Investigating the relationship between periodontitis and specific memory processes in the search for cognitive markers of Alzheimer's disease risk.

The spontaneous retrieval deficit (SRD) hypothesis argues that individuals in the preclinical stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are particularly impaired in spontaneous retrieval, which manifests in reduced mind-wandering. Our main purpose was to provide novel evidence to support the SRD hypothesis by investigating, for the first time, the relationship between mind-wandering and periodontitis, the latter being the risk factor for AD. The second objective was to address the lack of deeper understanding of the relationship between oral health and specific cognitive abilities by investigating whether periodontitis would be primarily associated with memory.

"It was not mentioned": Improving responses to unanswerable questions using retrieval instructions.

Previous research shows that posing many questions about an event may lead to asking questions about unwitnessed details and that people sometimes provide substantive and erroneous answers to them. Therefore, two experiments investigated the role of the problem-solving and judgment processes, which are unrelated to memory access, in improving responding to unanswerable questions. Experiment 1 compared the effects of a brief retrieval training with the effects of an instruction to increase the criterion of reporting.

Deficits in spontaneous and stimulus-dependent retrieval as an early sign of abnormal aging.

Research on early cognitive markers of Alzheimer's disease is primarily focused on episodic memory tests that involve deliberate retrieval. Our purpose was to provide clear evidence to support a novel Spontaneous Retrieval Deficit hypothesis, which predicts that people at pre-clinical stages of dementia, including those with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI), are particularly impaired on tasks based on spontaneous retrieval. We compared 27 aMCI individuals and 27 healthy controls on mind-wandering while performing a task during which there were exposed to either highly meaningful or unmeaningful pictures.

Implementation intentions speed up young adults' responses to prospective memory targets in everyday life.

Prospective memory (PM), which is the ability to remember to do something in the future, is vitally important for successful everyday functioning. Although young adults demonstrate high PM abilities in laboratory settings, their abilities to complete intended actions in naturalistic settings are surprisingly low. The present study tested the effectiveness of various encoding techniques in improving young adults' performance in everyday life.

Dementia-Free Older Adults with Subjective Cognitive Impairment Show Lower Mood and No Deficits of Spontaneous Memory Retrieval.

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether spontaneous retrieval deficits could be found in individuals with Subjective Cognitive Impairment (SCI). The sample consisted of 52 participants over 65 years of age (mean age = 76.00;  = 7.

The role of inhibitory control and ADHD symptoms in the occurrence of involuntary thoughts about the past and future: An individual differences study.

In everyday life, people often experience involuntary thoughts about their personal past and future events in response to incidental cues in the environment. Yet, despite the abundance of such cues, our consciousness is not constantly flooded by these involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs) and involuntary future thoughts (IFTs). The main goal of the present study was to further investigate the possibility that cognitive inhibitory control keeps these involuntary cognitions at bay.

Everyday memory failures across adulthood: Implications for the age prospective memory paradox.

Despite the prevalence of everyday memory failures, little is known about which specific types have the strongest impact on everyday life, and whether their impact changes across adulthood. An investigation of memory failures at different ages is particularly informative to disentangle the age paradox in prospective memory, which seems to suggest that remembering to perform intended actions in everyday life improves with age. Therefore, 58 young adults, 40 middle-aged adults, and 54 elderly adults recorded their memory failures as and when they occurred during a 7-day period, and described how serious and consequential they were.

Deficits in Spontaneous Cognition as an Early Marker of Alzheimer's Disease.

In the absence of a pharmacological cure, finding the most sensitive early cognitive markers of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is becoming increasingly important. In this article we review evidence showing that brain mechanisms of spontaneous, but stimulus-dependent, cognition overlap with key hubs of the default mode network (DMN) that become compromised by amyloid pathology years before the clinical symptoms of AD. This leads to the formulation of a novel hypothesis which predicts that spontaneous, but stimulus-dependent, conscious retrieval processes, that are generally intact in healthy aging, will be particularly compromised in people at the earliest stages of AD.

Everyday Memory Failures in Older Adults with Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Identifying people with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), who are at increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, is important for improving early disease management and care. Although self- or informant-reported memory problems constitute one of the diagnostic criteria of aMCI, there is currently little empirical knowledge about the frequency and nature of everyday memory failures in aMCI compared to age-matched healthy controls. Consequently, clinicians rely on their personal judgements when assessing the seriousness of reported memory failures.

How intention to retrieve a memory and expectation that a memory will come to mind influence the retrieval of autobiographical memories.

While involuntary memories are retrieved with no intention and are usually unexpected (when one is not waiting for a memory to arise), voluntary memories are intended and expected (when one is searching and waiting for a memory to arise). The present study aimed to investigate the effects of retrieval intentionality (i.e.

Why are we not flooded by involuntary thoughts about the past and future? Testing the cognitive inhibition dependency hypothesis.

In everyday life, involuntary thoughts about future plans and events occur as often as involuntary thoughts about the past. However, compared to involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs), such episodic involuntary future thoughts (IFTs) have become a focus of study only recently. The aim of the present investigation was to examine why we are not constantly flooded by IFTs and IAMs given that they are often triggered by incidental cues while performing undemanding activities.

Reduced mind-wandering in mild cognitive impairment: Testing the spontaneous retrieval deficit hypothesis.

Objective: Research on early cognitive markers of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is primarily focused on declarative episodic memory tests that involve deliberate and effortful/strategic processes at retrieval. The present study tested the spontaneous retrieval deficit hypothesis, which predicts that people with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), who are at increased risk of developing AD, are particularly impaired on tasks that rely on spontaneous retrieval processes.

Method: Twenty-three participants with aMCI and 25 healthy controls (HC) completed an easy vigilance task and thought probes (reporting what was going through their mind), which were categorized as spontaneous thoughts about the past (i.

The first signs of prospective memory.

We conducted a study to examine the impact of motivation and length of delay on performance on prospective memory (PM) tasks in 2-year of children. A total of 158 children aged exactly 24 months were asked to perform a naturalistic PM task. Length of delay (10 min; 35 min) and motivation (high; very high) were between-subjects factors.

Involuntary autobiographical memories are relatively more often reported during high cognitive load tasks.

Recent studies on involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs) in daily life have shown that they are most frequently reported during daily routines (e.g. while ironing).

Priming involuntary autobiographical memories in the lab.

Involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs) are recollections of personal past that frequently and spontaneously occur in daily life. Initial studies by Mace (2005) showed that deliberately reminiscing about a certain lifetime period (e.g.

Spontaneous retrieval deficits in amnestic mild cognitive impairment: A case of focal event-based prospective memory.

Objective: Research on early cognitive markers of Alzheimer's disease is primarily focused on retrospective recall (of word lists, pairs of items, stories) and executive functions. However, research shows that people with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), who are at a higher risk of developing the disease than healthy controls, are particularly impaired in remembering to do things in the future or prospective memory (PM). The aim of this study was to establish which type of event-based PM is particularly disrupted in aMCI, focal PM, based on spontaneous retrieval, or nonfocal PM that relies on strategic monitoring processes.

The Effects of Instruction on the Frequency and Characteristics of Involuntary Autobiographical Memories.

The present study investigated the effects of experimental instruction on the retrieval of involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs). In previous studies of IAMs, participants were either instructed to record only memories (henceforth, the restricted group) or any thoughts (henceforth, the unrestricted group). However, it is unknown whether these two different types of instructions influence the retrieval of IAMs.

Only social feedback reduces age-related prospective memory deficits in "Virtual Week".

Background: Prospective memory, or remembering to do things in the future, is crucial for independent living in old age. Although there is evidence of substantial age-related deficits in memory for intentions, older adults have demonstrated the ability to compensate for their deficits in everyday life. The present study investigated feedback as a strategy for facilitating prospective memory in the elderly.

Age-related differences in everyday prospective memory tasks: the role of planning and personal importance.

The aim of the present studies was to investigate whether age-related improvement found in naturalistic but experimenter-given prospective memory (PM) tasks can be generalized to real-life intentions. In Study 1, younger, middle-aged, and older adults generated a list of intended activities for the following week; one week later they marked the tasks that they had performed. The participants were also asked to rate the importance of each listed intention and to describe the circumstances of completion that were already known to them.

The age prospective memory paradox within the same sample in time-based and event-based tasks.

The present research investigated the age prospective memory (PM) paradox by testing the performance of the same participants on laboratory and naturalistic PM tasks. Younger, middle-aged, and older adults performed three tasks (time-based, event-based with focal cue, and event-based with nonfocal cue); first in the laboratory, then in the context of their everyday lives. Additionally, the social importance of PM tasks was manipulated in the laboratory.

The role of rehearsals in self-generated prospective memory tasks.

In order to inquire into the nature of retrieval in prospective memory in a naturalistic context, we investigated the number and circumstances of rehearsals of different kinds of intentions to be pursued during a single time period. Thirty-six students were given four minutes to generate a list of tasks they were planning to perform over the course of 10 days. During this retention interval, they were provided with pocket-size diaries in which they recorded the details of each occasion they thought about the tasks previously listed.

Debriefing in deceptive research: a proposed new procedure.

THIS STUDY EXAMINES THE EFFECTIVENESS of a new debriefing procedure designed specifically to address possible negative consequences of participation in deceptive research. The new debriefing includes an extended educational procedure that enables participants to gain insight into relevant deceptive practices and how to recognize and deal effectively with them, and thus end their participation with a positive and beneficial learning experience. The usefulness of the new tool was analyzed in a suggestibility study in which we compared the effects of the standard debriefing and the new procedure in terms of participants' mood, self-esteem, and attitudes toward psychological experiments.

Metamemory knowledge and the accuracy of flashbulb memories.

This study sought to answer the question whether providing participants with extensive knowledge about autobiographical memory would influence their personal recollections. It was hypothesised that the knowledge of the reconstructive nature of memory, inevitable changes in autobiographical memories, and their vulnerability to mistakes and illusions would make individuals set more stringent criteria of meta-cognitive processes and, as a consequence, would make them more accurate in their memory accounts. Psychology students at the Jagiellonian University recalled the circumstances of hearing about the 11 September terrorist attack on the United States three times, i.

Misleading postevent information and flashbulb memories.

The aim of this study was to create the conditions of a real discussion concerning the past in an experimental setting and examine their effect on subsequent recollections of important autobiographical events. A total of 55 adults described two episodes twice. The first episode was a typical news reception event and the second one represented a private event of particular personal significance.