•Retrieval of some studied items can induce forgetting of other items RIF.•Like previous studies, we found RIF to be present in recall and item recognition.•Restudy of some items impaired recall but ...not recognition of the other items.•The findings demonstrate retrieval specificity of RIF in item recognition.•The findings suggest a role for both inhibition and blocking in RIF.
Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) refers to the finding that retrieval practice on a subset of studied items can induce later forgetting of related unpracticed items. Although previous studies indicated that RIF is retrieval specific – i.e., it arises after retrieval practice but not after reexposure cycles -, the results of more recent work suggest otherwise, indicating that some reexposure formats can induce RIF very similar to how retrieval practice does. Whereas this prior work employed recall at test, here we revisited retrieval specificity of RIF employing item recognition. The results of three experiments are reported, which examined the effects of retrieval practice and some of the recently suggested reexposure formats on unpracticed items’ recognition. In each of these experiments, we showed RIF after retrieval practice but did not find any evidence for RIF-like forgetting after reexposure. These findings demonstrate retrieval specificity of RIF in item recognition, challenging strength-based accounts of RIF and indicating a critical role of inhibition in RIF. Together with the results from the recent recall studies, which we replicated in three further experiments, the present findings are consistent with a two-factor account of RIF, which assigns a role for both inhibition and strength-based blocking in RIF. While both inhibition and blocking may contribute to RIF in certain recall formats, only inhibition may induce RIF in item recognition.
In multiple-list learning, retrieval during learning has been suggested to improve recall of the single lists by enhancing list discrimination and, at test, reducing interference. Using ...electrophysiological, oscillatory measures of brain activity, we examined to what extent retrieval during learning facilitates list encoding. Subjects studied 5 lists of items in anticipation of a final cumulative recall test and did either a retrieval or a no-retrieval task between study of the lists. Retrieval was from episodic memory (recall of the previous list), semantic memory (generation of exemplars from an unrelated category), or short-term memory (2-back task). Behaviorally, all 3 forms of retrieval enhanced recall of both previously and subsequently studied lists. Physiologically, the results showed an increase of alpha power (8-14 Hz) from List 1 to List 5 encoding when no retrieval activities were interpolated but no such increase when any of the 3 retrieval activities occurred. Brain-behavior correlations showed that alpha-power dynamics from List 1 to List 5 encoding predicted subsequent recall performance. The results suggest that, without intermittent retrieval, encoding becomes ineffective across lists. In contrast, with intermittent retrieval, there is a reset of the encoding process for each single list that makes encoding of later lists as effective as encoding of early lists. (Contains 4 figures.)
This study investigated if crying, sleeping or feeding problems that co‐occur (multiple regulatory problems RPs) or are persistent predict attention problems and diagnoses of attention deficit ...hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in childhood and adulthood. Participants were 342 individuals who were assessed at 5, 20, and 56 months for crying, sleeping, and feeding (RPs) and at 6, 8, and 28 years for ADHD diagnoses, attention problems, and attention span. Infants/toddlers with multiple/persistent RPs had an increased risk of receiving an ADHD diagnosis both in childhood and adulthood compared to those who never had RPs. Multiple/persistent RPs were further associated with a high‐decreasing attention problems trajectory from childhood to adulthood. Interventions to alleviate early RPs may prevent the development of attention problems.
•Retrieval of some studied items can impair memory for other items.•Such retrieval-induced forgetting RIF arises in recall and item recognition.•Restudy preceded by context change simulates RIF in ...recall.•Such restudy, however, does not simulate RIF in item recognition.•Results challenge the view that RIF reects context-induced forgetting.
Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) refers to the finding that retrieval practice on a subset of studied items can induce later forgetting of related unpracticed items. The context account of RIF, which attributes RIF to a mismatch of study context and reinstated context at test for the unpracticed items, claims that RIF effects can be simulated by restudy trials when these trials are preceded by context change. To test this proposal, we compared across three experiments effects of retrieval practice and of restudy trials preceded by context change, employing both recall and item recognition testing. We found retrieval practice to impair both recall and recognition of unpracticed items, which is consistent with prior work. In contrast, restudy preceded by context change impaired recall but not recognition of the items. These findings suggest that restudy preceded by context change cannot simulate RIF, which challenges the context account of RIF. The results are consistent with the view of a critical role of retrieval and inhibition in RIF.
Widespread brain changes are present in preterm born infants, adolescents, and even adults. While neurobiological models of prematurity facilitate powerful explanations for the adverse effects of ...preterm birth on the developing brain at microscale, convincing linking principles at large-scale level to explain the widespread nature of brain changes are still missing. We investigated effects of preterm birth on the brain's large-scale intrinsic networks and their relation to brain structure in preterm born adults. In 95 preterm and 83 full-term born adults, structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging at-rest was used to analyze both voxel-based morphometry and spatial patterns of functional connectivity in ongoing blood oxygenation level-dependent activity. Differences in intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC) were found in cortical and subcortical networks. Structural differences were located in subcortical, temporal, and cingulate areas. Critically, for preterm born adults, iFC-network differences were overlapping and correlating with aberrant regional gray-matter (GM) volume specifically in subcortical and temporal areas. Overlapping changes were predicted by prematurity and in particular by neonatal medical complications. These results provide evidence that preterm birth has long-lasting effects on functional connectivity of intrinsic networks, and these changes are specifically related to structural alterations in ventral brain GM.
Multiple or persistent crying, sleeping, or feeding problems in early childhood (regulatory problems, RPs) predict increased risk for self-regulation difficulties. Sensitive parenting may protect ...children from trajectories of dysregulation. Considering self-regulation from a life-course perspective, are children with early multiple and/or persistent RPs affected similarly by parenting as those without (main effects model, ME), or are they more vulnerable (diathesis-stress, DIA-S), or more susceptible (differential susceptibility theory, DST) to variations in sensitive parenting at age 6 years? Participants (
N
= 302) were studied prospectively from birth to 28 years. RPs were assessed from 5 to 56 months. Sensitive parenting was observed at 6 years. Attention regulation was observed at 8 and 28 years. Internalizing and externalizing problems were rated by parents at 8 years, and by adults at 28 years. Confirmatory-comparative modelling tested whether associations of sensitive parenting with outcomes at 8 and 28 years among individuals with early multiple and/or persistent RPs (
n
= 74) versus those without (
n
= 228) were best explained by ME, DIA-S, or DST models. Best fitting models differed according to age at assessment. For childhood attention regulation, the statistically parsimonious DIA-S provided the best fit to the data. At age 28, two additive main effects (ME, RP group and sensitive parenting) fit best. DIA-S and ME explained internalizing and externalizing problems. Using a comprehensive life-span approach, DIA-S and ME models but not DST explained how early RPs and sensitive parenting predicted attention, internalizing, and externalizing outcomes. Individuals with early RPs are vulnerable to insensitive parenting.
Preterm birth is associated with an increased risk for lasting changes in both the cortico-thalamic system and attention; however, the link between cortico-thalamic and attention changes is as yet ...little understood. In preterm newborns, cortico-cortical and cortico-thalamic structural connectivity are distinctively altered, with increased local clustering for cortico-cortical and decreased integrity for cortico-thalamic connectivity. In preterm-born adults, among the various attention functions, visual short-term memory (vSTM) capacity is selectively impaired. We hypothesized distinct associations between vSTM capacity and the structural integrity of cortico-thalamic and cortico-cortical connections, respectively, in preterm-born adults.
A whole-report paradigm of briefly presented letter arrays based on the computationally formalized Theory of Visual Attention (TVA) was used to quantify parameter vSTM capacity in 26 preterm- and 21 full-term-born adults. Fractional anisotropy (FA) of posterior thalamic radiations and the splenium of the corpus callosum obtained by diffusion tensor imaging were analyzed by tract-based spatial statistics and used as proxies for cortico-thalamic and cortico-cortical structural connectivity.
The relationship between vSTM capacity and cortico-thalamic and cortico-cortical connectivity, respectively, was significantly modified by prematurity. In full-term-born adults, the higher FA in the right posterior thalamic radiation the higher vSTM capacity; in preterm-born adults this FA-vSTM-relationship was inversed. In the splenium, higher FA was correlated with higher vSTM capacity in preterm-born adults, whereas no significant relationship was evident in full-term-born adults.
These results indicate distinct associations between cortico-thalamic and cortico-cortical integrity and vSTM capacity in preterm-and full-term-born adults. Data suggest compensatory cortico-cortical fiber re-organization for attention deficits after preterm delivery.
•Preterm born adults have impaired visual short term memory (vSTM) capacity.•vSTM capacity is distinctively linked with white matter in preterm and full-term born adults.•Posterior thalamic radiation linked with higher vSTM capacity in full but not preterm born adults.•Splenium associated with higher vSTM capacity in preterm but not full-term adults.•Splenium connectivity indicates compensatory potential for vSTM after preterm delivery.
To determine the combined impact of infant multiple/persistent regulatory problems (RPs), parenting quality and maternal mental health on childhood attention problems.
A prospective, population-based ...cohort study including 16 paediatric hospitals in Southern Bavaria (Germany).
1459 infants were followed from birth to 8 years of age.
RPs were assessed at 5 and 20 months using interviews by trained paediatricians; parenting quality was assessed between birth and 5 months using parent interviews and nurses' observations; maternal mental health was assessed at birth and 5 months using standardized parents' interviews; childhood data on attention problems were collected at 8 years, using parent reports and expert behaviour observation ratings.
After correction for gestational age, sex, and socioeconomic status, early RPs (β = 0.079) and low parenting quality (β = 0.175) predicted later attention problems (R2 = 0.272). Their impact was additive, such that infants with both multiple/persistent RPs and poor parenting quality showed the highest attention problems 8 years later. However, the impact of RPs on attention was strongest for preterm children. Maternal mental health was a significant moderator of the relationship between parenting quality and attention problems. With adequate maternal mental health, good parenting quality was related to lower attention problems, yet with mental health problems present, the effect of good parenting on attention problems diminished.
Guidance and support for parents of infants with multiple/persistent crying, sleeping or feeding problems may be essential to prevent the development of childhood attention problems, especially when maternal mental health problems are present.
•This study adds to evidence that early regulatory problems may mark the starting point of a trajectory of dysregulation,•Poor parenting quality may further exacerbate poor regulation, leading to later childhood attention problems.•The positive effect of good parenting quality on attention problems is reduced when mothers cope with mental health problems.
Although pronounced and lasting deficits in selective attention have been observed for preterm born individuals it is unknown which specific attentional sub-mechanisms are affected and how they ...relate to brain networks. We used the computationally specified 'Theory of Visual Attention' together with whole- and partial-report paradigms to compare attentional sub-mechanisms of pre- (n=33) and full-term (n=32) born adults. Resting-state fMRI was used to evaluate both between-group differences and inter-individual variance in changed functional connectivity of intrinsic brain networks relevant for visual attention. In preterm born adults, we found specific impairments of visual short-term memory (vSTM) storage capacity while other sub-mechanisms such as processing speed or attentional weighting were unchanged. Furthermore, changed functional connectivity was found in unimodal visual and supramodal attention-related intrinsic networks. Among preterm born adults, the individual pattern of changed connectivity in occipital and parietal cortices was systematically associated with vSTM in such a way that the more distinct the connectivity differences, the better the preterm adults' storage capacity. These findings provide first evidence for selectively changed attentional sub-mechanisms in preterm born adults and their relation to altered intrinsic brain networks. In particular, data suggest that cortical changes in intrinsic functional connectivity may compensate adverse developmental consequences of prematurity on visual short-term storage capacity.
Regulatory problems in infancy and toddlerhood have previously been associated with an increased risk of developing attention problems in childhood. We hypothesized that early regulatory problems are ...associated with attention problems via reduced inhibitory control. This prospective study assessed 1,459 children from birth to 8 years. Crying, feeding, and sleeping problems were assessed at 5 and 20 months via parent interviews and neurological examinations. At 20 months, inhibitory control was tested with a behavioral (snack delay) task. Attention regulation was assessed at 6 and 8 years using multiple instruments and informants. Detrimental effects of crying, feeding, and sleeping problems on attention regulation were partly mediated by children's ability to inhibit unwanted behaviors (β = −0.04, p = 0.013). Accounting for cognition diminished this indirect effect (β = −0.01, p = 0.209). Instead, the effects of crying, feeding, and sleeping problems on attention regulation were fully mediated by children's cognitive functioning (β = −0.10, p < 0.001). These results support that inhibitory control abilities partly mediate effects of crying, feeding, and sleeping problems. However, these effects may be accounted for by children's general cognitive abilities. Early regulatory problems may set infants on a course of under control of behavior into school age, and such trajectories are highly associated with general cognitive development.
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