrieval cues. The present experiment was designed to directly compare these predictions in a design with multiple repeated study episodes, allowing to dissociate memory for studied items and their context of study. Participants repeatedly encoded names of famous people four times, either in the same task (optimal encoding for a reactivation view), or in different tasks (optimal encoding for an encoding variability view). During the test phase, an old/new judgement task was used to assess item memory, followed by a source memory judgement about the encoding task. Consistent with predictions from the encoding variability view, encoding stimulus in different contexts resulted in higher item memory and lower rates of forgetting. In contrast, consistent with the reactivation view, source memory performance was higher when participants encoded stimuli in the same task repeatedly. Taken together, our findings indicate that encoding variability benefits episodic memory, by increasing the number of items that are recalled and by decreasing forgetting. These benefits are however at the expenses of source recollection and memory for details, which are decreased, likely due to interference and generalisation across contexts.

scholarly journals Involvement Modulates the Effects of Deception on Memory in Daily Life

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Li ◽  
Zhiwei Liu
Keyword(s):  
Source Memory ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Memory Test ◽  
Memory Tests ◽  
High Involvement ◽  
Destination Memory ◽  
Induced Forgetting

Previous studies have demonstrated that liars who adopt a false denial strategy often forget what they lied about, which has been labeled the denial-induced forgetting (DIF) effect. However, several investigations have not found such an effect. It has been suggested that involvement might play a role in the inconsistency. The present study was designed to directly determine whether involvement modulates the effects of deception on memory. Participants were assigned randomly to either high- or low-involvement conditions and were required to complete a mock shopping task. They were then asked to participate in an interview in which they were asked to respond honestly or deceptively. Two days later, final memory tests were given, and the participants were asked to give honest responses. We found a DIF effect in the high-involvement condition but not in the low-involvement condition. Moreover, the liars in the high-involvement condition created more non-believed memories in the source memory test and the destination memory test than the honest participants. In addition, liars in both the high- and low-involvement conditions forgot who they lied to. We conclude that the effects of deception on memory could be influenced by the degree of involvement.

scholarly journals Prefrontal Engagement during Source Memory Retrieval Depends on the Prior Encoding Task

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 1133-1146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trudy Y. Kuo ◽  
Cyma Van Petten
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Electrical Activity ◽  
Source Memory ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
Healthy Subjects ◽  
Brain Electrical Activity ◽  
Object Identity ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Memory Tests

The prefrontal cortex is strongly engaged by some, but not all, episodic memory tests. Prior work has shown that source recognition tests—those that require memory for conjunctions of studied attributes—yield deficient performance in patients with prefrontal damage and greater prefrontal activity in healthy subjects, as compared to simple recognition tests. Here, we tested the hypothesis that there is no intrinsic relationship between the prefrontal cortex and source memory, but that the prefrontal cortex is engaged by the demand to retrieve weakly encoded relationships. Subjects attempted to remember object/color conjunctions after an encoding task that focused on object identity alone, and an integrative encoding task that encouraged attention to object/color relationships. After the integrative encoding task, the late prefrontal brain electrical activity that typically occurs in source memory tests was eliminated. Earlier brain electrical activity related to successful recognition of the objects was unaffected by the nature of prior encoding.

scholarly journals Neural Correlates of Confidence during Item Recognition and Source Memory Retrieval: Evidence for Both Dual-process and Strength Memory Theories

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (12) ◽  
pp. 3959-3971 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott M. Hayes ◽  
Norbou Buchler ◽  
Jared Stokes ◽  
James Kragel ◽  
Roberto Cabeza
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Source Memory ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Dual Process ◽  
Item Memory ◽  
Strength Theory ◽  
High Confidence ◽  
Medial Temporal Lobes ◽  
Memory Network

Although the medial-temporal lobes (MTL), PFC, and parietal cortex are considered primary nodes in the episodic memory network, there is much debate regarding the contributions of MTL, PFC, and parietal subregions to recollection versus familiarity (dual-process theory) and the feasibility of accounts on the basis of a single memory strength process (strength theory). To investigate these issues, the current fMRI study measured activity during retrieval of memories that differed quantitatively in terms of strength (high vs. low-confidence trials) and qualitatively in terms of recollection versus familiarity (source vs. item memory tasks). Support for each theory varied depending on which node of the episodic memory network was considered. Results from MTL best fit a dual-process account, as a dissociation was found between a right hippocampal region showing high-confidence activity during the source memory task and bilateral rhinal regions showing high-confidence activity during the item memory task. Within PFC, several left-lateralized regions showed greater activity for source than item memory, consistent with recollective orienting, whereas a right-lateralized ventrolateral area showed low-confidence activity in both tasks, consistent with monitoring processes. Parietal findings were generally consistent with strength theory, with dorsal areas showing low-confidence activity and ventral areas showing high-confidence activity in both tasks. This dissociation fits with an attentional account of parietal functions during episodic retrieval. The results suggest that both dual-process and strength theories are partly correct, highlighting the need for an integrated model that links to more general cognitive theories to account for observed neural activity during episodic memory retrieval.

Knowledge is power: prior knowledge aids memory formation for both congruent and incongruent events, but in different ways.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Greve ◽  
Elisa Cooper ◽  
Roni Tibon ◽  
Richard Henson
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Memory Formation ◽  
Memory Test ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Apparent Paradox ◽  
Power Prior

Events that conform to our expectations, i.e, are congruent with our world knowledge or schemas, are better remembered than unrelated events. Yet events that conflict with schemas can also be remembered better. We examined this apparent paradox in four experiments, in which schemas were established by training ordinal relationships between randomly-paired objects, while episodic memory was tested for the number of objects on each trial. Better memory was found for both congruent and incongruent trials, relative to unrelated trials, producing memory performance that was a “U-shaped” function of congruency. Furthermore, the incongruency advantage, but not congruency advantage, emerged even if the information probed by the memory test was irrelevant to the schema, while the congruency advantage, but not incongruency advantage, also emerged after initial encoding. Schemas therefore augment episodic memory in multiple ways, depending on the match between novel and existing information.

scholarly journals Bi-Temporal Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation during Slow-Wave Sleep Boosts Slow-Wave Density but Not Memory Consolidation

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 410
Author(s):  
Simon Ruch ◽  
Kristoffer Fehér ◽  
Stephanie Homan ◽  
Yosuke Morishima ◽  
Sarah Maria Mueller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Slow Wave ◽  
Direct Current ◽  
Memory Consolidation ◽  
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation ◽  
Slow Wave Sleep ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Direct Current Stimulation ◽  
Sleep Parameters ◽  
Episodic Memories

Slow-wave sleep (SWS) has been shown to promote long-term consolidation of episodic memories in hippocampo–neocortical networks. Previous research has aimed to modulate cortical sleep slow-waves and spindles to facilitate episodic memory consolidation. Here, we instead aimed to modulate hippocampal activity during slow-wave sleep using transcranial direct current stimulation in 18 healthy humans. A pair-associate episodic memory task was used to evaluate sleep-dependent memory consolidation with face–occupation stimuli. Pre- and post-nap retrieval was assessed as a measure of memory performance. Anodal stimulation with 2 mA was applied bilaterally over the lateral temporal cortex, motivated by its particularly extensive connections to the hippocampus. The participants slept in a magnetic resonance (MR)-simulator during the recordings to test the feasibility for a future MR-study. We used a sham-controlled, double-blind, counterbalanced randomized, within-subject crossover design. We show that stimulation vs. sham significantly increased slow-wave density and the temporal coupling of fast spindles and slow-waves. While retention of episodic memories across sleep was not affected across the entire sample of participants, it was impaired in participants with below-average pre-sleep memory performance. Hence, bi-temporal anodal direct current stimulation applied during sleep enhanced sleep parameters that are typically involved in memory consolidation, but it failed to improve memory consolidation and even tended to impair consolidation in poor learners. These findings suggest that artificially enhancing memory-related sleep parameters to improve memory consolidation can actually backfire in those participants who are in most need of memory improvement.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document