BIO

Hello, my name is Patrick Tootle from Key Biscayne, Florida. I am an undergraduate Research Assistant for two FSU labs, one focused on Cognitive Neuroscience, and the other, Clinical Psychology. I seek to pursue a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience, with an interest in topics regarding conditioning and learning.

The Effect of Narratives On Recognition Memory

Abstract

Retrieval practice has been shown to strengthen future recall of practiced information, a concept known as the testing effect. Research has also shown that retrieving one memory can cause forgetting memories that share a similar context. Retrieval-induced forgetting is driven by inhibition, as we suppress competing memories. However, some studies have detailed that retrieving information can strengthen non-tested material, something known as retrieval- induced facilitation. Moreover, recent research has shown that narratives can integrate related information. We aim to understand when we encounter retrieval-induced forgetting, when we experience retrieval-induced facilitation, and how narratives influence these phenomena. We will present participants with two episodes of the television sitcom “Seinfeld.” Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two conditions: the coherent narrative condition, which consists of two unaltered episodes, or the incoherent narrative condition, which we created using multiple, unrelated scenes from various episodes. Participants were given retrieval cues for episode 1 during the practice phase, which were short descriptions of specific scenes. After a one-week delay, we will test participants on a recognition task using 36 three-second clips. Amongst these, 6 were practiced on day one (RP+), 6 are different scenes from episode 1 (RP-), 12 are from episode 2 (NRP), and 12 are from an unwatched episode (lure episode). We predict participants in the CN condition will experience retrieval-induced facilitation and the IN condition will experience retrieval-induced forgetting. Such research can help us better understand how retrieval interacts with memory, informing future work to improve or impair memory performance.

Keywords: Inhibition, Memory, Neuroscience, RIFO, RIFA