Search

The Hebb repetition effect shows improvement in serial recall of repeated lists compared to random nonrepeated lists. Previous research using simple span tasks found that the Hebb repetition effect is limited to constant uninterrupted lists, suggesting chunking as the mechanism of list learning. However, the Hebb repetition effect has been found in complex span tasks, which challenges the chunking explanation, as successive list items are separated by distractor processing, possibly interfering with the unified representations. We tested the possibility that Hebb repetition learning arises from chunking in simple span, but from position–item associations in complex span. In a series of five experiments, we found evidence that contradicts that hypothesis. Results show that (a) Hebb repetition learning in a complex span task can be transferred to a simple span task; (b) Hebb repetition learning from a complex span task cannot be transferred to a partially repeated simple span task; (c) partial repetition in a complex span task does not lead to learning; (d) Hebb repetition learning from a simple span task can be transferred to a complex span task; and (e) repeating the distractors in complex span has no impact on the Hebb repetition effect. These results suggest that the mechanism underlying the Hebb repetition effect in simple and complex span tasks is the same and points at the creation of chunks while excluding the distractors from the long-term memory representation.

To aid the teachings of machine learning (ML), the usage of elaborative interrogative practice questions (EIPQ) is proposed to increase the long-term memory retention of said teaching. Firstly, the existing expectations of students in the current educational landscape are analyzed by taking a look at the undergraduate course present in Delft University of Technology's own Computer Science and Engineering program (CSE2510). Then, relevant theories and techniques for long-term memory retention through practice questions are introduced and applied to CSE2510 content. Finally, an experiment was carried out where roughly half of the participants made use of these newly created EIPQ, while the other half mostly used existing questions, serving as a control group (CQ). The results showed that, compared to the existing practice questions, the use of the newly created EIPQ had a profound impact on the long-term knowledge retention of the learning content. The participants who made use of EIPQ had an average retention ratio of 0.82, compared to the participants who made use of CQ, who had an average retention ratio of 0.57. Therefore, it is suggested that including EIPQ in our current educational model has favorable benefits to the students' knowledge retention of the learned content. A recommendation is made on how to carry out these methods in practice, keeping compatibility with existing learning objectives in mind., CSE3000 Research Project, Computer Science and Engineering

Event boundaries and temporal context shape the organization of episodic memories. We hypothesized that attentional fluctuations during encoding serve as "events" that affect temporal context representations and recall organization. Individuals encoded trial-unique objects during a modified sustained attention task. Memory was tested with free recall. Response time variability during the encoding tasks was used to characterize "in the zone" and "out of the zone" attentional states. We predicted that: 1) "in the zone", vs. "out of the zone", attentional states should be more conducive to maintaining temporal context representations that can cue temporally organized recall; and 2) temporally distant "in the zone" states may enable more recall "leaps" across intervening items. We replicated several important findings in the sustained attention and memory fields, including more online errors during "out of the zone" vs. "in the zone" attentional states and recall that was temporally structured. Yet, across four studies, we found no evidence for either of our main hypotheses. Recall was robustly temporally organized, and there was no difference in recall organization for items encoded "in the zone" vs. "out of the zone". We conclude that temporal context serves as a strong scaffold for episodic memory, one that can support organized recall even for items encoded during relatively poor attentional states. We also highlight the numerous challenges in striking a balance between sustained attention tasks (long blocks of a repetitive task) and memory recall tasks (short lists of unique items) and describe strategies for researchers interested in uniting these two fields.

Everyday experience requires processing external signals from the world around us and internal information retrieved from memory. To do both, the brain must fluctuate between states that are optimized for external versus internal attention. Here, we focus on the hippocampus as a region that may serve at the interface between these forms of attention and ask how it switches between prioritizing sensory signals from the external world versus internal signals related to memories and thoughts. Pharmacological, computational, and animal studies have identified input from the cholinergic basal forebrain as important for biasing the hippocampus toward processing external information, whereas complementary research suggests the dorsal attention network (DAN) may aid in allocating attentional resources toward accessing internal information. We therefore tested the hypothesis that the basal forebrain and DAN drive the hippocampus toward external and internal attention, respectively. We used data from 29 human participants (17 female) who completed two attention tasks during fMRI. One task (memory-guided) required proportionally more internal attention, and proportionally less external attention, than the other (explicitly instructed). We discovered that background functional connectivity between the basal forebrain and hippocampus was stronger during the explicitly instructed versus memory-guided task. In contrast, DAN-hippocampus background connectivity was stronger during the memory-guided versus explicitly instructed task. Finally, the strength of DAN-hippocampus background connectivity was correlated with performance on the memory-guided but not explicitly instructed task. Together, these results provide evidence that the basal forebrain and DAN may modulate the hippocampus to switch between external and internal attention.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT How does the brain balance the need to pay attention to internal thoughts and external sensations? We focused on the human hippo

Operations on high-dimensional, fixed-width vectors can be used to distribute information from several vectors over a single vector of the same width. For example, a set of key-value pairs can be encoded into a single vector with multiplication and addition of the corresponding key and value vectors: the keys are bound to their values with component-wise multiplication, and the key-value pairs are combined into a single superposition vector with component-wise addition. The superposition vector is, thus, a memory which can then be queried for the value of any of the keys, but the result of the query is approximate. The exact vector is retrieved from a codebook (a.k.a. item memory), which contains vectors defined in the system. To perform these operations, the item memory vectors and the superposition vector must be the same width. Increasing the capacity of the memory requires increasing the width of the superposition and item memory vectors. In this article, we demonstrate that in a regime where many (e.g., 1,000 or more) key-value pairs are stored, an associative memory which maps key vectors to value vectors requires less memory and less computing to obtain the same reliability of storage as a superposition vector. These advantages are obtained because the number of storage locations in an associate memory can be increased without increasing the width of the vectors in the item memory. An associative memory would not replace a superposition vector as a medium of storage, but could augment it, because data recalled from an associative memory could be used in algorithms that use a superposition vector. This would be analogous to how human working memory (which stores about seven items) uses information recalled from long-term memory (which is much larger than the working memory). We demonstrate the advantages of an associative memory experimentally using the storage of large finite-state automata, which could model the storage and recall of state-dependent behavior, This research was supported by Air Force Office of Scientific Research Program on Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience, FA9550-19-1-0241. DK has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 839179. Publication made possible in part by support from the Berkeley Research Impact Initiative (BRII) sponsored by the UC Berkeley Library.

This article describes memory and its laws.

This article describes memory and its laws.

Adaptation and personalization are critical elements when modeling robot behaviors toward users in real-world settings. Multiple aspects of the user need to be taken into consideration in order to personalize the interaction, such as their personality, emotional state, intentions, and actions. While this information can be obtained a priori through self-assessment questionnaires or in realtime during the interaction through user profiling, behaviors and preferences can evolve in long-term interactions. Thus, gradually learning new concepts or skills (i.e., "lifelong learning") both for the users and the environment is crucial to adapt to new situations and personalize interactions with the aim of maintaining their interest and engagement. In addition, adapting to individual differences autonomously through lifelong learning allows for inclusive interactions with all users with varying capabilities and backgrounds. The third edition1 of the "Lifelong Learning and Personalization in Long-Term Human-Robot Interaction (LEAP-HRI)" workshop aims to gather and present interdisciplinary insights from a variety of fields, such as education, rehabilitation, elderly care, service and companion robots, for lifelong robot learning and adaptation to users, context, environment, and activities in long-term interactions. The workshop aims to promote a common ground among the relevant scientific communities through invited talks and indepth discussions via paper presentations, break-out groups, and a scientific debate. In line with the HRI 2023 conference theme, "HRI for all", our workshop theme is "adaptivity for all" to encourage HRI theories, methods, designs, and studies for lifelong learning, personalization, and adaptation that aims to promote inclusion and diversity in HRI., Part of ISBN 9781450399708QC 20230801

The main objective of this study is to analyze the effect of inclusive language on the cognitive processing of reading comprehension (in terms of consolidation and retrieval of cognitive material during text reading). The memory trace has been operationalized as the consolidation of information in the long-term memory (after being processed in the working memory) to be able to be retrieved later. An experimental design was used to analyze the response times and the number of errors in the retrieval of this memory trace on different experimental conditions for its consolidation (inclusive language conditions included). The results show that the inclusive language conditions increase the number of errors compared to the language condition written in the so-called “neutral format” (grammatically correct). The data is in line with previous literature that shows that—in order to answer questions after reading a text—an efficient memory trace elaborated in long-term memory is required. In this sense, the effect produced by the inclusive language implies an inefficient consolidation and, therefore, an ineffective retrieval of the information consolidated during reading comprehension (in terms of number of errors)

To fulfill the explicit mandate of meeting (or exceeding) benchmarks established for the learning objectives associated with programmatic curricular goals, it is incumbent and imperative that the educational process of sharing instructional material with students is not interfered with. However, mobile technology – especially in the form of smartphone use by students while in the classroom during learning activities – may effectively distract attention and focus sufficiently enough to jeopardize both academic performance and the concomitant achievement of learning objectives. The concern is serious and the consequences are significant. This study has attempted to ascertain if the problematic use of smartphones by students can negatively impact the learning experience. The research design plan involved a correlational explanatory approach with a population of students enrolled in a higher education institution. Each participant in a convenience sample from this population completed a Smartphone Impact Scale (SIS) instrument, which was then compared to that student’s academic performance. After data collection was completed, the analysis derived from normality assumptions and a correlation matrix revealed a statistically significant association and a medium effect size, which indicates the possibility of an undesirable influence by problematic smartphone use on academic performance. This outcome reinforces similar results obtained by other researchers, and – collectively – suggests that administrators and faculty weigh in these considerations regarding policies related to smartphone presence and extended use during a live classroom experience. Further investigations that feature differing contextual factors would help add greatly to a deeper understanding of this phenomenon.

We analyzed a Japanese lexical database to investigate the structure of the lexical environment based on the hypothesis that the lexical environment is optimized for the functioning of verbal working memory. Our prediction was that, as a consequence of the cultural transmission of language, low-imageable meanings tend to be represented by frequent phonological patterns in the current vocabulary rather than infrequent phonological patterns. This prediction was based on two findings of previous laboratory studies on verbal working memory. (1) The quality of phonological (phonemic and accent) representations in verbal working memory depends on phonological regularity knowledge; therefore, short-term phonological representations are less robust for words with infrequent phonological patterns. (2) Phonological representations are underpinned by contributions from semantic knowledge; therefore, phonological representations of highly imageable words are more robust than those for low-imageable words. Our database analyses show that nouns with less imageable meanings tend to be associated with more frequent phonological patterns in Japanese vocabulary. This lexical structure can maintain the quality of phonological representations in verbal working memory through contributions of semantic and phonological regularity knowledge. Larger semantic contributions compensate for the less robust phonological representations of infrequent phonological forms. The quality of phonological representations is preserved by phonological regularity knowledge when larger semantic contributions are not expected.

The Hebb repetition effect on serial-recall task refers to the improvement in the accuracy of recall of a repeated list (e.g., repeated in every 3 trials) over random non-repeated lists. Previous research has shown that both temporal position and neighboring items need to be the same on each repetition list for the Hebb repetition effect to occur, suggesting chunking as one of its underlying mechanisms. Accordingly, one can expect absence of the Hebb repetition effect in a complex span task, given that the sequence is interrupted by distractors. Nevertheless, one study by Oberauer, Jones, and Lewandowsky (2015, Memory & Cognition, 43[6], 852–865) showed evidence of the Hebb repetition effect in a complex span task. Throughout four experiments, we confirmed the Hebb repetition effect in complex span tasks, even when we included distractors in both encoding and recall phases to avoid any resemblance to a simple span task and minimized the possibility of chunking. Results showed that the Hebb repetition effect was not affected by the distractors during encoding and recall. A transfer cycle analysis showed that the long-term knowledge acquired in the complex span task can be transferred to a simple span task. These findings provide the first insights on the mechanism behind the Hebb repetition effect in complex span tasks; it is at least partially based on the same mechanism that improves recall performance by repetition in simple span tasks.

Analogical transfer, or the ability to use similar solutions to solve seemingly dissimilar problems, has been studied in children using tasks that require the support of long-term memory. However, the transfer of solutions that require the use of tools, or objects with certain functional parts, has not been studied in great depth. This paper replicates and extends upon data collected from a novel study that investigated the role of age and memory on analogical transfer across children who attend public preschools in southern Sweden (Bobrowicz et al., 2020). The purpose of this study was to integrate analogical transfer with functional tool-dependent problem solving and study how both skills develop in toddlerhood. The replication yielded similar results to the original experiment in all five hypotheses tested, with the main finding being that age is not a significant predictor of being able to display analogical transfer from task to task. As an extension to the variables examined in the study, two additional models were created to see whether spending more time with the functional tool or with the relevant apparatus leads to a greater percentage of successes in solving the test task, but there were no significant differences found in this model.

Flera studier har gjorts om hur cognitive load theory kan vara användbar för att urskilja lögner, där forskare ofta har använt externa distraktioner för att öka den kognitiva belastningen för att se effekterna på deltagares förmåga att framgångsrikt fabricera en berättelse. För att vidareutveckla den tidigare forskningen har denna studie ämnat att fortsätta utforska hur metoder som utgår från principer om kognitiv belastning kan användas för att diskriminera mellan sanning och lögn. I denna studies metod gjordes detta genom att observera deltagares skriftliga återberättande av sanningsenliga och fabricerade berättelser, där tangentloggning användes för att på ett kvantifierbart sätt kunna mäta skillnaderna i återberättandet där fokus lades på eventuella pauser. Totalt observerades 13 deltagare vid 3 olika tillfällen, där tillfällena var utspridda så att det fanns en vecka mellan varje. Under tillfällena fick deltagarna observera olika händelseförlopp, som de därefter blev instruerade att antingen återberätta sanningsenligt eller med vissa fabricerade detaljer. Varje deltagare återberättade ett händelseförlopp sanningsenligt och ett annat med fabricerade detaljer vid varje tillfälle. För att analysera resultaten så fokuserade man till stor del på mätningarna av pauser vid kritiska tillfällen av berättelsen. Analysen gjordes genom en Repeated Measure ANOVA med en 2x3 design (sanning/lögn x de 3 olika tillfällena). Resultatet visade att lögner uppvisade signifikant längre paustider än sanningsenligt återberättande. Utöver detta framträdde inga effekter. Implikationerna av resultatet är att det finns en kognitiv skillnad mellan att berätta sanningen och att berätta en lögn som kan mätas och urskiljas genom att observera längden på pauser i skrivprocessen när händelser återberättas i skrift., Several studies have been made about how cognitive load theory might be useful to discern lies, in which researchers have used external distractions to increase the cognitive load to observe how this impacts participants’ ability to successfully fabricate a story. To further the previous research, this study aimed to study the difference between telling the truth and telling a lie may be related to cognitive load. In this study, this was accomplished by observing 13 participants’ writing processes when telling truthful and fabricated stories, using keylogging tracking as to create a quantifiable way of measuring the retelling of stories with a focus on pause times. The participants were observed during 3 different times with one week between each occurrence. Each participant was instructed to either tell the story truthfully or to fabricate the details of those critical moments in accordance with the instructions. To get a more thorough overview of the storytelling, we measured the pauses both throughout the entire writing process and at critical moments. Thus, the conditions of the experiment were truth-telling versus lying, and the 3 occasions on which the experiment was conducted for each participant. Statistical analysis was done in a 2x3 Repeated Measures ANOVA (type of story x round). The result of the study was that the condition truth/lie had a significant main effect on pause times for one of the dependent variables. The implications of the result are that there is a cognitive difference between telling the truth and telling a lie that can be measured and discerned by observing the length of pauses when retelling events in writing.

Encoding of durable episodic memories requires cross-talk between the hippocampus and multiple brain regions. Changes in these hippocampal interactions could contribute to age-related declines in the ability to form memories that can be retrieved after extended time intervals. Here we tested whether hippocampal-neocortical- and subcortical functional connectivity (FC) observed during encoding of durable episodic memories differed between younger and older adults. About 48 younger (20-38 years; 25 females) and 43 older (60-80 years; 25 females) adults were scanned with fMRI while performing an associative memory encoding task. Source memory was tested ~20 min and ~6 days postencoding. Associations recalled after 20 min but later forgotten were classified as transient, whereas memories retained after long delays were classified as durable. Results demonstrated that older adults showed a reduced ability to form durable memories and reduced hippocampal-caudate FC during encoding of durable memories. There was also a positive relationship between hippocampal-caudate FC and higher memory performance among the older adults. No reliable age group differences in durable memory-encoding activity or hippocampal-neocortical connectivity were observed. These results support the classic theory of striatal alterations as one cause of cognitive decline in aging and highlight that age-related changes in episodic memory extend beyond hippocampal-neocortical connections.

Encoding of durable episodic memories requires cross-talk between the hippocampus and multiple brain regions. Changes in these hippocampal interactions could contribute to age-related declines in the ability to form memories that can be retrieved after extended time intervals. Here we tested whether hippocampal-neocortical- and subcortical functional connectivity (FC) observed during encoding of durable episodic memories differed between younger and older adults. About 48 younger (20-38 years; 25 females) and 43 older (60-80 years; 25 females) adults were scanned with fMRI while performing an associative memory encoding task. Source memory was tested ~20 min and ~6 days postencoding. Associations recalled after 20 min but later forgotten were classified as transient, whereas memories retained after long delays were classified as durable. Results demonstrated that older adults showed a reduced ability to form durable memories and reduced hippocampal-caudate FC during encoding of durable memories. There was also a positive relationship between hippocampal-caudate FC and higher memory performance among the older adults. No reliable age group differences in durable memory-encoding activity or hippocampal-neocortical connectivity were observed. These results support the classic theory of striatal alterations as one cause of cognitive decline in aging and highlight that age-related changes in episodic memory extend beyond hippocampal-neocortical connections.

Encoding of durable episodic memories requires cross-talk between the hippocampus and multiple brain regions. Changes in these hippocampal interactions could contribute to age-related declines in the ability to form memories that can be retrieved after extended time intervals. Here we tested whether hippocampal-neocortical- and subcortical functional connectivity (FC) observed during encoding of durable episodic memories differed between younger and older adults. About 48 younger (20-38 years; 25 females) and 43 older (60-80 years; 25 females) adults were scanned with fMRI while performing an associative memory encoding task. Source memory was tested ~20 min and ~6 days postencoding. Associations recalled after 20 min but later forgotten were classified as transient, whereas memories retained after long delays were classified as durable. Results demonstrated that older adults showed a reduced ability to form durable memories and reduced hippocampal-caudate FC during encoding of durable memories. There was also a positive relationship between hippocampal-caudate FC and higher memory performance among the older adults. No reliable age group differences in durable memory-encoding activity or hippocampal-neocortical connectivity were observed. These results support the classic theory of striatal alterations as one cause of cognitive decline in aging and highlight that age-related changes in episodic memory extend beyond hippocampal-neocortical connections.

Episodic memory forms a fundamental aspect of human memory that accounts for the storage of events as well as the spatio-temporal relations between events during a lifetime. These spatio-temporal relations in which episodes are embedded can be understood as their contexts. Contexts play a crucial role in episodic memory retrieval. Despite this, little work has been done in the computational neuroscience literature on trying to investigate this relationship further. These interactions can be modelled with attractor neural networks such as the Bayesian Confidence Propagation Neural Network (BCPNN). In this project, the interaction between contextual aspects and memory items are studied by developing an abstract computational model of episodic memory retrieval. The effect of increasing the number of items associated with a particular context on the overall recall performance is examined. Finally, the role of synaptic plasticity modulation of certain item-context associations on recall is also analysed. It is found that an inverse relationship exists between the number of items associated with a context and their subsequent recall rates, i.e. as the number of items associated with an episodic context increase, the recall rates of the corresponding items decrease. Furthermore, it is found that the item-context pairs for which the synaptic plasticity is modulated during learning, have a significantly higher recall rate than the remaining unmodulated associations., Episodiskt minne utgör en grundläggande aspekt av det mänskliga minnet som står för lagring av händelser samt de spatio-temporala relationerna mellan dem under en livstid. De spatio-temporala relationer i vilka episoderna är inbäddade kan betraktas som deras kontexter, vilka spelar en avgörande roll i episodisk minnesåterkallande. Trots detta har inte mycket forskning inom beräkningsneurovetenskapi gjorts för att närmare undersöka bakomliggande neurala mekanismer. Minnesåterkallandet inklusive interaktioner mellan kontext och minnesobjekt kan modelleras med återkopplade neurala nätverk, s k attraktornät, t ex av typen för Bayesian Confidence Propagation Neural Network (BCPNN). I det här projektet studeras interaktionen mellan kontextuella aspekter och minnesobjekt genom att utveckla en abstrakt BCPNN-modell av episodisk återkallande. Effekten av att variera antalet objekt-kontextassociationer på återkallningsbeteende undersöks. Slutligen analyseras också effekten av synaptisk plasticitetsmodulering av vissa minnesobjekt-kontext-associationer på korrekt minnesåterkallelse. Det observeras att när antalet objekt associerade med ett sammanhang ökar, minskar återkallningsfrekvensen för motsvarande objekt. Vidare är det konstaterat att minnesobjektföremålet-kontextpar för vilka den synaptiska plasticiteten moduleras under lärande, har en betydligt högre återkallningsgrad än de återstående omodulerade föreningarna.

White matter hyperintensities are a marker of small vessel cerebrovascular disease that are strongly related to cognition in older adults. Similarly, medial temporal lobe atrophy is well-documented in aging and Alzheimer's disease and is associated with memory decline. Here, we assessed the relationship between lobar white matter hyperintensities, medial temporal lobe subregional volumes, and hippocampal memory in older adults. We collected MRI scans in a sample of 139 older adults without dementia (88 females, mean age (SD) = 76.95 (10.61)). Participants were administered the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). Regression analyses tested for associations among medial temporal lobe subregional volumes, regional white matter hyperintensities and memory, while adjusting for age, sex, and education and correcting for multiple comparisons. Increased occipital white matter hyperintensities were related to worse RAVLT delayed recall performance, and to reduced CA1, dentate gyrus, perirhinal cortex (Brodmann area 36), and parahippocampal cortex volumes. These medial temporal lobe subregional volumes were related to delayed recall performance. The association of occipital white matter hyperintensities with delayed recall performance was fully mediated statistically only by perirhinal cortex volume. These results suggest that white matter hyperintensities may be associated with memory decline through their impact on medial temporal lobe atrophy. These findings provide new insights into the role of vascular pathologies in memory loss in older adults and suggest that future studies should further examine the neural mechanisms of these relationships in longitudinal samples.

Analogical transfer, or the ability to use similar solutions to solve seemingly dissimilar problems, has been studied in children using tasks that require the support of long-term memory. However, the transfer of solutions that require the use of tools, or objects with certain functional parts, has not been studied in great depth. This paper replicates and extends upon data collected from a novel study that investigated the role of age and memory on analogical transfer across children who attend public preschools in southern Sweden (Bobrowicz et al., 2020). The purpose of this study was to integrate analogical transfer with functional tool-dependent problem solving and study how both skills develop in toddlerhood. The replication yielded similar results to the original experiment in all five hypotheses tested, with the main finding being that age is not a significant predictor of being able to display analogical transfer from task to task. As an extension to the variables examined in the study, two additional models were created to see whether spending more time with the functional tool or with the relevant apparatus leads to a greater percentage of successes in solving the test task, but there were no significant differences found in this model.

The role of the lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC) in working memory (WM) is debated. Non-human primate (NHP) electrophysiology shows that the lPFC stores WM representations, but human neuroimaging suggests that the lPFC controls WM content in sensory cortices. These accounts are confounded by differences in task training and stimulus exposure. We tested whether long-term training alters lPFC function by densely sampling WM activity using functional MRI. Over 3 months, participants trained on both a WM and serial reaction time (SRT) task, wherein fractal stimuli were embedded within sequences. WM performance improved for trained (but not novel) fractals and, neurally, delay activity increased in distributed lPFC voxels across learning. Item-level WM representations became detectable within lPFC patterns, and lPFC activity reflected sequence relationships from the SRT task. These findings demonstrate that human lPFC develops stimulus-selective responses with learning, and WM representations are shaped by long-term experience, which could reconcile competing accounts of WM functioning.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is associated with cognitive impairments and age-dependent memory deficits which have been studied using genetic models of AD. Whether the processes for modulating memory persistence are more vulnerable to the influence of amyloid pathology than the encoding and consolidation of the memory remains unclear. Here, we investigated whether early amyloid pathology would affect peri-learning novelty in promoting memory, through a process called behavioral tagging and capture (BTC). AppNL-G-F/NL-G-F mice and wild-type littermates were trained in an appetitive delayed matching-to-place (ADMP) task which allows for the assessment of peri-learning novelty in facilitating memory. The results show that novelty enabled intermediate-term memory in wild-type mice, but not in AppNL-G-F/NL-G-F mice in adulthood. This effect preceded spatial memory impairment in the ADMP task seen in middle age. Other memory tests in the Barnes maze, Y-maze, novel object or location recognition tasks remained intact. Together, memory modulation through BTC is impaired before apparent deficits in learning and memory. Relevant biological mechanisms underlying BTC and the implication in AD are discussed.

During starvation, mammalian brains can adapt their metabolism, switching from glucose to alternative peripheral fuel sources. In the Drosophila starved brain, memory formation is subject to adaptative plasticity, but whether this adaptive plasticity relies on metabolic adaptation remains unclear. Here we show that during starvation, neurons of the fly olfactory memory centre import and use ketone bodies (KBs) as an energy substrate to sustain aversive memory formation. We identify local providers within the brain, the cortex glia, that use their own lipid store to synthesize KBs before exporting them to neurons via monocarboxylate transporters. Finally, we show that the master energy sensor AMP-activated protein kinase regulates both lipid mobilization and KB export in cortex glia. Our data provide a general schema of the metabolic interactions within the brain to support memory when glucose is scarce.

The main advantage of the oral exam is that it promotes a type of active learning that makes the student, beyond simple memorization, make an effort to understand the concepts and the information with which he answers the teacher’s questions. This type of learning based on relating and contrasting diverse information, is the one that make the brain forming robust and lasting memories. The oral exam also facilitates consensus between the student and the teacher on the evaluation grade., La principal ventaja del examen oral es que promueve un tipo de aprendizaje activo que hace que el alumno, más allá de la simple memorización, se esfuerce en comprender los conceptos y la información con los que responde preguntas del profesor. Ese tipo de aprendizaje, basado en relacionar y contrastar informaciones diversas, hace que el cerebro forme memorias robustas y duraderas. El examen oral facilita también el consenso entre alumno y profesor sobre la calificación de la evaluación.

The main advantage of the oral exam is that it promotes a type of active learning that makes the student, beyond simple memorization, make an effort to understand the concepts and the information with which he answers the teacher’s questions. This type of learning based on relating and contrasting diverse information, is the one that make the brain forming robust and lasting memories. The oral exam also facilitates consensus between the student and the teacher on the evaluation grade., La principal ventaja del examen oral es que promueve un tipo de aprendizaje activo que hace que el alumno, más allá de la simple memorización, se esfuerce en comprender los conceptos y la información con los que responde preguntas del profesor. Ese tipo de aprendizaje, basado en relacionar y contrastar informaciones diversas, hace que el cerebro forme memorias robustas y duraderas. El examen oral facilita también el consenso entre alumno y profesor sobre la calificación de la evaluación.

Encoding of durable episodic memories requires cross-talk between the hippocampus and multiple brain regions. Changes in these hippocampal interactions could contribute to age-related declines in the ability to form memories that can be retrieved after extended time intervals. Here we tested whether hippocampal-neocortical- and subcortical functional connectivity (FC) observed during encoding of durable episodic memories differed between younger and older adults. About 48 younger (20-38 years; 25 females) and 43 older (60-80 years; 25 females) adults were scanned with fMRI while performing an associative memory encoding task. Source memory was tested ~20 min and ~6 days postencoding. Associations recalled after 20 min but later forgotten were classified as transient, whereas memories retained after long delays were classified as durable. Results demonstrated that older adults showed a reduced ability to form durable memories and reduced hippocampal-caudate FC during encoding of durable memories. There was also a positive relationship between hippocampal-caudate FC and higher memory performance among the older adults. No reliable age group differences in durable memory-encoding activity or hippocampal-neocortical connectivity were observed. These results support the classic theory of striatal alterations as one cause of cognitive decline in aging and highlight that age-related changes in episodic memory extend beyond hippocampal-neocortical connections.

Episodic memory forms a fundamental aspect of human memory that accounts for the storage of events as well as the spatio-temporal relations between events during a lifetime. These spatio-temporal relations in which episodes are embedded can be understood as their contexts. Contexts play a crucial role in episodic memory retrieval. Despite this, little work has been done in the computational neuroscience literature on trying to investigate this relationship further. These interactions can be modelled with attractor neural networks such as the Bayesian Confidence Propagation Neural Network (BCPNN). In this project, the interaction between contextual aspects and memory items are studied by developing an abstract computational model of episodic memory retrieval. The effect of increasing the number of items associated with a particular context on the overall recall performance is examined. Finally, the role of synaptic plasticity modulation of certain item-context associations on recall is also analysed. It is found that an inverse relationship exists between the number of items associated with a context and their subsequent recall rates, i.e. as the number of items associated with an episodic context increase, the recall rates of the corresponding items decrease. Furthermore, it is found that the item-context pairs for which the synaptic plasticity is modulated during learning, have a significantly higher recall rate than the remaining unmodulated associations., Episodiskt minne utgör en grundläggande aspekt av det mänskliga minnet som står för lagring av händelser samt de spatio-temporala relationerna mellan dem under en livstid. De spatio-temporala relationer i vilka episoderna är inbäddade kan betraktas som deras kontexter, vilka spelar en avgörande roll i episodisk minnesåterkallande. Trots detta har inte mycket forskning inom beräkningsneurovetenskapi gjorts för att närmare undersöka bakomliggande neurala mekanismer. Minnesåterkallandet inklusive interaktioner mellan kontext och minnesobjekt kan modelleras med återkopplade neurala nätverk, s k attraktornät, t ex av typen för Bayesian Confidence Propagation Neural Network (BCPNN). I det här projektet studeras interaktionen mellan kontextuella aspekter och minnesobjekt genom att utveckla en abstrakt BCPNN-modell av episodisk återkallande. Effekten av att variera antalet objekt-kontextassociationer på återkallningsbeteende undersöks. Slutligen analyseras också effekten av synaptisk plasticitetsmodulering av vissa minnesobjekt-kontext-associationer på korrekt minnesåterkallelse. Det observeras att när antalet objekt associerade med ett sammanhang ökar, minskar återkallningsfrekvensen för motsvarande objekt. Vidare är det konstaterat att minnesobjektföremålet-kontextpar för vilka den synaptiska plasticiteten moduleras under lärande, har en betydligt högre återkallningsgrad än de återstående omodulerade föreningarna.

Encoding of durable episodic memories requires cross-talk between the hippocampus and multiple brain regions. Changes in these hippocampal interactions could contribute to age-related declines in the ability to form memories that can be retrieved after extended time intervals. Here we tested whether hippocampal-neocortical- and subcortical functional connectivity (FC) observed during encoding of durable episodic memories differed between younger and older adults. About 48 younger (20-38 years; 25 females) and 43 older (60-80 years; 25 females) adults were scanned with fMRI while performing an associative memory encoding task. Source memory was tested ~20 min and ~6 days postencoding. Associations recalled after 20 min but later forgotten were classified as transient, whereas memories retained after long delays were classified as durable. Results demonstrated that older adults showed a reduced ability to form durable memories and reduced hippocampal-caudate FC during encoding of durable memories. There was also a positive relationship between hippocampal-caudate FC and higher memory performance among the older adults. No reliable age group differences in durable memory-encoding activity or hippocampal-neocortical connectivity were observed. These results support the classic theory of striatal alterations as one cause of cognitive decline in aging and highlight that age-related changes in episodic memory extend beyond hippocampal-neocortical connections.

Flera studier har gjorts om hur cognitive load theory kan vara användbar för att urskilja lögner, där forskare ofta har använt externa distraktioner för att öka den kognitiva belastningen för att se effekterna på deltagares förmåga att framgångsrikt fabricera en berättelse. För att vidareutveckla den tidigare forskningen har denna studie ämnat att fortsätta utforska hur metoder som utgår från principer om kognitiv belastning kan användas för att diskriminera mellan sanning och lögn. I denna studies metod gjordes detta genom att observera deltagares skriftliga återberättande av sanningsenliga och fabricerade berättelser, där tangentloggning användes för att på ett kvantifierbart sätt kunna mäta skillnaderna i återberättandet där fokus lades på eventuella pauser. Totalt observerades 13 deltagare vid 3 olika tillfällen, där tillfällena var utspridda så att det fanns en vecka mellan varje. Under tillfällena fick deltagarna observera olika händelseförlopp, som de därefter blev instruerade att antingen återberätta sanningsenligt eller med vissa fabricerade detaljer. Varje deltagare återberättade ett händelseförlopp sanningsenligt och ett annat med fabricerade detaljer vid varje tillfälle. För att analysera resultaten så fokuserade man till stor del på mätningarna av pauser vid kritiska tillfällen av berättelsen. Analysen gjordes genom en Repeated Measure ANOVA med en 2x3 design (sanning/lögn x de 3 olika tillfällena). Resultatet visade att lögner uppvisade signifikant längre paustider än sanningsenligt återberättande. Utöver detta framträdde inga effekter. Implikationerna av resultatet är att det finns en kognitiv skillnad mellan att berätta sanningen och att berätta en lögn som kan mätas och urskiljas genom att observera längden på pauser i skrivprocessen när händelser återberättas i skrift., Several studies have been made about how cognitive load theory might be useful to discern lies, in which researchers have used external distractions to increase the cognitive load to observe how this impacts participants’ ability to successfully fabricate a story. To further the previous research, this study aimed to study the difference between telling the truth and telling a lie may be related to cognitive load. In this study, this was accomplished by observing 13 participants’ writing processes when telling truthful and fabricated stories, using keylogging tracking as to create a quantifiable way of measuring the retelling of stories with a focus on pause times. The participants were observed during 3 different times with one week between each occurrence. Each participant was instructed to either tell the story truthfully or to fabricate the details of those critical moments in accordance with the instructions. To get a more thorough overview of the storytelling, we measured the pauses both throughout the entire writing process and at critical moments. Thus, the conditions of the experiment were truth-telling versus lying, and the 3 occasions on which the experiment was conducted for each participant. Statistical analysis was done in a 2x3 Repeated Measures ANOVA (type of story x round). The result of the study was that the condition truth/lie had a significant main effect on pause times for one of the dependent variables. The implications of the result are that there is a cognitive difference between telling the truth and telling a lie that can be measured and discerned by observing the length of pauses when retelling events in writing.

The interrogation of verbal short-term memory processes sometimes makes use of the serial recognition task, which involves two sequential presentations of a list of items. These lists may be identical or differ by the transposition of two adjacent items, thus requiring a same/different judgement. When utilised, this task has primarily been used as a companion to the immediate serial recall task, since many of the task requirements are similar with the exception of requiring a reproduction of each list item (as in the case of recall). Together they have been used to assess contributions of long-term language knowledge to immediate short-term memory. However, literature assessing the operations involved in serial recognition alone is sparse and inconsistent. There is discord over whether or not the task involves a contribution from long-term language knowledge; if it primarily makes use of the order of items and not their identity; or if the task involves the use of only perceptual-gestural mechanisms without reference to the processing of language representations at all. Additionally, some literature suggests that set size may influence the degree to which the task utilises long-term language variables, while other studies suggest the modality of task presentation is a contributing factor. As a consequence, there is no current comprehensive framework that can accommodate this array of findings without significant modification. The present thesis sets out to assess the role of long-term language in serial recognition by testing the role of set size, task difficulty (in terms of list length), and the lexico-semantic variable (concreteness and word frequency) which is manipulated across 5 experiments. Further, it assesses the possibility that measurements typically used in serial recognition are not sensitive to discriminate between levels of lexico-semantic variables in the task. Therefore, reaction time as well as the assessment of transposition location (comparing th

Retrieval practice, relative to further study, leads to long-term memory enhancement known as the "testing effect." The neurobiological correlates of the testing effect at retrieval, when the learning benefits of testing are expressed, have not been fully characterized. Participants learned Swahili-English word-pairs and were assigned randomly to either the Study-Group or the Test-Group. After a week delay, all participants completed a cued-recall test while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The Test-Group had superior memory for the word-pairs compared to the Study-Group. While both groups exhibited largely overlapping activations for remembered word-pairs, following an interaction analysis the Test-Group exhibited differential performance-related effects in the left putamen and left inferior parietal cortex near the supramarginal gyrus. The same analysis showed the Study-Group exhibited greater activations in the dorsal MPFC/pre-SMA and bilateral frontal operculum for remembered vs. forgotten word-pairs, whereas the Test-Group showed the opposite pattern of activation in the same regions. Thus, retrieval practice during training establishes a unique striatal-supramarginal network at retrieval that promotes enhanced memory performance. In contrast, study alone yields poorer memory but greater activations in frontal regions.

We provide evidence that human sleep is a competitive arena in which cognitive domains vie for limited resources. Using pharmacology and effective connectivity analysis, we demonstrate that long-term memory and working memory are served by distinct offline neural mechanisms that are mutually antagonistic. Specifically, we administered zolpidem to increase central sigma activity and demonstrated targeted suppression of autonomic vagal activity. With effective connectivity, we determined the central activity has greater causal influence over autonomic activity, and the magnitude of this influence during sleep produced a behavioral trade-off between offline long-term and working memory processing. These findings suggest a sleep switch mechanism that toggles between central sigma-dependent long-term memory and autonomic vagal-dependent working memory processing.

In a warned reaction time task, the warning stimulus (S1) initiates a process of temporal preparation, which promotes a speeded response to the impending target stimulus (S2). According to the multiple trace theory of temporal preparation (MTP), participants learn the timing of S2 by storing a memory trace on each trial, which contains a temporal profile of the events on that trial. On each new trial, S1 serves as a retrieval cue that implicitly and associatively activates memory traces created on earlier trials, which jointly drive temporal preparation for S2. The idea that S1 assumes this role as a retrieval cue was tested across eight experiments, in which two different S1s were associated with two different distributions of S1-S2 intervals: one with predominantly short and one with predominantly long intervals. Experiments differed regarding the S1 features that made up a pair, ranging from highly distinct (e.g., tone and flash) to more similar (e.g., red and green flash) and verbal (i.e., “short” vs “long”). Exclusively for pairs of highly distinct S1s, the results showed that the S1 cue modified temporal preparation, even in participants who showed no awareness of the contingency. This cueing effect persisted in a subsequent transfer phase, in which the contingency between S1 and the timing of S2 was broken – a fact participants were informed of in advance. Together, these findings support the role of S1 as an implicit retrieval cue, consistent with MTP.

Retrieval practice, relative to further study, leads to long-term memory enhancement known as the "testing effect." The neurobiological correlates of the testing effect at retrieval, when the learning benefits of testing are expressed, have not been fully characterized. Participants learned Swahili-English word-pairs and were assigned randomly to either the Study-Group or the Test-Group. After a week delay, all participants completed a cued-recall test while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The Test-Group had superior memory for the word-pairs compared to the Study-Group. While both groups exhibited largely overlapping activations for remembered word-pairs, following an interaction analysis the Test-Group exhibited differential performance-related effects in the left putamen and left inferior parietal cortex near the supramarginal gyrus. The same analysis showed the Study-Group exhibited greater activations in the dorsal MPFC/pre-SMA and bilateral frontal operculum for remembered vs. forgotten word-pairs, whereas the Test-Group showed the opposite pattern of activation in the same regions. Thus, retrieval practice during training establishes a unique striatal-supramarginal network at retrieval that promotes enhanced memory performance. In contrast, study alone yields poorer memory but greater activations in frontal regions.

Understanding the brain and its functions is achallenging undertaking. To facilitate this work, brain-inspiredtechnology may be used to examine cognitive phenomena to acertain extent, by replacing real biological brains with simulations.The aim of this project was to provide insights intohow different kinds of plasticity modulation affected long-termmemory recall through the use of a computational model. Aneural network was constructed based on the existing BayesianConfidence Propagation Neural Network (BCPNN) model andtrained with binary patterns representing memories acquiredover a lifetime. By varying network plasticity parameters forselected patterns and performing recall of “aging” memories,greater effects were observed in recall statistics for modulationearly in the lifetime in comparison with modulation of later ages.From the experiments conducted in this study it was possible toconclude that selective modulation of learning affected the longtermrecall of all memories in the simulation., Att förstå hjärnan och alla dess funktionerär en stor utmaning. För att underlätta detta arbete kanhjärninspirerad teknologi i viss utsträckning användas för attstudera kognitiva fenomen, genom att ersätta biologiska hjärnormed simuleringar. Syftet med denna studie var att ge en insikt ihur olika typer av modulering av synaptisk plasticitet påverkadeett simulerat biologiskt långtidsminne genom användning av endatoriserad modell. Ett neuralt nätverk implementerat med eninlärningsregel av typen Bayesian Confidence Propagation NeuralNetwork (BCPNN) konstruerades och användes för att träna och återkalla binära mönster, representerande minnen förvärvadeunder en livstid. Nätverkets synaptiska plasticitet varierades underträning av utvalda mönster och därefter utfördes återkallningav “åldrade” minnen. Testerna påvisade effekt på nätverketsförmåga att korrekt återkalla lagrade minnen. Det visade sigäven att modulering utförd på tidiga simulerade åldrar jämförtmed modulering av senare åldrar under livstiden hade störrepåverkan på långtidsminnet. Från resultaten var det möjligtatt konstatera att selektiv plasticitetsmodulering under inlärningpåverkade nätverkets förmåga att korrekt återkalla samtligabinära mönster i simuleringen., Kandidatexjobb i elektroteknik 2021, KTH, Stockholm

We provide evidence that human sleep is a competitive arena in which cognitive domains vie for limited resources. Using pharmacology and effective connectivity analysis, we demonstrate that long-term memory and working memory are served by distinct offline neural mechanisms that are mutually antagonistic. Specifically, we administered zolpidem to increase central sigma activity and demonstrated targeted suppression of autonomic vagal activity. With effective connectivity, we determined the central activity has greater causal influence over autonomic activity, and the magnitude of this influence during sleep produced a behavioral trade-off between offline long-term and working memory processing. These findings suggest a sleep switch mechanism that toggles between central sigma-dependent long-term memory and autonomic vagal-dependent working memory processing.

The present study investigated age-related differences in retrieval from long-term memory using a semantic fluency task in which participants recalled animals during a 5-minute retrieval period. We evaluated the relative uniqueness of items and their output position within the retrieval process to further elucidate how younger and older adults access and retrieve semantic knowledge in long-term memory. Although older (n = 96, aged 56-79, M = 62.44) and younger adults (n = 98, aged 18-27, M = 23.44) scored similarly for retrieval fluency and originality, these abilities tended to decline when we analyzed age as a continuous variable, indicating some preservation in earlier adulthood, but impairment in older age. Additionally, participants tended to recall common, more easily accessible items before unique, less accessible items, and this pattern was more prominent in older adults. Thus, there are both similarities and differences in semantic fluency in older age.

Understanding the brain and its functions is achallenging undertaking. To facilitate this work, brain-inspiredtechnology may be used to examine cognitive phenomena to acertain extent, by replacing real biological brains with simulations.The aim of this project was to provide insights intohow different kinds of plasticity modulation affected long-termmemory recall through the use of a computational model. Aneural network was constructed based on the existing BayesianConfidence Propagation Neural Network (BCPNN) model andtrained with binary patterns representing memories acquiredover a lifetime. By varying network plasticity parameters forselected patterns and performing recall of “aging” memories,greater effects were observed in recall statistics for modulationearly in the lifetime in comparison with modulation of later ages.From the experiments conducted in this study it was possible toconclude that selective modulation of learning affected the longtermrecall of all memories in the simulation., Att förstå hjärnan och alla dess funktionerär en stor utmaning. För att underlätta detta arbete kanhjärninspirerad teknologi i viss utsträckning användas för attstudera kognitiva fenomen, genom att ersätta biologiska hjärnormed simuleringar. Syftet med denna studie var att ge en insikt ihur olika typer av modulering av synaptisk plasticitet påverkadeett simulerat biologiskt långtidsminne genom användning av endatoriserad modell. Ett neuralt nätverk implementerat med eninlärningsregel av typen Bayesian Confidence Propagation NeuralNetwork (BCPNN) konstruerades och användes för att träna och återkalla binära mönster, representerande minnen förvärvadeunder en livstid. Nätverkets synaptiska plasticitet varierades underträning av utvalda mönster och därefter utfördes återkallningav “åldrade” minnen. Testerna påvisade effekt på nätverketsförmåga att korrekt återkalla lagrade minnen. Det visade sigäven att modulering utförd på tidiga simulerade åldrar jämförtmed modulering av senare åldrar under livstiden hade störrepåverkan på långtidsminnet. Från resultaten var det möjligtatt konstatera att selektiv plasticitetsmodulering under inlärningpåverkade nätverkets förmåga att korrekt återkalla samtligabinära mönster i simuleringen., Kandidatexjobb i elektroteknik 2021, KTH, Stockholm

The potential of the gut microbiome as a driver of individual cognitive differences in natural populations of animals remains unexplored. Here, using metagenomic sequencing of individual bumblebee hindguts, we find a positive correlation between the abundance of Lactobacillus Firm-5 cluster and memory retention on a visual discrimination task. Supplementation with the Firm-5 species Lactobacillus apis, but not other non-Firm-5 bacterial species, enhances bees’ memory. Untargeted metabolomics after L. apis supplementation show increased LPA (14:0) glycerophospholipid in the haemolymph. Oral administration of the LPA increases long-term memory significantly. Based on our findings and metagenomic/metabolomic analyses, we propose a molecular pathway for this gut-brain interaction. Our results provide insights into proximate and ultimate causes of cognitive differences in natural bumblebee populations.

Visual working memory (VWM) is typically found to be severely limited in capacity, but this limitation may be ameliorated by providing familiar objects that are associated with knowledge stored in long-term memory. However, comparing meaningful and meaningless stimuli usually entails a confound, because different types of objects also tend to vary in terms of their inherent perceptual complexity. The current study therefore aimed to dissociate stimulus complexity from object meaning in VWM. To this end, identical stimuli – namely, simple color-shape conjunctions – were presented, which either resembled meaningful configurations (“real” European flags), or which were rearranged to form perceptually identical but meaningless (“fake”) flags. The results revealed complexity estimates for “real” and “fake” flags to be higher than for unicolor baseline stimuli. However, VWM capacity for real flags was comparable to the unicolor baseline stimuli (and substantially higher than for fake flags). This shows that relatively complex, yet meaningful “real” flags reveal a VWM capacity that is comparable to rather simple, unicolored memory items. Moreover, this “nationality” benefit was related to individual flag recognition performance, thus showing that VWM depends on object knowledge., Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (1024), Peer Reviewed

Retrieval practice, relative to further study, leads to long-term memory enhancement known as the "testing effect." The neurobiological correlates of the testing effect at retrieval, when the learning benefits of testing are expressed, have not been fully characterized. Participants learned Swahili-English word-pairs and were assigned randomly to either the Study-Group or the Test-Group. After a week delay, all participants completed a cued-recall test while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The Test-Group had superior memory for the word-pairs compared to the Study-Group. While both groups exhibited largely overlapping activations for remembered word-pairs, following an interaction analysis the Test-Group exhibited differential performance-related effects in the left putamen and left inferior parietal cortex near the supramarginal gyrus. The same analysis showed the Study-Group exhibited greater activations in the dorsal MPFC/pre-SMA and bilateral frontal operculum for remembered vs. forgotten word-pairs, whereas the Test-Group showed the opposite pattern of activation in the same regions. Thus, retrieval practice during training establishes a unique striatal-supramarginal network at retrieval that promotes enhanced memory performance. In contrast, study alone yields poorer memory but greater activations in frontal regions.

In a warned reaction time task, the warning stimulus (S1) initiates a process of temporal preparation, which promotes a speeded response to the impending target stimulus (S2). According to the multiple trace theory of temporal preparation (MTP), participants learn the timing of S2 by storing a memory trace on each trial, which contains a temporal profile of the events on that trial. On each new trial, S1 serves as a retrieval cue that implicitly and associatively activates memory traces created on earlier trials, which jointly drive temporal preparation for S2. The idea that S1 assumes this role as a retrieval cue was tested across eight experiments, in which two different S1s were associated with two different distributions of S1-S2 intervals: one with predominantly short and one with predominantly long intervals. Experiments differed regarding the S1 features that made up a pair, ranging from highly distinct (e.g., tone and flash) to more similar (e.g., red and green flash) and verbal (i.e., “short” vs “long”). Exclusively for pairs of highly distinct S1s, the results showed that the S1 cue modified temporal preparation, even in participants who showed no awareness of the contingency. This cueing effect persisted in a subsequent transfer phase, in which the contingency between S1 and the timing of S2 was broken – a fact participants were informed of in advance. Together, these findings support the role of S1 as an implicit retrieval cue, consistent with MTP.

Safe disposal of nuclear waste in deep geological repositories requires secure knowledge transfer or knowledge recovery in time spans of many tens of thousands of years. Never before has any detailed record, knowledge or memory been reliably preserved or recovered over comparable time periods. This challenge has been extensively addressed since the late 1980s, initially during the SANDIA workshops in the USA and more recently in the Nuclear Energy Agency/Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (NEA/OECD) project on Preservation of Records, Knowledge and Memory Across Generations (Schröder, 2019). Experts from many disciplines including engineering, the natural sciences, information technology, social studies of science and technology, semiotics, public management, and design as well as artists have contributed to these discussions. Some scholars from the humanities have been involved in working on these issues, especially in recent decades. At the same time, much of the existing work has drawn on assumptions about human history, archaeological monuments and cultural heritage that have been scrutinized and deemed deeply flawed by Joyce (2020). The authors of the present paper are archaeologists and cultural heritage experts. For the past decade, they have been working with the challenge of preserving records, knowledge and memory concerning deep geological disposal sites for nuclear waste (Holtorf and Högberg, 2021). From the perspective of the human sciences, in particular archaeology and heritage studies, the unique task at hand involves not only the previously recognized challenges that require consideration of long-term material durability, linguistic intelligibility, and appropriate sense-making of any communicated information but also two challenges not previously addressed: Human action as informed by cultural and social processes. In designing of various long-term mechanisms, we risk overlooking that what people will do is not going to be gover

Evidence supporting the idea that serial-order verbal working memory is underpinned by long-term knowledge has accumulated over more than half a century. Recent studies using natural-language statistics, artificial statistical-learning techniques, and the Hebb repetition paradigm have revealed multiple types of long-term knowledge underlying serial-order verbal working memory performance. These include (a) element-to-element association knowledge, which slowly accumulates through extensive exposure to an exemplar; (b) position–element knowledge, which is acquired through several encounters with an exemplar; and (c) whole-sequence knowledge, which is captured by the Hebb repetition paradigm and acquired rapidly with a few repetitions. Arguably, the first two are a basis for fluent and efficient language usage, and the third is a basis for vocabulary learning. Thus, statistical-learning mechanisms (and possibly episodic-learning mechanisms) may form the foundation of language acquisition and language processing, which characterize linguistic long-term knowledge for verbal working memory.

A fundamental issue in cognitive science concerns the mentalprocesses that underlie the formation and retrieval of conceptsin the short-term and long-term memory (STM and LTMrespectively). This study advances Chunking Theory and itscomputational embodiment CHREST to propose a singlemodel that accounts for significant aspects of conceptformation in the domains of literature and music. The proposedmodel inherits CHREST’s architecture with its integratedSTM/LTM stores, while also adding a moving attentionwindow and an “LTM chunk activation” mechanism. Theseadditions address the overly destructive nature of primacyeffect in discrimination network based architectures andexpand Chunking Theory to account for learning, retrieval andcategorisation of complex sequential symbolic patterns – likereal-life text and written music scores. The model was trainedthrough exposure to labelled stimuli and learned to categoriseclassical poets/writers and composers. The model categorisedpreviously unseen literature pieces by Homer, Chaucer,Shakespeare, Walter Scott, Dickens and Joyce, as well asunseen sheet music scores by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven andChopin. These findings offer further support to mechanismsproposed by Chunking Theory and expand it into thepsychology of music.

When learning about events through visual experience, one must not only identify which events are visually similar but also retrieve those events associates-which may be visually dissimilar-and recognize when different events have similar predictive relations. How are these demands balanced? To address this question, we taught participants the predictive structures among four events, which appeared in four different sequences, each cued by a distinct object. In each, one event (cause) was predictably followed by another (effect). Sequences in the same relational category had similar predictive structure, while across categories, the effect and cause events were reversed. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging data, we measured associative coding, indicated by correlated responses between effect and cause events; perceptual coding, indicated by correlated responses to visually similar events; and relational category coding, indicated by correlated responses to sequences in the same relational category. All three models characterized responses within the right middle temporal gyrus (MTG), but in different ways: Perceptual and associative coding diverged along the posterior to anterior axis, while relational categories emerged anteriorly in tandem with associative coding. Thus, along the posterior-anterior axis of MTG, the representation of the visual attributes of events is transformed to a representation of both specific and generalizable relational attributes.