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Research findings reveal a relationship between acute bouts of exercise and procedural/declarative memory. Prior systematic reviews report small/moderate effects of acute exercise on episodic long-term declarative memory. A somewhat overlooked issue is the influence of exercise on specific types of episodic memory processing. The primary focus of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the effects of acute bouts of exercise prior to, during, and following encoding on free-, cued-recall, and recognition episodic memory. PubMed, Scopus, and EBSCO databases were entered, and 42 experiments were subject tometa-analysis. Exercise prior to encoding improved memory (d = 0.23) and affected free-recall (d = 0.40) tests of memory more than cued-recall (d = 0.08) or recognition (d = -0.06) memory. Exercise following encoding improved memory (d = 0.33) and affected recognition (d = 0.62) memory more than free- (d = 0.19) or cued-recall (d = 0.14) memory. Exercise during encoding did not influence memory (d = -0.04). Moderator analyses revealed that exercise before encoding impacted memory differentially on the basis of age, exercise type, and test-timing. When exercise occurred after encoding, age and exercise type, but not timing of the test influenced memory performance. Exercise before and after encoding has selective effects on episodicmemory. Additional experiments that evaluate how bouts of exercise influence memory encoding are warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractObjectiveDesignStudy sampleResultsConclusionsThis clinical note aimed to 1) describe the order-of-report (OoR) strategies used by a large sample of children who completed 2pDD testing in the free-recall condition as part of an audiological assessment of auditory processing (AP), and 2) determine if use of OoR correlated with 2pDD test performance.A retrospective (case-review), single observation design.A convenient sample of 77 children (50 males and 27 females aged 7.0 to 17.4 years [median = 8.8 years]) referred to audiology for an AP assessment.The participating children used temporal more than ear or sequential OoR and showed decreased test scores with increased use of ear OoR.These findings suggest children referred for an AP assessment could favour a temporal OoR when completing 2pDD testing for its opportunity to rehearse the first digit pair (possibly strengthening its memory trace) prior to processing the second digit pair, while their use of an ear OoR could come at the cost detrimental ear dominance effects that reduce their test performance. Future research could consider if similar results are observed in other child populations and if preferred dichotic processing strategy could inform auditory training for children with dichotic listening deficits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Failure of contextual retrieval can lead to false recall, wherein people retrieve an item or experience that occurred in a different context or did not occur at all. Whereas the hippocampus is thought to play a crucial role in memory retrieval, we lack understanding of how the hippocampus supports retrieval of items related to a target context while disregarding related but irrelevant information. Using direct electrical recordings from the human hippocampus, we investigate the neural process underlying contextual misattribution of false memories. In two large datasets, we characterize key physiological differences between correct and false recalls that emerge immediately prior to vocalization. By differentiating between false recalls that share high or low contextual similarity with the target context, we show that low-frequency activity (6 to 18 Hz) in the hippocampus tracks similarity between the current and retrieved context. Applying multivariate decoding methods, we were able to reliably predict the contextual source of the to-be-recalled item. Our findings elucidate one of the hallmark features of episodic memory: our ability to distinguish between memories that were formed on different occasions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transformation of experiences into meaningful events and memories is intertwined with the notion of time. Temporal perception can influence, and be influenced by, segmenting continuous experience into meaningful events. Episodic memories formed from these events become associated with temporal information as well. However, it is less clear how temporal perception contributes to structuring events and organizing memory: whether it plays a more active or passive role, and whether this temporal information is encoded initially during perception or influenced by retrieval processes. To address these questions, we examined how event segmentation influences temporal representations during initial perception and memory retrieval, without testing temporal information explicitly. Using a neural measure of temporal context extracted from scalp electroencephalography in human participants (N= 170), we found reduced temporal context similarity between studied items separated by an event boundary when compared to items from the same event. Furthermore, while participants freely recalled list items, neural activity reflected reinstatement of temporal context representations from the study phase, including temporal disruption. A computational model of episodic memory, the context maintenance and retrieval (CMR) model, predicted these results, and made novel predictions regarding the influence of temporal disruption on recall order. These findings implicate the impact of event structure on memory organization via temporal representations, underscoring the role of temporal information in event segmentation and episodic memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews and synthesizes 10 free-recall studies on collective memory carried out in Latin America, Europe, and Palestine. Results show the high prevalence of the topics of politics, collective violence and warfare, but around 50% of recalled events were appraised as positives, disconfirming a negative bias in collective memory. However, in Palestine most of the events were entirely or partially negative, reflecting country's conflictual situation. The analyzed studies confirm a partial socio-centrism: in Latin America and Palestine most events were national. A meta-analysis confirms a generational effect in 24/100 historical events. Negative historical events were related to low social wellbeing in Palestine. Results are discussed in the framework of collective memory processes and social representations of history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, we aimed to investigate how acute stress exerts its heterogeneous effects. Based on biophysical network models, we hypothesized that acute stress would improve occipital-mediated ultra-short-term and to a lesser degree affect occipital- and frontal-mediated short-term and working, and impairs hippocampal-mediated long-term memory processes and their respective behavioral measures. To test this, 111 healthy individuals (57 female) underwent both the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and a control test. Immediately afterward, participants' performance was measured in four memory tasks (Rapid Serial Visual Presentation, RSVP, Match-to-Sample, MTS, N-Back, NB and Free-Recall, FR tasks). TSST exposure seems to impair long-term memory (AC FR ; β = -1.50 ± 0.62; when free recall was tested approx. 80 minutes after initial encoding, immediately after the TSST), and working memory (AC NB ; β= -0.42 ± 0.20 %) but did not affect ultra-short-term (AC RSVP ; β = -0.03 ± 0.31 %) and short-term (AC MTS ; β=-0.18 ± 0.31 %) memory accuracies (ACs). Interestingly, TSST exposure increased the exploratory included measure of response times in MTS (RT MTS ; β =16.42 ± 7.18 msec) and impaired T1 detection in the RSVP (AC T1 ; β=-0.48 ± 0.22 %) tasks. Contrary to the hypothesis, TSST exposure did not have the hypothesized effects on the memory processes. Instead, TSST exposure appeared to affect secondary behavioral indicators of motivation or task instruction adherence., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors have no competing interests to declare., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Children's non-disclosures of another's wrongdoing, particularly in cases involving alleged maltreatment, is a notable concern among forensic professionals. The current study was designed to provide these professionals with much needed information about the efficacy of a range of interviewing strategies, namely free-recall, cognitive instructions and closed-ended questions, when children are asked to conceal the transgression of an adult. After being asked to falsely deny a theft they witnessed, children (ages 8 to 13; N = 104) were interviewed using either the cognitive instructions (n = 52) or a Standard Interview (n = 52). Two raters coded the children's: (1) report honesty; (2) number of words used; (3) number of Transgression Details disclosed; (4) number of events recalled; (5) temporal order accuracy; and (6) number of theft disclosures made. Children produced longer testimonies with more Transgression Details, disclosures and events on the interview with the cognitive instructions, without compromising temporal order accuracy. However, there were no interview differences in overall report honesty. Overall, the free-recall reports had the most words, along with more Transgression Details, theft disclosures and events recalled. The reverse-order recall was the most effective cognitive instruction for increasing the amount of events recalled. Overall, the cognitive instructions increased the amount of information and disclosures about the theft, but they did not discourage false reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enactment is an encoding strategy in which performing an action related to a target item enhances memory for that word, relative to verbal encoding. Precisely how this motor activity aids recall is unclear. We examined whether the action created during encoding needed to be semantically relevant to the to-be-remembered word, to enhance memory. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to either (a) enact, (b) perform unrelated motoric gestures, or (c) read forty-five action verbs. On a subsequent free-recall test, memory for enacted words was significantly higher relative to words read, or encoded with unrelated gestures. In Experiment 2, to reduce the ambiguity associated with initiating an unrelated gesture, participants were instructed to write target words in the air. Results were similar to Experiment 1. In Experiment 3, we replicated the results of Experiment 2 using video conferencing to record the onset time of action initiation for enacted, unrelated gesture, and read trials. Results showed that planning of meaningful actions may also contribute to the memory performance as evidenced by a longer onset time to initiate an action on enactment relative to gesturing and reading trials. These findings suggest that planning and executing meaningful actions drive the enactment benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined haptic and visual memory capacity for familiar objects through the application of an intentional free-recall task with three-time intervals in a sample of 78 healthy older adults without cognitive impairment. A wooden box and a turntable were used for the presentation of haptic and visual stimuli, respectively. The procedure consisted of two phases, a study phase that consisted of the presentation of stimuli, and a test phase (free-recall task) performed after one hour, one day or one week. The analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) indicated that there was a main effect only for the time intervals (F (2,71) = 12.511, p = .001, η2 = 0.261), with a lower recall index for the interval of one week compared to the other intervals. We concluded that the memory capacity between the systems (haptic and visual) is similar for long retrieval intervals (hours to days). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because multivariate autoregressive models have failed to adequately account for the complexity of neural signals, researchers have predominantly relied on non-parametric methods when studying the relations between brain and behavior. Using medial temporal lobe (MTL) recordings from 96 neurosurgical patients, we show that time series models with volatility described by a multivariate stochastic latent-variable process and lagged interactions between signals in different brain regions provide new insights into the dynamics of brain function. The implied volatility inferred from our process positively correlates with high-frequency spectral activity, a signal that correlates with neuronal activity. We show that volatility features derived from our model can reliably decode memory states, and that this classifier performs as well as those using spectral features. Using the directional connections between brain regions during complex cognitive process provided by the model, we uncovered perirhinal-hippocampal desynchronization in the MTL regions that is associated with successful memory encoding.

Summary: The current study evaluated the benefits of free‐recall, cognitive load, and closed‐ended questions on children's (ages 6 to 11; N = 147) true and false eyewitness disclosures. Children witnessed an experimenter find a stranger's wallet and were then asked to make a false denial, false accusation, true denial, or true accusation regarding an alleged theft. Overall, the free‐recall question resulted in longer, more forthcoming and more detailed disclosures from older children and those who made a truthful accusation; however, children under the age of 9 and lie‐tellers mostly relied on the closed‐ended questions to discuss the theft. Although the cognitive load questions resulted in newly recalled information, there were no significant narrative differences between true and false statements on these questions. These findings suggest that forensic professionals should consider a child's developmental level, statement veracity, and disclosure‐type (denial vs. accusation) when examining the efficacy of these commonly used questioning strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Verbal short-term and long-term memory are crucial neuropsychological functions involved in core cognitive abilities. They constitute vital components of subjective well-being and academic achievement. To date, there is limited research on the association between regular physical activity and memory abilities during young adulthood. The Individual Alpha Peak Frequency (IAPF) contributes to various cognitive abilities and also appears to be sensitive to physical activity. Consequently, the IAPF has the potential to underlie the association between physical activity and verbal memory. We examined the direct relation of physical activity and verbal memory, and the potential indirect relation via IAPF in young adults. Regular physical activity was assessed via accelerometry on seven consecutive days in 115 participants (N=115, 48% female) aged 18-35 years (M=24.1, SD=3.8). In addition, verbal memory performance was assessed using an immediate and delayed free-recall task. Brain activity during rest was recorded with EEG, and IAPF was extracted for mediation analyses. Path analysis revealed pronounced sex differences in the association between physical activity, IAPF, and verbal memory performance. Exclusively in female participants, higher vigorous physical activity levels were associated with better recall performance. In contrast, no association of physical activity and memory was found in male participants. However, being more physically active was related to a higher IAPF exclusively in male participants. Physical activity shows differential associations between IAPF and verbal memory in male and female participants. However, the lack of a mediating role of IAPF suggests that this neurophysiological marker cannot explain these specific associations in young adults., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.)

People often demonstrate better memory for animate concepts (e.g., lion and sailor) than for inanimate concepts (e.g., hammer and mountain). Researchers have attributed this effect to an adaptive memory mechanism that favours information relevant for survival, including information about living things. In the present experiment, we examined the hypothesis that people demonstrate better free-recall performance for animate than inanimate words because animate words tend to be associated with greater mental arousal than inanimate words, a factor that was not controlled for in previous experiments on this topic. To this end, we matched animate and inanimate word lists on mental arousal (and several other factors), and compared participants' free-recall performance for the two word types. We were able to replicate past findings that participants' free-recall of animate words exceeds their free-recall of inanimate words, but we found no support for the possibility that the effect stems from differences in mental arousal between animate and inanimate concepts, as this effect maintained even when the word lists were matched on mental arousal. The present results therefore indicate that mental arousal cannot explain the effects of animacy on free-recall performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the present time, there is no question that cochlear implants work and often work very well in quiet listening conditions for many profoundly deaf children and adults. The speech and language outcomes data published over the last two decades document quite extensively the clinically significant benefits of cochlear implants. Although there now is a large body of evidence supporting the efficacy of cochlear implants as a medical intervention for profound hearing loss in both children and adults, there still remain a number of challenging unresolved clinical and theoretical issues that deal with the effectiveness of cochlear implants in individual patients that have not yet been successfully resolved. In this paper, we review recent findings on learning and memory, two central topics in the field of cognition that have been seriously neglected in research on cochlear implants. Our research findings on sequence learning, memory and organization processes, and retrieval strategies used in verbal learning and memory of categorized word lists suggests that basic domain-general learning abilities may be the missing piece of the puzzle in terms of understanding the cognitive factors that underlie the enormous individual differences and variability routinely observed in speech and language outcomes following cochlear implantation.

Objectives: Relatively few studies have investigated relationships between performance on clinical memory measures and indexes of underlying neuropathology related to Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This study investigated predictive relationships between Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT) cue efficiency (CE) and free-recall (FR) measures and brain amyloid levels, hippocampal volume (HV), and regional cortical thickness. Methods: Thirty-one older controls without memory complaints and 60 patients presenting memory complaints underwent the FCSRT, amyloid imaging using [F18]-flutemetamol positron emission tomography, and surface-based morphometry (SBM) using brain magnetic resonance imaging. Three groups were considered: patients with high (Aβ+P) and low (Aβ− P) amyloid load and controls with low amyloid load (Aβ− C). Results: Aβ+P showed lower CE than both Aβ− groups, but the Aβ− groups did not differ significantly. In contrast, FR discriminated all groups. SBM analyses revealed that CE indexes were correlated with the cortical thickness of a wider set of left-lateralized temporal and parietal regions than FR. Regression analyses demonstrated that amyloid load and left HV independently predicted FCSRT scores. Moreover, CE indexes were predicted by the cortical thickness of some regions involved in early AD, such as the entorhinal cortex. Conclusions: Compared to FR measures, CE indexes appear to be more specific for differentiating persons on the basis of amyloid load. Both CE and FR performance were predicted independently by brain amyloid load and reduced left HV. However, CE performance was also predicted by the cortical thickness of regions known to be atrophic early in AD. (JINS, 2016, 22, 991–1004) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the present time, there is no question that cochlear implants (CIs) work and often work very well in quiet listening conditions for many profoundly deaf children and adults. The speech and language outcomes data published over the last two decades document quite extensively the clinically significant benefits of CIs. Although there now is a large body of evidence supporting the "efficacy" of CIs as a medical intervention for profound hearing loss in both children and adults, there still remain a number of challenging unresolved clinical and theoretical issues that deal with the "effectiveness" of CIs in individual patients that have not yet been successfully resolved. In this paper, we review recent findings on learning and memory, two central topics in the field of cognition that have been seriously neglected in research on CIs. Our research findings on sequence learning, memory and organization processes, and retrieval strategies used in verbal learning and memory of categorized word lists suggests that basic domain-general learning abilities may be the missing piece of the puzzle in terms of understanding the cognitive factors that underlie the enormous individual differences and variability routinely observed in speech and language outcomes following cochlear implantation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand how memories are successfully formed, scientists have compared neural activity during the encoding of subsequently remembered and forgotten items. Though this approach has elucidated a network of brain regions involved in memory encoding, this method cannot distinguish broad, non-specific signals from memory specific encoding processes, such as associative encoding. Associative encoding, which is a key mechanism of learning, can be seen in the tendency of participants to successively recall, or cluster, study neighbors. We assessed the electrophysiological correlates of associative processing by comparing intracranially recorded EEG activity during the encoding of items that were subsequently recalled and clustered; recalled and not clustered; or not recalled. We found that high frequency activity (HFA) in left prefrontal cortex, left temporal cortex and hippocampus increased during the encoding of subsequently recalled items. Critically, the magnitude of this effect was largest for those recalled items that were also subsequently clustered. HFA temporally dissociated across regions, with increases in left prefrontal cortex preceding those in hippocampus. Furthermore, late hippocampal HFA positively correlated with behavioral measures of clustering. These results suggest that associative processes linking items to their spatiotemporal context underlie the traditionally observed subsequent memory effect and support successful memory formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Logical Memory test of the Wechsler Memory Scale - Revised (WMS-R) is widely used in clinical practice as a tool for verbal memory assessment. The aim of this study was to examine the initial psychometric properties of alternative versions of the stories translated and freely adapted from WMS -R used in Brazil: three stories comparable to Ana Soares' and three to Roberto Mota's stories. The sample consisted of 655 adults aged between 18 and 35 years. Immediate and delayed free recall of each original and alternative story was requested. The analysis of equivalence between the recall of alternative and original stories showed that fi ve stories proved equivalent to the original stories, if applied individually. Recall of three pairs of these alternative stories was also equivalent to that of the original pair. An analysis using Item Response Theory (IRT) showed the items with best discriminative index. Therefore, the alternative stories proposed here can be used in normalization studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exposure to increased ambient pressure causes inert gas narcosis of which one symptom is long-term memory (LTM) impairment. Narcosis is posited to impair LTM by disrupting information encoding, retrieval (self-guided search), or both. The effect of narcosis on the encoding and retrieval of LTM was investigated by testing the effect of learning–recall pressure and levels of processing (LoP) on the free-recall of word lists in divers underwater. All participants (n = 60) took part in four conditions in which words were learnt and then recalled at either low pressure (1.4–1.9 atm/4–9 msw) or high pressure (4.4–5.0 atm/34–40 msw), as manipulated by changes in depth underwater: low–low (LL), low–high(LH), high–high (HH), and high–low (HL). In addition, participants were assigned to either a deep or shallow processing condition, using LoP methodology. Free-recall memory ability was significantly impaired only when words were initially learned at high pressure (HH & HL conditions). When words were learned at low pressure and then recalled at low pressure (LL condition) or high pressure (LH condition) free-recall was not impaired. Although numerically superior in several conditions, deeper processing failed to significantly improve free-recall ability in any of the learning–recall conditions. This pattern of results support the hypothesis that narcosis disrupts encoding of information into LTM, while retrieval appears to be unaffected. These findings are discussed in relation to similar effects reported by some memory impairing drugs and the practical implications for workers in pressurised environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Successful memory encoding is marked by increases in 30–100Hz gamma-band activity in a broad network of brain regions. Activity in the 3–8Hz theta band has also been shown to modulate memory encoding, but this effect has been found to vary in direction across studies. Because of the diversity in memory tasks, and in recording and data-analytic methods, our knowledge of the theta frequency modulations remains limited. The difference in the directionality of these theta effects could arise from a distinction between global cortical and deeper subcortical effects. To address this issue, we examined the spectral correlates of successful memory encoding using intracranial EEG recordings in neurosurgical patients and scalp EEG recordings in healthy controls. We found significant theta (3–8Hz) power modulations (both increases and decreases) and high gamma (44–100Hz) power increases in both samples of participants. These results suggest that (1) there are two separate theta mechanisms supporting memory success, a broad theta decrease present across both the cortex and hippocampus as well as a theta power increase in the frontal cortex, (2) scalp EEG is capable of resolving high frequency gamma activity, and (3) iEEG theta effects are likely not the result of epileptic pathology. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Relational association of disparate semantic concepts can strengthen encoding of episodes. Previous research has shown that the left medial temporal lobe (MTL) and the left prefrontal cortex (PFC) are the primary brain regions activated during both verbal encoding and the association of disparate semantic concepts. In the current functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, our goal was to compare the coordinated response of the left MTL and left PFC when disparate semantic associations are strongly encoded compared to when they are weakly encoded. To achieve this goal, subjects were scanned while creating sentences based on a presented pair of words, and were asked to free-recall these sentences at a later time. Half the word pairs were semantically unrelated, and half were semantically related. Analysis of relatedness activations (unrelated–related contrast) suggested that the PFC was active whether or not the items were free-recalled, and increased activation of the MTL was required to promote encoding. Analyses of coordination of relatedness activations comparing free-recalled items to not free-recalled items showed an increase in left MTL–left PFC coordination for relatedness activations on free-recalled items. These results suggest that formation of relational semantic associations that lead to strongly encoded episodes requires increased coordination of the left MTL–left PFC neural pathway. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Both intracranial and scalp EEG studies have demonstrated that oscillatory activity, especially in the gamma band (28 to 100 Hz), can differentiate successful and unsuccessful episodic encoding [Sederberg, P.B., Kahana, M.J., Howard, M.W., Donner, E.J., Madsen, J.R., 2003. Theta and gamma oscillations during encoding predict subsequent recall. Journal of Neuroscience, 23(34), 10809–10814; Fell, J., Klaver, P., Lehnertz, K., Grunwald, T., Schaller, C., Elger, C.E., Fernandez, G., 2001. Human memory formation is accompanied by rhinal–hippocampal coupling and decoupling. Nature Neuroscience, 4 (12), 1259–1264; Gruber, T., Tsivilis, D., Montaldi, D., and Müller, M. (2004). Induced gamma band responses: An early marker of memory encoding and retrieval. Neuroreport, 15, 1837–1841; Summerfield, C., Mangels, J.A., in press. Dissociable neural mechanisms for encoding predictable and unpredictable events. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience]. Although the probability of recalling an item varies as a function of where it appeared in the list, the relation between the oscillatory dynamics of successful encoding and serial position remains unexplored. We recorded scalp EEG as participants studied lists of common nouns in a delayed free-recall task. Because early list items were recalled better than items from later serial positions (the primacy effect), we analyzed encoding-related changes in 2 to 100 Hz oscillatory power as a function of serial position. Increases in gamma power in posterior regions predicted successful encoding at early serial positions; widespread low-frequency (4–14 Hz) power decreases predicted successful memory formation for later serial positions. These results suggest that items in early serial positions receive an encoding boost due to focused encoding without having to divide resources among numerous list items. Later in the list, as memory load increases, encoding is divided between multiple items. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]