In search of consolidation of short-term memory in nonhuman animals

Abstract

Wixted (Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 235 – 269, 2004) has argued that forgetting is due to consolidation failure. Previous research with humans and nonhuman animals has reported evidence for consolidation in intermediate or long-term memory (LTM). The present study examines whether consolidation occurs in short-term memory in pigeons. Delayed matching-to-sample accuracy was reduced when retroactive interference (an extraneous task in Experiment 1 or houselight illumination in Experiment 2) was interpolated in the retention interval. Accuracy was not greater, however, when interference occurred at the end of the retention interval, as compared with when it occurred at the beginning. That is, there was no evidence for consolidation in short-term memory for pigeons. We did find, however, the beginning–end effect originally reported by Roberts and Grant (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 4, 219–236, 1978) and the recovery from forgetting reported by White and Brown (Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 96, 177–189, 2011). The results are discussed in relation to temporal distinctiveness theory as an alternative to consolidation.

Delayed matching-to-sample: A tool to assess memory and other cognitive processes in pigeons

“…Although later research by Grant (1988) found that houselight illumination disrupted delayed matching accuracy when it occurred either in the first or the last 2 s of a 5 s delay, the disruption was greater when it occurred later in the delay. Recently, in a parametric study, Calder and White (2014) varied the duration and the location of the houselight illumination and found that illumination of the houselight was disruptive primarily when it appeared just prior to presentation of the comparison stimuli. This finding suggests that illumination of the houselight has little effect on sample memory, but rather it may serve as a source of distraction, perhaps by illuminating other stimuli in the chamber.…”

Primate models of interference control

“…Subsequent studies demonstrated that not only monkeys [11 ,12] but also pigeons [13,14] and rats [15][16][17][18][19] can also perform dualtasks in various conditions and also exhibit dual-task interference effects analogous to those in humans (Table 1). Recently, Smith et al [12] applied the dual-task method to examine whether or not metacognitive process can be dissociated from perceptual-level process using monkeys.…”

“…Combination of tasks Behavioral studies Moise [9] Monkey DMS a + simple reaction time task Washburn and Astur [10] Monkey DMS + overt OT b or numerical judgment task Basile and Hampton [11 ] Monkey DMS + motor, image perception, or image classification task Smith et al [12] Monkey DMS or DMP c + perceptual confidence judgment Kendrick and Rilling [13] Pigeon DMS + VI d , EXT e , or DRO f schedule Calder and White [14] Pigeon DMS + VI schedule Maki et al [15] Rat 8-arm WS g radial maze + 4-arm WS h radial maze Beatty and Shavalia [16] Rat 8-arm WS radial maze + 8-arm WS or WS radial maze Roberts [17] Rat 8-arm WS radial maze + 8-arm WS radial maze Cook and Brown [18] Rat 12-arm WS radial maze + 12-arm WS radial maze Jarrard and Elmes [19] Rat 12-arm WS radial maze + 4-arm WS radial maze Harper et al [45] Rat SPR i in 12-arm maze + food consumption Neurophysiological studies…”

Forgetting in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): What is the role of interference?

“…The goal of the present experiments was to investigate chimpanzees' memory processing in a short-term memory [28] reward-location paradigm that did not require training. Chimpanzees were presented with a target task, which involved remembering a reward location (e.g., left container), followed by the presentation of an interference task-requiring the recollection of a different reward location (e.g., right container).…”