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Paula Pedic
University of Zadar, Croatia
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Neurol Clin Neurosci
Statement of the Problem: Aristotle once said that memory is the scribe of the soul. Memory indeed is one of the core cognitive abilities in human beings and as such, it is important to preserve it. It has been shown that stabilization of memory traces is closely related to sleep. If sleep really does play a role in memory consolidation, the question that arises is: what happens to memory if sleep is distorted? One of the most common sleep disorders is primary insomnia. It has been shown that memory of patients with primary insomnia is impaired, especially after interfering tasks. However, metamemory beliefs of those patients still remain unexamined. That is why the focus of this study was to reveal the metamemory beliefs of those students who suffer from primary insomnia, compared to healthy students. After an entrance examination, all of the subjects filled in Athens scale questionnaire and were then asked to learn a declarative memory task. Subject’s overnight memory change was tested in the morning, followed by metamemory beliefs examination. It was hypothesized that, compared to healthy subjects, students who suffer from primary insomnia will overestimate their declarative memory abilities.
Findings: Metamemory calibration (correlations between memory predictions and performance) was examined in both, healthy subjects and subject with primary insomnia. The results indicated that calibration efficiency really was decreased in subject with primary insomnia.
Conclusion & Significance: Students need to be aware of their own memory abilities. Learning and memory are two interconnected constructs thus diminished metamemory abilities can lead to diminished learning potential.
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