4,883 research outputs found
Context reinstatement in recognition: memory and beyond
Context effects in recognition tests are twofold. First, presenting familiar contexts at a test leads to an attribution of context familiarity to a recognition probe, which has been dubbed ‘context-dependent recognition’. Second, reinstating the exact study context for a particular target in a recognition test cues recollection of an item-context association, resulting in 'context-dependent discrimination'. Here we investigated how these two context effects are expressed in metacognitive monitoring (confidence judgments) and metacognitive control ('don’t know' responding) of retrieval. We used faces as studied items, landscape photographs as study and test contexts and both free- and forced-report 2AFC recognition tests. In terms of context-dependent recognition, the results document that presenting familiar contexts at test leads to higher confidence and lower rates of 'don’t know responses compared to novel contexts, while having no effect on forced-report recognition accuracy. In terms of context-dependent discrimination, the results show that reinstated contexts further boost confidence and reduce 'don’t know' responding compared to familiar contexts, while affecting forced-report recognition accuracy only when contribution of recollection to recognition performance is high. Together, our results demonstrate that metacognitive measures are sensitive to context effects, sometimes even more so than recognition measures
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Encoding Sequential Information in Vector Space Models of Semantics: Comparing Holographic Reduced Representation and Random Permutation
Encoding information about the order in which words typically appear has been shown to improve the performance of high-dimensional semantic space models. This requires an encoding operation capable of binding together vectors in an order-sensitive way, and efficient enough to scale to large text corpora. Although both circular convolution and random permutations have been enlisted for this purpose in semantic models, these operations have never been systematically compared. In Experiment 1 we compare their storage capacity and probability of correct retrieval; in Experiments 2 and 3 we compare their performance on semantic tasks when integrated into existing models. We conclude that random permutations are a scalable alternative to circular convolution with several desirable properties
A Dynamic Approach to Recognition Memory
Thesis (Ph.D.) - Indiana University,Psychological and Brain Sciences/Cognitive Science, 2015We argue that taking a dynamic approach to the understanding of memory will lead to
advances that are not possible via other routes. To that end, we present a model of
recognition memory that specifies how memory retrieval and recognition decisions jointly
evolve over time and show that it is able to jointly predict accuracy, response time, and
speed-accuracy trade-off functions. The model affords insights into the effects of study
time, list length, and instructions. The model leads to a novel qualitative and quantitative
test of the source of word frequency effects in recognition, showing that the relatively high
distinctiveness of the features of low frequency words provide the best account. We also
show how the dynamic model can be extended to account for paradigms like associative
recognition and list discrimination, leading to another novel test of the presence of
recall-like processes. Associative recognition, list discrimination, recognition of similar
foils, and source exclusion are all better explained by the formation of a compound cue
rather than recall, although source memory is found to be better modeled by a recall
process
Mapping working memory retrieval in space and in time:A combined electroencephalography and electrocorticography approach
In this study, we investigated the time course and neural correlates of the retrieval process underlying visual working memory. We made use of a rare dataset in which the same task was recorded using both scalp electroencephalography (EEG) and Electrocorticography (ECoG), respectively. This allowed us to examine with great spatial and temporal detail how the retrieval process works, and in particular how the medial temporal lobe (MTL) is involved. In each trial, participants judged whether a probe face had been among a set of recently studied faces. With a method that combines hidden semi-Markov models and multivariate pattern analysis, the neural signal was decomposed into a sequence of latent cognitive stages with information about their durations on a trial-by-trial basis. Analyzed separately, EEG and ECoG data yielded converging results on discovered stages and their interpretation, which reflected 1) a brief pre-attention stage, 2) encoding the stimulus, 3) retrieving the studied set, and 4) making a decision. Combining these stages with the high spatial resolution of ECoG suggested that activity in the temporal cortex reflected item familiarity in the retrieval stage; and that once retrieval is complete, there is active maintenance of the studied face set in the decision stage in the MTL. During this same period, the frontal cortex guides the decision by means of theta coupling with the MTL. These observations generalize previous findings on the role of MTL theta from long-term memory tasks to short-term memory tasks
Exemplars as a least-committed alternative to dual-representations in learning and memory
Despite some notable counterexamples, the theoretical and empirical exchange between the fields of learning and memory is limited. In an attempt to promote further theoretical exchange, I explored how learning and memory may be conceptualized as distinct algorithms that operate on a the same representations of past experiences. I review representational and process assumptions in learning and memory, by the example of evaluative conditioning and false recognition, and identified important similarities in the theoretical debates. Based on my review, I identify global matching memory models and their exemplar representation as a promising candidate for a common representational substrate that satisfies the principle of least commitment. I then present two cases in which exemplar-based global matching models, which take characteristics of the stimulus material and context into account, suggest parsimonious explanations for empirical dissociations in evaluative conditioning and false recognition in long-term memory. These explanations suggest reinterpretations of findings that are commonly taken as evidence for dual-representation models. Finally, I report the same approach provides also provides a natural unitary account of false recognition in short-term memory, a finding which challenges the assumption that short-term memory is insulated from long-term memory. Taken together, this work illustrates the broad explanatory scope and the integrative and yet parsimonious potential of exemplar-based global matching models
Manipulations of List Type in the DRM Paradigm: A Review of How Structural and Conceptual Similarity Affect False Memory
The use of list-learning paradigms to explore false memory has revealed several critical findings about the contributions of similarity and relatedness in memory phenomena more broadly. Characterizing the nature of “similarity and relatedness” can inform researchers about factors contributing to memory distortions and about the underlying associative and semantic networks that support veridical memory. Similarity can be defined in terms of semantic properties (e.g., shared conceptual and taxonomic features), lexical/associative properties (e.g., shared connections in associative networks), or structural properties (e.g., shared orthographic or phonological features). By manipulating the type of list and its relationship to a non-studied critical item, we review the effects of these types of similarity on veridical and false memory. All forms of similarity reviewed here result in reliable error rates and the effects on veridical memory are variable. The results across a variety of paradigms and tests provide partial support for a number of theoretical explanations of false memory phenomena, but none of the theories readily account for all results
Brain state before a memory probe and associative retrieval in older adults
Older individuals' difficulty in remembering events from a particular time and place may be explained by changes in retrieval-related control processes. We investigated how aging affects neural activity leading up to a retrieval probe and how such activity relates to later performance. Electrical brain activity was recorded while healthy younger and older humans memorized visual word pairs consisting of an object word (e.g., doll) preceded by a location word (e.g., garden). Only object words were presented during the memory test, the task being to decide whether an object had been presented earlier and, if so, what location had been paired with it. A warning signal before each test probe alerted to an upcoming object. A sustained negative-going event-related potential deflection preceded objects whose associated location could be remembered, especially in older individuals. The poorer an older individual's associative memory, the bigger was this deflection. Aging thus seems accompanied by changes in anticipatory brain states that relate to recollection. Such states may serve to mobilize control processes that aid the recovery of contextual details
Models of verbal working memory capacity: What does it take to make them work?
Theories of working memory (WM) capacity limits will be more useful when we know what aspects of performance are governed by the limits and what aspects are governed by other memory mechanisms. Whereas considerable progress has been made on models of WM capacity limits for visual arrays of separate objects, less progress has been made in understanding verbal materials, especially when words are mentally combined to form multiword units or chunks. Toward a more comprehensive theory of capacity limits, we examined models of forced-choice recognition of words within printed lists, using materials designed to produce multiword chunks in memory (e.g., leather brief case). Several simple models were tested against data from a variety of list lengths and potential chunk sizes, with test conditions that only imperfectly elicited the interword associations. According to the most successful model, participants retained about 3 chunks on average in a capacity-limited region of WM, with some chunks being only subsets of the presented associative information (e.g., leather brief case retained with leather as one chunk and brief case as another). The addition to the model of an activated long-term memory component unlimited in capacity was needed. A fixed-capacity limit appears critical to account for immediate verbal recognition and other forms of WM. We advance a model-based approach that allows capacity to be assessed despite other important processing contributions. Starting with a psychological-process model of WM capacity developed to understand visual arrays, we arrive at a more unified and complete model
Associative Retrieval Processes in Episodic Memory
Association and context constitute two of the central ideas in the history of episodic memory research. Following a brief discussion of the history of these ideas, we review data that demonstrate the complementary roles of temporal contiguity and semantic relatedness in determining the order in which subjects recall lists of items and the timing of their successive recalls. These analyses reveal that temporal contiguity effects persist over very long time scales, a result that challenges traditional psychological and neuroscientific models of association. The form of the temporal contiguity effect is conserved across all of the major recall tasks and even appears in item recognition when subjects respond with high confidence. The nearuniversal form of the contiguity effect and its appearance at diverse time scales is shown to place tight constraints on the major theories of association
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