Underlying mechanisms of memory will be investigated in two standard laboratory species, rhesus monkeys (6) and pigeons (18), which have demonstrated their ability to accurately perform list-memory tasks and are well suited to this memory research. Interference has been demonstrated to be a (the) major determinant of memory. Interference will be manipulated in single-item (same/different) memory tasks to determine how interference from previous trials degrades memory and how subjects develop memory strategies to deal effectively with this interference. Among the manipulations will be: stimulus (pictures) set size (for interference), locus of interference, observing responses (for attention), memory retention delay (0-20s for pigeons, 0-30s for monkeys), and trial spacing. New tests have been developed to measure the effect of interference and explore whether subjects' learn to deal more effectively with this interference. These results will bear upon the issues of familiarity/automatic versus identity/controlled memory processing in animals. Subjects will then be trained and tested in multiple-item list memory tasks (1-4 items). Similar manipulations will investigate how interference from previous lists determines the shape of the serial position function. Other manipulations (item presentation time, time between items, number of list items) will investigate how interference among list items determines the shape of the serial position function. These results should reveal which aspects of interference are under strategic subject control and which aspects are fixed and automatic. Findings should bear upon general processes of visual memory that are shared among such diverse species as avians and primates. ? ?
| Wright, Anthony A; Elmore, L Caitlin (2016) Pigeon visual short-term memory directly compared to primates. Behav Processes 123:84-9 |
| Wright, Anthony A; Magnotti, John F; Katz, Jeffrey S et al. (2016) Concept learning set-size functions for Clark's nutcrackers. J Exp Anal Behav 105:76-84 |
| Elmore, L Caitlin; Wright, Anthony A (2015) Monkey visual short-term memory directly compared to humans. J Exp Psychol Anim Learn Cogn 41:32-8 |
| Devkar, Deepna T; Wright, Anthony A; Ma, Wei Ji (2015) The same type of visual working memory limitations in humans and monkeys. J Vis 15:13 |
| Elmore, L Caitlin; Passaro, Antony D; Wright, Anthony A (2013) Change detection for the study of object and location memory. Behav Processes 93:25-30 |
| Bachevalier, Jocelyne; Wright, Anthony A; Katz, Jeffrey S (2013) Serial position functions following selective hippocampal lesions in monkeys: effects of delays and interference. Behav Processes 93:155-66 |
| Leising, Kenneth J; Elmore, L Caitlin; Rivera, Jacquelyne J et al. (2013) Testing visual short-term memory of pigeons (Columba livia) and a rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) with a location change detection task. Anim Cogn 16:839-44 |
| Wright, Anthony A (2013) Functional relationships for investigating cognitive processes. Behav Processes 93:4-24 |
| Wright, Anthony A; Katz, Jeffrey S; Ma, Wei Ji (2012) How to be proactive about interference: lessons from animal memory. Psychol Sci 23:453-8 |
| Elmore, L Caitlin; Magnotti, John F; Katz, Jeffrey S et al. (2012) Change detection by rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) and pigeons (Columba livia). J Comp Psychol 126:203-12 |
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