The effects of elaboration on recognition memory

Two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of elaboration on recognition memory. Subjects were given either simple or complex sentences to learn and were tested for recognition of either an individual target word or the entire sentence. Complex sentences supported better recognition performance only when the test item allowed the subject to easily redintegrate the initial encoding context, either by re-presenting the encoded sentence as the test item or by constructing sentences such that the component words of the sentence could be easily redintegrated from an individual target item. It was suggested that complex, elaborate encoding established a richer trace, but that this richness can be utilized to enhance recognition only when the test conditions permit a reinstatement of the original encoding context.     

The effects of autobiographical memory and visual perspective on working memory

The present research aims to explore whether recalling and writing about autobiographical memory from different perspectives (first-person perspective vs. third-person perspective) could affect cognitive function. The participants first performed a working memory task to evaluate their working memory capacity as a baseline and then were instructed to recall (Study 1) or write about (Study 2) personal events (failures vs. successes) from the first-person perspective or the third-person perspective. Finally, they performed the working memory task again. The results suggested that autobiographical memory and perspective influence working memory interactively. When recalling a success, the participants who recalled from the third-person perspective performed better than those who recalled from the first-person perspective on the working memory capacity task; when recalling a failure, the opposite was true.     

The effects of bilateral presentations on lateralized lexical decision

We investigated how lateralized lexical decision is affected by the presence of distractors in the visual hemifield contralateral to the target. The study had three goals: first, to determine how the presence of a distractor (either a word or a pseudoword) affects visual field differences in the processing of the target; second, to identify the stage of the process in which the distractor is affecting the decision about the target; and third, to determine whether the interaction between the lexicality of the target and the lexicality of the distractor ("lexical redundancy effect") is due to facilitation or inhibition of lexical processing. Unilateral and bilateral trials were presented in separate blocks. Target stimuli were always underlined. Regarding our first goal, we found that bilateral presentations (a) increased the effect of visual hemifield of presentation (right visual field advantage) for words by slowing down the processing of word targets presented to the left visual field, and (b) produced an interaction between visual hemifield of presentation (VF) and target lexicality (TLex), which implies the use of different strategies by the two hemispheres in lexical processing. For our second goal of determining the processing stage that is affected by the distractor, we introduced a third condition in which targets were always accompanied by "perceptual" distractors consisting of sequences of the letter "x" (e.g., xxxx). Performance on these trials indicated that most of the interaction occurs during lexical access (after basic perceptual analysis but before response programming). Finally, a comparison between performance patterns on the trials containing perceptual and lexical distractors indicated that the lexical redundancy effect is mainly due to inhibition of word processing by pseudoword distractors.     

The effects of unvocalized music on short-term memory

The studies reported here investigated the role of background music in verbal processing. The experiment was a partial replication of Salame and Baddeley (1989), where the effect of music on the recall of digits, was examined, but included an additional key condition where participants heard instrumental music without the words usually associated with it. In this case we used nursery rhymes. In addition, articulatory suppression was manipulated as a tool to look at the role of working memory in the task. The relationship between long-term memory and working memory was further explored by using an implicit memory task to examine verbal memory effects for words associated with the music but not actually heard. The results indicated that background, instrumental music, long-associated with words, significantly impairs concurrent verbal processing. These long-term memory effects on working memory were, however, not associated with implicit memory effects, and no priming was observed.     

The effects of attention on perceptual implicit memory

Reports on the effects of dividing attention at study on subsequent perceptual priming suggest that perceptual priming is generally unaffected by attentional manipulations as long as word identity is processed. We tested this hypothesis in three experiments by using the implicit word fragment completion and word stem completion tasks. Division of attention was instantiated with the Stroop task in order to ensure the processing of word identity even when the participant's attention was directed to a stimulus attribute other than the word itself. Under these conditions, we found that even though perceptual priming was significant, it was significantly reduced in magnitude. A stem cued recall test in Experiment 2 confirmed a more deleterious effect of divided attention on explicit memory. Taken together, our findings delineate the relative contributions of perceptual analysis and attentional processes in mediating perceptual priming on two ubiquitously used tasks of word fragment completion and word stem completion.     

The effects of generation on auditory implicit memory

The generation manipulation produces the classic functional dissociation between explicit and implicit memory. This dissociation has been explained by the transfer-appropriate processing (TAP) framework, which emphasizes the overlap in cognitive processes operative at encoding and at retrieval. However, the vast majority of implicit memory studies have been conducted in the visual modality; in the auditory modality, the effects of generation have never been investigated. In four experiments, we examined the effects of generating from semantic and nonsemantic cues on auditory implicit tests. Generating from antonyms produced a reversed generation effect on priming in auditory perceptual identification and word stem completion, while producing the traditional positive effect on explicit recognition. Generating from definitions, as well as from rhymes, also produced a reversed generation effect on auditory priming. These results are critical for more fully characterizing auditory priming and are consistent with an extended TAP analysis.     

The obligatory effects of memory on eye movements

Previous work has shown that eye movement behaviour is affected by previous experience, such that alterations in viewing patterns can be observed to previously viewed compared to novel displays. The current work addresses the extent to which such effects of memory on eye movement behaviour are obligatory; that is, we examined whether prior experience could alter subsequent eye movement behaviour under a variety of testing conditions, for stimuli that varied on the nature of the prior exposure. While task demands influenced whether viewing was predominantly directed to the novel versus familiar faces, viewing of the familiar faces was distinguished from viewing of the novel faces, regardless of whether the task required incidental encoding or intentional retrieval. Changes in scanning of previously viewed over novel faces emerged early in viewing; in particular, viewing duration of the first fixation to the familiar faces was often significantly different from the duration of the first fixation directed to the novel faces, regardless of whether prior exposure was solely in the context of the experiment or due to real-world exposure. These findings suggest that representations maintained in memory may be retrieved and compared with presented information obligatorily.     

The obligatory effects of memory on eye movements

Previous work has shown that eye movement behaviour is affected by previous experience, such that alterations in viewing patterns can be observed to previously viewed compared to novel displays. The current work addresses the extent to which such effects of memory on eye movement behaviour are obligatory; that is, we examined whether prior experience could alter subsequent eye movement behaviour under a variety of testing conditions, for stimuli that varied on the nature of the prior exposure. While task demands influenced whether viewing was predominantly directed to the novel versus familiar faces, viewing of the familiar faces was distinguished from viewing of the novel faces, regardless of whether the task required incidental encoding or intentional retrieval. Changes in scanning of previously viewed over novel faces emerged early in viewing; in particular, viewing duration of the first fixation to the familiar faces was often significantly different from the duration of the first fixation directed to the novel faces, regardless of whether prior exposure was solely in the context of the experiment or due to real-world exposure. These findings suggest that representations maintained in memory may be retrieved and compared with presented information obligatorily.     

The effects of unvocalized music on short-term memory

The studies reported here investigated the role of background music in verbal processing. The experiment was a partial replication of Salame and Baddeley (1989), where the effect of music on the recall of digits, was examined, but included an additional key condition where participants heard instrumental music without the words usually associated with it. In this case we used nursery rhymes. In addition, articulatory suppression was manipulated as a tool to look at the role of working memory in the task. The relationship between long-term memory and working memory was further explored by using an implicit memory task to examine verbal memory effects for words associated with the music but not actually heard. The results indicated that background, instrumental music, long-associated with words, significantly impairs concurrent verbal processing. These long-term memory effects on working memory were, however, not associated with implicit memory effects, and no priming was observed.     

The effects of active worrying on working memory capacity

According to the attentional control theory, worry, a crucial component of anxiety, impairs task performance through its direct effect on working memory capacity (WMC) by using up the limited resources available for performance thus reducing attentional control. We tested this hypothesis in the current study by examining the causal influence of active worrying on WMC in a sample of undergraduate university students (n?=?64) assigned either to a worry condition or to a non-worry control condition. Participants performed a change detection task before and after the worry/control manipulation. Mediation analyses showed that the level of self-reported worry mediated the effects of condition on change in WMC as demonstrated by the significant indirect effect of worry and the resulting non-significant direct effect of condition on change in WMC. Similar results were obtained when using state anxiety measures as mediating factors. Results of the current study are amongst the first to demonstrate that worry impairs WMC and as such have important implications for understanding the impact of worry.     

The effects of cue distinctiveness on odor-based context-dependent memory

The distinctiveness of an ambient odor was examined in relation to its success as a cue in contextdependent memory. Distinctiveness was examined in terms of both cue novelty and contextual appropriateness. Two experiments were conducted in which three different ambient odors that varied in familiarity and contextual appropriateness were manipulated at an incidental word learning encoding session and at a free recall retrieval session 48 h later. Experiment 1 revealed that when a novel ambient odor (osmanthus) was the available context cue, word recall was better than in any other condition. Further, among familiar odor cues, recall was better with a contextually inappropriate odor (peppermint) than with a contextually appropriate odor (clean fresh pine). Experiment 2 confirmed that superior word recall with osmanthus and peppermint depended on the odor cue’s being available at both encoding and retrieval, and that the relation of an odor to the situational context is a key factor for predicting its effectiveness as a retrieval cue.     

The effects of repeated denials and fabrication on memory

ABSTRACT

Inthe current experiment, we were interested in the effects of lying (i.e. false denial or fabrication) on memory when deceptivestrategies were repeatedly executed. Participants (n = 121) watched a video (i.e., electrician who committed a burglary) and immediately afterand during the following ten days, they were instructed to either falsely deny, fabricate, or answer honestly to certain details of the video.Some details were discussed (i.e. denied, fabricated, or honestly answered) either once, or four times. Other details were never discussed.Finally, all participants received a memory test, in which they were asked whether they either previously discussed the details or saw thedetails during the video. Although, overall, repeated lying did not undermine memory for having discussed certain details, repeated falselydenying led to an impairment of the memory for the event. Findings show that lying can adversely affect memory and that repeated lying canincrease this effect.     

The effects of humor on memory for non-sensical pictures

Two experiments investigated the effects of humor on memory for non-sensical pictures. Each picture was given three labels that differed in the degree of humor: high, low, and no humor labels. In Experiment 1, the humor of the picture labels was manipulated between participants. Participants were shown 30 pictures for 10 s each and were asked to rate the degree of humor of each picture. After the rating task, participants were asked to draw the pictures in an unexpected memory test. Performance in the memory test was best in the high humor label group, followed by the low and the no humor label groups. In Experiment 2, intention to learn (incidental versus intentional encoding tasks) as well as humor label was manipulated between the participants. In the incidental learning condition, the high humor group performed better than the low humor group, but in the intentional learning condition, there was no humor effect. The effects of humor on picture memory were discussed in terms of appraisal processing within a distinctiveness framework.     

The effects of thought suppression on autobiographical memory recall

While it is well documented that autobiographical memory (ABM) recall is affected in Posttraumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD), less is known about the cognitive mechanisms that underlie this pattern. This paper presents two research studies which investigated the role of thought suppression in the recall of ABMs. Study 1 assessed the role of thought suppression as a correlate of ABM retrieval in an undergraduate student sample (n = 50). The results showed that higher levels of trait thought suppression were significantly correlated with faster recall of negative episodic memories as well as reduced recall of personal semantic memories. Thought suppression remained as a significant predictor of ABM recall, even when the participants' levels of depression and post-traumatic stress reactions were considered. Study 2 investigated the causal effects of thought suppression on ABM recall. 64 undergraduate students were shown a negative video clip and were asked either to suppress any thought of the video or simply to monitor their thoughts immediately thereafter. Results showed that suppression directly led to significantly enhanced negative episodic ABM recall, as well as a significantly reduced ability to recall personal semantic memories.     

The effects of list-method directed forgetting on recognition memory

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois It is an almost universally accepted claim that the list-method procedure of inducing directed forgetting does not affect recognition. However, previous studies have omitted a critical comparison in reaching this conclusion. This article reports evidence that recognition of material learnedafter cue presentation is superior for conditions in which the material that preceded cue presentation was designated as to-be-forgotten. Because the absence of an effect of directed-forgetting instructions on recognition is the linchpin of the theoretical claim that retrieval inhibition and not selective rehearsal underlies that effect, the present results call into question the need to postulate a role for inhibition in directed forgetting.     

The effects of word co-occurrence on short-term memory: associative links in long-term memory affect short-term memory performance

In immediate serial recall tasks, high-frequency words are recalled better than low-frequency words. This has been attributed to high-frequency words' being better represented and providing more effective support to a redintegration process at retrieval (C. Hulme et al., 1997). In studies of free recall, there is evidence that frequency of word co-occurrence, rather than word frequency per se, may explain the recall advantage enjoyed by high-frequency words (J. Deese, 1960). The authors present evidence that preexposing pairs of low-frequency words, so as to create associative links between them, has substantial beneficial effects on immediate serial recall performance. These benefits, which are not attributable to simple familiarization with the words per se, do not occur for high-frequency words. These findings indicate that associative links between items in long-term memory have important effects on short-term memory performance and suggest that the effects of word frequency in short-term memory tasks are related to differences in interitem associations in long-term memory.     

Fabrication deflation? The mixed effects of lying on memory

This study explored what happens when participants lie in order to convince others that false stories are true. Participants' memories were assessed by comparing their likelihood ratings for the events before and after lying about them. Results showed that most participants rated the events as less likely to have happened after lying about them. Therefore, the most common result of lying seems to be a strengthening of, not a distortion of, the truth. This decrease in likelihood rating for the statement lied about is termed ‘fabrication deflation’. In both studies, however, there were 10–16% of the participants who indicated maximum belief that the lie item was true. Whether this increase in likelihood rating for a lied about event is evidence of memory creation or the triggering of an actual memory is discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.