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The nature of memory
Domains of memory
Semantic memory
Getting better at reading minds
Combining brain scans and behavioral tests aids early identification of at-risk readers
Brain's speech site revisited and revised
Kids learn words best by working out meaning
Genetic cause for word-finding disease
Specific brain region for reading
Brain networks change according to cognitive task
Brain region for understanding metaphors located
Too much knowledge can be bad for some types of memory
Language cues help visual learning in children
Poetry as a memory and concentration aid
Third language area in brain identified
Children process words by sound while adults process by meaning
Children outperform adults in memory study
Different brain regions for arousing and non-arousing words
Reading verbs activates motor cortex areas
Imaging confirms people knowledge processed differently
Competition between memory systems
Separate brain regions for living vs nonliving categories
Imaging studies don't support a categorical organisation of semantic memory at the neural level
Wang, A.Y. & Thomas, M.H. (1995). Effect of keywords on long-term retention: help or hindrance? Journal of Educational Psychology, 87, 468-475.
Second language learning
Anatomical advantage for second language learners
Early music training 'tunes' auditory system
Bilingualism has protective effect in delaying onset of dementia
Why learning a new language may make you forget your old one
How bilingualism affects the brain
How does the bilingual brain distinguish between languages?
Fast language learners have more white matter in auditory region
Language learning declines after second year of life
Baby talk helps infants learn to speak
Learning languages increases gray matter density
Being fluent in two languages may help keep the brain sharper for longer
Learning a second language may not be as laborious as believed
Beneficial effects of bilingual learning
Both languages active in bilingual speakers
Second language best taught in childhood
Study finds there's a critical time for learning all languages, including sign language
Visual memory
More on how short-term memory works
Support for labeling as an aid to memory
Language cues help visual learning in children
Why working memory capacity is so limited
More light shed on how episodic memories are formed
More learned about how spatial navigation works in humans
The reorganization of the visual cortex in congenitally blind people
Scenes in natural color remembered better than black and white
Debate over how the brain deals with visual information
Specific brain region responds specifically to images of the human body
Brain scan patterns identify objects being viewed
Visual memory better than previously thought
Modigliani, V., Loverock, D.S. & Kirson, S.R. (1998). Encoding features of complex and unfamiliar objects. American Journal Of Psychology, 111, 215-239.
Social memory
Neurons targeted by dementing illness may have evolved for complex social cognition
Psychological reasoning begins earlier than had been thought
Autistic preschoolers don't recognize emotions from facial photographs
Identity memory
New brain region associated with face recognition
Face Blindness Is A Common Hereditary Disorder
Nothing special about face recognition
Rare learning disability particularly impacts face recognition
Single cell recognition research finds specific neurons for concepts
Evidence faces are processed like words
Face blindness runs in families
Faces must be seen to be recognized
How the brain is wired for faces
How the brain recognizes a face
Memories of crime stories influenced by racial stereotypes
Special training may help people with autism recognize faces
New insight into the relationship between recognizing faces and recognizing expressions
Fetuses recognize mother's voice in the womb
Face recognition may not be a special case
Detection of foreign faces faster than faces of your own race
Women better at recognizing female but not male faces
Imaging confirms people knowledge processed differently
Identity memory area localized
Recognizing yourself is different from recognizing other people
Babies' experience with faces leads to narrowing of perception
Differential effects of encoding strategy on brain activity patterns
Children's recognition of faces
Differences in face perception processing between autistic and normal adults
Why recognizing a face is easier when the race matches our own
Boys' and girls' brains process faces differently
Campbell, Ruth, Coleman, Michael, Walker, Jane, Benson, Philip J., Wallace, Simon, Michelotti, Joanne & Baron-Cohen, Simon. 1999. When does the inner-face advantage in familiar face recognition arise and why? Visual Cognition, 6(2), 197-216.
Autobiographical memory
Lack of imagination in older adults linked to declining memory
A Gene to Better Remember Traumatic Events
You can forget the unhappy past
Work could lead to first drug for post-traumatic stress disorder
Prevalence of combat-related PTSD
Life-defining events remembered more favorably
Long-term storage of autobiographical memories
What happens in the brain when we remember our own past?
Mood affects eyewitness accuracy and reasoning
New technique sheds light on autobiographical memory
Visuospatial tasks during trauma may reduce intrusive memories of that event
Losing consciousness can stop you getting posttraumatic stress disorder
Reducing the trauma of traumatic memories
How memory helps make life pleasant
Older adults better at forgetting negative images
Gene linked to poor episodic memory
Excitement helps memory for unrelated events
Childhood "amnesia" linked to vocabulary
Left-handers may be better at remembering events
Suppressing your expression of emotion affects your memory for the event
Cultural differences in autobiographical memory
Sense of identity located in the right frontal lobe
Tversky, Barbara & Marsh, Elizabeth J. 2000. Biased retellings of events yield biased memories. Cognitive Psychology, 40, 1-38.
False memories
Brain waves distinguish false memories from true
Brain activity distinguishes false from true recollection
Discriminating fact from fiction in recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse
Virtual reality can improve memory, perhaps too much
Increasing consumer preferences by manipulating memory
Older adults more likely to "remember" misinformation
Repeated product warnings are remembered as product recommendations
How the brain creates false memories
Mood affects eyewitness accuracy and reasoning
Stress reactions no guarantee of authenticity
Memories of crime stories influenced by racial stereotypes
Photos facilitate "recovery" of false memories
Initial steps in a test for false memory
Failing recall not an inevitable consequence of aging
Impact of 'generative learning' on false memories
Remembering imagined actions as real
Hypnosis may give false confidence in inaccurate memories
New evidence shows how easily false memories can be created
Magnetic resonance imaging reveals difference between true and false memories
Prospective memory
Brain's voluntary chain-of-command ruled by not 1 but 2 captains
Planning is goal-, not action-, oriented
A friendly reminder for HIV patients
Older people with the 'Alzheimer's gene' find it harder to remember intentions
Time really does fly when you’re busy
'Imagination' helps older people remember to comply with medical advice
More light shed on how episodic memories are formed
Alcohol damages day-to-day memory function
Imaging confirms role of frontal lobes in planning
Role of prefrontal cortical regions in goal-directed behavior
Skill memory
Songbirds offer clues to highly practiced motor skills in humans
Watching with intent to repeat ignites key learning area of brain
Language center executive organizer of action plans
Planning is goal-, not action-, oriented
People can learn motor skills by watching
Evidence suggests that the brain can switch to 'automatic pilot' during learning
Reading verbs activates motor cortex areas
Learning a sequence with explicit knowledge of that sequence involves same
Brain anticipates events to learn routines
Improving motor skills through sleep
New research into motor skills distinguishes between learning and performance
The neural basis for motor learning
New motor skills consolidated during sleep
Developing expertise
First steps in developing expertise
Practicing skills in concentrated blocks not the most efficient way
About expertise
Neural substrate of congenital amusia
Tone language translates to perfect pitch
Patterns of brain activity differ with musical training, not cultural familiarity
Another link between music and language
More grey matter in the auditory cortex of musicians' brains
Another interesting facet to expert memory: how professional musicians process music
Chess experts and chess amateurs use different parts of their brain when they play
Doing more than one task at a time
Listening to cell phones significantly impairs drivers
Neural bottleneck found that thwarts multi-tasking
Teaching older brains to regain youthful skills
How multitasking impedes learning
Talking on a cellphone while driving as bad as drinking
Asymmetrical brains let fish multitask
Performing even easy tasks impairs driving
Talking and listening impairs your ability to drive safely
Teen's ability to multi-task develops late in adolescence
How much can your mind keep track of?
Cell phone users drive like seniors
Complex mental tasks interfere with drivers' ability to detect visual targets
Working memory
Children's under-achievement could be down to poor working memory
Young chimps top adult humans in numerical memory
Stereotype-induced math anxiety robs women's working memory
Chronic pain can impair working memory
New research shows why too much memory may be a bad thing
Executive function as important as IQ for math success
Implicit stereotypes and gender identification may affect female math performance
Reducing the racial achievement gap
Highly accomplished people more prone to failure than others when under stress
Common gene version optimizes thinking but carries a risk
Why are uniforms uniform? Because color helps us track objects
People remember prices more easily if they have fewer syllables
New view of hippocampus’s role in memory
Discovery disproves simple concept of memory as 'storage space'
How much can your mind keep track of?
Anxiety adversely affects those who are most likely to succeed at exams
Development of working memory with age
Tests for working memory capacity more limited than thought
Hippocampus and subiculum both critical for short-term memory
Small world networks key to working memory
Why working memory capacity is so limited
Brain signal predicts working memory capacity
Training improves working memory capacity
Memory-enhancing drugs for elderly may impair working memory and other executive functions
Intelligence
Effect of schooling on achievement gaps within racial groups
Brain network related to intelligence identified
Autism non-verbal not unintelligent
Being treated as oldest linked to IQ
Bigger is smarter: brain size predicts intelligence in different species
Executive function as important as IQ for math success
Students who believe intelligence can be developed perform better
Implicit stereotypes and gender identification may affect female math performance
Reducing the racial achievement gap
Size of brain areas does matter -- but bigger isn't necessarily better
A gene that influences intelligence
Common gene version optimizes thinking but carries a risk
Fitness and childhood IQ indicators of cognitive ability in old age
Black-white IQ gap has narrowed
Bigger brains associated with domain-general intelligence
Does IQ drop with age or does something else impact intelligence?
Brain size does matter, but differently for men and women
Closing in on the genes involved in human intelligence
Correlation between brain volume and intelligence
IQ-related brain areas may differ in men and women
Growing up in a chaotic home may impair child's cognitive development
Intelligence based on the volume of gray tissue in certain brain regions
Early music instruction raises child’s IQ
Knowledge-based IQ test predicts work performance as well as school
How the brain works
Connections between neurons act as information filters in the brain
Master planners in brain may coordinate other areas' roles in cognitive tasks
New understanding of how neurons communicate
Stages of memory clarified in sleep studies
Brain implant may restore memory
Encoding
Novel mechanism for long-term learning identified
Brain protein that's a personal trainer for your memory
How memory networks are formed
Support for labeling as an aid to memory
New view of hippocampus’s role in memory
Priming the brain for learning
A single memory is processed in three separate parts of the brain
Resting after new learning may not be laziness
Protein that controls how neurons change as a result of experience
Concrete evidence of the 'memory code'
Seeing the formation of a memory
"Neural cliques" create memories
Louder neurons form more connections
More light shed on memory encoding
Individual neurons respond to different aspects of memory
Rhythm rather than strength of neural activity may be crucial for memory formation
Pictures show how nerve cells form connections to store memories
Retrieving
More light shed on memory retrieval
Role of hippocampus in long term memory
How we retrieve distant memories
Norepinephrine important in retrieving memories
Forgetting
Hypnosis study sheds insight on amnesia
New research shows why too much memory may be a bad thing
Selective amnesia — How a traumatic memory can be wiped out
More insight into why we forget
Drug reverses aging effect on memory process
Repeated product warnings are remembered as product recommendations
Memories are harder to forget than recently thought
Forgetting may sometimes be an active process
More evidence for active forgetting
You may not be able to recall it, but it influences you anyway
Selective erasure of memories one step closer
Failing recall not an inevitable consequence of aging
Older adults better at forgetting negative images
Memories may be hard to find when thalamus fails to synchronize rhythms
Attention
Improved attention with mindfulness training
Brain scans show how meditation affects the brain
Sleep deprivation affects attention and visual short-term memory
Meditation may improve attentional control
Frequent TV viewing during adolescence linked with risk of attention and learning difficulties
Changes in brain, not age, determine one's ability to focus on task
Memory loss in older adults due to distractions, not inability to focus
Insight into the processes of 'positive' and 'negative' learners
Meditation skills of Buddhist monks yield clues to brain's regulation of attention
Faces must be seen to be recognized
More light shed on memory encoding
Neural circuits that control eye movements play crucial role in visual attention
Different aspects of attention located in different parts of the brain
Cognitive impairment following bypass surgery may last longer than thought
Cocaine may permanently damage learning abilities in developing fetuses
Learning without desire or awareness
Children who concentrate and switch attention better are more likely to cross streets safely
Perception and memory
Culture influences brain function
Seeing red worsens test performance
Why are uniforms uniform? Because color helps us track objects
What we perceive is not what we sense
Varied sensory experience important in childhood
Single cell recognition research finds specific neurons for concepts
Faces must be seen to be recognized
Brain regions that process reality and illusion identified
Memory different depending on whether information received via eyes or ears
The chunking of our lives: the brain "sees" life in segments
Reconstruction and consolidation of memories
Sleep reinforces the temporal sequence in memory
Sleep protects against interference
More on how memories are consolidated during sleep
Still more on how memories are consolidated during sleep
Brainwave oscillations responsible for memory benefits of sleep?
More support that sleep helps consolidate learning
Human study supports value of daytime napping for learning
Sleep makes memories resistant to interference
Asleep or awake we retain memory
Reactivating single memory does not affect associated memories
Protein found to inhibit conversion to long-term memory
New theory challenges current view of how brain stores long-term memory
More details about how memories are formed in the hippocampus
Memories may be hard to find when thalamus fails to synchronize rhythms
Imaging study confirms role of medial temporal lobe in memory consolidation
Crucial enzyme for consolidating long-term memories
Protein that allows information to be converted from short-term into lifelong memories identified
Specific molecule that helps brain reorganize in the face of new experiences targeted
Brain regions for specific tasks
Maturity brings richer memories
Brain network associated with cognitive reserve identified
Brain's voluntary chain-of-command ruled by not 1 but 2 captains
Brain's speech site revisited and revised
Right parietal lobe implicated in dyscalculia
Master planners in brain may coordinate other areas' roles in cognitive tasks
Specific brain region for reading
Scientists find brain function most important to math ability
How emotions interfere with memory
Origins of fear more complex than supposed
Brain networks change according to cognitive task
Brain region for understanding metaphors located
Long-term storage of autobiographical memories
Primitive brain learns faster than the "thinking" part of our brain
Why traumatic memories have the power they do
Are language and math processed separately by the brain?
Where tunes get stuck in your head
Third language area in brain identified
What happens in the brain when we remember our own past?
How the brain is wired for faces
How the brain recognizes a face
Can't place a name to the face you just saw?
New technique sheds light on autobiographical memory
Separate brain regions for living vs nonliving categories
Imaging study confirms role of medial temporal lobe in memory consolidation
Specific brain region implicated in rule induction
Role of prefrontal cortical regions in goal-directed behaviour
Chess experts and chess amateurs use different parts of their brain when they play
The neural substrate of memory
Deep brain stimulation may improve memory
Brain's voluntary chain-of-command ruled by not 1 but 2 captains
Priming the brain for learning
A single memory is processed in three separate parts of the brain
Resting after new learning may not be laziness
Protein that controls how neurons change as a result of experience
Rating familiarity: how we do it
Insight into the processes of 'positive' and 'negative' learners
Single cell recognition research finds specific neurons for concepts
Brain networks change according to cognitive task
"Neural cliques" create memories
Louder neurons form more connections
First real-time view of developing neurons reveals surprises
Faster neuron transmission in young males
New theory challenges current view of how brain stores long-term memory
Fruit flies might help us discover how the brain knows which brain connections to strengthen
The clearing away of excess glutamate may be important for long-term memory
Identification of key brain protein for long-term memory
Fear-conditioning study demonstrates long-suspected link between longterm potentiation and learning
Rhythm rather than strength of neural activity may be crucial for memory formation
Individual neurons respond to different aspects of memory
Pictures show how nerve cells form connections to store memories
The neural basis for motor learning
Miniature microscope could monitor activity in individual brain cells
Neurogenesis
Injection of human umbilical cord blood helps aging brain
Adult neurogenesis confirmed in primates
Adult neurogenesis more important for learning than thought
Fragile X syndrome -- A stimulating environment restores neuronal function in mice
TMS improves neuronal function in mice
How lead exposure produces learning deficits
New research shows why too much memory may be a bad thing
Sleep deprivation affects neurogenesis
Why neurogenesis is so much less in older brains
Neurogenesis not the sole cause of enriched environment effects
Immune function important for cognition
How new neurons are integrated in the adult brain
More light on adult neurogenesis; implications for dementia and brain injuries
Wnt signaling vital for adult neurogenesis
Why premature brains improve over time
One gene links neurogenesis with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's
Social status influences brain structure
Learning involves the death of neurons too
FGF-2 implicated in adult neurogenesis
Too much exercise may be bad for the brain
Rat studies provide more evidence on why aging can impair memory
New neurons in adult brains are functional
New study contradicts earlier finding of new brain cell growth in the adult primate neocortex
Evolution
What distinguishes human from animal cognition
Songbirds offer clues to highly practiced motor skills in humans
Young chimps top adult humans in numerical memory
Bigger is smarter: brain size predicts intelligence in different species
Gene mutation linked to cognition is found only in humans
Monkeys can reflect on their thoughts
Humans aren’t the only ones to think about what they know
Size of brain areas does matter -- but bigger isn't necessarily better
Common gene version optimizes thinking but carries a risk
Neurons targeted by dementing illness may have evolved for complex social cognition
A cognitive strategy shared by human infants and our great-ape kin
Genetic variations that may be key to the evolution of the human brain
Avoiding predators may be the reason for our large brains
Bigger brains associated with domain-general intelligence
Asymmetrical brains let fish multitask
Primates take weather into account when searching for fruits
'Perception' gene tracked humanity's evolution
Human brains enjoy ongoing evolution
Human cerebellum and cortex age in very different ways
New light on speech evolution in humans
Primitive brain learns faster than the "thinking" part of our brain
Another clue to the evolution of the human brain
More support for social skill theory of brain evolution
More complex brain may have pre-dated Homo genus
Gene may be key to evolution of larger human brain
Evolution of the mammalian brain
Human frontal cortex not proportionately larger compared to great apes
Living in large groups could give you a better memory
Genes and proteins
New genetic link to autism identified
Children with gene show reduced cognitive function
Gene governs IQ boost from breastfeeding
Brain protein that's a personal trainer for your memory
Genes implicated in learning attitude
Adult neurogenesis confirmed in primates
Gene predicts better outcome as cortex normalizes in teens with ADHD
A Gene to Better Remember Traumatic Events
Gene mutation linked to cognition is found only in humans
Mutation improves memory, may lead to memory-enhancing pill
A gene that influences intelligence
Common gene version optimizes thinking but carries a risk
Genetic cause for word-finding disease
Longevity gene also helps retain cognitive function
Protein found to inhibit conversion to long-term memory
Closing in on the genes involved in human intelligence
More light on a common developmental disorder
Closing in on the genes involved in context learning
Some brains age more rapidly than others
Could memory performance and spatial learning be genetically based?
Gene essential for development of normal brain connections discovered
Gene may be key to evolution of larger human brain
Brain protein affecting learning and memorydiscovered
Amphetamine helps or hinders cognitive function depending on your genes
Gene linked to poor episodic memory
Magnetic resonance and PET imaging studies
Imaging reveals a biological basis for autism
Magnetic resonance imaging may help predict future memory decline
Maturation of the human brain mapped
Study of alcoholics reveals connection between cerebellum and prefrontal cortex
More learned about how spatial navigation works in humans
The reorganization of the visual cortex in congenitally blind people
Imaging study confirms theory of dyslexia
Compensating strategies for aging memories
Imaging confirms people knowledge processed differently
Imaging confirms role of frontal lobes in planning
Another link between music and language
Different aspects of attention located in different parts of the brain
Brain anticipates events to learn routines
Brain region involved in recalling memories from smell identified
Cerebellum implicated in remembering emotions
Memories may be hard to find when thalamus fails to synchronize rhythms
The neural bases of effective encoding
Competition between memory systems
Separate brain regions for living vs nonliving categories
Imaging study confirms role of medial temporal lobe in memory consolidation
Imaging studies don't support a categorical organisation of semantic memory at the neural level
Differential effects of encoding strategy on brain activity patterns
Dendrites implicated in storage of memories
New motor skills consolidated during sleep
Specific brain region implicated in rule induction
Role of prefrontal cortical regions in goal-directed behaviour
Differences in face perception processing between autistic and normal adults
Brain study shows how surprises help us learn
Memory different depending on whether information received via eyes or ears
Another interesting facet to expert memory: how professional musicians process music
Chess experts and chess amateurs use different parts of their brain when they play
Why recognizing a face is easier when the race matches our own
The chunking of our lives: the brain "sees" life in segments
Magnetic resonance imaging reveals difference between true and false memories
Research Tools
Getting better at reading minds
Study validates MRI imaging method as research and clinical tool
Single cell recognition research finds specific neurons for concepts
Nanotechnology illuminates brain cells at work
New tool to image brain function at the cellular level
Computer Automation Software Speeds Brain Research
Pictures show how nerve cells form connections to store memories
Miniature microscope could monitor activity in individual brain cells
Related topics
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