Chris J. A. Moulin

Self-centered memories: The reminiscence bump and the self

The self-memory relationship is thought to be bidirectional, in such a way that memories provide context for the self, and equally, the self exercises control over retrieval (Conway, 2005). Autobiographical memories are not distributed equally across the life span; instead, memories peak between ages 10 and 30. This reminiscence bump has been suggested to support the emergence of a stable and enduring self. In the present study, the relationship between memory accessibility and self was explored with a novel methodology that used generation of self images in the form of I am statements. Memories generated from I am cues clustered around the time of emergence for that particular self image. We argue that, when a new self-image is formed, it is associated with the encoding of memories that are relevant to that self and that remain highly accessible to the rememberer later in life. This study offers a new methodology for academics and clinicians interested in the relationship between memory and identity.

Assessing the Inhibitory Account of Retrieval-Induced Forgetting With Implicit-Memory Tests

Five experiments examined whether retrieval-induced-forgetting effects are observed for implicit tests of memory. In each experiment participants first studied category-exemplar paired associates, then practiced retrieval for a subset of items from a subset of categories before finally completing memory tests for all the studied items. In standard fashion, inhibition was measured as the performance difference of unpracticed items from practiced categories and unpracticed items from unpracticed categories. Across the 5 experiments poorer performance for unpracticed items was seen in conceptual implicit memory (category generation and category matching) but not in perceptual implicit memory (stem completion, perceptual identification). Thus, retrieval-induced-forgetting effects are limited to tests of conceptual memory.

Music Enhances Category Fluency In Healthy Older Adults And Alzheimer's Disease Patients

Abstract Exposure to some music, in particular classical music, has been reported to produce transient increases in cognitive performance. The authors investigated the effect of listening to an excerpt of Vivaldis Four Seasons on category fluency in healthy older adult controls and Alzheimers disease patients. In a counterbalanced repeated-measure design, participants completed two, 1-min category fluency tasks whilst listening to an excerpt of Vivaldi and two, 1-min category fluency tasks without music. The authors report a positive effect of music on category fluency, with performance in the music condition exceeding performance without music in both the healthy older adult control participants and the Alzheimers disease patients. In keeping with previous reports, the authors conclude that music enhances attentional processes, and that this can be demonstrated in Alzheimers disease.

Wearable cameras in health: the state of the art and future possibilities.

The relationships between lifestyle behaviors and health outcomes usually are based on self-reported data. Such data are prone to measurement error. In response, there has been a movement towards objective forms of measurement that have low participant and researcher burden. The papers in this theme issue in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine assess the utility of a new form of objective measurement in health research, namely wearable cameras. These devices can be worn all day and automatically record images from a first-person point of view, requiring no intervention or attention from the subject or the researcher. The most mature visual lifelogging device is Microsofts SenseCam, a wearable camera worn via a lanyard around the neck. The SenseCam has been increasingly used in health-related research for several years. These theme papers report current research into wearable cameras in health, as presented at the SenseCam 2012 Symposium. Wearable cameras and their associated software analysis tools have developed to the point that they now appear well suited to measure sedentary behaviour, active travel, and nutrition-related behaviours. Individuals may recall events more accurately after reviewing images from their wearable cameras. Aspects of their immediate cognitive functioning may also improve. Despite the benefits of wearable cameras, there are still challenges remaining before their use becomes widespread. Ethical and privacy concerns are important issues that need to be addressed, as well as easy access to devices. In response, an ethical framework and smartphone-based wearable camera capture platform are proposed. In sum, this body of work suggests that the use of wearable cameras will soon be appropriate to understand lifestyle behaviours and the context in which the occur.

Diminished episodic memory awareness in older adults: Evidence from feeling-of-knowing and recollection

The ability to reflect on and monitor memory processes is one of the most investigated metamemory functions, and one of the important ways consciousnesses interacts with memory. The feeling-of-knowing (FOK) is one task used to evaluate individuals capacity to monitor their memory. We examined this reflective function of metacognition in older adults. We explored the contribution of metacognition to episodic memory impairment, in relation to the idea that older adults show a reduction in memory awareness characteristic of episodic memory. A first experiment showed that age affects the accuracy of FOK when predictions are made on an episodic memory task but not on a semantic memory task, suggesting a particular role for episodic memory awareness in metacognitive evaluations. A second experiment showed that the age-difference in episodic FOK accuracy was removed if one took into account subjective reports of memory awareness, or recollection. We argue that the FOK deficit specific to episodic memory is based on a lack of memory awareness manifest as a recollection deficit.

Autobiographical memory and amnesia: Using conceptual knowledge to ground the self

A case of retrograde amnesia, PJM, elucidated the relationship between self, episodic memory and autobiographical knowledge. Results from a variety of measures including the I Am Memory Task (IAM Task), where memories are cued by self-generated self concepts, demonstrate that PJM has a coherent, continuous sense of self, despite having lost episodic memories for an 18-month period. Her use of conceptual autobiographical knowledge, in episodic tasks and to support aspects of identity, shows how autobiographical knowledge can support the self when episodic memories are inaccessible. These results are discussed with relation to current neuropsychological models of self and memory.

Deficient acquisition and consolidation: intertrial free recall performance in Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment.

Previous research demonstrates that dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) is characterised by deficits of episodic memory, especially in the acquisition of new material. As well as this deficit in acquisition, some researchers have also argued for a deficit in consolidation in DAT. We examined acquisition and consolidation by measuring the intertrial gained and lost access in DAT, Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and controls.We report findings from a study of clinical data based on assessment of patients using three free recall trials of a word list. We found that both DAT and MCI groups showed a deficit in acquisition and consolidation of items between trials relative to controls. Moreover, the DAT group was significantly impaired relative to the MCI group for both acquisition and consolidation. Correlations within each group showed that there were strong relationships between intertrial measures and standard measures of memory function. Importantly in no group was there a significant correlation between our measures of acquisition and consolidation: we argue that these measures reflect different underlying processes, and the failure to consolidate in DATand MCI is not related to the deficit in acquisition. Finally, we showed strong correlations between our measure and dementia severity, suggesting that acquisition and consolidation both get worse as the dementia progresses.

Theme: Wearable cameras in healthWearable Cameras in Health: The State of the Art and Future Possibilities

The relationships between lifestyle behaviors and health outcomes usually are based on self-reported data. Such data are prone to measurement error. In response, there has been a movement towards objective forms of measurement that have low participant and researcher burden. The papers in this theme issue in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine assess the utility of a new form of objective measurement in health research, namely wearable cameras. These devices can be worn all day and automatically record images from a first-person point of view, requiring no intervention or attention from the subject or the researcher. The most mature visual lifelogging device is Microsofts SenseCam, a wearable camera worn via a lanyard around the neck. The SenseCam has been increasingly used in health-related research for several years. These theme papers report current research into wearable cameras in health, as presented at the SenseCam 2012 Symposium. Wearable cameras and their associated software analysis tools have developed to the point that they now appear well suited to measure sedentary behaviour, active travel, and nutrition-related behaviours. Individuals may recall events more accurately after reviewing images from their wearable cameras. Aspects of their immediate cognitive functioning may also improve. Despite the benefits of wearable cameras, there are still challenges remaining before their use becomes widespread. Ethical and privacy concerns are important issues that need to be addressed, as well as easy access to devices. In response, an ethical framework and smartphone-based wearable camera capture platform are proposed. In sum, this body of work suggests that the use of wearable cameras will soon be appropriate to understand lifestyle behaviours and the context in which the occur.

Automatically assisting human memory: A SenseCam browser

SenseCams have many potential applications as tools for lifelogging, including the possibility of use as a memory rehabilitation tool. Given that a SenseCam can log hundreds of thousands of images per year, it is critical that these be presented to the viewer in a manner that supports the aims of memory rehabilitation. In this article we report a software browser constructed with the aim of using the characteristics of memory to organise SenseCam images into a form that makes the wealth of information stored on SenseCam more accessible. To enable a large amount of visual information to be easily and quickly assimilated by a user, we apply a series of automatic content analysis techniques to structure the images into “events”, suggest their relative importance, and select representative images for each. This minimises effort when browsing and searching. We provide anecdotes on use of such a system and emphasise the need for SenseCam images to be meaningfully sorted using such a browser.

Experiences of aiding autobiographical memory using the sensecam

Human memory is a dynamic system that makes accessible certain memories of events based on a hierarchy of information, arguably driven by personal significance. Not all events are remembered, but those that are tend to be more psychologically relevant. In contrast, lifelogging is the process of automatically recording aspects of ones life in digital form without loss of information. In this article we share our experiences in designing computer-based solutions to assist people review their visual lifelogs and address this contrast. The technical basis for our work is automatically segmenting visual lifelogs into events, allowing event similarity and event importance to be computed, ideas that are motivated by cognitive science considerations of how human memory works and can be assisted. Our work has been based on visual lifelogs gathered by dozens of people, some of them with collections spanning multiple years. In this review article we summarize a series of studies that have led to the development of a browser that is based on human memory systems and discuss the inherent tension in storing large amounts of data but making the most relevant material the most accessible.