Source Memory Errors Research Articles

H - 29 Delivering Culturally Sensitive Neuropsychological Assessment Feedback: a Case Study of Atypical Neurosyphilis.

To demonstrate the neuropsychological correlates of atypical neurosyphilis and the importance of delivering assessment results in a culturally sensitive manner. The patient was a 52-year-old African American male with 12years of education who was raised in a rural, southern town and worked as a delivery driver. He was hospitalized after three weeks of altered mental status, memory loss, and seizures. Electroencephalography (EEG) showed left lateralized periodic discharges. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed hyperintensities in the left hippocampus and amygdala consistent with limbic encephalitis. Cerebrospinal fluid studies revealed lymphocytic pleocytosis and hypoglycorrhachia. Rapid plasma regain and venereal disease tests were positive for syphilis in serum and CSF. He was initially treated with empiric antibiotics and antiseizures medications with modest improvement. His mental status improved after penicillin treatment, and he was discharged after 14days. Repeat MRI showed cortical atrophy in the left medial frontal lobe and left hippocampus. The patient demonstrated executive dysfunction (e.g., set-loss and source memory errors) and poor performance across verbal and visual memory tasks. He also demonstrated an inaccurate understanding of the possible causes of his illness. Feedback was delivered across two sessions: one session to discuss test results and a second session with the patient and his wife to discuss syphilis as a sexually transmitted infection and address the historical context of syphilis among African American men. Neurosyphilis can present as limbic encephalitis and can mimic autoimmune encephalitis and other infectious diseases. Tailoring assessment feedback to a patient's sociocultural context is vital for encouraging continued treatment.

‘Tell me what just happened’: the effect of immediate recall on adult memory for instances of a repeated event

ABSTRACT To reduce the memory decay associated with delayed reporting, witnesses are often encouraged to note down their recall immediately after the event. However, research has only investigated the benefits of immediate recall for single events; no research has explored whether immediate recall can improve memory for repeated events. Therefore, this research examined the effect of immediate recall on adult memory for a repeated event. In Experiment 1 (N = 42), participants watched four workplace bullying videos. After each video, the experimental group immediately recalled what occurred during the bullying instance, while the control group did not. One-week after the final video, all participants completed a final recall report about each video in the series. In Experiment 2 (N = 46), the same design and procedure were followed as Experiment 1, except prior to completing their final recall reports, all participants received correct and misleading post-event information about the third instance. The findings revealed that immediate recall enhanced memory accuracy across instances, but did not impact recall of source memory errors nor misinformation acceptance. The findings suggest that it may be beneficial for victims/witnesses of repeated offences, such as domestic abuse, to document their memories soon after experiencing an incident.

Developmental trajectories and brain correlates of directed forgetting in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome

22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS), also known as velo-cardio-facial syndrome (VCFS) is the most common copy number variant (CNV) in humans caused by a microdeletion on chromosome 22q11.2. The phenotype encompasses heart anomalies, cleft palate and cognitive difficulties. Alongside brain differences in VCFS, such as reduced hippocampal volume, different cognitive developmental trajectories can be observed. The aim of this study was to explore the developmental trajectories of cognitive inhibition in memory using longitudinal data acquired in a large cohort of individuals with 22q11DS and the brain correlates to those developmental changes. 51 participants with 22q11DS (mean age: 13.75 ± 4.26, mean IQ score: 70.50 ± 10.75) and 43 typically developing individuals matched for age (M = 13.50 ± 4.91) and gender were recruited. To explore inhibition in memory, the Directed Forgetting paradigm was used. 30 words were presented, half were ‘To be remembered items’(TBR) and the other half ‘To be forgotten items’ (TBF). To measure source memory, participants were asked during the recognition stage to say if the world was a TBR or a TBF item. Participants were tested during two consecutive visits, with a mean interval of 3 years. T1-weighted images were acquired using a 1.5 T Philips or a 3 T Siemens scanner at both visits. Both groups recognized more TBR than TBF items (Directed forgetting effect), however, participants with 22q11DS recognized fewer TBR items and did not show an increased recognition of TBR items with age. Furthermore, in participants with VCFS increased source memory errors with age was associated with a decline in hippocampal volume.

Misattributions of the source of health-related information in HIV disease

ABSTRACT Introduction: Growing access to both legitimate and dubious sources of health information makes accurate source memory increasingly important, yet it may be negatively impacted by conditions that impair prefrontal functioning, including HIV. This study hypothesized that instructions supporting source encoding on a health-related memory task would disproportionately benefit source memory of people with HIV (PWH), and to examine the pattern of source memory errors that are observed. Method: 102 individuals (61 HIV+, 41 HIV-) completed comprehensive neurobehavioral (including health literacy) and neuromedical evaluations, and were randomly assigned to one of two conditions for a health-related memory task: Attend to Source Instructions explicitly participants to attend to the source of health statements presented to them, which were either health professionals or lay-persons, whereas no such instruction was provided in a Control Instructions condition. Results: There was no significant interaction of HIV status by condition or main effect of HIV (ps>.05). There was a main effect of condition whereby those who received Attend to Source Instructions performed better on item-corrected source memory than those in the Control Instructions condition (p =.04). Those who received Control Instructions were more likely to misattribute the source of the health information to a health professional when the correct source was a lay-person (Cohen’s d = −0.53), which was correlated with poorer overall cognitive performance (p =.008) and performance-based measures of health literacy (ps<.05). Conclusions: Given that people are rarely reminded to attend to the source of new health information in the real world, the risk for misattributing health information to a qualified health professional in the absence of such instructions raises the concern that people may readily incorporate questionable health recommendations into their health regimen, particularly among persons with poorer cognitive functioning and lower levels of health literacy. This may have significant downstream health consequences such as drug interactions, side effects, and inefficacy.

Clinical and non-clinical hallucinations are similarly associated with source memory errors in a visual memory task.

Hallucinations have been found to be associated with various types of source memory failure in both schizophrenia patients and hallucination-prone healthy individuals. We investigated the associations of clinical and non-clinical hallucinations with source memory errors in a visual memory task that involved the remembering of picture presentation context. 59 schizophrenia patients and 61 healthy individuals took part in the study. Pictures were presented either at different locations or in association with different visual stimuli. The participants were required afterwards to recognize the target pictures among distractors, and then to remember their spatial location or the visual stimulus that was associated with them. Liberal response bias in picture recognition was associated with hallucination proneness and auditory-verbal hallucinations in subsamples of participants with significant non-clinical or clinical hallucinations. After controlling for overall memory performance, failure to remember the spatial location of the pictures was associated with visual hallucinations in male patients; failure to remember the associated visual stimulus was related to auditory-verbal hallucinations in female patients and to hallucination proneness in healthy women. The findings suggest that both clinical and non-clinical hallucinations are associated with loss of contextual information relative to the acquisition of events.

Cognitive Reserve Moderates Older Adults' Memory Errors in Autobiographical Reality Monitoring Task.

False memory rates differ in individuals with high versus low cognitive reserve and between young-old and old-old age groups. Here we tested how two types of false memory (false alarms to new items and source memory) in two age groups differed with cognitive reserve. Subjects were presented with words and either instructed to generate a past event from their memory associated with the word or to imagine a future event associated with the word. At test, participants were instructed to determine whether the event was a past, future, or new event. Results showed overall false memory rates were lower for young-old adults and those with high reserve. Critically, low cognitive reserve was most associated with source memory errors in young-old but not old-old adults. Reflecting the opposite pattern, false alarms to new items were most associated with low cognitive reserve for old-old, but not young-old adults. These results seem to suggest two different classes of false memories in old age. That is, cognitive reserve was most protective for familiar lures in earlier stages of old age, whereas it was most protective for new lures in later stages of old age. These results support the idea that retrieval monitoring deteriorates with age, potentially due to declines in working memory capacity, but that the decline may be attenuated by cognitive reserve. Furthermore, we suggest that different levels of working memory capacity may be required for monitoring source memory versus item memory, leading to differential effects of cognitive reserve depending upon age.

"Flexible retrieval mechanisms supporting successful inference produce false memories in younger but not older adults": Correction to Carpenter and Schacter (2018).

Reports an error in "Flexible retrieval mechanisms supporting successful inference produce false memories in younger but not older adults" by Alexis C. Carpenter and Daniel L. Schacter (Psychology and Aging, 2018[Feb], Vol 33[1], 134-143). In the article, the script that was used to calculate the trial counts was found to be incorrect when the experiments reported in the article were reanalyzed. Thus, although the statistical conclusions of the article have not changed, data reported throughout the Results section and in Tables 1 and 2 were incorrect. The online version of this article has been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2018-08555-012.) Episodic memory involves flexible retrieval processes that allow a person to link elements of distinct episodes in order to make novel inferences across events. In younger adults, we recently found that the same retrieval-related recombination mechanism that supports successful associative inference produces source misattributions as a consequence of erroneous binding of contextual elements from distinct episodes. In the current experiment, we found that older adults, in contrast to younger adults, did not show an increase in source misattributions following successful associative inference. We observed this pattern both when (a) younger and older adults were tested under identical experimental conditions and (b) younger and older adults were matched on associative inference accuracy and overall source memory errors. We suggest that the differing patterns of results are a consequence of age-related deficits in associative binding during successful inferential retrieval. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Overcoming familiarity illusions in a single case with persistent déjà vu

ABSTRACT While occasional déjà vu is benign in the general population, rare neuropsychological cases with persistent déjà vu have been described in the literature. We report the case of MN, a 25-year-old woman, who suffered a cerebral haemorrhage in the right thalamo-callosal region and experienced recurrent déjà vu episodes. Through clinical interviews and memory tasks related to déjà vu, we assumed that source memory errors and an inappropriate feeling of familiarity (measured by the number of false recognitions) were critically involved in MN’s déjà vu. Based on this, we developed the first neuropsychological intervention dedicated to déjà vu. The rationale was to train MN to detect elements that could produce an inappropriate feeling of familiarity and to promote metacognitive awareness about déjà vu. This intervention was effective at reducing the frequency of déjà vu episodes in MN’s daily life, as well as the number of false recognitions in memory tasks. In addition to its clinical contribution, this single-case study contributes to the limited literature on patients whose déjà vu is not related to epileptic abnormalities and medial temporal brain damage, and provide supportive evidence of the role of an erroneous feeling of familiarity and of metacognitive processes in déjà vu.

Flexible retrieval mechanisms supporting successful inference produce false memories in younger but not older adults.

Episodic memory involves flexible retrieval processes that allow a person to link elements of distinct episodes in order to make novel inferences across events. In younger adults, we recently found that the same retrieval-related recombination mechanism that supports successful associative inference produces source misattributions as a consequence of erroneous binding of contextual elements from distinct episodes. In the current experiment, we found that older adults, in contrast to younger adults, did not show an increase in source misattributions following successful associative inference. We observed this pattern both when (a) younger and older adults were tested under identical experimental conditions and (b) younger and older adults were matched on associative inference accuracy and overall source memory errors. We suggest that the differing patterns of results are a consequence of age-related deficits in associative binding during successful inferential retrieval. (PsycINFO Database Record

Dissociation of item and source memory in rhesus monkeys

Source memory, or memory for the context in which a memory was formed, is a defining characteristic of human episodic memory and source memory errors are a debilitating symptom of memory dysfunction. Evidence for source memory in nonhuman primates is sparse despite considerable evidence for other types of sophisticated memory and the practical need for good models of episodic memory in nonhuman primates. A previous study showed that rhesus monkeys confused the identity of a monkey they saw with a monkey they heard, but only after an extended memory delay. This suggests that they initially remembered the source – visual or auditory – of the information but forgot the source as time passed. Here, we present a monkey model of source memory that is based on this previous study. In each trial, monkeys studied two images, one that they simply viewed and touched and the other that they classified as a bird, fish, flower, or person. In a subsequent memory test, they were required to select the image from one source but avoid the other. With training, monkeys learned to suppress responding to images from the to-be-avoided source. After longer memory intervals, monkeys continued to show reliable item memory, discriminating studied images from distractors, but made many source memory errors. Monkeys discriminated source based on study method, not study order, providing preliminary evidence that our manipulation of retention interval caused errors due to source forgetting instead of source confusion. Finally, some monkeys learned to select remembered images from either source on cue, showing that they did indeed remember both items and both sources. This paradigm potentially provides a new model to study a critical aspect of episodic memory in nonhuman primates.

Flexible retrieval: When true inferences produce false memories.

Episodic memory involves flexible retrieval processes that allow us to link together distinct episodes, make novel inferences across overlapping events, and recombine elements of past experiences when imagining future events. However, the same flexible retrieval and recombination processes that underpin these adaptive functions may also leave memory prone to error or distortion, such as source misattributions in which details of one event are mistakenly attributed to another related event. To determine whether the same recombination-related retrieval mechanism supports both successful inference and source memory errors, we developed a modified version of an associative inference paradigm in which participants encoded everyday scenes comprised of people, objects, and other contextual details. These scenes contained overlapping elements (AB, BC) that could later be linked to support novel inferential retrieval regarding elements that had not appeared together previously (AC). Our critical experimental manipulation concerned whether contextual details were probed before or after the associative inference test, thereby allowing us to assess whether (a) false memories increased for successful versus unsuccessful inferences, and (b) any such effects were specific to after compared with before participants received the inference test. In each of 4 experiments that used variants of this paradigm, participants were more susceptible to false memories for contextual details after successful than unsuccessful inferential retrieval, but only when contextual details were probed after the associative inference test. These results suggest that the retrieval-mediated recombination mechanism that underlies associative inference also contributes to source misattributions that result from combining elements of distinct episodes. (PsycINFO Database Record

The antecedents and consequences of a beyond-choice view of decision situations: A construal level theory perspective

Evaluating alternatives and comparing them to each other are integral to decision-making. In addition, however, decision makers may adopt a view that goes beyond choice and make inferences about the entire set of alternatives, about the dimensions that are relevant in similar decisions, and about the range of values on a specific dimension. We examined some antecedents and consequences of adopting a beyond-choice view of decision situations. Based on Construal Level Theory we suggest that a beyond-choice view entails high (vs. low) level of construal of the decision situation and hence is more likely to occur for decisions that are more psychologically distant. We further suggest that a consequence of a beyond-choice view might be a later difficulty to remember which attribute belongs to which alternative. To examine these predictions we conducted an experiment in which participants evaluated decision scenarios that were described as being relevant for the distant (vs. the near) future. One day later they answered a decision-related source recognition test in which they were asked to remember which attribute belongs to which alternative. As predicted, people had more source-memory errors in the distant than in the near future condition. These results suggest that a beyond-choice view of decision situations is an important consequence of psychological distance (vs. proximity).

TMS evidence for a selective role of the precuneus in source memory retrieval

The posteromedial cortex including the precuneus (PC) is thought to be involved in episodic memory retrieval. Here we used continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) to disentangle the role of the precuneus in the recognition memory process in a sample of healthy subjects. During the encoding phase, subjects were presented with a series of colored pictures. Afterwards, during the retrieval phase, all previously presented items and a sample of new pictures were presented in black, and subjects were asked to indicate whether each item was new or old, and in the latter case to indicate the associated color. cTBS was delivered over PC, posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and vertex before the retrieval phase. The data were analyzed in terms of hits, false alarms, source errors and omissions. cTBS over the precuneus, but not over the PPC or the vertex, induced a selective decrease in source memory errors, indicating an improvement in context retrieval. All the other accuracy measurements were unchanged. These findings suggest a direct implication of the precuneus in successful context-dependent retrieval.

A-68 * The Impact of Language Proficiency on List Learning Tests for Older Adults

Objective: The California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT-II) is a wordlist learning task that assesses underlying processes of learning. While language proficiency is always a concern for persons being tested in a second language, it is unclear whether differences in language abilities of native language will impact underlying learning processes of verbal learning. Thus, the purpose of this study is to determine the impact of native language proficiency on learning processes during list learning tests. Method: 28 cognitively healthy older adults were recruited for this study. All participants endorsed native English abilities, indicated “good” or “excellent” English fluency, and did not speak a second language. The CVLT-II and the four subtests from the Woodcock-Munoz Language Survey (WMLS-R) were administered to participants. Four subtests of the WMLS-R, including Dictation, Passage Comprehension, Story Recall, and Understanding Directions, make up a proficiency score used as a proxy for language proficiency. Results: Language proficiency was correlated with all learning process scores. Results indicated that participants with lower language proficiency committed a greater number of repetition and intrusion errors (p < 0.5). A follow-up regression analysis, controlling for years of education, indicated a significantly higher rate of repetition and intrusion errors despite the level of education of participants (p < .05). Conclusion(s): Participants with lower language proficiency were more likely to make source memory errors on the list learning task, despite controlling for years of education. These results suggest that even when assessing individuals in their native language, consideration should be given to native language proficiency to avoid possible misattribution of errors during test interpretation.

Pretrial publicity and juror age affect mock-juror decision making

We explored the effects of pretrial publicity (PTP) and juror age on decision making and source memory. Mock jurors read news articles containing negative PTP, positive PTP, or unrelated stories. One week later they viewed a murder trial, made decisions about guilt, and completed a source memory test. We found that only positive PTP had a significant effect on older jurors' verdicts and impressions (positivity effect); while only negative PTP had a significant effect on younger jurors' verdicts (negativity effect). PTP and juror age had significant effects on accurate source memory judgments (accurately attributing trial information to the trial) with older jurors and those exposed to PTP being less accurate. Only PTP had a significant effect on jurors' critical source memory errors (misattributing information in the PTP to the trial or both the trial and the PTP) with those exposed to negative PTP making more of these errors than jurors in the other PTP conditions.

Sad mood reduces inadvertent plagiarism: Effects of affective state on source monitoring in cryptomnesia

In two experiments, we explored the influence of affective state, or mood, on inadvertent plagiarism, a memory failure in which individuals either misattribute the source of an idea to themselves rather than to the true originator or simply do not recall having encountered the idea before and claim it as novel. Using a paradigm in which participants generate word puzzle solutions and later recall these solutions, we created an opportunity for participants to mistakenly claim ownership of items that were, in fact, initially generated by their computer ‘partner.’ Results of both experiments suggest that participants induced into a sad mood before solving the word puzzles made fewer source memory errors than did those induced into a happy mood. Results of Experiment 2 also imply that sad mood reduces some item memory errors. Implications for appraisal theories, such as the affect-as-information hypothesis, are discussed.

Source memory errors associated with reports of posttraumatic flashbacks: A proof of concept study

Flashbacks are involuntary, emotion-laden images experienced by individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The qualities of flashbacks could under certain circumstances lead to source memory errors. Participants with PTSD wrote a trauma narrative and reported the experience of flashbacks. They were later presented with stimuli from flashback and non-flashback parts of their narrative, mixed with foils from the narrative of another participant, and judged whether they belonged to their own narrative. They also reported whether stimuli elicited a flashback during this recognition test. Overall reporting a flashback at test was associated with significantly better recognition performance. Flashbacks were occasionally reported to foil stimuli, which were then likely to be wrongly attributed to the person’s own narrative. This provides proof of concept of a cognitive mechanism that could potentially account for some cases of false trauma memories.

Source memory errors in schizophrenia, hallucinations and negative symptoms: a synthesis of research findings

Previous research has shown associations between source memory errors and hallucinations in patients with schizophrenia. We bring together here findings from a broad memory investigation to specify better the type of source memory failure that is associated with auditory and visual hallucinations. Forty-one patients with schizophrenia and 43 healthy participants underwent a memory task involving recall and recognition of lists of words, recognition of pictures, memory for temporal and spatial context of presentation of the stimuli, and remembering whether target items were presented as words or pictures. False recognition of words and pictures was associated with hallucination scores. The extra-list intrusions in free recall were associated with verbal hallucinations whereas the intra-list intrusions were associated with a global hallucination score. Errors in discriminating the temporal context of word presentation and the spatial context of picture presentation were associated with auditory hallucinations. The tendency to remember verbal labels of items as pictures of these items was associated with visual hallucinations. Several memory errors were also inversely associated with affective flattening and anhedonia. Verbal and visual hallucinations are associated with confusion between internal verbal thoughts or internal visual images and perception. In addition, auditory hallucinations are associated with failure to process or remember the context of presentation of the events. Certain negative symptoms have an opposite effect on memory errors.

What can false memory tell us about memory impairments in Alzheimer’s disease?

The range of memory impairments associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been a focus for psychological and clinical researchers for many years. In addition to investigations of AD patients’ veridical memory using traditional recognition memory tasks, a number of recent studies have focused on false memories to reveal the underlying causes of memory impairment in AD. Studies comparing illusory memories between AD patients and healthy older people have revealed various differences in memory deficits between the development of AD and the typical aging processes. Here, we review 3 types of memory illusions tested in AD patients: associative memory illusions, fluency-based false memories and source memory errors. By comparing AD patients with healthy older adults, we sought to analyze the mechanisms underlying AD-related memory impairments at different stages of memory processing, including encoding, retrieval and monitoring. This comparison revealed that AD patients exhibit an impaired ability to establish and utilize gist representations at the encoding stage and impairments in processing on the basis of familiarity and recollection at the retrieval stage. Consequently, patients with AD have access to less information when making memory judgments. As a result, they become more susceptible to the effects of item fluency, which can be manipulated during the retrieval stage. Furthermore, with impaired source memory monitoring abilities, the capacity of AD patients to suppress memory illusions is compromised. Based on these findings, we propose that the study of false memories constitute a critical tool for elucidating the memory impairments involved in AD. Further explorations of these memory impairments will have practical significance for the diagnosis and treatment of AD in the future.

HIV-Associated Episodic Memory Impairment: Evidence of a Possible Differential Deficit in Source Memory for Complex Visual Stimuli

HIV-Associated Episodic Memory Impairment: Evidence of a Possible Differential Deficit in Source Memory for Complex Visual Stimuli