Remembering ads: The effects of encoding strategies,retrieval cues,and emotional response

This study uses the encoding specificity principle ( Tulving & Thomson, 1973 ) and the distinction between episodic and semantic knowledge to test predictions about the effects of processing goals and retrieval cues on memory for emotional and neutral TV commercials. Subjects viewed five emotional and five neutral ads embedded in programming. Encoding instructions asked subjects to either (a) evaluate each product or (b) “just watch” as they viewed the ads. Retrieval cues were either the opening scene of each ad (executional cue) or the product category (categorical cue). Both recall and response-time measures were used to index ad memory-trace accessibility. The results showed that when encoding and retrieval conditions were compatible (evaluation instructions with categorical cue, and just-watch instructions with executional cue) ad memory traces were retrieved more rapidly than when encoding and retrieval conditions were incompatible. In addition, subjects who “just watched” emotional ads were able to retrieve those ad memory traces more rapidly when given an executional cue compared to a categorical cue, whereas subjects who evaluated neutral ads at encoding recalled more ads, and retrieved them more rapidly, when given a categorical cue compared to an executional cue. Finally, we show that searching memory first with an executional cue and then with a product-category cue leads to an increase in ad recall for both emotional and neutral ads, whereas searching first with a categorical cue and then with an executional cue leads to a decrease in ad recall for neutral ads.     

Episodic and semantic components of the compound-stimulus strategy in the explicit task-cuing procedure

The explicit task-cuing procedure is commonly used to study executive control processes involved in set switching, but performance in this task-switching procedure may be accomplished without switching tasks. Subjects may perform both tasks by using a compound-stimulus strategy, in which subjects encode the cue, encode the target, and use the combination as a compound retrieval cue to choose the appropriate response. We manipulated the number of targets (8, 16,32, or 640) that subjects experienced in a four-cue/two-task procedure to separate episodic and semantic memory retrieval components of the compound-stimulus strategy. Cue repetitions were faster than task repetitions, and task repetitions were only slightly faster than task alternations, suggesting that cue repetition effects account for the bulk of the difference between repetitions and alternations. We found the same effects with all target set sizes. The results are consistent with use of a semantic compound-stimulus strategy.     

Practice effects on two memory retrievals from a single cue

The effects of practice on 2 retrievals from a single cue were investigated. In Experiment 1, participants were given extended single-task practice and were then tested on a dual memory retrieval task. Perfomance was consistent with a sequential retrieval model proposed by T. C. Rickard and H. Pashler (2003). In Experiment 2, participants practiced both single- and dual-retrieval tasks extensively. Initially, data from all participants indicated sequential retrieval. However, participants who grouped the 2 response outputs were eventually able to perform the dual task with a latency that approached the prediction of a parallel race model. Models that assume a transition from sequential to parallel retrieval with practice, along with other models that assume an immutable retrieval bottleneck at all practice levels, are considered.     

Psychophysiology of prospective memory

Prospective memory involves the self-initiated retrieval of an intention upon an appropriate retrieval cue. Cue identification can be considered as an orienting reaction and may thus trigger a psychophysiological response. Here we present two experiments in which skin conductance responses (SCRs) elicited by prospective memory cues were compared to SCRs elicited by aversive stimuli to test whether a single prospective memory cue triggers a similar SCR as an aversive stimulus. In Experiment 2 we also assessed whether cue specificity had a differential influence on prospective memory performance and on SCRs. We found that detecting a single prospective memory cue is as likely to elicit a SCR as an aversive stimulus. Missed prospective memory cues also elicited SCRs. On a behavioural level, specific intentions led to better prospective memory performance. However, on a psychophysiological level specificity had no influence. More generally, the results indicate reliable SCRs for prospective memory cues and point to psychophysiological measures as valuable approach, which offers a new way to study one-off prospective memory tasks. Moreover, the findings are consistent with a theory that posits multiple prospective memory retrieval stages.     

Accessing long-term memory representations during visual change detection

In visual change detection tasks, providing a cue to the change location concurrent with the test image (post-cue) can improve performance, suggesting that, without a cue, not all encoded representations are automatically accessed. Our studies examined the possibility that post-cues can encourage the retrieval of representations stored in long-term memory (LTM). Participants detected changes in images composed of familiar objects. Performance was better when the cue directed attention to the post-change object. Supporting the role of LTM in the cue effect, the effect was similar regardless of whether the cue was presented during the inter-stimulus interval, concurrent with the onset of the test image, or after the onset of the test image. Furthermore, the post-cue effect and LTM performance were similarly influenced by encoding time. These findings demonstrate that monitoring the visual world for changes does not automatically engage LTM retrieval.     

Modeling task switching without switching tasks: a short-term priming account of explicitly cued performance

Switch costs in task switching are commonly attributed to an executive control process of task-set reconfiguration, particularly in studies involving the explicit task-cuing procedure. The authors propose an alternative account of explicitly cued performance that is based on 2 mechanisms: priming of cue encoding from residual activation of cues in short-term memory and compound cue retrieval of responses from long-term memory. Their short-term priming account explains the repeated cue encoding benefit, switch cost, reduction in switch cost with preparation time, and other effects. The authors develop a mathematical model of their priming account and fit it to data from 3 experiments, demonstrating that a set of basic psychological processes can produce several effects--including putative switch costs--without switching tasks.     

Intelligence as the efficiency of cue-driven retrieval from secondary memory

Complex-span (working-memory-capacity) tasks are among the most successful predictors of intelligence. One important contributor to this relationship is the ability to efficiently employ cues for the retrieval from secondary memory. Presumably, intelligent individuals can considerably restrict their memory search sets by using such cues and can thereby improve recall performance. We here test this assumption by experimentally manipulating the validity of retrieval cues. When memoranda are drawn from the same semantic category on two successive trials of a verbal complex-span task, the category is a very strong retrieval cue on its first occurrence (strong-cue trial) but loses some of its validity on its second occurrence (weak-cue trial). If intelligent individuals make better use of semantic categories as retrieval cues, their recall accuracy suffers more from this loss of cue validity. Accordingly, our results show that less variance in intelligence is explained by recall accuracy on weak-cue compared with strong-cue trials.     

Do People Order Cues by Retrieval Fluency when Making Probabilistic Inferences?

In multiple‐cue probabilistic inferences, people infer alternatives' unknown values on decision criteria, using alternatives' attributes as cues. Some inferential strategies, like take‐the‐best, assume that people consider relevant cues sequentially in order of decreasing validity. This assumption has been deemed cognitively implausible by some, who suggest memory retrieval principles to guide cue order. We test whether memory‐based inferences are better described by a model considering cues in order of validity or in order of memory retrieval. In an experiment, we manipulated the frequency with which cues appeared in a learning phase, increasing retrieval fluency of cue values related to the more frequently appearing cue. In a subsequent decision phase, participants made a series of two‐alternative decisions based on the learned cue values. We compared two sequential sampling models, which differed in whether cues are sampled in order of subjective cue validity or in order of retrieval fluency. To model retrieval order of cues in the fluency sampling model, we used the declarative memory theory embedded in the ACT‐R cognitive architecture. Most participants' decisions were best described by the model sampling cues in order of memory retrieval. Only a minority of participants were classified as sampling cues by validity. Our result suggests that retrieval fluency is the primary driver of cue order in inferences from memory, irrespective of the cues' validities. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The development of automatic and controlled inhibitory retrieval processes in true and false recall

In three experiments, we investigated the role of automatic and controlled inhibitory retrieval processes in true and false memory development in children and adults. Experiment 1 incorporated a directed forgetting task to examine controlled retrieval inhibition. Experiments 2 and 3 used a part-set cue and retrieval practice task to examine automatic retrieval inhibition. In the first experiment, the forget cue had no effect on false recall for adults but reduced false recall for children. In Experiments 2 and 3, both tasks caused retrieval impairments for true and false recall, and this occurred for all age groups. Implicit inhibition, which occurs outside of our conscious control, appears early in childhood. However, because young children do not process false memories as automatically as adults, explicit inhibition can reduce false memory output.     

Cue Combinatorics in Memory Retrieval for Anaphora

Many studies have shown that memory retrieval for real‐time language processing relies on a cue‐based access mechanism, which allows the cues available at the retrieval site to directly access the target representation in memory. An open question is how different types of cues are combined at retrieval to create a single retrieval probe (“cue combinatorics”). This study addresses this question by testing whether retrieval for antecedent‐reflexive dependencies combines cues in a linear (i.e., additive) or nonlinear (i.e., multiplicative) fashion. Results from computational simulations and a reading time experiment show that target items that match all the cues of the reflexive are favored more than target items that mismatch these cues, and that different degrees of mismatches slow reading times in comparable amounts. This profile is consistent with the predictions of a nonlinear cue combination and provides evidence against models in which all cues combine in a linear fashion. A follow‐up set of simulations shows that a nonlinear rule also captures previous demonstrations of interference from nontarget items during retrieval for reflexive licensing. Taken together, these results shed new light on how different types of cues combine at the retrieval site and reveal how the method of cue combination impacts the accessibility of linguistic information in memory.     

Remembering the past and imagining the future: a role for nonvisual imagery in the everyday cognition of blind and sighted people

Images can be generated in all sensory modalities. Nevertheless, research on the everyday use of mental imagery, for example in autobiographical memory tasks, has suggested that it is only visual images that facilitate memory retrieval (e.g., Williams, Healy, & Ellis, 1999). If this is the case, individuals born without sight may be forced to rely more on verbal encoding (Goddard & Pring, 2001). This paper explores the presence and everyday role of nonvisual sensory imagery in 16 individuals with and 16 without sight. Using a cue word paradigm, contrary to previous research, Experiment 1 suggested that for both blind and sighted people, nonvisual imageries have a significant role to play in the generation of autobiographical memories. These results were reinforced by similar findings in Experiment 2, which used the same cue word method to explore the role of visual and nonvisual (auditory) imagery when generating future events. The results refute the claim that "useful" imagery in everyday tasks is exclusively visual.     

Forgetting at short term: When do event-based interference and temporal factors have an effect?

Memory tasks combining storage and distracting tasks performed at either encoding or retrieval have provided divergent results pointing towards accounts of forgetting in terms of either temporal decay or event-based interference respectively. The aim of this study was to shed light on the possible sources of such a divergence that could rely on methodological aspects or deeper differences in the memory traces elicited by the different paradigms used. Methodological issues were explored in a first series of experiments by introducing at retrieval computer-paced distracting tasks that involved articulatory suppression, attentional demand, or both. A second series of experiments that used a similar design was intended to induce differences in the nature of memory traces by increasing the time allowed for encoding the to-be-remembered items. Although the introduction of computer-paced distracting tasks allowed for a strict control of temporal parameters, the first series of experiments replicated the effects usually attributed to event-based interference. However, deeper encoding abolished these effects while time-related effects remained unchanged. These findings suggest that the interplay between temporal factors and event-based interference in forgetting at short term is more complex than expected and could depend on the nature of memory traces.     

Inactivation of the basolateral amygdala impairs the retrieval of recent and remote taste-potentiated odor aversion memory

Memory reorganization as a time-dependent process can be investigated using various learning tasks such as the taste-potentiated odor aversion (TPOA). In this paradigm rats acquire a strong aversion to an olfactory cue presented simultaneously with a gustatory cue. Together these cues are paired with a delayed visceral illness. The basolateral amygdaloid nucleus (BLA) plays a key role in TPOA acquisition but its involvement in retrieval remains unclear. We investigated the involvement of the BLA in either recent or remote retrieval of TPOA. In each case, the number of licks observed in response to the presentation of either the odor or the taste was used to assess retrieval. Before the retrieval test, rats received a bilateral infusion of lidocaine to inactivate the BLA. We observed that both recent and remote TPOA retrieval tests induced by the odor presentation were disrupted in the lidocaine-injected rats. By contrast, the BLA inactivation had no effect upon the aversion towards the taste cue regardless of the time of retrieval. The present study provides evidence that BLA functioning is necessary for retrieval of aversive odor memory, even with a long post-acquisition delay.     

Memory retrieval given two independent cues: cue selection or parallel access?

A basic but unresolved issue in the study of memory retrieval is whether multiple independent cues can be used concurrently (i.e., in parallel) to recall a single, common response. A number of empirical results, as well as potentially applicable theories, suggest that retrieval can proceed in parallel, though set forth a model that denies that possibility. In this paper, five quantitative models are developed to test broad candidate principles. In multiple experiments, subjects were trained to retrieve a vocal digit response for each member of a set of letter or color cues. In subsequent test and transfer phases, single cue trials were randomly mixed with dual cue trials on which the two cues always required the same response. For the first few repetitions of each new set of dual cue items, there was no evidence of parallel retrieval over any part of the RT distribution. After more repetitions, dual cue trials were performed faster than single cue trials, but only under conditions that were favorable to development of a "chunked" dual cue representation. These results indicate that associative independence is an important modulating variable that must be heeded in any general model of attention and memory retrieval. Further, the results are most consistent with a model that places the performance bottleneck prior to the retrieval stage of processing.     

编码方式、认知负荷和线索数量对前瞻记忆的影响

采用2（编码方式：执行意向、练习）×2（认知负荷：高、低）×2（线索数量：单一线索、多线索）的混合设计探讨在不同认知负荷和线索数量下两种编码方式对前瞻记忆的影响。结果表明：认知负荷和编码方式交互作用显著,在高认知负荷条件下,练习编码显著好于执行意向编码;线索数量和编码方式交互作用显著,在多线索条件下,练习编码显著好于执行意向编码。说明执行意向编码更容易受认知负荷和线索数量的影响。研究支持了预备注意与记忆加工理论。     

Integrating Fast and Frugal Heuristics with a Model of Memory‐based Cue Generation

Although the fast and frugal heuristics have been studied extensively, relatively little attention has been paid to how cues are generated to be used within the heuristics. The goal of this paper is to propose and test a memory‐based model of how cues are generated and used in cue‐based inferences. The current study advances theory by integrating the fast and frugal heuristics with HyGene, a memory‐based model of how decision makers generate and evaluate hypotheses. Using archival data in which memory retrieval variables were not directly manipulated, we demonstrate that participants' cue selection behavior is consistent with memory‐based retrieval. Further, by directly manipulating memory retrieval within a cue‐based stock‐forecasting task, we demonstrate that memory processes underlie cue use. Participants' cue use varied depending on the relationship between cue validity and the frequency with which the cues were seen during learning. The HyGene model provided the best account of the empirical data, providing further evidence for the critical role of memory in judgment and decision making. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A temporal ratio model of memory

A model of memory retrieval is described. The model embodies 4 main claims: (a) temporal memory--traces of items are represented in memory partly in terms of their temporal distance from the present; (b) scale-similarity--similar mechanisms govern retrieval from memory over many different timescales; (c) local distinctiveness--performance on a range of memory tasks is determined by interference from near psychological neighbors; and (d) interference-based forgetting--all memory loss is due to interference and not trace decay. The model is applied to data on free recall and serial recall. The account emphasizes qualitative similarity in the retrieval principles involved in memory performance at all timescales, contrary to models that emphasize distinctions between short-term and long-term memory.     

Diffusion model drift rates can be influenced by decision processes: An analysis of the strength-based mirror effect

Improving memory for studied items (targets) often helps participants reject nonstudied items (lures), a pattern referred to as the strength-based mirror effect (SBME). Criss (2010) demonstrated the SBME in diffusion model drift rates; that is, the target drift rate was higher and the lure drift rate was lower for lists of words studied 5 times versus lists of words studied once. She interpreted the drift rate effect for lures as evidence for the differentiation process, whereby strong memory traces produce a poorer match to lure items than do weak memory traces. However, she noted that strength may have also affected a model parameter called the drift criterion-a participant-controlled decision parameter that defines the zero point in drift rate. We directly contrasted the differentiation and drift-criterion accounts by manipulating list strength either at both encoding and retrieval (which produces a differentiation difference in the studied traces) or at retrieval only (which equates differentiation from the study list but provides the opportunity to change decision processes based on strength). Across 3 experiments, results showed that drift rates for lures were lower on strong tests than on weak tests, and this effect was observed even when strength was varied at retrieval alone. Therefore, results provided evidence that the SBME is produced by changes in decision processes, not by differentiation of memory traces. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Levels-of-processing effects on Chinese character completion: The importance of lexical processing and test cue

The levels of processing (LoP) effect was studied in Chinese character completion tasks. The same stem cue, either graphemically or semantically related to the target character, was used to generate either a perceptual or a conceptual test. Participants received either direct or indirect instructions, so that the same stem cue also produced either an explicit or an implicit test of memory. This allowed us to examine simultaneously the roles of perceptual versus conceptual test and retrieval intentionality in the LoP effect. No LoP effects were found when the memory test was implicit. LoP effects were also not found for stems and characters related graphemically (perceptually), but were found for stems and characters related semantically (conceptually) when the memory test was explicit. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of lexical processing for character completion tests and the importance of reinstatement of the study process during retrieval for explicit memory tests.     

Prospective memory: Effects of divided attention on spontaneous retrieval

We examined the effects of divided attention on the spontaneous retrieval of a prospective memory intention. Participants performed an ongoing lexical decision task with an embedded prospective memory demand, and also performed a divided-attention task during some segments of lexical decision trials. In all experiments, monitoring was highly discouraged, and we observed no evidence that participants engaged monitoring processes. In Experiment 1, performing a moderately demanding divided-attention task (a digit detection task) did not affect prospective memory performance. In Experiment 2, performing a more challenging divided-attention task (random number generation) impaired prospective memory. Experiment 3 showed that this impairment was eliminated when the prospective memory cue was perceptually salient. Taken together, the results indicate that spontaneous retrieval is not automatic and that challenging divided-attention tasks interfere with spontaneous retrieval and not with the execution of a retrieved intention.