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  • Remembering something that has not in fact been experienced is commonly referred to as false memory. The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm is a well-elaborated approach to this phenomenon. This study attempts to investigate the peripheral physiology of false memories induced in a visual DRM paradigm. The main research question is whether false recognition is different from true recognition in terms of accompanying physiological responses.Sixty subjects participated in the experiment, which included a study phase with visual scenes each showing a group of interrelated items in social contexts. Subjects were divided into an experimental group undergoing a classical DRM design and a control group without DRM manipulation. The control group was implemented in order to statistically control for possible biases produced by memorability differences between stimulus types. After a short retention interval, a pictorial recognition phase was conducted in the manner of a Concealed Information Test. Simultaneous recordings of electrodermal activity, respiration line length, phasic heart rate, and finger pulse waveform length were used. Results yielded a significant Group by Item Type interaction, showing that true recognition is accompanied by greater electrodermal activity than false recognition.Results are discussed in the light of Sokolov's Orienting Reflex, the Preliminary Process Theory and the Concealed Information Test. Implications and restrictions of the introduced design features are critically discussed. This study demonstrates the applicability of measures of peripheral physiology to the field of false memory research.

  • Recent research suggests that our sense of time intervals in the range of seconds is directly related to activity in the insular cortex, which contains the primary sensory area for interoception. We therefore investigated whether performance in a duration reproduction task might correlate with individual interoceptive awareness and with measurable changes in autonomic activity during the task. Thirty-one healthy volunteers participated in an interoceptive (heartbeat) perception task and in repeated temporal reproduction trials using intervals of 8, 14, and 20s duration while skin conductance levels and cardiac and respiratory periods were recorded. We observed progressive increases in cardiac periods and decreases in skin conductance level during the encoding and (less reliably) the reproduction of these intervals. Notably, individuals' duration reproduction accuracy correlated positively both with the slope of cardiac slowing during the encoding intervals and with individual heartbeat perception scores. These results support the view that autonomic function and interoceptive awareness underpin our perception of time intervals in the range of seconds.

  • A Concealed Information Test (CIT) investigates differential physiological responses to deed-related (probe) vs. irrelevant items. The present study focused on the detection of concealed information using simultaneous recordings of autonomic and brain electrical measures. As a secondary issue, verbal and pictorial presentations were compared with respect to their influence on the recorded measures. Thirty-one participants underwent a mock-crime scenario with a combined verbal and pictorial presentation of nine items. The subsequent CIT, designed with respect to event-related potential (ERP) measurement, used a 3-3.5s interstimulus interval. The item presentation modality, i.e. pictures or written words, was varied between subjects; no response was required from the participants. In addition to electroencephalogram (EEG), electrodermal activity (EDA), electrocardiogram (ECG), respiratory activity, and finger plethysmogram were recorded. A significant probe-vs.-irrelevant effect was found for each of the measures. Compared to sole ERP measurement, the combination of ERP and EDA yielded incremental information for detecting concealed information. Although, EDA per se did not reach the predictive value known from studies primarily designed for peripheral physiological measurement. Presentation modality neither influenced the detection accuracy for autonomic measures nor EEG measures; this underpins the equivalence of verbal and pictorial item presentation in a CIT, regardless of the physiological measures recorded. Future studies should further clarify whether the incremental validity observed in the present study reflects a differential sensitivity of ERP and EDA to different sub-processes in a CIT.

  • During the last two decades, research on interoception has experienced a surprising renaissance. New experimental approaches and methods have revealed much about the processing of afferent signals from the inner organs of the body, and have allowed more accurate descriptions of these processes, as well as a more accurate determination of their functional significance in the experience and behavior of humans. Besides neuromuscular, respiratory, and gastrointestinal interoceptive processes, the cardiovascular afferent influences are now known to be very important. Invariably, the central questions concern sensitivity to signals from the body, factors which may influence judgement of perception, and the degree to which conventional hypotheses regarding the interoceptive capabilities of humans may require revision. Findings from general psychological and clinical studies have shown that humans may attain remarkable levels of interoceptive performance. On the other hand, they also show how deep the chasm is between visceral processes and perception, and between that which is perceived and the reports thereof. Only interdisciplinary approaches to these complex processes promise success.

Last update from database: 04.06.25, 15:35 (UTC)