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Previous studies have shown that information held in visual working memory is represented in the occipital, parietal, and frontal cortices. However, less is known about whether the mnemonic information of multi-feature objects is modulated by task demand in the parietal and frontal regions. To address this question, we asked participants to remember either color or orientation of one of the two colored gratings for a delay. Using fMRI and an inverted encoding model, we reconstructed population-level, feature-selective responses in the occipital, parietal and frontal cortices during memory maintenance. We found that not only orientation but also color information can be maintained in higher-order parietal and frontal cortices as well as the early visual cortex when it was cued to be remembered. Conversely, neither the task-irrelevant feature of the cued object, nor any feature of the uncued object was maintained in the occipital, parietal, or frontal cortices. These results suggest a highly selective mechanism of visual working memory that maintains task-relevant features only.

Previous work has shown that depletion of the cholinergic input to the hippocampus produces no impairment in an episodic (what-where-which) memory task in rats. However, in contrast a where-which task was significantly impaired. Models of acetylcholine function related to pattern separation were used to explain this result. Recent development of spontaneous recognition tasks to assess multiple trials consecutively in the same testing session allow an opportunity to assess whether an increase in interference produces an impairment in the episodic memory task using the same cholinergic lesion. By increasing the number of trials happening consecutively the proactive interference between events being remembered increases, with the prediction that a reduction in pattern separation as a result of reduced acetylcholine in the hippocampus would now produce an impairment in this task. We show that a continual trials approach to the episodic memory task has no impact on the effects of cholinergic depletion of the hippocampus, with effects mirroring those from using just one trial a day approaches to these tasks. We suggest that pattern separation models of acetylcholine function can still explain our findings, but with an apparent emphasis on context-specific locations rather than all types of memory.

Difficulty in memorizing arithmetic facts is a common problem encountered in people suffering from dyscalculia. We suggest that hypersensitivity-to-interference in memory could account for this profile of difficulty. We first report the description of a patient showing a deficit in storing multiplication facts together with a hypersensitivity-to-interference. We hypothesized that similarity between arithmetic facts would provoke interference and that learners who are hypersensitive-to-interference would encounter difficulties in storing arithmetic facts in memory. This hypothesis was first tested in fourth-grade children: Children with weak arithmetic facts learning showed higher sensitivity-to-interference in memory compared with the control group. We then showed in adults that this hypothesis specifically explained difficulties in arithmetic facts solving but not in a global math test. Finally, we created a measure of the proactive interference weight for each multiplication problem and showed that it accounted for both difference of performance between the problems and between individuals.

Anatomical, neurophysiological, functional neuroimaging, and neuropsychological evidence is described that anterior limbic and related structures including the orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala are involved in emotion, reward valuation, and reward-related decision-making (but not memory), with the value representations transmitted to the anterior cingulate cortex for action-outcome learning. In this “emotion limbic system” a computational principle is that feedforward pattern association networks learn associations from visual, olfactory, and auditory stimuli to primary reinforcers such as taste, touch, and pain. In primates including humans, this learning can be very rapid and rule-based, with the orbitofrontal cortex overshadowing the amygdala in this learning important for social and emotional behavior. Complementary evidence is described showing that the hippocampus and limbic structures to which it is connected including the posterior cingulate cortex and the fornix-mammillary body-anterior thalamus-posterior cingulate circuit are involved in episodic or event memory, but not emotion. This “hippocampal system” receives information from neocortical areas about spatial location, and objects, and can rapidly associate this information together by the different computational principle of autoassociation in the CA3 region of the hippocampus involving feedback. The system can later recall the whole of this information in the CA3 region from any component, a feedback process, and can recall the information back to neocortical areas, again a feedback (to neocortex) recall process. Emotion can enter this memory system from the orbitofrontal cortex etc., and be recalled back to the orbitofrontal cortex etc., during memory recall, but the emotional and hippocampal networks or “limbic systems” operate by different computational principles and operate independently of each other except insofar as an emotional state or reward value attribute may be part of an episodic memory.

This chapter will discuss brain regions involved in learning and teaching, mainly including attention and self-control networks (e.g., anterior cingulate and adjacent prefrontal cortex, parietal cortex, striatum), memory networks (e.g., hippocampus, parietal cortex), emotion networks (e.g., prefrontal cortex, amygdala), reward and habit networks (e.g., striatum), and social and self-referential networks (e.g., midline brain regions, insula). This chapter will also discuss how these networks interact and support the dynamic processing of learning and teaching processing.

Previous research has suggested that children with specific reading comprehension deficits (poor comprehenders) show an impaired ability to suppress irrelevant information from working memory, with this deficit detrimentally impacting on their working memory ability, and consequently limiting their reading comprehension performance. However, the extent to which these suppression deficits are specific to the verbal domain has not yet been explored. Experiment 1 examined the memory profiles of poor comprehenders and demonstrated a memory deficit specific to working memory, and the verbal domain within working memory. Experiment 2 compared the same poor comprehenders and controls on both verbal and non-verbal versions of a proactive interference task designed to assess their ability to suppress no-longer-relevant information from working memory. The poor comprehenders showed domain-specific suppression deficits, demonstrating impairments relative to the controls only in the verbal version of the task. Experiment 3 replicated these findings after the response modes of the verbal and non-verbal tasks were equated, confirming the domain specificity of our sample of poor comprehenders' suppression deficits. © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This study explored whether a relatively poor ability to resist or inhibit interference from irrelevant information in working memory is associated with experiencing undesirable intrusive memories. Non-selected participants (N = 91) completed a self-report measure of intrusive memories, and carried out experimental tasks intended to measure two different types of inhibition: resistance to proactive interference and response inhibition (i.e., the ability to prevent automatically triggered responses). The results showed a significant relationship between inhibition at the cognitive level (i.e., resistance to proactive interference) and the frequency of intrusive memories (especially in the group of female participants) whereas no such relationship with measures of response inhibition emerged. These findings are consistent with the idea that deficient inhibitory control reflects a vulnerability factor for experiencing intrusive memories. Implications for research investigating risk factors for the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are discussed. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Storing the solution of simple calculations in long-term memory is an important learning in primary school that is subsequently essential in adult daily living. While most children succeed in storing arithmetic facts to which they have been trained at school, huge individual differences are reported, particularly in children with developmental dyscalculia, who show a severe and persistent deficit in arithmetic facts learning. This chapter reports important advances in the understanding of the development of an arithmetic facts network and focuses on the detrimental effect of similarity interference. First, at the retrieval stage, connectionist models highlighted that the similarity of the neighbor problems in the arithmetic facts network creates interference. More recently, the similarity interference during the learning stage was pointed out in arithmetic facts learning. The interference parameter, that captures the proactive interference that a problem receives from previously learned problems, was shown as a substantial determinant of the performance across multiplication problems. This proactive interference was found both in children and adults and showed that when a problem is highly similar to previously learned ones, it is more difficult to remember it. Furthermore, the sensitivity to this similarity interference determined individual differences in the learning and retrieving of arithmetic facts, giving new insights for interindividual differences. Regarding the atypical development, hypersensitivity-to-interference in memory was related to arithmetic facts deficit in a single case of developmental dyscalculia and in a group of fourth-grade children with low arithmetic facts knowledge. In sum, the impact of similarity interference is shown in the learning stage of arithmetic facts and concerns the typical and atypical development.

In this chapter, we review evidence that the cortical pathways to the hippocampus appear to extend from two large-scale cortical systems: a posterior medial (PM) system that includes the parahippocampal cortex and retrosplenial cortex, and an anterior temporal (AT) system that includes the perirhinal cortex. This "PMAT" framework accounts for differences in the anatomical and functional connectivity of the medial temporal lobes, which may underpin differences in cognitive function between the systems. The PM and AT systems make distinct contributions to memory and to other cognitive domains, and convergent findings suggest that they are involved in processing information about contexts and items, respectively. In order to support the full complement of memory-guided behavior, the two systems must interact, and the hippocampal and ventromedial prefrontal cortex may serve as sites of integration between the two systems. We conclude that when considering the "connected hippocampus," inquiry should extend beyond the medial temporal lobes to include the large-scale cortical systems of which they are a part.

This chapter discusses the involvement of certain prefrontal areas in the collection of sensory inputs, the generation of motor outputs, and their visceral and emotional functions, all of which undoubtedly serve the eminently integrative executive functions of the frontal lobe. Electrophysiological data corroborate the connective links of the prefrontal cortex. In accord with anatomical evidence, fiber connections of this cortex with other cortical regions, with the thalamus, and with the basal ganglia have been electrically traced. Significantly complementing and substantiating lesion studies, electrophysiological research has provided insight into the roles of the prefrontal cortex in sensory, motor, visceral/emotional, social, and executive functions. Because of the abundant convergence of sensory inputs on the cortex of the prefrontal convexity of the primate, it is justified to consider most of that cortex to be cortex of sensory association. It mediates behavioral and cognitive associations between stimuli of diverse origin and qualities. The prefrontal cortex also plays a role in sensorial attention. Electrophysiological research provides evidence of the prefrontal control of movement. Neuronal activity in the caudate nucleus, a major collector of output from the prefrontal cortex to motor systems, is modulated by abundant influences from prefrontal cortex. Orbital and medial areas of the prefrontal cortex control a variety of visceral and hormonal functions. Four executive functions have well-substantiated electrophysiological correlates: attention, working memory, anticipatory activity, and monitoring.

Recognition memory was thought to place minimal demands on the prefrontal and parietal cortical regions underlying controlled decision making. However, functional imaging research examining recognition repeatedly demonstrated increased activation for hits (successfully identified studied materials) relative to correct rejections (successfully identified novel materials) in prefrontal cortex and posterior parietal cortex. Although initially thought to directly reflect successful memory retrieval, recent fMRI and neuropsychological research suggest that these activations reflect cognitive control processes involved in foregrounding of memory probe semantic features, maintaining retrieval goals, implementing recognition decision biases, and orienting when biases are contradicted.

Cognitive control is the ability to direct mental function and behavior in accord with internally represented intentions or goals. This ability is fundamental to all higher cognitive faculties, such as language, reasoning, problem solving, and social behavior. While this ability no doubt relies on interactions between many areas of the brain, neuropsychological, neurophysiological, neuroimaging, and neural network modeling studies all indicate strongly that the prefrontal cortex plays a critical role in cognitive control. This article reviews these findings briefly, and suggests that the prefrontal cortex executes control by guiding the flow of neural activity along pathways in other parts of the brain responsible for performing an intended task.

The prefrontal cortical region comprises several higher-order control processes and is functionally organized along both rostral–caudal and dorsal–ventral axes. The caudal dorsolateral prefrontal region that lies immediately anterior to the motor region is involved in higher-order control processes that regulate the attentional selection among multiple competing environmental stimuli. Medial to this region, the cingulate-prefrontal region contributes to critical evaluation of action outcomes, often referred to as performance monitoring. The mid-dorsolateral prefrontal region contributes to the monitoring of events in working memory, which, in interaction with posterior parietal cortex, allow for the cognitive manipulation of events in working memory. The ventrolateral prefrontal region, which in the language-dominant hemisphere plays a critical role in language production, also regulates effortful controlled retrieval from memory.

Neural correlates of working memory have been described in the form of sustained discharges that persist after a stimulus is no longer present. Persistent discharges appear in multiple brain areas, including the prefrontal and posterior parietal cortex, although accumulating evidence suggests that these are functionally specialized. Prefrontal neurons exhibit persistent activity even before training in working memory tasks, when subjects view stimuli passively. Changes that occur after training include that more neurons are active and exhibit higher firing rates. New information that needs to be retained in working memory is incorporated in the activity of a small population of neurons highly specialized for the task. The ability to generate persistent activity is present in adolescent monkeys, although they are susceptible to impulsive errors. Collectively, these results shed light on the neural mechanisms that mediate working memory across cortical areas and on their malleability.

Failure to remember, or forgetting, is a phenomenon familiar to everyone and despite more than a century of scientific inquiry, why we forget what we once knew remains unclear. If the brain marshals significant resources to form and store memories, why is it that these memories become lost? In the last century, psychological studies have divided forgetting into decay theory, in which memory simply dissipates with time, and interference theory, in which additional learning or mental activity hinders memory by reducing its stability or retrieval (for review, Dewar et al., 2007; Wixted, 2004). Importantly, these psychological models of forgetting posit that forgetting is a passive property of the brain and thus a failure of the brain to retain memories. However, recent neuroscience research on olfactory memory in Drosophila has offered evidence for an alternative conclusion that forgetting is an "active" process, with specific, biologically regulated mechanisms that remove existing memories (Berry et al., 2012; Shuai et al., 2010). Similar to the bidirectional regulation of cell number by mitosis and apoptosis, protein concentration by translation and lysosomal or proteomal degradation, and protein phosphate modification by kinases and phosphatases, biologically regulated memory formation and removal would be yet another example in biological systems where distinct and separate pathways regulate the creation and destruction of biological substrates.

Objective: Recent research has focused on interference resolution deficits as the main cause of short-term memory decreases in aging. To determine whether activation of brain compensatory mechanisms occur during the encoding process in older people. Moreover, two different levels of interference (distraction and interruption) were presented during the maintenance period to examine how they modulate brain activity profiles. Design: A delayed match-to-sample task with two experimental conditions: distraction and interruption. Participants: Twenty-seven young adults from Complutense University of Madrid and 20 healthy older adults from Complutense Elderly University of Madrid. Measurements: Magnetoencephalography scans were recorded during the execution of a working memory interference task. Brain activity sources from younger and older adults during the encoding stage were compared in each condition using minimum norm estimation analyses. Results: The elderly showed enhancement of prefrontal activity during early latencies of the encoding process in both conditions. In the distraction condition, enhanced activity was located in left ventrolateral prefrontal regions, whereas in the interruption condition, enhanced activity was observed in the right ventral prefrontal areas and anterior cingulate cortex. Conclusion: Increased recruitment of prefrontal regions in the elderly might be related to the processing depth of information, encoding of new information and semantic associations that are successfully recalled, and with interference resolution and preparatory control when the level of interference becomes higher. These prefrontal modulations during early latencies might reflect a higher top-down control of the encoding process in normal aging to prevent forgetting.

This chapter highlights the connections between research on memory reconsolidation and central ideas in memory research, considering the substantial body of work produced within the neurosciences as well as cognitive psychology–two fields that, at the beginning of our science in the past century, were not as separated as they are now. We advance the basic idea that the reconsolidation phenomenon indicates that memory systems are inherently flexible, based on processes that constantly adapt existing memory representations to improve behavioral performance. These mechanisms are likely of meta-plastic nature, and they will play out on the levels of cognition and behavior. We discuss possible meta-plastic mechanisms that mediate reconsolidation. We then briefly discuss how reconsolidation might explain certain cognitive memory malleability phenomena, such as the misinformation effect and memory interference.

A first tier of cortical processing builds representations of what a stimulus is, i.e. its identity and intensity, independently of reward or emotional value. Structures in this tier include the inferior temporal visual cortex, the insular primary taste cortex, and the pyriform olfactory cortex. A second tier of processing involves two systems, the orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala, in which the reward or emotional value of stimuli is represented. The orbitofrontal cortex becomes more developed and relatively more important than the amygdala in emotion in primates and humans than in rodents. The orbitofrontal cortex projects to the pregenual cingulate cortex, in which there are also affective representations. A third tier of processing is involved in the medial prefrontal cortex in choice decision-making between affective stimuli; in the cingulate cortex in action to reward outcome learning; in the striatum in habit learning; and in the hypothalamus to autonomic and endocrine responses to affective stimuli.

Cognitive control mechanisms permit memory to be accessed strategically and so aid in bringing knowledge to mind that is relevant to current decisions and actions. A fundamental component of the strategic control of memory is the resolution of interference from competing, irrelevant representations. This article considers how the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) regulates mnemonic competition in multiple memory systems. We initially discuss how damage to lateral prefrontal cortex impacts mnemonic function and then consider recent neuroimaging and focal lesion findings that highlight the distinct roles that subregions of the VLPFC play in the control of memory.

Publisher Summary Appropriate decision-making requires the evaluation of critical parameters such as the expected value of each choice, the risk associated with each choice, the prediction error. Neuroimaging studies in human and electrophysiological studies in monkey have shown the involvement of the anterior cingulate cortex, the orbitofrontal cortex, and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in reward-based decision-making. This chapter presents a review of functional neuroimaging and single-neuron recording data on the role of these three regions of the frontal cortex in reward-based decision processes. These data suggest that the anterior cingulate cortex has a role in the decision-making process per se, and not simply an evaluative role, as previously thought. The orbitofrontal cortex may be necessary to monitor stimulus–feedback associations, and the middorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is critical for the monitoring of information in working memory in general, tracks the reward history in working memory of a series of actions.

Many of our most vivid memories are of emotional events; in research studies, emotional events or items are often more likely to be remembered than neutral events or items. However, as pointed out in this chapter, the same characteristics that make emotional information memorable can also make it more subject to interference effects in memory. Thus: (1) being reminded of some emotional memories interferes with other memories evoking the same emotion; (2) it is more difficult to update one's memory of the context of emotional items than of neutral items; (3) it is harder to learn a new association to something that was previously associated with an emotional item; and (4) frequent reexposure to a cue to a negative memory increases forgetting of that negative memory.

This chapter presents the relation of response time (RT) to other psychological variables. Various reaction time (RT) paradigms have been used as a tool in the experimental analysis of psychological variables besides individual differences in the normal range of intelligence. The focus is on the study of more basic psychological processes. The uses of chronometric methods, whether experimental or differential, are possible because the mental processes of interest are intrinsically time dependent at the level of basic causal mechanisms. The chapter explains the short-term memory span such as memory processes. They have been subjected to chronometric study, probably more than any other class of variables. Various studies include short-term memory (STM), long-term memory (LTM), and retention loss following delayed recall and the effects of proactive and retroactive interference. It also presents long-term memory, consolidation, retrieval, and forgetting. When the amount of information to be retrieved exceeds the immediate memory span (for a given type of stimuli), rehearsal of the input over repeated trials becomes necessary. The chapter also discusses the study of mental retardation (MR) that started in hopes of finding a more sharply analytic means of describing the nature of cognitive deficits than is afforded by conventional psychometric tests.

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of magnetoencephalography (MEG) studies of different types of memory processes. The analysis of event-related magnetic fields (ERFs) has supported the involvement of temporo-parieto-frontal networks in visual long-term memory and added knowledge about the temporal dynamics of these activations. During working memory, a common finding has been increased ERF amplitude generated by parieto-prefrontal sources during the ∼300 to 600 ms after presentation of the stimulus that was to be encoded. The major part of this chapter focuses on cortical oscillatory activity as a correlate of working memory. Several studies have implicated activity in the theta (4 to 8 Hz) and gamma (∼30 to 100 Hz) bands in memory processing. Oscillatory activity, particularly in the higher frequency ranges, is thought of as a signature of the synchronous activation of distributed cortical networks. Studies investigating passive auditory deviance processing revealed increased gamma-band activity (GBA) over anterior temporal/inferior frontal areas during auditory pattern mismatch and over posterior temporo-parietal cortex during auditory spatial mismatch processing. The same regions were involved in the maintenance of spatial sound features and auditory patterns during short-term memory tasks. In addition, prefrontal GBA increases characterized short-term memory for both types of stimuli. Gamma phase synchronization between the auditory stream areas (possible higher sensory storage systems) and prefrontal cortex (putative central executive system) was enhanced throughout the memorization phases.

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on stress and eyewitness accuracy, eyewitness identification, interviewing techniques, and children's eyewitness memory. The chapter presents a brief overview of basic memory processes. The accuracy of eyewitness testimony is determined by a complex interaction of perception, memory, and socio-emotional factors. Memory is typically divided into three stages: encoding, retention, and retrieval. In situations relevant to eyewitness testimony, encoding happens when a victim experiences or a bystander witnesses a criminal act. Eyewitness accuracy is constrained first by the conditions under which information was encoded. Many variables influence the probability that an event was properly encoded, such as observation conditions and exposure duration. There exists a consensus that, given the reconstructive nature of memory, stored information may undergo processes of change during the retention phase. Important for eyewitness testimony is the notion of retroactive interference. Because of the nature of criminal acts, victims and bystanders often experience elevated levels of stress during a crime. Eyewitness identification, one of the most direct kinds of evidence of guilt, links the suspect and the crime specifically.

Working memory, which refers to the temporary storage of recently perceived and interpreted information for further processing and cognitive manipulation, depends on distributed neural systems involving multiple brain regions that include several prefrontal and higher-order temporal and parietal cortical areas. There is considerable evidence that the temporary storage of information depends primarily on modality-specific and multisensory temporal and parietal cortical areas. Distinct prefrontal areas in interaction with these posterior storage areas support various aspects of control processes such as the monitoring of the contents of working memory (known as the epoptic process), rule-based attentional selection, active-controlled retrieval, inhibitory control, etc. The mid-dorsolateral prefrontal region, which underlies the monitoring of the contents of working memory, in interaction with certain areas of the posterior parietal cortex, forms a fronto-parietal circuit for the manipulation of information in working memory.

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the contribution of functional neuroimaging studies with positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging to understand the functional organization of the lateral prefrontal cortex. The analysis of the effects of middorsolateral prefrontal lesions on memory established two important facts that define the specialized functional contribution of this region. First, the demonstration that middorsolateral prefrontal lesions impair performance on nonspatial visual working memory tasks, with the appropriate monitoring requirements, indicated that this region cannot simply be conceived as a specialized working memory module for spatial information. Second, it is clear that, following middorsolateral prefrontal cortical lesions, information can still be maintained on-line but that the capacity to consider multiple pieces of information in working memory is severely reduced. Based on this analysis and other anatomical and behavioral work, it was proposed that the middorsolateral and the midventrolateral prefrontal cortex underlie two distinct levels of executive control of cognition. This theoretical model proposed that the middorsolateral prefrontal cortex is a specialized region for the on-line monitoring and manipulation of cognitive representations within working memory.

Publisher Summary This chapter presents a cooperative control theory of how the cerebellum and basal ganglia might contribute to cognitive functions that are represented in the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is a likely site for the formation of temporary representations—called working memories—of important events, contexts, and recalled experiences. Working memories are very important in higher cognitive functions such as attention, synthetic reasoning and planning, comprehension of situations, utilization of experience, and incorporation of verbal instructions for controlling behavior. In physiological terms, a working memory takes the form of sustained discharge in prefrontal neurons, which serves to store information temporarily, over a restricted time interval. A simple paradigm that is often used to elicit a working memory is illustrated in this chapter along with a schematic of the neural correlates that can be recorded from prefrontal neurons. The theory advanced in the chapter asserts that thought processes, such as the instantiation of a working memory, utilize modular signal processing operations in a manner analogous to modularity in voluntary movement control. According to this theory, cortical–basal ganglionic modules are specialized for the initiation of partial thoughts, ones that generally require subsequent elaboration and refinement.

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the causes of memory interference and the extent of situations in which these mechanisms operate. First, the chapter discusses some widely held assumptions about the situation of interference, focusing on the idea that such effects arise from competition for access via a shared retrieval cue. This notion is sufficiently general that it may be applied in a variety of interference settings, which is illustrated briefly. Then the classical interference paradigms from which these ideas emerged are reviewed. The chapter also reviews more recent phenomena that both support and challenge classical conceptions of interference. These phenomena provide compelling illustrations of the generality of interference and, consequently, of the importance of understanding its mechanisms. A recent perspective on interference is highlighted that builds upon insights from modern work, while validating intuitions underlying several of the classical interference mechanisms. According to this new perspective, forgetting derives not from acquiring new memories per se, but from the impact of later retrievals of the newly learned material. After discussing findings from several paradigms that support this retrieval-based view, the chapter illustrates how forgetting might be linked to inhibitory processes underlying selective attention.

Part 1 Historical perspective: interference and inhibition in cognition - an historical perspective, F.N. Dempster. Part 2 Developmental perspectives: interference effects in memory and reasoning - a fuzzy-trace theory analysis, V.F. Reyna interference or facilitation in infant memory?, C. Rovee-Collier and K. Boller interference processes in memory development - the case of cognitive triage, C.J. Brainerd the evolution of inhibition mechanisms and their role in human cognition and behaviour, D.F. Bjorklund and K.K. Harnishfeger the development of cognitive inhibition - theories, definitions and research evidence, K.K. Harnishfeger. Part 3 Adult perspectives: selective attention and the inhibitory control of cognition, W.T. Neill et al memory interference and misinformation effects, A.L. Titcomb and V.F. Reyna skilled suppression, M.A. Gernsbacher catastrophic interference in neural networks - causes, solutions and data, S. Lewandowsky and S.-C. Li inhibitory processes in cognition and ageing, J.M. McDowd et al.

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews research on misinformation effects. Misinformation effects in memory have been widely researched because of their theoretical and practical importance. This review is divided into three major sections. The first section summarizes empirical findings; the second section details the major information processing explanations for these findings; the last section discusses newer theoretical perspectives. Misinformation procedure parallels classical interference paradigms, and similar theoretical controversies have arisen in both domains. Specifically, theorists have disagreed about whether misinformation effects are chiefly due to storage failure, to retrieval failure, or, indeed, to memory at all. New distinctions have been introduced, including memory for the source of information, as opposed to its content, and memory for verbatim information, as opposed to gist. Misinformation research encompasses multiple memory phenomena.

The prefrontal cortex has been implicated in a variety of higher cognitive faculties, including planning, problem solving, and language. However, little is known about the specific cognitive mechanisms that this brain area subserves. The application of functional neuroimaging techniques has recently begun to shed light on this question. This chapter briefly reviews the role of frontal cortex in working memory, and discusses a recent study designed to examine this function of prefrontal cortex using magnetic resonance imaging. The results of this study support the role of prefrontal cortex in working memory, identify specific regions that appear to be involved and, more generally, demonstrate that functional MRI (fMRI) using conventional scanning equipment can be used to study the activation of associative cortex in individual human subjects. These results set the stage for more detailed examinations of the functional organization of prefrontal cortex, as well as other regions of associative cortex.

Publisher Summary Interference, in general, is determined by the similarity of the interfering material and the material to be retained. In adults, the effects of retroactive interference on forgetting are stronger after shorter retention intervals, whereas the effects of proactive interference are stronger after longer ones. The interference of new learning with old is an active process. Historically, research using visual attention procedures has found little evidence that infants are susceptible to interference of either type during the first year of life. This chapter reviews theories of interference and problems associated with measuring interference in infants, as well as prior infant research on interference. It also presents work on proactive and retroactive interference. Effects of new information depend critically on its timing and new information can facilitate performance on a retention test as well as impair it.

Publisher Summary This chapter presents a commentary on a study related to faith and skepticism in memory research. In his chapter, Conway writes in the tone of an ecclesiastical historian. Conway's purpose is to suggest a rigidity and orthodoxy among the followers/disciples of Ebbinghaus. By the time Underwood and Schulz published their book Meaningfulness and Verbal Learning (1960) the integration of laboratory habits with what we would now call world knowledge was absolutely central to the dominant theoretical fabric of the times, the interference theory of memory. Conway chooses to designate, who uphold the commonplace standards for any science, as followers of “the verbal learning” (VL) tradition. Conway's derisive preoccupations with the “three commandments” of emerging science are: (1) first, the methods employed must not be ambiguous, (2) second, the findings must be replicable, and (3) the data collected must be quantitative data. The heart of Conway's brief against the effort to develop a natural science of memory is the philosophical problem of “intentionality.” The possibility that human memory, as a field of study, might one day be taken away from intuitive speculation bothered Conway. He finds himself quoting the philosopher Wittgenstein repeatedly. Creationism today is a vestigial trace of that resistance in biology.

Experiment 1 deals with the connections which may exist between the length of iconic persistence and dyslexia. In experiment 2 one can see how variations in length of iconic persistence affect the ability to perceive takistoscopically presented letters during proactive and retroactive interference. The results show that pupils with special reading difficulties as a group, have longer iconic persistence mean-value than pupils with normal reading ability. Pupils with long iconic persistence also have greater difficulty in reading letters during proactive and retroactive interference than reading-retarded pupils with moderate or short persistence length.

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of some of the animal cognition experiments that have been conducted during the past decade. The range of topics investigated in these experiments includes the concept learning, categorization, proactive interference, serial position functions, memory strategies, and rehearsal processes. The visual memory with slide picture stimuli and auditory memory with natural and environmental sound stimuli is examined in the chapter. In some experiments described in the chapter, animal and human memory processing are compared directly. Improved animal memory performance allows the test of memory for lists of items instead of just single items. If good list memory performance is obtained from animals, then there is a reasonable possibility that humans can be tested on the same lists with the same items without encountering a ceiling effect. As procedures and techniques become more refined and animal memory performance improves, the human–animal comparison becomes more valid. Improved animal memory performance provides important controls for and comparisons to human memory. Long-term experiments and studies of the effects of practice on performance are difficult to conduct with human subjects but are ideally suited to memory and cognition research with animals.

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on certain selected aspects of the updating problem of human memory. Updating, even though well-established, may fail or break down at some later point under certain circumstances. The anecdote demonstrates that when the local retrieval context matches the storage context of out-of-date information better than it does the storage context of current information, it becomes susceptible to intrusions of out-of-date information. Subjects' recall of each type of list tested in three different ways. A recall test is administered either immediately, after a forced-choice recognition test is completed, or after an arithmetic task is completed. In the FR and (-)R conditions, subjects are asked to recall the last 16 words in the list. The forced-choice recognition test consisted of eight pairs of words. In each pair, subjects are asked to circle the word they thought had been presented in the second sublist of 16 words. The idea of structural updating does not have a natural representation in terms of interference theory. Structural updating presumes that the current input of information together with the series of preceding inputs is amenable to a longitudinal organization of some kind.

Developmental trends in long-term retention were examined within the rubric of contemporary verbal learning theory. The model employed was a revision of the conventional rote-conditioning model of classical verbal learning. The revised model emphasized generalized habits mediating such processes as a selector mechanism, stimulus selection, and mnemonic devices for associative learning. Special attention was given to hypotheses, and the related empirical evidence, regarding developmental trends across the age continuum in retroactive and proactive inhibition. The source for these hypotheses was interference theory as approached from the viewpoint of the revised model. In addition, a brief summary of the relevance of recognition learning models to retention-development relationships was given