News reports of research into memory March 2005

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March 2005

How much can your mind keep track of?

A recent study has tried a new take on measuring how much a person can keep track of. It's difficult to measure the limits of processing capacity because most people automatically break down large complex problems into small, manageable chunks. To keep people from doing this, therefore, researchers created problems the test subjects wouldn’t be familiar with. 30 academics were presented with incomplete verbal descriptions of statistical interactions between fictitious variables, with an accompanying set of graphs that represented the interactions. It was found that, as the problems got more complex, participants performed less well and were less confident. They were significantly less able to accurately solve the problems involving four-way interactions than the ones involving three-way interactions, and were completely incapable of solving problems with five-way interactions. The researchers concluded that we cannot process more than four variables at a time (and at that, four is a strain).
The report was published in the January 2005 issue of Psychological Science. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/aps-hmc030805.php

Two heads not always better than one

While some studies have supported the old adage “Two heads are better than one”, new research into the effects of information overload suggest that problems are in fact exacerbated when information is shared, if the people have different viewpoints. The project was aimed at finding better ways for us to organise and retrieve information for shared use, and involved looking at how couples catalogue and retrieve their digital photos. When couples had jointly catalogued photographs, it was found that working together to retrieve photos was fruitful. However, when they had catalogued pictures on their own, it was a very different story. "People mentally organize information in different ways, and cues that help one person recall may inhibit another. So retrieving information from computer systems, such as a keyword search in a library catalogue, may be impaired by a mismatch between the user's mental organization and the cues provided by the system."
The research project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/esr-wic032305.php

How higher education protects older adults from cognitive decline

Research has indicated that higher education helps protect older adults from cognitive decline. Now an imaging study helps us understand how. The study compared adults from two age groups: 18-30, and over 65. Years of education ranged from 11 to 20 years for the younger group, and 8 to 21 for the older. Participants carried out several memory tasks while their brain was scanned. In young adults performing the memory tasks, more education was associated with less use of the frontal lobes and more use of the temporal lobes. For the older adults doing the same tasks, more education was associated with less use of the temporal lobes and more use of the frontal lobes. Previous research has indicated frontal activity is greater in old adults, compared to young; the new study suggests that this effect is related to the educational level in the older participants. The higher the education, the more likely the older adult is to recruit frontal regions, resulting in a better memory performance.
The report appeared in the March issue of Neuropsychology. Full reference
Full text of the article is available at http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/neu192181.pdf
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/apa-bi030705.php

Most older people with mild cognitive impairment have Alzheimer's or cerebral vascular disease

Another finding from the Religious Orders Study. It seems that mild cognitive impairment is often the earliest clinical manifestation of Alzheimer’s or vascular dementia. By studying the brains of study participants after death, researchers could ascertain that, of the 37 individuals with mild cognitive impairment, 23 met pathologic criteria for Alzheimer's disease, and 12 had cerebral infarcts (5 had both). Only 9 did not have either pathology. The researchers conclude that even mild loss of cognitive function in older people should not, therefore, be viewed as normal, but as an indication of a disease process.
The study was published in the March 8 issue of Neurology. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/rpsl-mop022805.php

Repeated product warnings are remembered as product recommendations

Warnings about particular products may have quite the opposite effect than intended. Because we retain a familiarity with encountered items far longer than details, the more often we are told a claim about a consumer item is false, the more likely we are to accept it as true a little further down the track. Research also reveals that older adults are more susceptible to this error. It is relevant to note that in the U.S. at least, some 80% of consumer fraud victims are over 65.
The report appeared in the March 2005 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/uocp-nrr032905.php

The best way to get teens to learn

A recent study has been investigating how to motivate teenagers to learn. Using obese and non-obese early adolescents and a text on health-related issues, researchers found that telling the teenagers that learning more about these issues and adopting a healthier lifestyle was important for their health (an intrinsic goal) was more effective than telling them that it would help them become more physically attractive and appealing (an extrinsic goal). They also found that trying to pressure the teens by using guilt-inducing language was less effective than a more autonomy-supportive approach that enabled them to experience their studying as more self-chosen and volitional.
The report appeared in the March/April issue of Child Development. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/sfri-tbw032105.php

Cognitive effects of binge drinking worse for women

A new study looked at the cognitive effects of binge drinking, which apparently is on the rise in several countries, including Britain and the US. The study involved 100 healthy moderate-to-heavy social drinkers aged between 18 and 30. There were equal numbers of males and females. The study found that female binge drinkers performed worse on the working-memory and vigilance tasks than did the female non-binge drinkers.
The report was published in the March issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/ace-bdc030705.php

Poetry as a memory and concentration aid

A research group at Dundee and St Andrews universities claim poems exercise the mind more than a novel. They found poetry generated far more eye movement, and also that people read poems more slowly, concentrating and re-reading individual lines more than they did with prose. Imaging also showed greater levels of cerebral activity when people listened to poems being read aloud. Interestingly, they also found this was true even when the poem and prose text had identical content; it appears people read poems in a different way than prose. The researchers suggest the findings have implications for the way English literature is taught in schools, and may be helpful for children with certain learning difficulties, or even age-related memory problems.
http://news.scotsman.com/arts.cfm?id=352752005

Baby talk helps infants learn to speak

Most adults speak to infants using so-called infant-directed speech: short, simple sentences coupled with higher pitch and exaggerated intonation. Researchers have long known that babies prefer to be spoken to in this manner. A new study of 8-month-old infants reveals that infant-directed speech also helps infants learn words more quickly than normal adult speech. Thiessen's study may also explain why many adults struggle to learn a second language.
The study was published in the March issue of Infancy.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/cmu-cms031505.php

First real-time view of developing neurons reveals surprises

New technology and a small see-through fish called a zebra fish have enabled researchers to watch individual neurons mature. Monitoring the hundreds of neurons in the region of the brain that respond to images, the researchers expected to find that young neurons fire in response to a variety of different images, then refine their role over time so that in the adult fish the neurons only respond to images moving in a certain direction or near the left or right side of the visual field. Instead they found that the neurons fired when they sensed only one type of movement as soon as the neurons were old enough to respond to the images. However, they did take time to establish stable connections. Young neurons send out branches in all directions in the hopes that some branches will connect to other neurons and form synapses that transfer information. As the neuron matures, some of these branches form stable synapses while others recede. This trial-and-error process is what establishes the final interconnected mesh of the brain.
The paper appeared in the March 24 issue of Neuron. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/sumc-frv032205.php

Evidence faces are processed like words

It has been suggested that faces and words are recognized differently, that faces are identified by wholes, whereas words and other objects are identified by parts. However, a recent study has devised a new test, that finds people use letters to recognize words and facial features to recognize faces.
The study was published in the February issue of the Journal of Vision. Full reference
You can read this article online at http://www.journalofvision.org//5/1/6/.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/afri-ssf030705.php

Face blindness runs in families

A study of those with prosopagnosia (face blindness) and their relatives has revealed a genetic basis to the neurological condition. An earlier questionnaire study by the same researcher (himself prosopagnosic) suggests the impairment may be more common than has been thought. The study involved 576 biology students. Nearly 2% reported face-blindness symptoms.
The study will be reported in a forthcoming issue of Cortex.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7174

Primitive brain learns faster than the "thinking" part of our brain

A study of monkeys has revealed that a primitive region of the brain known as the basal ganglia learns rules first, then “trains” the prefrontal cortex, which learns more slowly. The findings turn our thinking about how rules are learned on its head — it has been assumed that the smarter areas of our brain work things out; instead it seems that primitive brain structures might be driving even our most high-level learning.
The report appeared in the Feb. 24 issue of Nature. Full reference
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/basalganglia.html

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