A testing effect occurs when a learner performs better on a retention test after studying the material and taking a practice-retention test than after studying the material twice. In the present study, 282 participants watched a narrated animation about lightning formation and then watched the presentation again (restudy), took a…

Oneness refers to the convention of recognizing a single individual's performance and ignoring others, including those who may have performed as well. Although oneness is an adaptation to cognitive deficits, it cannot be explained by them. If long-term and working memory were more capacious, society's need for ideals to establish realm-specific…

Acquired equivalence is a paradigm in which generalization is increased between two superficially dissimilar stimuli (or antecedents) that have previously been associated with similar outcomes (or consequents). Several possible mechanisms have been proposed, including changes in stimulus representations, either in the form of added associations or…

This study examined dyadic interrelations between episodic memory and depressive symptom trajectories of change in old and advanced old age. The authors applied dynamic models to 10-year incomplete longitudinal data of initially 1,599 married couples from the study of Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old (M[subscript age] = 75 years at…

The recent surge in event-related fMRI studies of episodic memory has generated a wealth of information about the neural correlates of encoding and retrieval processes. However, interpretation of individual studies is hampered by methodological differences, and by the fact that sample sizes are typically small. We submitted results from studies of…

The authors investigated the performance on simple multiplication and division problems of 8-year-old children longitudinally to determine the developmental trajectories of both operations. Twice a year, during 2 consecutive school years, children performed a multiplication and division verification task and a number-matching task. All effects…

Patients with unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy from hippocampal origin and patients with unilateral surgical excision of an epileptic focus located in the medial temporal lobe were compared to healthy controls on a version of the Autobiographical Interview (AI) adapted to assess memory for event-specific and generic personal episodes. For both…

This narrative inquiry analyses the memories of a group of female teachers telling about their own teachers. We ask how gender and emotions are intertwined to teacher-student relationships. Gender was present in the stories where the teachers described being a schoolgirl in relationship with a teacher and told about their teachers as women and…

The efficiency of different cognitive training procedures in elderly people was studied. Two types of methods to train cognitive and memory functions were compared. One method was based on new technologies and the other one on pencil-and-paper activities. Thirty-six elderly institutionalized people aged 68-94 were trained. Quantitative and memory…

This study examined how Flesch Reading Ease and text cohesion affect older adults' comprehension of common health texts. All older adults benefited when high Flesh Reading Ease was combined with high cohesion. Older adults with small working memories had more difficulty understanding texts high in Flesch Reading Ease. Additionally, older adults…

Some second language (L2) learners return from study-abroad experiences (SAEs) with seemingly no change in their L2 ability. In this study we investigate whether a certain level of internal cognitive resources is necessary in order for individuals to take full advantage of the SAE. Specifically, we examine the role of working memory resources in…

Psychophysical studies are reported examining how the context of recent auditory stimulation may modulate the processing of new sounds. The question posed is how recent tone stimulation may affect ongoing performance in a discrimination task. In the task, two complex sounds occurred in successive intervals. A single target component of one complex…

In everyday life, one can link anticipated specific cues (e.g. visiting a restaurant) with desired actions (e.g., ordering a healthy meal). Alternatively, intentions such as "I intend to eat more healthily" present the option to act when one encounters the same cue. In the first case, a specific cue triggers a specific action; in the second, one…

The perirhinal and entorhinal cortices are critical components of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) declarative memory system. Study of their specific functions using blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), however, has suffered from severe magnetic susceptibility signal dropout resulting in poor…

Normal aging disrupts hippocampal neuroplasticity and learning and memory. Aging deficits were exposed in a subset (30%) of middle-aged mice that performed below criterion on a hippocampal-dependent contextual fear conditioning task. Basal neuronal excitability was comparable in middle-aged and young mice, but learning-related modulation of the…