Attribute models and the effect of frequency and imagery values on word recognition

Recent explanations of the word frequency effect in recognition studies (Gregg 1976; Glanzer and Bowles 1976) state that this effect occurs because words of high and low frequency differ in encoding variability and number of associative relations. These models suggest that the different recognition scores of high and low frequency words are the result of both more hits and less false positives on words that have a low frequency of occurence. As Morris (1978) showed, these models can also be applied on the effect of word imagery values on recognition performance.In the first experiment to be reported here the differential effects of words of high and low frequency and imagery values on hit and false positive rates were examined. The predicted results concerning high and low imagery values were indeed found, but the predictions with respect to high and low frequency words were not completely substantiated. However, it was shown that this deviation can be explained by a response bias effect.In a second experiment an assumption concerning the underlying distributions of high and low imagery ‘old’ and ‘new’ items was tested. In accord with the expectation it was found that the distributions of ‘old’ high and low imagery words did not differ, but that there was a clear difference in the distributions of ‘new’ high and low imagery words.     

Words high and low in pleasantness as rated by male and female college students

No catalog of words currently available contains normative data for large numbers of words rated low or high in affect. A preliminary sample of 1,545 words was rated for pleasantness by 26–33 college students. Of these words, 274 were selected on the basis of their high or low ratings. These words, along with 125 others (Rubin, 1981), were then rated by additional groups of 62–76 college students on 5-point rating scales for the dimensions of pleasantness, imagery, and familiarity. The resulting mean ratings were highly correlated with the ratings obtained by other investigators using some of the same words. However, systematic differences in the ratings were found for male versus female raters. Females tended to use more extreme ratings than did males when rating words on the pleasantness scale. Also, females tended to rate words higher on the imagery and familiarity scales. Whether these sex differences in ratings represent cognitive differences between the sexes or merely differences in response style is a question that can be determined only by further research.     

Effects of orienting task,spacing of repetitions,and list context on judgments of frequency

Subjects were given an unexpected frequency judgment test following a list of words in which items were presented either two, three, and five times or three, five, and seven times, with a spacing of 0, 2, 16, or 32 items between repetitions. During list presentation, they either rated the imagery value of each word or made continuous frequency estimates. Postlist frequency judgments of words presented three and five times were higher for the list containing words of Frequency 7, and judgments were also higher following the imagery rating task. Continuous judgments were unaffected by the list context and showed different effects of spacing than postlist judgments. The results provide support for the operation of response bias factors in the frequency judgment task and are relevant to theoretical interpretations of the spacing effect.     

Concreteness effects in free recall: The roles of imaginai and relational processing

Two experiments reevaluated the possible role of mental imagery in free recall of concrete and abstract words. In Experiment 1, the number and rate of list presentations were manipulated. Incidental recall following an imagery rating task yielded reliable concreteness effects after two presentations but not after a single presentation, regardless of presentation rate. In Experiment 2, we examined the effects of relational (categorization) and item-specific (imagery rating) processing tasks on memory for categorically related or unrelated concrete and abstract words. Concreteness effects were obtained when unrelated words were sorted into categories but not when they were rated on imagery. Related words failed to yield concreteness effects under any orienting condition. The results support the view that the presence or absence of concreteness effects in free recall depends on the relative salience of distinctive and relational information. This conclusion constrains theoretical explanations of the role of mental imagery in memory and cognition.     

Verbal imagery and connotation as memory-induced mediators of aggressive behavior.

Three studies investigated the effects of an information-processing variable (imagery-concreteness) on susceptibility to aggressive stimulation. Study 1 (n=83) results indicated that subjects' rating of imagery level and aggressive connotation for words can be manipulated independently. In study 2 (n=64), manipulations of verbal connotation and verbal imagery indicated that imagery level but not aggressive connotation significantly influenced the delayed recall of the verbal material. In Study 3 (n=60), males in a 2 X 2 between-subjects factorial design first learned lists of words varying in imagery (high or low) and verbal connotation (aggressive or neutral). Next, subjects were given the opportunity to shock their partners as part of a sham learning task. To induce arousal, all subjects learning high-imagery-aggressive word lists delivered significantly more intense shock to their partners. The results were interpreted as supporting an information-processing (memory) analysis of the effects of exposure to aggressive material.     

Imagery in the congenitally blind: how visual are visual images?

Three experiments compared congenitally blind and sighted adults and children on tasks presumed to involve visual imagery in memory. In all three, the blind subjects' performances were remarkably similar to the sighted. The first two experiments examined Paivio's (1971) modality-specific imagery hypothesis. Experiment 1 used a paired-associate task with words whose referents were high in either visual or auditory imagery. The blind, like the sighted, recalled more high-visual-imagery pairs than any others. Experiment 2 used a free-recall task for words grouped according to modality-specific attributes, such as color and sound. The blind performed as well as the sighted on words grouped by color. In fact, the only consistent deficit in both experiments occurred for the sighted in recall of words whose referents are primarily auditory. These results challenge Paivio's theory and suggest either (a) that the visual imagery used by the sighted is no more facilitating than the abstract semantic representations used by the blind or (b) that the sighted are not using visual imagery. Experiment 3 used Neisser and Kerr's (1973) imaging task. Subjects formed images of scenes in which target objects were described as either visible in the picture plane or concealed by another object and thus not visible. On an incidental recall test for the target objects, the blind, like the sighted, recalled more pictorial than concealed targets. This finding suggests that the haptic images of the blind maintain occlusion just as the visual images of the sighted do.     

The imagery effect and phenomenal background frequency in verbal discrimination learning

A series of four experiments was conducted to assess the role of phenomenal background frequency in verbal discrimination learning and its possible involvement in the imagery effect. The initial two experiments produced a reliable imagery effect for mixed and unmixed lists with respect to concreteness of pair members, regardless of phenomenal frequency manipulations, with words high in objective background frequency. No effects were found for phenomenal background frequency. Experiment 3 involved phenomenal frequency ratings for 200 abstract and 200 concrete words. Experiment 4 evaluated the role of phenomenal background frequency for a mixed list using words low in objective frequency. A reliable imagery effect was again found with no effects for phenomenal frequency. An alternative hypothesis involving differential accrual of situational frequency to abstract and concrete items during verbal discrimination learning to explain the imagery effect was also tested by Experiment 4 but was not supported by the data.     

Bilateral tachistoscopic perception, handedness, and laterality.

Right-handed, familial left-handed, and nonfamilial left-handed males and females reported high- or low-imagery words which were located to the left and right of fixation in bilateral tachistoscopic displays. On each trial, an arrowhead appeared in the center of the display. The arrowhead pointed to either the left or the right half-field, indicating the order of report. Right-handers reported more accurately from the right half-field, and familial left-handers reported more accurately from the left half-field. The order of report results showed that right-handers were similar to nonfamilial left-handers; for left half-field presentation, both groups were more accurate when the arrowhead pointed to the left than when it pointed to the right (i.e., first report was more accurate than second report). There was a main effect of word imagery, but this factor did not interact with visual half-field. Thus, there was no evidence that representations of high-imagery words are lateralized differently than representations of low-imagery words. The results are discussed with respect to lateralization of memory for verbal material.     

Further analysis of encoding in patients with Huntington's disease

Arguments favoring the view that derangement of normal encoding processes contributes to the memory defects of patients with Huntington's disease (HD) are supported by the finding that HD patients do not learn highly imageable words more rapidly than they learn words that are difficult to image. But other data indicating that HD patients can use verbal mediators as mnemonic aids for picture recognition question the existence of important and general encoding deficits in HD. In the first of two experiments the influence of imagery on the acquisition and recall of 14-word lists was studied using a free-recall paradigm. Both HD patients and controls learned highly imageable words more quickly and retained them better than low imagery words over a 30-min delay. The impact of imagery on learning was apparent by the first trial. In the second experiment, a modified Brown-Peterson distractor paradigm was used to assess release from proactive interference (PI). It was found that both HD patients and controls exhibited comparable release from PI following a shift in taxonomic categories. The results of both experiments question the importance of encoding deficits in the memorial dysfunctions associated with HD.     

Eye scanpaths during visual imagery reenact those of perception of the same visual scene

Eye movements during mental imagery are not epiphenomenal but assist the process of image generation. Commands to the eyes for each fixation are stored along with the visual representation and are used as spatial index in a motor‐based coordinate system for the proper arrangement of parts of an image. In two experiments, subjects viewed an irregular checkerboard or color pictures of fish and were subsequently asked to form mental images of these stimuli while keeping their eyes open. During the perceptual phase, a group of subjects was requested to maintain fixation onto the screen's center, whereas another group was free to inspect the stimuli. During the imagery phase, all of these subjects were free to move their eyes. A third group of subjects (in Experiment 2) was free to explore the pattern but was requested to maintain central fixation during imagery. For subjects free to explore the pattern, the percentage of time spent fixating a specific location during perception was highly correlated with the time spent on the same (empty) locations during imagery. The order of scanning of these locations during imagery was correlated to the original order during perception. The strength of relatedness of these scanpaths and the vividness of each image predicted performance accuracy. Subjects who fixed their gaze centrally during perception did the same spontaneously during imagery. Subjects free to explore during perception, but maintaining central fixation during imagery, showed decreased ability to recall the pattern. We conclude that the eye scanpaths during visual imagery reenact those of perception of the same visual scene and that they play a functional role.     

French norms of imagery for pictures, for concrete and abstract words]

This paper deals with French norms for mental image versus picture agreement for 138 pictures and the imagery value for 138 concrete words and 69 abstract words. The pictures were selected from Snodgrass et Vanderwart's norms (1980). The concrete words correspond to the dominant naming response to the pictorial stimuli. The abstract words were taken from verbal associative norms published by Ferrand (2001). The norms were established according to two variables: 1) mental image vs. picture agreement, and 2) imagery value of words. Three other variables were controlled: 1) picture naming agreement; 2) familiarity of objects referred to in the pictures and the concrete words, and 3) subjective verbal frequency of words. The originality of this work is to provide French imagery norms for the three kinds of stimuli usually compared in research on dual coding. Moreover, these studies focus on figurative and verbal stimuli variations in visual imagery processes.     

Convenient fixation location within isolated words of different length and structure

When a word is visually presented in a naming or comparison task in such a way that the eye is initially fixated at different locations within the word, a very strong effect of fixation location is found. The effect appears as a U-shaped curve. Naming time and total fixation time (gaze duration) have a minimum for an initial fixation location between the third and fifth letter of the word (for words that are 5-11 letters long). When initial fixation location deviates from this optimum position, times increase at the surprisingly fast rate of 20-30 ms per letter of deviation. By manipulating the internal lexical structure of the words, we show that at least part of the fixation location effect is caused by mechanisms related to ongoing lexical processing. This is demonstrated by the fact that the fixation location effect takes a different form when the most informative part of a word (as determined by dictionary counts) occurs at the beginning or the end of the word.     

Contextual imagery in meaning and memory

Three hundred homonyms were selected, and sentence fragments were written to emphasize two meanings of each. The words were rated on image-arousing capacity both in and out of context and on frequency of occurrence in context. Imagery values for the words out of context were predicted quite well by an average of the contextual imagery ratings, weighted by their relative frequencies. The finding is consistent with the hypothesis that words presented in isolation are interpreted in specific senses according to a frequency bias, with imagery ratings reflecting those senses. In a memory experiment. words were selected to vary orthogonally on both contextual and out-of-context imagery. Recall of words in isolation was a function of out-of-context imagery, while recall of words presented in context was a function of contextual imagery, further supporting the hypothesis.     

The effects of concurrent secondary tasks on the use of imagery in a free recall task

An attempt was made to evaluate Paivio's view that the superior recall of High-I words compared to that of Low-I words can be ascribed to the fact that imagery is available as an additional encoding dimension in the High-I materials. An experiment is reported which investigated the effects of two types of secondary task on the free recall of word lists consisting of equal numbers of items of high and low imagery. One secondary task was intended to prevent the use of imagery during acquisition. Recall of the High-I items was selectively impaired in the presence of the image inhibiting secondary task. As performance on the secondary task improved in some subjects over 3 trials, it was accompanied by improved recall of the High-I words.     

来源检测对表象引发的错误记忆的影响

采用“学习-再认”模式,考察来源检测对表象引发的错误记忆的影响。结果发现,在再认任务中,正确再认观察项目与想象项目的反应时差异不显著,但在源检测中,正确再认观察项目显著快于正确再认想象项目; 再认时与源检测时的错误再认率差异不显著,但对想象项目的错误再认率显著高于对观察项目。这表明,表象会导致错误记忆发生,提高来源检测操纵并不能够削弱表象引发的错误记忆。根据研究结果提出“表象激活混淆假设”,认为人们虽然使用表象的信息表征方式,却无法获取与之联系的激活路径,容易混淆表象激活的来源。表象激活混淆是表象引发错误记忆的机制。     

Norms of subjective frequency of use and imagery for a sample of 1,916 French nouns.

Norms of rated subjective frequency of use and imagery on seven-point scales are reported for 1,916 French nouns. Subjective frequency was defined as the rated frequency of occurrence of words in spoken French, and imagery was defined as the rated case with which a word aroused a mental image. The mean, standard deviation, and percentile rank of the frequency and imagery ratings for each item are presented in the Appendix together with their objective frequency of occurrence in Baudot's (1992) dictionary. Interjudge reliability was assessed by calculating the correlation between the mean ratings of items repeated in the booklet, between the mean ratings obtained from odd-numbered and even-numbered respondents, and by computing the Cronbach alpha statistic for each page of the booklet. These reliability estimates were equal to or greater than .92 for frequency and for imagery, confirming the high level of interjudge consistency. Although the estimates provided by female and male participants were highly correlated (r = .97), the former gave a slightly higher frequency rating to the word sample but a slightly lower imagery rating than the latter did. Moreover, female respondents gave slightly more extreme ratings on the frequency and imagery scales. An analysis of the absolute difference between female and male ratings revealed a discrepancy of one half point or more on 20% of the word sample for frequency and 13% for imagery. On both scales, the mean absolute difference between male and female ratings was larger than that obtained by chance alone. This finding highlights the possibility that some words may not be equally familiar to women and men or may not evoke imagery with the same ease in these groups. Validity estimates for the frequency and imagery ratings were derived from correlations with scale values drawn from other normative studies. These correlation coefficients were equal to or greater than .78 for frequency and .86 for imagery, confirming the high level of consistency between this and other studies. An analysis of the relationship between subjective frequency and imagery ratings indicated that these variables are generally uncorrelated but exceptions occur. In the present study the coefficient of the correlation between subjective frequency and imagery was .24. However, when items with extreme mean frequency were excluded from the calculation, the correlation coefficient dropped to .04 and was no longer significant. Imagery ratings from five independent studies were all positively and significantly correlated with Vikis-Freibergs's (1974) frequency estimates, which were obtained from a free-association task. This finding suggests that word association, as a form of cued recall, may be influenced by several stimulus attributes including prior frequency of association and imagery-evoking value. The pattern of correlation between imagery ratings and text-based frequency estimates is not coherent. It reveals significant correlations only in select cases and no consistent polarity of linear relationship. The main contribution of this research is to provide reliable estimates of subjective frequency and imagery value for a word sample that is larger than those included in previous studies. A close examination of the linear relationship among the various sources of frequency and imagery data underscores the risk of confounding these variables in the selection of lexical stimuli for research.     

Let's pretend: The role of motoric imagery in memory for sentences and words

A number of theories suggest that for young children, concepts should have an important motoric (or sensory-motor) component. A levels-of-processing theory is proposed which predicts that processing on motoric imagery should facilitate memory for both isolated words and for sentences. Experiment 1 examined the effects of motoric enactment (viz., pretend play) of sentences on memory for the sentences. Motoric imagery facilitated memory for both children (5 to 7 years of age) and adults, though, contrary to expectations, the effects were weaker for the children than for the adults. Further, it was found that motoric imagery affected the initial acquisition, but was not important as a retreival cue. Experiment 2 examined the effects of motoric imagery on free recall of lists of unrelated words. Under these conditions, motoric imagery facilitated memory for both children (7 to 9 years of age) and adults equally; in contrast, visual imagery instructions had no effect on memory. These results indicate that motoric imagery may facilitate memory under conditions in which visual imagery has no effect. Theoretical implications are explored for previous experiments on pretend play which suggest that training for pretent enactment can facilitate cognitive development.     

Visual imagery ability and the recognition of verbal and nonverbal stimuli.

High and low visual imagers, defined as such primarily on the basis of spatial manipulation test performance, were required to identify tachistoscopically-presented pictures, concrete words, and abstract words varying in familiarity. Two recognition paradigms were employed, recognition threshold and recognition latency. High imagers were faster in picture recognition under both paradigms when a nonverbal set or strategy was primed and when pictures were relatively unfamiliar in the threshold paradigm. No relationship was found between imagery ability and word recognition in the visual modality, nor was visual imagery ability related to the auditory recognition of verbal and nonverbal stimuli, such as words and environmental sounds. Commonalities between these findings and others in the imagery ability literature were noted.     

Emergence of unreported stimuli into imagery as a function of laterality of presentation: a replication and extension of research by Henley & Dixon (1974).

In Expt. 1, the research by Henley & Dixon (1974) was replicated. Two experimental groups (n=8 each) received subliminal words to the right ear and 8 min of music to the left ear or vice versa. Each group had its own control (n=8 each) with only music to one ear. Categorization and ranking of imagery reported, as well as performance on a checklist containing critical, associated, and non-related words, showed that emergence was greater with words to the right ear than with no words. There was no difference between experimental and control groups with words to the left ear. In Expt. 2, the music was eliminated, and subjects received subliminal words to the right ear (n=8) or no words. A significant difference between groups was found when the reported imagery was ranked as to emergence, and on the checklist, but not when the reports were categorized by judges.     

Imagery ability and the identification of fragmented pictures and words

High and low imagery individuals completed two paper-and-pencil identification tasks involving fragmented pictures and fragmented words. Although a trend was present for spatial measures of imagery ability to correlate more highly with picture than with word identification, high imagers nevertheless surpassed low imagers on both tasks. An interpretation emphasizing the spatial-imaginal demands of both tasks is suggested. Significant correlations between word identification and some verbal measures, as well as self-reported imagery, may have resulted from the differential priming of verbal and imaginal strategies following subtle procedural changes in the two experiments described.