Marlene Abadie | Université Toulouse II Jean Jaurès (original) (raw)

Papers by Marlene Abadie

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, May 14, 2018

Using an online sample experiment, the study described herein addresses the fervent debate about ... more Using an online sample experiment, the study described herein addresses the fervent debate about the relationships between working memory and long-term memory (LTM). We manipulated refreshing opportunities and LTM status of memoranda by varying, respectively, the type of span tasks (simple span with short or long lists versus complex span tasks) and the frequency of the memory words (low versus high). In accordance with the hypothesis that refreshing is involved particularly in complex rather than simple span tasks, the frequency effect in immediate recall tests was reduced in the former. Moreover, contrary to previous studies in which refreshing increases LTM effects in delayed recall tests, our data point in the opposite direction. However, the frequency effect was also reduced in the simple task with short lists, suggesting that refreshing might not be the only process underlying the reduction of frequency effect in delayed tests. Finally, no differences in delayed recall were found between the complex span task that affords refreshing opportunities and the other tasks, suggesting that another process than refreshing, probably consolidation, might be involved in delayed recall.

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Aug 1, 2019

False memories are well-established long-term memory (LTM) phenomena. Recent reports of false rec... more False memories are well-established long-term memory (LTM) phenomena. Recent reports of false recognition at short term suggest that working memory (WM) could also give rise to false memories, supporting the unitary view of memory. Alternatively, we hypothesized that the emergence of false memories at short term results from the impairment of WM maintenance, memory performance relying then on LTM. More specifically, we assumed that false memories rely on the retrieval of gist traces of the memory items while their verbatim traces that could block false memories are no longer accessible. To test this proposal, we reported a series of 4 experiments in which the availability of 2 WM maintenance mechanisms, articulatory rehearsal and attentional refreshing, was manipulated, and the reliance of recognition performance on gist and verbatim traces was also assessed. In line with our hypothesis, the occurrence of false memories in immediate recognition test was accompanied by the reduction of verbatim memory retrieval resulting from the impairment of rehearsal. By contrast, false memories in the delayed test depended on gist memory, which was strengthened by the use of refreshing. These findings support an integrated account of false memories at short and long term, shed light on the nature of mental representations generated by WM maintenance mechanisms and on the relationships between WM and LTM. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, Nov 1, 2022

Long-term semantic memory (LTM) is known for affecting recall during working memory (WM) tasks. H... more Long-term semantic memory (LTM) is known for affecting recall during working memory (WM) tasks. However, the way LTM intervenes in WM remains unknown. Moreover, the available findings are incongruent concerning how attention modulates the impact of LTM on WM. To examine this issue, the involvement of LTM representations in a complex span task was manipulated through variations of the associative relatedness of memory items, while the attentional demand of the concurrent task was varied. Children and young adults were also compared, because children are less efficient in using refreshing for maintenance than adults. Despite the impact of the three main factors on recall performance, which was better for related than unrelated words, with the low rather than the high demanding concurrent task and for adults than children, there was no interaction between associative relatedness and attentional demand, neither in children nor in adults. We replicated these results in a second experiment with a more attention-demanding concurrent task. Moreover, analyses of recall latency showed that adults were faster than children at recalling words and both age groups were faster for related (vs. unrelated) words, but there was no effect of the concurrent attentional demand on recall latency and no interaction. Finally, errors were mostly omissions and transpositions, both more prevalent under high concurrent attentional demand. The present findings suggest that the availability of attention does not modulate the effect of LTM on WM. We discuss how WM models can account for this finding and how LTM can act on WM functioning.

Developmental Psychology

False memories are well established episodic memory phenomena. Recent research in young adults ha... more False memories are well established episodic memory phenomena. Recent research in young adults has shown that semantically related associates can be falsely remembered as studied items in working memory (WM) tasks for lists of only a few items when a short 4second interval was given between study and test. The present study reported two experiments yielding similar effects in 4-(n = 32 and 33, 18 and 14 females, respectively) and 8-year-old children (n = 33 and 34, respectively, 19 females in both). Short lists of semantically related items specifically tailored for young children were retained over a brief interval. Whether or not the interval was filled with a concurrent task that impeded or not WM maintenance, younger children were as prone to falsely recognize related distractors as their older counterparts in an immediate recognition test, and also in a delayed test. In addition, using the conjoint recognition model of the fuzzy-trace theory, we demonstrated that the retrieval of gist traces of the list themes was responsible for the occurrence of short-term false memories in 4-and 8-year-old children. Gist memory also underpinned the occurrence of false recognition in the delayed test. These findings suggest that young children are as likely to make gist-based false memories as older children in working memory tasks.

Brain Sciences

Stereotype threat arises when the activation of negative stereotypes about a group impairs perfor... more Stereotype threat arises when the activation of negative stereotypes about a group impairs performance of stigmatized individuals on stereotype relevant tasks. There is ample evidence that stereotype threat leads to performance detriments by consuming executive resources. Several studies indeed showed that working memory (WM) mediates stereotype threat effects among young adults. More recently, researchers have sought to understand whether the same mechanisms underlie age-based stereotype threat, but findings are mixed regarding the role of WM and some authors rather favor a motivational explanation based on regulatory fit. The present review critically appraises the empirical support for distinct forms of stereotype threat effects mediated by distinct mechanisms. We propose a novel approach based on one of the most recent WM models, the time-based resource sharing model, to evaluate the impact of stereotype threat on attentional resources in WM among both young and older adults.

A N A E-approche Neuropsychologique Des Apprentissages Chez L Enfant, Feb 1, 2021

Les déficits de la mémoire de travail sont fréquemment associés à la dyslexie. Nous réexaminons c... more Les déficits de la mémoire de travail sont fréquemment associés à la dyslexie. Nous réexaminons ces troubles à l'aide d'un modèle récent qui distingue deux mécanismes de maintien en mémoire de travail, la répétition articulatoire et le rafraichissement attentionnel. Les études passées en revue montrent un déficit attentionnel mais pas de la répétition articulatoire. Nous présentons des pistes de remédiation tout en soulignant le manque d'études ayant évalué leur efficacité dans la dyslexie.

Psychology and Aging, 2021

involved in the conduct of the research nor in the preparation of the article. The authors declar... more involved in the conduct of the research nor in the preparation of the article. The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest. The study was presented at the 2 nd edition of the Recollection, familiarity, and novelty detection conference in Liège on October 3-4, 2019, and at the Journées d'Etude du Vieillissement in Lyon on May 20-21, 2021. Data and material for this study, as well as additional analyses are openly available at the Open Science Framework (OSF), https://osf.io/7tzgw/?view_only=5ed54adada5040f8bb47cf7444e4f39f. We thank Roxane Consoloni and Marine Vialla for her assistance with data collection.

Developmental Psychology, 2021

, +33 (0) 4 73 40 63 66. The experiment was not formally preregistered. The exact instructions gi... more , +33 (0) 4 73 40 63 66. The experiment was not formally preregistered. The exact instructions given to participants, CS, US International Affective Picture System (Lang et al., 2008) number and the data are available on Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/8yskg/?view_only=67a3ad2a41b54b5e8f3e43d6685f3676).

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2018

Psychological Research, 2019

On the memory processes underlying conscious deliberation in complex decision making: The role of... more On the memory processes underlying conscious deliberation in complex decision making: The role of verbatim and gist memory

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2017

Previous research showed that the unconscious-thought effect, which refers to an improvement in c... more Previous research showed that the unconscious-thought effect, which refers to an improvement in complex decision making following a distraction period, was moderated by the presentation format of pieces of information about different options. The aim of the current study was to replicate this finding and further examine the memory representations underlying decision making following a distraction or a deliberation period. Results showed that, when the information was presented blocked per option, participants were better able to differentiate the best option from the others after a distraction period than immediately after the information presentation or after a deliberation period. In addition, distracted participants retrieved more gist representations of the options when the information was presented per option. By contrast, participants were better able to differentiate the best option from the others after a deliberation period when the information was presented per attribute. Participants who deliberated also retrieved more verbatim representations when the information was presented per attribute. Finally, mediation analyses indicated that the accuracy of the evaluations of the options depends on gist memory when distracted but on verbatim memory when deliberating. These findings suggest that the effectiveness of distraction or deliberation depends on the memory representations of the different options.

Journal of Intelligence

Illusory conscious experience of the “presentation” of unstudied material, called phantom recolle... more Illusory conscious experience of the “presentation” of unstudied material, called phantom recollection, occurs at high levels in long-term episodic memory tests and underlies some forms of false memory. We report an experiment examining, for the first time, the presence of phantom recollection in a short-term working memory (WM) task in 8- to 10-year-old children and young adults. Participants studied lists of eight semantically related words and had to recognize them among unpresented distractors semantically related and unrelated to the studied words after a retention interval of a few seconds. Regardless of whether the retention interval was filled with a concurrent task that interfered with WM maintenance, the false recognition rate for related distractors was very high in both age groups, although it was higher in young adults (47%) than children (42%) and rivaled the rate of target acceptance. The conjoint recognition model of fuzzy-trace theory was used to examine memory repr...

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition

Previous research showed that the, which refers to an improvement in complex decision making foll... more Previous research showed that the, which refers to an improvement in complex decision making following a distraction period, was moderated by the presentation format of pieces of information about different options. The aim of the current study was to replicate this finding and further examine the memory representations underlying decision making following a distraction or a deliberation period. Results showed that, when the information was presented blocked per option, participants were better able to differentiate the best option from the others after a distraction period than immediately after the information presentation or after a deliberation period. In addition, distracted participants retrieved more gist representations of the options when the information was presented per option. By contrast, participants were better able to differentiate the best option from the others after a deliberation period when the information was presented per attribute. Participants who deliberate...

Recent research suggests that when we face a choice between several options described with a larg... more Recent research suggests that when we face a choice between several options described with a large number of attributes, we make better choices if we do not consciously ponder over the alternatives but instead engage in a mindless task while our unconscious mind ...

Memory, 2015

The unconscious-thought effect occurs when distraction improves complex decision making. In two e... more The unconscious-thought effect occurs when distraction improves complex decision making. In two experiments using the unconscious-thought paradigm, we investigated the effect of presentation format of decision information (i) on memory for decision-relevant information and (ii) on the quality of decisions made after distraction, conscious deliberation or immediately. We used the process-dissociation procedure to measure recollection and familiarity. The two studies showed that presenting information blocked per criterion led participants to recollect more decision-relevant details compared to a presentation by option.

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 2015

Successful statistical reasoning emerges from a dynamic system including: a cognitive agent, mate... more Successful statistical reasoning emerges from a dynamic system including: a cognitive agent, material artefacts with their actions possibilities, and the thoughts and actions that are realized while reasoning takes place. Five experiments provide evidence that enabling the physical manipulation of the problem information (through the use of playing cards) substantially improves statistical reasoning, without training or instruction, not only with natural frequency statements (Experiment 1) but also with single-event probability statements (Experiment 2). Improved statistical reasoning was not simply a matter of making all sets and subsets explicit in the pack of cards (Experiment 3), it was not merely due to the discrete and countable layout resulting from the cards manipulation, and it was not mediated by participants' level of engagement with the task (Experiment 5). The positive effect of an increased manipulability of the problem information on participants' reasoning performance was generalizable both over problems whose numeric properties did not map perfectly onto the cards and over different types of cards (Experiment 4). A systematic analysis of participants' behaviors revealed that manipulating cards improved performance when reasoners spent more time actively changing the presentation layout "in the world" as opposed to when they spent more time passively pointing at cards, seemingly attempting to solve the problem "in their head". Although they often go unnoticed, the action possibilities of the material artefacts available and the actions that are realized on those artefacts are constitutive of successful statistical reasoning, even in adults who have ostensibly reached cognitive maturity.

Psychological Science, 2013

The Unconscious Thought Effect (UTE) occurs when complex decisions are made better after a period... more The Unconscious Thought Effect (UTE) occurs when complex decisions are made better after a period of distraction rather than immediately or after a period of conscious deliberation. This finding has often been interpreted as evidence of unconscious thinking. In two experiments, we provide the first evidence that the UTE is accompanied by an increase in memory for the gist of the decision-relevant attributes (Experiment 1) and demonstrate that the cognitive demands of the distraction task moderate its effect on decision making and gist memory. It was only following a low-demanding distraction task that participants chose the best alternative more often and displayed enhanced gist memory of the decision-relevant attributes (Experiment 2). These findings suggest that the UTE occurs only if cognitive resources are available and that it is accompanied by a better organization of information in memory, as shown by the increase in gist memory.

Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 2013

Recent research suggests that, when faced with a choice between several alternatives described wi... more Recent research suggests that, when faced with a choice between several alternatives described with a large number of attributes, people make better choices if they do not consciously ponder over the alternatives but rather perform a distraction task assumed to elicit unconscious thought. Subsequent research attempting to replicate this finding, however, provided mitigated support for its existence. The research reported here contributes to this ongoing debate on two grounds. First, it highlights a methodological confound between qualitative and quantitative presentation material and proposes a novel procedure that can accommodate both. Second, it shows that, whereas conscious deliberation leads to better decisions when alternatives are characterised by quantitative information, the use of a qualitative format for presenting information cancels the advantage of conscious deliberation.

Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2014

The unconscious-thought effect occurs when distraction improves complex decision making. Recent s... more The unconscious-thought effect occurs when distraction improves complex decision making. Recent studies suggest that this effect is more likely to occur with low- than high-demanding distraction tasks. We discuss implications of these findings for Newell &amp;amp;amp;amp; Shanks&amp;amp;amp;#39; (N&amp;amp;amp;amp;S&amp;amp;amp;#39;s) claim that evidence is lacking for the intervention of unconscious processes in complex decision making.