Keresztes Attila, Kaiser Daniel, Kovács Gyula, Racsmány Mihály
Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary.
Institute of Psychology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
Cereb Cortex. 2014 Nov;24(11):3025-35. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bht158. Epub 2013 Jun 24.
The testing effect refers to the phenomenon that repeated retrieval of memories promotes better long-term retention than repeated study. To investigate the neural correlates of the testing effect, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging methods while participants performed a cued recall task. Prior to the neuroimaging experiment, participants learned Swahili-German word pairs, then half of the word pairs were repeatedly studied, whereas the other half were repeatedly tested. For half of the participants, the neuroimaging experiment was performed immediately after the learning phase; a 1-week retention interval was inserted for the other half of the participants. We found that a large network of areas identified in a separate 2-back functional localizer scan were active during the final recall of the word pair associations. Importantly, the learning strategy (retest or restudy) of the word pairs determined the manner in which the retention interval affected the activations within this network. Recall of previously restudied memories was accompanied by reduced activation within this network at long retention intervals, but no reduction was observed for previously retested memories. We suggest that retrieval promotes learning via stabilizing cue-related activation patterns in a network of areas usually associated with cognitive and attentional control functions.
测试效应是指与重复学习相比，重复检索记忆能促进更好的长期保持的现象。为了研究测试效应的神经关联，我们在参与者执行线索回忆任务时使用了事件相关功能磁共振成像方法。在神经成像实验之前，参与者学习斯瓦希里语-德语单词对，然后一半的单词对被反复学习，而另一半则被反复测试。对于一半的参与者，神经成像实验在学习阶段后立即进行；另一半参与者则插入了1周的保持间隔。我们发现在单独的2-back功能定位扫描中确定的一大片区域网络在单词对关联的最终回忆期间是活跃的。重要的是，单词对的学习策略（重新测试或重新学习）决定了保持间隔影响该网络内激活的方式。在长保持间隔时，对先前重新学习的记忆的回忆伴随着该网络内激活的减少，但对先前重新测试的记忆未观察到减少。我们认为，检索通过稳定通常与认知和注意力控制功能相关的区域网络中与线索相关的激活模式来促进学习。
