Cue-target Pairs Research Articles

Item-specific and relational encoding are effective at reducing the illusion of competence.

Metamemory, or the ability to understand the capacities of one's own memory, is important for learning. To investigate questions surrounding metamemory, researchers commonly have participants make judgments of learning (JOLs) at encoding, in which participants rate their likelihood of recalling the target in a cue-target word pair when shown only the cue at test. However, the associative direction of cue-target pairs can affect the calibration of JOLs. Unlike forward associates (e.g., credit-card), in which JOLs often accurately predict recall, an illusion of competence has been reported for backward associates (e.g., card-credit), symmetrical associates (e.g., salt-pepper), and unrelated cue-target pairs (e.g., artery-bronze) such that JOLs overestimate later recall. The present study evaluates whether the illusion of competence can be reduced when participants apply deep item-specific or relational encoding tasks relative to silent reading. Across two experiments, we show that both item-specific and relational encoding strategies reduce the illusion of competence for backward associates and unrelated pairs while improving the calibration between JOLs and recall. Our findings suggest that these encoding strategies are effective at reducing the illusion of competence, with increased calibration primarily reflecting improved recall. Thus, item-specific and relational encoding strategies primarily affect retrieval processes rather than metacognitive processes that participants engage in at encoding.

Functional underpinnings of feedback-enhanced test-potentiated encoding.

The testing effect describes the finding that retrieval practice enhances memory performance compared to restudy practice. Prior evidence demonstrates that this effect can be boosted by providing feedback after retrieval attempts (i.e. test-potentiated encoding [TPE]). The present fMRI study investigated the neural processes during successful memory retrieval underlying this beneficial effect of correct answer feedback compared with restudy and whether additional performance feedback leads to further benefits. Twenty-seven participants learned cue-target pairs by (i) restudying, (ii) standard TPE including a restudy opportunity, or (iii) TPE including a restudy opportunity immediately after a positive or negative performance feedback. One day later, a cued retrieval recognition test was performed inside the MRI scanner. Behavioral results confirmed the testing effect and that adding explicit performance feedback-enhanced memory relative to restudy and standard TPE. Stronger functional engagement while retrieving items previously restudied was found in lateral prefrontal cortex and superior parietal lobe. By contrast, lateral temporo-parietal areas were more strongly recruited while retrieving items previously tested. Performance feedback increased the hippocampal activation and resulted in stronger functional coupling between hippocampus, supramarginal gyrus, and ventral striatum with lateral temporo-parietal cortex. Our results unveil the main functional dynamics and connectivity nodes underlying memory benefits from additional performance feedback.

Attention and Interhemispheric Communication: Implications for Language Dominance

Dominance of the left hemisphere for language processing is a prominent feature of brain organisation. Whereas structural models clarify the functional asymmetry due to direct access to local language circuits, dynamic models propose functional states of intrahemispheric activation and interhemispheric inhibition that are coupled with attentional processes. Real word settings often require modulations of lateralised neural processing and further express individual heterogeneity. In this research, we tested left- and right-handers, and used a behavioural paradigm with presentation of lateralised cue-target pairs to the same or opposite visual field. We observed that handedness distinctly affected word processing in the left hemisphere following contralateral cueing. Moreover, left-hemispheric dominance strengthened for right-handers vs abolished for left-handers, influencing behavioural efficiency. In combination with eye dominance recordings, these data suggest that attentional biases guided the processing strategies of both groups and in turn their achievements. Therefore, hand and eye dominance are both essential factors with a functional role in directing the communication of visual information between both hemispheres. Overall, the findings underline the importance of interacting hand-eye control systems in contributing to interhemispheric patterns in the context of language processing.

Metamemory mediates the protective effect of cognitive reserve on episodic memory during aging

The present study investigated the impact of cognitive reserve on episodic memory and metamemory control during aging using a multidimensional index of cognitive reserve and a measure of metamemory control abilities. We tested the hypotheses that cognitive reserve may play a protective role against age-related differences in episodic memory and metamemory control and that metamemory control may mediate the effect of cognitive reserve on episodic memory during aging. Young and older adults carried out a readiness-recall task in which task difficulty was manipulated through a variation of the nature of the cue-target pair link (weak vs. strong semantic associates). Episodic memory was assessed through recall performance, and metamemory by a task difficulty index reflecting the ability to adjust study time to task difficulty. Results confirmed that older adults recall fewer words, indicating an age-related deficit in episodic memory, and that older adults adjust less to task difficulty, suggesting impaired metamemory control. Findings also showed that metamemory control moderates the age-related decline in episodic memory and that cognitive reserve plays a protective role against age-related deficits in episodic memory and metamemory control. In addition, metamemory abilities mediated the beneficial effect of cognitive reserve on episodic memory performance during aging. Hence, this study sheds new light on the mechanisms underlying the impact of cognitive reserve on cognitive aging, highlighting the role of metacognitive processes.

Reactivity from judgments of learning is not only due to memory forecasting: evidence from associative memory and frequency judgments.

Research has shown that judgments of learning (JOLs) often produce a reactive effect on the learning of cue-target pairs in which target recall differs between participants who provide item-based JOLs at study versus those who do not. Positive reactivity, or the memory improvement found when JOLs are provided, is typically observed on related pairs, while no reactivity is commonly found on unrelated pairs. In four experiments, we examined JOL reactivity effects by comparing JOL and no-JOL groups to other groups who engaged in relational-type encoding/judgment tasks. Experiment 1 replicated positive JOL reactivity effects with related pairs with an extension to symmetrically related pairs. Next, Experiment 2 found that providing judgments of associative memory—a task that does not involve memory predictions—yielded equivalent reactivity patterns as JOLs. Experiment 3 replicated this reactivity pattern using a frequency of co-occurrence judgment task. Finally, In Experiment 4, a similar positive reactivity pattern was found using a relational encoding task when compared to a standard JOL. Collectively, our results suggest that previous JOL reactivity patterns are not solely due to memory forecasting processes via JOLs and likely reflect relational encoding that is strategically applied towards related, but not unrelated pairs.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11409-022-09301-2.

Self-referential encoding does not benefit memory for prior remembering across changing contexts

ABSTRACT Changes in context across instances of memory retrieval have been shown to impair memory for acts of prior remembering. The present study examined how self-referential encoding influences memory for prior remembering that occurred with or without context change. At encoding, participants processed each target in cue-target word pairs in relation to themselves or another person. During an initial cued-recall test, targets were tested with either the studied cues or semantically related, but previously unseen cues. During a second cued-recall test, all targets were tested with the studied cues, and participants judged whether they remembered retrieving each target during the first test. Regardless of self/other-reference, semantic context change across the two tests impaired memory for prior remembering. Furthermore, the magnitude of this impairment was larger for strongly self-associated vs. other-associated targets. Our findings suggest that self-referential encoding does not benefit memory for prior remembering in the face of contextual change.

Errors may not cue recall of corrective feedback: Evidence against the mediation hypothesis of the testing effect.

Successfully retrieving information protects it against later forgetting. Failed retrieval attempts are also beneficial if followed by study of corrective feedback. To explain both of these findings, researchers have proposed the mediation hypothesis. In the case of learning from corrective feedback, initial errors may serve as mediators, becoming associated with the corrective information and assisting with recall of that information during later retrieval attempts. A simple prediction follows: reminding learners of their initial errors should improve their recall of the corrections. We tested this prediction with a set of 3 experiments. In Experiment 1, participants learned cue-target word pairs (e.g., cactus-point) by reading or by incorrectly guessing target words before viewing corrective feedback. Immediately afterward, participants were equally good at recalling targets from the cue alone, the cue plus their own guess, or the cue plus a guess made by another participant. Experiment 2 produced similar results when the retention test was delayed by 24 hr. In Experiment 3, participants instead learned word triplets having a mediational relationship through preexisting associations (e.g., film-star-galaxy). Here, reminding participants of a genuine mediator greatly improved target recall, supporting the validity of our cueing procedure. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Asymmetric practices of reading and writing shape visuospatial attention and discrimination

Movement is generally conceived of as unfolding laterally in the writing direction that one is socialized into. In ‘Western’ languages, this is a left-to-right bias contributing to an imbalance in how attention is distributed across space. We propose that the rightward attentional bias exercises an additional unidirectional influence on discrimination performance thus shaping the congruency effect typically observed in Posner-inspired cueing tasks. In two studies, we test whether faces averted laterally serve as attention orienting cues and generate differences in both target discrimination latencies and gaze movements across left and right hemifields. Results systematically show that right-facing faces (i.e. aligned with the script direction) give rise to an advantage for cue-target pairs pertaining to the right (versus left) side of space. We report an asymmetry between congruent conditions in the form of right-sided facilitation for: (a) response time in discrimination decisions (experiment 1–2) and (b) eye-gaze movements, namely earlier onset to first fixation in the respective region of interest (experiment 2). Left and front facing cues generated virtually equal exploration patterns, confirming that the latter did not prime any directionality. These findings demonstrate that visuospatial attention and consequent discrimination are highly dependent on the asymmetric practices of reading and writing.

Stress Impairs Intentional Memory Control through Altered Theta Oscillations in Lateral Parietal Cortex.

Accumulating evidence suggests that forgetting is not necessarily a passive process but that we can, to some extent, actively control what we remember and what we forget. Although this intentional control of memory has potentially far-reaching implications, the factors that influence our capacity to intentionally control our memory are largely unknown. Here, we tested whether acute stress may disrupt the intentional control of memory and, if so, through which neural mechanism. We exposed healthy men and women to a stress (n = 27) or control (n = 26) procedure before they aimed repeatedly to retrieve some previously learned cue-target pairs and to actively suppress others. While control participants showed reduced memory for suppressed compared with baseline pairs in a subsequent memory test, this suppression-induced forgetting was completely abolished after stress. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we show that the reduced ability to suppress memories after stress is associated with altered theta activity in the inferior temporal cortex when the control process (retrieval or suppression) is triggered and in the lateral parietal cortex when control is exerted, with the latter being directly correlated with the stress hormone cortisol. Moreover, the suppression-induced forgetting was linked to altered connectivity between the hippocampus and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), which in turn was negatively correlated to stress-induced cortisol increases. These findings provide novel insights into conditions under which our capacity to actively control our memory breaks down and may have considerable implications for stress-related psychopathologies, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), that are characterized by unwanted memories of distressing events.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT It is typically assumed that forgetting is a passive process that can hardly be controlled. There is, however, evidence that we may actively control, to some extent, what we remember and what we forget. This intentional memory control has considerable implications for mental disorders in which patients suffer from unwanted (e.g., traumatic) memories. Here, we demonstrate that the capacity to intentionally control our memory breaks down after stress. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we show that this stress-induced memory control deficit is linked to altered activity in the lateral parietal cortex and the connectivity between the hippocampus and right prefrontal cortex (PFC). These findings provide novel insights into conditions under which memory control fails and are highly relevant in the context of stress-related psychopathologies.

Sans Forgetica is not desirable for learning

ABSTRACT Do students learn better with material that is perceptually hard to process? While evidence is mixed, recent claims suggest that placing materials in Sans Forgetica, a perceptually difficult-to-process typeface, has positive impacts on student learning. Given the weak evidence for other similar perceptual disfluency effects, we examined the mnemonic effects of Sans Forgetica more closely in comparison to other learning strategies across three preregistered experiments. In Experiment 1, participants studied weakly related cue-target pairs with targets presented in either Sans Forgetica or with missing letters (e.g., cue: G_RL, the generation effect). Cued recall performance showed a robust effect of generation, but no Sans Forgetica memory benefit. In Experiment 2, participants read an educational passage about ground water with select sentences presented in either Sans Forgetica typeface, yellow pre-highlighting, or unmodified. Cued recall for select words was better for pre-highlighted information than an unmodified pure reading condition. Critically, presenting sentences in Sans Forgetica did not elevate cued recall compared to an unmodified pure reading condition or a pre-highlighted condition. In Experiment 3, individuals did not have better discriminability for Sans Forgetica relative to a fluent condition in an old-new recognition test. Our findings suggest that Sans Forgetica really is forgettable.

The deceptive nature of associative word pairs: the effects of associative direction on judgments of learning.

The accuracy of judgments of learning (JOLs) in forecasting later recall of cue-target pairs is sensitive to associative direction. JOLs are generally well calibrated for forward associative pairs (e.g., credit-card), but recall accuracy is often overestimated for backward pairs (e.g., card-credit). The present study further examines the effect of associative direction on JOL accuracy by comparing forward and backward pairs to unrelated pairs and symmetrical associates (e.g., salt-pepper)-a novel comparison. The correspondence between initial JOLs and recall accuracy was examined when study was either self-paced with concurrent JOLs (Experiment 1), when study/JOL duration was equated across pair types (Experiment 2), when JOLs were made immediately following study (Experiment 3), and when JOLs were made after a delay (Experiment 4). Across experiments, JOLs accurately estimated correct recall for forward pairs, but overestimated recall for symmetrical, backward, and unrelated pairs-an overestimation that was particularly robust for backward pairs. Calibration plots depicting JOL ratings against their corresponding recall accuracy indicated overestimations occurred for all pair types, though overestimations only occurred at high JOL ratings for symmetrical and forward pairs, a qualitative difference that was not captured in standard analyses of mean JOL and recall rates.

Examining the episodic context account: does retrieval practice enhance memory for context?

Retrieval practice, such as filling in blanks or taking quizzes, is firmly established as an effective study strategy. However, the underlying mechanism of how retrieval practice benefits memory is still unclear. One current theory, the episodic context account, proposes that retrieval enhances memory by reinstating a prior learning context. This retrieved context is then strengthened and updated to include context at the time of recall, which later serves as an effective retrieval cue. However, few studies have directly tested this hypothesis. We did so by examining participants’ memory for the initial study context. Across three experiments, participants encoded cue-target pairs presented in different colors and either restudied or practiced retrieving the targets. If retrieval practice benefits memory by reinstating the prior episodic context, participants who successfully retrieved the items during practice should have enhanced memory for context details (i.e. font color) compared to participants who restudied the pairs. Contrary to this prediction, memory for font colors did not differ between the restudy condition and the retrieval practice condition. Even when font color was actively attended to and integrated with the to-be-remembered items, retrieval practice did not increase memory for this aspect of context. Our results suggest that the context reinstated during retrieval practice is limited in nature. Aspects of the context that are not essential to retrieval of the item are not strengthened by retrieval practice.

Two routes to memory benefits of guessing.

Attempting to guess an answer to a memory question has repeatedly been shown to benefit memory for the answer compared to merely reading what the answer is, even when the guess is incorrect. In this study, we investigate 2 potential explanations for this effect in a single experimental procedure. According to the semantic explanation, the benefits of guessing require a clear semantic relationship between the cue, the guess, and the target, and these benefits arise at the stage of guessing. The attentional explanation places the locus of the effect at the stage of feedback presentation and ignores the issue of semantic relatedness. To disentangle the 2 mechanisms, we used homograph cues with at least 2 different meanings (e.g., arms) and asked participants to either study an intact cue-target pair or guess a word related to each cue before being presented with the target. This allowed us to compare memory performance on trials in which participants' guesses tapped the same meaning of the cue as the later presented target (e.g., a guess legs for a pair arms-hug), versus a different meaning (e.g., weapons). In 4 experiments, we demonstrated that both the semantic and the attentional mechanism operate in the guessing task, but their roles are different: Semantic relatedness supports memory for cue-to-target associations, whereas increased attention to feedback benefits memory for targets alone. We discuss these findings in the context of educational utility of errorful learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

How attributes and cues made accessible through monitoring affect self-regulated learning in older and younger adults

Abstract Research suggests that cues available at the time of monitoring affect metamemorial control. We investigated how self-regulated learning (i.e., restudy choice) varied as a function of retrieval success and access to target-related partial information in the context of a metamemorial monitoring decision. Young and older adults studied unrelated cue–target pairs and made trial-by-trial monitoring judgments during an initial testing phase. Participants chose a subset of cue–target pairs for restudy either from an array of all cues presented simultaneously (Exp. 1) or on a trial-by-trial basis at the time of test (Exp. 2). Retrieval success prior to restudy was an overwhelming predictor of restudy choice for both young and older adults. Commission errors predicted subsequent restudy only when decisions were made on a trial–by–trial basis. Finally, young and older adults differed in the relationship between successful access to partial information and restudy.

Item repetition and retrieval processes in cued recall: Analysis of recall-latency distributions.

The SAM (search of associative memory) model provides a unified account of accuracy effects, assuming that retrieval is a cue-dependent two-stage process of sampling and recovery, which depends on the strength of items relative to all others and on that item associated with the sampling trace, respectively. On the other hand, the relative strength model uniquely provides latency predictions, assuming that recall latency is determined solely by relative strength (similar to the sampling rule in SAM): Latency should remain unchanged for strong and weak items in pure lists, but will be shorter for strong items than for weak items in mixed lists. To test the predictions, the present study examined accuracy and latency distributions, which were fit with the ex-Gaussian, using item repetition as a means of strengthening. Massed versus spaced repetitions were used where repetitions were either cue-target pairs or cue alone. When repetitions were spaced in mixed lists, accuracy and latency both increased with cue-target repetitions, relative to cue-only repetitions, and slow recall for cue-target repetitions was due to initially nonretrievable items. However, even after successful recall on a pretest, cue-target repetitions led to an increase in latency in pure lists. These findings are difficult to reconcile with relative-strength explanations of latency. They indeed suggest that (1) separate traces are created for each repetition, (2) memory traces are updated if the item is retrieved (otherwise, new traces are stored), and (3) recovery plays a role in latency, which are discussed with the distinction between sampling and recovery of SAM.

Fewer Constraints Enhance the Generation Effect for Source Memory in Younger, but not Older Adults

AbstractThe generation effect is the memory benefit for information that is self-generated compared to read. This effect is robust for both younger and older adults. Recent work with younger adults has shown that the generation effect for context memory (i.e., contextual details associated with an episode) can be increased when there are fewer rather than greater experimental constraints placed on what participants can generate. This increase in context memory is attributable to enhanced relational processing. Given older adults’ deficits in context memory the present study tested whether fewer generation constraints would similarly improve the generation effect for contextual details in older adults. In this study, we examined age differences in item and context (i.e., source and associative) memory across three different tasks comprising the encoding of cue-target pairs: a lower-constraint generation task (i.e., free response to cue, such as assist – ____), a higher-constraint generation task (i.e., solving an anagram, such as assist – hlpe), and a read task (i.e., simply reading the cue-target pair, such as assist – help). Both age groups showed improved item and context memory for materials studied during the generation tasks (both lower- and higher-constraint) compared to the read task. However, only younger adults showed increased source memory for lower-constraint compared to higher-constraint generation, whereas older adults showed equivalent source and associative memory for both lower- and higher-constraint generation tasks. These findings suggest both age groups benefit from self-generation, but older adults may benefit less from conditions that enhance relational processing (lower-constraint generation) in younger adults.

Testing Judgments of Learning in New Contexts to Reduce Confidence

Students often prepare for exams by restudying slides or notes, but the familiarity of these repeatedly reinstated contexts may influence students to be unduly confident in their knowledge, and cease study prematurely. Experiment 1 investigated the effects of reinstatement of encoding contexts during delayed judgments of learning (JOLs) in a laboratory paradigm. At encoding, word pairs were superimposed over unrelated 5-s video contexts, with one video context per target. Delayed judgments of learning for cue–target pairs were given with encoding contexts either changed or reinstated. When the encoding context was changed, judgments of learning decreased relative to the reinstatement condition, without a concomitant decrease in recall (tested later with no context cues), thus producing a metamemory illusion. Experiments 2 and 3 replicated these results with different designs. Although context manipulations did not improve metacognitive accuracy, unfamiliar contexts reduced JOLs, a desirable impact that is associated with increased study choice.

Smile! Social reward drives attention.

Human social behavior is fine-tuned by interactions between individuals and their environments. Here we show that social motivation plays an important role in this process. Using a novel manipulation of social reward that included elements of real-life social exchanges, we demonstrate the emergence of attentional orienting for coincidental spatial associations that received positive social reward. After an interaction with the experimenter, participants completed a computerized task in which they received positive, negative, or no social reward for their performance to spatially congruent, spatially incongruent, and neutral cue-target pairings, respectively. Even though cue-target spatial correspondences remained at chance, attentional benefits emerged and persisted a day later for targets that received positive social reward. Our data further revealed that participants' level of social competence, as measured by the Autism-Spectrum Quotient scale, was predictably related to the magnitude of their reward-driven attentional benefits. No attentional effects emerged when the social interaction and social reward manipulations were removed. These results show that motivational incentives available during social exchanges affect later individual cognitive functioning, providing one of the first insights into why seemingly ambiguous social signals produce reliable and persistent attentional effects. (PsycINFO Database Record

Does testing increase spontaneous mediation in learning semantically related paired associates?

Carpenter (2011) argued that the testing effect she observed for semantically related but associatively unrelated paired associates supports the mediator effectiveness hypothesis. This hypothesis asserts that after the cue-target pair mother-child is learned, relative to restudying mother-child, a review test in which mother is used to cue the recall of child leads to (a) greater activation of the mediator (father), and (b) greater strengthening of the links in the cue-to-mediator (mother-father) and mediator-to-target (father-child) associative chain. This chain is then spontaneously used for recalling child when mother is given as the cue in a final test. The mediator effectiveness hypothesis is supported by the finding that relative to review restudying, mother-child review testing leads to better recall of the target child in the final test when cued by either mother or father. The present Experiment 1 examined an alternative account of this testing effect for mediator-to-target recall. By this account, when given as a cue, the mediator elicits the original cue, which in turn covertly cues the target via a test-strengthened cue-target association. Contrary to this account, the mediator-to-target testing effect did not depend on the preexisting mediator-cue associative strength. Experiment 2 provided a more direct test of the mediator effectiveness hypothesis by having participants recall the mediator and then the target in the final test. Contrary to predictions made by the mediator effectiveness hypothesis, (a) the cue-to-target testing effect was of the same magnitude whether the mediator was recalled or not, and (b) overall target recall was lower, not higher, when participants recalled the mediator. Thus, spontaneous mediation does not underlie the testing effect that occurs for semantically related but associatively unrelated paired associates. (PsycINFO Database Record

Learned interval time facilitates associate memory retrieval.

The extent to which time is represented in memory remains underinvestigated. We designed a time paired associate task (TPAT) in which participants implicitly learned cue–time–target associations between cue–target pairs and specific cue–target intervals. During subsequent memory testing, participants showed increased accuracy of identifying matching cue–target pairs if the time interval during testing matched the implicitly learned interval. A control experiment showed that participants had no explicit knowledge about the cue–time associations. We suggest that “elapsed time” can act as a temporal mnemonic associate that can facilitate retrieval of events associated in memory.