Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Psychology of Memory Cognitive psychology'

People with insomnia overestimate how long it takes to fall asleep and underestimate the total amount of sleep they attain. While memory is normally decreased prior to sleep onset, this decrease is smaller in insomnia. Insomnia generally and the phenomena of underestimation of sleep and greater memory prior to sleep area associated with arousal including cortical, autonomic, and cognitive arousal. The goal of the present study was to simultaneously examine arousal across these domains in relation to memory and accuracy of sleep estimation.

Forty healthy adults completed baseline measures of sleep, psychopathology, and memory, then maintained a regular sleep schedule for three nights at home before spending a night in the sleep laboratory. On the night of the sleep laboratory study, participants completed measures of cognitive arousal, were allowed to sleep until five minutes of contiguous stage N2 sleep in the third NREM period. They were then awoken and asked to remain awake for fifteen minutes, after which they were allowed to resume sleeping. For the entire duration that they were awake, auditory stimuli (recordings of words) were presented at a rate of one word per 30 seconds. Participants slept until morning, estimated how long they were awake and then completed memory testing, indicating whether they remembered hearing each of the words previously presented along with an equal number of matched distracter words.

Memory was greatest for words presented early in the awakening, followed by the middle and end of the awakening. High cortical arousal prior to being awoken was associated with better memory, particularly for the early part of the awakening. High autonomic arousal was associated with better memory for the late part of the awakening. Cognitive arousal was not associated with memory. Longer duration of sleep prior to being awoken was associated with better memory for the middle of the awakening. Better memory at baseline was associated with better memory, specifically in the middle of the awakening. Contrary to expectation, memory for the awakening was not associated with accuracy of the perceived length of the awakening.

The present study found complementary associations between cortical and autonomic arousal and memory for an awakening from sleep. This suggests that decreasing arousal in both domains may reduce the discrepancy between subjective and objective sleep in insomnia. This also suggests the initial magnitude of decrements in cognitive performance after being awoken are related to deeper proximal sleep initially, while speed of improvement in cognitive performance is related to longer prior sleep duration.

Previous research done in the area of eating disorders suggests many different variables, such as cognitive, biological, and social, that are thought to influence eating disorder development and maintenance. The present study attempts to combine cognitive and sociocultural research findings, memory recall and critical body comments, in an effort to see how, if at all, these two variables affect eating disorder symptomology. Participants for this study were 120 female students that were recruited via Study Board. Participants completed the demographics form, the Eating Disorder Inventory-3 RF, and the Social Hassles Questionnaire. The participants then watched an E-prime presentation of different positive, negative, and neutral appearance and non-appearance related words. After this presentation, participants completed a word recall task in which they wrote down as many of the words from the presentation as they could remember. Results were consistent with previous research that has found a relationship between remembering a critical comment and subsequent negative emotions/ experiences and also research that has found a negative relationship between high body dissatisfaction and number of positive words recalled. Results also showed that eating disorder symptomology predicts less recall of positive words. Results from the present study shed light on the need for better treatment for those suffering from eating disorders or any amount of eating pathology, especially treatments aimed at increasing positive ways of thinking.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2007.
Title from title page screen, viewed on February 15, 2008. Dissertation Committee: Dawn M. McBride (chair), Alvin E. House, Karla J. Doepke, Robert Peterson. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-100) and abstract. Also available in print.

Overgeneral memory (OGM) is a phenomenon of reduced autobiographical memory specificity observed in major depressive disorder (MDD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Individuals demonstrating OGM tend to describe past events generally rather than specifically recalling single memory occurrences. Research shows that OGM is perpetuated by three mechanisms: capture in the memory hierarchy due to trait rumination (CaR), functional avoidance of specific memory retrieval (FA), and impaired executive control (X), which together make up the CaR-FA-X model of OGM. Research on the CaR-FA-X model has historically looked at each mechanism in isolation. The current research aimed to compare the contributions of all three mechanisms to a measure of OGM, as well as to investigate possible interactions between the mechanisms, and compare the contributions of the CaR-FA-X model to those of an encoding predictor. Psychometric data on the three CaR-FA-X mechanisms, autobiographical memory specificity, cognitive attributional style, and mental health were collected from 107 undergraduate psychology students via online surveys, then analyzed in a hierarchical linear regression model. Executive control explained significant unique variance in OGM, with rumination making an indirect contribution. No other anticipated contributions from the CaR-FA-X model or memory encoding were observed. Methodological issues in non-clinical and computerized OGM research are highlighted.

Memory for the context of a learning episode (source memory) was investigated in four experiments using event-related brain potential (ERP), accuracy and reaction time measures. Four questions were posed about the relationship between item and source memory: (a) whether source information is automatically retrieved when an item is remembered; (b) whether item and source retrieval involve different brain activity; (c) whether ERPs recorded during source retrieval are unique or generalizable across sources; and (d) whether perceptual source attributes such as the voice of a spoken word are qualitatively different from self-generated attributes such as one's own actions. The results showed that studied items elicited more positive ERPs than unstudied items at all scalp sites, beginning relatively early after stimulus onset. Source information was retrieved only when required by the assigned task, and only after item information had been recovered from memory. When source information was requested, studied items elicited an additional, late prefrontal positivity which was independent of the accuracy of the source memory judgement. This result suggests that the prefrontal effect reflects the mere attempt to retrieve source information. The success or failure of source retrieval was evident at more posterior scalp sites; this effect also began several hundred milliseconds after the initial differentiation between studied and unstudied items. ERPs recorded posterior to prefrontal cortex were also sensitive to source content. In two experiments, participants studied objects. In the source memory test, they were asked to recall what they did with the objects during the encoding phase: performed an action, watched the experimenter perform an action, imagined an action, or estimated the cost of the object. Objects studied under different encoding tasks elicited different patterns of brain activity during the source retrieval task, but not when the objects were simply judged as studied or unstudied. Even during the source memory test, the ERPs elicited by perform-encoded objects were similar to those elicited by watch-encoded objects, although both were different from imagine-encoded and cost-encoded items. Thus, memory for self-generated actions and observed actions did not show a fundamentally different pattern of brain activity in the present work.

The neural substrate of interactions of working memory (WM) with socio-emotional processing is poorly understood in schizophrenia. This study builds on published papers using a delayed match to sample design to study the interaction of WM load with type of distracter (socially relevant faces vs. socially irrelevant geometric designs [FvG]) presented briefly during the WM maintenance period. Based on previously published findings, we hypothesize: (1) The FvG difference in brain activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in the task maintenance period will be largest at the highest WM load. (2) Among schizophrenia/ schizoaffective patients and healthy controls the magnitude of the face vs. geometric design (FvG) contrast in brain activity in the amygdala during the task maintenance period will follow a quadratic pattern across WM load when averaged over face type. (3) Among schizophrenia patients, the magnitude of the FvG contrast in brain activity in the amygdala and DLPFC at the greatest WM load will be correlated with negative symptoms.

Individuals between the ages of 18-55 diagnosed with schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder (N = 12) and non-psychiatric controls (N = 20) matched with the patients on age, gender, paternal education and paternal socioeconomic status underwent structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). To assess the effect of implicit socioemotional modulation on brain activity during WM, the effect of facial distraction on brain activation was assessed for WM of pseudowords at three syllable loads (1, 2, and 3) across several face valence types and contrasted with the effect of a geometric distracter.

Results: Although patients performed significantly above chance, they were less accurate than controls with no difference in response latency. When the FvG contrast was tested for response latency, we observed a significant quadratic effect of WM load in healthy controls but a linear effect among patients. Similar patterns were found for response accuracy but were not statistically significant. With regard to neural activity, we found a significant bilateral linear trend of percent signal change on WM load for the FvG contrast in the DLPFC. among controls, with brain activation to faces greater than activation to designs only at the highest WM load. In the amygdala we observed a significant bilateral quadratic effect of percent signal change on WM load for the FvG contrast in the control group. We observed a significant difference in neural activation patterns in patients compared to controls in the DLPFC and the amygdala. Specifically, in patients, we observed a quadratic instead of a linear trend in the DLPFC but only in the right hemisphere. In the amygdala, the patients displayed a quadratic trend also only in the right hemisphere. In neither controls nor patients did individual differences in the quadratic effect of brain activity in the amygdala correlate with the quadratic effect in response time or accuracy. Although the correlation between the magnitude of the quadratic trend in the right amygdala at the highest WM load with general psychopathology was moderately large in patients, neither this effect nor any other brain activation effects were significantly correlated with psychopathology.

Confirming hypothesis one, controls showed the largest difference in brain activity of the FvG contrast in the DLPFC during the maintenance period at the highest WM load. However, in patients we saw significantly decreased percent signal change in DLPFC at the highest WM load on the FvG contrast in the maintenance period. For hypothesis two we observed a quadratic pattern of WM load on the FvG contrast in the maintenance period for both controls and patients, although this effect was only present in the right hemisphere of patients. Furthermore, contrary to hypothesis 3 we did not observe significant correlations between symptom severity and the magnitude of the FvG contrast in brain activity in the amygdala and DLPFC at the greatest WM load. These results suggest a separate process of social-discrimination is taking place in controls. However, this process appears to be impaired in individuals with schizophrenia. This disruption may be due to poor integration of different brain areas and interhemispheric communication. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)

Spatial memory tasks known to be sensitive to hippocampal lesions in the rat were adapted to humans. These tasks and others known to be sensitive to medial temporal lesions in the human, were administered in order to investigate the effects of selective damage to medial temporal lobe structures of the human brain. The patients had undergone thermo-coagulation with a single electrode along the amygdalo-hippocampal axis in an attempt to alleviate their epilepsy. With this surgical technique, lesions to single medial temporal lobe structures can be carried out. The locations of the lesions were assessed by means of digital high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging and software allowing a 3-D reconstruction of the brain. A break in the collateral sulcus, dividing it into the anterior collateral sulcus and the posterior collateral sulcus is reported for the first time. This division corresponds to the posterior border of the entorhinal/perirhinal cortex and the anterior border of the parahippocampal cortex, and therefore helped in the identification of the areas. The results confirmed the role of the right hippocampus in visuo-spatial memory tasks (object location, Rey-Osterrieth Figure with and without delay), and the left for verbal memory tasks (Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Task with delay). Patients with lesions to the right parahippocampal cortex were also impaired on a spatial oddball task, but not on the object equivalent. Surprisingly, patients with lesions either to the right or to the left hippocampus were unimpaired on several memory tasks, including a spatial one, with a 30 minute delay, designed to be analogous to the Morris water maze. Patients with lesions to the right parahippocampal cortex were impaired on this task with a 30 minute delay, suggesting that the parahippocampal cortex itself may play an important role in spatial memory.

Many models of memory retrieval assume that events in a sequential context are incorporated in planned representations during sequence production. Serial ordering errors, in which correct events are produced in incorrect sequence positions, offer evidence for the simultaneous accessibility of sequential elements. Musical sequences pose a challenge to contextual models of planning; contextual relationships among events in music may enhance sequence planning and retrieval, contrary to traditional effects of list length on forgetting. We tested predictions of the range model (Palmer & Pfordresher, 2003; Pfordresher et al., 2007), a formal contextual model of retrieval, regarding the effects of sequential context on event planning in music performance. Twenty-six skilled pianists practiced novel musical excerpts that were embedded in large and small musical contexts until they achieved an error-free performance, and subsequently performed the sequences at fast and moderate tempi, chosen to elicit errors. Serial ordering pitch errors tended to arise from greater sequential distances and from more metrically similar events when excerpts were placed in larger contexts, as predicted by the range model. Large contexts also enhanced the effect of tempo on error rates in the excerpt, relative to small contexts. These findings suggest that larger contexts facilitate sequence planning by increasing the salience of hierarchical event relationships, making it possible for performers to prepare larger ranges of contextual events. Advantages conferred on sequence planning by larger contexts support incrementality models and qualify theories in which contextual information is viewed as always detrimental to remembering. In music performance, larger contexts may facilitate planning by strengthening associations among proximal and similar sequence elements, consistent with contextual theories of pitch memory.
Plusieurs modèles de récupération en mémoire proposent que le contexte d'une séquence est intégré aux représentations planifiées lors de la production de cette séquence. Les erreurs d'ordre sériel, où des évènements corrects sont produits aux mauvais endroits dans la séquence, démontrent que l'accès à de multiples éléments dans une séquence se fait simultanément. La production de séquences musicales remet en question les modèles de planification qui se basent sur le contexte. Les relations contextuelles entre les évènements d'une séquence musicale pourraient améliorer la planification et la récupération des séquences, ce qui contredit l'idée que de longues séquences nuisent à la mémoire. Nous avons testé les prédictions du Range Model (Palmer & Pfordresher, 2003; Pfordresher et al., 2007), un modèle formel de récupération contextuelle, concernant les effets du contexte sur la planification de séquences musicales. Vingt-six pianistes expérimentés ont pratiqué de nouveaux extraits musicaux qui étaient placés dans des contextes longs et courts, jusqu'à ce qu'ils atteignent une performance sans erreurs. Ensuite, ils ont joué les séquences à des tempos rapides et modérés, qui ont été choisis pour induire des erreurs. Pour les contextes longs, les erreurs dans l'ordre sériel des notes étaient associées à de plus grandes distances entre les évènements en question dans la séquence, ainsi qu'à des évènements similaires au niveau métrique. Ces résultats confirment les prédictions du Range Model. Les contextes longs, comparés aux contextes courts, augmentaient également l'effet du tempo sur le taux d'erreur. Ces résultats suggèrent que les contextes longs facilitent la planification de séquences en augmentant la saillance des relations hiérarchiques entre les évènements, ce qui permet aux pianistes de planifier de plus longues étendues d'évènements dans la séquence. L'avantage que ces contextes longs apportent à la planification d'évènements appuie les modèles incrémentiels, et nuance les théories qui considèrent l'information contextuelle comme étant nuisible à la récupération. Dans le domaine de la performance musicale, les contextes longs peuvent faciliter la planification de séquences en renforçant les associations entre les évènements proches et similaires. Ceci est conforme aux théories contextuelles de mémoire pour les hauteurs musicales.

Healthy human newborns fed glucose solution prior to testing exhibit higher levels of blood glucose and are able to remember a spoken word for a longer time than infants who receive water. To determine whether a natural feeding affects newborn auditory memory and whether it is related to blood glucose, memory for spoken words was examined for two groups of newborns---one tested before and the other after---routine breast or formula feedings (pre- vs postprandial), using a partially infant-controlled habituation recovery paradigm. Prior to analyses, the postprandial group was split at the median for blood glucose to define two groups: high and low glucose. The results indicate that infants' memory for words is better after a feed than before a feed. However, better memory following a natural feeding is not related to blood glucose, implying that the ingestion of food may modulate memory by more than one mechanism.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Psychological & Brain Sciences and Cognitive Sciences, 2009.
Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Jul 20, 2010). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-12, Section: B, page: 7875. Adviser: Richard M. Shiffrin.

Auditory-motor skills such as speaking or playing a musical instrument require skill in processing auditory outcomes and performing actions that produce those outcomes. A growing body of evidence suggests that perception and production components of auditory-motor skill are integrated by reciprocal auditory-to-motor and motor-to-auditory interactions. Much remains unknown about how complex auditory sequences map to complex movement sequences such as those required of speech or music performance. Less still is known about how auditory-motor interactions influence the way skilled performers learn and remember novel auditory-motor sequences. The research described in this thesis examined these questions in the context of music performance. Music performance is a common and complex auditory-motor behavior that presents a useful model for examining human auditory-motor capabilities as it requires precise control of both pitch and temporal sequences of events. Three studies examined how auditory-motor interactions influence the way skilled musicians map pitch and temporal sequences to movements and the way musicians learn and remember music. The first study examined how auditory pitch and temporal sequence structure in music engage motor neural networks in auditory-motor interactions (Chapter 2). This study revealed motor networks that are sensitive to both pitch and temporal structure when musicians listen to and subsequently perform music. This finding suggests that the motor system integrates multiple dimensions of auditory sequence structure when performers map auditory sequences to motor sequences. The second study examined how performers use auditory and motor information to learn auditory sequences (Chapter 3). This study revealed that musicians better recognize auditory sequences that they hadlearned while producing them with auditory feedback than while hearing them only, indicating that motor learning facilitates subsequent auditory memory for skilled performers. The third study examined how individual differences in auditory and motor imagery abilities influence the way musicians learn novel music and subsequently remember that music (Chapter 4). This study revealed that auditory imagery abilities help performers learn novel music by compensating for missing sound and reducing sensitivity to interfering information; auditory imagery abilities also help performers recall music during performance with greater temporal regularity. Overall, these results suggest that auditory imagery abilities aid learning and subsequent recall of music differently. Together, these studies illuminate how auditory-motor integration functions in skilled performance and how it contributes to auditory-motor sequence learning and memory.
Certaines habiletés auditivomotrices, telles que parler ou jouer d'un instrument de musique, requièrent des compétences particulières sur les plans du traitement auditif des sons produits et de la production des actions menant à l'émission de ces sons. À cet égard, un nombre croissant de preuves empiriques suggère que les composantes de perception et de production des habiletés auditivomotrices s'incèrent à l'intérieur d'interactions réciproques entre le système auditif et le système moteur. Plusieurs questions concernant la façon dont des séquences auditives complexes s'alignent avec des séquences complexes de mouvements, telles que retrouvées dans la parole ou les performances musicales, demeurent néanmoins irrésolues. Notamment par rapport à la façon dont les interactions entre les systèmes auditif et moteur influencent l'apprentissage et la rétention de nouvelles séquences auditivomotrices chez des executants compétents. Les recherches décrites dans cette thèse visent à aborder ces questions dans le contexte de performances musicales. En effet, étant donné qu'elles requièrent un contrôle précis de la hauteur du son et de la sequence temporelle des événements, les performances musicales sont des comportements auditivomoteurs communs et complexes représentant un modèle avantageux dans l'examen des capacités auditivomotrices. Trois études sont proposées afin d'examiner l'influence des interactions entre les systèmes auditif et moteur sur la façon dont des musiciens compétents alignent la hauteur sonore et les sequences temporelles avec les mouvements requis lors de performances musicales, de même que sur la façon dont ils apprennent et retiennent une séquence musicale. La première étude examine la manière dont la hauteur sonore et la structuretemporelle d'une séquence musicale engagent certains réseaux neuronaux du système moteur sur le plan des interactions auditivomotrices (Chapitre 2). Cette étude révèle que les réseaux du système moteur sont sensibles à l'intensité sonore et à la structure temporelle lorsque des musiciens écoutent et jouent de la musique. Ces résultats suggèrent que le système moteur intègre de multiples dimensions relatives à la structure de la séquence auditive lorsque ces sequences auditives sont alignées avec des séquences motrices lors de performances musicales. La deuxième étude examine l'utilisation des informations auditives et motrices dans l'apprentissage de séquences auditives (Chapitre 3). Cette etude révèle que les musiciens reconnaissent mieux les séquences auditives qu'ils ont eu à apprendre en les jouant avec rétroaction auditive, par rapport à celles qu'ils ont uniquement eu à écouter. Ces résultats indiquent que l'apprentissage moteur facilite la mémorisation d'information auditive chez les exécutants compétents. La troisième étude examine l'influence des différences individuelles sur le plan des habiletés d'imagerie auditive et motrice, sur l'apprentissage de nouvelles séquences musicales et sur le rappel de ces mêmes séquences (Chapitre 4). Cette étude révèle que les habiletés d'imagerie auditive aident les exécutants à apprendre de nouvelles séquences musicales en compensant pour les sons manquants, de même qu'en réduisant l'interférence liée à l'informations non pertinente; les habiletés d'imagerie auditive améliorent également le rappel de séquences musicales lors de performances comportant une plus grande régularitétemporelle. De manière générale, ces résultats suggèrent que les habiletés d'imagerie auditive aident différemment à l'apprentissage de nouvelles sequences musicales et à leur rappel. Ensemble, ces études illustrent le fonctionnement des intégrations auditivomotrices chez les exécutants compétents, ainsi que leur contribution à l'apprentissage et à la mémorisation de séquences auditivomotrices.

Theories of contingency judgements generally agree that (1) memory is a structure that possesses a limited capacity and that (2) it plays an important role in the detection and assessment of covariations. Empirical evidence, although limited in the specific context of contingency judgements, seems to support these notions. While theorists agree that some information needs to be held in memory in order to reach a contingency judgement, they disagree, however, on the exact type of information. As a result, they offer different predictions as to what would increase memory load as involved in contingency judgements. Kareev (1995, 1997) implicitly assumes that people attempt to memorize the sequence of events leading to a contingency judgement and, therefore, the longer the series of events, the higher the memory load. On the other hand, Wagner (1976, 1981; Rescorla & Wagner, 1972) proposes that people base their judgement on the strength of a "mental bond" rather than the recall of the series of episodes. In this view, the manipulation that taxes memory capacity is not the length of a series of events but the presence of multiple simultaneous contingencies. The current thesis aimed at clarifying the role that memory plays in the assessment of covariations by contrasting these two opposing viewpoints. Five experiments examined the role of memory capacity in contingency judgements by means of: (1) increasing the length of the series of single events experienced; (2) increasing the number of contingencies presented simultaneously; (3) examining the effect of individual memory capacity. Results generally support Wagner's theory with additional findings falling outside of the theory's explanatory power.

The focus of this study was to manipulate factors to determine whether mental representation of logical problems differed by culture. The cultural differences hypothesis suggests that Anglo students would be more likely to have a linear representation (e.g., arranging objects that differ in a "line" mentally) whereas Hispanic students would have a nonlinear (pivot) representation. The results indicated that Hispanic children solved questions better if they appeared in a pivotal format, whereas Anglo children performed better if the stimuli were presented in a linear method. With grade level children improved upon the linear format. This suggests that there may be differences in mental representations of objects for Hispanic children that is influenced by acculturation.

Most misinformation studies have tested memory for altered details of an event (e.g., stop sign, wrench, swing set). This study varied the type of misleading information to include consistent gist, inconsistent gist and consistent details as well as inconsistent (or altered) details. Misinformation studies follow a three-stage procedure: an initial event, misleading information, and a final memory test. Here, too, adult participants initially observed a slide sequence. Misinformation was embedded in a comprehension test and memory was tested with a recognition test. The timing of the misleading information and the timing of the final memory test resulted in three between-subjects levels: Immediate misinformation and Immediate recognition test, Immediate misinformation and Delayed recognition test, Delayed misinformation and Delayed recognition test. The delay was one week after the initial slide observation. The final recognition test queried memory for what subjects saw (a Yes-No "verbatim" task) and what they believed to be true (a True-False gist-based judgment). All subjects judged misleading items (lures) and original items for each kind of misleading information. Subjects also rated confidence for each answer. Descriptions and examples of all stimuli are provided in the Appendices. An analysis of variance conducted on the signed confidence data (judgment combined with confidence) revealed significant differences among the types of misleading information (gist consistent had highest rates of recognition, inconsistent items were rejected but less so when subjects were misled), differences between Yes-No "verbatim" and True-False judgments (truth ratings were greater than the verbatim ratings but were equally high for consistent gist), different effects of forgetting (decreased recognition of originals, increased recognition of lures), and significant misinformation effects. Memory dependency analyses revealed that the relationship between memory for an event and memory for misleading information depends on the type of information, whether gist or detail in nature. Results are discussed in terms of storage explanations (e.g., discrepancy detection, misinformation acceptance), retrieval accounts (e.g., coexistence, blocking, discrimination) and fuzzy-trace theory. The conclusions support, in general, predictions from fuzzy-trace theory. Implications for eyewitness testimony include the importance of early, neutral questioning.

Dissociation between memory for individual items and memory for associations has been reported in behavioral neurosciences, clinical populations and cognitive studies. At the brain level, this dissociation could reflect distinct patterns of activation for encoding and/or retrieval of items and associations. We used event-related functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to assess neural correlates of item and associative encoding and retrieval in eighteen healthy subjects. During encoding, subjects memorized doubles (two identical images) and pairs (two different images). During retrieval, subjects made item recognition judgments (old versus new items) and associative recognition judgments (intact versus rearranged pairs). Greater hippocampal activation was observed for associative relative to item encoding, but also for item relative to associative recognition. This pattern of hippocampal activation is consistent with previous neuroimaging studies of associative encoding, but also suggests that at retrieval other processes such as novelty detection could recruit the hippocampus to a greater extent than associative recognition. In the prefrontal cortex, we observed right and left activation for associative and item encoding, respectively. At retrieval, the opposite pattern was observed with left prefrontal activation for associative and bilateral activation for item recognition. This pattern of prefrontal activation shows the implication of the prefrontal cortex in memory for both types of material, although with a different lateralization. Overall, these results show the importance of examining the memory stages when comparing neural correlates of item and associative memory.

Public safety radio dispatchers incontrovertibly have to manage multiple tasks at any given time, from relaying lifesaving information to field units, to simultaneously overseeing several monitors and keeping up with the radio transmissions in a timely manner. Interestingly, however, the underlying cognitive abilities necessitated for performing such tasks have not been thoroughly investigated. To begin understanding the cognitive faculties that underlie dispatching tasks, we gauged cognitive ability measures relevant to dispatcher duties and introduced Working Memory Capacity (WMC) as underlying the differentiation on performance. The four general dispatcher cognitive factors identified by Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) literature, were Reasoning, Perceptual, Memory, and Verbal. This study substantiated the relationship that higher WMC had on increased performance of the four factors; WMC was a strong predictor of overall cognitive task accuracy. This study also measured dispatcher abilities detached from any dispatcher-like duties, to better explore the cognitive underpinnings without the confound of dispatcher-like tasks within the measures. High and low WMC group comparisons also revealed accuracy differences in cognitive abilities, task switching costs, and dual-task interference. Overall, this study provides support for WMC’s executive functioning as a key underlying mechanism determining dispatcher cognitive ability level.

False memories are an important problem in many spheres of life. It is necessary to identify what kinds of memory processes cause them in order to prevent their negative consequences. This study confirmed most of fuzzy-trace theory's assumptions about the type of memory processes that underlie spontaneous and implanted false memories (Brainerd and Reyna, in press). Following the MISINFORM model's procedures, 131 university Mexican students listened to a list of words and took two recognition tests (immediate and one-week delayed). Testing lists included four types of targets and four types of distractors. Targets were: (1) control, (2) repeated/nonmisinformed, (3) nonrepeated/nonmisinformed, and (4) repeated/misinformed. Distractors were: (1) control-related distractors, (2) misinforming-related distractors that supplanted targets during misinformation-RD1, (3) misinforming related distractors presented with their instantiating targets during misinformation- RD2, and (4) unrelated distractors. Analysis of variance of hits and false alarms showed the misinformation and mere-memory testing effects. Stochastic dependency analyses found neither persistence of true nor of false memories. MISINFORM analyses showed that true memories are due to identity judgments about targets, spontaneous false memories are due to false identity and similarity judgements about related distractors, and implanted false memories are due to false identity judgments about misinforming related distractors and nonidentity judgments about misinformed targets. MISINFORM also showed that targets cue the retrieval of verbatim memories, related distractors cue the retrieval of gist memories about targets, and misinforming distractors cue verbatim memories of misinformation.

The nature of the rehearsal mechanism that supports short-term memory span (STM), and the role of lexical and semantic knowledge in list recall was evaluated. Forty university students (aged 17-29 years) recalled lists of words varied in syllable-length (SL), articulatory duration (AD), phonological similarity (PS), semantic relatedness (SR) and frequency of occurrence (FO). Auditory and visual presentation, vocal and picture-pointing recall, and concurrent articulation conditions were included. Nonword recall was evaluated using stimuli varied in SL and PS was also evaluated using a repetition task. Word length effects were found for word stimuli varied in SL but were absent or reversed for stimuli varied in AD. A non-articulatory basis for rehearsal is suggested. The influence of long-term semantic and lexical knowledge in recall is inconclusive due to a lack of SR. Nonword repetition ability reflects STM capacity in adult subjects and correlates with other measures of STM span.

Emotional experiences seem to be easier to remember than neutral ones, but whether memory for all aspects of an experience is improved by emotion remains unclear. Some researchers have argued that the influence of emotion is different on memory for item versus source information, whereas others have argued that emotion affects both similarly. Also, whether item and source memory are affected by emotion in older people in the same way as young people is currently unknown. This dissertation examined the relations among item and source memory, emotion, and aging. In Experiment 1, young people and older adults were asked to report memory for source information surrounding a real life event (i.e., how they heard about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001). No age differences were found in source memory, suggesting that emotion improves memory for contextual information, especially in older adults. This hypothesis was subsequently tested in a series of laboratory studies, in which item and source memory for emotional and neutral materials was examined in young people and older adults. Memory for emotional items was superior to memory for neutral items in both young and older adults, whereas the emotional content of the stimulus, for the most part, had no effect on source memory. However, source memory was improved when the source itself (tone of voice) was made emotional (in Experiments 3 and 4), although item memory was generally unaffected by this manipulation. Overall, item and source memory were poorer in older people compared to young, but emotion seemed to have a similar effect on both age groups. The dissociable influences of emotion on item and source memory suggest that by and large these two kinds of memory processing occur independently of one another.

This dissertation investigated the role of individual differences in human use of automation in a simulated command and control task. Using this knowledge we then sought to redesign the simulation interface to improve human-automation interaction. In the first study, participants completed a battery of cognitive tasks to measure working memory capacity, simple memory span, and controlled attention ability. They then performed a simulated air defense task under varying levels of workload and automation assistance. Eye tracking data recorded fixations to capture eye movements during completion of each scenario. Although individual difference measures correlated with primary task performance, they did not predict use of automation. Only average percent of fixations on the automation messaging interface correlated with automation use. Therefore, the second study introduced a redesigned automation interface with the integration of an auditory chime and a visual flicker to promote additional fixations to the message interface and encourage increased automation use. However, this redesign did not increase average fixation percentage and surprisingly resulted in lower use of automation. This finding emphasized Parasuraman and Riley’s (1997) warning that automation can change user behavior in unintended ways. Another notable finding from the study is the unexpected result that short term memory predicted primary task performance. Further, this study provides evidence to support the use of eye tracking measures as a continuous unobtrusive measure of automation use in complex systems. Limitations and future research are also discussed.

Working memory is a collection of cognitive resources that allow for the temporary maintenance and manipulation of information. This information can then be used to accomplish task goals in a variety of different contexts. To do this, the working memory system is able to process many different kinds of information using resources dedicated to the processing of those specific types of information. This processing is modulated by a control component which is responsible for guiding actions in the face of interference. Recently, the way in which working memory handles the processing of this information has been the subject of debate. Specifically, current models of working memory differ in their conceptualization of its functional architecture and the interaction between domain-specific storage structures and domain-general control processes. Here, domain-specific processing is when certain components of a model are dedicated to processing certain kinds of information, be it spatial or verbal. Domain-general processing is a when a component of a model can process multiple kinds of information. One approach conceptualizes working memory as consisting of various discrete components that are dedicated to processing specific kinds of information. These multiple component models attempt to explain how domain-specific storage structures are coordinated by a domain-general control mechanism. They also predict that capacity variations in those domain-specific storage structures can directly affect the performance of the domain-general control mechanism. Another approach focuses primarily on the contributions of a domain-general control mechanism to behavior. These controlled attention approaches collapse working memory and attention and propose that a domain-general control mechanism is the primary source of individual differences. This means that variations in domain-specific storage structures are not predicted to affect the functioning of the domain-general control mechanism. This dissertation will make the argument that conceptualizing working memory as either domain-specific or domain-general creates a false dichotomy. To do this, different ways of measuring working memory capacity will first be discussed. That discussion will serve as a basis for understanding the differences, and similarities between both models. A more detailed exposition of both the multiple component model and controlled attention account will follow. Behavioral and physiological evidence will accompany the descriptions of both models. The emphasis of the evidence presented here will be on load effects: observed changes in task performance when information is maintained in working memory. Load effects can be specific to the type of information being maintained (domain-specific), or occur regardless of information type (domain-general). This dissertation will demonstrate how the two models fail to address evidence for both domain-specific and domain-general load effects. Given these inadequacies, a new set of experiments will be proposed that will seek to demonstrate both domain-specific and domain-general effects within the same paradigm. Being able to demonstrate both these effects will go some way towards accounting for the differing evidence presented in the literature. A brief conceptualization of a possible account to explain these effects will then be discussed. Finally, future directions for research will be described.

Stimulated by applied concerns, the literature on children's false memories has proliferated for the past decade. Two different types of memory falsification have been identified: spontaneous and implanted. The former results from endogenous distortion processes, and, the later arises exogenously through accidental or deliberate suggestion or misinformation. This study is the first to look at developmental trends in children's memory falsification comparing spontaneous and implanted false memories under similar conditions, by introducing a new experimental paradigm. Two age groups participated in this study: (1) 50 first and second graders, and (2) 49 seventh and eighth graders. Children first studied 42 sentences about everyday events. Either in the same day or a week later, misinformation was presented by replacing some of the original sentences with misleading ones. Children's memory was assessed by both an immediate and a one-week delayed forced-choice recognition test. The test choices included original items and unpresented items, some of which were related to the originals. Item repetition was manipulated within and between tests. Results indicated that children's memories were susceptible to the effects of misinformation. Developmentally, true memory reports increased with age, but there were no age differences in children's false report rates. The comparison between spontaneous and implanted false memories under specific experimental manipulations yielded the following results: (1) Memory accuracy was greater when children were tested immediately following study; (2) the misinformation effect was greater with delay; (3) within-test repeated questioning generated neither gains nor losses in memory accuracy; (4) a prior test produced a gain in memory accuracy on a week-later test only for older children; (5) implanted false memories were preserved across a one-week forgetting interval better than spontaneous false memories, and this effect increased with age. Different theoretical accounts of memory falsification were analyzed in light of the results. Fuzzy-trace theory provided new explanations that could account for the data by assuming that different classes of memory representations about experienced events--verbatim and gist--are retrieved on memory tests.

Much evidence exists in support of the notion known as a bilingual advantage, the idea that some bilinguals benefit from an executive functioning system superior to monolinguals. The majority of research investigating the bilingual advantage lies in metalinguistic awareness, conflict resolution, and inhibition; however, this thesis examines working-memory abilities by comparing the performance of English monolingual and Spanish-English bilingual groups in a dual task paradigm, taxing lexical retrieval and memory maintenance and manipulation. Participants were asked to perform a lexical retrieval task eliciting high-frequency abstract nouns or adjectives while simultaneously memorizing an accumulating list of target abstract words to be later recalled. Although no difference in immediate recall between language groups was found, bilinguals remembered significantly more target words 5 days after testing. Evidence suggests that bilinguals may build new memory representations that are more resistant to decay than monolingual memory representations.

Vectors, defined by distance and direction information, can represent the spatial relationships between reference objects and target objects. Reference boundaries help to define the space and are mathematically definable by lines, while reference landmarks define specific locations and are definable by points. How do vectors, containing two sources of information relate references and targets? Congruent with neuroscientific evidence we argued that humans rely differentially on distance and direction information when recalling the spatial location of objects. We showed that direction information was better encoded or remembered than distance information relative to landmarks, and that distance information was better encoded or remembered than direction information relative to boundaries. We proposed that the type of reference influences the fidelity of distance and direction information in the spatial representation.

Eyewitness testimony is critical in both criminal court and civil court, so determining the most reliable method to gain information from witnesses is imperative. Past research in this area has focused on false memory, assisted recall, stress, and event perception. A gap exists in the current literature regarding the best method to gain the most accuracy in recall. The purpose of this study was to evaluate free recall, cued recall, and recognition, in an attempt to examine the accuracy of eyewitness memory. The study utilized a quantitative design to assess the accuracy of eyewitness memory as measured by results on free-recall, cued recall, and recognition tests. The theoretical foundation for this study was the theory of information processing, which contends that information is processed in stages and combines visual cognition, memory, and memory recall; therefore, this theory applies to the study by helping determine the most accurate way for individuals to recall events. Introduction to Psychology students were shown a video, then asked to recall what they saw using either free recall, cued recall, or recognition. A one-way between-subjects analysis of variance was utilized to determine whether there were significant differences in the number of items recalled as a function of recall format. Results suggested that participants were more accurate with the utilization of recognition techniques for recall, as opposed to the free or cued-recall. The importance of evaluating effective methods to promote accurate eyewitness testimony is to advance forensic science. The implications for social change include the ability to have more effective methods to gain accurate eye-witness testimony, thereby assisting with proper outcomes during trials.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, 2006.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-04, Section: A, page: 1442. Adviser: Shanker H. Krishnan. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed June 19, 2007)."

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Kent State University, 2008.
Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Oct. 5, 2009). Advisor: William Merriman. Keywords: metacognition; recall memory; cognitive development. Includes bibliographical references (p. 65-71).

The purpose of this study is to examine the mutual effects of the concurrent performance of a spatial memory task (spatial span forward and backward of the Wechsler Memory Scale-III) and postural balance task (standing on a compliant surface) in seniors with good and poor balance. Furthermore, the purpose is to determine if these interference effects are similar if using a verbal memory task (letter number sequencing of the Wechsler Memory Scale-III) rather than a spatial memory task, or a finger tapping task rather than a postural balance task. Sixty-one participants were recruited from seniors' residences and the community. Twenty-nine were assigned to the poor balance group (mean age 72.93) and 32 were assigned to the good balance group (mean age 80.78) based on their scores on the Berg Balance Scale. Subjects were asked to conduct the spatial and verbal memory tasks while sitting, standing, and finger tapping. Four measures of balance were computer from Kistler force plate data: range of center of pressure in the anteriorposterior (Range A-P) and the mediolateral (Range M-L) directions; and root means square of center of pressure in the anteriorposterior (RMS A-P) and mediolateral (RMS M-L) directions. Finger tapping rate was measured with an electronic counter. Interference effects differed for the verbal and the spatial memory tasks. Specifically, postural balance was spared interference when paired with the spatial memory task, but not when paired with the verbal memory task. This pattern of interference was different when a finger tapping task was substituted for a balance task, and could not be explained by a unitary model of attentional resources or a multiple resources model. A new model of attentional resources was presented which better explains the results of the current study as well as the results of previous studies.

A theoretical analysis of the relationship between social structure and cognitive structure is presented. Based upon this analysis, a study was done in which the cognitive activity of high and low self-esteem (SE) women was assessed under some particular social conditions. The factors manipulated were: focus of attention on either orientation toward a career or on orientation toward family; activation (via priming) of either the cognitive structure encoding masculine tendencies or that containing information on feminine tendencies; and perceptions of how well family and career functions fit together for most women. The primary dependent measures used were tests of hand-eye coordination, of creativity, of memory and of level of negative emotion. The results partially supported the hypotheses. They indicated four-way interactions for the recall measure and for one measure of use of defense mechanisms. Two three-way interactions were observed in the analysis of the measure of creativity. The measure of emotion showed only a main-effect of the focus-of-attention manipulation, such that women in the family-focus condition exhibited significantly more emotion. There were no significant effects on the measure of hand-eye coordination. High self-esteem subjects were much more likely to use defense mechanisms, including repression of threatening information. Conflict increased creativity only when focus of attention was congruent with chronic or situationally-induced (masculine or feminine) tendencies. The applicability to this data of both cognitive-psychological and psychodynamic concepts and mechanisms is assessed. It is concluded that neither theory can completely account for the data. Some practical implications of the findings are discussed.