Effortful Memory Processes Research Articles

Effortful memory processes under stereotype threat and self-concept in aging.

The present study aimed at exploring the effect of stereotype threat on the controlled part of memory in older adults using a deep level of processing, namely, self-reference encoding. To meet this objective, 25 younger adults and 25 older adults performed a Remember/Know recognition task following self-reference versus other-reference encoding of adjective traits, under stereotype threat or not. The results indicated that under stereotype threat, older adults' production of Remember responses was specifically impaired following self-reference encoding. Moreover, whereas executive functioning and group identification did not moderate stereotype threat effect, measure of self-worth did. These findings suggest that stereotype threat in older adults may be a self-concept threat and that moderators of stereotype threat found in other groups (i.e., group identification and executive functioning) may not be generalised to this group. Rather, as stereotype threat in aging may represent a threat to the self, self-worth might have a central role, whereby individuals with high self-worth remain self-confident even under stereotype threat and are thus able to down-regulate their negative affects to face such a threat.

Age Effects Shrink when Motor Learning is Predominantly Supported by Nondeclarative, Automatic Memory Processes: Evidence from Golf Putting

Can motor learning be equivalent in younger and older adults? To address this question, 48 younger (M = 23.5 years) and 48 older (M = 65.0 years) participants learned to perform a golf-putting task in two different motor learning situations: one that resulted in infrequent errors or one that resulted in frequent errors. The results demonstrated that infrequent-error learning predominantly relied on nondeclarative, automatic memory processes whereas frequent-error learning predominantly relied on declarative, effortful memory processes: After learning, infrequent-error learners verbalized fewer strategies than frequent-error learners; at transfer, a concurrent, attention-demanding secondary task (tone counting) left motor performance of infrequent-error learners unaffected but impaired that of frequent-error learners. The results showed age-equivalent motor performance in infrequent-error learning but age deficits in frequent-error learning. Motor performance of frequent-error learners required more attention with age, as evidenced by an age deficit on the attention-demanding secondary task. The disappearance of age effects when nondeclarative, automatic memory processes predominated suggests that these processes are preserved with age and are available even early in motor learning.

Use of nondeclarative and automatic memory processes in motor learning: how to mitigate the effects of aging

Does normal aging inexorably lead to diminished motor learning abilities? This article provides an overview of the literature on the question, with particular emphasis on the functional dissociation between two sets of memory processes: declarative, effortful processes, and non-declarative, automatic processes. There is abundant evidence suggesting that aging does impair learning when past memories of former actions are required (episodic memory) and recollected through controlled processing (working memory). However, other studies have shown that aging does not impair learning when motor actions are performed non verbally and automatically (tapping procedural memory). These findings led us to hypothesize that one can minimize the impact of aging on the ability to learn new motor actions by favouring procedural learning. Recent data validating this hypothesis are presented. Our findings underline the importance of developing new motor learning strategies, which "bypass" declarative, effortful memory processes.

Depression, Avolition, and Attention Disorders in Patients with Schizophrenia: Associations with Verbal Memory Efficiency

Depression, Avolition, and Attention Disorders in Patients with Schizophrenia: Associations with Verbal Memory Efficiency

Do Novel Associative Word Stem Completion and Cued Recall Share the Same Memory Retrieval Processes?

The aim of this study was to determine whether word stem completion for novel associations between cue and target words was mediated by automatic unconscious memory processes or effortful memory processes under conscious control. This was done by applying full and divided attention conditions at test to stem completion, cued recall, and recognition, and by administering a questionnaire that probed the memory strategies used by subjects during the completion test. Divided attention had no effect on stem completion performance, but did reduce associative cued recall. Recognition performance was weakened overall by divided attention, but the associative effect was similar under both attention conditions. This suggested that novel associative word stem completion was mediated by automatic retrieval processes. However, the results of the questionnaire indicated that only subjects who attempted to remember the words from the study phase during the completion task showed any novel associative effect. It is concluded that novel association word stem completion and cued recall share automatic retrieval processes, which nevertheless give rise to the experience of remembering.

The selective effects of alcohol on automatic and effortful memory processes.

Automatic and effortful memory processes were evaluated in a 2-session, within-subjects design involving an alcohol challenge and a no-alcohol condition. Free recall of a 90-word list measured effortful processing. Estimation of word frequency from the same list measured automatic processing. Acute intoxication was hypothesized to diminish effortful but not automatic memory processes. Healthy, male volunteers (n = 36) completed the 2 conditions 1 week apart. Presentation frequency influenced both free recall and frequency estimation, with both measures increasing as presentation frequency increased. Free recall was significantly lower in the alcohol than in the no-alcohol condition, but frequency estimation was not differentially affected. The data showed that an alcohol challenge dissociated automatic and effortful memory processes in volunteers. The authors discuss potential neurobiological substrates that may account for alcohol's selective disruption of effortful, verbal, episodic memory processing.

Automatic and effortful memory processes in depressed persons.

Clinical lore has held that depression results in memory dysfunction, particularly in older adults. Some believe that memory loss due to depression is indistinguishable from an organic dementia and label such dysfunction pseudodementia. Previous literature has inconclusively supported the relation between depression and memory deficits. This research assessed three groups of subjects: (a) 30 depressed patients, (b) 20 psychiatric controls, and (c) 30 normal controls. Dependent memory tasks were designed to vary along the automatic and effortful memory encoding continuum defined by Hasher and Zacks (1979). Two tasks were designed to be effortful (free recall and paired associates) and two tasks were designed to be automatic (memory for frequency and location). Contrary to predictions, depression was not related to memory deficits. However, post-hoc analyses indicated that psychiatric hospitalization and psychotropic medication had a greater negative impact on memory than did depression. As predicted, age resulted in effortful encoding deficits whereas age resulted in minimal deficits on the automatic tasks. There was no evidence of an interaction between depression and age that would be consistent with the descriptive label of pseudodementia.

Differential effect of right and left hemispheric lesions on two memory tasks: Free recall of items and recall of spatial location

The effect of lateralized cerebral damage on free recall of items and recall of spatial location, under intentional and incidental learning conditions, was investigated. Eleven right brain-damaged (RBD) patients, 10 left brain-damaged (LDB) patients, 14 young and 11 elderly normal controls, participated in this study. The overall performance of the control groups was better than that of the patient groups. For all groups, free recall was better under intentional than under incidental learning condition. On recall of spatial location the learning condition had a differential effect on the groups. The RBD group performed better than the LBD group under intentional learning condition, while the reverse was found under incidental learning condition. The young-control group showed an advantage over the elderly-control group under intentional but not under incidental learning condition. The results are discussed in regard to different approaches to the distinction between automatic and effortful memory processes and their lateralization in the cerebral hemispheres.

Automatic Memory Processes in Patients With Multiple Sclerosis

To better understand the nature of the memory deficit in patients with multiple sclerosis, we designed a study to compare automatic vs effortful memory processes. Forty-one patients with definite multiple sclerosis and 45 demographically matched normal control subjects were administered two tasks designed to assess both automatic (monitoring frequency and modality) and effortful (free and cued-recall) processing. Results indicated that patients with multiple sclerosis, as expected, were significantly impaired on memory measures requiring effort, but performed normally on automatic measures. Performance on the memory indexes did not correlate with self-reported depression. The implications of these findings for delineating the locus of the memory impairment in multiple sclerosis is discussed.

Automatic Memory Processes in Patients with Dementia-Alzheimer's Type (DAT)

We examined patients with Dementia-Alzheimer's Type, depression, and matched controls on tasks designed to compare automatic (monitoring frequency and modality) and effortful (free recall) processing of words and pictures. The results demonstrated that de pressed patients performed poorly only when conditions required effortful processing, but DAT patients performed poorly under all conditions. There was almost no overlap in scores between DAT and elderly depressed patients on one of the measures of automatic processing suggesting that this measure may be clinically useful. The results suggest that automatic memory processes can be partially dissociated from effortful memory processes, but that both types of operations are impaired in DAT patients.