The presentation of a subset of studied items as retrieval cues can have detrimental effects on recall of the remaining (target) items. In three experiments we examined whether such part-list cueing impairment depends on the similarity between cue and target items. Item similarity was manipulated by making use of pre-experimental semantic similarities between cue and target items (Experiments 1 and 2), or was episodically induced through a similarity-encoding task, in which participants were asked to interrelate cue and target items in a meaningful way (Experiment 3). In all three experiments reliable part-list cueing impairment arose when the similarity between cues and targets was low, but no impairment was found when the similarity between cues and targets was high. Inhibitory as well as non-inhibitory explanations of the findings are discussed.

<p>When people are asked to recall items from a previously studied list and are given a subset of the items on that list as retrieval cues, they often do more poorly at recalling the remaining items on the list than do people asked to recall the items in the absence of such retrieval cues (Slamecka, 1968). Such part-list cuing effect has often been attributed to inhibitory executive-control processes that supposedly suppress the non-cue items&prime; memory representation. Our aim in the present study was to further evaluate the inhibitory executive-control account of part-list cuing effect. Using a new paradigm which combines the classical part-list cuing paradigm with emotional Stroop task, adopting a more sensitive index, the present study retested the retrieval inhibition hypothesis of part-list cuing effect. Four experiments were included. In Experiments 1, we explored whether the inhibition occurs after the presence of part-list cues by inserting the emotional Stroop task between the presence of part-list cues and the retrieval phase, In Experiments 2 and 3, we explored whether the inhibition still persist after the retrieval phase by inserting the emotional Stroop task after the retrieval phase, On the basis of Experiment 2 and 3, in Experiment 4, an inadequate retrieval time was used to further investigate the inhibition process during the retrieval phase. The findings showed that: when the emotional Stroop task was performed after the presentation of the part-list cues, the reaction time of part-list cuing recall group was shorter than free recall group; while when the emotional Stroop task was performed after the retrieval phase, no difference between part-list cuing recall group and free recall group was observed; and when the retrieval was not fulfilled, the reaction time of part-list cuing recall group was shorter than free recall group. The present findings revealed that in the part-list cuing effect, inhibition occurred as soon as the part-list cues were provided, and before the full completion of the retrieval task, the inhibition process would persist. The results support the retrieval inhibition hypothesis of part-list cuing effect, and do some supplement to the retrieval inhibition hypothesis&mdash;&mdash; the duration of inhibition was mediated by the retrieval task.</p>

Although attentional control and memory change considerably across the life span, no research has examined how the ability to strategically remember important information (i.e., value-directed remembering) changes from childhood to old age. The present study examined this in different age groups across the life span (N = 320, 5-96 years old). A selectivity task was used in which participants were asked to study and recall items worth different point values in order to maximize their point score. This procedure allowed for measures of memory quantity/capacity (number of words recalled) and memory efficiency/selectivity (the recall of high-value items relative to low-value items). Age-related differences were found for memory capacity, as young adults recalled more words than the other groups. However, in terms of selectivity, younger and older adults were more selective than adolescents and children. The dissociation between these measures across the life span illustrates important age-related differences in terms of memory capacity and the ability to selectively remember high-value information.

It is often necessary to selectively attend to important information, at the expense of less important information, especially if you know you cannot remember large amounts of information. The present study examined how younger and older adults select valuable information to study, when given unrestricted choices about how to allocate study time. Participants were shown a display of point values ranging from 1-30. Participants could choose which values to study, and the associated word was then shown. Study time, and the choice to restudy words, was under the participant's control during the 2-minute study session. Overall, both age groups selected high value words to study and studied these more than the lower value words. However, older adults allocated a disproportionately greater amount of study time to the higher-value words, and age-differences in recall were reduced or eliminated for the highest value words. In addition, older adults capitalized on recency effects in a strategic manner, by studying high-value items often but also immediately before the test. A multilevel mediation analysis indicated that participants strategically remembered items with higher point value, and older adults showed similar or even stronger strategic process that may help to compensate for poorer memory. These results demonstrate efficient (and different) metacognitive control operations in younger and older adults, which can allow for strategic regulation of study choices and allocation of study time when remembering important information. The findings are interpreted in terms of life span models of agenda-based regulation and discussed in terms of practical applications.

While impairments in memory recall are apparent in aging, older adults show a remarkably preserved ability to selectively remember information deemed valuable. Here, we use fMRI to compare brain activation in healthy older and younger adults during encoding of high and low value words to determine whether there are differences in how older adults achieve value-directed memory selectivity. We find that memory selectivity in older adults is associated with value-related changes in activation during word presentation in left hemisphere regions that are involved in semantic processing, similar to young adults. However, highly selective young adults show a relatively greater increase in semantic network activity during encoding of high-value items, whereas highly selective older adults show relatively diminished activity during encoding of low-value items. Additionally, only younger adults showed value-related increases in activity in semantic and reward processing regions during presentation of the value cue preceding each to-be-remembered word. Young adults therefore respond to cue value more proactively than do older adults, yet the magnitude of value-related differences in cue period brain activity did not predict individual differences in memory selectivity. Thus, our data also show that age-related reductions in prestimulus activity do not always lead to inefficient performance.Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Episodic retrieval is supported by multiple forms of cognitive control that depend on prefrontal cortex. However, within prefrontal cortex, the regional specificity for different control processes is still largely underspecified. Here we used fMRI to investigate the processes involved in part-list cueing, a phenomenon entailing the reduction of memory performance when some of the "to-be-remembered items" are presented during retrieval. Retrieval inhibition and strategy disruption have been proposed as possible underlying causes of this surprising effect. Critically, different encoding conditions can dissociate these two hypotheses, as this is thought to have a different impact on strategy-related versus inhibition-related processes. Accordingly, we compared part-list versus no part-list retrieval conditions, following high versus low associative encoding conditions. This revealed activation of the left frontopolar and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in conditions of part-list cueing retrieval, but only following low associative encoding. These results are consistent with the inhibitory or interference resolution accounts of part-list cueing, suggesting a critical role of between-items competition and high monitoring demands at retrieval. In addition, we also examined brain activation during the encoding phase, specifying further possible anatomo-functional links between encoding and retrieval processes. The results suggest that different encoding conditions induce distinct patterns of activation at retrieval, corroborating the idea that they promote the adoption of different retrieval strategies. The implications of the results are discussed in relation to the cognitive mechanisms of inhibition, interference resolution, and encoding/retrieval strategies for episodic memory.Copyright 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Learners demonstrate superior recognition of faces of their own race or ethnicity, compared to faces of other races or ethnicities; a finding termed the own-race bias. Accounts of the own-race bias differ on whether the effect reflects acquired expertise with own-race faces or enhanced motivation to individuate own-race faces. Learners have previously been motivated to demonstrate increased recall for highly important items through a value-based paradigm, in which item importance is designated using high (vs. low) point values. Learners receive point values by correctly recalling the corresponding items at test, and are given the goal of achieving a high total point score. In two experiments we examined whether a value-based paradigm can motivate learners to differentiate between other-race faces, reducing or eliminating the own-race bias. In Experiment 1, participants studied own- and other-race faces paired with high or low point values. High point values (12-point) indicated that face was highly important to learn, whereas low point values (1-point) indicated that face was less important to learn. Participants demonstrated increased recognition for high-value own-race (but not other-race) faces, suggesting that motivation alone is not enough to reduce the own-race bias. In Experiment 2, we examined whether participants could use value to enhance recognition when permitted to self-pace their study. Recognition did not differ between high-value own- and other-race faces, reducing the own-race bias. Such data suggest that motivation can influence the own-race bias when participants can control encoding. Published by Elsevier B.V.

G*Power (Erdfelder, Faul, & Buchner, 1996) was designed as a general stand-alone power analysis program for statistical tests commonly used in social and behavioral research. G*Power 3 is a major extension of, and improvement over, the previous versions. It runs on widely used computer platforms (i.e., Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Mac OS X 10.4) and covers many different statistical tests of the t, F, and chi2 test families. In addition, it includes power analyses for z tests and some exact tests. G*Power 3 provides improved effect size calculators and graphic options, supports both distribution-based and design-based input modes, and offers all types of power analyses in which users might be interested. Like its predecessors, G*Power 3 is free.

In four experiments, we extended the study of part-set cuing to expository texts and pictorial scenes. In Experiment 1, recall of expository text was tested with and without part-set cues in the same order as the original text; cues strongly impaired recall. Experiment 2 repeated Experiment 1 but used cues in random order and found significant but reduced impairment with cuing. Experiments 3 and 4 examined the part-set cuing of objects presented in a scene or matrix and found virtually no effect of cuing. More objects were recalled from the scene than from the matrix, indicating that the scene's organization aided memory, but the cues did not assist recall. These results extend the domains in which part-set cues have either impaired or failed to improve recall. Implications for education and eyewitness accounts are briefly considered. © 2013 The British Psychological Society.

A new development in our understanding of human long-term memory is that effective memory formation relies on neural activity just before an event. It is unknown whether such prestimulus activity is under voluntary control or a reflection of random fluctuations over time. In the present study, we addressed two issues: (1) whether prestimulus activity is influenced by an individual's motivation to encode, and (2) at what point in time encoding-related activity emerges. Electrical brain activity was recorded while healthy male and female adults memorized series of words. Each word was preceded by a cue, which indicated the monetary reward that would be received if the following word was later remembered. Memory was tested after a short delay with a five-way recognition task to separate different sources of recognition. Electrical activity elicited by the reward cue predicted later memory of a word. Crucially, however, this was only observed when the incentive to memorize a word was high. Encoding-related activity preceded high-reward words that were later recollected. This activity started shortly after cue onset and persisted until word onset. Prestimulus activity thus not only signals cue-related processing but also an ensuing preparatory state. In contrast, reward-related activity was limited to the time period immediately after the reward cue. These findings indicate that engaging neural activity that benefits the encoding of an upcoming event is under voluntary control, reflecting a strategic preparatory state in anticipation of processing an event.

We examined the effects of value on recognition by assessing its contribution to recollection and familiarity. In three experiments, participants studied English words, each associated with a point-value they would earn for correct recognition, with the goal of maximizing their score. In Experiment 1, participants provided Remember/Know judgments. In Experiment 2 participants indicated whether items were recollected or if not, their degree of familiarity along a 6-point scale. In Experiment 3, recognition of words was accompanied by a test of memory for incidental details. Across all experiments, participants were more likely to recognize items with higher point-value. Furthermore, value appeared to primarily enhance recollection, as effects on familiarity were small and not consistent across experiments. Recollection of high-value items appears to be accompanied by fewer incidental details, suggesting that value increases focus on items at the expense of irrelevant information.

Valuable items are often remembered better than less valuable items, but research on the mechanisms supporting this value effect is limited. In the current study, we sought to determine how items might be differentially encoded based on their value. In Experiment 1, participants studied words associated with point-values which were followed by a cue to either "Remember" the word for a later test or "Forget" the word. While to-be-forgotten words were recognized at a lower rate than to-be-remembered words, there was a significant effect of value for to-be-forgotten words when the "Forget" cue was presented immediately after the word, suggesting a relatively automatic enhancement of encoding by value. In Experiment 2, we examined to what extent participants engage in more effective encoding strategies for high-value items. Participants studied a list of words with different point-values, and were instructed either to construct a mental image of the item, use rote rehearsal to learn the items, or were not given any study strategy. There were significant effects of value for items that were studied under rote rehearsal or when no strategy instruction was given. However, effects of value were nearly eliminated when participants used a mental imagery strategy for all items as this strategy boosted memory for low-value items. In Experiment 3, we sought to replicate Experiment 2 with an encoding manipulations that required responses on each trial as a manipulation check. Participants were instructed to generate a sentence containing each item, count the consonants in each item, or were not given any encoding instructions. Consistent with Experiment 2, these manipulations eliminated the effects of value on recognition memory. Thus, it appears that participants engage in more effective encoding strategies for high-value words because the benefit of value was substantially reduced when participants were required to use the same encoding strategy for all items. Together, these results suggest that valuable items are encoded more effectively due to strategic, and to a lesser extent, automatic mechanisms.

Providing a subset of previously studied items as a retrieval cue can both impair and improve recall of the remaining items. Here, we investigated the development of these two opposing effects of such part-list cuing in children. Using listwise directed forgetting to manipulate study context access, three child age groups (7-8, 9-11, and 13-14years) and young adults studied a list of items and, after study, were asked to either forget or continue remembering the list. After presentation of a second list, participants were tested on predefined target items from the original list in either the presence or absence of the list's remaining (nontarget) items serving as retrieval cues. Results revealed that part-list cuing impaired recall of to-be-remembered target items regardless of age. In contrast, part-list cuing improved recall of to-be-forgotten target items in the adult and the oldest child groups but not in the two younger child groups. This finding suggests a developmental dissociation between the two opposing effects of part-list cuing, indicating that the beneficial effect develops later than the detrimental effect. In particular, following the view that the beneficial effect of part-list cuing arises from reactivation of the study context, the results suggest that elementary school children have difficulty in capitalizing on context reactivation.Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cole, Reysen, and Kelley [2013. Part-set cuing facilitation for spatial information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 39, 1615-1620] reported robust part-set cuing facilitation for spatial information using snap circuits (a colour-coded electronics kit designed for children to create rudimentary circuit boards). In contrast, Drinkwater, Dagnall, and Parker [2006. Effects of part-set cuing on experienced and novice chess players' reconstruction of a typical chess midgame position. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 102(3), 645-653] and Watkins, Schwartz, and Lane [1984. Does part-set cuing test for memory organization? Evidence from reconstructions of chess positions. Canadian Journal of Psychology/Revue Canadienne de Psychologie, 38(3), 498-503] showed no influence of part-set cuing for spatial information when using chess boards. One key difference between the two procedures was that the snap circuit stimuli were explicitly connected to one another, whereas chess pieces were not. Two experiments examined the effects of connection type (connected vs. unconnected) and cue type (cued vs. uncued) on memory for spatial information. Using chess boards (Experiment 1) and snap circuits (Experiment 2), part-set cuing facilitation only occurred when the stimuli were explicitly connected; there was no influence of cuing with unconnected stimuli. These results are potentially consistent with the retrieval strategy disruption hypothesis, as well as the two- and three-mechanism accounts of part-set cuing.

Two experiments examined whether the specific composition of the set of cues might influence performance on a part-set cueing task. Although researchers traditionally have chosen their part-set cues either at random or systematically across the original set of materials, in the current study, the part-set cues comprised sets of either the most or least memorable items in the stimulus set (based on past research with the materials). With both word list (Experiment 1) and paragraph (Experiment 2) stimuli, the results showed differential effects of cue composition on part-set cueing performance. That is, part-set cueing impairment occurred following the presentation of high memorability cues, whereas there was no difference between cued and uncued performance following presentation of low memorability cues. These results suggest that the presence or absence of part-set cueing impairment can be influenced by the specific composition of the cue set.

The encoding-retrieval match has been established as a means to improve memory performance. It has recently been proposed that memory performance is determined by the encoding-retrieval match and that the cue overload effect needs to be taken into account when predicting memory performance. Two experiments were conducted to explore the effect of encoding-retrieval match and cue-overload on part-list cuing effect. By adopting semantic match task, Experiment 1 examined the effect of encoding-retrieval match on part-list cuing effect. On the basis of Experiment 1, Experiment 2 Examined the combined effect of encoding-retrieval match and cue-overload on part-list cuing effect. The findings show that increasing the overall encoding-retrieval match reduces the negative influence of part-list cues, which is sensitive to cue-overload; only when the part-list cues provide the diagnostic information of target items, can the memory performance be improved. The results indicates that the combined action of encoding-retrieval match and cue-overload is a better predictor of memory performance when providing part-list cues.

Distractions and multitasking are generally detrimental to learning and memory. Nevertheless, people often study while listening to music, sitting in noisy coffee shops, or intermittently checking their e-mail. The current experiments examined how distractions and divided attention influence one's ability to selectively remember valuable information. Participants studied lists of words that ranged in value from 1 to 10 points while completing a digit-detection task, while listening to music, or without distractions. Though participants recalled fewer words following digit detection than in the other conditions, there were no significant differences between conditions in terms of selectively remembering the most valuable words. Similar results were obtained across a variety of divided-attention tasks that stressed attention and working memory to different degrees, which suggests that people may compensate for divided-attention costs by selectively attending to the most valuable items and that factors that worsen memory do not necessarily impair the ability to selectively remember important information.

While being short on time can certainly limit what one remembers, are there always such costs? The current study investigates the impact of time constraints on selective memory and the self-regulated study of valuable information. Participants studied lists of words ranging in value from 1-10 points, with the goal being to maximize their score during recall. Half of the participants studied these words at a constant presentation rate of either 1 s or 5s. The other half of participants studied under both rates, either fast (1s) during the first several lists and then slow (5s) during later lists, or vice versa. Study was then self-paced during a final segment of lists for all participants to determine how people regulate their study time after experiencing different presentation rates during study. While participants recalled more words overall when studying at a 5-second rate, there were no significant differences in terms of value-based recall, with all participants demonstrating better recall for higher-valued words and similar patterns of selectivity, regardless of study time or prior timing experience. Self-paced study was also value-based, with participants spending more time studying high-value words than low-value. Thus, while being short on time may have impaired memory overall, participants' attention to item value during study was not differentially impacted by the fast and slow timing rates. Overall, these findings offer further insight regarding the influence that timing schedules and task experience have on how people selectively focus on valuable information. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Retrieving a subset of items from memory can cause forgetting of other items in memory, a phenomenon referred to as retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). Individuals who exhibit greater amounts of RIF have been shown to also exhibit superior working memory capacity (WMC) and faster stop-signal reaction times (SSRTs), results which have been interpreted as suggesting that RIF reflects an inhibitory process that is mediated by the processes of executive control. Across four experiments, we sought to further elucidate this issue by manipulating the way in which participants retrieved items during retrieval practice and examining how the resulting effects of forgetting correlated with WMC (Experiments 1-3) and SSRT (Experiment 4). Significant correlations were observed when participants retrieved items from an earlier study phase (within-list retrieval practice), but not when participants generated items from semantic memory (extra-list retrieval practice). These results provide important new insight into the role of executive-control processes in RIF.

<p>When people are asked to recall words they have studied earlier from a list, those given a subset of these words as cues recall fewer words than people who do not receive any cues. This phenomenon is the so called part-list cuing effect. This phenomenon seems to be alien from the general thought that cues can help to prompt memories. The current research examined the part-list cuing effect of participants of different ages in learning pictures, and also explored their memory monitoring and control. Adopting 3 experiments, we explored the development of part-list cuing effect of pictures, and the allocation of study time of different ages. Experiments 1 explored whether retrieval cues would have detrimental effects on participants&rsquo; recall of the remaining items after learning pictures, and Experiments 2 explored the performance of students in Grade 2 and Grade 5 of a primary school, Grade 2 of a junior high school, Grade 2 of a senior high school and Grade 2 of a university. Experiments 3 studied the development of memory control of different ages. The results showed that: (1) After participants learned a list of pictures, the presentation of a subset of learned pictures&rsquo; names as retrieval cues didn&rsquo;t have detrimental effects on their recall of the remaining items significantly; (2) After participants learned a list of pictures, the presentation of a subset of learned pictures as retrieval cues had detrimental effects on their recall of the remaining items, that is to say, part-list cuing effect occurred; (3) The part-list cuing effect occurred in all age selected. And with the increase of age, its amount changed as an inverted U shape; (4) Participants&rsquo; allocation of study time was affected by the times they had practiced with part-list cueing, which was different among participants of different ages. Grade 2 of primary school students couldn&rsquo;t predict the detrimental effect of part-list cues no matter how many times they had practiced. After practicing twice, Grade 5 of primary school students could realize part-list cues&rsquo; detrimental effect and effectively allocate their cognitive resources. And only after one practice, Grade 2 of junior high school and senior high school students could realize that the part-list cuing recall was more difficult compared to free recall and allocate their study time appropriately. Moreover, students in Grade 2 of senior high school did even better than those in junior high school. The present findings revealed that in the picture studying, cues presented by way of cross-domain is a boundary condition of part-list cueing effect, while age is not a boundary condition of part-list cueing effect. The development of children&rsquo;s strategy on allocation of study time had a great change from Grade 2 of primary school to Grade 5 of primary school students, while the learning efficiency had a great change from Grade 2 of junior high school to Grade 2 of senior high school students.</p>

Ironically, the presentation of a subset of studied material as retrieval cues at test often impairs recall of the remaining (target) material—an effect known as part-list cuing impairment. Part-list cues are typically provided at the beginning of the recall period, a time when nearly all individuals would be able to recall at least some studied items on their own. Across two experiments, we examined the effects of part-list cuing when student participants could decide on their own when the cues were presented during the recall period. Results showed that participants activated the cues relatively late in the recall period, when recall was already close to asymptote. Critically, such delayed cuing no longer impaired recall performance. The detrimental effect of part-list cuing, as it has been demonstrated numerous times in the memory literature, thus seems to depend on presentating the cue items (too) early in the recall period.

Long-term potentiation in the hippocampus can be enhanced and prolonged by dopaminergic inputs from midbrain structures such as the substantia nigra. This improved synaptic plasticity is hypothesized to be associated with better memory consolidation in the hippocampus. We used a condition that reliably elicits a dopaminergic response, reward anticipation, to study the relationship between activity of dopaminergic midbrain areas and hippocampal long-term memory in healthy adults. Pictures of object drawings that predicted monetary reward were associated with stronger fMRI activity in reward-related brain areas, including the substantia nigra, compared with non-reward-predicting pictures. Three weeks later, recollection and source memory were better for reward-predicting than for non-reward-predicting pictures. FMRI activity in the hippocampus and the midbrain was higher for reward-predicting pictures that were later recognized compared with later forgotten pictures. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that activation of dopaminergic midbrain regions enhances hippocampus-dependent memory formation, possibly by enhancing consolidation.

Items with high value are often remembered better than those with low value. It is not clear, however, whether this value effect extends to the binding of associative details (e.g., word colour) in episodic memory. Here, we explored whether value enhances memory for associative information in two different scenarios that might support a more effective process of binding between identity and colour. Experiment 1 examined incidental binding between item and colour using coloured images of familiar objects, whereas Experiment 2 examined intentional learning of word colour. In both experiments, increasing value led to improvements in memory for both item and colour, and these effects persisted after approximately 24 hr. Experiment 3a and Experiment 3b replicated the value effect on intentional word–colour memory from Experiment 2 while also demonstrating this effect to be less reliable when word colour is incidental to the encoding phase. Thus, value-directed prioritisation can facilitate episodic associative memory when conditions for binding are optimised through the use of appropriate to-be remembered materials and encoding conditions.