Reflections of the mirror effect for item and associative recognition

In five experiments, participants studied pairs of words and yes/no recognition memory for both item and associative information was tested. Two stimulus manipulations, nouns versus nonnouns and high versus low word concreteness, produced the mirror effect for both item and associative recognition. The mirror effect was reflected in both measures of accuracy and response latency. A word frequency manipulation, however, produced the mirror effect only for item recognition. Two additional experiments showed that the mirror effect could also be obtained between nouns and nonnouns and between high and low concrete words for associative recognition in a forced-choice recognition procedure. The results extend the generality of the mirror effect to measures of response latency and to associative recognition and also suggest that similar retrieval and decision processes underlie recognition of item and associative information.     

Recognition memory ROCs for item and associative information: The contribution of recollection and familiarity

Receiver-operating characteristics (ROCs) were examined in three recognition memory experiments. ROCs for item information (i.e., was this word presented?) were found to be curvilinear. However, ROCs for associative information (i.e., were these two words presented together?) were found to be linear. The results are in agreement with the predictions of a dual-process model that assumes that recognition judgments are -based on familiarity and recollection. Familiarity reflects the assessment of a continuous strength dimension and is well described as a signal detection process, whereas recollection reflects the retrieval of qualitative information about the study episode and behaves like a discrete threshold process. The results showed that memory judgments about items relied on a combination of recollection and familiarity, but that judgments about associations relied primarily on recollection. Further examination of the associative ROCs suggested that subjects were able to recollect that old pairs of items were in the study list, and, under some conditions, that new pairs were not in the study list.     

Recognition memory for faces: When familiarity supports associative recognition judgments

Recognition memory for single items can be dissociated from recognition memory for the associations between items. For example, recognition tests for single words produce curvilinear receiver operating characteristics (ROCs), but associative recognition tests for word pairs produce linear ROCs. These dissociations are consistent with dual-process theories of recognition and suggest that associative recognition relies on recollection but that item recognition relies on a combination of recollection and assessments of familiarity. In the present study, we examined associative recognition ROCs for facial stimuli by manipulating the central and external features, in order to determine whether linear ROCs would be observed for stimuli other than arbitrary word pairs. When the faces were presented upright, familiarity estimates were significantly above zero, and the associative ROCs were curvilinear, suggesting that familiarity contributed to associative judgments. However, presenting the faces upside down effectively eliminated the contribution of familiarity to associative recognition, and the ROCs were linear. The results suggest that familiarity can support associative recognition judgments, if the associated components are encoded as a coherent gestalt, as in upright faces.     

Tests of encoding tradeoffs between item and associative information

The assumption that item and associative information are processed separately and that there is a tradeoff in the amount of each type of information that can be encoded in a given study interval (e.g., Anderson & Bower, 1972; Murdock, 1982, 1992) was examined. When item information was emphasized at study, recognition memory for associative information was poor, demonstrating that item information can be emphasized over associative information. In contrast, when associative information was emphasized, associative recognition greatly improved but item recognition did not suffer. This pattern of results was found at both fast and slow presentation rates, and for both high and low word concreteness and word frequency. Measures of confidence and response latency were also consistent with this pattern. Thus, the encoding of associative information did not measurably diminish item recognition performance.     

The effects of aging and divided attention on memory for item and associative information

The present study examined how aging and divided attention influence memory for item and associative information. Older adults and younger adults working under full-attention conditions and younger adults working under divided-attention conditions studied unrelated word pairs. Memory for item information was measured by later recognition of the 2nd word in the pair, and associative information was measured by recognition of the entire pair. Both older adults in the full-attention condition and younger adults in the divided-attention condition performed more poorly than younger adults in the full-attention condition, with the deficit in associative information being greater than the deficit in item information. In addition, a differentially greater associative decrement was found for the older adults, as shown by their heightened tendency to make false-alarm responses to re-paired (conjunction) distractors. The results are discussed in terms of an age-related reduction in processing resources compounded by an age-related increase in older adults' reliance on familiarity in associative recognition memory.     

Illusions of competence and overestimation of associative memory for identical items: Evidence from judgments of learning

The relation between subjects’ predicted and actual memory performance is a central issue in the domain of metacognition. In the present study, we examined the influence of item similarity and associative strength on judgments of learning (JOLs) in a cued recall task. We hypothesized that encoding fluency would cause a foresight bias, so that subjects would overestimate recall of identical pairs (scale-scale), as compared with strong associates (weight-scale) or unrelated pairs (mask-scale). In Experiment 1, JOLs for identical word pairs were higher than those for related and unrelated pairs, but later recall of identical pairs was lower than recall of related pairs. In Experiment 2, the effect of encoding fluency (inferred from self-paced study time) was examined, and a similar pattern of results was obtained, with subjects spending the least amount of time studying identical pairs. We conclude that overconfidence for identical pairs reflects an assessment of item similarity when JOLs are made, despite associative strength being a better predictor of later retrieval.     

联结再认中双语者第二语言记忆优势效应

研究使用ERPs技术, 考察了双语者在联结再认中是否存在第二语言记忆优势效应。实验要求被试完成维吾尔语(L1)和汉语(L2)两类“学习-测试”任务。学习阶段要求被试学习混合呈现的复合词和无关词, 测验阶段要求被试区分“旧”、“重组”或“新”词对。行为结果发现：(1)复合词中, L2的正确率高于L1, L2的反应时快于L1; 无关词中, L2的正确率与L1无显著差异, 但L2的反应时快于L1。(2) 在L2和L1中, 复合词的正确率均高于无关词, 反应时均快于无关词。ERPs结果发现：(1)在高整合条件下, L2仅诱发了FN400效应, L1诱发了FN400效应和LPC效应; 在低整合条件下, L2和L1都只诱发了LPC效应。(2)在时间进程上, L2和L1分别在650 ms和900 ms完成联结关系的提取。上述结果表明, 在高整合条件下, 双语者在联结再认中存在L2记忆优势。此外, 实验结果也从双语角度证明了, 整合编码能促进熟悉性在维吾尔语联结再认中发挥作用。本研究结果的实践意义在于, 为我国少数民族学生习得国家通用语言文字提供了认知神经科学依据。     

Associative recognition: A case of recall-to-reject processing

Two-process accounts of recognition memory assume that memory judgments are based on both a rapidly available familiarity-based process and a slower, more accurate, recall-based mechanism. Past experiments on the time course of item recognition have not supported the recall-to-reject account of the second process, in which the retrieval of an old item is used to reject a similar foil (Rotello & Heit, 1999). In three new experiments, using analyses similar to those of Rotello and Heit, we found robust evidence for recall-to-reject processing in associative recognition, for word pairs, and for list-discrimination judgments. Put together, these results have implications for two-process accounts of recognition.     

On the nature of associative information in recognition memory

In a typical associative-recognition task, participants must distinguish between intact word pairs (both words previously studied together) and rearranged word pairs (both words previously studied but as part of different pairs). The familiarity of the individual items on this task is uninformative because all of the items were seen before, so the only way to solve the task is to rely on associative information. Prior research suggests that associative information is recall-like in nature and may therefore be an all-or-none variable. The present research reports several experiments in which some pairs were strengthened during list presentation. The resulting hit rates and false alarm rates, and an analysis of the corresponding receiver operating characteristic plots, suggest that participants rely heavily on item information when making an associative-recognition decision (to no avail) and that associative information may be best thought of as a some-or-none variable.     

Familiarity and recollection in item and associative recognition

Recognition memory for item information (single words) and associative information (word pairs) was tested immediately and after retention intervals of 30 min and 1 day (Experiment 1) and 2 days and 7 days (Experiment 2) using Tulving's (1985) remember/know response procedure. Associative recognition decisions were accompanied by more "remember" responses and less "know" responses than item recognition decisions. Overall recognition performance and the proportion of remember responses declined at similar rates for item and associative information. The pattern of results for item recognition was consistent with Donaldson's (1996) single-factor signal detection model of remember/know responses, as comparisons based on A' between overall item recognition and remember item recognition showed no significant differences. For associative recognition, however, A' for remember responses was reliably greater than for overall recognition. The results show that recollection plays a significant role in associative recognition.     

Word frequency effects in associative and item recognition

The word frequency effect (WFE) has been taken as evidence that recall and recognition are in some way fundamentally different. Consequently, most models assume that recall and recognition operate via very different retrieval mechanisms. Experiment 1 showed that the WFE reverses for associative recognition, which requires discrimination between intact test pairs and recombinations of study list words from different study pairs. Experiment 2, in which word triples were used, revealed an interaction between word frequency and test type: for item recognition, performance was better for low-frequency words; however, for associative recognition and free recall, performance was better for high-frequency words. In Experiment 3, item recognition was tested: although overall performance was better for low-frequency words, the recognition advantage for items in intact pairs was larger for high-frequency words, suggesting two components in recognition memory. These results imply common mechanisms in recall and recognition. Theoretical implications are discussed within the framework of the SAM model.     

Judgments of Frequency and Recency in a Distributed Memory Model

TODAM is a theory of distributed associative memory based on the convolution-correlation formalism of A. Borsellino and T. Poggio (1973, Kybernetik, 122, 113-122), and TODAM2 is a revised version which includes context, auto-associations for binding, a dual basis for item information, and mediators for associative information. It can explain some complex interactions (differential forgetting and differential attention) between item and associative information. In this paper we derive the basic expressions for the memory-probe dot product for the 2x2 cases (item and pair study crossed with item and pair probe), and then we apply these expressions to judgments of frequency (JOF) and judgments of recency (JOR). We report an experiment which tests both JOF and JOR for single items with post-cuing to control for encoding strategies and suggest an attenuation factor for repetition to improve the fits. With attenuation, TODAM2 can fit the JOR data, but the JOF fits, while not too bad, consistently predict too much dependence between item and associative information. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.     

感知觉加工与概念加工对联结记忆中图片优势效应的影响

本研究采用联结再认范式考察联结记忆中感知觉水平和概念加工程度对图片优势效应的影响。实验1通过呈现清晰或模糊的词语或图片对操纵了感知觉水平,结果发现只有在清晰条件下图片优势效应才会出现;实验2则在模糊条件下通过要求被试想象两个项目之间的关系操纵了概念加工程度,结果发现在有概念加工条件下,出现了图片优势效应。研究结果表明：（1）降低的感知觉水平会导致联结记忆中的图片优势效应消失;（2）对模糊项目对进行概念加工会使联结记忆中出现图片优势效应。     

Memory for unidentified items: Evidence for the use of letter information in familiarity processes

Participants can give accurate recognition judgments to word fragments that they are unable to complete. In three experiments, the generality of this finding was examined across tasks. Accurate memory judgments in the absence of identification were obtained in item recognition and judgments of presentation frequency but not in associative recognition or list discrimination. The former two tasks are thought to involve the use of familiarity; the latter two are thought to rely on recollection. The present results are consistent with the claim that recognition without identification reflects familiarity processes.     

Single-item memory, associative memory, and the human hippocampus

We tested recognition memory for items and associations in memory-impaired patients with bilateral lesions thought to be limited to the hippocampal region. In Experiment 1 (Combined memory test), participants studied words and then took a memory test in which studied words, new words, studied word pairs, and recombined word pairs were presented in a mixed order. In Experiment 2 (Separated memory test), participants studied single words and then took a memory test involving studied word and new words. In a separate test, they studied word pairs and then took a memory test involving studied word pairs and recombined word pairs. In both experiments, patients were impaired at memory for single items as well as memory for associations, suggesting that the hippocampus is important for both of these memory functions. In Experiment 1, patients appeared to be more impaired at associative memory than item memory. In Experiment 2, patients were similarly impaired at associative memory and item memory. These different findings are considered, including the fact that in Experiment 1 the results depended on the fact that controls produced unexpectedly low false-alarm rates to recombined pairs. We discuss single-item and associative memory from the perspective that the hippocampus and adjacent cortex work cooperatively to signal recognition and that simple dichotomies do not adequately describe the division of labor within the medial temporal lobe.     

Strong memories obscure weak memories in associative recognition

The list strength effect, in which strengthening some memories has a detrimental effect on the retrieval of other memories, has generally not been found in item recognition. The present study shows that the list strength effect does occur in associative recognition. Study materials were sets of overlapping word pairs (A-B, A-C, D-B, etc.). Within critical sets of words, strong pairs were presented three times at study, as compared with one presentation for weak pairs. In Experiment 1, associative recognition for weak pairs was less accurate than that for baseline pairs, and response times for hits were slower. In Experiment 2, receiver-operating characteristic curve data provided further evidence of poor accuracy for weak pairs. These findings support a qualitative distinction between item and associative recognition.     

Item and Associative Interactions in Short-term Memory: Multiple Memory Systems?

Three interactions of item and associative information are discussed: differential forgetting (item recognition declines over lag ranges where pair recognition does not; Hockley, 1991); differential emphasis (instructions to attend to items degrade later pair recognition but instructions to attend to pairs does not degrade later item recognition; Hockley & Cristi, 1996a), and multiple presentations of pairs or items from pairs has little effect on judgements of frequency of items and pairs (Hockley & Cristi, 1996b). Taken as a whole, these results seem to be inconsistent with a separate memory-systems view of memory. TODAM, a global-matching model, has always assumed a single memory system for the storage and retrieval of item and associative information and, with the addition of context and mediators, it can generate the whole pattern of data.     

Age-related differences in associative memory depend on the types of associations that are formed

ABSTRACT

Building on well-established findings of age-related decline in associative memory, we examined whether the magnitude of age differences depends on the types of associations that are formed. Specifically, because of predominant age-related changes in the hippocampus, we expected to find larger age differences in recognition of between-domain than within-domain associations. Twenty younger and 20 older healthy adults were given two associative recognition tests, using face–name and word–word pairs, that were matched for difficulty level. As hypothesized, a three-way interaction indicated that, relative to item recognition, age differences in associative recognition were greater for between-domain face–name associations than for within-domain word–word associations. This dissociation is consistent with the idea that the hippocampus plays a prominent role in binding information received from distal neocortical regions. The discussion focuses on the roles of recollection and familiarity in supporting associative memory as well as implications for the remediation of age-related memory decline.     

Strength-based mirror effects in item and associative recognition: Evidence for within-list criterion changes

Strength-based mirror effects occur when the hit rate is higher and the false alarm rate is lower following strongly encoded study lists than when following more weakly encoded study lists. In Experiments 1A and 1B, strength-based mirror effects were observed in separate tests of single item and associative recognition for random word pairs. In Experiment 2, strength-based mirror effects were again seen when item and associative recognition were tested together. Finally, in Experiments 3 and 4, opposing strength-based mirror effects were observed for item and associative recognition when individual words and word pairs were presented at different rates in the same study lists. Strength-based mirror effects could result from participants' adopting a more conservative decision criterion following strong lists than following weak ones. If this is the case for both item and associative recognition, the present results demonstrate that subjects can adopt different response criteria for different recognition tasks and can alternate between them on a trial-by-trial basis.     

Attention and the acquisition of new knowledge: their effects on older adults' associative memory deficit

Older adults experience a selective associative memory deficit by demonstrating intact item memory relative to impaired associative memory when compared with younger adults. Age-related deficits in associative memory have been suggested to arise from declines in attentional resources, and the role of attention during encoding and retrieval in associative memory for words and their spatial locations was investigated in the current experiment. Additionally, the tendency of younger and older adults to use knowledge acquired during encoding to improve their associative memory judgments through a strategic associative memory process was also investigated. Younger and older adults studied a list of words with each word belonging to one of four categories, which followed one of four mathematical probability structures for their presentation. Older adults exhibited intact item memory and impaired associative memory relative to full attention younger adults. In addition, both older and younger adults demonstrated an ability to engage in strategic associative memory, by learning and later using the probability structure introduced at study to guide their associative memory judgments. In contrast, dividing the attention of younger adults during encoding impaired item memory, associative memory and strategic associative memory, whereas dividing attention at retrieval did not result in similar deficits. These data add to a growing body of literature demonstrating older adults to exhibit a selective associative memory deficit that is not simulated by dividing the attention of younger adults at encoding or retrieval. Furthermore, younger and older adults maintain the ability to use new knowledge to guide their associative judgments.