The role of retrieval mode and retrieval orientation in retrieval practice: insights from comparing recognition memory testing formats and restudying

Abstract

The effectiveness of retrieval practice for aiding long-term memory, referred to as the testing effect, has been widely demonstrated. However, the specific neurocognitive mechanisms underlying this phenomenon remain unclear. In the present study, we sought to explore the role of pre-retrieval processes at initial testing on later recognition performance by using event-related potentials (ERPs). Subjects studied two lists of words (Chinese characters) and then performed a recognition task or a source memory task, or restudied the word lists. At the end of the experiment, subjects received a final recognition test based on the remember-know paradigm. Behaviorally, initial testing (active retrieval) enhanced memory retention relative to restudying (passive retrieval). The retrieval mode at initial testing was indexed by more positive-going ERPs for unstudied items in the activeretrieval tasks than in passive retrieval from 300 to 900 ms. Follow-up analyses showed that the magnitude of the early ERP retrieval mode effect (300-500 ms) was predictive of the behavioral testing effect later on. In addition, the ERPs for correctly rejected new items during initial testing differed between the two active-retrieval tasks from 500 to 900 ms, and this ERP retrieval orientation effect predicted differential behavioral testing gains between the two active-retrieval conditions. Our findings confirm that initial testing promotes later retrieval relative to restudying, and they further suggest that adopting pre-retrieval processing in the forms of retrieval mode and retrieval orientation might contribute to these memory enhancements.

Active Recognition Attempts Induce Updating of Face Memories

“…These results therefore support the view that active retrieval processing is a stronger inducer of memory updating compared to studying the same materials, consistent with findings that testing compared to re-study is a particularly potent method for strengthening semantically meaningful memories (e.g. Gao et al, 2016;Karpicke, 2017;Roediger & Butler, 2011). In line with Bridge and Voss (2014), we ensured that selected responses in the study condition introduced the same amount of error as participants'…”

“…Test-induced strengthening of memories is enhanced by intentional retrieval attempts (Karpicke & Zaromb, 2010), including on recognition tests (e.g. Gao et al, 2016; see also Liu et al, 2017). These findings show that recognition attempts can involve sufficiently "active" retrieval processing to induce memory strengthening.…”

Age-Related Decreases in the Retrieval Practice Effect Directly Relate to Changes in Alpha-Beta Oscillations

“…Furthermore (in a different task), left parietal old-new effects (500 -900 ms), indicating recollection, were stronger for tested than untested items (Rosburg et al, 2015). While both studies provide an EEG marker for the RPE, a more direct link comes from Gao et al (2016), demonstrating that ERP magnitudes (300 -500 ms after stimulus onset) in the retrieval condition correlate with RP benefits.…”

Direct electrophysiological evidence for the maintenance of retrieval orientations and the role of cognitive control

“…Researchers are increasingly interested in the ways in which we edit and navigate our memories, searching for desired memories while inhibiting the retrieval of unwanted or irrelevant information. There is now considerable evidence from event-related potential (ERP) and functional MRI studies that cognitive processing during intentional memory retrieval can be oriented towards specific task-relevant features of prior episodes via the adoption of task-specific memory states called ‘retrieval orientations’ ( Johnson et al., 1997 , Ranganath and Paller, 1999 , Rugg et al., 2000 , Robb and Rugg, 2002 , Herron and Rugg, 2003 , Dzulkifli et al., 2004 , Herron and Wilding, 2004 , Hornberger et al., 2004 , Hornberger et al., 2006a , Werkle-Bergner et al., 2005 , Hornberger et al., 2006b , Stenberg et al., 2006 , Woodruff et al., 2006 , Benoit et al., 2009 , Bridger et al., 2009 , McDuff et al., 2009 , Bridger and Mecklinger, 2012 , Halsband et al., 2012 , Morcom and Rugg, 2012 , Rosburg et al., 2013 , Rosburg et al., 2014 , Roberts et al., 2014 , Johnson and McGhee, 2015 , Gao et al., 2016 , Herron et al., 2016 ). It is believed that these memory states are maintained for the duration of the requirement to retrieve specific types of contextual information from a prior episode, and that they influence the ways in which incoming stimuli are processed ( Rugg and Wilding, 2000 ).…”