The effect of sleep on item recognition and source memory recollection among shift-workers and permanent day-workers
- Resource Type
- Academic Journal
- Authors
- Mawdsley, Matthew; Grasby, Katrina; Talk, Andrew
- Source
- Journal of Sleep Research. Oct 01, 2014 23(5):538-544
- Subject
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 0962-1105
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 subjectsʼ 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.