Post-learning Arousal Enhances Veridical Memory And Reduces False Memory In The Deese-Roediger-McDermott Paradigm

The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm examines false memory by introducing words associated with a non-presented ‘critical lure’ as memoranda, which typically causes the lures to be remembered as frequently as studied words. Our prior work has shown enhanced veridical memory and reduced misinformation effects when arousal is induced after learning (i.e., during memory consolidation). These effects have not been examined in the DRM task, or with signal detection analysis, which can elucidate the mechanisms underlying memory alterations. Thus, 130 subjects studied and then immediately recalled six DRM lists, one after another, and then watched a 3-min arousing (n = 61) or neutral (n = 69) video. Recognition tested 70 min later showed that arousal induced after learning led to better delayed discrimination of studied words from (a) critical lures, and (b) other non-presented ‘weak associates.’ Furthermore, arousal reduced liberal response bias (i.e., the tendency toward accepting dubious information) for studied words relative to all foils, including critical lures and ‘weak associates.’ Thus, arousal induced after learning effectively increased the distinction between signal and noise by enhancing access to verbatim information and reducing endorsement of dubious information. These findings provide important insights into the cognitive mechanisms by which arousal modulates early memory consolidation processes

A Review of Minority Stress as a Risk Factor for Cognitive Decline in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Elders

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) older adults comprise a unique and growing subset of the aging population. The historical context in which they came of age was imbued with victimization and discrimination. These experiences are subjectively stressful and collectively known as minority stress. Older LGBT adults continue to face stressors related to their gender and sexual identities in their daily lives. Importantly, chronic minority stress (CMS), like other forms of chronic stress, is harmful to health and well-being. CMS contributes to LGBT health disparities, including cardiovascular disease and depression, conditions that in turn increase risk for premature cognitive decline. Furthermore, long-term exposure to stress hormones is associated with accelerated brain aging. Yet, the cognitive functioning of LGBT elders and the influence of CMS on their cognition is all but unexplored. In this review, we examine the influences of CMS in LGBT elders and connect those influences to existing research on stress and cognitive aging. We propose a testable model describing how CMS in LGBT elders heightens risk for premature cognitive aging and how ameliorating factors may help protect from CMS risk. Research is desperately needed to calibrate this model toward improving LGBT quality of life and mental health practices

Cusp Catastrophe Models for Cognitive Workload and Fatigue in Teams

The use of two cusp catastrophe models has been effective for untangling the effects of cognitive workload, fatigue, and other complications on the performance of individuals. This study is the first to use the two models to separate workload and fatigue effects on team performance. In an experiment involving an emergency response simulation, 360 undergraduates were organized into 44 teams. Workload was varied by team size, number of opponents, and time pressure. The cusp models for workload and fatigue were more accurate for describing trends in team performance criteria compared to linear alternatives. Individual differences in elasticity-rigidity were less important than subjective workload and experimental conditions as control variables. Fluid intelligence within the team was an important compensatory ability in the fatigue model. Results further supported the nonlinear paradigm for the assessment of cognitive workload and fatigue and demonstrated its effectiveness for understanding team phenomena

The Role of Alexithymia in Memory and Executive Functioning Across the Lifespan

Alexithymia is a personality trait characterised by difficulties identifying feelings (DIF), describing feelings (DDF), and externally oriented thinking (EOT). Alexithymia has been associated with poorer memory, at least for emotive materials, and recently, with executive and neural dysfunction. Aging is also accompanied by poorer memory and executive functioning (EF), neural dysfunction, and increasing alexithymia. Thus, the hypothesis of a general cognitive impairment in alexithymia, particularly in elders, needs investigation. Three large, independent, cross-sectional experiments (n = 296, 139 and 121, respectively) investigated memory and EF in healthy adults, ranging from young to old adulthood, with age, sex, and the three Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 subscales (DIF, DDF, EOT) as predictors in hierarchical regressions. Across studies, alexithymia contributed to poorer memory (via EOT) and EF (via DIF), in younger and older adults. Additionally, these effects occurred in non-emotive contexts with neutral stimuli. Moreover, although memory was worse with greater age and poor EF contributed to poor memory, those who had both high EOT and poor EF had particularly poor memory. Thus, alexithymia (particularly via high DIF or high EOT) is a risk factor for age-related cognitive decline. Further research should clarify the direction and nature of these complex relationships

The Effects of Alexithymia and Age on Inhibitory Control

Alexithymia is a stable personality trait typified by externally oriented thinking and difficulties identifying and describing feelings. It is associated with cognitive-affective deficits such as poorer memory for emotional and neutral information as well as executive dysfunction. Relatedly, aging is accompanied by executive dysfunction and increasing alexithymia. Because executive functions comprise multiple cognitive skills, it is essential to demarcate which are impacted by aging and alexithymia. While age-related deficits in inhibitory control are well established, there is a dearth of literature examining inhibition in alexithymia. Thus, this study aimed to examine the effect of alexithymia on inhibition and to interrogate its potential additive impact to aging effects. Participants were 538 undergraduate students (age = 18–35) and 201 middle-aged to older adults (age = 48–92). All completed the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and go, no-go, and stop-signal tasks. Following removal of participants with missing data or invalid task performance, the final sample included 384 younger and 81 older adults. Separate hierarchical regressions predicting accuracy and reaction time were examined. Post hoc models included TAS-20 subscores. Exploratory moderation and mediation models were also conducted to interrogate shared variance among covariates and predictor variables. Female sex and greater age predicted slower reaction times across all three tasks. Older age was also associated with less accurate responding to target and inhibition trials on no-go and slower and less accurate inhibition on stop. Alexithymia predicted poorer inhibition on no-go and stop via difficulty identifying feelings (DIF). Mood symptoms neither moderated nor mediated the relationship between DIF and inhibitory control. These results replicate the age-related tradeoff of speed for accuracy in reaction time and inhibition tasks. They also provide novel evidence for alexithymia deficits in non-emotive inhibitory control. The impact of DIF on both automatic (no-go) and conscious (stop) inhibitory control supports processing theories of alexithymia. In particular, DIF contributed to poorer extrinsically and intrinsically cued response suppression. Thus, top-down and bottom-up information processing may be disrupted in alexithymia. Critically, the alexithymia effects were additive to age effects extending support for alexithymia as a risk factor for cognitive aging

The effects of emotional arousal on false recognition in alexithymia

Alexithymia is a personality trait characterized by difficulties identifying feelings, difficulties describing feelings, and an externally oriented thinking style (EOT). Further, individuals with alexithymia experience chronic physiological arousal. Prior research has shown that non-clinical participants with alexithymic traits cannot subjectively recognize increased arousal in response to viewing an arousing video. Yet, these individuals will still experience physiological arousal and will still have arousal-induced memory modulation. No studies to date have examined arousal effects on false memory in alexithymia. The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm examines false memory by introducing words associated with a non-presented `theme' word (i.e., critical lure) as memoranda, which typically causes the lures to be remembered as frequently as studied words. Our prior work with non-alexithymic groups has shown enhanced veridical memory and reduced false memory when arousal is induced after learning (i.e., during memory consolidation). Thus, 130 subjects studied and recalled six DRM lists and then watched a 3-min arousing (n = 61) or neutral (n = 69) video. Recognition was tested 70 min later. A median split was utilized to separate participants into high and low alexithymia groups based on Toronto Alexithymia Scale – 20 (TAS-20) scores. Arousal was expected to interact with alexithymia in such a way to allow individuals with high alexithymia to overcome their EOT. Arousal enhanced conservative responding for studied words relative to all foils, including critical lures and `weak associates.' Alexithymia did not impact overall memory performance, but low alexithymia increased confident remembering and high alexithymia increased familiarity processes. Individuals with high alexithymia were more sensitive to both strong and weak false information (critical lures and weak associates, respectively). Arousal was expected to overcome these memory deficits in alexithymia. No direct evidence for an "overcoming" interaction between arousal and alexithymia was found. However, post hoc analyses of alexithymia clusters did support various mechanisms of arousal "overcoming" misinformation

Feasibility, reliability, and validity of a smartphone based application for the assessment of cognitive function in the elderly.

While considerable knowledge has been gained through the use of established cognitive and motor assessment tools, there is a considerable interest and need for the development of a battery of reliable and validated assessment tools that provide real-time and remote analysis of cognitive and motor function in the elderly. Smartphones appear to be an obvious choice for the development of these "next-generation" assessment tools for geriatric research, although to date no studies have reported on the use of smartphone-based applications for the study of cognition in the elderly. The primary focus of the current study was to assess the feasibility, reliability, and validity of a smartphone-based application for the assessment of cognitive function in the elderly. A total of 57 non-demented elderly individuals were administered a newly developed smartphone application-based Color-Shape Test (CST) in order to determine its utility in measuring cognitive processing speed in the elderly. Validity of this novel cognitive task was assessed by correlating performance on the CST with scores on widely accepted assessments of cognitive function. Scores on the CST were significantly correlated with global cognition (Mini-Mental State Exam: r = 0.515, p<0.0001) and multiple measures of processing speed and attention (Digit Span: r = 0.427, p<0.0001; Trail Making Test: r = -0.651, p<0.00001; Digit Symbol Test: r = 0.508, p<0.0001). The CST was not correlated with naming and verbal fluency tasks (Boston Naming Test, Vegetable/Animal Naming) or memory tasks (Logical Memory Test). Test re-test reliability was observed to be significant (r = 0.726; p = 0.02). Together, these data are the first to demonstrate the feasibility, reliability, and validity of using a smartphone-based application for the purpose of assessing cognitive function in the elderly. The importance of these findings for the establishment of smartphone-based assessment batteries of cognitive and motor function in the elderly is discussed

Profile of Cognitive Performance in Study Participants.

<p>All data presented as the mean and SEM.</p