Time Dilation and Acceleration in Depression

BackgroundA recent meta-analysis left open a significant question regarding altered time perception in depression: Why do depressed people overproduce short durations and under-produce longer durations if their present experience is that time flows slowly? Experience and judgement of time do not seem to accord with one another.AnalysisBy excluding two of the six studies on methodological grounds from a previous meta-analysis of medium-length interval productions, and re-analysing the remaining four studies, the present paper finds that subjective time accelerates from initial dilation within present experience (approximately 1 s duration) to subsequent acceleration within working memory (approximately 30 s duration) when depressed.ProposalsIt is proposed that depressive time dilation and acceleration refer to the default mode and central executive networks, respectively. The acceleration effect is suggested to occur due to mood congruency between long intervals, boredom, and depression. This mood congruency leads to the automatic recall of intrusive, negative, and non-specific autobiographical long-term memories used to judge intervals from previous experience. Acceleration in working memory then occurs according to the contextual change model of duration estimation.LimitationsThe meta-analysis is limited to four studies only, but provides a potential link between time experience and judgement within the same explanatory model.ConclusionsSimilarities between psychological time dilation/acceleration and physical time dilation/acceleration are discussed.

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The Long-Term Efficacy of Working Memory Training in Healthy Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of 22 Randomized Controlled Trials

The Journals of Gerontology Series B ◽

10.1093/geronb/gbaa077 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 75 (8) ◽

pp. e174-e188

Author(s):

Jianhua Hou ◽

Taiyi Jiang ◽

Jiangning Fu ◽

Bin Su ◽

Hao Wu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Working Memory ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Cochrane Library ◽

Memory Training ◽

Long Term Effects ◽

Healthy Older Adults ◽

Randomized Controlled ◽

Randomized Controlled Studies

Abstract Objectives The long-lasting efficacy of working memory (WM) training has been a controversial and still ardently debated issue. In this meta-analysis, the authors explored the long-term effects of WM training in healthy older adults on WM subdomains and abilities outside the WM domain assessed in randomized controlled studies. Method A systematic literature search of PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library, ProQuest, clinicaltrials.gov, and Google Scholar was conducted. Random-effects models were used to quantitatively synthesize the existing data. Results Twenty-two eligible studies were included in the meta-analysis. The mean participant age ranged from 63.77 to 80.1 years. The meta-synthesized long-term effects on updating were 0.45 (95% confidence interval = 0.253–0.648, <6 months: 0.395, 0.171–0.619, ≥6 months: 0.641, 0.223–1.058), on shifting, 0.447 (0.246–0.648, <6 months: 0.448, 0.146–0.75, ≥6 months: 0.446, 0.176–0.716); on inhibition, 0.387 (0.228–0.547, <6 months: 0.248, 0.013–0.484, ≥6 months: 0.504, 0.288–0.712); on maintenance, 0.486 (0.352–0.62, <6 months: 0.52, 0.279–0.761, ≥6 months: 0.471, 0.31–0.63). Discussion The results showed that WM training exerted robust long-term effects on enhancing the WM system and improving processing speed and reasoning in late adulthood. Future studies are needed to use different tasks of the same WM construct to evaluate the WM training benefits, to adopt more ecological tasks or tasks related to daily life, to improve the external validity of WM training, and to identify the optimal implementation strategy for WM training.

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Interkey Distances Also Shorten Subjective Time Reproductions in Real Modulating Tonal Music

Music Perception An Interdisciplinary Journal ◽

10.1525/mp.2016.33.5.613 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 33 (5) ◽

pp. 613-630 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Érico Artioli Firmino ◽

José Lino Oliveira Bueno

Keyword(s):

Music Cognition ◽

Inverse Function ◽

Subjective Time ◽

Change Model ◽

Close Correspondence ◽

Tonal Music ◽

Time Reproduction ◽

Change Prediction ◽

Spatial Axis ◽

Contextual Change

Real and long music stimuli are seldom used in music cognition and subjective time literatures. We found longer time reproductions for Berio’s Symphony for Eight Voices and Orchestra than for Mahler’s Symphony No. 2. Berio recomposed Mahler’s symphony, inserting complexity in all its elements. The contextual-change model explains these data, predicting longer time reproduction for a greater amount of information. Thereafter, we found synthetic tonal modulations eliciting time reproductions in an inverse function of interkey distances, with major impact for sudden ones, an opposite result from contextual change prediction. Alternatively, we proposed the Expected Development Fraction (EDF) Model, claiming disproportion between expected and perceived times. In this study, we manipulated interkey distance using the real piece Inspiração by Brazilian composer Garoto. Results confirmed the EDF Model prediction. Formatting the EDF Model’s key spatial-axis according to adapted key profile measures of Krumhansl (1990) allowed close correspondence between simulations and data.

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Prescription Stimulants' Effects on Healthy Inhibitory Control, Working Memory, and Episodic Memory: A Meta-analysis

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_00776 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 27 (6) ◽

pp. 1069-1089 ◽

Cited By ~ 57

Author(s):

Irena P. Ilieva ◽

Cayce J. Hook ◽

Martha J. Farah

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Episodic Memory ◽

Publication Bias ◽

Inhibitory Control ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Short Term ◽

Prescription Stimulants ◽

Analytical Approaches ◽

Small Advantage

The use of prescription stimulants to enhance healthy cognition has significant social, ethical, and public health implications. The large number of enhancement users across various ages and occupations emphasizes the importance of examining these drugs' efficacy in a nonclinical sample. The present meta-analysis was conducted to estimate the magnitude of the effects of methylphenidate and amphetamine on cognitive functions central to academic and occupational functioning, including inhibitory control, working memory, short-term episodic memory, and delayed episodic memory. In addition, we examined the evidence for publication bias. Forty-eight studies (total of 1,409 participants) were included in the analyses. We found evidence for small but significant stimulant enhancement effects on inhibitory control and short-term episodic memory. Small effects on working memory reached significance, based on one of our two analytical approaches. Effects on delayed episodic memory were medium in size. However, because the effects on long-term and working memory were qualified by evidence for publication bias, we conclude that the effect of amphetamine and methylphenidate on the examined facets of healthy cognition is probably modest overall. In some situations, a small advantage may be valuable, although it is also possible that healthy users resort to stimulants to enhance their energy and motivation more than their cognition.

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Conceptual short-term memory (CSTM) supports core claims of Christiansen and Chater

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x15000928 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 39 ◽

Author(s):

Mary C. Potter

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Rapid Serial Visual Presentation ◽

Language Comprehension ◽

Short Term Memory ◽

Visual Presentation ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Short Term ◽

Term Memory ◽

Use Of Knowledge

AbstractRapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of words or pictured scenes provides evidence for a large-capacity conceptual short-term memory (CSTM) that momentarily provides rich associated material from long-term memory, permitting rapid chunking (Potter 1993; 2009; 2012). In perception of scenes as well as language comprehension, we make use of knowledge that briefly exceeds the supposed limits of working memory.

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Visual Search Facilitation in Repeated Displays Depends on Visuospatial Working Memory

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000125 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 59 (1) ◽

pp. 47-54 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Angela A. Manginelli ◽

Franziska Geringswald ◽

Stefan Pollmann

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Visual Search ◽

Control Experiment ◽

Memory Load ◽

Contextual Cueing ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Visuospatial Working Memory ◽

Working Memory Load ◽

Memory Resources

When distractor configurations are repeated over time, visual search becomes more efficient, even if participants are unaware of the repetition. This contextual cueing is a form of incidental, implicit learning. One might therefore expect that contextual cueing does not (or only minimally) rely on working memory resources. This, however, is debated in the literature. We investigated contextual cueing under either a visuospatial or a nonspatial (color) visual working memory load. We found that contextual cueing was disrupted by the concurrent visuospatial, but not by the color working memory load. A control experiment ruled out that unspecific attentional factors of the dual-task situation disrupted contextual cueing. Visuospatial working memory may be needed to match current display items with long-term memory traces of previously learned displays.

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