Modality-specificity effects in priming of visual and auditory word-fragment completion

In this study, the researchers examined modality-specificity effects in priming of visual and auditory word-fragment completion by the presentation of visual or auditory primes. In 2 experiments, within-modality priming and cross-modality priming were observed, with greater priming observed in the within-modality conditions. The prime was presented in a word list in Experiment 1 and either presented or inferred in priming sentences in Experiment 2. Inferring a target that was not actually presented in the sentences resulted in priming of fragment completion but not in modality specificity. These results, coupled with comparisons to explicit cued fragment completion, support the interpretation that priming of word-fragment completion is owing to both a perceptual and a nonperceptual component. This latter component may be different than the conceptual processes used for explicit memory, which did show modality specificity for inferred targets.     

Effects of standard modality, comparison modality and retention interval on matching of form

Garvill, J. & Molander, B. Effects of standard modality, comparison modality and retention interval on matching of form. Scand. J. Psychol., 1973, 14, 203–206.MdashIntra-modal and cross-modal matching of nonsense forms was studied in a 2 (standard modalities: visual vs. tactual) by 2 (comparison modalities: visual vs. tactual) by 3 (intervals between standard and comparison: 1, 10 and 30 sec) factorial experiment. The errors were divided into false negatives and false positives. Significant effects of standard modality and of comparison modality were found for false negatives. For false positives the most prominent effect was an interaction between the standard modality and the comparison modality. Retention interval had no effect in any of the modality conditions. The effects are discussed in terms of differential information processing capacity for the visual and the tactual modalities.     

Effects of retention interval and modality on sensory and semantic trace information

Subjects studied a long list of individual words that were presented either visually or auditorily. Recall was tested immediately or after a filled delay by using either word endings or taxonomic categories as extralist retrieval cues. Two interactions were of particular interest. First, word ending cues were just as effective as taxonomic cues on the immediate test. On the delayed test, however, ending cues were less effective. This result suggests that sensory information encoded about a word decays at a faster rate than semantic information. Second, although modality had no observable influence on the taxonomic cues, word ending cues were more effective when all items were shown visually than when they were presented auditorily. Taken together, these findings indicate that the visual features of words are encoded at study and that this information can be accessed during test if it is recapitulated by the retrieval cue shortly after acquisition.     

Effects of exact repetition and conceptual repetition on free recall and primed word-fragment completion.

Experiments are reported in which effects of repeating words exactly (e.g., elephant, elephant) or repeating some meaningful aspect--a synonym (pachyderm), an associate (tusk), or a category coordinate (hippopotamus)--were examined on free recall and word-fragment completion. In free recall, large effects of both exact repetition and conceptual repetition were found; the magnitude of the latter was about half that of the former. In contrast, in primed word-fragment completion, repetition effects were rather small and there was no evidence of indirect (or conceptual) priming. Also, presentation of synonyms, associates, and coordinates in isolation failed to prime word-fragment completion. The results provide further evidence that the basis of primed word-fragment completion is different from that of free recall; the former seems to have a perceptual (or perhaps lexical) basis, whereas the latter relies more on meaningful processing.     

Effects of divided attention in the word-fragment completion task with unique and multiple solutions

A study with 114 young adults investigated the correlations of intelligence factors and working-memory capacity with reaction time (RT) tasks. Within two sets of four-choice RT tasks, stimulus–response compatibility was varied over three levels: compatible, incompatible, and arbitrary mappings. Two satisfactory measurement models for the RTs could be established: A general factor model without constraints on the loadings and a nested model with two correlated factors, distinguishing compatible from arbitrary mappings, with constraints on the loadings. Structural models additionally including factors for working memory and intelligence showed that the nested model with correlated factors is superior in fit. Working-memory capacity and fluid intelligence were correlated strongly with the nested factor for the RT tasks with arbitrary mappings, and less with the general RT factor. The results support the hypothesis that working memory is needed to maintain arbitrary bindings between stimulus representations and response representations, and this could explain the correlation of working-memory capacity with speed in choice RT tasks.     

Primed word-fragment completion and successive memory test performance in normal aging

Young and old subjects were investigated to examine whether: the effects of priming are influenced by aging; there is independence between primed word-fragment completion and recognition performances; and the dependence between different tests is influenced by aging. A successive test paradigm was employed involving repeated assessment of to-be-remembered words by means of recognition and primed word-fragment completion. The results show that implicit memory declines with increasing age, and that correlations between different memory tests decrease with age. The outcome suggests that age-related memory decline involves several forms of memory, including primed word-fragment completion, and is reflected in correlations between measures of implicit and explicit memory.     

Collaboration in implicit memory: evidence from word-fragment completion and category exemplar generation

Psychological Research - Recent studies have begun to investigate the effects of collaboration on explicit tests such as free recall, cued recall, and recognition. In contrast, little is known...     

时间延迟对故事情境关联虚假记忆的影响

研究以故事情境短文为实验材料,探讨了即时与延时48h后虚假记忆变化表现及其与真实记忆相分离的认知神经机制。结果表明,虚假记忆在延迟48h后诱发的LPC走向比即时更正性;即时条件虚假记忆与真实记忆认知加工相分离表现在有意回想加工及额叶后提取加工阶段,延迟48h后仅表现在额叶后提取加工阶段。上述结果为虚假记忆存在随时间变化及其与真实记忆相分离提供了电生理证据。     

Effects of emotion on associative recognition: valence and retention interval matter

In two experiments, we examined the effects of emotional valence and arousal on associative binding. Participants studied negative, positive, and neutral word pairs, followed by an associative recognition test. In Experiment 1, with a short-delayed test, accuracy for intact pairs was equivalent across valences, whereas accuracy for rearranged pairs was lower for negative than for positive and neutral pairs. In Experiment 2, we tested participants after a one-week delay and found that accuracy was greater for intact negative than for intact neutral pairs, whereas rearranged pair accuracy was equivalent across valences. These results suggest that, although negative emotional valence impairs associative binding after a short delay, it may improve binding after a longer delay. The results also suggest that valence, as well as arousal, needs to be considered when examining the effects of emotion on associative memory.     

Normalization in paraphrase and recall: Effects of processing,grammatical article type,and retention interval

Investigations of semantic normalization of discourse have not generally controlled for perceived connectiveness of materials, depth of processing, and retention interval. The current experiment investigated semantic normalization in paraphrase and recall as a function of whether sentences were paraphrased or merely copied, of whether sentences were perceived by subjects to be connected or unrelated, and of retention interval. Results indicated that significantly more normalization occurred in paraphrase than in recall, that more normalization and better recall occurred when sentences were perceived as related, and that there was more normalization and better recall when sentences were paraphrased than when they were copied. No significant differences in normalization were found as a function of retention interval. Results are discussed in terms of depth of processing and a need for learners to integrate congruent and discrepant material into cohesive entities by use of grammatical articles, article changes, and intrusions that psychologically connect unrelated sentences.     

The effect of cue-familiarity, cue-distinctiveness, and retention interval on prospective remembering

Five experiments investigated the effects of cue familiarity, cue distinctiveness, and retention interval on prospective remembering. Results showed that (1) performance in a prospective memory task is facilitated when the cue is unfamiliar and/or distinctive; and (2) it is impaired by 3-minutes' delay between the instructions and the task (Experiment 1). A beneficial effect of distinctiveness was also found when perceptual rather than semantic distinctiveness was tested (Experiment 2). Experiments 3 and 4 ruled out the hypotheses that “unfulfilled expectancy” of an event (i.e. non-appearance of the cue during training) (Experiment 3), or some sort of “habituation” in the target context (Experiment 4), may have caused the low performance observed in the delayed conditions. Finally, results from Experiment 5 showed that delay negatively affected prospective remembering when it was filled with either a demanding interpolated activity (practice in a STM task) or an undemanding motoric activity (repetitive hands movements). Unfilled delay and an undemanding verbal activity (counting) were found not to affect prospective memory. Implications for the mechanisms underlying prospective remembering are discussed.     

Effects of attentional load and ageing on word-stem and word-fragment implicit memory tasks

The joint effects of reduced attention and age on repetition priming in implicit memory tests of word-fragment completion (WFC) and word-stem completion (WSC) were investigated. An attention load during the study phase reduced the extent of repetition priming in the WSC condition but not in WFC. This finding provides support for the view that WSC and WFC involve different processes. However, there was no evidence of an age effect on either of these two types of implicit tasks. The data also revealed an overall significant effect of age and reduced attention on explicit cued recall tasks.     

Levels of processing and phonological priming in Chinese character completion tests

This study investigated the level of processing (LoP) effect in the Chinese character completion task. Stem cues, either graphemically or phonetically related to a target character, were used to generate two different kinds of perceptual tests. By giving participants either direct or indirect instructions, the character completion tests could be either an explicit or an implicit memory test. For the implicit test, LoP effects were not found between Read and Generation conditions, whereas the Physical condition did not produce priming. In addition, no priming was found when participants received graphemic cues during the test. For the explicit test, on the other hand, a standard pattern of LoP effects was found between the Physical, Read, and Generation conditions. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of lexical access for character completion tests and the role of phonology in processing Chinese characters.     

Cross-modality priming in stem completion reflects conscious memory,but not voluntary memory

A comparison of incidental and intentional stem-completion tests confirmed that cross-modality priming occurs when performance conforms completely to the retrieval intentionality criterion, indicating involuntary—not voluntary—retrieval in the incidental test. However, an on-line measure of awareness in the incidental test, and a process-dissociation analysis of the intentional test, indicated only within-modality, but not cross-modality, transfer of involuntary retrieval that is unaccompanied by memorial awareness. These results imply that conscious memory should not be equated with voluntary retrieval, and unconscious memory should not be equated with involuntary retrieval, because involuntary retrieval can be accompanied by memorial awareness.     

Age-related differences in the impact of spacing, lag, and retention interval

An experiment is reported that examines age-related differences in the lag effect and its relation to retention interval. A total of 30 young and 30 older adults received both once-presented pairs and twice-presented pairs that were tested in a continuous cued-recall paradigm either after a short retention interval (2 pairs intervening between the last presentation of a pair and its test) or a long retention interval (20 pairs intervening between the last presentation of a pair and its test). In addition, the twice-presented pairs were separated by either 0, 1, 4, 8, or 20 intervening pairs. The results replicated the interaction between retention interval and lag that has been reported by Glenberg (1976, Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 15, 1-16). Furthermore, although the older adults performed considerably lower than the younger adults in overall recall performance, their data were remarkably similar to the younger adults in the patterning of means. A mathematical modeling procedure was used to fit the data to Estes' stimulus fluctuation model. The results of this modeling procedure suggest that, compared with younger adults, older adults (a) encode less contextual information at a given point in time and (b) have a slower rate of contextual fluctuation across time.