Boosting long-term memory via wakeful rest: intentional rehearsal is not necessary, consolidation is sufficient.

ABSTRACT: People perform better on tests of delayed free recall if learning is followed immediately by a short wakeful rest than by a short period of sensory stimulation. Animal and human work suggests that wakeful resting provides optimal conditions for the consolidation of recently acquired memories. However, an alternative account cannot be ruled out, namely that wakeful resting provides optimal conditions for intentional rehearsal of recently acquired memories, thus driving superior memory. Here we utilised non-recallable words to examine whether wakeful rest boosts long-term memory, even when new memories could not be rehearsed intentionally during the wakeful rest delay. The probing of non-recallable words requires a recognition paradigm. Therefore, we first established, via Experiment 1, that

SUBMITTER: Dewar M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4198139 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature