Differentiation and response bias in episodic memory: Evidence from reaction time distributions.

In differentiation models, the processes of encoding and retrieval produce an increase in the distribution of memory strength for targets and a decrease in the distribution of memory strength for foils as the amount of encoding increases. This produces an increase in the hit rate and decrease in the false-alarm rate for a strongly encoded compared with a weakly encoded list, consistent with empirical data. Other models assume that the foil distribution is unaffected by encoding manipulations or the foil distribution increases as a function of target strength. They account for the empirical data by adopting a stricter criterion for strongly encoded lists relative to weakly encoded lists. The differentiation and criterion shift explanations have been difficult to discriminate with accuracy measures alone. In this article, reaction time distributions and accuracy measures are collected in a list-strength paradigm and in a response bias paradigm in which the proportion of test items that are targets is manipulated. Diffusion model analyses showed that encoding strength is primarily accounted for by changes in the rate of accumulation of evidence (i.e., drift rate) for both targets and foils and manipulating the proportion of targets is primarily accounted for by changes in response bias (i.e., starting point). The diffusion model analyses is interpreted in terms of predictions of the differentiation models in which subjective memory strength is mapped directly onto drift rate and criterion placement is mapped onto starting point. Criterion shift models require at least 2 types of shifts to account for these findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The interplay of memory and judgment processes in effects of aging on hindsight bias.

Hindsight bias is the phenomenon that after people are presented with the correct answer to a question, their judgment regarding their own past answer to this question is biased toward the correct answer. In three experiments, younger and older adults gave numerical responses to general-knowledge questions and later attempted to recall their responses. For some questions, the correct answer was provided during recall (Experiment 1) or before recall (Experiments 2 and 3). Multinomial model-based analyses show age differences in both recollection bias and reconstruction bias when the correct judgment was in working memory during the recall phase. The authors discuss implications for theories of cognitive aging and theories of hindsight bias. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental reversals in false memory: A review of data and theory.

Can susceptibility to false memory and suggestion increase dramatically with age? The authors review the theoretical and empirical literatures on this counterintuitive possibility. Until recently, the well-documented pattern was that susceptibility to memory distortion had been found to decline between early childhood and young adulthood. That pattern is the centerpiece of much expert testimony in legal cases involving child witnesses and victims. During the past 5 years, however, several experiments have been published that test fuzzy-trace theory's prediction that some of the most powerful forms of false memory in adults will be greatly attenuated in children. Those experiments show that in some common domains of experience, in which false memories are rooted in meaning connections among events, age increases in false memory are the rule and are sometimes accompanied by net declines in the accuracy of memory. As these experiments are strongly theory-driven, they have established that developmental improvements in the formation of meaning connections are necessary and sufficient to produce age increases in false memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Episodic memory and episodic future thinking in adults with autism.

The ability to remember past experiences (episodic memory) is thought to be related to the ability to imagine possible future experiences (episodic future thinking). Although previous research has established that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have diminished episodic memory, episodic future thinking has not previously been investigated within this population. In the present study, high-functioning adults with ASD were compared to closely matched typical adults on a task requiring participants to report a series of events that happened to them in the past and a series of events that might happen to them in the future. For each event described, participants completed two modified Memory Characteristics Questionnaire items to assess self-reported phenomenal qualities associated with remembering and imagining, including self-perspective and degree of autonoetic awareness. Participants also completed letter, category, and ideational fluency tasks. Results indicated that participants with ASD recalled/imagined significantly fewer specific events than did comparison participants and that participants with ASD demonstrated impaired episodic memory and episodic future thinking. In line with this finding, participants with ASD were less likely than comparison participants to report taking a field (first-person) perspective and were more likely to report taking an observer (third-person) perspective during retrieval of past events (but not during simulation of future events), highlighting that they were less likely to mentally reexperience past events from their own point of view. There were no group differences in self-reported levels of autonoetic awareness or fluency task performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adult age differences in episodic memory: Further support for an associative-deficit hypothesis.

This study further tested an associative-deficit hypothesis (ADH; M. Naveh-Benjamin, 2000), which attributes a substantial part of older adults' deficient episodic memory performance to their difficulty in merging unrelated attributes-units of an episode into a cohesive unit. First, the results of 2 experiments replicate those observed by M. Naveh-Benjamin (2000) showing that older adults are particularly deficient in memory tests requiring associations. Second, the results extend the type of stimuli (pictures) under which older adults show this associative deficit. Third, the results support an ADH in that older adults show less of an associative deficit when the components of the episodes used are already connected in memory, thereby facilitating their encoding and retrieval. Finally, a group of younger adults who encoded the information under divided-attention conditions did not show this associative deficit. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging and autobiographical memory: Dissociating episodic from semantic retrieval.

Cognitive aging research documents reduced access to contextually specific episodic details in older adults, whereas access to semantic or other nonepisodic information is preserved or facilitated. The present study extended this finding to autobiographical memory by using a new measure: the Autobiographical Interview. Younger and older adults recalled events from 5 life periods. Protocols were scored according to a reliable system for categorizing episodic and nonepisodic information. Whereas younger adults were biased toward episodic details reflecting happenings, locations, perceptions, and thoughts, older adults favored semantic details not connected to a particular time and place. This pattern persisted after additional structured probing for contextual details. The Autobiographical Interview is a useful instrument for quantifying episodic and semantic contributions to personal remote memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental reversals in false memory: Now you see them, now you don't!

A developmental reversal in false memory is the counterintuitive phenomenon of higher levels of false memory in older children, adolescents, and adults than in younger children. The ability of verbatim memory to suppress this age trend in false memory was evaluated using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Seven and 11-year-old children studied DRM lists either in a standard condition (whole words) that normally produces high levels of false memory or in an alternative condition that should enhance verbatim memory (word fragments). Half the children took 1 recognition test, and the other half took 3 recognition tests. In the single-test condition, the typical age difference in false memory was found for the word condition (higher false memory for 11-year-olds than for 7-year-olds), but in the word fragment condition false memory was lower in the older children. In the word condition, false memory increased over successive recognition tests. Our findings are consistent with 2 principles of fuzzy-trace theory's explanation of false memories: (a) reliance on verbatim rather than gist memory causes such errors to decline with age, and (b) repeated testing increases reliance on gist memory in older children and adults who spontaneously connect meaning across events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The sensory nature of episodic memory: Sensory priming effects due to memory trace activation.

The aim of this study was to provide evidence that memory and perceptual processing are underpinned by the same mechanisms. Specifically, the authors conducted 3 experiments that emphasized the sensory aspect of memory traces. They examined their predictions with a short-term priming paradigm based on 2 distinct phases: a learning phase consisting of the association between a geometrical shape and a white noise and a priming phase examining the priming effect of the geometrical shape, seen in the learning phase, on the processing of target tones. In the 3 experiments, the authors found that only the prime associated with the sound in the learning phase had an effect on the target processing. The perceptual nature of the auditory component reactivated by the prime was shown in Experiments 1 and 2 via manipulation of the white noise duration in the learning phase and the stimulus onset asynchrony in the priming phase. Moreover, Experiment 3 highlighted the importance of the simultaneous association of sensory components in the learning phase, which makes it possible to integrate these components in a memory trace. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Associative and strategic components of episodic memory: A life-span dissociation.

The authors investigated the strategic component (i.e., elaboration and organization of episodic features) and the associative component (i.e., binding processes) of episodic memory and their interactions in 4 age groups (10-12, 13-15, 20-25, and 70-75 years of age). On the basis of behavioral and neural evidence, the authors hypothesized that the two components are functionally related but follow different life-span gradients. In a fully crossed design, age differences in recognition memory for single words versus word pairs (associative demand manipulation) were examined under instructions that emphasized item, pair, or elaborative-pair encoding (strategy manipulation). As predicted, the results showed that the strategic and associative components follow different life-span trajectories. Relative to younger adults, children's difficulties in episodic memory primarily reflected lower levels of strategic functioning. In contrast, older adults showed impairments in both strategic and associative components. The authors conclude that the comparison of strategic and associative components of episodic memory across the life span helps to delineate the two components' unique and interactive contributions to episodic memory performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temporal contexts: Filling the gap between episodic memory and associative learning.

People can create temporal contexts, or episodes, and stimuli that belong to the same context can later be used to retrieve the memory of other events that occurred at the same time. This can occur in the absence of direct contingency and contiguity between the events, which poses a challenge to associative theories of learning and memory. Because this is a learning and memory problem, we propose an integrated approach. Theories of temporal contexts developed in the memory tradition provide interesting predictions that we test using the methods of associative learning to assess their generality and applicability to different settings and dependent variables. In 4 experiments, the integration of these 2 areas allows us to show that (a) participants spontaneously create temporal contexts in the absence of explicit instructions; (b) cues can be used to retrieve an old temporal context and the information associated with other cues that were trained in that context; and (c) the memory of a retrieved temporal context can be updated with information from the current situation that does not fit well with the retrieved memory, thereby helping participants to best adapt their behavior to the future changes of the environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multiple inputs to episodic memory: Words tell another story.

Seven patients with semantic dementia were asked to recall and recognize 10-word lists of object-name vocabulary preselected as either still "known" (correct picture naming and word-picture matching) or now "unknown" (incorrect picture naming and word-picture matching) to each individual patient. The patients showed a significant advantage for known words in immediate free recall after several learning trials and also in delayed recall and recognition. The majority of errors of commission for known words were semantic, whereas phonological errors, especially blends of target words, were produced in the unknown condition. These findings support claims that (a) multiple inputs from semantic and perceptual systems support episodic memory and (b) success in verbal and nonverbal episodic memory tasks is differentially dependent on semantic and perceptual information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aggregation in memory of episodic influences on rule-guided decisions.

The authors confirmed E. Z. Rothkopf and M. L,. Dashen's (1905) finding that specific problem context, such as thematic surface features, forms associative connections with deep problem features and thus speeds particular decisions (particularization). In 5 experiments, using a 3-bit decision task and pre-memorized decision rules, the authors found that the ability of a situational context to reinstate was decreased by its replacement by another modal surface context. Context reinstatement, as measured by decision speed, depended on both global and recent local densities of specific problem features linked in a particular decision. The authors' results are consistent with J. R. Anderson and I. J. Schooler's (1991) needs/odds analysis and suggest a push-down file model for diverse context influences as a mechanism for responding to changing situational demands. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of apoe status on episodic and semantic memory: Data from a population-based study.

In a prospective cohort study, the authors demonstrated a more pronounced ε4-related deficit for participants 70 years of age and older in tasks assessing episodic recall. Apolipoprotein E (APOE) and age interacted for episodic memory tasks, whereas the interaction for semantic memory tasks was between APOE and test wave. Heterozygotes of ε4 between middle-age and young-old participants performed at a higher level than noncarriers of this allele in recall tasks. A dose effect was found such that carriers of 2 ε4 alleles failed more profoundly in acquiring and recollecting episodic information than carriers of 1 ε4 allele, who in turn failed more than carriers of non-ε4 alleles. The pattern of findings observed for older ε4 carriers suggests that these individuals have particular difficulty when the executive task demands are high. Several factors (e.g., smaller hippocampal volumes, less effective neural repair mechanisms) may account for these findings. On the basis of the data obtained, the authors argue that analyses of the effect of specific genes in cognition should be accompanied by assessment of performance at a specific level, with due attention to the individual's age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuroanatomical and cognitive mediators of age-related differences in episodic memory.

Aging is associated with declines in episodic memory. In this study, the authors used a path analysis framework to explore the mediating role of differences in brain structure, executive functions, and processing speed in age-related differences in episodic memory. Measures of regional brain volume (prefrontal gray and white matter, caudate, hippocampus, visual cortex), executive functions (working memory, inhibitory control, task switching, temporal processing), processing speed, and episodic memory were obtained in a sample of young and older adults. As expected, age was linked to reduction in regional brain volumes and cognitive performance. Moreover, neural and cognitive factors completely mediated age differences in episodic memory. Whereas hippocampal shrinkage directly affected episodic memory, prefrontal volumetric reductions influenced episodic memory via limitations in working memory and inhibitory control. Age-related slowing predicted reduced efficiency in temporal processing, working memory, and inhibitory control. Lastly, poorer temporal processing directly affected episodic memory. No direct effects of age on episodic memory remained once these factors were taken into account. These analyses highlight the value of a multivariate approach with the understanding of complex relationships in cognitive and brain aging. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Feeling of knowing in episodic memory following moderate to severe closed-head injury.

The ability to accurately monitor one's memory is a metacognitive process that is important in everyday life. The authors examined episodic memory feeling-of-knowing (FOK) ratings in 21 moderate to severe closed-head injury (CHI) participants (more than 1 year postinjury) and 21 controls. Participants studied 36 critical cue-target word pairs. Following a brief delay, they were asked to recall the target that corresponded to a given cue. Confidence ratings were made for recalled words, and FOK judgments were made for nonrecalled words in terms of the likelihood of recognizing the target word on a subsequent recognition test. CHI participants demonstrated less accurate recall but accurate ability to judge their recall performance (retrospective memory monitoring). They also demonstrated intact FOK judgments when providing binary judgments but demonstrated difficulties making finer discriminations on an ordinal scale (prospective memory monitoring). These findings suggest that memory monitoring is not a unitary construct. It is proposed that CHI participants may display intact memory monitoring when predictions are based on familiarity assessment but not when continued probing for additional episodic information is required. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Investigating the structure and age invariance of episodic memory across the adult lifespan.

The structure of episodic memory was investigated by assessing different modalities of material (verbal, figural, and spatial) and different types of tests (recall, cued recall, and recognition). A 3-factor model that distinguished among modalities of material was found to be the best representation of memory and the verbal, figural, and spatial memory factors exhibiting construct validity. This 3-factor modality of material model also demonstrated configural, metric, and structural age invariance across a sample of adults (N = 327) between the ages of 18 and 94. There was evidence that latent constructs corresponding to recall, cued recall, and recognition could be distinguished from one another within the verbal domain but not within the figural and spatial domains. A mediation model examining the retrieval constructs was examined within the verbal domain, and there were unique age-related influences on cued recall and recall performance. This result is consistent with findings that increased age is associated with increased difficulty in retrieving information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age effect on components of episodic memory and feature binding: A virtual reality study.

Objective: The aims were (1) to explore the effects of normal aging on the main aspects of episodic memory—what, where, and when,—and on feature binding in a virtual environment; (2) to explore the influence of the mode of learning, intentional versus incidental; and (3) to benchmark virtual environment findings collected with older adults against data recorded in classical neuropsychological tests. Method: We tested a population of 82 young adults and 78 older adults without dementia (they participated in a short battery of neuropsychological tests). All the participants drove a car in an urban virtual environment composing of 9 turns and specific areas. Half of the participants were told to drive through the virtual town; the other half were asked to drive and to memorize the environment (itinerary, elements, etc.). All aspects of episodic memory were then assessed (what, where, when, and binding). Results: The older participants had less recollection of the spatiotemporal context of events than the younger with intentional encoding (p p p p     

Understanding developmental reversals in false memory: Reply to Ghetti (2008) and Howe (2008).

Replies to comments on the current authors' original article (see record 2008-04614-001). S. Ghetti (2008; see record 2008-11487-008) and M. L. Howe (2008; see record 2008-11487-009) presented probative ideas for future research that will deepen scientific understanding of developmental reversals on false memory and establish boundary conditions for these counterintuitive patterns. Ghetti extended the purview of current theoretical principles by formulating hypotheses about how developmental reversals are controlled by the growth of phantom recollection and by the growth of false-memory editing. Some data are available on her hypotheses about phantom recollection, which distinguish phenomenology (vague or vivid) from memory representation (verbatim or gist). Howe introduced alternative theoretical principles that can be traced to the early work of Deese and Underwood. He argued that fuzzy-trace theory is subject to 3 limitations and that his alternative conception makes 3 predictions that contrast with fuzzy-trace theory's predictions. In the current reply, it is shown that the stated limitations do not apply to fuzzy-trace theory, that previously published research runs counter to the 3 predictions, and that the core difference between the 2 approaches is that fuzzy-trace theory is an opponent-processes model whereas the alternative conception is a 1-process model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relation between source memory and episodic memory: Comment on Siedlecki et al. (2005).

On the basis of an interesting structural equation analysis, K. L. Siedlecki, T. A. Salthouse, and D. E. Berish (see record 2005-02476-002) argued that "it may not be meaningful to refer to source memory as a construct distinct from episodic memory" (p. 31). This commentary highlights that this same point could also be made on conceptual grounds. To suggest that source and episodic memory are distinct concepts would confound tasks with theoretical constructs. All episodic tasks involve making attributions about the origin of mental experiences (source monitoring). Conversely, source memory tasks are designed to investigate episodic memory. No task is special, but each may be useful, depending on the focus of interest. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A diffusion model analysis of adult age differences in episodic and semantic long-term memory retrieval.

Two experiments investigated adult age differences in episodic and semantic long-term memory tasks, as a test of the hypothesis of specific age-related decline in context memory. Older adults were slower and exhibited lower episodic accuracy than younger adults. Fits of the diffusion model (R. Ratcliff, 1978) revealed age-related increases in nondecisional reaction time for both episodic and semantic retrieval. In Experiment 2, an age difference in boundary separation also indicated an age-related increase in conservative criterion setting. For episodic old-new recognition (Experiment 1) and source memory (Experiment 2), there was an age-related decrease in the quality of decision-driving information (drift rate). As predicted by the context-memory deficit hypothesis, there was no corresponding age-related decline in semantic drift rate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)