Canellopoulou M, Richardson J T
Department of Human Sciences, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UK.
Neuropsychologia. 1998 Nov;36(11):1181-8. doi: 10.1016/s0028-3932(97)00173-5.
The use of imagery in learning and memory involves metacognitive skills that seem to depend upon executive function as well as motivational mechanisms. This implies that the efficacy of imagery mnemonics should be impaired in neurological patients who show either executive dysfunction or affective disorders. This hypothesis was tested in patients with multiple sclerosis. Imagery instructions led to improved recall in three different tasks, although experimenter-generated imagery proved to be more effective than subject-generated imagery and there was little evidence that patients maintained the use of imagery mnemonics on follow-up testing. Three other tasks defined a unitary trait of executive processing efficiency, and this was significantly correlated with the benefit obtained from the use of the Method of Loci in a free-recall tasks, but not with the benefit gained from other imagery mnemonics. The patients' scores, on a widely used depression inventory, were not significantly correlated with the benefit obtained from the use of imagery mnemonics. Nonetheless, it is concluded that executive processing capacity determines the benefit that is derived from the use of more complex forms of imagery mnemonic in verbal-learning tasks.
在学习和记忆中使用意象涉及元认知技能，这些技能似乎依赖于执行功能以及动机机制。这意味着，在表现出执行功能障碍或情感障碍的神经疾病患者中，意象记忆法的效果应该会受到损害。这一假设在多发性硬化症患者中进行了测试。意象指导在三项不同任务中提高了回忆效果，尽管实验者生成的意象被证明比受试者自己生成的意象更有效，而且几乎没有证据表明患者在后续测试中仍在使用意象记忆法。另外三项任务定义了执行加工效率的单一特征，这与在自由回忆任务中使用位置记忆法所获得的益处显著相关，但与从其他意象记忆法中获得的益处无关。患者在一份广泛使用的抑郁量表上的得分，与使用意象记忆法所获得的益处没有显著相关性。尽管如此，研究得出结论，执行加工能力决定了在言语学习任务中使用更复杂形式的意象记忆法所获得的益处。
