Get the gist? The effects of processing depth on false recognition in short-term and long-term memory

Gist-based processing has been proposed to account for robust false memories in the converging-associates task. The deep-encoding processes known to enhance verbatim memory also strengthen gist memory and increase distortions of long-term memory (LTM). Recent research has demonstrated that compelling false memory illusions are relatively delay-invariant, also occurring under canonical short-term memory (STM) conditions. To investigate the contributions of gist to false memory at short and long delays, processing depth was manipulated as participants encoded lists of four semantically related words and were probed immediately, following a filled 3- to 4-s retention interval, or approximately 20 min later, in a surprise recognition test. In two experiments, the encoding manipulation dissociated STM and LTM on the frequency, but not the phenomenology, of false memory. Deep encoding at STM increases false recognition rates at LTM, but confidence ratings and remember/know judgments are similar across delays and do not differ as a function of processing depth. These results suggest that some shared and some unique processes underlie false memory illusions at short and long delays

Aging and brain fitness (Commentary on Voelcker-Rehage et al. )

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78637/1/j.1460-9568.2009.07098.x.pd

Control of Reflexive Saccades following Hemispherectomy

Individuals who have undergone hemispherectomy for treatment of intractable epilepsy offer a rare and valuable opportunity to examine the ability of a single cortical hemisphere to control oculomotor performance. We used peripheral auditory events to trigger saccades, thereby circumventing dense postsurgical hemianopia. In an antisaccade task, patients generated numerous unintended short-latency saccades toward contralesional auditory events, indicating pronounced limitations in the ability of a single hemicortex to exert normal inhibitory control over ipsilateral (i.e., contralesional) reflexive saccade generation. Despite reflexive errors, patients retained an ability to generate correct antisaccades in both directions. The prosaccade task revealed numerous contralesional express saccades, a robust contralesional gap effect, but the absence of both effects for ipsilesional saccades. These results indicate limits to the saccadic control capabilities following hemispherectomy: A single hemicortex can mediate antisaccades in both directions, but plasticity does not extend fully to the bilateral inhibition of reflexive saccades. We posit that these effects are due to altered control dynamics that reduce the responsivity of the superior colliculus on the intact side and facilitate the release of an auditory-evoked ocular grasp reflex into the blind hemifield that the intact hemicortex has difficulty suppressing

Auditory cues and inhibition of return: the importance of oculomotor activation

We studied the effects of eccentric auditory cues to clarify the conditions that evoke inhibition of return (IOR). We found that auditory cues positioned 12° to the left or right of midline failed to produce IOR whereas visual cues produced IOR under the same experimental conditions. The eccentric auditory cues elicited automatic orienting as evidenced by more rapid detection of cued than uncued visual targets at short stimulus onset asynchrony. Yet these same cues did not produce IOR unless observers were required to saccade to the cue and back to center before generating a manual detection response. Thus, under the conditions examined herein automatic orienting was not sufficient to evoke IOR, but oculomotor activation appeared to be essential. The functional significance of IOR and the question of modality-specific orienting processes are considered.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/46532/1/221_2004_Article_BF00227185.pd

Strategic modulation of the fixation-offset effect: dissociable effects of target probability on prosaccades and antisaccades

In several previous experiments examining the effects of participants’ expectations on oculomotor performance, the manipulation of target probability has been confounded with factors such as target occurrence and saccade frequency. We report results from three experiments that manipulated target probability in isolation from systematic variations in such bottom-up factors. We present evidence for trial-by-trial, top-down modulation of the fixation-offset effect in prosaccade latency. Furthermore, fixation-stimulus offset and target-probability manipulations had additive effects on antisaccade latency, suggesting that these factors influence separable neural processes engaged for antisaccade performance. Based on these findings, we suggest that cognitive processes utilizing target-probability information influence task processes engaged for prosaccades that differ from those engaged for antisaccades.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/46542/1/221_2005_Article_2242.pd

Parallel and serial processes in the human oculomotor system: bimodal integration and express saccades

Saccadic reaction times (SRTs) were analyzed in the context of stochastic models of information processing (e.g., Townsend and Ashby 1983) to reveal the processing architecture(s) underlying integrative interactions between visual and auditory inputs and the mechanisms of express saccades. The results support the following conclusions. Bimodal (visual + auditory) targets are processed in parallel, and facilitate SRT to an extent that exceeds levels attainable by probability summation. This strongly implies neural summation between elements responding to spatially aligned visual and auditory inputs in the human oculomotor system. Second, express saccades are produced within a separable processing stage that is organized in series with that responsible for intersensory integration. A model is developed that implements this combination of parallel and serial processing. The activity in parallel input channels is summed within a sensory stage which is organized in series with a pre-motor and motor stage. The time course of each subprocess is considered a random variable, and different experimental manipulations can selectively influence different stages. Parallels between the model and physiological data are explored.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47435/1/422_2004_Article_BF00206235.pd

Age Differences in Behavior and PET Activation Reveal Differences in Interference Resolution in Verbal Working Memory

Older adults were tested on a verbal working memory task that used the item-recognition paradigm. On some trials of this task, response-conflict was created by presenting test-items that were familiar but were not members of a current set of items stored in memory. These items required a negative response, but their familiarity biased subjects toward a positive response. Younger subjects show an interference effect on such trials, and this interference is accompanied by activation of a region of left lateral prefrontal cortex. However, there has been no evidence that the activation in this region is causally related to the interference that the subjects exhibit. In the present study, we demonstrate that older adults show more behavioral interference than younger subjects on this task, and they also show no reliable activation at the same lateral prefrontal site. This leads to the conclusion that this prefrontal site is functionally involved in mediating resolution among conflicting responses or among conflicting representations in working memory

Age Differences in the Frontal Lateralization of Verbal and Spatial Working Memory Revealed by PET

Age-related decline in working memory figures prominently in theories of cognitive aging. However, the effects of aging on the neural substrate of working memory are largely unknown. Positron emission tomography (PET) was used to investigate verbal and spatial short-term storage (3 sec) in older and younger adults. Previous investigations with younger subjects performing these same tasks have revealed asymmetries in the lateral organization of verbal and spatial working memory. Using volume of interest (VOI) analyses that specifically compared activation at sites identified with working memory to their homologous twin in the opposite hemisphere, we show pronounced age differences in this organization, particularly in the frontal lobes: In younger adults, activation is predominantly left lateralized for verbal working memory, and right lateralized for spatial working memory, whereas older adults show a global pattern of anterior bilateral activation for both types of memory. Analyses of frontal subregions indicate that several underlying patterns contribute to global bilaterality in older adults: most notably, bilateral activation in areas associated with rehearsal, and paradoxical laterality in dorsolateral prefrontal sites (DLPFC; greater left activation for spatial and greater right activation for verbal). We consider several mechanisms that could account for these age differences including the possibility that bilateral activation reflects recruitment to compensate for neural decline

Bidirectional control of saccadic eye movements by the disconnected cerebral hemispheres

The present investigation demonstrates that callosotomy patient J.W. can generate either leftward or rightward saccades in response to color cues presented unilaterally. When asked to name the colors, performance was at chance for left visual field presentations, demonstrating a disability in interhemispheric transfer of chromatic information. The successful control of saccadic direction based on discriminative color cues that appear confined to a single hemisphere may suggest a capacity for bidirectional control of saccadic eye movements in the disconnected cerebral hemispheres.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/46564/1/221_2004_Article_BF00231667.pd