Memory Image Completion: Establishing a task to behaviorally assess pattern completion in humans

AbstractFor memory retrieval, pattern completion is a crucial process that restores memories from partial or degraded cues. Neurocognitive aging models suggest that the aged memory system is biased toward pattern completion, resulting in a behavioral preference for retrieval over encoding of memories. Here, we built on our previously developed behavioral recognition memory paradigm —the Memory Image Completion (MIC) task—a task to specifically target pattern completion. First, we used the original design with concurrent eye‐tracking in order to rule out perceptual confounds that could interact with recognition performance. Second, we developed parallel versions of the ta sk to accommodate test settings in clinical environments or longitudinal studies. The results show that older adults have a deficit in pattern completion ability with a concurrent bias toward pattern completion. Importantly, eye‐tracking data during encoding could not account for age‐related per formance differences. At retrieval, spatial viewing patterns for both age groups were more driven by stimulus identity than by response choice, but compared to young adults, older adults' fixation patterns overlapped more between stimuli that they (wrongly) thought had the same identity. This suppor ts the observation that older adults choose responses perceived as similar to a learned stimulus, indicating a bias toward pattern completion. Additionally, two shorter versions of the task yielded comparable res...
Source: Hippocampus - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research