Factors Affecting Memory Encoding and Retrieval: A Cognitive Neuroscience Approach

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Memory is the set of processes by which we encode and retain information from our environment, and subsequently access it to reconstruct past experiences and guide behaviour. My students and I use cognitive paradigms as well as functional magnetic neuroimaging to identify the processes required for successful memory, and to specify the neural basis of performance. The long-term goal of my research program is to specify factors affecting encoding and retrieval. Determining how these processes interact, at both the cognitive and neural levels, will highlight conditions and situations that help or hinder our ability to remember. ******Prior research in my lab showed that memory is disrupted when another ongoing task competes for attention during encoding, or for similar materials during retrieval. Part 1 of this proposal will assess whether individual, and experimenter-induced, differences in representing information in memory influence successful retrieval, and will determine the generalizability of this finding to non-verbal materials. Part 2 will explore the hypothesis that recruiting additional context-specific brain regions during encoding produces more robust memory traces that can more readily and reliably be re-activated by various cues, protecting memories from negative effects of dual-tasking on memory. While success at retrieving information is one measure indexing memory status, the quality of one's memory is another. Part 3 will consider how different encoding conditions influence the quality of the memory trace that is formed and subsequently retrieved. By comparing conditions, and populations (younger versus older adults), that allow for creation of more or less cohesive, contextually-bound memory traces, we can better specify the conditions and brain regions that support high-fidelity memories. ******The convergence of work proposed here, at both the behavioural and neural levels, will refine a model of episodic memory initially developed in my lab using cognitive and neuroimaging methodologies. The proposed studies are important for several reasons. First, they highlight conditions and situations in which memory performance can be disrupted, providing insight into the limitations of human cognitive processing. Second, they identify a means for compensating for such interference effects. Finally, they determine encoding operations that can influence both the quantity and quality of what can be remembered.******All 3 facets of my research program build on significant progress made during the past funding cycle. My research program will serve to train students who will gain skills critical for research in cognitive neuroscience, highlighting ways to ameliorate memory despite deficits associated with normal aging, and with multi-tasking environments in young healthy adults which are ever more present in today's fast-paced world.