SELECTIVE INTERFERENCE DURING MEMORY CONSOLIDATION OF NOVEL WORDS IN ADULTS

KACZER LAURA; HOCHMAN EITHAN; BAVASSI LUZ; PEDREIRA, MARÍA EUGENIA

chicago

Congreso; Seventh annual meeting of the Society for the Neurobiology of Language; 2015

Memory consolidation is a gradual, time-dependent reorganization process by which newly acquired information becomes stable. It has been proposed that consolidation plays an important role in the establishment of novel words as functional long term lexical memories (e.g. Davis & Gaskell, 2009). However, it is possible to conceive that not all components of a new word (i.e., its orthography, phonology and semantics) are equally consolidated. In the present study we used an interference procedure designed to impair memory consolidation and analyzed how this interference affected the word-form memory (phonology and orthography) and the semantic memory. Native speakers of Spanish (19-35 years) were instructed to learn nine new words (e.g. ?pefaro?), visually presented, each associated with a picture of a novel object and a definition (e.g. ?pefaro is a tropical bird?). A short term memory test was performed 5 min after learning, and a long term memory test took place 48 h after. During testing participants were instructed to name aloud the pictures (word form test), and recall the definitions when given the corresponding word name (semantics test). The interference consisted of a similar learning task, including nine novel words associated with pictures and definitions. It was presented at different times after the end of the first learning session: 5min, 30min, or 24h, each performed to a different group of participants (N= 15 in each case). These groups were compared with a control group that only learned the first set of words. Our results show that only the word-form memory was affected by the interference treatment, while the semantic memory was immune to the treatment. The interference was found to be time limited, being evident in the 5min and 30min group, but not in the 24h group. Our results suggest a dissociation between the memory systems involved in novel word learning. On the one hand, the semantic memory would be formed rapidly (probably by a fast mapping process), while the word form memory would form gradually and imply a system consolidation process.