The TECO theory and lawful dependency in successive episodic memory tests.

A large number of experiments in successive tests of episodic memory have focused on an experimental paradigm called recognition failure of recallable words. In this paradigm, a cued recall test follows a recognition test. Large amounts of data have revealed a lawful moderate dependence between recognition and cued recall. TECO (Sikstr?m, 1996b), a general connectionist theory of memory, has been applied for the phenomenon of recognition failure. This paper makes a strong claim that all possible pairwise combinations of successive tests between recognition, cued recognition, cued recall, and free recall follow a lawful relationship. The quantitative degree of the dependency predicted between these tests can be summarized in one function. Four experiments were conducted to test this claim. In line with the predictions, the results show that all pairwise combinations of these tests fit reasonably well with the proposed function. The TECO theory suggests theoretical insights into how recognition and recall may be divided into a recollection component, a familiarity component, and a cue-target integration component.     

Age differences in collaborative memory: the role of retrieval manipulations

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

Word frequency and list composition effects in associative recognition and recall

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

Retrieval in cued recall

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

Retroactive interference as a function of degree of interpolated study without overt retrieval practice

In two experiments, retroactive interference (RI) was examined under conditions designed to minimize retrieval-induced inhibition and output interference. In Experiment 1, the participants first learned a list of 10 person-location pairs, after which they viewed an interpolated list with the same person terms and different locations for one, four, or eight cycles. Learning was via a study-only method, so that the experimental participants did not perform instructed retrieval of the second list before a cued recall test that asked for List 1 locations only. The experimental participants in Experiment 2 received incidental learning instructions and then viewed a list of 20 unrelated words followed by another list presented either one or four times; the first two letters of each List 1 word were provided on the critical recall test. In both experiments, RI occurred and increased with degree of interpolation. The results suggest that RI does not require retrieval-induced inhibition.     

Recognition failures and free-recall failures: Implications for the relation between recall and recognition

Experiments showing that in cued recall subjects can recall words that they had previously failed to recognize have been taken to refute generate-recognize theories of recall, for those theories predict that recall is dependent on recognition. None of these experiments, however, has provided an appropriate test of Bahrick’s (1970, 1979) generate-recognize theory, which explicitly refers to words that are accessible to cued recall but not to free recall, that is, tofree-recall failures. When the experimental procedure was modified so as to provide tests of this theory, no evidence was found of any greater dependency between recall and recognition of free-recall failures than between recall and recognition overall. Free-recall failures do not, therefore, constitute any exception to many previous experimental findings that conform with the Tulving-Wiseman law, and so the account offered by Bahrick’s generate-recognize theory may be rejected. The results also suggest an explanation for some other conflicting evidence on whether recall and recognition are dependent or independent.     

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.     

Recognition failure of recallable words: free and cued recall compared

The experiment reported was conducted with the purpose of studying whether the phenomenon of recognition failure of recallable words would hold for a paradigm which involves a free recall test rather than a cued recall test used in previous research. The 3×2 design used comprised two between-subjects factors: the subjects were instructed that a recognition test, a cued recall test, or a free recall test would follow the study trial, but the actual test sequence given was recognition followed by cued recall, or recognition followed by free recall. The results demonstrate that cases of recognition failure of recallable words do occur in all six conditions, but the amount of recognition failure for the recognition-free recall test sequence was less than that predicted from the Tulving & Wiseman (1975) function. In line with previous research the data for the recognition-cued recall test sequence showed the amount of recognition failure that was predicted by this function.     

Does test-induced priming play a role in the creation of false memories?

We investigated the role of test-induced priming in creating false memories in the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, in which subjects study lists of related words (bed, rest, awake) and then falsely recall or recognise a related word (sleep) on a later test. However, in experiments using three different procedures, we found that the number of related words tested prior to the critical word had surprisingly little impact on false recall and recognition. We manipulated the location of the critical item in tests of yes/no recognition, word-stem cued recall, and part-set cued recall. We consistently obtained high probabilities of false recall and recognition, but the probability was unaffected by the number of related items presented prior to the test of the critical item. Surprisingly, test-induced priming of the critical item does not seem to play a large role in this memory illusion.     

Memory deficits in early infantile autism: some similarities to the amnesic syndrome.

Autistic children were compared with control children on tasks in which retention was tested by different methods. In three tests of recall, using named pictures, written words and spoken words as test stimuli, autistic children were impaired in comparison with age-matched normal children and with controls matched for verbal ability. In one test of forced-choice recognition of pictures, autistic children were impaired in comparison with ability-matched controls. In three tests of cued recall, using named pictures, written words and spoken words as test stimuli, and acoustic, graphemic and semantic cues, autistic children were not impaired in comparison with normal age-matched controls. In one test of paired-associate learning using non-related word pairs as test stimuli autistic children were not impaired in comparison with normal age-matched controls. These experimental paradigms were similar to some that have been used to investigate the amnesic syndrome in man. Thus findings on paired-associate learning differ in autistic and amnesic subjects, but findings on recall, recognition and cued recall are comparable. A possible parallel between autism and amnesia is discussed.     

The effect of childhood bilingualism on episodic and semantic memory tasks

Kormi-Nouri, Moniri and Nilsson (2003) demonstrated that Swedish-Persian bilingual children recalled at a higher level than Swedish monolingual children, when they were tested using Swedish materials. The present study was designed to examine the bilingual advantage of children who use different languages in their everyday life but have the same cultural background and live in their communities in the same way as monolingual children. In four experiments, 488 monolingual and bilingual children were compared with regard to episodic and semantic memory tasks. In experiments 1 and 2 there were 144 boys and 144 girls in three school groups (aged 9-10 years, 13-14 years and 16-17 years) and in three language groups (Persian monolingual, Turkish-Persian bilingual, and Kurdish-Persian bilingual). In experiments 3 and 4, there were 200 male students in two school groups (aged 9-10 years and 16-17 years) and in two language groups (Persian monolingual and Turkish-Persian bilingual). In the episodic memory task, children learned sentences (experiments 1-3) and words (Experiment 4). Letter and category fluency tests were used as measures of semantic memory. To change cognitive demands in memory tasks, in Experiment 1, the integration of nouns and verbs within sentences was manipulated by the level of association between verb and noun in each sentence. At retrieval, a recognition test was used. In experiments 2 and 3, the organization between sentences was manipulated at encoding in Experiment 2 and at both encoding and retrieval in Experiment 3 through the use of categories among the objects. At retrieval, free recall or cued recall tests were employed. In Experiment 4, the bilingual children were tested with regard to both their first and their second language. In all four experiments, a positive effect of bilingualism was found on episodic and semantic memory tasks; the effect was more pronounced for older than younger children. The bilingual advantage was not affected by changing cognitive demands or by using first/second language in memory tasks. The present findings support the cross-language interactivity hypothesis of bilingual advantage.     

Influence of marihuana on storage and retrieval processe in memory

Following presentation and immediate free recall testing of 10 20-word lists, 48 Ss were divided into two groups, one of which received an oral dose of marihuana extract calibrated to 20 mg of Δ¹-THC and one of which received placebo. One hour later, all Ss were administered delayed recall, recognition, and order tests on the first set of words. Presentation of another set of 10 lists followed, and there were immediate recall and delayed recall, recognition, and order tests on these words. Performance of drug and placebo Ss did not differ significantly for any of the first delayed tests. However, the performance of drug Ss was poorer than that of placebo Ss on immediate recall, delayed recall, and delayed recognition of the second set of lists. We concluded that retrieval of information relevant to the occurrence or nonocurrence of an event was not affected by marihuana intoxication. Storage difficulties probably account for memory deficits due to the drug, and these difficulties appear to occur in the process of transferring information from short-term to long-term memory.     

The negative generation effect: Delineation of a phenomenon

In four experiments employing between-list designs, generation was found to have negative effects on free recall of word pairs and on cued recall of the second word. In addition, generation had negative effects on measures of word-pair integration and on clustering in recall. In contrast, positive effects of generation were found on free recall of second words alone, and on a recognition test for memory of the second word. It was concluded that in between-list designs, generation led to greater individual-item processing of the generated term than reading, but this processing occurred at the expense of processing the relation between the words in a pair and processing the relations between different pairs in a list.     

The information that amnesic patients do not forget

The performance of three kinds of amnesic patients and control subjects was assessed using four methods for testing memory: free recall, recognition, cued recall, and word completion. Whereas amnesic patients were impaired on free recall, recognition, and cued recall, they were normal on word completion. Moreover, performance on the word-completion test declined at a normal rate reaching chance after about 120 min. The word-completion test resembled the cued-recall test in that the initial letters of previously presented words were given as cues. It differed from cued recall only in the instructions, which directed subjects away from the memory aspects of the test and asked them to complete each three-letter cue with the first word that came to mind. The present results offer an explanation of conflicting findings that have been obtained with amnesic patients on tests of the cued-recall type. The results are considered in terms of a process (activation or procedural learning), which is spared in amnesia and not dependent on the integrity of the damaged brain regions.     

Successive tests of pair recognition

A large number of experiments have found a moderate degree of dependence between subsequent tests of recognition and cued recall as described by the TW-function. This paper investigates the dependence in word pair recognition. Tests of word pair recognition are conducted with the subsequent test being free recall, cued recall, recognition, and cued recognition. The dependence is compared to subsequent tests of cued recognition (i.e. recognition of a target with the presence of a cue). The results are related to a general theory of memory called TECO (Target, Event, Cue, & Object, see Sikstr?m 1996b). This theory makes different quantitative predictions depending on the number of shared connections in the subsequent tests. Using a function suggested by TECO, different degrees of dependencies are predicted for pair and cued recognition. The predictions of the TECO-function show a non-significant deviation from observed data, whereas those of the TW-function deviate significantly in all conditions.     

Successive Tests of Pair Recognition

A large number of experiments have found a moderate degree of dependence between subsequent tests of recognition and cued recall as described by the TWfunction. This paper investigates the dependence in word pair recognition. Tests of word pair recognition are conducted with the subsequent test being free recall, cued recall, recognition, and cued recognition. The dependence is compared to subsequent tests of cued recognition (i.e. recognition of a target with the presence of a cue). The results are related to a general theory of memory called TECO (Target, Event, Cue, & Object, see Sikström 1996b). This theory makes different quantitative predictions depending on the number of shared connections in the subsequent tests. Using a function suggested by TECO, different degrees of dependencies are predicted for pair and cued recognition. The predictions of the TECO-function show a non-significant deviation from observed data, whereas those of the TW-function deviate significantly in all conditions.     

Environmental context and human memory

Five experiments examined the effects of environmental context on recall and recognition. In Experiment 1, variability of input environments produced higher free recall performance than unchanged input environments. Experiment 2 showed improvements in cued recall when storage and test contexts matched, using a paradigm that unconfounded the variables of context mismatching and context change. In Experiment 3, recall of categories and recall of words within a category were better for same-context than different-context recall. In Experiment 4, subjects given identical input conditions showed strong effects of environmental context when given a free recall test, yet showed no main effects of context on a recognition test. The absence of an environmental context effect on recognition was replicated in Experiment 5, using a cued recognition task to control the semantic encodings of test words. In the discussion of these experiments, environmental context is compared with other types of context, and an attempt is made to identify the memory processes influenced by environmental context.     

Auditory versus visual processing of three sets of simultaneous digit pairs.

Two experiments were conducted to determine whether the auditory and visual systems process simultaneously presented pairs of alphanumeric information differently. In Experiment 1, different groups of subjects were given extensive practice recalling pairs of superimposed visual or auditory digits in simultaneous order (the order of arrival) or successive order (one member of each digit pair in turn, followed by the other pair member). For auditory input, successive order of recall was more accurate, particularly for the last two of three pairs presented, whereas for visual input, simultaneous order of recall was more accurate. In Experiment 2, subjects were cued to recall in one or the other order either immediately before or after stimulus input. Recall order results were the same as for Experiment 1, and precuing did not facilitate recall in either order for both modalities. These results suggest that processing in the auditory system can only occur successively across time, whereas as in the visual system processing can only occur simultaneously in space.     

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.     

Effects of hearing words, imaging hearing words, and reading on auditory implicit and explicit memory tests

In four experiments, we examined the degree to which imaging written words as spoken by a familiar talker differs from direct perception (hearing words spoken by that talker) and reading words (without imagery) on implicit and explicit tests. Subjects first performed a surface encoding task on spoken, imagined as spoken, or visually presented words, and then were given either an implicit test (perceptual identification or stem completion) or an explicit test (recognition or cued recall) involving auditorily presented words. Auditory presentation at study produced larger priming effects than did imaging or reading. Imaging and reading yielded priming effects of similar magnitude, whereas imaging produced lower performance than reading on the explicit test of cued recall. Voice changes between study and test weakened priming on the implicit tests, but did not affect performance on the explicit tests. Imagined voice changes affected priming only in the implicit task of stem completion. These findings show that the sensitivity of a memory test to perceptual information, either directly perceived or imagined, is an important dimension for dissociating incidental (implicit) and intentional (explicit) retrieval processes.