Modulatory effect of novelty on episodic memory and creativity tasks

DANIELA RAMIREZ BUTAVAND; BALLARINI, FABRICIO; PEDRO BEKINSCHTEIN

Mar del Plata

Congreso; XXXII Congreso Anual SAN 2017; 2017

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias

Recent studies in neuroimaging show that imagination, creativity, and episodic memory share neural networks. Motivated by this andbased on previous results from our laboratory, we studied the effect of novelty in memory and imagination. We used a declarative memory task (Rey-Osterrieth complex figure), a convergent thinking task (Remote Association Test), a divergent thinking task (Uses Alternative Test) and an imaginationof scenes task. The latter was evaluated across different age ranges from 6 to 90 years. Preliminary results show an enhancing effect of novelty onboth retrieval of declarative memory and on divergent thinking. In the convergent thinking task, a positive effect was only observed in the more difficult items, but not in the easier ones. In the task of imagination of scenes, children (5-6 years) and elderly people (70-90 years) obtained similar scores,smaller than those found in adolescents (13-14 years) and young adults (20-30 years). Interestingly, novelty increased the number of reported entitiesby children to values that matched the ones observed in the rest of the groups. In conclusion, novelty enhanced retrieval of a declarative memory,divergent thinking and also convergent thinking, but only for the more difficult items. In addition, novelty was able to increase imagination of scenes inchildren.