The effects of episodic context on memory integration.

Information encountered in different events, such as people and objects, can be interlinked in memory. Such memory integration supports novel inferences about the world. This study investigates the role of episodic context on memory integration in two experiments using an associative inference task.

Ingroup sources enhance associative inference.

Episodic memory encompasses flexible processes that enable us to create and update knowledge by making novel inferences across overlapping but distinct events. Here we examined whether an ingroup source enhances the capacity to draw such inferences. In three studies with US-American samples (N = 53, N = 68, N = 68), we investigated the ability to make indirect associations, inferable from overlapping events, presented by ingroup or outgroup sources.

Episodic memory formation in unrestricted viewing.

The brain systems of episodic memory and oculomotor control are tightly linked, suggesting a crucial role of eye movements in memory. But little is known about the neural mechanisms of memory formation across eye movements in unrestricted viewing behavior. Here, we leverage simultaneous eye tracking and EEG recording to examine episodic memory formation in free viewing.

Encoding contexts are incidentally reinstated during competitive retrieval and track the temporal dynamics of memory interference.

The ability to remember an episode from our past is often hindered by competition from similar events. For example, if we want to remember the article a colleague recommended during the last lab meeting, we may need to resolve interference from other article recommendations from the same colleague. This study investigates if the contextual features specifying the encoding episodes are incidentally reinstated during competitive memory retrieval.

Strategic retrieval prevents memory interference: The temporal dynamics of retrieval orientation.

Resolving interference between overlapping memories is crucial to remember the past. This study tests the novel prediction that orienting search focus benefits goal-relevant retrieval by reducing competition from unwanted memories. In a modified retrieval-practice paradigm, participants encoded word-pairs in one of two encoding tasks.

Temporal Dynamics of Memory-guided Cognitive Control and Generalization of Control via Overlapping Associative Memories.

Goal-directed behavior can benefit from proactive adjustments of cognitive control that occur in anticipation of forthcoming cognitive control demands (CCD). Predictions of forthcoming CCD are thought to depend on learning and memory in two ways: First, through direct experience, associative encoding may link previously experienced CCD to its triggering item, such that subsequent encounters with the item serve to cue retrieval of (i.e.

Neural Pattern Classification Tracks Transfer-Appropriate Processing in Episodic Memory.

The transfer-appropriate processing (TAP) account holds that episodic memory depends on the overlap between encoding and retrieval processing. In the current study, we employed multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) of electroencephalography to examine the relevance of spontaneously engaged visual processing during encoding for later retrieval. Human participants encoded word-picture associations, where the picture could be a famous face, a landmark, or an object.

Implicit sequence learning is preserved in dyslexic children.

This study investigates the implicit sequence learning abilities of dyslexic children using an artificial grammar learning task with an extended exposure period. Twenty children with developmental dyslexia participated in the study and were matched with two control groups-one matched for age and other for reading skills. During 3 days, all participants performed an acquisition task, where they were exposed to colored geometrical forms sequences with an underlying grammatical structure.

Mental reinstatement of encoding context improves episodic remembering.

This study investigates context-dependent memory retrieval. Previous work has shown that physically re-experiencing the encoding context at retrieval improves memory accessibility. The current study examined if mental reconstruction of the original encoding context would yield parallel memory benefits.

Benefits and Costs of Context Reinstatement in Episodic Memory: An ERP Study.

This study investigated context-dependent episodic memory retrieval. An influential idea in the memory literature is that performance benefits when the retrieval context overlaps with the original encoding context. However, such memory facilitation may not be driven by the encoding-retrieval overlap per se but by the presence of diagnostic features in the reinstated context that discriminate the target episode from competing episodes.

Lexical and sublexical orthographic processing: an ERP study with skilled and dyslexic adult readers.

This ERP study investigated the cognitive nature of the P1-N1 components during orthographic processing. We used an implicit reading task with various types of stimuli involving different amounts of sublexical or lexical orthographic processing (words, pseudohomophones, pseudowords, nonwords, and symbols), and tested average and dyslexic readers. An orthographic regularity effect (pseudowords-nonwords contrast) was observed in the average but not in the dyslexic group.

Lexical and phonological processes in dyslexic readers: evidence from a visual lexical decision task.

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether reading failure in the context of an orthography of intermediate consistency is linked to inefficient use of the lexical orthographic reading procedure. The performance of typically developing and dyslexic Portuguese-speaking children was examined in a lexical decision task, where the stimulus lexicality, word frequency and length were manipulated. Both lexicality and length effects were larger in the dyslexic group than in controls, although the interaction between group and frequency disappeared when the data were transformed to control for general performance factors.

Electrophysiological correlates of impaired reading in dyslexic pre-adolescent children.

In this study, event related potentials (ERPs) were used to investigate the extent to which dyslexics (aged 9-13 years) differ from normally reading controls in early ERPs, which reflect prelexical orthographic processing, and in late ERPs, which reflect implicit phonological processing. The participants performed an implicit reading task, which was manipulated in terms of letter-specific processing, orthographic familiarity, and phonological structure. Comparing consonant- and symbol sequences, the results showed significant differences in the P1 and N1 waveforms in the control but not in the dyslexic group.

The interaction between surface color and color knowledge: behavioral and electrophysiological evidence.

In this study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to evaluate the contribution of surface color and color knowledge information in object identification. We constructed two color-object verification tasks - a surface and a knowledge verification task - using high color diagnostic objects; both typical and atypical color versions of the same object were presented. Continuous electroencephalogram was recorded from 26 subjects.

Object naming in dyslexic children: more than a phonological deficit.

In the present study, the authors investigate how some visual factors related to early stages of visual-object naming modulate naming performance in dyslexia. The performance of dyslexic children was compared with 2 control groups-normal readers matched for age and normal readers matched for reading level-while performing a discrete naming task in which color and dimensionality of the visually presented objects were manipulated. The results showed that 2-dimensional naming performance improved for color representations in control readers but not in dyslexics.

The role of color information on object recognition: a review and meta-analysis.

In this study, we systematically review the scientific literature on the effect of color on object recognition. Thirty-five independent experiments, comprising 1535 participants, were included in a meta-analysis. We found a moderate effect of color on object recognition (d=0.

The influence of color information on the recognition of color diagnostic and noncolor diagnostic objects.

In the present study, the authors explore in detail the level of visual object recognition at which perceptual color information improves the recognition of color diagnostic and noncolor diagnostic objects. To address this issue, 3 object recognition tasks with different cognitive demands were designed: (a) an object verification task; (b) a category verification task; and (c) a name verification task. The authors found that perceptual color information improved color diagnostic object recognition mainly in tasks for which access to the semantic knowledge about the object was necessary to perform the task; that is, in category and name verification.

The influence of surface color information and color knowledge information in object recognition.

In order to clarify whether the influence of color knowledge information in object recognition depends on the presence of the appropriate surface color, we designed a name-object verification task. The relationship between color and shape information provided by the name and by the object photo was manipulated in order to assess color interference independently of shape interference. We tested three different versions for each object: typically colored, black and white, and nontypically colored.

Cortical brain regions associated with color processing: an FMRI study.

To clarify whether the neural pathways concerning color processing are the same for natural objects, for artifacts objects and for non-objects we examined brain responses measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) during a covert naming task including the factors color (color vs. black&white (B&W)) and stimulus type (natural vs. artifacts vs.

The impact of reading and writing skills on a visuo-motor integration task: a comparison between illiterate and literate subjects.

Previous studies have shown a significant association between reading skills and the performance on visuo-motor tasks. In order to clarify whether reading and writing skills modulate non-linguistic domains, we investigated the performance of two literacy groups on a visuo-motor integration task with non-linguistic stimuli. Twenty-one illiterate participants and twenty matched literate controls were included in the experiment.