If people have been exposed to the wrong cues, they can have difficulties activating a memory (Anderson 1995).
Here, we chose contexts that made the critical stimulus item either part of a meaningful word, thus activating a memory network in the brain, or part of a noise stimulus, therefore also changing its perceptual characteristics.
Of course, many of us are able to activate a musical memory when required – for instance, if I asked you whether the third note in Happy Birthday was higher or lower than the fourth, you would probably be able to summon up the tune – but to have it playing constantly like that is rare: one survey we did suggests that less than 5% of people experience it.
In two new studies, researchers have found a way to stimulate the brains of rodents to activate a specific memory trace.
Indeed, it is possible that in a context of semantic priming, that is, by providing a semantic clue to activate a specific memory link, the uniqueness of proper name information promotes rather than retards the fast retrieval of the second item of a pair embodying a unique referent (e.g. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER).
Now Scientific American reports on the use of light to "activate an old memory" and control behavior (in mice, so far).
This implies that when learning a skill, a variable follow-through would activate multiple motor memories across practice, whereas a consistent follow-through would activate a single motor memory, resulting in faster learning.
At the same time, they laser-activated a neutral memory of a box that mouse had been in earlier, but was not in at that moment.
Previous studies have suggested that integration of stimulus features activates a respective memory content (for a detailed discussion see e.g. [9], [32]).
It must cause a computer to do something like display items on screen, store a particular pattern in a memory, or activate a peripheral device: it must provide a technical effect.
