ABSTRACT

A period of rest after learning results in better explicit memory for the material than a period of unrelated mental activity. This study investigated whether the same applies to priming. Thirty-four people with memory impairments due to acquired brain injury took part. In a repeated measures design, participants studied word lists; then either engaged in a relaxation technique (wakeful rest condition) or completed visuo-spatial tasks (control condition); and finally completed two priming tasks. Priming effects were significantly larger in the wakeful rest condition. This result is difficult to explain in terms of some of the explanations used to account for the benefits of wakeful rest on explicit memory, and alternative explanations are considered. One possibility is that the attentional demands of the control task resulted in inhibition of activity in neocortical areas associated with perception that contributed to the priming effect. The findings have implications for memory rehabilitation. Acquired memory impairments typically impact on explicit memory, and implicit memory is often relatively intact. It is important to find ways of enabling those with more severe explicit impairments to make best use of their implicit memory as a way of compensating for the deficits in their explicit memory.

摘要

学习后的一段休息时间比一段无关的心理活动会产生更好的材料外显记忆。这项研究调查了这是否同样适用于启动。34 名因获得性脑损伤而导致记忆障碍的人参加了此次活动。在重复测量设计中，参与者学习单词列表；然后要么采用放松技巧（清醒休息条件），要么完成视觉空间任务（控制条件）；并最终完成了两项启动任务。在清醒休息条件下，启动效应明显更大。这个结果很难用一些解释清醒休息对显性记忆的好处的解释来解释，并考虑了其他解释。一种可能性是控制任务的注意力需求导致与感知相关的新皮质区域的活动受到抑制，这有助于启动效应。这些发现对记忆康复有影响。获得性记忆障碍通常会影响外显记忆，而内隐记忆通常相对完整。重要的是要找到方法让那些有更严重外显障碍的人能够最好地利用他们的内隐记忆作为补偿外显记忆缺陷的一种方式。