Achievement motivation and memory: achievement goals differentially influence immediate and delayed remember–know recognition memory

Little research has been conducted on achievement motivation and memory and, more specifically, on achievement goals and memory. In the present research, the authors conducted two experiments designed to examine the influence of mastery-approach and performance-approach goals on immediate and delayed remember–know recognition memory. The experiments revealed differential effects for achievement goals over time: Performance-approach goals showed higher correct remember responding on an immediate recognition test, whereas mastery-approach goals showed higher correct remember responding on a delayed recognition test. Achievement goals had no influence on overall recognition memory and no consistent influence on know responding across experiments. These findings indicate that it is important to consider quality, not just quantity, in both motivation and memory, when studying relations between these constructs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)(journal abstract)

The effects of distraction on metacognition and metacognition on distraction: evidence from recognition memory

The effects of auditory distraction in memory tasks have been examined to date with procedures that minimize participants’ control over their own memory processes. Surprisingly little attention has been paid to metacognitive control factors which might affect memory performance. In this study, we investigate the effects of auditory distraction on metacognitive control of memory, examining the effects of auditory distraction in recognition tasks utilizing the metacognitive framework of Koriat and Goldsmith (1996), to determine whether strategic regulation of memory accuracy is impacted by auditory distraction. Results replicated previous findings in showing that auditory distraction impairs memory performance in tasks minimizing participants’ metacognitive control (forced-report test). However, the results revealed also that when metacognitive control is allowed (free-report tests), auditory distraction impacts upon a range of metacognitive indices. In the present study, auditory distraction undermined accuracy of metacognitive monitoring (resolution), reduced confidence in responses provided and, correspondingly, increased participants’ propensity to withhold responses in free-report recognition. Crucially, changes in metacognitive processes were related to impairment in free-report recognition performance, as the use of the ‘don’t know’ option under distraction led to a reduction in the number of correct responses volunteered in free-report tests. Overall, the present results show how auditory distraction exerts its influence on memory performance via both memory and metamemory processes.

Activation of G-protein-coupled receptor 30 is sufficient to enhance spatial recognition memory in ovariectomized rats

In ovariectomized rats, administration of estradiol, or selective estrogen receptor agonists that activate either the alpha or beta isoforms, have been shown to enhance spatial cognition on a variety of learning and memory tasks, including those that capitalize on the preference of rats to seek out novelty. Although the effects of the putative estrogen G-protein-coupled receptor 30 (GPR30) on hippocampus-based tasks have been reported using food-motivated tasks, the effects of activation of GPR30 receptors on tasks that depend on the preference of rats to seek out spatial novelty remain to be determined. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to determine if short-term treatment of ovariectomized rats with G-1, an agonist for GPR30, would mimic the effects on spatial recognition memory observed following short-term estradiol treatment. In Experiment 1, ovariectomized rats treated with a low dose (1mug) of estradiol 48h and 24h prior to the information trial of a Y-maze task exhibited a preference for the arm associated with the novel environment on the retention trial conducted 48h later. In Experiment 2, treatment of ovariectomized rats with G-1 (25mug) 48h and 24h prior to the information trial of a Y-maze task resulted in a greater preference for the arm associated with the novel environment on the retention trial. Collectively, the results indicated that short-term treatment of ovariectomized rats with a GPR30 agonist was sufficient to enhance spatial recognition memory, an effect that also occurred following short-term treatment with a low dose of estradiol.

Differential cognitive effects of Ginkgo biloba after acute and chronic treatment in healthy young volunteers

Acute doses of Ginkgo biloba have been shown to improve attention and memory in young, healthy participants, but there has been a lack of investigation into possible effects on executive function. In addition, only one study has investigated the effects of chronic treatment in young volunteers. This study was conducted to compare the effects of ginkgo after acute and chronic treatment on tests of attention, memory and executive function in healthy university students. Using a placebo-controlled double-blind design, in experiment 1, 52 students were randomly allocated to receive a single dose of ginkgo (120 mg, n=26) or placebo (n=26), and were tested 4h later. In experiment 2, 40 students were randomly allocated to receive ginkgo (120 mg/day; n=20) or placebo (n=20) for a 6-week period and were tested at baseline and after 6 weeks of treatment. In both experiments, participants underwent tests of sustained attention, episodic and working memory, mental flexibility and planning, and completed mood rating scales. The acute dose of ginkgo significantly improved performance on the sustained-attention task and pattern-recognition memory task; however, there were no effects on working memory, planning, mental flexibility or mood. After 6 weeks of treatment, there were no significant effects of ginkgo on mood or any of the cognitive tests. In line with the literature, after acute administration ginkgo improved performance in tests of attention and memory. However, there were no effects after 6 weeks, suggesting that tolerance develops to the effects in young, healthy participants.

Reality monitoring and visual hallucinations in Parkinson's disease

Between 8 and 40% of Parkinson disease (PD) patients will have visual hallucinations (VHs) during the course of their illness. Although cognitive impairment has been identified as a risk factor for hallucinations, more specific neuropsychological deficits underlying such phenomena have not been established. Research in psychopathology has converged to suggest that hallucinations are associated with confusion between internal representations of events and real events (i.e. impaired-source monitoring). We evaluated three groups: 17 Parkinson's patients with visual hallucinations, 20 Parkinson's patients without hallucinations and 20 age-matched controls, using tests of visual imagery, visual perception and memory, including tests of source monitoring and recollective experience. The study revealed that Parkinson's patients with hallucinations appear to have intact visual imagery processes and spatial perception. However, there were impairments in object perception and recognition memory, and poor recollection of the encoding episode in comparison to both non-hallucinating Parkinson's patients and healthy controls. Errors were especially likely to occur when encoding and retrieval cues were in different modalities. The findings raise the possibility that visual hallucinations in Parkinson's patients could stem from a combination of faulty perceptual processing of environmental stimuli, and less detailed recollection of experience combined with intact image generation. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All fights reserved.

Type 2 diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance are associated with word memory source monitoring recollection deficits but not simple recognition familiarity deficits following water, low glycaemic load, and high glycaemic load breakfasts.

Isolated source monitoring recollection deficits indicate that abnormalities in glucose metabolism are not detrimental for global episodic memory processes. This enhances our understanding of how metabolic disorders are associated with memory impairments.

The influence of affective statements on performance on implicit and explicit memory tasks

Consumers are often exposed to brand names presented concurrently with information such as brand claims and warnings, prior to making product choices. As implicit memory has been implicated in the consumer choice process, two experiments were conducted to assess the influence of additional information, namely simple positive and negative statements, on implicit and explicit memory tasks. In Experiment 1, the mere presence of additional statements at study significantly reduced performance on a two-alternatives forced recognition task. However, the same manipulation had no effect on implicit preference judgement task performance. The valence of the accompanying information had no effect on either task. In Experiment 2, using modified implicit and explicit choice tasks, performance on the former was unaffected by statement valence, whereas the latter task was. Hence, positive priming was obtained for brand names previously shown with negative information. The results of the experiments are discussed in relation to both implicit memory and consumer choice.

Redintegration and lexicality effects in children: do they depend upon the demands of the memory task?

The effect of long-term knowledge upon performance in short-term memory tasks was examined for children from 5 to 10 years of age. The emergence of a lexicality effect, in which familiar words were recalled more accurately than unfamiliar words, was found to depend upon the nature of the memory task. Lexicality effects were interpreted as reflecting the use of redintegration, or reconstruction processes, in short-term memory. Redintegration increased with age for tasks requiring spoken item recall and decreased with age when position information but not naming was required. In a second experiment, redintegration was found in a recognition task when some of the foils rhymed with the target. Older children were able to profit from a rhyming foil, whereas younger children were confused by it, suggesting that the older children make use of sublexical phonological information in reconstructing the target. It was proposed that redintegrative processes in their mature form support the reconstruction of detailed phonological knowledge of words.

False recognition of abstract versus common objects in older and younger adults: testing the semantic categorization account

Older adults often demonstrate higher levels of false recognition than do younger adults. However, in experiments using novel shapes without preexisting semantic representations, this age-related elevation in false recognition was found to be greatly attenuated. Two experiments tested a semantic categorization account of these findings, examining whether older adults show especially heightened false recognition if the stimuli have preexisting semantic representations, such that semantic category information attenuates or truncates the encoding or retrieval of item-specific perceptual information. In Experiment 1, ambiguous shapes were presented with or without disambiguating semantic labels. Older adults showed higher false recognition when labels were present but not when labels were never presented. In Experiment 2, older adults showed higher false recognition for concrete but not abstract objects. The semantic categorization account was supported.

Older adults encode-but do not always use-perceptual details: intentional versus unintentional effects of detail on memory judgments

Investigations of memory deficits in older individuals have concentrated on their increased likelihood of forgetting events or details of events that were actually encountered (errors of omission). However mounting evidence demonstrates that normal cognitive aging also is associated with an increased propensity for errors of commission-shown in false alarms or false recognition. The present study examined the origins of this age difference. Older and younger adults each performed three types of memory tasks in which details of encountered items might influence performance. Although older adults showed greater false recognition of related lures on a standard (identical) old/new episodic recognition task, older and younger adults showed parallel effects of detail on repetition priming and meaning-based episodic recognition (decreased priming and decreased meaning-based recognition for different relative to same exemplars). The results suggest that the older adults encoded details but used them less effectively than the younger adults in the recognition context requiring their deliberate, controlled use.

Optimising memory usage in n-tuple neural networks

The use of n-tuple or weightless neural networks as pattern recognition devices is well known (Aleksander and Stonham, 1979). They have some significant advantages over the more common and biologically plausible networks, such as multi-layer perceptrons; for example, n-tuple networks have been used for a variety of tasks, the most popular being real-time pattern recognition, and they can be implemented easily in hardware as they use standard random access memories. In operation, a series of images of an object are shown to the network, each being processed suitably and effectively stored in a memory called a discriminator. Then, when another image is shown to the system, it is processed in a similar manner and the system reports whether it recognises the image; is the image sufficiently similar to one already taught? If the system is to be able to recognise and discriminate between m-objects, then it must contain m-discriminators. This can require a great deal of memory. This paper describes various ways in which memory requirements can be reduced, including a novel method for multiple discriminator n-tuple networks used for pattern recognition. By using this method, the memory normally required to handle m-objects can be used to recognise and discriminate between 2^m — 2 objects.

Auto-associative memory using n-tuple techniques

The use of n-tuple or weightless neural networks as pattern recognition devices has been well documented. They have a significant advantages over more common networks paradigms, such as the multilayer perceptron in that they can be easily implemented in digital hardware using standard random access memories. To date, n-tuple networks have predominantly been used as fast pattern classification devices. The paper describes how n-tuple techniques can be used in the hardware implementation of a general auto-associative network.

Prefrontal control of familiarity and recollection in working memory

Left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) is a critical neural substrate for the resolution of proactive interference (PI) in working memory. We hypothesized that left IFG achieves this by controlling the influence of familiarity- versus recollection-based information about memory probes. Consistent with this idea, we observed evidence for an early (200 msec)-peaking signal corresponding to memory probe familiarity and a late (500 msec)-resolving signal corresponding to full accrual of trial-related contextual ("recollection-based") information. Next, we applied brief trains of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) time locked to these mnemonic signals, to left IFG and to a control region. Only early rTMS of left IFG produced a modulation of the false alarm rate for high-PI probes. Additionally, the magnitude of this effect was predicted by individual differences in susceptibility to PI. These results suggest that left IFG-based control may bias the influence of familiarity- and recollection-based signals on recognition decisions.

Epoch-specific functional networks involved in working memory

Working memory (WM) is not a unitary construct. There are distinct processes involved in encoding information, maintaining it on-line, and using it to guide responses. The anatomical configurations of these processes are more accurately analyzed as functionally connected networks than collections of individual regions. In the current study we analyzed event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from a Sternberg Item Recognition Paradigm WM task using a multivariate analysis method that allowed the linking of functional networks to temporally-separated WM epochs. The length of the delay epochs was varied to optimize isolation of the hemodynamic response (HDR) for each task epoch. All extracted functional networks displayed statistically significant sensitivity to delay length. Novel information extracted from these networks that was not apparent in the univariate analysis of these data included involvement of the hippocampus in encoding/probe, and decreases in BOLD signal in the superior temporal gyrus (STG), along with default-mode regions, during encoding/delay. The bilateral hippocampal activity during encoding/delay fits with theoretical models of WM in which memoranda held across the short term are activated long-term memory representations. The BOLD signal decreases in the STG were unexpected, and may reflect repetition suppression effects invoked by internal repetition of letter stimuli. Thus, analysis methods focusing on how network dynamics relate to experimental conditions allowed extraction of novel information not apparent in univariate analyses, and are particularly recommended for WM experiments for which task epochs cannot be randomized.

Memory for medication side effects in younger and older adults: the role of subjective and objective importance

Older adults often experience memory impairments, but can sometimes use selective processing and schematic support to remember important information. The current experiments investigate to what degree younger and healthy older adults remember medication side effects that were subjectively or objectively important to remember. Participants studied a list of common side effects, and rated how negative these effects were if they were to experience them, and were then given a free recall test. In Experiment 1, the severity of the side effects ranged from mild (e.g., itching) to severe (e.g., stroke), and in Experiment 2, certain side effects were indicated as critical to remember (i.e., “contact your doctor if you experience this”). There were no age differences in terms of free recall of the side effects, and older adults remembered more severe side effects relative to mild effects. However, older adults were less likely to recognize critical side effects on a later recognition test, relative to younger adults. The findings suggest that older adults can selectively remember medication side effects, but have difficulty identifying familiar but potentially critical side effects, and this has implications for monitoring medication use in older age.