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Dong Y, Xiao F, Meng Y, Ye Z, Tang Y. The effect of target detection on memory retrieval. Atten Percept Psychophys 2024; 86:838-854. [PMID: 38413503 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-024-02851-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 01/23/2024] [Indexed: 02/29/2024]
Abstract
Attention and memory are fundamental cognitive processes that closely interact. In the attentional boost effect (ABE), the stimuli that co-occur with targets are remembered better than those that co-occur with distractors in target detection tasks performed during memory encoding. In target detection tasks performed during retrieval, the stimuli that co-occur with targets are recognized as 'old' more easily than the stimuli that co-occur with distractors. This study mainly explored the internal mechanism of the effect of target detection on recognition. In Experiment 1, the full attention (FA; where participants performed only the memory task) condition was used to compare with divided attention (DA; where participants performed target detection while performing memory retrieval) condition to explore the impact of target detection and distraction inhibition on recognition. In Experiment 2, the proportion of old and new words in the retrieval stage was adjusted to 1:1 to eliminate the possible reaction tendency caused by the high proportion of old words. In Experiment 3, the presentation time of words was extended to 1.5 s and 3 s to eliminate the possible impact of rapid processing. The results indicated that the effect of target detection on recognition was attributed to both target detection and distraction rejection and is not affected by the ratio of old and new words and the word presentation time. The effect of target detection on recognition may be owing to temporal yoking of the dual tasks, which is different from the effect of target detection on memory encoding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yueqing Dong
- School of Psychology, Inner Mongolia Normal University, No.81 Zhaowuda Road, Saihan County, Huhhot City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, 010028, People's Republic of China
- School of Psychology, Fujian Normal University, No.8 Xuefunan Road, Shangjie Town, Minhou County, Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, 350117, People's Republic of China
| | - Fenni Xiao
- School of Psychology, Fujian Normal University, No.8 Xuefunan Road, Shangjie Town, Minhou County, Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, 350117, People's Republic of China
| | - Yingfang Meng
- School of Psychology, Fujian Normal University, No.8 Xuefunan Road, Shangjie Town, Minhou County, Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, 350117, People's Republic of China.
| | - Zetong Ye
- School of Psychology, Fujian Normal University, No.8 Xuefunan Road, Shangjie Town, Minhou County, Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, 350117, People's Republic of China
| | - Yajun Tang
- School of Psychology, Fujian Normal University, No.8 Xuefunan Road, Shangjie Town, Minhou County, Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, 350117, People's Republic of China
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2
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Hensen S, Koch I, Hirsch P. Impact of process interference on memory encoding and retrieval processes in dual-task situations. Mem Cognit 2024:10.3758/s13421-024-01539-2. [PMID: 38436908 DOI: 10.3758/s13421-024-01539-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/14/2024] [Indexed: 03/05/2024]
Abstract
Dual-tasks at the memory encoding stage have been shown to decrease recall performance and impair concurrent task performance. In contrast, studies on the effect of dual-tasks at the memory retrieval stage observed mixed results. Which cognitive mechanisms are underlying this dual-task interference is still an unresolved question. In the present study, we investigated the influence of a concurrent reaction-time task on the performance in a long-term memory task in two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants performed an auditory-verbal free recall memory task and a visual-manual spatial Stroop task in a single or dual-task condition, either at the encoding or retrieval stage of the memory task. In Experiment 2, we examined the influence of processing conflicts in a concurrent RT task on memory encoding. Both experiments showed detrimental effects on recall accuracy and concurrent RT task performance in dual-task conditions at the encoding stage. Dual-task conditions at the retrieval stage led to a slowdown in recall latency and impaired concurrent RT task performance, but recall accuracy was maintained. In addition, we observed larger Stroop congruency effects in the dual-task conditions, indicating an increased processing conflict. However, in Experiment 2, we analyzed the effect of the processing conflict in a time-locked manner and could not find a significant influence on success of memory encoding. These findings suggest that processes in both tasks share the same limited capacity and are slowed down due to parallel processing, but we could not find evidence that this is further influenced by task-specific processing conflicts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sandra Hensen
- Cognitive and Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, RWTH Aachen University, Jaegerstrasse 17/19, 52066, Aachen, Germany.
| | - Iring Koch
- Cognitive and Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, RWTH Aachen University, Jaegerstrasse 17/19, 52066, Aachen, Germany
| | - Patricia Hirsch
- Cognitive and Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, RWTH Aachen University, Jaegerstrasse 17/19, 52066, Aachen, Germany
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3
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Cowan N, Bao C, Bishop-Chrzanowski BM, Costa AN, Greene NR, Guitard D, Li C, Musich ML, Ünal ZE. The Relation Between Attention and Memory. Annu Rev Psychol 2024; 75:183-214. [PMID: 37713810 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-psych-040723-012736] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/17/2023]
Abstract
The relation between attention and memory has long been deemed important for understanding cognition, and it was heavily researched even in the first experimental psychology laboratory by Wilhelm Wundt and his colleagues. Since then, the importance of the relation between attention and memory has been explored in myriad subdisciplines of psychology, and we incorporate a wide range of these diverse fields. Here, we examine some of the practical consequences of this relation and summarize work with various methodologies relating attention to memory in the fields of working memory, long-term memory, individual differences, life-span development, typical brain function, and neuropsychological conditions. We point out strengths and unanswered questions for our own embedded processes view of information processing, which is used to organize a large body of evidence. Last, we briefly consider the relation of the evidence to a range of other theoretical views before drawing conclusions about the state of the field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nelson Cowan
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA;
| | - Chenye Bao
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA;
| | | | - Amy N Costa
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA;
| | - Nathaniel R Greene
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA;
| | - Dominic Guitard
- School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom
| | - Chenyuan Li
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA;
| | - Madison L Musich
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA;
| | - Zehra E Ünal
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA;
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4
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Baker C, Love T. Modulating Complex Sentence Processing in Aphasia Through Attention and Semantic Networks. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2023; 66:5011-5035. [PMID: 37934886 PMCID: PMC11001378 DOI: 10.1044/2023_jslhr-23-00298] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2023] [Revised: 08/05/2023] [Accepted: 09/07/2023] [Indexed: 11/09/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Lexical processing impairments such as delayed and reduced activation of lexical-semantic information have been linked to syntactic processing disruptions and sentence comprehension deficits in individuals with aphasia (IWAs). Lexical-level deficits can also preclude successful lexical encoding during sentence processing and amplify the processing costs of similarity-based interference during syntactic retrieval. We investigate whether two manipulations to engage attention and pre-activate semantic features of a target (to-be-retrieved) noun will (a) boost lexical activation during initial lexical encoding and (b) facilitate syntactic dependency linking through improved resolution of interference in IWAs and neurologically unimpaired age-matched controls (AMCs). METHOD Eye-tracking-while-listening with a visual world paradigm was used to investigate whether semantic and attentional manipulations modulated initial lexical processing and downstream syntactic retrieval of the direct-object noun in object-relative sentences. RESULTS In the attention and semantic manipulations, the AMC group showed no changes in initial lexical access levels; however, gaze patterns revealed clear facilitations in dependency linking and interference resolution. In the IWA group, the attentional cue increased and maintained activation of N1 with modest facilitations in dependency linking. In the semantic condition, IWA results showed a greater degree of facilitation during dependency linking. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that attention and semantic activation are parameters that may be manipulated to strengthen encoding of lexical representations to facilitate retrieval (i.e., dependency linking) and mitigate similarity-based interference. In IWAs, these manipulations may help to reduce lexical processing deficits that can preclude successful encoding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carolyn Baker
- SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Language & Communicative Disorders, San Diego, CA
| | - Tracy Love
- SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Language & Communicative Disorders, San Diego, CA
- School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, San Diego State University, CA
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5
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de Chastelaine M, Horne ED, Hou M, Rugg MD. Relationships between age, fMRI correlates of familiarity and familiarity-based memory performance under single and dual task conditions. Neuropsychologia 2023; 189:108670. [PMID: 37633516 PMCID: PMC10591814 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2023.108670] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2023] [Revised: 08/22/2023] [Accepted: 08/23/2023] [Indexed: 08/28/2023]
Abstract
Using fMRI, we investigated the effects of age and divided attention on the neural correlates of familiarity and their relationship with memory performance. At study, word pairs were visually presented to young and older participants under the requirement to make a relational judgment on each pair. Participants were then scanned while undertaking an associative recognition test under single and dual (auditory tone detection) task conditions. The test items comprised studied, rearranged (words from different studied pairs) and new word pairs. fMRI familiarity effects were operationalized as greater activity elicited by studied pairs incorrectly identified as 'rearranged' than by correctly rejected new pairs. The reverse contrast was employed to identify 'novelty' effects. Behavioral familiarity estimates were equivalent across age groups and task conditions. Robust fMRI familiarity effects were identified in several regions, including medial and superior lateral parietal cortex, dorsal medial and left lateral prefrontal cortex, and bilateral caudate. fMRI novelty effects were identified in the anterior medial temporal lobe. Both familiarity and novelty effects were largely age-invariant and did not vary, or varied minimally, according to task condition. In addition, the familiarity effects correlated positively with a behavioral estimate of familiarity strength irrespective of age. These findings extend a previous report from our laboratory, and converge with prior behavioral reports, in demonstrating that the factors of age and divided attention have little impact on behavioral and neural estimates of familiarity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marianne de Chastelaine
- Center for Vital Longevity and School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas, Dallas, TX, USA.
| | - Erin D Horne
- Center for Vital Longevity and School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas, Dallas, TX, USA
| | - Mingzhu Hou
- Center for Vital Longevity and School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas, Dallas, TX, USA
| | - Michael D Rugg
- Center for Vital Longevity and School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas, Dallas, TX, USA
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6
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Mulligan NW, Spataro P, West JT. Memory and attention: A double dissociation between memory encoding and memory retrieval. Cognition 2023; 238:105509. [PMID: 37354786 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105509] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2022] [Revised: 05/23/2023] [Accepted: 06/01/2023] [Indexed: 06/26/2023]
Abstract
Research has found substantial negative effects of divided attention (DA) during encoding but less substantial effects when attention is divided during retrieval, an asymmetry which has been interpreted as indicating that different control processes or forms of attention are involved in encoding and retrieval (e.g., Chun & Johnson, 2011; Craik, Govoni, Naveh-Benjamin, & Anderson, 1996; Long, Kuhl, & Chun, 2018). The extant evidence, however, is not strong support for qualitative differences and might simply indicate differential sensitivity. The present experiments document a stronger, double dissociation by focusing on the Attentional Boost Effect (ABE) - a phenomenon in which the detection of targets in a secondary task enhances encoding of co-occurring stimuli. The dual-task interaction account proposes that the classical negative effects produced by dual-task interference are offset by a transient increase in externally-directed attention brought about by target detection. Since externally-directed attention is less valuable for retrieval processes, the ABE should result in a net negative effect when applied in the test phase because the dual-task interference would no longer be offset by the externally-directed boost occurring during target trials. Experiments 1, 2 and 4 confirmed the predictions by showing that test words paired with target stimuli were recognized significantly worse than test words paired with distractor stimuli. In contrast, Experiments 3 and 4 replicated the usual positive effects of the ABE with respect to encoding. We discuss these findings in light of recent theoretical proposals suggesting that encoding and retrieval processes are subserved by different forms of attention (external [perceptual] vs. internal [reflective]). Implications for the Transfer-Appropriate-Processing view of memory are also illustrated.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - John T West
- University of North Carolina, United States of America
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7
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de Chastelaine M, Horne ED, Hou M, Rugg MD. Relationships between age, fMRI correlates of familiarity and familiarity-based memory performance under single and dual task conditions. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.05.26.542526. [PMID: 37398000 PMCID: PMC10312430 DOI: 10.1101/2023.05.26.542526] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/04/2023]
Abstract
Using fMRI, we investigated the effects of age and divided attention on the neural correlates of familiarity and their relationship with memory performance. At study, word pairs were visually presented to young and older participants under the requirement to make a relational judgment on each pair. Participants were then scanned while undertaking an associative recognition test under single and dual (auditory tone detection) task conditions. The test items comprised studied, rearranged (words from different studied pairs) and new word pairs. fMRI familiarity effects were operationalized as greater activity elicited by studied pairs incorrectly identified as 'rearranged' than by correctly rejected new pairs. The reverse contrast was employed to identify 'novelty' effects. Behavioral familiarity estimates were equivalent across age groups and task conditions. Robust fMRI familiarity effects were identified in several regions, including medial and superior lateral parietal cortex, dorsal medial and left lateral prefrontal cortex, and bilateral caudate. fMRI novelty effects were identified in the anterior medial temporal lobe. Both familiarity and novelty effects were age-invariant and did not vary according to task condition. In addition, the familiarity effects correlated positively with a behavioral estimate of familiarity strength irrespective of age. These findings extend a previous report from our laboratory, and converge with prior behavioral reports, in demonstrating that the factors of age and divided attention have minimal impact on behavioral and neural estimates of familiarity.
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8
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Jayakumar M, Balusu C, Aly M. Attentional fluctuations and the temporal organization of memory. Cognition 2023; 235:105408. [PMID: 36893523 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105408] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2022] [Revised: 02/09/2023] [Accepted: 02/11/2023] [Indexed: 03/10/2023]
Abstract
Event boundaries and temporal context shape the organization of episodic memories. We hypothesized that attentional fluctuations during encoding serve as "events" that affect temporal context representations and recall organization. Individuals encoded trial-unique objects during a modified sustained attention task. Memory was tested with free recall. Response time variability during the encoding tasks was used to characterize "in the zone" and "out of the zone" attentional states. We predicted that: 1) "in the zone", vs. "out of the zone", attentional states should be more conducive to maintaining temporal context representations that can cue temporally organized recall; and 2) temporally distant "in the zone" states may enable more recall "leaps" across intervening items. We replicated several important findings in the sustained attention and memory fields, including more online errors during "out of the zone" vs. "in the zone" attentional states and recall that was temporally structured. Yet, across four studies, we found no evidence for either of our main hypotheses. Recall was robustly temporally organized, and there was no difference in recall organization for items encoded "in the zone" vs. "out of the zone". We conclude that temporal context serves as a strong scaffold for episodic memory, one that can support organized recall even for items encoded during relatively poor attentional states. We also highlight the numerous challenges in striking a balance between sustained attention tasks (long blocks of a repetitive task) and memory recall tasks (short lists of unique items) and describe strategies for researchers interested in uniting these two fields.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manasi Jayakumar
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, United States of America.
| | - Chinmayi Balusu
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, United States of America
| | - Mariam Aly
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, United States of America
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Prull MW, Liu Y, Adhikari N, Higdon SA, Stewart KS, Calo ZR. Can divided attention at retrieval improve memory? Effects of target detection during recognition. Memory 2023; 31:573-587. [PMID: 36866615 DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2023.2184458] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/04/2023]
Abstract
The attentional boost effect (ABE) is an improvement of memory under divided attention conditions in which stimulus encoding is enhanced when a target is detected in a simultaneous target-monitoring distracting task. Here we asked whether memory is similarly improved when the target-monitoring task occurs at the time of retrieval. In four experiments, participants encoded words under full attention then completed a recognition test under either divided attention, during which participants made recognition judgments while performing the target-monitoring task, or full attention, in which the target-monitoring task was not performed. Relative to distractor rejection, target detection increased hits and false alarms under divided attention with no net effect on discrimination. Targets and distractors had no effect on recognition under full attention. The target-related increase in hits and false alarms occurred regardless of whether the target-monitoring material matched or mismatched the test material and regardless of the target-to-distractor ratio and the target response. A change in bias accounts for the phenomenon, in which participants adopt a more lenient criterion for target-paired words than for distractor-paired words. The same divided attention manipulation that enhances memory at encoding does not similarly enhance memory at retrieval. Theoretical explanations are discussed.
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10
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Responsible attention: the effect of divided attention on metacognition and responsible remembering. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2022; 87:1085-1100. [PMID: 35838835 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-022-01711-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2021] [Accepted: 07/04/2022] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
Abstract
We are frequently exposed to situations where we need to remember important information when our attentional resources are divided; however, it was previously unclear how divided attention impacts responsible remembering: selective memory for important information to avoid consequences for forgetting. In the present study, we examined participants' memory for valuable information, metacognitive accuracy, and goal-directed cognitive control mechanisms when under full and divided attention. In Experiment 1, participants were presented with words paired with point values counting towards their score if recalled but were required to "bet" on whether they would remember it. Results revealed that selective memory for high-value information was impaired under divided attention. In Experiment 2, we presented participants with unassociated word pairs and solicited metacognitive predictions of recall (i.e., JOLs). Results revealed that the relative accuracy of participants' metacognitive judgments was enhanced when studying under divided attention. Experiment 3 examined cognitive control mechanisms to selectively remember goal-relevant information at the expense of information that could potentially be offloaded (i.e., responsible forgetting). Results revealed that participants' ability to strategically prioritize goal-relevant information at the expense of information that could be offloaded was preserved under divided attention. Collectively, responsible attention encompasses how attentional resources impact one's ability to engage in responsible remembering and we demonstrate that responsible remembering can be impaired, enhanced, and preserved in certain contexts.
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Gabbert F, Hope L, Horry R, Drain T, Hughes C. Examining the efficacy of a digital version of the Self-Administered Interview. COMPUTERS IN HUMAN BEHAVIOR REPORTS 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.chbr.2021.100159] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
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12
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Hou M, Horne ED, de Chastelaine M, Rugg MD. Divided attention at retrieval does not influence neural correlates of recollection in young or older adults. Neuroimage 2022; 250:118918. [PMID: 35051582 PMCID: PMC8885896 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.118918] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2021] [Revised: 01/12/2022] [Accepted: 01/15/2022] [Indexed: 01/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Age-related decline in episodic memory has been partially attributed to older adults' reduced domain general processing resources. In the present study, we examined the effects of divided attention (DA) - a manipulation assumed to further deplete the already limited processing resources of older adults - on the neural correlates of recollection in young and older adults. Participants underwent fMRI scanning while they performed an associative recognition test in single and dual (tone detection) task conditions. Recollection effects were operationalized as greater BOLD activity elicited by test pairs correctly endorsed as 'intact' than pairs correctly or incorrectly endorsed as 'rearranged'. Detrimental effects of DA on associative recognition performance were identified in older but not young adults. The magnitudes of recollection effects did not differ between the single and dual (tone detection) tasks in either age group. Across the task conditions, age-invariant recollection effects were evident in most members of the core recollection network. However, while young adults demonstrated robust recollection effects in left angular gyrus, angular gyrus effects were undetectable in the older adults in either task condition. With the possible exception of this result, the findings suggest that DA did not influence processes supporting the retrieval and representation of associative information in either young or older adults, and converge with prior behavioral findings to suggest that episodic retrieval operations are little affected by DA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mingzhu Hou
- Center for Vital Longevity and School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX 75235, USA.
| | - Erin D Horne
- Center for Vital Longevity and School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX 75235, USA; Center for BrainHealth and School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX 75235, USA
| | - Marianne de Chastelaine
- Center for Vital Longevity and School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX 75235, USA
| | - Michael D Rugg
- Center for Vital Longevity and School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX 75235, USA; School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
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13
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Henderson SE, Hall SA, Callegari JM, Desjardins JA, Segalowitz SJ, Campbell KL. Increased alpha suppression with age during involuntary memory retrieval. Psychophysiology 2021; 59:e13947. [PMID: 34571578 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13947] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/08/2021] [Revised: 07/03/2021] [Accepted: 09/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Recent work suggests that while voluntary episodic memory declines with age, involuntary episodic memory, which comes to mind spontaneously without intention, remains relatively intact. However, the neurophysiology underlying these differences has yet to be established. The current study used electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate voluntary and involuntary retrieval in older and younger adults. Participants first encoded sounds, half of which were paired with pictures, the other half unpaired. EEG was then recorded as they listened to the sounds, with participants in the involuntary group performing a sound localization cover task, and those in the voluntary group additionally attempting to recall the associated pictures. Participants later reported which sounds brought the paired picture to mind during the localization task. Reaction times on the localization task were slower for voluntary than involuntary retrieval and for paired than unpaired sounds, possibly reflecting increased attentional demands of voluntary retrieval and interference from reactivation of the associated pictures respectively. For the EEG analyses, young adults showed greater alpha event-related desynchronization (ERD) during voluntary than involuntary retrieval at frontal and occipital sites, while older adults showed pronounced alpha ERD regardless of intention. Additionally, older adults showed greater ERD for paired than unpaired sounds at occipital sites, likely reflecting visual reactivation of the associated pictures. Young adults did not show this alpha ERD memory effect. Taken together, these data suggest that involuntary memory is largely preserved with age, but this may be due to older adults' greater recruitment of top-down control even when demand for such control is limited.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah E Henderson
- Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
| | - Shana A Hall
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA
| | | | - James A Desjardins
- Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
| | | | - Karen L Campbell
- Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
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14
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The effects of divided attention at encoding on specific and gist-based associative episodic memory. Mem Cognit 2021; 50:59-76. [PMID: 34155604 PMCID: PMC8216590 DOI: 10.3758/s13421-021-01196-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Effects of divided attention (DA) during encoding on later memory performance are widely documented. However, the precise nature of these effects on underlying memory representations and subsequent retrieval processes has not been thoroughly investigated. Here, we examined whether DA at encoding would disrupt young adults' ability to remember associations in episodic memory at highly specific levels of representation (i.e., verbatim memory), or whether the effects of DA extend also to gist memory for associations. Two groups of participants (one under full attention, one under DA) studied face-scene pairs. The DA group simultaneously completed an auditory choice reaction-time task during encoding. Following either a short or long delay, participants were tested on their ability to discriminate intact face-scene pairs from recombined pairs that were either highly similar, less similar, or completely unrelated to originally studied pairs. The DA group performed more poorly than the full attention participants at correctly classifying most types of test pairs at both delays, and results from a multinomial-processing-tree model demonstrated that participants who encoded associations under DA experienced deficits in both specific and gist memory retrieval. We also compared the DA group to full attention older adults who were tested with the same paradigm (Greene & Naveh-Benjamin, Psychological Science, 31[3], 316-331, 2020). The DA group had lower estimates of gist retrieval than the older adults but similar estimates of verbatim memory. These results suggest that DA at encoding disrupts episodic memories at multiple levels of representation, in contrast to age-related effects, which are restricted only to the highest levels of specificity.
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15
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Selection in working memory is resource-demanding: Concurrent task effects on the retro-cue effect. Atten Percept Psychophys 2021; 83:1600-1612. [PMID: 33608857 PMCID: PMC8084802 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-020-02239-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/26/2020] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
In a retro-cue paradigm, after memorizing a set of objects, people are cued to remember only a subset. Improved memory from the retro-cue suggests that selection processes can benefit items stored in working memory. Does selection in working memory require attention? If so, an attention-demanding task should disrupt retro-cue effects. Studies using a dual-task paradigm have found mixed results, with only one study (Janczyk & Berryhill, Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics, 76 (3), 715–724, 2014) showing a decreased retro-cue effect by a secondary task. Here we explore a potential issue in that study – the temporal overlap of the secondary task response with the memory test presentation. This raises questions about whether the secondary task was impairing selection processes in memory or was impacting the memory response. We replicated their paradigm by inserting a tone discrimination task at the retro-cue offset, but we also included a condition in which the tone task and the memory test were temporally separated. In Experiment 1, performing the tone task did not impair the retro-cue effect. In Experiment 2, we added an articulatory suppression task as in Janczyk and Berryhill’s study, and we found that the requirement to execute the tone task impaired retro-cue effects. This impairment was independent of whether the tone and memory tasks overlapped. These findings suggest that internal prioritization can be impaired by dual-task interference, but may only occur when such interference is robust enough, for example, due to switching between multiple tasks.
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Horne ED, de Chastelaine M, Rugg MD. Neural correlates of post-retrieval monitoring in older adults are preserved under divided attention, but are decoupled from memory performance. Neurobiol Aging 2020; 97:106-119. [PMID: 33190122 DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2020.10.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2020] [Revised: 09/01/2020] [Accepted: 10/12/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Post-retrieval monitoring is associated with engagement of anterior cingulate and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Recent fMRI studies reported age-invariant monitoring effects in these regions and an age-invariant correlation between these effects and memory performance. The present study examined monitoring effects during associative recognition (difference in activity elicited by 'rearranged' and 'intact' test pairs) under single and dual (tone detection) task conditions in young and older adults (Ns = 28 per group). It was predicted that, for the older adults only, dual tasking would attenuate memory performance and monitoring effects and weaken their correlation. Consistent with this prediction, in the older group imposition of the secondary task led to lower memory performance and elimination of the relationship between monitoring effects and performance. However, the size of the effects did not differ between single and dual task conditions. The findings suggest that the decline in older adults' memory performance in the dual task condition resulted not from impaired monitoring, but from a different cause that also weakened the dependence of performance on monitoring.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erin D Horne
- Center for Vital Longevity, University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX, USA; Center for BrainHealth, University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX, USA.
| | | | - Michael D Rugg
- Center for Vital Longevity, University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX, USA; School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
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Muller A, Sirianni LA, Addante RJ. Neural correlates of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Eur J Neurosci 2020; 53:460-484. [PMID: 32761954 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.14935] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/24/2019] [Revised: 07/25/2020] [Accepted: 07/29/2020] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
The Dunning-Kruger effect (DKE) is a metacognitive phenomenon of illusory superiority in which individuals who perform poorly on a task believe they performed better than others, yet individuals who performed very well believe they under-performed compared to others. This phenomenon has yet to be directly explored in episodic memory, nor explored for physiological correlates or reaction times. We designed a novel method to elicit the DKE via a test of item recognition while electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded. Throughout the task, participants were asked to estimate the percentile in which they performed compared to others. Results revealed participants in the bottom 25th percentile over-estimated their percentile, while participants in the top 75th percentile under-estimated their percentile, exhibiting the classic DKE. Reaction time measures revealed a condition-by-group interaction whereby over-estimators responded faster than under-estimators when estimating being in the top percentile and responded slower when estimating being in the bottom percentile. Between-group EEG differences were evident between over-estimators and under-estimators during Dunning-Kruger responses, which revealed FN400-like effects of familiarity supporting differences for over-estimators, whereas "old-new" memory event-related potential effects revealed a late parietal component associated with recollection-based processing for under-estimators that was not evident for over-estimators. Findings suggest over- and under-estimators use differing cognitive processes when assessing their performance, such that under-estimators may rely on recollection during memory while over-estimators may draw upon excess familiarity when over-estimating their performance. Episodic memory thus appears to play a contributory role in metacognitive judgements of illusory superiority.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alana Muller
- University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.,California State University - San Bernardino, San Bernardino, CA, USA
| | - Lindsey A Sirianni
- California State University - San Bernardino, San Bernardino, CA, USA.,Behavioral Health & Performance Laboratory, Biomedical Research and Environmental Sciences Division, Human Health and Performance Directorate, KBR/NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Richard J Addante
- California State University - San Bernardino, San Bernardino, CA, USA.,Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, USA
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Abstract
I present the case for viewing human memory as a set of dynamic processes rather than as structural entities or memory stores. This perspective stems largely from the construct of levels of processing, reflecting work I published with Robert Lockhart and with Endel Tulving. I describe the personal and professional contexts in which these and other ideas evolved, and I discuss criticisms of the ideas and our responses to critics. I also show how later versions of a processing approach to memory may fit with current findings and theories in memory research. In related work I have been involved in studies of cognitive aging, and I describe some theoretical and empirical points deriving from this aspect of my research efforts. Finally, I deal briefly with some experiments and reflections on divided attention, consolidation, and bilingualism and touch upon the neural bases of a processing approach.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fergus I.M. Craik
- Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest, Toronto, Ontario M6A 2E1, Canada
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G3, Canada
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