Humans are often tasked to remember new faces so that they can recognize the faces later in time. Previous studies found that memory reports for basic visual features (e.g., colors and shapes) are susceptible to systematic distortions as a result of comparison with new visual input, especially when the input is perceived as similar to the memory.…

One of the best-known demonstrations of long-term learning through repetition is the Hebb effect: Immediate recall of a memory list repeated amidst nonrepeated lists improves steadily with repetitions. However, previous studies often failed to observe this effect for visuospatial arrays. Souza and Oberauer (2022) showed that the strongest…

Creative fluency and originality are pivotal indicators of creative potential. Both have been embedded in hierarchical intelligence models as part of the ability to retrieve information from long-term memory; an ability that is often measured with indicators of retrieval fluency. Creative fluency and retrieval fluency, both expressed by the count…

A critical role of protein modifications such as phosphorylation and acetylation in synaptic plasticity and memory is well documented. Tyrosine sulfation plays important roles in several biological processes. However, its role in synaptic plasticity and memory is not well understood. Here, we show that sulfation contributes to long-term…

Visual working memory is a capacity-limited cognitive system used to actively store and manipulate visual information. Visual working memory capacity is not fixed, but varies by stimulus type: Stimuli that are more meaningful are better remembered. In the current work, we investigate what conditions lead to the strongest benefits for meaningful…

The forgetting curve is one of the most well known and established findings in memory research. Knowing the pattern of memory change over time can provide insight into underlying cognitive mechanisms. The default understanding is that forgetting follows a continuous, negatively accelerating function, such as a power function. We show that this…

The Hebb repetition effect shows improvement in serial recall of repeated lists compared to random nonrepeated lists. Previous research using simple span tasks found that the Hebb repetition effect is limited to constant uninterrupted lists, suggesting chunking as the mechanism of list learning. However, the Hebb repetition effect has been found…

Being able to comprehend informal arguments in scientific texts is important for scientific literacy in higher education. Successful intervention studies demonstrating that these skills can be trained in university students have not yet provided evidence that gains of explicit training can be maintained beyond immediate post-training assessment.…

Mental rotation, a crucial aspect of spatial cognition, can be improved through repeated practice. However, the long-term effects of combining training with non-invasive brain stimulation and its neurophysiological correlates are not well understood. This study examined the lasting effects of a 10-day mental rotation training with high-definition…

Local protein synthesis at synapses can provide a rapid supply of proteins to support synaptic changes during consolidation of new memories, but its role in the maintenance or updating of established memories is unknown. Consolidation requires new protein synthesis in the period immediately following learning, whereas established memories are…

We observed differences in cognitive functions between middle-aged female and male Wistar rats. Both (like youngsters) discriminated new versus familiar objects, showing similar short- and long-term memory (STM and LTM, respectively). Only females show robust LTM for new location of an object. Both successfully form LTM of inhibitory avoidance,…

The ability of the brain to extract patterns from the environment and predict future events, known as statistical learning, has been proposed to interact in a competitive manner with prefrontal lobe-related networks and their characteristic cognitive or executive functions. However, it remains unclear whether these cognitive functions also possess…

Distraction embedded in working memory tasks leads to impaired performance. This impairment is mitigated when targets and distractors that follow them share common features--a signature effect of interference by superposition. Here we propose that target-distractor similarity modulates not only forgetting from working memory but also encoding into…

Past work has shown that eye movements are affected by long-term memory across different tasks and instructional manipulations. In the current study, we tested whether these memory-based eye movements persist when memory retrieval is under intentional control. Participants encoded multiple scenes with six objects (three faces; three tools). Next,…

The initial learning experience is a critical opportunity to support conceptual understanding of abstract STEM concepts. Although hands-on activities and physical three-dimensional models are beneficial, they are seldom utilized and are replaced increasingly by digital simulations and laboratory exercises presented on touchscreen tablet computers.…