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Testing Memory Retrieval Account of Implicit Evaluation

Testing Memory Retrieval Account of Implicit Evaluation

This study will examine the relationship between short-term memory and timing. Here short-term memory refers to our ability to temporarily store and use of recent information, such as remembering a telephone number before dialing it. Timing refers to the ability to predict when an external event will happen, such as when the traffic light will change. The aim of this study is to determine whether and how the human short-term memory system implicitly tracks the timing of items that must be remembered. Participants will perform a short-term memory task in which the amount of time that items must be remembered is systematically varied. On some trials, the timing structure will defy participants' expectations, and the change in performance will be measured. Participants will perform the task in one session that will take about one hour. The goal of the study is to analyze how the timing structure of the task affects short-term memory performance.

In this study we investigate learning of action-effect relations and aim to estimate the contribution of explicit and implicit memory to action-effect binding in long-term memory. Specifically, we investigate how divided attention during encoding affects the involvement of explicit and implicit memory.

In this study we investigate learning of action-effect relations and aim to estimate the contribution of explicit and implicit memory to action-effect binding in long-term memory. Specifically, we investigate how divided attention during encoding affects the involvement of explicit and implicit memory.

Online study on trial history biases in an interceptative task.

Data collected as part of a residency at the Science Museum, London. Comparison of explicit (recognition, source memory) and implicit (priming) memory from adolescence up to older age.

Data collected as part of a residency at the Science Museum, London. Comparison of explicit (recognition, source memory) and implicit (priming) memory from adolescence up to older age.

This study will examine the relationship between short-term memory and timing. Here short-term memory refers to our ability to temporarily store and use of recent information, such as remembering a telephone number before dialing it. Timing refers to the ability to predict when an external event will happen, such as when the traffic light will change. The aim of this study is to determine whether and how the human short-term memory system implicitly tracks the timing of items that must be remembered. Participants will perform a short-term memory task in which the amount of time that items must be remembered is systematically varied. On some trials, the timing structure will defy participants' expectations, and the change in performance will be measured. Participants will perform the task in one session that will take about one hour. The goal of the study is to analyze how the timing structure of the task affects short-term memory performance.

This study will examine the relationship between short-term memory and timing. Here short-term memory refers to our ability to temporarily store and use of recent information, such as remembering a telephone number before dialing it. Timing refers to the ability to predict when an external event will happen, such as when the traffic light will change. The aim of this study is to determine whether and how the human short-term memory system implicitly tracks the timing of items that must be remembered. Participants will perform a short-term memory task in which the amount of time that items must be remembered is systematically varied. On some trials, the timing structure will defy participants' expectations, and the change in performance will be measured. Participants will perform the task in one session that will take about one hour. The goal of the study is to analyze how the timing structure of the task affects short-term memory performance.

This study aims to investigate the neural correlates of implicit (automatic) memory processing in victims of potentially traumatic sexual experiences (TSE). Its main objectives are: - To study the relationship between sexual victimization, traumatic symptoms, and sexual health indicators. - To elucidate possible differences in automatic associations with visual sexual stimuli between individuals with TSE and individuals who do not report such experiences. - To determine the relationship between these automatic associations and specific sexual health indicators (e.g., sexual functioning) within each group. - To map the neuroelectric correlates of emotional processing of sexual stimuli in both groups, using event-related potentials (ERPs). - To test the modulatory effect of a brief mindfulness exercise on the automatic associations with sexual stimuli as well as on brain activity related to the emotional processing of such stimuli. This research holds significant scientific relevance, as it contributes to expanding knowledge about how traumatic experiences affect the brain and cognition, helping to build a more comprehensive understanding of brain function. It may also guide the development of new therapies and interventions to support victims of sexual trauma, improving the effectiveness of psychological treatments. From a social perspective, the results of this study will enhance public understanding of the neuropsychological effects of sexual trauma, helping to reduce the stigma associated with trauma victims and promoting a more informed and inclusive society. Additionally, by informing public policies based on scientific evidence, the conclusions of this research can contribute to improving mental health services and social support programs for survivors of sexual trauma. This project is funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (2021.07093.BD).

Replication of Production and Implicit Memory (Word Stem Completion)

Replication of Production and Implicit Memory (Word Stem Completion)

AFOSR Grant 91-0253 supported four different lines of research, described herein. These are (1) a preliminary experiment to clarity our testing procedures; (2) experiments designed to examine effects of various types of repetition on several memory tests; (3) experiments designed to examine the effect of distinctive events on these tests; and (4) experiments designed to examine inhibition and spontaneous recovery in memory. The progress made on each topic is described in the four sections of this Final Technical Report. Briefly, all four lines of work have been carried to a successful completion, although in two cases (II and IV) data are still being analyzed. Several publications from this research are either being published, written or planned at this writing.

The second year of this grant saw progress on 9 projects briefly described below. In particular, in the past year 5 papers or chapters have been published, 6 are in press, 3 are in preparation, and data are being collected on several new projects. My students and I have presented 6 papers on work conducted under the auspices of the grant at national and international meetings in the past year. We have completed projects on the following topics: (1) Effects of imagery on nonverbal implicit tests; (2) Effects of high priority events on implicit tests; (3) Specificity of priming on verbal and nonverbal perceptual tests; (4) Direct comparison of two methods of testing for contamination of implicit tests by conscious recollection; (5) The experimental basis of serial position effects; and (6) A new paradigm for the study of false memories. Four or five other projects should be completed during the final year of the grant.

The second year of this grant saw progress on 9 projects briefly described below. In particular, in the past year 5 papers or chapters have been published, 6 are in press, 3 are in preparation, and data are being collected on several new projects. My students and I have presented 6 papers on work conducted under the auspices of the grant at national and international meetings in the past year. We have completed projects on the following topics: (1) Effects of imagery on nonverbal implicit tests; (2) Effects of high priority events on implicit tests; (3) Specificity of priming on verbal and nonverbal perceptual tests; (4) Direct comparison of two methods of testing for contamination of implicit tests by conscious recollection; (5) The experimental basis of serial position effects; and (6) A new paradigm for the study of false memories. Four or five other projects should be completed during the final year of the grant.

The goal of this experiment is to understand changes in implicit memory with age. It is important to not just conduct cross-sectional studies, comparing young and older adults at one point time, but to also examine longitudinal changes in implicit memory over time in the same individuals and measure changes in priming over delays. In order to study the effect of a medium delay on perceptual priming, we will invite the same participants from a previous experiment conducted 8-10 months earlier (Experiment 1) registered here https://osf.io/uz2ka; 35 young and 35 older adults to participate in this new experiment. Participants will perform a CID-R test phase task identical to the prior registration. All participants from the earlier Experiment 1 were informed about the follow up and consented to providing their contact details to participate in the follow-up. Once the data has been collected, we will compare the priming and recognition scores of the two experiments to examine a) changes in priming in individuals over time, and b) the effect of the 8-10 months delay on priming and recognition.

Fast Mapping (FM) is an incidental learning process that is hypothesised to allow rapid, cortical-based memory formation, independent of the normal, hippocampally-dependent episodic memory system. Recently, Coutanche and Thompson-Schill (2014) reported evidence for a learning advantage under an FM condition over a more conventional explicit learning condition (EE) in healthy young people using an implicit measure of learning, namely same-day lexical integration using a category (man-made/natural) decision task. They reported that under FM there were significantly slower RTs to hermit words, i.e., “galaxy”, whose made-up neighbors, i.e., “ganaxy” has been incidentally learned as unfamiliar animal name during the study phase; there was no slowing in the EE condition. They concluded that this offered evidence of same-day lexical integration learning that was present following FM, but not EE. When we ran a methodological replication with power of over 80% and N=56 young adults, but found no evidence of same-day lexical competition (i.e., slowing) following either FM or EE. However, a post-hoc analysis produced an interesting significant result. In all learning conditions ‘names’ (i.e, made-up neighbours, e.g., “ganaxy”, “naskin”) had been incidentally learned as unfamiliar animal names; we found facilitation (i.e., speeding) for natural words, e.g.,“galaxy”, but slowing for man-made words, e.g., “napkin” under the FM condition, suggesting a facilitatory semantic priming effect, instead of a inhibitory lexical competition effect. We now wish to attempt to replicate this significant semantic priming effect, which would further inform the mechanisms of FM learning. Our experiment will have four between-participant conditions: 1 FM and 1 EE condition where the ‘names’ are for unfamiliar animals, and 1 FM and 1 EE condition where ‘names’ are unfamiliar man-made objects. We predict that when studied neighbours (e.g., “ganaxy”, “naskin”) are names for (1) unfamiliar animal pictures, natural words (galaxy) will be speeded and man-made words (napkin) will be slowed, but for (2) unfamiliar man-made objects, natural words (galaxy) will be slowed and man-made words (napkin) will be speeded.

This study aims to examine age effects on explicit and implicit memory, and interactions with depth-of-processing. Although it is well-established that explicit memory declines in normal ageing (Nilsson, 2003; Ward & Shanks, 2018), it remains debated whether implicit memory declines or remain intact with age (Fleischman, 2007; Mitchell & Bruss, 2003; Ward & Shanks, 2018). Discrepancies in past research may be due to a range of factors, including power and sample issues, explicit contamination, and differential processing requirements in the range of tasks that have been employed. Some studies have used tasks that involve conceptual processing, and others perceptual processing, but this may interact with the processing styles typically employed by young and older adults. That is, older adults’ are generally impaired in conceptual processing (Rybash, 1996), so this may explain greater age effects in studies involving conceptual tasks and smaller age effects in studies involving perceptual tasks. In this study, depth-of-processing was systematically manipulated to provide much needed insight into interactions with age effects. This was recently attempted in a large-scale semi naturalistic study by Ward et al. (in press), but the processing manipulation was not effective so here we aim to strengthen this. As well as manipulating processing at encoding, we also aim to vary processing requirements at test with the use of a perceptual priming task in Experiment 1, and a conceptual priming task in Experiment 2.

In this study we investigate learning of action-effect relations and aim to estimate the contribution of explicit and implicit memory to action-effect binding in long-term memory. Specifically, we investigate whether intentional learning increases the involvement of explicit memory compared to incidental learning.

During the past year grant related work has begun on five major projects and a similar number of projects less directly related to the original proposal, but still germane to it. Most of these concern the relation between measures of explicit and implicit memory performance, fulfilling the stated aims of the proposal. To cite some of our major, findings during the first year of work, we have found that (a) priming on perceptual implicit memory tests can be boosted-by imagery; (b) distinctive events that have powerful effects on explicit tests have little or no effect on perceptual priming; (c) a direct comparison of two methods for telling whether implicit memory tests are contaminated by conscious recollection both reveal that the tests are not contaminated, and (d) we have obtained some puzzling results (unlike those described above) which seem to indicate that repetition effects on implicit memory tests are more complicated than we had previously expected. Because we have just completed 12 months of a 36-month grant, some of the projects have not yet been completed. However, even after this first year, we plan to submit four papers on this work within the next few months. Most of the research conducted under the auspices of the grant has been at Armstrong Laboratories at Brooks AFB in San Antonio. This summer we have completed several pilot projects that will launch us on our second year's work at Armstrong Laboratories. Altogether, we tested some thirteen hundred subjects during the past year at Armstrong Laboratories, as well as several hundred more at Rice University, on these various projects. We believe we are making good progress toward our goals of the original proposal.

We have all had experiences in which we were on our way to perform a task and forgot what we were going to do until we returned to the original place, or environmental context, where we first decided to do the task. What is it that enables us to remember the task when we return to the original context? What cognitive mechanisms underlie contextual memory support? Does environmental context differentially affect various types of memory? Are there differences between the ways younger and older adults use environmental context to recall information? Does a change in environmental context between encoding and retrieval affect memory performance? The relationship between environmental context and memory performance is of theoretical importance because it serves as an underlying assumption for many of the current theoretical models including the effects of memory activation and availability, the connection between current episodic context and what is studied, and the strength of association effects on the probability of recall (Bjork and Richardson- Kiavehn, 1989).

Spectral methods have proven invaluable in numerical simulation of partial differential equations but the frequent global communication required raises a fundamental barrier to their use on highly parallel architectures. To explore this issue, we implemented a three dimensional implicit spectral method on an Intel hypercube. Utilization of about 50% was achieved on a 32 node iPSC/ 860 hypercube, for a 64 x 64 x 64 Fourier spectral grid; finer grids yield higher utilizations. Chebyshev-spectral grids are more problematic, since plane- relaxation based multigrid is required. However, by using a semicoarsening multigrid algorithm, and by relaxing all multigrid levels concurrently, relatively high utilizations were also achieved in this harder case. In fact, since the amount of work per processor was higher in this case, we achieved somewhat higher utilization, typically 60% on moderate sized problems. Thus spectral methods remain attractive on the current generation of distributed memory architectures.

Investigating the effect of reading aloud on implicit memory (as measured by lexical decision task reaction times)

In this study, we will examine effects of remembering terrorist attacks on implicit bias against Arab-Muslims in a shooting decision task (Correll, Park, Judd, & Wittenbrink, 2002). Implicit bias in the decision to shoot will be assessed as the tendency to “shoot” Arab-Muslim targets faster than Caucasian targets, and to be slower to decide “not to shoot” Arab-Muslim targets compared to Caucasian targets. We will first assess individual differences in Islamoprejudice (Imhoff & Recker, 2012) and automaticity (Ersche, Lim, Ward, Robbins, & Stochl, 2017), as potential moderators. Then, we will measure implicit bias in the decision to shoot two consecutive times: once following a reminder of a memory related to one’s school life, and once following a reminder of 9/11 terrorist attacks. We expect that remembering 9/11 terrorist attacks (compared to a school-related memory) would enhance the shooter bias towards Arab-Muslim targets, but only or mainly among participants with high levels of both Islamoprejudice and automaticity. Such findings would be consistent with the idea that implicit bias against Muslims in the shooting decision task following reminders of terrorist attacks reflects an automatic and prejudiced cognitive reaction.

In this study we examine the impact of information characteristics on implicit and explicit evaluation (while controlling for structural fit)

AFOSR Grant F4962O-92-J-0437 has provided support for the past three years on nine different lines of research. The first six of these are concerned with priming on implicit memory tests, which was the focus of the grant. The last three topics described below (the experimental basis of serial position effects and two laboratory paradigms for studying the development of false memories) were new research directions generated during the course of the grant. With regard to the main thrust of the grant, we believe we have made progress in understanding (a) the role of imagery in affecting priming on perceptual implicit memory tests; (b) the effect of distinctive or high priority events on implicit memory tests; (c) the specificity of priming on implicit memory tests; (d) the role of repetition in affecting implicit memory tests; and (e) work directed at the issue of whether implicit memory tests are 'contaminated' by conscious recollection. During the past three years the grant has supported publication of 12 journal publications (counting in-press articles), 7 book chapters, and the presentation of 16 convention presentations by me and my students. Several more papers are currently being prepared for submission.

This study has two general goals. Firstly, we will examine the role of inner speech in two working memory subprocesses - maintenance and updating. There is evidence suggesting that inner speech can support working memory maintenance. However, less research has been conducted regarding the role of inner speech in working memory updating, and it can be argued that the existing findings do not allow firm conclusions. More generally, much of the relevant research has been conducted with small sample sizes and tasks that do not measure working memory directly and/or do not differentiate between different working memory subprocesses. Thus, this study aims to test whether inner speech supports both WM maintenance and updating. This will be done using a visual working memory task and comparing participants' performance during articulatory suppression versus a non-verbal secondary task. Secondly, we will examine whether differences in strategy use and task performance are related to participants' metacognitive awareness of self-directed speech and their implicit theories about willpower/self-control. Both of these are measured with questionnaires. With regard to metacognitive knowledge, we will test whether participants' self-reported use and self-perceived usefulness of self-directed speech are associated with the effects of articulatory suppression and whether perceived task difficulty is associated with the use of self-directed speech. Finally, we will test whether nonlimited theories about self-control are associated with better WM task performance and the use of self-directed speech. The study will conducted online.

A lot of studies on the N400 component of the event-related brain potential (ERP) have tried to understand its functional significance. A relationship between N400 amplitudes and implicit memory seems suggested by a series of studies demonstrating N400 repetition effects modulated by cloze probability: unexpected nouns, which elicit a more negative N400 (Kutas & Hillyard, 1980), have a higher reduction in N400 amplitude if repeated after a delay, compared to expected nouns (Besson et al., 1992). A possible explanation for this effect is that N400 amplitudes reflect a semantic prediction error which drives model adaptation (Rabovsky et al., 2018). Building on these assumptions, higher N400 amplitudes should induce greater adaptation and be predictive of enhanced implicit memory. Interestingly, in a study aiming to investigate ERP correlates of memory encoding, the authors observed a relation between an N400 like negativity for single words presented during the study phase and subsequent implicit memory performance as reflected in a stem completion task during test (Schott et al., 2002). In the current study, we want to actively manipulate the cloze probability of sentences to systematically investigate and corroborate the relationship between N400 as a semantic prediction error, adaptation and implicit memory. Research question 1: The effect of expectancy on N400 amplitudes Research question 2: The effect of expectancy on implicit memory Research question 3: Relationship between N400 amplitude and implicit memory

Investigating the effect of reading aloud on implicit memory (as measured by word stem completion)

Investigating the effect of reading aloud on implicit memory (as measured by word stem completion)

Words that have been produced (e.g., read aloud, whispered, typed, written, sung, etc.) are better recalled than non-produced words (i.e. silent reading). This is known as the production effect. There are two proposed mechanisms for the production effect, (1) the distinctiveness account; and (2) the strength account. According to the distinctiveness account, production provides an additional mode of encoding at study. Participants have read the word silently and read it aloud. This makes the produced items stand out from the non-produced items, making them seem more distinctive than non-produced items. According to the strength account, the memory trace is simply made stronger because it has been both read silently and produced. The difference between the two explanations is that the distinctiveness account involves comparing how distinctive produced words are to non-produced words whereas the strength account predicts a stronger memory regardless of whether a comparison is made. Jacoby (1983) showed that processing a word by generating its antonym (a conceptual processing of the word in the absence of perceptual processing [i.e. reading] the word) produced better subsequent recognition memory than reading the word (perceptual processing only) or a combination of the two (perceptual reading + conceptual generation). However, simply reading a word (perceptual processing only) produced superior performance increases on a perceptual identification task (an implicit memory task) than conceptual processing, or a combination of perceptual and conceptual processing. This work illustrates differences in encoding and retrieval processes across implicit and explicit domains. We aim to partially replicate the cross-over interaction observed by Jacoby (1983). Our design will differ slightly compared to Jacoby’s design. Our independent variable (Type of word presentation at study) will have four levels: never studied (N); silent reading (S; perceptual processing only), produced (typing the word [T; perceptual processing with production]), or generation of the word via stem completion (G; conceptual processing only, with generation). For our dependent variables, we will include both an implicit memory task and an old/new recognition memory task (similar to the one used by Jacoby (1983) In our implicit task, unlike Jacoby’s perceptual identification task, participants will see a mix of previously studied and new words in a hard-to-read, grey font and will have to indicate whether the word is "lighter" or "darker" by using a slider with anchors of “lighter” and “darker”. Deeply encoded items should theoretically be easier to process and be more often judged "darker".) In the old/new recognition task, participants will see a mix of previously studied and new words and will have to indicate whether the word is "old" (previously studied) or "new" (not previously studied). We aim to investigate how generation impacts implicit vs explicit memory. Production may improve memory through conceptual encoding, much like in the antonym generation used in Jacoby (1983). If so, we would predict that on the implicit task, G = S, but on the old/new recognition task G > S. This pattern of results, consistent with the distinctiveness account above, would result if the implicit task is driven solely by perceptual processing. Alternatively, we may observe equivalent memory increases on the implicit task if production strengthens the memory trace and leads to an illusion of darkness akin to reading silently. This pattern, consistent with a strength account, seems more likely. Jacoby argued that the implicit task benefits from prior perceptual processing during encoding. Thus, in our study, given that silent reading and production (typing) provide perceptual processing, both tasks should have better performance increases than generation through stem completion on the subsequent implicit task. Ideally, performance for produced (typed) words will be better than silently read words too, due to the increased memory strength (production via typing) on top of the perceptual processing. Having both the implicit task as well as the old/new recognition task (explicit task) allows us to confirm that we get both production and generation effects (and thus replicate Jacoby’s pattern but also replicating the usual Production Effect observed in prior literature). If we break down the hypotheses by task, then: By a strength account we’d predict the following: Old/New Recognition Task: • Generation (Stem Completion) > Silent Reading • Produced (Typed) > Silent Reading Implicit Task: • Silent Reading > Generation (Stem Completion) • Produced (Typed) > Silent Reading (if production strengthens memory activation for word more than silent reading) By a distinctiveness account we’d predict the following: Typed vs. Silent Reading Old/New Recognition task • Produced (Typed) > Silent Reading Implicit Task • Produced (Typed) = Silent Reading (implicit task driven by perceptual processing and Produced and Silent Reading have identical perceptual processing)

This study aims to understand the development of metacognitive ability and memory in children. Metacognition is a higher-order skill which allows users to monitor their own thoughts, actions and abilities (such as monitoring their memory ability) which in turn can help them to adapt their behaviour accordingly (Nelson & Narens, 1990). We are particularly interested in how different measures of metacognition (i.e. explicit and implicit) can inform us about children’s awareness concerning their own memory ability (i.e. what they can remember seeing in a short video clip). This dynamic relationship between metacognition and memory (often referred to as metamemory) is especially important to child eyewitness and interview procedures in the Criminal Justice System.

Does production affect implicit memory (as measured by speeded reading latency)?

This study aims to investigate the neural correlates of implicit (automatic) memory processing in victims of potentially traumatic sexual events. Its main objectives are: - To study the relationship between sexual victimization, traumatic symptoms, and sexual health indicators. - To elucidate possible differences in automatic associations with visual sexual stimuli between individuals who have experienced traumatic sexual events and individuals who do not report such experiences. - To determine the relationship between these automatic associations and specific sexual health indicators (e.g., sexual functioning) within each group. - To map the neuroelectric correlates of emotional processing of sexual stimuli in both groups, using event-related potentials (ERPs). - To test the modulatory effect of a brief 'mindfulness' exercise on the automatic associations with sexual stimuli as well as on brain activity related to the emotional processing of such stimuli. This research holds significant scientific relevance, as it contributes to expanding knowledge about how traumatic experiences affect the brain and cognition, helping to build a more comprehensive understanding of brain function. It may also guide the development of new therapies and interventions to support victims of sexual trauma, improving the effectiveness of psychological treatments. From a social perspective, the results of this study will enhance public understanding of the neuropsychological effects of sexual trauma, helping to reduce the stigma associated with trauma victims and promoting a more informed and inclusive society. Additionally, by informing public policies based on scientific evidence, the conclusions of this research can contribute to improving mental health services and social support programs for survivors of sexual trauma. This project is funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (2021.07093.BD).

Life is filled with changes. Seemingly real news is later proven to be fake; routes to work are altered by construction. Such changes highlight the importance of updating existing memories when encoding new competing information. People can do this by differentiating the change from or integrating the change with existing memories. This process is known as episodic memory updating. Although there is still debate about the underlying mechanisms of memory updating, one consistent theme is that the reinstatement of contextual information that is associated with memories (e.g., times, places, and emotions) plays a key role. Two competing theories exist that lead to distinct predictions about how context reinstatement should affect updating. Interference theory predicts that differentiating contexts associated with the encoding of similar events prevents interference between existing memories and new information, thus promoting updating (for a review, see Smith & Vela, 2001). Conversely, integration theory posits that updating occurs when context reinstatement cues the retrieval of existing memories via a reminding process, thus enabling the integration of existing memories and new related information (for a review, see Wahlheim et al., 2021). Past work has informed our hypotheses by providing evidence for memory integration during context-induced updating (Cox et al., 2021). Although there is support for both accounts, no studies have directly measured how context reinstatement promotes remindings of past events and the consequences of such remindings for subsequent memory. The present experiment will address this issue by examining the extent to which reinstating context for similar events triggers remindings during new learning. More specifically, we will vary the repetition of the background context (i.e., scene picture) associated with word pairs that include shared cues and changed responses (A-B, A-D). This will determine if remindings of A-B memories during A-D learning that are promoted by repeating as opposed to changing A-B contexts will lead to interference (differentiation prediction) or facilitation (integration prediction).

The research project aims to identify and analyse the effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on implicit (unintentionally memorised and stored not purposefully) and explicit memory (conscious and intentional recollection of facts or information).

This research project has two goals. Firstly, we will examine the role of inner speech in two working memory subprocesses - maintenance and updating. There is evidence suggesting that inner speech can support working memory maintenance. However, less research has been conducted regarding the role of inner speech in working memory updating, and it can be argued that the existing findings do not allow firm conclusions. More generally, much of the relevant research has been conducted with very small sample sizes and tasks that do not measure working memory directly and/or do not differentiate between different working memory subprocesses. Thus, this study aims to test whether inner speech supports both WM maintenance and updating. This will be done using a visual working memory task and comparing participants' performance during articulatory suppression versus a non-verbal secondary task. Secondly, we will examine whether differences in strategy use and task performance are related to participants' metacognitive awareness of self-directed speech and their willpower/self-control beliefs. Both of these are measured with questionnaires. With regard to metacognitive knowledge, we will test whether participants' self-reported use and self-perceived usefulness of self-directed speech are associated with the effects of articulatory suppression and whether perceived task difficulty is associated with the use of self-directed speech. Finally, we will test whether unlimited self-control beliefs are associated with better WM task performance and the use of self-directed speech. The study will conducted online. Based on the initial results of our first study, we noticed some technical issues in our design that needed improvement. 1) There were some things in the instructions that needed to be further clarified and a minor issue in the code that selected pictures for each WM task trial. 2) Our original updating manipulation (25% vs. 75% updates per picture sequence) had a very small effect on performance. Thus, we decided to make the contrast starker (10% vs. 90%). Moreover, based on explorative analyses, it appeared that we would be more likely to find interaction effects when looking at accuracy rather than processing speed. Thus, we decided to make mean accuracy in the WM task our primary outcome variable when examining the role of inner speech in WM maintenance and updating.

To investigate potential mechanisms claimed to support fast mapping in adults, we will add an FM-r learning condition to the previously pre-registered design. FM-r is identical to the FM condition, but it does not include the simultaneous presentation of a known referent picture beside the unknown item whose name is to-be-incidentally-learned. I pre-registered a replication proposal https://osf.io/6kmnf/ in March 2019 for an online study that aims to replicate and extend one of our previous Fast Mapping (FM) results. I am now pre-registering an additional learning condition to that protocol. The pre-registration of this additional condition, to be run in a between-participant design, is being made prior to data collection for any of the conditions, including those previously pre-registered.

Despite significant advancements in hearing technology and clinical practice, difficulty understanding speech in noise (SIN) remains the most common complaint among individuals with hearing loss and a major area of dissatisfaction among patients who use amplification ​(Jorgensen & Novak, 2020; Manchaiah et al., 2021; Picou, 2022)​. SIN difficulties are also associated with increased listening effort across multiple populations, which can lead to cognitive fatigue, reduced communication engagement and diminished quality of life ​(Seitz et al., 2024; Zaltz et al., 2020)​. Current rehabilitation approaches to improve SIN performance include auditory training programs, developed based on the theory of neural plasticity. However, outcomes from these training-based interventions are mixed, with inconsistent evidence for efficacy, longevity, and generalizability ​(Gaeta et al., 2021; Henshaw & Ferguson, 2013b; Olson, 2015; Stropahl et al., 2020)​. Following this uncertainty, it has been proposed that in addition to training the auditory sensory system directly, additional training of the associated perceptual systems may further support SIN by decreasing the cognitive effort it takes to listen in challenging environments ​(Henshaw & Ferguson, 2013a; Koprowska et al., 2024; Kuchinsky et al., 2014)​. A promising area of research in this context borrows from well-established theories on statistical learning and memory to study how general perceptual and memory mechanisms support auditory perceptual function. Since seminal work by Jenny Saffran established statistical learning as an essential aspect of human language acquisition, it has been extensively studied for its implicit nature and role in shaping neural representations of speech perception ​(Ding et al., 2017; Henke & Meyer, 2025; Perruchet & Pacton, 2006; Saffran et al., 1996)​. More recently, work on implicit auditory memory of tone sequences has revealed surprisingly long-lasting behavioral consequences in young, middle, and even older-aged adults ​(Bianco et al., 2020, 2023)​. Implicit memory has also been proposed to aid in the predictability of future stimuli and decrease the effort needed to identify predictable targets ​(Fishman et al., 2021)​. These findings may implicate implicit memory as one perceptual mechanism that can facilitate SIN performance and potentially be targeted in auditory training. However, the direct application of implicit auditory memory to speech in noise ability has yet to be studied. The present study addresses this gap. Here, we aim to determine whether the perceptual benefits of implicit auditory memory remain when applied to a speech in noise task. Adapting experimental paradigms developed by ​Bianco et al. (2020)​, we intend to show that implicit auditory memory exists after a 1-week retest and that better implicit memory is associated with improved speech in noise performance.

Individuals will take part in an online study assessing implicit face memory. Participants will undergo a total of four tasks: two face perception tasks (that enable the implicit face memory task), one unrelated face perception task, and the main task of interest: an implicit face memory task. We hypothesize that social class will negatively predict correct responses on the implicit face memory task, such that lower-class individuals (vs. higher-class individuals) will be more likely to correctly remember faces that they saw but were not asked to memorize.

Individuals will take part in an online study assessing implicit face memory. Participants will undergo a total of four tasks: two face perception tasks (that enable the implicit face memory task), one unrelated face perception task, and the main task of interest: an implicit face memory task. We hypothesize that social class will negatively predict correct responses on the implicit face memory task, such that lower-class individuals (vs. higher-class individuals) will be more likely to correctly remember faces that they saw but were not asked to memorize.

Individuals will take part in an online study assessing implicit face memory. Participants will undergo a total of four tasks: two face perception tasks (that enable the implicit face memory task), one unrelated face perception task, and the main task of interest: an implicit face memory task. We hypothesize that social class will negatively predict correct responses on the implicit face memory task, such that lower-class individuals (vs. higher-class individuals) will be more likely to correctly remember faces that they saw but were not asked to memorize.

The purpose of this study was to investigate memory of threatening and non-threatening information among adolescents. Specifically, the study tested the prediction of cognitive theories of anxiety that anxious and non-anxious individuals process threatening information differently. High school students (n = 187) from a moderately sized Midwestern city were screened for anxiety using self-report measures. Students (n = 18) who obtained scores above a designated cut-off, and a contrast group matched on gender and grade (n = 18), completed implicit and explicit memory tasks along with a second administration of the self-report measures. Subsequently, adolescents were divided into anxious (n = 8) and mixed (anxiety and depression; n = 10) groups. These groups produced more threat-related words on a word-stem completion task than the contrast group. However, their ability to reproduce the primed (i.e., previously studied) threat words did not differ from the contrast group. The mixed group identified more threat words on a word recognition task than either the anxious or contrast groups. When recognition was adjusted for guessing, no group differences existed. Results did not support the hypothesized implicit memory bias for threatening material among students experiencing symptoms of anxiety. However, consistent with predictions, no or explicit memory bias was found. Implications of memory methodologies in the study of anxiety are discussed. (Contains 4 footnotes and 4 tables).

A person's likelihood of considering an ambiguous behavior a member of a trait category is influenced by earlier exposure to trait-related information. This category accessibility effect is a form of implicit memory: memory because it constitutes an effect of an earlier experience, and implicit because the task is presented as a judgment rather than a memory task, and in fact the effect can occur without the perceiver's awareness of the prior (priming) episode. This paper reports an experiment that puts category accessibility in the context of other types of implicit memory. Subjects studied trait words either by generating them form behavioral instances or simply by reading the traits. They were then tested with two different implicit (category accessibility and word-fragment completion) and one explicit (free recall) memory measures. As predicted, the results showed dissociations among the tests in the effects of the study-task manipulation. The results are interpreted as supporting a procedural memory viewpoint that integrates implicit and explicit memory in a common theoretical framework. Several types of social phenomena may usefully be conceptualized as involving implicit memory.

This study integrated three major areas in understanding children's and young adults' metamemory components, self-efficacy, implicit theories, and performance-predictions. These areas were examined in relation to a picture recall task which was performed children at three age levels. Further, empirically-based "start value" information regarding peers' performance was manipulated. Subjects were 45 5th-graders, 40 9th-graders, and 49 undergraduate college students. A few general conclusions were reached. First, those with stronger memory self-efficacy made higher predictions with greater confidence regarding initial memory task performance. However, self-efficacy was largely unrelated to memory task performance. Second, providing "start value" information affected initial predictions for performance on a memory task. However, subsequent predictions were more strongly related to performance on the previous trial than to the "start values" provided. Third, age was related to memory self-efficacy; younger children tended to have a stronger sense of self-efficacy than older students. Finally, a vast majority of those sampled believed that their memory abilities could change. In conclusion, a few suggestions for future research may be offered. However, questions remain regarding how knowledge utilization about performance occurs. Reasons for the lack of a relation between self-efficacy and performance should be investigated. Finally, researchers should attempt to understand children's implicit memory theories better. (Author/ABL)

In this study we investigate learning of action-effect relations and aim to estimate the contribution of explicit and implicit memory to action-effect binding in long-term memory. Specifically, we investigate how divided attention during encoding affects the involvement of explicit and implicit memory.

The learning of the deployment of transient attention is an entirely new yet robust phenomenon. We found that it is mediated by a unique primitive short term memory system which learns features, not objects. Yet it is object centered and not retinotopic. This learning is graded, incremental and short lived. We also investigated longer term perceptual learning: very short naps during the afternoon can enhance perceptual learning dramatically, that in some cases beneficial effects are as good as a whole nights sleep. We suggest that for a nap to be beneficial it must contain both SWS and REM. In terms of a neurophysiological substrate, the learning must be occurring in the early visual areas because the effects are restricted to the specific visual quadrants stimulated. The other main focus of the work has been the role of learning of attentional deployment on motor behavior, in particular arm movements. There seems to be a direct coupling between the deployment of focal attention and action, the speed of motor activities is determined by the deployment of focal attention. Less expected, are results indicating that the planning and execution of motor actions are not separable. Decisions are often countermanded by mid%stream changes in motor actions with little cost in speed or accuracy indicating that the combined brain and motor plant is adept at parallel processing of simultaneous motor commands.

Spectral methods were proven invaluable in numerical simulation of PDEs (Partial Differential Equations), but the frequent global communication required raises a fundamental barrier to their use on highly parallel architectures. To explore this issue, a 3-D implicit spectral method was implemented on an Intel hypercube. Utilization of about 50 percent was achieved on a 32 node iPSC/860 hypercube, for a 64 x 64 x 64 Fourier-spectral grid; finer grids yield higher utilizations. Chebyshev-spectral grids are more problematic, since plane-relaxation based multigrid is required. However, by using a semicoarsening multigrid algorithm, and by relaxing all multigrid levels concurrently, relatively high utilizations were also achieved in this harder case.

Testing Memory Retrieval Account of Implicit Evaluation