Schedule of Events | Symposia

Sketchpad Series

Working memory under retrieval uncertainty

Poster Session B - Sunday, March 30, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Lena L. Kemmelmeier¹ (lkemmelmeier@unr.edu), Jenna N. Pablo¹, Marian E. Berryhill¹; ¹University of Nevada, Reno

Frontoparietal networks are essential for working memory (WM), with recognition relying more on the parietal cortex and WM recall depending more on the frontal cortex. We investigated how college students (n=37) performed when retrieval demands were predictable (blocks of recall/recognition trials) and unpredictable (intermixed conditions) contexts. Unpredictable retrieval demands significantly impaired recall performance (M=45.8 degrees error, SD=7.49) relative to recall-only blocks (M=27.7 degrees error, SD=8.77; p<.001). Participants may have relied on a familiarity-based strategy. Yet, previous studies found that adults’ recall performance was comparable or better when retrieval demands were unpredictable. These conflicting findings raise questions about why recent participants adopted a less effective strategy. We suspect that motivation — linked to WM performance and influencing maintenance-related frontal midline theta — or an emphasis on testing via recognition-based assessments (e.g., multiple choice) may drive the results. To answer these questions, we will next evaluate participants’ strategy, WM performance, motivation levels, and how they are assessed in their classes (prevalence of multiple choice versus recall) in a similar design. Participants will be assigned to either a free-strategy group, without strategy instructions, or an instructed-strategy group, advising a verbal recall strategy. These manipulations will allow us to determine what aspect of WM performance faltered. These results will offer important takeaways for pedagogy (e.g., testing using multiple choice versus short answer questions) and cognitive training.

Topic Area: EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Working memory