Le fonctionnement de la mémoire

Conference given outside the academic context (2005)

Memory for temporal context : Effects of aging, encoding instructions and retrieval strategies

in Memory (2005), 13(1), 95-109

Young and older adults were compared on a list discrimination task. In Experiment 1, performance declined with aging after incidental and intentional encoding of the temporal context. Moreover, there was ... [more ▼]

Young and older adults were compared on a list discrimination task. In Experiment 1, performance declined with aging after incidental and intentional encoding of the temporal context. Moreover, there was no benefit for intentional encoding in either group. In Experiment 2, each list was associated with a different encoding context. There were age differences in performance when participants tried to retrieve the encoding context of the items as a cue for their list of occurrence, but not when participants evaluated temporal distance from the strength of the memory trace. This suggests that the age-related decrease in list discrimination could be at least partly due to a difficulty to infer strategically the temporal context of the items from information encoded in the same time. [less ▲]

Distance and location processes in memory for time: An update

in Proceedings of the 28th International Congress of Psychology (2005)

Memory for times of past events depends on direct impressions of the temporal “distances” of the events in the past and the reconstruction of temporal “locations. Two studies shed light on the possible ... [more ▼]

Memory for times of past events depends on direct impressions of the temporal “distances” of the events in the past and the reconstruction of temporal “locations. Two studies shed light on the possible neurological basis of location-based processes. In an ERP study, adults performed tasks thought to bias subjects to use distance or location processes. Late frontal activity was specifically linked to location-based processes. In another study using the same tasks, aging was found to disrupt location-based processes more than distance-based processes. Age-related differences in the use of location-based processes were mediated by speed of processing and by working-memory capacities. [less ▲]

Dissociation between recall and recognition memory in amnesia

Scientific conference (2004)

Dissociation between recall and recognition memory performance in an amnesic patient with hippocampal damage following carbon monoxide poisoning.

in Neurocase : Case Studies in Neuropsychology, Neuropsychiatry & Behavioural Neurology (2004), 10(4), 330-344

Some patients with relatively selective hippocampal damage have shown proportionate recall and recognition deficits. Moreover, familiarity as well as recollection have been found to be impaired in some of ... [more ▼]

Some patients with relatively selective hippocampal damage have shown proportionate recall and recognition deficits. Moreover, familiarity as well as recollection have been found to be impaired in some of these patients. In contrast, other patients with apparently similar damage presented with relatively preserved recognition despite having severely impaired recall, and some of these patients have been shown to have preserved familiarity. We report here the case of an amnesic patient who suffered bilateral hippocampal damage and temporoparietal atrophy after carbon monoxide poisoning. On tests matched for difficulty, his recall performance was more severely impaired than his recognition memory, for verbal as well as for visual materials. Moreover, he performed within the range of healthy matched subjects on nine recognition tests out of ten. In a task using the process dissociation procedure, the patient’s familiarity was preserved although his recollection was impaired. These findings indicate that recall and recognition memory can be dissociated in amnesic patients with hippocampal lesions even when temporoparietal cortical atrophy is also present. [less ▲]

The effects of aging on location-based and distance-based processes in memory for time

in Acta Psychologica (2004), 116

Retrieving when an event occurred may depend on an estimation of the age of the event (distance-based processes) or on strategic reconstruction processes based on contextual information associated with ... [more ▼]

Retrieving when an event occurred may depend on an estimation of the age of the event (distance-based processes) or on strategic reconstruction processes based on contextual information associated with the event (location-based processes). Young and older participants performed a list discrimination task that has been designed to dissociate the contribution of both types of processes. An adapted Remember/Know/Guess procedure [Can. J. Exp. Psychol. 50 (1996) 114] was developed to evaluate the processes used by the participants to recognize the stimuli and retrieve their list of occurrence. The results showed that aging disrupts location- based processes more than distance-based processes. In addition, a limitation of speed of processing and working-memory capacities was the main predictor of age-related differences on location-based processes, whereas working-memory capacities mediated partly age differences on distance-based processes. [less ▲]

Une approche neuropsychologique des relations entre mémoire épisodique et mémoire sémantique

in Revue de Neuropsychologie (2003), 13(1), 3-69

Cognitive models of the organization of memory propose different conceptions of the relationships between episodic and semantic memory. In the present review, we consider two influential models. According ... [more ▼]

Cognitive models of the organization of memory propose different conceptions of the relationships between episodic and semantic memory. In the present review, we consider two influential models. According to one model (Tulving, 1995), episodic and semantic memory are two functionally and anatomically distinct systems. Their relationships are referred to as “embeddedness”, that is, information must be encoded in semantic memory in order to achieve episodic memory. Another model (Squire & Zola, 1998) describes episodic and semantic memory as two subsystems of declarative memory. Both depend on the same brain region and should be impaired in amnesic patients. Furthermore, information is usually first encoded in episodic memory, before being transferred to semantic memory. In this review, we describe the neuropsychological data that support each model, as well as studies that contradict these models. Three sets of evidence are described. First, we consider recognition memory in amnesic patients. Recognition memory processes, recollection and familiarity, have been related to episodic and semantic memory, respectively (Tulving, 1995). Contradictory findings exist concerning the relative preservation of familiarity-based recognition in certain types of amnesic patients. Then we describe studies that have examined whether amnesic patients can learn new semantic information or not. Finally, episodic learning in semantic dementia is considered. [less ▲]

Is the feeling of familiarity driven by weak recollection as well as by an independent familiarity mechanism?

in Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (2003), 15(Supplemental), 179

The aim of this experiment is to examine how recollection and familiarity change over time and whether there is a qualitative difference between familiar items that were previously recollected and items ... [more ▼]

The aim of this experiment is to examine how recollection and familiarity change over time and whether there is a qualitative difference between familiar items that were previously recollected and items that have always been familiar. It might be that, when an item is initially recollected and becomes just familiar after a delay, this form of familiarity is actually a weak and partial recollection, qualitatively different from mere familiarity. To address this issue, a task have been developed in which, at study, participants encoded two series of 100 pictures representing scenes under respectively shallow and deep encoding conditions. Memory for these pictures was tested by means of a yes-no recognition test. Recognised items were classified as recollected or as familiar. Half of the pictures from each encoding condition were tested after 10 minutes and the other half were tested after 2 days. The results indicated that recollection decreased after 2 days while familiarity increased (deep encoding condition) or did not change (shallow encoding condition). This suggests that, among the items judged as familiar after 2 days, some items would have been recollected after 10 minutes and some were initially already familiar. Because deep encoding produced a higher proportion of recollection at the 10-minute interval, the proportion of recollection-changed-into-familiarity responses should be greater in this condition than in the shallow encoding condition. Whether there is a qualitative difference between these responses and pure familiarity responses should be explored in a fMRI experiment. [less ▲]

Préservation de la reconnaissance basée sur la familiarité chez un patient amnésique

Poster (2002, May 24)

Are time-based and event-based prospective memory affected by normal aging in the same way ?

in Current Psychology Letters: Behavious, Brain and Cognition (2002), 7