Our understanding of short-term recognition memory can be enhanced by careful choice and control of test materials. Theory-driven manipulation of memory test stimuli, including visual textures, human faces, and complex sounds, minimize individual differences and make it possible to predict recognition performance for specific combinations of stimulus items. This stimulus-oriented approach to me...

System memory consolidation is conceptualized as an active process whereby newly encoded memory representations are strengthened through selective memory reactivation during sleep. However, our learning experience is highly overlapping in content (i.e., shares common elements), and memories of these events are organized in an intricate network of overlapping associated events. It remains to be ...

A modeling technique for rate-independent ~quasistatic! scalar magnetic hysteresis is presented, using neural networks. Based on the theory of dynamic systems and the wiping-out and congruency properties of the classical scalar Preisach hysteresis model, the choice of a feed-forward neural network model is motivated. The neural network input parameters at each time step are the corresponding ma...

Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) refers to the finding that retrieving a memory can impair subsequent recall of related memories. Here, the authors present a new model of how the brain gives rise to RIF in both semantic and episodic memory. The core of the model is a recently developed neural network learning algorithm that leverages regular oscillations in feedback inhibition to strengthen w...

Memory traces for words are frequently conceptualized neurobiologically as networks of neurons interconnected via reciprocal links developed through associative learning in the process of language acquisition. Neurophysiological reflection of activation of such memory traces has been reported using the mismatch negativity brain potential (MMN), which demonstrates an enhanced response to meaning...

Global memory models are evaluated by using data from recognition memory experiments. For recognition, each of the models gives a value of familiarity as the output from matching a test item against memory. The experiments provide ROC (receiver operating characteristic) curves that give information about the standard deviations of familiarity values for old and new test items in the models. The...

Prospective memory refers to the ability to remember to execute future intentions (e.g., taking medication with dinner). Although most prior research on prospective memory errors has focused on omission errors (i.e., failures to perform an intention in response to a target cue), there has been a recent surge in research on commission errors, the erroneous performance of a finished intention. Ex...

Recent evidence demonstrates that epigenetic regulation of gene transcription is critically involved in learning and memory. Here, we discuss the role of histone acetylation and DNA methylation, which are two best understood epigenetic processes in memory processes. More specifically, we focus on learning-strength-dependent changes in chromatin on the fibroblast growth factor 1 (Fgf1) gene and ...

BACKGROUND Physical performances and cognition are positively related in cognitively healthy people. The aim of this study was to examine whether physical performances are related to specific cognitive functioning in older people with mild to severe cognitive impairment. METHODS This cross-sectional study included 134 people with a mild to severe cognitive impairment (mean age 82 years). Mult...

One of the critical findings in recognition memory is the null list-strength effect (LSE), which states that repeating study items does not hurt the performance of other studied items. Episodic memory models were able to predict the null LSE by using the principle of differentiation, in which repetitions of an item accumulate into a single strong memory trace. A hypothesized boundary of differe...