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Memory (Hove, England) Jan 2023Inaccurate memory reports can have serious consequences within forensic and clinical settings, where emotion and misinformation are two common sources of memory... (Review)
Review
Inaccurate memory reports can have serious consequences within forensic and clinical settings, where emotion and misinformation are two common sources of memory distortion. Many studies have investigated how these factors are related; does emotion protect memory or leave it more vulnerable to the distorting effects of misinformation? The findings remain diffused. Thus, the present review aimed to clarify the relationship between emotion and susceptibility to misinformation. 39 eligible studies were reviewed. Results varied according to the type and dimension of emotion measured. Level of arousal may be unrelated to susceptibility to misinformation when retrieval occurs without delay; studies including delayed retrieval were limited. Stimuli valence may be associated with increased susceptibility to peripheral misinformation but unrelated to other misinformation. The following results were reported by limited studies: short-term distress and moderate levels of stress may decrease susceptibility, while anger and greater cortisol response to stress may increase susceptibility to misinformation. Source memory may also be unaffected by emotion. The results have important potential implications for forensic and clinical practice, for example by highlighting the value of enquiring witnesses' source memory. Methodological recommendations for future studies are made.
Topics: Humans; Emotions; Communication; Memory Disorders; Arousal; Health Status; Mental Recall
PubMed: 36093958
DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2022.2120623 -
Journal of Experimental Psychology.... Feb 2023We used the timing of serial recall in several situations to reveal important aspects of recall groupings that participants construct and the reasons those groupings...
We used the timing of serial recall in several situations to reveal important aspects of recall groupings that participants construct and the reasons those groupings occur. We examined the timing of responses in the recall of digit strings within two published experiments. Cowan, Saults, Elliott, and Moreno (2002) examined memory for nine-item lists in a way that deconfounded the presentation modality, input versus output serial position (using a varied starting point of recall), memory load from items not yet recalled (using whole vs. partial recall), and the presence or absence of the temporal grouping of the lists into triads. Accuracy was strikingly different in the two modalities, with grouping drastically changing recall of acoustic lists but with little difference between grouped versus ungrouped visual lists. Despite the modality difference in recall, the present timing results show that participants imposed a similar grouped structure in recall for both modalities. When errors were made, the original grouping structure still was maintained in the output timing. Cowan et al. (2005, Experiment 1) presented ungrouped acoustic lists of varying lengths in a span task. In this case, there was never a grouping structure presented to the participant and the accuracy data did not reveal evidence of grouping, but we show clear grouping in the timing structure. This grouping structure varied with both the list length and an individual's span. Timing in both experiments shows that a grouping structure is imposed on responses in a manner that is dependent on several factors not present in the stimuli. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Humans; Memory, Short-Term; Serial Learning; Mental Recall; Acrylic Resins
PubMed: 36006718
DOI: 10.1037/xlm0001157 -
Behavior Research Methods Aug 2022Recall testing is a common assessment to gauge memory retrieval. Responses from these tests can be analyzed in several ways; however, the output generated from a recall...
Recall testing is a common assessment to gauge memory retrieval. Responses from these tests can be analyzed in several ways; however, the output generated from a recall study typically requires manual coding that can be time intensive and error-prone before analyses can be conducted. To address this issue, this article introduces lrd (Lexical Response Data), a set of open-source tools for quickly and accurately processing lexical response data that can be used either from the R command line or through an R Shiny graphical user interface. First, we provide an overview of this package and include a step-by-step user guide for processing both cued- and free-recall responses. For validation of lrd, we used lrd to recode output from cued, free, and sentence-recall studies with large samples and examined whether the results replicated using lrd-scored data. We then assessed the inter-rater reliability and sensitivity and specificity of the scoring algorithm relative to human-coded data. Overall, lrd is highly reliable and shows excellent sensitivity and specificity, indicating that recall data processed using this package are remarkably consistent with data processed by a human coder.
Topics: Cues; Humans; Memory; Mental Recall; Reproducibility of Results
PubMed: 34850358
DOI: 10.3758/s13428-021-01718-y -
Memory (Hove, England) Mar 2023Open autobiographical memories are personal life experiences on which an individual does not have closure. It is unknown whether emotion regulation strategies through...
Open autobiographical memories are personal life experiences on which an individual does not have closure. It is unknown whether emotion regulation strategies through recalling positive memories are active after recalling open memories. The current study aims to explore the presence of emotion regulation for open memories while testing for the interference of depressive tendencies. The participants were asked to remember an open memory and answer questions on phenomenological features of this event. Later, they recalled a memory without any restrictions and answered similar phenomenological questions. The results showed that the subsequent memories were significantly more closed, more positive, and less intense during retrieval than open memories. Additionally, open memories were reported as involuntarily rehearsed more frequently than the subsequent memories. Depressive tendencies were unrelated to emotion regulation after open memory recall. This study provides insight into the emotion regulation strategies after remembering open memories and how depression could be related to this strategy.
Topics: Humans; Affect; Mental Recall; Memory, Episodic; Cognition; Emotional Regulation; Emotions
PubMed: 36519371
DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2022.2156545 -
Nature Communications Jul 2022When we remember events, we often do not only recall individual events, but also the connections between them. However, extant research has focused on how humans segment...
When we remember events, we often do not only recall individual events, but also the connections between them. However, extant research has focused on how humans segment and remember discrete events from continuous input, with far less attention given to how the structure of connections between events impacts memory. Here we conduct a functional magnetic resonance imaging study in which participants watch and recall a series of realistic audiovisual narratives. By transforming narratives into networks of events, we demonstrate that more central events-those with stronger semantic or causal connections to other events-are better remembered. During encoding, central events evoke larger hippocampal event boundary responses associated with memory formation. During recall, high centrality is associated with stronger activation in cortical areas involved in episodic recollection, and more similar neural representations across individuals. Together, these results suggest that when humans encode and retrieve complex real-world experiences, the reliability and accessibility of memory representations is shaped by their location within a network of events.
Topics: Brain Mapping; Hippocampus; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Memory, Episodic; Mental Recall; Reproducibility of Results
PubMed: 35869083
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31965-2 -
Topics in Cognitive Science Oct 2019The study of memory and remembering has traditionally either stripped meaning away from acts of remembering to reveal the "raw material of memory" or explored how...
The study of memory and remembering has traditionally either stripped meaning away from acts of remembering to reveal the "raw material of memory" or explored how meaning guides the reconstruction of the past. In reflecting on the contributions to this topic, there appears to be an emerging "third-way," which holds that there is an inextricable relation between conversations and remembering. The articles in this volume exemplify how conversing is often an act of remembering and represent approaches to memory that might not otherwise be taken if one were to study memory as a within-individual phenomenon. The implications of this approach are far-ranging and present the opportunity to pose new questions about the nature of remembering as it unfolds in conversation. The contributing articles have expanded the scope of what memory researchers can study by adopting a relatively straightforward assumption about the sociality of remembering and the role of the conversation in the social process.
Topics: Communication; Humans; Interpersonal Relations; Memory; Mental Recall
PubMed: 31385446
DOI: 10.1111/tops.12437 -
Trends in Neurosciences Nov 2019The stream of thought can flow freely, without much guidance from attention or cognitive control. What determines what we think about from one moment to the next?... (Review)
Review
The stream of thought can flow freely, without much guidance from attention or cognitive control. What determines what we think about from one moment to the next? Spontaneous thought shares many commonalities with memory processes. We use insights from computational models of memory to explain how the stream of thought flows through the landscape of memory. In this framework of spontaneous thought, semantic memory scaffolds episodic memory to form the content of thought, and drifting context modulated by one's current state - both internal and external - constrains the area of memory to explore. This conceptualization of spontaneous thought can help to answer outstanding questions such as: what is the function of spontaneous thought, and how does the mind select what to think about?
Topics: Attention; Brain; Humans; Memory; Memory, Episodic; Mental Recall; Models, Neurological; Models, Psychological; Neural Pathways; Semantics; Thinking
PubMed: 31627848
DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2019.09.001 -
Science & Justice : Journal of the... Jul 2023Environmental context reinstatement has a particular value for recall of information in forensic interviews. Since odors are valuable memory cues and can act as memory...
Environmental context reinstatement has a particular value for recall of information in forensic interviews. Since odors are valuable memory cues and can act as memory triggers, in our preliminary study we explored whether odor exposure can help people recall details of a crime scene. The study comprised 58 women and 15 men aged 22-35 who immersed in a carefully controlled environment closely resembling an actual crime setting, i.e., a virtual reality crime. Participants were exposed to an odor at encoding, recall, both or neither of these instances, yielding a total of 4 experimental groups that further completed a memory recall task. The crime scene content recall was tested in a free recall and a forced-response test immediately after seeing the crime scene and one month later. We found no significant effects of odor exposure on the free or the cued recall of the crime scene. The memory scores correlated neither with the self-assessed olfactory/visual sensitivity of the subjects, nor with the perceived odor pleasantness. These preliminary findings suggest that introduction of a vanilla odor while encoding and recalling a crime scene does not aid witness recall accuracy.
Topics: Male; Humans; Female; Odorants; Mental Recall; Crime; Cues; Virtual Reality
PubMed: 37453786
DOI: 10.1016/j.scijus.2023.06.002 -
Journal of Experimental Psychology.... Mar 2024Episodic memories may become suppressed, both incidentally and intentionally. Incidental suppression is a result of a competition induced by interfering items or...
Episodic memories may become suppressed, both incidentally and intentionally. Incidental suppression is a result of a competition induced by interfering items or responses. In contrast, intentional suppression is said to result from conscious attempts to suppress certain memory items, and should thus not depend on competition induced by interfering items or responses. However, intentional suppression is typically engendered using the Think/No-Think paradigm, in which participants are required to retrieve some target items and to suppress others. Therefore, rather than intentional suppression, forgetting in this paradigm may reflect incidental suppression of No-Think items induced by interference via prior retrieval of the Think items. To distinguish between these possibilities, we tested participants ( = 40) using an adjusted suppression paradigm, which did not include the Think condition (ExcludeThink paradigm) and compared it with the standard suppression paradigm (IncludeThink paradigm; = 39) which included a think condition. We found that suppression was not observed in the ExcludeThink paradigm, but only in the IncludeThink paradigm. These results indicate that interference via prior retrieval is necessary to induce forgetting. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Humans; Cues; Mental Recall; Memory, Episodic; Consciousness
PubMed: 38190196
DOI: 10.1037/xge0001536 -
Cortex; a Journal Devoted To the Study... Jan 2023The recall and visualization of people and places from memory is an everyday occurrence, yet the neural mechanisms underpinning this phenomenon are not well understood....
The recall and visualization of people and places from memory is an everyday occurrence, yet the neural mechanisms underpinning this phenomenon are not well understood. In particular, the temporal characteristics of the internal representations generated by active recall are unclear. Here, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) and multivariate pattern analysis to measure the evolving neural representation of familiar places and people across the whole brain when human participants engage in active recall. To isolate self-generated imagined representations, we used a retro-cue paradigm in which participants were first presented with two possible labels before being cued to recall either the first or second item. We collected personalized labels for specific locations and people familiar to each participant. Importantly, no visual stimuli were presented during the recall period, and the retro-cue paradigm allowed the dissociation of responses associated with the labels from those corresponding to the self-generated representations. First, we found that following the retro-cue it took on average ∼1000 ms for distinct neural representations of freely recalled people or places to develop. Second, we found distinct representations of personally familiar concepts throughout the 4 s recall period. Finally, we found that these representations were highly stable and generalizable across time. These results suggest that self-generated visualizations and recall of familiar places and people are subserved by a stable neural mechanism that operates relatively slowly when under conscious control.
Topics: Humans; Cues; Mental Recall; Brain; Brain Mapping; Magnetoencephalography
PubMed: 36459788
DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2022.08.014