Strategic Memory Research Articles

Effects of Strategy Versus Knowledge Training on Brain Activation Patterns in Chronic TBI

A mixed-design experiment compares two brain training/education programs at pre- and post-training phases. Strategic Memory Advanced Reasoning Training (SMART) focuses on training in the use of strategic attention, reasoning, and other thinking strategies. Brain Health Workshop (BHW) focuses on education in general and practical facts about brain structure and function.

Second‐generation dopamine agonists and recollection impairments in Parkinson's disease

A selective deficit in the recollection of episodic details is frequently reported in Parkinson's disease (PD). Previous explanations implicate dopamine dysregulation in prefrontal structures on which strategic memory processes rely. However, neuroimaging advancements suggest dopaminergic dysregulation of hippocampally dependent memory processes. Accordingly, dopamine agonists, which target D3 receptors in the hippocampus, may impair hippocampal functioning, causing a more pronounced recollection decline. Recognition memory (RM), familiarity, and recollection were examined in 21 patients with mild-to-moderate PD (Hoehn and Yahr mean: 2.67). Patients were subdivided into two subgroups according to dopamine agonist (pramipexole [PPX] or ropinirole [RPR]), and completed matched versions of an RM test in a medicated and unmedicated condition (termed ON and OFF, respectively). Ten demographically matched healthy volunteers (HVs) also completed both RM tasks in two separate sessions. The PD group (PPX and RPR subgroups combined) showed impairments in RM and recollection, but spared familiarity. When subdivided by dopamine agonist, the PPX subgroup's ON-medication recollection performance was significantly lower than that of both the HVs and RPR subgroup. There was no evidence of decline in OFF-medication recollection or familiarity in either the PPX or RPR subgroups. Recollection in both PD subgroups correlated positively with a composite measure of recall, but not prefrontally dependent measures of cognitive control. These findings suggest that mild-to-moderate PD patients may show relatively preserved recollection and familiarity, but that recollection is selectively disrupted by PPX, but not RPR and that this effect may depend on disrupted hippocampal function rather than impaired pre-frontally dependent executive functions.

Declarative memory disorders in patients with brain tumors can improve after cognitive training intervention: evidence from functional MRI

I read with great interest the recent paper published in Journal of Neuro-Oncology by Carlesimo [1]. The author proposed that declarative memory disorders in tumor patients could be identified even when the Papez circuit is not directly involved. It was suggested that attentional and executive impairments following frontal lobe involvement could produce these deficits because of disconnection of the frontal cortical areas from inputs arriving from other cortical and subcortical brain regions including the Papez circuit. The author also suggested that, although failure of the storage mechanisms generally precludes restorative interventions, deficits in the attentional, executive, and working memory mechanisms underlying encoding of information and the strategic retrieval of stored information can ‘‘likely’’ be re-educated and lead to improved declarative memory functioning. We have just published a study showing evidence of this hypothesis in tumor patients [2]. In this study, the brain correlates of strategic memory training were investigated in patients with primary tumors in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and cognitive tests. Twenty-one adult patients with postoperative lesions in the PFC (oligodendrogliomas, astrocytomas, meningiomas), 12 in the left dorsolateral PFC (LPFC) and 9 in the bilateral orbitofrontal cortex (BOFC), at least 6 months after surgery, were assessed before and after semantic strategy training using a verbal memory encoding paradigm during fMRI scanning. We used a within-subject design with no healthy controls. After cognitive training, both groups of patients showed significant improvement in declarative episodic verbal memory and use of semantic strategy. In the LPFC group, greater activity in left inferior and medial frontal gyrus (perilesional areas), precentral gyrus, and insula was found after training. For the BOFC group, higher activation was found in the left parietal cortex, right cingulate, and precuneus after training (new brain areas outside the usual episodic memory network). The activation of these specific areas within the memory and executive networks including perilesional and new brain areas following cognitive training was associated with compensatory brain mechanisms [3]. To our knowledge, this was the first description of patients with declarative memory disorders following PFC primary brain tumor lesions showing improvement in declarative memory after cognitive training associated with compensatory brain mechanisms. These findings corroborate the hypothesis described in Carlesimo’s article [1] of possible improvement and benefit from strategic memory training in patients with declarative episodic memory impairments due to cerebral tumors. Since a high prevalence of memory deficits is found in patients with cerebral tumors related to the effects of tumor mass, edema or as result of surgical, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy treatments, cognitive rehabilitation interventions could be of great value in management of such patients.

Hemispheric asymmetries in the activation and monitoring of memory errors

Previous research on the lateralization of memory errors suggests that the right hemisphere’s tendency to produce more memory errors than the left hemisphere reflects hemispheric differences in semantic activation. However, all prior research that has examined the lateralization of memory errors has used self-paced recognition judgments. Because activation occurs early in memory retrieval, with more time to make a decision, other memory processes, like strategic monitoring processes, may affect memory errors. By manipulating the time subjects were given to make memory decisions, this study separated the influence of automatic memory processes (activation) from strategic memory processes (monitoring) on the production of false memories. The results indicated that when retrieval was fast, the right hemisphere produced more memory errors than the left hemisphere. However, when retrieval was slow, the left hemisphere’s error-proneness increased compared to the fast retrieval condition, while the right hemisphere’s error-proneness remained the same. These results suggest that the right hemisphere’s errors are largely due to activation, while the left hemisphere’s errors are influenced by both activation and monitoring.

Attention and the acquisition of new knowledge: Their effects on older adults' associative memory deficit.

Older adults experience a selective associative memory deficit by demonstrating intact item memory relative to impaired associative memory when compared with younger adults. Age-related deficits in associative memory have been suggested to arise from declines in attentional resources, and the role of attention during encoding and retrieval in associative memory for words and their spatial locations was investigated in the current experiment. Additionally, the tendency of younger and older adults to use knowledge acquired during encoding to improve their associative memory judgments through a strategic associative memory process was also investigated. Younger and older adults studied a list of words with each word belonging to one of four categories, which followed one of four mathematical probability structures for their presentation. Older adults exhibited intact item memory and impaired associative memory relative to full attention younger adults. In addition, both older and younger adults demonstrated an ability to engage in strategic associative memory, by learning and later using the probability structure introduced at study to guide their associative memory judgments. In contrast, dividing the attention of younger adults during encoding impaired item memory, associative memory and strategic associative memory, whereas dividing attention at retrieval did not result in similar deficits. These data add to a growing body of literature demonstrating older adults to exhibit a selective associative memory deficit that is not simulated by dividing the attention of younger adults at encoding or retrieval. Furthermore, younger and older adults maintain the ability to use new knowledge to guide their associative judgments.

Capacity-speed relationships in prefrontal cortex.

Working memory (WM) capacity and WM processing speed are simple cognitive measures that underlie human performance in complex processes such as reasoning and language comprehension. These cognitive measures have shown to be interrelated in behavioral studies, yet the neural mechanism behind this interdependence has not been elucidated. We have carried out two functional MRI studies to separately identify brain regions involved in capacity and speed. Experiment 1, using a block-design WM verbal task, identified increased WM capacity with increased activity in right prefrontal regions, and Experiment 2, using a single-trial WM verbal task, identified increased WM processing speed with increased activity in similar regions. Our results suggest that right prefrontal areas may be a common region interlinking these two cognitive measures. Moreover, an overlap analysis with regions associated with binding or chunking suggest that this strategic memory consolidation process may be the mechanism interlinking WM capacity and WM speed.

Isolating Metamemory Deficits in the Self-Regulated Learning of Adults With ADHD

ADHD in adulthood is associated with chronic academic impairments and problems with strategic memory encoding on standardized memory assessments, but little is known about self-regulated learning that might guide intervention. Objective: Examine the contribution of metamemory judgment accuracy and use of learning strategies to self-regulated learning in adults with ADHD, focusing on the use of self-testing. Method: A total of 34 adults with ADHD and 34 matched controls predicted their memory performance and regulated their learning of paired associates. Results: Adults with ADHD were as accurate as controls at predicting memory performance, despite remembering fewer words. By observation and self-report, they were less likely to use self-testing to learn the pairs. Conclusion: Across groups, self-testing was associated with significantly better recall and largely accounted for differences between diagnostic groups. Adults with ADHD often failed to employ a strategy that was associated with improved memory, identifying an intervention target that may improve self-regulated learning.

The nature of episodic memory deficits in MCI with and without vascular burden

This study measured episodic memory deficits in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) as a function of their vascular burden. Vascular burden was determined clinically by computing the number of vascular risk factors and diseases and neuroradiologically by assessing the presence and severity of white matter lesions (WML). Strategic memory processes were measured with free recall and temporal contextual memory tasks requiring self-initiated retrieval. Nonstrategic memory retrieval processes were appraised with a five-choice recognition procedure. Results showed that MCI participants with high vascular burden displayed impairment of strategic memory processes, whereas MCI participants with no vascular burden showed impairment of both strategic and nonstrategic memory processes. A similar pattern was found whether vascular burden was measured using a clinical index of vascular risk profile or whether it was measured neuroradiologically by assessing the extent and severity of subcortical WML. However, the effect of WML on memory differed as function of level of education, used here as a proxy for cognitive reserve. Among participants with MCI, those who had higher education and no WML were the least memory impaired. The study also examined memory as a function of whether patients later progressed to dementia after a three-year follow-up. When examining progressors’ performance, strategic and nonstrategic processes were both impaired in progressors with no concomitant vascular conditions, whereas progressors with a high vascular burden showed less impairment of nonstrategic than strategic processes. Overall, results indicate that the presence of vascular burden in MCI is associated with selective impairment of strategic memory processes.

Strategic Manipulations for Associative Memory and the Role of Verbal Processing Abilities in Schizophrenia

Individuals with schizophrenia demonstrate episodic memory (EM) deficits and abnormal EM-related brain activity. Experimental encoding manipulations significantly benefit memory performance in schizophrenia, suggesting that a strategic processing deficit may contribute to memory impairment. However, few studies have investigated the combined effects of encoding and retrieval strategies on EM in schizophrenia. The current study examined the impact of encoding and retrieval strategies on associative memory and brain activity in schizophrenia. We also assessed the role of verbal processing ability in response to strategic memory interventions in schizophrenia. Behavioral and functional neuroimaging data were collected from 23 participants with schizophrenia and 24 comparison subjects while performing associative memory encoding and recall tasks. Behaviorally, both schizophrenia participants and controls benefited from memory strategies and showed significant associations between verbal processing ability and recall. Additionally, among schizophrenia participants, encoding strategy use was associated with enhanced brain activity in multiple brain areas. Schizophrenia participants also demonstrated significant associations between verbal processing ability and encoding-related brain activity in prefrontal cortex. Findings suggest that memory performance and brain activity in schizophrenia can be enhanced via strategic manipulations, and individual differences in cognitive abilities in schizophrenia can affect behavioral and neurobiological responses to strategic memory interventions.

Higher-Order Reasoning Training Years After Traumatic Brain Injury in Adults

To conduct a feasibility study to compare the effects of top-down Strategic Memory and Reasoning Training (SMART) versus information-based Brain Health Workshop (BHW, control) on gist-reasoning (ie, abstracting novel meaning from complex information), memory, executive functions, and daily function in adults with traumatic brain injury. Twenty-eight participants (of the 35 recruited), 16 men & 12 women, aged 20 to 65 years (M = 43, SD = 11.34) at chronic stages posttraumatic brain injury (2 years or longer) completed the training. Fourteen participants that received SMART and 14 participants that completed BHW were assessed both pre- and posttraining. Thirteen of the SMART trained and 11 from BHW participated in a 6-month testing. The study was a single blinded randomized control trial. Participants in both groups received a minimum of 15 hours of training over 8 weeks. The SMART group significantly improved gist-reasoning as compared to the BHW group. Benefits of the SMART extended to untrained measures of working memory and participation in functional activities. Exploratory analyses suggested potential transfer effects of SMART on memory and executive functions. The benefits of the SMART program as compared to BHW were evident at immediately posttraining and 6 months posttraining. This study provides preliminary evidence that short-term intensive training in top-down modulation of information benefits gist-reasoning and generalizes to measures of executive function and real life function at chronic stages of post-TBI.

The Executive Control of Face Memory

Patients with frontal lobe damage and cognitively normal elderly individuals demonstrate increased susceptibility to false facial recognition. In this paper we review neuropsychological evidence consistent with the notion that the common functional impairment underlying face memory distortions in both subject populations is a context recollection/source monitoring deficit, coupled with excessive reliance on relatively preserved facial familiarity signals in recognition decisions. In particular, we suggest that due to the breakdown of strategic memory retrieval, monitoring, and decision operations, individuals with frontal lobe impairment caused by focal damage or age-related functional decline do not have a reliable mechanism for attributing the experience of familiarity to the correct context or source. Memory illusions are mostly apparent under conditions of uncertainty when the face cue does not directly elicit relevant identity-specific contextual information, leaving the source of familiarity unspecified or ambiguous. Based on these findings, we propose that remembering faces is a constructive process that requires dynamic interactions between temporal lobe memory systems that operate in an automatic or bottom-up fashion and frontal executive systems that provide strategic top-down control of recollection. Executive memory control functions implemented by prefrontal cortex play a critical role in suppressing false facial recognition and related source memory misattributions.

Monetary rewards influence strategic memory retrieval: an event-related potential study

Event Abstract Back to Event Monetary rewards influence strategic memory retrieval: an event-related potential study Teresa M. Halsband1*, Nicola K. Ferdinand1 and Axel Mecklinger1 1 Saarland University, Germany Monetary rewards and anticipation of rewards during study were found to support memory formation whereas their role on memory retrieval processes is unclear so far. Retrieval orientation is a flexible cognitive state adopted to strategically initiate processes according to particular retrieval demands in response to a retrieval cue. It is therefore one possible aspect of retrieval that can be modulated by rewards. This study investigates whether retrieval orientations during memory testing are modulated by rewards that were linked to performance in an incidental study task. In a size judgment task, participants saw mixed series of pictures and words. Each stimulus was preceded by a high or low reward cue that indicated the monetary reward for a correct and fast response in this task. 24 hours later, the participants performed an unexpected recognition memory exclusion task with words as test items. They were asked to respond with one key to the previously presented words (targets) and with a second key to previously presented pictures (non-targets) as well as to new words. The target/non-target designation was switched in another retrieval block and reward conditions were nested within target condition. Event-related potentials (ERPs) to new items were used as markers for retrieval orientations. In addition to the well-known material-specific effect of retrieval orientation, a fronto-centrally distributed, reward-specific retrieval orientation effect was found. This suggests that irrespective of the type of targeted memory representations, the retrieval of items that were linked to a high monetary reward during study was optimized and characterized by a greater prioritization of target information. Funding: Supported by German Research Foundation (DFG, IRTG 1457). Keywords: EEG, memory and learning Conference: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Sessions: Neural Bases of Memory and Learning Citation: Halsband TM, Ferdinand NK and Mecklinger A (2011). Monetary rewards influence strategic memory retrieval: an event-related potential study. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00213 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 21 Nov 2011; Published Online: 28 Nov 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Teresa M Halsband, Saarland University, Saarland, Germany, t.halsband@mx.uni-saarland.de Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Teresa M Halsband Nicola K Ferdinand Axel Mecklinger Google Teresa M Halsband Nicola K Ferdinand Axel Mecklinger Google Scholar Teresa M Halsband Nicola K Ferdinand Axel Mecklinger PubMed Teresa M Halsband Nicola K Ferdinand Axel Mecklinger Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

The executive control of face memory.

Patients with frontal lobe damage and cognitively normal elderly individuals demonstrate increased susceptibility to false facial recognition. In this paper we review neuropsychological evidence consistent with the notion that the common functional impairment underlying face memory distortions in both subject populations is a context recollection/source monitoring deficit, coupled with excessive reliance on relatively preserved facial familiarity signals in recognition decisions. In particular, we suggest that due to the breakdown of strategic memory retrieval, monitoring, and decision operations, individuals with frontal lobe impairment caused by focal damage or age-related functional decline do not have a reliable mechanism for attributing the experience of familiarity to the correct context or source. Memory illusions are mostly apparent under conditions of uncertainty when the face cue does not directly elicit relevant identity-specific contextual information, leaving the source of familiarity unspecified or ambiguous. Based on these findings, we propose that remembering faces is a constructive process that requires dynamic interactions between temporal lobe memory systems that operate in an automatic or bottom-up fashion and frontal executive systems that provide strategic top-down control of recollection. Executive memory control functions implemented by prefrontal cortex play a critical role in suppressing false facial recognition and related source memory misattributions.

Impact of metacognition and motivation on the efficacy of strategic memory training in older adults: Analysis of specific, transfer and maintenance effects

The current study examines the contribution of a number of metacognitive and motivational variables in explaining specific, transfer and maintenance effects of a strategic memory training program, based on the use of mental imagery, in older adults. Participants were assessed before and after the training (immediately post-test, and at 3- and 6-month follow-up) on list recall (criterion) and working memory (transfer) tasks. At the pre-test, metacognition (use of strategies, belief about memory, control on memory) and motivational measures (cognitive engagement, self-efficacy) were also collected. The training produced a benefit in both the criterion and transfer tasks, which was maintained at follow-up. Some of the metacognitive and motivational measures, over and above the level of performance obtained at pre-test, predicted the gains in the objective memory measures. The findings confirmed the importance of considering the role of metacognitive attitudes of older adults in memory training activities.

Recollection deficiencies in patients with major depressive disorder

Neuropsychological research suggests that recognition memory (RM) and recall memory are impaired in patients with a major depressive disorder or a dysphoric mood state. This study examines the proposal that abnormalities in recollection (a form of recall) result from a breakdown in frontal strategic memory processes involved in encoding and retrieval, and executive functions linked to reality monitoring, planning, problem-solving, reasoning and decision-making. We investigated two predictions arising from this theory. Firstly, patients diagnosed with a major depressive disorder (MDD) will display a dissociation between (deficient) recollection and (preserved) familiarity. Secondly, if recollection impairments are indicative of a breakdown in prefrontal strategic memory processes which are dependent, at least in part, on executive processes, then an explicit correlational approach predicts that recollection will be positively associated with the severity of executive dysfunction in MDD patients. The remember/know paradigm was used to investigate RM for words and neutral faces in 16 MDD patients and 16 healthy volunteers, matched for age, gender and estimates of premorbid IQ. Measures of executive function included working memory, reasoning and decision-making. Applying the Dual Process Signal Detection interpretation of the remember/know data, the MDD group displayed significant impairments in RM and recollection rates for both verbal and neutral facial memoranda. In contrast, familiarity-aware rates were preserved. There was no evidence of executive dysfunction in the patient group, and little evidence that recollection rates correlated with executive function. Furthermore, a single process signal detection approach suggested that the MDD patients displayed a reduction in sensitivity for RM and remember rates but not know responses. The criteria for detecting studied from unstudied items, and remembering from knowing, were the same in both patient and healthy control groups. Taken together, these findings are consistent with the view that MDD is marked by a decline in RM, which is underpinned by an impairment in recollection rather than familiarity processes. The extent to which the recollection deficiencies arise from disruption of strategic memory and executive processes requires further investigation.

Writing a structured abstract for the thesis

BackgroundStudies investigating recognition memory (RM) in schizophrenia report a selective deficit in autonoetic awareness and intact levels of noetic awareness for visual stimuli. It has been suggested that abnormalities in autonoetic awareness result from a breakdown in frontal strategic memory processes involved in encoding and retrieval and executive functions linked to reality monitoring and decision making.AimsThe aims of this thesis were to investigate four predictions arising from these proposals: (1) If decrements in autonoetic awareness arise from a ‘central’ impairment, then these abnormalities should not be domain-specific; (2) if autonoetic awareness abnormalities arise from a breakdown in executive processes, then these abnormalities should correlate with executive dysfunction; (3) because autonoetic awareness is a necessary correlate of episodic memory, then patients with schizophrenia should also be impaired in contextual memory; and (4) autonoetic awareness abnormalities are likely to be more severe in schizophrenia, a condition associated with marked executive dysfunction relative to major depressive disorder, in which executive dysfunction is less marked.MethodThe remember/know paradigm was used to investigate RM across four modalities (verbal, visual, auditory and olfactory) in three groups: patients with schizophrenia (N=19), patients with major depressive disorder (N=21), and normal controls (N=24). A subgroup of the same schizophrenia patients (N=14) were also tested for temporalorder memory for words, line drawings and abstract drawings. Autobiographical memory was assessed in patients using the Autobiographical Memory Interview. Executive function and working memory were assessed using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and the Letter-Number Sequencing Test, respectively.ResultsAutonoetic awareness abnormalities were evident in patients with schizophrenia for voices (p<0.05) and smells (p<0.05). These deficits were restricted to schizophrenia, with patients with major depressive disorder performing intermediate to both schizophrenia patients and normal controls. A subgroup of the same schizophrenia patients also exhibited impaired temporal-order memory (p<0.05), but this impairment was restricted to words and also evident in patients with major depressive disorder (p<0.05). Executive dysfunction and reduced working memory was restricted to patients with schizophrenia, but none of these measures correlated with decrements in autonoetic awareness or temporal-order memory. Autobiographical memory for both patient groups was within the normal range.Conclusions: Impaired autonoetic awareness for voices and smells in the same cohort of schizophrenia patients provide some support for proposals that abnormalities in autonoetic awareness stem from a breakdown in ‘central’ rather than domain-specific processes. Furthermore, these patients were also impaired for temporal-order memory, which suggests that strategic memory processes were also implicated in these schizophrenia patients.

Strategic retrieval, confabulations, and delusions: Theory and data

Based on Moscovitch and Winocur's “working with memory” framework, confabulation is described as a deficit in strategic retrieval processes. The present paper suggests that only a confluence of deficits on multiple memory-related processes leads to confabulation. These are divided into three categories. Core processes that are unique to confabulation and required for its evolution include: (1) an intuitive, rapid, preconscious “feeling of rightness” monitoring, (2) an elaborate conscious “editor” monitoring, and (3) control processes that mediate the decision whether to act upon a retrieved memory. The second category is deficits on constitutional processes which are required for confabulation to occur but are not unique to it. These include the formation of erroneous memory representation, (temporal) context confusion, and deficits in retrieval cue generation. Finally, associated Features of confabulations determine the content “flavour” and frequency of confabulation but are not required for their evolution. Some associated features are magnification of normal reconstructive memory processes such as reliance on generic/schematic representations, and positivity biases in memory, whereas others are abnormal such as perseveration or source memory deficits. Data on deficits in core processes in confabulation are presented. Next, the apparent correspondences between confabulation and delusion are discussed. Considering confabulation within a strategic memory framework may help elucidate both the commonalities and differences between the two symptoms. Delusions are affected by a convergence of abnormal perception and encoding of information, associated with aberrant cognitive schema structure and disordered belief monitoring. Whereas confabulation is primarily a disorder of retrieval, mnemonic aspects of delusions can be described as primarily a disorder of input and integration of information. It is suggested that delusions might share some of the associated features of confabulation but not its core and constitutional processes. Preliminary data in support of this view are presented.

ERP correlates of intentional forgetting

In this study we investigated the neurocognitive processes underlying the control of memory retrieval. In a Think/No-Think paradigm, adopted for the use in an event-related potential (ERP) experiment, participants learned word pairs and were subsequently presented with cue words and asked to either suppress or to recall the target word. During final cued recall tests for all initially learned targets, memory for the to-be-suppressed or to be-recalled items were tested. Memory for to be-recalled items was enhanced but no forgetting of to-be-suppressed items was obtained. The ERPs in the test phase were separated on the basis of prior learning success and failure, allowing separate analyses of strategic memory control, i.e. attempts to retrieve or to avoid retrieval and the outcome of these processes, i.e. successful retrieval and retrieval avoidance. An early P2 component and a parietal positivity were related to retrieval attempts and a centro-parietal N2 component was associated with attempts to avoid memory retrieval. The parietal positivity was attenuated for No-Think trials on learned items, for which item-specific memories exist. However, under the present testing conditions and in contrast to prior studies ( Bergström, Velmans, de Fockert, Richardson-Klavehn, 2007) the parietal positivity was also sensitive to mere retrieval attempts. To examine whether similar neural systems are involved in the inhibitory control of unwanted memories and prepotent motor responses, a motor stopping experiment using a stop signal task was conducted with the same participants. Successful stopping was associated with an enhanced stop signal N2 that showed a similar centro-parietal scalp distribution as the aforementioned N2 to No-Think trials. As both components were significantly correlated, we assumed that some of the systems recruited to override prepotent motor responses are also involved to suppress memory retrieval.

Memories as Assets: Strategic Memory Protection in Choice over Time

Abstract We present five studies supporting our strategic memory protection theory. When people make decisions about experiences to consume over time, they treat their memories of previous experiences as assets to be protected. The first two studies demonstrate that people tend to avoid situations that they believe will threaten their ability to retrieve special (rather than merely pleasant) memories. The next three studies demonstrate that people seek to obtain memory pointers to help them cue special memories at a later time when they anticipate interference from subsequent events. These preferences are driven by people's lay theories about the importance and difficulty of obtaining and retrieving special memories.

Factors Influencing the Incidence of Utilization Deficiencies and Other Patterns of Recall/Strategy‐Use Relations in a Strategic Memory Task

Factors that influence the incidence of utilization deficiencies and other recall/strategy-use patterns on a strategic memory task were evaluated in two hundred and fourteen 7- and 9-year-old children. Both utilization deficiencies and the incidence of children showing increases in both recall and strategy use over phases were more likely to be observed on phase transitions involving prompting or when different lists of items were included on consecutive trials; in contrast, increases in recall in the absence of increases in strategy use were more likely to be found between trials consisting of the same stimulus items. This research clearly indicates that patterns of recall/strategy-use relations, including utilization deficiencies, vary meaningfully with the age of the child and a variety of contextual factors.