Brief wakeful resting can eliminate directed forgetting

When cued to intentionally forget previously encoded memories, participants typically show reduced recall of the memories on a later recall test. We examined how such directed forgetting is affected by a brief period of wakeful resting between encoding and test. Encoding was followed by a “passive” wakeful resting period in which subjects heard emotionally neutral music or perceived neutral pictures, or it was followed by an “active” distraction period in which subjects were engaged in counting or calculation tasks. Whereas typical directed forgetting was present after active distraction, the forgetting was absent after wakeful resting. The findings indicate that the degree to which people can intentionally forget memories is influenced by the cognitive activity that people engage in shortly after learning takes place. The results provide first evidence on the interplay between wakeful resting and intentional forgetting.     

Memory retrieval as a self-propagating process

Retrieval of a subset of studied items and the presentation of those items as retrieval cues typically impair retrieval of the other items. Previous research on this self-limiting property of memory retrieval has relied heavily on short retention intervals and similar context between encoding and test. Here, we examined retrieval dynamics also after a prolonged retention interval with different spatial and social context between encoding and test, conditions that mimic people’s remembering in many situations of daily life. For both unrelated word lists and more integrated prose material, we found retrieval and cuing to impair recall of other studied items after a short retention interval, but to improve recall in the prolonged retention interval condition. The results demonstrate that retrieval dynamics depend critically on situation, indicating that quite often in daily life, retrieval may be a self-propagating, rather than a self-limiting process.     

The relation between verbal and visuospatial memory and autobiographical memory

The basic-systems approach (Rubin, 2005, 2006) states that autobiographical memory is supported by other cognitive systems and argues that autobiographical memories are constructed from interactions between cognitive systems, such as language, vision and emotion. Although deficiencies in one or more of the basic systems influence the properties of autobiographical memories, little is known about how these cognitive abilities and autobiographical memory are related. To assert whether participants with stronger cognitive abilities also perform better on autobiographical memory tests, participants who completed verbal and visuospatial memory tests also recorded one personal event, which they recalled after a certain interval. Participants who performed well on the verbal memory tests also had better retention for the personal event, providing support for the basic-systems approach to autobiographical memory and preliminary support for the view that people have more memories from adolescence and early adulthood because the memory system works optimally in these lifetime periods.     

Memory awareness following episodic inhibition

Three experiments used directed forgetting (DF) and retrieval practice (RP) to investigate the relation of inhibited items to states of memory awareness occurring at test. In Experiment 1 using list DF robust inhibitory effects were present in cued recall, but in a recognition test these effects were only present in responses accompanied by recollective experience. In Experiments 2 and 3 using RP reliable effects of inhibition were found but these did not relate systematically to states of memory awareness. It is suggested that in DF the to-be-forgotten items are tagged at study as not to be recollectively experienced and so have a specific, inhibitory, relation to states of recollective experience occurring during test. In RP no tagging takes place, and inhibition is automatic or nonintentional and consequently does not have a specific relation to states of memory awareness at test.     

Memory awareness following episodic inhibition

Three experiments used directed forgetting (DF) and retrieval practice (RP) to investigate the relation of inhibited items to states of memory awareness occurring at test. In Experiment 1 using list DF robust inhibitory effects were present in cued recall, but in a recognition test these effects were only present in responses accompanied by recollective experience. In Experiments 2 and 3 using RP reliable effects of inhibition were found but these did not relate systematically to states of memory awareness. It is suggested that in DF the to-be-forgotten items are tagged at study as not to be recollectively experienced and so have a specific, inhibitory, relation to states of recollective experience occurring during test. In RP no tagging takes place, and inhibition is automatic or nonintentional and consequently does not have a specific relation to states of memory awareness at test.     

What can What-When-Where (WWW) binding tasks tell us about young children's episodic foresight? Theory and two experiments

We analyze theoretical differences between conceptualist and minimalist approaches to episodic processing in young children. The ‘episodic-like’ minimalism of Clayton and Dickinson (1998) is a species of the latter. We asked whether an ‘episodic-like’ task (structurally similar to ones used by Clayton and Dickinson) in which participants had to bind What (kind of object), to Where (location of object) to When (temporal duration from present) - WWW-binding - would produce the often-found developmental trajectory in episodic foresight performance of failure at 3 years, transitional performance at 4 and success at 5. Although failure at 3 years was reproduced, the performance of 4 and 5 year olds was likely affected by the executive challenge of inhibiting reference to the currently preferable item.     

Effects of suppression, acceptance and spontaneous coping on pain tolerance, pain intensity and distress

Wegner's Theory of Ironic Processes has been applied to study the effects of cognitive strategies to control pain. Research suggests that suppression contributes to a more distressing pain experience. Recently, the acceptance-based approach has been proposed as an alternative to cognitive control. This study assessed the tolerance time, the distress and the perceived pain intensity in three groups (suppression, acceptance and spontaneous coping groups) when the participants were exposed to a cold pressor procedure. Two hundred and nineteen undergraduates volunteered to participate. The suppression group showed the shortest tolerance time and the acceptance group showed the longest tolerance time. The acceptance group showed pain and distress immersion ratings that were significantly lower than in the other two groups, between which the differences were not significant. In the first recovery period, the suppression group showed pain and distress ratings that were higher than in the other two groups. In the second recovery period, although the acceptance group showed pain and distress ratings that were significantly lower than in the other two groups, the suppression and the spontaneous coping groups did not differ. The presence of a 'rebound' of physical discomfort and the effects of suppression on behavioural avoidance are discussed. These results support the acceptance approach in the management of pain.     

Effet du niveau d’études sur les performances en mémoire épisodique chez des adultes âgés : rôle médiateur de la métamémoire

Educational level is a factor of cognitive reserve and older adults with a higher level of formal education have a better memory performance than those having a lower educational level (Angel et al., 2010; Van Der Elst, Van Boxtel, Van Breukelen, & Jolles, 2005). Memory functioning can also be modulated by the beliefs and knowledge of a person about his/her own memory, that is, by his/her metamemory (Hultsch, Hertzog, & Dixon, 1987). The objective of this study was to examine the role of metamemory as a potential mediator of the effect of educational level on memory performance. Eighty-three older adults (60–80 years) participated in the experiment, they have been divided into two subgroups according to their educational level (high: 14.36 years and low level: 9.85 years). Episodic memory was evaluated with a cued recall task and metamemory by the Metamemory in Adulthood questionnaire (MIA). As shown by previous studies, results indicated that educational level had a significant effect on memory and metamemory, higher educational level was associated to better memory and metamemory capacities. At the MIA questionnaire, older adults with a high educational level affirmed using more internal and external strategies for learning, having higher motivation and perceiving less memory change with aging than older adults with a lower educational level. They also showed that the metamemory dimensions associated to the memory performance differed according to the educational level. For participants with a lower educational level, memory performance was correlated to the participants’ perception about their memory capacity and their knowledge about memory tasks, while for participants with a higher educational level, memory performance was correlated to the dimensions linked to memory control (strategies and motivation). Finally, the group effect was mediated by metamemory, specifically by the use of internal strategies. These results suggest that a prolonged educative experience would be associated to a better capacity to implement adapted strategies, which led individuals to maintain an optimal memory performance.     

The semantic/episodic distinction: The case for social information processing

The directed-forgetting paradigm was used in order to dissociate episodic from semantic processes in an impression formation task. Results demonstrate that incongruent behaviors are more prone to manipulations that disrupt episodic memory, whereas congruent behaviors are unaffected by such manipulations. The results suggest that the distinction between episodic and semantic memory processes is central for the understanding of social information processing. An explanation is put forward according to which the incongruency effect, a signature effect of impression formation, is due to an episodic encoding advantage for incongruent behaviors because of their semantically isolated nature, and their impoverished semantic encoding.     

Morality‐ and identity‐related antecedents of children's guilt and shame attributions in events involving physical illness

It is theorised that guilt‐ and shame‐related appraisals vary on two separate dimensions. Guilt implies an appraisal that one has either committed a moral transgression or that one has otherwise been involved in the creation of a morally wrong outcome. Shame implies one's appraisal that the current event or condition reflects negatively on one's identity. To test these claims, 206 7‐ to 16‐year‐old children gave shame and guilt ratings of three types of events that were drawn from the domain of physical illness and that were designed to elicit primarily guilt, primarily shame, or both emotions. The 12‐year‐olds and older children's ratings were fully consistent with our hypothesis. Younger children's greatest difficulty was in not attributing shame to protagonists who were involved in causing a moral wrong without there being the threat of an unwanted identity.