Effects of Brain-stimulation on Metamemory Monitoring and Control

NCT03693729 | Unknown

• 2 other identifiers: BrooklynCSC3GM121192
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 216
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

When people learn and remember information, it is often accompanied by a feeling of subjective confidence about whether or not information has been learned and accurately remembered. These subjective feelings of confidence are often related to actual memory performance, but are sometimes incorrect. The investigators have previously shown that applying high definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex leads to more accurate feelings of subjective confidence, at least when subjects are asked for their confidence about future memory performance. Accurate confidence judgments are useful in that they may later subsequent behavior, and inaccurate ones may be costly. For example, a student who erroneously believes that studied material was learned may stop studying and not do well on a test. Individuals who have a feeling-of-knowing about the answer to a general knowledge question will continue to search their memory, whereas individuals who do not have a feeling-of-knowing will stop searching their memory. Individuals who are confident they know the answer to a question are more likely to answer it. In this study, the experimenters are testing the effects of brain stimulation on subjective awareness of memory (termed metamemory monitoring) and how people use those subjective judgments (termed metamemory control). The approach taken is to have participants visit the laboratory on 3 visits and receive brain stimulation while completing memory and metamemory tasks.

Conditions

Healthy

Keywords

memory; metacognition; metamemory; transcranial direct current stimulation

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Memory Control Advantage Index

  This indexes the memory advantage for choosing which general knowledge question one receives a hint about the answer to versus having the experimenter choose which general knowledge question one receives a hint about the answer. The investigators will subtract the proportion of correctly recognized general knowledge answers for experimenter-chosen questions from the proportion correctly recognized for participant-chosen questions

  Through study completion, an average of 3 weeks

Secondary Outcomes (3)

• semantic recognition as assessed by a general knowledge task

  Through study completion, an average of 3 weeks

• semantic recall as assessed by a general knowledge task

  Through study completion, an average of 3 weeks

• Feeling-of-knowing ratings and their accuracy

  Through study completion, an average of 3 weeks

Study Arms (3)

Active DLPFC during task

EXPERIMENTAL

HD-tDCS will be applied over the DLPFC at 2mA in a single session for up to 30 min during the memory and metamemory task

Device: HD-tDCS

Active DLPFC after task

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

HD-tDCS will be applied over the DLPFC at 2mA in a single session for up to 30 min after the memory and metamemory task and during a filler task.

Device: HD-tDCS

Sham DLPFC during task

SHAM COMPARATOR

Sham HD-tDCS will be applied over the DLPFC at 2mA in a single session for up to 30 min during the memory and metamemory task

Device: HD-tDCS

Interventions

HD-tDCS DEVICE

Participants will complete a metamemory and memory task

Also known as: Behavioral

Active DLPFC after task; Active DLPFC during task; Sham DLPFC during task

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 35 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• Healthy, right-handed adults ages 18-35. English spoken since age 5. Normal or corrected-to-normal vision.

You may not qualify if:

• Participants will be excluded if they have chronic skin disease or a medical skin condition, or an unhealed open wound on the scalp, face, neck, or forehead near the electrode location.
• Participants will be excluded if they self-report significant medical, neurological, or psychiatric illness and/or a history of substance abuse

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Brooklyn College of the City University of New York: lead
• National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS): collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Brooklyn College

Brooklyn, New York, 11210, United States

Location

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: CROSSOVER
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Associate Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: September 21, 2018
• First Posted: October 3, 2018
• Study Start: September 3, 2018
• Primary Completion: June 30, 2022
• Study Completion: June 30, 2022
• Last Updated: July 10, 2020

Record last verified: 2020-07

Locations

US (1)