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Leroy N, Majerus S, D'Argembeau A. Working memory capacity for continuous events: The root of temporal compression in episodic memory? Cognition 2024; 247:105789. [PMID: 38583322 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105789] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2023] [Revised: 02/05/2024] [Accepted: 04/01/2024] [Indexed: 04/09/2024]
Abstract
Remembering the unfolding of past episodes usually takes less time than their actual duration. In this study, we evaluated whether such temporal compression emerges when continuous events are too long to be fully held in working memory. To do so, we asked 90 young adults to watch and mentally replay video clips showing people performing a continuous action (e.g., turning a car jack) that lasted 3, 6, 9, 12, or 15 s. For each clip, participants had to carefully watch the event and then to mentally replay it as accurately and precisely as possible. Results showed that mental replay durations increased with event duration but in a non-linear manner: they were close to the actual event duration for short videos (3-9 s), but significantly smaller for longer videos (12 and 15 s). These results suggest that working memory is temporally limited in its capacity to represent continuous events, which could in part explain why the unfolding of events is temporally compressed in episodic memory.
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2
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Nolden S, Turan G, Güler B, Günseli E. Prediction error and event segmentation in episodic memory. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2024; 157:105533. [PMID: 38184184 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105533] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2023] [Revised: 12/11/2023] [Accepted: 01/02/2024] [Indexed: 01/08/2024]
Abstract
Organizing the continuous flow of experiences into meaningful events is a crucial prerequisite for episodic memory. Prediction error and event segmentation both play important roles in supporting the genesis of meaningful mnemonic representations of events. We review theoretical contributions discussing the relationship between prediction error and event segmentation, as well as literature on episodic memory related to prediction error and event segmentation. We discuss the extent of overlap of mechanisms underlying memory emergence through prediction error and event segmentation, with a specific focus on attention and working memory. Finally, we identify areas in research that are currently developing and suggest future directions. We provide an overview of mechanisms underlying memory formation through predictions, violations of predictions, and event segmentation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sophie Nolden
- Department for Developmental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main, Germany; IDeA-Center for Research on Individual Development and Adaptive Education of Children at Risk, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
| | - Gözem Turan
- Department for Developmental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main, Germany; IDeA-Center for Research on Individual Development and Adaptive Education of Children at Risk, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Berna Güler
- Department of Psychology, Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Eren Günseli
- Department of Psychology, Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkey
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3
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Yates TS, Sherman BE, Yousif SR. More than a moment: What does it mean to call something an 'event'? Psychon Bull Rev 2023; 30:2067-2082. [PMID: 37407794 DOI: 10.3758/s13423-023-02311-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/14/2023] [Indexed: 07/07/2023]
Abstract
Experiences are stored in the mind as discrete mental units, or 'events,' which influence-and are influenced by-attention, learning, and memory. In this way, the notion of an 'event' is foundational to cognitive science. However, despite tremendous progress in understanding the behavioral and neural signatures of events, there is no agreed-upon definition of an event. Here, we discuss different theoretical frameworks of event perception and memory, noting what they can and cannot account for in the literature. We then highlight key aspects of events that we believe should be accounted for in theories of event processing--in particular, we argue that the structure and substance of events should be better reflected in our theories and paradigms. Finally, we discuss empirical gaps in the event cognition literature and what the future of event cognition research may look like.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tristan S Yates
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
| | - Brynn E Sherman
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
| | - Sami R Yousif
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
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4
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Riegel M, Granja D, Amer T, Vuilleumier P, Rimmele U. Opposite effects of emotion and event segmentation on temporal order memory and object-context binding. Cogn Emot 2023:1-19. [PMID: 37882239 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2023.2270195] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2023] [Accepted: 09/04/2023] [Indexed: 10/27/2023]
Abstract
Our daily lives unfold continuously, yet our memories are organised into distinct events, situated in a specific context of space and time, and chunked when this context changes (at event boundaries). Previous research showed that this process, termed event segmentation, enhances object-context binding but impairs temporal order memory. Physiologically, peaks in pupil dilation index event segmentation, similar to emotion-induced bursts of autonomic arousal. Emotional arousal also modulates object-context binding and temporal order memory. Yet, these two critical factors have not been systematically studied together. To address this gap, we ran a behavioural experiment using a paradigm validated to study event segmentation and extended it with emotion manipulation. During encoding, we sequentially presented greyscale objects embedded in coloured frames (colour changes defining events), with a neutral or aversive sound. During retrieval, we tested participants' memory of temporal order memory and object-colour binding. We found opposite effects of emotion and event segmentation on episodic memory. While event segmentation enhanced object-context binding, emotion impaired it. On the contrary, event segmentation impaired temporal order memory, but emotion enhanced it. These findings increase our understanding of episodic memory organisation in laboratory settings, and potentially in real life with perceptual changes and emotion fluctuations constantly interacting.
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Affiliation(s)
- Monika Riegel
- Emotion and Memory Laboratory, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- Swiss Center of Affective Sciences (CISA), University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- Center for Interdisciplinary Study of Gerontology and Vulnerability (CIGEV), University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- Laboratory for Behavioral Neurology and Imaging of Cognition, Department of Basic Neurosciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Daniel Granja
- Emotion and Memory Laboratory, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- Center for Interdisciplinary Study of Gerontology and Vulnerability (CIGEV), University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- Neurocenter, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Tarek Amer
- Psychology Department, University of Victoria, BC, Victoria, Canada
| | - Patrik Vuilleumier
- Swiss Center of Affective Sciences (CISA), University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- Laboratory for Behavioral Neurology and Imaging of Cognition, Department of Basic Neurosciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- Neurocenter, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Ulrike Rimmele
- Emotion and Memory Laboratory, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- Swiss Center of Affective Sciences (CISA), University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- Center for Interdisciplinary Study of Gerontology and Vulnerability (CIGEV), University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- Laboratory for Behavioral Neurology and Imaging of Cognition, Department of Basic Neurosciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
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5
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Smith ME, Kurby CA, Bailey HR. Events shape long-term memory for story information. DISCOURSE PROCESSES 2023. [DOI: 10.1080/0163853x.2023.2185408] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/29/2023]
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6
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de Bruin D, van Baar JM, Rodríguez PL, FeldmanHall O. Shared neural representations and temporal segmentation of political content predict ideological similarity. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eabq5920. [PMID: 36724226 PMCID: PMC9891706 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abq5920] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2022] [Accepted: 01/03/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Despite receiving the same sensory input, opposing partisans often interpret political content in disparate ways. Jointly analyzing controlled and naturalistic functional magnetic resonance imaging data, we uncover the neurobiological mechanisms explaining how these divergent political viewpoints arise. Individuals who share an ideology have more similar neural representations of political words, experience greater neural synchrony during naturalistic political content, and temporally segment real-world information into the same meaningful units. In the striatum and amygdala, increasing intersubject similarity in neural representations of political concepts during a word reading task predicts enhanced synchronization of blood oxygen level-dependent time courses when viewing real-time, inflammatory political videos, revealing that polarization can arise from differences in the brain's affective valuations of political concepts. Together, this research shows that political ideology is shaped by semantic representations of political concepts processed in an environment free of any polarizing agenda and that these representations bias how real-world political information is construed into a polarized perspective.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daantje de Bruin
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
| | - Jeroen M. van Baar
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
- Trimbos Institute, Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction, Utrecht, Netherlands
| | - Pedro L. Rodríguez
- Center for Data Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA
- International Faculty, Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración, Caracas, Venezuela
| | - Oriel FeldmanHall
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
- Carney Institute for Brain Science, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
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7
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You S, Sun L, Yang Y. The effects of contextual certainty on tension induction and resolution. Cogn Neurodyn 2023; 17:191-201. [PMID: 36704622 PMCID: PMC9871111 DOI: 10.1007/s11571-022-09810-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2021] [Revised: 02/21/2022] [Accepted: 04/02/2022] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
It is known that tension is a core principle of the generation of music emotion and meaning, and supposed to be induced by prediction in process of music listening. Using EEG and behavioral rating, the current research investigated how contextual certainty affects musical tension induction and resolution. The major results were that in the tension induction process, incongruent conditions elicited larger EN and P600 in ERP responses compared with congruent conditions, and the amplitude of P600, tension ratings were mediated by contextual certainty. In the tension resolution process, contextual certainty further affected the duration of P600 and tension ratings. For the certain conditions, tension ratings were higher, tension curves fluctuated faster, and a larger P600 was evoked in the incongruent condition compared with the congruent condition. For the uncertain conditions, there was no congruency effect on behavioral ratings and tension curves, but a larger P600 was elicited in the congruent condition. These results show that contextual certainty affects tension induction and resolution. Our findings provide a more comprehensive view on how musical prediction affects musical tension.
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Affiliation(s)
- Siqi You
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 16 Lincui Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101 China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Lijun Sun
- College of Art, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China
| | - Yufang Yang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 16 Lincui Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101 China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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8
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Heald JB, Lengyel M, Wolpert DM. Contextual inference in learning and memory. Trends Cogn Sci 2023; 27:43-64. [PMID: 36435674 PMCID: PMC9789331 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2022.10.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2022] [Revised: 10/11/2022] [Accepted: 10/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Context is widely regarded as a major determinant of learning and memory across numerous domains, including classical and instrumental conditioning, episodic memory, economic decision-making, and motor learning. However, studies across these domains remain disconnected due to the lack of a unifying framework formalizing the concept of context and its role in learning. Here, we develop a unified vernacular allowing direct comparisons between different domains of contextual learning. This leads to a Bayesian model positing that context is unobserved and needs to be inferred. Contextual inference then controls the creation, expression, and updating of memories. This theoretical approach reveals two distinct components that underlie adaptation, proper and apparent learning, respectively referring to the creation and updating of memories versus time-varying adjustments in their expression. We review a number of extensions of the basic Bayesian model that allow it to account for increasingly complex forms of contextual learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- James B Heald
- Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
| | - Máté Lengyel
- Computational and Biological Learning Lab, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Center for Cognitive Computation, Department of Cognitive Science, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary.
| | - Daniel M Wolpert
- Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Computational and Biological Learning Lab, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
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9
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Yates TS, Skalaban LJ, Ellis CT, Bracher AJ, Baldassano C, Turk-Browne NB. Neural event segmentation of continuous experience in human infants. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:e2200257119. [PMID: 36252007 PMCID: PMC9618143 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2200257119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
How infants experience the world is fundamental to understanding their cognition and development. A key principle of adult experience is that, despite receiving continuous sensory input, we perceive this input as discrete events. Here we investigate such event segmentation in infants and how it differs from adults. Research on event cognition in infants often uses simplified tasks in which (adult) experimenters help solve the segmentation problem for infants by defining event boundaries or presenting discrete actions/vignettes. This presupposes which events are experienced by infants and leaves open questions about the principles governing infant segmentation. We take a different, data-driven approach by studying infant event segmentation of continuous input. We collected whole-brain functional MRI (fMRI) data from awake infants (and adults, for comparison) watching a cartoon and used a hidden Markov model to identify event states in the brain. We quantified the existence, timescale, and organization of multiple-event representations across brain regions. The adult brain exhibited a known hierarchical gradient of event timescales, from shorter events in early visual regions to longer events in later visual and associative regions. In contrast, the infant brain represented only longer events, even in early visual regions, with no timescale hierarchy. The boundaries defining these infant events only partially overlapped with boundaries defined from adult brain activity and behavioral judgments. These findings suggest that events are organized differently in infants, with longer timescales and more stable neural patterns, even in sensory regions. This may indicate greater temporal integration and reduced temporal precision during dynamic, naturalistic perception.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Cameron T. Ellis
- bDepartment of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
| | - Angelika J. Bracher
- cInternational Max Planck Research School NeuroCom, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, 04303 Leipzig, Germany
- dDepartment of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, University of Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | | | - Nicholas B. Turk-Browne
- aDepartment of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520
- fWu Tsai Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06510
- 1To whom correspondence may be addressed.
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10
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Sanderson JA, Farrell S, Ecker UKH. Examining the role of information integration in the continued influence effect using an event segmentation approach. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0271566. [PMID: 35849610 PMCID: PMC9292086 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0271566] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2021] [Accepted: 07/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Misinformation regarding the cause of an event often continues to influence an individual’s event-related reasoning, even after they have received a retraction. This is known as the continued influence effect (CIE). Dominant theoretical models of the CIE have suggested the effect arises primarily from failures to retrieve the correction. However, recent research has implicated information integration and memory updating processes in the CIE. As a behavioural test of integration, we applied an event segmentation approach to the CIE paradigm. Event segmentation theory suggests that incoming information is parsed into distinct events separated by event boundaries, which can have implications for memory. As such, when an individual encodes an event report that contains a retraction, the presence of event boundaries should impair retraction integration and memory updating, resulting in an enhanced CIE. Experiments 1 and 2 employed spatial event segmentation boundaries in an attempt to manipulate the ease with which a retraction can be integrated into a participant’s mental event model. While Experiment 1 showed no impact of an event boundary, Experiment 2 yielded evidence that an event boundary resulted in a reduced CIE. To the extent that this finding reflects enhanced retrieval of the retraction relative to the misinformation, it is more in line with retrieval accounts of the CIE.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jasmyne A. Sanderson
- School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
- * E-mail:
| | - Simon Farrell
- School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
| | - Ullrich K. H. Ecker
- School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
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11
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Prior knowledge shapes older adults' perception and memory for everyday events. PSYCHOLOGY OF LEARNING AND MOTIVATION 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/bs.plm.2022.07.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
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12
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Wang YC, Egner T. Switching task sets creates event boundaries in memory. Cognition 2021; 221:104992. [PMID: 34929522 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104992] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2021] [Revised: 12/08/2021] [Accepted: 12/12/2021] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
People segregate continuously unfolding experiences into discrete events in memory. This process, known as event segmentation, results in better memory for the temporal order of experiences within an event and expands subjective temporal distance for items encoded across event boundaries. Previous research has suggested that the creation of event boundaries is driven by (typically unpredicted) changes in external stimulation, though many prior studies have confounded a change in bottom-up input with a concurrent change in task goal. This raises the question of whether event segmentation can be triggered by the endogenous cognitive control processes involved in switching task sets, independent of changes in bottom-up stimulation. We investigated this question by embedding task set changes during encoding of a series of trial-unique images, and comparing subsequent temporal order and distance memory for item pairs encoded across a change in task set with item pairs encoded within the same task set. Across five experiments, we demonstrate that both cued and voluntary task set changes are sufficient to create event boundaries, while ruling out potential confounding effects of shifts in stimulus set, response set, task cues, and task difficulty. Thus, internal control processes are a key determinant of segmenting episodic memories, and task set updating can trigger event segmentation independent of any externally induced, perceptual or task-based prediction error.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuxi Candice Wang
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States of America; Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States of America.
| | - Tobias Egner
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States of America; Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States of America
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13
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Logie MR, Donaldson DI. Do doorways really matter: Investigating memory benefits of event segmentation in a virtual learning environment. Cognition 2021; 209:104578. [PMID: 33422863 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104578] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2020] [Revised: 12/23/2020] [Accepted: 12/23/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Event segmentation allows the flow of information experienced in life to be partitioned into distinct episodes, facilitating understanding of the world, action within it, and the ability to store information in memory. One basis on which experiences are segmented is the presence of physical boundaries, such as walking through doorways. Previous findings have shown that event segmentation has a significant influence on memory, with better memory for events occurring within a single boundary (compared to events that cross boundaries). By manipulating the features of boundaries and the amount of information presented between boundaries the present research investigates the nature of event boundaries. We make use of a virtual learning environment to present lists of words in virtual rooms, testing memory for the word lists as a function of the presence or absence of spatial-temporal gaps and physical boundaries during encoding (i.e., by maintaining participants within individual rooms or moving them through doorways between rooms). Across four experiments, we show that segmenting information with spatial-temporal gaps results in an increase in clustering (reflecting the structure imposed at encoding) an increase in the number of words remembered during later tests of episodic recall (a memory benefit) and an increase in recalling the words in the order of presentation. Importantly, however, the data show that the presence of doorways is not required for event segmentation to benefit memory: increases in clustering, memory for temporal order and recall performance were found with temporal gaps alone. Furthermore, the results suggest that episodic memory may be optimised if the amount of information between boundaries can be maintained within working memory. We discuss the implications of the findings for Event Segmentation Theory and propose an alternative theoretical account of the episodic memory benefits based on temporal clustering.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew R Logie
- Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK.
| | - David I Donaldson
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St. Andrews, KY16 9JP, UK
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14
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Horchak OV, Garrido MV. Explicit (Not Implicit) Attitudes Mediate the Focus of Attention During Sentence Processing. Front Psychol 2020; 11:583814. [PMID: 33424698 PMCID: PMC7786004 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.583814] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2020] [Accepted: 12/07/2020] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Many studies showed that comprehenders monitor changes in protagonists' emotions and actions. This article reports two experiments that explored how focusing comprehenders' attention on a particular property of the protagonist dimension (e.g., emotional or action state) affects the accessibility of information about target objects mentioned in the sentence. Furthermore, the present research examined whether participants' attitudes toward the issues described in the sentence can modulate comprehension processes. To this end, we asked participants to read sentences about environmental issues that focused comprehenders' attention on different mental and physical attributes of the same entities (protagonists and objects) and then self-report their own thoughts on the topic of environment by responding to the items assessing their environmental awareness. Importantly, we manipulated the task requirements across two experiments by administering a self-report task (Experiment 1), which required the participants to rate the seriousness and the frequency of the problem mentioned in a sentence; and administering a sentence-picture verification paradigm (Experiment 2), which required the participants to merely indicate if the object depicted in the picture (related to a certain environmental problem) was mentioned in the preceding sentence. The results of these experiments suggest that the focus of a sentence on the environmental problem (rather than the protagonist's emotion and action) enhances the accessibility of information about environmental issues (e.g., plastic garbage); that the comprehender's level of environmental awareness influences one's attention during sentence processing; and that comprehender characteristics significantly modulate comprehension processes only when the measures tap into explicit (and not implicit) processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oleksandr V. Horchak
- Centro de Investigação e Intervenção Social, Iscte-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
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15
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Gurguryan L, Dutemple E, Sheldon S. Conceptual similarity alters the impact of context shifts on temporal memory. Memory 2020; 29:11-20. [PMID: 33158382 DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2020.1841240] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
Past work has shown that changes in encoding contexts (context shifts) act as boundaries across encountered items and can impair temporal memory. We address two questions about this effect: whether conceptual similarity among contexts creating a boundary can alleviate temporal memory impairments and if this effect holds for different forms of contexts (spatial vs. categorical). In a between-subjects design, participants studied the order of sequentially presented faces (items), each presented with an associated context. One group was shown images of a room (spatial) and the other images of a dessert (categorical) as the context. For both, boundaries between contexts with overlapping (similar) or non-overlapping (distinct) conceptual features were introduced. At test, participants performed a recency judgment for pairs of items that crossed or did not cross a context boundary at encoding and recalled whether they were encoded within the same, similar, or distinct context. For both groups, recency judgments were more accurate for item pairs from similar than distinct contexts, but memory for the context relationship between items was more accurate for items from distinct than similar contexts. Our findings suggest that conceptual knowledge impacts how events are parsed during encoding and affects temporal associations formed in episodic memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lauri Gurguryan
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
| | | | - Signy Sheldon
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
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16
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Access to prior spatial information. Mem Cognit 2020; 48:1234-1248. [DOI: 10.3758/s13421-019-00996-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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17
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Swallow KM, Wang Q. Culture influences how people divide continuous sensory experience into events. Cognition 2020; 205:104450. [PMID: 32927384 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104450] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2020] [Revised: 08/13/2020] [Accepted: 08/26/2020] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
Everyday experience is divided into meaningful events as a part of human perception. Current accounts of this process, known as event segmentation, focus on how characteristics of the experience (e.g., situation changes) influence segmentation. However, characteristics of the viewers themselves have been largely neglected. We test whether one such viewer characteristic, their cultural background, impacts online event segmentation. Culture could impact event segmentation (1) by emphasizing different aspects of experiences as being important for comprehension, memory, and communication, and (2) by providing different exemplars of how everyday activities are performed, which objects are likely to be used, and how scenes are laid out. Indian and US viewers (N = 152) identified events in everyday activities (e.g., making coffee) recorded in Indian and US settings. Consistent with their cultural preference for analytical processing, US viewers segmented the activities into more events than did Indian viewers. Furthermore, event boundaries identified by US viewers were more strongly associated with visual changes, whereas boundaries identified by Indian viewers were more strongly associated with goal changes. There was no evidence that familiarity with an activity impacted segmentation. Thus, culture impacts event perception by altering the types of information people prioritize when dividing experience into meaningful events.
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Affiliation(s)
- Khena M Swallow
- Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
| | - Qi Wang
- Department of Human Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
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18
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Crossing event boundaries changes prospective perceptions of temporal length and proximity. Atten Percept Psychophys 2019; 82:1459-1472. [PMID: 31410760 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-019-01829-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
We conducted two experiments to investigate how crossing a single naturalistic event boundary impacted two different types of temporal estimation involving the same target duration - one where participants directly compared marked temporal durations and another where they judged the temporal proximity of stimuli. In Experiment 1, participants judged whether time intervals presented during movies of everyday events were shorter or longer than a previously encoded 5-s reference interval. We examined how the presence of a transition between events (event boundary) in the movie influenced people's judgments about the length of the comparison interval. Comparison intervals presented during a portion of the movie containing an event boundary were judged as shorter than the reference interval more often than comparison intervals that contained no boundary. Working-memory updating at the event boundary may have directed attention away from the concurrent timing task. In Experiment 2, participants judged whether the second of three tones presented during everyday movies was closer to the first or the third tone presented. Tones separated by an event boundary were judged as farther apart than tones contained within the same event. When judging temporal proximity, attention directed to processing information at an event boundary between two stimuli may disrupt the formation of temporal associations between those stimuli. Overall, these results demonstrate that crossing a single event boundary can impact people's prospective perceptions of the temporal characteristics of their experience and suggest that the episodic memory updating that occurs during an event boundary both captures timing-relevant attentional resources and plays a role in the temporal binding of information.
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Abstract
We conducted two experiments to investigate how the eventfulness of everyday experiences influences people's prospective timing ability. Specifically, we investigated whether events contained within movies of everyday activities serve as markers of time, as predicted by Event Segmentation Theory, or whether events pull attention away from the primary timing task, as predicted by the Attentional Gate theory. In the two experiments reported here, we asked participants to reproduce a previously learned 30-s target duration while watching a movie that contained eventful and uneventful intervals. In Experiment 2, reproduction also occurred during "blank movies" while watching a fixation. In both experiments, participants made shorter and more variable reproductions while simultaneously watching eventful as compared to uneventful movie intervals. Moreover, in Experiment 2, the longest reproductions were produced when participants had to watch the blank movies, which contained no events. These results support Event Segmentation Theory and demonstrate that the elapsing events during prospective temporal reproduction appear to serve as markers of temporal duration rather than distracting from the timing task.
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Abstract
Knowledge benefits episodic memory, particularly when provided before encoding (Anderson & Pichert in Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 17(1), 1-12, 1978; Bransford & Johnson in Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 11(6), 717-726, 1972). These benefits can occur through several encoding mechanisms, one of which may be event segmentation. Event segmentation is one's ability to parse information into meaningful units as an activity unfolds. The current experiment evaluated whether two top-down manipulations-providing context or perspective taking-influence the segmentation and memory of text. For the ambiguous texts in Experiment 1, half the participants received context in the form of a title, whereas the other half received no context. For the text in Experiment 2, half the participants read from the perspective of a burglar and the other half read from the perspective of a home buyer. In both experiments, participants read the passages, recalled the information, and then segmented the passages into meaningful units. Consistent with previous findings, participants who received context recalled more information compared with those who received no context, and participants in one perspective were more likely to recall information relevant to their perspective. Most importantly, we found that context and perspective facilitated more normative segmentation; however, the differences were small and suggest that effects of top-down processing on the segmentation of text may be modest at best. Thus, event segmentation processes that operate during text comprehension are influenced by semantic knowledge but may be more heavily driven by other factors (e.g., perceptual cues).
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Clewett D, DuBrow S, Davachi L. Transcending time in the brain: How event memories are constructed from experience. Hippocampus 2019; 29:162-183. [PMID: 30734391 DOI: 10.1002/hipo.23074] [Citation(s) in RCA: 82] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2018] [Revised: 01/07/2019] [Accepted: 01/09/2019] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
Our daily lives unfold continuously, yet when we reflect on the past, we remember those experiences as distinct and cohesive events. To understand this phenomenon, early investigations focused on how and when individuals perceive natural breakpoints, or boundaries, in ongoing experience. More recent research has examined how these boundaries modulate brain mechanisms that support long-term episodic memory. This work has revealed that a complex interplay between hippocampus and prefrontal cortex promotes the integration and separation of sequential information to help organize our experiences into mnemonic events. Here, we discuss how both temporal stability and change in one's thoughts, goals, and surroundings may provide scaffolding for these neural processes to link and separate memories across time. When learning novel or familiar sequences of information, dynamic hippocampal processes may work both independently from and in concert with other brain regions to bind sequential representations together in memory. The formation and storage of discrete episodic memories may occur both proactively as an experience unfolds. They may also occur retroactively, either during a context shift or when reactivation mechanisms bring the past into the present to allow integration. We also describe conditions and factors that shape the construction and integration of event memories across different timescales. Together these findings shed new light on how the brain transcends time to transform everyday experiences into meaningful memory representations.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Clewett
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York City, New York
| | - Sarah DuBrow
- Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
| | - Lila Davachi
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York City, New York.,Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, New York
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Silagi ML, Radanovic M, Conforto AB, Mendonça LIZ, Mansur LL. Inference comprehension in text reading: Performance of individuals with right- versus left-hemisphere lesions and the influence of cognitive functions. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0197195. [PMID: 29795602 PMCID: PMC5968410 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0197195] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2017] [Accepted: 04/27/2018] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Right-hemisphere lesions (RHL) may impair inference comprehension. However, comparative studies between left-hemisphere lesions (LHL) and RHL are rare, especially regarding reading comprehension. Moreover, further knowledge of the influence of cognition on inferential processing in this task is needed. Objectives To compare the performance of patients with RHL and LHL on an inference reading comprehension task. We also aimed to analyze the effects of lesion site and to verify correlations between cognitive functions and performance on the task. Methods Seventy-five subjects were equally divided into the groups RHL, LHL, and control group (CG). The Implicit Management Test was used to evaluate inference comprehension. In this test, subjects read short written passages and subsequently answer five types of questions (explicit, logical, distractor, pragmatic, and other), which require different types of inferential reasoning. The cognitive functional domains of attention, memory, executive functions, language, and visuospatial abilities were assessed using the Cognitive Linguistic Quick Test (CLQT). Results The LHL and RHL groups presented difficulties in inferential comprehension in comparison with the CG. However, the RHL group presented lower scores than the LHL group on logical, pragmatic and other questions. A covariance analysis did not show any effect of lesion site within the hemispheres. Overall, all cognitive domains were correlated with all the types of questions from the inference test (especially logical, pragmatic, and other). Attention and visuospatial abilities affected the scores of both the RHL and LHL groups, and only memory influenced the performance of the RHL group. Conclusions Lesions in either hemisphere may cause difficulties in making inferences during reading. However, processing more complex inferences was more difficult for patients with RHL than for those with LHL, which suggests that the right hemisphere plays an important role in tasks with higher comprehension demands. Cognition influences inferential processing during reading in brain-injured subjects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marcela Lima Silagi
- Department of Physical Therapy, Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, and Occupational Therapy, School of Medicine, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
- * E-mail:
| | - Marcia Radanovic
- Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
| | | | | | - Leticia Lessa Mansur
- Department of Physical Therapy, Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, and Occupational Therapy, School of Medicine, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
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Abstract
Research on event cognition is rapidly developing and is revealing fundamental aspects of human cognition. In this paper, we review recent and current work that is driving this field forward. We first outline the Event Horizon Model, which broadly describes the impact of event boundaries on cognition and memory. Then, we address recent work on event segmentation, the role of event cognition in working memory and long-term memory, including event model updating, and long term retention. Throughout we also consider how event cognition varies across individuals and groups of people and consider the neural mechanisms involved.
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Bailey HR, Zacks JM. Situation model updating in young and older adults: Global versus incremental mechanisms. Psychol Aging 2015; 30:232-44. [PMID: 25938248 DOI: 10.1037/a0039081] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Readers construct mental models of situations described by text. Activity in narrative text is dynamic, so readers must frequently update their situation models when dimensions of the situation change. Updating can be incremental, such that a change leads to updating just the dimension that changed, or global, such that the entire model is updated. Here, we asked whether older and young adults make differential use of incremental and global updating. Participants read narratives containing changes in characters and spatial location and responded to recognition probes throughout the texts. Responses were slower when probes followed a change, suggesting that situation models were updated at changes. When either dimension changed, responses to probes for both dimensions were slowed; this provides evidence for global updating. Moreover, older adults showed stronger evidence of global updating than did young adults. One possibility is that older adults perform more global updating to offset reduced ability to manipulate information in working memory.
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