Age-related positivity effects and autobiographical memory detail: Evidence from a past/future source memory task

AbstractHumans possess the capacity to employ prior knowledge in the service of our ability to remember; thus, memory is oftentimes superior for information that is semantically congruent with our prior knowledge. This congruency benefit grows during development, but little is understood about neurodevelopmental differences that underlie this growth. Here, we sought to explore the brain mechanisms underlying these phenomena. To this end, we examined the neural substrates of semantically congruent vs. incongruent item-context associations in 116 children and 25 young adults who performed encoding and retrieval tasks during functional MRI data collection. Participants encoded item-context pairs by judging whether an item belonged in a scene. Episodic memory was then tested with a source memory task. Consistent with prior work, source memory accuracy improved with age, and was greater for congruent than incongruent pairs; further, this congruency benefit was greater in adults than children. Age-related differences were observed across univariate, functional connectivity, and multivariate analyses, particularly in lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC). In sum, our results revealed two general age differences. First, left ventrolateral/rostrolateral PFC exhibited age-related increases in univariate activity, as well as greater functional connectivity with temporal regions during the processing of congruency. Second, right rostrolateral PFC activation was associated with successfully encoded congruent associations in adults, but not children. Finally, multivariate analyses provided evidence for stronger veridical memory in adults than children in right ventrolateral PFC. These effects in right lateral PFC were significantly correlated with memory performance, implicating them in the process of remembering congruent associations. These results connect brain regions associated with top-down control in the congruency benefit and age-related improvements therein.

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The Role of Perfectionism and Autobiographical Memory in a Sample of Parasuicide Patients

Crisis ◽

10.1027/0227-5910.29.2.64 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 64-72 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Susan A. Rasmussen ◽

Rory C. O’Connor ◽

Dallas Brodie

Keyword(s):

Suicidal Ideation ◽

Autobiographical Memory ◽

Memory Task ◽

Self Report ◽

Hierarchical Regression ◽

Overgeneral Autobiographical Memory ◽

Socially Prescribed Perfectionism ◽

Hopelessness Depression ◽

Self Harm ◽

First Time

The main objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between social perfectionism, overgeneral autobiographical memory recall, and psychological distress (hopelessness, depression/anxiety, and suicidal ideation) in a sample of parasuicide patients. Forty patients who had been admitted to a Scottish hospital following an episode of deliberate self-harm participated in the study. The participants completed the autobiographical memory task and a battery of self-report measures (multidimensional perfectionism, hopelessness, depression/anxiety, and suicidal ideation). The results showed that repetitive self-harmers were more overgeneral in their recall of positive autobiographical memories than were first-time self-harmers. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that socially prescribed perfectionism interacted with overgeneral recall of both positive and negative memories to predict suicidal ideation/depression. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research.

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Age-related laterality shifts in auditory and attention networks with normal ageing: Effects on a working memory task

Neurology Psychiatry and Brain Research ◽

10.1016/j.npbr.2013.09.001 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 19 (4) ◽

pp. 180-191 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Hanani Abdul Manan ◽

Elizabeth A. Franz ◽

Ahmad Nazlim Yusoff ◽

Siti Zamratol-Mai Sarah Mukari

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Memory Task ◽

Attention Networks ◽

Ageing Effects ◽

Age Related ◽

Normal Ageing

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Age-related schema reliance of judgments of learning in predicting source memory

Aging Neuropsychology and Cognition ◽

10.1080/13825585.2011.632616 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 19 (1-2) ◽

pp. 301-318 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Liang-Zi Shi ◽

Wei-Hai Tang ◽

Xi-Ping Liu

Keyword(s):

Source Memory ◽

Judgments Of Learning ◽

Age Related

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Negative Autobiographical Memory Task

PsycTESTS Dataset ◽

10.1037/t71446-000 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Caitlin Hitchcock ◽

Ann-Marie J. Golden ◽

Aliza Werner-Seidler ◽

Willem Kuyken ◽

Tim Dalgleish

Keyword(s):

Autobiographical Memory ◽

Memory Task

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What colour is the car? Implicit memory for colour information in children

The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A ◽

10.1080/713756006 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 54 (4) ◽

pp. 1069-1086 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Silvia Mecklenbräuker ◽

Almut Hupbach ◽

Werner Wippich

Keyword(s):

Elementary School ◽

Developmental Change ◽

Memory Task ◽

Choice Task ◽

Preschool Age ◽

School Age Children ◽

Perceptual Task ◽

Line Drawings ◽

Elementary School Age ◽

Age Related

Three experiments were conducted to examine age-related differences in colour memory. In Experiment 1, preschool age and elementary school age children were given a conceptual test of implicit colour memory (a colour-choice task). They were presented with the names or achromatic versions of previously studied coloured line drawings and asked to select an appropriate colour. Significant priming could be demonstrated: The children chose the previously seen colours more often than was expected by chance. Equivalent priming was found for both versions (pictorial and verbal) suggesting that colour priming may be conceptually mediated. Moreover, colour priming proved to be age invariant. Experiment 2 replicated and extended this finding by using a wider age group (preschool, elementary school, and young adults) and by giving a perceptual implicit task (picture identification) in addition to a verbal colour-choice task. Colour did not affect priming in the perceptual task. Whereas priming showed no developmental change, age related improvements were observed on an explicit colour memory task that differed only in the test instructions from the implicit colour-choice task (Experiments 2 and 3). Taken together, the results suggest that implicit colour memory may be mediated by conceptual processes that are age invariant.

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The effects of endogenous and exogenus orienting of attention on source memory

Acta de Investigación Psicológica ◽

10.22201/fpsi.20074719e.2018.2.07 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. 80-89

Author(s):

Selene Cansino

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Episodic Memory ◽

Source Memory ◽

Memory Task ◽

Covert Attention ◽

Control Mechanisms ◽

Eye Tracker ◽

Memory Representations ◽

The Right ◽

Symbolic Cues

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of endogenous and exogenous orienting of attention on episodic memory. Thirty healthy participants performed a cueing attention paradigm during encoding, in which images of common objects were presented either to the left or to the right of the center of the screen. Before the presentation of each image, three types of symbolic cues were displayed to indicate the location in which the stimuli would appear: valid cues to elicit endogenous orientation, invalid cues to prompt exogenous orientation and neutral or uncued trials. The participants’ task was to discriminate whether the images were symmetrical or not while fixating on the center of the screen to assure the manifestation of only covert attention mechanisms. Covert attention refers to the ability to orient attention by means of central control mechanisms alone, without head and eye movements. Trials with eye movements were excluded after inspection of eye-tracker recordings that were conducted throughout the task. During retrieval, participants conducted a source memory task in which they indicated the location where the images were presented during encoding. Memory for spatial context was superior during endogenous orientation than during exogenous orientation, whereas exogenous orientation was associated with a greater number of missed responses compared to the neutral trials. The formation of episodic memory representations with contextual details benefits from endogenous attention.

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Autobiographical Memory Specificity Predicts Social Problem-Solving Ability in Old and Young Adults

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1080/17470210600943450 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 60 (9) ◽

pp. 1275-1288 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Amanda Beaman ◽

Dolores Pushkar ◽

Sarah Etezadi ◽

Dorothea Bye ◽

Michael Conway

Keyword(s):

Problem Solving ◽

Autobiographical Memory ◽

Social Problem ◽

Age Groups ◽

Social Problem Solving ◽

Cued Recall ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Memory Specificity ◽

Age Related ◽

Problem Solving Task

Based on recent research with young, depressed adults, age-related cognitive declines and decreased autobiographical specificity were hypothesized to predict poorer social problem-solving ability in older than in younger healthy adults. Priming autobiographical memory (ABM) was hypothesized to improve social problem-solving performance for older adults. Subsequent to cognitive tests, old and young participants’ specific ABMs were tested using a cued recall task, followed by a social problem-solving task. The order of the tasks was counterbalanced to test for a priming effect. Autobiographical specificity was related to cognitive ability and predicted social problem-solving ability for both age groups. However, priming of ABM did not improve social problem-solving ability for older or younger adults. This study provides support for the hypothesis that autobiographical memory serves a directive function across the life-span.

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Emotional Working Memory and Alzheimer’s Disease

International Journal of Alzheimer s Disease ◽

10.1155/2014/207698 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 2014 ◽

pp. 1-6 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Nicola Mammarella ◽

Beth Fairfield

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Working Memory ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Memory Task ◽

Emotional Information ◽

Healthy Older Adults ◽

Affective Stimuli ◽

Age Related ◽

Dementia Of Alzheimer’S Type

A number of recent studies have reported that working memory does not seem to show typical age-related deficits in healthy older adults when emotional information is involved. Differently, studies about the short-term ability to encode and actively manipulate emotional information in dementia of Alzheimer’s type are few and have yielded mixed results. Here, we review behavioural and neuroimaging evidence that points to a complex interaction between emotion modulation and working memory in Alzheimer’s. In fact, depending on the function involved, patients may or may not show an emotional benefit in their working memory performance. In addition, this benefit is not always clearly biased (e.g., towards negative or positive information). We interpret this complex pattern of results as a consequence of the interaction between multiple factors including the severity of Alzheimer’s disease, the nature of affective stimuli, and type of working memory task.

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Habitual sleep is associated with both source memory and hippocampal subfield volume during early childhood

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-72231-z ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Tracy Riggins ◽

Rebecca M. C. Spencer

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Brain Development ◽

Sleep Duration ◽

Source Memory ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Memory Task ◽

Cognitive Networks ◽

The Body ◽

Developmental Changes ◽

Typically Developing

Abstract Previous research has established important developmental changes in sleep and memory during early childhood. These changes have been linked separately to brain development, yet few studies have explored their interrelations during this developmental period. The goal of this report was to explore these associations in 200 (100 female) typically developing 4- to 8-year-old children. We examined whether habitual sleep patterns (24-h sleep duration, nap status) were related to children’s performance on a source memory task and hippocampal subfield volumes. Results revealed that, across all participants, after controlling for age, habitual sleep duration was positively related to source memory performance. In addition, in younger (4–6 years, n = 67), but not older (6–8 years, n = 70) children, habitual sleep duration was related to hippocampal head subfield volume (CA2-4/DG). Moreover, within younger children, volume of hippocampal subfields varied as a function of nap status; children who were still napping (n = 28) had larger CA1 volumes in the body compared to children who had transitioned out of napping (n = 39). Together, these findings are consistent with the hypothesis that habitually napping children may have more immature cognitive networks, as indexed by hippocampal integrity. Furthermore, these results shed additional light on why sleep is important during early childhood, a period of substantial brain development.

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