FMRI correlates of autobiographical memory: Comparing silent retrieval with narrated retrieval

FMRI studies of autobiographical memory (AM) retrieval typically ask subjects to retrieve memories silently to avoid speech-related motion artifacts. Recently, some fMRI studies have started to use overt (spoken) retrieval to probe moment-to-moment retrieved content. However, the extent to which the overt retrieval method alters fMRI activations during retrieval is unknown. Here we examined this question by eliciting unrehearsed AMs during fMRI scanning either overtly or silently, in the same subjects, in different runs. Differences between retrieval modality (silent vs. narrated) included greater activation for silent retrieval in the anterior hippocampus, left angular gyrus, PCC, and superior PFC, and greater activation for narrated retrieval in speech production regions, posterior hippocampus, and the DLPFC. To probe temporal dynamics, we divided each retrieval period into an initial search phase and a later elaboration phase. The activations during the search and elaboration phases were broadly similar regardless of modality, and these activations were in line with previous fMRI studies of AM temporal dynamics employing silent retrieval. For both retrieval modalities, search activated the hippocampus, mPFC, ACC, and PCC, and elaboration activated the left DLPFC and middle temporal gyri. To examine content-specific reactivation during retrieval, the timecourse of narrated memory content was transcribed and modeled. We observed dynamic activation associated with object content in the lateral occipital complex, and activation associated with scene content in the retrosplenial cortex. The current findings show that both silent and narrated AMs activate a broadly similar memory network, with some key differences, and add to current knowledge regarding the content-specific dynamics of AM retrieval. However, these observed differences between retrieval modality suggest that studies using overt retrieval should carefully consider this method's possible effects on cognitive and neural processing.

Mind wandering may both promote and impair learning

The present investigation deals with individual differences in habitual (trait-level) mind wandering and their effects on learning. We hypothesized that the 'positive-constructive' type of habitual mind wandering would promote task-related thinking and the 'poor-attention' type to promote task-unrelated thinking. This hypothesis was tested in a study with 200 participants who rated different aspects of their mind wandering in daily life in one session and completed a reading study in a second session. The reading study included thought probes, retrospective questions about readers' thought contents, and comprehension tests after reading. In line with our hypothesis, data analysis revealed that some forms of positive-constructive mind wandering were positively associated with text-related thought, whereas poor-attention mind wandering was positively associated with text-unrelated thought. The present results add to the literature by emphasizing different types of trait-level mind wandering and their potentially opposite effects on learning.

Neural representation of a one-week delay in remembering information after production and self-generated elaboration encoding strategy

Many studies have confirmed the memory enhancement effect of production, generation and elaboration which can be effective after only one encoding. It is also known that greater memory enhancement effects can be obtained by combining multiple memory strategies during encoding. This study aimed to investigate whether the combination of production and self-generated elaboration enhances memory performance compared with production or generation alone. A total of 23 undergraduate and graduate students participated in this study. In the functional magnetic resonance imaging analysis, we explored the neural representation of remembering information after production and self-generated elaboration strategy. We set four encoding strategy conditions: (1) Read Silent (read without production), (2) Read Aloud (only production), (3) Add Silent (self-generated elaboration without production), (4) Add Aloud (production and self-generated elaboration). The retrieval performance and brain activity while retrieving the learned sentences after a one-week delay were examined. The behavioral results showed that the highest memory performance was for sentences encoded in Add Aloud. The interaction between production and self-generated elaboration was statistically significant. These results suggest that the memory enhancement effect of combining production and self-generated elaboration is not a simple addition nor synergistic facilitation effect. The imaging results showed that the following areas were related to the retrieval of the target encoded in the add aloud condition: the area related to integration of internal and external information (precuneus), area related to information rich stimuli (lateral occipital lobe), area related to self-involvement and inference of others' feelings (MPFC), area related to seen imagery (retrosplenial region) and area related to adjustment of movement (cerebellum). These results suggest that with an encoding strategy that combines production and self-generated elaboration, integrated auditory input of vocalizations and generated images, visual images of the scene, self-relevance, inference of other's feeling, movement by moving mouth are stored with the target and enhanced memory performance of AA.

Why am I craving? The role of elaboration on ambiguous desire states

Objective: We examined how attributions of broad ambiguous desire symptoms (eg, irritability) and elaborations on specific substances (ie, caffeine/food) influence subsequent self-reported cravings for these substances. Participants: 346 undergraduates were randomized to attribute their ambiguous desire symptoms to a lack of caffeine, food, or a vacation (active control), and then elaborate on the assigned stimulus. There was also a no-elaboration control group. Methods: Generalized Linear Models were used to test whether elaborating on one substance would increase cravings for that substance and decrease craving for the unelaborated substance relative to controls. Results: Participants who elaborated in terms of food reported increased food cravings, whereas participants who elaborated in terms of caffeine reported increased caffeine cravings. Conclusions: Findings suggest that food and caffeine cravings are malleable, and point to the importance of elaboration in polysubstance contexts. Food and caffeine elaborations may matter for heightening craving and determining the targets of craving.

Deliberate Erring Improves Far Transfer of Learning More Than Errorless Elaboration and Spotting and Correcting Others' Errors

Transfer of learning is a fundamental goal of education but is challenging to achieve, especially where far transfer to remote contexts is at stake. How can we improve learners' flexible application of knowledge to distant domains? In a counterintuitive phenomenon termed the derring effect, deliberately committing and correcting errors in low-stakes contexts enhances learning more than avoiding errors. Whereas this benefit has been demonstrated with tests in domains similar to those in the initial learning task, the present set of three experiments (N = 120) investigated whether deliberate erring boosts far transfer of conceptual knowledge to dissimilar domains. Undergraduates studied scientific expository texts either by generating conceptually correct responses or by deliberately generating conceptually erroneous responses then correcting them. Deliberate erring improved not only retention (Experiment 1), but also far transfer on inferential test questions that required applying the learned concepts to remote knowledge domains (e.g., from biology/vaccines to geography/forest management techniques; Experiment 2). This advantage held even over a control that further involved spotting and correcting the same errors that one's peers had deliberately made (Experiment 3). Yet, learners failed to predict or recognize the benefits of deliberate erring even after the test. Altogether, these results suggest that the derring effect is specific to generating incorrect, but not correct, elaborations. Neither does mere exposure to others' errors nor juxtaposing these errors with the correct responses suffice. Rather, guiding learners to personally commit and correct deliberate errors is vital for enhancing generalization and far transfer of learning to distant knowledge domains.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10648-023-09739-z.

Pictorial Cigarette Pack Warnings Increase Some Risk Appraisals But Not Risk Beliefs: A Meta-Analysis

Pictorial warnings on cigarette packs motivate smokers to quit, and yet the warnings' theoretical mechanisms are not clearly understood. To clarify the role that risk appraisals play in pictorial warnings' impacts, we conducted a meta-analysis of the experimental literature. We meta-analyzed 57 studies, conducted in 13 countries, with a cumulative N of 42,854. Pictorial warnings elicited greater cognitive elaboration (e.g., thinking about the risks of smoking; d = 1.27; p < .001) than text-only warnings. Pictorial warnings also elicited more fear and other negative affect (d = .60; p < .001). In contrast, pictorial warnings had no impact on perceived likelihood of harm (d = .03; p = .064), perceived severity (d = .16; p = .244), or experiential risk (d = .06; p = .449). Thus, while pictorial warnings increase affective and some cognitive risk appraisals, they do not increase beliefs about disease risk. We discuss the role of negative affect in warning effectiveness and the implications for image selection and warning implementation.

Functional coupling of brain networks during creative idea generation and elaboration in the figural domain

The neuroscientific investigation of creative cognition has advanced by considering the functional connectivity between brain regions and its dynamic changes over time, which are consistent with stages in the ideation process. Surprisingly, although the communication between neuronal networks takes place in a time-scale of milliseconds, EEG studies investigating a time-course in cortico-cortical communication during creative ideation are rare and findings are typically restricted to the verbal domain. Therefore, this study examined functional coupling using EEG (task-related phase-locking in the upper-alpha range) during creative thinking in the figural domain. Using an innovative computerized experimental paradigm, we specifically investigated the stage of idea generation and the stage of idea elaboration in an adapted picture completion task. The findings confirmed a hypothesized increase of functional coupling from idea generation to elaboration, which was most pronounced in frontal-central as well as frontal-temporal networks. The connectivity in the frontal-parietal/occipital network already increased during idea generation and remained constant during elaboration. Importantly, more original participants generally showed higher functional connectivity in all brain networks. This elevated functional coupling with frontal brain regions might reflect increased executive processes related to internal attention, motor planning, and semantic selection processes supporting highly original thought in the figural domain.

Dissociating refreshing and elaboration and their impacts on memory

Maintenance of information in working memory (WM) is assumed to rely on refreshing and elaboration, but clear mechanistic descriptions of these cognitive processes are lacking, and it is unclear whether they are simply two labels for the same process. This fMRI study investigated the extent to which refreshing, elaboration, and repeating of items in WM are distinct neural processes with dissociable behavioral outcomes in WM and long-term memory (LTM). Multivariate pattern analyses of fMRI data revealed differentiable neural signatures for these processes, which we also replicated in an independent sample of older adults. In some cases, the degree of neural separation within an individual predicted their memory performance. Elaboration improved LTM, but not WM, and this benefit increased as its neural signature became more distinct from repetition. Refreshing had no impact on LTM, but did improve WM, although the neural discrimination of this process was not predictive of the degree of improvement. These results demonstrate that refreshing and elaboration are separate processes that differently contribute to memory performance.

The effects of refreshing and elaboration on working memory performance, and their contributions to long-term memory formation

Refreshing and elaboration are cognitive processes assumed to underlie verbal working-memory maintenance and assumed to support long-term memory formation. Whereas refreshing refers to the attentional focussing on representations, elaboration refers to linking representations in working memory into existing semantic networks. We measured the impact of instructed refreshing and elaboration on working and long-term memory separately, and investigated to what extent both processes are distinct in their contributions to working as well as long-term memory. Compared with a no-processing baseline, immediate memory was improved by repeating the items, but not by refreshing them. There was no credible effect of elaboration on working memory, except when items were repeated at the same time. Long-term memory benefited from elaboration, but not from refreshing the words. The results replicate the long-term memory benefit for elaboration, but do not support its beneficial role for working memory. Further, refreshing preserves immediate memory, but does not improve it beyond the level achieved without any processing.

Merging elaboration and the theory of planned behavior to understand bear spray behavior of day hikers in Yellowstone National Park

This research empirically merges together two related theories: the elaboration likelihood model and the theory of planned behavior. A structural equation modeling approach is used to evaluate the relationship between the two theories and their collective impacts on behavioral intentions. The results suggest elaboration predicts the components of the theory of planned behavior (attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavior control), which in turn all predicted behavior intentions. Furthermore, results showed that the components of the theory of planned behavior partially meditated the relationship between elaboration and behavioral intentions, indicating that elaboration works mostly through the components of the theory of planned behavior to impact behavioral intentions. This study represents an improved understanding of the influence of communication techniques on visitor behaviors in sustainable tourism settings. Additionally, the discussion exemplifies how these techniques can be used to improve communications and evaluate communication strategies.

Persistence in gestural communication predicts sociality in wild chimpanzees

A key challenge for primates is coordinating behaviour with conspecifics in large, complex social groups. Gestures play a key role in this process and chimpanzees show considerable flexibility communicating through single gestures, sequences of gestures interspersed with periods of response waiting (persistence), and rapid sequences where gestures are made in quick succession, too rapid for the response waiting to have occurred. The previous studies examined behavioural reactions to single gestures and sequences, but whether this complexity is associated with more complex sociality at the level of the dyad partner and the group as a whole is not well understood. We used social network analysis to examine how the production of single gestures and sequences of gestures was related to the duration of time spent in proximity and individual differences in proximity in wild East African chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii). Pairs of chimpanzees that spent a longer duration of time in proximity had higher rates of persistence sequences, but not a higher rate of single gestures or rapid sequences. The duration of time spent in proximity was also related to the rate of responding to gestures, and response to gesture by activity change. These results suggest that communicative persistence and the type of response to gestures may play an important role in regulating social interactions in primate societies.

Coaching mothers of typical and conduct problem children in elaborative parent-child reminiscing: Influences of a randomized controlled trial on reminiscing behaviour and everyday talk preferences

This study compared the effects of mother-child reminiscing coaching on mothers of typically developing children (community sample) and mothers of children with conduct problems (clinical sample). It also tested whether intervention effects generalize to mothers' preferences for elaborative and mental-state oriented talk with their children in other contexts. Mother-child dyads (n = 88) in each sample were randomly allocated to condition: reminiscing intervention or active control. Pre-intervention, sample differences emerged. Mothers in the community sample were more elaborative during reminiscing than mothers in the clinical sample, and also expressed stronger preferences for elaborative talk in everyday contexts. Post-intervention, an intervention effect emerged. In both the community and clinical samples, mothers who had participated in the elaborative reminiscing intervention were more elaborative and emotion-focused during reminiscing than mothers in the active control condition. They also increased their preferences for elaborative and mental-state-oriented language in everyday contexts. While the mothers in the community sample remained more elaborative than mothers in the clinical sample, both experienced equivalent intervention gains. These findings highlight the value of reminiscing coaching for changing mothers' interactional preferences and behaviours.

Maternal attachment is differentially associated with mother-child reminiscing among maltreating and nonmaltreating families

In the current investigation, we examined associations between maternal attachment and the way that mothers and children discuss past emotional experiences (i.e., reminiscing) among 146 maltreating and 73 nonmaltreating mothers and their 3- to 6-year-old children. Recent studies demonstrate that maltreating mothers engage in less elaborative reminiscing compared with nonmaltreating mothers. To further explicate the nature of reminiscing among maltreating families, we examined maternal and child contributions to reminiscing, their interrelations, and associations with maternal attachment among dyads from maltreating and nonmaltreating families. Maternal attachment is theoretically and empirically associated with mother-child reminiscing, and an insecure maternal attachment style was hypothesized to exacerbate poor elaborative reminiscing among maltreating families. Mothers and children reminisced about four emotional experiences. Maternal attachment was measured with the Experience in Close Relationships-Revised questionnaire. Mothers and children from maltreating families engaged in less elaborative and emotion-rich reminiscing compared with nonmaltreating dyads. Maternal attachment anxiety was negatively associated with maternal elaborative reminiscing, but only among nonmaltreating mothers. Mother-child reminiscing among dyads with nonmaltreating and low attachment anxiety mothers was highly collaborative; whereas reminiscing among dyads with maltreating and high attachment anxiety mothers was less reciprocal. Our findings largely support communicative perspectives of attachment theory and also indicate that maternal attachment is differentially associated with mother-child reminiscing among maltreating and nonmaltreating families.

Learning terms and definitions: Drawing and the role of elaborative encoding

Traditionally, students adopt the strategy of taking written notes when attending a class or learning from a textbook in educational settings. Informed by previous work showing that learning by doing improves memory performance, we examined whether drawing to-be-remembered definitions from university textbooks would improve later memory, relative to a more typical strategy of rote transcription. Participants were asked to either write out the definition, or to draw a picture representative of the definition. Results indicated that drawing, relative to verbatim writing, conferred a reliable memorial benefit that was robust, even when participants' preexisting familiarity with the terms was included as a covariate (in Experiment 1) or when the to-be-remembered terms and definitions were fictitious, thus removing the influence of familiarity (in Experiment 2). We reasoned that drawing likely facilitates retention at least in part because at encoding, participants must retain and elaborate upon information regarding the meaning of the definition, to translate it into a new form (a picture). This is not the case when participants write out the definitions verbatim. In Experiment 3 we showed that paraphrasing during encoding, which, like drawing and in contrast with verbatim writing, requires self-generated elaboration, led to memory performance that was comparable to drawing. Taken together, results suggest that drawing is a powerful tool which improves memory, and that drawing produces a similar level of retention as does paraphrasing. This suggests that elaborative encoding plays a critical role in the memorial benefit that drawing confers to memory for definitions of academic terms.

Different neural routes to autobiographical memory recall in healthy people and individuals with left medial temporal lobe epilepsy

Individuals with medial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE) are poor at recalling vivid details from autobiographical memories (AM), instead retrieving gist-like schematic memories. Recent research has suggested that this impoverished recall in comparison to controls may reflect (1) differential engagement of anterior vs posterior regions of the hippocampus (HC) and/or (2) differences between the engagement of the HC vs the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Here we examined these hypotheses by comparing connectivity amongst hippocampal regions and between vmPFC and other brain regions during construction (retrieval of a particular event) vs elaboration (retrieval of perceptual detail) phases of AM recall in 12 individuals with left mTLE and 12 matched controls. Whereas functional connectivity amongst hippocampal regions changed from AM construction to elaboration in controls, the pattern of intra-hippocampal connectivity was unvarying in patients. Furthermore, patterns of connectivity from the vmPFC differed between phases in distinct ways in the two groups of participants. In patients, vmPFC activation was correlated with other prefrontal and lateral temporal cortices during construction and with visual-perceptual cortices during elaboration. While controls did not show a difference in whole-brain connectivity, they did uniquely show a dynamic shift from vmPFC connectivity to anterior HC during construction and to posterior HC during elaboration. Together, these findings suggest that impoverished AM recall in mTLE is a consequence of reduced activation and flexibility of bilateral hippocampal networks and greater reliance on neocortical contributions to memory retrieval.

Mother-child reminiscing at risk: Maternal attachment, elaboration, and child autobiographical memory specificity

Mother-child reminiscing, the process by which mothers and their children discuss past events and emotional experiences, has been robustly linked with child outcomes, including autobiographical memory. To advance previous work linking elaborative maternal reminiscing with child autobiographical memory specificity, the ability to generate and retrieve specific memories from one's past, it is essential to make distinctions among aspects of elaboration and to consider how maternal risk factors may influence the reminiscing context. The current study evaluated (a) an interaction between emotional and structural elaboration predicting child autobiographical memory specificity and (b) the potential moderating role of maternal adult attachment. Participants consisted of 95 preschool-aged children and their mothers. The sample was predominantly low income and racially diverse. Dyads completed a reminiscing task that was coded for emotional and structural elaboration. Mothers completed the Experiences in Close Relationships questionnaire (ECR-R) to assess attachment-related avoidance and anxiety, and children completed the Autobiographical Memory Test-Preschool Version (AMT-PV) to assess memory specificity. Results indicated that the association between structural reminiscing and child memory specificity was moderated by emotional elements of reminiscing. At high levels of emotional elaboration, mothers with high levels of structural elaboration had children with more specific memory than mothers with low levels of structural elaboration. Moreover, emotional elaboration (a) predicted less specific child memory without high structural support and (b) negatively predicted child specificity at high levels of maternal attachment avoidance and anxiety, a profile associated with fearful avoidance. Future directions and implications are discussed.

The aesthetic aha: on the pleasure of having insights into Gestalt

Are challenging stimuli appreciated due to perceptual insights during elaboration? Drawing on the literature regarding aesthetic appreciation, several approaches can be identified. For instance, fluency of processing as well as perceptual challenge are supposed to increase appreciation: One group (Reber, Schwarz, & Winkielman, 2004) claims that fluency of processing increases appreciation. Others link aesthetics to engagement: Creation and manipulation of sense itself should be rewarding (Ramachandran & Hirstein, 1999). We experimentally tested the influence of insights during elaboration on liking. Pairs of stimuli - hardly detectable two-tone images including a face (Mooney face) and meaningless stimuli matched for complexity - were presented repeatedly. Having an insight as well as the intensity of the insight predicted subsequent gains in liking. This paper qualifies the role of insight (-aha!) on aesthetic appreciation through the effects of elaboration and problem-solving on understanding the processing of modern art.