Preserved Priming of Novel Objects in Patients with Memory Disorders

Amnesic patients perform poorly on explicit memory tests that require conscious recollection of recent experiences, but frequently show preserved facilitations of performance or priming effects on implicit memory tasks that do not require conscious recollection. We examined implicit memory for novel visual objects on an object decision test in which subjects decide whether structurally possible and impossible objects could exist in three-dimensional form. Patients with organic memory disorders showed robust priming effects on this task---object decision accuracy was higher for previously studied objects than for nonstudied objects---and the magnitude of priming did not differ from matched control subjects or college students. However, patients showed impaired explicit memory for novel visual objects on a recognition test. We argue that priming is mediated by the structural description system, a subsystem of the perceptual representation system, that operates at a presemantic level and is preserved in amnesic patients.Psycholog

Can false memories prime alternative solutions to ambiguous problems?

Research has demonstrated that false memories are capable of priming and facilitating insight-based problem-solving tasks by increasing solution rates and decreasing solution times. The present research extended this finding by investigating whether false memories could be used to bias ambiguous insight-based problem-solving tasks in a similar manner. Compound remote associate task (CRAT) problems with two possible correct answers, a dominant and a non-dominant solution, were created and normed (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2, participants were asked to solve these CRAT problems after they were given Deese/Roediger-McDermott lists whose critical lures were also the non-dominant solution to half of the corresponding CRATs. As predicted, when false memories served as primes, solution rates were higher and solution times were faster for non-dominant than dominant CRAT solutions. This biasing effect was only found when participants falsely recalled the critical lure, and was not found when participants did not falsely recall the critical lure, or when they were not primed. Results are discussed with regard to spreading activation models of solution competition in problem-solving tasks and current theories of false memory priming effects

Electrophysiological Dissociation of Picture Versus Word Encoding: The Distinctiveness Heuristic as a Retrieval Orientation

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to investigate the neural processes underlying the distinctiveness heuristic— a response mode in which participants expect to remember vivid details of an experience and make recognition decisions based on this metacognitive expectation. One group of participants studied pictures and auditory words; another group studied visual and auditory words. Studied and novel items were presented at test as words only, with all novel items repeating after varying lags. ERP differences were seen between the word and picture groups for both studied and novel items. For the novel items, ERP differences were largest in frontal and central midline electrodes. In separate analyses, the picture group showed the greatest ERP differences between item types in a parietally based component from 550 to 1000 msec, whereas the word group showed the greatest differences in a frontally based component from 1000 to 2000 msec. The authors suggest that the distinctiveness heuristic is a retrieval orientation that facilitates reliance upon recollection to differentiate between item types. Although the picture group can use this heuristic and its retrieval orientation on the basis of recollection, the word group must engage additional postretrieval processes to distinguish between item types, reflecting the use of a different retrieval orientation.Psycholog

Deese-roediger-McDermott paradigm: Effect of previous recall and type of memory task

Pretendeu-se averiguar se a activação dos itens críticos no paradigma de Deese-Roediger-McDermott também ocorreria numa tarefa de completamento. Para analisar a contaminação explícita explorámos a existência de resultados dissociados em função da manipulação do nível de processamento. Na tarefa de completamento, a primação semântica foi estatisticamente superior à primação directa. A ausência do efeito do nível de processamento demonstra que o teste foi de memória implícita. Também avaliámos o impacto de uma tarefa de evocação numa tarefa de memória posterior. Verificámos que a evocação prévia anulou o efeito do nível de processamento na tarefa de reconhecimento. Na tarefa de completamento de inícios de palavras, o incremento de inícios de palavras completados com associados só foi expressivo quando as palavras foram codificadas superficialmente.This study aimed to verifj whether lhe activation ofcritical items in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm ofproducing false memories could also occur in the word stem completion task. The finding that lhe levei ofprocessing did not seem to have any effect on the word stem completion task supported lhe conclusion that the stem completion task was in fact an irnplicit memory test. The impact of a previous recali in a followng memory task was also evaluated. The results indicated that lhe previous recall inhibited the effect ofthe processing levei in lhe recognition task. In the word stem completion task lhe increase ofstems completed with associates was only relevam when words were encoded superficialiy.(undefined

The Influence of Object Relative Size on Priming and Explicit Memory

We investigated the effects of object relative size on priming and explicit memory for color photos of common objects. Participants were presented with color photos of pairs of objects displayed in either appropriate or inappropriate relative sizes. Implicit memory was assessed by speed of object size ratings whereas explicit memory was assessed by an old/new recognition test. Study-to-test changes in relative size reduced both priming and explicit memory and had large effects for objects displayed in large vs. small size at test. Our findings of substantial size-specific influences on priming with common objects under some but not other conditions are consistent with instance views of object perception and priming but inconsistent with structural description views

Spontaneous and deliberate future thinking: A dual process account

© 2019 Springer Nature.This is the final published version of an article published in Psychological Research, licensed under a Creative Commons Attri-bution 4.0 International License. Available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-019-01262-7.In this article, we address an apparent paradox in the literature on mental time travel and mind-wandering: How is it possible that future thinking is both constructive, yet often experienced as occurring spontaneously? We identify and describe two ‘routes’ whereby episodic future thoughts are brought to consciousness, with each of the ‘routes’ being associated with separable cognitive processes and functions. Voluntary future thinking relies on controlled, deliberate and slow cognitive processing. The other, termed involuntary or spontaneous future thinking, relies on automatic processes that allows ‘fully-fledged’ episodic future thoughts to freely come to mind, often triggered by internal or external cues. To unravel the paradox, we propose that the majority of spontaneous future thoughts are ‘pre-made’ (i.e., each spontaneous future thought is a re-iteration of a previously constructed future event), and therefore based on simple, well-understood, memory processes. We also propose that the pre-made hypothesis explains why spontaneous future thoughts occur rapidly, are similar to involuntary memories, and predominantly about upcoming tasks and goals. We also raise the possibility that spontaneous future thinking is the default mode of imagining the future. This dual process approach complements and extends standard theoretical approaches that emphasise constructive simulation, and outlines novel opportunities for researchers examining voluntary and spontaneous forms of future thinking.Peer reviewe

Risk-Sensitive Resource Defense in a Territorial Reef Fish

As coral reefs are home to dense aggregations of a variety of species, aggressive territoriality is often a critical component of individual behavior. Identification and assessment of the risk posed by intruders is crucial to defending a territory, and fishes on coral reefs have been found to attend to body shape, body size, and coloration when responding to intruders. We examined the extent to which dusky damselfish (Stegastes adustus) discriminate among distinct categories of intruders by measuring the distance at which a fish attacks an intruder and the relative intensity and frequency of those attacks. We found that S. adustus discriminated among perceived threats, attacking conspecifics more intensely and more often than egg-predators and herbivores, and showing a trend of attacking those groups more often than invertebrate-feeders, which do not compete with damselfish for resources. Furthermore, territory holders attacked initial-phase wrasses from a farther distance than terminal-phase wrasses, suggesting that they can discriminate among classes of individuals within a species other than their own. Dusky damselfish thus exhibit the ability to make fine distinctions among intruders in a diverse ecosystem