{
  "abstract": "Introduction Sleep supports memory consolidation and next-day learning. The Active Systems Consolidation (ASC) model proposes that sleep facilitates a shift in retrieval-dependency from the hippocampus to the neocortex, promoting the integration of recent experiences into long-term storage and restoring the hippocampus’s capacity to encode new information the following day. We tested the hypothesis that greater overnight consolidation is associated with superior next-day learning of hippocampus-dependent memories.Methods In two preregistered online experiments, participants completed two sessions separated by a 12-h delay of either overnight sleep (sleep group) or daytime wakefulness (wake group; combined dataset: n=238, age=23.44±3.51 years). In both experiments, participants first encoded a set of word pairs and completed a cued recall test both before and after the delay, providing a behavioural index of memory consolidation. Participants next learned a new set of word pairs and were immediately tested on them, allowing us to assess next-day learning performance ( figure 1A).Results Memory retention was significantly greater following sleep than wakefulness (Exp 1: t=3.19, p=.002, d=0.60; Exp 2: t=4.26, p<.001, d=0.77; figure 1B), consistent with sleep’s role in supporting memory consolidation. However, there was no sleep-related learning advantage for word pairs encoded after the delay, and no significant relationship was observed between overnight retention and next-day learning in our preregistered analyses (all p>.05). In an exploratory analysis combining both experiments and statistically controlling for baseline learning, greater retention was associated with better subsequent learning in the sleep group (r=.22, p=.020; figure 1C), but not the wake group (r=.13, p=.16).Discussion Our results suggest that sleep facilitates memory consolidation, but offer limited support for the idea that overnight consolidation directly facilitates next-day learning. The exploratory evidence that a relationship may exist when baseline learning ability is accounted for warrants further research that equates initial encoding strength across participants.Abstract O16 Figure 1(A) Experimental procedure. In two similar experiments, participants encoded 60 word pairs and were tested on half of those pairs immediately after. Following a 12-h delay of either overnight sleep (sleep group) or daytime wakefulness (wake group), participants were tested on the other half of the word pairs. Next, participants learned 30 new word pairs and were then tested on all these new pairs immediately after. (B) Memory consolidation. In both experiments, word pair retention was greater across overnight sleep than daytime wakefulness. Data are shown as meantSEM. Data points represent individual participants. **: p <. 01; ***: p <. 001. (C) The relationship between overnight memory consolidation and next-day learning. In an exploratory analysis combining data across experiments, greater overnight memory retention was associated with better next-day learning in the sleep group, after controlling for individual differences in baseline learning ability. Dotted areas represent 95% confidence intervals",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom",
        "Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom"
      ],
      "name": "Marcus O Harrington"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom",
        "Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom"
      ],
      "name": "Anna á V Guttesen"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom",
        "York Biomedical Research Institute, University of York, York, United Kingdom"
      ],
      "name": "M Gareth Gaskell"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom",
        "York Biomedical Research Institute, University of York, York, United Kingdom"
      ],
      "name": "Scott A Cairney"
    }
  ],
  "title": "O16 Does overnight memory consolidation prepare the brain for next-day learning?",
  "uid": "66038cab-de09-52a5-b3c9-10e06b098fdb"
}