Paired-associate Recall Research Articles

Within-pair factors might explain the inconsistent effects of animacy on paired-associates recall.

The tendency for people to have better memory for animate (living) concepts than inanimate (nonliving) concepts in memory tasks involving free recall and recognition suggests that animacy status can be an important predictor of memory. To date, however, the effect of animacy on paired-associates recall has been mixed: Some studies have found an animacy advantage, some have found an animacy disadvantage, and some have found no difference by animacy. We tested the hypothesis that the within-pair relationship of the two words in a pair matters more for cued recall than animacy itself. In two experiments, college students studied animate and inanimate English word pairs for a cued-recall test. We varied whether the pairs involved two typical exemplars from the same category (e.g., SALMON-TROUT; FORK-SPOON), one typical and one atypical exemplar from the same category (e.g., DOCTOR-SCIENTIST; HOUSE-IGLOO), or two unrelated words from different categories (e.g., SERGEANT-COBRA; MAGAZINE-PLIERS). Respectively, these pair types produced an animacy disadvantage, an animacy advantage, and no difference by animacy in both experiments. We then examined several measures of within-pair similarity for the items. All were positively associated with paired-associates recall, but animacy had no effect on cued recall above and beyond the relationship of these measures to recall. These results suggest that the within-pair relationship matters more for cued recall than does animacy. Uneven variation in within-pair relationships for animate versus inanimate pairs-rather than animacy itself-might therefore produce the apparently inconsistent effects of animacy on paired-associates recall.

Consideration of different scoring approaches for a verbal incidental learning measure from the WAIS-IV using hippocampal volumes

Objective: While Spencer’s verbal incidental learning (IL) task—from Vocabulary and Similarities subtests of the WAIS—has been validated relative to traditional memory measures and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology, the effectiveness of the particular scoring method used has not been assessed relative to alternative scoring weightings. The purpose of this study was to compare original and alternative scoring methods of this IL task by using an AD biomarker-benchmark to arrive at an optimal approach. Methods: Fifty-five memory-clinic patients aged 59–87 received neuropsychological assessment, measures of IL, and quantitative brain imaging. Partial correlation coefficients with total hippocampal volume—controlling for age, sex, and intracranial volume—were assessed across several IL scoring methods, and partial correlations with measures of memory were examined to evaluate convergent validity. Results: IL scoring methods maximizing the contribution of paired-associate-recall-performance were significantly correlated with both hippocampal volumes and traditional memory measures, whereas discrimination-emphasized scoring methods were not. Conclusions: IL scoring methods emphasizing memory paired-associate recall appeared to be preferable to those emphasizing memory discrimination. Administration of the IL- Similarities subtest alone, without IL- Vocabulary, may strike a balance between strength of relationships with both hippocampal volumes and standard memory measures, while also limiting administration time.

Does Napping Enhance the Consolidation of Clinically Relevant Information? A Comparison of Individuals with Low and Elevated Depressive Symptoms.

PurposeSleep, both overnight and daytime naps, can facilitate the consolidation of declarative memories in healthy humans. However, it is unclear whether such beneficial effects of sleep occur in special populations, such as individuals with elevated neuropsychiatric symptoms, and if they apply to clinically relevant material that may have personal significance to those populations.MethodsWe examined memory retention over a 60-minute interval of wakefulness or nap opportunity in participants with low or elevated scores (≤13 and ≥21, respectively) on the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Memory for depression-related information was assessed by (a) free-recall of a video depicting a personal experience narrative of the impact of depression on cognition and workplace performance; and (b) a paired-associates task linking depression-related cognitive symptoms to appropriate coping strategies.ResultsThe results showed no overall difference in recall between the nap and waking condition. However, across the full sample of participants, there were significant positive correlations between total sleep time and paired associates recall, and slow wave sleep (SWS) percentage and story free recall performance. Unexpectedly, participants with elevated BDI-II scores exhibited better free-recall performance compared to those with low scores.ConclusionThese results suggest that sleep, specifically SWS, may stabilize memories for clinically relevant information in populations with low and elevated depressive symptoms. The superior recall in participants with elevated-BDI scores may be related to the personal significance and stronger encoding of depression-related information. These observations raise the possibility that mnemonic deficits in depressed patients may be, at least in part, related to the type of information used to assess memory performance.

Remembering rhythm and rhyme: memorability of narratives for science communication

Abstract. Once upon a time, narratives were considered to be a non-reliable way of representing and communicating science. Nowadays, narratives are widely accepted as an accurate way of conveying science; they represent an effective emotional trigger, a lasting memory structure and a powerful aid for learning. To study how memorable different ways of presenting information can be is a fundamental task for science communication in order to evaluate materials that not only need to be understood by the general public but also need to be retained in the long term as a part of the communication process. In this paper, I will give a brief introduction to cognitive psychology and the study of memory in relation to narratives. Evidence from the field of memory studies suggests that narratives represent a good recall device. They can generate emotion, and this in turn is a way of focusing attention, promoting rehearsal in memory and inducing long-term potentiation. Similarly, a story produces semantic links that might assist in storing and retrieving information from memory. Studies suggest that memory span and paired-associate recall have implications in storing and recalling narratives. Evidence also suggests that the use of stories as modelling tools can organise information, provide schemas and allow extrapolation or prediction. Finally, literature in memory suggests that narratives have value as mnemonic devices.

Variation in attention at encoding: Insights from pupillometry and eye gaze fixations.

In 2 experiments, eye-tracking was used to examine individual differences in attention during encoding and their relation to associative learning. Pupillary responses were used as an indicator of the amount of attention devoted to items, whereas eye fixations provided a means of assessing attentional focus among items within each to-be-remembered word pair. In both experiments, participants performed a paired associates (PA) cued recall task while pupil diameter and eye fixations were simultaneously recorded. Results from Experiment 1 revealed that larger pupillary responses at encoding, as well as more alternating fixations between the Cue and Target items for each word pair (i.e., switches), was associated with increased learning ability. Critically, while Experiment 2 revealed that effective strategy use partially accounted for the relationship between pupillary responses and PA recall accuracy, pupillary responses still explained unique variance in PA recall accuracy-a result that held even when controlling for the influence of working memory capacity and long-term memory ability. Collectively, the results suggest attentional abilities at encoding are vital for successful learning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

A Multinomial Processing Tree inferred from age-related memory-error probabilities: Possibility of inferring more if response times were available

Use of Multinomial Processing Tree (MPT) models is illustrated by fitting one to data of Dhir (2017). Her experiment examined age and association type in a paired-associate recall task. Age and Pair-Type had interactive effects on probability of a correct response. A natural interpretation of the interaction would be that both factors impact the same mental process. However, fitting an MPT leads to the conclusion that Age and Pair-Type selectively influence two separate processes, one following the other. A possible interpretation of these is as attempts at specific (verbatim) retrieval and knowledge supported (gist) processing, selectively influenced by Age and Pair-Type, respectively. The order of these processes is not determined by the response probabilities. In a further section of the paper, we show that if response times or other measures had also been available, they could have resolved the process order, but might have left it undetermined. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for two factors to selectively influence two ordered vertices in an MPT, with either order of the vertices accounting for both response probability and response time. They do so if and only if the MPT is equivalent to a special processing tree, not necessarily an MPT itself.

Specifying the neural basis of the spacing effect with multivariate ERP

The spacing effect refers to the finding that, given a fixed amount of study time, a longer interval between study repetitions improves long-term retention (e.g., Cepeda et al., 2006; Ebbinghaus, 1885/1967; Melton, 1970). Although the spacing effect is a robust and reliable finding in the memory literature, its cognitive and neural mechanisms remain unclear. We used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the neural correlates of the spacing effect in the context of the study-phase retrieval hypothesis, which posits that repeated exposure of an item serves as a reminder of one’s previous experience with the item, thereby promoting long-term retention. ERPs were recorded from 30 healthy young adults as they studied pairs of words under three levels of lag, corresponding to 0, 4, or 12 intervening pairs between the first and second occurrences of a target pair. We used two study-phase tasks that differed in the degree of retrieval that was required. During the test phase, participants were tested on paired-associate recall. The results demonstrated a significant effect of spacing on memory performance. However, the effect of encoding task and the interaction between encoding task and spacing were not significant. The results of the partial least squares analyses, which are not constrained by time window or electrode selection, revealed a spacing effect on the ERP data for both study-phase tasks; this effect occurred late in the epoch and was most salient over the centro-parietal scalp region. The results add to the literature on the neural correlates of the spacing effect by providing a more comprehensive account compared to past ERP findings that were focused on testing specific ERP components. They also call for further investigation on the various theoretical accounts of the spacing effect.

Gallery Game: Smartphone-based assessment of long-term memory in adults at risk of Alzheimer’s disease

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Gallery Game, deployed within the Mezurio smartphone app, targets the processes of episodic memory hypothesized to be first vulnerable to neurofibrillary tau-related degeneration in Alzheimer’s Disease, prioritizing both perirhinal and entorhinal cortex/hippocampal demands.Methods: Thirty-five healthy adults (aged 40–59 years), biased toward those at elevated familial risk of dementia, completed daily Gallery Game tasks for a month. Assessments consisted of cross-modal paired-associate learning, with subsequent tests of recognition and free recall following delays ranging from one to 13 days.Results: Retention intervals of at least three days were needed to evidence significant forgetting at both recognition and paired-associate recall test. The association between Gallery Game outcomes and established in-clinic memory assessments were small but numerically in the anticipated direction. In addition, there was preliminary support for utilizing the perirhinal-dependent pattern of semantic false alarms during object recognition as a marker of early impairment.Conclusions: These results support the need for tests of longer-term memory to sensitively record behavioral differences in adults with no diagnosis of cognitive impairment. Aggregate behavioral outcomes promote Gallery Game’s utility as a digital assessment of episodic memory, aligning with established theoretical models of object memory and showing small yet uniform associations with existing in-clinic tests. Initial support for the discriminatory value of perirhinal-targeted outcomes justifies ongoing large-sample validation against traditional biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease.

Episodic recognition memory based on incidental learning of visual associations is largely preserved compared to recall in amnestic mild cognitive impairment and mild Alzheimer’s disease

We investigated preserved episodic recognition memory based on incidental learning of visual associations in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In a cross-sectional design, we analyzed episodic memory score profiles of patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (a-MCI) (n = 42) or mild AD (n = 19) who had hippocampal atrophy, and healthy elderly controls (n = 43). The Visual Association Test-Extended served as a measure of episodic memory. Multiple-choice cued recognition was compared with paired associate recall and free recall within groups. Results showed that patients recognized learned material much better compared to when they had to recall material, resulting in large effect sizes (Cohen’s d) ranging from 1.3 to 3.5. We conclude that episodic recognition memory based on incidental learning of visual associations is largely preserved when compared to recall in a-MCI and mild AD. This suggests that the episodic memory impairment in AD may be characterized as a retrieval impairment rather than a consolidation impairment, indicating that preserved recognition compared to recall may be compatible with AD being the correct diagnosis. Measuring the episodic memory impairment in AD may benefit from using tests that capture different aspects of memory processes such as incidental learning of visual associations.

Recalling the firedog: Individual differences in associative memory for unitized and nonunitized associations among older adults.

Memory deficits in aging are characterized by impaired hippocampus-mediated relational binding-the formation of links between items in memory. By reducing reliance on relational binding, unitization of two items into one concept enhances associative recognition among older adults. Can a similar enhancement be obtained when probing memory with recall? This question has yet to be examined, because recall has been assumed to rely predominantly on relational binding. Inspired by recent evidence challenging this assumption, we investigated individual differences in older adults' recall of unitized and nonunitized associations. Compared with successfully aging individuals, older adults with mild memory deficits, typically mediated by the hippocampus, were impaired in recall of paired-associates in a task which relies on relational binding (study: "PLAY-TUNNEL"; test: PLAY-T?). In stark contrast, the two groups showed similar performance when items were unitized into a novel compound word (study: "LOVEGIGGLE"; test: LOVEG?). Thus, boosting nonrelational aspects of recall enhances associative memory among aging individuals with subtle memory impairments to comparable levels as successfully aging older adults.

Mere exposure effect(s) in the context of explicit memory search.

Prior stimulus exposure often increases later ratings of positive affect (e.g., pleasantness ratings). This phenomenon - the mere exposure effect (MEE) - appears robust following subliminal and incidental exposures. However, its expression in the context of explicit memory judgment remains unclear. In four studies, memory and pleasantness ratings were combined to investigate how memory conclusions (e.g., "studied" or "unstudied") might moderate exposure effects. Experiment 1 examined basic recognition, Experiment 2 manipulated incentives for recognition decisions, and Experiments 3 and 4 examined source memory and paired-associate recall respectively. In general, items endorsed as recognized, attributed to the queried source, or accompanied by successful recall of a paired associate (i.e., confirmations) were rated as more pleasant than baseline norms. As important, items endorsed as unstudied, rejected as originating from a queried source, or failing to yield successful recall of a paired associated were rated as less pleasant than baseline norms. This suggests that it is the outcome of memory search that alters pleasantness ratings in the context of retrieval demands, and we discuss how this confirmation of search (COS) hypothesis accounts for current and prior findings.

Individual differences in long-term memory.

The literature on individual differences in long-term memory (LTM) is organized and reviewed. This includes an extensive review of the factor structure of LTM abilities as well as specific individual differences in criterial tasks such as free recall, paired associates recall, and recognition. It is demonstrated that individual differences in LTM abilities are represented by various lower order factors based on criterial tasks as well as by a more general higher-order LTM factor. These individual differences are linked with multiple different constructs including working memory, intelligence, and attention control. Individual differences in forgetting, interference control, false memory, testing effects, general retrieval abilities, and the influence of strategies are also examined. Overall, it is clear that there are substantial and robust individual differences in LTM abilities and that these abilities demonstrate important relations with other cognitive abilities. Future directions and an integration of individual differences in a general framework of memory are discussed, and it is suggested that combined experimental and correlational approaches are needed to better understand individual differences in LTM and that individual differences in LTM should be used to better test and revise theories of LTM processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Individual differences in executive functions and retrieval efficacy in older adults.

Two prominent aspects of memory problems in older adults are a difficulty in retrieving recent episodic events and an often transient inability to retrieve names and other well-known facts from semantic memory. The question addressed in the present studies was whether these age-related difficulties reflect a common cause-a retrieval problem related to inefficient executive functions (EF). In the first study, 50 older adults were given 4 tests of EF; a derived composite measure correlated strongly with a measure of retrieval efficacy in free recall, less strongly with paired-associate recall, and nonsignificantly with retrieval of general knowledge. A second study used somewhat different measures of EF and also different measures of retrieval from semantic memory, and this study did find significant relations between EF, episodic memory, and knowledge retrieval. Changes in the specific tests representing both EF and memory retrieval changed the relations between them, suggesting that no one task is a pure measure of the theoretical constructs of either EF or episodic and semantic memory. Taken together, the 2 studies showed that individual differences in EF in older adults are correlated with retrieval efficacy in both episodic and semantic memory but also that these relations depend on the specific measures chosen to represent both EF and memory retrieval. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Visual associations to retrieve episodic memory across healthy elderly, mild cognitive impairment, and patients with Alzheimer’s disease

ABSTRACTEpisodic memory tests need to determine the degree to which patients with moderate to severe memory deficits can still benefit from retrieval support. Especially in the case of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), this may support health care to be more closely aligned with patients’ memory capacities. We investigated whether the different measures of episodic memory of the Visual Association Test-Extended (VAT-E) can provide a more detailed and informative assessment on memory disturbances across a broad range of cognitive decline, from normal to severe impairment as seen in AD, by examining differences in floor effects. The VAT-E consists of 24 pairs of black-and-white line drawings. In a within-group design, we compared score distributions of VAT-E subtests in healthy elderly controls, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and AD (n = 144), as well as in relation to global cognitive impairment. Paired associate recall showed a floor effect in 41% of MCI patients and 62% of AD patients. Free recall showed a floor effect in 73% of MCI patients and 84% of AD patients. Multiple-choice cued recognition did not show a floor effect in either of the patient groups. We conclude that the VAT-E covers a broad range of episodic memory decline in patients. As expected, paired associate recall was of intermediate difficulty, free recall was most difficult, and multiple-choice cued recognition was least difficult for patients. These varying levels of difficulty enable a more accurate determination of the level of retrieval support that can still benefit patients across a broad range of cognitive decline.

Age differences in coupling of intraindividual variability in mnemonic strategies and practice-related associative recall improvements.

The importance of encoding strategies for associative recall is well established, but there have been no studies of aging and intraindividual variability (IAV) in strategy use during extended practice. We observed strategy use and cued-recall test performance over 101 days of practice in 101 younger adults (M = 25.6 years) and 103 older adults (M = 71.3 years) sandwiched by a pretest and posttest battery including an associative recall test. Each practice session included 2 lists of 12 number-noun paired-associate (PA) items (e.g., 23-DOGS), presented for brief exposures titrated to maintain below-ceiling performance throughout practice. Participants reported strategy use (e.g., rote repetition, imagery) after each test. Substantial IAV in strategy use was detected that was coupled with performance; lists studied with normatively effective strategies (e.g., imagery) generated higher PA recall than lists studied with less effective strategies (e.g., rote repetition). In comparison to younger adults, older adults' practice (a) relied more on repetition and less on effective strategies, (b) showed lower levels of IAV in effective strategy use, and (c) had lower within-person strategy-recall coupling, especially late in practice. Individual differences in pretest-posttest gains in PA recall were predicted by average level of effective strategy use in young adults but by strategy-recall coupling in older adults. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that experiencing variability in strategic outcomes during practice helps hone the effectiveness of strategic encoding behavior, and that older adults' reduced degree of pretest-posttest gains is influenced by lower likelihood of using and optimizing effective strategies through practice. (PsycINFO Database Record

Prospective Memory Is (Also) Not Immune to Imagery

The study adopted a study-test paradigm to investigate whether imagery has a similar effect on prospective memory as it does on retrospective memory. The sample consists of 160 introductory psychology students. The participants were randomly assigned into 2 between groups of imagery: no-imagery and imagery groups. All the participants first studied paired-associate words (List A-B) and were later tested on the paired-associate recall test and sentence construction task. The 2 tests were performed simultaneously. Results of data analyses using the multivariate statistical model showed that memory was better for participants in the imagery group than for participants in the no-imagery group for retrospective memory (p < .001), as well as for prospective memory (p < .001). The obtained effect sizes (ES) of 0.26 and 0.21 for retrospective and prospective memory respectively demonstrate that imagery affects not only retrospective memory, but also prospective memory.

Influence of Organizing Strategies, Time, and Grade Point Averages on Retention Performance.

AbstractThe relationships among retention performance, organizing strategy preference, and grade point average were assessed in 227 college students. Highly significant correlation coefficients suggest that the type of organizing strategy used in memorizing exerts a strong influence on the recall of paired associates over both short and long periods of time. Moreover, they seem to indicate that organizing strategy preference has promise as a predictor of grade point average.

Elaboration versus Suppression of Cued Memories: Influence of Memory Recall Instruction and Success on Parietal Lobe, Default Network, and Hippocampal Activity

Functional imaging studies of episodic memory retrieval consistently report task-evoked and memory-related activity in the medial temporal lobe, default network and parietal lobe subregions. Associated components of memory retrieval, such as attention-shifts, search, retrieval success, and post-retrieval processing also influence regional activity, but these influences remain ill-defined. To better understand how top-down control affects the neural bases of memory retrieval, we examined how regional activity responses were modulated by task goals during recall success or failure. Specifically, activity was examined during memory suppression, recall, and elaborative recall of paired-associates. Parietal lobe was subdivided into dorsal (BA 7), posterior ventral (BA 39), and anterior ventral (BA 40) regions, which were investigated separately to examine hypothesized distinctions in sub-regional functional responses related to differential attention-to-memory and memory strength. Top-down suppression of recall abolished memory strength effects in BA 39, which showed a task-negative response, and BA 40, which showed a task-positive response. The task-negative response in default network showed greater negatively-deflected signal for forgotten pairs when task goals required recall. Hippocampal activity was task-positive and was influenced by memory strength only when task goals required recall. As in previous studies, we show a memory strength effect in parietal lobe and hippocampus, but we show that this effect is top-down controlled and sensitive to whether the subject is trying to suppress or retrieve a memory. These regions are all implicated in memory recall, but their individual activity patterns show distinct memory-strength-related responses when task goals are varied. In parietal lobe, default network, and hippocampus, top-down control can override the commonly identified effects of memory strength.

Age Differences in the Effects of Experimenter-Instructed Versus Self-Generated Strategy Use

Background/Study Context: Interactive imagery is superior to rote repetition as an encoding strategy for paired associate (PA) recall. Younger and older individuals often rate these strategies as equally effective before they gain experience using each strategy. The present study investigated how experimenter-supervised and participant-chosen strategy experience affected younger and older adults’ knowledge about the effectiveness of these two strategies. Methods: Ninety-nine younger (M = 19.0 years, SD = 1.4) and 90 older adults (M = 70.4 years, SD = 5.2) participated in the experiment. In learning a first PA list participants were either instructed to use imagery or repetition to study specific items (supervised) or could choose their own strategies (unsupervised). All participants were unsupervised on a second PA list to evaluate whether strategy experience affected strategy knowledge, strategy use, and PA recall. Results: Both instruction groups learned about the superiority of imagery use through task experience, downgrading repetition ratings and upgrading imagery ratings on the second list. However, older adults showed less knowledge updating than did younger adults. Previously supervised younger adults increased their imagery use, improving PA recall; older adults maintained a higher level of repetition use. Conclusion: Older adults update knowledge of the differential effectiveness of the rote and imagery strategies, but to a lesser degree than younger adults. Older adults manifest an inertial tendency to continue using the repetition strategy even though they have learned that it is inferior to interactive imagery.

The effect of study time distribution on learning and retention: A Goldilocks principle for presentation rate.

In 2 experiments, we investigated the effect of presentation rate on both immediate (5 min) and delayed (2 days) cued recall of paired associates. Word pairs were presented for a total of 16 s per pair, with presentation duration of individual presentations varying from 1 to 16 s. In Experiment 1, participants studied word pairs with presentation rates of 16 × 1 s, 8 × 2 s, 4 × 4 s, 2 × 8 s, or 1 × 16 s. A nonmonotonic relationship was found between presentation rate and cued recall performance. Both short (e.g., 1 s) and long (e.g., 16 s) presentation durations resulted in poor immediate and delayed recall, compared with intermediate presentation durations. In Experiment 2, we replicated these general findings. Moreover, we showed that the 4 s condition resulted in less proportional forgetting than the 1 s and the 16 s conditions.