Listen up, kids! How mind wandering affects immediate and delayed memory in children.

Mind wandering occurs when attention becomes disengaged from the here-and-now and directed toward internally generated thoughts; this is often associated with poorer performance on educationally significant tasks. In this study, 8- to 9-year-old children (N = 60) listened to audio stories embedded with intermittent thought probes that were used to determine if participants' thoughts were on or off task. The key objective was to explore the impact of probe-caught mind wandering on both immediate and delayed memory retention. Children reported being off task approximately 24% of the time. Most inattention episodes were classified as task-unrelated thoughts (i.e., 'pure' instances of mind wandering, 9%) or attentional failures due to distractions (9%). Higher frequency of mind wandering was strongly associated with poorer memory recall, and task-unrelated thoughts strongly predicted how well children could recall components of the audio story both immediately after the task and after a 1-week delay. This study is the first to demonstrate the impact of mind wandering on delayed memory retention in children. Results suggest that exploring mind wandering in the foundational years of schooling could provide the necessary empirical foundation for the development of practical interventions geared toward detecting and refocusing lapses of attention in educational contexts.

Does an instructional video as a stand-alone tool promote the acquisition of practical clinical skills? A randomised simulation research trial of skills acquisition and short-term retention.

BACKGROUND: The effectiveness of instructional videos as a stand-alone tool for the acquisition of practical skills is yet unknown because instructional videos are usually didactically embedded. Therefore, we evaluated the acquisition of the skill of a humeral intraosseous access via video in comparison to that of a self-study with an additional retention test. METHODS: After ethical approval, we conducted two consecutive studies. Both were designed as randomised controlled two-armed trials with last-year medical students as independent samples at our institutional simulation centre of a tertiary university hospital centre. In Study 1, we randomly assigned 78 participants to two groups: Vid-Self participants watched an instructional video as an intervention, followed by a test, and after seven days did a self-study as a control, followed by a test. Self-Vid ran through the trial in reverse order. In Study 2, we investigated the influence of the sequence of the two teaching methods on learning success in a new sample of 60 participants: Vid-Self watched an instructional video and directly afterward did the self-study followed by a test, whereas Self-Vid ran through that trial in reverse order. In Studies 1 and 2, the primary outcome was the score (worst score = 0, best score = 20) of the test after intervention and control. The secondary outcome in Study 1 was the change in score after seven days. RESULTS: Study 1: The Vid-Self (Participants n = 42) was superior to the Self-Vid (n = 36) (mean score 14.8 vs. 7.7, p < 0.001). After seven days, Self-vid outperformed Vid-Self (mean score 15.9 vs. 12.5, p < 0.001). Study 2: The Vid-Self (n = 30) and Self-Vid (n = 30) scores did not significantly differ (mean 16.5 vs. mean 16.5, p = 0.97). CONCLUSION: An instructional video as a stand-alone tool effectively promotes the acquisition of practical skills. The best results are yielded by a combination of an instructional video and self-study right after each other, irrespective of sequence. TRIAL REGISTRATIONS: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT05066204 (13/04/2021) (Study 1) and NCT04842357 (04/10/2021) (Study 2).

Fostering retention of word learning: The number of training sessions children retrieve words positively relates to post-training retention.

During vocabulary instruction, it is important to teach words until their representations are robust enough to be retained. For adults, the number of training sessions a target item is successfully retrieved during training predicts the likelihood of post-training retention. To assess this relationship in children, we reanalyzed data from Gordon et al. (2021b, 2022). Four- to six-year-old children completed six training days with word form-object pairs and were tested one month later. Results indicate that the number of training sessions that a word form was retrieved was positively related to post-training retention. We discuss implications for vocabulary instruction and interventions.

Enhancing learning and retention through the distribution of practice repetitions across multiple sessions.

The acquisition and retention of knowledge is affected by a multitude of factors including amount of practice, elapsed time since practice occurred, and the temporal distribution of practice. The third factor, temporal distribution of practice, is at the heart of research on the spacing effect. This research has consistently shown that separating practice repetitions by a delay slows acquisition but enhances retention. The current study addresses an empirical gap in the spacing effects literature. Namely, how does the allocation of a fixed number of practice repetitions among multiple sessions impact learning and retention? To address this question, we examined participants' acquisition and retention of declarative knowledge given different study schedules in which the number of practice repetitions increased, decreased, or remained constant across multiple acquisition sessions. The primary result was that retention depended strongly on the total number of sessions in which an item appeared, but not on how practice repetitions were distributed among those sessions. This outcome was consistent with predictions from a computational cognitive model of skill acquisition and retention called the Predictive Performance Equation (PPE). The success of the model in accounting for the patterns of performance across a large set of study schedules suggests that it can be used to tame the complexity of the design space and to identify schedules to enhance knowledge acquisition and retention.

Protecting memory from misinformation: Warnings modulate cortical reinstatement during memory retrieval.

Exposure to even subtle forms of misleading information can significantly alter memory for past events. Memory distortion due to misinformation has been linked to faulty reconstructive processes during memory retrieval and the reactivation of brain regions involved in the initial encoding of misleading details (cortical reinstatement). The current study investigated whether warning participants about the threat of misinformation can modulate cortical reinstatement during memory retrieval and reduce misinformation errors. Participants watched a silent video depicting a crime (original event) and were given an initial test of memory for the crime details. Then, participants listened to an auditory narrative describing the crime in which some original details were altered (misinformation). Importantly, participants who received a warning about the reliability of the auditory narrative either before or after exposure to misinformation demonstrated less susceptibility to misinformation on a final test of memory compared to unwarned participants. Warned and unwarned participants also demonstrated striking differences in neural activity during the final memory test. Compared to participants who did not receive a warning, participants who received a warning (regardless of its timing) demonstrated increased activity in visual regions associated with the original source of information as well as decreased activity in auditory regions associated with the misleading source of information. Stronger visual reactivation was associated with reduced susceptibility to misinformation, whereas stronger auditory reactivation was associated with increased susceptibility to misinformation. Together, these results suggest that a simple warning can modulate reconstructive processes during memory retrieval and reduce memory errors due to misinformation.

Using child-friendly movie stimuli to study the development of face, place, and object regions from age 3 to 12 years.

Scanning young children while they watch short, engaging, commercially-produced movies has emerged as a promising approach for increasing data retention and quality. Movie stimuli also evoke a richer variety of cognitive processes than traditional experiments, allowing the study of multiple aspects of brain development simultaneously. However, because these stimuli are uncontrolled, it is unclear how effectively distinct profiles of brain activity can be distinguished from the resulting data. Here we develop an approach for identifying multiple distinct subject-specific Regions of Interest (ssROIs) using fMRI data collected during movie-viewing. We focused on the test case of higher-level visual regions selective for faces, scenes, and objects. Adults (N = 13) were scanned while viewing a 5.6-min child-friendly movie, as well as a traditional localizer experiment with blocks of faces, scenes, and objects. We found that just 2.7 min of movie data could identify subject-specific face, scene, and object regions. While successful, movie-defined ssROIS still showed weaker domain selectivity than traditional ssROIs. Having validated our approach in adults, we then used the same methods on movie data collected from 3 to 12-year-old children (N = 122). Movie response timecourses in 3-year-old children's face, scene, and object regions were already significantly and specifically predicted by timecourses from the corresponding regions in adults. We also found evidence of continued developmental change, particularly in the face-selective posterior superior temporal sulcus. Taken together, our results reveal both early maturity and functional change in face, scene, and object regions, and more broadly highlight the promise of short, child-friendly movies for developmental cognitive neuroscience.

Somatosensory cortex participates in the consolidation of human motor memory.

Newly learned motor skills are initially labile and then consolidated to permit retention. The circuits that enable the consolidation of motor memories remain uncertain. Most work to date has focused on primary motor cortex, and although there is ample evidence of learning-related plasticity in motor cortex, direct evidence for its involvement in memory consolidation is limited. Learning-related plasticity is also observed in somatosensory cortex, and accordingly, it may also be involved in memory consolidation. Here, by using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to block consolidation, we report the first direct evidence that plasticity in somatosensory cortex participates in the consolidation of motor memory. Participants made movements to targets while a robot applied forces to the hand to alter somatosensory feedback. Immediately following adaptation, continuous theta-burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (cTBS) was delivered to block retention; then, following a 24-hour delay, which would normally permit consolidation, we assessed whether there was an impairment. It was found that when mechanical loads were introduced gradually to engage implicit learning processes, suppression of somatosensory cortex following training almost entirely eliminated retention. In contrast, cTBS to motor cortex following learning had little effect on retention at all; retention following cTBS to motor cortex was not different than following sham TMS stimulation. We confirmed that cTBS to somatosensory cortex interfered with normal sensory function and that it blocked motor memory consolidation and not the ability to retrieve a consolidated motor memory. In conclusion, the findings are consistent with the hypothesis that in adaptation learning, somatosensory cortex rather than motor cortex is involved in the consolidation of motor memory.

Are witnesses able to avoid highly accessible misinformation? Examining the efficacy of different warnings for high and low accessibility postevent misinformation.

The reliability of eyewitness memory continues to be an area of concern, particularly in situations that involve conflicting sources of information (e.g., the misinformation effect; Loftus et al., 1978, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 4[1], 19-31). To mitigate the negative effects of misinformation, researchers have examined the efficacy of warnings that highlight the unreliability of postevent information. However, warnings have proven less effective for highly accessible misinformation (Eakin et al., 2003, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 29[5], 813-825). In the present study, we examined the effects of different types of warnings for low accessibility misinformation in a standard single test misinformation paradigm, and highly accessible misinformation in a repeated testing misinformation paradigm (Chan et al., 2009, Psychological Science, 20[1], 66-73). We modeled these warnings after Eakin et al. (2003) to include both general warnings and specific question-by-question warnings. We found that warnings were effective in both types of misinformation paradigms. Additionally, memory accuracy in situations where participants were exposed to misleading information was improved when specific and general warnings were combined. We argue that both retrieval blocking of low accessibility items and enhanced contextual discrimination account for these findings.

Varying retrieval conditions to study survival processing.

The survival processing advantage is a mnemonic benefit resulting from processing items for their relevance to survival. One explanation of the survival processing advantage is the richness-of-encoding hypothesis: Survival processing enhances retention by generating ideas (elaborative and distinctive processing), increasing the number of retrieval cues. Without retrieval, encoding is futile. Hence, the present experiments varied retrieval conditions - via transfer appropriate processing (TAP) tasks - predicting that the survival processing advantage could be reversed. In Experiment 1a, reducing the transfer appropriateness of survival processing caused significantly lower recognition scores after survival processing than after processing of word associates. Experiment 1b replicated a survival processing advantage and found a survival processing disadvantage. In Experiment 2, survival processing was pitted against a gift desirability task and retrieval mode was varied. Survival processing yielded superior memory on a standard free recall test, but the survival processing advantage was eliminated when an unusual retrieval mode was encouraged. Results affirm the importance of context-dependent retrieval.

Retrograde enhancement of episodic learning by a postlearning stimulus.

Evidence suggests encoding of recent episodic experiences may be enhanced by a subsequent salient event. We tested this hypothesis by giving rats a 3-min unsupervised experience with four odors and measuring retention after different delays. Animals recognized that a novel element had been introduced to the odor set at 24 but not 48 h. However, when odor sampling was followed within 5 min by salient light flashes or bedding odor, the memory lasted a full 2 d. These results describe a retroactive influence of salience to promote storage of episodic information and introduce a unique model for studying underlying plasticity mechanisms.

Sleep for preserving and transforming episodic memory.

Sleep is known to support memory consolidation. Here we review evidence for an active system consolidation occurring during sleep. At the beginning of this process is sleep's ability to preserve episodic experiences preferentially encoded in hippocampal networks. Repeated neuronal reactivation of these representations during slow-wave sleep transforms episodic representations into long-term memories, redistributes them toward extrahippocampal networks, and qualitatively changes them to decontextualized schema-like representations. Electroencephalographic (EEG) oscillations regulate the underlying communication: Hippocampal sharp-wave ripples coalescing with thalamic spindles mediate the bottom-up transfer of reactivated memory information to extrahippocampal regions. Neocortical slow oscillations exert a supraordinate top-down control to synchronize hippocampal reactivations of specific memories to their excitable up-phase, thus allowing plastic changes in extrahippocampal regions. We propose that reactivations during sleep are a general mechanism underlying the abstraction of temporally stable invariants from a flow of input that is solely structured in time, thus representing a basic mechanism of memory formation.

Retention rate and effectiveness of secukinumab vs TNF inhibitor in ankylosing spondylitis patients with prior TNF inhibitor exposure.

OBJECTIVES: The choice of second-line biologics for AS patients previously treated with a TNF inhibitor (TNFi) remains unclear. Here, we compared drug retention and clinical efficacy between AS patients who switched biologics to secukinumab and those who switched to a different TNFi. METHODS: AS patients enrolled in the Korean College of Rheumatology BIOlogics registry were included, and patients with non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis were excluded. Patients with previous TNFi exposure were divided into the secukinumab group and the TNFi switching group. Drug retention and clinical efficacy [BASDAI50, Assessment of Spondylo-Arthritis International Society (ASAS)20, ASAS40, AS disease activity score (ASDAS) <2.1, ASDAS clinically important improvement and ASDAS major improvement] were assessed at the 1 year follow-up. Propensity score (PS)-matched and covariate-adjusted logistic regression analyses were performed. RESULTS: Two hundred and forty-six had available 1 year follow-up data. Secukinumab as third- or later-line biologic was more frequent than alternative TNFi (54% vs 14%). PS-matched and multiple covariate-adjusted analyses showed that the odds ratio (OR) for drug discontinuation was comparable between the secukinumab and TNFi switching groups [OR 1.136 (95% CI 0.843, 1.531) and 1.000 (95% CI 0.433-2.308), respectively]. The proportion of patients who achieved BASDAI50 was also comparable between the two groups [OR 0.833 (95% CI 0.481, 1.441) in PS-matched analysis]. Other clinical efficacy parameters were also comparable. In the subgroup analysis of AS patients with previous TNFi discontinuation due to ineffectiveness, all clinical efficacy parameters were comparable between the two groups. CONCLUSION: In AS patients with previous exposure to a TNFi, switching biologics to secukinumab and switching to an alternative TNFi resulted in comparable drug retention and clinical efficacy.

Ontogeny of spontaneous recognition memory in rodents.

Spontaneous recognition memory tasks explore thewhat,whereandwhencomponents of recognition memory. These tasks are widely used in rodents to assess cognitive function across the lifespan. While several neurodevelopmental and mental disorders present symptom onset in early life, very little is known about how memories are expressed in early life, and as a consequence how they may be affected in pathological conditions. In this review, we conduct an analysis of the studies examining the expression of spontaneous recognition memory in young rodents. We compiled studies using four different tasks: novel object recognition, object location, temporal order recognition and object place. First, we identify major sources of variability between early life spontaneous recognition studies and classify them for later comparison. Second, we use these classifications to explore the current knowledge on the ontogeny of each of these four spontaneous recognition memory tasks. We conclude by discussing the possible implications of the relative time of onset for each of these tasks and their respective neural correlates. In compiling this research, we hope to advance on establishing a developmental timeline for the emergence of distinct components of recognition memory, while also identifying key areas of focus for future research. Establishing the ontogenetic profile of rodent spontaneous recognition memory tasks will create a necessary blueprint for cognitive assessment in animal models of neurodevelopmental and mental disorders, a first step towards improved and earlier diagnosis as well as novel intervention strategies.

Punishments and rewards both modestly impair visuomotor memory retention.

While the effects of rewards on memory appear well documented, the effects of punishments remain uncertain. Based on neuroimaging data, this study tested the hypothesis that, as compared to a neutral condition, a context allowing successful punishment avoidance would enhance memory to a similar extent as rewards. In a fully within-subject and counter-balanced design, participants (n = 18) took part in 3 distinct learning sessions during which the delivery of performance-contingent monetary punishments and rewards was manipulated. Specifically, participants had to reach towards visual targets while compensating for a gradually introduced visual deviation. Accuracy at achieving targets was either punished (Hit: "+0$"; Miss: "-0.5$), rewarded (Hit: "+0.5$"; Miss: "-0$"), or associated with neutral binary feedback (Hit: "Hit"; Miss: "Miss"). Retention was assessed through reach aftereffects both immediately and 24 h after initial acquisition. The results disconfirmed the hypothesis by showing that the punishment and reward learning sessions both impaired retention as compared to the neutral session, suggesting that both types of incentives similarly impaired memory formation and consolidation. Two alternative but complementary interpretations are discussed. One interpretation is that the presence of punishments and rewards induced a negative learning context, which - based on neurobiological data - could have been sufficient to interfere with memory formation and consolidation. Another interpretation is that punishments and rewards emphasized the disrupting effects of target hits on implicit learning processes, therefore yielding retention impairments. Altogether, these results suggest that incentives can have counter-productive effects on memory.

Timing matters: Transcranial direct current stimulation after extinction learning impairs subsequent fear extinction retention.

BACKGROUND: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has previously been shown to improve fear extinction learning and retention when administered prior to or during extinction learning. This study investigates whether tDCS immediately following extinction learning improves efficacy of extinction memory retention. METHODS: 30 participants completed a 2-day fear learning and extinction paradigm, where they acquired fear of a stimulus conditioned to an aversive electric shock on day 1. Extinction learning occurred on day 1, with tDCS or sham tDCS administered immediately following the learning phase. Participants returned for a second day test of extinction memory recall. Skin conductance was measured as the primary outcome. RESULTS/CONCLUSIONS: Participants in the tDCS group showed impaired fear extinction retention on day 2, marked by significant generalisation of fear to the safety stimulus. This contrasts with earlier studies showing improved extinction retention when stimulation occurred during encoding of extinction learning, compared to immediate consolidation as in our study. These findings may have important implications for the use of tDCS during exposure therapy for anxiety and trauma disorders.

It's all about who you know: Memory retention of a rat's cagemates during infancy negatively predicts adulthood hippocampal FGF2.

Recent research has demonstrated that individual differences in infant fear memory positively predict adulthood anxiety-like behavior and conditioned fear expression. However, the physiological mechanisms underlying this relationship and the effect of environmental (e.g., social) influences on the stability of this relationship have not been explored. In the present study, we examined whether individual differences in infant fear memory predict levels of endogenous fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF2; a biomarker of fear/anxiety) in adulthood, and whether the mean memory retention of a rat's cagemates predicts conditioned fear expression and FGF2 in adulthood. We conditioned infant rats to associate a white noise with shock, and tested their memory of the association 1 week later. They were then weaned and randomly assigned to cage/cagemates. In adulthood, rats received weak context conditioning (i.e., a single shock) and were tested for fear of the context the following day. Rats were then euthanized and their brains extracted to measure levels of hippocampal FGF2 protein. Across 2 experiments, an individual rat's fear memory during infancy positively predicted their own fear expression in adulthood, but the mean memory retention of their cagemates did not predict fear expression. In contrast, the mean memory retention of a rat's cagemates during infancy negatively predicted hippocampal FGF2 protein in adulthood, but an individual rat's memory retention did not predict their own levels of FGF2. These data support the idea that variations in the fearfulness of a rat's cagemates predict individual differences on physiological measures in adulthood.

State-Dependent Memory in Infants.

Why do infants remember some things and not others? Human infants frequently cycle through different states such as calm attentiveness, wakeful activity, and crying. Given that cognitive processes do not occur in isolation, such fluctuations in internal state might influence memory processing. In the present experiment, declarative memory in 9-month-old infants (N = 96) was heavily state dependent. Infants exhibited excellent retention of a deferred imitation task after a 15-min delay if their state at encoding was identical to their state at retrieval (e.g., calm). Infants failed to exhibit retention if their state at encoding was different from their state at retrieval (e.g., calm vs. animated). Infant memory processing depends on internal cues.

Theoretical knowledge and skill retention 3 and 6 months after a European Newborn Life Support provider course.

INTRODUCTION: The European Resuscitation Council Newborn Life Support Course (ERC- NLS) aims at training healthcare professionals, involved in perinatal care, in order to intervene efficiently and promptly to assist transition or resuscitate neonates who require help at birth. However, limited data exists for the retention of the theoretical knowledge and practical skills provided by the course. This study aims to evaluate the degree of knowledge and skill retention 3 and 6 months after the ERC-NLS provider course. METHODS: This is a prospective study. Theoretical knowledge was evaluated using the ERC-approved NLS written test (50 True/False questions). Evaluation of technical skills included performance, on an Advanced Life Support neonatal maniquin (LAERDAL), of airway management, ventilation and support of circulation (21 detailed skills). The effect of certain factors on theoretical skill retention was also evaluated. RESULTS: One hundred and sixteen (n = 116) participants were initially recruited in the study (12 males and 104 females). Theoretical knowledge was evaluated in 113 participants (3 participants missed follow-up appointments) and technical skills in 80 participants. The mean score for theoretical knowledge was 86.24% ± 5.3, 80.88% ± 7.43 and 80.04% ± 7.04 at baseline, at 3 and 6 months, respectively. This difference was significant among the three time points (baseline vs 3 months: p < 0.001; baseline vs 6 months: p < 0.001; 3 month's vs 6 months: p = 0.034). Although gender did not have an effect, doctors and participants of higher education yielded higher score of success. Regarding technical skills, 9 skills showed a continuous decline of performance from baseline to 6 months, while no difference existed for 12 skills. CONCLUSIONS: Healthcare professionals after the NLS provider course retain satisfactory levels of theoretical knowledge and technical skills even at 6 months post-training, although, there is a decline compared to baseline. Further research is needed in order to establish the proper time and type of refreshment course in order to improve outcomes.

The deceptive nature of associative word pairs: the effects of associative direction on judgments of learning.

The accuracy of judgments of learning (JOLs) in forecasting later recall of cue-target pairs is sensitive to associative direction. JOLs are generally well calibrated for forward associative pairs (e.g., credit-card), but recall accuracy is often overestimated for backward pairs (e.g., card-credit). The present study further examines the effect of associative direction on JOL accuracy by comparing forward and backward pairs to unrelated pairs and symmetrical associates (e.g., salt-pepper)-a novel comparison. The correspondence between initial JOLs and recall accuracy was examined when study was either self-paced with concurrent JOLs (Experiment 1), when study/JOL duration was equated across pair types (Experiment 2), when JOLs were made immediately following study (Experiment 3), and when JOLs were made after a delay (Experiment 4). Across experiments, JOLs accurately estimated correct recall for forward pairs, but overestimated recall for symmetrical, backward, and unrelated pairs-an overestimation that was particularly robust for backward pairs. Calibration plots depicting JOL ratings against their corresponding recall accuracy indicated overestimations occurred for all pair types, though overestimations only occurred at high JOL ratings for symmetrical and forward pairs, a qualitative difference that was not captured in standard analyses of mean JOL and recall rates.

Through the gateway of the senses: investigating the influence of sensory modality-specific retrieval cues on involuntary episodic memory.

Involuntary memories are memories of past events that come to mind with no preceding attempts of retrieval. They typically arise in response to situational cues, but little is known as to how such cues modulate involuntary memories. Here, we examined how the sensory modality of the cues affects involuntary memory frequency and content. Participants watched first-person perspective films and were later presented with visuospatial and/or auditory cues from the films. We then assessed their experience of involuntary memories for other moments from the films. Across Experiments 1 and 2, visuospatial cues resulted in a greater frequency of involuntary memories, and produced memories with a higher proportion of visual content. In Experiment 3, this effect was replicated using a more auditorily engaging film and occurred whether participants focused on the film's auditory or visual components, but was more pronounced when there was a match between encoding fixation and the retrieval cue. These findings suggest that visuospatial cues may outshine auditory cues in terms of involuntary memory elicitation and content.