Biomedical subjects

Gregory V Jones

Publications and source records attributed to Gregory V Jones.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Asymptotic learning of alphanumeric coding in autobiographical memory.

Studies of autobiographical memory have shown that observed levels of incidental learning are often relatively low. Do low levels of retention result simply from a low learning rate, or is learning also asymptotic? To address this question, it is necessary to trace performance over a large number of learning opportunities, and this was carried out in the context of the recent development of widespread texting behaviour. It was found that memory for the alphanumeric layout of a phone improved as a function of sending approximately the first 500 texts, but then the improvement stopped. The incidence of memory error was incompatible with a simple power-law relation but was modelled closely by an asymptotic relation. It is suggested that this pattern reflects a movement towards automaticity in the primary task which progressively closes down the possibility that incidental learning can occur.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Is posttraumatic stress disorder associated with specific deficits in episodic memory?

People with PTSD often report difficulties remembering day to day information unrelated to their traumatic episode. In addition, structural and functional imaging techniques have identified abnormalities in the brains of people with PTSD in regions known to be important for memory functioning. Nevertheless, studies investigating cognitive functioning in people with PTSD have reported widely varying results. The aim of this review is to investigate studies reporting performance on tests of episodic memory. Specifically, papers were examined in relation to the hypothesised memory functions of the frontal lobes, the hippocampus and the amygdala. It is concluded that while there is reasonable evidence of frontal lobe involvement, memory deficits caused by hippocampal involvement have been more difficult to detect. There are no published studies looking at the involvement of the amygdala although preliminary evidence suggests that people with PTSD do have memory deficits resulting from dysfunction of this structure. Reasons for the inconclusiveness of the results are discussed.

Affect↗

PubMed2006

Visual sharpness contingency in recognition memory for orientation: mnemonic illusion suppressed by sensory signature.

A striking finding about human memory is that people's level of accuracy in remembering the orientation of heads on coins is often not simply at the chance level but significantly below it. However, S. W. Kelly, A. M. Burton, T. Kato, and S. Akamatsu (2001) reported that this is not so when two-alternative forced-choice visual recognition is employed. The Kelly et al. result could not be replicated here with a copy of their stimuli. However, the result was successfully replicated with newly created stimuli. A series of experiments provided converging evidence that the mnemonic illusion is suppressed when recognition alternatives possess sharp visual detail. The role of a sensory signature in suppressing the mnemonic illusion and in modulating visual recognition performance in general is delineated.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Predicability (ease of predication) as semantic substrate of imageability in reading and retrieval.

It was proposed by Jones (1985) that the apparent influence of a word's imageability upon the probability of the word being read correctly by a deep dyslexic person could be understood in terms of an underlying semantic variable, ease of predication (also termed predicability). In a recent critique, de Mornay Davies and Funnell (2000) claim to have identified a number of problems with the ease of predication proposal. It is shown here, however, that it is the critique itself which is fundamentally flawed. In contrast, the predicability approach continues to identify correctly the semantic substrate of apparent effects of imageability upon reading and memory retrieval.

Anomia↗