Psychology Commons^™

Effects Of Popular Music On Memorization Tasks, Kristin Sandberg, Sarah Harmon

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

This study investigated the effects that popular music has on memory performance. It was proposed that popular music would adversely affect both studying and memory recall. Forty introductory psychology students participated in the study. Subjects were given a list of fifty words to study in 6 ½ minutes, with music either being present or absent. This was termed the learning stage. In this study, four conditions were tested. In all 4 conditions, subjects were assigned to either a “music” pre-period or a “non-music” pre-period and a “music” post-period or a “non-music” post-period. After they had studied the words, subjects were …

Pupil Dilation Dynamics Track Attention To High-Level Information, Olivia E. Kang, Katherine E. Huffer, Thalia P. Wheatley

Dartmouth Scholarship

It has long been thought that the eyes index the inner workings of the mind. Consistent with this intuition, empirical research has demonstrated that pupils dilate as a consequence of attentional effort. Recently, Smallwood et al. (2011) demonstrated that pupil dilations not only provide an index of overall attentional effort, but are time-locked to stimulus changes during attention (but not during mind-wandering). This finding suggests that pupil dilations afford a dynamic readout of conscious information processing. However, because stimulus onsets in their study involved shifts in luminance as well as information, they could not determine whether this coupling of stimulus …

Examining The Effects Of Saccade Execution And Handedness On Proactive Interference., Montgomery A. Kroger

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Proactive interference is the phenomenon by which previously-learned information impairs recall of more recently-learned information. The present experiment was conducted to investigate two factors that may affect the occurrence of proactive interference. The first of these factors is saccade execution. Saccade execution has been shown in numerous studies to improve performance on a wide range of memory tasks. The second factor was people’s consistency of handedness, a term referring to the strength of people’s tendency to use one hand (right or left) over the other. Although the results of the primary analyses were inconclusive, further exploration of the data led …

Unforgettable: The Relationship Between Music And Memory, Samantha Beedy

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

For generations, college students have claimed that listening to music helps them to study better. But does research support this idea? Past research on the subject has yielded mixed results. Some studies suggest that music helps enhance cognitive performance, some find no difference, and some studies find that music hinders cognitive performance. The present study explored the relationship between soft background music and working memory. Participants were given lists of words to memorize and recall on a blank sheet of paper. Each participant completed two memorization and recall trials, one with music and one without. Participant’s recall performance was compared. …

Chronic, Lethal Versus Acute, Non-Lethal Threats: A Look Inside The Memories Of Cancer Patients At The Time Of Their Diagnosis, Angeline M. Modesti

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Consequentiality, affect, and rehearsal are also important components that help contribute to the recall of autobiographical memories. Traditionally, these features have been assessed in public dramatic events in the past such as the Challenger explosion and the 9/11 terrorist attack. In opposition to these traditionally studied events, the present study examined the effects of these features on five different private events. An analysis of these different experiences was assessed to determine the role of consequentiality, affect, and rehearsal play on memory recall. These three components were assessed in five different events during different points of the lifetime. Adults diagnosed with …

The Formation Of Situation Models In Multimedia, Kris Gunawan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

When people read traditional text-based stories, they construct mental representations of the described state of affairs, called situation models, to connect various details of events (e.g., time, space, entity) in memory (Zwaan & Radvansky, 1998). According to the cognitive theory of multimedia learning (Mayer, 2005; 2011), stories presented as pictures and text generate independent channels of mental representations that can work hand-in-hand or separately to acquire and remember the materials presented. This dissertation consisted of two experiments that were used to further explore how the two modalities affect what is being mentally represented in memory. In Experiment 1, participants were …

The Effects Of Focality Of Processing And Delay On Event-Based Prospective Memory, Samantha Nicole Petrella

Theses and Dissertations

The current experiment proposes an examination of the effects of focality of processing and delays on event-based prospective memory tasks. Several perspectives regarding the process of remembering to perform an intended action in the future have been proposed by researchers in this area. Smith (2007) proposed the Preparatory Attentional and Memory (PAM) process theory regarding PM. According to the PAM theory, the retrieval of a prospective memory continuously requires resource-demanding preparatory attentional processes, or effortful and deliberate focus. Further, it suggests that successful PM retrieval is never automatic and that attention to the PM task interferes with and compromises ongoing …

Word Quality And Memory, Marshall Roedel, Dr. C. Brock Kirwan

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Current memory theory suggests that two separate processes contribute to recognition memory. Recollection is when recognition is accompanied by contextual information regarding the encoding event. Familiarity is when recognition is only a companied by a vague sense of having encountered something previously.

The Production Effect And Item-Order Encoding, Bethany Kregiel

Senior Honors Projects

When reading a mixed list of words, participants show better memory for uncommon words compared to common words (McDaniel & Bugg, 2008). The research suggests differential memory effects in item-order encoding between mixed and pure lists. Uncommon words lead to item-specific encoding whereas common words lead to order encoding. Similarly, the production effect shows that, when reading a mixed list (some words aloud, others silently), participants show better memory for the words read aloud, but the effect does not obtain for pure lists. The purpose of this study is to examine if the production effect is due to differences in …

A Comparison Of The Effects Of Preattentive Processes And Visual Search On A Memory Task, Aubree Greenhalgh, Dr. Donovan Fleming

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Extensive research has been done with regards to attention and visual processing. Particular attention has been paid to preattentive processing which is the automatic registration of features by processing all targets simultaneously across the visual field (Matlin & Foley, 1997). Some of the particular properties which visual objects are composed of appear instantly and are, thus, processed faster (Treisman, 1985). In simpler terms, some targets are easier to recognize then others, especially if the targets differ greatly from their surroundings. For example, one square among many circles is easier to recognize then an oval or an octagon among a number …

Detecting Deception Via Eyeblink Frequency Modulation, Brandon S. Perelman

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

To assess the efficacy of using eyeblink frequency modulation to detect deception about a third party, 32 participants were sent on a mission to deliver a package to an interviewer. 17 of the participants lied to the interviewer about the details of their mock mission and 15 responded truthfully. During the interview, eyeblink frequency data were collected via electromyography and recorded video. Liars displayed eye- blink frequency suppression while lying, while truth tellers exhibited an increase in eyeblink frequency during the mission relevant questioning period. The compen- satory flurry of eyeblinks following deception observed in previous studies was ab- sent …

Memory And Aging, Carlos T. Jackson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

For many years now, the field of neuropsychology has been looking for connections between brain and behavior. We can now determine that the brain is responsible for most, if not all, of our physical, emotional and even cognitive functioning. It is indeed the “master organ.” IUs my desire to be able to further the work that has already been done in this field in an effort to finally be able to discover exactly how this miraculous organ works, specifically in terms of how it relates to cognitive functioning.

The Effect Of Sleep-Dependent Consolidation On Pattern Separation And Pattern Completion In Delayed Retrieval, Jesse Ray James

Theses and Dissertations

While people sleep, the brain replays the same neural firings that resulted from waking activities that day. This results in greater memory strength following a sleeping delay than a waking delay. The current project built upon this fact in a series of three experiments. Experiment 1. Although previous research has demonstrated a benefit of sleep to memory strength, the literature has not established the impact of sleep on memory specificity. Computational models of medial temporal lobe function posit that discrimination and generalization across similar memories are accomplished through processes known as pattern separation and pattern completion, respectively. To discover whether …

A Psychoanalytic Exploration Into The Memory And Aesthetics Of Everyday Life: Photographs, Recollections, And Encounters With Loss, Dimitrios Mellos

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The project at hand explores some of the psychological functions of photography as both an everyday and an artistic cultural practice from a psychoanalytic perspective. It is proposed that, contrary to commonsensical opinion, photographs are not accurate depositories of memory, but rather function as a functional equivalent of screen memories, thus channeling the subject's memory in ways that are objectively distorted and distorting, but psychologically meaningful and important; moreover, they are a special kind of screen memory in that they are often created pre-emptively and are physically instantiated.

Additionally, it is suggested that, by dint of their materiality, photographs achieve …

The Effects Of The Intensive Care Unit On The Formation Of Implicit And Explicit Memories In Ards Patients, Michael J. Larson, Dr. Ramona O. Hopkins

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Each year thousands of patients become critically ill and require medical treatment in the intensive care unit (ICU). Recent literature suggests that patients recovering from critical illness have little or no recollection of their time in the ICU (1). The ICU has many features that may cause patients to become confused including isolation, sleep deprivation, and being surrounded with machines, lights, and constant noise (2). Sedative and analgesic drugs, mechanical ventilation, pain, and discomfort may also adversely affect ICU patients’ formation of memories (1).

Bilateral Saccadic Deficits Following Large And Reversible Inactivation Of Unilateral Frontal Eye Field., Tyler R Peel, Kevin Johnston, Stephen G Lomber, Brian D Corneil

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Inactivation permits direct assessment of the functional contribution of a given brain area to behavior. Previous inactivation studies of the frontal eye field (FEF) have either used large permanent ablations or reversible pharmacological techniques that only inactivate a small volume of tissue. Here we evaluated the impact of large, yet reversible, FEF inactivation on visually guided, delayed, and memory-guided saccades, using cryoloops implanted in the arcuate sulcus. While FEF inactivation produced the expected triad of contralateral saccadic deficits (increased reaction time, decreased accuracy and peak velocity) and performance errors (neglect or misdirected saccades), we also found consistent increases in reaction …

Rule-Based Category Learning In Children: The Role Of Age And Executive Functioning., Rahel Rabi, John Paul Minda

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Rule-based category learning was examined in 4-11 year-olds and adults. Participants were asked to learn a set of novel perceptual categories in a classification learning task. Categorization performance improved with age, with younger children showing the strongest rule-based deficit relative to older children and adults. Model-based analyses provided insight regarding the type of strategy being used to solve the categorization task, demonstrating that the use of the task appropriate strategy increased with age. When children and adults who identified the correct categorization rule were compared, the performance deficit was no longer evident. Executive functions were also measured. While both working …

Failure To Replicate Retrocausal Recall, Imants Barušs, Vanille Rabier

Psychology

In two temporally inverted memory experiments, Daryl Bem found that participants had better recall for words that were practiced after the recall task than for control words that were not practiced after the recall task. We attempted to replicate the second of Bem’s two experiments with the addition of a personality measure. After completing the Six Factor Personality Questionnaire, participants (n = 102) interacted with a computer on which they were shown 48 nouns, one at a time, then asked to type as many of the words as they could recall, and then asked to practice a random selection …

Changes In Cerebral White Matter, Vascular Risk And Cognition Across The Adult Lifespan, Andrew Robert Bender

Wayne State University Dissertations

Numerous studies over the past decade have used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to examine associations between age, diffusion and anisotropy measures of cerebral white matter (WM), and cognitive performance. However, few have examined relationships between intra-individual change in DTI measures of WM and cognitive function. It is possible that the extant cross-sectional findings are a poor representation of age-related change in WM and cognition. The present study used latent difference-score modeling (LDM) to assess change over two years in DTI indices fractional anisotropy (FA), radial diffusivity (DR), axial diffusivity (DA) and mean diffusivity (MD). In addition, we examined the effects …

The Paradigm Of The Holocaust Will Not Last Forever, Richard A. Primus

Book Chapters

In college I studied political theory. In class after class, I noticed that instructors and students alike regularly used the Holocaust as a way to test ideas. Any successful principle of political morality must show that the Nazis were wrong; any successful theory of political institutions must be structured to prevent Nazis from rising to power again. These were the implicit rules of the discipline. I preferred to argue in other ways. The Holocaust was personal, and too big to be put to use. Surely I could ground my ideas in something else, some problem or event other than the …

Effects Of Tylenol And Social Rejection On Memory, Karina Ashley Hamamouche

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Individuals tend to describe physical pain and social pain with the same terminology (DeWall & Baumeister, 2006; Eisenberger, et aI., 2003; Way, et aI., 2009). There is a neurobiological overlap between the systems that control physical pain and social pain. During both physical pain and social rejection, the same brain areas (insulae in the central cortical fissure) are active. DeWall (2011) found that individuals who received a dose of acetaminophen had less activity in the bilateral anterior insula and bilateral posterior insula during a social rejection stimulation. Because social rejection also increases memory (Pajkos, et aI., 20 I 1), subjects …

The Role Of Relational And Item Specific Processing In The Survival Advantage Across English And Spanish, Crystal J. Robinson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The current paper examines the effects of survival processing relative to item specific and relational processing on recall for both English monolinguals and Spanish-English bilinguals. It has been suggested that both item specific and relational processing play an important role in the survival advantage (Burns, Hart, Griffith, & Burns, 2012; Burns, Hwang, & Burns, 2011). However, to date, the generalizability of this advantage has yet to be examined cross-linguistically. In two studies, participants were asked to make survival relevance ratings, pleasantness ratings, and to categorize a set of words from either common taxonomic or ad hoc categories. Spanish-English bilinguals performed …

Mediation Of Recurrent Hypoglycemia's Physiological And Behavioral Effects In The Hippocampus By Glucocorticoids, Danielle Osborne

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Recurrent hypoglycemia (RH) occurs with the over administration of insulin resulting in severe hypoglycemia on a repetitive basis. This occurs most commonly among Type I Diabetics who rely on exogenous insulin replacement for management of their disease; however it is becoming increasingly common among Type II Diabetics. Although cognitive deficits are reported during hypoglycemia, the period following restoration of euglycemia has been denoted by improved hippocampally-mediated short-term and working memory in humans and rodents, respectively. RH is also associated with an altered glucocorticoid secretion profile in response to hypoglycemia. In vitro and in vivo approaches were utilized with the goal …

What You See Is What You Forget : Alcohol Cue Exposure, Affect, And The Misinformation Effect, Camille Crocken Barnes

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Previous research has suggested that both alcohol cues and positive affect increase the tendency to incorporate false information into memory. This series of studies sought to determine if affect mediates the influence of alcohol cues on incorporation of false information into memory. Initially, a pilot study was completed to determine the individual differences that predict which individuals experience a heightening of positive affect following visualization exercises involving alcoholic beverages. Next, a study was conducted to determine if this affect increase from exposure to alcohol cues leads to increased acceptance of misinformation into memory. Participants' memories were tested while they were …

The Role Of Igf-Ii In Memory Enhancement : Implications For Autism Spectrum Disorders, Amy S. Kohtz

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Cognitive and memory impairments significantly affect multiple domains in life and play major roles in disease. Identifying critical mechanisms and factors that mediate memory consolidation and enhancement may represent an important approach for increasing cognition in normal adults and preventing or treating cognitive impairments. The expression of the C/EBP- target gene insulin-like growth factor 2, (IGF-II) is required for memory consolidation; furthermore, IGF-II administration during memory consolidation produces memory enhancement, increased memory persistence and prevents forgetting. In this thesis, I investigated the therapeutic potential of IGF-II to promote memory consolidation when administered systemically. In addition, I investigated one particularly interesting …

Effects Of Instruction And Parent-Child Conversation On Children's Stem Learning And Transfer, Maria Marcus

Master's Theses

This study examined the effects of direct instruction and parent-child conversation on children's STEM learning, transfer abilities, and remembering. A total of forty mothers and their 5- to 6-year-old children (M = 5.87) participated in this study. Mother-child dyads were randomly assigned to one of two conditions that differed in the amount of engineering information they received prior to engaging in a building activity in a museum exhibit. The provision of engineering information fostered dyads building activities and their long-term recall of the museum visit. Implications for museum research and practice are discussed.

Bdnf In The Dentate Gyrus Is Required For Consolidation Of "Pattern-Separated" Memories., Pedro Bekinschtein, Brianne A Kent, Charlotte A Oomen, Gregory D Clemenson, Fred H Gage, Lisa M Saksida, Timothy J Bussey

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Successful memory involves not only remembering information over time, but also keeping memories distinct and less confusable. The computational process for making representations for similar input patterns more distinct from each other has been referred to as "pattern separation." In this work, we developed a set of behavioral conditions that allowed us to manipulate the load for pattern separation at different stages of memory. Thus, we provide experimental evidence that a brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)-dependent pattern separation process occurs during the encoding/storage/consolidation, but not the retrieval stage of memory processing. We also found that a spontaneous increase in BDNF in …

The Touchscreen Operant Platform For Testing Learning And Memory In Rats And Mice., Alexa E Horner, Christopher J Heath, Martha Hvoslef-Eide, Brianne A Kent, Chi Hun Kim, Simon R O Nilsson, Johan Alsiö, Charlotte A Oomen, Andrew Holmes, Lisa M Saksida, Timothy J Bussey

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

An increasingly popular method of assessing cognitive functions in rodents is the automated touchscreen platform, on which a number of different cognitive tests can be run in a manner very similar to touchscreen methods currently used to test human subjects. This methodology is low stress (using appetitive rather than aversive reinforcement), has high translational potential and lends itself to a high degree of standardization and throughput. Applications include the study of cognition in rodent models of psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases (e.g., Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, Huntington's disease, frontotemporal dementia), as well as the characterization of the role of select brain regions, …

The Touchscreen Operant Platform For Testing Working Memory And Pattern Separation In Rats And Mice., Charlotte A Oomen, Martha Hvoslef-Eide, Christopher J Heath, Adam C Mar, Alexa E Horner, Timothy J Bussey, Lisa M Saksida

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

The automated touchscreen operant chamber for rats and mice allows for the assessment of multiple cognitive domains within the same testing environment. This protocol presents the location discrimination (LD) task and the trial-unique delayed nonmatching-to-location (TUNL) task, which both assess memory for location. During these tasks, animals are trained to a predefined criterion during ∼20-40 daily sessions. In LD sessions, touching the same location on the screen is rewarded on consecutive trials, followed by a reversal of location-reward contingencies. TUNL, a working memory task, requires animals to 'nonmatch' to a sample location after a delay. In both the LD and …

Sources Of Interference In Recognition Testing, Jeffrey Annis, Kenneth J. Malmberg, Amy Criss, Richard M. Shiffrin

Psychology Faculty Publications

Recognition memory accuracy is harmed by prior testing (a.k.a., output interference [OI]; Tulving & Arbuckle, 1966). In several experiments, we interpolated various tasks between recognition test trials. The stimuli and the tasks were more similar (lexical decision [LD] of words and nonwords) or less similar (gender identification of male and female faces) to the stimuli and task used in recognition testing. Not only did the similarity between the interpolated and recognition tasks not affect recognition accuracy but performance of the interpolated task caused no interference in subsequent recognition testing. Only the addition of recognition trials caused OI. When we presented …