Conjunction error rates on a continuous recognition memory test: little evidence for recollection

Two experiments examined conjunction memory errors on a continuous recognition task where the lag between parent words (e.g., blackmail, jailbird) and later conjunction lures (blackbird) was manipulated. In Experiment 1, contrary to expectations, the conjunction error rate was highest at the shortest lag (1 word) and decreased as the lag increased. In Experiment 2 the conjunction error rate increased significantly from a 0- to a 1-word lag, then decreased slightly from a 1- to a 5-word lag. The results provide mixed support for simple familiarity and dual-process accounts of recognition. Paradoxically, searching for an item in memory does not appear to be a good encoding task.     

A decrease in conjunction error rates across lags on a continuous recognition task: a robust pattern

In four experiments, the lag retention interval from parent words (e.g., blackmail, jailbird) to a conjunction word (blackbird) was manipulated in a continuous recognition task. Alterations to the basic procedure of Jones and Atchley (2002) were employed in Experiments 1 and 2 to bolster recollection to reject conjunction lures, yet conjunction error rates still decreased across lags of 1 to 20 words. Experiment 3 and a multiexperiment analysis examined the increments of forgetting in familiarity across lags of 1-20 words. Finally, in Experiment 4, participants attempted to identify conjunction probes as "old", and the data were contrasted with those from a previous experiment (Jones & Atchley, 2002, Exp. 1), in which participants attempted not to identify conjunction probes as "old". In support of earlier findings, the decrease in familiarity across lags of 1-20 words appears robust, with a constant level of weak recollection occurring for parent words.     

Elaborative processing and conjunction errors in recognition memory

Four experiments were conducted in order to examine the influence of elaborative processing at encoding on recognition memory conjunction lure errors. In these experiments, participants generated cues for compound words as wholes (e.g., haywire) or as separate entities (e.g., hay, wire). Studied words were re-presented in exact form (old) or recombined to form conjunction lures on the recognition test. Participants were asked to make old-new judgments and to indicate whether they had rejected items judged to be new because of recall of a studied item or because of lack of familiarity with an item. The results suggested that recall-to-reject processing and conjunction lure familiarity increased with both types of generation, although generation of cues for compound words as a whole did not influence conjunction lure error rates. An emphasis on processing each constituent of a compound word during encoding increased the familiarity of those constituents more than generation of a compound word as a whole, resulting in an increase in conjunction lure errors. These results suggest that both familiarity and recollection-based monitoring processes influence conjunction lure errors, and therefore support dual-process theories of recognition memory.     

Language familiarity effects in short-term memory: The role of output delay and long-term knowledge

Four experiments examined the origins of language familiarity effects in bilingual short-term recall. In Experiments 1A and 1B, bilingual adults were tested on serial recall and probed serial recall of words and nonwords in their first and second languages. A first-language advantage was obtained on both measures, indicating that the beneficial effects of language familiarity are not exclusively attributable to lesser output delay during overt recall. In Experiments 2A and 2B, the same group of bilinguals was tested on serial recall and serial recognition of word lists in both languages. Although a sizeable first-language advantage was obtained on the serial recall measure, recognition performance was comparable in the two languages. On the basis of these results it is suggested that language differences in bilingual immediate memory arise in large part as a consequence of the differential availability of language-specific long-term knowledge with which to support retrieval processes in serial recall.     

Dissociable lexical and phonological influences on serial recognition and serial recall

The impact of the lexicality of memory items on memory performance was compared in two paradigms, serial recall and serial recognition. Experiments 1 to 3 tested 7- and 8-year-old children. Memory accuracy was only mildly impaired in lists containing nonwords compared with words in a serial recognition task involving judgements of whether the items in two sequences were in the same order (Experiment 1), although a substantial advantage for word over nonword items from the same stimulus pool was found in serial recall (Experiment 2). A stronger influence of lexicality on serial recall than serial recognition was further demonstrated in Experiments 3A and 3B, and in 4A and 4B using adult participants. These experiments also established comparable degrees of sensitivity to the phonological similarity of the memory sequences in the two paradigms. The phonological similarity effect in serial recall was found to arise from increased phoneme order errors, whereas the lexicality effect was due principally to the greater frequency of phoneme identity errors for nonwords. It is proposed that the lexicality effect originates in the redintegration of item information just prior to recall, and that this process is largely bypassed in serial recognition.     

Conjunction errors in recognition memory: modality-free errors for older adults but not for young adults

A dual-process theory of memory was applied to processes in normal aging, with a focus on recognition errors in the feature-conjunction paradigm (i.e., false recognition of blackbird after studying parent words blackmail and/or jailbird). Study repetition was manipulated so that some parent words occurred once and others occurred three times. Age-related differences on hit scores occurred for two experiments. The results for feature and conjunction conditions showed repetition effects but no age-related differences when participants were uninformed of the lures (Experiment 1). However, age-related differences emerged when the retrieval of modality source information created a way to evade conjunction errors (Experiment 2). In the second experiment, study repetition decreased errors for the young adults but increased errors for the older adults, and young adults were better able than older adults to avoid conjunction errors when the parent words had been repeated. For older adults, the conjunction errors were modality-free. The results provide additional evidence that older adults experience difficulty in recollecting aspects of a study experience, and the results from groups of young adults required to respond quickly on the tests provide converging evidence for this conclusion.     

Study repetition and the rejection of conjunction lures

Four experiments were conducted to provide further support for a dual-process approach to conjunction errors in recognition memory over a single-process approach. In Experiments 1, 2a, and 2b study words were repeated once (2 presentations) or several times (8 or 16 presentations), and a response signal delay (RSD) was manipulated (short vs long). Short RSD groups produced lower hit rates but higher conjunction error rates compared to long RSD groups. Repetition effects on conjunction errors occurred for short RSD but not long RSD groups. In Experiment 3, additional judgements on new items were solicited to show that the "null" effects for long RSD groups in the earlier experiments were, in fact, illusory. Together, the experiments provide evidence for recollection-based rejections of conjunction lures and support a dual-process theory of recognition memory over a single-process model.     

A decrease in conjunction error rates across lags on a continuous recognition task: A robust pattern

In four experiments, the lag retention interval from parent words (e.g., blackmail, jailbird) to a conjunction word (blackbird) was manipulated in a continuous recognition task. Alterations to the basic procedure of Jones and Atchley (2002) were employed in Experiments 1 and 2 to bolster recollection to reject conjunction lures, yet conjunction error rates still decreased across lags of 1 to 20 words. Experiment 3 and a multiexperiment analysis examined the increments of forgetting in familiarity across lags of 1–20 words. Finally, in Experiment 4, participants attempted to identify conjunction probes as “old”, and the data were contrasted with those from a previous experiment (Jones & Atchley, 2002, Exp. 1), in which participants attempted not to identify conjunction probes as “old”. In support of earlier findings, the decrease in familiarity across lags of 1–20 words appears robust, with a constant level of weak recollection occurring for parent words.     

The effect of concurrent semantic categorization on delayed serial recall

The influence of semantic processing on the serial ordering of items in short-term memory was explored using a novel dual-task paradigm. Participants engaged in 2 picture-judgment tasks while simultaneously performing delayed serial recall. List material varied in the presence of phonological overlap (Experiments 1 and 2) and in semantic content (concrete words in Experiment 1 and 3; nonwords in Experiments 2 and 3). Picture judgments varied in the extent to which they required accessing visual semantic information (i.e., semantic categorization and line orientation judgments). Results showed that, relative to line-orientation judgments, engaging in semantic categorization judgments increased the proportion of item-ordering errors for concrete lists but did not affect error proportions for nonword lists. Furthermore, although more ordering errors were observed for phonologically similar relative to dissimilar lists, no interactions were observed between the phonological overlap and picture-judgment task manipulations. These results demonstrate that lexical-semantic representations can affect the serial ordering of items in short-term memory. Furthermore, the dual-task paradigm provides a new method for examining when and how semantic representations affect memory performance.     

Directed forgetting in older adults using the item and list methods

Four experiments investigated age-group differences in directed forgetting. Experiments 1A and 1B used the item method with recall (1A) and recognition (1B). Both of these experiments showed evidence of directed forgetting for both younger and older adults. The list method was used in Experiments 2A (recall) and 2B (recognition). For these experiments, there was directed forgetting when recall, but not recognition, was the dependent measure. Again, these results were found for younger and older adults. These results are discussed in terms of how different presentation types lead to the use of different theoretical mechanisms of directed forgetting (e.g., differential encoding, retrieval inhibition). Thus, it appears that both older and younger adults engage in adaptive memory strategies.     

Does survival context enhance memory for source? A within-subjects comparison

ABSTRACT

Nairne, Thompson, and Pandeirada [2007. Adaptive memory: Survival processing enhances retention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 33, 263–273] demonstrated that processing words according to their relevance to a survival scenario enhanced their subsequent retrieval in recall and recognition tasks compared to a variety of control scenarios. From an adaptive perspective, it is maintained that processing words in a survival context should also enhance memory for source; however, evidence in the literature is rather mixed regarding a survival context advantage for source memory. In the current study, we conducted four experiments to systematically investigate the survival advantage in source memory, when the context itself is the source, with both recall (Experiments 1A and 1B) and recognition tests (Experiments 2A and 2B). Results showed a survival advantage for item memory over the control contexts in all experiments. The survival context advantage was not extended to source memory performance in Experiment 1A. Results from all other experiments, however, indicated a survival context advantage for both item and source memory. Findings are discussed in relation to possible proximate mechanisms underlying the survival processing effect.     

Study repetition and the rejection of conjunction lures

Four experiments were conducted to provide further support for a dual-process approach to conjunction errors in recognition memory over a single-process approach. In Experiments 1, 2a, and 2b study words were repeated once (2 presentations) or several times (8 or 16 presentations), and a response signal delay (RSD) was manipulated (short vs long). Short RSD groups produced lower hit rates but higher conjunction error rates compared to long RSD groups. Repetition effects on conjunction errors occurred for short RSD but not long RSD groups. In Experiment 3, additional judgements on new items were solicited to show that the “null” effects for long RSD groups in the earlier experiments were, in fact, illusory. Together, the experiments provide evidence for recollection-based rejections of conjunction lures and support a dual-process theory of recognition memory over a single-process model.     

Semantic contribution to verbal short-term memory: Are pleasant words easier to remember than neutral words in serial recall and serial recognition?

In the four experiments reported here, we examined the role of word pleasantness on immediate serial recall and immediate serial recognition. In Experiment 1, we compared verbal serial recall of pleasant and neutral words, using a limited set of items. In Experiment 2, we replicated Experiment 1 with an open set of words (i.e., new items were used on every trial). In Experiments 3 and 4, we assessed immediate serial recognition of pleasant and neutral words, using item sets from Experiments 1 and 2. Pleasantness was found to have a facilitation effect on both immediate serial recall and immediate serial recognition. This study supplies some new supporting arguments in favor of a semantic contribution to verbal short-term memory performance. The pleasantness effect observed in immediate serial recognition showed that, contrary to a number of earlier findings, performance on this task can also turn out to be dependent on semantic factors. The results are discussed in relation to nonlinguistic and psycholinguistic models of short-term memory.     

Contribution of perceptual fluency to recognition judgments.

Following a shallow (count vowels) or deep (read) study task, old and new words were tested for both fluency of perception and recognition memory. Subjects first identified a test word as it came gradually into view and then judged it as old or new. Old words were identified faster than new words, indicating implicit, perceptual memory for old words. Independently of this effect, words judged old were identified faster than words judged new, especially after shallow study. Eight experiments examined the possible causal relationship between perceptual fluency and recognition judgements. Experiments 1 to 4 showed that fast identifications per se do not promote old judgments. Accelerating the identification of test items by semantically priming them or making them come more quickly into view did not affect recognition judgments. Experiment 5 showed that the usual association of fast identifications with old judgments is not an artifact of item selection because the association disappeared when the identifications and judgements were segregated into different phases of the test task. Experiments 6 and 7 showed tha the likelihood of old judgments increases directly with the pretested perceptibility of test words, but only after shallow study. Experiment 8 showed that the dependency of recognition judgments on perceptual fluency continues to hold when the requirement to identify the words before judging them is eliminated. We conclude that fluency of perception contributes to recognition judgments, but only when the fluency is produced naturally (e.g., through perceptual memory) and explicit memory is minimal.     

Prior knowledge: the effects of natural category size on memory for implicitly encoded concepts

Studying a familiar word activates its associates, and these associates affect the likelihood of recalling the studied word in a cued recall task. These experiments examined variables that normally affect memory for the studied word to determine if they have similar effects on memory for the word's associates. Memory for associates was tested by cued recall (Experiments 1-3) or by recognition (Experiments 4-5), with the number and strength of the associates varied in all experiments. In different experiments, test instructions (direct-indirect), distractor tasks, lag, and amount of practice were manipulated. Provided that subjects were not distracted prior to test, the probability of recalling associates of the studied word decreased with the number of associates activated and with their strength under all conditions. The strength of the associates but not their number affected recognition. In general, variables that affected recall and recognition of studied words had parallel effects on their associates.     

Memorability judgments for high- and low-frequency words

Five experiments were conducted in order to examine subjects’ judgments of the memorability of high- (HF) and low-frequency (LF) words in the context of a recognition memory task. In Experiment 1, the subjects were provided study/test experience with a list of HF and LF words prior to making memorability judgments for a new list of HF and LF items. The findings were consistent with previous evidence (Greene & Thapar, 1994; Wixted, 1992) suggesting that subjects are not explicitly aware of the greater recognition memorability of LF words. Experiments 2–5 embedded the memorability judgment task within the recognition test itself. In these experiments, the subjects consistently gave higher memorability ratings to LF items. The contrast between the pattern of results found when the subjects made their judgments at the time of list presentation (Experiment 1) and that when they made their judgments during the recognition test (Experiments 2–5) is consistent with recent evidence that even seemingly highly related metamnemonic judgments (e.g., ease of learning judgments vs. judgments of learning for the same items) may be based on very different factors if they occur at different points in the study/test cycle. The present findings are also consistent with the possibility that very rapid retrieval of memorability information for HF and LF words may affect recognition decisions and may contribute to the recognition memory word frequency effect.     

States of awareness across multiple memory tasks: obtaining a "pure" measure of conscious recollection

Four experiments were conducted to examine the nature of recollective experience across different explicit memory tests. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that the proportion of retrieved items that were given Remember responses were equivalent across free recall, category cued recall, category plus letter cued recall, and recognition memory tests unlike the result reported by Tulving [Can. Psychol. 26 (1985) 1]. Experiments 3 and 4 revealed that Remember judgments are influenced by both conceptual and perceptual variables not only in the recognition task but in other explicit memory tasks as well. Taken together, the empirical evidence from this study demonstrates that explicit memory performance is accompanied by different states of awareness not only in recognition but also across other memory tasks including free recall.     

Levels of processing and picture memory: the physical superiority effect

Six experiments studied the effect of physical orienting questions (e.g., "Is this angular?") and semantic orienting questions (e.g., "Is this edible?") on memory for unrelated pictures at stimulus durations ranging from 125-2,000 ms. Results ran contrary to the semantic superiority "rule of thumb," which is based primarily on verbal memory experiments. Physical questions were associated with better free recall and cued recall of a diverse set of visual scenes (Experiments 1, 2, and 4). This occurred both when general and highly specific semantic questions were used (Experiments 1 and 2). Similar results were obtained when more simplistic visual stimuli--photographs of single objects--were used (Experiments 5 and 6). As in the case of the semantic superiority effect with words, the physical superiority effect for pictures was eliminated or reversed when the same physical questions were repeated throughout the session (Experiments 4 and 6). Conflicts with results of previous levels of processing experiments with words and nonverbal stimuli (e.g., faces) are explained in terms of the sensory-semantic model (Nelson, Reed, & McEvoy, 1977). Implications for picture memory research and the levels of processing viewpoint are discussed.     

Recollective experience in word and nonword recognition

The functional relationship between memory and consciousness was investigated in two experiments in which subjects indicated when recognizing an item whether they could consciously recollect its prior occurrence in the study list or recognized it on some other basis, in the absence of conscious recollection. Low-frequency words, relative to high-frequency words, enhanced recognition accompanied by conscious recollection but did not influence recognition in the absence of conscious recollection. By contrast, nonwords compared with words enhanced recognition in the absence of conscious recollection and reduced recognition accompanied by conscious recollection. A third experiment showed that confidence judgments in recognizing nonword targets corresponded with recognition performance, not with recollective experience. These measures of conscious awareness therefore tap qualitatively different components of memory, not some unitary dimension such as "trace strength." The findings are interpreted as providing further support for the distinction between episodic memory and other memory systems, and also as providing more qualified support for theories that assume that recognition memory entails two components, one of which may also give rise to priming effects in implicit memory.     

Recognition memory ROCs for item and associative information: The contribution of recollection and familiarity

Receiver-operating characteristics (ROCs) were examined in three recognition memory experiments. ROCs for item information (i.e., was this word presented?) were found to be curvilinear. However, ROCs for associative information (i.e., were these two words presented together?) were found to be linear. The results are in agreement with the predictions of a dual-process model that assumes that recognition judgments are -based on familiarity and recollection. Familiarity reflects the assessment of a continuous strength dimension and is well described as a signal detection process, whereas recollection reflects the retrieval of qualitative information about the study episode and behaves like a discrete threshold process. The results showed that memory judgments about items relied on a combination of recollection and familiarity, but that judgments about associations relied primarily on recollection. Further examination of the associative ROCs suggested that subjects were able to recollect that old pairs of items were in the study list, and, under some conditions, that new pairs were not in the study list.