Reminiscence bump in memory for public events

People tend to recall more personal events from adolescence and early adulthood than from other lifetime periods. Most evidence suggests that differential encoding causes this reminiscence bump. However, the question why personal events are encoded better in those periods is still unanswered. To shed more light on this discussion, we examined memory for public events. Since it is often impossible to ascertain that queried events are equally difficult, we circumvented the issue of equivalence by calculating deviation scores for each trial. We found that participants more frequently answered questions correctly about events that occurred in the period in which they were between 10 and 25 years old. Furthermore, we found that the reminiscence bump was more pronounced for cued recall than for recognition. We argue that these results support the biological account that events are stored better, because the memory system is working more efficiently during adolescence and early adulthood. These results do not falsify the other accounts for differential encoding, because they are not mutually exclusive.     

Changing history: doctored photographs affect memory for past public events

We investigated how doctored photographs of past public events affect memory for those events. Italian participants viewed either original images or misleading digitally doctored images depicting the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest in Beijing and a 2003 protest in Rome against the war in Iraq, and they subsequently answered questions about those events. Viewing the doctored images affected the way participants remembered the events. Those who viewed the doctored photograph of the Beijing event estimated that a larger number of people participated in it. Those who viewed the doctored photograph of the Rome event rated the event as more violent and more negative, recalled more physical confrontation, damage to property, and injuries to demonstrators, and were less inclined to participate in future protests. Both younger and older adult participants were affected by the manipulation. Results indicate that doctored photographs of past public events can influence memory, attitudes and behavioural intentions. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reconstructive memory in the dating of personal and public news events

Two experiments investigated memory for the dates of events selected and recorded by subjects in diaries. In Experiment 1, personal events and public news events were compared, with retention time varying from 1 week up to 9 months. It was found that the day of the week was more accurately identified for personal events than for news events, that day-of-the-week (DOW) accuracy did not decrease with increasing retention time, and that memory of the personal context of both event types was more important for DOW accuracy than was memory of the core of the events. These results support our view that memory of the day of the week is mainly reconstructed by reference to a temporal week schema based on personal experiences, and that the relation of news events to the week schema is mediated by memory of personal context. The distribution of DOW errors was modeled as the outcome of a process of guessing constrained by subdivisions of the week schema, without assuming any special temporal memory trace. In Experiment 2, the model was shown to fit independently collected data from a different subject pool and country equally well.     

Assessing risky public investments with MUSTARD

This paper presents a practical implementation of multicriteria methodologies based on the UTA model by Jacquet‐Lagrèze and Siskos and Quasi‐UTA model by Beuthe and Scannella, which are specified with a non‐linear, but piecewise linear, additive utility function. In contrast with the general UTA model, the Quasi‐UTA specification structures the partial utilities as recursive exponential functions of only one curvature parameter. This allows for a reduction of the quantity of information necessary to build the utility function. The software MUSTARD implements different variants of these models. Firstly, it offers the basic deterministic UTA model of disaggregation, but also its first programmed stochastic version. In both cases, the software proceeds stepwise and interactively helping the decision maker to formulate the problem and state preferences between projects; in the stochastic case, the decision maker is even helped to build the criteria distributions. The Quasi‐UTA specification can be introduced in this disaggregation model. Secondly, the software offers an aggregation model whereby the Quasi‐UTA partial utility functions are built separately through specific questioning processes. The questions relating to deterministic criteria are of the ‘direct rating type’, while those of the stochastic criteria are either of the ‘variable probability’ or the ‘variable outcome’ type. The criteria weights can be assessed by the ‘swing weight’ method or by a UTA‐II side‐program. As an example as well as a test of the Quasi‐UTA aggregation approach, the paper presents its application to a real problem of selecting road investment projects in Belgium. Several experts and civil servants were interviewed, and their individual utility functions derived. The projects are ranked according to their rate of return, which is computed on the basis of the projects certain equivalent money value. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Remote memory: recalling autobiographical and public events from across the lifespan.

In this study the recall of autobiographical and public events across the lifespan was examined in a sample of middle-aged and older-aged adults. The tasks were modified versions of one first introduced by Galton (1879), and they required subjects to recall events from specific time periods across their entire lifespan. The four tasks differed in the nature of the episodes requested (autobiographical or public) and whether recall was word-cued or non-word-cued. Verification of public events was assessed archivally, and autobiographical events were verified by a sample of relatives for a subgroup of the subjects and reported events. The results indicated that memory for public events decreases with increased age of the subject, but this effect is not generally found for the recall of autobiographical events. The older-aged subjects were able to recall an equal number of autobiographical episodes from all life segments, whereas recall of news events tended to decrease with remoteness of the episode. These data are contrary to those models that posit general memory loss as a function of age or of remoteness of the events.     

Use of the everyday memory questionnaire with children.

The Everyday Memory Questionnaire (EMQ; Sunderland, Harris, & Baddeley, 1983) was examined for its suitability to assess children's memory. The parents of 226 school children (6-12 years) completed the EMQ in relation to their own children. A subset of these children (N = 101), in 6, 8 and 10 years age groups, completed subtests of the Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning (WRAML; Sheslow & Adams, 1990). Comparison of EMQ and WRAML data found aspects of verbal memory correlated moderately with the EMQ in the 10 years age group. There were no meaningful correlations in the 8 years age group. In the 6 years age group aspects of visual memory correlated moderately with the EMQ. The diagnostic utility of the EMQ for children was assessed by comparing the school group to children diagnosed with ADHD and/or learning disorders. Diagnostic indicators revealed the EMQ to have high sensitivity (89%) but poor positive predictive power, identifying 40% of the school group as having memory deficits. Negative predictive power (confirming a negative diagnosis) was high. Validity data suggested that the EMQ could be useful with children at least as young as 10 years and further research needs to be conducted to establish the utility of the EMQ in clinical groups with primary memory deficits.     

Differentiating accounts of actual,suggested and fabricated childhood events using the judgment of memory characteristics questionnaire

Statement analysis procedures are used in forensic settings to classify reported events as experienced or non‐experienced. These procedures are typically validated using accounts of actual events and intentionally fabricated events. However, people can also unintentionally develop false memories. To examine whether inclusion of accounts of suggested events affects classification accuracy, we validated the judgment of memory characteristics questionnaire (JMCQ) statement analysis procedure using all three statement types. Participants attempted to recall two actual events and one suggested event from their childhood over two cognitive interviews, then intentionally fabricated an account of another childhood event. Fourteen of the 34 participants (41%) reported having experienced the suggested event. Independent raters then used the JMCQ to analyse and classify each type of statement from this participant subset. Inclusion of accounts of suggested events did not reduce classification accuracy. Raters tended to classify accounts of both fabricated and suggested events as non‐experienced. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Overgeneral autobiographical memory and traumatic events: an evaluative review

Does trauma exposure impair retrieval of autobiographical memories? Many theorists have suggested that the reduced ability to access specific memories of life events, termed overgenerality, is a protective mechanism helping attenuate painful emotions associated with trauma. The authors addressed this question by reviewing 24 studies that assessed trauma exposure and overgenerality, examining samples with posttraumatic stress disorder, acute stress disorder, depression, traumatic event exposure, and other clinical disorders. Limitations are discussed, including variations in assessment of events, depression, and overgenerality and the need for additional comparison groups. Across studies, there was no consistent association between trauma exposure and overgenerality, suggesting that trauma exposure is unlikely to be the primary mechanism leading to overgenerality. Instead, psychopathology factors such as depression and posttraumatic stress appear to be more consistently associated with overgenerality. Alternative overgenerality theories may help identify key overgenerality mechanisms, improving current understanding of autobiographical memory processes underlying psychopathology.     

Prospective memory for future intentions: Some comparisons with memory for past events

Abstract

Memory for future intentions was compared with memory for past activities by asking members of a film society to retrieve names of films they intended to see later on in a Season and films they had seen earlier. Memory for films that had been seen showed the usual recency effect, while retrieval of films to be seen showed an analogous proximity effect in that films to be seen sooner were more accessible. It was also found that recall of past films was inversely related to the total number of such films, but was unrelated to the average time interval since they were seen. In a similar fashion, retrievability of future films was inversely related to the total number of such films and was unrelated to when they were to be seen. There was a small but significant correlation between an individual's ability to retrieve the names of past and future films. Taken together, these correspondences suggest that similar empirical laws may govern the retrieval of stored information about past events and future intentions. Possible interpretations of the proximity effect and its theoretical implications are discussed.     

Tunnel memory for traumatic events

In four experiments subjects remembered the critical information in a traumatic slide as either more focused spatially than in its original presentation or more focused spatially than information in a matched neutral slide. Subjects comprehend a neutral scene by automatically extending its boundaries and understanding the visual information in a broader external context. However, when subjects are negatively aroused by a scene, they process more elaborately those critical details that were the source of the emotional arousal, and they maintain or restrict the scene's boundaries. ‘Tunnel memory’ results from this greater elaboration of critical details and more focused boundaries. Tunnel memory may explain the superior recognition and recall of central, emotion-arousing details in a traumatic event, as shown in previous research on emotion and memory. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Extinction partially reverts structural changes associated with remote fear memory

Structural synaptic changes occur in medial prefrontal cortex circuits during remote memory formation. Whether extinction reverts or further reshapes these circuits is, however, unknown. Here we show that the number and the size of spines were enhanced in anterior cingulate (aCC) and infralimbic (ILC) cortices 36 d following contextual fear conditioning. Upon extinction, aCC spine density returned to baseline, but the enhanced proportion of large spines did not. Differently, ILC spine density remained elevated, but the size of spines decreased dramatically. Thus, extinction partially erases the remote memory network, suggesting that the preserved network properties might sustain reactivation of extinguished conditioned fear.     

Working memory affects false memory production for emotional events

Whereas a link between working memory (WM) and memory distortions has been demonstrated, its influence on emotional false memories is unclear. In two experiments, a verbal WM task and a false memory paradigm for negative, positive or neutral events were employed. In Experiment 1, we investigated individual differences in verbal WM and found that the interaction between valence and WM predicted false recognition, with negative and positive material protecting high WM individuals against false remembering; the beneficial effect of negative material disappeared in low WM participants. In Experiment 2, we lowered the WM capacity of half of the participants with a double task request, which led to an overall increase in false memories; furthermore, consistent with Experiment 1, the increase in negative false memories was larger than that of neutral or positive ones. It is concluded that WM plays a critical role in determining false memory production, specifically influencing the processing of negative material.     

Assessing learning and memory in pigs

In recent years, there has been a surge of interest in (mini) pigs (Sus scrofa) as species for cognitive research. A major reason for this is their physiological and anatomical similarity with humans. For example, pigs possess a well-developed, large brain. Assessment of the learning and memory functions of pigs is not only relevant to human research but also to animal welfare, given the nature of current farming practices and the demands they make on animal health and behavior. In this article, we review studies of pig cognition, focusing on the underlying processes and mechanisms, with a view to identifying. Our goal is to aid the selection of appropriate cognitive tasks for research into pig cognition. To this end, we formulated several basic criteria for pig cognition tests and then applied these criteria and knowledge about pig-specific sensorimotor abilities and behavior to evaluate the merits, drawbacks, and limitations of the different types of tests used to date. While behavioral studies using (mini) pigs have shown that this species can perform learning and memory tasks, and much has been learned about pig cognition, results have not been replicated or proven replicable because of the lack of validated, translational behavioral paradigms that are specially suited to tap specific aspects of pig cognition. We identified several promising types of tasks for use in studies of pig cognition, such as versatile spatial free-choice type tasks that allow the simultaneous measurement of several behavioral domains. The use of appropriate tasks will facilitate the collection of reliable and valid data on pig cognition.     

Retrospective duration estimation of public events

In three experiments, we investigated subjects' retrospective estimation of the duration of publicly reported events such as, for example, the Falkland's war. In Experiment 1, duration estimates were found to be positively correlated with event knowledge, in keeping with Ornstein's (1969) model of duration estimation. Event duration was, however, generally underestimated, suggesting that the relationship between event knowledge and estimated duration might reflect an increase in estimation accuracy. Other results of Experiment 1 were consistent with this interpretation and suggested that the duration estimates might be largely reconstructed. In Experiment 2, duration estimates of specific events and general categories of events were found to be highly correlated, and the subjects in Experiment 3 indicated that they used knowledge of the general characteristic of different types of events to estimate event duration. Overall, reallife duration estimates appear to be based on a combination of specific event information and knowledge derived about that category of event.     

Sex-related impairment of memory for emotional events with beta-adrenergic blockade

On the basis of recent evidence indicating a sex-related lateralization of amygdala function in memory for emotional events, together with substantial evidence suggesting hemispheric specialization in processing global (central) versus local (detail) aspects of a situation, and the established dependence of the amygdala's memory modulating function on beta-adrenergic receptor activation, we predicted differential effects of a beta-adrenergic receptor antagonist (propranolol) on long-term memory for an emotionally arousing story in men and women. Specifically, we predicted that, relative to placebo, propranolol would impair memory for information central to the story line, but not memory for peripheral story details in men. Conversely, propranolol would impair memory for peripheral details, but not for central information in women. Here we confirm this prediction with a novel analysis of data from our two published studies of propranolol's effect on memory for an emotionally arousing story. These findings demonstrate a sex-related impairment of memory for emotional information by beta-adrenergic blockade. Additionally, they provide support for the hypothesis that, in this paradigm, emotional arousal enhances long-term memory for central information in men via activation of right amygdala/hemisphere function, and enhances long-term memory for peripheral details in women via activation of left amygdala/hemisphere function.     

Exploring mechanisms that affect retrograde memory for public events in amnestic mild cognitive impairment: A longitudinal update

Here, we examined mechanisms that affect retrograde memory in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (a-MCI) as a function of longitudinal clinical outcome. 8 a-MCI who converted to Alzheimer's dementia (AD) during the subsequent 3-year follow-up (converter a-MCI) and 10 a-MCI who remained clinically stable during the same period (stable a-MCI) were compared at the baseline evaluation (i.e., when they were diagnosed as a-MCI) using a remote memory questionnaire for public events that allows disentangling the differential contribution of storage and retrieval mechanisms to performance accuracy. Results suggest that deficits in remote memory are primarily explained by impaired retrieval abilities in stable a-MCI and by impaired storage in converter-to-AD a-MCI. This distinction between retrograde amnesia due to defective trace utilisation in stable a-MCI and trace storage in converter a-MCI is consistent with the temporal unfolding of declining anterograde memory over the course of disease progression to AD.     

Longitudinal hierarchical linear models of the memory functioning questionnaire

Three hypotheses about the nature of self-rated memory as measured by the Memory Functioning Questionnaire (MFQ; M. J. Gilewski, E. M. Zelinski, & K. W. Schaie, 1990) were tested: that ratings reflect memory performance, that personality traits underlie ratings, and that ratings reflect implicit theories of memory change. Baseline scores and 19 year change slopes for the 4 MFQ factor ratings of a sample of 97 participants aged 30-81 were investigated. There were significant mean declines for all MFQ ratings except Frequency of Forgetting and significant individual differences in slopes for Frequency, Retrospective Functioning, and Mnemonics. Personality predicted baseline Frequency and Seriousness ratings and list and text recall slopes predicted Mnemonics slopes. Different mechanisms may underlie baseline ratings and changes in ratings for different factors.