Memory & Learning: A Research Archive

This site has been archived. It is no longer being updated, but still contains a wealth of reports on cognitive and brain research, providing the evidence-based foundations for the articles on Mempowered, and my books. For more up-to-date reporting, and most particularly, for more user-friendly advice about improving your memory, or dealing with cognitive problems, go to Mempowered.

Memory Problems

Brain prosthetic restores learning capability in rats

Effective patterns of neural activity replayed via an artificial device inserted in the hippocampus restores lost learning capability and even improves learning in normal rats.

In the experiment, rats learned which lever to press to receive water, where the correct lever depended on which lever they had pressed previously (the levers were retractable; there was a variable delay between the first and second presentation of the levers).

Tetris can reduce PTSD flashbacks

Playing Tetris shortly after a traumatic event reduced flashbacks, but playing a word-based quiz increased the number of flashbacks.

Following a study showing that playing Tetris after traumatic events could reduce memory flashbacks in healthy volunteers, two experiments have found playing Tetris after viewing traumatic images significantly reduced flashbacks while playing Pub Quiz Machine 2008 (a word-based quiz game) increas

Drug prevents post-traumatic stress syndrome

A new drug is successful in preventing PTSD in mice if delivered within 5 hours of the trauma.

A mouse study has revealed the brain becomes overly stimulated after a traumatic event causes an ongoing, frenzied interaction between two brain proteins long after they should have disengaged.

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Strategies

Self-imagination helps memory in both healthy and memory-impaired

A small study involving patients with TBI has found that the best learning strategies are ones that call on the self-schema rather than episodic memory, and the best involves self-imagination.

Sometime ago, I reported on a study showing that older adults could improve their memory for a future task (remembering to regularly test their blood sugar) by picturing themselves going through the process.

Growing the brain with a new language

A new study adds to the growing evidence for the cognitive benefits of learning a new language, and hints at why some people might be better at this than others.

A small Swedish brain imaging study adds to the evidence for the cognitive benefits of learning a new language by investigating the brain changes in students undergoing a highly intensive language course.

Learning another language boosts white matter

Foreign language learning increases the white matter in the language network and the bridge joining the hemispheres, perhaps helping explain why bilinguals have better executive control.

In my last report, I discussed a finding that intensive foreign language learning ‘grew’ the size of certain brain regions. This growth reflects gray matter increase. Another recent study looks at a different aspect: white matter.

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Aging

Controlling diabetes important for slowing cognitive decline

Findings from a large, long-running study adds to growing evidence that poorly controlled diabetes is associated with faster cognitive decline.

The latest finding from the large, long-running Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) Study adds to the evidence that preventing or controlling diabetes helps prevent age-related cognitive decline.

Old honeybees can regain youthful cognition when they return to youthful duties

A honey bee study shows how old foraging bees quickly start to decline cognitively, and how this can be reversed in some if they return to more social domestic duties in the hive.

I often talk about the importance of attitudes and beliefs for memory and cognition. A new honey bee study provides support for this in relation to the effects of aging on the brain, and suggests that this principle extends across the animal kingdom.

Effect of blood pressure on the aging brain depends on genetics

For those with the Alzheimer’s gene, higher blood pressure, even though within the normal range, is linked to greater brain shrinkage and reduced cognitive ability.

I’ve reported before on the evidence suggesting that carriers of the ‘Alzheimer’s gene’, APOE4, tend to have smaller brain volumes and perform worse on cognitive tests, despite being cognitively ‘normal’.

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How Memory Works

Another challenge to idea that men are better at spatial thinking

A cross-cultural study finds a significant gender difference on a simple puzzle problem for one culture but no gender difference for another. The difference was only partly explained by education.

Here’s an intriguing approach to the long-standing debate about gender differences in spatial thinking. The study involved 1,279 adults from two cultural groups in India. One of these groups was patrilineal, the other matrilineal.

Brain flexibility predicts learning speed

New analytic techniques reveal that functional brain networks are more fluid than we thought.

A new perspective on learning comes from a study in which 18 volunteers had to push a series of buttons as fast as possible, developing their skill over three sessions. New analytical techniques were then used to see which regions of the brain were active at the same time.

Working memory has more layers than thought

A new study provides further support for a three-tier model of working memory, where the core only holds one item, the next layer holds up to three, and further items can be passively held ready.

Readers of my books and articles will know that working memory is something I get quite excited about. It’s hard to understate the importance of working memory in our lives.

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Study Skills

Seeing exemplary peer work can undermine student performance

Two experiments show that exposing students to exceptional examples of work by their peers is discouraging for many.

A natural experiment involving 5,740 participants in a MOOC ( massive open online course) has found that when students were asked to assess each other's work, and the examples were exceptional, a large proportion of students dropped the course.

How expectations affect exam scores

A largish study

confirms that college students tend to be over-confident about their academic success
supports some findings that female students are more realistic in their predictions of performance
finds that undergraduates can improve their expectations through repeated exam taking
finds that over-confidence is associated with higher performance
supports the theory that over-confidence motivates students to study harder.

There has been quite a lot of research into the relationship between students’ expectations and academic performance. It’s fairly well-established that students tend to have inflated expectations of their performance, but the effect of this has been disputed.

Finger tracing helps children doing geometry problems

Finger tracing key elements in worked problems seems to help some students better understand and apply mathematical concepts.

I've reported before on studies showing how gesturing can help children with mathematics and problem-solving. A new Australian study involving children aged 9-13 has found that finger-tracing has a similar effect.

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Lifestyle

Exercise may be best way to protect against brain shrinkage

A large study of older adults shows that physical exercise is associated with less brain atrophy and fewer white matter lesions. A small study shows that frail seniors benefit equally from exercise.

A study using data from the Lothian Birth Cohort (people born in Scotland in 1936) has analyzed brain scans of 638 participants when they were 73 years old.

Why metabolic syndrome is linked to cognitive decline?

Preliminary results for a small study indicate metabolic syndrome is linked to significantly reduced blood flow in the brain, perhaps explaining its link to cognitive impairment.

I’ve reported before on the growing evidence that metabolic syndrome in middle and old age is linked to greater risk of cognitive impairment in old age and faster decline.

Large drop in IQ in those who smoked marijuana regularly as teens

Persistent marijuana use beginning before age 18 (but not after) is associated with a significant drop in IQ in a large, long-running study.

A large long-running New Zealand study has found that people who started using cannabis in adolescence and continued to use it for years afterward showed a significant decline in IQ from age 13 to 38. This was true even in those who hadn’t smoked marijuana for some years.

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