Influence of marihuana on storage and retrieval processe in memory

Abstract

lollowing presentation and immediate free recall testing of 10 2G-word lists, 48 Ss were divided into two groups, one of which received an oral dose of marihuana extract calibrated to 20 mg of .£ll -THC and one of which received placebo. One hour later. all Ss were administered delayed recall, recognition, and order tests on the first set of words, Presentation of another set of 10 lists followed. and there were immediate recall and delayed recall, recognition. and order t<:5!S on these words. Performance of drug and placebo Ss did not differ significantly for any of the first delayed tests. However. the performance of drug Ss was poorer than that of placebo Ss on immediate recall, delayed recall, and delayed recognition of the second set of lists. We concluded that retrieval of information relevant to the occurrence or nonoccurrence of an event was not affected by marihuana intoxication. Storage difficulties probably account for memory deficits due to the drug. and these difficulties appear to occur in the process of transferring information from short-term to long-term memory.Previous studies Melges et aI, 1970: Abel. 1971a have shown that marihuana intoxication causes decrements in the performance of certain memory tasks. Because many cognitive functions necessitate the reliable accessing of previously presented information. it is important to know precisely how marihuana influences memory processes. For information to be remembered. it must have been stored accurately in memory and it must be retrievable at the moment it is needed. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether the storage processes, the retrieval processes, or both are adversely affected by marihuana intoxication.The experimental paradigm used was a variation of a standard free recall task. The variation introduced for the purpose of separating drug effects upon storage and retrieval processes was the administration of a delayed free recall test: this procedure has been used by Craik (1970) and involves having Ss recall as many words as possible from a prior series of free recall lists, each of which had been followed by an immediate free recall test. Delayed free recall is useful for drug research, since a drug may be administered during the interval between. the immediate test on the final list and the presentation of the delayed test. The delayed recall performance of Ss receiving the active drug during that interval can be compared to the performance of Ss receiving placebo. The immediate recall scores provide a predrug measure *This research was supported by the van Ameringen Foundation and NIMH Grants 19918, 3030. and 21747.-;-Requests for reprints should be sent to R. of the equivalence of the two groups on word recall. In the present study, a delayed recognition test was also administered to determine if marihuana intoxication affects recognition and recall processes differently. In addition, for each item on the recognition test, Ss were asked to indicate in which list that item had appeared. Following the first set of...

Effect of ecstasy use on neuropsychological function: a study in Hong Kong

“…Curran and Travill 1997;Morgan 1998Morgan , 1999Rodgers 2000;Wareing et al 2000;Bhattachary and Powell 2001;Verkes et al 2001). In light of the effect of consuming alcohol (Talland 1965;Tarter 1976;Kapur and Butters 1977;Parker and Noble 1977;Parsons and Farr 1981;MacVane et al 1982;De Renzi et al 1984;Shelton et al, 1984;Walsh 1985;Ryan and Butters 1986;Grant 1987;Bowden 1988;Akshoomoff et al 1989), other drugs such as marijuana (Weingartner et al 1972;Darley et al 1973;Braff et al 1981) and cocaine (Washton and Stone 1984;Mittenberg and Motta 1993), and multiple drugs (Grant et al 1978a,b;McCaffrey et al 1988;Sweeney et al 1989) on neuropsychological performance, the extent to which concomitant alcohol and other drugs affect the findings of previous studies regarding ecstasy usage and neuropsychological performance is largely unknown. GouzoulisMayfrank and colleagues (2000) showed that there were distinct neuropsychological profiles for users of both MDMA and cannabis that were different from that for users of cannabis only.…”

Some effects of atropine on short‐term memory [letter]

“…The rationale of this procedure, based on that of Darley et al (1973) is that drug effects on memory storage are reflected in recall procedures 3 and 4, while effects on retrieval are reflected in recall procedures 2, 3 and 4. Thus, the results suggest that atropine, like scopolamine, impairs memory function by an effect on information storage, rather than retrieval processes.…”

Diazepam and memory: Support for a duplex model of memory

“…Although there are a number of criticisms of the duplex model that have forced modifications of the theory (for a review, see Klatzky, 1980), it continues to be a comprehensive and useful approach to the analysis of human memory. The present paper is intended to illustrate the usefulness of the model in the growing area of cognitive psychopharmacology and also to illustrate how pharmacological manipulations can be utilized to investigate specific human memory processes.The literature on cognitive psychopharmacology contains many studies of drugs with similar and specific detrimental effects on memory (e .g., Birnbaum & Parker, 1977;Crow & Grove-White, 1973 ;Darley, Tinklenberg, Roth, Hollister, & Atkinson, 1973; Ghoneim & Mewaldt, 1975. Illustrative of these drugs is diazepam (Valium), until recently the most often prescribed drug in the world.…”

“…The literature on cognitive psychopharmacology contains many studies of drugs with similar and specific detrimental effects on memory (e .g., Birnbaum & Parker, 1977;Crow & Grove-White, 1973 ;Darley, Tinklenberg, Roth, Hollister, & Atkinson, 1973;Ghoneim & Mewaldt, 1975. Illustrative of these drugs is diazepam (Valium), until recently the most often prescribed drug in the world.…”