title: The Benefits of Targeted Memory Reactivation for Consolidation in Sleep are Contingent on Memory Accuracy and Direct Cue-Memory Associations.
abstract: To investigate how the effects of targeted memory reactivation (TMR) are influenced by memory accuracy prior to sleep and the presence or absence of direct cue-memory associations.
  
  
  
  30 participants associated each of 50 pictures with an unrelated word and then with a screen location in two separate tasks. During picture-location training, each picture was also presented with a semantically related sound. The sounds were therefore directly associated with the picture locations but indirectly associated with the words. During a subsequent nap, half of the sounds were replayed in slow wave sleep (SWS). The effect of TMR on memory for the picture locations (direct cue-memory associations) and picture-word pairs (indirect cue-memory associations) was then examined.
  
  
  
  TMR reduced overall memory decay for recall of picture locations. Further analyses revealed a benefit of TMR for picture locations recalled with a low degree of accuracy prior to sleep, but not those recalled with a high degree of accuracy. The benefit of TMR for low accuracy memories was predicted by time spent in SWS. There was no benefit of TMR for memory of the picture-word pairs, irrespective of memory accuracy prior to sleep.
  
  
  
  TMR provides the greatest benefit to memories recalled with a low degree of accuracy prior to sleep. The memory benefits of TMR may also be contingent on direct cue-memory associations.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of York, United Kingdom.
authors: Scott A
authors: SA
authors: Cairney
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Hull, United Kingdom.
authors: Shane
authors: S
authors: Lindsay
authors: Department of Psychology, University of York, United Kingdom.
authors: Justyna M
authors: JM
authors: Sobczak
authors: Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
authors: Ken A
authors: KA
authors: Paller
authors: Department of Psychology, University of York, United Kingdom.
authors: M Gareth
authors: MG
authors: Gaskell
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000069077:Memory Consolidation / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012660:Semantics; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D013016:Sound; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: consolidation; memory; reactivation; slow wave sleep