D-036 | Direct and indirect effects of testing-induced strengthening of an consolidated episodic memory and its neural correlates.

Cognition, Behavior, and Memory
Author: Juan Cruz Beron | Email: juanberon1991@gmail.com

Juan Cruz Beron^1°, Carolina Vlatko^1°, Maria Eugenia Pedreira^1°,  Luz Bavassi^1°, Rodrigo S. Fernández^1°

^1° Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias – UBA – CONICET

The testing effect is characterized by a direct benefit on memory retention of reactivated and practiced items compared to their restudy. A scarcely explored phenomenon in consolidated episodic memory is how the direct retrieval of an item by retrieval practice can indirectly strengthen non-reactivated items associated with their acquisition context.
To study the direct and indirect benefits of retrieval practice we designed a 3-day protocol. On Day 1 subjects learned paired-associates (objects belonging to one of 4 semantic categories) on a specific context (belonging to one of 2 different categories). On Day 2, each pair was either tested or restudied, in the absence of its context image. On Day 3 we tested memory retention of the paired-associates and their context evaluating memory specificity (object level) and gist memory (category level). During the three days of the experiment, we recorded the brain activity with an electroencephalogram (EEG). Through this experimental approach, we will explore the degree of similarity between the EEG patterns on Day 2 and those observed during the visual presentation of the background images.
We found that, compared to restudy, testing directly strengthened the retrieved elements (paired-associates). Notably, we also found an indirect effect as it produced a better recall and recognition of the context background image, in comparison to the restudy trials.