Differences In Memory Accuracy Research Articles

0069 Effects of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms on Sleep-Dependent Consolidation of Emotional Memory in College Students

Abstract Introduction Depression and anxiety have been associated with emotional memory biases, disturbed sleep, and cognitive deficits. The goal of the present study is to investigate the effects of elevated levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms on sleep physiology and sleep-dependent consolidation of emotional memory and reactivity over a mid-day nap in young college students. Methods Data collection is ongoing, preliminary analyses are based on 34 participants (26F, 7M, 1 non-binary, 18-27 yrs). Based on well-validated depression and anxiety scales, participants were classified into high (n=10) vs low (n=24) symptom groups. Participants studied negative and neutral picture stimuli and rated them on the dimensions of valence and arousal. Recognition memory was tested after a 5 hr interval which included a high-density EEG monitored 90 min nap. Results We do not observe any group differences in memory accuracy (d’) or in selectivity for emotional stimuli. In the entire sample, depressive symptoms correlate with decision criterion (C) for negative stimuli (r = -0.357, p=.04), such that individuals with higher depressive symptoms have a more liberal responding bias for negative stimuli. Napping is associated with a decrease in arousal ratings across all participants (F(1,32)=5.43, p=.03), and the high mood symptom group rate stimuli as more arousing (F(1,32)=13.96, p<.001). Further, high levels of trait anxiety is associated with more negative valence ratings post-nap (r = -0.350, p=.03). Conclusion The effects of a mid-day nap on memory consolidation and reactivity for emotional stimuli are similar between individuals with high vs low levels of mood symptoms, but heightened levels of depression and anxiety are associated with altered response bias and higher emotional reactivity. Future plans involve comparisons of NREM oscillations between groups and investigation of their relations with task performance. Support (if any) Iowa Neuroscience Institute “2021 Ideas Lab” Award (Baran)

Empathy, memory, and aging during the COVID-19 pandemic

Recently, there has been increasing attention to the interaction between empathy and memory. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period when empathy played a key role in people's behaviors, we assessed the relationship between empathy and memory. In this pre-registered report, we used memory accuracy for the number of COVID-19 cases as a measure of recent memory and examined its relationship with trait empathy. Moreover, we investigated whether cognitive vs. affective empathy differently associate with one's memory for the number of COVID-19 cases, given evidence for distinct mechanisms for the two aspects of empathy. Finally, we assessed how age is related to empathy-memory associations. To address these questions, we used the Boston College COVID-19 Dataset, which included surveys assessing dispositional empathy and memory for the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases during the first wave of the pandemic. Empathy was not associated with memory accuracy for the confirmed cases when using an empathy measure that combined both cognitive and affective empathy. However, when using a measure that separately assessed cognitive and affective empathy, only affective empathy, specifically the personal distress subscale, was associated with greater memory accuracy. There was no age-related difference in memory accuracy despite age-related decreases in affective empathy. Results suggest that individuals with greater affective empathy (i.e., greater tendency to feel discomfort by the suffering of others) can have more accurate memory for details of an ongoing empathy-evoking situation. Findings are discussed in the context of motivation and emotional arousal. The current study provides ecological evidence to corroborate the interplay of empathy and memory.

Flexible retrieval of semantic knowledge predicts temporal memory, but not memory for other types of context, in 4-6-year-olds

Memory for the temporal features of past events is critical for episodic memory, however relatively little is known about temporal memory in early childhood and how temporal memory for past events may be supported by developments in semantic memory (e.g., conventional time knowledge). We examined 4- and 6-year-old children’s memory for events and two types of item-time context: temporal order and temporal association. For comparison, we included tests of other contexts: item-space context (spatial location, spatial association) and item-item association. A children’s conventional time (CCT) task was developed for use in early childhood, to assess knowledge of conventional time and flexible retrieval of that knowledge. There were age-related differences in memory accuracy for some context questions, and age-related improvements in both subtasks of the CCT. CCT flexible retrieval predicted temporal memory accuracy. This study adds to our understanding of episodic memory development in early childhood and has forensic and theoretical implications.

Do eye movements enhance visual memory retrieval?

When remembering an object at a given location, participants tend to return their gaze to that location even after the object has disappeared, known as Looking-at-Nothing (LAN). However, it is unclear whether LAN is associated with better memory performance. Previous studies reporting beneficial effects of LAN have often not systematically manipulated or assessed eye movements. We asked 20 participants to remember the location and identity of eight objects arranged in a circle, shown for 5 s. Participants were prompted to judge whether a location statement (e.g., “Star Right”) was correct or incorrect, or referred to a previously unseen object. During memory retrieval, participants either fixated in the screen center or were free to move their eyes. Results reveal no difference in memory accuracy and response time between free-viewing and fixation while a LAN effect was found for saccades during free viewing, but not for microsaccades during fixation. Memory performance was better in those free-viewing trials in which participants made a saccade to the critical location, and scaled with saccade accuracy. These results indicate that saccade kinematics might be related to both memory performance and memory retrieval processes, but the strength of their link would differ between individuals and task demands.

Spatial distancing reduces emotional arousal to reactivated memories.

Memories are able to update and adapt with new information about the world after they are reactivated. However, it is unknown whether the labile period following reactivation makes episodic memories more amenable to emotion regulation, an application that holds great clinical promise. Here, we investigated the efficacy of cognitive reappraisal to down regulate negative affect in response to reactivated memories. Healthy young adults (N = 119) rated the emotionality of negative pictures. After a partial reactivation of each picture 2 days later, participants voluntarily engaged in a spatial distancing regulation tactic by imagining the reactivated object extremely far away from them. Compared with no-regulation and no-reactivation controls, self-reported arousal for regulated pictures dropped significantly 2 days after the manipulation, despite no significant difference in memory accuracy or valence. These results open up a new line of work that capitalizes on reactivation-based lability to selectively alter enduring arousal responses to emotional memories.

The picture superiority effect in associative memory: A developmental study.

We tested whether semantic relatedness between to-be-remembered items and item presentation format (pictorial vs. verbal) affects associative recall. Fifty-nine children (11-13years old) and forty young adults (age 18-30) completed a learning and recall task for semantically related (e.g., padlock-key) and unrelated (e.g., lemon-piano) picture-picture, word-picture, and word-word pairs. The data revealed memory advantage for semantically related item pairs, and for pictures compared to words. A picture superiority effect was found exclusively for pure picture pairs. Despite pronounced differences in memory accuracy, the effect of semantic relatedness and the picture superiority effect were comparable in adults and children. Semantic relatedness and pictures seem to trigger deeper semantic processing of associated items. Our results suggest distinct contributions of semantic binding and memory strategies to associative memory, while the last seem to account particularly for age-related differences in associative recall. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Recognition advantage for picture over word stimuli, known as the picture superiority effect. PSE is found for single and associated picture over word items. Conflicting data about developmental aspects of the PSE. What does this study add? PSE is modulated by pre-existing semantic relations between picture stimuli. Semantic relation seems to modulate the PSE to a lesser extent in children than in adults. The cognitive processes behind the PSE might change with age.

Effects of Stress and Task Difficulty on Working Memory and Cortical Networking.

This study investigated interactive effects of stress and task difficulty on working memory and cortico-cortical communication during memory encoding. Thirty-eight adolescent participants (mean age of 15.7 ± 1.5 years) completed easy and hard working memory tasks under low- and high-stress conditions. We analyzed the accuracy and reaction time (RT) of working memory performance and inter- and intrahemispheric electroencephalogram coherences during memory encoding. Working memory accuracy was higher, and RT shorter, in the easy versus the hard task. RT was shorter under the high-stress (TENS) versus low-stress (no-TENS) condition, while there was no difference in memory accuracy between the two stress conditions. For electroencephalogram coherence, we found higher interhemispheric coherence in all bands but only at frontal electrode sites in the easy versus the hard task. On the other hand, intrahemispheric coherence was higher in the left hemisphere in the easy (versus hard task) and higher in the right hemisphere (with one exception) in the hard (versus easy task). Inter- and intracoherences were higher in the low- versus high-stress condition. Significant interactions between task difficulty and stress condition were observed in coherences of the beta frequency band. The difference in coherence between low- and high-stress conditions was greater in the hard compared with the easy task, with lower coherence under the high-stress condition relative to the low-stress condition. Stress seemed to cause a decrease in cortical network communications between memory-relevant cortical areas as task difficulty increased.

Robust memory of where from way back when: evidence from behaviour and visual attention

ABSTRACTRetention of events typically exhibits a sharp initial decrease followed by levelling off of forgetting. In an apparent exception to this general rule, college students have robust memory for their own locations in obscured versions of photographs of their entering classes taken during orientation-related activities, whether tested 2 months or 42 months after the event. Experiment 1 of the present research was a test for conceptual replication of this finding in photographs depicting more than twice the number of students (and thus potential distracters). There was no difference in memory accuracy for personal spatial location across retention intervals of 6–30 months. Experiment 2 featured 40-h and 2-month retention intervals, thereby providing a more fine-grained test of the forgetting function. The findings replicated Experiment 1. In Experiment 3, eye-tracking measures of visual attention revealed that participants rapidly fixated their own spatial locations within the photographs, even in the absence of explicit awareness. In all three experiments, memory for temporal features of the orientation activities (e.g., day and time the photograph was taken) followed the typical forgetting function. The findings suggest differential preservation of episodic memory for where relative to other aspects of events and experiences, such as when.

The Effects of Memory Conformity and the Cross-Race Effect in Eyewitness Testimony

The study investigates the malleability of the eyewitness memory by analyzing the effects of Memory Conformity and the Cross-Race Effect (CRE) among Asian ethnic groups. A controlled live crime enactment (snatch theft) was initiated in order to assess both variables. Two experiments were conducted using the same questionnaire with a total of 36 participants in a private university. Experiment 1 examined the effects of group conformity. After the live enactment and the filler task, participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: discuss in groups, or no discussion. All participants were given a questionnaire to complete individually. Experiment 2 examined the cross-race effect. Participants were informed to answer the questionnaire individually and the results were analyzed based on their racial backgrounds. No difference in memory accuracy was found between discussed and no discussed conditions in the experiment one. However, in experiment two a disparate racial identity effect was found opposing the past literature based on overall and specific scores. The conclusion was made based on the past research that supports the results.

Paranormal psychic believers and skeptics: a large-scale test of the cognitive differences hypothesis

Belief in paranormal psychic phenomena is widespread in the United States, with over a third of the population believing in extrasensory perception (ESP). Why do some people believe, while others are skeptical? According to the cognitive differences hypothesis, individual differences in the way people process information about the world can contribute to the creation of psychic beliefs, such as differences in memory accuracy (e.g., selectively remembering a fortune teller's correct predictions) or analytical thinking (e.g., relying on intuition rather than scrutinizing evidence). While this hypothesis is prevalent in the literature, few have attempted to empirically test it. Here, we provided the most comprehensive test of the cognitive differences hypothesis to date. In 3 studies, we used online screening to recruit groups of strong believers and strong skeptics, matched on key demographics (age, sex, and years of education). These groups were then tested in laboratory and online settings using multiple cognitive tasks and other measures. Our cognitive testing showed that there were no consistent group differences on tasks of episodic memory distortion, autobiographical memory distortion, or working memory capacity, but skeptics consistently outperformed believers on several tasks tapping analytical or logical thinking as well as vocabulary. These findings demonstrate cognitive similarities and differences between these groups and suggest that differences in analytical thinking and conceptual knowledge might contribute to the development of psychic beliefs. We also found that psychic belief was associated with greater life satisfaction, demonstrating benefits associated with psychic beliefs and highlighting the role of both cognitive and noncognitive factors in understanding these individual differences.

Recollection-related increases in functional connectivity predict individual differences in memory accuracy.

Recollection involves retrieving specific contextual details about a prior event. Functional neuroimaging studies have identified several brain regions that are consistently more active during successful versus failed recollection-the "core recollection network." In the present study, we investigated whether these regions demonstrate recollection-related increases not only in activity but also in functional connectivity in healthy human adults. We used fMRI to compare time-series correlations during successful versus unsuccessful recollection in three separate experiments, each using a different operational definition of recollection. Across experiments, a broadly distributed set of regions consistently exhibited recollection-related increases in connectivity with different members of the core recollection network. Regions that demonstrated this effect included both recollection-sensitive regions and areas where activity did not vary as a function of recollection success. In addition, in all three experiments the magnitude of connectivity increases correlated across individuals with recollection accuracy in areas diffusely distributed throughout the brain. These findings suggest that enhanced functional interactions between distributed brain regions are a signature of successful recollection. In addition, these findings demonstrate that examining dynamic modulations in functional connectivity during episodic retrieval will likely provide valuable insight into neural mechanisms underlying individual differences in memory performance.

Unique and persistent individual patterns of brain activity across different memory retrieval tasks

Fourteen subjects were scanned in two fMRI sessions separated by several months. During each session, subjects performed an episodic retrieval task, a semantic retrieval task, and a working memory task. We found that 1) despite extensive intersubject variability in the pattern of activity across the whole brain, individual activity patterns were stable over time, 2) activity patterns of the same individual performing different tasks were more similar than activity patterns of different individuals performing the same task, and 3) that individual differences in decision criterion on a recognition test predicted the degree of similarity between any two individuals' patterns of brain activity, but individual differences in memory accuracy or similarity in structural anatomy did not. These results imply that the exclusive use of group maps may be ineffective in profiling the pattern of activations for a given task. This may be particularly true for a task like episodic retrieval, which is relatively strategic and can involve widely distributed specialized processes that are peripheral to the actual retrieval of stored information. Further, these processes may be differentially engaged depending on individual differences in cognitive processing and/or physiology.

Memory accuracy in old age: Cognitive, metacognitive, and neurocognitive determinants

Age differences in memory accuracy were examined within a conceptual framework specifying the mediating role of metacognitive monitoring and control processes (Koriat & Goldsmith, 1996b). Replicating previous results, older adults showed poorer memory quantity and accuracy performance compared to young adults. Even when memory quantity performance was equated, by dividing the young adults’ attention during encoding, the difference in memory accuracy was not eliminated. Examination of the underlying metacognitive processes revealed that the age-related reduction in memory accuracy stemmed partly from less effective memory monitoring, apparently the result of poorer encoding, and also from differences in two aspects of metacognitive control: (1) a more liberal report criterion—greater tendency to volunteer incorrect (and correct) answers, and (2) reduced control sensitivity—less reliance on subjective monitoring as a basis for responding. This latter control reduction was associated with lower neuropsychological measures of executive functioning, suggesting a decline in frontal-lobe efficiency.

Co-Witnesses, Confederates, and Conformity: Effects of Discussion and Delay on Eyewitness Memory

This study investigated the effects of co-witness discussion and delay on eyewitness memory. Participants viewed crime videos and then after a delay (20 min or 2 weeks) their memories for the videos were tested using a recognition questionnaire. They were then randomly assigned to one of three conditions: discussion in groups with a confederate providing misinformation about the videos, discussion in groups with no confederate, or no discussion. Finally, all participants were given another copy of the recognition questionnaire to complete individually. Participants in the confederate discussion condition reported information supplied by the confederate, regardless of the information accuracy. The post-event misinformation had a particularly strong effect on memory accuracy when it was presented after a longer delay. There was no difference in memory accuracy between the groups without confederates and the no-discussion control condition, suggesting that discussion is neither harmful nor beneficial to memory accuracy when no misinformation is supplied.

The contribution of metamemory deficits to schizophrenia.

A number of recent studies have demonstrated that individuals with schizophrenia display knowledge corruption; that is, they hold false information with strong conviction. This aberration in metamemory is thought to stem from poor memory accuracy in conjunction with impaired discrimination of correct and incorrect judgments in terms of confidence. Thirty-one participants with schizophrenia, along with 61 healthy control participants and 48 control participants with other psychiatric conditions, participated in a computerized source memory task. Whereas no differences in memory accuracy were observed between the group with schizophrenia and the group with other psychiatric diagnoses, knowledge corruption was specifically impaired in those with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia participants showed a significantly decreased confidence gap: They were more confident in errors and less confident in correct responses relative to those in the control groups. Knowledge corruption is theorized to be a potential risk factor for the emergence of delusions.

Nearly 4 years after an event: children’s eyewitness memory and adults’ perceptions of children’s accuracy

Objective: The current study examined children’s eyewitness memory nearly 4 years after an event and the ability of adults to evaluate such memory. Method: In Phase 1, 7- and 10-year olds were interviewed about a past event after a nearly 4-year delay. The interview included leading questions relevant to child abuse as well as statements designed to implicate the original confederate. In Phase 2, laypersons and professionals watched a videotaped interview (from Phase 1) that they were misled to believe was from an ongoing abuse investigation. Respondents then rated the child’s accuracy and credibility, and the probability that the child had been abused. Results: In Phase 1, few significant age differences in memory accuracy were found, perhaps owing in part to small sample size. Although children made a variety of commission errors, none claimed outright to have been abused. Nevertheless, some of the children’s answers (e.g., saying that their picture had been taken, or that they had been in a bathtub) might cause concern in a forensic setting. In Phase 2, professional and nonprofessional respondents were unable to reliably estimate the overall accuracy of children’s statements. However, respondents were able to reasonably estimate the accuracy of children’s answers to abuse questions. Respondents were also more likely to think that 7-year olds compared to 10-year olds had been abused. Professionals were significantly less likely than nonprofessionals to believe that credible evidence of abuse existed. Professionals who indicated personal experience with child abuse or a close relationship with an abuse victim were more likely to rate children as abused. A gender bias to rate boys as more accurate than girls was apparent among laypersons but not professionals. Conclusions: Children were generally resistant to suggestions that abuse occurred during a long-ago generally forgotten event, but some potentially concerning errors were made. Both professionals and non-professionals had difficulty estimating the accuracy of children’s reports, but adults were more likely to rate children as accurate if the children answered abuse-related questions correctly. Training and personal experience were associated with adults’ ratings of children’s reports. Implications for evaluations of child abuse reports are discussed.