Internet Use, Users, and Cognition: Determination of the Cognitive Relationships Between Internet-Based Technology and Internet Users

This study aims to investigate growing Internet use in relation to cognition. Existing literature suggests human capability to utilize the Internet as an external (transactive) memory source. Formational mechanisms of such transactive memory systems and comparative effects of Internet use on transactive memory and semantic memory are both relatively unknown points of research explored in this study.This study comprises two experimental memory task surveys, confirming and yielding findings in memory research. Semantic memory is negatively affected by notions of information saved online. An adaptive dynamic is also revealed—1) as users often have a vague idea of desired information before searching for it on the Internet, first accessing semantic memory serves as an aid for subsequent transactive memory use and 2) successful initial transactive memory access eliminates the need for subsequently accessing semantic memory for desired information. Internet users form and reinforce transactive memory systems with the Internet by repeatedly defaulting to first accessing semantic memory then transactive memory or to accessing transactive memory only, and decrease reliance on transactive memory systems by repeatedly defaulting to only semantic memory. Users have some degree of control over transactive memory systems they engage in, a phenomenon to be potentially explored in future research directions.

General knowledge and detailed memory benefit from different training sequences

Real-world learning contexts sometimes require the use of general knowledge, whereas others depend on recalling detailed information about individual events. By combining category learning with trial-unique source information, we examined how different learning sequences (blocked vs. interleaved) impact the acquisition of generalized (category-level) and detailed (exemplar-specific) knowledge. Participants were trained to identify paintings by different artists, half of which were studied in a sequence blocked by artist and the remainder interleaved between artists. Participants were tested on general knowledge (category induction) and detailed memory (source recall), both immediately after learning and a 1-week delay. We found that interleaved learning improved general knowledge, but blocked learning improved detailed memory. Furthermore, we found that general knowledge remained stable whereas detailed memory performance declined after a delay. Our results indicate that optimal training conditions differ based on the goals of learning such as enhancing general knowledge or improving memory of individual event details.

Where irony goes: routinization and the collapse of viewpoint configurations

This paper looks at the phenomenon of “irony attrition,” when speakers start out using an expression or engaging in a genre of semiotic activity ironically, but become more earnest in their usage over time. It argues that irony attrition arises as a consequence of three things: (a) the complex viewpoint arrangement that underlies the ironic interpretive stance, (b) routinization or entrenchment, and (c) limitations on our ability to keep track of source information in memory (“source memory”). Irony attrition is not a hazard of irony as irony, but part of a more general tendency for intermediate-level embedded discourse frames to be forgotten, compressed, or mislaid in memory and in quotation. The ironies and erstwhile ironies in this analysis come from the domains of sarcasm, trolling, camp, shtick, and situational ironies in literature, and parody. They are brought into conversation with the evolution of other kinds of perspective-embedding expressions in language acquisition and language change.

Solvability for a New Class of Moore-Gibson-Thompson Equation with Viscoelastic Memory, Source Terms, and Integral Condition

This paper deals with the existence and uniqueness of solutions of a new class of Moore-Gibson-Thompson equation with respect to the nonlocal mixed boundary value problem, source term, and nonnegative memory kernel. Galerkin’s method was the main used tool for proving our result. This work is a generalization of recent homogenous work.

Initial value problem for fractional Volterra integrodifferential pseudo-parabolic equations

In this paper, we investigate the initial boundary value problem for the Caputo time-fractional pseudo-parabolic equations with fractional Laplace of order $ 0<\nu\le1 $ and the nonlinear memory source term. For $ 0<\nu<1 $, the Problem will be considered on a bounded domain of $ \R^d $. By some Sobolev embeddings and the properties of Mittag-Lefler function, we will give some results on the existence and the uniqueness of mild solution for the Problem \eqref{Main-Equation} below. When $ \nu=1 $, we will introduce some $ L^p-L^q $ estimates, and base on them we derive the global existence of a mild solution in the whole space $ \R^d. $

EXPRESS: Explaining the association between repetition priming and source memory: No evidence for a contribution of recognition or fluency

In a conjoint memory task (measuring repetition priming, recognition memory, source memory), items recognized as previously studied and receiving correct source decisions also tend to show a greater magnitude of the repetition priming effect. These associations have been explained as arising from a single memory system or signal, rather than multiple distinct ones (Lange, Berry, & Hollins, 2020). In the present work, we examine whether the association between priming and source memory can alternatively be explained as being driven by recognition or fluency. We first reproduced the basic priming-source association (Experiment 1). In Experiments 2 and 3, we found that the association persisted even when the task was modified so that overt and covert recognition judgments were precluded. In Experiment 4, the association was again present even though fluency (as measured by identification response time) could not influence the source decision, although the association was notably weaker. These findings suggest that the association between priming and source memory is not attributable to a contribution of recognition or fluency; instead, the findings are consistent with a single-system account in which a common memory signal drives responding.

A nutritional memory impairs survival, transcriptional and metabolic response to dietary restriction in old mice

Dietary restriction (DR) during adulthood can greatly extend lifespan and improve metabolic health in diverse species. However, whether DR in mammals is still effective when applied for the first time at old age remains elusive. Here, we conducted a late-life DR switch experiment employing 800 mice, by switching old animals from ad libitum (AL) to DR and vice versa. Strikingly, the switch from DR-to-AL acutely increased mortality, while the switch from AL-to-DR caused only a weak and gradual increase in survival, highlighting a memory of earlier nutrition. A significant association between fat preservation and survival response pointed to the white adipose tissue (WAT) as a potential memory source. Consistently, post-switch RNA-seq profiling in liver and WAT demonstrated that the transcriptional and metabolic program of chronic DR remained largely refractory to the AL-to-DR switch specifically in adipose tissue. Integration of lipidomics confirmed impaired membrane lipogenesis and limited mitochondrial copy number increase under late-life DR as functional consequences of this memory effect. Together, our results provide evidence for a nutritional memory as a limiting factor for DR-induced longevity and metabolic remodeling of WAT in mammals.