Item memory (e.g., recall or recognition of specific items) can reactively change when metacognitively monitored via judgments of learning (JOLs). The current research explores whether memory for inter-item relations (e.g., semantic relations among list items) is reactively influenced by JOLs. Participants in Experiment 1 studied rhyming word…

Current views posit that forming and retrieving memories of ongoing events influences action control. However, the organizational structure of these memories, or event files, remains unclear. The "hierarchical coding view" posits a hierarchical structure, wherein task sets occupy a high level of the hierarchy. Here, the contents of an…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess how needing to listen and remember information while walking affects speech perception, memory task performance, and gait in younger and middle-aged adults. Method: Four gait parameters (stride duration, step variability, whole-body center of mass acceleration, and mediolateral head acceleration)…

Generalization in motor control is the extent to which motor learning affects movements in situations different than those in which it originally occurred. Recent data on orofacial speech movements indicates that motor sequence learning generalizes to novel syllable sequences containing phonotactically illegal, but previously practiced, consonant…

It is said that our species use mnemonics -- that "magic of memorization" -- to engrave an enormous amount of information in the brain. Yet, it is unclear how mnemonics affect memory and what the neural underpinnings are. In this electroencephalography study, we examined the hypotheses whether mnemonic training improved…

This study examines the relationship between the habits of young adults in the use of information technologies and the cognitive processes involved in learning. It was found that information technologies have become an irreplaceable part of modern education, offering vast opportunities to access information and resources, thus promoting the…

The current research examined how seeking versus receiving help affected children's memory and confidence decisions. Baseline performance, when no help was available, was compared to performance when help could be sought (Experiment 1: N = 83, 41 females) or was provided (Experiment 2: N = 84, 44 females) in a sample of predominately White 5-, 7-,…

When memories are reactivated during sleep, they are potentially transformed and strengthened. However, disturbed sleep may make this process ineffective. In a prior study, memories formed shortly before sleep were weakened by auditory stimulation when that stimulation provoked memory reactivation while also disrupting sleep -- a procedure known…

Many institutions worldwide honor the gift of human body donors through memorial services, ceremonies, and various other means, such as guided reflection or art activities. Memorial services can vary when it comes to the name, who is involved in the planning, and who may attend. Within the United States, the role of religion in the planning and…

Undergraduate introductory human anatomy and human physiology courses are either taught as discipline-specific or integrated anatomy and physiology (A&P) sequences. An institution underwent a curricular revision to change the course approach from discipline-specific Human Anatomy and Human Physiology to an integrated A&P I and II sequence,…

Many researchers agree that information residing in the focus of attention in working memory benefits from a boost in memory strength and activation, as well as heightened accessibility. However, recent studies have questioned this heightened accessibility. More specifically, these recent studies found reduced accessibility for an item in the…

Attention allows us to focus on relevant information while ignoring distractions. Effective suppression of distracting information is crucial for efficient visual search. Recent studies have developed two paradigms to investigate attentional suppression: cued-suppression which is based on top-down control, and learned-suppression which is based on…

Throughout prolonged tasks, visual attention fluctuates temporally in response to the present stimuli, task demands, and changes in available attentional resources. This temporal fluctuation has downstream effects on memory for stimuli presented during the task. Researchers have established that detection of a target (e.g., a square of a color to…

Contemporary theories of semantic representation posit that social experience is an important source of information for deriving meaning. However, there is a lack of behavioral evidence in support of this proposal. The aim of the present work was to test whether words' degree of social relevance, or "socialness", influences…

The concepts of technical feeling, perception, awareness, experience, consciousness and memory play a prominent role in those analogical moments within the technical aspect deriving from the sensitive dimension of our experience. These notions involve subjective technical sensitivities and feelings, belonging to the factual side of the technical…