The ability to selectively focus on and remember important information, referred to as value-directed remembering, may be crucial for effective memory functioning. In the present study, we investigated the relationships between metacognitive monitoring and control accuracy, selectivity for valuable information, and fluid intelligence. Mediation…

A number of literary grief memoirs can be read as lessons in living with loss. While their authors resist resilience, they endeavour a very modest programme: that of finding ways to get through the day. Their biggest challenge is loneliness, yet they come to relish solitude, which hosts the conversation they maintain with the deceased, as well as…

Damage to the hippocampus (HPC) typically causes retrograde amnesia for contextual fear conditioning. Repeating the conditioning over several sessions, however, can eliminate the retrograde amnesic effects. This form of reinstatement thus permits modifications to networks that can support context memory retrieval in the absence of the HPC. The…

Rule-guided behavior depends on the ability to strategically update and act on content held in working memory. Proactive and reactive control strategies were contrasted across two experiments using an adapted input/output gating paradigm (Neuron, 81, 2014 and 930). Behavioral accuracies of 3-, 5-, and 7-year-olds were higher when a contextual cue…

The timing of what occurs in the classroom can affect how successfully new concepts are learned. This paper analyses two promising ways of modifying the schedule of tasks or examples -- the spacing effect and interleaving. The spacing effect refers to improvements in long-term retention if practice sessions are separated by delays. Interleaving…

Many areas of psychology assume that performance on tasks of interest is stable through time. Here, using time-sensitive modeling of working memory task performance, we show not only was this assumption incorrect, but that certain components of the performance trajectory (e.g., final task performance; rate of change) were independently predictive…

Generated information is better recognized and recalled than information that is read. This so-called "generation effect" has been replicated several times for different types of material, including texts. Perhaps the most influential demonstration was by McDaniel et al. (1986, "Journal of Memory and Language," 25, 645-656;…

This paper examines what the literature proffers regarding the relationship between dyslexia and memory deficiencies. Dyslexia is a well-known learning disability that has been recognized since the late 1800's and has grown in notoriety since it was first discovered (Javier, 2015). It is especially notable due to its current prevalence among…

The authors argue that Ambridge's radical exemplar account of language cannot clearly explain all syntactic priming evidence, such as inverse preference effects ("greater" priming for less frequent structures), and the contrast between short-lived lexical boost and long-lived abstract priming. Moreover, without recourse to a level of…

We constructed 4 working memory recognition models to predict behavior in the local recognition task (also called change detection), in which both content (e.g., color) and context (e.g., location) information are necessary to make correct recognition decisions. The theoretical assumptions incorporated in the models come from crossing 2 contrasts:…

This study aimed to compare cognitive and memory abilities between older adults with and without autism over the age of 50. Twenty-eight individuals with autism and 29 typically developing (TD) older adults took part in the current study. Participants' cognitive and memory abilities were assessed by WAIS-IV and WMS-IV. Older autistic adults were…

The generation of predictive inferences may be difficult when a story leads to multiple possible consequences. The present study examined whether inferences are generated when the story implies two mutually exclusive consequences are nearly equally likely to occur. Experiment 1 used a word-naming task and showed that neither inference was…

People have difficulty sighting missing persons, partially because people's limited cognitive resources are required for searching. As a result, people sometimes do not devote resources to searching. This research will examine whether empathy increases the resources devoted to searching and search performance. In Experiment 1, we will manipulate…

The memories we form are composed of information that we extract from multifaceted episodes. Static stimuli and paired associations have proven invaluable stimuli for understanding memory, but real-life events feature spatial and temporal dimensions that help form new retrieval paths. We ask how the ability to recall semantic, temporal, and…

The procedure in this study of autobiographical memory after forty years had three phases: uncued recall of experiences of 1978 to 1980, recall cued by descriptions made in 1979 of selected events, and recall cued by a diary written between 1978 and 1980. The schema theory of autobiographical memory describes memory of individual experiences as…