Creating false memories for brand names

Using the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm, participants are presented with lists of associated words (e.g., bed, awake, night etc). Subsequently, they reliably have false memories for related but non‐presented words (e.g. SLEEP). The present study investigated whether false memories could be created for brand names (e.g. Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Waitrose and TESCO) using the DRM paradigm and whether the effect was reduced if stimuli were presented in brand appropriate fonts compared with a plain font. Participants were presented with lists of brand names in plain or brand appropriate fonts, followed by a distractor task or free recall. Finally, they had a recognition task. Both false recall and false recognition of non‐presented brand names occurred. Brand specific fonts at study had no effect on recall but increased overall recognition. There was considerable variability in levels of false recall and false recognition amongst lists and across participants and reasons for this are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Memory for things forgotten.

As previous research has shown, items not recalled on an initial memory task are not simply forgotten. Often, some can be recalled on a later, second task. Further, subjects can generally predict, in terms of feeling-of-knowing (FOK) ratings, which items will be subsequently recalled. Two experiments were carried out to assess both second-task performance and FOK accuracy for unrecalled items as a function of two factors, encoding manipulations (levels of processing in Experiment 1, study time in Experiment 2) and the nature of the second task (explicit or implicit cued stem completion). Results indicate that although levels of processing affected explicit second-task performance more than implicit second-task performance, it increased FOK accuracy in both types of tasks. Study time, however, affected FOK accuracy only in the explicit second task. Apparently, only when subjects were able to do some elaborative processing on the items did their FOK ratings reflect information relating to factors that drive performance on implicit tasks.     

How to do things with things

J.L. Austin has demonstrated that people can do things—bring about social facts — with words. Here we describe how some people do things with things. This is a study of the symbolic use and situated history of material objects during a business negotiation between two German entrepreneurs: of the practical transformation of things-at-hand from objects of use into exemplars, or into forms-at-hand that can be used for the construction of transitory symbolic artifacts. Arranging boxes in a particular fashion can be the equivalent of an illocutionary act, but unlike words things remain on the scene as indexical monuments to prior interactional arrangements.

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Memory for proper names: A review

Abstract

Proper names have a frustrating propensity to be forgotten. A considerable amount of laboratory and naturalistic data has demonstrated this vulnerability of proper names to memory errors both in learning new names and in retrieving familiar names. Moreover, retrieval of familiar proper names is especially affected in old age and in some cases of aphasia. This pattern of vulnerability offers an important opportunity for gaining insight into basic memory processes and architecture by identifying the characteristics of proper names that disrupt memory.     

Testing effects for common versus proper names

The present study examines the testing effect as a function of item meaningfulness. In Experiments 1 and 2 participants studied lists of words that could serve as proper names or occupations (e.g., Mr Baker or baker), with the items given in a name context for one group and an occupation context for a second group. During an intervening phase participants restudied some items and were given a cued recall test (Experiment 1) or a free recall test (Experiment 2) on other items. On a final free recall test memory was better for tested items than studied items in both the name and occupation contexts. Experiment 3 followed the same procedure as Experiment 1, except that participants studied lists of proper names that do not have alternative uses in the English language (e.g., Mr Anderson) or studied concrete nouns (e.g., letter). Tested items were better remembered on a final test than studied items, and there was no interaction with type of study material. These results show that the testing effect extends to proper names, material that is commonly assumed to differ from common names on several dimensions.     

Creating embryos for research

ABSTRACT The 1987 Amendment to the Infertility (Medical Procedures) Act (Vic) allows the creation of embryos specifically for research purposes, as long as the proposed experiment takes place within 24 hours. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether there is aany significant ethical difference between creating embryos specifically for research and using those that are surplus from the new reproductive technologies. The relevant arguments in this debate can be grouped under three heads: those focussing on the embryo; those focussing on the possible consequences of these practices and those focussing on the women who donate the eggs.     

Self-generated retrievals while multitasking improve memory for names

We used a translational research paradigm to investigate whether distributed retrievals could benefit name learning in social situations. Undergraduates (N=64) were trained to generate distributed retrievals while they were multitasking. Students learned to generate distributed retrievals according to either an expanding or a uniform schedule. Their self-generated distributed retrievals while they were multitasking were effective in improving name recall for both retrieval schedules. The increase with self-generated retrievals while multitasking was greater (η2 =.76) than the increase that Helder and Shaughnessy ( 2008 ) found with experimenter-controlled retrievals while multitasking (η2 =.42). These findings provide evidence that the beneficial effect of distributed retrievals can extend to learning names in a social situation.     

Self-generated retrievals while multitasking improve memory for names

We used a translational research paradigm to investigate whether distributed retrievals could benefit name learning in social situations. Undergraduates (N=64) were trained to generate distributed retrievals while they were multitasking. Students learned to generate distributed retrievals according to either an expanding or a uniform schedule. Their self-generated distributed retrievals while they were multitasking were effective in improving name recall for both retrieval schedules. The increase with self-generated retrievals while multitasking was greater (η²=.76) than the increase that Helder and Shaughnessy (2008 Helder, E. and Shaughnessy, J. J. 2008. Retrieval opportunities while multitasking improve name recall. Memory, 16: 896–909. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) found with experimenter-controlled retrievals while multitasking (η²=.42). These findings provide evidence that the beneficial effect of distributed retrievals can extend to learning names in a social situation.