Stroke damages attentional maintenance in working memory

Stroke is the main cause of acquired disability in adults, and specific deficits in working memory (WM) are among the most common cognitive consequences. In neuropsychological routine, WM is most of the time investigated in the framework of the multicomponent model (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974, The psychology of learning and motivation, 47). Using a more recent theoretical WM model, the time-based resource-sharing (TBRS) model (Barrouillet et al., 2011, Psychol. Rev., 118, 175), the aim of the present study was to investigate in young post-stroke patients to which extent attentional maintenance is impaired in WM. To address this question, we discarded other factors known to directly influence WM performance, that is processing speed and short-term memory span. We proposed to 53 post-stroke patients and to 63 healthy controls a complex span paradigm in which participants were asked to alternate between the memorization of a series of images and a concurrent parity judgement task of a series of digits. To investigate the attentional maintenance processes, we manipulated the cognitive load (CL) of the concurrent task. CL effect is typically interpreted as the involvement of attentional maintenance processes. The task was adapted to each participant according to their processing speed and memory span. As expected, the results showed higher recall performance in healthy controls compared with post-stroke patients. Consistent with the literature, we also observed higher performance when the CL was low compared with high. However, the improvement in recall at low CL was smaller for post-stroke patients compared with controls, suggesting that post-stroke WM deficit could be in part due to a deficit of the attentional maintenance processes.     

EFFECTS OF MEMORY AIDS ON THE DYADIC CONVERSATIONS OF INDIVIDUALS WITH DEMENTIA

The effects of a prosthetic memory aid on the conversational content and social skills of dyads with dementia were evaluated. Six individuals with moderate to severe dementia served as either subject or partner in dyads during 5-min conversational probes conducted three times per week in daycare and nursing-home settings. During phases when a memory aid, consisting of personally relevant picture and sentence stimuli, was available, most subjects used their own aid to improve the quality of conversations by increasing the frequency of on-topic statements, diminishing nonproductive utterances, lengthening their conversational turn, and/or increasing the frequency of turns taken. Most partners demonstrated awareness of social discourse conventions by appropriately relinquishing conversational dominance, decreasing both content and nonproductive utterances, and increasing acknowledging or affirmative comments when subjects used memory aids. Naive judges' ratings of aided and unaided conversational samples on seven conversational dimensions reflected differences in perceptions of significant improvement as a function of the conversational discourse style of each dyad.     

Integration and cue overlap in recognition failure of recallable words

A highly systematic relation between the conditional probability of recognition given recall and the overall recognition hit rate has been demonstrated in a wide variety of experiments. A function describing this relationship was developed by Tulving & Wiseman (1975). Exceptions to this function have, in retrospect, been interpreted in terms of (a) a low integration between cue and target items, or (b) a high cue overlap between the two tests involved: recognition and recall. The experiment reported was designed to evaluate the joint and the separate contributions from integration and cue overlap for obtaining conformity with and exception from the Tulving-Wiseman function. In line with the predictions made, the results showed that these two factors in combination can account for data that fit the function and for exceptions above the function. In relative terms, the contribution from integration was somewhat more pronounced than that from cue overlap.     

泛读与精读之比较研究——内隐记忆的作用

内隐记忆是目前记忆研究的一个热点。本文通过62名被试对泛读与精读两种不同阅读方式进行了比较研究,结果表明：泛读更接近内隐记忆,精读更接近外显记忆,为两类记忆系统的划分提供了阅读方面的实验依据。同时也表明,泛该对学生阅读能力的培养起着更为重要的作用.整个测评研究结果,为指导阅读教学提供了心理学依据。     

MEMORY PROCESSES IN DELAYED SPATIAL DISCRIMINATIONS: RESPONSE INTENTIONS OR RESPONSE MEDIATION?

Pigeons were trained on a pair-comparison task in which left versus right choices were reinforced following different sequences of two center-key stimuli. Choice accuracy was higher when retention intervals occurred after the entire sequence than when they separated the two stimuli comprising it, and this effect occurred independently of whether the initial and terminal stimuli came from the same or different dimensions. The initial stimulus from the prior trial was a source of proactive interference only in groups for which the retention interval separated the two sequence stimuli. By contrast, differential delay-interval behavior was observed only in groups for which the retention interval followed presentation of the entire sequence. These results indicate that coding processes in delayed discriminations are influenced by the location of the retention interval, and that response mediation affects retention performances if the reinforced choice can be determined prior to the interval.     

Memory for words and drawings in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy

A list-learning paradigm was used to study learning and memory of verbal and figurative material in children with right versus left-sided hemiplegic cerebral palsy. Thirty-one children with right (n=18), or left (n=13) congenital hemiplegia were compared with normal controls (n=19). All children had normal intelligence (IQ>80), and were attending standard schools. The inclusion criteria for the two hemiplegic groups were; no epilepsy, no hearing or visual impairments, and a mild to moderate hemiparesis. The aim of this study was to explore material-specific (words and drawings) differences in the acquisition, recall and serial position effects in children with an early unilateral brain lesion. The left-hemisphere impaired (i.e. right hemiplegia) group showed impaired acquisition for drawings, as compared with the normal controls. There was also a material-specific difference in the serial position effect for all three groups. Learning of words followed the primacy principle, whereas the learning of drawings followed the recency principle. There were no group-differences in delayed-recall (i.e. long-term memory) for either words or drawings. The results are discussed in terms of acquisition and retention of verbal and figurative materials in relation to lesion side and size.     

再认记忆测验中抑郁个体的心境一致性记忆研究

采用Ｊａｃｏｂｙ的加工分离程序,对再从记忆测验中外显记忆成分与内隐记忆成分的贡献进行分离,考察了抑郁个体的内隐记忆和外显记忆是否具有心境一致性记忆倾向。结果表明：抑郁个体的外显记忆具有心境一致性倾向,而内隐记忆不存在心境一致性倾向,表明心境一致性记忆需要精细加工机制的参与。另外发现,抑郁个体存在外显记忆缺损而没有出现内隐记忆缺损。最后就一些有待进一步研究的方面进行了讨论。     

汉字内隐记忆的实验研究（Ⅱ）：任务分离和反应倾向

在实验Ｉ的基础上,操纵学习时的呈现时间（２５０ｍｓ,５００ｍｓ,７５０ｍｓ）和注意变量（目标和非目标字）,运用任务分离方法及间接证明逻辑,比较了再认测验和整字偏好测验在不同条件下的辨别力（Ａ′）和反应倾向（Ｂ″）。结果：（１）双向功能分离的出现表明再认测验和偏好测验存在本质差异。根据“过程纯净”假设,可以推证内隐记忆存在于偏好测验中。此时,匹配比较法的标准未满足。（２）偏好测验中,５００ｍｓ呈现目标字时,有显著正向启动效应：７５０ｍｓ呈现非目标字时,有显著负向启动效应。（３）内隐记忆和外显记忆发生时,都具有稳定的心理状态。但是前者的报告标准较松宽,而后者的较严格。     

年龄、作业难度和训练对成人记忆的影响

采用“联想学习”、“图象自由回忆”和“附加联想”三项目,对９０例成人（分为青年、老年和老老年组各３０例）进行记忆测查和训练,目的为探讨年龄,作业难度和训练对记忆的影响。结果表明：青年组记忆成绩明显高于老年和老老年组,后两组无显著差异;无关联想的年龄差异大于有关联想,作业难度扩大了年龄差异;各年龄组训练后记忆得到明显改善,并且训练扩大了年龄和作业易难的差异。由此可见,记忆受年龄、作业难度和训练三因素的相互作用,也再次证实了老年认知功能具有一定的可塑性。     

内隐记忆研究的实验方法探索：启动效应计量方法的改进思路及其实验研究

以实验鉴定了常规的启动效应计量方法的有效性程度,并为客观地计量启动效应,创用了“超意识广度法”、“二次比较法”等．结果发现：（１）如被试数量较少,以不同补笔率为“基线值”所求得的启动效应之间发生显著差异的可能性存在;（２）超意识广度法能克服“阈下呈现刺激法”“分散注意法”的不足,为内隐记忆提供有利的识记情境;（３）“二次比较法”能为正常人内隐记忆的存在提供更为直接、可靠的证据,并能客观、精确地计量启动效应。