Abstract
Research on human memory has increased significantly in the last few decades. Inconsistencies and controversies inherent to such research, however, are rarely articulated on published reports. The goal of the present article is to present and discuss a series of open questions related to major topics on human memory research that can be addressed by future research. The topics covered here are visual working memory, recognition memory, emotion and memory interaction, and methodological issues of false memories studies. Overall, the present work reveals a series of open questions and alternative analysis which could be useful for the process of hypothesis generation, and consequently for the design and implementation of future research on human memory.
Highlights
Research on human memory has increased significantly in the last few decades
The neuroimaging data reported by Atkins and Reuter-Lorenz showed that these predictions were supported for the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex regions (PFC)
This can be especially difficult when instead of novel and potentially promising results, the student or researcher is interested in the limitations and inconsistencies inherent to a given research field. Difficulties like this are common for those who are interested in human memory
Summary
Research on human memory has greatly proliferated in the last few decades. Such intense proliferation, may paradoxically overshadow some unanswered questions in the field of memory research. We suggest that an important approach for future research is to identify stimuli dimensions that can be determinant to make such short-term visual representations either resistant or susceptible to irrelevant visual inputs. Another topic concerns the debate about singleversus dual-process theories of recognition memory (Wixted, 2007; Yonelinas, 2002). Several studies have shown that emotional information is more memorable than neutral information (Hamann, 2001), the former appears to be more susceptible to distortion Another important topic discussed, is the methodological limitations of extant studies investigating the interaction between memory and emotion. We expect that the discussion of such issues motivate the generation of new hypothesis for future research, and help to advance the comprehension of human memory
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