On the decay of event-files—Way more complex than previously thought.

Event-files are a central concept in human action control as they integrate perception and action. The basic idea is that event-files comprise internal representations of stimuli, motor programs, and sensory effects of actions that are bound together, maintained for some time, and then ultimately de...

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Publicado en:Memory & Cognition Vol. 54; no. 5; pp. 1834 - 1848
Autores principales: Frings, Christian, Gholamipourbarogh, Negin, Schmalbrock, Philip, Münchau, Alexander, Beste, Christian
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature Jul2026
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: Jul2026
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        atl: On the decay of event-files—Way more complex than previously thought.
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          Frings, Christian
          Gholamipourbarogh, Negin
          Schmalbrock, Philip
          Münchau, Alexander
          Beste, Christian
        affil:
          https://ror.org/02778hg05 Cognitive Psychology, Trier University, Universitätsring 15, D-54296, Trier, Germany
          https://ror.org/02778hg05 Institute for Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (ICAN), Trier University, Trier, Germany
          https://ror.org/042aqky30 Cognitive Neurophysiology, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany
          https://ror.org/00t3r8h32 Institute of Systems Motor Science, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
      su:
        Task performance
        Memory
        Analysis of variance
        Cognition
        Repeated measures design
        Research funding
        Cluster analysis (Statistics)
        Descriptive statistics
        Reaction time
        Data analysis software
      sug:
        subj:
          Task performance
          Memory
          Analysis of variance
          Cognition
          Repeated measures design
          Research funding
          Cluster analysis (Statistics)
          Descriptive statistics
          Reaction time
          Data analysis software
      keyword:
        Action memory
        Decay
        Event-files
        Action memory
        Decay
        Event-files
      ab: Event-files are a central concept in human action control as they integrate perception and action. The basic idea is that event-files comprise internal representations of stimuli, motor programs, and sensory effects of actions that are bound together, maintained for some time, and then ultimately decay. Yet the exact nature of the decay of event-files remains elusive. Most previous studies analyzed the decay only on a very coarse-grained scale typically with only two or three different response–stimulus intervals (RSI). Because available data are inconsistent, the decay function could as yet not be delineated, particularly whether it is linear or resembles a typical forgetting curve. In the present study, we analyzed the decay of event-files using nine different RSIs between 400 ms and 2,000 ms in a large sample (N = 156) of neurotypical participants. If event-file decay mimics the typical forgetting curve, the concept of event-files can be better connected to the memory literature. Using unsupervised cluster analysis, the results showed, however, a more complex pattern. In fact, there were different decay functions across participants with only a subset showing a forgetting curve suggesting that (i) event-file decay functions are modulated by interindividual differences and (ii) that the previously observed power function might be a statistical artifact due to averaging. At least in the time range investigated in this study, event-files decay only for a subset of participants. Possible underlying processes are discussed.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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