Formation Of New Associations Research Articles

On the role of item encoding mechanisms in associative memory in young and older adults: A mass univariate ERP study

We examined the role of item encoding mechanisms in older adults’ disproportionate deficit in memory for associations and individual differences therein. Young and older adults encoded sequentially presented object pairs via interactive imagery while their EEG was recorded. Compared to the young adults, older adults exhibited a reduction in associative, but not in item memory performance. Young adults showed frontal slow wave subsequent memory effects (SME) in both an item encoding contrast and an associative encoding contrast, presumably reflecting elaborative item processing, as well as the elaboration of an internal interactive image. Based on their performance in the subsequent associative memory test, older adults were subdivided into a high and a low performing group. In low performers, instead of a frontal slow wave SME a polarity-reversed, early parietal item SME was prominent, whose magnitude was negatively correlated with associative memory performance, potentially reflecting shallow, perceptual item encoding processes that are not well-suited for the formation of new associations. The present findings suggest that age-related deficits in elaboration of item information and an emphasis on the encoding of perceptual, item-specific details may contribute to reduced associative memory performance in older adults.

Civic advocacy for public service media? The case of Switzerland and its current rise in media policy activism

Civic advocacy for public service media (PSM) is rather rare. Switzerland, however, where civic associations play a vital role in politics and the economy, and where media policy activism is currently on the rise, offers ideal conditions for such advocacy. Combining document analysis and expert interviews with leading activists, this article investigates the aims, strategies and networks of seven associations dedicated to media policy activism. It also examines the connection between No Billag, a 2018 national referendum on abolishing the public broadcasting license fee, and the formation of new associations. Findings show that these associations are gatherings of media professionals and that PSM is not their main concern.

The function of the hippocampus and middle temporal gyrus in forming new associations and concepts during the processing of novelty and usefulness features in creative designs

Creative thought relies on the reorganization of existing knowledge to generate novel and useful concepts. However, how these new concepts are formed, especially through the processing of novelty and usefulness (which are usually regarded as the key properties of creativity), is not clear. Taking familiar and useful (FU) objects/designs as the starting point or fundamental baseline, we modified them into novel and useless (NS) objects/designs or novel and useful (NU) ones (i.e., truly creative ones) to investigate how the features of novelty and usefulness are processed (processing of novelty: NU minus FU; processing of usefulness: NU minus NS). Specifically, we predicted that the creative integration of novelty and usefulness entails not only the formation of new associations, which could be critically mediated by the hippocampus and adjacent medial temporal lobe (MTL) areas, but also the formation of new concepts or categories, which is supported by the middle temporal gyrus (MTG). We found that both the MTL and the MTG were involved in the processing of novelty and usefulness. The MTG showed distinctive patterns of information processing, reflected by strengthened functional connectivity with the hippocampus to construct new concepts and strengthened functional connectivity with the executive control system to break the boundaries of old concepts. Additionally, participants’ subjective evaluations of concept distance showed that the distance between the familiar concept (FU) and the successfully constructed concept (NU) was larger than that between the FU and the unsuccessfully constructed concept (NS), and this pattern was found to correspond to the patterns of their neural representations in the MTG. These findings demonstrate the critical mechanism by which new associations and concepts are formed during novelty and usefulness processing in creative design; this mechanism may be critically mediated by the hippocampus-MTG connection.

Object representations and the influence of learning: Insights from single neurons in the human brain

Objectives Learning associations between co-occurring events enables us to extract structure from our environment. However, the neuronal processes underlying the formation of new associations in the human brain are not yet well understood. Here I will present evidence for sparse representations of concepts in the human medial temporal lobe (MTL) and show how these representations can be modified by short-term learning. Methods and results Human participants, implanted with depth electrodes, learned arbitrary associations between images presented in an ordered, predictable sequence. During learning we recorded from MTL neurons and found that single MTL neurons showed asymmetric shifts in activity and started firing earlier in the sequence in anticipation of their preferred stimulus. In contrast, neurons in temporal cortex did not show anticipation effects as a result of this short-term learning. Conclusion These results demonstrate flexible representations in the MTL that could support rapid learning.

A role for proactive control in rapid instructed task learning

Humans are often remarkably fast at learning novel tasks from instructions. Such rapid instructed task learning (RITL) likely depends upon the formation of new associations between long-term memory representations, which must then be actively maintained to enable successful task implementation. Consequently, we hypothesized that RITL relies more heavily on a proactive mode of cognitive control, in which goal-relevant information is actively maintained in preparation for anticipated high control demands. We tested this hypothesis using a recently developed cognitive paradigm consisting of 60 novel tasks involving RITL and 4 practiced tasks, with identical task rules and stimuli used across both task types. A robust behavioral cost was found in novel relative to practiced task performance, which was present even when the two were randomly inter-mixed, such that task-switching effects were equated. Novelty costs were most prominent under time-limited preparation conditions. In self-paced conditions, increased preparation time was found for novel trials, and was selectively associated with enhanced performance, suggesting greater proactive control for novel tasks. These results suggest a key role for proactive cognitive control in the ability to rapidly learn novel tasks from instructions.

The influence of recollection and familiarity in the formation and updating of associative representations.

Prior representations affect future learning. Little is known, however, about the effects of recollective or familiarity-based representations on such learning. We investigate the ability to reuse or reassociate elements from recollection- and familiarity-based associations to form new associations. Past neuropsychological research suggests that hippocampal, and presumably recollective, representations are more flexible than extra-hippocampal, presumably familiarity-based, representations. We therefore hypothesize that the elements of recollective associations, as opposed to familiarity-based representations, may be more easily manipulated and decoupled from each other, and facilitate the formation of new associations. To investigate this hypothesis we used the AB/AC learning paradigm. Across two recall studies we observed an advantage in learning AC word pairs if AB word pairs were initially recollected. Furthermore, AB word pairs were more likely to intrude during a final AC test if those AB word pairs were initially familiarity-based. A third experiment using a recognition version of the AB/AC paradigm ruled out the possibility that our findings were due to memory strength. Our results support the idea that elements in recollective associative traces may be more discretely coded, leading to their flexible use, whereas elements in familiarity-based associative traces are less flexible.

Learning of anticipatory responses in single neurons of the human medial temporal lobe.

Neuronal processes underlying the formation of new associations in the human brain are not yet well understood. Here human participants, implanted with depth electrodes in the brain, learned arbitrary associations between images presented in an ordered, predictable sequence. During learning we recorded from medial temporal lobe (MTL) neurons that responded to at least one of the pictures in the sequence (the preferred stimulus). We report that as a result of learning, single MTL neurons show asymmetric shifts in activity and start firing earlier in the sequence in anticipation of their preferred stimulus. These effects appear relatively early in learning, after only 11 exposures to the stimulus sequence. The anticipatory neuronal responses emerge while the subjects became faster in reporting the next item in the sequence. These results demonstrate flexible representations that could support learning of new associations between stimuli in a sequence, in single neurons in the human MTL.

Decreases in theta and increases in high frequency activity underlie associative memory encoding

Episodic memory encoding refers to the cognitive process by which items and their associated contexts are stored in memory. To investigate changes directly attributed to the formation of explicit associations, we examined oscillatory power captured through intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) as 27 neurosurgical patients receiving subdural and depth electrodes for seizure monitoring participated in a paired associates memory task. We examined low (3–8Hz) and high (45–95Hz) frequency activity, and found that the successful formation of new associations was accompanied by broad decreases in low frequency activity and a posterior to anterior progression of increases in high frequency activity in the left hemisphere. These data suggest that the observed patterns of activity may reflect the neural mechanisms underlying the formation of novel item-item associations.

Functional and textural characteristics of cress seed (Lepidium sativum) gum and xanthan gum: Effect of refrigeration condition

Abstract Influences of low temperature conditions (4 °C–96 h and 10 °C–40 h) on functional properties (flow behavior, time dependency, emulsifying and foaming behavior) and textural attributes of cress seed gum and xanthan gum were investigated. The apparent viscosity of cress seed gum increased after cooling, whereas xanthan gum had negligible increase. Hydrocolloid solutions exhibited substantial thixotropy behavior, with no significant alteration occurred after cooling. However, cress seed gum exhibited more rigid and elastic gel after cooling, which related to growth of existing junctions or formation of new associations. Xanthan gum had high capability in emulsifying and foaming properties and just loosed its foaming capacity after cooling. Emulsifying and foaming properties of cress seed gum also were considerable, which were maintained after cooling treatments. The stable behavior of cress seed and xanthan gum is attributed to its rigid chain conformation, which led to increasing macromolecular entanglement. The various functional attributes of cress seed gum provide essential potency for employing it as a novel food hydrocolloid source.

Alpha5‐containing GABAA receptors in dentate gyrus enable cognitive flexibility

Cognitive flexibility, which is essential for normal cognitive functioning, is disrupted in several disorders, including autism and PTSD. We hypothesized that the characteristics of the dentate gyrus (DG) that support pattern separation (i.e. sparse activation patterns with weak overlap, produced in part by high levels of tonic inhibition) would also enable flexible responding, wherein a now‐obsolete strategy must be inhibited in favor of a new one requiring the activation of a distinct population of neurons. To test this hypothesis we generated mice that lack α5‐containing GABAA receptors specifically in the granule cells of the DG. The knockout resulted in a significant reduction in tonic, but not fast phasic, inhibition. Knockout mice were similar to, or better than, controls in the acquisition of simple hippocampus‐dependent memory tasks. However, in cognitive tasks requiring the formation of new associations to override previously learned ones, DG knockout animals showed significant impairments. Our findings suggest that similar to its role in permitting pattern separation, strong inhibition in the DG enables cognitive flexibility. This finding raises the possiblity of using α5‐selective compounds in the treatment of rigidity symptoms, e.g. in autism spectrum disorders.

Leisure and social capital: spatial differentiation of voluntary associations in Czechia

The paper deals with leisure activities and their potential for the creation of social capital. Specifically, it focuses on leisure activities developed within voluntary associations, which are important actors in Czechia, especially at the local level. In addition to their potential for the creation of social networks and social capital, their existence reflects the quality of life in the localities. The study aims to assess the spatial distribution of various types of associations in Czechia in the context of broader socio-economical processes and changes. Special attention is paid to the dynamics of the formation of new associations in various types of regions. The used data record the number of associations in the municipalities and regionally specific information on the number of members of the Voluntary Fire-fighters, which is the most widespread association in Czechia.

Cultivating Compliance: Governance of North Indian Organic Basmati Smallholders in a Global Value Chain

Focusing on a global value chain (GVC) for organic basmati rice, we study how farmers' practices are governed through product and process standards, organic certification protocols, and contracts with buyer firms. We analyze how farmers' entry into the GVC reconfigures their agencements (defined as heterogeneous arrangements of human and nonhuman agencies which are associated with each other). These reconfigurations entail the severance of some associations among procedural and material elements of the agencements and the formation of new associations, in order to produce cultivation practices that are accurately described by the GVC's standards and protocols. Based on ethnography of two farmers in Uttarakhand, North India, we find that the same standards were enacted differently on the two farmers' fields, producing variable degrees of (selective) compliance with the ‘official’ GVC standards. We argue that the disjuncture between the ‘official’ scripts of the standards and actual cultivation practices must be nurtured to allow farmers' agencements to align their practices with local sociotechnical relations and farm ecology. Furthermore, we find that compliance and disjuncture were facilitated by many practices and associations that were officially ungoverned by the GVC.

The Google Sketch Up Software as a Tool to Promote Creativity in Education in Greece

The three-dimensional design software called “SketchUp” was first presented by Google in 2006 and was created to facilitate the design of buildings for the three-dimensional city display on Google's satellite maps. It is a modeling tool which can be used to create anything, from simple 3D shapes to complex models, thereby promoting creativity (Dewey & Down; Fischer et al.,2005; Kintsch; Kafantaris, 2010; Sarimpalidis, 2010; 3dvinci, Teacher's guide, NCTM Meeting SketchUp Talk). Creativity is still a point of concern today, both as an object of psychological research, as well as a goal of the educational process. The ability to be creative attracted the interest of researchers in the empirical psychology of the 20th century. Creativity is the ability to express one's thoughts in an essentially new, original way that surpasses the ordinary. It is a fantasy or a compilation of thoughts that are not simply quoted or stitched together. Creativity may include the development of new systems, the transfer of familiar relationships to new situations, or the formation of new associations (De Bono, 1976; Florida, 2003; Stain, 1975; Tharp, 2003; Xanthacou & Kaila, 2011).In this study, we attempt to investigate the effect of the students’ involvement with Google Sketchup on the three dimensions of creative expression: fluency, flexibility, originality.The study participants were 45 students in the first grade of the EPA.L. (Vocational high school) of Zakynthos. For this study,the students were divided into two groups. The first group (experimental group) created designs on the computer using the Google Sketchup software, while the second group (control group) created designs using design tools. In the end, the two groups of students completed a common test of divergent creative expression.The results’ analysis indicated the positive effect of software use on the students’ creative expression, regarding fluency and flexibility of thought. The capacity for originality of ideas was not significantly affected. The fact that two of the three elements of creative expression presented a statistically significant difference in the experimental group proves that the Google SketchUp software has the ability to affect the creative expression of students.

Using arterial spin labeling perfusion MRI to explore how midazolam produces anterograde amnesia

While our previous work suggests that the midazolam-induced memory impairment results from the inhibition of new association formation, little is known about the neural correlates underlying these effects beyond the effects of GABA agonists on the brain. We used arterial spin-labeling perfusion MRI to measure cerebral blood flow changes associated with the effects of midazolam on ability to learn arbitrary word-pairs. Using a double-blind, within-subject cross-over design, subjects studied word-pairs for a later cued-recall test while they were scanned. Lists of different word-pairs were studied both before and after an injection of either saline or midazolam. As expected, recall was severely impaired under midazolam. The contrast of MRI signal before and after midazolam administration revealed a decrease in CBF in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), left cingulate gyrus and left posterior cingulate gyrus/precuneus. These effects were observed even after controlling for any effect of injection. A strong correlation between the midazolam-induced changes in neural activity and memory performance was found in the left DLPFC. These findings provide converging evidence that this region plays a critical role in the formation of new associations and that low functioning of this region is associated with anterograde amnesia.

Flexible Memories: Differential Roles for Medial Temporal Lobe and Prefrontal Cortex in Cross-Episode Binding

Episodic memory is characterized by rapid formation of new associations that bind information within individual episodes. A powerful aspect of episodic memory is the ability to flexibly apply and recombine information from past experience to guide new behavior. A critical question for memory research is how medial temporal lobe (MTL) and prefrontal cortex (PFC), regions implicated in rapid within-episode binding, further support cross-episode binding in service of mnemonic flexibility. We set to answer this question using an associative inference task in humans that required rapid binding of information across overlapping experiences (AB, BC) to enable successful transfer to novel test probes (AC). Within regions predicting subsequent associative memory for directly learned associations, encoding activation in MTL, including hippocampus and parahippocampal cortex, uniquely predicted success on novel transfer trials both within and across participants, consistent with an integrative encoding mechanism where overlapping experiences are linked into a combined representation during learning. In contrast, during retrieval, PFC activation predicted trial-by-trial transfer success while MTL predicted transfer performance across participants. Moreover, increased MTL-PFC coupling was observed during novel transfer trials compared with retrieval of directly learned associations. These findings suggest that inferential processes support transfer of rapidly acquired experiences to novel events during retrieval where multiple memories are recalled and flexibly recombined in service of successful behavior. Together, these results demonstrate distinct encoding and retrieval mechanisms that support mnemonic flexibility, revealing a unique role for MTL regions in cross-episode binding during encoding and engagement of interactive MTL-PFC processes during flexible transfer at test.

REM, not incubation, improves creativity by priming associative networks

The hypothesized role of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which is rich in dreams, in the formation of new associations, has remained anecdotal. We examined the role of REM on creative problem solving, with the Remote Associates Test (RAT). Using a nap paradigm, we manipulated various conditions of prior exposure to elements of a creative problem. Compared with quiet rest and non-REM sleep, REM enhanced the formation of associative networks and the integration of unassociated information. Furthermore, these REM sleep benefits were not the result of an improved memory for the primed items. This study shows that compared with quiet rest and non-REM sleep, REM enhances the integration of unassociated information for creative problem solving, a process, we hypothesize, that is facilitated by cholinergic and noradrenergic neuromodulation during REM sleep.

Hippocampal activation during face–name associative memory encoding: blocked versus permuted design

The contribution of the hippocampal subregions to episodic memory through the formation of new associations between previously unrelated items such as faces and names is established but remains under discussion. Block design studies in this area of research generally tend to show posterior hippocampal activation during encoding of novel associational material while event-related studies emphasize anterior hippocampal involvement. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess the involvement of anterior and posterior hippocampus in the encoding of novel associational material compared to the viewing of previously seen associational material. We used two different experimental designs, a block design and a permuted block design, and applied it to the same associative memory task to perform valid statistical comparisons. Our results indicate that the permuted design was able to capture more anterior hippocampal activation compared to the block design, which emphasized more posterior hippocampal involvement. These differences were further investigated and attributed to a combination of the polymodal stimuli we used and the experimental design. Activation patterns during encoding in both designs occurred along the entire longitudinal axis of the hippocampus, but with different centers of gravity. The maximal activated voxel in the block design was situated in the posterior half of the hippocampus while in the permuted design this was located in the anterior half.

Operating principles versus operating conditions in the distinction between associative and propositional processes

AbstractDrawing on our Associative-Propositional Evaluation (APE) Model, we argue for the usefulness of distinguishing between basic operating principles of learning processes (associative linking vs. propositional reasoning) and secondary features pertaining to the conditions of their operation (automatic vs. controlled). We review empirical evidence that supports the joint operation of associative and propositional processes in the formation of new associations.

The emotional harbinger effect: Poor context memory for cues that previously predicted something arousing.

A key function of memory is to use past experience to predict when something important might happen next. Indeed, cues that previously predicted arousing events (emotional harbingers) garner more attention than other cues. However, the current series of five experiments demonstrates that people have poorer memory for the context of emotional harbinger cues than of neutral harbinger cues. Participants first learned that some harbinger cues (neutral tones or faces) predicted emotionally arousing pictures and others predicted neutral pictures. Then they studied associations between the harbinger cues and new contextual details. They were worse at remembering associations with emotional harbingers than with neutral harbingers. Memory was impaired not only for the association between emotional harbingers and nearby digits, but also for contextual details that overlapped with or were intrinsic to the emotional harbingers. However, new cues that were inherently emotionally arousing did not yield the same memory impairments as the emotional harbingers. Thus, emotional harbinger cues seem to suffer more from proactive interference than do neutral harbinger cues, impairing formation of new associations with cues that previously predicted something arousing.

Learning to Recognize Visual Objects With Microstimulation in Inferior Temporal Cortex

The malleability of object representations by experience is essential for adaptive behavior. It has been hypothesized that neurons in inferior temporal cortex (IT) in monkeys are pivotal in visual association learning, evidenced by experiments revealing changes in neural selectivity following visual learning, as well as by lesion studies, wherein functional inactivation of IT impairs learning. A critical question remaining to be answered is whether IT neuronal activity is sufficient for learning. To address this question directly, we conducted experiments combining visual classification learning with microstimulation in IT. We assessed the effects of IT microstimulation during learning in cases where the stimulation was exclusively informative, conditionally informative, and informative but not necessary for the classification task. The results show that localized microstimulation in IT can be used to establish visual classification learning, and the same stimulation applied during learning can predictably bias judgments on subsequent recognition. The effect of induced activity can be explained neither by direct stimulation-motor association nor by simple detection of cortical stimulation. We also found that the learning effects are specific to IT stimulation as they are not observed by microstimulation in an adjacent auditory area. Our results add the evidence that the differential activity in IT during visual association learning is sufficient for establishing new associations. The results suggest that experimentally manipulated activity patterns within IT can be effectively combined with ongoing visually induced activity during the formation of new associations.