Rehearsal training and developmental differences in memory.

To examine the relation between age-related changes in the activity of rehearsal and corresponding changes in recall, 96 2nd and 6th graders were trained in a variety of rehearsal techniques in an overt rehearsal free recall task. Consistent with previous work, developmental differences in the number of items rehearsed together were observed when Ss were given no particular training. These rehearsal differences were related to corresponding changes in the recall of initially presented items. The recall of 2nd-grade noninstructed Ss was similar to that of Ss instructed to rehearse only 1 or 2 items together; the serial position curves of these groups indicated no primacy effects. In contrast, the recall of Ss who rehearsed several items together was similar to that of noninstructed 6th graders, with significant primacy effects being observed in these conditions. Second-grade Ss were able to adopt this active rehearsal strategy and to continue using it on a transfer task. The facilitative effects of active rehearsal were mediated neither by priority in recall given to early list items nor by enhanced subjective organization. Results are discussed in terms of multistore models of memory. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exploring developmental differences in visual short-term memory and working memory.

Although visuospatial short-term memory tasks have been found to engage more executive resources than do their phonological counterparts, it remains unclear whether this is due to intrinsic differences between the tasks or differences in participants’ experience with them. The authors found 11-year-olds’ performances on both visual short-term and working memory tasks to be more greatly impaired by an executive suppression task (random number generation) than were those of 8-year-olds. Similar findings with adults (e.g., Kane & Engle, 2000) suggest that the imposition of a suppression task may have overloaded the older children’s executive resources, which would otherwise be used for deploying strategies for performing the primary tasks. Conversely, the younger children, who probably never had the capacity or know-how to engage these facilitative strategies in the first place, performed more poorly in the single task condition but were less affected in the dual task condition. These findings suggest that differences in the children’s ability to deploy task-relevant strategy are likely to account for at least part of the executive resource requirements of visual memory tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Similarities and differences between working memory and long-term memory: Evidence from the levels-of-processing span task.

Two experiments compared the effects of depth of processing on working memory (WM) and long-term memory (LTM) using a levels-of-processing (LOP) span task, a newly developed WM span procedure that involves processing to-be-remembered words based on their visual, phonological, or semantic characteristics. Depth of processing had minimal effect on WM tests, yet subsequent memory for the same items on delayed tests showed the typical benefits of semantic processing. Although the difference in LOP effects demonstrates a dissociation between WM and LTM, we also found that the retrieval practice provided by recalling words on the WM task benefited long-term retention, especially for words initially recalled from supraspan lists. The latter result is consistent with the hypothesis that WM span tasks involve retrieval from secondary memory, but the LOP dissociation suggests the processes engaged by WM and LTM tests may differ. Therefore, similarities and differences between WM and LTM depend on the extent to which retrieval from secondary memory is involved and whether there is a match (or mismatch) between initial processing and subsequent retrieval, consistent with transfer-appropriate-processing theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adult age differences in short-term memory and subsequent long-term memory for actions.

Short-term memory for actions was investigated for young adult and elderly adult Ss with the Brown-Peterson procedure at retention intervals of 0 and 15 sec. The short-term memory trials were followed by the long-term recall of the prior to-be-remembered actions. The 15-sec retention interval was filled either with no activity or with 1 of 3 different interfering activities. Verbal interference had little effect on short-term memory at either age level. Actions performed in the interval either by the Ss or by the experimenter produced significantly lower recall scores at each age level, with the decrement being more pronounced for the elderly than for the young Ss. The long-term memory results indicated that successful short-term recall enhanced later long-term recall, regardless of age level. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The facilitation of long-term memory improvement and operative development.

J. Piaget and B. Inhelder (1973) have reported that children's memories for pictures or events improve between early (1-wk) and late (several-month) recall sessions in conjunction with operative growth. Using the concept of verticality, the present study investigated (a) if an intervening operative training task would increase memory improvements, and (b) if exposure to the memory stimulus per se would enhance later operative performance. 97 3rd graders were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups—with or without operative training and with or without a memory task. At the end of the school year, all Ss were tested for operative level. The trained group showed significantly more memory progressions and fewer regressions than the untrained group on 1 of 2 memory stimuli. On the 2nd stimulus, performance was consistently high across children and recall sessions, and thus no differences were found as a function of training. Participation in the memory task enhanced later operative performance. Implications for Piagetian memory research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adult age differences in long-term memory for performed activities

Participants in two studies conducted by Salthouse (in press) were called 2 to 182 days after participation and asked to describe the activities that they had performed in the previous study. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to examine the prediction of activity recall from age, speed, and retention interval. Overall, age was associated with 20% of the variance in activity recall, and retention interval was associated with 19%, but there was no significant interaction of age and retention interval. When perceptual speed was entered into the regression equation before age, the age-related variance was reduced by 70%. A small, but statistically significant, amount of age-related variance in activity memory remained after controlling for speed and retention interval.     

Similarity and inhibition in long-term memory: Evidence for a two-factor theory.

Recalling a past experience often requires the suppression of related memories that compete with the retrieval target, causing memory impairment known as retrieval-induced forgetting. Two experiments examined how retrieval-induced forgetting varies with the similarity of the competitor and the target item (target- competitor similarity) and with the similarity between the competitors themselves (competitor-competitor similarity). According to the pattern-suppression model (M. C. Anderson & B. A. Spellman, 1995), high target-competitor similarity should reduce impairment, whereas high competitor-competitor similarity should increase it. Both predictions were supported: Encoding target-competitor similarities not only eliminated retrieval-induced forgetting but also reversed it, whereas encoding competitor-competitor similarities increased impairment. The differing effects of target-competitor and competitor-competitor similarity may resolve conflicting results concerning the effects of similarity on inhibition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Control of cost in prospective memory: Evidence for spontaneous retrieval processes.

To examine the processes that support prospective remembering, previous research has often examined whether the presence of a prospective memory task slows overall responding on an ongoing task. Although slowed task performance suggests that monitoring is present, this method does not clearly establish whether monitoring is functionally related to prospective memory performance. According to the multiprocess theory (McDaniel & Einstein, 2000), monitoring should be necessary to prospective memory performance with nonfocal cues but not with focal cues. To test this hypothesis, we varied monitoring by presenting items that were related (or unrelated) to the prospective memory task proximal to target events. Notably, whereas monitoring proximal to target events led to a large increase in nonfocal prospective memory performance, focal prospective remembering was high in the absence of monitoring, and monitoring in this condition provided no additional benefits. These results suggest that when monitoring is absent, spontaneous retrieval processes can support focal prospective remembering. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term memory for pictures related to seriation, horizontality, and verticality concepts.

To evaluate Piaget and Inhelder's (1973) hypothesis that memories are related to operative levels, 82 kindergarten and 101 4th-grade children were shown pictures involving seriation, horizontality, and verticality and were asked to reproduce them 1 wk and 5 mo later. In addition, tasks to assess seriation, horizontality, and verticality concepts were given to half of the children in the fall and to all children in the spring. Although there were some significant correlations between memories and operative levels, the relations were quantitatively weak and were undermined by several serious disconfirmations. Furthermore, although long-term memory improvements did occur, these were not systematically linked to individuals' operative development, nor did they occur significantly more often than memory deteriorations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Retrieval from semantic memory and its implications for Alzheimer's disease.

In 3 experiments, participants generated category exemplars (e.g., kinds of fruits) while a voice key and computer recorded each response latency relative to the onset of responding. In Experiment 1, mean response latency was faster when participants generated exemplars from smaller categories, suggesting that smaller mental search sets result in faster mean latencies. In Experiment 2, a concurrent secondary task increased mean response latency, suggesting that slowed mental processing results in slower mean latencies. In Experiment 3, the mean response latency of Alzheimer's participants was faster than that of elderly controls, which is consistent with the idea that the semantic memory impairments of Alzheimer's disease patients stem primarily from a reduction in available items (as in Experiment 1) rather than retrieval slowing (as in Experiment 2). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Theoretical and treatment implications of developmental research on verbal control of behavior.

The developmental research on verbal control of behavior, especially that conducted by the Soviet psychologists A. Luria (1959) and L. Vygotsky (1962), suggests a developmental progression by which the child's inner speech comes to assume a regulatory role. Results of a research program which included both naturalistic observational studies and experimental investigations fail to support Luria's age-related stages of development. However, the hypothetical developmental model offered by Vygotsky and Luria does provide a useful sequence which can be employed as a cognitive self-guidance treatment program. The theoretical and treatment implications of a research program on verbal control are examined. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The social construction of the personal past and its implications for adult development.

This article examines conversational recounting about experiences as a potential mechanism by which people socially construct themselves and their worlds over the life span and the resulting implications for understanding adult development. Two principles governing conversational recounting of past events are proposed: coconstruction (the joint influences of speakers and contexts on conversational reconstructions of past events) and consistency (the influence of a conversational reconstruction on subsequent memory). Operating together, the principles provide an account for how autobiographical memory is socially constructed. In addition, the principles may illuminate how conversations about the past can influence the development of identity in adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The dawning of a past: The emergence of long-term explicit memory in infancy.

The ability to recall information about the past is thought to emerge in the 2nd half of the 1st year of life. Although there is evidence from both cognitive neuroscience and behavioral psychology to support this hypothesis, there is little longitudinal evidence with which the question can be addressed. Infants' memory abilities were tested between the ages of 9 and 16 months using elicited and deferred imitation. Infants' memory for events was tested after delays ranging from 1 to 6 months. The results suggest that at 9 months of age, infants are able to store and retrieve representations over delays of as many as 4 weeks but not over long delays. In contrast, 10-month-olds have at their disposal a system that allows encoding and retrieval of event representations over delays of up to 6 months. These results support the idea that the system that underlies long-term ordered recall emerges near the end of the 1st year of life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Innate and universal facial expressions: Evidence from developmental and cross-cultural research.

The idea of innate and universal facial expressions that have links with human emotions was given the scientific hypothesis by Darwin (1872/1965). Substantial evidence, old and new, supports his hypothesis. Much of the evidence is independent of language, but J. A. Russell's (see record 1994-20274-001) criticisms of the hypothesis focus on language-dependent data. It is argued that Russell's critique was off target in that his arguments relate only to a hypothesis of the universality of semantic attributions and overstated in that he used questionable logic in designing studies to support his claims. It is also argued that Russell misinterpreted the relation between the universality hypothesis and differential emotions theory. Finally, new evidence is presented that supports the Darwinian hypothesis of the innateness and universitality of the facial expressions of a limited set of emotions and the efficacy of the most commonly used method of testing it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Applied individual differences research and its quantitative methods.

Applied individual differences research is one of the few branches of psychological science that has systematically amassed a coherent body of empirical knowledge withstanding the test of time. While examining relatively stable behavioral attributes (abilities, personality, vocational preferences), which form the bases of their longitudinal forecasts pertaining to broad behavioral patterns and proclivities, differential psychologists appear to have uncovered keys to behavioral development and have contributed to a better understanding of human diversity and its many unique (idiographic) manifestations. This issue discusses this domain of knowledge; its history in facilitating practice in educational, clinical, and counseling psychology; and its role in personnel development and selection in business, industry, and the military. Ways in which individual differences dimensions converge on other psychological viewpoints (phenomenology, Skinnerian behaviorism) and their bearing on theories of human development are reflected. A multifaceted (individual differences) approach is especially important when designing opportunities and policies for positive development in clinics, in schools, at work, and in society at large. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in explicit and implicit memory for pictures.

In the present study, the authors examined age effects in memory for nonverbal material. A picture fragment completion task was used to test explicit and implicit memory in a younger and an older group. Explicit memory was indexed by free recall of pictures, whereas implicit memory was indexed by perceptual learning (priming). Both free recall and perceptual learning performance were found to be impaired in the older group. A measure of executive functioning was found to be predictive of both explicit and implicit memory. (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)     

Age differences in memory for item and source information.

Investigated the effects of normal aging on source amnesia in 2 experiments. In Exp I, 31 young adults (mean age 19.4 yrs) and 30 older adults (mean age 69.2 yrs) were taught real facts about Canada. One week later they were asked to recall the facts and remember where they had learned them. Findings show that the older people exhibited greater amounts of forgetting of the source of their knowledge. Exp II, which used 24 young adults (mean age 23.3 yrs) and 24 older adults (mean age 69.7 yrs), confirmed the findings of Exp I using made up facts. It is suggested that the finding of source amnesia in older, normal people has implications for theories of amnesia and, possibly, for theories of frontal lobe functions. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in sensitivity to nicotine: implications for genetic research on nicotine dependence

Recent evidence suggests that cigarette smoking has a heritability index around 53%. While related research on underlying mechanisms also supports the idea that genetic factors contribute to nicotine dependence--as well as to cofactors such as substance use and mood disorders--the nature of the behavioral traits and biological capacity for reinforcement that constitutes vulnerability to nicotine dependence is not well understood. The present review explores the problem of why some people become highly nicotine dependent, others develop a pattern of occasional use, and still others avoid the drug entirely despite extensive exposure and widespread experimentation with tobacco in the population. Recent research--both infrahuman and human--suggests that vulnerability to nicotine dependence is related to high initial sensitivity to nicotine and that the development of tolerance is more rapid and self-administration more extensive in such individuals. Relevant findings from neuroscience and biobehavioral research are reviewed in order to identify variables and methodologies that might improve the reliability and validity of behavioral and molecular genetic studies on cigarette smoking. The integration of research in these areas may lead to new insights in the understanding of nicotine dependence as well as to improved techniques for prevention and treatment.     

Developmental differences in children's recognition memory for faces.

Tested 108 White, upper-middle-class children at 3 age levels for recognition memory of adult male faces following 3 different orienting activities at encoding. One group received standard intentional learning instructions, another group judged whether each face had a big nose, and a 3rd group judged whether each face appeared "nice." Memory improved with age, and judgments of niceness facilitated memory equally at all ages. The results pose difficulties for A. L. Brown's (1975) model of memory development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)