scholarly journals Memory bias training by means of the emotional short-term memory task

2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-126
Author(s):  
Borysław Paulewicz ◽  
Agata Blaut ◽  
Aleksandra Gronostaj

Abstract According to major cognitive theories of emotional disorders cognitive biases are partly responsible for their onset and maintenance. The direct test of this assumption is possible only if experimental method capable of altering a given form of cognitive bias is available. The purpose of the study was to examine the effectiveness of a novel implicit memory bias training procedure based on the emotional version of the classical Sternberg’s short-term memory task with negative, neutral and positive words. 108 participants, who completed the PANAS and the CES-D questionnaires, were randomly assigned to the control group (n = 33), the No-Negative group (n = 36), in which the target words in the Sternberg’s task were either positive or neutral but never negative or the Negative-New group (n = 39) in which the negative target words in the modified Sternberg’s task were always new. This training was followed by the recollection stage. Only one of the training protocols resulted in significant effects at the recall stage - individuals in the No-Negative group recalled more positive words and fewer negative words than those in the control group. These results show that it may be possible to experimentally induce memory bias characteristic of non-depressed individuals.

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gurinder S. Bains ◽  
Lee Berk ◽  
Noha Daher ◽  
Pooja Deshpande ◽  
Everett Lohman ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Francesco Panico ◽  
Stefania De Marco ◽  
Laura Sagliano ◽  
Francesca D’Olimpio ◽  
Dario Grossi ◽  
...  

AbstractThe Corsi Block-Tapping test (CBT) is a measure of spatial working memory (WM) in clinical practice, requiring an examinee to reproduce sequences of cubes tapped by an examiner. CBT implies complementary behaviors in the examiners and the examinees, as they have to attend a precise turn taking. Previous studies demonstrated that the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) is activated during CBT, but scarce evidence is available on the neural correlates of CBT in the real setting. We assessed PFC activity in dyads of examiner–examinee participants while completing the real version of CBT, during conditions of increasing and exceeding workload. This procedure allowed to investigate whether brain activity in the dyads is coordinated. Results in the examinees showed that PFC activity was higher when the workload approached or reached participants’ spatial WM span, and lower during workload conditions that were largely below or above their span. Interestingly, findings in the examiners paralleled the ones in the examinees, as examiners’ brain activity increased and decreased in a similar way as the examinees’ one. In the examiners, higher left-hemisphere activity was observed suggesting the likely activation of non-spatial WM processes. Data support a bell-shaped relationship between cognitive load and brain activity, and provide original insights on the cognitive processes activated in the examiner during CBT.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 925-925
Author(s):  
A Guerra ◽  
J Moses ◽  
J Rivera ◽  
M Davis ◽  
K Hakinson

Abstract Objective Examine whether verbal abilities may help explain the learning strategies people employ when completing a short-term verbal memory task. Methods The assessment records of 296 American Veterans with diverse neuropsychiatric conditions were analyzed using Exploratory Factor Analyses. There were no exclusion criteria. All participants completed the Benton Serial Digit Learning Test – 9 Digits (SDL-9) and Visual Naming (VisNam), Sentence Repetition (SenRep), Controlled Word Association (COWA), and Token Tests of the Multilingual Aphasia Examination (MAE). Individual assessment instruments were factored using Principal Component Analyses (PCA). A three-factor solution of the SDL-9 was co-factored with the verbal components of the MAE to identify common sources of variance. Results A three-factor solution of the SDL-9 separated trials into three overlapping factors consisting of early (SDL-9_Early), middle (SDL-9_Middle), and late (SDL-9_Late) trials. Co-factoring the three new scales with the verbal components of the MAE produced a four-factor model explaining 67.85% of the shared variance: 1) SenRep loaded with SDL-9_Early, 2) COWAT loaded with SDL-9_Middle and SDL-9_Late, 3) Token loaded with SDL-9_Late, and 4) Vis Nam loaded with SDL-9_Late. Conclusions The results suggest that individuals may engage verbal abilities differently as they progress from simpler to more difficult verbal short-term memory tasks. It appears performance in early trials is mostly associated with rote repetition and performance on middle trials is mostly associated with verbal fluency, while performance on the late trials is associated with a combination of verbal fluency, auditory comprehension, and conceptual organization/naming. This may therefore indicate a shift in learning strategy to meet increased cognitive demands.


1992 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janan Al-Awar Smither

This experiment investigated the demands synthetic speech places on short term memory by comparing performance of old and young adults on an ordinary short term memory task. Items presented were generated by a human speaker or by a text-to-speech computer synthesizer. Results were consistent with the idea that the comprehension of synthetic speech imposes increased resource demands on the short term memory system. Older subjects performed significantly more poorly than younger subjects, and both groups performed more poorly with synthetic than with human speech. Findings suggest that short term memory demands imposed by the processing of synthetic speech should be investigated further, particularly regarding the implementation of voice response systems in devices for the elderly.


1972 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheila Jones

1977 ◽  
Vol 196 (1123) ◽  
pp. 171-195 ◽  

Cycloheximide injected into the brains of chickens 10 min before training does not effect their learning of a visual discrimination task, or memory of that task for at least 1 h after training. When tested 24 h later no memory of the training procedure is detectable. In contrast, ouabain injected 10 min before training prevents the expression of learning during training. The block lasts for up to 1 h, but from that time on memory begins to appear. Ouabain does not affect performance when injected just before testing for memory retention 24 h after training. It therefore affects neither the readout of long-term memory nor motivation nor perceptual abilities necessary for performance of the learning task. In birds treated with ouabain, after training on an operant task for heat reward by a procedure requiring a fixed number of reinforcements, memory is absent 20 min later but is well established at 24 h. Cycloheximide blocks long-term memory of this task. Like ouabain, ethacrynic acid, injected into the brain of chickens 10 min before training prevents the expression of learning of visual discrimination. Ethacrynic acid hastens the decline of memory after one-trial passive avoidance learning. It also blocks observational learning. We conclude that ouabain and ethacrynic acid block access to short-term memory, whereas cycloheximide interferes with the registration of long-term memory. Comparing the pharmacology of ethacrynic acid and ouabain their common known actions are on the Na/K fluxes across cell membranes. We suggest that long lasting changes in distribution of these ions in recently active nerve cells may be at the basis of access to memory during and shortly after learning.


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