Developmental aspects of memory for spatial location

The purpose was to show whether or not the encoding of location met criteria defining an automatic process (L. Hasher & R. T. Zacks, 1979, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 108, 356-388; 1984, American Psychologist, 39, 1372-1388). Among other criteria, automatic processes are not expected to show developmental changes beyond an early age, to be unrelated to intelligence level, and to be unaffected by instructions. In the first experiment preschool through sixth-grade children were compared on a 40-picturebook task following incidental (remember the names of pictures) or intentional (remember location) instruction. Subjects viewed and named pictures in sets of four, arranged in quadrants in the opened book, and then attempted to recall names of the objects pictured and to relocate pictures on blank pages. In the second experiment, second and sixth graders, college students, elderly persons, and mentally retarded persons were compared on a 60-picturebook task following either incidental or semantic incidental instructions (give the function of objects pictured). Memory for location was invariant across age groups and intelligence level. The only exception was that 3 and 4 year olds were more accurate following intentional instructions. Otherwise there were no differences between intentional and incidental instructions. Semantic instructions resulted in slightly more accurate locations. The results were interpreted as supportive of the Hasher and Zacks' automaticity hypothesis.     

回忆任务对合作抑制和错误修剪的调节——情绪效价和编码水平的影响

前人在项目回忆条件的合作记忆研究中记录到明显的合作抑制和错误修剪,背景提取条件的相关研究尤显不足;同时,情绪效价和编码水平对两类现象调节的研究尚未涉及。为此,本文在两个实验中采用经典合作记忆研究范式,以不同情绪效价的词汇为实验材料并以词汇在学习阶段的呈现颜色为背景展开研究。实验1和实验2分别在学习阶段采用了深编码和浅编码任务,回忆阶段则均含项目回忆(回忆已学词汇)和背景提取(回忆词汇在学习阶段的呈现颜色)两种任务。采用深编码条件的实验1的结果显示,项目回忆比背景提取条件的合作抑制更强、错误修剪更弱,回忆任务与词汇情绪效价交互影响合作抑制强度;采用浅编码条件的实验2则发现错误修剪在两种任务间的差异不显著。两实验的联合分析显示,回忆任务与编码水平交互影响合作抑制和错误修剪强度。上述结果表明:回忆任务对合作抑制和错误修剪的调节支持双重加工模型;回忆任务与情绪效价对合作抑制强度的交互影响支持权衡说,且与双重加工模型相吻合;回忆任务与编码水平交互影响合作抑制和错误修剪强度。     

Event-related potentials of emotional memory: encoding pleasant,unpleasant, and neutral pictures

Emotional events tend to be remembered better than nonemotional events. We investigated this phenomenon by measuring two event-related potential (ERP) effects: the emotion effect (more positive ERPs for pleasant or unpleasant stimuli than for neutral stimuli) and the subsequent memory effect (more positive ERPs for subsequently remembered items than for subsequently forgotten items). ERPs were measured while subjects rated the emotional content of pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral pictures. As was expected, subsequent recall was better for pleasant and unpleasant pictures than for neutral pictures. The emotion effect was sensitive to arousal in parietal electrodes and to both arousal and valence in frontocentral electrodes. The subsequent memory effect at centroparietal electrodes was greater for emotional pictures than for neutral pictures during an early epoch (400-600 msec). This result suggests that emotional information has privileged access to processing resources, possibly leading to better memory formation.     

Encoding specificity in the recall of pictures and words in children and adults

In this study, the modality of the retrieval cues (pictures or words) was varied in a cued recall task to determine how second and fourth grade children and college adults encode words (Experiment 1) and pictures (Experiment 2). According to the assumptions of the encoding specificity principle, cue modality should affect recall only to the degree to which subjects focus on modality specific (sensory) rather than nonmodality specific (semantic) information in stimuli. In both experiments, the results showed progressively smaller encoding specificity effects with increasing age. To ensure that differences in encoding activity were responsible for these effects, comparisons were made of recall patterns under intentional learn conditions, and under incidental conceptual and sensory orienting conditions. The recall patterns of the children in the conceptual orienting condition were similar to the adult patterns in the learn condition, and the adult recall patterns in the sensory orienting conditions were similar to those of the children in the learn conditions. These results suggest that there are developmental differences in encoding the sensory and semantic information in stimuli that may result from differences in the efficiency with which the semantic information in stimuli is processed. The results suggest that young children typically encode stimuli in a fashion that stresses the sensory aspects of the stimuli, and that recall suffers as a result.     

Children's and adults' recall of sex‐stereotyped toy pictures: Effects of presentation and memory task

Gender schema theories predict a memory bias toward sex‐congruent information. The present study examined how presentation of stimuli and encoding conditions influence gender schematic processing in children and adults. One hundred and sixty 5‐ to 13‐year olds and adult males and females viewed 36 sex‐stereotyped toy pictures that were presented in a static and dynamical way. Half of the participants were asked to memorize the pictures (intentional memory) and half were not told that they would be expected to later recall the pictures (incidental memory). Weak gender schematic processing was observed only during the incidental memory task. Children and adults recalled more static than dynamic gender‐stereotyped pictures, and performance was superior in the intentional than in the incidental memory condition. Gender schematic processing was similar across the age groups. In addition, participants were more likely to recall male‐stereotyped toys. Implications for gender schema theories and education are discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“知道感”任务中的图片和字词的感受性和判断标准

该实验考察了在“知道感”（FOK）任务中的字词和图片的感受性和判断标准的差异。实验运用Hart的“回忆—FOK判断—再认”（RJR）范式,用字词和图片作为刺激材料,采用两种不同的加工水平,并根据信号检测论中的评价法对结果进行分析,结果表明：在知道感任务中,只有在线索回忆正确百分率和FOK判断等级上表现出了图片优势效应,而再认正确率和FOK准确性则没有图片优势;而且,不论是深加工还是浅加工,被试对字词和图片的感受性都没有显著性差异,但判断标准的变化较为复杂,且受加工水平的影响较大,显示出图片优势效应的产生与被试的反应偏向有关。     

联想启动与知觉启动的比较研究

采用快速命名方法探讨不同加工水平对联想启动效应的影响。被试分别在深、浅加工条件下学习一系列颜色词,然后完成颜色命名和再认任务,并设立词命名任务,以比较联想启动和知觉启动的异同。结果表明,在颜色命名任务中,深、浅加工条件下均可形成对颜色词的启动效应,但浅加工条件下的再认成绩明显低于深加工,出现了联想启动和再认的分离现象。词命名表现出与颜色命名相似的结果,但它们在有意识回忆方面仍存在一定的差异,提示知觉表征系统单独并不能支持联想启动,联想启动可能是多个记忆系统共同作用的结果。     

Traitement de concepts à connotation émotionnelle positive selon la quantité d'indices de récupération accessibles

This study examines the processing of emotionally positive words in memory. The processing level of the stimuli during encoding (low‐level or deep‐level processing) and the retrieval type (free recall or recognition) were varied. An effect of the valence was observed in the “low‐level processing—free recall” condition. Subjects recall more positive words than neutral ones when few retrieval cues are available. This result is confirmed by a qualitative analysis which shows an organized recall according to the emotional valence only for the “low level” condition. The results and the implications of this research are discussed in relation to Bower's theory (1981, 1987).     

Semantic and acoustic processing in free and cued recall by educable mentally retarded adolescents

The abilities of educable mentally retarded adolescents to encode and retrieve words with semantic and acoustic cues were investigated in a free and cued recall task. On each of three trial blocks, seven groups of subjects were presented 20 unrelated stimulus words. Groups received either semantic, acoustic, or no encoding cues along with the stimuli. Free recall was requested from all subjects, followed immediately by a second period of either free recall or cued recall with the semantic or acoustic cues. Semantic cues were most effective when presented both at encoding and retrieval. The subjects were unable to use acoustic information as effective retrieval aids. Results were discussed in terms of encoding dimension dominance and mediational deficiencies.     

Encoding and memory for verbal and pictorial stimuli

Memory for visually presented verbal and pictorial material was compared using stimuli chosen to minimize non-essential differences between the two types of material. Experiment I required retention of a short list; verbal and pictorial stimuli were remembered equally well. Experiment II required recall of single items after 30 s of backwards counting; recall was much superior for pictorial stimuli. The type of task appeared to affect encoding, with verbal encoding reported to be predominant in Experiment I and visual encoding, or imagery, common in Experiment II.     

The relationship between repetition and depth of processing

The relationship between depth of information processing and stimulus repetitions was investigated using a simultaneous category judgment task. Several levels of processing were defined involving (1) physically identical items, (2) physically different but same-name items, (3) different items from the same semantic category, and (4) items from different categories. Stimulus pairs were represented by words and pictures, and each pair was presented one, three, or five times. Response times for categorization judgments increased with the level of processing and decreased with repetitions. Repetitions produced greater facilitation for decisions at deeper levels of processing. In a final incidental recall task, more items were remembered from category-same trials than from same-item trials, but level of processing did not interact with number of presentations. Repetitions produced an equivalent increase in final recall probability for items involved in all decision types, indicating that distributed repetitions can lead to the formation of stronger memory traces at several levels of processing.     

Is the picture bizarreness effect a generation effect?

Bizarre stimuli usually facilitate recall compared to common stimuli. This investigation explored the so-called bizarreness effect in free recall by using 80 simple line drawings of common objects (common vs bizarre). 64 subjects participated with 16 subjects in each group. Half of the subjects received learning instructions and the other half rated the bizarreness of each drawing. Moreover, drawings were presented either alone or with the name of the object under mixed-list encoding conditions. After the free recall task, subjects had to make metamemory judgments about how many items of each format they had seen and recalled. The key result was that a superiority of bizarre pictures over common ones was found in all conditions although performance was better when the pictures were presented alone than with their corresponding label. Subsequent metamemory judgments, however, showed that subjects underestimated the number of bizarre items actually recalled.     

Memory for Objects and Faces by the Mentally Retarded and Nonretarded

Visual recognition skills of 26 mentally retarded high school students were compared with the skills of two groups of nonretarded students. All groups were taught to recognize 32 target faces and objects and were retested 1 week, 1 month, and 2 months later. The counterintuitive findings were that there were no significant differences between the retarded and nonretarded groups in memory for faces on any of the retest trials. All groups remembered faces significantly better than they did objects and remembered more of the pictures at 1 week than they did at 1 month or at 2 months. There was no significant loss over time in memory for faces. Relative to nonretarded subjects, the retarded subjects exhibited deficits in encoding and remembering objects but showed no such deficits in encoding and remembering faces. The results suggest that different configurational features may be used to encode objects as opposed to faces.     

Directed forgetting of emotional stimuli in borderline personality disorder

On the basis of clinical literature, the authors hypothesized that individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) would show biased information processing when they were exposed to negative affective stimuli of a particular type. Individuals with BPD and controls were tested using a directed forgetting paradigm. Study participants were exposed to 3 types of words (borderline, neutral, positive) and were cued to either remember or forget each word as it was presented. There were no group differences on a free recall task for words in the remember condition. However, participants with BPD recalled significantly more of the borderline words from the forget condition than did controls. In other words, borderline participants remembered borderline words that they were instructed to forget. These results may be consistent with enhanced encoding of salient words and perhaps related themes in BPD individuals.     

Stimulus similarity decrements in children's working memory span

Two experiments investigated the impact of the relationship between processing and storage stimuli on the working memory span task performance of children aged 7 and 9 years of age. In Experiment 1, two types of span task were administered (sentence span and operation span), and participants were required to recall either the products of the processing task (sentence-final word, arithmetic total) or a word or digit unrelated to the processing task. Experiment 2 contrasted sentence span and operation span combined with storage of either words or digits, in tasks in which the item to be remembered was not a direct product of the processing task in either condition. In both experiments, memory span was significantly greater when the items to be recalled belonged to a different stimulus category from the material that was processed, so that in sentence span tasks, number recall was superior to word recall, and in operation span tasks, word recall was superior to number recall. Explanations of these findings in terms of similarity-based interference and response competition in working memory are discussed.     

Memory bias for threatening information related to anxiety: an updated meta-analytic review

The evidence for an anxiety-related memory bias is contradictory. We compiled 171 articles published until October 2016 including a group with clinical or subclinical anxiety and a control group in tasks involving implicit or explicit memory using threatening stimuli. There was an anxiety-related memory bias in free recall tasks, but it was not observed in another memory task. The between-groups differences showed that the anxious group recalled more threatening stimuli than the control group (d?=?0.321). When we compared the group differences (anxious vs. control participants) in the within-groups effect (threatening vs. neutral stimuli), a moderate effect size emerged (d_bw?=?0.714). This anxiety-related memory bias was observed with shallow processing, that is consistent with attentional biases related to anxiety. There was also evidence that high-anxious persons recall fewer positive stimuli. Future research is needed to investigate whether this result is a memory or encoding bias and explore other moderator variables.     

提取方式对相继记忆效应的影响

采用学习－测验（自由回忆和再认）研究范式和事件相关电位方法,研究图形的相继记忆效应（Dm效应）。14名大学生作为研究被试,根据其测验成绩将图片分为记住和未记住两类,对相应编码过程的ERPs进行分析。结果表明：⑴行为上,再认的平均击中率显著高于自由回忆;⑵脑电活动上,在刺激出现后400~700ms编码过程中记住项目的ERPs更正于未记住项目的ERPs;同时两种测验方式Dm效应的脑区分布不同,自由回忆主要分布在额区,再认主要分布在中央区和顶区,且在500~600ms自由回忆有左侧优势。这些结果表明,两种提取方式对Dm效应有不同的影响,这一结果预示自由回忆和再认的编码过程可能有不同的神经生理机制。     

Automatic and conscious processing in retarded and nonretarded adolescents

Educable mentally retarded and nonretarded adolescents participated in incidental learning tasks that emphasized the utilization of processes that were consciously controlled but not deliberately aimed at memory (Experiment 1). Retarded individuals' performance on a standard recognition test was equivalent to that of nonretarded subjects following phonetic encoding and nonstrategic encoding, but was deficient following semantic encoding. Retarded subjects also demonstrated a lower level of performance on a rhyme recognition task. In Experiment 2, retarded subjects provided a pattern of responding identical to that of nonretarded subjects on a picture-word interference task designed to assess automatic processing. The two groups produced equivalent levels of semantic activation. It was argued that the results of the two experiments indicate deficient semantic processing on the part of retarded individuals relative to that of nonretarded individuals that cannot be accommodated by a structural-deficiency model, a developmental-lag model, or a hypothesis that predicts intelligence-related differences only when the task involves the use of deliberate mnemonic strategies.     

Age and prospective memory

This paper reports an investigation into the effects of age, intelligence, and retrospective memory on performance in a prospective memory task in which subjects aged between 52 and 95 were required to telephone once a day either between two times or at an exact time. The most important influence on performance was how subjects chose to remember to make the telephone calls. The best performance was from subjects who telephoned either in conjunction with another routine event or engaged in some form of advanced planning of the daily schedule. The worst performance was from those who relied on internal cues from their own memory. Performance was intermediate from those who used external cues such as notes or diary entries. Subjects in the between condition were less likely to choose internal cues than those in the exact condition, possibly because the task appeared more difficult, and this resulted in their showing superior performance. The effect of age was influenced by the cue used. For subjects using internal cues, those who forgot were older than those who remembered, whereas for subjects using the other cues, those who forgot were younger than those who remembered. Regardless of cue, self-ratings of cognitive failures were related to performance such that those who reported more minor everyday mistakes were indeed more likely to forget to telephone. While there was some indirect effect of general intelligence on performance in the task, there was no relationship between retrospective memory scores and whether or not subjects remembered to telephone.