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The effect of sleep on item recognition and source memory recollection among shift‐workers and permanent day‐workers
Author(s) -
Mawdsley Matthew,
Grasby Katrina,
Talk Andrew
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of sleep research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.297
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1365-2869
pISSN - 0962-1105
DOI - 10.1111/jsr.12149
Subject(s) - recall , wakefulness , mnemonic , sleep (system call) , psychology , audiology , shift work , morning , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , medicine , psychiatry , electroencephalography , computer science , operating system
Summary We studied the effect of sleep versus wakefulness on item recognition and source memory recollection in a sample of shift‐workers and permanent day‐workers. Recognition of words that were previously viewed arrayed in quadrants of a page, and recollection of the original source location of the words on the page were assessed after a 12‐h retention interval that was filled with wakefulness incorporating the subjects' work‐shift, or an equal period that included sleep. Both shift‐workers and permanent day‐workers had poorer item recognition and source memory recollection when the retention interval was spent awake rather than including sleep. Shift‐workers expressed larger deficits in performance than day‐workers after wakefulness. This effect was not mediated by whether the shift‐workers were on a day‐ or night‐shift at the time of the study. These results indicate that sleep is an important contributor to successful item recognition and source recollection, and that mnemonic processing in shift‐workers may be especially sensitive across their work‐shift.