Semantic knowledge as a determinant of developmental differences in recall

Two experiments examined the possible role of children's semantic knowledge and their ability to encode it in a cued-recall test. Performance of children aged 7, 10, and 13 was observed in encoding specificity tasks, which used homographs as the to-be-remembered words (TBRs).In Experiment I, children of all ages performed better when the output cue words prompted similar meanings to the input cues, than when output and input meanings were incompatible. In Experiment II, all children were required to recall identical items, but younger children, owing to lack of knowledge, were unable to encode pairs comprising input and TBR words incompatibly with output cues. In such circumstances, younger subjects outperformed older subjects. When input and output cues were incompatible for all ages, recall increased with age, possibly due to older childrens' using more effective retrieval strategies.The findings indicate that semantic encoding influenced recall performance at each age. This suggests that age differences in memory are due to differences in the amount of semantic knowledge a child possesses for encoding and cuing and not to capacity differences.     

The effects of specific and categorical orienting on children's incidental and intentional memory for pictures and words

This study examines the effects of differences in the encoding of specific and categorical information on second graders' (7 years; 7 months), fifth graders' (10; 6), and college adults' cued recall for cue-target picture and word pairs. The cues at retrieval were either same-modal (P-P and W-W) or cross-modal (P-W and W-P) as the cues presented in acquisition, and acquisition encoding was either incidental or intentional and constrained by orienting questions or unconstrained. The most important results were that both picture and word recall varied with the encoding of both specific and categorical information and that children differed from adults in the encoding of both kinds of information in both incidental and intentional encoding conditions. In addition, both children and adults showed congruency effects for pictures and words that were greater for specific than for categorical orienting questions. The results suggest that differences in the encoding of both specific and categorical attribute information contribute to developmental recall differences independently of encoding intent and stimulus modality.     

The relation between item identification difficulty and elaborative conceptual processing for children and adults

The four experiments concerned the relation between the difficulty of item identification processes, elaborative conceptual processing, and developmental differences in cued recall. Elaborative conceptual processing was manipulated by asking related ("How many are related?"), category ("How many are vehicles?"), and analytic ("How many usually carry freight?") orienting questions about four-word stimuli in which the words were categorically related (Bus-Airplane-Car-Train). The measures of elaborative processing were the speed and accuracy of question answers. Cued recall for the targets (Train) was assessed for one-word (Bus) or two-word (Bus-Airplane) cues, which were varied to determine if elaborative processing affected cue discriminability or constructability, or both. The difficulty of item identification was varied in several ways. In Experiment 1, the graphemic information was degraded in the acquisition stimuli, or the retrieval cues, or the stimulus words were intact. In Experiments 2 and 3, acquisition presentation time was varied and the stimuli were read by the experimenter or the subject. Experiment 4 featured pictures to determine generalizability. The results showed that elaborative conceptual processing facilitates recall. Most important, item identification processes limit elaborative conceptual processing for both words and pictures, and more for children than for college students.     

Orienting task effects on memory for presentation modality in children, young adults, and older adults.

Children (7 to 10 years), young adults (17 to 24 years), and older adults (55 to 77 years) were asked to learn three lists of words that were of mixed modality (half the words were visual, and half the words were auditory). With one list the subjects were asked a semantic orienting question; with another, a nonsemantic orienting question; and with a third, no orienting question. Half the subjects in each age group were also asked to remember the presentation modality of each word. Older adults remembered less information about modality than children and young adults did, and the variation in the type of orienting question--or the lack of one--affected modality identification. However, there was no Orienting Task x Age interaction for modality identification. The results of this study suggest that encoding modality information does not take place automatically--in any age group--but that explanations focusing on encoding strategies and effort are not likely to account for older adults' difficulties in remembering presentation modality.     

Learning disabilities, distinctive encoding, and hemispheric resources

The purpose of this study was to isolate possible sources of learning ability differences in distinctive encoding of item-specific and relational information. Two mechanisms postulated as underlying ability group differences were attentional capacity (as inferred from the magnitude and direction of correlations between primary and secondary recall) and resource monitoring strategies (as reflected in measures of selective attention and laterality). In Experiment 1, learning disabled and nondisabled childrens' word recall was compared on dichotic listening recall tasks that included nonorienting instructions, and orienting instructions that directed children's attention toward semantic, phonemic, or structural word features. Disabled children showed lower recall and more diffuse selective attention to word features than nondisabled children. Reciprocity (negative correlations) between targeted and background words within and between ability groups was comparable, except when targeted word features were phonemically organized. Experiment 2 indicated that disabled childrens' cued recall was inferior to that of nondisabled children, even though both ability groups produced comparable symmetrical recall patterns related to ear presentations. Taken together, the results suggest that the locus of disabled childrens' distinctive encoding deficiencies is related to resource monitoring strategies during interhemispheric processing.     

Retrieval conditions and false recognition: testing the distinctiveness heuristic

High levels of false recognition are observed after people study lists of semantic associates that all converge on a nonpresented lure word. In previous experiments, we have found that orienting participants to encode distinctive information about study list items by presenting them as pictures as opposed to words produces marked reductions in false recognition. We have suggested that these reductions reflect the operation of a distinctiveness heuristic: Participants demand access to detailed pictorial information in order to support a positive recognition decision. The present experiments provide additional evidence on this point and allow us to distinguish between the distinctiveness heuristic account and an alternative account based on the impoverished encoding of relational information that occurs when one is studying pictures. In Experiment 1, even when only half of the items in a study list were presented as pictures, a general suppression of false recognition was observed that could be attributable to impoverished encoding of relational information. Experiment 2 provided a critical test of the distinctiveness heuristic account: We manipulated test instructions and found that differences in false recognition rates between picture and word encoding were attenuated in a retrieval condition that did not encourage reliance on a distinctiveness heuristic.     

Encoding distinctiveness and the encoding shift penalty in children and adults

This study determined some of the reasons for developmental differences in retrieval variability. The critical manipulation involved the use of semantic orienting questions at both acquisition and retrieval for elementary school children (7 and 10 years of age) and adults. The retrieval questions biased the sampling of cue information compatible or incompatible with the information sampled in acquisition. The recall difference that resulted is the Encoding Shift Penalty. Experiment 1 manipulated encoding distinctiveness at acquisition and the delay between acquisition and retrieval. Experiment 2 varied acquisition encoding constraint and employed two retrieval trials varying the kind of retrieval question. Among other findings, the results suggest that (1) the acquisition encoding of adults is more distinctive than is that of children; (2) encoding distinctiveness affects the probability of sampling and resampling compatible cue information, and the identification of target event information once cue comptibility is ensured at retrieval; and (3) incompatible initial samples of retrieval cue information for children may interfere with their ability to resample successfully.     

Presentation modality and mode of recall in verbal false memory

False memories were investigated for aurally and visually presented lists of semantically associated words. In Experiment 1, false written recall of critical intrusions was reliably lower following visual presentation compared with aural presentation. This presentation modality effect was attributed to the use of orthographic features during written recall to edit critical intrusions from visually presented lists. As predicted by this hypothesis, the modality effect was eliminated when the mode of recall was spoken rather than written. In Experiment 2, the modality effect in written recall was again replicated and then eliminated with an orienting task that ensured orthographic encoding even of aurally presented words. Thus, the modality effect appears to depend on using orthographic information to distinguish true from false verbal memories.     

The effects of encoding distinctiveness on retrieval variability in children and adults

To what extent are developmental differences in encoding distinctiveness responsible for differences in retrieval variability? This study examined this question by comparing the effects of different kinds of encoding distinctiveness on the ability of children and adults to reinstate the input environment at retrieval. The critical manipulations involved the use of semantic orienting questions at both encoding and retrieval. Second and fourth (Experiment 1) or fifth (Experiment 2) graders and college adults were given moderately associated word pairs (Knife-Axe) at input. Encoding was free or constrained at input and retrieval. The retrieval questions biased the Same interpretation of the cue as at input (weapon), a uniquely Different interpretation (utensil), or an inappropriate Negative interpretation. Encoding distinctiveness was varied by crossing these manipulations with either picture or word input (Experiment 1) or general or distinctive orienting questions (Experiment 2). The results suggested that encoding distinctiveness and retrieval variability contribute independently to developmental differences in recall.     

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.     

Semantic priming effects on picture and word processing

The effects of semantic priming on picture and word processing were assessed under conditions in which subjects were required simply to identify stimuli (label pictures or read words) as rapidly as possible. Stimuli were presented in pairs (a prime followed by a target), with half of the pairs containing members of the same semantic category and half containing unrelated concepts. Semantic relatedness was found to facilitate the identification of both pictures (Experiment 1) and words (Experiment 2), and obtained interactions of semantic relatedness and stimulus quality in both experiments suggested that semantic priming affects the initial encoding of both types of stimuli. In Experiment 3, subjects received pairs of pictures, pairs of words, and mixed pairs composed of a picture and a word or of a word and a picture. Significant priming effects were obtained on mixed as well as unmixed pairs, supporting the assumption that pictures and words access semantic information from a common semantic store. Of primary interest was the significantly greater priming obtained in picture-picture pairs than in word-word or mixed pairs. This suggests that, in addition to priming that is mediated by the semantic system, priming may occur in picture-picture pairs that results from the overlap in visual features common to the pictorial representations of objects from the same semantic category.     

Picture superiority in conceptual memory: Dissociative effects of encoding and retrieval tasks

We examined the role of encoding processes for picture superiority in explicit and conceptual-implicit memory. The nature of encoding instruction (naming or semantic categorization) yielded dissociative effects on picture and word memory on one explicit test, category-cued recall, and two conceptual-implicit tests, category-cued generation and category-cued verification. Category-cued recall was greater for pictures than for words following naming, but it did not differ for pictures and words following semantic categorization. Category-cued generation priming was greater for pictures than for words following naming, but it was greater for words than for pictures following semantic categorization. In contrast, category-cued verification priming did not differ for pictures and words following either naming or semantic categorization. Thus, picture superiority can be eliminated or reversed depending on the type of conceptual encoding task and conceptual-retrieval test.     

The generality of the levels of processing hypothesis: An application to memory for chess positions

The generality of the levels of processing approach to memory was tested by using chess positions rather than words as stimuli. Experiment 1 compared recall following semantic orienting instructions (find the best move and determine which side has the advantage), formal orienting instructions (determine the number of pieces on light squares and the number of pieces on dark squares), and intentional learning instructions using 19 novice chess players as subjects. Formal orienting instructions produced poorer recall than did either semantic orienting or intentional learning instructions, which yielded similar levels of retention. These results were replicated in Experiment 2 with 16 tournament chess players. Chess rating correlated with recall .82 under semantic orienting instructions but only —.15 under formal orienting instructions. It was concluded that the levels of processing framework has applicability outside the area of verbal learning.     

The fate of originally presented surface information following recall errors in sentence memory tasks

Pictures are remembered better than their names. This picture superiority effect in episodic memory has been attributed either to the greater sensory distinctiveness of pictures or to their greater conceptual distinctiveness. Weldon and Coyote (1996) tested the conceptual distinctiveness hypothesis by comparing how well pictures as opposed to words primed in two conceptual implicit memory tasks (category production and word association). They found no picture superiority in priming and concluded that the basis of the picture superiority effect must then be pictures' greater sensory distinctiveness. Using the same logic, we compared how well pictures as opposed to words primed in a perceptual implicit memory task (picture and word fragment identification). The sensory distinctiveness theory would predict that pictures should prime picture fragment identification better than words prime word fragment identification, a result we call the picture superiority in within-form priming. Across three experiments which manipulated the encoding task at study, only one showed picture superiority in within-form priming. In contrast, in all three experiments there was robust picture superiority in recall, and exposure to pictures and words at study and test produced independent effects in which both study and test exposure to pictures was more effective for recall than exposure to words. We consider how these results might be reconciled by differences in retrieval demands between recall and fragment identification.     

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.     

Hypermnesia occurs in recall but not in recognition

Two experiments investigated the effect of encoding conditions and type of test (recall vs. recognition) on the phenomenon of hypermnesia (improved performance across repeated tests). Subjects in Experiment 1 studied a list of words using either imaginal or semantic elaboration strategies and then received three successive tests. Different groups of subjects received either free recall, four-alternative forced-choice recognition, or yes/no recognition tests. Reliable hypermnesia was found only in the recall conditions, with the recognition conditions showing either no change in performance levels across tests (forced-choice tests) or significant forgetting (yes/no tests). In Experiment 2, subjects studied a list of words, and encoding was manipulated using three orienting tasks. Once again, hypermnesia was found with the recall tests but not with the forced choice recognition tests. Finding hypermnesia in recall but not in recognition indicates that retrieval processes in recall play a major role in producing hypermnesia. Also, the finding that the magnitude of the recall hypermnesias increased with an increase in total cumulative recall levels across study conditions suggests that cumulative recall levels are an important factor in determining the presence or absence of recall hypermnesia.     

Picture superiority in free recall: The effects of organization and elaboration

A conception of semantic memory structure is presented in which elaboration is considered to vary both between and within items. Pictures and their verbal labels are suggested to activate common abstract memory representations, but these activations will differ in their degree of within-item elaboration. However, pictures and words should show comparable between-item elaboration properties, such as might be revealed by the category-recall relationship and clustering in free recall. Children were presented pictures and words in either a category-recall situation, where between-item elaboration was emphasized, or in a control situation where between-item elaboration was minimized. No differences between pictures and words in either recall or clustering were found in the category-recall task. However, when the same items were presented in the control situation the typical picture superiority effect in free recall was found. The results are interpreted as consistent with a two-factor theory of semantic elaboration, and indicate that these basic properties of memory encoding hold even for young children.     

Item-specific and relational encoding effects in children's recall and recognition memory for words

This study tests the hypothesis that children's deficiency in encoding itemspecific and relational information in episodic events contributes to age differences in recall and recognition. In two experiments, grade school children and college adults were presented with word triplets varying in categorical relatedness. The processing of the item-specific and relational information in the triplets was independently manipulated. Experiment 1 assessed cued recall, and Experiment 2 assessed recognition of both the central target and incidental contextual members of each triplet. The results showed that the processing manipulations had independent and different effects on recall and recognition, on memory for the members of the different kinds of triplets, on the use of the retrieval cues, and on memory for target and incidental words. Developmental differences were found in both recall and recognition, and of both target and incidental words, that varied with triplet type and the processing manipulations and that were attributable to differences in the encoding of item-specific and relational information in the triplets. The discussion contrasts alternative accounts of children's encoding deficiency, and suggests that the distinction between automatic, age-invariant, and strategic age-sensitive encoding processes needs to be redrawn.     

Retrieval variability: The inefficient use of retrieval cues by young children

The hypothesis of this study is that the inefficient use of retrieval cues by young children is due to retrieval variability: the variable encoding of semantic information in cue stimuli at input and retrieval and the inability to reinterpret cue information to ensure cue-trace compatibility. The critical manipulations involved the use of semantic orienting questions at both input and retrieval. Second and fourth graders and college adults were given moderately associated word pairs (Knife-Axe). Encoding was constrained or free between groups at both input and retrieval. The retrieval questions biased the Same interpretation of the cue as at input (weapon), a uniquely Different interpretation (utensil), or an inappropriate Negative interpretation. Both cued recall and recognition of the target items was tested. The results showed systematic developmental increases both in the distinctiveness of the semantic encoding of stimulus information, and in the ability to reinterpret cue information to ensure cue-trace compatibility. The second graders encoded more variably than the older subjects, and were less able to shift from an incompatible encoding of cue information.