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Episodic memory depends upon multiple processes, including familiarity and recollection. Although associative recognition tasks are traditionally viewed as requiring recollection, recent research suggests a role for familiarity if to-be-remembered stimuli are perceived as unitized. Here we use event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine the relationship between stimulus properties and encoding strategy on the engagement of familiarity during associative recognition. Participants studied word pairs containing an association (e.g. traffic-jam) or an unassociated semantic relationship (e.g. violin-guitar), using either item or interactive imagery. At test, participants were required to recognize if word pairs were presented in the same pairing as study, were rearranged, or new. We hypothesized that adopting a strategy of interactive imagery during encoding (i.e. encouraging unitization) would enhance familiarity for unassociated word pairs but would have no effect on association pairs because they are already perceived as unitized. As expected, overall recognition performance was better for word pairs encoded with interactive imagery, and for association than semantic word pairs. ERPs recorded at test revealed an interaction between encoding strategy and stimulus properties. Association word pairs elicited similar bilateral frontal (familiarity) and left parietal (recollection) old/new effects following item and interactive imagery. By contrast, for semantic word pairs, the left parietal effect was equivalent across conditions, but the bilateral frontal effect was enhanced for the interactive imagery condition. The ERP results suggest that an encoding strategy of interactive imagery can enhance familiarity during associative recognition, but this effect is ultimately dependent on the properties of the stimuli to-be-remembered and the nature of the representations that underlie them.

Episodic memory depends upon multiple dissociable retrieval processes. Here we investigated the degree to which the processes engaged during successful retrieval are dependent on the properties of the representations that underlie memory for an event. Specifically we examined whether the individual elements of an event can, under some conditions, be unitized, leading to an enhancement of familiarity based responding. Retrieval processes were examined using event-related potential (ERPs) old/new effects, recorded during an associative recognition memory task. The nature of to-be-remembered information was manipulated by using word-pairs as stimuli. At study, participants were asked to remember word-pairs sharing an association (traffic-jam); association+semantic relationship (lemon-orange); or a semantic relationship only (cereal-bread). A behavioural pre-test revealed that association word-pairs were rated as having the most unitized representation. At test, participants were required to recognize if word-pairs were presented in the same pairing as at study, were rearranged from at study, or were entirely new. Behavioural recognition performance was clearly influenced by the nature of the to-be-remembered stimuli, memory being strongest for pairs related purely by association, and weakest for semantic only pairs. ERP old/new effects recorded at test also showed significant differences in the neural correlates of retrieval, depending on stimulus characteristics. The bilateral frontal old/new effect (typically associated with familiarity) was solely elicited by association only pairs. By contrast, the left parietal old/new effect (associated with recollection) was elicited equally by all three conditions. In addition, the late right frontal old/new effect (typically associated with some form of strategic/executive processing) was modulated. This latter effect was initially largest for association only pairs, and subsequently largest for semantic pairs. These findings suggest that the pattern of engagement of familiarity and recollection during successful episodic retrieval is dependent on the properties of the representations that underlie memory for an event.

Evidence suggests that cognitive and literacy difficulties are common for children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The current systematic review and meta-analysis investigated the relationship between cognition and literacy in children with ADHD. Ten thousand and thirty-eight articles were screened against the inclusion criteria and six eligible studies were retained for final review. Where two or more studies used comparable measures of cognition and literacy, a meta-analysis of the relationship between these measures was undertaken. Anarrative synthesis of all included studies was also completed. There were medium effect sizes between working memory and aspects of reading, and small effect sizes between processing speed and reading. Inhibition and attention had differential relationships with aspects of literacy with varying effect sizes. This systematic review demonstrates differential relationships between aspects of literacy and cognition in children with ADHD. Further examination of these relationships is warranted to support intervention development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has suggested that particular content of television programmes, such as watching fantastical scenes, can have negative consequences on cognitive functions in young children. We examined the effects of watching fantastical programmes on executive functions measured at both pre‐ and post‐television viewing. Eighty 5‐ to 6‐year‐old children participated and were randomized into either fantastical or non‐fantastical conditions. They completed inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and planning tasks both before and after watching either the brief fantastical or non‐fantastical television clip. Whilst there were no differences between the groups at pre‐test on any of the cognitive measures, children in the fantastical condition were poorer on inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility tasks at the post‐test session. Watching fantastical television content, even briefly, seems to disrupt cognitive function performance in young children across a broad range of aspects of executive function. Statement of contributionWhat is already known on this subject?Exposure to fantastical content within a television programme may impair executive functions in young children.What does this study add?Exposure to fantastical content within television programmes impairs executive functions in children of early primary school age.Impairment extends to all three core aspects of executive functions.Watching fantastical clips slows down planning performance without improving accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The CaR-FA-X model (Williams et al., 2007), or capture and rumination (CaR), functional avoidance (FA), and impaired executive control (X), is a model of overgeneral autobiographical memory (OGM). Two mechanisms of the model, rumination and executive control, were examined in isolation and in interaction in order to investigate OGM over time. Across two time points, six months apart, a total of 149 adolescents (13-16 years) completed the minimal-instruction autobiographical memory test, a measure of executive control with both emotional and nonemotional stimuli, and measures of brooding rumination and reflective pondering. The results showed that executive control for emotional information was negatively associated with OGM, but only when reflective pondering levels were high. Therefore, in the context of higher levels of reflective pondering, greater switch costs (i.e., lower executive control) when processing emotional information predicted a decrease in OGM over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]