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There is a huge and rapidly growing amount of digital information about people. It is distributed across personal data stores, private corporate and government stores as well as on the very public web. If we can harness this personal information effectively, it has to potential to augment our cognition, providing the means to make use of life-long digital memories and support life-long learning. This talk describes the work of CHAI, the Computer Human Adaptive Interaction group which is tackling this problem from the perspective of life-long user modelling. Key to the approach is that we create user models and personalised systems that enable the user to scrutinize and control the whole personalisation process. This is particularly important in pervasive computing where devices and services recede into the environment, becoming invisible. It is key to effective management of privacy and security in pervasive and personalised environments. CHAI has created a layered set of theories and tools for personalisation. These tools support knowledge representation and reasoning, data mining, machine learning and user interfaces. This talk will present the PersonisAM modelling of people in pervasive computing environments and activity-mirrors to support small groups. Another dimension of this CHAI research is in novel pervasive computing interfaces such as tabletop interaction and pervasive appliances that are embedded in the environment to serve very specific functions. This talk will focus on the Keep-in-Touch appliance and the Cruiser framework for building tabletop surface applications. ©2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

This article is from Interdisciplinary Toxicology , volume 6 . Abstract Chronic exposure to fluoride causes dental and skeletal fluorosis. Fluoride exposure is also detrimental to soft tissues and organs. The present study aimed at evaluation of the effect of Ginkgo biloba and ascorbic acid on learning and memory deficits caused by fluoride exposure. Male Wistar rats were divided into five groups (n=6). Group 1 control. Groups 2 to 5 received 100 ppm of sodium fluoride over 30 days. Groups 3, 4 and 5 were further treated for 15 days receiving respectively 1% gum acacia solution, 100 mg/kg body weight ascorbic acid, and 100mg/kg body weight Ginkgo biloba extract. After 45 days, all animals were subjected to behavioural tests. The results showed that fluoride affected learning and memory. Fluoride causes oxidative stress and neurodegeneration, thereby affecting learning and memory. Ascorbic acid and Ginkgo biloba were found to augment the reversal of learning and memory deficits caused by fluoride ingestion.

This article is from Experimental Neurobiology , volume 20 . Abstract In order to the neuroprotective effect of Lycium chinense fruit (LCF), the present study examined the effects of Lycium chinense fruit on learning and memory in Morris water maze task and the choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) of rats with trimethyltin (TMT)-induced neuronal and cognitive impairments. The rats were randomly divided into the following groups: naïve rat (Normal), TMT injection+saline administered rat (control) and TMT injection+LCF administered rat (LCF). Rats were administered with saline or LCF (100 mg/kg, p.o.) daily for 2 weeks, followed by their training to the tasks. In the water maze test, the animals were trained to find a platform in a fixed position during 6d and then received 60s probe trial on the 7th day following removal of platform from the pool. Rats with TMT injection showed impaired learning and memory of the tasks and treatment with LCF (p

This article is from Experimental Neurobiology , volume 20 . Abstract In order to the neuroprotective effect of Lycium chinense fruit (LCF), the present study examined the effects of Lycium chinense fruit on learning and memory in Morris water maze task and the choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) of rats with trimethyltin (TMT)-induced neuronal and cognitive impairments. The rats were randomly divided into the following groups: naïve rat (Normal), TMT injection+saline administered rat (control) and TMT injection+LCF administered rat (LCF). Rats were administered with saline or LCF (100 mg/kg, p.o.) daily for 2 weeks, followed by their training to the tasks. In the water maze test, the animals were trained to find a platform in a fixed position during 6d and then received 60s probe trial on the 7th day following removal of platform from the pool. Rats with TMT injection showed impaired learning and memory of the tasks and treatment with LCF (p

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 1993: Volume 19 , Issue INDEX. Digitized from IA1534524-01 . Previous issue: sim_journal-of-experimental-psychology-lmc_1992-11_18_6 . Next issue: sim_journal-of-experimental-psychology-lmc_1993-01_19_1 .

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 1993: Volume 19 , Issue INDEX. Digitized from IA1534524-01 . Previous issue: sim_journal-of-experimental-psychology-lmc_1992-11_18_6 . Next issue: sim_journal-of-experimental-psychology-lmc_1993-01_19_1 .

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 1993: Volume 19 , Issue INDEX. Digitized from IA1534524-01 . Previous issue: sim_journal-of-experimental-psychology-lmc_1992-11_18_6 . Next issue: sim_journal-of-experimental-psychology-lmc_1993-01_19_1 .

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 1993: Volume 19 , Issue INDEX. Digitized from IA1534524-01 . Previous issue: sim_journal-of-experimental-psychology-lmc_1992-11_18_6 . Next issue: sim_journal-of-experimental-psychology-lmc_1993-01_19_1 .

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 1993: Volume 19 , Issue INDEX. Digitized from IA1534524-01 . Previous issue: sim_journal-of-experimental-psychology-lmc_1992-11_18_6 . Next issue: sim_journal-of-experimental-psychology-lmc_1993-01_19_1 .

This final report contains two papers. The first describes statistical and cognitive models used to simulate student performance. The statistical model provides information about how the group of students as a whole performed on an identification task involving word-problem situations and shows differences among subgroups. The cognitive model is a connectionist network that simulates the performance of each student and yields details about how learning varied from one individual to another. The second paper outlines a hybrid model of schema knowledge that joins a connectionist network with a production system. Details of the model are provided, and an example of its output is presented.

An advanced level course on neurobiology and neuropsychology with a focus on memory mechanisms.

An advanced level course on neurobiology and neuropsychology with a focus on memory mechanisms.

This article is from Iranian Journal of Pharmaceutical Research : IJPR , volume 10 . Abstract Diabetes mellitus is accompanied with disturbances in learning, memory, and cognitive skills in the humans and experimental animals. Due to the anti-diabetic and antioxidant activity of pelargonidin (PG), this research study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of chronic oral PG on alleviating learning and memory disturbance in streptozotocin-diabetic rats. Male Wistar rats were divided into control, diabetic, PG-treated control and PG (single-and/or multiple-dose)-treated diabetic groups. PG was administered p.o. once at a dose of 10 mg/kg and/or multiple doses on alternate days for 8 weeks. For induction of diabetes, streptozotocin (STZ) was injected IP in a single dose of 60 mg/kg. For the evaluation of learning and memory, initial latency (IL) and step-through latency (STL) were determined at the end of study using a passive avoidance test. Meanwhile, spatial memory was assessed in a Y-maze task. It was found that the alternation score of the diabetic rats was lower than the control (p < 0.05) and that single dose PG-treated diabetic rats (p < 0.05) showed a higher alternation score in comparison with the diabetic group. Regarding initial latency, there was no significant difference among the groups. In addition, diabetic and single-dose PG-treated diabetic rats developed a significant impairment in retention and recall in the passive avoidance test (p < 0.01), as was evident by a lower STL. Furthermore, the retention and recall of multiple-dose PG-treated diabetic rats was significantly higher in comparison with diabetic rats (p < 0.05). Therefore, it can be concluded that single-dose oral PG may attenuate spatial memory in the Y maze paradigm and multiple-dose chronic PG could improve retention and recall capability in the passive avoidance test in STZ-diabetic rats.

This article is from PLoS ONE , volume 8 . Abstract Aging is often associated with cognitive decline, but many elderly individuals maintain a high level of function throughout life. Here we studied outbred rats, which also exhibit individual differences across a spectrum of outcomes that includes both preserved and impaired spatial memory. Previous work in this model identified the CA3 subfield of the hippocampus as a region critically affected by age and integral to differing cognitive outcomes. Earlier microarray profiling revealed distinct gene expression profiles in the CA3 region, under basal conditions, for aged rats with intact memory and those with impairment. Because prominent age-related deficits within the CA3 occur during neural encoding of new information, here we used microarray analysis to gain a broad perspective of the aged CA3 transcriptome under activated conditions. Behaviorally-induced CA3 expression profiles differentiated aged rats with intact memory from those with impaired memory. In the activated profile, we observed substantial numbers of genes (greater than 1000) exhibiting increased expression in aged unimpaired rats relative to aged impaired, including many involved in synaptic plasticity and memory mechanisms. This unimpaired aged profile also overlapped significantly with a learning induced gene profile previously acquired in young adults. Alongside the increased transcripts common to both young learning and aged rats with preserved memory, many transcripts behaviorally-activated in the current study had previously been identified as repressed in the aged unimpaired phenotype in basal expression. A further distinct feature of the activated profile of aged rats with intact memory is the increased expression of an ensemble of genes involved in inhibitory synapse function, which could control the phenotype of neural hyperexcitability found in the CA3 region of aged impaired rats. These data support the conclusion that aged subjects with preserved memory recruit adaptive mechanisms to retain tight control over excitability under both basal and activated conditions.

This article is from PLoS ONE , volume 8 . Abstract Aging is often associated with cognitive decline, but many elderly individuals maintain a high level of function throughout life. Here we studied outbred rats, which also exhibit individual differences across a spectrum of outcomes that includes both preserved and impaired spatial memory. Previous work in this model identified the CA3 subfield of the hippocampus as a region critically affected by age and integral to differing cognitive outcomes. Earlier microarray profiling revealed distinct gene expression profiles in the CA3 region, under basal conditions, for aged rats with intact memory and those with impairment. Because prominent age-related deficits within the CA3 occur during neural encoding of new information, here we used microarray analysis to gain a broad perspective of the aged CA3 transcriptome under activated conditions. Behaviorally-induced CA3 expression profiles differentiated aged rats with intact memory from those with impaired memory. In the activated profile, we observed substantial numbers of genes (greater than 1000) exhibiting increased expression in aged unimpaired rats relative to aged impaired, including many involved in synaptic plasticity and memory mechanisms. This unimpaired aged profile also overlapped significantly with a learning induced gene profile previously acquired in young adults. Alongside the increased transcripts common to both young learning and aged rats with preserved memory, many transcripts behaviorally-activated in the current study had previously been identified as repressed in the aged unimpaired phenotype in basal expression. A further distinct feature of the activated profile of aged rats with intact memory is the increased expression of an ensemble of genes involved in inhibitory synapse function, which could control the phenotype of neural hyperexcitability found in the CA3 region of aged impaired rats. These data support the conclusion that aged subjects with preserved memory recruit adaptive mechanisms to retain tight control over excitability under both basal and activated conditions.

This article is from PLoS ONE , volume 8 . Abstract Aging is often associated with cognitive decline, but many elderly individuals maintain a high level of function throughout life. Here we studied outbred rats, which also exhibit individual differences across a spectrum of outcomes that includes both preserved and impaired spatial memory. Previous work in this model identified the CA3 subfield of the hippocampus as a region critically affected by age and integral to differing cognitive outcomes. Earlier microarray profiling revealed distinct gene expression profiles in the CA3 region, under basal conditions, for aged rats with intact memory and those with impairment. Because prominent age-related deficits within the CA3 occur during neural encoding of new information, here we used microarray analysis to gain a broad perspective of the aged CA3 transcriptome under activated conditions. Behaviorally-induced CA3 expression profiles differentiated aged rats with intact memory from those with impaired memory. In the activated profile, we observed substantial numbers of genes (greater than 1000) exhibiting increased expression in aged unimpaired rats relative to aged impaired, including many involved in synaptic plasticity and memory mechanisms. This unimpaired aged profile also overlapped significantly with a learning induced gene profile previously acquired in young adults. Alongside the increased transcripts common to both young learning and aged rats with preserved memory, many transcripts behaviorally-activated in the current study had previously been identified as repressed in the aged unimpaired phenotype in basal expression. A further distinct feature of the activated profile of aged rats with intact memory is the increased expression of an ensemble of genes involved in inhibitory synapse function, which could control the phenotype of neural hyperexcitability found in the CA3 region of aged impaired rats. These data support the conclusion that aged subjects with preserved memory recruit adaptive mechanisms to retain tight control over excitability under both basal and activated conditions.

We examine the effects of memory and different updating paradigms in a game-theoretic model of competitive learning, where agents are influenced in their choice of strategy by both the choices made by, and the consequent success rates of, their immediate neighbours. We apply parallel and sequential updates in all possible combinations to the two competing rules, and find, typically, that the phase diagram of the model consists of a disordered phase separating two ordered phases at coexistence. A major result is that the corresponding critical exponents belong to the generalised universality class of the voter model. When the two strategies are distinct but not too different, we find the expected linear response behaviour as a function of their difference.Finally, we look at the extreme situation when a superior strategy, accompanied by a short memory of earlier outcomes, is pitted against its inverse; interestingly, we find that a long memory of earlier outcomes can occasionally compensate for the choice of a globally inferior strategy.

This article is from Frontiers in Human Neuroscience , volume 8 . Abstract Recent research on music and brain function has suggested that the temporal pattern structure in music and rhythm can enhance cognitive functions. To further elucidate this question specifically for memory, we investigated if a musical template can enhance verbal learning in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and if music-assisted learning will also influence short-term, system-level brain plasticity. We measured systems-level brain activity with oscillatory network synchronization during music-assisted learning. Specifically, we measured the spectral power of 128-channel electroencephalogram (EEG) in alpha and beta frequency bands in 54 patients with MS. The study sample was randomly divided into two groups, either hearing a spoken or a musical (sung) presentation of Rey’s auditory verbal learning test. We defined the “learning-related synchronization” (LRS) as the percent change in EEG spectral power from the first time the word was presented to the average of the subsequent word encoding trials. LRS differed significantly between the music and the spoken conditions in low alpha and upper beta bands. Patients in the music condition showed overall better word memory and better word order memory and stronger bilateral frontal alpha LRS than patients in the spoken condition. The evidence suggests that a musical mnemonic recruits stronger oscillatory network synchronization in prefrontal areas in MS patients during word learning. It is suggested that the temporal structure implicit in musical stimuli enhances “deep encoding” during verbal learning and sharpens the timing of neural dynamics in brain networks degraded by demyelination in MS.

This article is from Frontiers in Human Neuroscience , volume 8 . Abstract Recent research on music and brain function has suggested that the temporal pattern structure in music and rhythm can enhance cognitive functions. To further elucidate this question specifically for memory, we investigated if a musical template can enhance verbal learning in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and if music-assisted learning will also influence short-term, system-level brain plasticity. We measured systems-level brain activity with oscillatory network synchronization during music-assisted learning. Specifically, we measured the spectral power of 128-channel electroencephalogram (EEG) in alpha and beta frequency bands in 54 patients with MS. The study sample was randomly divided into two groups, either hearing a spoken or a musical (sung) presentation of Rey’s auditory verbal learning test. We defined the “learning-related synchronization” (LRS) as the percent change in EEG spectral power from the first time the word was presented to the average of the subsequent word encoding trials. LRS differed significantly between the music and the spoken conditions in low alpha and upper beta bands. Patients in the music condition showed overall better word memory and better word order memory and stronger bilateral frontal alpha LRS than patients in the spoken condition. The evidence suggests that a musical mnemonic recruits stronger oscillatory network synchronization in prefrontal areas in MS patients during word learning. It is suggested that the temporal structure implicit in musical stimuli enhances “deep encoding” during verbal learning and sharpens the timing of neural dynamics in brain networks degraded by demyelination in MS.

This article is from Frontiers in Human Neuroscience , volume 8 . Abstract Recent research on music and brain function has suggested that the temporal pattern structure in music and rhythm can enhance cognitive functions. To further elucidate this question specifically for memory, we investigated if a musical template can enhance verbal learning in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and if music-assisted learning will also influence short-term, system-level brain plasticity. We measured systems-level brain activity with oscillatory network synchronization during music-assisted learning. Specifically, we measured the spectral power of 128-channel electroencephalogram (EEG) in alpha and beta frequency bands in 54 patients with MS. The study sample was randomly divided into two groups, either hearing a spoken or a musical (sung) presentation of Rey’s auditory verbal learning test. We defined the “learning-related synchronization” (LRS) as the percent change in EEG spectral power from the first time the word was presented to the average of the subsequent word encoding trials. LRS differed significantly between the music and the spoken conditions in low alpha and upper beta bands. Patients in the music condition showed overall better word memory and better word order memory and stronger bilateral frontal alpha LRS than patients in the spoken condition. The evidence suggests that a musical mnemonic recruits stronger oscillatory network synchronization in prefrontal areas in MS patients during word learning. It is suggested that the temporal structure implicit in musical stimuli enhances “deep encoding” during verbal learning and sharpens the timing of neural dynamics in brain networks degraded by demyelination in MS.

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Normal children (N=8) and two groups of 8 learning disabled (LD) elementary grade children, one with and one without a short-term memory deficit, were administered a battery of questions concerning knowledge of how their memories function (metamemory). Metamemory was found to be deficient only in the subgroup of LD children with a short-term memory deficit (as indexed by poor performance on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised digit span subtest). LD children without this memory deficit did not differ from normal children in metamemory. Relationships among memory, metamemory, and reading and math achievement were also explored. It was concluded that metamemory deficits, previously thought to characterize LD children in general, are found only in a relatively small subgroup of LD children. Nevertheless, for this subgroup the hypothesis of a metamemorial deficit appears to have some support. (Author/CL)

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The study analyzed short-and long-term memory processes in learning disabled (LD) children and compared them with normally achieving peers. Research on memory processes in LD children is reviewed and methodological limitations noted. Thirty-six normal and 36 LD Ss (8-11 years old) were asked to remember consonant trigams using one of three encoding strategies (study, vocalization, and elaboration). Findings revealed that, overall, LD Ss recalled significantly fewer consonants than normal Ss. There were no significant differences in recall among encoding strategies. LD Ss also exhibited a significantly faster rate of forgetting and lower asymptotic level of recall. Contrary to expectations, LD Ss were at least actively involved in maintaining the information. Speculations are offered for the reason for LD Ss' slower rate of processing and greater interference. Educational implications, including training acquisition and retrieval strategies that can be quickly executed, are noted. (CL)

Twenty-four learning disabled children (ages 8 to 12) were given tests of memory and selective attention in order to highlight the similarities and differences between the two. Ss were found to be sensitive to interfering stimuli especially when the task tapped areas of their weakness. Users of effective cognitive strategies in one type of task also tended to do well on other types of tasks, but memory and selective attention should be considered distinct processes. Altering performance by increasing time salience or teaching strategies can occur, but the processes are complex. (Author/CL)

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 1990: Volume 16 , Issue INDEX. Digitized from IA1534524-01 . Previous issue: sim_journal-of-experimental-psychology-lmc_1989-11_15_6 . Next issue: sim_journal-of-experimental-psychology-lmc_1990-01_16_1 .

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 1990: Volume 16 , Issue INDEX. Digitized from IA1534524-01 . Previous issue: sim_journal-of-experimental-psychology-lmc_1989-11_15_6 . Next issue: sim_journal-of-experimental-psychology-lmc_1990-01_16_1 .

Many problems considered in optimization and artificial intelligence research are static: information about the problem is known a priori, and little to no uncertainty about this information is presumed to exist. Most real problems, however, are dynamic: information about the problem is released over time, uncertain events may occur, or the requirements of the problem may change as time passes. One technique for improving optimization and learning in dynamic environments is by using information from the past. By using solutions from previous environments, it is often easier to find promising solutions in a new environment. A common way to maintain and exploit information from the past is the use of memory, where solutions are stored periodically and can be retrieved and refined when the environment changes. Memory can help search respond quickly and efficiently to changes in a dynamic problem. Despite their strengths, standard memories have many weaknesses which limit their effectiveness. This thesis explores ways to improve memory for optimization and learning in dynamic environments. The techniques presented in this thesis improve memories by incorporating probabilistic models of previous solutions into memory, storing many previous solutions in memory while keeping overhead low, building long-term models of the dynamic search space over time, allowing easy refinement of memory entries, and mapping previous solutions to the current environment for problems where solutions may become obsolete over time. To address the weaknesses and limitations of standard memory, two novel classes of memory are introduced: density-estimate memory and classifier-based memory. Density-estimate memory builds and maintains probabilistic models within memory to create density estimations of promising areas of the search space over time.

This study explores the immediate effects of peer exclusion on working memory performance and learning outcomes in children and adolescents aged 8-16 years. Using an immersive virtual reality (VR) environment, participants experienced exclusion by virtual peers during a simulated school conversation. The study tests hypotheses regarding the impact of exclusion on mood, cognitive function, and academic performance, with mediating effects of mood and working memory, and moderating effects of gender, age, and socioeconomic status (SES). Additionally, the role of baseline mood, cognitive abilities, and personality traits in modulating these effects is examined. The sample comprises 170 participants from Italian schools. Data analysis will employ structural equation modeling and other statistical tests to evaluate the hypotheses. Although data collection is complete, the pre-registration remains valid as no analyses have been conducted.

This research examines how perception of easy accessibility to online information affects individuals’ strategies to remember two types of information: keywords and content details and how individual differences in working memory capacity, which can determine efficient management of attentional resources, impact knowledge management in closely accessible information service contexts.

This research examines how perception of easy accessibility to online information affects individuals’ strategies to remember two types of information: keywords and content details and how individual differences in working memory capacity, which can determine efficient management of attentional resources, impact knowledge management in closely accessible information service contexts.

Replication of Predictions of Learning - Item and Location Memory (Joint Evaluation) - Belief Only with additional belief conviction probe

This project/preregistration is for an audit of the article Interactive Effects of Consumer’s Working Memory Capacity and Information Accessibility on Learning and Forgetting by Esther Kang (2023) for the course PSYC 421: Advanced Cognitive Psychology at StFX University.

A pre-registration of an online experiment that investigates whether there is evidence for a general learning monitoring ability and whether such an ability is related to working memory capacity.

The current project aims to investigate the association between an individual’s pattern separation abilities with their “Graph maze” task performance. Pattern separation is the ability to keep similar or overlapping memories separate in your mind, such as where you parked your car today vs where you parked your car yesterday. Participants, aged 18-35, who passed quality control and were included in the initial preliminary analysis of the Graph Maze Task will be reinvited to participate in a follow up study that will include the Mnemonic Similarity Task (MST), which has been shown to be an effective means of characterizing an individual’s pattern separation abilities. Our initial experiments found that there were differences in graph learning performance based on the structure of the graph. There were also large individual differences in performance overall (Kapogianis, in preparation). Given that each graph in our initial study has a unique structure and node organizational pattern, each stimuli object group is unique. However, there is a possibility that there are commonalities between object groups since these groups presented are the adjacent nodes to the currently ‘occupied’ node. For example, if node A is adjacent to both nodes B & C, then node A will be presented when participants occupy either node B or C. These commonalities in node objects across presentations increase with more highly interconnected communities. This gives rise to more opportunity for false recall, which can lead to an incorrect representation of state space. Pattern separation could be important in this situation to help keep the common nodes and similar adjacencies distinct from each other. Graph-like representations of more abstract associations have been recently observed throughout the brain. Representations of state space in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) represented nodes within a community – a tightly interconnected cluster of nodes – more similarly within communities than between communities1. Entorhinal cortex has also been shown to code for elements of a graph, representing relative edge distances between nodes in an abstract graph2, while hippocampus was shown to code for semantic similarity between nodes for the same information3. Additionally, the orbitofrontal cortex was shown to code for state space of unobservable task-relevant information4, which could be important for goal-directed planning. Prior work indicates that individuals can extract underlying graph structure in more abstract relationships through experience4-7, such as learning which nodes are closely associated. This ability to extract and connect abstract information through experience can most clearly be observed in recent work which presented pairs of items to participants during the Graph Walk Task5. These item pairs were actually disjointed edge-pairs – two nodes with a common edge – from a larger graph which participants were naïve to, presented in a random order. After repeated presentations of these edge-pairs, participants were able to make accurate relative edge-distance estimations, as well as reconstruct the graph itself, even though they were naïve to the graph's underlying structure at the start of the experiment and they never saw the whole graph. These findings show that individuals learn and connect associations from disordered experiences without prompting or knowledge of the underlying structure during latent learning. Importantly, it was found that performance during the Graph Walk Task was associated with an individual’s pattern separation ability8, and that those with lesser pattern separation abilities could overcome performance deficits when stimuli pairs were presented in blocks to be non-overlapping. For example, if node A is adjacent to nodes B & C, the original stimulus presentations would include A-B and A-C pairs. High pattern separators would have less difficulty distinguishing between A-B and A-C pairs during the same block, while low pattern separators would have more difficulty. But by only presenting pair A-B during study block 1 and pair A-C during block 2, these low pattern separators were able to overcome performance deficits. Our preliminary data for the Graph Maze task suggests that elements of a graph’s underlying structure such as size, edge-to-node ratio, and community structure all impact task performance. However, we theorize that another contributing factor may be an individual’s ability to pattern separate between similar stimuli and whether they are focused on local vs global structure of the underlying graph. Incorporating information into its global context may make regular organizational patterns more apparent and reduce reliance upon local pattern separation by using predictable patterns. This would be similar to navigating a city with a grid layout. However, learning based on local structure would require more robust representations of local connections, and be more reliant on pattern separation abilities in situations with low discriminability at the node level. (see attached image for better table view) Random Grid-like Comm-X-bridge Comm-w/bridge Regularity (global) ↓ ↑↑ ↑ ↑ Discrim. (local) ↑ ↑↑ ↓↓ ↓ Table 1: Regularity (global patterns) and discriminability (local patterns) of graphs used in Community Structure experiment. Graphs with higher regularity have a more global organizational pattern to connections. Graphs with high discriminability have less overlap of object groups meaning each group is relatively unique. The Graph Maze Task has a single study block for each graph where participants are exposed to the underlying structure through self-determined, temporally linked presentations of stimuli which represent the connections of their prior choice. Given this setup, we propose alternative hypotheses for each experiment. The results of the present MST study will adjudicate between them. Parameter search experiment: All graphs in this experiment were randomly generated, so there is no designed community structure. Thus, the focus here is on node number and ENR. a. High pattern separators will have greater task accuracy on high ENR graphs than low pattern separators. Low pattern separators will have greater task accuracy on low ENR graphs than high pattern separators (similar to Noh et al., 2023). b. Alternatively, high pattern separators may have greater task accuracy overall. c. Alternatively, we may see no difference across pattern separators on small graphs and see differences in accuracy across high and low pattern separators on larger graphs similar to hypothesis a. d. Additionally, we may see that working memory may play a larger role as ENR rises as the average stimulus group size grows. In this case, people with greater working memory ability would perform better with greater ENR. Community structure experiment: Here we follow the ideas laid out in Table 1 regarding the global regularity and local discriminability. e. If pattern separation is more relevant to regularity in global structure than to local patterns, we anticipate that task accuracy will be correlated with MST score in order of graph regularity (from lowest to highest performance: random, community w/ bridge, community no bridge, grid-like) f. If pattern separation is more relevant to discriminability in local patterns than to global structure, we anticipate that task accuracy will be correlated with MST score in order of graph discriminability (from lowest to highest performance: community no bridge, community w/ bridge, random, grid-like) g. Alternatively, trial edge distance (how far apart the start and target locations are from each other in terms of number of nodes) may be a significant factor for pattern separation and may need to be taken into consideration during analysis. Trial distance may determine whether start and target nodes are within or across communities, which could affect the degree to which global patterns are needed on any given trial. h. Additionally, we may see that working memory may play a greater role in graphs with greater community structure because participants are forced to plan more. Thus, we would expect the greatest relationship between working memory performance in task performance in the community with bridges and communities without bridges graphs. To address these hypotheses we will invite participants who completed the Graph Maze Task, for both our parameter search and community structure experiments, through Prolific to complete the MST, Spatial N-back, and Verbal N-back, also on Prolific. We will run a linear mixed model of MST Lure Discrimination Index scores, N-back Scores, node number, and edge-to-node ratio with Graph Maze task performance to evaluate the relationship between pattern separation ability, graph structure, and task performance, as well as the contributions of working memory. Participants will be invited to participate through Prolific, and will receive 3 weekly reminders following their initial invitation. The study will remain open for invited participants until 1 week after the final reminder or our goal of 80% of invitees complete the task. The parameter search Graph maze task had 208 participants, so we will target 166 participants. The community structure graph maze task had 52 participants, so we will target 42 participants. Graph Maze Task Description: Participants will complete four blocks of an N-alternative forced choice “graph maze” task, each with a unique non-spatial graph. Each block will consist of an exploration phase and a test phase. Exploration: Before each exploration phase participants will be informed that they will be presented with groups of up to three objects that they must memorize for a subsequent memory test. The language of the instructions will be carefully chosen to exclude spatial and navigation language to prevent priming of a spatial/ navigation reference. They will proceed through these object groups – “navigate” the graph whose underlying graph structure they are naïve to – at a self-guided pace until their exploration time ends. To proceed to the next object group, an item must be selected. To encourage novel object selection, participants will be informed that making different selections will result in different groups being presented. The objects displayed on the screen represent the adjacent (connected) Nodes to the currently occupied node. By selecting one object, participants will transition to a new node and the object group presented will be updated. This process repeats itself until the exploration time for that graph ends. Test: During the test phase, participants are asked to select the target item when it appears, by proceeding through the object groups the same way as in the exploration phase. The target item and the previously selected object will be displayed on the screen during the test trials to reduce working memory load. Participants complete a total of 20 trials per graph, each with a 20s trial time. Mnemonic Similarity Task Description: The task contains two phases: encoding and test phases. The encoding phase consists of a cover task which results in incidental encoding where participants judge whether stimuli are “indoor” or “outdoor” items. Immediately following the encoding phase, participants will perform a recognition task during the test phase, where they will judge stimuli as either new, similar, or old. One-third of the images in the test phase are exact repetitions of images presented in the study phase (targets); one-third of the images are new images not previously seen (foils); and one-third of the images are perceptually similar to those seen during the study phase, but not identical (lures). Lure Discrimination Index (LDI) scores are calculated by calculating the difference between the probability of giving a “Similar” response to the lure items minus the probability of giving a “Similar” response to the foils to account for any bias the participant may have in using the “Similar” response overall. N-back Task Description: The N-back is a test of working memory. It asks participants to continuously update task relevant information and relate it to the current stimulus. The task contains three distinct practice sessions of increasing difficulty and one test phase. Participants are shown a series of stimuli, and asked to respond when the current stimulus matches the stimulus N places back. For example in the 1-back block if the participant saw the sequence of letters “T-K-K”, they would not respond at “T’ or first “K” because those do not match stimuli 1 place back. However, they would respond to the second “K” shown, because it matches the stimulus 1 place back. There are 1-back, 2-back, and 3-back practice blocks and participants must have greater than 80% accuracy on the 1-back and 2-back blocks to proceed. Responses are categorized as a hit, correct rejection, false alarm, or miss. The N-back scores are calculated by the proportion of correct responses (hit and correct rejection) to the total number of stimuli presented. N-back scores give us a quantitative measure of someone’s working memory capacity in a task environment which is continually updating. Both verbal (using letters) and spatial (using locations on a 4x4 grid) versions are used. Analysis Plan: Parameter search: We will conduct a Linear Mixed Model (LMM) between LDI scores from the MST, Spatial and Verbal N-back scores, and the proportion of correct trials and path efficiency (excess steps) during the test phase of the Graph Maze Task. In addition to finding the raw correlation values, we will compare the correlation effect sizes to determine whether there are statistically significantly greater correlations in some conditions of the Graph Maze Task (node number and ENR of graphs). Community Structure: We will conduct a Linear Mixed Model (LMM) between LDI scores from the MST, Spatial and Verbal N-back scores, and the proportion of correct trials and path efficiency (excess steps) during the test phase of the Graph Maze Task. In addition to finding the raw correlation values, we will compare the correlation effect sizes to determine whether there are statistically significantly greater correlations in some conditions of the Graph Maze Task (grid-like, random, community with bridges, community without bridges) than in others. Schapiro, A. C., Rogers, T. T., Cordova, N. I., Turk-Browne, N. B. & Botvinick, M. M. Neural representations of events arise from temporal community structure. Nature Neuroscience 2013 16:4 16, 486–492 (2013). Garvert, M. M., Dolan, R. J. & Behrens, T. E. A map of abstract relational knowledge in the human hippocampal-entorhinal cortex. Elife 6, (2017). Zheng, X. Y. et al. Parallel cognitive maps for short-term statistical and long-term semantic relationships in 1 the hippocampal formation Correspondence to. bioRxiv (2023) doi:10.1101/2022.08.29.505742. Schuck, N. W., Cai, M. B., Wilson, R. C. & Niv, Y. Human Orbitofrontal Cortex Represents a Cognitive Map of State Space. Neuron 91, 1402–1412 (2016). Rmus, M., Ritz, H., Hunter, L. E., Bornstein, A. M. & Shenhav, A. Humans can navigate complex graph structures acquired during latent learning. Cognition 225, (2022). Schapiro, A. C., Rogers, T. T., Cordova, N. I., Turk-Browne, N. B. & Botvinick, M. M. Neural representations of events arise from temporal community structure. Nature Neuroscience 2013 16:4 16, 486–492 (2013). Kahn, A. E., Karuza, E. A., Vettel, J. M. & Bassett, D. S. Network constraints on learnability of probabilistic motor sequences. Nature Human Behavior 936–937 (2018) doi:10.1038/s41562-018-0463-8. Noh, Sharon M., Keiland W. Cooper, Craig Stark, and Aaron Bornstein. Multi-step Inference Can Be Improved Across the Lifespan with Individualized Memory Interventions. PsyArXiv (2023) doi:10.31234/osf.io/3mhj6.

The current project aims to investigate the association between an individual’s pattern separation abilities with their “Graph maze” task performance. Pattern separation is the ability to keep similar or overlapping memories separate in your mind, such as where you parked your car today vs where you parked your car yesterday. Participants, aged 18-35, who passed quality control and were included in the initial preliminary analysis of the Graph Maze Task will be reinvited to participate in a follow up study that will include the Mnemonic Similarity Task (MST), which has been shown to be an effective means of characterizing an individual’s pattern separation abilities. Our initial experiments found that there were differences in graph learning performance based on the structure of the graph. There were also large individual differences in performance overall (Kapogianis, in preparation). Given that each graph in our initial study has a unique structure and node organizational pattern, each stimuli object group is unique. However, there is a possibility that there are commonalities between object groups since these groups presented are the adjacent nodes to the currently ‘occupied’ node. For example, if node A is adjacent to both nodes B & C, then node A will be presented when participants occupy either node B or C. These commonalities in node objects across presentations increase with more highly interconnected communities. This gives rise to more opportunity for false recall, which can lead to an incorrect representation of state space. Pattern separation could be important in this situation to help keep the common nodes and similar adjacencies distinct from each other. Graph-like representations of more abstract associations have been recently observed throughout the brain. Representations of state space in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) represented nodes within a community – a tightly interconnected cluster of nodes – more similarly within communities than between communities1. Entorhinal cortex has also been shown to code for elements of a graph, representing relative edge distances between nodes in an abstract graph2, while hippocampus was shown to code for semantic similarity between nodes for the same information3. Additionally, the orbitofrontal cortex was shown to code for state space of unobservable task-relevant information4, which could be important for goal-directed planning. Prior work indicates that individuals can extract underlying graph structure in more abstract relationships through experience4-7, such as learning which nodes are closely associated. This ability to extract and connect abstract information through experience can most clearly be observed in recent work which presented pairs of items to participants during the Graph Walk Task5. These item pairs were actually disjointed edge-pairs – two nodes with a common edge – from a larger graph which participants were naïve to, presented in a random order. After repeated presentations of these edge-pairs, participants were able to make accurate relative edge-distance estimations, as well as reconstruct the graph itself, even though they were naïve to the graph's underlying structure at the start of the experiment and they never saw the whole graph. These findings show that individuals learn and connect associations from disordered experiences without prompting or knowledge of the underlying structure during latent learning. Importantly, it was found that performance during the Graph Walk Task was associated with an individual’s pattern separation ability8, and that those with lesser pattern separation abilities could overcome performance deficits when stimuli pairs were presented in blocks to be non-overlapping. For example, if node A is adjacent to nodes B & C, the original stimulus presentations would include A-B and A-C pairs. High pattern separators would have less difficulty distinguishing between A-B and A-C pairs during the same block, while low pattern separators would have more difficulty. But by only presenting pair A-B during study block 1 and pair A-C during block 2, these low pattern separators were able to overcome performance deficits. Our preliminary data for the Graph Maze task suggests that elements of a graph’s underlying structure such as size, edge-to-node ratio, and community structure all impact task performance. However, we theorize that another contributing factor may be an individual’s ability to pattern separate between similar stimuli and whether they are focused on local vs global structure of the underlying graph. Incorporating information into its global context may make regular organizational patterns more apparent and reduce reliance upon local pattern separation by using predictable patterns. This would be similar to navigating a city with a grid layout. However, learning based on local structure would require more robust representations of local connections, and be more reliant on pattern separation abilities in situations with low discriminability at the node level. (see attached image for better table view) Random Grid-like Comm-X-bridge Comm-w/bridge Regularity (global) ↓ ↑↑ ↑ ↑ Discrim. (local) ↑ ↑↑ ↓↓ ↓ Table 1: Regularity (global patterns) and discriminability (local patterns) of graphs used in Community Structure experiment. Graphs with higher regularity have a more global organizational pattern to connections. Graphs with high discriminability have less overlap of object groups meaning each group is relatively unique. The Graph Maze Task has a single study block for each graph where participants are exposed to the underlying structure through self-determined, temporally linked presentations of stimuli which represent the connections of their prior choice. Given this setup, we propose alternative hypotheses for each experiment. The results of the present MST study will adjudicate between them. Parameter search experiment: All graphs in this experiment were randomly generated, so there is no designed community structure. Thus, the focus here is on node number and ENR. a. High pattern separators will have greater task accuracy on high ENR graphs than low pattern separators. Low pattern separators will have greater task accuracy on low ENR graphs than high pattern separators (similar to Noh et al., 2023). b. Alternatively, high pattern separators may have greater task accuracy overall. c. Alternatively, we may see no difference across pattern separators on small graphs and see differences in accuracy across high and low pattern separators on larger graphs similar to hypothesis a. d. Additionally, we may see that working memory may play a larger role as ENR rises as the average stimulus group size grows. In this case, people with greater working memory ability would perform better with greater ENR. Community structure experiment: Here we follow the ideas laid out in Table 1 regarding the global regularity and local discriminability. e. If pattern separation is more relevant to regularity in global structure than to local patterns, we anticipate that task accuracy will be correlated with MST score in order of graph regularity (from lowest to highest performance: random, community w/ bridge, community no bridge, grid-like) f. If pattern separation is more relevant to discriminability in local patterns than to global structure, we anticipate that task accuracy will be correlated with MST score in order of graph discriminability (from lowest to highest performance: community no bridge, community w/ bridge, random, grid-like) g. Alternatively, trial edge distance (how far apart the start and target locations are from each other in terms of number of nodes) may be a significant factor for pattern separation and may need to be taken into consideration during analysis. Trial distance may determine whether start and target nodes are within or across communities, which could affect the degree to which global patterns are needed on any given trial. h. Additionally, we may see that working memory may play a greater role in graphs with greater community structure because participants are forced to plan more. Thus, we would expect the greatest relationship between working memory performance in task performance in the community with bridges and communities without bridges graphs. To address these hypotheses we will invite participants who completed the Graph Maze Task, for both our parameter search and community structure experiments, through Prolific to complete the MST, Spatial N-back, and Verbal N-back, also on Prolific. We will run a linear mixed model of MST Lure Discrimination Index scores, N-back Scores, node number, and edge-to-node ratio with Graph Maze task performance to evaluate the relationship between pattern separation ability, graph structure, and task performance, as well as the contributions of working memory. Participants will be invited to participate through Prolific, and will receive 3 weekly reminders following their initial invitation. The study will remain open for invited participants until 1 week after the final reminder or our goal of 80% of invitees complete the task. The parameter search Graph maze task had 208 participants, so we will target 166 participants. The community structure graph maze task had 52 participants, so we will target 42 participants. Graph Maze Task Description: Participants will complete four blocks of an N-alternative forced choice “graph maze” task, each with a unique non-spatial graph. Each block will consist of an exploration phase and a test phase. Exploration: Before each exploration phase participants will be informed that they will be presented with groups of up to three objects that they must memorize for a subsequent memory test. The language of the instructions will be carefully chosen to exclude spatial and navigation language to prevent priming of a spatial/ navigation reference. They will proceed through these object groups – “navigate” the graph whose underlying graph structure they are naïve to – at a self-guided pace until their exploration time ends. To proceed to the next object group, an item must be selected. To encourage novel object selection, participants will be informed that making different selections will result in different groups being presented. The objects displayed on the screen represent the adjacent (connected) Nodes to the currently occupied node. By selecting one object, participants will transition to a new node and the object group presented will be updated. This process repeats itself until the exploration time for that graph ends. Test: During the test phase, participants are asked to select the target item when it appears, by proceeding through the object groups the same way as in the exploration phase. The target item and the previously selected object will be displayed on the screen during the test trials to reduce working memory load. Participants complete a total of 20 trials per graph, each with a 20s trial time. Mnemonic Similarity Task Description: The task contains two phases: encoding and test phases. The encoding phase consists of a cover task which results in incidental encoding where participants judge whether stimuli are “indoor” or “outdoor” items. Immediately following the encoding phase, participants will perform a recognition task during the test phase, where they will judge stimuli as either new, similar, or old. One-third of the images in the test phase are exact repetitions of images presented in the study phase (targets); one-third of the images are new images not previously seen (foils); and one-third of the images are perceptually similar to those seen during the study phase, but not identical (lures). Lure Discrimination Index (LDI) scores are calculated by calculating the difference between the probability of giving a “Similar” response to the lure items minus the probability of giving a “Similar” response to the foils to account for any bias the participant may have in using the “Similar” response overall. N-back Task Description: The N-back is a test of working memory. It asks participants to continuously update task relevant information and relate it to the current stimulus. The task contains three distinct practice sessions of increasing difficulty and one test phase. Participants are shown a series of stimuli, and asked to respond when the current stimulus matches the stimulus N places back. For example in the 1-back block if the participant saw the sequence of letters “T-K-K”, they would not respond at “T’ or first “K” because those do not match stimuli 1 place back. However, they would respond to the second “K” shown, because it matches the stimulus 1 place back. There are 1-back, 2-back, and 3-back practice blocks and participants must have greater than 80% accuracy on the 1-back and 2-back blocks to proceed. Responses are categorized as a hit, correct rejection, false alarm, or miss. The N-back scores are calculated by the proportion of correct responses (hit and correct rejection) to the total number of stimuli presented. N-back scores give us a quantitative measure of someone’s working memory capacity in a task environment which is continually updating. Both verbal (using letters) and spatial (using locations on a 4x4 grid) versions are used. Analysis Plan: Parameter search: We will conduct a Linear Mixed Model (LMM) between LDI scores from the MST, Spatial and Verbal N-back scores, and the proportion of correct trials and path efficiency (excess steps) during the test phase of the Graph Maze Task. In addition to finding the raw correlation values, we will compare the correlation effect sizes to determine whether there are statistically significantly greater correlations in some conditions of the Graph Maze Task (node number and ENR of graphs). Community Structure: We will conduct a Linear Mixed Model (LMM) between LDI scores from the MST, Spatial and Verbal N-back scores, and the proportion of correct trials and path efficiency (excess steps) during the test phase of the Graph Maze Task. In addition to finding the raw correlation values, we will compare the correlation effect sizes to determine whether there are statistically significantly greater correlations in some conditions of the Graph Maze Task (grid-like, random, community with bridges, community without bridges) than in others. Schapiro, A. C., Rogers, T. T., Cordova, N. I., Turk-Browne, N. B. & Botvinick, M. M. Neural representations of events arise from temporal community structure. Nature Neuroscience 2013 16:4 16, 486–492 (2013). Garvert, M. M., Dolan, R. J. & Behrens, T. E. A map of abstract relational knowledge in the human hippocampal-entorhinal cortex. Elife 6, (2017). Zheng, X. Y. et al. Parallel cognitive maps for short-term statistical and long-term semantic relationships in 1 the hippocampal formation Correspondence to. bioRxiv (2023) doi:10.1101/2022.08.29.505742. Schuck, N. W., Cai, M. B., Wilson, R. C. & Niv, Y. Human Orbitofrontal Cortex Represents a Cognitive Map of State Space. Neuron 91, 1402–1412 (2016). Rmus, M., Ritz, H., Hunter, L. E., Bornstein, A. M. & Shenhav, A. Humans can navigate complex graph structures acquired during latent learning. Cognition 225, (2022). Schapiro, A. C., Rogers, T. T., Cordova, N. I., Turk-Browne, N. B. & Botvinick, M. M. Neural representations of events arise from temporal community structure. Nature Neuroscience 2013 16:4 16, 486–492 (2013). Kahn, A. E., Karuza, E. A., Vettel, J. M. & Bassett, D. S. Network constraints on learnability of probabilistic motor sequences. Nature Human Behavior 936–937 (2018) doi:10.1038/s41562-018-0463-8. Noh, Sharon M., Keiland W. Cooper, Craig Stark, and Aaron Bornstein. Multi-step Inference Can Be Improved Across the Lifespan with Individualized Memory Interventions. PsyArXiv (2023) doi:10.31234/osf.io/3mhj6.

Motivation influences goals, decisions, and memory formation. Imperative motivation drives action to address urgent goals, whereas interrogative motivation supports broader learning for future goals. In this paradigm, we will induce motivational states by manipulating cover stories for a reinforcement learning task: Participants in the Imperative group imagine executing an art museum heist, whereas participants in the Interrogative group imagine planning a future heist. Participants repeatedly choose among four “doors” and sample trial-unique paintings with variable rewards, then return the next day for a surprise memory test. We predict that Imperative motivation will increase exploitation, reward earnings, and learning rate during the reinforcement learning task. Conversely, we expect that Interrogative motivation will increase directed exploration during reinforcement learning. Furthermore, we expect that participants in the Interrogative group will show better subsequent recognition memory and stronger reward-related associative memory.

The study attempted to further clarify the relationship between speed and memory span by directly examining whether slower identification of item information is the source of span difficulties in learning disabled (LD) children. Forty-eight sixth grade boys participated in the study, 24 LD and 24 non-LD. The method involved pretesting each subject to obtain mean naming latencies for each of 8 classes of stimuli. The experimental procedure then presented each S with two memory span tasks: one using stimuli that had produced comparable group naming latencies, and the other with a stimulus class that had produced significant group differences in naming speed. The results indicated that span performance varied directly with naming speed. Results were discussed within the working memory framework of A. Baddeley and G. Hitch (1974), and it was concluded that a causal relationship exists between item identification speed and memory span performance. (Author/CL)

This article is from PLoS ONE , volume 9 . Abstract Although many clinical pathological states are now detectable using imaging and biochemical analyses, neuropsychological tests are often considered as valuable complementary approaches to confirm diagnosis, especially for disorders like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease, and schizophrenia. The touchscreen-based automated test battery, which was introduced two decades ago in humans to assess cognitive functions, has recently been successfully back-translated in monkeys and rodents. We focused on optimizing the protocol of three distinct behavioral paradigms in mice: two variants of the Paired Associates Learning (PAL) and the Visuo-Motor Conditional Learning (VMCL) tasks. Acquisition of these tasks was assessed in naive versus pre-trained mice. In naive mice, we managed to define testing conditions allowing significant improvements of learning performances over time in the three aforementioned tasks. In pre-trained mice, we observed differential acquisition rates after specific task combinations. Particularly, we identified that animals previously trained in the VMCL paradigm subsequently poorly learned the sPAL rule. Together with previous findings, these data confirm the feasibility of using such behavioral assays to evaluate the power of different models of cognitive dysfunction in mice. They also highlight the risk of interactions between tasks when rodents are run through a battery of different cognitive touchscreen paradigms.

This article is from PLoS ONE , volume 9 . Abstract Although many clinical pathological states are now detectable using imaging and biochemical analyses, neuropsychological tests are often considered as valuable complementary approaches to confirm diagnosis, especially for disorders like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease, and schizophrenia. The touchscreen-based automated test battery, which was introduced two decades ago in humans to assess cognitive functions, has recently been successfully back-translated in monkeys and rodents. We focused on optimizing the protocol of three distinct behavioral paradigms in mice: two variants of the Paired Associates Learning (PAL) and the Visuo-Motor Conditional Learning (VMCL) tasks. Acquisition of these tasks was assessed in naive versus pre-trained mice. In naive mice, we managed to define testing conditions allowing significant improvements of learning performances over time in the three aforementioned tasks. In pre-trained mice, we observed differential acquisition rates after specific task combinations. Particularly, we identified that animals previously trained in the VMCL paradigm subsequently poorly learned the sPAL rule. Together with previous findings, these data confirm the feasibility of using such behavioral assays to evaluate the power of different models of cognitive dysfunction in mice. They also highlight the risk of interactions between tasks when rodents are run through a battery of different cognitive touchscreen paradigms.

Retrieval practice can enhance encoding and subsequent retrieval of new information relative to restudy or no additional practice (Chan et al., 2018; Pastötter & Bäuml, 2014; Yang et al., 2018). Multiple mechanisms related to the encoding, retrieval, and context of the newly encoded information, as well as motivational and metacognitive factors may contribute this so-called forward effect of testing (FET). While the FET has been shown with different materials, there is little research on the FET with educationally relevant materials, such as learning key-term definitions. The first objective of this study is to replicate and generalize the FET with key-term definitions in younger adults. The assignment of the participants to the two practice conditions is random, allowing to compare the size of the FET in Session 1 as a between-subjects effect and across sessions as a within-subjects effect. While we predict the FET to occur both as between- and within-subjects effect, the FET is expected to be larger between-subjects. due to potential transfer effects from Session 1 to Session 2 (cf. Kubik, Hahne, & Hausman, 2020; Pastötter & Frings, 2019) or due to a decreasing motivation and interest in fully engaging in Session 2, compared to Session 1. For this reason, we will also make corresponding predictions selectively for Session 1 as between-subjects comparisons and test these predictions. In Objectives 2–5, we examine the potential mechanisms underlying the FET. Here, we are specifically interested how retrieval practice may motivate learners to invest and sustain attention and mental effort during subsequent encoding of multiple new lists of key-term definitions. As a second objective, we examine the effects of the FET on self-reported cognitive effort during the initial encoding key-term definition in Learning Blocks 1–3. Based on the metacognitive account (Chan et al., 2018), interim-tests facilitate learners to adjust their encoding strategies, which can lead them to exert more cognitive effort to the learning task ahead and thus result in better future recall performance, compared to restudy practice. This leads to a smaller decline or even a maintenance of cognitive effort over the learning blocks in the retrieval-practice condition, as a result of more attention being directed towards the task (Jing et al., 2016) or expecting another test (Szpunar et al., 2007). Also, the overconfident participants may be surprised by their underperformance in an interim test, which may in turn lead to more cognitive effort in the following learning blocks (Cho et al., 2017; Lee & Ahn, 2017). As a result, retrieval practice (elicited by interim-tests) can enhance the criterial recall performance of the final text via sustained cognitive effort, compared restudy practice. The third objective of this study is to test the hypothesis that retrieval practice may attenuate the decline in attentional control or attention directed to the learned lists of key-term definitions across learning blocks. It is assumed that retrieval practice should reduce the number of lapses of attention and the occurrence of mind-wandering during the course of the learning phase, which should in turn facilitate new learning. As an index for attentional control, we will solicit a mind-wandering prompt during the initial learning phases of List 1 and List 3 of new six key term-definitions to probe participants’ current thoughts. Only a few studies investigated the effect of retrieval (vs. restudy) practice on the occurrence of mind-wandering as a self-reported proxy for attentional control, however, largely in relation to video materials on statistics (Pan et al., 2020; Szpunar, Khan, & Schacter, 2013; Szpunar, Jing, & Schacter, 2014). We predict that with the time-dependent decrease in attentional control, mind-wandering will occur more frequently during the initial study phase of Learning Block 3 compared to Learning Block 1; furthermore, we expect that retrieval practice will reduce this increase in mind-wandering during the initial study phase from Learning Blocks 1 to 3, compared to restudy practice. A fourth objective is to examine whether the size of the FET is moderated by test anxiety. There is the assumption that participants with higher rates on test anxiety may benefit less or even suffer from low-stake interim tests as participants may devote their limited cognitive resources to balance their state test anxiety (cf. Tse & Pu, 2012). There are a few studies on the role of test anxiety on the size of the backward testing effect, reporting rather mixed findings in young adults. Participants with high test anxiety scores profited either less from retrieval practice (Mok & Chans, 2016), more from retrieval practice (Clark et al., 2018) or to a similar degree as from restudy practice (Tse & Pu, 2012). To our knowledge, there is currently only one study the potential moderating role on test anxiety on the FET (Yang et al., 2020) with young adults, showing that this benefit on retrieval learning does not substantially modulate levels of trait and state test anxiety and neither does of trait and state test anxiety moderate the size of the FET. The aim of this study is to conceptually replicate this study and to assess the moderating role of trait and state anxiety on the FET with more complex learning materials (i.e., key-term definitions) in a within-subject design. Furthermore, we assess whether (repeated) retrieval practice via low-stake interim tests may decrease state test anxiety and thereby recall performance in Learning Block 3, compared to restudy practice. Given the limited knowledge on this topic, we do not formulate any specific predictions and only explore the role of trait and state test anxiety on FET and vice versa. A fifth objective is to explore the role of fluid intelligence for the FET. There are so far only very few studies on individual differences in young adults, with one study on the backward effect of testing revealing that learners with high fluid intelligence exhibit a larger testing benefit for difficult over easy items, and with low fluid intelligence showing the opposite results pattern (Minear et al., 2018). Two other recent studies on the FET showed that working memory played no role (Pastötter & Frings, 2019) or only a minor role (Yang et al., 2020) in modulating the size of the FET. However, these prior studies have used rather artificial materials of simple word materials in a lab-based study, while the present study uses more complex learning materials (i.e., key-term definitions). Given the few studies and the little theoretical work so far, we do not yet formulate any specific predictions but rather explore the potential role of fluid intelligence on the FET. To address the above-mentioned objectives, a blocked multiple-list learning paradigm (cf. Chan et al., 2018; see also Kubik, Hahne, & Hausman, 2020; Kubik, Lackner, & Hahne, 2020) is employed during two sessions of an online experiment. Dependent on the experimental group, participants are informed that in total 18 key-term definitions will be presented in each session. Participants are also instructed that they will have to remember all three lists of 6 key-term definitions at the end of each experimental session. Each of the three lists is presented for 50 seconds in an initial study phase, followed by a 30-s math distractor task, in which participants solve picture puzzles. For the Learning Blocks 1–2, the initial study phase is followed by either a 50s phase of retrieval or restudy practice. In the retrieval-practice condition, participants will attempt to recall the definitions of the just studied six definitions provided with the respective key term; in the restudy condition, they will be asked to study the list of key-term definitions again. In Learning Block 3, all participants will be asked after an initial study phase to recall the definitions of the just studied third list of key terms (as the criterial recall test). In the final tests, participants are instructed to recall the definitions of List 1–3 of key-term definitions. The same experimental procedure will be applied after seven days in Session 2, with the only difference of changing practice type (i.e., from retrieval practice to restudy practice or vice versa). At the end of Session 1 and 2, participants finish each session with a test of fluid intelligence. Self-reports of mind-wandering are prompted in the middle of the initial study phases of Learning Blocks 1 and 3. Furthermore, self-reported measures of cognitive effort (cf. Schmeck et al., 2015) are given immediately after the initial learning phases of Learning Blocks 1 and 3. In addition, before Learning Block 1, participants fill out a short form of the Test Anxiety Inventory (Wacker et al., 2008) to measure self-reported trait test anxiety (i.e., the tendency to perceive testing situations as threatening or frightening) as well as a one-item scale to measure state test anxiety (cf. Yang et al., 2020) before the criterial List-3 test and before the final tests of Lists 1–3. After the final recall phase of List 1 and List 2 of key-term definitions, participants provide self-reports about prior knowledge to each of the previously presented key-term definitions. Employing a within-subjects design of practice type provides the opportunity to examine individual differences of the FET in relation to cognitive and noncognitive factors, as measured by cognitive effort, mind-wandering, fluid intelligence, as well as state and trait test anxiety.

Retrieval practice can enhance encoding and subsequent retrieval of new information relative to restudy or no additional practice (Chan et al., 2018; Pastötter & Bäuml, 2014; Yang et al., 2018). Multiple mechanisms related to the encoding, retrieval, and context of the newly encoded information, as well as motivational and metacognitive factors may contribute this so-called forward effect of testing (FET). While the FET has been shown with different materials, there is little research on the FET with educationally relevant materials, such as learning key-term definitions. The first objective of this study is to replicate and generalize the FET with key-term definitions in younger adults. The assignment of the participants to the two practice conditions is random, allowing to compare the size of the FET in Session 1 as a between-subjects effect and across sessions as a within-subjects effect. While we predict the FET to occur both as between- and within-subjects effect, the FET is expected to be larger between-subjects. due to potential transfer effects from Session 1 to Session 2 (cf. Kubik, Hahne, & Hausman, 2020; Pastötter & Frings, 2019) or due to a decreasing motivation and interest in fully engaging in Session 2, compared to Session 1. For this reason, we will also make corresponding predictions selectively for Session 1 as between-subjects comparisons and test these predictions. In Objectives 2–5, we examine the potential mechanisms underlying the FET. Here, we are specifically interested how retrieval practice may motivate learners to invest and sustain attention and mental effort during subsequent encoding of multiple new lists of key-term definitions. As a second objective, we examine the effects of the FET on self-reported cognitive effort during the initial encoding key-term definition in Learning Blocks 1–3. Based on the metacognitive account (Chan et al., 2018), interim-tests facilitate learners to adjust their encoding strategies, which can lead them to exert more cognitive effort to the learning task ahead and thus result in better future recall performance, compared to restudy practice. This leads to a smaller decline or even a maintenance of cognitive effort over the learning blocks in the retrieval-practice condition, as a result of more attention being directed towards the task (Jing et al., 2016) or expecting another test (Szpunar et al., 2007). Also, the overconfident participants may be surprised by their underperformance in an interim test, which may in turn lead to more cognitive effort in the following learning blocks (Cho et al., 2017; Lee & Ahn, 2017). As a result, retrieval practice (elicited by interim-tests) can enhance the criterial recall performance of the final text via sustained cognitive effort, compared restudy practice. The third objective of this study is to test the hypothesis that retrieval practice may attenuate the decline in attentional control or attention directed to the learned lists of key-term definitions across learning blocks. It is assumed that retrieval practice should reduce the number of lapses of attention and the occurrence of mind-wandering during the course of the learning phase, which should in turn facilitate new learning. As an index for attentional control, we will solicit a mind-wandering prompt during the initial learning phases of List 1 and List 3 of new six key term-definitions to probe participants’ current thoughts. Only a few studies investigated the effect of retrieval (vs. restudy) practice on the occurrence of mind-wandering as a self-reported proxy for attentional control, however, largely in relation to video materials on statistics (Pan et al., 2020; Szpunar, Khan, & Schacter, 2013; Szpunar, Jing, & Schacter, 2014). We predict that with the time-dependent decrease in attentional control, mind-wandering will occur more frequently during the initial study phase of Learning Block 3 compared to Learning Block 1; furthermore, we expect that retrieval practice will reduce this increase in mind-wandering during the initial study phase from Learning Blocks 1 to 3, compared to restudy practice. A fourth objective is to examine whether the size of the FET is moderated by test anxiety. There is the assumption that participants with higher rates on test anxiety may benefit less or even suffer from low-stake interim tests as participants may devote their limited cognitive resources to balance their state test anxiety (cf. Tse & Pu, 2012). There are a few studies on the role of test anxiety on the size of the backward testing effect, reporting rather mixed findings in young adults. Participants with high test anxiety scores profited either less from retrieval practice (Mok & Chans, 2016), more from retrieval practice (Clark et al., 2018) or to a similar degree as from restudy practice (Tse & Pu, 2012). To our knowledge, there is currently only one study the potential moderating role on test anxiety on the FET (Yang et al., 2020) with young adults, showing that this benefit on retrieval learning does not substantially modulate levels of trait and state test anxiety and neither does of trait and state test anxiety moderate the size of the FET. The aim of this study is to conceptually replicate this study and to assess the moderating role of trait and state anxiety on the FET with more complex learning materials (i.e., key-term definitions) in a within-subject design. Furthermore, we assess whether (repeated) retrieval practice via low-stake interim tests may decrease state test anxiety and thereby recall performance in Learning Block 3, compared to restudy practice. Given the limited knowledge on this topic, we do not formulate any specific predictions and only explore the role of trait and state test anxiety on FET and vice versa. A fifth objective is to explore the role of fluid intelligence for the FET. There are so far only very few studies on individual differences in young adults, with one study on the backward effect of testing revealing that learners with high fluid intelligence exhibit a larger testing benefit for difficult over easy items, and with low fluid intelligence showing the opposite results pattern (Minear et al., 2018). Two other recent studies on the FET showed that working memory played no role (Pastötter & Frings, 2019) or only a minor role (Yang et al., 2020) in modulating the size of the FET. However, these prior studies have used rather artificial materials of simple word materials in a lab-based study, while the present study uses more complex learning materials (i.e., key-term definitions). Given the few studies and the little theoretical work so far, we do not yet formulate any specific predictions but rather explore the potential role of fluid intelligence on the FET. To address the above-mentioned objectives, a blocked multiple-list learning paradigm (cf. Chan et al., 2018; see also Kubik, Hahne, & Hausman, 2020; Kubik, Lackner, & Hahne, 2020) is employed during two sessions of an online experiment. Dependent on the experimental group, participants are informed that in total 18 key-term definitions will be presented in each session. Participants are also instructed that they will have to remember all three lists of 6 key-term definitions at the end of each experimental session. Each of the three lists is presented for 50 seconds in an initial study phase, followed by a 30-s math distractor task, in which participants solve picture puzzles. For the Learning Blocks 1–2, the initial study phase is followed by either a 50s phase of retrieval or restudy practice. In the retrieval-practice condition, participants will attempt to recall the definitions of the just studied six definitions provided with the respective key term; in the restudy condition, they will be asked to study the list of key-term definitions again. In Learning Block 3, all participants will be asked after an initial study phase to recall the definitions of the just studied third list of key terms (as the criterial recall test). In the final tests, participants are instructed to recall the definitions of List 1–3 of key-term definitions. The same experimental procedure will be applied after seven days in Session 2, with the only difference of changing practice type (i.e., from retrieval practice to restudy practice or vice versa). At the end of Session 1 and 2, participants finish each session with a test of fluid intelligence. Self-reports of mind-wandering are prompted in the middle of the initial study phases of Learning Blocks 1 and 3. Furthermore, self-reported measures of cognitive effort (cf. Schmeck et al., 2015) are given immediately after the initial learning phases of Learning Blocks 1 and 3. In addition, before Learning Block 1, participants fill out a short form of the Test Anxiety Inventory (Wacker et al., 2008) to measure self-reported trait test anxiety (i.e., the tendency to perceive testing situations as threatening or frightening) as well as a one-item scale to measure state test anxiety (cf. Yang et al., 2020) before the criterial List-3 test and before the final tests of Lists 1–3. After the final recall phase of List 1 and List 2 of key-term definitions, participants provide self-reports about prior knowledge to each of the previously presented key-term definitions. Employing a within-subjects design of practice type provides the opportunity to examine individual differences of the FET in relation to cognitive and noncognitive factors, as measured by cognitive effort, mind-wandering, fluid intelligence, as well as state and trait test anxiety.

Retrieval practice can enhance encoding and subsequent retrieval of new information relative to restudy or no additional practice (Chan et al., 2018; Pastötter & Bäuml, 2014; Yang et al., 2018). Multiple mechanisms related to the encoding, retrieval, and context of the newly encoded information, as well as motivational and metacognitive factors may contribute this so-called forward effect of testing (FET). While the FET has been shown with different materials, there is little research on the FET with educationally relevant materials, such as learning key-term definitions. The first objective of this study is to replicate and generalize the FET with key-term definitions in younger adults. The assignment of the participants to the two practice conditions is random, allowing to compare the size of the FET in Session 1 as a between-subjects effect and across sessions as a within-subjects effect. While we predict the FET to occur both as between- and within-subjects effect, the FET is expected to be larger between-subjects. due to potential transfer effects from Session 1 to Session 2 (cf. Kubik, Hahne, & Hausman, 2020; Pastötter & Frings, 2019) or due to a decreasing motivation and interest in fully engaging in Session 2, compared to Session 1. For this reason, we will also make corresponding predictions selectively for Session 1 as between-subjects comparisons and test these predictions. In Objectives 2–5, we examine the potential mechanisms underlying the FET. Here, we are specifically interested how retrieval practice may motivate learners to invest and sustain attention and mental effort during subsequent encoding of multiple new lists of key-term definitions. As a second objective, we examine the effects of the FET on self-reported cognitive effort during the initial encoding key-term definition in Learning Blocks 1–3. Based on the metacognitive account (Chan et al., 2018), interim-tests facilitate learners to adjust their encoding strategies, which can lead them to exert more cognitive effort to the learning task ahead and thus result in better future recall performance, compared to restudy practice. This leads to a smaller decline or even a maintenance of cognitive effort over the learning blocks in the retrieval-practice condition, as a result of more attention being directed towards the task (Jing et al., 2016) or expecting another test (Szpunar et al., 2007). Also, the overconfident participants may be surprised by their underperformance in an interim test, which may in turn lead to more cognitive effort in the following learning blocks (Cho et al., 2017; Lee & Ahn, 2017). As a result, retrieval practice (elicited by interim-tests) can enhance the criterial recall performance of the final text via sustained cognitive effort, compared restudy practice. The third objective of this study is to test the hypothesis that retrieval practice may attenuate the decline in attentional control or attention directed to the learned lists of key-term definitions across learning blocks. It is assumed that retrieval practice should reduce the number of lapses of attention and the occurrence of mind-wandering during the course of the learning phase, which should in turn facilitate new learning. As an index for attentional control, we will solicit a mind-wandering prompt during the initial learning phases of List 1 and List 3 of new six key term-definitions to probe participants’ current thoughts. Only a few studies investigated the effect of retrieval (vs. restudy) practice on the occurrence of mind-wandering as a self-reported proxy for attentional control, however, largely in relation to video materials on statistics (Pan et al., 2020; Szpunar, Khan, & Schacter, 2013; Szpunar, Jing, & Schacter, 2014). We predict that with the time-dependent decrease in attentional control, mind-wandering will occur more frequently during the initial study phase of Learning Block 3 compared to Learning Block 1; furthermore, we expect that retrieval practice will reduce this increase in mind-wandering during the initial study phase from Learning Blocks 1 to 3, compared to restudy practice. A fourth objective is to examine whether the size of the FET is moderated by test anxiety. There is the assumption that participants with higher rates on test anxiety may benefit less or even suffer from low-stake interim tests as participants may devote their limited cognitive resources to balance their state test anxiety (cf. Tse & Pu, 2012). There are a few studies on the role of test anxiety on the size of the backward testing effect, reporting rather mixed findings in young adults. Participants with high test anxiety scores profited either less from retrieval practice (Mok & Chans, 2016), more from retrieval practice (Clark et al., 2018) or to a similar degree as from restudy practice (Tse & Pu, 2012). To our knowledge, there is currently only one study the potential moderating role on test anxiety on the FET (Yang et al., 2020) with young adults, showing that this benefit on retrieval learning does not substantially modulate levels of trait and state test anxiety and neither does of trait and state test anxiety moderate the size of the FET. The aim of this study is to conceptually replicate this study and to assess the moderating role of trait and state anxiety on the FET with more complex learning materials (i.e., key-term definitions) in a within-subject design. Furthermore, we assess whether (repeated) retrieval practice via low-stake interim tests may decrease state test anxiety and thereby recall performance in Learning Block 3, compared to restudy practice. Given the limited knowledge on this topic, we do not formulate any specific predictions and only explore the role of trait and state test anxiety on FET and vice versa. A fifth objective is to explore the role of fluid intelligence for the FET. There are so far only very few studies on individual differences in young adults, with one study on the backward effect of testing revealing that learners with high fluid intelligence exhibit a larger testing benefit for difficult over easy items, and with low fluid intelligence showing the opposite results pattern (Minear et al., 2018). Two other recent studies on the FET showed that working memory played no role (Pastötter & Frings, 2019) or only a minor role (Yang et al., 2020) in modulating the size of the FET. However, these prior studies have used rather artificial materials of simple word materials in a lab-based study, while the present study uses more complex learning materials (i.e., key-term definitions). Given the few studies and the little theoretical work so far, we do not yet formulate any specific predictions but rather explore the potential role of fluid intelligence on the FET. To address the above-mentioned objectives, a blocked multiple-list learning paradigm (cf. Chan et al., 2018; see also Kubik, Hahne, & Hausman, 2020; Kubik, Lackner, & Hahne, 2020) is employed during two sessions of an online experiment. Dependent on the experimental group, participants are informed that in total 18 key-term definitions will be presented in each session. Participants are also instructed that they will have to remember all three lists of 6 key-term definitions at the end of each experimental session. Each of the three lists is presented for 50 seconds in an initial study phase, followed by a 30-s math distractor task, in which participants solve picture puzzles. For the Learning Blocks 1–2, the initial study phase is followed by either a 50s phase of retrieval or restudy practice. In the retrieval-practice condition, participants will attempt to recall the definitions of the just studied six definitions provided with the respective key term; in the restudy condition, they will be asked to study the list of key-term definitions again. In Learning Block 3, all participants will be asked after an initial study phase to recall the definitions of the just studied third list of key terms (as the criterial recall test). In the final tests, participants are instructed to recall the definitions of List 1–3 of key-term definitions. The same experimental procedure will be applied after seven days in Session 2, with the only difference of changing practice type (i.e., from retrieval practice to restudy practice or vice versa). At the end of Session 1 and 2, participants finish each session with a test of fluid intelligence. Self-reports of mind-wandering are prompted in the middle of the initial study phases of Learning Blocks 1 and 3. Furthermore, self-reported measures of cognitive effort (cf. Schmeck et al., 2015) are given immediately after the initial learning phases of Learning Blocks 1 and 3. In addition, before Learning Block 1, participants fill out a short form of the Test Anxiety Inventory (Wacker et al., 2008) to measure self-reported trait test anxiety (i.e., the tendency to perceive testing situations as threatening or frightening) as well as a one-item scale to measure state test anxiety (cf. Yang et al., 2020) before the criterial List-3 test and before the final tests of Lists 1–3. After the final recall phase of List 1 and List 2 of key-term definitions, participants provide self-reports about prior knowledge to each of the previously presented key-term definitions. Employing a within-subjects design of practice type provides the opportunity to examine individual differences of the FET in relation to cognitive and noncognitive factors, as measured by cognitive effort, mind-wandering, fluid intelligence, as well as state and trait test anxiety.

Evidence from studies of memory for meaningful materials such as sentences and prose passages is reviewed in this paper with emphasis on its implications for the nature of the memory representation. It is argued that models of memory which involve the retrieval of stored copies of originally presented material cannot account for two crucial phenomena: (1) the retention of meaning in spite of losses in memory for specific wording, and (2) the "recall" of information which could only have been obtained by inference. Views of memory which include varying degrees of constructive, interpretive, and reconstructive processes are considered as alternatives to the copy model. These alternatives include theories based on psycholinguistic constructs and visual imagery, as well as positions involving the abstraction and reconstruction of information by means of more general integrative representations. (Author)

Evidence from studies of memory for meaningful materials such as sentences and prose passages is reviewed in this paper with emphasis on its implications for the nature of the memory representation. It is argued that models of memory which involve the retrieval of stored copies of originally presented material cannot account for two crucial phenomena: (1) the retention of meaning in spite of losses in memory for specific wording, and (2) the "recall" of information which could only have been obtained by inference. Views of memory which include varying degrees of constructive, interpretive, and reconstructive processes are considered as alternatives to the copy model. These alternatives include theories based on psycholinguistic constructs and visual imagery, as well as positions involving the abstraction and reconstruction of information by means of more general integrative representations. (Author)

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Click here to view the University of Florida catalog record

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Study Information Background and objectives Although virtual reality (VR) is a promising tool for studying memory, much remains unknown about how learning processes are operated in VR and how those mechanisms may compare or contrast to those that occur in traditional desk-top settings (Smith, 2019). This study is designed to address this gap in literature investigating how immersive VR experience affects memory compared to non-immersive desk-top settings and aim to gain a better understanding of whether prior sessions and/or exposures in VR can enhance memory performance, and how properties of virtual environments affect memory. VR studies often examine incidental learning in memory, defined as remembering things without specifically intending to, as this type of learning replicates the majority of how we learn in real life. However, research suggests that intentional learning, which is remembering things by consciously trying to learn them, can sometimes lead to better memory recall. Therefore, this study is also interested in whether there is a difference between incidental and intentional learning in virtual reality, specifically examining episodic and spatial memory. This is important as VR is increasingly being used as a training method to teach people, therefore if one form of learning is superior to the other, this can be implemented in the training programmes for better results. Overall, this study is interested in the effects of prior exposure to VR, immersion level, and learning type on episodic and spatial memory in virtual reality. Study design and procedure Prior ethical approval by the University of Bath Psychology Research Ethics Committee PREC PREC UG 22 238 was obtained. This is an experimental study that lasts 40 minutes. Design 3X2X2 factorial design Independent variables: -Familiarity with VR (high, moderate, and absent) -Type of learning (incidental vs intentional) -Level of immersion (high immersion condition will be exploring the virtual environment using an immersive VR headset: Oculus Rift, whereas the low immersion condition will be exploring the virtual environment using a desktop monitor) Dependent variables: Memory performance (spatial and episodic) Apparatus The virtual environment was developed by Papaioannou et al. (in preparation). Oculus Rift HMD and a 24” desktop monitor will be used. The virtual environment is a town that consists of a road, townhouses, and stores. During the task, participants walk in the virtual town and complete several objectives. There are two variants of the town (E1 and E2), different on street layout, to avoid primacy effects. Procedure Participants will be randomly assigned using randbetween function in excel into VR or desktop group, high, moderate, or absent familiarity group, and intentional or incidental group. In phase 1, participants in high familiarity group will explore E2 in VR (or desktop). Participants in moderate familiarity group will watch a video of a city tour was chosen for the moderate-familiarity group (VR Gorilla, 2022). For the control group structure colouring pictures were printed to colour as part of the prior exposure session, which lasted for 10 minutes. The duration of three groups will be similar. During the short break between two phases, participants in intentional group will be told to remember everything they can about the virtual town. Participants in incidental group will not be told this. In phase two, all participants complete the same task in E1 town, in the same condition (VR or desktop) as in phase 1. During this they have to perform several objectives (e.g., buy a newspaper from the petrol station). When they finish the two phases, participants will be asked to complete memory tests. First, they complete the memory task in the VE with two location-finding tasks, where participants are placed at different starting points in the virtual environment (e.g., bank) and instructed to find another landmark (e.g. petrol station). Second, there is a pointing task in which participants are placed at the location of a landmarked and asked to point to another landmark (e.g., the park). Task completion time and error angles in the pointing task were recorded. Spatial and episodic memory were also measured using post-test questionnaires. The questionnaires consisted of two free recall tasks and a recognition of events and scenes from the main virtual environment. The first free recall task involved listing all the items seen in the hardware store and the second free recall task involved identifying the location of the listed items in a top-down view of the hardware store. In the recognition task, participants are asked to answer yes or no to questions describing the presence of elements in the environment. Questionnaires Cybersickness (Kim et al., 2018, 9 items on a 4-point Likert scale; see Appendix 6) will be administered at pretest and post-test, presence (Presence Questionnaire measures the self-report level of presence in VR, Witmer & Singer, 1994, 22 items on a 7-point Likert scale), and cognitive absorption (CA, Agarwal and Karahanna, 2000, 23 items on a 5-point Likert scale) will be administered only at post-test. All will be administered in Qualtrics. Participants Healthy adults between the age of 18 to 65, with a capacity to provide informed consent. Following a G* Power analysis, the sample size will be 120 participants to achieve .8 power with a medium effect size of 0.3. Recruitment will be carried out using the researchers’ personal networks, the University of Bath’s psychology research participation scheme, the Research Community Participation Panel, social media channels, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp using personal accounts, and word of mouth. Eligibility criteria: Healthy populations with no neurological or current mental health conditions, as previous literature has suggested that those conditions will affect cognitive performance (Tulving; 2002); no history of epilepsy or seizure, which is to mediate the risk of harm for participants; normal or corrected to normal visual and hearing conditions. Data analysis All data analysis will be done using SPSS. To achieve our objectives, we will do the following: 1. Assess the effects of co-variates (e.g., cybersickness, cognitive absorption, presence) we will run independent t tests to see if there are any differences between groups. After this, significant co-variates will be controlled for using and ANCOVA (one way or mixed). 2. Test for main effects for familiarity with VR on memory performance (ANCOVA or ANOVA see above) 3. Test for main effects of type of learning on memory performance (ANCOVA or ANOVA see above) 4. Test for main effects of immersion on memory performance (ANCOVA or ANOVA see above) 5. Test for interaction effects on memory performance (ANCOVA or ANOVA see above) 6. Assess the relationships between memory performance and all covariates (cybersickness, cognitive absorption and presence) using Pearson's r or Spearman's rho.

Study Information Background and objectives Although virtual reality (VR) is a promising tool for studying memory, much remains unknown about how learning processes are operated in VR and how those mechanisms may compare or contrast to those that occur in traditional desk-top settings (Smith, 2019). This study is designed to address this gap in literature investigating how immersive VR experience affects memory compared to non-immersive desk-top settings and aim to gain a better understanding of whether prior sessions and/or exposures in VR can enhance memory performance, and how properties of virtual environments affect memory. VR studies often examine incidental learning in memory, defined as remembering things without specifically intending to, as this type of learning replicates the majority of how we learn in real life. However, research suggests that intentional learning, which is remembering things by consciously trying to learn them, can sometimes lead to better memory recall. Therefore, this study is also interested in whether there is a difference between incidental and intentional learning in virtual reality, specifically examining episodic and spatial memory. This is important as VR is increasingly being used as a training method to teach people, therefore if one form of learning is superior to the other, this can be implemented in the training programmes for better results. Overall, this study is interested in the effects of prior exposure to VR, immersion level, and learning type on episodic and spatial memory in virtual reality. Study design and procedure Prior ethical approval by the University of Bath Psychology Research Ethics Committee PREC PREC UG 22 238 was obtained. This is an experimental study that lasts 40 minutes. Design 3X2X2 factorial design Independent variables: -Familiarity with VR (high, moderate, and absent) -Type of learning (incidental vs intentional) -Level of immersion (high immersion condition will be exploring the virtual environment using an immersive VR headset: Oculus Rift, whereas the low immersion condition will be exploring the virtual environment using a desktop monitor) Dependent variables: Memory performance (spatial and episodic) Apparatus The virtual environment was developed by Papaioannou et al. (in preparation). Oculus Rift HMD and a 24” desktop monitor will be used. The virtual environment is a town that consists of a road, townhouses, and stores. During the task, participants walk in the virtual town and complete several objectives. There are two variants of the town (E1 and E2), different on street layout, to avoid primacy effects. Procedure Participants will be randomly assigned using randbetween function in excel into VR or desktop group, high, moderate, or absent familiarity group, and intentional or incidental group. In phase 1, participants in high familiarity group will explore E2 in VR (or desktop). Participants in moderate familiarity group will watch a video of a city tour was chosen for the moderate-familiarity group (VR Gorilla, 2022). For the control group structure colouring pictures were printed to colour as part of the prior exposure session, which lasted for 10 minutes. The duration of three groups will be similar. During the short break between two phases, participants in intentional group will be told to remember everything they can about the virtual town. Participants in incidental group will not be told this. In phase two, all participants complete the same task in E1 town, in the same condition (VR or desktop) as in phase 1. During this they have to perform several objectives (e.g., buy a newspaper from the petrol station). When they finish the two phases, participants will be asked to complete memory tests. First, they complete the memory task in the VE with two location-finding tasks, where participants are placed at different starting points in the virtual environment (e.g., bank) and instructed to find another landmark (e.g. petrol station). Second, there is a pointing task in which participants are placed at the location of a landmarked and asked to point to another landmark (e.g., the park). Task completion time and error angles in the pointing task were recorded. Spatial and episodic memory were also measured using post-test questionnaires. The questionnaires consisted of two free recall tasks and a recognition of events and scenes from the main virtual environment. The first free recall task involved listing all the items seen in the hardware store and the second free recall task involved identifying the location of the listed items in a top-down view of the hardware store. In the recognition task, participants are asked to answer yes or no to questions describing the presence of elements in the environment. Questionnaires Cybersickness (Kim et al., 2018, 9 items on a 4-point Likert scale; see Appendix 6) will be administered at pretest and post-test, presence (Presence Questionnaire measures the self-report level of presence in VR, Witmer & Singer, 1994, 22 items on a 7-point Likert scale), and cognitive absorption (CA, Agarwal and Karahanna, 2000, 23 items on a 5-point Likert scale) will be administered only at post-test. All will be administered in Qualtrics. Participants Healthy adults between the age of 18 to 65, with a capacity to provide informed consent. Following a G* Power analysis, the sample size will be 120 participants to achieve .8 power with a medium effect size of 0.3. Recruitment will be carried out using the researchers’ personal networks, the University of Bath’s psychology research participation scheme, the Research Community Participation Panel, social media channels, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp using personal accounts, and word of mouth. Eligibility criteria: Healthy populations with no neurological or current mental health conditions, as previous literature has suggested that those conditions will affect cognitive performance (Tulving; 2002); no history of epilepsy or seizure, which is to mediate the risk of harm for participants; normal or corrected to normal visual and hearing conditions. Data analysis All data analysis will be done using SPSS. To achieve our objectives, we will do the following: 1. Assess the effects of co-variates (e.g., cybersickness, cognitive absorption, presence) we will run independent t tests to see if there are any differences between groups. After this, significant co-variates will be controlled for using and ANCOVA (one way or mixed). 2. Test for main effects for familiarity with VR on memory performance (ANCOVA or ANOVA see above) 3. Test for main effects of type of learning on memory performance (ANCOVA or ANOVA see above) 4. Test for main effects of immersion on memory performance (ANCOVA or ANOVA see above) 5. Test for interaction effects on memory performance (ANCOVA or ANOVA see above) 6. Assess the relationships between memory performance and all covariates (cybersickness, cognitive absorption and presence) using Pearson's r or Spearman's rho.

1Red Shadows

By Robert E. Howard

Red Shadows is the first of a series of stories featuring Howard's puritan avenger, Solomon Kane. Kane tracks his prey over land and sea, enters the jungles of Africa, and even faces dark gods and evil magic -- all to avenge a woman he'd never met before. (Summary by Paul Siegel)

Breckinridge Elkins is the roughest, toughest, fastest-shootin', hardest-fightin' feller in the Bear Creek settlement, and probably in the entire Humbolt Mountains. As he travels further from home, he single-handedly takes on outlaws, settles (and starts) feuds and tries his hand at romancing the girls. He also discovers a lot of strange customs among other folks, such as building houses out of boards and wearing clothes that ain't buckskins. Set in Nevada during the late 1800's, this collection of stories is a great rollicking romp through the American frontier as seen through the eyes of one of the most enjoyable characters created in the history of tall tales. (Summary by RK Wilcox)

Breckinridge Elkins is the roughest, toughest, fastest-shootin', hardest-fightin' feller in the Bear Creek settlement, and probably in the entire Humbolt Mountains. As he travels further from home, he single-handedly takes on outlaws, settles (and starts) feuds and tries his hand at romancing the girls. He also discovers a lot of strange customs among other folks, such as building houses out of boards and wearing clothes that ain't buckskins. Set in Arizona during the late 1800's, this collection of stories is a great rollicking romp through the American frontier as seen through the eyes of one of the most enjoyable characters created in the history of tall tales. (Summary by RK Wilcox)

4Red Nails

By Robert E. Howard

Conan the Cimmerian pursues the beautiful and deadly pirate Valeria after she kills a Stygian only to find himself cornered by a dragon. Apparently this dragon doesn’t know who he’s messing with. The pair then encounters the city of Xuchotl with its warring factions and ancient secrets. Swordplay and sorcery ensue. – Red Nails is Howard’s final Conan story and was published in the July, August, September and October 1936 issues of Weird Tales magazine (Summary by Gregg Margarite)

Francis Key Howard recounts in this book his life as a political prisoner of the United States. He points out that he was held captive at the same location where his grandfather was inspired to write the national anthem about the "land of the free," which makes a very stunning contrast. The sufferings that were imposed on him by the Union forces had the effect of solidifying his determination to resist unjust governmental dictates. (Introduction by Katie Riley)

6Devil in Iron

By Robert E. Howard

Conan's lustful desires again get him into a whole pile of trouble. This time the beautiful, golden haired, noble born Octavia, lures him into a fiendish trap set by his most powerful enemies and from which there seems to be no escape. But on the long deserted island of Xapur where he goes to capture this crafty beauty, it is not just mortal enemies that await him; Khosatral Khel a demon that crawled up from the abyss many eons ago and is of a substance as hard as iron has been awakened and is intent on crushing Conan and the woman like bugs for it's amusement. Conan is up against a being immensely stronger than he is and which he cannot kill with normal weapons. Will his mighty thews and muscles finally be crushed beneath the iron fists of this devil? Will Conan finally meet his match in this fierce but scantily clad woman or will she finally yield to his powerful kisses? Listen and discover the answer to these questions. (Summary by Phil Chenevert)

7Hour of the Dragon

By Robert E. Howard

The Hour of the Dragon, also known as Conan the Conqueror, is a fantasy novel by American writer Robert E. Howard featuring his sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian. It was one of the last Conan stories published before Howard's suicide although not the last to be written. The novel was first published in serial form in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1935 through 1936. (Summary from Wikipedia)

8Jewels of Gwahlur

By Robert E. Howard

Conan The Barbarian is after fabulous treasure in this exciting story. But he finds himself in more difficulties than he had counted on. Crafty and powerful human opponents seek to skin him alive, bestial mutations seek to rip his arms off, denizens of the deep want to devour him whole and scantily clad dusky beauties try to waylay him at every step. And all of this to find the Jewels of Gwahlur, the most fabulous treasure every hidden in a secret temple. Has Conan finally met his match? Will his evil enemies or the seductive women finally succeed in making him beg for mercy? Listen and find out. Caution: there is some sex, lots of (justified) violence and the women are all equally voluptuous, independent, yielding and very dangerous.

9People of the Black Circle

By Robert E. Howard

"The People of the Black Circle" is one of the original novellas about Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in Weird Tales magazine in three parts over the September, October and November 1934 issues. It is set in the pseudo-historical Hyborian Age and concerns Conan kidnapping a regal princess of Vendhya (pre-historical India) and foiling a nefarious plot of world domination by the Black Seers of Yimsha. Due to its epic scope and atypical Hindustan flavor, the story is considered an undisputed classic of Conan lore and is often cited by Howard scholars as one of his best tales. It is also one of the few Howard stories where the reader is treated a deeper insight on magic and magicians beyond the stereotypical Hyborian depiction as demon conjurer-illusionist-priests. (Summary by Wikipedia)

10Queen of the Black Coast

By Robert E. Howard

Conan finally meets his match in Belit, the fierce, bloodthirsty and scantily clad pirate Queen. She also is unable to resist the huge, blue eyed, iron thewed barbarian who literally sweeps her off her feet. Together they become pirates of legend and are the scourge of the Black Coast. They venture up the river of death where no one has gone in centuries and lived, in search of plunder, battle and adventure. And get get more of all three than they could wish for.

11Shadows in Zamboula

By Robert E. Howard

Despite a warning received in the Suq by an elderly desert nomad, Conan stays the night in a cheap tavern in Zamboula, run by Aram Baksh. As night falls, a black Darfarian cannibal enters to drag him away to be eaten. All of the Darfar slaves in the city are cannibals who roam the streets at night. As they only prey on travellers, the people of the city tolerate this and stay locked securely in their homes, while nomads and beggars make sure to spend the night at a comfortable distance from its walls. This night, however, Conan finds a naked woman chasing through the streets after her deranged lover; Conan rescues them from an attack by the cannibals. She tells him that she tried to secure her lover's unending affection via a love potion which instead made a raving lunatic of him. Promising Conan "a reward" in return for his assistance, they attempt to kill the high priest responsible for the man's madness. (Summary by Wikipedia)

12Shadows in the Moonlight

By Robert E. Howard

For a genuine Conan tale, full of barbarian craftiness, magic, fierce fighting and his berserker strength, this meets every criteria and is one of the best. Conan was raiding with the Free Companions when they were trapped and slaughtered by the merciless Shah Amurath the great Lord of Akif. Conan is one of the very few who escape by hiding in the mud of the marshes like a beast living on raw snake and muskrat. Luck, which seems to have deserted him, smiles again and allows him the chance for revenge and he eagerly seizes it, destroying his enemy with fierce strokes. Barely escaping his soldiers with the slave girl Olivia, once a princess of Koth, they reach a deserted island that holds many enchantments and strange dangers. Then the pirates arrive and things become even bloodier. (Summary by Phil Chenevert)

13Beyond the Black River

By Robert E. Howard

Conan the Barbarian is employed by one of the civilized countries to help in it's push to claim lands from the primitive Picts. The Picts are not excited about the idea however. Old gods and mythical creatures are called up by the Pict witches to contest the invading army and Conan finds himself battling for his life amid the blood thirsty hordes that include saber-toothed tigers, 40 foot long venomous snakes and a demon from another dimension who is intent on crushing him. The huge dog Slasher makes an appearance here and distinguishes himself so well in a doomed battle to delay their forces that Conan openly praises his courage and pledges that 7 Pict heads will roll in his honor. (Summary by Phil Chenevert)

14Witch Shall Be Born

By Robert E. Howard

The kingdom of Khauran is admittedly a small one, nestled between the vast desert and the plains, but it is blessed with an abundance of rich soil, hard working devoted inhabitants and much gold but most of all by a sweet young queen who is as wise and beneficent as she is beautiful. But then from out of nowhere, disaster strikes. A horrible witch (her evil twin sister) secretly replaces her and introduces devil worship, human sacrifice and other things too repulsive to mention. Conan, who was the captain of her guard is captured and crucified in the desert. From there the incomparable story telling skill of Robert E. Howard takes us on a spiral of exciting intrigue, battle, blood, demons, and final retribution. (summary by phil chenevert)

15Gods of the North

By Robert E. Howard

"The Frost-Giant's Daughter" is, arguably the earliest chronological story by Robert E. Howard in terms of Conan's life. The brief tale is set somewhere in frozen Nordheim, geographically situated north of Conan's homeland, Cimmeria. Conan is depicted by Howard as a youthful Cimmerian mercenary traveling among the golden-haired Aesir in a war party.<br /><br /> Shortly before the story begins, a hand-to-hand battle has occurred on an icy plain. Eighty men ("four score") have perished in bloody combat, and Conan alone survives the battlefield where Wulfhere's Aesir "reavers" fought the Vanir "wolves" of Bragi, a Vanir chieftain. Thus, the story opens.<br /><br /> Following this fierce battle against the red-haired Vanir, Conan the Cimmerian, lying exhausted on the corpse-strewn battlefield, is visited by a beautiful, condescending and semi-nude woman identifying herself as "Atali." Upon her bodice, she wears a transparent veil: a wisp of gossamer that was not spun by human distaff. The mere sight of her strange nakedness kindles Conan's lust and, when she repeatedly taunts him, he madly chases her for miles across the snows with the intent of raping her. The excitement continues but I won't ruin the story for you by saying more. Can Conan deal with this daughter of a frost-giant? And what when her daddy shows up? (from Wikipedia and Phil Chenevert)

16Red Nails (version 2)

By Robert E. Howard

Conan the Barbarian finds himself lusting after and fighting alongside the toughest woman alive, Valeria The Red, a beautiful pirate who out pirates the best of them in her strength and ferocity. This is one of the strangest stories ever written by Robert E. Howard — the tale of a barbarian adventurer, a woman pirate, and a weird enclosed and long dead city now inhabited by the most peculiar race of men ever spawned. Listen and be amazed at Howard's inventive genius. - Summary by phil Chenevert

17People of the Black Circle (version 2)

By Robert E. Howard

The People of the Black Circle" is one of the original novellas about Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in Weird Tales magazine in three parts over the September, October and November 1934 issues. Howard earned $250 for the publication of this story.</p> It is set in the pseudo-historical Hyborian Age and concerns Conan kidnapping a regal princess of Vendhya (pre-historical India) and foiling a nefarious plot of world domination by the Black Seers of Yimsha. Due to its epic scope and atypical Hindustan flavor, the story is considered an undisputed classic of Conan lore and is often cited by Howard scholars as one of his best tales. It is also one of the few Howard stories where the reader is treated a deeper insight on magic and magicians beyond the stereotypical Hyborian depiction as demon conjurer-illusionist-priests. - Summary from Wikipedia

18Poems

By Hattie Howard

<i>"This poet's ear is so attuned to metric harmony that she must have been born within sound of some osier-fringed brook leaping and hurrying over its pebbly bed. There is a variety of subject and treatment, sufficient for all tastes, and these are poems which should be cherished."<br></br> "Lovers of good poetry will herald with pleasure this new and attractive volume by the well-known authoress of Hartford. A wooing sentiment and genial spirit seem to guide her in every train of thought. Her book has received, and deserves, warm commendations of the press."</i> - Summary by the 1904 press

19Shadows in Zamboula (version 2)

By Robert E. Howard

In the dark streets of Zamboula, huge ghouls stalk the night seeking victims for their ghastly rites and feasts. Conan is passing through this city and is almost a victim but escapes, only to rush to the aid of a beautiful, voluptuous maiden still in their horrible talons. Swords flash, thews are strained and the mighty Conan almost meets his match in the temple of the monkey god. Will he escape? Will he get the girl? Listen and marvel! Excellent story, well told as always by Howard. Summary by phil chenevert

20Hour of the Dragon (version 2)

By Robert E. Howard

This is absolutely the best Conan novel ever written in my opinion. It follows Conan when at the peak of his power as king of Aquilonia, he is overthrown by dark, evil magic from Stygia and turned into a hunted refugee. A 3,000 year old magician from the most evil empire that ever existed is resurrected and with his sinister aid, Conan's enemies cause the barbarian's downfall. The plot twists and turns in wonderful fashion, following the Heart of Arihman, a strange extremely powerful magic jewel from another universe. He fights back as only he can against tremendous odds; beautiful women love and aid him; other beautiful women try to kill him; he travels through many hostile countries; his days as a corsair and pirate are remembered and used; and so, so, much more. This book was a joy to read and it will be a good listen for Conan fans. (by phil Chenevert).

21Tobogganing

By Hattie Howard

"This author's verse shows a hearty, wholesome, human spirit, sometimes overflowing into downright fun, and a straightforward directness always. It is a pleasant book, sure to be welcomed by all." (EXTRACTS FROM PRESS NOTICES OF A FORMER VOLUME.)

The sixth and final cycle of Wheels was published in 1921, and is much shorter than the preceding volumes. Apart from the three Sitwells, the poets represented are Aldous Huxley, Alan Porter, Sherard Vines, H.R.Barbour, Charles Orange (Brian Howard), Paul Selver and Augustine Rivers. - Summary by Algy Pug

23Christmas at Church

By Hattie Howard

LibriVox volunteers bring you 8 recordings of Christmas at Church by Hattie Howard.<br> This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for December 2, 2018. <br> ------<br> This Fortnightly Poem is taken from Poems by Hattie Howard, Pub 1902 (David Lawrence )

24Red Shadows (Version 2)

By Robert E. Howard

Excitement and sorcery mixed with blades of steel. The mysterious stranger who appears out of nowhere to avenge injustice and defend the defenseless. Robert Howard, in this early story of his, gives us Solomon Kane; the man who walks like a leopard, wears all black and is relentless in perusing evil doers. But he is pitted against voodoo and the superbly skillful opponent - Le Loupe - The Wolfe and may have met his doom. - Summary by phil chenevert

25Weird Tales Double Feature: Kull of Valusia

By Robert E. Howard

Before Conan the Barbarian, Robert E. Howard created Kull the Conqueror, revealed later by Howard to be an ancestor of Conan. Kull, like Conan is a vicious and bloodthirsty barbarian but in some ways is a more contemplative and thoughtful character. In these, the first two Kull stories Howard published, we find Kull dealing with a conspiracy to murder him by a race of shapeshifting lizard people in "The Shadow Kingdom" and we see Kull contemplating his place in the world and even his own reality as he becomes ensnared in the wicked plot of a magician in "The Mirrors of Tuzun Thume". Relish in the savagery of a Hyperborean Age of brutality and bloodlust with another double feature from the fine folks at Weird Tales magazine! - Summary by Ben Tucker

Grandmaster of weird fiction Robert E. Howard is perhaps most well-known as the forefather of dark fantasy via creations like Conan the Barbarian and Solomon Kane. While not as well-known but no less strange and mesmerizing are his tales of agonizing horror found in Weird Tales Magazine, many of which take places in the grim and stark swamp lands and forests of the American South, showing us terrifying visions of the ghastly and grisly that may lurk, not in faraway lands of magic and mystery, but just around the corner. Join Mr. Howard on a journey through what may be his most heart-stopping, pulse-pounding stories of horror in this thrilling collection ripped from the pages of Weird Tales! - Summary by Ben Tucker

27Christmas-Tide

By Hattie Howard

LibriVox volunteers bring you 16 recordings of Christmas-Tide By Hattie Howard.<br> This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for December 8, 2024. <br> ------<br> "Many of the poems abound in playful humor or tender touches of sympathy which appeal to a refined feeling, and love for the good, the true, and the beautiful." (from the Introduction to Poems by Hattie Howard Vol. IV)

28Skull-Face

By Robert E. Howard

An ancient necromancer from Atlantis has returned to life, and plots world domination under the surviving Atlanteans! Mystery, terror, blood n guts, romance, treachery, death, fear, survival -- an awesomely delightful smorgasbord of mucking fisticuffs and mighty fun! Thick and dangerous plots filled with murky motivations and blood-thrilling battles of wit and brawn! Massive fists of powerful writing pummel the readers' senses into an euphoric overload until everything hums with the passion of a master storyteller. - Summary by The Narrator