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Memory Performance for Everyday Motivational and Neutral Objects Is Dissociable from Attention

Episodic memory is typically better for items coupled with monetary reward or punishment during encoding. It is yet unclear whether memory is also enhanced for everyday objects with appetitive or aversive values learned through a lifetime of experience, and to what extent episodic memory enhancement...

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Autores principales: Schomaker, Judith, Wittmann, Bianca C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5483478/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28694774
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2017.00121
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author Schomaker, Judith
Wittmann, Bianca C.
author_facet Schomaker, Judith
Wittmann, Bianca C.
author_sort Schomaker, Judith
collection PubMed
description Episodic memory is typically better for items coupled with monetary reward or punishment during encoding. It is yet unclear whether memory is also enhanced for everyday objects with appetitive or aversive values learned through a lifetime of experience, and to what extent episodic memory enhancement for motivational and neutral items is attributable to attention. In a first experiment, we investigated attention to everyday motivational objects using eye-tracking during free-viewing and subsequently tested episodic memory using a remember/know procedure. Attention was directed more to aversive stimuli, as evidenced by longer viewing durations, whereas recollection was higher for both appetitive and aversive objects. In the second experiment, we manipulated the visual contrast of neutral objects through changes of contrast to further dissociate attention and memory encoding. While objects presented with high visual contrast were looked at longer, recollection was best for objects presented in unmodified, medium contrast. Generalized logistic mixed models on recollection performance showed that attention as measured by eye movements did not enhance subsequent memory, while motivational value (Experiment 1) and visual contrast (Experiment 2) had quadratic effects in opposite directions. Our findings suggest that an enhancement of incidental memory encoding for appetitive items can occur without an increase in attention and, vice versa, that enhanced attention towards salient neutral objects is not necessarily associated with memory improvement. Together, our results provide evidence for a double dissociation of attention and memory effects under certain conditions.
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spelling pubmed-54834782017-07-10 Memory Performance for Everyday Motivational and Neutral Objects Is Dissociable from Attention Schomaker, Judith Wittmann, Bianca C. Front Behav Neurosci Neuroscience Episodic memory is typically better for items coupled with monetary reward or punishment during encoding. It is yet unclear whether memory is also enhanced for everyday objects with appetitive or aversive values learned through a lifetime of experience, and to what extent episodic memory enhancement for motivational and neutral items is attributable to attention. In a first experiment, we investigated attention to everyday motivational objects using eye-tracking during free-viewing and subsequently tested episodic memory using a remember/know procedure. Attention was directed more to aversive stimuli, as evidenced by longer viewing durations, whereas recollection was higher for both appetitive and aversive objects. In the second experiment, we manipulated the visual contrast of neutral objects through changes of contrast to further dissociate attention and memory encoding. While objects presented with high visual contrast were looked at longer, recollection was best for objects presented in unmodified, medium contrast. Generalized logistic mixed models on recollection performance showed that attention as measured by eye movements did not enhance subsequent memory, while motivational value (Experiment 1) and visual contrast (Experiment 2) had quadratic effects in opposite directions. Our findings suggest that an enhancement of incidental memory encoding for appetitive items can occur without an increase in attention and, vice versa, that enhanced attention towards salient neutral objects is not necessarily associated with memory improvement. Together, our results provide evidence for a double dissociation of attention and memory effects under certain conditions. Frontiers Media S.A. 2017-06-26 /pmc/articles/PMC5483478/ /pubmed/28694774 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2017.00121 Text en Copyright © 2017 Schomaker and Wittmann. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Schomaker, Judith
Wittmann, Bianca C.
Memory Performance for Everyday Motivational and Neutral Objects Is Dissociable from Attention
title Memory Performance for Everyday Motivational and Neutral Objects Is Dissociable from Attention
title_full Memory Performance for Everyday Motivational and Neutral Objects Is Dissociable from Attention
title_fullStr Memory Performance for Everyday Motivational and Neutral Objects Is Dissociable from Attention
title_full_unstemmed Memory Performance for Everyday Motivational and Neutral Objects Is Dissociable from Attention
title_short Memory Performance for Everyday Motivational and Neutral Objects Is Dissociable from Attention
title_sort memory performance for everyday motivational and neutral objects is dissociable from attention
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5483478/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28694774
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2017.00121
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