Item Interference and Time Delays in Working Memory: Immediate Serial Recall

Limitations on immediate recall span have been related by some to temporal limitations of an articulatory rehearsal loop (Baddeley, 1986), and by others to retroactive interference from subsequent items (Lewandowsky & Murdock, 1989; Neath & Nairne, 1995). In the current study, the number of intervening items and retention delays were partially decoupled by varying presentation rate and materials sets. Recently, memory span effects often attributed to temporal limits in rehearsal were shown to be directly related to the output delays during the act of recall (Dosher & Ma, 1998). A functional model of working memory provides a framework within which to evaluate the relative contributions of item interference and retention delays in the accuracy of recall at each serial position. Output delays during recall and interference from items during study were the primary factors in limiting recall, with small additional effects of time delays during study.     

Honeybee Memory: Navigation by Associative Grouping and Recall of Visual Stimuli

Studies of navigation in bees and ants are beginning to reveal that foraging insects traveling repeatedly to a food source navigate by using a series of visual images of the environment acquired en route (Collett, 1996; Collett et al., 1993; Judd & Collett, 1998; Wehner et al., 1990, 1996). By comparing the currently viewed scene with the appropriate stored image, the insect is able to ascertain whether or not it is on the correct path and make any necessary corrections. If a bee happens to forage at more than one site, then she needs not only to memorize a separate set of images for each route that she has learned but also to retrieve the set of images that is appropriate to each route. Here we examine the bee's capacity to learn and later retrieve from memory two different sets of visual stimuli. Bees were trained to fly through a compound Y-maze where they were presented alternately with two different sequences of visual stimuli on their route to a food reward. We find that bees can indeed store two different sequences of images simultaneously. Furthermore, the trained bees are able to classify the memorized images into two groups, one pertaining to each three-stimulus set. Exposure to any of the images pertaining to one set triggers recall of all of the other images associated with that set. Associative grouping and recall of visual stimuli, demonstrated here for the first time in honeybees, provide an effective means of retrieving the appropriate navigational information from memory.     

The Influence of Long-term Memory Factors on Immediate Serial Recall: An Item and Order Analysis

In immediate serial recall, an error can occur because the presented item is not recalled (item error) or because it is recalled at the wrong serial position (order error). Even if these two types of information can be selectively influenced, in most current studies, a global performance measure confounding item and order information is used. Here, the issues associated with the measure of memory for item and order information are discussed. First, it is argued that in some circumstances it is very important that item information be controlled for when measuring order retention, by for example, conditionalizing order memory on memory for item information. Second, using such measures, it is shown that long-term memory factors recently investigated in immediate serial recall produce a different pattern of results than what is predicted by most current models: Semantic similarity, word frequency, and lexicality all influence item recall, but only lexicality affects order information. These findings are discussed in the light of a retrieval-based account suggesting that degraded phonological traces must undergo a reconstruction process calling upon long-term knowledge of the to-be-remembered items.     

Unchained Memory: Error Patterns Rule out Chaining Models of Immediate Serial Recall

Many models of serial recall assume a chaining mechanism whereby each item associatively evokes the next in sequence. Chaining predicts that, when sequences comprise alternating confusable and non-confusable items, confusable items should increase the probability of errors in recall of following non-confusable items. Two experiments using visual presentation and one using vocalized presentation test this prediction and demonstrate that: (1) more errors occur in recall of confusable than alternated non-confusable items, revealing a 'sawtooth' in serial position curves; (2) the presence of confusable items often has no influence on recall of the non-confusable items; and (3) the confusability of items does not affect the type of errors that follow them. These results are inconsistent with the chaining hypothesis. Further analysis of errors shows that most transpositions occur over short distances (the locality constraint), confusable items tend to interchange (the similarity constraint), and repeated responses are rare and far apart (the repetition constraint). The complete pattern of errors presents problems for most current models of serial recall, whether or not they employ chaining. An alternative model is described that is consistent with these constraints and that simulates the detailed pattern of errors observed.     

记忆中专长效应的理论发展述评

1 引言专家借助专门领域的知识或技能,能快速而有效地记忆该领域的信息,这就是记忆中专长效应(expertise effeets inmemory recall)。对记忆中专长效应的科学研究,最早可追溯到二十世纪初。三位俄罗斯教授(Djakow,Rudik,petrovsky,1925)曾在实验室中研究了8位超一流国际象棋棋手的记忆能力,并得出结论,大师的非凡记忆能力并非在任何材料上都得到体现。这一研究与其它早期探究专家记忆的研究一起,促使研究者开始探讨记忆中专长效应的内在机制或思维     

Effects of Age on the Temporal Organization of Working Memory in Deaf Signers

ABSTRACT

Deaf native signers have a general working memory (WM) capacity similar to that of hearing non-signers but are less sensitive to the temporal order of stored items at retrieval. General WM capacity declines with age, but little is known of how cognitive aging affects WM function in deaf signers. We investigated WM function in elderly deaf signers (EDS) and an age-matched comparison group of hearing non-signers (EHN) using a paradigm designed to highlight differences in temporal and spatial processing of item and order information. EDS performed worse than EHN on both item and order recognition using a temporal style of presentation. Reanalysis together with earlier data showed that with the temporal style of presentation, order recognition performance for EDS was also lower than for young adult deaf signers. Older participants responded more slowly than younger participants. These findings suggest that apart from age-related slowing irrespective of sensory and language status, there is an age-related difference specific to deaf signers in the ability to retain order information in WM when temporal processing demands are high. This may be due to neural reorganisation arising from sign language use. Concurrent spatial information with the Mixed style of presentation resulted in enhanced order processing for all groups, suggesting that concurrent temporal and spatial cues may enhance learning for both deaf and hearing groups. These findings support and extend the WM model for Ease of Language Understanding.     

Working Memory for Temporal and Nontemporal Events in Monkeys

This is the first report that introduces appropriate behavioral tasks for monkeys for investigations of working memory for temporal and nontemporal events. Using several behavioral tests, the study also shows how temporal information is coded during retention intervals in the tasks. Each of three monkeys was trained with two working memory tasks: delayed matching-to-sample of stimulus duration (DMS-D) and delayed matching-to-sample of stimulus color (DMS-C). The two tasks employed an identical apparatus and responses and differed only in the temporal and nontemporal attribute of the stimuli to be retained for correct performance. When a retention interval between the sample and comparison stimuli was prolonged, the monkeys made more incorrect responses to short samples in the DMS-C task, suggesting “trace decay” of memory for short stimuli. However, the same monkeys showed no such increase in incorrect responses to short samples in the DMS-D task, suggesting active coding of temporal information, that is, the length of stimulus duration, during the retention interval. When variable lengths of samples were presented with a fixed retention interval, the monkeys made more incorrect responses when length differences between short and long samples were small in the DMS-D task, but not in the DMS-C task. This suggests that the codes of working memory retained in the DMS-D task were not absolute (analogical) but rather were relative (categorical) and related to differences in the duration of the samples.     

Memory for Related and Unrelated Words: Further Evidence on the Influence of Semantic Factors in Immediate Serial Recall

A number of recent studies have explored the role of long-term memory factors in memory span tasks. The effects of lexicality, frequency, imageability, and word class have been investigated. The work reported in this paper examined the effect of semantic organization on the recall of short lists of words. Specifically, the influence of semantic category on immediate serial recall and the interaction of this variable with articulatory suppression was investigated in three experiments. Experiment 1 compared immediate serial recall performance when lists comprising items from the same semantic category were used (homogeneous condition) with a situation where lists held items from different semantic categories. Experiment 2 examined the same conditions with and without articulatory suppression during item presentation, and Experiment 3 reproduced these conditions with suppression occurring throughout presentation and recall. Results of all three experiments showed a clear advantage for the homogeneous condition. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that the homogeneous category advantage did not depend on the articulatory loop. Furthermore, error analysis indicated that this effect was mainly attributable to better item information recall for the homogeneous condition. These results are interpreted as reflecting a long-term memory contribution to the recall stage of immediate serial recall tasks.     

时序信息和空间信息在工作记忆中的分离存储

采用相对新近性判断范式（judgments of relative recency）,通过三个实验探讨了工作记忆中时序信息和空间信息的存储方式及其关系。实验一比较了有无空间线索两种条件下时序信息的记忆绩效,结果发现,有无空间线索并不影响对时序信．E-的记忆。实验二和实验三通过控制刺激呈现的视野范围和减少呈现位置的不确定性来利化空间线索,结果表明,时序信息的记忆绩效也不受空间线索的影响。由此推论,工作记忆中的时序信息和空间信息是分离编码存储的,加入空间线索并不能提高时序信息的记忆绩效。     

Differential Effects of Ecstasy on Short-Term and Working Memory: A Meta-Analysis

Quantitative analysis of studies examining the effect of ecstasy on short-term and working memory in the verbal and visuo-spatial domain was undertaken. Thirty verbal short-term memory, 22 verbal working memory, 12 visuospatial short-term memory and 9 visuospatial working memory studies met inclusion criteria. Ecstasy users performed significantly worse in all memory domains, both in studies using drug-naïve controls and studies using polydrug controls. These results are consistent with previous meta-analytic findings that ecstasy use is associated with impaired short-term memory function. Lifetime ecstasy consumption predicted effect size in working memory but not in short-term memory. The current meta-analysis adds to the literature by showing that ecstasy use in humans is also associated with impaired working memory, and that this impairment is related to total lifetime ecstasy consumption. These findings highlight the long-term, cumulative behavioral consequences associated with ecstasy use in humans.     

Effects of Temporal Lobe Lesions on Retrograde Memory: A Critical Review

Scientific interest in retrograde memory has grown considerably over the last two decades. Studies have demonstrated that several brain regions, including the temporal lobes, participate in the formation, maintenance and storage of past memories. Different patterns and extents of retrograde memory deficits have been recorded in patients with temporal lobe lesions. It has been argued that the pattern of retrograde memory deficits is determined not only by the side and specific location of lesion within this region, but also by methodology, medical variables (such as etiology or seizure history), and coexisting cognitive deficits. In this paper we will review published case and group studies of patients with temporal lobe lesions to evaluate the impact of these factors on retrograde memory.     

A SPoARC in the Dark: Spatialization in Verbal Immediate Memory

In 2011, van Dijck and Fias described a positional SNARC (Spatial‐Numerical Association of Response Codes) effect: the SPoARC (Spatial‐Positional Association of Response Codes). To‐be‐remembered items (e.g., numbers, words) presented centrally on a screen seemed to acquire a left‐to‐right spatial dimension. If confirmed, this spatialization could be crucial for immediate memory theories. However, given the intricate links between visual and spatial dimensions, this effect could be due to the visual presentation (on a computer screen), which could have probed the left‐to‐right direction of reading/writing. To allow a generalization of this effect, we adapted van Dijck and Fias's (2011) task using an auditory version of Sternberg's paradigm. Lists of five consonants were auditorily presented at a rate of 3 s/item. A SPoARC effect was observed. The consequences are discussed first from an immediate memory perspective, putting forward the view that order could be coded through spatialization, and then in terms of similarities between SPoARC and SNARC.     

Working Memory for Item and Temporal Information in Younger and Older Adults

ABSTRACT

Two experiments examined age differences in mechanisms hypothesized to affect activation of item and temporal information in working memory. Activation levels were inferred from the ability to reject n-back lures matching items in different temporal positions. Information with the least decay had a performance advantage over less recent information, but was susceptible to the same temporal context errors found in all adjacent-to-target lure positions. Lures most distant from the current item showed a performance rebound. The pattern of increased magnitudes of age effects at adjacent-to-target positions indicated a reduction in older adults' working memory for temporal context information above and beyond item memory declines. Results overall support the emphasis on context information as a critical factor in working memory and cognitive aging.     

Working Memory Constraints on Linear Reasoning with Spatial and Temporal Contents

The present article reports two experiments testing the use of working memory components during reasoning with temporal and spatial relations in four-term series problems. In the first experiment four groups of subjects performed reasoning tasks with temporal and with spatial contents either without (control) or with a secondary task (articulatory suppression, visuospatial suppression or central executive suppression). The second experiment tested the secondary task effects in a within-subjects design either on problems with a spatial content or on problems with a temporal content, and within each content domain either under conditions of self-paced or of fixed presentation of the premises. Both experiments found effects of all three secondary tasks on reasoning accuracy. This supports the hypothesis that the subjects construct spatial representations of the premise information with the support of visuo-spatial resources of working memory. The second experiment also showed that during premise intake, only visuo-spatial and central executive secondary tasks had an effect. The implications of the data for the working memory requirements of reasoning and for theories of linear reasoning are discussed.     

Immediate and short memory: Recall of simple auditory stimuli

Experiments were carried out on conditions affecting the successful recall of simple, non-verbalised auditory stimuli. The effectiveness of recall of a given stimulus was measured by the ability to assess the pitch of one stimulus as compared to another stimulus presented after an interval of given length. The results indicate that the storage in memory of a simple auditory stimulus is possible, even in the case of pairs of stimuli separated in time by more than 5 min. In all experiments (stimuli differing by 2 semitones or by one semitone, and equal in intensity, or differing by ± 25 dB) the curve of errors shows a sharp increase when the interval between the two stimuli is 80 sec. It is possible that this sudden deterioration in the effectiveness of recall is connected with same alteration of the mechanism of memory. It is postulated that this alteration is due to a “switch-over” from immediate memory to short-term memory. The analysis of the errors shows that in certain circumstances there is a tendency towards a marked preponderance of errors resulting from underestimation rather than from overestimation of the first stimulus. This preponderance is obtained when we have pairs of equal loudness and it is even more marked when the first stimulus is softer than the second, and it is decreases when the first stimulus is louder than the second. These results suggest that in differentiating pitches of stimuli (in the 700–2000 Hz band) presented one after the other at certain fixed intervals of time, we are to find a phenomenon analogous to the classic time error found in estimations of loudness.     

客体工作记忆任务中大脑皮层活动的记忆负荷效应

利用128导事件相关电位技术,采用延迟匹配任务的实验范式,测查了20名正常被试完成不同负荷客体任务时的皮层慢电位（slow cortical potentials,简称sp成分）,实验发现：背侧前额叶在刺激呈现后的700ms到1400ms出现记忆负荷效应,高负荷任务诱发的sp成分显著负于低负荷任务;低负荷任务诱发的sp成分在左前额区（500~1800ms）、左前额-中央区（700~1800ms）、左中央-顶叶区（1000~1400s和1800~4800ms）、右前额区（1800~4800ms）和右前额-中央区（1400~4800ms）显著负于高负荷任务,出现记忆负荷效应,但这种负荷效应在左右大脑半球所反映的心理意义可能不同     

Sentence Complexity and Working Memory Effects in Ambiguity Resolution

Two self-paced reading experiments using a paraphrase decision task paradigm were performed to investigate how sentence complexity contributed to the relative clause (RC) attachment preferences of speakers of different working memory capacities (WMCs). Experiment 1 (English) showed working memory effects on relative clause processing in both offline RC attachment preferences and in online reading time measures, but no effects of syntactic complexity. In Experiment 2 (Korean), syntactic complexity due to greater distance between integrating heads, as measured by the dependency locality theory (Gibson in Cognition 68:1–76, 1998), significantly increased the proportion of attachment to NP1. However, no effects of working memory were found. The difference in results between English and Korean is proposed to be due to head-directionality effects. The results of our study support the conclusion that working memory-based accounts provide a better explanation than previous language-dependent accounts for differences in RC attachment preferences. We propose that previous language dependent-accounts of cross-linguistic differences in RC processing have overlooked the interaction between individual WMC and a language’s general structure, which is a central factor in RC attachment.     

State-Space Analysis of Working Memory in Schizophrenia: An FBIRN Study

The neural correlates of working memory (WM) in schizophrenia (SZ) have been extensively studied using the multisite fMRI data acquired by the Functional Biomedical Informatics Research Network (fBIRN) consortium. Although univariate and multivariate analysis methods have been variously employed to localize brain responses under differing task conditions, important hypotheses regarding the representation of mental processes in the spatio-temporal patterns of neural recruitment and the differential organization of these mental processes in patients versus controls have not been addressed in this context. This paper uses a multivariate state-space model (SSM) to analyze the differential representation and organization of mental processes of controls and patients performing the Sternberg Item Recognition Paradigm (SIRP) WM task. The SSM is able to not only predict the mental state of the subject from the data, but also yield estimates of the spatial distribution and temporal ordering of neural activity, along with estimates of the hemodynamic response. The dynamical Bayesian modeling approach used in this study was able to find significant differences between the predictability and organization of the working memory processes of SZ patients versus healthy subjects. Prediction of some stimulus types from imaging data in the SZ group was significantly lower than controls, reflecting a greater level of disorganization/heterogeneity of their mental processes. Moreover, the changes in accuracy of predicting the mental state of the subject with respect to parametric modulations, such as memory load and task duration, may have important implications on the neurocognitive models for WM processes in both SZ and healthy adults. Additionally, the SSM was used to compare the spatio-temporal patterns of mental activity across subjects, in a holistic fashion and to derive a low-dimensional representation space for the SIRP task, in which subjects were found to cluster according to their diagnosis.     

汉语短时序列回忆中的语音相似性和视觉相似性效应

语音相似性效应和视觉相似性效应是短时序列回忆中的两个典型性效应, 但前人很少探讨这两种效应的交互作用。本研究利用汉语字形和语音的属性, 观察汉字短时序列回忆中语音相似性效应、视觉相似性效应及两者的交互作用。研究结果发现当回忆项目在语音或视觉上单纯相似或不相似时, 视觉相似性效应及其与语音相似性的交互作用与混合词表条件下所发现的结果有很大的不同。这个研究结果为丰富和补充相关理论模型提供了进一步实证依据。     

工作记忆中的部分线索效应:任务呈现方式的影响

以往研究主要在长时记忆中考察部分线索效应,很少关注工作记忆中的部分线索效应及其作用机制。本研究采用项目再认任务,考察了工作记忆中提供部分学习项目作为提取线索,对存储在工作记忆中的已有表征的影响。结果发现：有、无部分线索试次分组呈现时,相较于无部分线索条件,有部分线索条件下再认正确率和d'降低,β升高,反应时间延长;有、无部分线索试次随机混合呈现时,有部分线索条件下再认正确率降低,β升高,但反应时间并无显著延长。结果表明：工作记忆中部分线索的提供降低了目标项目的表征强度;研究结果可用提取抑制假说解释,但工作记忆中部分线索的作用可能受注意资源有限性制约。