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Scherer D, Wentura D. Effects of evaluative homogeneity in working memory. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2022; 230:103752. [DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103752] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2022] [Revised: 09/16/2022] [Accepted: 09/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
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Rohr M, Wentura D. How Emotion Relates to Language and Cognition, Seen Through the Lens of Evaluative Priming Paradigms. Front Psychol 2022; 13:911068. [PMID: 35874359 PMCID: PMC9301365 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.911068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2022] [Accepted: 06/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Affect and emotion are essential aspects of human life. These states or feelings signal personally relevant things or situations and color our memories and thoughts. Within the area of affective or emotion processing, evaluation-the assessment of the valence associated with a stimulus or event (i.e., its positivity or negativity)-is considered a fundamental process, representing an early and crucial stage in constructivist emotion theories. Valence evaluation is assumed to occur automatically when encountering a stimulus. But does this really apply always, even if we simply see a word? And if so, what exactly is processed or activated in memory? One approach to investigating this evaluative process uses behavioral priming paradigms and, first and foremost, the evaluative priming paradigm and its variants. In the present review, we delineate the insights gained from this paradigm about the relation of affect and emotion to cognition and language. Specifically, we reviewed the empirical evidence base with regard to this issue as well as the proposed theoretical models of valence evaluation, specifically with regard to the nature of the representations activated via such paradigms. It will become clear that affect and emotion are foremost (and, perhaps, even exclusively) triggered by evaluative priming paradigms in the sense that semantic affective knowledge is activated. This knowledge should be modeled as being active in working memory rather than in long-term memory as was assumed in former models. The emerging evidence concerning the processing of more specific emotion aspects gives rise to the assumption that the activation of these semantic aspects is related to their social importance. In that sense, the fast and (conditionally) automatic activation of valence and other emotion aspects in evaluative priming paradigms reveals something about affect and emotion: Valence and specific emotion aspects are so important for our daily life that encountering almost any stimulus entails the automatic activation of the associated valence and other emotion aspects in memory, when the context requires it.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michaela Rohr
- Cognitive Psychology Department, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany
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Effects of temporal order and intentionality on reflective attention to words in noise. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2021; 86:544-557. [PMID: 33683449 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-021-01494-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2020] [Accepted: 02/15/2021] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
Speech perception in noise is a cognitively demanding process that challenges not only the auditory sensory system, but also cognitive networks involved in attention. The predictive coding theory has been influential in characterizing the influence of prior context on processing incoming auditory stimuli, with comparatively less research dedicated to "postdictive" processes and subsequent context effects on speech perception. Effects of subsequent semantic context were evaluated while manipulating the relationship of three target words presented in noise and the temporal position of targets compared to the subsequent contextual cue, demonstrating that subsequent context benefits were present regardless of whether the targets were related to each other and did not depend on the position of the target. However, participants instructed to focus on the relation between target and cue performed worse than those who did not receive this instruction, suggesting a disruption of a natural process of continuous speech recognition. We discuss these findings in relation to lexical commitment and stimulus-driven attention to short-term memory as mechanisms of subsequent context integration.
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Cadar D, Usher M, Davelaar EJ. Age-Related Deficits in Memory Encoding and Retrieval in Word List Free Recall. Brain Sci 2018; 8:E211. [PMID: 30513678 PMCID: PMC6316770 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci8120211] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2018] [Revised: 11/25/2018] [Accepted: 11/29/2018] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Although ageing is known to affect memory, the precise nature of its effect on retrieval and encoding processes is not well understood. Here, we examine the effect of ageing on the free recall of word lists, in which the semantic structure of word sequences was manipulated from unrelated words to pairs of associated words with various separations (between pair members) within the sequence. We find that ageing is associated with reduced total recall, especially for sequences with associated words. Furthermore, we find that the degree of semantic clustering (controlled for chance clustering) shows an age effect and that it interacts with the distance between the words within a pair. The results are consistent with the view that age effects in memory are mediated both by retrieval and by encoding processes associated with frontal control and working memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dorina Cadar
- Department of Behavioural Science and Health, University College London, London, WC1E 7HB, UK.
| | - Marius Usher
- Department of Psychology, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel.
| | - Eddy J Davelaar
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, London, WC1E 7HX, UK.
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Scherer D, Wentura D. Combining the Post-Cue Task and the Perceptual Identification Task to Assess Parallel Activation and Mutual Facilitation of Related Primes and Targets. Exp Psychol 2018; 65:84-97. [PMID: 29631519 DOI: 10.1027/1618-3169/a000396] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Abstract. Recent theories assume a mutual facilitation in case of semantic overlap for concepts being activated simultaneously. We provide evidence for this claim using a semantic priming paradigm. To test for mutual facilitation of related concepts, a perceptual identification task was employed, presenting prime-target pairs briefly and masked, with an SOA of 0 ms (i.e., prime and target were presented concurrently, one above the other). Participants were instructed to identify the target. In Experiment 1, a cue defining the target was presented at stimulus onset, whereas in Experiment 2 the cue was not presented before the offset of stimuli. Accordingly, in Experiment 2, a post-cue task was merged with the perceptual identification task. We obtained significant semantic priming effects in both experiments. This result is compatible with the view that two concepts can both be activated in parallel and can mutually facilitate each other if they are related.
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Affiliation(s)
- Demian Scherer
- Institute for Psychology in Education, University of Münster, Germany
| | - Dirk Wentura
- Department of Psychology, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany
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Semantic and phonological contributions to short-term repetition and long-term cued sentence recall. Mem Cognit 2017; 44:307-29. [PMID: 26374330 DOI: 10.3758/s13421-015-0554-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The function of verbal short-term memory is supported not only by the phonological loop, but also by semantic resources that may operate on both short and long time scales. Elucidation of the neural underpinnings of these mechanisms requires effective behavioral manipulations that can selectively engage them. We developed a novel cued sentence recall paradigm to assess the effects of two factors on sentence recall accuracy at short-term and long-term stages. Participants initially repeated auditory sentences immediately following a 14-s retention period. After this task was complete, long-term memory for each sentence was probed by a two-word recall cue. The sentences were either concrete (high imageability) or abstract (low imageability), and the initial 14-s retention period was filled with either an undemanding finger-tapping task or a more engaging articulatory suppression task (Exp. 1, counting backward by threes; Exp. 2, repeating a four-syllable nonword). Recall was always better for the concrete sentences. Articulatory suppression reduced accuracy in short-term recall, especially for abstract sentences, but the sentences initially recalled following articulatory suppression were retained better at the subsequent cued-recall test, suggesting that the engagement of semantic mechanisms for short-term retention promoted encoding of the sentence meaning into long-term memory. These results provide a basis for using sentence imageability and subsequent memory performance as probes of semantic engagement in short-term memory for sentences.
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Morton NW, Polyn SM. Beta-band activity represents the recent past during episodic encoding. Neuroimage 2017; 147:692-702. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.12.049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2016] [Revised: 11/22/2016] [Accepted: 12/18/2016] [Indexed: 10/20/2022] Open
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Zhao J, Yang Y, Song YW, Bi HY. Verbal Short-Term Memory Deficits in Chinese Children with Dyslexia may not be a Problem with the Activation of Phonological Representations. DYSLEXIA (CHICHESTER, ENGLAND) 2015; 21:304-322. [PMID: 26437073 DOI: 10.1002/dys.1516] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2014] [Revised: 08/28/2015] [Accepted: 09/10/2015] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
This study explored the underlying mechanism of the verbal short-term memory deficit in Chinese children with developmental dyslexia. Twenty-four children with dyslexia and 28 age-matched normal readers participated in the study. They were required to memorize a visually presented series of six Chinese characters and identify them from a list also including code-specific distracters and non-code-specific distracters. Error rates were recorded and were higher for code-specific distracters in all three conditions, revealing phonological, visual, and semantic similarity effects respectively. Group comparisons showed a stronger phonological similarity effect in dyslexic group, suggesting intact activation of phonological representations of target characters. Children with dyslexia also exhibited a greater semantic similarity effect, revealing stronger activation of semantic representations, while visual similarity effects were equivalent to controls. These results suggest that the verbal short-term memory deficit in Chinese dyslexics might not stem from insufficient activation of phonological information. Based the semantic activation of target characters in dyslexics is greater than in controls, it is possible that the memory deficit of dyslexia is related with deficient inhibition of target semantic representations in short-term memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jing Zhao
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Yang Yang
- Department of Linguistics, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong
| | - Yao-Wu Song
- College of Education, Hebei University, Baoding, Hebei, 071002, China
| | - Hong-Yan Bi
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
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Elhalal A, Davelaar EJ, Usher M. The role of the frontal cortex in memory: an investigation of the Von Restorff effect. Front Hum Neurosci 2014; 8:410. [PMID: 25018721 PMCID: PMC4073090 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00410] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2013] [Accepted: 05/22/2014] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Evidence from neuropsychology and neuroimaging indicate that the pre-frontal cortex (PFC) plays an important role in human memory. Although frontal patients are able to form new memories, these memories appear qualitatively different from those of controls by lacking distinctiveness. Neuroimaging studies of memory indicate activation in the PFC under deep encoding conditions, and under conditions of semantic elaboration. Based on these results, we hypothesize that the PFC enhances memory by extracting differences and commonalities in the studied material. To test this hypothesis, we carried out an experimental investigation to test the relationship between the PFC-dependent factors and semantic factors associated with common and specific features of words. These experiments were performed using Free-Recall of word lists with healthy adults, exploiting the correlation between PFC function and fluid intelligence. As predicted, a correlation was found between fluid intelligence and the Von-Restorff effect (better memory for semantic isolates, e.g., isolate “cat” within category members of “fruit”). Moreover, memory for the semantic isolate was found to depend on the isolate's serial position. The isolate item tends to be recalled first, in comparison to non-isolates, suggesting that the process interacts with short term memory. These results are captured within a computational model of free recall, which includes a PFC mechanism that is sensitive to both commonality and distinctiveness, sustaining a trade-off between the two.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anat Elhalal
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London London, UK
| | - Eddy J Davelaar
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London London, UK
| | - Marius Usher
- School of Psychological Science and Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv, Israel ; Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford and Wahadham College, University of Oxford Oxford, UK
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Cousins KAQ, Dar H, Wingfield A, Miller P. Acoustic masking disrupts time-dependent mechanisms of memory encoding in word-list recall. Mem Cognit 2014; 42:622-38. [PMID: 24838269 PMCID: PMC4030694 DOI: 10.3758/s13421-013-0377-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Recall of recently heard words is affected by the clarity of presentation: Even if all words are presented with sufficient clarity for successful recognition, those that are more difficult to hear are less likely to be recalled. Such a result demonstrates that memory processing depends on more than whether a word is simply "recognized" versus "not recognized." More surprising is that, when a single item in a list of spoken words is acoustically masked, prior words that were heard with full clarity are also less likely to be recalled. To account for such a phenomenon, we developed the linking-by-active-maintenance model (LAMM). This computational model of perception and encoding predicts that these effects will be time dependent. Here we challenged our model by investigating whether and how the impact of acoustic masking on memory depends on presentation rate. We found that a slower presentation rate causes a more disruptive impact of stimulus degradation on prior, clearly heard words than does a fast rate. These results are unexpected according to prior theories of effortful listening, but we demonstrated that they can be accounted for by LAMM.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katheryn A Q Cousins
- Volen National Center for Complex Systems, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, 02454-9110, USA
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Balconi M, Ferrari C. Repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation on dorsolateral prefrontal cortex improves performance in emotional memory retrieval as a function of level of anxiety and stimulus valence. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 2013; 67:210-8. [PMID: 23683151 DOI: 10.1111/pcn.12041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2012] [Revised: 05/22/2012] [Accepted: 06/15/2012] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
AIMS Anxiety behavior showed a consistent attentional bias toward negative and aversive memories, induced by a right frontal cortical superiority, based on an unbalance effect between the two hemispheres. The aim of the present study was to explore the role of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in the memory retrieval process of positive versus negative emotional stimulus, as a function of anxiety level. METHODS A repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) paradigm was used to induce cortical activation of the left DLPFC. Subjects (n = 27; age range, 21-36 years), who were divided into two different groups (high/low anxiety; State-Trait Anxiety Inventory), were required to perform a task consisting of two experimental phases: an encoding phase (lists composed of positive and negative emotional words); and a retrieval phase (old stimuli and new stimuli to be recognized). Moreover, new stimuli (distractors) semantically related or unrelated to the old stimuli were used to test a possible interference effect induced by the semantic association. RESULTS rTMS over the left DLPFC affects memory retrieval. High-anxiety subjects benefited in greater measure from frontal left stimulation with a reduced negative bias (increased accuracy and reduced response time for the positive stimuli) and a significant increased performance for the semantically related distractors (reduced interference effect). CONCLUSION Left DLPFC activation favors the memory retrieval of positive emotional information and might limit the unbalance effect induced by right hemispheric superiority in high levels of anxiety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michela Balconi
- Laboratory of Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy.
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Davelaar EJ. When the ignored gets bound: sequential effects in the flanker task. Front Psychol 2013; 3:552. [PMID: 23293616 PMCID: PMC3534361 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00552] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/29/2011] [Accepted: 11/23/2012] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent research on attentional control processes in the Eriksen flanker task has focused on the so-called congruency sequence effect a.k.a. the Gratton effect, which is the observation of a smaller flanker interference effect after incongruent than after congruent trials. There is growing support for the view that in this paradigm, the congruency sequence effect is due to repetition of the target or response across trials. Here, results from two experiments are presented that separate the contributions of target, flanker, and response repetition. The results suggest that neither response repetition alone nor conflict is necessary to produce the effect. Instead, the data reveal that only flanker repetition is sufficient to produce congruency sequence effects. In other words, information that is associated with a response irrespective whether it is relevant for the current trial is bound to response representations. An account is presented in which the fleeting event files are the activated part of the task set in which flankers, targets, and response representations are associatively linked and updated through conflict-modulated reinforcement learning.
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rTMS stimulation on left DLPFC increases the correct recognition of memories for emotional target and distractor words. COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2012; 12:589-98. [PMID: 22528734 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-012-0090-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
According to a recent hypothesis, the prefrontal cortex has been proposed as the site of emotional memory integration, because it is sensitive to the recognition of emotional contents. In the present research, we explored the role of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in memory recognition processes for positive versus negative emotional stimuli when old (target) and new (distractor, either semantically related or unrelated to the target) stimuli were presented. The role of the DLPFC was analysed using an rTMS (repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation) paradigm that induced increased cortical activation of the left DLPFC. The subjects were required to perform a task that consisted of two experimental phases (i.e., an encoding and a recognition phase) in which the targets and the distractors were presented and recognition performance was measured. rTMS stimulation was provided over the left DLPFC during the recognition phase. We found that the rTMS stimulation affected the memory recognition of positive emotional material. Moreover, related and unrelated distractors were discarded better when they were positively valenced, and a more significant effect (i.e., increased performance) was produced in response to related distractors. This result suggests that the activation of the left DLPFC favours the memory recognition of positive emotional information, and that such activation is able to induce a more appropriate selective process to distinguish target from distractor stimuli in the presence of more complex processes (related distractors). The valence model of emotional cue processing may explain this increased performance by demonstrating the distinct role of the left hemisphere in the retrieval of positive emotional information.
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Davelaar EJ. A computational study of conflict-monitoring at two levels of processing: Reaction time distributional analyses and hemodynamic responses. Brain Res 2008; 1202:109-19. [PMID: 17706186 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2007.06.068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2007] [Accepted: 06/09/2007] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
The conflict-monitoring hypothesis of cognitive control proposes that response-conflict is higher in incongruent conditions compared to congruent or neutral conditions and that increases in conflict lead to increased control on subsequent trials. A neurocomputational model is used to address data on reaction time distributions and hemodynamic responses in a flanker task with neutral (N), congruent (CO), stimulus-incongruent (SI), and response-incongruent (RI) trials, allowing investigation of stimulus- and response-conflict. A computational study is presented in which the conflict-signal is (a) computed at every level of processing (response, stimulus) and is (b) used to modulate the input in the same trial. Results show that the models capture (1) the profile of distributional plots seen in the behavioral literature and (2) the patterns of hemodynamic responses seen in the neuroimaging literature. Based on the simulations it is suggested that the prefrontal cortex processes response-conflict and that the parietal cortex processes stimulus-conflict.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eddy J Davelaar
- School of Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, WC1E 7HX London, UK.
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