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Biomedical subjects

W S Terry

Publications and source records attributed to W S Terry.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1996

Retroactive interference effects of surprising reward omission on serial spatial memory.

Reward omission was used to produce retroactive interference in a serial delayed-alternation task. Rats were given forced choices in 3 T mazes presented in succession followed by free choices in which the alternate arm in each maze was rewarded. Nonreward during the delay between forced- and free-choice runs produced a decrement in performance (i.e., retroactive interference) in comparison to reward during the delay. Interference in retention of the first maze in a list occurred when the second maze contained surprising reward or omission (i.e., an outcome contrary to previous training in that maze) in comparison to expected reward or omission. In addition to producing retroactive interference, omission sometimes increased alternation in the maze in which it occurred. These results support a differential rehearsal hypothesis of spatial memory.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

When proper names are not forgotten: recall of eponymous medical disorders.

Names are more difficult to recall than other facts about people such as occupations even when the words are nominally the same, e.g., Baker and baker. Subjects studied face photographs labeled with a surname and a medical diagnosis. Eponymous disorders were selected so that a given name could be used either as surname or diagnosis, e.g., Ms. Hodgkins or Hodgkin's disease. Nursing students (n = 24) tested in a within-subjects design recalled more eponymous diseases than surnames. There were few instances of confusing names and diseases, but names were often recalled to the wrong face. Education students (n = 18) recalled fewer diseases than did the nurses, and there was no difference in their recall of names and diseases. Nursing students tested in a between-groups design (n = 22 each) showed no impairment in name recall. The results suggest limitations in the role of meaningfulness in recall.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Extraversion, neuroticism, and face-name learning.

Previous research has attempted to relate personality traits to paired-associate learning. We tested name recall as a function of extraversion and neuroticism (as assessed by the Eysenck Personality Inventory) and task difficulty. Face photographs were paired with one of three levels of information: names only (an easy task); names and occupations; or names, occupations, and interests (a difficult task). On the easy and difficult tasks, extraverted subjects recalled more names than did subjects scoring at the median or below on that trait. Contrary to expectations, subjects scoring high on neuroticism recalled more names than did subjects scoring low on that trait. Neither trait was significantly related to recall on the moderately difficult task. There was no interaction between traits for name recall, but there was for interests: Neurotic introverts were significantly impaired at recalling interests, whereas the other subjects recalled interests better than names. These findings thus differ from those of paired-associate learning tasks using words and nonsense syllables.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1988

Effects of incidental pictorial and verbal adjuncts on text learning.

In this study, college students read and studied texts on historical figures in psychology, which were supplemented by drawings and/or brief biographies of these persons. In Experiment 1, a 2 x 2 between-groups design was conducted in which students received one adjunct with each text, both adjuncts, or neither. In Experiment 2, a single group of students received a within-subjects manipulation of the same adjunct conditions. In the between-groups comparison, students receiving biographies learned less of the target text passages, with the group receiving illustrations and biographies performing least accurately. In the within-subject conditions, texts accompanied by an illustration were better learned, with these students doing best on the text with both picture and biography. The results suggest that adjuncts may emphasize some texts, at the expense of learning from the other texts, but that too much adjunct material interferes with the learning of the target passages.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Caffeine and memory performance on the AVLT.

The Auditory-Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) is a memory test that assesses recall of lists of words on single and multiple trials. College students (N = 33) were given the AVLT, either with or without a prior administration of 100 mg caffeine. Caffeine subjects recalled fewer words than did control subjects, both after single presentations of lists and across repeated trials. Caffeine subjects showed a greater deficit in recalling the middle-to-end portions of the lists. Personality scores on the Maudsley Personality Inventory showed a positive correlation of recall on a pretest with Neuroticism, and no correlation with Introversion.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

Effects of priming unconditioned stimulus representation in short-term memory on Pavlovian conditioning.

A series of four experiments evaluated eyelid conditioning in the rabbit under circumstances in which the unconditioned stimulus (US) could variously be assumed to be prerepresented (primed) in short-term memory at the time of its presentation in pairing with a conditioned stimulus (CS). In both between- and within-subjects comparisons, less conditioning resulted when CS-US pairings were shortly preceded by US presentations than when not. The decremental effect of the pretrial priming US depended upon the similarity of such US to the subsequent conditioning US included in the CS-US pairing and could be removed by the interpolation of a distractor stimulus between the priming US and the CS-US pair. Finally, a similar decrement in conditioning was observed if a weak priming US was administered prior to the conditioning US but after the CS, that is, within the CS-US interval. The overall pattern of data supports Wagner's thesis that stimuli are rendered generally less effective when they are primed in short-term memory.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1975

Short-term memory for "surprising" versus "expected" unconditioned stimuli in Pavlovian conditioning.

Rabbits were trained via a Pavlovian eyelid-conditioning regime to respond differentially to a conditioned stimulus (CSR) depending on whether or not that stimulus was preceded several seconds earlier by a preparatory stimulus consisting of an electric shock otherwise employed as an unconditioned stimulus (UCS). Following training, differential responding to CSR varied systematically with the interval between the preparatory stimulus and CSR, consistent with assumptions concerning decay of information in short-term memory. The major finding, however, involved the test effects of announcing the preparatory stimulus by either a conditioned stimulus with which it had otherwise been paired (CS+) or a conditioned stimulus with which it had otherwise been systematically unpaired (CS-). The greater differential responding to the following CSR in the latter case is taken to support the notion that a "surprising" UCS is more likely to be retained (rehearsed) in short-term memory than is an "expected" UCS.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The inhibitory effect of pretrial reinforcement on instrumental conditioning.

It has been shown previously that pretrial feeding retards acquisition of an instrumental response. The present experiment tested three hypotheses for this effect: priming, overshadowing and conditioned inhibition. Rats were trained in a runway task with a partial schedule of food reinforcement. Rats that were prefed immediately prior to rewarded trials showed a decrement in acquisition when compared with subjects prefed 180 seconds pretrial. Other subjects prefed immediately prior to nonrewarded trials showed a similar decrement in acquisition, even though the pretrial and goal reinforcers occurred on separate trials. Thus, the adverse effects of prefeeding occurred in the absence of conditions necessary for priming or overshadowing to occur. The results suggest there may be an inhibitory aftereffect of food rewards which can become conditioned to subsequent stimuli.

Animals↗