Content-context binding in verbal working memory updating: on-line and off-line effects

The role of content–context binding in working memory updating has received only marginal interest, despite its undoubted relevance for the updating process. In the classical updating paradigm, the main focus has been on the process of discarding information when new information is presented. Its efficacy has been determined by measurement of the accuracy of recalled, updated information. In the current study we measured the working memory updating process directly, employing a dynamic memory task composed of alternating sequences of learning, active maintenance and updating phases. Binding was manipulated by changing the type of updating (total or partial) and the strength of the perceptual connection between items. The on-line updating process and the off-line efficacy were separately analysed. Both on-line and off-line measures indicated that partial updating conditions, where the operation of updating content–context binding was required, were more demanding than both total updating conditions and memory and maintenance phases. Our results suggest that working memory updating can be identified not only as a process of substitution of information, but also as inhibition of no longer relevant information and, above all, as a binding updating.     

文本阅读中情境模型空间维度的非线索更新

采用实时窗口阅读技术,探讨文本阅读中不同研究范式下空间信息更新的特点。结果表明,阅读中情境模型空间信息的非线索实时更新是存在的,但要实现这种更新则需要一定的条件。相对于自动呈现材料,在更为自由的手动阅读条件下,先前阅读的空间信息,尤其是外显的位置信息（如“广场”）能够进行非线索的实时更新（实验一、实验二）;此外,实验三的结果表明,不同的探测位置对空间信息的通达也产生了影响。在更为敏感的探测位置上,内隐的空间实体信息（如,“雕像”）也表现出了非线索的更新。     

内隐印象更新的心理机制

内隐印象更新表现出比外显印象更新更难、自动化或无意识发生和形成越快更新越快的特点。新近研究发现,相对简单的信息就能导致内隐印象的改变,其中,信息诊断性发挥了关键作用,新信息的强度、可信度、重新解释和归因以及预期刻板信息的一致性均是内隐印象更新的重要发生条件。社会认知维度和效价等因素、动机因素和不同的情绪情感等也对内隐印象更新有影响。进一步揭示内隐与外显印象更新差异的加工机制,探究不同信息要素的作用及印象更新的前因与后效,采用多样化的内隐范式及认知神经科学技术提供更多证据,加强本土化和跨文化比较研究将成为未来研究的重要方向。     

不稳定控制感剥夺损害工作记忆刷新功能

控制感剥夺会阻碍工作记忆中的转换功能,但对工作记忆中刷新功能的影响机制尚不清楚。据此,本文通过两个实验来探究控制感剥夺对工作记忆刷新功能的影响。结果发现,相较于基线水平,无论是通过行为无助任务（实验1）还是通过信息无助任务（实验2）操纵的稳定控制感剥夺均未阻碍随后的刷新任务;但在不稳定控制感剥夺的条件下（实验2）,刷新任务的成绩显著降低。这表明,控制感剥夺对工作记忆刷新功能的影响依赖于对其操纵的稳定性。     

Decline in working memory updating through ageing: intrusion error analyses

The present research examines the decline in working memory updating through age. Two experiments compared groups of participants in different age ranges (young-old, 55-65 years, old, 66-75 years and old-old, more than 75 years and, in Experiment 2 only, young, 20-30 years). Memory updating tasks were administered, which required participants to remember the smallest items in each list. To perform the task correctly, participants had to update information efficiently, reducing interference from items no longer relevant. Intrusion errors were computed and in the first experiment these were described as "intrusions of irrelevant items" (immediate exclusion) and "intrusions of once relevant items" (delayed exclusion). The oldest adults performed worse in memory updating and made a greater number of intrusion errors of once relevant information. In the second experiment results showed that increases in memory load (number of items that had to be remembered) and updating demand (number of potentially relevant items) impaired performance. The oldest adults had greater difficulty when the task demand was increased. Furthermore, they produced a higher number of intrusion errors, particularly when the updating demand was increased. It therefore appears that elderly people have specific difficulty in updating information in working memory by excluding irrelevant information.     

When perceptual or motor sets are changed: Effects of updating demands on structure and energy of P300

It was attempted to disentangle the effect of two updating processes on P300. Three conditions were created by a priming paradigm: (1) No updating, (2) updating perceptual but no motor information, and (3) updating both perceptual and motor information. As expected, both updating conditions led to a P300-complex with more energy, but the additional demand of motor updating did not affect P300. Effects were similar for both delayed (experiment 1) and immediate responding (experiment 2).

Both experiments confirmed earlier observations that P300 consists of at least three subcomponents, namely P3a, P3b, and a positive Slow Wave (pSW). Perceptual updating affected in particular the energy of P3b and pSW. Further, pSW was related to the complexity of the updating operations. When stimuli consisted of abstract symbols there was more energy in pSW than when stimuli were concrete symbols with direct spatial relations to the response.

The structure and energy changes of P300 suggest that P3b and pSW do not provide an unambiguous picture of the underlying source structure. In some conditions only one peak (P3b) was observed in the surface structure; this still seemed to be the result of two underlying waves. In other conditions these waves were separated in time showing a clear double peak in the surface structure.     

工作记忆刷新及其训练效应——经颅直流电刺激的作用

工作记忆刷新是执行功能的重要成分之一。以往研究结合n-back任务和经颅直流电刺激（transcranial direct current stimulation ,tDCS）技术探究刷新能力,发现tDCS技术能够一定程度上增强刷新训练效果并引起大脑神经元相关活动的变化,其增强效果能够维持一定的时间,且能够迁移到其他认知任务之中。但tDCS的干预效果在各项研究中存在一定的差异性。其作用效果会受到训练任务与训练方式、电流强度、电极布局和训练时间间隔等因素的影响。未来研究可以探索tDCS结合刷新训练的最佳刺激参数,以获得最优化的干预效果。     

Updating in working memory: a comparison of good and poor comprehenders

In this research, we examined the relation between reading comprehension and success in a working memory updating task. We tested the hypotheses that poor comprehenders' deficiencies are associated with a specific difficulty in the working memory updating process, particularly in controlling for information that is no longer relevant. In the first experiment, groups of poor and good comprehenders, ages 8-11 years, were administered a working memory updating task. In the second experiment a year later, a subgroup of participants involved in the first experiment was tested with a different updating task. In both experiments, poor comprehenders had less accurate recall performance and made more intrusion errors than did good comprehenders. Moreover, distinguishing intrusion errors on the basis of their permanence in memory, we found that poor comprehenders were more likely to intrude items that were maintained longer in memory than were good comprehenders. This type of error predicted reading comprehension abilities better than did working memory recall. This suggests that the relation between reading comprehension and working memory is mediated by the ability to control for irrelevant information.     

情境模型的更新：事件框架依赖假设的进一步证据

采用多指标探测范式, 从客体信息以及活动信息的角度出发, 考察事件框架内外时间、空间转换对情境模型更新的影响。结果发现：在事件框架内, 维度转换并不是情境模型更新的充分条件, 时间转换与终止的活动信息相结合引起情境模型的快速更新, 而空间转换与移除的客体信息相结合引起情境模型的快速更新; 在事件框架外, 维度转换是情境模型更新的充分条件, 维度转换会引起情境模型的更新。研究丰富了事件框架依赖假设。     

The distance effect in numerical memory-updating tasks

Two experiments examined the role of numerical distance in updating numerical information in working memory. In the first experiment, participants had to memorize a new number only when it was smaller than a previously memorized number. In the second experiment, updating was based on an external signal, which removed the need to perform any numerical comparison. In both experiments, distance between the memorized number and the new one was manipulated. The results showed that smaller distances between the new and the old information led to shorter updating times. This graded facilitation suggests that the process by which information is substituted in the focus of attention involves maintaining the shared features between the new and the old number activated and selecting other new features to be activated. Thus, the updating cost may be related to amount of new features to be activated in the focus of attention.     

Which factors influence number updating in working memory? The effects of size distance and suppression

Updating information in working memory is a critical process which makes possible to have available, at every moment, the information most relevant for mind operations. However, the specific mechanisms underlying the updating process have rarely been analysed. This paper examines the importance of two of the mechanisms implicated in a numerical updating task: item comparison and item substitution. The item comparison mechanism was studied by manipulating the size distance between items. The item substitution mechanism was investigated by increasing/decreasing the number of updates within trials. Furthermore, in order to examine the effects of time constraints, presentation rate was manipulated. Over three experiments, the results obtained highlighted that updating performance is mainly influenced by suppression request, even when the presentation rate is self‐paced. However, errors depend on the distance between items. The implications of the results for the understanding of updating are discussed.     

The dynamics of memory: context-dependent updating

Understanding the dynamics of memory change is one of the current challenges facing cognitive neuroscience. Recent animal work on memory reconsolidation shows that memories can be altered long after acquisition. When reactivated, memories can be modified and require a restabilization (reconsolidation) process. We recently extended this finding to human episodic memory by showing that memory reactivation mediates the incorporation of new information into existing memory. Here we show that the spatial context plays a unique role for this type of memory updating: Being in the same spatial context during original and new learning is both necessary and sufficient for the incorporation of new information into existing episodic memories. Memories are automatically reactivated when subjects return to an original learning context, where updating by incorporating new contents can occur. However, when in a novel context, updating of existing memories does not occur, and a new episodic memory is created instead.     

Walking through doorways causes forgetting: environmental integration

Memory for objects declines when people move from one location to another (the location updating effect). However, it is unclear whether this is attributable to event model updating or to task demands. The focus here was on the degree of integration for probed-for information with the experienced environment. In prior research, the probes were verbal labels of visual objects. Experiment 1 assessed whether this was a consequence of an item-probe mismatch, as with transfer-appropriate processing. Visual probes were used to better coordinate what was seen with the nature of the memory probe. In Experiment 2, people received additional word pairs to remember, which were less well integrated with the environment, to assess whether the probed-for information needed to be well integrated. The results showed location updating effects in both cases. These data are consistent with an event cognition view that mental updating of a dynamic event disrupts memory.     

文本阅读中情境模型建构和更新的机制

采用移动窗口阅读技术探讨了文本阅读中情境模型建构和更新的机制。实验材料按照特征描述与目标行为 的关系总体上分为可能、不可能和重新可能三个版本。实验1主要探讨了文章开始部分有明显的焦点信息时情境模 型建构和更新的机制,检验了更新追随假设的合理性;实验2主要探讨了文章开始部分没有明显的焦点信息时情境 模型建构和更新的机制,检验了记忆基础文本加工理论的合理性;实验3使用再认探测任务,进一步检验了更新追 随假设和记忆基础文本加工理论的差异。实验结果表明,文本阅读中情境模型的建构和更新是一个双加工过程,在 自然阅读过程中,读者根据所阅读的信息不同会产生不同的信息加工活动,既会有记忆基础文本加工理论所支持的 协调性整合,也会有建构主义的更新追随假设所支持的焦点整合     

No evidence for a role of reconsolidation in updating of paired associates

Reconsolidation theory states that memories are labilized through reactivation, making them prone to change, before being re-consolidated. When information in memory requires updating, reconsolidation theory therefore predicts that reminders of previously learned information should facilitate updating of that information and should thus improve memory for the updated information. In two experiments, we tested this prediction by investigating memory for word pairs over a short time-scale. Participants studied word pairs (A–B), some of which were subsequently updated with word pairs that shared the first word (A–C). Half of the A–C pairs received a pre-study reminder of the first word in the pair so as to reactivate and labilize A–B memory. In a recognition memory test targeting the A–C list, reminders by and large had no effect on memory. Results thus failed to support the predictions of reconsolidation theory.     

Age-differential effects on updating cue information: Evidence from event-related potentials

Recent models on cognitive aging consider the ability to maintain and update context information to be a key source of age-related impairments in various cognitive tasks (Braver & Barch in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 26: 809–817, 2002). Context updating has been investigated with a modified AX-continuous-performance task by comparing performance and brain activity between context-dependent trials (i.e., correct responses require updating of the preceding cue information) and context-independent trials (i.e., correct responses are independent of cue information). We used an event-related potential (ERP) approach to identify sources of age differences in context processing in the early and late processing of cue information. Our behavioral data showed longer latencies and higher error rates on context-dependent than on context-independent trials for older than for younger adults, suggesting age-related impairments in context updating. The ERP data revealed larger P3b amplitudes for context-dependent than for context-independent trials only in younger adults. In contrast, in older adults, P3b amplitudes were more evenly distributed across the scalp and did not differ between context conditions. Interestingly, older but not younger adults were sensitive to changes of cue identity, as indicated by larger P3b amplitudes on cue-change than on cue-repeat trials, irrespective of the actual context condition. We also found a larger CNV on context-dependent than on context-independent trials, reflecting active maintenance of context information and response preparation. The age-differential effects in the P3b suggest that both younger and older adults were engaged in updating task-relevant information, but relied on different information: Whereas younger participants indeed relied on context cues to update and reconfigure the task settings, older adults relied on changes in cue identity, irrespective of context information.     

Updating objects in visual short-term memory is feature selective

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the process of updating information in visual short-term memory (VSTM) is object based. We investigated whether modifying the memory of one feature of an object would automatically promote refreshing the memory of all of its other features. The results showed that the facilitative effect of updating was specific to the updated feature of an object and did not spread to its nonupdated features. This feature-selective effect suggests that updating VSTM is not object based (Experiment 1), even though storage was object based (Experiment 2). Control experiments ruled out strategy-based (Experiment 3) and stimulus-related (Experiments 4–6) accounts. Feature-selective updating may indicate that the mechanism used to modify the contents of memory may have a different basis than that used to encode or store information in memory.     

Decline in working memory updating through ageing: Intrusion error analyses

The present research examines the decline in working memory updating through age. Two experiments compared groups of participants in different age ranges (young‐old, 55–65 years, old, 66–75 years and old‐old, more than 75 years and, in Experiment 2 only, young, 20–30 years). Memory updating tasks were administered, which required participants to remember the smallest items in each list. To perform the task correctly, participants had to update information efficiently, reducing interference from items no longer relevant. Intrusion errors were computed and in the first experiment these were described as “intrusions of irrelevant items” (immediate exclusion) and “intrusions of once relevant items” (delayed exclusion). The oldest adults performed worse in memory updating and made a greater number of intrusion errors of once relevant information. In the second experiment results showed that increases in memory load (number of items that had to be remembered) and updating demand (number of potentially relevant items) impaired performance. The oldest adults had greater difficulty when the task demand was increased. Furthermore, they produced a higher number of intrusion errors, particularly when the updating demand was increased. It therefore appears that elderly people have specific difficulty in updating information in working memory by excluding irrelevant information.     

工作记忆刷新功能的可塑性

从工作记忆刷新功能的训练入手, 以不同人群为研究对象, 采用活动记忆任务, 从行为层面和认知神经层面探讨工作记忆刷新功能的可塑性。结果发现, 工作记忆刷新功能具有可塑性。具体表现为, 通过刷新功能训练, 个体在工作记忆刷新任务上的成绩提高。工作记忆刷新功能训练使得个体对刺激的识别能力增强, 对无关信息的抑制能力提高, 进而促使工作记忆中的更新能力得到提升。通过工作记忆刷新训练可以提高个体其它认知功能, 但是, 相对于认知能力稳定以及衰退的个体, 这种迁移效应在工作记忆能力发展个体中的表现更为明显。     

角色目标对空间维度非线索更新的影响

采用实时窗口阅读技术,探讨文本阅读中角色目标在情境模型空间维度非线索更新中的作用。实验一结果表明,阅读中。如果文本叙述中的角色在一个目标指引下展开活动．那么可以促进相应空间设置内的物体的更新。实验二考察了不同性质的角色目标在空问信息加工中的作用,结果发现,相对于已经达成的目标,未达成的目标对情境模型空间维度非线索更新的影响更大。