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Sequential working memory (SWM), referring to the temporary storage and manipulation of information in order, plays a fundamental role in brain cognitive functions. The serial position effect refers to the phenomena that recall accuracy of an item is associated to the order of the item being presented. The neural mechanismunderpinning the serial position effect remains unclear. The synaptic mechanism of working memory proposes that information is stored as hidden states in the form of facilitated neuronal synapse connections. Here, we build a continuous attractor neural network with synaptic short-term plasticity (STP) to explore the neural mechanism of the serial position effect. Using a delay recall task, ourmodel reproduces the the experimental finding that as themaintenance period extends, the serial position effect transitions from the primacy to the recency effect. Using both numerical simulation and theoretical analysis, we show that the transition moment is determined by the parameters of STP and the interval between presented stimulus items. Our results highlight the pivotal role of STP in processing the order information in SWM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Rey's 15 words test is currently the most frequently used task in Italy to detect memory deficits in AD. The current standardised version is however quite outdated and lacks some cognitive indexes which may highlight problems in recall or encoding processes. The aim of the study was to update the normative data of the test and to consider some variables which were not accounted for in the original study, that is, recognition, learning rate and forgetfulness. We also adopted the process scores approach to ascertain the effects of serial position (primacy and recency). Methods: Three hundred ninety-six healthy participants were recruited. To detect any variables useful for intercepting the early stages of dementia, a group of 208 patients in the very early stage of AD was also recruited. Linear models were used to calculate the corrections scores for age, education, and gender, and ROCs were used to calculate cut-offs based on the maximum sum of sensitivity and specificity and the positive and negative predictive values. Results: All main indexes showed excellent Area Under the Curve (0.90–1), strong sensitivity and PPVs for distinguishing between the HCs and AD participants. However, the Intrusions index performed poorly in all parameters. Conclusion: The study provides updated, normative data which may be reliably used as a cognitive marker to detect early AD. The strength of the study is the large sample size and the number of indexes which make it possible to explore the utility of memory test process scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigated four main phenomena connected with the free immediate recall and visual representation of the information: listlength effect, serial position effect, horizontal versus vertical presentation of the information, expression of the information in the form of the symbol, text, and symbol with text. The number of examined respondents was 414012T.12T The experiment revealed a different memory recall of various forms of visually displayed information and studied a dependency of list length effect on primacy and recency effect. The results showed that people recall better the combination of symbols and text than only text or symbols. The other finding indicated a significant difference between the number of recalled items in the tests of 5, 7, and 9 items. The respondents recalled the highest number of items in 5-item tests and the lowest number in 9-item tests. There was investigated that the proportions of the respondents recalling the items from the beginning is higher than those of the respondents recalling the items from the end. The results showed that the primacy effect was higher than the recency effect regardless of the list length (5, 7, or 9 items tests). This article's findings should help design visually optimized websites and applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The special English courses for medical and health positions have put higher requirements for innovative teaching modes because of their professionalism. Based on the Ebbinghaus memory law, this paper researches and designs an intelligent teaching assistant for English courses with special features for medical and health positions. The review task arrangement was designed based on the relationship between the degree of human memory forgetting and the length of interval time, i.e., the forgetting curve; the middle part of the memorized material was arranged to be reviewed in front based on the sequence position effect, and the articulation between English classes with medical and health specialties was designed based on the knowledge saving theory. In the teaching comparison experiment, the experimental class improved the scores of word-meaning change topic types more significantly by 15.8%, while the control class improved the scores of word-meaning change topic types by only 3.6 points. The F-value of the difference in posttest scores was 0.0018, and the probability of compatibility of the Tstatistic at equal variance was 0.042, which was less than the significant level of 0.05, and there was a significant difference between the experimental class and the control class in the posttest. This study can effectively improve the learning effectiveness of English students with special characteristics of medicine and health positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the basic verbal task from Piaget, when a relation of the form if A > B and B > C is given, a logical inference A > C is expected. This process is called transitive inference (TI). The adapted version for animals involves the presentation of a simultaneous discrimination between stimuli pairs. In this way, when A+B−, B+C−, C+D−, D+E− is trained, a B>D preference is expected, assuming that if A>B>C>D>E, then B>D. This effect has been widely reported using several procedures and different species. In the current experiment TI was evaluated employing probabilistic reinforcement. Thus, for the positive stimuli a .7 probability was administered and for the negative stimuli a .3 probability was administered. Under this arrangement the relation A>B>C>D>E is still allowed, but TI becomes more difficult. Five pigeons (Columba Livia) were exposed to the mentioned arrangement. Only one pigeon reached the criterion in C+D− discrimination, whereas the remaining did not. Only the one who successfully solved C+D− was capable of learning TI, whereas the others were not. Additionally, it was found that correct response ratios did not predict BD performance. Consequently, probabilistic reinforcement disrupted TI, but some positional ordering was retained in the test. The results suggest that TI might be affected by associative strength but also by the positional ordering of the stimuli. The discussion addresses the two main accounts of TI: the associative account and the ordinal representation account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the basic verbal task from Piaget, when a relation of the form if A > B and B > C is given, a logical inference A > C is expected. This process is called transitive inference (TI). The adapted version for animals involves the presentation of a simultaneous discrimination between stimuli pairs. In this way, when A+B−, B+C−, C+D−, D+E− is trained, a B>D preference is expected, assuming that if A>B>C>D>E, then B>D. This effect has been widely reported using several procedures and different species. In the current experiment TI was evaluated employing probabilistic reinforcement. Thus, for the positive stimuli a .7 probability was administered and for the negative stimuli a .3 probability was administered. Under this arrangement the relation A>B>C>D>E is still allowed, but TI becomes more difficult. Five pigeons (Columba Livia) were exposed to the mentioned arrangement. Only one pigeon reached the criterion in C+D− discrimination, whereas the remaining did not. Only the one who successfully solved C+D− was capable of learning TI, whereas the others were not. Additionally, it was found that correct response ratios did not predict BD performance. Consequently, probabilistic reinforcement disrupted TI, but some positional ordering was retained in the test. The results suggest that TI might be affected by associative strength but also by the positional ordering of the stimuli. The discussion addresses the two main accounts of TI: the associative account and the ordinal representation account.

Tourists frequently engage in visiting a sequence of cities, sites, and destinations. Previous psychology studies have shown the impact of order on recall and favorability; key concepts are the serial position effect and primacy and recency influences. A field-based natural experiment collected posttrip responses from 179 international tourists to four major Iranian cities. The researchers examined the relationships between the order of visiting the cities, tourists' recall and judgment. Results from the manipulations revealed there is a relationship (mainly Primacy) between position in the itinerary and their recall. For evaluative judgments, both primacy and recency effects were linked to order of visiting. The work has implications for the presentations of tourism units in a sequence and sharpens the way we use the expression memorable in tourism research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human brain has limited storage capacity often challenging the encoding and recall of a long series of multiple items. Different encoding strategies are therefore employed to optimize performance in memory processes such as chunking where particular items are ‘grouped’ to reduce the number of items to store artificially. Additionally, related to the position of an item within a series, there is a tendency to remember the first and last items on the list better than the middle ones, which calls the “serial position effect”. Although relatively well-established in behavioral research, the neuronal mechanisms underlying such encoding strategies and memory effects remain poorly understood. Here, we used event-related EEG oscillation analyses to unravel the neuronal substrates of serial encoding strategies and effects during the behaviorally controlled execution of the digit span task. We recorded EEG in forty-four healthy young-adult participants during a backward digit span (ds) task with two difficulty levels (i.e., 3-ds and 5-ds). Participants were asked to recall the digits in reverse order after the presentation of each set. We analyzed the pattern of event-related delta and theta oscillatory power in the time-frequency domain over fronto-central and parieto-occipital areas during the item (digit) list encoding, focusing on how these oscillatory responses changed with each subsequent digit being encoded in the series. Results showed that the development of event-related delta power evoked by digits in each series matched the ‘serial position curve’, with higher delta power being present during the first, and especially last, digits as compared to digits presented in the middle of a set, for both difficulty levels. Event-related theta power, in contrast, rather resembled a neural correlate of a chunking pattern where, during the 5-ds encoding, a clear change in event-related theta occurred around the third/fourth positions, with decreasing power values for later digits. This suggests that different oscillatory mechanisms linked to different frequency bands may code for the different encoding strategies and effects in serial item presentation. Furthermore, recall-EEG correlations suggested that participants with higher fronto-central delta responses during digit encoding showed also higher recall scores. The here presented findings contribute to our understanding of the neural oscillatory mechanisms underlying multiple item encoding, directly informing recent efforts towards memory enhancement through targeted oscillation-based neuromodulation.

Online consumer reviews serve an important marketing function, as they provide useful consumer-generated product information that could help online shoppers evaluate a product for making a purchase decision. To capitalize on this consumer-driven marketing opportunity, a common practice among marketers, for example, is to display these reviews from "highest" to "lowest" ratings to strategically "guide" online shoppers to access and process these reviews. The current study examined how the serial position placement of online consumer reviews might influence the systematic and heuristic information processing style leading to product evaluation and purchase decision-making. Results showed that consumer reviews published in an ascending order of ratings led to more systematic information processing, which in turn was positively related to perceived review helpfulness. The opposite was true for the placement effects of consumer reviews on heuristic processing, and the relationship between heuristic processing and perceived review helpfulness. Consumers' prior brand attitude had a positive association with systematic processing and perceived review helpfulness, in addition to a negative relationship with heuristic processing. While perceived review helpfulness and perceived e-commerce website credibility were positively associated with each other, the latter was similarly linked to consumer intentions to shop on the e-commerce website. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sequential working memory (SWM), referring to the temporary storage and manipulation of information in order, plays a fundamental role in brain cognitive functions. The serial position effect refers to the phenomena that recall accuracy of an item is associated to the order of the item being presented. The neural mechanism underpinning the serial position effect remains unclear. The synaptic mechanism of working memory proposes that information is stored as hidden states in the form of facilitated neuronal synapse connections. Here, we build a continuous attractor neural network with synaptic short-term plasticity (STP) to explore the neural mechanism of the serial position effect. Using a delay recall task, our model reproduces the the experimental finding that as the maintenance period extends, the serial position effect transitions from the primacy to the recency effect. Using both numerical simulation and theoretical analysis, we show that the transition moment is determined by the parameters of STP and the interval between presented stimulus items. Our results highlight the pivotal role of STP in processing the order information in SWM., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Zhou, Gong, Huang, Mu and Mi.)

The information cluster that supports the final decision in a decision task is usually presented as a series of information. According to the serial position effect, the decision result is easily affected by the presentation order of the information. In this study, we seek to investigate how the presentation mode of commodities and the informativeness on a shopping website will influence online shopping decisions. To this end, we constructed two experiments via a virtual online shopping environment. The first experiment suggests that the serial position effect can induce human computer interaction decision-making bias, and user decision-making results in separate evaluation mode are more prone to the recency effect, whereas user decision-making results in joint evaluation mode are more prone to the primacy effect. The second experiment confirms the influence of explicit and implicit details of information on the decision bias of the human computer interaction caused by the serial position effect. The results of the research will be better applied to the design and development of shopping websites or further applied to the interactive design of complex information systems to alleviate user decision-making biases and induce users to make more rational decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

不同於拼音書寫系統，漢字視覺組成複雜多變，對以華語作為外語或第二語言之學習者而言，構成極大挑戰。本研究欲以字本位教學法為基礎，涵納第二語言學習的雙碼理論和符合認知心理學的創新記憶術，發展適合華語學習者之策略，以解決漢字難學之學習難點。本研究以菲律賓基督教靈惠學院八年級的華語初級學習者為研究樣本，探討在不同教學法中的學習成效。因此，研究設計在不同教學法中，探討三個研究問題：初始效應、漢字（認讀與書寫）學習成效、詞彙學習成效。經過兩個月的實徵教學研究，結果顯示，接受字本位教學 法之學習者，漢字與詞彙的表現皆優於接受詞本位教學法之學習者；此外，初級學習者的漢字學習成效符合序列位置效果之初始效應理論。 Learning Chinese as a second language (CSL) is difficult because visual characters of Chinese are complicated, and phonetic writing systems are different. The study aimed to develop a learning strategy for overcoming the difficulty in learning Chinese characters for CSL learners by implementing a combination of a character-based learning method and dual code theory of learning a second language with innovative memory based on cognitive psychology. The study targeted primary CSL learners among eighth-grade students of Grace Christian College, Philippines and analyzed the results of different teaching methods. The study investigated three research questions for different teaching methods, including a serial position effect, the effectiveness of learning Chinese characters (reading and writing), and the learning results of vocabulary. After a learning experience of 2 months, the result indicated that the character and vocabulary performance of students who received the character-based teaching method was superior to those who received the word-based teaching method. In addition, the effectiveness of learning Chinese characters among the primary CSL learners was consistent with the theory of the serial position effect.

Free recall of 499 Russian college students was measured using the Tarnow Unchunkable Test (Tarnow, 2014) consisting of sets of 3 and 4 double digit items. Most students can remember 3 items but not 4 items and when the 4th item is added the total recall decreases (Ershova & Tarnow, 2016a). Here we describe the interference that results when adding the fourth item. First, we find that interference affects the items differently, evidence that working memory does not consist of identical “slots”; primacy is found to be an important stabilizer. We model the four item experiment as a superposition of the three item result and a perfectly recalled 1st or 4th item and find that the 4th position is affected 2.5 times as much as is the 1st position. Second, contrary to the displacement/competition theory, recall correlations of the added item with the old items (apparently reported for the first time in a free recall experiment) are typically positive. Third these correlations decay exponentially with item-item presentation distance and are symmetric with respect to time reversal. Small negative recall correlations only appear for subjects with the smallest working memory capacities. Third, also contrary to displacement/competition theory, the fourth item is the least likely to be recalled, thus there is not much need for it to displace the other items. This creates a paradox: while displaying the N+1 item decreases the probability of recall of the N items, actually recalling the N+1 item is positively correlated with recalling the other N items: the N+1 item destroys some of the underlying memory system and then functions as a gauge of its own destruction.

Background Auditory working memory is a crucial factor for complex cognitive tasks such as speech-in-noise understanding because speech communication in noise engages multiple auditory and cognitive capacities to encode, store, and retrieve information. An immediate free recall task of words has been used frequently as a measure of auditory working memory capacity. Purpose The present study investigated performance on the immediate free recall of words in quiet and noisy conditions for hearing-impaired listeners. Research Design Fifty hearing-impaired listeners (30 younger and 20 older) participated in this study. Lists of 10 phonetically and lexically balanced words were presented with a fixed presentation rate in quiet and noise conditions. Target words were presented at an individually determined most comfortable level (MCL). Participants were required to recall as many of the words in an arbitrary order immediately after the end of the list. Serial position curves were determined from the accuracy of free recall as a function of the word position in the sequence. Data Collection and Analysis Three-way analyses of variance with repeated measures were conducted on the percent-correct word recall scores, with two independent within-group factors (serial position and listening condition) and a between-group factor (younger, older). Results A traditional serial position curve was found in hearing-impaired listeners, yet the serial position effects depended on the listening condition. In quiet, the listeners with hearing loss were likely to recall more words from the initial and final positions compared with the middle-position words. In multi-talker babble noise, more difficulties were observed when recalling the words in the initial position compared with the words in the final position. Conclusion Without a noise, a traditional U-shaped serial position curve consisting of primacy and recency effects was observed from hearing-impaired listeners, in accord with previous findings from normal-hearing listeners. The adverse impact of background noise was more pronounced in the primacy effect than in the recency effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marlon O Pflueger,1 Pasquale Calabrese,2 Erich Studerus,3 Ronan Zimmermann,4 Ute Gschwandtner,4 Stefan Borgwardt,5 Jacqueline Aston,3 Rolf-Dieter Stieglitz,6 Anita Riecher-Rössler3 1Department of Forensic Psychiatry, University of Basel Psychiatric Clinics, Basel, Switzerland; 2Division of Molecular and Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland; 3Center for Gender Research and Early Detection, University of Basel Psychiatric Hospital, Basel, Switzerland; 4Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Hospital of the University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland; 5Department of Psychiatry (UPK), University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland; 6Division of Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland Background: Episodic memory encoding and working memory (WM) deficits are among the first cognitive signs and symptoms in the course of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. However, it is not clear whether the deficit pattern is generalized or specific in nature. We hypothesized that encoding deficits at an early stage of the disease might be due to the more fundamental WM deficits. Methods: We examined episodic memory encoding and WM by administering the California Verbal Learning Test, a 2-back task, and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test in 90 first-episode psychosis (FE) patients and 116 individuals with an at-risk mental state for psychosis (ARMS) compared to 57 healthy subjects. Results: Learning progress, but not span of apprehension, was diminished to a similar extent in both the ARMS and the FE. We showed that this was due to WM impairment by applying a structural equation approach. Conclusion: Thus, we conclude that verbal memory encoding deficits are secondary to primary WM impairment in emerging psychosis. Keywords: at-risk mental state, first-episode psychosis, cognition, serial position effect, recency, semantic cluster ratio, 2-back task, rate of learning

The FIFA World Cup football tournament is one of the most widely watched sporting events in the world. Particularly, the Argentina national football team has appeared in five World-Cup finals and support for this team has been a long-standing tradition in this country. In the present study, we asked whether the FIFA World Cup constructs a significant collective memory and to what extent this informal memory is similar to collective memories acquired in more formal settings. An online memory task was conducted asking a large group of Argentinian adults (N=407) which country was the winner, the runner-up, and the host of each tournament from 1930 to 2014. In addition, participants were asked to rank the emotional content and the response confidence of each tournament. Finally, participants reported a number of keywords associated with each tournament, to measure memory detail. Our results reveal the existence of a robust collective memory for the World Cup events, showing a high degree of memory accuracy and detail with regard to the history of the tournaments. Furthermore, an independent replication study (N=124) confirmed our findings. More specifically, we found evidence for general principles of individual memories in FIFA World-Cup informal collective memories. These results suggest that informal collective memories share common attributes with more formal collective memories such as those found in presidents or wars. Thus, collective memory properties may be independent of the conditions under which their acquisition occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Serial position effects have been found to discriminate between normal and pathological aging, and to predict conversion from Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer's disease (AD). Different scoring methods have been used to estimate the accuracy of these predictions. In the current study, we investigated delayed primacy as predictor of progression to early MCI over established diagnostic memory methods. We also compared three serial position methods (regional, standard and delayed scores) to determine which measure is the most sensitive in differentiating between individuals who develop early MCI from a baseline of cognitively intact older adults. Method Data were analyzed with binary logistic regression and with receiver-operating characteristic (ROC). Baseline serial position scores were collected using the Rey's Auditory Verbal Learning Test and used to predict conversion to early MCI. The diagnosis of early MCI was obtained through statistical algorithm and consequent consensus conference. One hundred and ninety-one participants were included in the analyses. All participants were aged 60 or above and cognitively intact at baseline. Results The binary logistic regression showed that delayed primacy was the only predictor of conversion to early MCI, when compared to total and delayed recall. ROC curves showed that delayed primacy was still the most sensitive predictor of progression to early MCI when compared to other serial position measures. Conclusions These findings are consistent with previous studies and support the hypothesis that delayed primacy may be a useful cognitive marker of early detection of neurodegeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attention plays a fundamental role in acquiring and understanding information. Therefore, it is useful to evaluate attention objectively in such fields as education and mental health. Aimed at extracting objective indicators of attention from physiological signals, this study examined the characteristics of electroencephalography (EEG), near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), and pupil diameter signals during a free recall task. The objective was to clarify the temporal characteristics of these signals in relation to attention. We used a free recall task as a cognitive task with an attentional load. The participants attempted to memorize and then recall 13 serially presented words. Our hypothesis was that the significant physiological responses should differ depending on the time scale of the attention evaluation. The physiological responses were compared on the basis of differences between success and failure to recall a word on a short time scale, in terms of the attentional state among five serial position groups on a middle time scale, and on the basis of differences between trials with many and few words recalled on a long time scale. We found that the response of each physiological signal depended on the attention in the different time-scale comparisons. (1) The P300 amplitudes of the EEG signals for the words that were recalled were significantly higher than those for the words that were not recalled. (2) Pupillary dilation differed significantly depending on the serial position group. (3) Functional connectivity in the right hemisphere revealed by NIRS was significantly stronger in trials with many words recalled than in those with few words recalled. Different temporal characteristics of physiological signals with respect to attention were suggested by multimodal measurement and multiple-time-scale analysis. Consideration of these characteristics should help in the development of applications requiring objective attention evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The information cluster that supports the final decision in a decision task is usually presented as a series of information. According to the serial position effect, the decision result is easily affected by the presentation order of the information. In this study, we seek to investigate how the presentation mode of commodities and the informativeness on a shopping website will influence online shopping decisions. To this end, we constructed two experiments via a virtual online shopping environment. The first experiment suggests that the serial position effect can induce human computer interaction decision-making bias, and user decision-making results in separate evaluation mode are more prone to the recency effect, whereas user decision-making results in joint evaluation mode are more prone to the primacy effect. The second experiment confirms the influence of explicit and implicit details of information on the decision bias of the human computer interaction caused by the serial position effect. The results of the research will be better applied to the design and development of shopping websites or further applied to the interactive design of complex information systems to alleviate user decision-making biases and induce users to make more rational decisions.

Across two experiments we investigate the role of psychological distinctiveness on the Hebb repetition effect. In direct contradiction to Horton et al. (2008), Experiment 1 demonstrated the Hebb repetition effect for inverted faces. Importantly, the Hebb repetition effect was evident only when the filler and Hebb sequences comprised different items (no-stimulus-overlap) and was abolished when the filler and Hebb trials comprised the same items (full-stimulus-overlap). Experiment 2 further examined the impact of psychological distinctiveness on the Hebb repetition effect by comparing serial recall for upright unfamiliar-faces, inverted unfamiliar-faces, and abstract matrices. We demonstrate the visual Hebb repetition effect for stimuli that possess both purportedly high (upright faces) and low (inverted faces and matrices) levels of psychological distinctiveness. The findings of both experiments contradict the earlier claim (Horton et al., 2008) that stimuli possessing low levels of psychological distinctiveness do not show the visual Hebb repetition effect. However, we further highlight the importance of stimulus overlap between filler and Hebb sequences in determining the visual Hebb repetition effect. More generally, our findings emphasize that the Hebb repetition effect is a common feature of memory across different stimulus types.

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Across two experiments we investigate the role of psychological distinctiveness on the Hebb repetition effect. In direct contradiction to Horton et al. (2008), Experiment 1 demonstrated the Hebb repetition effect for inverted faces. Importantly, the Hebb repetition effect was evident only when the filler and Hebb sequences comprised different items (no-stimulus-overlap) and was abolished when the filler and Hebb trials comprised the same items (full-stimulus-overlap). Experiment 2 further examined the impact of psychological distinctiveness on the Hebb repetition effect by comparing serial recall for upright unfamiliar-faces, inverted unfamiliar-faces, and abstract matrices. We demonstrate the visual Hebb repetition effect for stimuli that possess both purportedly high (upright faces) and low (inverted faces and matrices) levels of psychological distinctiveness. The findings of both experiments contradict the earlier claim (Horton et al., 2008) that stimuli possessing low levels of psychological distinctiveness do not show the visual Hebb repetition effect. However, we further highlight the importance of stimulus overlap between filler and Hebb sequences in determining the visual Hebb repetition effect. More generally, our findings emphasize that the Hebb repetition effect is a common feature of memory across different stimulus types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Previous research found that memory is not only better for emotional information but also for neutral information that has been encoded in the context of an emotional event. In the present ERP study, we investigated two factors that may influence memory for neutral and emotional items: temporal proximity between emotional and neutral items during encoding, and retention interval (immediate vs. delayed). Forty‐nine female participants incidentally encoded 36 unpleasant and 108 neutral pictures (36 neutral pictures preceded an unpleasant picture, 36 followed an unpleasant picture, and 36 neutral pictures were preceded and followed by neutral pictures) and participated in a recognition memory task either immediately (N = 24) or 1 week (N = 25) after encoding. Results showed better memory for emotional pictures relative to neutral pictures. In accordance, enhanced centroparietal old/new differences (500–900 ms) during recognition were observed for unpleasant compared to neutral pictures, most pronounced for the 1‐week interval. Picture position effects, however, were only subtle. During encoding, late positive potentials for neutral pictures were slightly lower for neutral pictures following unpleasant ones, but only at trend level. To summarize, we could replicate and extend previous ERP findings showing that emotionally arousing events are better recollected than neutral events, particularly when memory is tested after longer retention intervals. Picture position during encoding, however, had only small effects on elaborative processing and no effects on memory retrieval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction:The objective of this study was to distinguish the functional neuroanatomy of verbal learning and recognition in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) using the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease (CERAD) Word Learning task.Method:In 81 Veterans diagnosed with dementia due to AD, we conducted a cluster-based correlation analysis to assess the relationships between recency and recognition memory scores from the CERAD Word Learning Task and cortical metabolic activity measured using [18F]-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET).Results:AD patients (Mini-Mental State Examination, MMSE mean = 20.2) performed significantly better on the recall of recency items during learning trials than of primacy and middle items. Recency memory was associated with cerebral metabolism in the left middle and inferior temporal gyri and left fusiform gyrus (p < .05 at the corrected cluster level). In contrast, recognition memory was correlated with metabolic activity in two clusters: (a) a large cluster that included the left hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, entorhinal cortex, anterior temporal lobe, and inferior and middle temporal gyri; (b) the bilateral orbitofrontal cortices (OFC).Conclusions:The present study further informs our understanding of the disparate functional neuroanatomy of recency memory and recognition memory in AD. We anticipated that the recency effect would be relatively preserved and associated with temporoparietal brain regions implicated in short-term verbal memory, while recognition memory would be associated with the medial temporal lobe and possibly the OFC. Consistent with our a priori hypotheses, list learning in our AD sample was characterized by a reduced primacy effect and a relatively spared recency effect; however, recency memory was associated with cerebral metabolism in inferior and lateral temporal regions associated with the semantic memory network, rather than regions associated with short-term verbal memory. The correlates of recognition memory included the medial temporal lobe and OFC, replicating prior studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate whether anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the left temporoparietal area improved audioverbal memory performance in stroke patients. Design: Twelve stroke patients with audioverbal memory impairment participated in a single-masked, crossover, and sham-controlled experiment. The anodal or sham transcranial direct current stimulation was applied during the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, which evaluates the ability to recall a list of 15 heard words over five trials. The number of correctly recalled words was compared between the anodal and sham conditions and the influence of transcranial direct current stimulation on serial position effect of the 15 words was also examined. Results: The increase in the number of correctly recalled words from the first to the fifth trial was significantly greater in the anodal condition than in the sham condition (P < 0.01). There was a significant difference (P < 0.01) between the anodal and sham conditions in the number of correctly recalled words within the first five words (primacy region) over the second to fifth trial trials, but not in the middle (next five words) or recency (last five words) regions. Conclusions: Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the left temporoparietal area improved audioverbal memory performance and induced the primacy effect in stroke patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a sequence is held in working memory, different items are retained with differing fidelity. Here we ask whether a sequence of brief time intervals that must be remembered show recency effects, similar to those observed in verbal and visuospatial working memory. It has been suggested that prioritising some items over others can be accounted for by a focus of attention, maintaining some items in a privileged state. We therefore also investigated whether such benefits are vulnerable to disruption by attention or expectation. Participants listened to sequences of one to five tones, of varying durations (200ms to 2s). Subsequently, the length of one of the tones in the sequence had to be reproduced by holding a key. The discrepancy between the reproduced and actual durations quantified the fidelity of memory for auditory durations. Recall precision decreased with the number of items that had to be remembered, and was better for the first and last items of sequences, in line with set-size and serial position effects seen in other modalities. To test whether attentional filtering demands might impair performance, an irrelevant variation in pitch was introduced in some blocks of trials. In those blocks, memory precision was worse for sequences that consisted of only one item, i.e. the smallest memory set size. Thus, when irrelevant information was present, the benefit of having only one item in memory is attenuated. Finally we examined whether expectation could interfere with memory. On half the trials, the number of items in the upcoming sequence was cued. When the number of items was known in advance, performance was paradoxically worse when the sequence consisted of only one item. Thus the benefit of having only one item to remember is stronger when it is unexpectedly the only item. Our results suggest that similar mechanisms are used to hold auditory time durations in working memory, as for visual or verbal stimuli. Further, solitary items were remembered better when more items were expected, but worse when irrelevant features were present. This suggests that the privileged state of one item in memory is particularly volatile and susceptible to interference.