Adaptive memory: Animacy effects persist in paired-associate learning

Recent evidence suggests that animate stimuli are remembered better than matched inanimate stimuli. Two experiments tested whether this animacy effect persists in paired-associate learning of foreign words. Experiment 1 randomly paired Swahili words with matched animate and inanimate English words. Participants were told simply to learn the English “translations” for a later test. Replicating earlier findings using free recall, a strong animacy advantage was found in this cued-recall task. Concerned that the effect might be due to enhanced accessibility of the individual responses (e.g., animates represent a more accessible category), Experiment 2 selected animate and inanimate English words from two more constrained categories (four-legged animals and furniture). Once again, an advantage was found for pairs using animate targets. These results argue against organisational accounts of the animacy effect and potentially have implications for foreign language vocabulary learning.     

Adaptive memory: enhanced source memory for animate entities

ABSTRACT

The animacy effect refers to enhanced memory for animate over inanimate items. In two studies, we examined whether this memory advantage generalises to source memory. A multinomial processing tree model was used to disentangle item recognition, source memory, and guessing processes. In Study 1, animate and inanimate words were presented at different spatial locations on the screen. Animacy was associated with enhanced source memory for the spatial locations of the items. In Study 2, pseudowords were associated with animate and inanimate properties. Replicating previous results, the pseudowords were better remembered when they were associated with animate properties than when they were associated with inanimate properties. What is more, participants had enhanced source memory for the association between the pseudowords and the animate properties. The results strengthen the idea that animate items are associated with richer mnemonic representations than inanimate items.     

Intentional memory and online data collection: A test of the effects of animacy and threat on episodic memory

As research in the behavioural sciences increasingly relies on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) for recruiting participants, it is an empirical question whether an intentional memory experiment could be conducted online and whether performance of MTurk participants and college students would be comparable. College students and MTurk participants viewed threatening and nonthreatening items that were animate or inanimate and completed a recall test. Recent research indicates that human memory systems evolved to prioritise survival-relevant information, including animacy of items. The results of both studies indicated that participants recalled more animate than inanimate items and recalled more threatening items than nonthreatening items. The results indicate that it is possible to conduct memory experiments online and that results match patterns found in laboratory studies of the animacy effect (Nairne, VanArsdall, Pandeirada, Cogdill, & LeBreton, 2013), but that researchers should include safeguards to ensure the online participants are attending to and following directions.     

Emotional enhancement of immediate memory: Positive pictorial stimuli are better recognized than neutral or negative pictorial stimuli

We examined emotional memory enhancement (EEM) for negative and positive pictures while manipulating encoding and retrieval conditions. Two groups of 40 participants took part in this study. Both groups performed immediate implicit (categorization task) and explicit (recognition task) retrieval, but for one group the tasks were preceded by incidental encoding and for the other group by intentional encoding. As indicated by the sensitivity index (d'), after incidental encoding positive stimuli were easier to recognize than negative and neutral stimuli. Participants' response criterion was more liberal for negative stimuli than for both positive and neutral ones, independent of encoding condition. In the implicit retrieval task, participants were slower in categorizing positive than negative and neutral stimuli. However, the priming effect was larger for emotional than for neutral stimuli. These results are discussed in the context of the idea that the effect of emotion on immediate memory enhancement may depend on the intentionality to encode and retrieve information.     

The influence of intentional and incidental learning on acquiring spatial knowledge during navigation

In order to study the influence of intentional and incidental learning conditions on route learning, young adults walked a route through a university building. Half of the participants focused their attention on the route (intentional learning condition), while the other half did not (incidental learning condition). Five tests of spatial knowledge were employed: a route-length-estimation, landmark recognition, landmark ordering, map-drawing and navigation task. The intentional group performed better than the incidental group on the map-drawing and navigation task. No difference between the intentional and incidental group was found on the landmark-recognition and landmark-ordering task. Moreover, the intentional group overestimated the walking distance, while the incidental group underestimated it. These results suggest that route knowledge (landmark recognition and landmark ordering) requires less effortful processing than survey knowledge (developing a map-like representation and actual navigation).     

Animal models of source memory

Source memory is the aspect of episodic memory that encodes the origin (i.e., source) of information acquired in the past. Episodic memory (i.e., our memories for unique personal past events) typically involves source memory because those memories focus on the origin of previous events. Source memory is at work when, for example, someone tells a favorite joke to a person while avoiding retelling the joke to the friend who originally shared the joke. Importantly, source memory permits differentiation of one episodic memory from another because source memory includes features that were present when the different memories were formed. This article reviews recent efforts to develop an animal model of source memory using rats. Experiments are reviewed which suggest that source memory is dissociated from other forms of memory. The review highlights strengths and weaknesses of a number of animal models of episodic memory. Animal models of source memory may be used to probe the biological bases of memory. Moreover, these models can be combined with genetic models of Alzheimer's disease to evaluate pharmacotherapies that ultimately have the potential to improve memory.     

Vocabulary learning in primary school children: Working memory and long-term memory components

The goal of this study was to investigate which working memory and long-term memory components predict vocabulary learning. We used a nonword learning paradigm in which 8- to 10-year-olds learned picture-nonword pairs. The nonwords varied in length (two vs. four syllables) and phonology (native sounding vs. including one Russian phoneme). Short, phonologically native nonwords were learned best, whereas learning long nonwords leveled off after a few presentation cycles. Linear structural equation analyses showed an influence of three constructs—phonological sensitivity, vocabulary knowledge, and central attentional resources (M capacity)—on nonword learning, but the extent of their contributions depended on specific characteristics of the nonwords to be learned. Phonological sensitivity predicted learning of all nonword types except short native nonwords, vocabulary predicted learning of only short native nonwords, and M capacity predicted learning of short nonwords but not long nonwords. The discussion considers three learning processes—effortful activation of phonological representations, lexical mediation, and passive associative learning—that use different cognitive resources and could be involved in learning different nonword types.     

加工水平对普通话与粤语记忆语言依赖效应的影响

通过两个实验,考察了加工水平对普通话和粤语记忆语言依赖效应的影响。实验1考察了在有意学习中的记忆语言依赖效应。结果表明,测验的语言环境对再认有重要影响。被试在粤语测验环境下对学习过的韩国语词再认反应时短,误报率却低,辨别力强,“记得”反应占优势。实验2考察了无意学习中的记忆语言依赖效应。结果表明,被试在粤语测验环境下,对评定过的韩国语词再认反应时短,误报率却高,辨别力差,但“记得”反应占优势;但在普通话测验环境下,对评定过的韩国语词再认反应时长,误报率却低,辨别力强,“知道”和“猜测”反应增加。整个研究表明,记忆的语言依赖效应在有意学习和无意学习中都存在,但有不同的趋势,表明加工水平是影响普通话和粤语记忆语言依赖效应的重要变量     

Learning nonwords: the Hebb repetition effect as a model of word learning

Page and Norris [(2008). Is there a common mechanism underlying word-form learning and the Hebb repetition effect? Experimental data and a modelling framework. In A. Thorn &; M. P. A. Page (Eds.), Interactions between short-term and long-term memory in the verbal domain; (2009). A model linking immediate serial recall, the Hebb repetition effect and the learning of phonological word forms. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 364(1536), 3737–3753. doi:10.1098/rstb.2009.0173] have suggested that the Hebb [(1961). Distinctive features of learning in the higher animal. In J. F. Delafresnaye (Ed.), Brain mechanisms and learning (pp. 37–46). Oxford: Blackwell] repetition paradigm can be considered as a laboratory analogue of word learning. In Hebb learning experiments, the lists of items to be learned are presented as discrete sequences. In contrast, novel words are, by definition, always heard as a single coarticulated whole. Might this undermine the claim that Hebb learning can shed light on word learning? Here we report an experiment comparing learning sequences of isolated syllables with learning the same sequences spoken as a single coarticulated nonword. The pattern of learning was similar in the two cases, suggesting that the Hebb repetition paradigm can indeed provide valuable insights into the way novel word forms are learned.     

The change probability effect: incidental learning, adaptability, and shared visual working memory resources

Statistical properties in the visual environment can be used to improve performance on visual working memory (VWM) tasks. The current study examined the ability to incidentally learn that a change is more likely to occur to a particular feature dimension (shape, color, or location) and use this information to improve change detection performance for that dimension (the change probability effect). Participants completed a change detection task in which one change type was more probable than others. Change probability effects were found for color and shape changes, but not location changes, and intentional strategies did not improve the effect. Furthermore, the change probability effect developed and adapted to new probability information quickly. Finally, in some conditions, an improvement in change detection performance for a probable change led to an impairment in change detection for improbable changes.     

儿童早期工作记忆与数学学习的关系

以往研究认为工作记忆对数学学习很重要,但是以往工作记忆和早期数学学习的关系研究结果并不一致。本研究运用元分析的方法回顾了33篇独立研究,含307项相关系数作为效应值,总被试量为42423名平均年龄3~8岁的儿童,旨在探讨工作记忆的3个主成分PL(语音回路)、VSSP(视觉空间画板)、CE(中央执行)与数学学习不同方面之间的关系,以及样本年龄对工作记忆和数学学习相关程度的调节作用。结果显示:工作记忆与数学学习确实存在强相关,工作记忆子成分中,CE与数学学习平均相关的程度最强。并且,CE与数学学习不同方面之间的相关程度不存在显著差异,PL、VSSP与数运算的相关程度比数概念更强,存在显著差异。样本年龄对CE、PL与数学学习之间相关关系存在显著调节作用,对VSSP与数学学习之间的相关关系不存在显著调节作用。文献梳理还发现,以往研究对数学学习的考察,大都聚焦数概念、数运算的内容,未来研究需要关注几何与空间、测量等方面内容。     

Phases of procedural learning and memory: characterisation with perceptual-motor sequence tasks

ABSTRACT

Procedural learning and memory has been conceptualised as consisting of cognitive and autonomous phases. Although the Serial Reaction Time Task (SRTT) is a popular task used to study procedural memory (PM), it has not been used to explore the different phases of PM. The present study employed a modified SRTT and investigated whether it can distinguish phases of PM. Our results revealed that performance at the beginning of typing a repeating sequence was marked by a steep learning curve, followed by gradual improvements and ending in high performance levels without further improvement. Steep performance increases characterise the effortful learning of the cognitive phase, gradual increases at higher performances characterise emerging automatisation of the associative phase, and sustained highest performance characterises autonomous procedures when PM has formed. Our study presents an easy-to-use measure, capable of distinguishing phases of PM, and which can be useful to assess PM during brain development.     

Individual differences in emotional intelligence and incidental memory of words1

Participants were required to complete the Japanese version of the Emotional Skills and Competence Questionnaire ( Toyota, Morita, & Tak?i?, 2007 ) to assess their level of emotional intelligence. Then they were asked to rate the pleasantness of an episode that each target reminded them of, followed by unexpected free recall tests. Participants with high emotional intelligence recalled targets with pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant episodes equally. However, for participants with low emotional intelligence, targets with neutral episodes were recalled less than those with pleasant or unpleasant ones. These results were interpreted as showing that the level of emotional intelligence determined the effectiveness of neutral episodes on targets as retrieval cues.     

Phase-specific relationships between team learning processes and transactive memory development

With this study we seek to contribute to the research on the emergence of transactive memory, that is, the knowledge of “who knows what”, as part of the structural component of transactive memory systems (TMSs). Based on our theoretical model of team learning and transactive memory development, we analyse the relationships among different team learning behaviours and transactive memory during various phases of team development. We use a longitudinal design with three points of measurement at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of a semester, to examine real student project teams over their full life cycle. The results support our presumptions of phase-specific influences of team learning behaviours on transactive memory development. This shows that knowledge-based processes (storage and retrieval) play a more important role during early stages of project-based teamwork, followed by a shift to a higher relevance of communication-based processes (reflection and co-construction) in later stages. Implications for further research and team management phenomena are discussed.     

催产素对学习和记忆的调节效应：来自动物与人类的研究证据

作为一种神经肽, 催产素对于个体社会认知和情绪加工有着非常重要的调节作用, 其中就包括对在人们工作和生活中扮演着关键角色的学习和记忆活动的影响。采用不同模态技术的动物和人类研究一致表明了外源性催产素对于学习和记忆具有重要的调节作用, 这一作用可能是外源性催产素通过与多巴胺奖赏通路、边缘系统等学习和记忆关键脑网络中广泛分布的催产素受体相结合, 进而调整其功能状态实现的; 但与此同时, 催产素对学习和记忆的促进或抑制作用会因实验范式、刺激材料、给药时间、位置和剂量等因素的不同而存在差异。未来需要协同动物和人类研究的各自优势, 采用规范化的实验任务设置和给药程序克服当前该领域的研究局限, 并积极发掘催产素在干预相关精神疾病患者学习和记忆加工缺陷中的应用潜力。     

The effect of bilingualism on lexical learning and memory across two language modalities: some evidence for a domain-specific,but not general,advantage

ABSTRACT

The present study was conducted to replicate bilingual advantages in short-term memory for language-like material and word learning in young adults and extend this research to the sign domain, ultimately with the goal of investigating the domain specificity of bilingual advantages in cognition. Data from 112 monolingual hearing non-signers and 78 bilingual hearing non-signers were analysed for this study. Participants completed a battery of tasks assessing sign and word learning, short-term memory, working memory capacity, intelligence, and a language and demographic questionnaire. Overall, the results of this study suggested a bilingual advantage in memory for speech-like material – no other advantage (or disadvantage) was found. Results are discussed within the context of recent large-scale experimental and meta-analytic studies that have failed to find bilingual advantages in domain-general abilities such as attention control and working memory capacity in young adults.     

Water can induce better spatial memory performance than food in radial maze learning by rats1

Abstract: Two experiments were carried out to test the differential effects of hunger and thirst on memory performance. In Experiment 1, two groups of rats were exposed to an original radial‐maze task and then to a 30‐min retention‐memory task. The food‐deprived group completed the original task more quickly than the water‐deprived group, but the thirsty group mastered the memory task more quickly than the hungry group (p < 0.01). In Experiment 2, deprivation conditions were changed from the original to the memory task. The food‐water group completed the memory task more rapidly than the water‐food group (p < 0.05). Thirst proved to constitute a more favorable condition for retention‐memory learning. The applicability of several theories is discussed.     

Episodic memory and the hippocampus: it's about time

Several recent studies have sought to develop animal models of episodic memory, the capacity to recollect unique personal experiences. However, these studies have not yet provided unambiguous evidence that this capacity is based on recollection of the learning episodes. A recent study that examined memory for the ordering of events within unique experiences, and demonstrated a critical and selective role for the hippocampus, suggests a new and promising model for neurobiological analyses of episodic memory.