Rate of forgetting is independent of initial degree of learning

It is commonly assumed that the rate of forgetting depends on initial degree of learning. Hence, comparison of forgetting across groups is usually carried out equating initial performance. However, these matching procedures add confounding variables. In four experiments, following Slamecka and McElree (1983, Exp 3), we challenge this assumption through manipulating initial acquisition by varying the number of presentations of the material and studying the effect on rate of subsequent forgetting. A set of 36 sentences was presented either visually or auditorily. Different participants were exposed to the material two, four or six times. Forgetting was measured by means of a cued recall test at three time-intervals (30 s, 1 day and 1 week in experiments 1 and 2; 30 s, 1 day, and 3 days in experiments 3 and 4). A different subset of 12 sentences was tested at each delay. The outcome of these experiments showed that the initial acquisition depends on number of learning trials. However, the rate of forgetting proved to be independent of initial acquisition. This pattern remains constant across modalities of presentation and of the number of learning trials. The conclusion is that forgetting does not depend on initial acquisition.

Blood Concentrations and Dietary Intake of Cd among the General Population in South Korea

This study aimed to identify the time trends of blood Cd concentrations and their correlation with the Cd-B and the intakes of food groups as an influencing factor for Cd exposure among the general population in South Korea. During seven Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys from 2005 to 2017, a total of 9578 individuals (4317 men and 5261 women) participated in a 24 h recall test for a dietary survey and a blood-metal survey using physical examinations performed in the same survey year. The blood Cd concentration was observed to decrease significantly (p < 0.05) from 1.51 µg/L in 2005 to 0.76 µg/L in 2017. In terms of the food groups, grains and cereals, potatoes and starch, and fruits were significantly correlated with the corresponding Cd concentrations and also showed decreased intakes. For Koreans, the observed decrease in blood Cd concentrations was probably caused by a decrease in the intake of food groups of plant origin.

WLS-ILIAD: New Longitudinal Resource for Cognitive and Dementia Data

One of the distinctive strengths of WLS is the availability of Henmon-Nelson IQ scores on all participants while in high school, followed by prospective collection of data through cognitive batteries of varying size and sophistication. Launched in 1993, the initial longitudinal cognitive testing included 8 abstract reasoning items followed by the administration of larger cognitive batteries in 2004 and 2011 comprised of a 10-item word recall test, digit ordering task, phonemic and category fluency, as well as repeated and new items from the WAIS-R similarities task first administered in the 1993 survey. In 2018, with R01 funding from NIA, the scope of cognitive testing expanded significantly and includes administration of a phone-based cognitive screening measure, and a comprehensive in-person neuropsychological assessment for individuals identified at risk for dementia targeting a range of cognitive domains, including memory, language, attention, visuospatial abilities, and executive functioning.

Measuring human trace fear conditioning

Trace fear conditioning is an important research paradigm to model aversive learning in biological or clinical scenarios, where predictors (conditioned stimuli, CS) and aversive outcomes (unconditioned stimuli, US) are separated in time. The optimal measurement of human trace fear conditioning, and in particular of memory recall after consolidation, is currently unclear. We conducted two identical experiments with a 15-s trace interval and a recall test 1 week after acquisition, while recording several psychophysiological observables. We explored learning and memory measures in the first experiment and confirmed the most sensitive measures in the second experiment. Retrodictive validity was used as a metric to estimate measurement error. We found that in the recall test without reinforcement, only fear-potentiated startle but not skin conductance, pupil size, heart period, or respiration amplitude, differentiated CS+ and CS-. During acquisition without startle probes, only skin conductance responses and pupil size responses but none of the other measures differentiated CS+ and CS-. We establish the optimal way of quantifying these conditioned responses. As a side finding, there was no evidence for extinction of fear-potentiated startle over 30 trials without reinforcement. These results may be useful to inform future substantive research using human trace fear conditioning protocols.

EXPRESS: On the Pervasive Effect of Word Frequency in Metamemory

Predictions of one’s future memory performance – judgments of learning (JOLs) – are based on the cues that learners regard as diagnostic of memory performance. One of these cues is word frequency or how often words are experienced in the language. It is not clear, however, whether word frequency would affect JOLs when other cues are also available. The current study aims to close this gap by testing whether objective and subjective word frequency affect JOLs in the presence of font size as an additional cue. Across three experiments, participants studied words that varied in word frequency (Experiment 1: high and low objective frequency; Experiment 2: a whole continuum from high to low objective frequency; Experiment 3: high and low subjective and objective frequency) and were presented in a large (48pt) or a small (18pt) font size, made JOLs, and completed a free recall test. Results showed that people based their JOLs on both word frequency and font size. We conclude that word frequency is an important cue that affects metamemory even in multiple-cue situations.

The Mini-Cog, Clock Drawing Test, and Three-Item Recall Test: Rapid Cognitive Screening Tools with Comparable Performance in Detecting Mild NCD in Older Patients

Background: Early mild neurocognitive disorder (mild NCD) detection can allow for appropriate planning and delay disease progression. There have been few studies examining validated mild NCD detection tools. One such tool that may be of use is the Mini-Cog, which consists of the clock drawing test (CDT) and three-item recall. Methods: This study aimed to compare the diagnostic properties of the Mini-Cog, the CDT alone, and the three-item recall test alone in mild NCD detection according to DSM-5 criteria. The participants were older patients attending the medicine outpatient clinic. Area under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) analysis was used to compare the tools’ accuracy. Results: A total of 150 patients were enrolled, 42 of whom were diagnosed as having mild NCD. The AUCs of ROC curves of the three-item recall, CDT, Mini-Cog1, and Mini-Cog2 were 0.71, 0.67, 0.73, and 0.71, respectively (p = 0.36). The sensitivity of the tools was 85.7%, 66.7%, 57.4%, and 69% respectively. The tests performed similarly in participants with ≤6 years of education (p = 0.27) and those with >6 years of education (p = 0.49). Conclusions: All tools exhibited similar acceptable performance in detecting mild NCD and were not affected by education. These convenient tools might be suitable for use in clinical practice.

Expecting to teach a novel golf putting task did not enhance retention performance: A replication attempt of Daou and colleagues

While research has identified several practice variables that purportedly enhance motor learning, recent replication failures highlight the importance of conducting high-powered, pre-registered replications. The "expecting to teach" phenomenon was first reported in the motor learning literature by Daou and colleagues and suggested learners benefit from practicing with the understanding they will later need to teach the skill. The extant data have been mixed but generally positive. While expecting to teach has been shown to enhance motor learning of a golf putt, the mechanisms linked with this benefit are yet to be determined. As such, this study sought to replicate the expecting to teach effect and to extend those findings by exploring participants’ thought processes. Participants (N = 76) were randomly assigned to one of two groups in which they were told that they were learning a golf putt in order to 1) be tested on the skill or 2) teach the skill to another individual. On Day 1, participants completed pre-test putts, a pre-acquisition intrinsic motivation inventory (IMI), a 2-minute study of an instructional booklet, 50 practice putts and a post-acquisition IMI. During practice, participants were also afforded opportunities to continue studying the booklet and to complete additional putts. Participants returned 24 hours later to complete a retention, a transfer (50-cm longer golf-putt), and a free recall test, as well as a post-study survey to reveal thoughts they engaged in after practice but before (or during) the retention test. Similar to Daou et al., no significant differences were found with study time, number of acquisition putts, or motivation. However, golf-putting performance during retention resulted in no differences for radial error, g = -0.13 (95% C.I. [-0.55, 0.29]), between the two groups and no differences were shown for the recall test. The present study fails to replicate the benefits reported in the original experiments.

A-163 Utility of the 7/24 Spatial Recall Test in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Objective To examine the utility of the 7/24 Spatial Recall Test (7/24) in the assessment of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients who have not undergone surgical resection. We hypothesized that patients with right TLE (RTLE) would perform significantly worse on the 7/24 than patients with left TLE (LTLE), but better on measures of verbal memory and naming. Participants and Methods Twenty-one patients with RTLE and 17 patients with LTLE were identified from a larger dataset of 152 epilepsy patients who underwent comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Exclusion criteria included: 1) Extratemporal, bitemporal, or unclear seizure onset, 2) Post-surgical evaluations, and 3) Co-morbid neurodegenerative or neurological conditions. The Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RVLT) and Boston Naming Test (BNT) and were selected as outcome measures of verbal memory and naming, respectively. Results Independent samples t-tests revealed that patients with RTLE performed significantly worse on the 7/24 delayed recall than LTLE patients (p = 0.026), but there were no significant differences between groups in their 7/24 immediate recall across trials (p = 0.118). As predicted, patients with LTLE performed significantly worse than RTLE patients on the BNT (p = 0.005), however no significant differences were found between groups on the RVLT total learning, short delay, or long delay. Conclusions These findings support the use of the 7/24 for assessing nonverbal memory in patients with TLE, and more specifically, suggest that the 7/24 may be a sensitive measure for detecting lateralized dysfunction of the right temporal lobe in TLE patients.

Aging Does Not Enhance Social Contagion Effect

Studies on the social contagion of memory show that it is possible to create false memories from the wrong responses from other people without requiring their physical presence. The current study examined age differences between false memories via the modified social contagion paradigm. Twenty older and twenty younger adults were shown six household scenes and were exposed to the erroneous memory reports of an implied confederate who was not physically present. The presentation time of the scenes and the typicality of the contagion items were manipulated. The participants watched each scene individually and then took turns giving their recall responses with the responses belonging to a fictional participant provided by written cards. The results in a final individual recall test indicated a significant contagion effect in both groups of participants. Additionally, an effect of the typicality of the contagion items was observed, such that the more typical items produced more contagion than the less typical items. In relation to true recall, the older adults remembered significantly fewer items from the scenes than the younger ones and obtained a lower score in the word list subtest of the Weschler Memory Scale. Although the older group had an episodic memory deficit, they were not more susceptible to being affected by the wrong responses of other people than younger group.

Illness and mental health: two sides of the same coin?

Background Although we are sometimes unaware, mental illnesses are extremely common, and if they are not properly regulated they can affect all types of structures in a person's life Methods The study is qualitative, a word evocation test was used, began to be carried out in February 2019 and ended on May 27, 2019. The word recall test were: ‘If I tell you mental health, what are the first three words that come to mind?’ ‘If I tell you mental illness, what are the first three words that come to mind?’ To analyze and build the graphs for this investigation, the corpus was inserted in the IraMuteQ program. Results When analyzing the words we can see that the social representation of mental illness is very much associated with undesirable mental illnesses or conditions and seen as negative in society. Meanwhile, mental health is full of words that you would normally consider positive. Conclusions The social representations of health and mental illness are very clearly opposed, mental health is seen almost exclusively as something positive by society, not only has feelings like happiness, but also words like success and vitality, while mental illness is very much linked to the whole type of mental illness and conditions like stress, sadness, obsession.