Valle Tania M, Gómez-Ariza Carlos J, Bajo Teresa
Research Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior, University of Granada, Granada, Spain; Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
Department of Psychology, University of Jaen, Jaen, Spain.
Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2020 Sep;173:107253. doi: 10.1016/j.nlm.2020.107253. Epub 2020 May 29.
Previous research has shown that variations in the accessibility of relevant information that stem from retrieval practice may impair analogical reasoning. In the present study, we sought to examine the neural signatures of inhibitory control during selective retrieval and its effects on a subsequent analogical reasoning task by employing electrophysiological measures. At a behavioral level, we found that selective retrieval of a subset of potential solutions led to impaired performance on the analogy test. ERPs analyses during selective retrieval revealed that (1) the repeated presentation of retrieval cues was associated with decreased amplitudes for the FN400 ERP effect, possibly reflecting reduced reactivation of competitor associates and interference across retrieval attempts; (2) this effect correlated positively with the retrieval-related impairment in analogical reasoning performance. During the analogy test, the production of control solutions (non-affected by prior retrieval practice) was characterized by more positive modulations of anterior frontal and parietal ERPs than the production of unstudied solutions, whereas inhibited solutions elicited similar amplitudes to unstudied solutions. This effect was restricted to the retrieval phase of the analogy where the actual solutions had to be retrieved, but it did not affect the mapping phase where the accessibility status of the possible solutions failed to reveal significant amplitude differences. These findings suggest that control during selective retrieval may lead to the downregulation of competing memory representations and advance our understanding of the neural correlates of analogical thinking.
先前的研究表明，源于检索练习的相关信息可及性的变化可能会损害类比推理。在本研究中，我们试图通过采用电生理测量方法来检验选择性检索过程中抑制控制的神经特征及其对后续类比推理任务的影响。在行为层面，我们发现选择性检索潜在解决方案的一个子集会导致类比测试的表现受损。选择性检索期间的事件相关电位（ERP）分析显示：（1）检索线索的重复呈现与FN400 ERP效应的波幅降低有关，这可能反映了竞争联想的重新激活减少以及检索尝试之间的干扰减少；（2）这种效应与类比推理表现中与检索相关的损伤呈正相关。在类比测试期间，生成对照解决方案（不受先前检索练习影响）的特征是，前额叶和顶叶ERP的正向调制比生成未研究的解决方案时更多，而被抑制的解决方案引发的波幅与未研究的解决方案相似。这种效应仅限于类比的检索阶段，即必须检索实际解决方案的阶段，但它不影响映射阶段，在该阶段可能解决方案的可及性状态未显示出显著的波幅差异。这些发现表明，选择性检索期间的控制可能会导致竞争性记忆表征的下调，并增进我们对类比思维神经关联的理解。
