scholarly journals Semantic relatedness retroactively boosts memory and promotes memory interdependence across episodes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Antony ◽  
America Romero ◽  
Anthony Vierra ◽  
Rebecca Luenser ◽  
Robert Hawkins ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Paired Associate ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Semantic Relatedness ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Promising Candidate ◽  
Associate Learning ◽  
Memory Research ◽  
Semantic Relationships ◽  
New Learning

Two fundamental issues in memory research concern when later experiences strengthen or weaken initial memories and when the two memories become linked or remain independent. A promising candidate for explaining these issues is semantic relatedness. Here, across five paired associate learning experiments (N=1000), we systematically varied the semantic relatedness between initial and later cues, initial and later targets, or both. We found that learning retroactively benefited long-term memory performance for semantically related words (versus unshown control words), and these benefits increased as a function of relatedness. Critically, memory dependence between initial and later pairs also increased with relatedness, suggesting that pre-existing semantic relationships interdependence for memories formed across episodes. We also found that modest retroactive benefits, but not interdependencies, emerged when subjects learned via studying rather than practice testing. These findings demonstrate that semantic relatedness during new learning retroactively strengthens old associations while scaffolding new ones into well-fortified memory traces.

Evidence of Acoustic Coding in Long-Term Memory

1971 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. C. A. Dale ◽  
Alex McGlaughlin
Keyword(s):  
Retroactive Interference ◽  
Paired Associate ◽  
Paired Associate Learning ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Acoustic Similarity ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Associate Learning ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Degree Of Similarity

Contrary to previous indications, retroactive interference in long-term paired associate learning was found to be a function of acoustic similarity. Experimental groups were exposed to the A–B, A′–C paradigm where corresponding stimuli were homophones. Their retention scores were substantially and significantly lower than control groups run with an A–B, C–D paradigm. The failure of previous studies to reveal effects of acoustic similarity in this way is attributed to the use of an insufficiently high degree of similarity.

Short- and long-term memory tasks predict working memory performance, and vice versa.

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Neath ◽  
Jean Saint-Aubin ◽  
Tamra J. Bireta ◽  
Andrew J. Gabel ◽  
Chelsea G. Hudson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Short And Long Term

scholarly journals Expert radiologists have improved memory performance for images with focal abnormalities

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayden Schill ◽  
Jeremy Wolfe ◽  
Timothy F. Brady
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Current Work ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Attentional Processing ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Focal Abnormality

Memory capacity depends on prior knowledge, both in working memory and in long-term memory. For example, radiologists have improved long-term memory for medical images compared to novices. Furthermore, people tend to remember abnormal or surprising items best. This is often claimed to arise primarily because such items attract additional attention at encoding. How do expertise and abnormality interact when experts are actively searching for abnormalities; e.g. radiologists looking at mammograms? In the current work, we investigate whether expert radiologists (N=32) show improved memory performance for abnormal images compared to novice participants (N=60). We consider two types of “abnormality.” A mammogram can have a focal abnormality that can be localized or it could simply be the mammogram of a woman known to have cancer (e.g. the image of the breast contralateral to the focal abnormality). Must an image have a focal abnormality for additional attentional processing to be engaged? We found that experts have better memory for mammograms than novice participants and enhanced memory for abnormal images relative to normal images. Overall, radiologists showed no memory benefit for the contralateral-abnormal images and did not discriminate them from normal images, but had enhanced memory for images with focal abnormalities. Our results suggest that focal abnormalities play an important role in enhancing memory of expert observers.

scholarly journals Dissociating refreshing and elaboration and their impacts on memory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lea M. Bartsch ◽  
Vanessa M. Loaiza ◽  
Lutz Jäncke ◽  
Klaus Oberauer ◽  
Jarrod A. Lewis-Peacock
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Ethics Committees ◽  
Fmri Data ◽  
Ethical Review ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
List Type ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Age Related

AbstractMaintenance of information in working memory (WM) is assumed to rely on refreshing and elaboration, but clear mechanistic descriptions of these cognitive processes are lacking, and it is unclear whether they are simply two labels for the same process. This fMRI study investigated the extent to which refreshing, elaboration, and repeating of items in WM are distinct neural processes with dissociable behavioral outcomes in WM and long-term memory (LTM). Multivariate pattern analyses of fMRI data revealed differentiable neural signatures for these processes, which we also replicated in an independent sample of older adults. In some cases, the degree of neural separation within an individual predicted their memory performance. Elaboration improved LTM, but not WM, and this benefit increased as its neural signature became more distinct from repetition. Refreshing had no impact on LTM, but did improve WM, although the neural discrimination of this process was not predictive of the degree of improvement. These results demonstrate that refreshing and elaboration are separate processes that differently contribute to memory performance.HighlightsRepeated reading, refreshing, and elaboration are differentiable in brain activation patterns in both young and older adults.Elaboration selectively improved long-term memory for young adults, and the size of the benefit was related to the neural separability of elaboration from other processes.Older adults implemented a sub-optimal form of elaboration, and this may be a factor contributing to age-related deficits in long-term memory.Ethics statementThe study was approved by the ethical review board of the canton of Zurich (BASEC-No. 2017-00190) and all subjects gave informed written consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.Data and code availability statementAll behavioral data and analysis scripts can be assessed on the Open Science Framework (osf.io/p2h8b/). The fMRI data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, LMB. The fMRI data are not publicly available due to restrictions of the Swiss Ethics Committees on research involving humans regarding data containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.

scholarly journals The Significance of Warm Colour in the Quran and Its Roles on Memory Performance

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Norwardatun Mohamed Razali
Keyword(s):  
Memory Performance ◽  
Sensory Memory ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Yellow Colour ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Human Psychology ◽  
Inductive Approach

Colours are mentioned many times in the Holy Qur’an. Some are mentioned as colours in general, and some of them in specific; yellow, white, black, red, green and blue. Each colour has its special connotations in the Holy Qur’an and among these colours, yellow and red are considered as warm colours. This study aimed to find the significance of warm colours in the Holy Qur’an and its relationship to human psychology; focusing on memory performance. This research had used an inductive approach in terms of selecting Quranic verses; in which yellow and red colour were mentioned. These verses were then analysed by referring to the books of exegetical considerations in order to know the implications of these colours’ usage, as well as referring to psychology books and scientific articles. The research found that yellow and red colour in the Holy Qur’an mostly indicate attracting attention or pleasing viewers. Some examples included the yellow colour in resemblance to the colour of the cow, attention to decay and destruction such as yellow colour in the withering plants, and attention to resurrection like the red colour resembling scene of the Day of Resurrection. This indication in the Holy Qur’an is consistent with psychologists’ discovery; warm colours such as red and yellow are more effective and attractive in the process of transferring information from external to sensory memory, and thus to short-term and long-term memory.

scholarly journals On the relationship between knowledge and memory for pictures: Evidence from the study of patients with semantic dementia and Alzheimer's disease

1997 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 534-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
KIM S. GRAHAM ◽  
JAMES T. BECKER ◽  
JOHN R. HODGES
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Medial Temporal Lobe ◽  
Semantic Dementia ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
New Learning ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Hippocampal Complex ◽  
Temporal Neocortex

Current views of long-term memory presume that both the hippocampal complex and the neocortex play interactive, but separate, roles in the storage of memories. While the neocortex is considered the eventual and permanent store for our memories, the encoding of recently experienced events is thought to be initially dependent upon the hippocampus and closely related structures. Neuropsychological studies have demonstrated that damage to the medial temporal lobe results in a retrograde amnesia extending back in time, with better preservation of older memories. The converse pattern has been shown in patients with semantic dementia, who have focal atrophy of the inferolateral temporal neocortex, but relative sparing of the hippocampal complex (Graham & Hodges, 1997). Here we demonstrate that such patients can show relatively preserved new learning on a forced-choice recognition memory test (based on real and chimeric animals), while patients in the early amnestic phase of Alzheimer's disease show severely impaired learning on the same test. This result provides support for the view that new learning is primarily dependent upon the hippocampus and related structures. (JINS, 1997, 3, 534–544.)

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