Gender and emotion in everyday event memory

While women often recall more detailed and socially oriented event memories than men, it is not clear at which stage of remembering such gender differences emerge. This study investigated this question in a sample of young adults (N=60). A random sampling method was used where participants received a text message three times a day during a 1-week period and were asked to record as soon as they read the message what was happening during the past 30 minutes. At the end of the week they received a surprise memory test for the events that they had recorded. Compared with men, women recorded a greater number of event details at the encoding phase and provided more detailed and accurate memories at the delayed recall, although there was no gender difference in the forgetting function during retention. Gender difference in the social orientation of memory was not apparent until recall. In addition the effects of emotion intensity and valence were observed on the detailedness, accuracy, and content of memory. The findings shed new light on the mechanisms underlying gender differences in episodic memory.     

工作记忆中的词长效应

工作记忆中的词长效应是指在即时序列回忆中短单词列的成绩优于长单词列的现象。该文首先回顾与词长效应有关的实验研究及阐述对应的理论解释,包括经典的语音回路理论和新近提出的特征模型、整合理论、项目位置权衡理论和SIMPLE理论等,然后介绍在这一方面运用脑成像技术研究的进展,如ERP,PET和fMRI方面的研究,为词长效应理论解释提供了进一步的证据,接着讨论词长效应研究中存在的争议,最后简评各主要理论并展望了今后研究的趋势     

Different patterns of recollection impairment in confabulation reveal different disorders of consciousness: A multiple case study

Recollection is used to refer to the active process of setting up retrieval cues, evaluating the outcome, and systematically working toward a representation of a past experience that we find acceptable.In this study we report on three patients showing different patterns of confabulation affecting recollection and consciousness differentially. All patients confabulated in the episodic past domain. However, whereas in one patient confabulation affected only recollection of events concerning his personal past, present and future, in another patient confabulation also affected recollection of impersonal knowledge. The third patient showed an intermediate pattern of confabulation, which affected selectively the retrieval of past information, both personal and impersonal. We suggest that our results are in favor of a fractionation of processes involved in recollection underling different disorders of consciousness.     

Mental time travel: Effects of trial duration on episodic and semantic content

Studies exploring mental time travel commonly use cue-word paradigms to elicit past and future autobiographical events. However, the effect of trial duration (how long participants are allowed to describe events) on the relationship between episodic and nonepisodic detail and episodic specificity (i.e., whether longer durations increase event specificity) has not been examined. To resolve these issues, a cue-word study was devised whereby participants described past and future events under three randomly administered time constraints: short (1-min), standard (3-min), and long (5-min) durations. Findings indicated that an individual's capacity for episodic and nonepisodic thought for the past and future were unrelated. This lends supports to the idea that independent mechanisms are responsible for episodic and semantic information. This study also offers clarity concerning the effect of different trial durations on episodic specificity, which may aid the design of future studies of mental time travel.     

The role of primordial emotions in the evolutionary origin of consciousness

Primordial emotions are the subjective element of the instincts which are the genetically programmed behaviour patterns which contrive homeostasis. They include thirst, hunger for air, hunger for food, pain and hunger for specific minerals etc.There are two constituents of a primordial emotion—the specific sensation which when severe may be imperious, and the compelling intention for gratification by a consummatory act. They may dominate the stream of consciousness, and can have plenipotentiary power over behaviour.It is hypothesized that early in animal evolution complex reflex mechanisms in the basal brain subserving homeostatic responses, in concert with elements of the reticular activating system subserving arousal, melded functionally with regions embodied in the progressive rostral development of the telencephalon. This included the emergent limbic and paralimbic areas, and the insula. This phylogenetically ancient organization subserved the origin of consciousness as the primordial emotion, which signalled that the organisms existence was immediately threatened. Neuroimaging confirms major activations in regions of the basal brain during primordial emotions in humans. The behaviour of decorticate humans and animals is discussed in relation to the possible existence of primitive awareness.Neuroimaging of the primordial emotions reveals that rapid gratification of intention by a consummatory act such as ingestion causes precipitate decline of both the initiating sensation and the intention. There is contemporaneous rapid disappearance of particular regions of brain activation which suggests they may be part of the jointly sufficient and severally necessary activations and deactivations which correlate with consciousness [Crick, F. & Koch, C. (2003). A framework for consciousness. Nature Neuroscience, 6, 119–126].     

The self in autobiographical memory: Effects of self-salience on narrative content and structure

Contemporary models of autobiographical memory attribute a prominent role to the conceptualisation of the self. In an attempt to better understand the impact of the self as an organising feature of autobiographical memory, narratives of personal episodes were elicited, either after a questionnaire about the self (self-prime condition) or after a distractor task (control condition). Participants also wrote a narrative of a turning-point memory, which is by definition a self-focused narrative. Narratives were divided into propositions and analysed for the types of statements used. As predicted, when writing self-focused turning-point narratives participants included more statements relating to the meaning of an event and connecting it to the self, and fewer statements focusing on the who, what, where, and when of the narrative. Narratives written after the self-prime also demonstrated characteristics that were similar to turning-point narratives, although not on all measures. This shift in narrative focus in turning-point and self-primed memory narratives indicates an increased attempt to fulfil goals of coherence rather than correspondence (Conway, 2005). These findings lend insight into the nature of the relationship between the semantic conceptualisation of the self, and the process of retrieving event-specific knowledge in episodic memory.     

Retrieval-induced forgetting of negative stimuli: The role of emotional intensity

Repeatedly retrieving a subset of previously studied items can cause forgetting of related non-retrieved material. We examined whether such retrieval-induced forgetting holds also for negative material. Participants studied neutral and negative stimuli and then repeatedly retrieved a subset of the neutral material. Later, a recall test was conducted in which participants were asked to recall all previously studied items. On average, retrieval practice on the neutral items caused the same amount of forgetting for neutral and negative items, indicating that the emotionality of material does not affect retrieval-induced forgetting. More detailed analysis, however, revealed that the forgetting of negative items decreased with both the emotional intensity of a negative item and the dispositional negative affectivity of a participant. The decreases in retrieval-induced forgetting may have been driven by item-specific processing of material, which is known to be enhanced for highly negative stimuli and participants high in dispositional negative affectivity and to reduce or even eliminate retrieval-induced forgetting.     

Prevalence and determinants of direct and generative modes of production of episodic future thoughts in the word cueing paradigm

Recent research suggests that episodic future thoughts can be formed through the same dual mechanisms, direct and generative, as autobiographical memories. However, the prevalence and determinants of the direct production of future event representations remain unclear. Here, we addressed this issue by collecting self-reports of production modes, response times (RTs), and verbal protocols for the production past and future events in the word cueing paradigm. Across three experiments, we found that both past and future events were frequently reported to come directly to mind in response to the cue, and RTs confirmed that events were produced faster for direct than for generative responses. When looking at the determinants of direct responses, we found that most past and future events that were directly produced had already been thought of on a previous occasion, and the frequency of previous thoughts predicted the occurrence of direct access. The direct production of autobiographical thoughts was also more frequent for past and future events that were judged important and emotionally intense. Collectively, these findings provide novel evidence that the direct production of episodic future thoughts is frequent in the word cueing paradigm and often involves the activation of personally significant “memories of the future.”     

Emotion matters: The influence of valence on episodic future thinking in young and older adults

In young adults, valence not only alters the degree to which future events are imagined in rich episodic detail, but also how memorable these events are later on. For older adults, how valence influences episodic detail generation while imagining future events, or recalling these details at another time, remains unclear. We investigated the effect of valence on the specificity and memorability of episodic future thinking (EFT) in young and older adults. Among young and older adults, negative EFT was accompanied by less episodic detail generation relative to positive and neutral EFT. A similar reduction in episodic specificity for negative EFT was found two days later when participants recalled their previously imagined events. Notably, while older adults generated less episodically specific future thoughts relative to young adults, age did not influence the effect of valence on episodic detail generation at imagination or recollection.     

Changing the working self alters the emotions prompted by recall

Results from three studies indicated that emotional responses to memories can be changed by altering the working self. In particular, these results showed that emotional reactions to memories: (1) were especially positive when memories were perceived to be central to the working self (Experiment 1); (2) were muted when the working self was changed by adopting a third-person perspective during recall (Experiment 1); (3) of an event in the life of each participant's mother weakened when an individual was induced to experience a self that felt less close to their mother (Experiment 2) and (4) of a childhood event provoked especially positive emotional reactions after exposure to a mortality salience manipulation that increased perceived self-worth (Experiment 3). The extent to which mother was included in the self (Experiment 2) and self-worth (Experiment 3) plausibly mediated the effects of the manipulations on participants' emotional reactions to recalled events.     

Effects of approach and withdrawal motivation on interactive economic decisions

Although recent economic models of human decision making have recognised the role of emotion as an important biasing factor, the impact of incidental emotion on decisions has remained poorly explored. To address this question, we jointly explored the role of emotional valence (i.e., positive vs. negative) and motivational direction (i.e., approach vs. avoidance) on performance in a well-known economic task, the Ultimatum Game. Participants had to either accept or reject monetary offers from other players, offers that vary in their degree of unfairness. A main effect of motivational direction, but not valence, was observed, with withdrawal-based emotion (disgust and serenity) prompting more rejections relative to approach-based emotion (anger and amusement) and a neutral state. These results further confirm that subtle incidental moods can bias decision making, and suggest that motivational state may be a useful framework to study such decisions. Implications with regard to emotion, cognitive neuroscience, and clinical psychology are discussed.     

内隐记忆中通道效应的认知与神经机制

通道转换是使内隐和外显记忆任务之间产生功能性分离经常操纵的典型变量之一,被看作是内隐记忆主要依赖刺激知觉住处加工的有利语气。该文回顾了近些年通道效应实验和理论研究的有关文献。对产生通道效应的认知机制和神经解剖基础进行了总结和分析,并提出了有待于进一步验证的问题。     

熟练双语者工作记忆中的反词长效应

目的:采用及时回忆任务,考察在第二语言条件下熟练双语者工作记忆中的词长效应。方法:采用E-Prime软件编程,3×3混合实验设计,被试为熟练民汉双语者。结果:词频为8和20条件下,被试对三字词的回忆成绩优于单字词,出现了反词长效应;词频为30条件下,单字词与三字词的回忆成绩没有显著差异。讨论中用全词假说及双语整合层次模型对这一现象作了解释。     

Episodic memory and episodic foresight in 3- and 5-year-old children

In the present study, we examined the development of episodic memory and episodic foresight. Three- and 5-year-olds were interviewed individually using a personalised timeline that included photographs of them at different points in their life. After constructing the timeline with the experimenter, each child was asked to discuss a number of different events: an event that happened yesterday, an event that happened earlier today, an event that would happen later today, and an event that would happen tomorrow. As judged by their parents, children's accounts were highly accurate. After controlling for age and language scores, there was a strong relation between amount of information reported about past and future events. Overall, 5-year-olds reported more total information than 3-year-olds; however, reports by 3-year-olds included a similar proportion of first-person reference as did reports by 5-year-olds. No age difference appeared in proportion of future-oriented talk. We conclude that the present task provides a promising method of exploring the emergence of mental time travel during early childhood.     

Articulatory and Phonological Determinants of Word Length Effects in Span Tasks

Several previous studies have shown that memory span is greater for short words than for long words. This effect is claimed to occur even when the short and long words are matched for the number of syllables and phonemes and so to provide evidence for subvocal articulation as being one mechanism that underlies memory span (Baddeley, Thomson, & Buchanan, 1975). The three experiments reported in this paper further investigate the articulatory determinants of word length effects on span tasks. Experiment 1 replicated Baddeley et al.'s finding of an effect of word length on auditory and visual span when the stimuli consist of words that differ in terms of the number of syllables. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that the effects of word length are eliminated when the words in the span task are matched for the number of syllables and phonemes but differ with respect to the duration and/or complexity of their articulatory gestures. These results indicate that it is the phonological structure of a word and not features of its actual articulation that determines the magnitude of the word length effect in span tasks.     

Distinguishing between the success and precision of recollection

Recollection reflects the retrieval of complex qualitative information about prior events. Recently, Harlow and Donaldson developed a method for separating the probability of recollection success from the precision of the mnemonic information retrieved. In the current study, we ask if these properties are separable on the basis of subjective reports—are participants aware of these two aspects of recollection and can they reliably report on them? Participants studied words paired with a location on a circle outline, and at test recalled the location for a given word as accurately as possible. Additionally, participants provided separate subjective ratings of recollection confidence and recollection precision. The results indicated that participants either recollected the target location with considerable (but variable) precision or retrieved no accurate location information at all. Importantly, recollection confidence reliably predicted whether locations were recollected, while precision ratings instead reflected the precision of the locations retrieved. The results demonstrate the experimental separability of recollection success and precision, and highlight the importance of disentangling these two different aspects of recollection when examining episodic memory.     

The effects of gender on the retrieval of episodic and semantic components of autobiographical memory

Despite consistent evidence that women exhibit greater episodic memory specificity than men, little attention has been paid to gender differences in the production of episodic details during autobiographical recall under conditions of high and low retrieval support. Similarly the role of gender on the production of semantic details used to support autobiographical memory recollections of specific events has been largely unexplored. In the present study an undergraduate sample of 50 men and 50 women were assessed using the Autobiographical Interview (Levine, Svoboda, Hay, Winocur, & Moscovitch, 2002). Women recalled more episodic information compared to men in the high retrieval support condition, whereas no gender differences were found in the low retrieval support condition. In addition, women produced more repetitions compared to men in the high retrieval support condition. No gender differences were found in the production of semantic details. These results are interpreted in terms of gender differences in encoding and reminiscence practices. This research adds to the literature on gender differences in memory recall and suggests that gender is an important variable in explaining individual differences in AM recall.     

Perceived emotion suppression and culture: Effects on psychological well‐being

Whether the negative effects of emotion suppression on psychological well‐being are applicable cross‐culturally is a long‐debated topic. The present study attempted to shed light on this debate, focusing on the effects of perceived emotion suppression and examining the psychological processes leading from perceived emotion suppression to lower psychological well‐being. We used a scale manipulation to lead 196 American and 213 Chinese participants to perceive themselves as having suppressed their emotions to a greater or lesser extent and then measured their life satisfaction. As expected, both the American and Chinese participants reported lower life satisfaction in the high‐suppression condition than in the low‐suppression condition; this negative effect was mediated by positive affect and moderated by self‐esteem. Specifically, perceived high emotion suppression decreased positive affect, which in turn led to lower well‐being. This effect was observed only for those with low self‐esteem, but the patterns and mechanisms were consistent cross‐culturally.     

Effects of Self‐Affirmation,Narratives, and Informational Messages in Reducing Unrealistic Optimism About Alcohol‐Related Problems Among College Students

This study examines intervention approaches to improve the accuracy of risk judgments among college students with unrealistic optimism about alcohol‐related problems. We conducted a randomized experiment with 2 self‐affirmation (affirmed, nonaffirmed) and 3 message conditions (narrative, informational, no treatment control). Results indicate that providing risk information to unrealistic optimists, while concomitantly protecting their self‐concept via either self‐affirmation or narratives, may reduce defensive reactions and align their perceived risk more closely with their actual risk. Self‐affirmation reduced unrealistic optimism only among those exposed to an informational message, not those exposed to a narrative. The narrative message appeared to increase perceived risk among unrealistic optimists via transportation and identification with the character. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of this work.     

Episodic future thinking: Linking neuropsychological performance with episodic detail in young and old adults

Episodic future thinking (EFT) has been linked with our ability to remember past events. However, its specific neurocognitive subprocesses have remained elusive. In Experiment 1, a study of healthy older adults was conducted to investigate the candidate subprocesses of EFT. Participants completed a standard EFT cue word task, two memory measures (Verbal Paired Associates I, Source Memory), and two measures of executive function (Trail Making Test, Tower Test). In Experiment 2, healthy young adults also completed an EFT task and neuropsychological measures. The link between neurocognitive measures and five characteristics of EFT was investigated. Specifically, it was found that Source Memory and Trail Making Test performance predicted the episodic specificity of future events in older but not younger adults. Replicating previous findings, older adults produced future events with greater semantic but fewer episodic details than did young adults. These results extend the data and emphasize the importance of the multiple subprocesses underlying EFT.