Rothen, Nicolas, Berry, Christopher J, Seth, Anil K, Oligschläger, Sabine and Ward, Jamie (2020) A single system account of enhanced recognition memory in synaesthesia. Memory and Cognition. pp. 1-12. ISSN 0090-502X

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Abstract

Researchers often adjudicate between models of memory according to the models’ ability to explain impaired patterns of performance (e.g. in amnesia). In contrast, evidence from special groups with enhanced memory is very rarely considered. Here, we explored how people with unusual perceptual experiences (synaesthesia) perform on various measures of memory and test how computational models of memory may account for their enhanced performance. We contrasted direct and indirect measures of memory (i.e. recognition memory, repetition priming, and fluency) in grapheme-colour synaesthetes and controls using a Continuous Identification with Recognition (CID-R) paradigm. Synaesthetes outperformed controls on recognition memory and showed a different reaction time pattern for identification. The data were most parsimoniously accounted for by a single-system computational model of the relationship between recognition and identification. Overall, the findings speak in favour of enhanced processing as an explanation for the memory advantage in synaesthesia. In general, our results show how synaesthesia can be used as an effective tool to study how individual differences in perception affect cognitive functions.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of Engineering and Informatics > Informatics School of Psychology > Psychology
Research Centres and Groups:	Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology > BF0311 Consciousness. Cognition B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology > BF0311 Consciousness. Cognition > BF0495 Synaesthesia
Depositing User:	Marianne Cole
Date Deposited:	02 Dec 2019 08:09
Last Modified:	24 Feb 2020 11:45
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/88329

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