Martin A Conway

Publications of Martin A Conway

• Self-images and related autobiographical memories in schizophrenia.

  Authors: Mehdi Bennouna-Greene, Fabrice Berna, Martin A Conway, Clare J Rathbone, Pierre Vidailhet, Jean-Marie Danion

  Consciousness and cognition. 03/2012; 21(1):247-57.

  Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness, which affects sense of identity. While the ability to have a coherent vision of the self (i.e., self-images) relies partly on its reciprocal relationshipsSchizophrenia is a severe mental illness, which affects sense of identity. While the ability to have a coherent vision of the self (i.e., self-images) relies partly on its reciprocal relationships with autobiographical memories, little is known about how memories ground "self-images" in schizophrenia. Twenty-five patients with schizophrenia and 25 controls were asked to give six autobiographical memories related to four self-statements they considered essential for defining their identity. Results showed that patients' self-images were more passive than those of controls. Autobiographical memories underlying self-images were less thematically linked to these self-images in patients. We also found evidence of a weakened sense of self and a deficient organization of autobiographical memories grounding the self in schizophrenia. These abnormalities may account for the poor cohesiveness of the self in schizophrenia.

• Inhibition and interference in the think/no-think task.

  Authors: Mihály Racsmány, Martin A Conway, Attila Keresztes, Attila Krajcsi

  Memory & cognition. 02/2012; 40(2):168-76.

  Five experiments using the think/no-think (TNT) procedure investigated the effect of the no-think and substitute instructions on cued recall. In Experiment 1, when unrelated A-B paired associatesFive experiments using the think/no-think (TNT) procedure investigated the effect of the no-think and substitute instructions on cued recall. In Experiment 1, when unrelated A-B paired associates were studied and cued for recall with A items, recall rates were reliably enhanced in the think condition and reliably impaired below baseline in the no-think condition. In Experiments 2 and 5, final recall was cued with B items, leading to reliably higher recall rates, as compared with baseline, in both the think and no-think conditions. This pattern indicates backward priming of no-think items. In Experiments 3 and 4, the no-think instruction was replaced with a thought substitution instruction, and participants were asked to think of another word instead of the studied one when they saw the no-think cued items. As in Experiments 1 and 2, the same amount of forgetting of B items was observed when A items were the cues, but in contrast to Experiment 2, there was no increase in the recall performance of A items when B items were the cues. These results suggest that not thinking of studied items or, alternatively, thinking of a substitute item to avoid a target item may involve different processes: the former featuring inhibition and the latter interference.

• Reconsidering therapeutic action: Loewald, cognitive neuroscience and the integration of memory's duality.

  Authors: Jefferson A Singer, Martin A Conway

  The International journal of psycho-analysis. 10/2011; 92(5):1183-207.

  Both Loewald's relational theory of memory and the Self-Memory System (SMS) of cognitive neuroscience describe a dual memory system, one system that is experience-near sensory-perceptual, and theBoth Loewald's relational theory of memory and the Self-Memory System (SMS) of cognitive neuroscience describe a dual memory system, one system that is experience-near sensory-perceptual, and the other, symbolic and conceptual. In contrast to perspectives that locate therapeutic action in either altering implicit procedural memories or interpreting explicit historical content, we argue that psychological health emerges from effective integration of both memory systems, achieved through a combination of transference dynamics and analytic insight. We support this position by elaborating four key assumptions of the loewaldian and SMS perspectives, followed by application to a clinical example. We highlight the power of certain integrative autobiographical memories called 'self-defining memories' in assisting an understanding of transference dynamics and providing metaphoric touchstones to guide subsequent treatment.

• Self-defining memories related to illness and their integration into the self in patients with schizophrenia.

  Authors: Fabrice Berna, Mehdi Bennouna-Greene, Jevita Potheegadoo, Paulina Verry, Martin A Conway, Jean-Marie Danion

  Psychiatry research. 04/2011; 189(1):49-54.

  Although schizophrenia alters the sense of personal identity, little is known about the impact of illness-related autobiographical events on patients' self-representation. We investigatedAlthough schizophrenia alters the sense of personal identity, little is known about the impact of illness-related autobiographical events on patients' self-representation. We investigated self-defining memories (SDM) in 24 patients with schizophrenia and 24 controls to explore how illness-related SDM were integrated into the self at both the cognitive (how participants are able to give a meaning to past events: meaning making) and affective levels (how participants can re-experience past negative events as less negative: redemption and benefaction effects). We found that 26% of freely recalled SDM referred to their illness in patients. Further, while meaning making was impaired in patients for both illness-related and other SDM, illness-related SDM were characterized by a higher redemption and benefaction effects than other SDM. Our results highlight that despite a reduced ability to give a meaning to illness-related episodes, emotional processing seems to allow these events to become positively integrated into patients' life stories. This study provides new findings about the construction of the self in relation to psychotic episodes in patients with schizophrenia. We discuss clinical implications of our results that are helpful to guide cognitive interventions.

• Impaired ability to give a meaning to personally significant events in patients with schizophrenia.

  Authors: Fabrice Berna, Mehdi Bennouna-Greene, Jevita Potheegadoo, Paulina Verry, Martin A Conway, Jean-Marie Danion

  Consciousness and cognition. 04/2011; 20(3):703-11.

  Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness affecting sense of identity. Autobiographical memory deficits observed in schizophrenia could contribute to this altered sense of identity. The ability toSchizophrenia is a severe mental illness affecting sense of identity. Autobiographical memory deficits observed in schizophrenia could contribute to this altered sense of identity. The ability to give a meaning to personally significant events (meaning making) is also critical for identity construction and self-coherence. Twenty-four patients with schizophrenia and 24 control participants were asked to recall five self-defining memories. We assessed meaning making in participants' narratives (spontaneous meaning making) and afterwards asked them explicitly to give a meaning to their memories (cued meaning making). We found that both spontaneous and cued meaning making were impaired in patients with schizophrenia. This impairment was correlated with executive dysfunctions and level of negative symptoms. Our results suggest that patients' difficulties in drawing lessons about past experiences could contribute to explain the lack of coherence observed in their life trajectories and their impaired social adjustment abilities. Implications for psychotherapy are also discussed.

• Remembering and imagining: the role of the self.

  Authors: Clare J Rathbone, Martin A Conway, Chris J A Moulin

  Consciousness and cognition. 03/2011; 20(4):1175-82.

  This study investigated whether temporal clustering of autobiographical memories (AMs) around periods of self-development (Rathbone, Moulin, & Conway, 2008, 2009) would also occur when imaginingThis study investigated whether temporal clustering of autobiographical memories (AMs) around periods of self-development (Rathbone, Moulin, & Conway, 2008, 2009) would also occur when imagining future events associated with the self. Participants completed an AM task and future thinking task. In both tasks, memories and future events were cued using participant-generated identity statements (e.g., I am a student; I will be a mother). Participants then dated their memories and future events, and finally gave an age at which each identity statement was judged to emerge. Dates of memories and future events were recoded as temporal distance from the identity statement used to cue them. AMs and future events both clustered robustly around periods of self-development, indicating the powerful organisational effect of the self. We suggest that life narrative structures are used to organise future events as well as memories.

• First words and first memories.

  Authors: Catriona M Morrison, Martin A Conway

  Cognition. 04/2010; 116(1):23-32.

  In two experiments autobiographical memories from childhood were recalled to cue words naming common objects, locations, activities and emotions. Participants recalled their earliest specific memoryIn two experiments autobiographical memories from childhood were recalled to cue words naming common objects, locations, activities and emotions. Participants recalled their earliest specific memory associated with each word and dated their age at the time of the remembered event. A striking and specific finding emerged: age of earliest memory was systematically later, by several months, than the age of acquisition of the word to which it was associated. This was the case for earlier and later acquired words, for all word types, and for younger as well as older adults. It is suggested that this systematic lag reflects the formation of conceptual knowledge that is abstracted from details represented in early episodic memories. It is not until such knowledge is formed that a word cue and the conceptual knowledge in long-term to which it corresponds, can be used to access specific episodic memories. The implications of this for understanding childhood amnesia and for theories of the development of autobiographical memory are considered.

• Consolidation of episodic memories during sleep: long-term effects of retrieval practice.

  Authors: Mihály Racsmány, Martin A Conway, Gyula Demeter

  Psychological science. 01/2010; 21(1):80-5.

  Two experiments investigated the long-term effects of retrieval practice. In the retrieval-practice procedure, selected items from a previously studied list are repeatedly recalled. The typicalTwo experiments investigated the long-term effects of retrieval practice. In the retrieval-practice procedure, selected items from a previously studied list are repeatedly recalled. The typical retrieval-practice effects are considerably enhanced memory for practiced items accompanied by low levels of recall, relative to baseline, for previously studied items that are associated with the practiced items but were not themselves practiced. The two experiments demonstrated that the former effect persisted over 12 hr; the latter effect also persisted over 12 hr, but only if a period of nocturnal sleep occurred during the retention interval. We propose that consolidation processes occurring during sleep, and possibly featuring some form of off-line rehearsal, mediate these long-term effects of retrieval practice.

• Improving metamemory in ageing and Parkinson's disease.

  Authors: Sarah J Smith, Celine Souchay, Martin A Conway

  Age and ageing. 11/2009;

• Episodic memories.

  Authors: Martin A Conway

  Neuropsychologia. 10/2009; 47(11):2305-13.

  An account of episodic memories is developed that focuses on the types of knowledge they represent, their properties, and the functions they might serve. It is proposed that episodic memories consistAn account of episodic memories is developed that focuses on the types of knowledge they represent, their properties, and the functions they might serve. It is proposed that episodic memories consist of episodic elements, summary records of experience often in the form of visual images, associated to a conceptual frame that provides a conceptual context. Episodic memories are embedded in a more complex conceptual system in which they can become the basis of autobiographical memories. However, the function of episodic memories is to keep a record of progress with short-term goals and access to most episodic memories is lost soon after their formation. Finally, it is suggested that developmentally episodic memories form the basis of the conceptual system and it is from sets of episodic memories that early non-verbal conceptual knowledge is abstracted.

• Overgeneral autobiographical memory in Parkinson's disease.

  Authors: Sarah J Smith, Celine Souchay, Martin A Conway

  Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior. 08/2009;

  Autobiographical memory (AM) concerns the ability to remember past events from one's own life and consists of autobiographical knowledge (personal facts) and autobiographical incidents (personalAutobiographical memory (AM) concerns the ability to remember past events from one's own life and consists of autobiographical knowledge (personal facts) and autobiographical incidents (personal events). The novelty of this research was to assess both personal factual and personal event AM in Parkinson's disease (PD) for specified lifetime periods. An autobiographical fluency task was used in which participants were asked to recall personal events and personal facts from five separate lifetime periods. Previous findings as well the brain regions affected in PD lead to the hypothesis that Parkinson's patients would recall less autobiographical memories especially for the most recent lifetime periods. Sixteen non-demented and non-depressed Parkinson's patients and sixteen age-education-matched controls participated. The results showed a temporal gradient for the recall of personal events in Parkinson's patients as they recalled fewer events for recent time periods. The PD group also had more difficulties in recalling autobiographical events rather than an autobiographical knowledge. The difficulty in recalling autobiographical events was characterized by overgenerality, with PD patients failing to generate specific episodic memories.

• The self and dreams during a period of transition.

  Authors: Caroline L Horton, Christopher J A Moulin, Martin A Conway

  Consciousness and cognition. 08/2009;

  The content of dreams and changes to the self were investigated in students moving to University. In study 1, 20 participants completed dream diaries and memory tasks before and after they had leftThe content of dreams and changes to the self were investigated in students moving to University. In study 1, 20 participants completed dream diaries and memory tasks before and after they had left home and moved to university, and generated self images, "I am..." statements (e.g. I am an undergraduate), reflective of their current self. Changes in "I ams" were observed, indicating a newly-formed 'university' self. These self, images and related autobiographical knowledge were found to be incorporated into recent dreams but not into dreams from other periods. Study 2 replicated these findings in a different sample (N=55). We suggest that these data reflect a period of self-consolidation in which new experiences and self images are incorporated into autobiographical memory knowledge structures representing personal goals during sleep.

• Self-centered memories: The reminiscence bump and the self.

  Authors: Clare J Rathbone, Chris J A Moulin, Martin A Conway

  Memory & cognition. 01/2009; 36(8):1403-14.

  The self-memory relationship is thought to be bidirectional, in such a way that memories provide context for the self, and equally, the self exercises control over retrieval (Conway, 2005).The self-memory relationship is thought to be bidirectional, in such a way that memories provide context for the self, and equally, the self exercises control over retrieval (Conway, 2005). Autobiographical memories are not distributed equally across the life span; instead, memories peak between ages 10 and 30. This reminiscence bump has been suggested to support the emergence of a stable and enduring self. In the present study, the relationship between memory accessibility and self was explored with a novel methodology that used generation of self images in the form of I am statements. Memories generated from I am cues clustered around the time of emergence for that particular self image. We argue that, when a new self-image is formed, it is associated with the encoding of memories that are relevant to that self and that remain highly accessible to the rememberer later in life. This study offers a new methodology for academics and clinicians interested in the relationship between memory and identity.

• Memory awareness following episodic inhibition.

  Authors: Mihály Racsmány, Martin A Conway, Edit A Garab, Gábor Nagymáté

  Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006). 05/2008; 61(4):525-34.

  Three experiments used directed forgetting (DF) and retrieval practice (RP) to investigate the relation of inhibited items to states of memory awareness occurring at test. In Experiment 1 using listThree experiments used directed forgetting (DF) and retrieval practice (RP) to investigate the relation of inhibited items to states of memory awareness occurring at test. In Experiment 1 using list DF robust inhibitory effects were present in cued recall, but in a recognition test these effects were only present in responses accompanied by recollective experience. In Experiments 2 and 3 using RP reliable effects of inhibition were found but these did not relate systematically to states of memory awareness. It is suggested that in DF the to-be-forgotten items are tagged at study as not to be recollectively experienced and so have a specific, inhibitory, relation to states of recollective experience occurring during test. In RP no tagging takes place, and inhibition is automatic or nonintentional and consequently does not have a specific relation to states of memory awareness at test.

• Disrupted memory inhibition in schizophrenia.

  Authors: Mihály Racsmány, Martin A Conway, Edit A Garab, Csongor Cimmer, Zoltán Janka, Tamás Kurimay, Csaba Pléh, István Szendi

  Schizophrenia research. 05/2008; 101(1-3):218-24.

  A feature of schizophrenia is disrupted executive function leading to learning difficulties and memory problems. In two experiments we measured the ability of patients with schizophrenia to suppressA feature of schizophrenia is disrupted executive function leading to learning difficulties and memory problems. In two experiments we measured the ability of patients with schizophrenia to suppress irrelevant parts of acquired information by intentional (executive) and autonomic (non-executive) strategies. In the first experiment using directed forgetting by lists patients were found to be unable to intentionally suppress recently acquired episodic memories. In a second experiment using a procedure that induces inhibition automatically schizophrenic patients showed levels of inhibition comparable to those of normal controls. These findings indicate that in schizophrenia memory is most impaired in tasks that load heavily on control or executive processes.

• Autobiographical memory of adolescence and early adulthood events: an investigation in schizophrenia.

  Authors: Christine Cuervo-Lombard, Nicolas Jovenin, Guy Hedelin, Lydia Rizzo-Peter, Martin A Conway, Jean-Marie Danion

  Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS. 04/2007; 13(2):335-43.

  The reminiscence bump corresponds to a marked increase in autobiographical memories of events that occurred when normal people were aged 10 to 30 years, a critical period for the formation ofThe reminiscence bump corresponds to a marked increase in autobiographical memories of events that occurred when normal people were aged 10 to 30 years, a critical period for the formation of identity. The reminiscence bump was studied in 27 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and 27 control participants. They were asked to recall 20 specific autobiographical events that had occurred during their lifetime and to indicate the subjective states of awareness associated with the recalled memories using the Remember/Know procedure. Finally, participants were asked to state whether recalled memories related to private or public events. Patients diagnosed with schizophrenia recalled less specific memories than controls and exhibited an earlier reminiscence bump. They recalled more public, and less private events than controls, and they gave fewer Remember responses. The reminiscence bump peaked in the 16 to 25-year period for patients and the 21 to 25-year period for controls. These findings indicate that patients diagnosed with schizophrenia exhibit an early and abnormal reminiscence bump, with an impairment of conscious recollection associated with memories highly relevant to personal identity. They suggest that schizophrenia is associated with an impairment of autobiographical memories of events that had occurred during the last stage of personal identity development.

• Episodic inhibition.

  Authors: Mihály Racsmány, Martin A Conway

  Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition. 02/2006; 32(1):44-57.

  Six experiments examined the proposal that an item of long-term knowledge can be simultaneously inhibited and activated. In 2 directed forgetting experiments items to-be-forgotten were found to beSix experiments examined the proposal that an item of long-term knowledge can be simultaneously inhibited and activated. In 2 directed forgetting experiments items to-be-forgotten were found to be inhibited in list-cued recall but activated in lexical decision tasks. In 3 retrieval practice experiments, unpracticed items from practiced categories were found to be inhibited in category-cued recall but were primed in lexical decision. If, however, the primes and targets in lexical decision were taken directly from the study list, inhibition was observed. Finally, it was found that when items highly associated with a study list were processed in between study and test, no inhibition in recall was present. These, and a broad range of other findings, can be explained by the concept of "episodic inhibition," which proposes that episodic memories retain copies of semantic knowledge structures that preserve patterns of activation/inhibition originally generated in those structures during encoding. ((c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).

• Disordered memory awareness: recollective confabulation in two cases of persistent déjà vecu.

  Authors: Christopher J A Moulin, Martin A Conway, Rebecca G Thompson, Niamh James, Roy W Jones

  Neuropsychologia. 02/2005; 43(9):1362-78.

  We describe two cases of false recognition in patients with dementia and diffuse temporal lobe pathology who report their memory difficulty as being one of persistent déjà vecu--the sensation thatWe describe two cases of false recognition in patients with dementia and diffuse temporal lobe pathology who report their memory difficulty as being one of persistent déjà vecu--the sensation that they have lived through the present moment before. On a number of recognition tasks, the patients were found to have high levels of false positives. They also made a large number of guess responses but otherwise appeared metacognitively intact. Informal reports suggested that the episodes of déjà vecu were characterised by sensations similar to those present when the past is recollectively experienced in normal remembering. Two further experiments found that both patients had high levels of recollective experience for items they falsely recognized. Most strikingly, they were likely to recollectively experience incorrectly recognised low frequency words, suggesting that their false recognition was not driven by familiarity processes or vague sensations of having encountered events and stimuli before. Importantly, both patients made reasonable justifications for their false recognitions both in the experiments and in their everyday lives and these we term 'recollective confabulation'. Thus, the patients are characterised by false recognition, overextended recollective experience, and recollective confabulation. These features are accounted for in terms of disrupted control of memory awareness and recollective states, possibly following brain damage to fronto-temporal circuits and we extend this account to normally and abnormally occurring states of déjà vu and vecu and related memory experiences.

• Assessing the inhibitory account of retrieval-induced forgetting with implicit-memory tests.

  Authors: Timothy J Perfect, Christopher J A Moulin, Martin A Conway, Elizabeth Perry

  Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition. 12/2002; 28(6):1111-9.

  Five experiments examined whether retrieval-induced-forgetting effects are observed for implicit tests of memory. In each experiment participants first studied category-exemplar paired associates,Five experiments examined whether retrieval-induced-forgetting effects are observed for implicit tests of memory. In each experiment participants first studied category-exemplar paired associates, then practiced retrieval for a subset of items from a subset of categories before finally completing memory tests for all the studied items. In standard fashion, inhibition was measured as the performance difference of unpracticed items from practiced categories and unpracticed items from unpracticed categories. Across the 5 experiments poorer performance for unpracticed items was seen in conceptual implicit memory (category generation and category matching) but not in perceptual implicit memory (stem completion, perceptual identification). Thus, retrieval-induced-forgetting effects are limited to tests of conceptual memory.

• Retrieval-induced forgetting in Alzheimer's disease.

  Authors: Chris J A Moulin, Timothy J Perfect, Martin A Conway, Alice S North, Roy W Jones, Niamh James

  Neuropsychologia. 02/2002; 40(7):862-7.

  It is claimed that Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients show reduced inhibitory processing and this has been put forward as a reason why AD patients make intrusion errors at recall. However, theIt is claimed that Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients show reduced inhibitory processing and this has been put forward as a reason why AD patients make intrusion errors at recall. However, the evidence to date has been equivocal, because non-inhibitory mechanisms can account for the pattern of findings. Recently, however, a paradigm has been developed that is claimed to give a purer measure of inhibitory processing in episodic memory, the retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) paradigm [Inhibitory Processes in Attention, Memory and Language, Academic Press, San Diego, 1994, p. 265; J. Exp. Psychol.: Learning, Memory Cognition 20 (1994) 1063; Psychol. Rev. 102 (1995) 68]. Thus, we were interested whether AD patients would show a deficit in inhibitory processing using this procedure. Participants studied lists of category cue-exemplar pairs (e.g. fruit-orange) then practised retrieval for a subset of items from a subset of categories before taking a final memory test for all studied items. As in previous work, inhibition was measured as the difference between final memory performance for unpractised items from practised categories, and unpractised items from unpractised categories. The results show that AD patients showed normal levels of inhibition with both tests of cued recall and category generation (CG). This suggests that a deficit in inhibitory processes during retrieval is not behind the high levels of intrusion errors made in recall in AD.