scholarly journals Segmentation of semantic and perceptual boundaries affects associative memory and risk of false memories

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent van de Ven ◽  
Sophie van den Hoogen ◽  
Henry Otgaar
Keyword(s):  
False Memory ◽  
Associative Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
False Memories ◽  
Semantic Relatedness ◽  
Memory Research ◽  
Temporal Memory ◽  
Situational Model ◽  
Increased Risk

Temporally structured sequences of experiences, such as narratives or life events, are segmented in memory into discrete situational models. In segmentation, contextual shifts are processed as situational boundaries that temporally cluster items according to the perceived contexts. As such, segmentation enhances associative binding of items within a situational model. One side effect of enhanced associative processing is increased risk of false recollections for not-presented, semantically related items. If so, do boundaries facilitate false recollections, or does segmentation protect against them? In two experiments, we introduced situational shifts in word sequences in the form of semantic and perceptual boundaries, with semantic relatedness between words or the frame color around a word changing on a regular basis. After encoding, we tested participants’ associative memory performance and false recollection rates. In Experiment 1, color boundaries occurred synchronously or asynchronously to semantic boundaries. We found better associative recognition, but also more false recollections, for synchronous than asynchronous boundaries. In Experiment 2, color boundaries occurred synchronous to semantic boundaries or were absent entirely. We found that false recollection rates elicited by semantic boundaries increased when color boundaries were absent. We also tested associative memory performance using a non-semantic, temporal memory task. We found better temporal memory performance for semantic boundaries, as well as a negative correlation between increased false recollection rates and better temporal memory performance for semantic lists, but not for random lists. We discuss implications for false memory theories and segmentation of narrative materials in false memory research.

Variation in Individuals' Semantic Networks for Common Knowledge is Associated with False Memory

2012 ◽  
Vol 65 (6) ◽  
pp. 1035-1043 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan M. Stevens-Adams ◽  
Timothy E. Goldsmith ◽  
Karin M. Butler
Keyword(s):  
False Memory ◽  
Recognition Test ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
False Memories ◽  
Semantic Relatedness ◽  
Semantic Networks ◽  
The Third ◽  
Task Order ◽  
Word Lists

Three experiments assessed the relationships between false memories of words and their degree of connectedness within individual semantic networks. In the first two experiments, participants studied associated word lists (e.g., hot, winter, ice), completed a recognition test that included related nonstudied words (e.g., cold, snow), and then rated the semantic relatedness of all word pairs including studied and nonstudied words. In the third experiment, the task order was reversed; participants completed pairwise ratings and then, two weeks later, completed the false memory task. The relatedness ratings were analysed using the Pathfinder scaling algorithm. In all experiments, items that an individual falsely recognized had higher semantic Pathfinder node densities than those items correctly rejected.

scholarly journals Memory-Related Frontal Brainwaves Predict Transition to Mild Cognitive Impairment in Healthy Older Individuals Five Years Before Diagnosis

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Yang Jiang ◽  
Juan Li ◽  
Frederick A. Schmitt ◽  
Gregory A. Jicha ◽  
Nancy B. Munro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Cognitive Status ◽  
Older Individuals ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Differentiation Pattern

Background: Early prognosis of high-risk older adults for amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), using noninvasive and sensitive neuromarkers, is key for early prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. We have developed individualized measures in electrophysiological brain signals during working memory that distinguish patients with aMCI from age-matched cognitively intact older individuals. Objective: Here we test longitudinally the prognosis of the baseline neuromarkers for aMCI risk. We hypothesized that the older individuals diagnosed with incident aMCI already have aMCI-like brain signatures years before diagnosis. Methods: Electroencephalogram (EEG) and memory performance were recorded during a working memory task at baseline. The individualized baseline neuromarkers, annual cognitive status, and longitudinal changes in memory recall scores up to 10 years were analyzed. Results: Seven of the 19 cognitively normal older adults were diagnosed with incident aMCI for a median 5.2 years later. The seven converters’ frontal brainwaves were statistically identical to those patients with diagnosed aMCI (n = 14) at baseline. Importantly, the converters’ baseline memory-related brainwaves (reduced mean frontal responses to memory targets) were significantly different from those who remained normal. Furthermore, differentiation pattern of left frontal memory-related responses (targets versus nontargets) was associated with an increased risk hazard of aMCI (HR = 1.47, 95% CI 1.03, 2.08). Conclusion: The memory-related neuromarkers detect MCI-like brain signatures about five years before diagnosis. The individualized frontal neuromarkers index increased MCI risk at baseline. These noninvasive neuromarkers during our Bluegrass memory task have great potential to be used repeatedly for individualized prognosis of MCI risk and progression before clinical diagnosis.

False Memory in a Short-Term Memory Task

2007 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer H. Coane ◽  
Dawn M. McBride ◽  
Bascom A. Raulerson III ◽  
J. Scott Jordan
Keyword(s):  
False Memory ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
False Memories ◽  
False Alarms ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Latency Data ◽  
Single Probe

The Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM; Roediger & McDermott, 1995 ) paradigm reliably elicits false memories for critical nonpresented words in recognition tasks. The present studies used a Sternberg (1966) task with DRM lists to determine whether false memories occur in short-term memory tasks and to assess the contribution of latency data in the measurement of false memories. Subjects studied three, five, or seven items from DRM lists and responded to a single probe (studied or nonstudied). In both experiments, critical lures were falsely recognized more often than nonpresented weak associates. Latency data indicated that correct rejections of critical lures were slower than correct rejections of weakly related items at all set sizes. False alarms to critical lures were slower than hits to list items. Latency data can distinguish veridical and false memories in a short-term memory task. Results are discussed in terms of activation-monitoring models of false memory.

scholarly journals Age-related Differences in Brain Activity during True and False Memory Retrieval

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (8) ◽  
pp. 1390-1402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy A. Dennis ◽  
Hongkeun Kim ◽  
Roberto Cabeza
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
False Memory ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
False Memories ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Retrosplenial Cortex ◽  
Age Related

Compared to young adults, older adults show not only a reduction in true memories but also an increase in false memories. We investigated the neural bases of these age effects using functional magnetic resonance imaging and a false memory task that resembles the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Young and older participants were scanned during a word recognition task that included studied words and new words that were strongly associated with studied words (critical lures). During correct recognition of studied words (true memory), older adults showed weaker activity than young adults in the hippocampus but stronger activity than young adults in the retrosplenial cortex. The hippocampal reduction is consistent with age-related deficits in recollection, whereas the retrosplenial increase suggests compensatory recruitment of alternative recollection-related regions. During incorrect recognition of critical lures (false memory), older adults displayed stronger activity than young adults in the left lateral temporal cortex, a region involved in semantic processing and semantic gist. Taken together, the results suggest that older adults' deficits in true memories reflect a decline in recollection processes mediated by the hippocampus, whereas their increased tendency to have false memories reflects their reliance on semantic gist mediated by the lateral temporal cortex.

scholarly journals Measuring memory is harder than you think: A crisis of measurement in memory research

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy F. Brady ◽  
Maria Martinovna Robinson ◽  
Jamal Rodgers Williams ◽  
John Wixted
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
False Alarm ◽  
False Alarm Rate ◽  
Eyewitness Identification ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Memory Research ◽  
Hit Rate ◽  
Memory Signals

There is a crisis of measurement in memory research, with major implications for theory and practice. This crisis arises because of a critical complication present when measuring memory using the recognition memory task that dominates the study of working memory and long-term memory (“did you see this item? yes/no” or “did this item change? yes/no”). Such tasks give two measures of performance, the “hit rate” (how often you say you previously saw an item you actually did previously see) and the “false alarm rate” (how often you say you saw something you never saw). Yet what researchers want is one single, integrated measure of memory performance. Integrating the hit and false alarm rate into a single measure, however, requires a complex problem of counterfactual reasoning that depends on the (unknowable) distribution of underlying memory signals: when faced with two people differing in both hit rate and false alarm rate, the question of who had the better memory is really “who would have had more hits if they each had the same number of false alarms”. As a result of this difficulty, different literatures in memory research (e.g., visual working memory, eyewitness identification, picture memory, etc) have settled on a variety of distinct metrics to combine hit rates and false alarm rates (e.g., A’, corrected hit rate, percent correct, d’, diagnosticity ratios, K values, etc.). These metrics make different, contradictory assumptions about the distribution of latent memory signals, and all of their assumptions are frequently incorrect. Despite a large literature on how to properly measure memory performance, spanning decades, real-life decisions are often made using these metrics, even when they subsequently turn out to be wrong when memory is studied with better measures. We suggest that in order for the psychology and neuroscience of memory to become a cumulative, theory-driven science, more attention must be given to measurement issues. We make a concrete suggestion: the default memory task should change from old/new (“did you see this item’?”) to forced-choice (“which of these two items did you see?”). In situations where old/new variants are preferred (e.g., eyewitness identification; theoretical investigations of the nature of memory decisions), receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis should always be performed.

scholarly journals Semantic and episodic processes differently predict false memories in the DRM task

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Gatti ◽  
Luca Rinaldi ◽  
Giuliana Mazzoni ◽  
Tomaso Vecchi
Keyword(s):  
False Memory ◽  
Semantic Memory ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
False Memories ◽  
Memory Systems ◽  
New Words ◽  
False Recognitions ◽  
Specific Contribution

There is a fervent debate about the processes underpinning false memories formation. Seminal theories have suggested that semantic memory would be involved in false memories production, while episodic memory would counter their formation. Yet, direct evidence corroborating such view is still missing. Here, we tested this possibility by asking participants to perform the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) task, a typical false memory paradigm, in which they had to study lists of words and subsequently to recognize and distinguish them from new words (i.e., the false memory items). The same participants were also required to perform a semantic task and an episodic-source memory task. Our results showed that a higher number of false memories in the DRM task occurred for those participants with better semantic memory abilities, while a lower number of false memories occurred for participants with better episodic abilities. These findings support a key role of semantic processes in false memory formation and, more generally, help clarify the specific contribution of different memory systems to false recognitions.

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.

Implicit Relational Memory in Young and Older Adults

2007 ◽  
Vol 215 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilana T.Z. Dew ◽  
Ute J. Bayen ◽  
Kelly S. Giovanello
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Implicit Memory ◽  
Associative Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Relational Memory ◽  
Memory Research ◽  
New Associations ◽  
Associative Deficit ◽  
Theoretical Issues

Abstract. Older adults do not perform as well as young adults in explicit episodic memory tasks that require the formation and retrieval of new associations. Relatively few studies have investigated the effects of older adults' associative deficit on implicit-memory performance. After introducing the reader to the area of implicit-memory research at large, the authors review studies that have investigated young and older adults' performance in implicit associative memory tasks. Core theoretical issues and methodological challenges are discussed.

scholarly journals Examining theories of cognitive ageing using the false memory paradigm

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 931-939
Author(s):  
Charlotte Askey ◽  
David Playfoot
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Brain Injury ◽  
False Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
False Memories ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Cognitive Ageing ◽  
Inhibitory Deficit

Changes in memory performance with advancing age have been well documented, even in the absence of brain injury or dementia. The mechanisms underlying cognitive ageing are still a matter of debate. This article describes a comparison between young (18-25 years old) and older (60+ years) adults using the Deese–Roediger–McDermott false memory paradigm and manipulating the number of words included in the memory lists. Two key theories of cognitive ageing (the Inhibitory Deficit Hypothesis and the Transmission Deficit Hypothesis) predict opposing patterns on this task. Results showed that longer lists increase the likelihood that a lure is retrieved and that older adults are more susceptible to false memories than are younger adults. We argue that these findings are supportive of the Inhibitory Deficit Hypothesis and cannot easily be reconciled with the Transmission Deficit Hypothesis account.

scholarly journals Studying Spatial Memory in Augmented and Virtual reality

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shachar Maidenbaum ◽  
Ansh Patel ◽  
Isaiah Garlin ◽  
Josh Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Spatial Memory ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
List Type ◽  
Memory Research ◽  
Mobile Ar ◽  
Crucial Part ◽  
World Environment

AbstractSpatial memory is a crucial part of our lives. Spatial memory research and rehabilitation in humans is typically performed either in real environments, which is challenging practically, or in Virtual Reality (VR), which has limited realism. Here we explored the use of Augmented Reality (AR) for studying spatial cognition. AR combines the best features of real and VR paradigms by allowing subjects to learn spatial information in a flexible fashion while walking through a real-world environment. To compare these methods, we had subjects perform the same spatial memory task in VR and AR settings. Although subjects showed good performance in both, subjects reported that the AR task version was significantly easier, more immersive, and more fun than VR. Importantly, memory performance was significantly better in AR compared to VR. Our findings validate that integrating AR can lead to improved techniques for spatial memory research and suggest their potential for rehabilitation.HighlightsWe built matching spatial memory tasks in VR and ARSubjectively, subjects find the AR easier, more immersive and more funObjectively, subjects are significantly more accurate in AR compared to VRPointing based tasks did not fully show the same advantagesOnly AR walking significantly correlated with SBSoD, suggesting mobile AR better captures more natural spatial performance

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