Item repetition and retrieval processes in cued recall: Analysis of recall-latency distributions

Emerging evidence suggests that motivation enhances episodic memory formation through interactions between medial-temporal lobe (MTL) structures and dopaminergic midbrain. In addition, recent theories propose that motivation specifically facilitates hippocampal associative binding processes, resulting in more detailed memories that are readily reinstated from partial input. Here, we used high-resolution fMRI to determine how motivation influences associative encoding and retrieval processes within human MTL subregions and dopaminergic midbrain. Participants intentionally encoded object associations under varying conditions of reward and performed a retrieval task during which studied associations were cued from partial input. Behaviorally, cued recall performance was superior for high-value relative to low-value associations; however, participants differed in the degree to which rewards influenced memory. The magnitude of behavioral reward modulation was associated with reward-related activation changes in dentate gyrus/CA2,3 during encoding and enhanced functional connectivity between dentate gyrus/CA2,3 and dopaminergic midbrain during both the encoding and retrieval phases of the task. These findings suggests that, within the hippocampus, reward-based motivation specifically enhances dentate gyrus/CA2,3 associative encoding mechanisms through interactions with dopaminergic midbrain. Furthermore, within parahippocampal cortex and dopaminergic midbrain regions, activation associated with successful memory formation was modulated by reward across the group. During the retrieval phase, we also observed enhanced activation in hippocampus and dopaminergic midbrain for high-value associations that occurred in the absence of any explicit cues to reward. Collectively, these findings shed light on fundamental mechanisms through which reward impacts associative memory formation and retrieval through facilitation of MTL and ventral tegmental area/substantia nigra processing.

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Implicit and Explicit Conceptual Memory Following Frontal Lobe Damage

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.1997.9.1.105 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 105-116 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Felicia B. Gershberg

Keyword(s):

Frontal Lobe ◽

Semantic Processing ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Free Association ◽

Cued Recall ◽

Impaired Performance ◽

Retrieval Processes ◽

Conceptual Memory ◽

Implicit And Explicit ◽

Normal Performance

In two experiments, the performance of patients with frontal lobe lesions was examined on implicit and explicit tests of conceptual memory for organized lists of words. Frontal patients exhibited normal levels of conceptual priming on implicit category production and free association tests, but they exhibited impaired memory performance on explicit category- and associate-cued recall tests. The findings of normal performance on implicit conceptual tests suggest that frontal patients do not have a basic deficit in semantic processing of individual items. Impaired performance on explicit cued recall tests may be related to deficits in the use of organizational encoding and strategic retrieval processes.

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Implicit retrieval processes in cued recall: Implications for aging effects in memory

Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology ◽

10.1080/01688639408402704 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 16 (6) ◽

pp. 921-938 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

David Friedman ◽

Joan G. Snodgrass ◽

Walter Ritter

Keyword(s):

Cued Recall ◽

Aging Effects ◽

Retrieval Processes

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Optimizing Design Efficiency of Free Recall Events for fMRI

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2009.21350 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 22 (10) ◽

pp. 2238-2250 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Ilke Öztekin ◽

Nicole M. Long ◽

David Badre

Keyword(s):

Free Recall ◽

Recall Performance ◽

Memory Search ◽

Data Sets ◽

Neural Activation ◽

Design Efficiency ◽

Recall Latency ◽

Optimizing Design ◽

And Performance ◽

Latency Distributions

Free recall is a fundamental paradigm for studying memory retrieval in the context of minimal cue support. Accordingly, free recall has been extensively studied using behavioral methods. However, the neural mechanisms that support free recall have not been fully investigated due to technical challenges associated with probing individual recall events with neuroimaging methods. Of particular concern is the extent to which the uncontrolled latencies associated with recall events can confer sufficient design efficiency to permit neural activation for individual conditions to be distinguished. The present study sought to rigorously assess the feasibility of testing individual free recall events with fMRI. We used both theoretically and empirically derived free recall latency distributions to generate simulated fMRI data sets and assessed design efficiency across a range of parameters that describe free recall performance and fMRI designs. In addition, two fMRI experiments empirically assessed whether differential neural activation in visual cortex at onsets determined by true free recall performance across different conditions can be resolved. Collectively, these results specify the design and performance parameters that can provide comparable efficiency between free recall designs and more traditional jittered event-related designs. These findings suggest that assessing BOLD response during free recall using fMRI is feasible, under certain conditions, and can serve as a powerful tool in understanding the neural bases of memory search and overt retrieval.

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Item repetition in free and cued recall

Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior ◽

10.1016/s0022-5371(72)80059-8 ◽

1972 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 54-58 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Paul R. D'Agostino ◽

Paula DeRemer

Keyword(s):

Cued Recall ◽

Item Repetition

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Item repetition within (but not across) pair type helps and harms cued recall

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e520592012-391 ◽

2010 ◽

Author(s):

William R. Aue ◽

Amy H. Criss ◽

Nicholas W. Fischetti

Keyword(s):

Cued Recall ◽

Pair Type ◽

Item Repetition

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Investigating Associative Learning Effects in Patients with Prodromal Alzheimer’s Disease Using the Temporal Context Model

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society ◽

10.1017/s1355617715000855 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 21 (9) ◽

pp. 699-708 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Lisa Quenon ◽

Jean-Jacques Orban de Xivry ◽

Bernard Hanseeuw ◽

Adrian Ivanoiu

Keyword(s):

Free Recall ◽

Associative Learning ◽

Recall Task ◽

Cued Recall ◽

Temporal Context ◽

Learning Effects ◽

Context Model ◽

Retrieval Processes ◽

Prodromal Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Contextual Representation

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to investigate associative learning effects in patients with prodromal Alzheimer’s disease (prAD) by referring to the Temporal Context Model (TCM; Howard, Jing, Rao, Provyn, & Datey, 2009), in an attempt to enhance the understanding of their associative memory impairment. TCM explains fundamental effects described in classical free-recall tasks and cued-recall tasks involving overlapping word pairs (e.g., A-B, B-C), namely (1) the contiguity effect, which is the tendency to successively recall nearby items in a list, and (2) the observation of backward (i.e., B-A) and transitive associations (i.e., A-C) between items. In TCM, these effects are hypothesized to rely on contextual representation, binding and retrieval processes, which supposedly depend on hippocampal and parahippocampal regions. As these regions are affected in prAD, the current study investigated whether prAD patients would show reduced proportions of backward and transitive associations in free and cued-recall, coupled to a reduced contiguity effect in free-recall. Seventeen older controls and 17 prAD patients performed a cued-recall task involving overlapping word pairs and a final free-recall task. Proportions of backward and transitive intrusions in cued-recall did not significantly differ between groups. However, in free-recall, prAD patients demonstrated a reduced contiguity effect as well as reduced proportions of backward and transitive associations compared to older controls. These findings are discussed within the hypothesis that the contextual representation, binding and/or retrieval processes are affected in prAD patients compared to healthy older individuals. (JINS, 2015, 21, 699–708)

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