Sanford Center for Biobehavioral Research, 120 Eighth Street South, Fargo, ND, 58102, USA.
University of Trier, Trier, Germany.
Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2023 Aug;23(4):1059-1075. doi: 10.3758/s13415-023-01102-7. Epub 2023 May 11.
It is unknown whether the manner with which an item is encoded in isolation, immediately before it is encoded into an inter-inter association, influences associative memory. We therefore presented the items of to-be-encoded associative pairings sequentially and manipulated how each first item of a pair was encoded (before associative encoding could begin). Furthermore, we recorded ERPs during memory encoding to investigate the neurocognitive processes that might relate pre-associative item encoding to subsequent associative memory performance. Behaviorally, we found that pre-associative item elaboration (vs. no elaboration) led to a memory tradeoff-enhanced item memory relative to impaired associative memory. This tradeoff likely reflected that item elaboration reduced cognitive resources for ensuing associative encoding, indexed by a reduced P300 and frontal slow wave at the time of associative encoding. However, frontal slow wave subsequent memory effects measured during pre-associative item encoding revealed that, for a given item, greater semantic elaboration was related to better item and associative memory while greater visual elaboration was related to better item and worse associative memory. Thus, there are likely two opposing ways in which pre-associative item encoding can influence associative memory: (1) by depleting encoding resources to impair associative memory and (2) by scaffolding inter-item associations to enhance associative memory. When item encoding occurs immediately before associative encoding, it appears that the temporary depletion of encoding resources is more important in determining later memory performance. Future research should compare the independent effects of resource depletion and encoding strategy during pre-associative item encoding.
目前尚不清楚项目在被编码为相互关联之前的孤立状态下的编码方式是否会影响联想记忆。因此，我们依次呈现待编码的联想配对项目，并操纵每一对的第一个项目的编码方式（在开始联想编码之前）。此外，我们在记忆编码期间记录 ERP，以研究可能与预联想项目编码相关的神经认知过程与随后的联想记忆表现。行为上，我们发现与无详细说明相比，预联想项目详细说明（vs. 无详细说明）导致相对于受损的联想记忆，项目记忆的权衡增强。这种权衡可能反映出项目详细说明减少了随后联想编码的认知资源，这与关联编码时 P300 和额慢波减少有关。然而，在预联想项目编码期间测量的额慢波后续记忆效应表明，对于给定的项目，更多的语义详细说明与更好的项目和联想记忆相关，而更多的视觉详细说明与更好的项目和更差的联想记忆相关。因此，预联想项目编码可能有两种相反的方式影响联想记忆：（1）通过耗尽编码资源来损害联想记忆，（2）通过构建项目间的关联来增强联想记忆。当项目编码发生在联想编码之前时，似乎编码资源的临时耗尽在确定后期记忆表现方面更为重要。未来的研究应该比较预联想项目编码期间资源消耗和编码策略的独立影响。
