Inadequacy of recall as a basis for frequency knowledge.

Subjects studied a word list comprising varying numbers of words from distinct semantic categories. The category names (trees, colors, etc.) were then re-presented, and for each name subjects either recalled as many exemplars as they could or estimated how many had been included in the list (Experiments 1 and 2). Recall was not sufficiently informative about actual category sizes to account for performance in the frequency estimation task. Moreover, it remained insufficiently informative when efforts were made to induce a recall-estimate strategy by requiring overt recall prior to estimation (Experiments 3-5), by using very small categories (Experiment 4), and by not showing the category name at study (Experiment 5), even though it did allow a partial account of estimation when the category exemplars were individually cued (Experiment 6). It is concluded that the role of recall in frequency estimation is much exaggerated.     

Person memory and person judgments based on categorically organized information

Free recall, cued recall, and rating-like judgments — conceived as alternative modes of expressing memorized information — were assessed in a person memory task. The target person had been described with respect to the presence or absence of 48 different interests (e.g., Mozart, sonatas, tennis, boxing) in 12 interest categories (e.g., music, sports). The number of interests (vs non-interests) per category was manipulated as well as the order of the three sub-tasks. The pattern of results can be explained within a categorical coding framework which suggests two functionally independent stages of recall: (a) access to a higher-order memory code on the category level, and (b0 reconstruction of specific items within categories. In particular, judgments of the degree of interest in the abstract categories were only related to selective free recall on the categorical level but not specific level free recall. Cued recall of the degree of interest in specific items was only related to free recall on the specific level. Making the category judgments before the free recall task, rather than afterwards, increased the availability of categories but not specific items. And inconsistent patterns of interests impaired the cued recall of specific patterns within categories but did not affect the categorical level. A strong positivity effect (i.e., more interests recalled than non-interests) was also found, resembling the often noted advantage of positive information in other domains of cognitive psychology.     

Judgments relative to patterns: how temporal sequence patterns affect judgments and memory

Six experiments studied relative frequency judgment and recall of sequentially presented items drawn from 2 distinct categories (i.e., city and animal). The experiments show that judged frequencies of categories of sequentially encountered stimuli are affected by certain properties of the sequence configuration. We found (a) a first-run effect whereby people overestimated the frequency of a given category when that category was the first repeated category to occur in the sequence and (b) a dissociation between judgments and recall; respondents may judge 1 event more likely than the other and yet recall more instances of the latter. Specifically, the distribution of recalled items does not correspond to the frequency estimates for the event categories, indicating that participants do not make frequency judgments by sampling their memory for individual items as implied by other accounts such as the availability heuristic (Tversky & Kahneman, 1973) and the availability process model (Hastie & Park, 1986). We interpret these findings as reflecting the operation of a judgment heuristic sensitive to sequential patterns and offer an account for the relationship between memory and judged frequencies of sequentially encountered stimuli.     

On the importance of looking back: The role of recursive remindings in recency judgments and cued recall

Suppose that you were asked which of two movies you had most recently seen. The results of the experiments reported here suggest that your answer would be more accurate if, when viewing the later movie, you were reminded of the earlier one. In the present experiments, we investigated the role of remindings in recency judgments and cued-recall performance. We did this by presenting a list composed of two instances from each of several different categories and later asking participants to select (Exp. 1) or to recall (Exp. 2) the more recently presented instance. Reminding was manipulated by varying instructions to look back over memory of earlier instances during the presentation of later instances. As compared to a control condition, cued-recall performance revealed facilitation effects when remindings occurred and were later recollected, but interference effects in their absence. The effects of reminding on recency judgments paralleled those on cued recall of more recently presented instances. We interpret these results as showing that reminding produces a recursive representation that embeds memory for an earlier-presented category instance into that of a later-presented one and, thereby, preserves their temporal order. Large individual differences in the probabilities of remindings and of their later recollection were observed. The widespread importance of recursive reminding for theory and for applied purposes is discussed.     

Facilitation of recall with intralist cues: Time-dependent characteristics of cued recall

List items were given as retrieval cues in a free-recall experiment which factorially combined the presence or absence of cues with the amount of time allowed for use of each cue (10 sec or 30 sec). A categorizable list of 75 randomly presented words was learned, and 48 h later a free-recall test trial was given, followed by a final memory search task. During the final task, cued subjects received words from categories that had not been recalled during the free-recall test. With both time intervals, cued subjects recalled more words than noncued subjects, indicating that random presentation of categorized words does not necessarily preclude the observation of a cueing effect with list items, as has been reported previously. The composition of recall, whether from previously recalled or nonrecalled categories, varied as a function of time for both groups. The results were interpreteod in terms of retrieval strategies employed by cued and noncued subjects and the effect of time on these strategies.     

From individual to group impressions: Availability heuristics in stereotype formation

When subjects are presented with information about the attributes of individuals and are then asked to make judgments about the characteristics of the group composed of those individuals, the group impression may depend on the way in which data on individuals are organized in memory. Experiment 1 demonstrated that under conditions of low memory load (16 instances of person-trait pairings), subjects organize their perceptions of a group around the characteristics of its individual members, whereas under high memory load (64 instances of person-trait pairings), subjects organize trait information in an undifferentiated way around the group as a whole. Under low memory load, subjects distinguish between repeated occurrences of a trait in the same individual and comparable repeated occurrences of that trait in different individuals; under high memory load, subjects do not make such a differentiation. Subjects' judgments about the frequency of categories of traits were related to the ease of recall of category instances, as predicted by an availability heuristic. Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrated that group members who are most available in memory will be disproportionately represented in the group impression. Specifically, the proportion of extreme individuals in a group was retro-spectively overestimated; this was true for both physical stimuli (height) and social stimuli (criminal acts).     

Recall as a self-limiting process

Presentation of only some category names as retrieval cues following presentation of a categorized list enhanced recall of the cued categories relative to free recall, but reduced recall of the noncued categories (Experiment 1). This recall interference from recall of cued categories increased with the number of category names presented (Experiment 2), and was not due merely to delaying the subject with an interfering interpolated task (Experiment 3). The results argue against theories assuming that categories are recalled via associations from previously recalled categories. Rather, the results suggest that recall of categories acts in a manner to limit recall of additional categories, in agreement with the characterization of recall as a sampling-with-replacement process as described by Rundus.     

Category structure and created memories

Cued recall of categorized lists was used to examine effects of category structure on the creation of false memories. In three experiments, category members that had not been presented on studied categorized lists were nonetheless recalled by participants. Delaying the category cued recall test (Experiment 1) and priming category members that had been omitted from target lists (Experiment 3) increased the frequency of false recall. All three experiments showed that nonpresented category members that were higher in output dominance were more frequent intrusions. The typicality of category members, however, did not uniquely contribute to the predictability of false recall (or accurate recall) once the contribution of output dominance was taken into account, suggesting that item accessibility (related to output dominance) may be more instrumental than item distinctiveness (related to typicality) in causing certain types of false recall. The results show that created memories in category cued recall are strongly biased by prior category knowledge and can be predicted by the graded structure of categories, particularly in terms of the output dominance of category instances.     

Adult age differences in implicit and explicit memory: time course and encoding effects

Young and older adults were tested at three delays on word-stem completion or cued recall following semantic or structural word judgments. Identical three-letter stems were present at retrieval for both implicit (completion) and explicit (cued recall) tasks; only the intention to recall list words differed. The young adults outperformed the older adults on both implicit and explicit tasks at all test delays. Under some conditions, the older but not the young adults performed more poorly on cued recall than on stem completion, suggesting a possible failure to use implicitly available information to support explicit remembering. These results suggest that some forms of implicit memory decline with normal aging.     

The retrieval practice effect in associative recognition

Recalling an item interferes with recall of related memories. Evidence is presented that retrieval interference occurs in associative recognition as well as recall. In Experiment 1, subjects studied pairs of category exemplars. Retrieval practice followed, during which some pairs appeared in a cued recall test. A final test of associative recognition (with remember-know judgments) found lower accuracy and hit rate for nonpracticed pairs belonging to retrieval-practiced categories. In Experiment 2, subjects studied noun pairs from overlapping sets, with study duration manipulated between subjects. Retrieval practice was manipulated by presenting some members of a set in a previous block during the recognition test. With long study duration, retrieval interference was evident in both recognition and remember judgments. With short study duration, it appeared only in remember judgments. These results support a dual-process account in which retrieval interference is specific to recollection and becomes evident in recognition performance only when recollection is sufficiently dominant.     

The effects of cueing and constraint instructions on children's free recall performance

The performance of nursery school children was investigated in two experiments involving cued and constrained free recall. Under constrained instructions, subjects were required to recall items by category. Under cued instructions subjects could recall items in any order they wished but the organized nature of the lists was identified and subjects were told that they would remember more if they recalled things from the same category together. No effects of cueing instructions were obtained in either Experiment I or Experiment II. Constrained recall instructions led to enhanced recall and category clustering. However, the beneficial effects were not maintained on later trials with the same list or on a transfer list when the constraints on recall were dropped. In addition, the introduction of constrained recall instructions had identical effects whether they were introduced early or late in practice. The results were discussed in terms of the influences of variables which affect the subjects' use of retrieval strategies and the development of memory.     

Recall as a function of orienting task and retrieval cue

Abstract.— In an incidental learning experiment, a 40 word list with 4 words representing each of 10 taxonom-ic categories and beginning with each of 10 first letters was presented to 120 subjects. Half the subjects sorted the words according to category, half according to initial letter. After an interval of either 1 or 6 min, retention was measured with cued or free recall tests. The subjects in the Category sort-Category cue condition obtained higher recall than the subjects in the Category sort-Letter cue condition, whereas level of recall did not differ between the Letter sort-Letter cue and Letter sort-Category cue conditions. These results together with other results from the experiment were considered as arguments against the Encoding Specificity Principle but in favor of a theory separating encoding from retrieval.     

Retrieval in cued recall

Three experiments examined retrieval in a cued recall paradigm by manipulating the pattern of output cues. In the first two experiments, subjects were paced through recall of a categorized list by recalling one word at a time in response to a category name as a retrieval cue. The pattern of these output cues exerted a strong influence on performance. Subjects recalled considerably more when the cues were blocked by category than when required to recall successive words from different categories. This output effect increased over trials, and was interpreted in terms of a model in which subjects develop a retrieval strategy that can be interfered with by the circumstances of output. The last experiment contrasted structural and strategy models in a hierarchical recall paradigm. Subjects were given a set of postinput recall cues that either made evident the hierarchical structure of the input list or contained the same cue words but with no hierarchical information. Information about the hierarchical structure improved performance even when provided only during recall. The data were discuss in terms of recent models of recall, and a compromise was suggested.     

Development of hierarchical conceptual relationships in children's semantic memories

The present study was designed to determine when children first display evidence of hierarchical conceptual organization. Children aged 5 to 9 answered either semantic or sensory questions about a list of words composed of either superordinate terms, prototypical category instance, or moderately typical instances. In a later unanticipated cued recall task the children were given taxonomically related cues composed of the two remaining word types not used in the orienting phase. The 5-year-olds' performance revealed that they possessed a modest degree of hierarchically organized conceptual information, which by age 9 had developed to relatively sophisticated levels. In particular, it was found that the range of information contained in the 5-year-olds' conceptual hierarchies was considerably narrower than that of the 9-year-olds', which supports Rosch's contention that conceptual categories are first constructed around prototypical instances. The children's performance on the cued recall task was also compared to their performance on traditional class inclusion and object-sorting tasks. It was found that the object-sorting task overestimated, while the class inclusion task underestimated the extent to which conceptual information is hierarchically organized in 5-year-olds.     

Generation effects in free recall: further support for a three-factor theory

A framework is presented that helps explain and predict generation effects in free recall (for between-subjects manipulations of generating vs. reading). When the targets share common features and when that shared information is salient to subjects, subjects will exploit that information to help generate the target items. This produces more relational processing among the targets (relative to reading), enhancing free recall. Consistent with this idea, when shared information (among targets) was salient, generation effects in free recall were found under encoding conditions that can disrupt generation effects in cued recall (e.g., pairing targets with unrelated cues). Further, within the same list, generation effects emerged in free recall for targets that were processed after shared information became evident but not for targets processed prior to the availability of the shared information. In recognition, generation effects were found for targets regardless of when they were processed.     

Age differences in collaborative memory: the role of retrieval manipulations

In two experiments, we examined age differences in collaborative inhibition (reduced recall in pairs of people, relative to pooled individuals) across repeated retrieval attempts. Younger and older adults studied categorized word lists and were then given two consecutive recall tests and a recognition test. On the first recall test, the subjects were given free-report cued recall or forced-report cued recall instructions (Experiment 1) or free recall instructions (Experiment 2) and recalled the lists either alone or in collaboration with another subject of the same age group. Free-report cued recall and free recall instructions warned the subjects not to guess, whereas forcedreport cued recall instructions required them to guess. Collaborative inhibition was obtained for both younger and older adults on initial tests of free-report cued recall, forced-report cued recall, and free recall, showing that the effect generalizes across several tests for both younger and older adults. Collaborative inhibition did not persist on subsequent individual recall or recognition tests for list items. Older adults consistently falsely recalled and recognized items more than did younger adults, as had been found in previous studies. In addition, prior collaboration may exaggerate older adults’ tendency toward higher false alarms on a subsequent recognition test, but only after a free recall test. The results provide generality to the phenomenon of collaborative inhibition and can be explained by invoking concepts of strategy disruption and source monitoring.     

Word frequency and list composition effects in associative recognition and recall

The effects of list composition and word frequency on cued recall, associative recognition, and item recognition were examined in three experiments For pure-frequency lists, cued recall and associative recognition show better performance on common high-frequency (HF) words than on rare low-frequency (LF) words. Item recognition, however, shows an advantage for LF words. In mixed lists, consisting of half HF and half LF words, the HF advantage in cued recall disappeared; however, the word frequency effects in item and associative recognition were unchanged. These results are inconsistent with explanations based on differential attention or co-rehearsal of KF and LF words. However, the results are consistent with list strength results which show that recognition is insensitive to strength-based list composition, but that recall is sensitive to list composition.     

Direct and indirect measures of frequency monitoring in young and elderly adults

Memory for frequency of occurrence of novel material (Turkish words) was investigated in young and elderly adults via direct (absolute and relative frequency judgments) and indirect (reading speed) measures. Both young and elderly adults showed increased reading speed as a function of frequency of occurrence (Experiment 1). However, when asked explicitly to identify how often a word occurred (Experiment 1) or which word occurred more often (Experiment 2), elderly subjects were less accurate than young adults. These results support and extend research on age-related dissociations in memory.     

Cue-dependent effects in recall of categorized lists

Noncued and cued recall of categorized lists are similar in a number of ways: They show the same rate of gain in item recall with increasing category size; they both produce serial position effects within categories; and they both show a “some-or-none” pattern of with-category recall frequency. Cued and noncued recall differ in other respects: There is a great improvement in item and in category recall attendant on the provision of cues, and only noncued recall displays a list position effect. The points of similarity are taken to indicate that both cued and noncued recall measure the same underlying processes. The points of differences suggest the utility of cueing procedures in identifying the origin of characteristics of recall, according to the principle that any feature of noncued recall that is altered by provision of cues must originate in the retrieval process; features resistant to such modification represent encoding or storage effects.     

Memory and frequency estimation processes in a decision task

Two experiments examined the role of information storage and frequency estimation processes in a simple decision task. On each trial from one to five simultaneous sequences of information were presented, and subjects were required to monitor and respond to each sequence. In one study independent groups of subjects gave decisions, recognition responses. or frequency judgments. In a second study recall responses were obtained from subjects as part of the decision and frequency judgment tasks. Changes in performance as the number of simultaneous sequences increased suggested an independence of decisions from memory for specific information. Performance on the decision and frequency judgment tasks exceeded at times that which was possible on the basis of specific information available. Other data suggested that subjects in the frequency estimation tasks maintained an accurate frequency count when possible, but in the decision task kept little more than a record of their currently favored hypothesis. When direct counting was prevented in the second experiment. performance in the two tasks was not significantly different, suggesting that the two processes are very similar under such conditions.