By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D.on June 28, 2011
In an article published in the journal Psychological Science, researchers at McMaster University found that when participants were shown visual patterns — faces, which are highly familiar objects, and abstract patterns, which are much less frequently encountered — they were able to retain very specific information about those patterns one to two years later.
“We found that this type of learning, called perceptual learning, was very precise and long-lasting,” said lead author Zahra Hussain, Ph.D.
“These long-lasting effects arose out of relatively brief experience with the patterns — about two hours, followed by nothing for several months, or years.”
Over the course of two consecutive days, participants were asked to identify a specific face or pattern from a larger group of images. The task was challenging because images were degraded — faces were cropped, for example — and shown very briefly.
Study members had difficulty identifying the correct images in the beginning of the training, but accuracy rates steadily climbed with practice.
About one year later, a group of participants were called back and their performance on the task was re-measured, both with the same set of items they’d been exposed to earlier, and with a new set from the same class of images.
Researchers found that when they showed participants the original images, accuracy rates were high. When they showed participants new images, accuracy rates plummeted, even though the new images closely resembled the learned ones, and they hadn’t seen the original images for at least a year.
“During those months in between visits to our lab, our participants would have seen thousands of faces, and yet somehow maintained information about precisely which faces they had seen over a year ago,” said Allison Sekuler, Ph.D., co-author of the study.
“The brain really seems to hold onto specific information, which provides great promise for the development of brain training, but also raises questions about what happens as a function of development. How much information do we store as we grow older and ,how does the type of information we store chage across our lifetimes? And what is the impact of storing all that potentially irrelevant information on our ability to learn and remember more relevant information?”
The experts are curious on how the information overload will affect children. “We don’t yet know the long-term implications of retaining all this information, which is why it is so important to understand the physiological underpinnings,” said Patrick Bennett, co-author and professor in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behavior at McMaster.
“This result warrants further study on how we can optimize our ability to train the brain to preserve what would be considered the most valuable information.”
Source: McMaster University
Related News Articles
-->Related Clinical Articles
-->
Advocacy and Policy, Aging, Alzheimer's, Brain and Behavior, General, Health-related, LifeHelper, Memory and Perception, Professional, Psychology, Psychotherapy, Research, Students -->
NewsAddictionADHDAdvocacy and PolicyAggression and ViolenceAgingAgoraphobiaAlcoholismAlzheimer'sAnorexiaAnxietyAutismBipolarBlogrollBrain and BehaviorBulimiaChildren and TeensCognitionDepressionDissociationDomestic ViolenceEating DisordersFDA AlertFeaturedGeneralGeneticsHealth-relatedLifeHelperMedicationsMemory and PerceptionMental Health and WellnessNeuropsychology and NeurologyOCDpainPanic DisorderParentingParkinson'sPersonalityPhobiasPoliticsProfessionalPsoriasisPsychologyPsychotherapyPTSDRelationships and SexualityReligion and SpiritualityResearchSchizophreniaSleepSocial PhobiaStressStudentsSubstance AbuseSuicideTechnologyWork and Career
ArchivesJune 2011May 2011April 2011March 2011February 2011January 2011December 2010November 2010October 2010September 2010August 2010July 2010200820072006Older News
Just Published...Do You Have a Positive Social Support System?The Illusion of ConfidenceAnxiety, Fire and Radioactive WasteBreaking Bad Food Habits
What's HotLady Gaga's Born This Way Music Video and Her Triumph Over Shame
Find a Therapist
Users Online: 3448
Join Us Now!
Local GuidesAll Guides
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
DC
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Privacy Policy • Terms of Use • Site Map • Disclaimer/Disclosure • Feeds
Download the Psych Central Toolbar Copyright © 1992-2011 Psych Central. All rights reserved. Site last updated: 29 Jun 2011 Psych Central Professional
Psych Central Answers
Psych Central Blog Network
Psych Central News
Tests & Quizzes
Sanity Score
Forums • NeuroTalk
ADHD
Anxiety
Bipolar
Depression
Schizophrenia
Psychotherapy
We complywith the
HONcode
standard:
Verify here
0 comments:
Post a Comment