The effects of value on context-item associative memory in younger and older adults

The effect of value on context and target recollection in memory for truth and falsity

Memory for truth and falsity has recently been investigated from the perspective of the dual-recollection theory, showing better context and target recollection for truth than falsity. In this paper, we examine whether these memory effects obtained for true statements are similar to the value effect, whereby true statements are given higher priority in encoding. For this purpose, we implemented value-directed remembering (VDR) into the conjoint-recognition paradigm. In our first experiment, the primary goal was to verify how VDR influences the processes defined by dual-recollection theory. At study, prioritized/important items were linked to higher numerical values (e.g., 10), while unimportant ones had lower values (e.g., 1). At test, the participants' task was to recognize whether a particular sentence was important, unimportant, or new. We found that both context and target recollection were better for important items. In the second experiment, the main goal was to study the combined effects of importance and veracity on memory. In the between-subjects design, participants were monetarily rewarded for memorizing true or false sentences. The results demonstrated differences in the ability to prioritize truth over falsity. Specifically, we found a substantial increase in context recollection for prioritized true information but not for prioritized false information. Moreover, we found higher context recollection for true than false sentences in the true-prioritized condition, but not in the false-prioritized condition. These results indicated that people are able to prioritize true information better than false, and suggested that memory for truth may be a special case of the value effect.

The limited memory of value following value directed encoding

Items associated with higher values during encoding are later recognized and recalled better than are lower valued items. During recall paradigms, these value directed encoding (VDE) effects heavily depend upon learned strategies acquired during repeated testing with earnings feedback. However, because VDE effects also occur in single test recognition designs, precluding such learning, it has been suggested that high value may automatically induce good encoding. We tested this by manipulating encoding instructions (Experiments 1a and 1b) and manipulating concurrent levels of processing (LOP) requirements during encoding (Experiment 2a and 2b). Two main findings emerged. First, subject initiated strategies played a dominant role in VDE effects with little evidence for automaticity. This was demonstrated in Experiment 1 by a more than three-fold increase in the VDE recognition effect when instructions specifically encouraged selective elaboration of high-value items. It was also shown by the complete elimination of VDE recognition effects in Experiment 2 when LOP tasks were concurrently performed during encoding. Critically, the blocking of VDE effects occurred even though a catch trial procedure verified that value was being processed during encoding and remained even when subjects had unlimited time to process the materials during encoding. Second, the data showed, for the first time, that when subjects attempted to specify the value of recognized items, they heavily depended upon a recognition heuristic in which increases in recognition strength, even when nondiagnostic, were inferred to reflect high encoding value. The tendency for subjects to conflate recognition strength and value may have important implications for behavioral economics.

Memory selectivity in older age

Memory often declines with age, but older adults can off-set memory challenges by selectively remembering important information. When encountering large amounts of information and knowing that memory is limited, older adults may choose to focus on what is most important and forget less relevant details. Prioritizing what to remember becomes essential when memory is limited, and influences what information can be off-loaded. While forgetting can be frustrating and consequential, a lifetime of these experiences may help older adults learn to focus on strategically remembering important information and life events. Curiosity and emotion may also guide what older adults remember, such that selective remembering can be an adaptive way to use memory efficiently in older age.

Goal-directed remembering in older adults

Compared to younger adults, older adults show a reduced difference in memory between items they are directed to remember and items they are directed to forget. This effect may result from increased processing of goal-irrelevant information in aging. In contrast, healthy older adults are often able to selectively remember valuable information, suggesting preservation of goal-directed encoding in aging. Here, we examined how value may differentially affect directed-forgetting and memory for irrelevant details for younger and older adults in a value-directed remembering task. In Experiment 1, participants studied words paired with a directed-forgetting cue and a point-value they earned for later recognition. Participants' memory was then tested, either after an 8-min or 24-hr retention interval. In Experiment 2 words were presented in two colors and the recognition test assessed whether the participant could retrieve the incidentally-presented point value and the color of each recognized words. In both experiments, older and younger adults displayed a comparable ability to selectively encode valuable items. However, older adults showed a reduced directed-forgetting effect compared to younger adults that was maintained across the 24-hr retention interval. In Experiment 2, older adults showed both intact directed-forgetting and similar incidental detail retrieval compared to younger adults. These findings suggest that older adults maintained selectivity to value, demonstrating that aging does not impact the differential encoding of valuable information. Furthermore, younger and older adults may be similarly goal-directed in terms of item features to encode, but that instructions to forget presented items are less effective in older adults.

Cognitive perspectives on maintaining physicians' medical expertise: V. Using a motivational framework to understand the benefits and costs of testing

We apply a motivational perspective to understand the implications of physicians' longitudinal assessment. We review the literature on situated expectancy-value theory, achievement goals, mindsets, anxiety, and stereotype threat in relation to testing and assessment. This review suggests several motivational benefits of testing as well as some potential challenges and costs posed by high-stakes, standardized tests. Many of the motivational benefits for testing can be understood from the equation of having the perceived benefits of the test outweigh the perceived costs of preparing for and taking the assessment. Attention to instructional framing, test purposes and values, and longitudinal assessment frameworks provide vehicles to further enhance motivational benefits and reduce potential costs of assessment.

Value-directed memory selectivity relies on goal-directed knowledge of value structure prior to encoding in young and older adults

People are generally able to selectively attend and remember high-value over low-value information. Here, we investigated whether young and older adults would display typical value-based memory selectivity effects for to-be-learned item-value associations when goal-directed information about the meaning of associated values was presented before and after encoding. In two experiments, both young and older adults were presented with one (Experiment 1) or multiple (Experiment 2) lists of words that were arbitrarily paired with different numerical values (e.g., "door-8") or font colors (e.g., "door" presented in red), which indicated each word's value. In Experiment 1, participants were told that the numerical value indicated the relative importance of each item either before they studied the list (preencoding), after they studied it (postencoding), or not at all (no value control instructions). Older adults were significantly more selective in the preencoding condition relative to the other conditions, whereas younger adults were not selective in any condition on this single-list (numerical) value task of Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, young and older adults were tested on four additional lists of both pre- and postencoding trials each after studying and recalling four lists of words without any value instructions. Results from Experiment 2 revealed that both young and older adults selectively prioritized high-value words on the preencoding trials, but not on postencoding trials, on this color-based categorical (low-medium-high) value task. The present study highlights a critical role of goal-directed knowledge of value-based instructions prior to encoding to facilitate typically observed value-directed memory selectivity for important information. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Does unitization really function like items? The role of interference on item and associative memory processes

Associative memory declines as we age, while item memory remains relatively stable. Previous work has shown that, in both younger and older adults, while item recognition declines linearly across time and interference, associative recognition declines only with longer delays and more interference. Unitization is a memory process found to support associative memory by allowing pairs to presumably be processed like single items. Research has found that unitization can benefit memory in aging by boosting associative memory to be on par with that of younger adults. Yet it remains unclear exactly the mechanism responsible for this enhancement in memory. The current studies aimed to determine whether unitized pairs show similar memory to that of items or associations with increasing time and interference, and determine how physically similar unitized pairs must be to perform like items and examine the effect of age on unitization in a continuous recognition paradigm. The results show that while unitized pairs exhibit higher corrected recognition compared with associative pairs at all lags, unitized pairs are not remembered to the degree that items are. It is critical that unitization boosts accurate recognition of pairs in both age groups across all early and middle lags compared with associative pairs. The results suggest that unitization may promote a more efficient associative link than unrelated associations over increasing time and interference, but the benefit does not reach that of item memory. These results demonstrate that while unitization benefits corrected recognition with earlier interference, its effect may not hold with later interference.

Value-directed remembering in first-episode schizophrenia

OBJECTIVE

Memory deficits in individuals with schizophrenia are well-established, but less is known about how schizophrenia affects metacognitive processes such as metamemory. We investigated metamemory ability using the value-directed remembering task, which assesses the degree to which participants use value cues to guide their learning of a list of items (i.e., their memory selectivity).

METHOD

Participants were patients undergoing treatment following a recent first episode of schizophrenia (n = 20) and demographically comparable healthy controls (n = 18). Participants viewed six lists of 24 words where each word was paired with either a low value (1-3 points) or a high value (10-12 points), and they were instructed to maximize their score on free recall tests given after each list. After the final free recall test, participants completed a recognition test where they gave remember/know judgments.

RESULTS

On tests of free recall, patients showed reduced memory selectivity relative to healthy controls. On the recognition test, patients failed to show an effect of value on recognition of nonrecalled words, in contrast to healthy controls, who showed a significant value effect that was characterized by greater "remember" judgments. Patients initially overestimated their memory capacity but were able to adjust their estimates to be more accurate based on task experience. Patients' self-reports of memory selectivity were unrelated to their actual memory selectivity.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients with first-episode schizophrenia had substantial impairments on the value-directed remembering task, but areas of preserved metamemory ability were also observed. These findings have potential implications for cognitive training interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Motivation-based selective encoding and retrieval

Rememberers are often motivated to remember certain pieces of information more than they are motivated to remember other pieces. The literature suggests that this motivation results in selective remembering of valuable information and that it yields selective processing of this valuable information during encoding. However, the question of whether or not motivation to remember also elicits selective processing during retrieval is relatively underexplored. To fill this gap, two experiments examined the effect of incentive-based motivation to remember target information on selective encoding and retrieval processes using a paradigm that allowed participants to self-regulate their learning and cued-recall testing under relatively naturalistic settings. The results revealed that motivation yielded selective remembering of the target information and selective processing during encoding (i.e., selective allocation of study time, selective restudy, and selective control over study order), consistent with prior findings. Importantly, the results also revealed that motivation yielded selective processing during retrieval, as rememberers allocated more time to test queries about target information that they were motivated to remember and tended to start the test with these queries. These findings suggest that motivation affects how rememberers answer a cued-recall memory test. More generally, the current research demonstrates that by manipulating motivation and investigating self-regulated learning and remembering, research can advance our understanding of the intricate relationship between motivation, memory, and metacognition.

Memory and Reward-Based Learning: A Value-Directed Remembering Perspective

The ability to prioritize valuable information is critical for the efficient use of memory in daily life. When information is important, we engage more effective encoding mechanisms that can better support retrieval. Here, we describe a dual-mechanism framework of value-directed remembering in which both strategic and automatic processes lead to differential encoding of valuable information. Strategic processes rely on metacognitive awareness of effective deep encoding strategies that allow younger and healthy older adults to selectively remember important information. In contrast, some high-value information may also be encoded automatically in the absence of intention to remember, but this may be more impaired in older age. These different mechanisms are subserved by different neural substrates, with left-hemisphere semantic processing regions active during the strategic encoding of high-value items, and automatic enhancement of encoding of high-value items may be supported by activation of midbrain dopaminergic projections to the hippocampal region. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology, Volume 73 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

The effect of value on long-term associative memory

Items with high value are often remembered better than those with low value. It is not clear, however, whether this value effect extends to the binding of associative details (e.g., word colour) in episodic memory. Here, we explored whether value enhances memory for associative information in two different scenarios that might support a more effective process of binding between identity and colour. Experiment 1 examined incidental binding between item and colour using coloured images of familiar objects, whereas Experiment 2 examined intentional learning of word colour. In both experiments, increasing value led to improvements in memory for both item and colour, and these effects persisted after approximately 24 hr. Experiment 3a and Experiment 3b replicated the value effect on intentional word–colour memory from Experiment 2 while also demonstrating this effect to be less reliable when word colour is incidental to the encoding phase. Thus, value-directed prioritisation can facilitate episodic associative memory when conditions for binding are optimised through the use of appropriate to-be remembered materials and encoding conditions.

Value-directed memory effects on item and context memory

The ability to prioritize learning some information over others when that information is considered important or valuable is known as value-directed remembering. In these experiments, we investigate how value influences different aspects of memory, including item memory (memory for the to-be-learned materials) and context memory (memory for peripheral details that occurred when studying items) to get a better understanding of how people prioritize learning information. In this investigation, participants encoded words associated with a range of values (binned into higher, medium, and lower value in Experiment 1, and into higher and lower value in Experiment 2) for a subsequent memory test that measured item memory (Is this item old or new?) as well as both objective context memory (memory for an objectively verifiable contextual detail: In which voice was this item spoken?) and subjective context memory (How many visual, auditory, and extraneous thoughts/feelings can you remember associated with this item?). Results indicated that value influenced item memory but had no effect on objective context memory in both Experiments. In Experiment 2, results showed better subjective context memory for multiple episodic details for higher-value relative to lower-value materials. Overall, these findings suggest that value has a strong influence over some aspects of memory, but not others. This work gives a richer understanding of how people prioritize learning more important over less important information.

Age differences in item selection behaviors and subsequent memory for new foreign language vocabulary: Evidence for a region of proximal learning heuristic

We examined younger and older adults' item selection behaviors to assess heuristics for self-regulating learning of English meanings of Chinese characters varying widely in figural complexity. Two study-test trials were used to assess whether (a) item selection behaviors on the first study opportunity would show evidence for a difficulty-based heuristic as posited by Metcalfe's (2002) region of proximal learning (RPL) theory, or alternatively, influences of habitual English-language reading order (i.e. left-to-right, top-to-bottom); (b) whether second-trial selection behaviors were better predicted by RPL or by the discrepancy reduction model (DRM; Dunlosky & Hertzog, 1998); and (c) whether Trial 1 test performance would alter Trial 2 study in a manner predicted by RPL. DRM stipulates people select any item for study at Trial 2 that was not previously recalled. RPL states that people study only items they believe they can learn, avoiding complex items above their subjective RPL. Stimuli were 36 Chinese-English vocabulary pairs randomly presented in six 2 × 3-element grids. Both habitual reading order and stimulus complexity at Trial 1 affected order of study, with participants of both age groups manifesting a preference to study less complex characters. However, older adults showed larger effects of stimulus complexity whereas younger adults had larger effects of habitual reading order. At Trial 2, older adults showed a greater tendency to avoid studying the most complex Chinese characters, consistent with RPL, which contributed to their lower rates of vocabulary acquisition. Older adults' more conservative RPLs appeared to constrain their degree of self-regulated learning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Strategic prioritisation enhances young and older adults' visual feature binding in working memory

Visual working memory for features and bindings is susceptible to age-related decline. Two experiments were used to examine whether older adults are able to strategically prioritise more valuable information in working memory and whether this could reduce age-related impairments. Younger (18–33 years) and older (60–90 years) adults were presented with coloured shapes and, following a brief delay, asked to recall the feature that had accompanied the probe item. In Experiment 1, participants were either asked to prioritise a more valuable object in the array (serial position 1, 2, or 3) or to treat them all equally. Older adults exhibited worse overall memory performance but were as able as younger adults to prioritise objects. In both groups, this ability was particularly apparent at the middle serial position. Experiment 2 then explored whether younger and older adults’ prioritisation is affected by presentation time. Replicating Experiment 1, older adults were able to prioritise the more valuable object in working memory, showing equivalent benefits and costs as younger adults. However, processing speed, as indexed by presentation time, was shown not to limit strategic prioritisation in either age group. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that, although older adults have poorer visual working memory overall, the ability to strategically direct attention to more valuable items in working memory is preserved across ageing.

Incidental Learning: A Systematic Review of Its Effect on Episodic Memory Performance in Older Age

Episodic memory is the capacity to encode, store, and retrieve information of specific past events. Several studies have shown that the decline in episodic memory accompanies aging, but most of these studies assessed memory performance through intentional learning. In this approach, the individuals deliberately acquire knowledge. Yet, another method to evaluate episodic memory performance-receiving less attention by the research community-is incidental learning. Here, participants do not explicitly intent to learn. Incidental learning becomes increasingly important over the lifespan, since people spend less time in institutions where intentional learning is required (e.g., school, university, or at work). Yet, we know little how incidental learning impacts episodic memory performance in advanced age. Likewise, the neural mechanisms underlying incidental learning in older age remain largely unknown. Thus, the immediate goal of this review was to summarize the existing literature on how incidental learning changes with age and how neural mechanisms map onto these age-related changes. We considered behavioral as well as neuroimaging studies using incidental learning paradigms (alone or in combination with intentional learning) to assess episodic memory performance in elderly adults. We conducted a systematic literature search on the Medline/PubMed, Cochrane, and OVID SP databases and searched the reference lists of articles. The search yielded 245 studies, of which 34 concerned incidental learning and episodic memory in older adults. In sum, these studies suggest that aging particularly affects episodic memory after incidental learning for cognitively demanding tasks. Monitoring deficits in older adults might account for these findings since cognitively demanding tasks need increased attentional resources. On a neuronal level, dysregulation of the default-mode-network mirrors monitoring deficits, with an attempt to compensate through increased frontal activity. Future (neuroimaging) studies should systematically evaluate retrieval tasks with diverging cognitive load and consider the influence of attention and executive functions in more detail.

White matter integrity in brain structures supporting semantic processing is associated with value-directed remembering in older adults

White matter microstructure changes substantially in aging. To better understand how the integrity of white matter structures supports the selective learning of rewarding material, 23 healthy older adults were tested on a value-directed remembering task. This task involved successive free recall word lists where items differed in importance, as denoted by value cues preceding each word. White matter structure was measured using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). We found that greater structural integrity (as measured by lower mean diffusivity) in left inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus was associated with greater recall for high-value items, but not low-value items. Older adults with greater structural integrity in a tract involved in semantic processing are thus able to more successfully encode high-value items for subsequent recall. However, unlike prior findings in younger adults, older adults' memory for high value-items was not significantly correlated with the structural integrity of the uncinate fasciculus, nor with the strength of anatomical connectedness between the bilateral nucleus accumbens to ventral tegmental area reward pathway. These structural imaging findings add support to recent functional neuroimaging demonstrations that value-related modulation of memory in older adults depends heavily on brain circuits implicated in controlled processing of semantic knowledge.

Aging and recognition memory: A meta-analysis

Recognizing a stimulus as previously encountered is a crucial everyday life skill and a critical task motivating theoretical development in models of human memory. Although there are clear age-related memory deficits in tasks requiring recall or memory for context, the existence and nature of age differences in recognition memory remain unclear. The nature of any such deficits is critical to understanding the effects of age on memory because recognition tasks allow fewer strategic backdoors to supporting memory than do tasks of recall. Consequently, recognition may provide the purest measure of age-related memory deficit of all standard memory tasks. We conducted a meta-analysis of 232 prior experiments on age differences in recognition memory. As an organizing framework, we used signal-detection theory (Green & Swets, 1966; Macmillan & Creelman, 2005) to characterize recognition memory in terms of both discrimination between studied items and unstudied lures (d') and response bias or criterion (c). Relative to young adults, older adults showed reduced discrimination accuracy and a more liberal response criterion (i.e., greater tendency to term items new). Both of these effects were influenced by multiple, differing variables, with larger age deficits when studied material must be discriminated from familiar or related material, but smaller when studying semantically rich materials. These results support a view in which neither the self-initiation of mnemonic processes nor the deployment of strategic processes is the only source of age-related memory deficits, and they add to our understanding of the mechanisms underlying those changes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).