Asymmetric Reinstatement Effects in Recognition

Our experiment examined two questions: (1) Does reinstating a studied context affect recognition of an associated word, and (2) Does reinstating a studied word affect recognition of an associated context? After encoding 75 words, each of which was shown superimposed over a different 5-sec video of an environment (e.g., a playground, a traffic scene, or a grocery store), participants were asked to recognize 50 of the words and 50 of the video scenes. On the test, half of the studied words were shown superimposed over the same video contexts that had been present at encoding, and half were shown over new scenes. Similarly, videos were presented with either old or new words. Context reinstatement increased hits and reduced false alarms for words, but word reinstatement did not affect recognition of video contexts. The results suggest that the associations that bind word events with their contexts may not be bidirectional.     

Context-Dependent Learning in People With Parkinson's Disease

Context-dependent learning is a phenomenon in which people demonstrate superior performance in the context in which they originally learned a skill but perform less well in a novel context. This study investigated context-dependent learning in people with Parkinson's disease (PD) and age-matched nondisabled adults. All participants practiced 3 finger sequences, each embedded within a unique context (colors and locations on a computer screen). One day after practice, the participants were tested either under the sequence-context associations remained the same as during practice, or the sequence-context associations were changed (SWITCH). Compared with nondisabled adults, people with PD demonstrated significantly greater decrement in performance (especially movement time) under the SWITCH condition, suggesting that individuals with PD are more context dependent than nondisabled adults.     

次要任务对词类判断任务中权力空间表征激活的影响

许多证据表明权力在大脑中是以垂直空间来进行表征的, 具体而言为言语和视觉空间编码。前人研究发现两种编码具有情境依赖性, 即当前任务决定了激活哪种编码。一般的词类判断任务主要依赖于言语编码。然而仍不确定的是, 当排除言语空间编码后, 词类判断任务能否激活视觉空间编码。本研究拟借助双任务范式探讨此问题。实验结果发现单任务条件下出现权力-空间交互, 并且双任务条件下, 这一交互只受到视觉空间次要任务的干扰。这说明, 词类判断任务也可依赖视觉空间编码, 并进一步支持了权力空间表征的情境依赖性。     

The Effects of Sensory Manipulations on Motor Behavior: From Basic Science to Clinical Rehabilitation

Modifying sensory aspects of the learning environment can influence motor behavior. Although the effects of sensory manipulations on motor behavior have been widely studied, there still remains a great deal of variability across the field in terms of how sensory information has been manipulated or applied. Here, the authors briefly review and integrate the literature from each sensory modality to gain a better understanding of how sensory manipulations can best be used to enhance motor behavior. Then, they discuss 2 emerging themes from this literature that are important for translating sensory manipulation research into effective interventions. Finally, the authors provide future research directions that may lead to enhanced efficacy of sensory manipulations for motor learning and rehabilitation.     

Putting false memories into context: the effects of odour contexts on correct and false recall*

ABSTRACT

False memories created by the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm are often accompanied by contextual information. Yet, research investigating the effects of context on false memories is surprisingly scarce. We used the context-dependent memory (CDM) model to construct same versus different context conditions using odours as contexts and DRM lists as to-be-remembered stimuli. Experiment 1 showed that levels of correct recall were higher in the same-context condition than in the changed-context condition, but no effects of context were observed in false recall. Experiment 2 used different odours and a longer retention interval and showed that context-dependent memory effects were found for both true and false memory. For true memory, context reinstatement improved memory, whilst simultaneously reducing false memory. Theoretical and forensic implications of these findings are discussed.     

Motor Performance and Response Consistency as a Function of Age

The specificity versus generality of motor performance and motor response consistency was investigated as a function of age. 120 Ss, 30 each at age 7, 11, 15, and 19 yr., were given 120 practice trials (60 trials per session with 24 hr interpolated between sessions) on both simple and choice RT tasks. For motor performance the reliability of individual differences was high in both tasks at all ages, while the amount of generality was moderately high in the two younger groups but diminished with age. The reliability coefficients for motor response consistency were low for both tasks but, with two exceptions, statistically significant. There was no evidence for generality in motor response consistency at any age.     

Background context affects word-object mapping

Children encounter new words across variable and noisy contexts. This variability may affect word learning, but the literature includes discrepant findings. The current experiment investigated one source of these discrepant findings: whether contexts with familiar, nameable objects are associated with less robust label learning. Two year olds were exposed to word-object pairings on variable contexts that either included nameable objects or did not. Target selection was more robust when exposure occurred without other nameable objects. The difference was present immediately, but not after a delay. This study provides the evidence that context effects are context-bound.