Gao Chuanji, Rosburg Timm, Hou Mingzhu, Li Bingbing, Xiao Xin, Guo Chunyan
Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition, Department of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, 100048, People's Republic of China.
Department of Psychology, Institute of Mind and Brain, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29201, USA.
Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2016 Dec;16(6):977-990. doi: 10.3758/s13415-016-0446-z.
The effectiveness of retrieval practice for aiding long-term memory, referred to as the testing effect, has been widely demonstrated. However, the specific neurocognitive mechanisms underlying this phenomenon remain unclear. In the present study, we sought to explore the role of pre-retrieval processes at initial testing on later recognition performance by using event-related potentials (ERPs). Subjects studied two lists of words (Chinese characters) and then performed a recognition task or a source memory task, or restudied the word lists. At the end of the experiment, subjects received a final recognition test based on the remember-know paradigm. Behaviorally, initial testing (active retrieval) enhanced memory retention relative to restudying (passive retrieval). The retrieval mode at initial testing was indexed by more positive-going ERPs for unstudied items in the active-retrieval tasks than in passive retrieval from 300 to 900 ms. Follow-up analyses showed that the magnitude of the early ERP retrieval mode effect (300-500 ms) was predictive of the behavioral testing effect later on. In addition, the ERPs for correctly rejected new items during initial testing differed between the two active-retrieval tasks from 500 to 900 ms, and this ERP retrieval orientation effect predicted differential behavioral testing gains between the two active-retrieval conditions. Our findings confirm that initial testing promotes later retrieval relative to restudying, and they further suggest that adopting pre-retrieval processing in the forms of retrieval mode and retrieval orientation might contribute to these memory enhancements.
检索练习对长期记忆的辅助作用，即测试效应，已得到广泛证实。然而，这一现象背后具体的神经认知机制仍不清楚。在本研究中，我们试图通过使用事件相关电位（ERP）来探究初始测试时的检索前过程对后续识别表现的作用。受试者学习两组单词（汉字）列表，然后进行识别任务或源记忆任务，或者重新学习单词列表。在实验结束时，受试者根据记得-知道范式接受最终的识别测试。在行为层面，相对于重新学习（被动检索），初始测试（主动检索）增强了记忆保持。在300至900毫秒期间，主动检索任务中未学习项目的ERP正向波幅比被动检索时更大，以此来衡量初始测试时的检索模式。后续分析表明，早期ERP检索模式效应（300 - 500毫秒）的大小可预测随后的行为测试效应。此外，在500至900毫秒期间，两个主动检索任务中初始测试时正确拒绝新项目的ERP有所不同，且这种ERP检索取向效应可预测两种主动检索条件下不同的行为测试增益。我们的研究结果证实，相对于重新学习，初始测试能促进后续检索，并且进一步表明，以检索模式和检索取向的形式采用检索前处理可能有助于这些记忆增强。
