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Effects of learning experience on forgetting rates of item and associative memories

Are associative memories forgotten more quickly than item memories, and does the level of original learning differentially influence forgetting rates? In this study, we addressed these questions by having participants learn single words and word pairs once (Experiment 1), three times (Experiment 2),...

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Autores principales: Yang, Jiongjiong, Zhan, Lexia, Wang, Yingying, Du, Xiaoya, Zhou, Wenxi, Ning, Xueling, Sun, Qing, Moscovitch, Morris
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4918786/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27317197
http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/lm.041210.115
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author Yang, Jiongjiong
Zhan, Lexia
Wang, Yingying
Du, Xiaoya
Zhou, Wenxi
Ning, Xueling
Sun, Qing
Moscovitch, Morris
author_facet Yang, Jiongjiong
Zhan, Lexia
Wang, Yingying
Du, Xiaoya
Zhou, Wenxi
Ning, Xueling
Sun, Qing
Moscovitch, Morris
author_sort Yang, Jiongjiong
collection PubMed
description Are associative memories forgotten more quickly than item memories, and does the level of original learning differentially influence forgetting rates? In this study, we addressed these questions by having participants learn single words and word pairs once (Experiment 1), three times (Experiment 2), and six times (Experiment 3) in a massed learning (ML) or a distributed learning (DL) mode. Then they were tested for item and associative recognition separately after four retention intervals: 10 min, 1 d, 1 wk, and 1 mo. The contribution of recollection and familiarity processes were assessed by participants’ remember/know judgments. The results showed that for both item and associative memories, across different degrees of learning, recollection decreased significantly and was the main source of forgetting over time, whereas familiarity remained relatively stable over time. Learning multiple times led to slower forgetting at shorter intervals, depending on recollection and familiarity processes. Compared with massed learning, distributed learning (six times) especially benefited associative memory by increasing recollection, leading to slower forgetting at longer intervals. This study highlighted the importance of process contribution and learning experiences in modulating the forgetting rates of item and associative memories. We interpret these results within the framework of a dual factor representational model of forgetting (as noted in a previous study) in which recollection is more prone to decay over time than familiarity.
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spelling pubmed-49187862017-07-01 Effects of learning experience on forgetting rates of item and associative memories Yang, Jiongjiong Zhan, Lexia Wang, Yingying Du, Xiaoya Zhou, Wenxi Ning, Xueling Sun, Qing Moscovitch, Morris Learn Mem Research Are associative memories forgotten more quickly than item memories, and does the level of original learning differentially influence forgetting rates? In this study, we addressed these questions by having participants learn single words and word pairs once (Experiment 1), three times (Experiment 2), and six times (Experiment 3) in a massed learning (ML) or a distributed learning (DL) mode. Then they were tested for item and associative recognition separately after four retention intervals: 10 min, 1 d, 1 wk, and 1 mo. The contribution of recollection and familiarity processes were assessed by participants’ remember/know judgments. The results showed that for both item and associative memories, across different degrees of learning, recollection decreased significantly and was the main source of forgetting over time, whereas familiarity remained relatively stable over time. Learning multiple times led to slower forgetting at shorter intervals, depending on recollection and familiarity processes. Compared with massed learning, distributed learning (six times) especially benefited associative memory by increasing recollection, leading to slower forgetting at longer intervals. This study highlighted the importance of process contribution and learning experiences in modulating the forgetting rates of item and associative memories. We interpret these results within the framework of a dual factor representational model of forgetting (as noted in a previous study) in which recollection is more prone to decay over time than familiarity. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press 2016-07 /pmc/articles/PMC4918786/ /pubmed/27317197 http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/lm.041210.115 Text en © 2016 Yang et al.; Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This article is distributed exclusively by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press for the first 12 months after the full-issue publication date (see http://learnmem.cshlp.org/site/misc/terms.xhtml). After 12 months, it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International), as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
spellingShingle Research
Yang, Jiongjiong
Zhan, Lexia
Wang, Yingying
Du, Xiaoya
Zhou, Wenxi
Ning, Xueling
Sun, Qing
Moscovitch, Morris
Effects of learning experience on forgetting rates of item and associative memories
title Effects of learning experience on forgetting rates of item and associative memories
title_full Effects of learning experience on forgetting rates of item and associative memories
title_fullStr Effects of learning experience on forgetting rates of item and associative memories
title_full_unstemmed Effects of learning experience on forgetting rates of item and associative memories
title_short Effects of learning experience on forgetting rates of item and associative memories
title_sort effects of learning experience on forgetting rates of item and associative memories
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4918786/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27317197
http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/lm.041210.115
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