title: Inhalation of 30% nitrous oxide impairs people's learning without impairing people's judgments of what will be remembered.
abstract: Many hypotheses have been proposed to account for the effects of nitrous oxide on memory, with one emerging possibility being that it has a global effect on memory-related functioning. This possibility was explored by examining the effects of nitrous oxide on memory performance and on the accuracy of people's judgments about their memory performance. Participants inhaled 30% nitrous oxide or a placebo gas while items were studied and while judgments were made about the likelihood of recall for each item. Next, all participants inhaled the placebo during paired-associate recall. Although administration of nitrous oxide during study impaired recall, it did not affect the predictive accuracy of the metacognitive judgments. These results provide pharmacological evidence for a distinction between memory and metamemory.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA. j_dunlos@goodall.uncg.edu
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dunlosky
authors.forename: P K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Domoto
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ishikawa
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Roberson
authors.forename: T O
authors.initials: TO
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Ramsay
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D018685:Anesthetics, Inhalation / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000187:drug effects*; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects*; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000187:drug effects*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000187:drug effects; D009609:Nitrous Oxide / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D018685:Anesthetics, Inhalation; D009609:Nitrous Oxide