Procesos automáticos y controlados en la memoria a corto plazo espacial de los animales. Un estudio sobre el olvido dirigido

Abstract

Directed forgetting has been taken as a proof of controlled rehearsal operations in animal working memory. Contradictory evidence obtained when a spatial alternation procedure is used throws certain doubts about the controlled nature of such operations. In this paper it is claimed that subjects do not rehearsal when they have to alternate visited places but they do when they have to persist. In our experiment a T-maze with a lengthened stem divided by the start box located in the middle is employed. Subjects in a first forced run must go from the start box towards one of the maze arms. In a second run with a forget cue they must go backwards and with a remember cue they must go forwards in order to choose between both arms. Subjects in alternation group must choose the oposite arm to the one they went in the forced run and subjects in the persistence group must go to the same arm. In probe trials with forget cue and choice we found that there is not impairment in performance for the alternation group. However in the persistence group the forget cue diminishes the percentage of hits in those probe trials. Our hypothesis that the rehearsal processes only take part in persistence, whereas the information processing in alternation is automatic is confirmed.