Nathan Rose | Australian Catholic University (original) (raw)

Papers by Nathan Rose

Developmental Psychology, 2014

Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 2015

How does the brain maintain to-be-remembered information in working memory (WM), particularly whe... more How does the brain maintain to-be-remembered information in working memory (WM), particularly when the focus of attention is drawn to processing other information? Cognitive models of WM propose that when items are displaced from focal attention recall involves retrieval from long-term memory (LTM). In this fMRI study, we tried to clarify the role of LTM in performance on a WM task and the type of representation that is used to maintain an item in WM during rehearsal-filled versus distractor-filled delays. Participants made a deep or shallow levels-of-processing (LOP) decision about a single word at encoding and tried to recall the word after a delay filled with either rehearsal of the word or a distracting math task. Recalling one word after 10 sec of distraction demonstrated behavioral and neural indices of retrieval from LTM (i.e., LOP effects and medial-temporal lobe activity). In contrast, recall after rehearsal activated cortical areas that reflected reporting the word from fo...

Memory & cognition, Jan 4, 2014

When a test of working memory (WM) requires the retention of multiple items, a subset of them can... more When a test of working memory (WM) requires the retention of multiple items, a subset of them can be prioritized. Recent studies have shown that, although prioritized (i.e., attended) items are associated with active neural representations, unprioritized (i.e., unattended) memory items can be retained in WM despite the absence of such active representations, and with no decrement in their recognition if they are cued later in the trial. These findings raise two intriguing questions about the nature of the short-term retention of information outside the focus of attention. First, when the focus of attention shifts from items in WM, is there a loss of fidelity for those unattended memory items? Second, could the retention of unattended memory items be accomplished by long-term memory mechanisms? We addressed the first question by comparing the precision of recall of attended versus unattended memory items, and found a significant decrease in precision for unattended memory items, refl...

Psychology and Aging, 2010

Young (ages 18-22) and older (ages 61-87) adults (N=106) played the Virtual Week board game, whic... more Young (ages 18-22) and older (ages 61-87) adults (N=106) played the Virtual Week board game, which involves simulating common prospective memory (PM) tasks of everyday life (e.g., taking medication), and performed working memory (WM) and vigilance tasks. The Virtual Week game includes regular (repeated) and irregular (non-repeated) PM tasks with cues that are either more or less focal to other ongoing activities. Age differences in PM were reduced for repeated tasks and performance improved over the course of the week, suggesting retrieval was more spontaneous or habitual. Correlations with WM within each age group were reduced for PM tasks that had more regular or focal cues. WM (but not vigilance) ability was a strong predictor of irregular PM tasks with less focal cues. Taken together, these results support the hypothesis that habitual and focallycued PM tasks are less demanding of attentional "resources" (specifically, WM), whereas tasks that are more demanding of controlled attentional processes produce larger age differences, which may be attributable to individual differences in WM.

Journal of Experimental Psychology-learning Memory and Cognition, 2011

Recent research in working memory has highlighted the similarities involved in retrieval from com... more Recent research in working memory has highlighted the similarities involved in retrieval from complex span tasks and episodic memory tasks, suggesting that these tasks are influenced by similar memory processes. In the present article, the authors manipulated the level of processing engaged when studying to-be-remembered words during a reading span task (Experiment 1) and an operation span task (Experiment 2)

PLoS ONE, 2012

Background: Behavior change communication (BCC) interventions, while still a necessary component ... more Background: Behavior change communication (BCC) interventions, while still a necessary component of HIV prevention, have not on their own been shown to be sufficient to stem the tide of the epidemic. The shortcomings of BCC interventions are partly due to barriers arising from structural or economic constraints. Arguments are being made for combination prevention packages that include behavior change, biomedical, and structural interventions to address the complex set of risk factors that may lead to HIV infection.

Many working memory (WM) models propose that the focus of attention (or primary memory) has a cap... more Many working memory (WM) models propose that the focus of attention (or primary memory) has a capacity limit of one to four items, and therefore, that performance on WM tasks involves retrieving some items from long-term (or secondary) memory (LTM). In the present study, we present evidence suggesting that recall of even one item on a WM task can involve retrieving it from LTM. The WM task required participants to make a deep (living/nonliving) or shallow ("e"/no "e") level-of-processing (LOP) judgment on one word and to recall the word after a 10-s delay on each trial. During the delay, participants either rehearsed the word or performed an easy or a hard math task. When the to-beremembered item could be rehearsed, recall was fast and accurate. When it was followed by a math task, recall was slower, error-prone, and benefited from a deeper LOP at encoding, especially for the hard math condition. The authors suggest that a covert-retrieval mechanism may have refreshed the item during easy math, and that the hard math condition shows that even a single item cannot be reliably held in WM during a sufficiently distracting task-therefore, recalling the item involved retrieving it from LTM. Additionally, performance on a final free recall (LTM) test was better for items recalled following math than following rehearsal, suggesting that initial recall following math involved elaborative retrieval from LTM, whereas rehearsal did not. The authors suggest that the extent to which performance on WM tasks involves retrieval from LTM depends on the amounts of disruption to both rehearsal and covert-retrieval/refreshing maintenance mechanisms.

Developmental Psychology, 2010

Previous research has identified the age prospective memory paradox of age-related declines in la... more Previous research has identified the age prospective memory paradox of age-related declines in laboratory settings in contrast to age benefits in naturalistic settings. Various factors are assumed to account for this paradox, yet empirical evidence on this issue is scarce. In 2 experiments, the present study examined the effect of task setting in a laboratory task and the effect of motivation in a naturalistic task on prospective memory performance in young and older adults. For the laboratory task (Experiment 1, n ϭ 40), we used a board game to simulate a week of daily activities and varied features of the prospective memory task (e.g., task regularity). For the naturalistic task (Experiment 2, n ϭ 80), we instructed participants to try to remember to contact the experimenter repeatedly over the course of 1 week. Results from the laboratory prospective memory tasks indicated significant age-related decline for irregular tasks ( p ϭ .006) but not for regular and focal tasks. In addition, in the naturalistic task, the age benefit was eliminated when young adults were motivated by incentives (F Ͻ 1). In conclusion, the present results indicate that the variability of age differences in laboratory prospective memory tasks may be due in part to differences in the features of the prospective memory task. Furthermore, increases in motivation to perform the prospective task seem to help remedy prospective memory deficits in young adults in the naturalistic setting.

International …, 2008

This investigation examined how age and test condition affect one’s ability to comprehend discour... more This investigation examined how age and test condition affect one’s ability to comprehend discourse passages and determined whether age and test condition affect discourse comprehension and closed-set sentence recognition in a similar way. Young and older adults were tested with closed-set sentences from the newly-created Build-a-Sentence Test (BAS) and a series of discourse passages in two audiovisual conditions: favorable, where the talker’s head was clearly visible and the signal-to-babble ratio (SBR) was more optimal and unfavorable, where the contrast sensitivity of the visual signal was reduced and the SBR was less optimal. The older participants recognized fewer words in the BAS than the young participants in both test conditions. Degrading the viewing and listening conditions led to a greater decline in their performance than in the young participants’ performance. The older participants also did not perform as well at comprehending spoken discourse in the two test conditions. However, unlike what occurred for the BAS, the age difference for discourse comprehension was not exacerbated by unfavorable conditions. When attempting to comprehend discourse, older adults may draw upon verbal and cognitive abilities that are relatively insensitive to age.

… : Learning, Memory, and …, 2010

Two experiments compared the effects of depth of processing on working memory (WM) and long-term ... more Two experiments compared the effects of depth of processing on working memory (WM) and long-term memory (LTM) using a levels-of-processing (LOP) span task, a newly developed WM span procedure that involves processing to-be-remembered words based on their visual, phonological, or semantic characteristics. Depth of processing had minimal effect on WM tests, yet subsequent memory for the same items on delayed tests showed the typical benefits of semantic processing. Although the difference in LOP effects demonstrates a dissociation between WM and LTM, we also found that the retrieval practice provided by recalling words on the WM task benefited long-term retention, especially for words initially recalled from supraspan lists. The latter result is consistent with the hypothesis that WM span tasks involve retrieval from secondary memory, but the LOP dissociation suggests the processes engaged by WM and LTM tests may differ. Therefore, similarities and differences between WM and LTM depend on the extent to which retrieval from secondary memory is involved and whether there is a match (or mismatch) between initial processing and subsequent retrieval, consistent with transfer-appropriate-processing theory.

Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 2012

This review article surveys the evidence for age-related changes in memory from cognitive and neu... more This review article surveys the evidence for age-related changes in memory from cognitive and neuroimaging studies. It is probable that the observed declines in episodic memory with increasing age are a consequence of impairments in both acquisition (encoding) and retrieval - possibly for similar reasons - but the present review focuses on the former set of processes. An additional emphasis is on a processing approach to understanding age-related encoding deficiencies; we suggest that many problems stem from a decline in the ability to self-initiate deeper semantic processing operations. The article briefly discusses the role of declining sensory and perceptual abilities, but focuses primarily on the nature of processing resources, their consequences for memory acquisition, and on age-related changes in cognition and neural functioning. We also survey the evidence for neuroplasticity in the older brain, and how compensatory activities at behavioral and neural levels can reduce age-r...