Eye movement analyses of strong and weak memories and goal-driven forgetting

Whitlock, Jonathon; Lo, Yi Pei; Chiu, Yi Chieh; Sahakyan, Lili

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104391

Cited by 12 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…We merely suggest that item-method DF not only reflects a failure to encode information, but it is also driven by impaired retrieval at test arising from the unbinding of items from their context during DF. Similar ideas have been entertained also in recent behavioral and eye-tracking studies, demonstrating that item-method DF may impair contextual information ( Whitlock et al, 2020a ; 2020b). Using object-scene pairings, Whitlock et al demonstrated that the association between the scenes and the object was impaired by DF instructions, and that it was independent of item impairment, such that participants could recognize the object (i.e., failure of DF despite the F cue), and yet forget which background scene the object was previously paired with.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Separation of item and context in item-method directed forgetting

et al. 2021

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Contextual information plays a critical role in directed forgetting (DF) of lists of items, whereas DF of individual items has been primarily associated with item-level processing. This study was designed to investigate whether context processing also contributes to the forgetting of individual items. Participants first viewed a series of words, with task-irrelevant scene images (used as “context tags”) interspersed between them. Later, these words reappeared without the scenes and were followed by an instruction to remember or forget that word. Multivariate pattern analyses of fMRI data revealed that the reactivation of context information associated with the studied words (i.e., scene-related activity) was greater whereas the item-related information diminished after a forget instruction compared to a remember instruction. Critically, we found the magnitude of the separation between item information and context information predicted successful forgetting. These results suggest that the unbinding of an item from its context may support the intention to forget, and more generally they establish that contextual processing indeed contributes to item-method DF.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Separation of item and context in item-method directed forgetting

et al. 2021

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“…Counterintuitively, impaired associative information of F-cued targets resulted in selecting F-cued targets more often when they were paired with R-cued lures than with F-cued lures. Additionally, recognition of 2 Confidence judgments were collected for exploratory analyses as they would later go on to inform a series of eye-tracking studies that explored the relationship between subjective memory strengths, as assessed by confidence judgments and eye movement behavior (see Whitlock et al, 2020). 3 We initially tested whether random slopes would contribute significantly to our mixed logit regression model by adding a random slope for the effects of cue and lures.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2Confidence judgments were collected for exploratory analyses as they would later go on to inform a series of eye-tracking studies that explored the relationship between subjective memory strengths, as assessed by confidence judgments and eye movement behavior (see Whitlock et al, 2020). …”

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confidence: 99%

Directed forgetting in associative memory: Dissociating item and associative impairment.

Whitlock¹,

Chiu²,

Sahakyan³

2022

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

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We report three item-method directed forgetting (DF) studies to evaluate whether DF impairs primarily item memory, or whether it also impairs associative memory. The current studies used a modified associative recognition paradigm that allowed disentangling item impairment from associative impairment in DF. Participants studied scene-object pairings, followed by DF cues (item-method), and at test were presented with a previously studied scene along with three objects, one of which was studied with that scene (target), whereas the remaining two objects were studied with different scenes (lures). Experiment 1 used an associative encoding orienting task, and DF impairment was observed only when the forget targets were paired with forget lures within the test display; however, DF was eliminated when the forget targets were paired with remember lures, possibly due to a recall-to-reject strategy. Experiment 2 used an object-focused orienting task that downplayed the encoding of associative information. The results revealed the opposite of Experiment 1, with significant DF when the forget targets were paired with remember lures, and no DF when the lures and the target came from the same memory instruction. Experiment 3 used the same orienting task as Experiment 1, but testing used a sequential procedure, where item recognition was assessed first, followed by associative recognition test. Conditionalizing associative recognition on item recognition outcomes confirmed that DF impairment of associative memory can be obtained despite retained memory for forget-cued objects. Overall, the results provide strong support for the impairment of associative memory by DF.

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“…The relational task involved binding of faces to their studied context, whereas the item task involved simply learning individual faces, and therefore the current findings suggest that fluctuations in pupil size serve as a marker for associative binding processes relating faces to their studied context. Furthermore, the strength of this associative binding was reflected in the subsequent magnitude of viewing to targets at test, where gradations in magnitude of viewing to selected targets was previously shown to reflect memory strength of those targets (Whitlock et al, 2020). Therefore, pupil dilations during learning may not simply reflect the strength of encoding of individual items but rather specific binding of items to the contexts with which they were learned.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trial-level fluctuations in pupil dilation at encoding reflect strength of relational binding.

Whitlock,

Hubbard,

Ding

et al. 2024

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

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Eye-tracking methodologies have revealed that eye movements and pupil dilations are influenced by our previous experiences. Dynamic fluctuations in pupil size during learning reflect in part the formation of memories for learned information, while viewing behavior during memory testing is influenced by memory retrieval and drawn to previously learned associations. However, no study to date has linked fluctuations in pupil dilation at encoding to the magnitude of viewing behavior at test. The current investigation involved monitoring eye movements both in single item recognition and relational recognition tasks. In the item task, all faces were presented with the same background scene and memory for faces was subsequently tested, whereas in the relational task each face was presented with its own unique background scene and memory for the face-scene association was subsequently tested. Pupil size changes during encoding predicted the magnitude of preferential viewing during test, as well as future recognition accuracy. These effects emerged only in the relational task, but not in the item task, and were replicated in an additional experiment in which stimulus luminance was more tightly controlled. A follow-up experiment and additional analyses ruled out differences in orienting instructions or number of fixations to the encoding display as explanations of the observed effects. The results shed light on the links between pupil dilation, memory encoding, and eye movement patterns during recognition and suggest that trial-level fluctuations in pupil dilation during encoding reflect relational binding of items to their context rather than general memory formation or strength.

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Eye movement analyses of strong and weak memories and goal-driven forgetting

Cited by 12 publications

References 46 publications

Separation of item and context in item-method directed forgetting

Separation of item and context in item-method directed forgetting

Directed forgetting in associative memory: Dissociating item and associative impairment.

Trial-level fluctuations in pupil dilation at encoding reflect strength of relational binding.

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