Electrophysiological Signatures of Distinct Working Memory Subprocesses That Predict Long-term Memory Success

• Conditions: Memory; EEG

• Registration Number: NCT05892419
• Lead Sponsor: University of Chicago

Brief Summary

Healthy young adults will view pictures of items while the investigators record electroencephalogram (EEG) brain activity. Then, the investigators will ask the participants to report which items the participants remember seeing. The investigators will examine how the measured brain activity relates to which pictures the participants remember.

Detailed Description

Electrophysiological signatures track distinct subprocesses of working memory, including the number of items and the spatial locations of those items. By identifying how these subprocesses predict long-term memory success in healthy young adults, this project should lead to an intricate understanding of the relationship between working memory and long-term memory. This study will investigate when and how long-term memory failures arise, by using sophisticated machine learning analyses of neural data. Moreover, this study will test the extent to which the investigators can track working memory processes in real time and how the investigators can leverage that information to improve long-term memory success. This will inform basic theories of the relationship between working memory and long-term memory and motivate future applications.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2022-07-01
• Study First Submitted: 2023-05-26
• Study First Submitted QC: 2023-05-26
• Status Verified: 2023-06
• Study First Posted: 2023-06-07
• Last Update Submitted: 2023-06-07
• Last Update Posted: 2023-06-09
• Primary Completion: 2024-07-31
• Study Completion: 2026-07-31

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: ENROLLING_BY_INVITATION
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 96

Inclusion Criteria

• normal or corrected to normal vision

Exclusion Criteria

• non-fluent in English

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Memory performance	This task is performed multiple time within the experimental session, which in total lasts around 3 hours.	To measure recognition memory performance, participants will view pictures and respond as to whether they remember previously seeing these items. Participants will be shown both old and new items. In the long-term memory phase, they will report their confidence at having seen each image using a four point rating scale, ranging from being confident the item is new (i.e., not previously seen) to being confident the item is old (i.e., previously seen).

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

University of Chicago; 🇺🇸 Chicago, Illinois, United States