Buildup and release from proactive interference: The forward testing effect in children's spatial memory.

Previous work has indicated that testing can enhance memory for subsequently studied new information by reducing proactive interference from previously studied information. Here, we examined this forward testing effect in children's spatial memory. Kindergartners (5-6 years) and younger (7-8 years) and older (9-10 years) elementary school children studied four successively presented 3 × 3 arrays, each composed of the same 9 objects. The children were asked to memorize the locations of the objects that differed across the four arrays. Following presentation of each of the first three arrays, memory for the object locations of the respective array was tested (testing condition) or the array was re-presented for additional study (restudy condition). Results revealed that testing Arrays 1 to 3 enhanced children's object location memory for Array 4 relative to restudying. Moreover, children in the testing condition were less likely to confuse Array 4 locations with previous locations, suggesting that testing reduces the buildup of proactive interference. Both effects were found regardless of age. Thus, the current findings indicate that testing is an effective means to resolve proactive interference and, in this way, to enhance children's learning and remembering of spatial information even before the time of school entry.

Age differences in the persistence of part-list cuing impairment: The role of retrieval inhibition and strategy disruption.

Providing a subset of previously studied information as a retrieval cue can impair memory for the remaining information. Previous work with adults has shown that such part-list cuing impairment (PLCI) can be transient or lasting, depending on study condition. Here, we investigated the persistence of PLCI in children. Three age groups (7- and 8-year-olds, 9- and 10-year-olds, and 12- to 14-year-olds) learned a list of items, either through a single study trial (1-study condition) or through two study-test cycles (2-study-test condition). Subsequently, two recall tests were administered, with part-list cues being provided in the first (critical) test but not in the second (final) test. Of primary interest was whether the detrimental effect of part-list cuing induced in the critical test would persist to the uncued final test. In 12- to 14-year-olds, we found an adult-like pattern of results, with lasting impairment in the 1-study condition but transient impairment in the 2-study-test condition. In contrast, in the two younger age groups, we found PLCI to be lasting in both study conditions, suggesting age differences in the persistence of PLCI. The results are discussed in light of a recently proposed two-mechanism account of PLCI that attributes lasting impairment to retrieval inhibition and transient impairment to strategy disruption. Following this account, the results suggest that whereas 12- to 14-year-olds' PLCI was caused by (lasting) retrieval inhibition in the 1-study condition and by (transient) strategy disruption in the 2-study-test condition, 7- and 8-year-olds' and 9- and 10-year-olds' PLCI was caused by (lasting) retrieval inhibition in both study conditions.

Part-list cuing effects in younger and older adults' episodic recall.

Providing a subset of previously studied items as retrieval cues can both impair and improve memory for the remaining items. Here, we investigated such part-list cuing effects in younger and older adults' episodic recall, using listwise directed forgetting to manipulate study context access at test. When context access was maintained, part-list cuing impaired recall regardless of age. In contrast, when context access was impaired, part-list cuing improved recall in younger but not in older adults. The results are consistent with the proposal that older adults show intact inhibition and blocking of competing information, but reduced capability for episodic context reactivation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Desirable Difficulties in Spatial Learning: Testing Enhances Subsequent Learning of Spatial Information.

Previous work has shown that testing can enhance learning and retention of subsequently studied new information. The present study investigated this forward testing effect in spatial memory. In two experiments, participants studied four successively presented 3 × 3 arrays, each composed of the same nine objects. They were asked to memorize the locations of the objects which differed across the four arrays. Following presentation of Arrays 1-3, memory for the object locations of the respective array was tested (testing condition), or the array was re-presented for additional study (restudy condition). Thereafter, Array 4 was presented and tested in both the testing and the restudy condition. In Experiment 1, testing was self-paced, whereas in Experiment 2, testing time was controlled by the experimenter. Consistent across the two experiments, testing was found to enhance location memory for Array 4, relative to restudying. Furthermore, testing also reduced the number of confusion errors (i.e., the tendency to misplace objects to locations on which they had appeared previously) made during recall of Array 4, suggesting that testing reduced the interference potential of prior information. The results indicate that testing can enhance subsequent learning of spatial information by reducing the build-up of proactive interference from previously studied information.

Part-list cuing effects in children: A developmental dissociation between the detrimental and beneficial effect.

Providing a subset of previously studied items as a retrieval cue can both impair and improve recall of the remaining items. Here, we investigated the development of these two opposing effects of such part-list cuing in children. Using listwise directed forgetting to manipulate study context access, three child age groups (7-8, 9-11, and 13-14years) and young adults studied a list of items and, after study, were asked to either forget or continue remembering the list. After presentation of a second list, participants were tested on predefined target items from the original list in either the presence or absence of the list's remaining (nontarget) items serving as retrieval cues. Results revealed that part-list cuing impaired recall of to-be-remembered target items regardless of age. In contrast, part-list cuing improved recall of to-be-forgotten target items in the adult and the oldest child groups but not in the two younger child groups. This finding suggests a developmental dissociation between the two opposing effects of part-list cuing, indicating that the beneficial effect develops later than the detrimental effect. In particular, following the view that the beneficial effect of part-list cuing arises from reactivation of the study context, the results suggest that elementary school children have difficulty in capitalizing on context reactivation.

The development of adaptive memory: Young children show enhanced retention of animacy-related information.

Previous developmental work has indicated that animacy is a foundational ontogenetic category that is given priority already early in life. Here, we investigated whether such priority is also present in children's episodic memory, examining whether young children show enhanced retention of animacy-related information. Kindergartners and younger and older elementary school children were presented with fictitious (non)words (e.g., BULA, LAFE) paired with properties characteristic of humans (e.g., "likes music"), (nonhuman) animals (e.g., "builds nests"), and inanimate things (e.g., "has four edges") and were asked to rate the animacy status of each nonword. After a retention interval, a surprise recognition test for the nonwords was administered. We found enhanced recognition of nonwords paired with human and animal properties compared with (the same) nonwords paired with inanimate properties. The size of this animacy advantage was comparable across age groups, suggesting developmental invariance of the advantage over the age range examined (i.e., 4-11years). The results support a functional-evolutionary view on memory, suggesting that already young children's memory is "tuned" to process and retain animacy.

Providing Extrinsic Reward for Test Performance Undermines Long-Term Memory Acquisition.

Based on numerous studies showing that testing studied material can improve long-term retention more than restudying the same material, it is often suggested that the number of tests in education should be increased to enhance knowledge acquisition. However, testing in real-life educational settings often entails a high degree of extrinsic motivation of learners due to the common practice of placing important consequences on the outcome of a test. Such an effect on the motivation of learners may undermine the beneficial effects of testing on long-term memory because it has been shown that extrinsic motivation can reduce the quality of learning. To examine this issue, participants learned foreign language vocabulary words, followed by an immediate test in which one-third of the words were tested and one-third restudied. To manipulate extrinsic motivation during immediate testing, participants received either monetary reward contingent on test performance or no reward. After 1 week, memory for all words was tested. In the immediate test, reward reduced correct recall and increased commission errors, indicating that reward reduced the number of items that can benefit from successful retrieval. The results in the delayed test revealed that reward additionally reduced the gain received from successful retrieval because memory for initially successfully retrieved words was lower in the reward condition. However, testing was still more effective than restudying under reward conditions because reward undermined long-term memory for concurrently restudied material as well. These findings indicate that providing performance-contingent reward in a test can undermine long-term knowledge acquisition.

Testing enhances subsequent learning in older but not in younger elementary school children.

In adults, testing can enhance subsequent learning by reducing interference from the tested information. Here, we examined this forward effect of testing in children. Younger and older elementary school children and adult controls studied four lists of items in anticipation of a final cumulative recall test. Following presentation of each of the first three lists, participants were immediately tested on the respective list, or the list was re-presented for additional study. Results revealed that, compared to additional study, immediate testing of Lists 1-3 enhanced memory for the subsequently studied List 4 in adults and older elementary school children, but not in younger elementary school children. The findings indicate that the forward effect of testing is a relatively late-maturing phenomenon that develops over middle childhood and is still inefficient in the early elementary school years. Together with the results of other recent studies, these findings point to a more general problem in young children in combating interference.

Competition dependence of retrieval-induced forgetting in motor memory.

In two experiments, we examined the competition dependence of retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) in motor memory. Participants learned sequential finger movements as responses to letter stimuli. The learning phase comprised two parts. In both parts, half of the motor sequences were to be executed at one of two locations (the left or right side of a keyboard) by pressing the corresponding response keys. Retrieval practice of half of the motor sequences at one location induced forgetting of the nonpracticed motor sequences at that location. However, RIF was prevented in Experiment 1 when retrieval practice took place before the nonpracticed items had even been encoded. In Experiment 2, RIF was prevented by intentionally forgetting the nonpracticed motor sequences prior to retrieval practice. These results suggest that precluding competition by related items during retrieval practice precluded them from being affected by RIF. The present findings support an inhibitory account and speak against the alternative assumptions that associative blocking or a mental context change causes RIF.

The two faces of selective memory retrieval: Earlier decline of the beneficial than the detrimental effect with older age.

Recent work with young adults has shown that, depending on study context access, selective memory retrieval can both impair and improve recall of other memories (Bäuml & Samenieh, 2010). Here, we investigated the 2 opposing effects of selective retrieval in older age. In Experiment 1, we examined 64 younger (20-35 years) and 64 older participants (above 60 years), and manipulated study context access using list-method directed forgetting. Whereas both age groups showed a detrimental effect of selective retrieval on to-be-remembered items, only younger but not older adults showed a beneficial effect on to-be-forgotten items. In Experiment 2, we examined 112 participants from a relatively wide age range (40-85 years), and manipulated study context access by varying the retention interval between study and test. Overall, a detrimental effect of selective retrieval arose when the retention interval was relatively short, but a beneficial effect when the retention interval was prolonged. Critically, the size of the beneficial but not the detrimental effect of retrieval decreased with age and this age-related decline was mediated by individuals' working memory capacity, as measured by the complex operation span task. Together, the results suggest an age-related dissociation in retrieval dynamics, indicating an earlier decline of the beneficial than the detrimental effect of selective retrieval with older age.

Working memory capacity predicts the beneficial effect of selective memory retrieval.

Selective retrieval of some studied items can both impair and improve recall of the other items. This study examined the role of working memory capacity (WMC) for the two effects of memory retrieval. Participants studied an item list consisting of predefined target and nontarget items. After study of the list, half of the participants performed an imagination task supposed to induce a change in mental context, whereas the other half performed a counting task which does not induce such context change. Following presentation of a second list, memory for the original list's target items was tested, either with or without preceding retrieval of the list's nontarget items. Consistent with previous work, preceding nontarget retrieval impaired target recall in the absence of the context change, but improved target recall in its presence. In particular, there was a positive relationship between WMC and the beneficial, but not the detrimental effect of memory retrieval. On the basis of the view that the beneficial effect of memory retrieval reflects context-reactivation processes, the results indicate that individuals with higher WMC are better able to capitalise on retrieval-induced context reactivation than individuals with lower WMC.

Later maturation of the beneficial than the detrimental effect of selective memory retrieval.

In adults, selective memory retrieval can both impair and improve recall of other memories. The study reported here examined whether children also show these two faces of memory retrieval. Employing a variant of the directed-forgetting task, we asked second, fourth, and seventh graders to study a list of target and nontarget words. After study, the participants received a cue to either forget or continue remembering the list. We subsequently asked some participants to recall the nontarget words before we tested their memory for the target words; for the remaining participants, we tested memory only for the target words. Prior retrieval of nontarget words impaired retrieval of to-be-remembered target words, regardless of children's age. In contrast, prior retrieval of nontarget words improved recall of to-be-forgotten target words in seventh graders, though not in fourth and second graders. These results suggest a developmental dissociation between the two faces of memory retrieval and indicate later maturation of the beneficial effect than of the detrimental effect of selective memory retrieval.

Listwise directed forgetting is present in young-old adults, but is absent in old-old adults.

People can exert control over the contents of their memory and can intentionally forget information when cued to do so. The present study examined such intentional forgetting in older adults using the listwise directed forgetting (DF) task. We replicated prior work by finding intact forgetting in young-old adults (up to 75 years). Extending the prior work, we additionally found forgetting to decline gradually with individuals' age and to be inefficient in old-old adults (above 75 years). The results indicate that listwise DF is a late-declining capability, suggesting a deficit in very old adults' episodic memory control.

Retrieval-induced forgetting in old and very old age.

Selectively retrieving a subset of previously studied information can cause forgetting of related, nonretrieved information. Such retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) has typically been attributed to inhibitory control processes. Examining participants with a mean age of about 70 years, previous work reported intact RIF in older adults, suggesting efficient inhibition in older adults' episodic memory. We replicated the prior work by finding reliable RIF in young-old participants (60-75 years), but additionally found RIF to decline with increasing age and to be inefficient in old-old participants (above 75 years). The results support the proposal of an inhibitory deficit in (very) old age.

Adaptive memory: young children show enhanced retention of fitness-related information.

Evolutionary psychologists propose that human cognition evolved through natural selection to solve adaptive problems related to survival and reproduction, with its ultimate function being the enhancement of reproductive fitness. Following this proposal and the evolutionary-developmental view that ancestral selection pressures operated not only on reproductive adults, but also on pre-reproductive children, the present study examined whether young children show superior memory for information that is processed in terms of its survival value. In two experiments, we found such survival processing to enhance retention in 4- to 10-year-old children, relative to various control conditions that also required deep, meaningful processing but were not related to survival. These results suggest that, already in very young children, survival processing is a special and extraordinarily effective form of memory encoding. The results support the functional-evolutionary proposal that young children's memory is "tuned" to process and retain fitness-related information.

Individual differences in working memory capacity predict retrieval-induced forgetting.

Selectively retrieving a subset of previously studied information enhances memory for the retrieved information but causes forgetting of related, nonretrieved information. Such retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) has often been attributed to inhibitory executive-control processes that supposedly suppress the nonretrieved items' memory representation. Here, we examined the role of working memory capacity (WMC) in young adults' RIF. WMC was assessed by means of the operation span task. Results revealed a positive relationship between WMC and RIF, with high-WMC individuals showing more RIF than low-WMC individuals. In contrast, individuals showed enhanced memory for retrieved information regardless of WMC. The results are consistent with previous individual-differences work that suggests a close link between WMC and inhibitory efficiency. In particular, the finding supports the inhibitory executive-control account of RIF.

Directed forgetting in young children: evidence for a production deficiency.

When people are cued to forget a previously studied list of items and to learn a new list instead, such cuing typically leads to forgetting of the first list and to memory enhancement of the second. In two experiments, we examined such listwise directed forgetting in children (and adults), using a forget cue that placed either high emphasis or low emphasis on the need to forget. In the low-emphasis condition, (adult-like) List 1 forgetting was present in fourth graders, but not in first graders (and kindergartners); in contrast, in the high-emphasis condition, (adult-like) List 1 forgetting was present from first grade on. Only fourth graders showed (adult-like) List 2 enhancement, regardless of task instruction. The finding that first graders showed List 1 forgetting only in the high-emphasis condition points to a production deficiency in first graders' directed forgetting, suggesting that the children are capable of intentional forgetting but fail to do so spontaneously. The finding that first graders showed List 1 forgetting without List 2 enhancement suggests that the two directed-forgetting effects are mediated by different processes with different developmental trajectories.

Retrieval-induced forgetting in young children.

A prominent theory of cognitive development attributes the poor performance that children show in many cognitive tasks to a general lack of inhibitory control. We tested this theory by examining children's inhibitory capabilities in retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF), a memory task in which selective retrieval of previously studied material causes forgetting of related, nonretrieved material. Such forgetting is often attributed to inhibitory control processes, which supposedly suppress the nonretrieved items' memory representation. We examined RIF in kindergartners, second graders, and adults, using both recall and recognition testing. Although all three age groups showed significant RIF in recall, only adults and second graders, but not kindergartners, showed RIF in recognition. Because inhibition-based RIF should be present in recall and recognition, these findings indicate that in adults and second graders, but not in kindergartners, RIF is mediated by inhibition. The results support the view of inefficient inhibitory processes in young children's cognition.

Theta oscillations predict the detrimental effects of memory retrieval.

Retrieving a target item from episodic memory typically enhances later memory for the retrieved item but causes forgetting of competing irrelevant memories. This finding is termed retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) and is assumed to be the consequence of an inhibitory mechanism resolving retrieval competition. In the present study, we examined brain oscillatory processes related to RIF, as induced by competitive memory retrieval. Contrasting a competitive with a noncompetitive retrieval condition, we found a stronger increase in early evoked theta (4-7 Hz) activity, which specifically predicted RIF, but not retrieval-induced enhancement. Within the cognitive framework of RIF, these findings suggest that theta oscillations reflect arising interference and its resolution during competitive retrieval in episodic memory. Supplemental materials for this article may be downloaded from http://cabn.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.