Adam C Savine’s research while affiliated with Washington University in St. Louis and other places

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Publications (9)


Retraction of Savine, McDaniel, Shelton, and Scullin (2012).
  • Article

November 2013

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63 Reads

Journal of Experimental Psychology General

Adam C. Savine

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Jill Talley Shelton

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Michael K. Scullin

Reports the retraction of "A characterization of individual differences in prospective memory monitoring using the Complex Ongoing Serial Task" by Adam C. Savine, Mark A. McDaniel, Jill Talley Shelton and Michael K. Scullin (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 2012[May], Vol 141[2], 337-362). The following article from the May 2012 issue is being retracted. This retraction follows the results of an investigation into the work of Adam C. Savine, published in the Federal Register by the Office of Research Integrity on March 7, 2013. The Office of Research Integrity found that Adam C. Savine engaged in research misconduct by falsifying results to show that prospective memory is influenced by three dissociable underlying monitoring patterns, which are stable within individuals over time and are influenced by personality and cognitive differences. Data were modified to support the three category model and to show (1) that individuals fitting into each of the three categories exhibited differential patterns of prospective memory performance and ongoing task performance in Tables 1–3 and Figures 5–8; and (2) that certain cognitive and personality differences were predictive of distinct monitoring approaches within the three categories in Figure 9. His co-authors were unaware of his actions and were not involved in falsifying data. (The abstract of the original article appeared in record 2011-25213-001.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)



RETRACTED ARTICLE: Local and global effects of motivation on cognitive control

August 2012

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66 Reads

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7 Citations

Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience

Motivation has been found to enhance cognitive control, but the mechanisms by which this occurs are still poorly understood. Cued motivational incentives (e.g., monetary rewards) can modulate cognitive processing locally-that is, on a trial-by-trial basis (incentive cue effect). Recently, motivational incentives have also been found to produce more global and tonic changes in performance, as evidenced by performance benefits on nonincentive trials occurring within incentive blocks (incentive context effect). In two experiments involving incentivized cued task switching, we provide systematic evidence that the two effects are dissociable. Through behavioral, diffusion-modeling, and individual-differences analyses, we found dissociations between local and global motivational effects that were linked to specific properties of the incentive signals (i.e., timing), while also ruling out alternative interpretations (e.g., practice and speed-accuracy trade-off effects). These results provide important clues regarding the neural mechanisms by which motivation exerts both global and local influences on cognitive control.


A Characterization of Individual Differences in Prospective Memory Monitoring Using the Complex Ongoing Serial Task
  • Article
  • Publisher preview available

November 2011

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45 Reads

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11 Citations

Journal of Experimental Psychology General

Prospective memory--remembering to retrieve and execute future goals--is essential to daily life. Prospective remembering is often achieved through effortful monitoring; however, potential individual differences in monitoring patterns have not been characterized. We propose 3 candidate models to characterize the individual differences present in prospective memory monitoring: attentional focus, secondary memory retrieval, and information thresholding. Two experiments using a novel paradigm, the Complex Ongoing Serial Task (COST), investigated the resource allocation patterns underlying individual differences in monitoring. Individuals exhibited differential resource allocation patterns, and the differences remained relatively stable across experimental sessions. Resource allocation patterns associated with information thresholding (high prospective memory, preserved ongoing task performance) and attentional focus (high prospective memory, inefficient ongoing task performance) were superior to secondary memory retrieval (low prospective memory, very inefficient ongoing task performance). Importantly, personality (openness, prevention focus) and cognitive (primary, working, and secondary memory) individual differences influenced monitoring patterns. This research represents the first explicit attempt to elucidate individual differences in prospective memory monitoring patterns.

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Fig. 1 Example face stimuli from Experiment 1 (computer generated; Yarkoni, personal communication) and Experiments 2-4 (http://pics. psych.stir.ac.uk/) 
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Survival processing of faces

June 2011

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290 Reads

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61 Citations

Memory & Cognition

The mnemonic benefit of rating words according to their relevance in a survival scenario is well documented (e.g., Nairne, Thompson, & Pandeirada, 2007). The present study examined whether the survival processing effect would extend to face stimuli. We tested this hypothesis in five experiments, using multiple survival and control scenarios, real and computer-generated face sets, within- and between-subjects designs, and several memory tests, as well as free recall of survival-relevant and survival-neutral attribute statements written about the person. Although the standard survival processing effect was obtained for survival-relevant and neutral attribute statements, the survival processing effect was not obtained for face memory across all experiments. These results identify an important boundary condition for survival processing benefits.


Figure 1. 
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Figure 4. 
Motivated Cognitive Control: Reward Incentives Modulate Preparatory Neural Activity during Task-Switching

August 2010

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112 Reads

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107 Citations

The Journal of Neuroscience : The Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience

It is increasingly appreciated that executive control processes need to be understood in terms of motivational as well as cognitive mechanisms. The current study examined the impact of performance-contingent reward incentives (monetary bonuses) on neural activity dynamics during cued task-switching performance. Behavioral measures indicated that performance was improved and task-switch costs selectively reduced on incentive trials. Trial-by-trial fluctuations in incentive value were associated with activation in reward-related brain regions (dopaminergic midbrain, paracingulate cortex) and also modulated the dynamics of switch-selective activation in the brain cognitive control network. Within lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), both additive (inferior frontal junction) and interactive [dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC)] incentive effects were observed. In DLPFC, incentive modulation of activation predicted task-switching behavioral performance, but with hemispherically dissociable effects. Furthermore, in left DLPFC, incentive modulation specifically enhanced task-cue-related activation, and this activation in turn predicted that the trial would be subsequently rewarded (because of optimal performance). The results suggest that motivational incentives have a selective effect on brain regions that subserve cognitive control processes during task-switching and, moreover, that one mechanism of effect might be the enhancement of cue-related task preparation within left DLPFC.


Beck SM, Locke HS, Savine AC, Jimura K, Braver TS. Primary and secondary rewards differentially modulate neural activity dynamics during working memory. Plos One 5: e9251

February 2010

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174 Reads

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126 Citations

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Hannah S Locke

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Adam C Savine

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Todd S Braver

Cognitive control and working memory processes have been found to be influenced by changes in motivational state. Nevertheless, the impact of different motivational variables on behavior and brain activity remains unclear. The current study examined the impact of incentive category by varying on a within-subjects basis whether performance during a working memory task was reinforced with either secondary (monetary) or primary (liquid) rewards. The temporal dynamics of motivation-cognition interactions were investigated by employing an experimental design that enabled isolation of sustained and transient effects. Performance was dramatically and equivalently enhanced in each incentive condition, whereas neural activity dynamics differed between incentive categories. The monetary reward condition was associated with a tonic activation increase in primarily right-lateralized cognitive control regions including anterior prefrontal cortex (PFC), dorsolateral PFC, and parietal cortex. In the liquid condition, the identical regions instead showed a shift in transient activation from a reactive control pattern (primary probe-based activation) during no-incentive trials to proactive control (primary cue-based activation) during rewarded trials. Additionally, liquid-specific tonic activation increases were found in subcortical regions (amygdala, dorsal striatum, nucleus accumbens), indicating an anatomical double dissociation in the locus of sustained activation. These different activation patterns suggest that primary and secondary rewards may produce similar behavioral changes through distinct neural mechanisms of reinforcement. Further, our results provide new evidence for the flexibility of cognitive control, in terms of the temporal dynamics of activation.


Figure 1. Task Structure 
Figure 2. Incentive Modulation of Cognitive Control 
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Figure 4. Correlations 
Enhancement of cognitive control by approach and avoidance motivational states

February 2010

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179 Reads

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90 Citations

Affective variables have been shown to impact working memory and cognitive control. Theoretical arguments suggest that the functional impact of emotion on cognition might be mediated through shifting action dispositions related to changes in motivational orientation. The current study examined the effects of positive and negative affect on performance via direct manipulation of motivational state in tasks with high demands on cognitive control. Experiment 1 examined the effects of monetary reward on task-switching performance, while Experiment 2 examined the effects of both rewards and punishments on working memory, using primary (liquid) reinforcers. In both experiments, dissociable trial-by-trial and contextual (block-related) enhancements of cognitive control during task performance were observed in relationship to motivational incentive value. Performance enhancements were equivalent in the reward and punishment conditions, but were differentially impacted by individual difference measures of trait reward and punishment sensitivity. Together, the results suggest both common and specific mechanisms by which approach and avoidance motivational states influence cognitive control, via activation of reward and punishment processing systems.


Citations (7)


... (Savine & Braver, 2013). Similar effects were obtained with respect to episodic memory ...

Reference:

Chapter 4 - Towards a Mechanistic Understanding of Age-Related Changes in Learning and Decision Making: A Neuro-Computational Approach. A Neuro-Computational Approach.
Local and global effects of motivation on cognitive control (Retraction of vol 12, pg 692, 2012)
  • Citing Article
  • September 2013

Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience

... Our nine treatment principles are also in keeping with recent developments within the CRT literature, where it is has been found that the therapeutic relationship, emotional state, and the motivation of participants, in addition to an emphasis on skills transfer, all play an important role in treatment success Huddy et al., 2012;Subramaniam et al., 2009;Savine and Braver, 2012;Medalia and Saperstein, 2011). For example, working alliance contributes to the success of CRT (Huddy et al., 2012); positive mood facilitates creative problems solving (Subramaniam et al., 2009); intrinsic motivation can be enhanced by providing a personalised context that links treatment with everyday life, and also by tailoring the intervention to the learning goals of each participant (Savine and Braver, 2012;Medalia and Saperstein, 2011); and functioning outcomes are best achieved by combining CRT with other rehabilitation programmes . ...

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Local and global effects of motivation on cognitive control
  • Citing Article
  • August 2012

Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience

... C has been found to be related to Updating/Monitoring (Jensen- Campbell et al. 2002), as well as with self-control (e.g., O'Gorman and Baxter 2002), a variable similar to Inhibition, and response inhibition (Avisar andShalev 2011). Finally, DeYoung et al. (2005), and Savine et al. (2011), suggested that O may be associated with both Cognitive Flexibility and Updating/Monitoring. Starting from this perspective, Murdock et al. (2013) recently extended available knowledge on the relationships between EF and personality traits administering sound measures of EF dimensions and FFM traits to 185 adults from a large Midwestern university. Murdock et al. (2013) reported evidence that Updating/Monitoring may represent a common underlying cognitive characteristic linked with N and O, whereas they did not observe any significant association between EF dimensions and FFM E, A, and C traits, respectively. ...

A Characterization of Individual Differences in Prospective Memory Monitoring Using the Complex Ongoing Serial Task

Journal of Experimental Psychology General

... In addition to animacy, mortality salience, and contamination, researchers have tested several other fitness-relevant problems for their mnemonic value, many of whichlike contaminationtest the memorability of individuals described in scenarios. Early examples of these studies suggested some limitations of the survival advantage, for example, Savine, Scullin, and Roediger (2011) showed memory advantages did not appear to extend to faces, including real or computer-generated faces, or descriptions of those faces (he is very good at reading maps), even when the scenarios involved hostile threats. Similarly, Hou and Liu's (2019) participants showed little differences in their memory for faces rated either trustworthy or untrustworthy, though survival processing generally promoted face memory relative to a non-survival hunting contest. ...

Reference:

Adaptive Memory
Survival processing of faces

Memory & Cognition

... The latter is considered preparatory control because it is recruited in anticipation of conflict that has not yet occurred, but that may occur in the future (i.e., on trial n). Evidence for frequent shifts of the level of preparatory control can also be seen in trial-by-trial changes in the level of activity in pFC in cued-task switching paradigms (e.g., Savine & Braver, 2010). ...

Motivated Cognitive Control: Reward Incentives Modulate Preparatory Neural Activity during Task-Switching

The Journal of Neuroscience : The Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience

... A proposed mechanism for this phenomenon has been that positive affect facilitates cognitive flexibility, whereas negative affect inhibits it (Kanske & Kotz, 2011). When incentives were used in a task-switching procedure as a way to motivate participants but also to evoke positive emotions, responses during the switch were faster with the incentive than in the condition without the incentive (Savine et al., 2010). Furthermore, it has been shown that increasing the reward in the task (causing a positive emotional reaction) resulted in reducing the time cost of the switch between the tasks, whereas reducing the reward (causing a negative emotional reaction) was tied to a larger time cost of the switch (Shen & Chun, 2011). ...

Enhancement of cognitive control by approach and avoidance motivational states

... Deficits in both hot and cool EF are strongly associated with abnormal behavioural response patterns [17][18][19]. Previous studies engaging the executive functions, such as response inhibition [20][21][22][23], cognitive flexibility [10,24], attention [25], or working memory [26,27], have shown performance to differ under different reward conditions (i.e., with vs. without reward incentives). However, these studies have mostly examined cool and hot EF in isolated conditions. ...

Beck SM, Locke HS, Savine AC, Jimura K, Braver TS. Primary and secondary rewards differentially modulate neural activity dynamics during working memory. Plos One 5: e9251