Influence of the spacing of trait information on impressions of likability

Five experiments were conducted in which subjects were shown lists of trait adjectives that supposedly described particular individuals. Each list included both positive and negative traits, with all such traits occurring twice. The second occurrence of a trait followed the first either immediately (massed presentation) or after four other traits intervened (distributed presentation). For a given list, all positive traits received massed presentation and all negative traits were distributed, or vice versa. After list presentation, subjects judged how likable the person described would be. In Experiments 1–3 only, there was also a free recall test for the traits. The free recall test revealed both a spacing effect (distributed items being recalled better than massed) and a bias toward recalling negative traits better than positive. Likability judgments paralleled the recall pattern, with the judgments being more positive when positive traits were distributed (and negative massed), than in the opposite arrangement. Correlations calculated between recall and impressions were mostly nonsignificant, however, suggesting that judgments were not based on the recall of specific traits and that inferences formed at encoding were of primary importance.     

Exploring long-term modality effects: Vocalization leads to best retention

Five experiments employing an incidental learning procedure explored the effects of different input modalities on the long-term retention of word lists. In each of the first four experiments, mixed-mode presentations featuring three different modes of presentation were employed. In the baseline presentation mode in each experiment, subjects were to read words silently. In the two additional presentation modes, subjects were to vocalize or read and hear (Experiment 1), read and hear or mouth (Experiment 2), vocalize or write (Experiment 3), and vocalize or write without seeing the written word (Experiment 4). In Experiment 5, separate groups of subjects were presented with pure-mode lists that they were to read silently, write without seeing, write and see, mouth, hear, read and hear, or vocalize. The principal findings were that auditory presentation procedures led to best memory performance and that, of these, only vocalization was found to consistently enhance retention. These findings are conceptualized within a framework that proposes that both the temporal distinctiveness of auditory information and self-generated cues are employed in the process of retrieval.     

Encoding richness of self-generated elaboration and spacing effects on incidental memory

The present study investigated encoding variability in self-generated elaboration on incidental memory as a function of the type of presentation which was either massed or spaced. The subjects generated different answers to a "why" question for the first and the second presentations of a target sentence in a self-generated elaboration condition. In an experimenter-provided elaboration condition they then rated the appropriateness of the different answers provided by the experimenter for the first and second presentations. This procedure was followed by two free recall tests, one of which was immediate and the other delayed. A self-generated elaboration effect was observed in both the spaced and the massed presentations. These results indicated that the self-generated elaboration effect was facilitated, even in the massed presentation because the different answers to the first and the second presentations led to a richer encoding of each target.     

Interactions between presentation modality and encoding task in frequency judgements

In two experiments, presentation modality of a list of items and encoding task were varied, and subjects judged the frequency with which certain words had been presented in the list. In Experiment 1, auditory presentation led to higher judgements of frequency than did visual presentation when subjects counted the consonants in the words but not when they rated imageability or when they kept a running count of the number of presentations of each word. In Experiment 2, encoding questions about the rhyme or spelling patterns of target words produced opposite effects for auditory and visual items. The results are interpreted as indicating that cross-modal translation during encoding produces a bias towards higher-frequency judgements and may also produce better frequency discrimination.     

Do apes and children know what they have seen?

Chimpanzees and young children understand much about what other individuals have and have not seen. This study investigates what they understand about their own visual perception. Chimpanzees, orangutans, and 2.5-year-old children were presented with a finding game in which food or stickers were hidden in one of two or three tubes. We varied whether subjects saw the baiting of the tubes, whether subjects could see through the tubes, and whether there was a delay between baiting and presentation of the tubes to subjects. We measured not only whether subjects chose the correct tube but also, more importantly, whether they spontaneously looked into one or more of the tubes before choosing one. Most apes and children appropriately looked into the tubes before choosing one more often when they had not seen the baiting than when they had seen the baiting. In general, they used efficient search strategies more often than insufficient or excessive ones. Implications of subjects' search patterns for their understanding of seeing and knowing in the self are discussed. Accepted after revision: 7 January 2001 Electronic Publication     

Prior knowledge and memory: the episodic encoding of implicitly activated associates and rhymes

The presentation of a familiar word activates related concepts, and, once encoded, related concepts interfere with memory for the work actually presented. Presented words that activate larger numbers of related concepts are generally more difficult to recall than those that activate smaller numbers. The purpose of the present experiments was to explore the effects of study-trial orientation and test delay on the encoding of both rhyme- and meaning-related concepts. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 indicate that meaning-related concepts are encoded and interfere with memory for the presented target regardless of study-trial orientation. Interference is obtained even when the study-trial context emphasizes phonemic information and subjects are incidentally oriented to rating rhyme properties. However, this interference effect disappears when the test trial is delayed. In contrast, the results of Experiments 1-4 indicate that rhyme-related concepts are encoded and interfere with memory for the presented target only when subjects explicitly attend to the rhyme dimension. Once oriented, this interference effect is found after a relatively long delay. These differences are attributed to differences in attentional processing. The encoding of meaning-related concepts results from relatively automatic processes and the encoding of rhyme-related concepts requires subjects to attend to rhyme.     

Limitations on children's short-term memory for left-right orientation

The time course of kindergarten children's memory for left-right orientation during the first $\text{2}\text{1}\text{2}\text{sec}$ after receptor stimulation was investigated by means of a successive matching-to-sample task with tachistoscopically presented abstract figures. The first study indicated that young children have difficulty encoding left-right orientation into short-term memory and treat left-right orientation as low-priority information that is likely to be lost when there is an information overload. A second study indicated that kindergarten children who are able to encode left-right orientation do so more slowly than adults. An unexpected finding occurring in both studies was that the presentation of the comparison figures appeared to terminate initial processing of the standard figure. It is argued that this effect was due to cognitively based visual masking.     

How apparent motion affects mental rotation: Push or pull?

Subjects were timed as they judged whether a small bar perpendicular to one side of a clockhand would point left or right if the hand was pointing upward (i.e., at the 12:00 position). The clockhand was shown in two successive orientations 30°apart, so that it was perceived to jump from one to the other, but the bar was included at only one of the two orientations. Analysis of reaction times as a function of angular orientation showed that the subjects “mentally rotated” the clockhand to the upright position before making their decisions. When the bar appeared on the second presentation, the jump had no significant influence on mental rotation but when it appeared on the first presentation, the estimated orientation from which the clockhand was mentally rotated was “dragged” in the direction of the jump.     

Hemispheric differences for orthographic and phonological processing

The role of hemispheric differences for the encoding of words was assessed by requiring subjects to match tachistoscopically presented word pairs on the basis of their rhyming or visual similarity. The interference between a word pair's orthography and phonology produced matching errors which were differentially affected by the visual field/hemisphere of projection and sex of subject. In general, right visual field/left hemisphere presentations yielded fewer errors when word pairs shared similar phonology under rhyme matching and similar orthography under visual matching. Left visual field/right hemisphere presentations yielded fewer errors when word pairs were phonologically dissimilar under rhyme matching and orthographically dissimilar under visual matching. Males made more errors and demonstrated substantially stronger hemispheric effects than females. These patterns suggested visual field/hemispheric differences for orthographic and phonological encoding occurred during the initial stages of word processing and were more pronounced for male compared to female subjects.     

Familiar idiom comprehension

Sentences containing idioms used either literally or figuratively were presented repeatedly for 100 msec per presentation. Half of the sentences were preceded by a paragraph. The number of presentations required to read the sentences and cued recall of the sentences were recorded. The serial brief presentations method provided predictable and meaningful results. Sentences containing idioms used literally required more presentations than those containing idioms used figuratively. Cued recall was better for idioms used literally than for those used figuratively. These results are interpreted as support for the Idiomatic Processing Model of idiom comprehension, which suggests that the figurative meaning is processed first; only if that one is inappropriate is the literal meaning processed.     

Why do children confuse mirror-image obliques?

Thirty-five children aged from 4.17 to 6.58 years were given a delayed-matching task in which they had to choose on each trial which of two lines was the same as a previously displayed standard line. Their choices were no better than random when the lines differed in degree of slope but not in left-right orientation and were only marginally more accurate when the lines were left-right mirror images. Performance improved significantly when the lines differed both in degree of slope from the vertical and in left-right orientation and improved still further if at least one of the lines was horizontal or vertical. The results suggest that young children have extreme difficulty encoding in memory either the degree of slope or the left-right orientation of an oblique line.     

Rate and frequency as determinants of learning with complete and discrete list presentation

In Experiment 1, complete presentation of the study list produced better free recall learning than did the usual item-by-item (discrete) presentation. The difference was large and held for items occurring one, two, or three times within a list, whether items were spaced or massed, and for discrete presentation rates of 2, 4, and 6 sec/item. Experiment 2 replicated this superiority of complete over discrete presentation (equating total study time), and Experiment 3 extended the finding to paired associate learning. Experiments 2 and 3 indicated that multiple presentations of a list at fast rates were superior to a single presentation at a more standard rate and only slightly inferior to a single, complete presentation. Practical implications for instruction were pointed out, as were problems that certain of the results pose for theories that emphasize strategic (or at least extended) processing of items for encoding.     

Verbal labeling as an assimilation mnemonic for abstract visual stimuli: The sample case of recognition memory for Chinese characters

In four experiments, we examined the effect that presenting a verbal stimulus (viz., an English noun) alongside an abstract visual stimulus (viz., a Chinese character) enhances recognition memory for the abstract visual stimulus. Experiment 1 demonstrated that the character-plus-word combination at both encoding and retrieval results in better recognition than does a character-alone presentation or presenting the combination at encoding only. Experiment 2 demonstrated that presenting the word first and then the character results in better performance than does the opposite order. Experiment 3 showed that the concreteness value of the word, not familiarity, is the critical factor. In Experiment 4, presentation time was varied. More time was needed for liftoff from chance level for the word-character combination than for the character-alone presentation. Together, the results suggest that subjects spontaneously assimilate stimulus and word into a single representation by building asymmetric effortful imagery associations, going from the English word to the Chinese character.     

The integration of spatial information across different viewpoints

The integration of spatial information perceived from different viewpoints is a frequent, yet largely unexplored, cognitive ability. In two experiments, participants saw two presentations, each consisting of three targets—that is, illuminated tiles on the floor—before walking the shortest possible path across all targets. In Experiment 1, participants viewed the targets either from the same viewpoint or from different viewpoints. Errors in recalling targets increased if participants changed their viewpoints between presentations, suggesting that memory acquired from different viewpoints had to be aligned for integration. Furthermore, the error pattern indicates that memory for the first presentation was transformed into the reference frame of the second presentation. In Experiment 2, we examined whether this transformation occurred because new information was integrated already during encoding or because memorized information was integrated when required. Results suggest that the latter is the case. This might serve as a strategy for avoiding additional alignments.     

Parallel effects of aging and time pressure on memory for source: evidence from the spacing effect

Two experiments address the degree to which item memory-the ability to remember that a word has been presented-is dissociable from source memory, or the ability to remember the context of that word's presentation. Spacing (as opposed to massing) an item's two presentations leads young adults to endorse that item more often when they are instructed to recognize it and to reject it more often when they are instructed to exclude it. Old adults also enjoy beneficial effects of spacing when the item is to be recognized, but suffer detrimental effects of the spacing manipulation when the item is to be rejected: They falsely endorse the spaced to-be-rejected items more than the massed ones. This dissociation also obtains with young subjects under conditions of increased time pressure: Under normal decision conditions, the ability to endorse to-be-recognized items and to reject to-be-rejected items increases with spacing; under speeded conditions, the ability to reject the latter items decreases with spacing. The results support the notion that source memory is selectively impaired in the elderly and that it is difficult to access mnemonic information about source under time pressure.     

More is still not better: Testing the perturbation model of temporal reference memory across different modalities and tasks

The ability of the perturbation model (Jones & Wearden, 2003) to account for reference memory function in a visual temporal generalization task and auditory and visual reproduction tasks was examined. In all tasks the number of presentations of the standard was manipulated (1, 3, or 5), and its effect on performance was compared. In visual temporal generalization the number of presentations of the standard did not affect the number of times the standard was correctly identified, nor did it affect the overall temporal generalization gradient. In auditory reproduction there was no effect of the number of times the standard was presented on mean reproductions. In visual reproduction mean reproductions were shorter when the standard was only presented once; however, this effect was reduced when a visual cue was provided before the first presentation of the standard. Whilst the results of all experiments are best accounted for by the perturbation model there appears to be some attentional benefit to multiple presentations of the standard in visual reproduction.     

More is still not better: testing the perturbation model of temporal reference memory across different modalities and tasks

The ability of the perturbation model (Jones & Wearden, 2003) to account for reference memory function in a visual temporal generalization task and auditory and visual reproduction tasks was examined. In all tasks the number of presentations of the standard was manipulated (1, 3, or 5), and its effect on performance was compared. In visual temporal generalization the number of presentations of the standard did not affect the number of times the standard was correctly identified, nor did it affect the overall temporal generalization gradient. In auditory reproduction there was no effect of the number of times the standard was presented on mean reproductions. In visual reproduction mean reproductions were shorter when the standard was only presented once; however, this effect was reduced when a visual cue was provided before the first presentation of the standard. Whilst the results of all experiments are best accounted for by the perturbation model there appears to be some attentional benefit to multiple presentations of the standard in visual reproduction.     

Controls for and constraints on auto-shaping

Auto-shaping the pigeon's key-peck response was examined as a respondent conditioning procedure with the use of Rescorla's truly-random control procedure. In the first experiment, pigeons received presentations of brief light on the response key and brief presentations of food where the light and the food were independently presented. All birds failed to key peck after many light and food presentations, but explicit pairing of the light and food rapidly conditioned pecking to the light. Experiment 2 showed that even when an independent light/food presentation schedule was reduced to variable-time 30 sec, additional naive birds would not key peck and only one bird pecked when the schedules were variable-time 15 sec. A third experiment examined an explicit-unpairing control procedure, where the light and food were not only presented on independent schedules but were also separated by a minimum time, and found that auto-shaping did not occur. A fourth experiment investigated a number of control procedures and found them ineffective. A fifth experiment investigated the effects of a physical separation of the locus of the response key and the food dispenser, and a sixth experiment investigated using a tone in place of the light. It was concluded that pecking is generated by auto-shaping procedures only when an intermittently presented keylight is regularly paired with food.     

The Effect of the Modality of Presentation of Streaming Multimedia on Information Acquisition

Abstract

The proliferation of fast computer systems and high-speed Internet connections allows for the increasingly practical delivery of streaming audio and video in educational or informational presentations. Many proponents of this technology advocate its use, citing that it is more media-rich and therefore more engaging than less rich forms. This study seeks to determine how different modalities of presentation (text-only, text–audio, and text–audio–video) impacted information acquisition from a PowerPoint presentation. One hundred thirty two participants were placed into 1 of 3 presentation modes. After viewing the presentation, their level of information acquisition was assessed. Results indicate that participants in the more media-rich groups acquired less information from the presentation. These results challenge anecdotal reports regarding the effectiveness of media-rich presentations.     

Automatic semantic encoding in verbal short-term memory: Evidence from the concreteness effect

The concreteness effect in verbal short-term memory (STM) tasks is assumed to be a consequence of semantic encoding in STM, with immediate recall of concrete words benefiting from richer semantic representations. We used the concreteness effect to test the hypothesis that semantic encoding in standard verbal STM tasks is a consequence of controlled, attention-demanding mechanisms of strategic semantic retrieval and encoding. Experiment 1 analysed the effect of presentation rate, with slow presentations being assumed to benefit strategic, time-dependent semantic encoding. Experiments 2 and 3 provided a more direct test of the strategic hypothesis by introducing three different concurrent attention-demanding tasks. Although Experiment 1 showed a larger concreteness effect with slow presentations, the following two experiments yielded strong evidence against the strategic hypothesis. Limiting available attention resources by concurrent tasks reduced global memory performance, but the concreteness effect was equivalent to that found in control conditions. We conclude that semantic effects in STM result from automatic semantic encoding and provide tentative explanations for the interaction between the concreteness effect and the presentation rate.