The co-witness misinformation effect: memory blends or memory compliance?

For 30 years hundreds of researchers have shown participants videos and slide-sequences of events, presented the participants with misleading information, and found that this misinformation distorted their memories. The purpose of this study was to establish whether those misled participants are reporting a memory blend of the two sources of information or whether they are simply complying with the post-event information. A total of 92 participants were shown one of two versions of six different videos, which included some subtle differences. After having watched each video individually, participants were paired with someone who had seen the other version and they discussed the clips together. They then individually answered questions about the videos, and their responses showed that some of the distorted memories were blends of the original information and the post-event information. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

The unattended speech effect: perception or memory?

Broadbent (1983) has suggested that the influence of unattended speech on immediate serial recall is a perceptual phenomenon rather than a memory phenomenon. In order to test this, subjects were required to classify visually presented pairs of consonants on the basis of either case or rhyme. They were tested both in silence and against a background of continuous spoken Arabic presented at 75 dB(A). No effect of unattended speech was observed on either the speed or accuracy of processing. A further study required subjects to decide whether visually presented nonwords were homophonous with real words. Again, performance was not impaired by unattended speech, although a clear effect was observed on an immediate serial memory task. Our results give no support to the perceptual interpretation of the unattended speech effect.     

Can fluency be interpreted as novelty? Retraining the interpretation of fluency in recognition memory

Stimuli that are processed fluently tend to be regarded as more familiar and are more likely to be classified as old on a recognition test compared with less fluent stimuli. Recently it was shown that the standard relationship between fluency and positive recognition judgments can be reversed if participants are trained that previously studied stimuli are associated with lower levels of fluency. Under such conditions, fluent stimuli are more likely to be classified as new on a recognition test (C. Unkelbach, 2006), which suggests that the interpretation of fluency is malleable and context dependent. Five experiments investigated the resilience of this reversed fluency effect. Using 2 different fluency manipulations, the finding of a reversed fluency effect after training was replicated. However, it was also found that the reversal depends on explicit feedback during training and is specific to the particular fluency manipulation used during training. Moreover, it was found that the reversal did not generalize to similar memory judgments. The balance of experimental results suggest that the standard interpretation of fluency as indicating higher levels of familiarity is quite stable and is resistant to reinterpretation.     

Are two heuristics better than one? The fluency and distinctiveness heuristics in recognition memory

Four experiments were conducted to test the impact of having multiple heuristics (distinctiveness and fluency) available during a recognition test. Recent work by Gallo, Perlmutter, Moore, and Schacter (Memory & Cognition 36:461–466, 2008) suggested that fluency effects are reduced when the distinctiveness heuristic can be applied to a recognition decision. In Experiment 1, we used a response reversal paradigm (Van Zandt & Maldonado-Molina Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 30:1147–1166, 2004) to demonstrate that participants transitioned from an early response strategy that was largely reliant on fluency to a later strategy in which the influences of fluency and distinctiveness were both observable. Experiments 2a, 2b, and 3 showed no evidence for reduction of the fluency heuristic after picture study when the test required a delayed response (Exp. 2a), confidence ratings (Exp. 2b), or the application of conceptual fluency (Exp. 3). The results are consistent with models of memory that assume that familiarity and recollection influence individual memory decisions Wixted (Psychological Review, 114:152–176, 2007).     

The emotional memory effect: Differential processing or item distinctiveness?

A color-naming task was followed by incidental free recall to investigate how emotional words affect attention and memory. We compared taboo, nonthreatening negative-affect, and neutral words across three experiments. As compared with neutral words, taboo words led to longer color-naming times and better memory in both within- and between-subjects designs. Color naming of negative-emotion nontaboo words was slower than color naming of neutral words only during block presentation and at relatively short interstimulus intervals (ISIs). The nontaboo emotion words were remembered better than neutral words following blocked and random presentation and at both long and short ISIs, but only in mixed-list designs. Our results support multifactor theories of the effects of emotion on attention and memory. As compared with neutral words, threatening stimuli received increased attention, poststimulus elaboration, and benefit from item distinctiveness, whereas nonthreatening emotional stimuli benefited only from increased item distinctiveness.     

The co-witness misinformation effect: Memory blends or memory compliance?

For 30 years hundreds of researchers have shown participants videos and slide-sequences of events, presented the participants with misleading information, and found that this misinformation distorted their memories. The purpose of this study was to establish whether those misled participants are reporting a memory blend of the two sources of information or whether they are simply complying with the post-event information. A total of 92 participants were shown one of two versions of six different videos, which included some subtle differences. After having watched each video individually, participants were paired with someone who had seen the other version and they discussed the clips together. They then individually answered questions about the videos, and their responses showed that some of the distorted memories were blends of the original information and the post-event information. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

The episodic buffer: a new component of working memory?

In 1974, Baddeley and Hitch proposed a three-component model of working memory. Over the years, this has been successful in giving an integrated account not only of data from normal adults, but also neuropsychological, developmental and neuroimaging data. There are, however, a number of phenomena that are not readily captured by the original model. These are outlined here and a fourth component to the model, the episodic buffer, is proposed. It comprises a limited capacity system that provides temporary storage of information held in a multimodal code, which is capable of binding information from the subsidiary systems, and from long-term memory, into a unitary episodic representation. Conscious awareness is assumed to be the principal mode of retrieval from the buffer. The revised model differs from the old principally in focussing attention on the processes of integrating information, rather than on the isolation of the subsystems. In doing so, it provides a better basis for tackling the more complex aspects of executive control in working memory.     

What constitutes an episode in episodic memory?

The idea of episodic memory implies the existence of a process that segments experience into episodes so that they can be stored in memory. It is therefore surprising that the link between event segmentation and the organization of experiences into episodes in memory has not been addressed. We found that after participants read narratives containing temporal event boundaries at varying locations in the narrative, their long-term associative memory for information across event boundaries was lower than their memory for information within an event. This suggests that event segmentation during encoding resulted in segmentation of those same events in memory. Further, functional imaging data revealed that, across participants, brain activity consistent with the ongoing integration of information within events correlated with this pattern of mnemonic segmentation. These data are the first to address the mechanisms that support the organization of experiences into episodes in long-term memory.     

The effect of word length in short-term memory: Is rehearsal necessary?

Three experiments investigated the effect of word length on a serial recognition task when rehearsal was prevented by a high presentation rate with no delay between study and test lists. Results showed that lists of short four-phoneme words were better recognized than lists of long six-phoneme words. Moreover, this effect was equivalent to that observed in conditions in which there was a delay between lists, thereby making rehearsal possible in the interval. These findings imply that rehearsal does not play a central role in the origin of the word length effect. An alternative explanation based on differences in the degree of retroactive interference generated by long and short words is proposed.     

The effect of word length in short-term memory: Is rehearsal necessary?

Three experiments investigated the effect of word length on a serial recognition task when rehearsal was prevented by a high presentation rate with no delay between study and test lists. Results showed that lists of short four-phoneme words were better recognized than lists of long six-phoneme words. Moreover, this effect was equivalent to that observed in conditions in which there was a delay between lists, thereby making rehearsal possible in the interval. These findings imply that rehearsal does not play a central role in the origin of the word length effect. An alternative explanation based on differences in the degree of retroactive interference generated by long and short words is proposed.     

The irrelevant sound effect in short-term memory: Is there developmental change?

With two experiments, effects of irrelevant speech and classroom noise on serial recall of common nouns presented pictorially were investigated in children and adults. Experiment 1 used fixed list lengths for children (first graders) and adults. Experiment 2 used list lengths adjusted to participants' (second–third graders, adults) individual spans. In both experiments, children and adults were equally impaired by irrelevant speech. This contrasts with a related study (differences in methodology) by Elliott (2002), who reported severe increase in the detrimental impact of irrelevant speech with decreasing age. In both experiments, classroom noise had no effect in overall analyses. For Experiment 1, however, separate group analyses revealed impairment in children. Results suggest that effects of irrelevant sounds on serial recall stem from two separate mechanisms: Specific interference due to the sounds' automatic access to short-term memory, and/or attention capture. Only for the latter there is developmental change.     

The picture superiority effect in categorization: visual or semantic?

Two experiments are reported whose aim was to replicate and generalize the results presented by Snodgrass and McCullough (1986) on the effect of visual similarity in the categorization process. For pictures, Snodgrass and McCullough's results were replicated because Ss took longer to discriminate elements from 2 categories when they were visually similar than when they were visually dissimilar. However, unlike Snodgrass and McCullough, an analogous increase was also observed for word stimuli. The pattern of results obtained here can be explained most parsimoniously with reference to the effect of semantic similarity, or semantic and visual relatedness, rather than to visual similarity alone.     

Emotion-induced modulation of recognition memory decisions in a Go/NoGo task: Response bias or memory bias?

In recognition memory tests for words, items with negative emotional meaning are more often classified as “old” compared to neutral items, whether or not they are in fact old. Two accounts for this bias have been offered: One proposes that emotions disrupt retrieval and response monitoring processes (executive control account), the other proposes that emotions cause illusory feelings of remembering (memory bias account). We addressed this issue by varying the target signal in a Go/NoGo variant of a recognition memory task for negative, neutral, and positive words and faces: One group of participants was asked to respond to old items whereas the other group was asked to respond to new items. Results showed that the “Go-for-old” group showed the typical emotion-induced response bias shift for both positive and negative words, while the “Go-for-new” group showed the opposite pattern. Results were nonsignificant for faces, but went into the same direction. The findings are clearly inconsistent with the executive control account and speak for a genuine memory illusion induced by emotional arousal.     

The “other-accent” effect in voice recognition

The current paper examines an “other-accent” effect when recognising voices. English and Scottish listeners were tested with English and Scottish voices using a sequential lineup method. The results suggested greater accuracy for own-accent voices than for other-accent voices under both target-present and target-absent conditions. Moreover, self-rated confidence in response to target-absent lineups suggested greater confidence for own-accent voices than other-accent voices. As predicted, the other-accent effect noted here emerged more strongly for English listeners than for Scottish listeners, and these results are discussed within an expertise framework alongside both other-race effects in face recognition, and other-accent effects in word recognition. Given these results, caution is advised in the treatment of earwitness evidence when recognising a voice of another accent.     

The laterality effect: myth or truth?

Tzelgov and colleagues [Tzelgov, J., Meyer, J., and Henik, A. (1992). Automatic and intentional processing of numerical information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 18, 166-179.], offered the existence of the laterality effect as a post-hoc explanation for their results. According to this effect, numbers are classified automatically as small/large versus a standard point under autonomous processing of numerical information. However, the genuinity of the laterality effect was never examined, or was confounded with the numerical distance effect. In the current study, I controlled the numerical distance effect and observed that the laterality effect does exist, and affects the processing of automatic numerical information. The current results suggest that the laterality effect should be taken into account when using paradigms that require automatic numerical processing such as Stroop-like or priming tasks.     

The impact of path crossing on visuo-spatial serial memory: Encoding or rehearsal effect?

The determinants of visuo-spatial serial memory have been the object of little research, despite early evidence that not all sequences are equally remembered. Recently, empirical evidence was reported indicating that the complexity of the path formed by the to-be-remembered locations impacted on recall performance, defined for example by the presence of crossings in the path formed by successive locations (Parmentier, Elford, & Maybery, 2005). In this study, we examined whether this effect reflects rehearsal or encoding processes. We examined the effect of a retention interval and spatial interference on the ordered recall of spatial sequences with and without path crossings. Path crossings decreased recall performance, as did a retention interval. In line with the encoding hypothesis, but in contrast with the rehearsal hypothesis, the effect of crossing was not affected by the retention interval nor by tapping. The possible nature of the impact of path crossing on encoding mechanisms is discussed.     

The impact of path crossing on visuo-spatial serial memory: encoding or rehearsal effect?

The determinants of visuo-spatial serial memory have been the object of little research, despite early evidence that not all sequences are equally remembered. Recently, empirical evidence was reported indicating that the complexity of the path formed by the to-be-remembered locations impacted on recall performance, defined for example by the presence of crossings in the path formed by successive locations (Parmentier, Elford, & Maybery, 2005). In this study, we examined whether this effect reflects rehearsal or encoding processes. We examined the effect of a retention interval and spatial interference on the ordered recall of spatial sequences with and without path crossings. Path crossings decreased recall performance, as did a retention interval. In line with the encoding hypothesis, but in contrast with the rehearsal hypothesis, the effect of crossing was not affected by the retention interval nor by tapping. The possible nature of the impact of path crossing on encoding mechanisms is discussed.     

Are space and time automatically integrated in episodic memory?

The aim of the present study was to determine to what extent spatial and temporal features are automatically integrated during encoding in episodic memory. Both nameable and non-nameable stimuli were presented sequentially at different locations on a computer screen. Mixed and pure blocks of trials were used. In the mixed blocks participants were instructed to focus either on the spatial or the temporal order of the objects, as on the majority of the trials recall of this feature was tested (expected trials). However, on a few trials participants had to reproduce the other feature (unexpected trials). In the pure blocks either the spatial or the temporal order of the objects was tested on all trials. More errors were made on unexpected than on expected trials of the mixed blocks. Moreover, no primacy or recency effects were found when performance on the spatial task was plotted as a function of the temporal position. These results suggest that spatial information and temporal order information rely on separate encoding processes.     

Are space and time automatically integrated in episodic memory?

The aim of the present study was to determine to what extent spatial and temporal features are automatically integrated during encoding in episodic memory. Both nameable and non-nameable stimuli were presented sequentially at different locations on a computer screen. Mixed and pure blocks of trials were used. In the mixed blocks participants were instructed to focus either on the spatial or the temporal order of the objects, as on the majority of the trials recall of this feature was tested (expected trials). However, on a few trials participants had to reproduce the other feature (unexpected trials). In the pure blocks either the spatial or the temporal order of the objects was tested on all trials. More errors were made on unexpected than on expected trials of the mixed blocks. Moreover, no primacy or recency effects were found when performance on the spatial task was plotted as a function of the temporal position. These results suggest that spatial information and temporal order information rely on separate encoding processes.     

Patient-therapist match: revelation or resistance?

Patient-therapist match is a relatively new yet frequently invoked concept within psychoanalysis. Despite Freud's appreciation of the influence of the analyst's past to his or her work within the analytic setting, psychoanalysts have historically held varied opinions about the degree to which the analyst's personality and conflicts affect the analytic process. As analysis was reconfigured as a two-person system, attention focused on the fit between patient and analyst. The literature on patient-therapist match is reviewed, and the conclusion reached that this intuitively appealing concept suffers from a lack of rigorous definition and operationalization. Many authors invoke match in ways that imply that it is real, static, external to the domain of analytic inquiry, and unaffected by analytic process. In its present form, the concept of patient-therapist match obstructs rather than facilitates analytic exploration and obscures rather than clarifies what happens between analyst and analysand in psychoanalysis. By suggesting that match exists as a reality outside the domain of transference and countertransference, analysts may overlook the importance of psychoanalytic technique in creating a sense of match. Analysts may attribute stalemated or limited analyses to a bad match, rather than tenaciously exploring the transference-countertransference configurations that remain at the heart of analytic work.