❤️ Exceptional memory 🐰

"Exceptional memory is the ability to have accurate and detailed recall in a variety of ways, including hyperthymesia, eidetic memory, synesthesia, and emotional memory. Exceptional memory is also prevalent in those with savant syndrome and mnemonists. Hyperthymesia Hyperthymesia, or hyperthymesitic syndrome, is superior autobiographical memory, the type of memory that forms people's life stories. The term thymesia is derived from the Greek word thymesis, meaning "memory" and the Greek meaning of "hyper" means "over". The capabilities of the affected individuals are not limited to recalling specific events from their personal experience. Hyperthymesia has both enhanced autobiographical and episodic memory There is an important characteristic of hyperthymesia: People with the syndrome have an unusual form of eidetic memory to remember as well as recall any specific personal events or trivial details, including a date, the weather, what people wore on that day, from their past, almost in an organized manner. Unlike other people with advanced memory abilities, such as savant syndrome (who tend to use calendrical calculation), individuals with hyperthymestic syndrome rely heavily on their personal "mental calendar", which is an automatic and obsessive process. Moreover, individuals with hyperthymesia do not focus on practiced mnemonic strategies. For example, "AJ", who has the first documented case of hyperthymesia, has difficulty consciously applying her memory strategies to help her memorize new knowledge, making her rote memorization abilities below average. Importantly, having superior autobiographical memory does not translate to broadly superior memory; in fact across tests like a digit span, visual reproduction, and word- pair memorization, those with hyperthymesia have no statistically significant difference from a control group. = Neuroscience = Because it is a recently discovered memory capability, neuroscientific explanations of hyperthymesia are scarce. McGaugh, who coined the term, provides mostly speculation in "A Case of Unusual Autobiographical Remembering". He suggests that "AJ"'s superior autobiographical memory is largely the result of specific impairments rather than enhancements. Her sensitivity to cues that trigger her memories suggest that "AJ" has trouble inhibiting episodic-retrieval mode, which is the neurocognitive state required for present stimuli to be interpreted as memory cues. Because she is unable to "turn off" her retrieval mode, the smallest associations may bring on detailed recollections of "AJ"'s past. Inhibition in itself is a type of executive functioning, thought to be associated with the right inferior frontal cortex. Although "AJ" is not autistic, McGaugh and colleagues note that she shares some of the executive-functioning deficits that occur with autism. These deficits, along with anomalous lateralization and "AJ"'s obsessive–compulsive tendencies, point to a neurodevelopmental frontostriatal disorder common in autism, OCD, ADHD, Tourette's syndrome, and schizophrenia. The frontostriatal system is made up of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, lateral orbitofrontal cortex, cingulate, supplementary motor area, and associated basal ganglia structures. = Cases = , there are an estimated 61 confirmed cases of hyperthymesia worldwide. Cases of hyperthymesia differ from related cases of savant memory in that savants have an extraordinary memory for specific hobbies, and events of a narrow basis, whereas cases of confirmed hyperthymesia show surprisingly detailed memory for specific and general events. One subject, who, given any date in history, can recall what the weather was like on said date, personal details of their life at the time, and other news events that occurred at that time. Details of what the subject recalls may be significant to them in some way, but they may not be. Personal meaning does not seem to affect the subject's memory – they simply recall everything. In another confirmed case, the subject, when shown a photograph from his past, can recall the date it was taken, where it was taken, what they had done that day, and even more detailed information such as the temperature on said day. = Drawbacks = AJ describes her memory as a "running movie that never stops". She views the world in "split screen", with the past constantly playing at the same time as the present. She explains that although "most have called it a gift", she calls it a "burden". AJ's superior memory does not seem to be due to a desire to apply memorizing techniques; her memorization of autobiographical information is non-conscious. It is possible that AJ's memory could stem from the traumatic experience of having her family move when she was 8, at which point she began to "organize her memories" and think about the life she had left behind a great deal. Eidetic memory Eidetic memory—total recall memory—refers to the ability of an individual who can accurately recall a large number of images, sounds and objects in a seemingly unlimited volume. Eidetic has a meaning of "related extraordinarily detailed and vivid recall of visual images" in Greek. The term eidetic memory can become more clinical when the memory experts use the picture elicitation method to detect the ability. In the picture elicitation method, children are asked to study an image for approximately twenty to thirty minutes, and then the researchers remove the picture, it has been found that children with such ability are able to recall the image with perfect accuracy after the picture has been removed. It has been suggested that children with eidetic memory can maintain the image in their memory as vividly as if it were still there. There are reports of different forms of eidetic memory as well as new case studies that suggest a difference between photographic and eidetic memory, although not enough scientific data exist currently from the medical community. Public documents from the APA, Yale, and Harvard suggest otherwise and that more studies are being done in order to properly stimulate the differences; all current noted forms of memory are open to the public but not meant to discriminate against the hypothesis of new types. Older studies have claimed to have observed a variety of drawbacks among those who have an apparent eidetic memory. Eidetic imagery can be so vivid as to mimic actual perception of stimuli, which can be much like a hallucination. Some researchers of eidetic imagery have proposed a link between this ability and psychosis, such as in schizophrenic populations. = Criticism = Marvin Minsky argued in his book The Society of Mind that the reported cases of eidetic memory should be considered as "unfounded myth[s]". This view was supported by an experimental study conducted by psychologist Adriaan de Groot. The experiment was intended to investigate chess grandmasters' ability to memorize positions of chess pieces on a chessboard. When those chess experts were provided with arrangements that were inconsistent with a real chess game, their performance was about the same as non-experts. These results indicate that the eidetic ability of those chess grandmasters were not innate, but a learned strategy with certain types of information. Wilding and Valentine searched for people claiming to have an eidetic or otherwise superior memory via public media. Out of the 31 people who called in, only three actually had a significantly above- average but not eidetic memory. Further cause for skepticism is given by a non-scientific event: The World Memory Championships. Held since 1991, this is an annual competition in different memory disciplines and is nearly totally based on visual tasks – nine out of ten events are displayed visually, the tenth event is presented by audio. Since the champions can win interesting prizes, it should attract people who can beat those tests easily by reproducing visual images of the presented material during the recall. But indeed, not a single memory champion has ever been reported to have an eidetic memory. Instead, without a single exception, all winners consider themselves mnemonists (see below) and rely on using mnemonic strategies, mostly the method of loci. = Cases = John von Neumann possessed near-total recall Cases of eidetic memory have been reported for generations, with a 1970 study on a woman being called the most convincing documentation yet. Her memory was extraordinary in that she could see an image once and retain it in memory for years to come. The classic study of the subject's memory documents her writing out poetry in a foreign language, of which she had no prior knowledge, years after seeing the original text. This suggests that her memory retained the image of the foreign words vividly enough to recall years later. Reports also suggest that her memory was so vivid that she could obscure other parts of the present visual field with these past memories. However, this subject remains the only person to have passed such a test, and the credibility of the findings are highly questionable, given that the researcher married his subject, and the tests have never been repeated. The study fueled strong skepticism about studies of eidetic memory for several decades thereafter. Recently there has been a renewal of interest in the area, with more careful controls, and far less spectacular results. Supposedly Hungarian mathematician John von Neumann could recite exactly word for word any books he had read, including page numbers and footnotes – even those of books he had read decades earlier. Franco Magnani is a memory artist. Magnani was born in Pontito in 1934. Pontito is a small town in the hills of Tuscany which had a population of 500 people before the second world war, which decreased to just 70 people, made up of the elderly and retirees, following the war. The small town fell into disarray when the agrarian economy had dwindled. In 1965, this prompted the thirty-one year old Magnani to leave his childhood home of Pontito, a decision which was deeply troubling as he had decided not to return. After making his decision, Magnani became very ill. It is unclear what this illness was exactly but, symptoms included high fever, weight loss, delirium, and possibly even seizures. For this, Magnani was placed into a sanatorium. Here he had vivid dreams of his hometown, not of his family or friends or even of events, but of the town itself. According to Magnani, the dreams were in a detail beyond anything he could consciously imagine. After getting released from the hospital, Franco Magnani considered, but ultimately rejected medical possibilities that were suggested. These possibilities included some sort of freudian splitting of the ego which could have resulted in hypermnesia hysteria. While Magnani rejected these notions, he never allowed them to be properly explored. Once relocating to San Francisco, Magnani picked up painting, which he had no formal training in. His first painting was of his childhood home in Pontito. Magnani painted the house in remarkable accuracy, so much so that he himself was amazed. This was especially surprising considering the fact that at this point, Magnani had not been to Pontito in over 25 years. Over time, he grew an obsession to painting the town in which he grew up in, famed psychologist Oliver Sacks noted in 1987, Magnini seemed "possessed." That same year, photographer Susan Schwartzenberg went to Pontito to photograph the scenes of many of Magnani's paintings. This was done as part of a study to document the astonishing accuracy of the artists work. This study would be revealed in an art exhibit on memory in 1988. This garnered much attention by researchers such as Bob Miller who suggested that this work could reveal the accuracy, distortions, and inventions of Magnani's memory. These photographs showed something interesting about Magnani's work that was not previously evident. The Exploratorium, which hosted the exhibit for which Schwartzenberg took photos for, explains this observation while examining a drawing of a church. "This drawing, looking down from a point high above the path approaching the church, shows a view that Magnani could never have seen." Work done by Baddley and Hitch in 1974 showed the importance of the visuospatial sketchpad in their model of working memory. The VSS stores visual and spatial information as part of Short Term Memory which is used in working memory for problem solving. This is miraculous due to the fact that Magnani imagined and painted with incredible accuracy, perspectives that he couldn't have possibly ever seen. His visual sensory information was stored long term which he was able to recall more than a quarter of a century later in intricate detail. This prompted praise from Sacks, stating that this rare phenomenon made him an eidetic artist. Sacks went on to say, "he could seemingly reproduce with almost photographic accuracy every building, every street, every stone of Pontito, far away, close up, from any possible angle." Savants Savant syndrome, also known as savantism, is a condition in which individuals with a developmental disorder are exceptional in one or more areas. = Neuroscience = Autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by difficulties in reciprocal social behaviour and communication, stereotyped patterns of behaviour, and restricted interests. They are also associated with typical and atypical functioning in memory. Structural abnormalities have been found to affect the hippocampus, with the perirhinal, entorhinal, and parahippocampus less affected (these are areas in the medial temporal lobe outside of the hippocampus). The hippocampus is thought to be involved in domain-general relational processes, with surrounding areas mediating more domain and item-specific and contextual processing. This is consistent with observed memory effects of ASD which shows superior low-level and item-specific processing, at a cost of having impairments in higher level relational processes. One example found in the literature is J.S., with high functioning autism. J.S. has no episodic memory (which is highly associative or relational in nature) and must rely on memorizing facts. He will memorize entire conversations, so as to remember even general content later. He also remembers events by memorizing A-B-C predicates—item-specific memory with a memorized (specific) association connecting them. = Cases = Kim Peek, diagnosed with Savant syndrome Savant syndrome is elaborate abilities (including memory) in specialized areas such as a hobby or event, or a certain type of information. One of the most well- known cases of savant memory is Kim Peek, the man on which the movie Rain Man was based. Peek had a reported savant memory for most information, not just specialized pieces, and was able to memorize large pieces of information from the age of 16 months. Tony DeBlois and Derek Paravicini also show superior memory for music. Deblois can play 8000 songs from memory on 20 different instruments, and Paravicini can play a piece of music after hearing it only once. Another case of savant memory is that of Richard Wawro. Wawro is known for his paintings of landscapes and seascapes, all done in elaborate detail. What is interesting about Wawro's art is that he paints from seeing a scene only once and does not use a model. His memory for the scene is so elaborate that he can also report where he drew the picture and when. Similarities across cases indicate that savant memory may be similar to eidetic memory. Daniel Tammet is a savant with an exceptional memory for numbers. He began to associate numbers with images after experiencing an epileptic seizure at the age of four.Daniel Tammet. (2014). In Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. Retrieved from https://link-gale- com.byui.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/H1000175388/CA?u=byuidaho&sid;=CA&xid;=892114f7 Each digit for Tammet has color, shape, and emotion, allowing him to memorize sequences of numbers or perform large calculations within a matter of seconds.A Look at an Autistic Savant's Brilliant Mind. (15 January 2007). Talk of the Nation. Retrieved from https://link-gale- com.byui.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/A157619970/LitRC?u=byuidaho&sid;=LitRC&xid;=f0c557bd One of his most notable achievements was being able to recite Pi to 22,514 decimal places, taking him over five hours.Treffert, D. A. (2010). Islands of genius: The bountiful mind of the autistic, acquired, and sudden savant. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Savant memory varies among different savants. Similar to DeBlois and Paravicini, an autistic savant named Leslie Lemke has displayed extraordinary musical talent. Lemke lacks the capacity for abstract reasoning, but he has several abilities that coincide with his exceptional memory. Like Paravicini, he is able to replicate music perfectly after hearing a piece only once.Treffert, D. A. (1989). An unlikely virtuoso: Leslie Lemke and the story of savant syndrome. The Sciences, 1, 28. Along with being mentally retarded, he has a disorder known as echolalia, a condition that involves the rote, often meaningless, repetition of words or sentences recited by others;Roberts, J. M. A. (2018). Echolalia. In E. Braaten (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Intellectual and Developmental Disorders (Vol. 2, pp. 494-498). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Reference. Retrieved from https://link-gale- com.byui.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/CX7423400158/GVRL?u=byuidaho&sid;=GVRL&xid;=f59e51ca however, when he does recite these words of whoever he hears throughout the day, his recall is almost always perfect. = Drawbacks = Individuals with autism are more likely to have savant skills so, for them, the most obvious drawback could be the drawbacks they link to autism itself. Most cases of calendrical calculation involve individuals with IQs that are below average. Autism spectrum disorders contain criteria for diagnosis based on difficulties with social behaviour and communicating with others, amongst other debilitating criteria. Researchers have proposed two hypotheses to explain how autistic individuals may develop advanced skills; the first is the obsession with constricted areas of interest (a common symptom of autism) and central coherence. Central coherence is a style of cognitive processing indicative of an autistic individual, which involves a focus on local features during processing. Researchers feel that this style of processing may aid in the increase of savant skills, but this style also sacrifices global processing in the process. Mnemonists A mnemonic device is a memory aid that is used to help an individual remember and recall information. Mnemonic devices are usually verbal, such as a special phrase, word or a short poem that individuals are familiar with. Each individual has two types of memory, termed "natural memory" and "artificial memory". Mnemonic strategy is said to help develop artificial memory through learning and practicing memory techniques. Common mnemonics for memorizing lists of words is through the use of acronym, which is the abbreviation that consists of the initial letter in a phrase or word. For example, HOMES is often used to help remember the names of the Great Lakes of North America. Most techniques for memorizing numbers involve turning the numbers into visual images that are then placed along points of an imaginary memory journey. The mind has difficulty remembering abstract concepts like numbers but can easily remember visual images. The imaginary memory journey orders the images in the correct sequence. Two common techniques for converting numbers and playing cards into visual images are the Mnemonic major system and the Mnemonic dominic system. = Neuroscience = No structural differences have been found in the brains of accomplished mnemonists, who have achieved superior memory with the practiced use of mnemonic devices. One study that sought to locate the neural differences between these and people with typical memory abilities using fMRI, was unable to find any differences. For mnemonists, the right cingulate cortex, ventral fusiform cortex, and left posterior inferior frontal sulcus were more active for digit span memorization (a feat mnemonists are often very good at). However, all superior memory participants reported the use of mnemonics. = Cases = An interesting case of recall is of the subject S.F., who began testing with an average intelligence and average memory capabilities. With the use of mnemonic strategies (practice sessions in the laboratory) he was able to increase his digit span from 7 to 79. Specifically, S.F. was a long- distance runner and would form small groups of the digit span into meaningful and memorable numbers for a runner (ex. Qualifying times). Using mnemonics for memory recall may also have played a part in Akira Haraguchi's world record citation of mathematical pi. Cases such as these suggest that superior memory can be achieved with the proper mnemonic techniques. Also, all competitors of the annual World Memory Championships name mnemonic strategies the source for their performances, including performances like memorizing a list of more than 2000 digits in an hour, 280 words in 15 minutes or the order of a deck of cards in under 25 seconds. Chunking is another type of mnemonic device. This is a technique that involves grouping items together to improve sequential memory by having each item in mind generate a complete series of items. Many mnemonists credit chunking as their primary mnemonic device. One of the most well-known champions of memory who incorporates chunking as one of her primary memory techniques is Yanjaa Wintersoul. She was able to memorize all 328 pages of an Ikea catalogue in less than a week using mnemonics.Natasha Ann Zachariah. (16 October 2017). Memory champion Yanjaa Wintersoul memorised all 328 pages of the new catalogue in a week; Memory champion Yanjaa Wintersoul memorised all 328 pages of the new Ikea catalogue in a week. Straits Times, The (Singapore). These competitors demonstrate the power that mnemonics can have on enhancing recall and enabling the capacity for exceptional memory. = Drawbacks = Drawbacks are typically considered uncommon with the use of mnemonics since they are used as a tool to enhance memory ability, but there are qualities that can be considered negative. For example, it can take a significant amount of time to learn a mnemonic device, but this device may not be used often enough for it to be worth it. While mnemonics have been shown to increase recall capacity,Tawalare, K. K., & Tawalare, K. A. (2014). Use of Mnemonics to enhance learning in the BAMS Students. International Journal of Ayurvedic Medicine, 5(1), 55-62. the spatial context of mnemonics still contain the possibility of intrusion errors as well.Unsworth, N., & Brewer, G. A. (2010). Individual differences in false recall:A latent variable analysis.Journal of Memory and Language,62,19–34.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2009.08.002 Synesthesia Synesthesia, a condition in which the stimulation of one sense causes an activation or reaction of one or more senses simultaneously, can be used as a mnemonic device to enable exceptional memory.Synesthesia. (2017). In D. Batten, P. Schummer, & H. Selden (Eds.), Human Diseases and Conditions (3rd ed., Vol. 4, pp. 1966-1970). Farmington Hills, MI: Charles Scribner's Sons. Retrieved from https://link-gale- com.byui.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/CX3630000424/GVRL?u=byuidaho&sid;=GVRL&xid;=c8cdd2bb One of the most common forms of synesthesia is grapheme-color synesthesia, where an individual perceives numbers and/or letters associated with colors. Associating colors or words to letters or sounds can allow certain forms of synesthetes to learn new languages, lyrics, or detailed information quite easily.Shabir, Osman. (26 September 2019). Do Synesthetes Have Better Memory?. News-Medical. Retrieved on 1 July 2020 from https://www.news- medical.net/health/Do-Synesthetes-Have-Better-Memory.aspx. When seeking to learn novel categories, synesthetes tend to use their unusual experiences as mnemonic devices, aiding them in their memory process.Watson MR, Akins KA, Spiker C, Crawford L and Enns JT (2014) Synesthesia and learning: a critical review and novel theory. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 8:98. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00098 Furthermore, synesthetic imagery can work as a cognitive tool in aiding those with synesthesia to memorize and store language through their own personal coding.Lvovich, Natasha, "The Gift: Synesthesia in Translingual Texts" (2012). CUNY Academic Works. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/kb_pubs/150 Those with more common forms of synesthesia may experience sounds as colors or words as having tastes; in these cases the sounds and words are considered the inducers, while the colors and tastes are considered concurrent.Grossenbacher, P. G., & Lovelace, C. T. (2001). Mechanisms of synesthesia: cognitive and physiological constraints. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 5(1), 36–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1364-6613(00)01571-0 It is important to note that not all people with synesthesia necessarily have exceptional memory, but it is most often based on how the condition is used in regard to learning. If someone has synesthesia, they are most often born with it, however, it is possible that it may develop later on in life.Ward, J. (2013). Synesthesia. Annual review of psychology, 64, 49-75. = Neuroscience = For grapheme- color synesthesia, studies display greater white matter connections happening between the fusiform gyrus (area responsible for processing the shape of numbers or letters) and color area V4 in brains of synesthetes.Rouw, R., & Scholte, H. S. (2007). Increased structural connectivity in grapheme-color synesthesia. Nature Neuroscience, 10, 792–797. These types of synesthetes display higher functioning in the ventral visual stream, and since graphemes and words have enhanced spatial frequency as well as contrast information, greater processing of these features leads to quicker access to lexical information.Rothen, N. ( 1,2,3 ), Seth, A. K. ( 1,5 ), Ward, J. ( 1,2 ), Oligschläger, S. ( 2,6,7 ), & Berry, C. J. ( 4 ). (n.d.). A single system account of enhanced recognition memory in synaesthesia. Memory and Cognition, 48(2), 188–199. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-019-01001-8 = Cases = One well known case of superior recall ability through synesthesia is the case of Solomon Shereshevskii also known as "S". This ability was discovered during a work meeting where Shereshvskii was scolded for not taking notes until he was able to perfectly recite the conversation. Alexander Luria reported that "S" had the unique ability to recall almost everything he heard or saw though did not provide detailed evidence or clearly distinguish between "natural" abilities and his use of the method of loci. There are several anecdotal reports of "S" recalling a speech word for word without taking notes along with his peers. It is important to note that "S" is commonly considered a mnemonist as well, given that he applied his synesthesia as an aid toward acquiring exceptional memory. = Drawbacks = Solomon Shereshevskii, or 'S', was viewed by peers as disorganized and unintelligent. His extreme case of synesthesia, causing highly detailed and recallable memory traces, made understanding abstract concepts not based on sensory and perceptual qualities very difficult for him. His personal life is described as being lived in a "haze," and eventually he was confined to a mental institution because of the burden of his exceptional abilities. But S is a rare exception and drawbacks are not normally associated with the acquisition of an exceptional memory by using synesthesia mnemonically. Emotional memory An emotional or flashbulb memory refers to the memory of a personal significant event with distinctly vivid and long-lasting detailed information. These events are usually shocking and with photographic quality. Brown and Kulik, who coined the term, found that many highly emotional memories can be recalled with very accurate details, even when there is a delay after the event. A Flashbulb memory is said to be less accurate and less permanent than photographic memories, but its forgetting curve is less affected by time in comparing to other types of memories. One important aspect of flashbulb memory is that it involves emotional arousal when the event is being remembered. Therefore, this kind of memory does not have to be accurate, and the accuracy usually decreases during the first 3 months and goes up again at about 12 months. An example of the errors and malleability of flashbulb memories is found in the El Al Flight 1862 crash. Despite widespread photos and videos of the effects of the crash, there is no video evidence of the crash itself. Despite this, when study participants were asked if they witnessed a video of the crash, over 60 percent claimed to have seen the video on television. Some participants were even willing to offer more information such as the angle of the crash or whether the plane was on fire, despite the lack of video. A study conducted by Sharot et al. (2006) showed that the rating of vividness of terrorist attack on 11 September 2001, by the participants is related to the physical location of the person when the event happened. = Neuroscience = The focus of the research on emotional memory is on the role of the amygdala. In one study participants watched either an emotionally arousing film or a neutral film. Results of a PET scan showed correlation between right Amygdaloid Complex (AC) activity and recall for emotional elements of the film when participants were asked to remember the film a few weeks later. Although this study demonstrates the involvement of the AC, it offers no insight as to the specific role of the amygdala. McGaugh and colleagues posit that although electrical and pharmaceutical stimulation directly to the amygdala can enhance or decrease memory, the amygdala is not the main site for any long-term memory storage. Rather, the amygdala acts as a modulator for storage processes occurring in other areas of the brain. Long-term memories are not created automatically, they must be consolidated over time. Research indicates that it is this consolidation process in which the AC plays an assisting role (there is no evidence that it aids in retrieval). Specifically, McGaugh suggests that emotional arousal activates the amygdala, which regulates the strength of a memory, lending to enhanced memory for emotionally charged events. The amygdala itself is a collection of nuclei with distinct functions, the basolateral AC the most involved with memory. The BL projects into the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex and stimulation of the AC functioning activates both of these areas. Further indication that the amygdala works to modulate other areas of the brain is supported by the fact that AC stimulation is mediated by the stria terminalis (ST), a major AC pathway. Lesions of the ST block AC stimulation effects. AC and ST lesions also appear to block hormonal and adrenaline enhancements. Stress hormones produced by emotional situations influence memory storage. Memory can also be selectively enhanced by post-training administration of drugs and hormones. It is also well known that emotional situations produce an "adrenaline rush". This adrenaline, as well as cortisol (adrenocortical hormone) serve to influence an organism's response to stress, but also may aid future responding by enhancing declarative memory of them. Negative emotional experiences may be remembered better than positive experiences. Goddard found that retention was disrupted with electrical stimulation of AC after aversive learning, but not with appetitively motivated learning. = Drawbacks = An experience must be very arousing to an individual for it to be consolidated as an emotional memory, and this arousal can be negative, thus causing a negative memory to be strongly retained. Having a long-lasting extremely vivid and detailed memory for negative events can cause a great deal of anxiety, as seen in post traumatic stress disorders. Individuals with PTSD endure flashbacks to traumatic events, with much clarity. Many forms of psychopathology show a tendency to maintain emotional experiences, especially negative emotional experiences, such as depression and generalized anxiety disorder. Patients with phobias are unable to cognitively control their emotional response to the feared stimuli. Although, not having the ability to use emotional memories for guiding future behaviours can be detrimental, as has been hypothesized as a potential cause to the lack of goal oriented behaviours in schizophrenic individuals. See also * Art of memory * Memory sport * Method of loci * Omniscience * World Memory Championships References Memory Mnemonics "

❤️ Indirect tests of memory 🐰

"Indirect memory tests assess the retention of information without direct reference to the source of information. Participants are given tasks designed to elicit knowledge that was acquired incidentally or unconsciously and is evident when performance shows greater inclination towards items initially presented than new items.Rajaram, S., Roediger, H. (1993). Direct comparison of four implicit memory tests. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 19(4), 765-776 Performance on indirect tests may reflect contributions of implicit memory, the effects of priming, a preference to respond to previously experienced stimuli over novel stimuli. Types of indirect memory tests include the implicit association test, the lexical decision task, the word stem completion task, artificial grammar learning, word fragment completion, and the serial reaction time task. Implicit association test (IAT) The implicit association test is a testing method designed by Anthony Greenwald, Debbie McGhee and Jordan Schwartz, and was first introduced in 1998.Greenwald, A.G., McGhee, D.E., & Schwartz, J.L.K. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The implicit association test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(6), 1464-1480 The IAT measures the associative strength between categories (e.g. Bug, Flower) and attributes (e.g. Bad, Good) by having participants rapidly classify stimuli that represent the categories and attributes of interest on a computer.Lane, K.A., Banaji, M.R., Nosek, B.A., & Greenwald, A.G. (2007). Understanding and using the Implicit Associating Test: IV. What we know (so far) about the method (Pp. 59-102). In B. Wittenbrink & N.S. Schwarz (Eds.). Implicit measures of attitudes: Procedures and controversies. New York: Guillford Press. During four of the seven trial blocks in an IAT, categories and attributes share a response key (e.g. Bug or Bad, Flower or Good), with the underlying assumption being that participant response times will be quicker when the category and attribute are more closely associated. = Method/procedure = An Implicit Association Test: Participants must sort stimuli that appear in the middle of the screen into the appropriate group on the left or right The first two trial blocks have participants match stimuli only to categories or attributes, to allow participants to practice grouping the stimuli (Bug, Flower). The third and fourth trial blocks mark the first occurrence that a category and attribute share a response key, and during these blocks, categories and attributes are grouped in a congruently associative manner (e.g. Bug with Bad, Flower with Good). The fifth trial block has the category labels switch sides, and gives participants a chance to practice grouping stimuli from the category, with the new orientation of the labels (e.g. Flower, Bug). Finally, the sixth and seventh trial blocks have categories and attributes sharing a response key again, but now, because of the switching of sides for the category, labels are now presented in an incongruently associative manner (Flower and Bad, Bug and Good). but how do we know? Originally, a participant's performance during an IAT was scored in milliseconds, depending on how much time they took to respond each trial, but since then, an improved scoring algorithm has been created.Greenwald, A.G., Nosek, B.A., & Banaji, M.R. (2003). Understanding and using the Implicit Association Test: I. An improved scoring algorithm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(2), 197-216 The resulting "D measure" was found to be superior in a variety of ways, such as creating larger correlations with explicit measures, and reducing the effects of prior IAT experience. Interpreting the D measure is also fairly straightforward, with high positive scores indicating a congruent implicit preference, high negative scores indicating an incongruent implicit preference, and scores around zero indicating a relatively neutral implicit preference. = Reliability and validity information = Implicit measures, especially latency-based ones, typically struggle to achieve a satisfactory level of internal consistency and test-retest reliability. However, the IAT possess acceptable levels of both, with one review finding that internal consistency values of IAT's typically ranged from .7 to .9.Greenwald, A.G., & Nosek, B.A. (2001). Health of the Implicit Association Test at age 3. Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie, 48, 85-93 In terms of test-retest reliability, the IAT has shown itself to be a relatively stable measure, however, little research has examined the test-retest reliability of the IAT with a gap in time larger than a month between administrations.Nosek, B.A., Greenwald, A.G., & Banaji, M.R. (2007). The Implicit Association Test at age 7: A methodological and conceptual review (Pp. 265-292). In J.A. Bargh (Ed.), Automatic processes in social thinking and behavior. Psychology Press. The IAT has also established itself to be an acceptably valid measure, and has demonstrated this through its convergent validity, discriminant validity, and predictive validity. The IAT's convergent and discriminant validity has been established through its comparison with explicit measures, whereby IAT's were found to relate to explicit measures targeting the traits, and not with explicit measures targeting unrelated traits. Additionally, multitrait-multimethod studies have demonstrated that although IATs and explicit measures may be related, they appear to be measuring different constructs. Overall, the IAT has been found to be an effective predictor of behavior, and is generally superior to self- report measures when dealing with topics of discrimination and stereotyping, especially when examining patterns of ingroup liking (e.g. preferring Canadians over Americans if one is Canadian, and vice versa if one is American). = Current research = The IAT is a procedure applied to a variety of research topics, including examinations of self-esteem, consumer studies, and human sexuality. Often, it is the IAT's ability to skirt socially desirable response biases that makes it an attractive method, and it is often used in lieu of, or alongside explicit self-report measures. Implicit self-esteem Implicit self-esteem IAT's utilize "self" and "other" as categories, and "positive" and "negative" as attributes.Greenwald, A.G., & Farnham, S.D.(2000). Using the Implicit Association Test to measure self- esteem and self-concept Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(6), 1022-1038 Participants who group "self" stimuli quicker when sharing a response with "positive" stimuli show positive implicit self-esteem. On the other hand, participants who group "self" stimuli quicker when sharing a response key with "negative" stimuli show low implicit self-esteem. In one implicit self-esteem IAT study, it was demonstrated that North American and Asian university students all have relatively high levels of implicit self- esteem.Yamaguchi, S., Greenwald, A.G., Banaji, M.R., Murakami, F., Chen, D., Shiomura, K., Kobayashi, C., Cai, H., & Krendl, A. (2007). Apparent universality of positive implicit self-esteem. Psychological Science, 18(6), 498-500 This is quite a difference when compared with explicit measures of self-esteem, as North American participants tended to have much higher levels of explicit self-esteem than their Asian counterparts, highlighting implicit self-esteem as a possibly universal phenomenon. Separate research examining the relationship of implicit and explicit self-esteem has determined that the two are separate, but weakly related constructs. Marketing and consumer studies The IAT has also been effectively used in the realm of marketing and consumer studies. In one such study, participant's attitudes towards Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows computers were compared using both an explicit measure and an IAT.Brunel, F.F., Tietje, B.C., & Greenwald, A.G. (2004). Is the Implicit Association Test a valid and valuable measure of implicit consumer social cognition? Journal of Consumer Psychology, 14(4), 385-404 The IAT used targets of "Windows" and "Mac" which were paired with attributes of "positive" and "negative". The researchers found that while correlations between explicit brand preference and implicit brand preference were high, that Mac users had stronger implicit preferences for their brand than Windows users. Other IAT research has also demonstrated that the IAT can reliably predict consumer behavior, including purchase intention, brand preference, and perceived brand superiority.Perkins, A., Forehand, M., Greenwald, A.G., & Maison, D. (2008). The influence of implicit social cognition on consumer behavior: Measuring the non-conscious. In C. Haugtvedt, P. Herr, & F. Kardes (Eds.), Handbook of Consumer Psychology (Pp. 461-475). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Human sexuality Human sexuality research has been one area where the IAT has been slow to catch on as a procedure choice, as implicit sexual attitudes have not been investigated in earnestGeer, J.H. & Robertson, G.G. (2005). Implicit attitudes in sexuality: Gender differences. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 34(6), 671-677 and most of the research has focused on attitudes towards condom use, and attitudes towards gay and lesbian people. In one study, researchers found that while explicit attitudes towards gays and lesbians were generally positive, implicit attitudes towards gay men were negative, as were men's implicit attitudes towards lesbians.Steffens, M.C. (2005). Implicit and explicit attitudes towards lesbians and gay men. Journal of Homosexuality, 49(2), 39-66 Additionally, the IAT has been found to be extremely effective at predicting the sexual orientation of gay and heterosexual men.Snowden, R.J., Wichter, J., & Gray, N.S. (2008). Implicit and explicit measurements of sexual preferences in gay and heterosexual men: A comparison of Priming Techniques and the Implicit Association Test Archives of Sexual Behavior, 37, 558-565 Finally, research comparing heterosexual men and women found that heterosexual women harbor more negative explicit and implicit attitudes towards sex than males. = Criticisms = Previous criticisms of the IAT typically centered around the notion that IAT effects were a product of familiarity with stimulus items, rather than actual implicit attitudes. However, additional research seems to have addressed this concern as several studies have shown that IAT effects are not on account of familiarity.Dasgupta, N., McGhee, D.E., Greenwald, A.G., & Banaji, M.R. (2000). Automatic preference for white American: Eliminating the familiarity explanation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, (36), 316-328. One such study found that implicit attitudes towards White Americans were much more positive compared to Black Americans, even when equally unfamiliar stimuli were used to represent these categories. Currently, most of the criticisms of the IAT center around the accuracy of its communicated purpose, as some have interpreted the IAT to act as a kind of lie detector to get at attitudes that are "more true". However, the creators of the IAT assert that participants' implicit attitudes may differ from self-report for a number of reasons, such as they are unaware of these implicit biases, are aware of the implicit biases but reject them as incongruent with their beliefs, or are aware of the implicit biases and simply attempt to hide them, and only in the third case does the IAT fit the description of detecting hidden beliefs. In conclusion the authors state that the difference between the IAT and self- report measures of attitudes is that self-report measures require introspection, while the IAT does not: they simply measure different things and one is not more associated with truth than the other. Lexical decision task (LDT) The first experimenters to use the lexical decision task (LDT) were Meyer and Schvaneveldt in 1971 who measured semantic decisions and showed that people are faster to respond to words when they have already been shown a prime that is semantically related, for example faster to confirm "nurse" as a word when it is preceded by "doctor" than when it is preceded by "butter".Meyer, D.E., & Schvaneveldt, R.W. (1971). Facilitation in Recognizing Pairs of Words: Evidence of a Dependence Between Retrieval Operations. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 90(2), 227-234 = Method/procedure = The lexical decision task is an implicit memory task in which participants are given a stimulus (a string of letters), and asked to decide whether this string is a word or a nonword. Nonwords are made by replacing at least one letter in a word with another letter (ex. mark becomes marb). Vowels are used to replace vowels and consonants are used to replace consonants. Response times are the main measure in these tasks and they are measured as a function of the string's meaning, familiarity, and the frequency of the word. Response times are also measured to see if they reflect what has occurred previously - like if the participant has been recently exposed to these words or if they relate to ideas that the participant has been recently thinking about.Duchek, J.M., & Neely, J.H. (1989). A Dissociate Word-Frequency X Levels-of-Processing Interaction in Episodic Recognition and Lexical Decision Tasks. Memory and Cognition, 17, 148-162 It has been found that people respond faster to words they have recently been exposed to as well as to words that relate to ideas that the person has recently been thinking about. The original task consisted of a stimulus that involved either a pair of words, a word and a nonword, or a pair of nonwords. The participants are asked to respond "yes" if both strings are words, and "no" in the other two conditions (if there is a word and a nonword, or if there are two nonwords). Another variation of this answering scheme is for participants to respond "same" if the strings are either both words or both nonwords, and "different" if one of the strings is a word and the other is a nonword. "The stimuli were generated on a Stromberg Carlson SC4060 graphics system, photographed on 16-mm movie film and presented on a rear-projection screen by a Perceptual Development Laboratories' Mark III Perceptoscope." The participants were told to look at a fixation box which appeared on the screen for 1 second and after this the stimulus was displayed. The participants used a panel with finger keys for their right and left hands to respond. The right index finger pressed the "yes" (or "same") button and the left index finger pressed the "no" (or "different") button. By counting the cycles of a 1000 Hz oscillator, the participants' reaction times were measured to the nearest millisecond; the response times were measured from the time the stimulus was presented until the response was made by the participant. = On-line = The more recent version of the lexical decision task is on-line. In these experiments stimuli are usually words from a series of text, that are presented either visually or auditorially to participants one word at a time. Part way through the presentation of the text, a string of letters is presented visually to the participant and their task is to decide if this is a word or a nonword.McKoon, G., Ratcliff, R., & Ward, G. (1994). Testing Theories of Language Processing: An Empirical Investigation of the On- Line Lexical Decision Task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 20(5), 1219-1228 Participants respond by pressing the corresponding key on their keyboard. This is commonly the "?" and "/" key for "yes" and "z" for "no". This technique measures reaction time and accuracy and has been used to examine our understanding of word meanings and syntactic structures. = Current research = Current LDT research has increased the knowledge of inter-hemispheric communication in people with and without reading disabilities.Rutherford, B.J. (2006). Reading Disability and hemispheric interaction on a lexical decision task. Brain and Cognition 60. 55-63. The left hemisphere of the brain uses a phonological, non-lexical strategy that changes graphemes into phonemes to sound out strings of letters. People with reading disabilities, specifically phonological dyslexia, and people without reading disabilities participated in a LDT task and it was found that experience in a task improves hemispheric asymmetry in the brain. Moreover, there is a transformation from no asymmetry in nonword conditions to a clear left hemisphere advantage in word conditions. It was also shown that the left hemisphere is enhanced by experience in familiar word conditions which results in the suppression of the right hemisphere in these conditions for both people with and without reading disabilities. This shows that hemispheric asymmetry for lexical processing is not altered by having a reading disability. Finally, responses in the pseudoword condition were slower when people with phonological dyslexia were only using their left hemisphere which suggests that there's more reliance on lexical processing by the right hemisphere than non-lexical processing by the left hemisphere. This research has furthered the knowledge of inter-hemispheric communication in people with reading disabilities so that now inter-hemispheric communication for the processing of unfamiliar and pseudowords is all that is needed to help people with phonological dyslexia develop a non-lexical strategy. The identification of a critical time period in which an intervention should take place is also needed. = Alternate theory and criticisms = In the standard LDT participants have to read the string of letters in front of them, decide if it is a word or not, and then make their response by pressing a key. This version of the LDT has been criticized for participants having more errors and longer response times due to the fact that they have to remember which key to press (yes key if it is a word and no key if it is not a word) after they have decided if the string is a word or not. The go/no-go taskNosek, B. A., & Banaji, M. R. (2001). The go/no-go association task. Social Cognition, 19(6), 161-176. is an alternate task that has been proposed to see if the response selection is actually resulting in slower response times and more errors for participants. A study was conducted to look at this, using both the yes/no LDT and the go/no-go LDT. In the go/no-go task the participants are asked to press the mouse with their dominant hand if the string of letters presented to them on the screen is a word, and do nothing if it is not a word. In comparing the two tasks it was found that the response times of the go/no-go task were faster and more accurate than those of the yes/no task. This result was also present in an associative priming experiment where the priming effect was found to be greater for the go/no-go task than for the yes/no task.Perea, M., Rosa, E., & Gomez, C. (2002). Is the go/no-go lexical decision task an alternative to the yes/no lexical decision task? Memory & Cognition, 30(1), 34-45. In both experiments there was also a dramatic decrease in the number of errors made for people in the go/no-go condition implying that the go/no-go task has an advantage over the yes/no task because there is no response selection to be made, therefore decreasing the response times and errors made. Word stem completion (WSC) task One of the first uses of the word stem completion (WSC) task was by Elizabeth K. Warrington and L. Weiskrantz in 1970.Warrington, E. K., & Weiskrantz L. (1970) Amnesic syndrome: Consolidation or retrieval?. Nature, 228, 628-630. These researchers used the WSC task to examine the memory of verbal material in amnesic patients. They asked amnesic participants to read a list of words three times and then tested them on recall, recognition, fragmented words or a WSC task (the first few initial letters were presented). They found the amnesic participants to be worse than controls on recall and recognition, but performed equally to control participants on fragmented words and WSC tasks. This suggested that long-term memory can be demonstrated in amnesic patients using the WSC task. = Method/procedure = The WSC task is a verbal test of perceptual implicit memory. In this task a participant is presented with the first few letters of a word and asked to complete the word stem with the first word that they can think of. The participants are usually unaware that they have to complete these tasks using words that they have previously seen. An example of a WSC task would be presenting the word "lettuce" in such a way that a participant was not aware that this word would be useful later. After a given time the participant would be given the word stem "LET____" and asked to complete it with the first word that comes to mind. Participants are using their implicit memory if they complete the word stem with the previously presented word, in this case lettuce. To construct a WSC task for a study, researchers will usually use a thesaurus to generate a large pool of words, including both general words and the words to be primed. With the use of a dictionary, this pool of words is slowly reduced to a smaller amount. Using information from pilot testing the smaller pool is shrunken to the desired number of word stems for the test. = Theory = Some researchers predict that when an individual is primed with a word a schema is activated in the brain, producing further activation of the components of that schema.Graf, P., & Mandler, G. (1984). Activation makes words more accessible, but not necessarily more retrievable. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 23, 553-568 This activation strengthens the internal organization of the schema, making the word more accessible because it will come to mind more readily when only some of its components are presented. In the WSC task this is exactly what happens, the first few letters are shown, which activate the components of the schema. The processing of a word increases its accessibility and the probability that this word will be produced even when only some of its components are presented (i.e. the first few letters of the word). Since the WSC task is measuring implicit memory, all of this happens without the participant being aware of it. = Current research = The WSC task has been used in recent years to measure whether learning can occur when a patient is under anesthesia. In one study, 14 words were played, either before surgery or during surgery, through headphones to patients anesthetized with propofol.Deeprose, C., Andrade, J., Varma, S., & Edwards, N. (2004) Unconscious learning during surgery with propofol anesthesia. British Journal of Anaesthesia, 92(2), 171-177. Once patients had recovered, their memory was assessed using an auditory WSC test. This has the same procedure as a WSC task using images of the words, except the first part of the word is heard instead of seen during testing. The patients were also tested for explicit memory of the words using a recall test. The researchers found that none of the patients had explicit recall for the words listened to while being under anesthesia. Furthermore, patients under anesthesia who listened to the words before surgery did not show any implicit learning using the WSC task. However, patients under anesthesia who listened to the words during surgery showed implicit memory using the WSC task. Although, it is important to note that the amount of learning is quite small and the results of this study are weak. Researchers have also been using WSC tasks to investigate the implicit impact of exposure to appearance and weight related images in the media.Tiggemann, M., Hargreaves D., Polivy, J., & McFarlane, T. (2004). A word-stem completion task to access implicit processing of appearance-related information. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 57, 73-78. In one study two groups of participants, a control group who watched a nonappearance related video and an experimental group who watched an appearance related video, were asked to complete twenty word stems with the first word that came to mind. The word stems were created with the possibility of being completed with an appearance related word or a nonappearance related word. For example, SLE___ could be completed with slender, an appearance related word or with sleep, a nonappearance related word. For both females and males, results showed that watching an appearance related video before completing a WSC task significantly increased the number of appearance related responses. This study shows that the WSC task can be successfully used to explore the implicit influences of the media. = Limitations = Researchers have compared the WSC task to the word identification test, the word fragment completion test, and the anagram solution test. They used four different types of presentation for the studying of words to test and compare these implicit memory tasks. The four types of presentation studied were: visual where the font was the same on the test, visual that was a different font from the test, auditory and picture. Conclusions from this study are that the WSC task has better results when participants are primed visually and worse results when participants are primed using the auditory and picture conditions. Furthermore, research has shown that priming effects for the WSC task usually disappear within two hours.Graf, P., Mandler, G., & Haden P. (1982). Simulating amnesic symptoms in normal subjects. Science, 218, 1243-1244. Artificial grammar learning (AGL) = Method/procedure = An example of a finite state language. Each time an arrow is chosen, a letter is added, until the OUT arrow is chosen. An example of a grammatical string produced using this grammar is ZGGF. An example of an ungrammatical string is ZGFG. Artificial grammar learning (AGL) is a task designed to test the process of implicit learning, which is the unconscious acquisition of knowledge and the use of this knowledge without consciously activating it.Pothos, E. (2007). Theories of artificial grammar learning. Psychological Bulletin, 133(2), 227-244. It involves the use of a "finite state language", which is a potentially infinite set of items made up of symbols following a finite set of rules, which constitutes a grammar.Chomsky, N, & Miller, G. (1958). Finite state languages. Information and Control, 1, 91-112. It was first introduced in 1967 by Arthur S. Reber.Reber, A. S. (1967). Implicit learning of artificial grammars. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 6, 855-863. In the standard AGL paradigm based on Reber's work, a "language" that consists of a vocabulary of letters (for example, Z, K, F, G and B) and grammatical rules for putting these letters into sentences is constructed. The grammar consists of a number of states, where the addition of a letter causes the transition from one state to another, until the end state is achieved. In the learning phase of the AGL task, the experimental group is given a number of sentences created using the artificial grammar. The control group is given a number of random strings made up of the same letters, but not following the rules of the artificial grammar. Both groups are told that they are doing a memory task, and must memorize the letter strings and then reproduce them. In the test phase, both groups are told that each letter string was actually a sentence created using a complex set of grammatical rules. They are each given a number of new sentences, some grammatically correct and some not, and are asked to judge the grammaticality of each. The results show that most participants can consistently make accurate grammatical/non-grammatical assessments of the new sentences, even though few can correctly articulate the rules that they are using to make those assessments. = Current research = AGL is used in many studies as a measure of implicit learning or memory along with a separate test for explicit learning or memory in response to a certain variable. One study investigated the relationship between age and learning style, i.e. explicit versus implicit.Midford, R., & Kirsner, K. (2005). Implicit and explicit learning in aged and young adults. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 12, 359-387. An AGL task was used because of its ability to measure both implicit and explicit learning. One group of participants was given strings made from a complex grammar, with no mention in the instructions about the underlying rules. This was thought to increase the amount of implicit learning, as more complex rules are harder to perceive and participants were not attempting to find them. Another group was given strings made from a simple grammar, with instructions to try to figure out the rules. This was thought to increase the amount of explicit learning, as participants were consciously attempting to find rules that were easy to perceive. The results showed that aged adults performed poorly on the task that emphasized explicit learning compared to young adults; however, both groups performed similarly on the task that emphasized implicit learning. This demonstrates that the aging effects seen with explicit memory do not have an effect on implicit memory. A 2002 study was done investigating the neural correlates of AGL.Skosnik, P. D., Mirza, D., Gitelman, D. R., Parrish, T. B., Mesulam, M-M., & Reber, P. J. (2002). Neural correlates of artificial grammar learning. NeuroImage, 17, 1306-1314. Data from amnesic patients with medial temporal damage whose performance on AGL tasks is no different from controls show that this area is not implicated with AGL.Knowlton, B. J., & Squire, L. R. (1996). Artificial grammar learning depends on implicit acquisition of both abstract and exemplar-specific information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 22(1), 169-181. The learning phase was conducted as usual for the participants, and the test phase was conducted with the participants inside an fMRI scanner. The results showed a greater activity in the left superior occipital cortex and right fusiform gyrus for grammatical stimuli, and greater activity in the left angular gyrus during grammaticality judgments, as compared to a matched recognition control task. = Alternate theories and criticisms = Reber's original AGL theory is rule-based; participants learn and apply the formal rules of the artificial grammar through viewing grammatical strings. However, there are many alternate theories to describe the knowledge that is obtained through learning an artificial grammar. Microrules This theory states that participants do not acquire the abstract rules exactly as stated by the artificial grammar. Instead, participants develop their own rules based on small sections of each letter string. For example, they may notice that an F always comes after an M. The existing AGL paradigm is criticized for having only two responses: grammatical or non-grammatical. In one study, participants were asked to indicate why they felt a certain sentence was grammatical or non-grammatical. In the test phase, the participants were told to either cross out the part of each string that made it non-grammatical, or underline the part that made it grammatical. This indicated the microrules that each participant was consciously applying. The results showed that participants acquired a large number of imperfect and limited rules, however, they do lead to consistently correct judgments of grammaticality and non-grammaticality.Dulany, D. E., Carlson, R. A., & Dewey, G. I. (1984). A case of syntactical learning and judgment: How conscious and how abstract? Journal of Experimental Psychology, 113(4), 541-555. Similarity The specific similarity theory states that learning occurs by encoding each letter string in the learning phase as a whole. Grammaticality judgments in the test phase are made by comparing novel letter string to the ones already in memory. The more similar a string is to the remembered strings, the more grammatical it is reported to be. A variant of this theory suggests that the representation of each letter string is pooled into a larger representation of multiple strings, and grammaticality is assessed by comparing the similarity of novel items to this pooled representation.Vokey, J. R., & Brooks, L. R. (1992). Salience of item knowledge in learning artificial grammars. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 18, 2, 328-344. Another similarity model suggests that smaller surface features of each string are stored as well as the string as a whole. Each novel letter string is compared to the collection of features in memory and their similarity is used to determine grammaticality.Kinder, A., & Assmann, A. (2000). Learning artificial grammars: No evidence for the acquisition of rules. Memory & Cognition, 28(8), 1321-1332. Similarity can also be called familiarity in some theories.Scott, R. B., & Dienes, Z. (2008). The conscious, the unconscious, and familiarity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 34(5), 1264-1288. Chunking In the competitive chunking hypothesis, knowledge of a letter string develops along a hierarchy of "chunks", beginning with bigrams (two letters), leading to trigrams, four-grams, and so on.Servan- Schreiber, E., & Anderson, J. R. (1990). Learning artificial grammars with competitive chunking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 16 (4), 592-608. "Chunk strength" refers to the frequency of occurrence of any given chunk during the learning phase. The higher the chunk strength of an item, the more likely it is to be determined grammatical.Robinson, P. (2005). Cognitive abilities, chunk-strength, and frequency effects in implicit artificial grammar and incidental L2 learning: Replications of Reber, Walkenfeld, and Hernstadt (1991) and Knowlton and Squire (1996) and their relevance for SLA. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27, 235-268. Hybrid theory Some researchers don't believe that AGL can be explained using only one of the theories mentioned above. A hybrid theory claims that a knowledge of the abstract grammar rules as well as of the surface features of the letter strings are obtained while learning the artificial grammar, and that both are used to determine the grammaticality of novel letter strings. A study investigating a hybrid theory showed that not only did participants use both of these types of knowledge in their grammaticality judgments, but amnesic patients who had lost use of their explicit memory were also able to make grammaticality judgments using both types of knowledge. This shows that both the abstract grammar rules and the surface features of the strings are implicitly learned and implemented. Word fragment completion (WFC) The word fragment completion test (WFC) is a test designed to measure memory of words presented to participants. Words that were previously shown to participants are presented again in a fragmented form (i.e. missing letters) with the task of retrieving the missing letters from memory to complete it. This task calls on implicit memory because at the time of word presentation, participants have not consciously stored the items in memory; they have merely been exposed to them.MacLeod, C. M., Kampe, K. E. (1996). Word frequency effects on recall, recognition, and word fragment completion tests. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 22(1), 132-142 To avoid participants consciously trying to retain the items presented, which would result in a test of explicit memory, they are often mislead about the purpose of the study through irrelevant tasks that are given which require their conscious attention. Implicit memory can then be observed when participants perform better on the WFC test for words that have been presented than for words that have not.Schacter, D. L. (1987). Implicit memory: History and current status. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 13(3), 501-518 This effect is known as priming and is the key demonstration of this test. = Method/procedure= Since the main objective of this implicit test is to assess priming effects,Tulving, E., Schacter, D. L. & Stark, H. A. (1982). Priming effects in word-fragment completion are independent of recognition memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 8(4), 336-342 the WFC assessment is typically administered after a presentation period of the to-be-tested words. Subjects are typically presented with the items as read directly from a list by a test administrator or by the participants themselves. To ensure that implicit memory is being measured rather than explicit memory, participants can be given irrelevant tasks in this stage to distract them from attempting to memorize the to-be-tested words (E.g. Sort various squares by size). Participants in research studies often try to determine the experimenters' goals and respond in ways which would support their hypotheses, which makes distracter tasks crucial to the validity of studies. Another step to ensure participants are not relying on explicit memory is to place a time delay between the learning phase and the test phase. This interferes with primacy and recency effects because it interrupts the active rehearsal of the listed items. After being exposed to the items (learning phase), the participants enter the test phase. They are presented with fragments of the words that were shown in the learning phase, in addition to new words that serve as a baseline of performance (i.e. performance on non-primed words). Participants are then instructed to complete the fragments with the first word that comes to mind.Nelson, D. L., Canas, J. J., Bajo, M. T, & Keelean, P. D. (1987). Comparing word fragment completion and cued recall with letter cues. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 13(4), 542-552 Priming effects are evident when performance on the originally presented words exceeds performance on the new words. The types of words that are presented are typically ones that are used infrequently in everyday language. Words that are lower in frequency are more likely to be identified correctly in the WFC test because they are more distinct, which makes them easier to recall. Presented words also tend to be longer (7 or 8 characters) than words presented in other implicit memory tests and the fragments are presented in such a way that only 1 or 2 possibilities for completion exist. An example of a WFC test is as follows: Participants are presented with a list of words including ASSASSIN, EMISSARY, MYSTERY, PENDULUM, and THEOREM, among others. A distracter task is utilized to redirect the participant's attention; they are asked to sort paint chips into their respective colour categories (red, blue, green, etc.). Participants are then presented with a fragment of a previously exposed word, A_ _A_ _IN, along with other fragments of primed words and new words. = Current research = One of the findings of this test is the distinction between performance on high and low frequency words. It is already understood that a distinction exists for word frequency with respect to recall and recognition memory, but this test in particular helped build evidence for this distinction in implicit memory rather than explicit memory alone. For both direct and indirect tests (explicit and implicit, respectively), performance is better for the free recall of high frequency words and better for the recognition of low frequency words. Low frequency words are more distinct and stand out, so when one is presented, it is easier to determine if it has been seen before (i.e. if the item is recognized) because of its distinctiveness in memory. Recall and recognition tests have different performance rates for different types of tests because they involve different levels of processing (LOP).Challis, B. H., & Brodbeck, D. R. (1992). Level of processing affects priming in word fragment completion. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 18(3), 595-607 Recall tests require one to generate the information in its entirety, a deeper LOP, while recognition tests require one to determine if a stimulus has been previously presented, a shallow LOP. Research on LOP has further supported the finding that priming effects last longer for WFC than that of other implicit memory tests. WFC performance remains high for words presented in a learning phase of an experiment for up to a week before dropping down to baseline levels, while performance on other tests, such as Artificial Grammar Learning, dropped down after only a few hours. An interesting finding through the use of this test is that the first letter of a word is particularly important in participants' ability to correctly determine its identity. One study presented fragments of words with the first letter deleted (e.g. _urse) and found that performance rates were significantly lower than words that had the first letter intact (e.g. p_rse). This may be because the first letter is the first cue for what the word to follow may be. WFC is a test of the unconscious retention of information and so the majority of the new research associated with this test is geared towards implicit memory. One application of tests such as this one is with patients who have amnesia. When the distinction between explicit and implicit memory was first determined, it was hypothesized that amnesiacs may not have lost all of their memory after all. In fact, when tests that measure implicit memory are administered to people who suffer from amnesia, they show tendencies of responding to stimuli in ways which correlate with information previously presented but not explicitly remembered. Other implicit memory tests= Perceptual tests = *Word Identification Task *Degraded Word Naming *Anagram Solution = Non- verbal tests = *Picture Fragment Naming *Object Decision Task *Possible/Impossible Object Decision = Conceptual tests = *Word Association Test *Category Instance Generation *General Knowledge Questions References External links * Project Implicit: A compilation of online IAT studies * Dr. Anthony Greenwald's Faculty Website Memory Memory tests "

❤️ Effect of caffeine on memory 🐰

"Caffeine is a bitter, white crystalline xanthine alkaloid that acts as a psychoactive stimulant drug. It can have both positive and negative effects on different aspects of memory. Caffeine molecule Short-term memory The effects of caffeine on short-term memory (STM) are controversial. Findings are inconsistent, as many effects of caffeine sometimes impair short-term and working memory, whereas the other studies indicate enhancing effects. Increasing our capacities of STM and working memory only seem to have beneficial impacts upon our daily lives. Increasing our memory capacities would result in retaining more information for extended periods of time and encoding information from STM to long-term memory. However, the research consensus indicates an inhibitory effect, reducing the capacity of our short- term memory and working memory. =Auditory effects within short-term memory= Caffeine’s effects in memory were also investigated in the auditory system. The Auditory-Verbal Learning Test is a memory test that assesses recall of lists of words on single and multiple trials given through the subjects' auditory system. Caffeine subjects recalled fewer words than did control subjects, and caffeine subjects showed a greater deficit in recalling the middle- to end-portions of the lists. =Working memory effects= Caffeine has been thought to have some benefits when testing working memory by investigating the tip of the tongue effect, the idea being that, if caffeine were present in one's system, then one would be less likely to experience tip of the tongue effect, or the feeling of knowing a familiar word but not being able to immediately recall it. Previous research suggested that the tip of the tongue phenomena can be corrected for with the use of caffeine, and that caffeine could help one to more quickly retrieve the word they are looking for. Current research refutes previous research accrediting evidence to priming a phonological loop within the working memory opposed to caffeine enhancing STM capacity. A study has found that there are more correct tip of the tongue answers with a caffeine group than those of the control group. The finding is not that caffeine improves performance; it was finding the priming of the phonological-system-effecting responses. When attempting to comprise tip of the tongue effects, subjects were primed with similar-sounding words to the target word; as a result, priming the target word was reached faster regardless of caffeine intake. A test also studied the effects of caffeine on working memory by administering word lists to subjects. Ultimately, the study found that there was a difference in the results for male and female subjects. Male subjects saw no change in their ability to recall the word lists, thus caffeine showed no effect on their working memory, while females under the effects of the caffeine supplement saw their ability to recall the word lists negatively effected and thus their working memories slightly impaired by the drug =Time-of-day effects= Short-term memory has been thought to be influenced differently throughout the day when caffeine has been ingested; in the morning, STM performance will be different from at the end of the day. As the effects of caffeine wear off, there would be some effect on STM. Three groups of caffeine intake (low, medium, and high) were compared during four daytime hours (01:00, 07:00, 13:00, 19:00). People with low caffeine intake have a decreased performance later in the day, compared to moderate and a high-level caffeine intake. Thus the effect of caffeine on short term memory can differ due to many other factors and thus cannot be instantly generalized. = State Dependent Memory = Caffeine users are subject to state dependent memory effects when under the effects of caffeine. For example, a study tasked two groups of subjects to remember word lists; half of them had caffeine while the other half were given placebos. When brought back the next day, each original group was now split in half, half of them given the same treatment they were encoded under, the other half given the opposite treatment. Ultimately the study showed that subjects that were under the same treatment in both encoding and retrieval out performed the other groups. This study does not support a decline or enhancement in working memory due to caffeine but rather a state dependent effect instead. Long-term memory Caffeine has been shown to have positive, negative, and no effects on long-term memory. When studying the effects of this and any drug, potential ethical restraints on human study procedures may lead researchers to conduct studies involving animal subjects in addition to human subjects. =Positive effects of caffeine on long-term memory= Positive effects of caffeine on long-term memory have been shown in a study analyzing habitual caffeine intake of coffee or tea in addition to consuming other substances. Their effect on cognitive processes was observed by performing numerous cognitive tasks. Words were presented and delayed recall was measured. Increased delayed recall was demonstrated by individuals with moderate to high habitual caffeine intake (mean 710 mg/week) as more words were successfully recalled compared to those with low habitual caffeine intake (mean 178 mg/week). Therefore, improved performance in long- term memory was shown with increased habitual caffeine intake due to better storage or retrieval. A similar study assessing effects of caffeine on cognition and mood resulted in improved delayed recall with caffeine intake. A dose-response relationship was seen as individuals were able to recall more words after a period of time with increased caffeine. Improvement of long-term memory with caffeine intake was also seen in a study using rats and a water maze. In this study, completion of training sessions prior to performing numerous trials in finding a platform in the water maze was observed. Caffeine was consumed by the rats before and after the training sessions. There was no effect of caffeine consumption before the training sessions; however, a greater effect was seen at a low dosage immediately afterward. In other words, the rats were able to find the platform faster when caffeine was consumed after the training sessions rather than before. This implies that memory acquisition was not affected, while increases in memory retention were. =Negative effects of caffeine on long-term memory= Researchers have found that long-term consumption of low dose caffeine slowed hippocampus-dependent learning and impaired long-term memory in mice. Caffeine consumption for 4 weeks also significantly reduced hippocampal neurogenesis, a process by which the brain creates new neurons to assist in memory retention, compared to controls during the experiment. The conclusion was that long-term consumption of caffeine could inhibit hippocampus-dependent learning and memory partially through inhibition of hippocampal neurogenesis. Caffeine has been shown to have negative effects on long-term memory. In a study with mice, a step- through passive-avoidance task was used, and the ability to remember the task was assessed. Caffeine was given before the task in varying doses, with low doses to start (11.55 mg/kg) and higher doses in the end (92.4 mg/kg). (To put that in perspective, one 8 oz cup of coffee contains 95–200 mg of caffeine.) An apparatus including a box with a light was connected to a dark box with an electric floor. When the mice entered the dark box, a shock was released from the floor. The next day, the mice entered the apparatus again and completed the same task. Subjects that did not enter the dark box for 180 seconds were thought to have put the task in long-term memory, remembering the assignment from the previous day. However, caffeine administered at higher doses resulted in decreased retention time of the task from 180 seconds to 105 seconds. Lower doses of caffeine had little to no effect on retention time. Therefore, in this study, linear regression analysis showed that higher doses of caffeine impaired long-term memory, suggesting a dose-response relationship between caffeine intake and retention time. Ultimately, long-term memory and caffeine intake display varying results, in human as well as animal subjects. =No effect of caffeine on long-term memory= Alternatively, other studies have shown that caffeine intake has no effect on long-term memory. This was expressed in a study whereby either caffeine or a placebo was assigned to several subjects at two different times. Some subjects received caffeine first, while others received a placebo. All participants were shown a word list which would eventually be tested. Two days later, the same process was repeated, with random distribution of the two substances. This was also observed in a study involving the assessment of delayed recall using a verbal memory test. Two studies were completed using different control drinks containing caffeine. Age differences=Effects on young adults= The effects for this age group (15-25) were the most variable and conflicting. On the one hand, caffeine effects appear to be detrimental to short-term memory, working memory included, whereas the effects are somewhat positive for memory over the long term (for example, you remember something better many days later if you drank caffeine during encoding as well as retrieval, as opposed to no caffeine). Many of the effects reported were for subjects who were not regular caffeine consumers. Regular consumers of caffeine, on the other hand, showed only positive effects when it came to memory tasks. An important factor to consider is that there was fairly wide-range daily caffeine consumption previous to the study, and this could have had a significant effect on performance of the task because not everyone is at the same baseline. Another study used a much larger subject pool and found that age-related differences were quite minimal for attentional memory, but that over the long term, regular caffeine consumption was fairly beneficial to younger subjects. =Effects on the middle aged= As previously stated, the most pronounced effect of caffeine on memory appears to be on middle-aged subjects (26-64). None of the studies provide reasoning for why this group would be most affected, but one could hypothesize that because of cognitive decline due to age, caffeine has a powerful effect on brain chemistry (although this would suggest the older the person, the stronger the effect of caffeine). Furthermore, this age group is most likely to be the largest consumer of caffeine. The main studies reporting this finding show that at low, acute doses of caffeine consumption, working memory only slightly affects those in this age group, while no effect is observed for younger or older subjects. The authors conclude that larger doses may be needed to produce results that are supported by previous literature, and this is an avenue for further research. Furthermore, it is argued that consumption of caffeine generally aids cognitive performance for this age group, as long one does not exceed the recommended dose of 300 mg per day. =Effects on the elderly= In older adults, memory is typically best in the morning and gradually declines over the day. Those who consumed caffeine in the morning showed much better memory, both short-term and long-term than those who consumed a placebo, especially in late afternoon, where memory and attention may be most crucial to daily functioning for the elderly. This is further supported by a study which showed that adults over the age of 65 who regularly consume caffeine in the morning are much more alert and function at a higher cognitive level throughout the day. The authors conclude that it is beneficial for older adults to regularly consume average doses of caffeine in the morning to boost cognitive performance and alertness in the afternoon. Again, one should not exceed the recommended dose of about 300 mg per day, otherwise memory performance declines due to over-consumption. =Conclusion= The literature shows mixed results. Overall regular caffeine consumption has a positive effect on one's short- and long-term memory only when consumed on a regular basis. Consumption should be daily, in moderate doses, and at around the same time, regardless of age. Sex differences Many studies provide support for the idea that caffeine has different effect on males versus females when related to memory. These differences can be seen through a number of memory types (short-term, long-term, etc.), with various theories accounting for these differing effects. =Short-term memory= Caffeine has been shown to have an impairing effect on females (but not males) in a word-list test of short-term memory. One prevailing theory which aims to explain this sex difference identifies estrogen levels in the body as an important factor relating to caffeine’s effect on memory performance As a result, the female menstrual cycle (which influences overall estrogen levels in the body) may play a role in modifying the effect of caffeine on memory. Following this theory, researchers tested females within the first 5 days of their menstrual cycle and found that caffeine had a facilitative effect on female performance on a short-term memory test. A particular finding in this study relating to male memory performance revealed that at a lower dose, caffeine had an impairing effect; but at higher doses, no impairment was shown. Differing speeds of testing (words delivered slowly or quickly) in males served as a modifying factor on the effect of caffeine: higher doses aided in recall with faster presentation of words, and lower doses aided in recall with slower presentation of words. These findings are only based on a small set of data collected from selective studies on this topic, so further research in this area would be needed to gain a more clear understanding of caffeine's differing effects on male and female short-term memory. =Long-term memory= Limited research on long-term memory and sex differences indicates no notable difference in the effect of caffeine between males and females. Sex differences have not been thoroughly covered in the literature concerning caffeine’s effect on memory. Since most studies do not report significant sex differences in this area of memory study, it is reasonable to assume that there is not strong evidence to support sex differences in caffeine’s effect on memory. Further specific research into sex differences would be needed to fully understand the impacts of this popular drug on its users. Withdrawal Caffeine withdrawal has been known about for over a hundred years. However, there are still many unknowns that exist because only within the last decade has it been researched scientifically. Currently, there is no known correlation between caffeine withdrawal and an effect on memory. There are many potential reasons for the lack of conclusions made about this issue. The main speculation is that since caffeine affects many parts of the central nervous system, this would imply that there is more than one mechanism that is activated by caffeine. It would thus require the examination of multiple activation pathways in order to determine caffeine’s specific effect on the nervous system and consequently memory. =Caffeine withdrawal's physiological effects= Even though there is no direct evidence that caffeine withdrawal impacts memory, there are many other connections made that provide some insight into what memory effects are possible. For example, there is evidence to show that attention decreases when experiencing caffeine withdrawal. A study had school-age children, who were regular caffeine users, go 24 hours without caffeine consumption, and the results showed a decrease in performance on reaction time of a task that required attention. Studies have also shown that regular caffeine users experience headaches and fatigue during withdrawal. One study had a group of regular caffeine users divided into three groups. Each group was designated an amount of time to avoid caffeinated products, for either 1.5 hours, 13 hours, or 7 days. The study found that, to varying degrees, all participants experienced an increase in fatigue, drowsiness, and headaches. A third study also found that among a group of participants receiving a placebo, anxiety was experienced by participants who had prior caffeine use. This would imply that participants would also experience a deficit in memory capabilities because attention and alertness positively impact the amount of information that can be stored in both short- and long-term memory, and anxiety would be a detriment to memory retention. =Duration of caffeine avoidance= There is also existing evidence that reflects on the duration of the caffeine avoidance period in relation to the significance of the withdrawal symptoms. In the study previously mentioned, the strongest withdrawal effects were seen among participants who underwent a 13-hour avoidance period, followed by the 7-day avoidance group. This would imply that memory effects would be at their strongest around the 13-hour mark and would continue to be affected for the following days. Memory would not be affected, however, within the first few hours. This appears valid considering most daily caffeine users need to consume caffeine shortly after awaking from sleep. For example, coffee drinkers were given either caffeine or a placebo after overnight caffeine abstinence. The study showed that regular coffee drinkers became less alert and more anxious than non-coffee drinkers when receiving the placebo. To coincide with this finding, another study in 2001 found a dose-related improvement in cognitive performance for daily caffeine users. This means that coffee drinkers experience the same positive effects every day they consume coffee. References Memory Caffeine "