The long-term recency effect in recognition memory

Three classes of theories explain the recency effect: the modal model, single-store models, and the composite view, which integrates the two positions. None could explain the absence of a long-term recency effect in recognition memory in previous studies. We suggest that prior work did not obtain a recency effect because testing used a multiple-probe rather than a single-probe recognition procedure. Here we tested memory using a single-probe recognition procedure. Experimental conditions included an immediate test, a delayed test after a filled interval, and a continuous-distractor paradigm in which the same filled delay preceded the first word and followed every study word. The long-term recency effect in continuous-distractor recognition was equivalent to the recency effect in immediate recognition. Its absence in the delayed recognition condition demonstrated that it was not attributed to the use of a putative short-term memory store. Single-store models and the composite view can account for this novel finding.     

Testing the associative-link hypothesis in immediate serial recall: Evidence from word frequency and word imageability effects

Two immediate serial recall experiments were conducted to test the associative-link hypothesis (Stuart & Hulme, 2000 Stuart, G. and Hulme, C. 2000. The effects of word co-occurrence on short-term memory: Associative-links in long-term memory affect short-term memory performance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26: 796–802. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). We manipulated interitem association by varying the intralist latent semantic analysis (LSA) cosines in our 7-item study word lists, each of which consists of high- or low-frequency words in Experiment 1 and high- or low-imageability words in Experiment 2. Whether item recall performance was scored by a serial-recall or free-recall criterion, we found main effects of interitem association, word imageability, and word frequency. The effect of interitem association also interacted with the word frequency effect, but not with the word imageability effect. The LSA-cosine×word frequency interaction occurred in the recency, but not primacy, portion of the serial position curve. The present findings set explanatory boundaries for the associative-link hypothesis and we argue that both item- and associative-based mechanisms are necessary to account for the word frequency effect in immediate serial recall.     

Serial position functions for recognition of olfactory stimuli

Two experiments examined item recognition memory for sequentially presented odours. Following a sequence of six odours participants were immediately presented with a series of two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) test odours. The test pairs were presented in either the same order as learning or the reverse order of learning. Method of testing was either blocked (Experiment 1) or mixed (Experiment 2). Both experiments demonstrated extended recency, with an absence of primacy, for the reverse testing procedure. In contrast, the forward testing procedure revealed a null effect of serial position. The finding of extended recency is inconsistent with the single-item recency predicted by the two-component duplex theory (Phillips & Christie, 1977 Phillips, W. A. and Christie, D. F. M. 1977. Components of visual memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 29: 117–133. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). We offer an alternative account of the data in which recognition accuracy is better accommodated by the cumulative number of items presented between item learning and item test.     

The production effect in paired-associate learning: Benefits for item and associative information

In five experiments, we extended the production effect—better memory for items said aloud than for items read silently—to paired-associate learning, the goal being to explore whether production enhances associative information in addition to enhancing item information. In Experiments 1 and 2, we used a semantic-relatedness task in addition to the production manipulation and found no evidence of a production effect, whether the measure was cued recall or item recognition. Experiment 3 showed that the semantic-relatedness task had overshadowed the production effect; the effect was present when the semantic-relatedness task was removed, again whether cued recall or item recognition was the measure. Experiments 4 and 5 provided further evidence that production can enhance recall for word pairs and, using an associate recognition test with intact versus rearranged pairs, indicated that production may also enhance associative information. That production boosts memory for both types of information is considered in terms of distinctive encoding.     

Does neighborhood size really cause the word length effect?

In short-term serial recall, it is well-known that short words are remembered better than long words. This word length effect has been the cornerstone of the working memory model and a benchmark effect that all models of immediate memory should account for. Currently, there is no consensus as to what determines the word length effect. Jalbert and colleagues (Jalbert, Neath, Bireta, & Surprenant, 2011a; Jalbert, Neath, & Surprenant, 2011b) suggested that neighborhood size is one causal factor. In six experiments we systematically examined their suggestion. In Experiment 1, with an immediate serial recall task, multiple word lengths, and a large pool of words controlled for neighborhood size, the typical word length effect was present. In Experiments 2 and 3, with an order reconstruction task and words with either many or few neighbors, we observed the typical word length effect. In Experiment 4 we tested the hypothesis that the previous abolition of the word length effect when neighborhood size was controlled was due to a confounded factor: frequency of orthographic structure. As predicted, we reversed the word length effect when using short words with less frequent orthographic structures than the long words, as was done in both of Jalbert et al.’s studies. In Experiments 5 and 6, we again observed the typical word length effect, even if we controlled for neighborhood size and frequency of orthographic structure. Overall, the results were not consistent with the predictions of Jalbert et al. and clearly showed a large and reliable word length effect after controlling for neighborhood size.     

Subjective shortening with filled and unfilled auditory and visual intervals in humans?

Two experiments tested humans on a memory for duration task based on the method of Wearden and Ferrara (1993) Wearden, J. H. and Ferrara, A. 1993. Subjective shortening in humans' memory for stimulus duration. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 46B: 163–186.  [Google Scholar], which had previously provided evidence for subjective shortening in memory for stimulus duration. Auditory stimuli were tones (filled) or click-defined intervals (unfilled). Filled visual stimuli were either squares or lines, with the unfilled interval being the time between two line presentations. In Experiment 1, good evidence for subjective shortening was found when filled and unfilled visual stimuli, or filled auditory stimuli, were used, but evidence for subjective shortening with unfilled auditory stimuli was more ambiguous. Experiment 2 used a simplified variant of the Wearden and Ferrara task, and evidence for subjective shortening was obtained from all four stimulus types.     

Fit to last: Exploring the longevity of the survival processing effect

Mounting evidence indicates that processing items for their survival value produces superior recall compared to a number of other well-known memory-enhancing techniques, and that this mnemonic advantage remains up to 48 hours after encoding (Raymaekers et al., 2014 Raymaekers, L. H. C., Otgaar, H., &; Smeets, T. (2014). The longevity of adaptive memory: Evidence for the mnemonic advantages of survival processing 24 and 48 hours later. Memory, 22, 19–25. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2013.791321[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). However, little attention has been dedicated to the survival processing effect in location memory, which may represent a better test of adaptive memory than retrieval of verbal information. The current study aims to fill this gap by exploring the longevity of the survival processing effect with both word list (Experiment 1) and location-based (Experiment 2) stimuli. Participants rated target items using a single incidental encoding scenario, either Survival versus Pleasantness (word stimuli) or Survival versus Scavenger Hunt (location stimuli). They were then asked to complete a surprise recall task immediately after the ratings and a second recall task 96 hours later. The results demonstrated that, despite a general reduction in memory performance across time, the survival processing advantage was detected at both test times for both stimuli types. These findings provide further support for the survival processing effect and extend the observed effect duration for both word lists and location to 96 hours.     

Speaker information affects false recognition of unstudied lexical-semantic associates

Recognition of and memory for a spoken word can be facilitated by a prior presentation of that word spoken by the same talker. However, it is less clear whether this speaker congruency advantage generalizes to facilitate recognition of unheard related words. The present investigation employed a false memory paradigm to examine whether information about a speaker’s identity in items heard by listeners could influence the recognition of novel items (critical intruders) phonologically or semantically related to the studied items. In Experiment 1, false recognition of semantically associated critical intruders was sensitive to speaker information, though only when subjects attended to talker identity during encoding. Results from Experiment 2 also provide some evidence that talker information affects the false recognition of critical intruders. Taken together, the present findings indicate that indexical information is able to contact the lexical-semantic network to affect the processing of unheard words.     

Phi-square Lexical Competition Database (Phi-Lex): An online tool for quantifying auditory and visual lexical competition

A widely agreed-upon feature of spoken word recognition is that multiple lexical candidates in memory are simultaneously activated in parallel when a listener hears a word, and that those candidates compete for recognition (Luce, Goldinger, Auer, & Vitevitch, Perception 62:615–625, 2000; Luce & Pisoni, Ear and Hearing 19:1–36, 1998; McClelland & Elman, Cognitive Psychology 18:1–86, 1986). Because the presence of those competitors influences word recognition, much research has sought to quantify the processes of lexical competition. Metrics that quantify lexical competition continuously are more effective predictors of auditory and visual (lipread) spoken word recognition than are the categorical metrics traditionally used (Feld & Sommers, Speech Communication 53:220–228, 2011; Strand & Sommers, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 130:1663–1672, 2011). A limitation of the continuous metrics is that they are somewhat computationally cumbersome and require access to existing speech databases. This article describes the Phi-square Lexical Competition Database (Phi-Lex): an online, searchable database that provides access to multiple metrics of auditory and visual (lipread) lexical competition for English words, available at www.juliastrand.com/phi-lex.     

Recollection can support hybrid visual memory search

On a daily basis, we accomplish the task of searching our visual environment for one of a number of possible objects, like searching for any one of our friends in a crowd, and we do this with ease. Understanding how attention, perception, and long-term memory interact to accomplish this process remains an important question. Recent research (Wolfe in Psychological Science 23:698–703, 2012) has shown that increasing the number of possible targets one is searching for adds little cost to the efficiency of visual search—specifically, that response times increase logarithmically with memory set size. It is unclear, however, what type of recognition memory process (familiarity or recollection) supports a hybrid visual memory search. Previous hybrid search paradigms create conditions that allow participants to rely on the familiarity of perceptually identical targets. In two experiments, we show that hybrid search remains efficient even when the familiarity of targets is minimized (Experiment 1) and when participants are encouraged to flexibly retrieve target information that is perceptually distinct from the information previously studied (Experiment 2). We propose that such efficient and flexible performance on a hybrid search task may engage a rapid from of recollection (Moscovitch in Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology 62:62–79, 2008). We discuss possible neural correlates supporting simultaneous perception, comparison of incoming information, and recollection of episodic memories.     

The reliability and stability of visual working memory capacity

Because of the central role of working memory capacity in cognition, many studies have used short measures of working memory capacity to examine its relationship to other domains. Here, we measured the reliability and stability of visual working memory capacity, measured using a single-probe change detection task. In Experiment 1, the participants (N = 135) completed a large number of trials of a change detection task (540 in total, 180 each of set sizes 4, 6, and 8). With large numbers of both trials and participants, reliability estimates were high (α > .9). We then used an iterative down-sampling procedure to create a look-up table for expected reliability in experiments with small sample sizes. In Experiment 2, the participants (N = 79) completed 31 sessions of single-probe change detection. The first 30 sessions took place over 30 consecutive days, and the last session took place 30 days later. This unprecedented number of sessions allowed us to examine the effects of practice on stability and internal reliability. Even after much practice, individual differences were stable over time (average between-session r = .76).     

Investigating the influence of continuous babble on auditory short-term memory performance

A number of factors could explain the adverse effect that babble noise has on memory for spoken words (Murphy, Craik, Li, & Schneider, 2000 Murphy, D. R., Craik, F. I. M., Li, K. Z. H. and Schneider, B. A. 2000. Comparing the effects of aging and background noise on short-term memory performance. Psychology and Aging, 15: 323–334. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Babble could degrade the perceptual representation of words to such an extent that it compromises their subsequent processing, or the presence of speech noise in the period between word presentations could interfere with rehearsal. Thirdly, the top-down processes needed to extract the words from the babble could draw on resources that otherwise would be used for encoding. We tested all these hypotheses by presenting babble either only during word presentation or rehearsal, or by gating the babble on and off 500 ms before and after each word pair. Only the last condition led to a decline in memory. We propose that this decline in memory occurred because participants were focusing their attention on the auditory stream (to enable them to better segregate the words from the noise background) rather than on remembering the words they had heard. To further support our claim we show that a similar memory deficit results when participants perform the same memory task in quiet together with a nonauditory attention-demanding secondary task.     

Do the effects of subjective frequency and age of acquisition survive better word frequency norms?

Megastudies with processing efficiency measures for thousands of words allow researchers to assess the quality of the word features they are using. In this article, we analyse reading aloud and lexical decision reaction times and accuracy rates for 2,336 words to assess the influence of subjective frequency and age of acquisition on performance. Specifically, we compare newly presented word frequency measures with the existing frequency norms of Ku?era and Francis (1967) Ku?era, H. and Francis, W. 1967. Computational analysis of present-day American English, Providence, RI: Brown University Press.  [Google Scholar], HAL (Burgess & Livesay, 1998 Burgess, C. and Livesay, K. 1998. The effect of corpus size in predicting reaction time in a basic word recognition task: Moving on from Kucera and Francis. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 30: 272–277. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), Brysbaert and New (2009) Brysbaert, M. and New, B. 2009. Moving beyond Kucera and Francis: A critical evaluation of current word frequency norms and the introduction of a new and improved word frequency measure for American English. Behavior Research Methods, 41: 977–990. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], and Zeno, Ivens, Millard, and Duvvuri (1995) Zeno, S. M., Ivens, S. H., Millard, R. T. and Duvvuri, R. 1995. The educator's word frequency guide, Brewster, NY: Touchstone Applied Science.  [Google Scholar]. We show that the use of the Ku?era and Francis word frequency measure accounts for much less variance than the other word frequencies, which leaves more variance to be “explained” by familiarity ratings and age-of-acquisition ratings. We argue that subjective frequency ratings are no longer needed if researchers have good objective word frequency counts. The effect of age of acquisition remains significant and has an effect size that is of practical relevance, although it is substantially smaller than that of the first phoneme in naming and the objective word frequency in lexical decision. Thus, our results suggest that models of word processing need to utilize these recently developed frequency estimates during training or setting baseline activation levels in the lexicon.     

When disfluency is—and is not—a desirable difficulty: The influence of typeface clarity on metacognitive judgments and memory

There are many instances in which perceptual disfluency leads to improved memory performance, a phenomenon often referred to as the perceptual-interference effect (e.g., Diemand-Yauman, Oppenheimer, & Vaughn (Cognition 118:111–115, 2010); Nairne (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 14:248–255, 1988)). In some situations, however, perceptual disfluency does not affect memory (Rhodes & Castel (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 137:615–625, 2008)), or even impairs memory (Glass, (Psychology and Aging 22:233–238, 2007)). Because of the uncertain effects of perceptual disfluency, it is important to establish when disfluency is a “desirable difficulty” (Bjork, 1994) and when it is not, and the degree to which people’s judgments of learning (JOLs) reflect the consequences of processing disfluent information. In five experiments, our participants saw multiple lists of blurred and clear words and gave JOLs after each word. The JOLs were consistently higher for the perceptually fluent items in within-subjects designs, which accurately predicted the pattern of recall performance when the presentation time was short (Exps. 1a and 2a). When the final test was recognition or when the presentation time was long, however, we found no difference in recall for clear and blurred words, although JOLs continued to be higher for clear words (Exps. 2b and 3). When fluency was manipulated between subjects, neither JOLs nor recall varied between formats (Exp. 1b). This study suggests a boundary condition for the desirable difficulty of perceptual disfluency and indicates that a visual distortion, such as blurring a word, may not always induce the deeper processing necessary to create a perceptual-interference effect.     

The word class effect in the picture–word interference paradigm

The word class effect in the picture–word interference paradigm is a highly influential finding that has provided some of the most compelling support for word class constraints on lexical selection. However, methodological concerns called for a replication of the most convincing of those effects. Experiment 1 was a direct replication of Pechmann and Zerbst (2002 Pechmann, T. and Zerbst, D. 2002. The activation of word class information during speech production. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 28: 233–243. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Experiment 4). Participants named pictures of objects in the context of noun and adverb distractors. Naming took place in bare noun and sentence frame contexts. A word class effect emerged in both bare noun and sentence frame naming conditions, suggesting a semantic origin of the effect. In Experiment 2, participants named objects in the context of noun and verb distractors whose word class relationship to the target and imageability were orthogonally manipulated. As before, naming took place in bare noun and sentence frame naming contexts. In both naming contexts, distractor imageability but not word class affected picture naming latencies. These findings confirm the sensitivity of the picture–word interference paradigm to distractor imageability and suggest the paradigm is not sensitive to distractor word class. The results undermine the use of the word class effect in the picture–word interference paradigm as supportive of word class constraints during lexical selection.     

Searching the same display twice: Properties of short-term memory in repeated search

Consecutive search for different targets in the same display is supported by a short-term memory mechanism: Distractors that have recently been inspected in the first search are found more quickly in the second search when they become the target (Exp. 1). Here, we investigated the properties of this memory process. We found that this recency advantage is robust to a delay between the two searches (Exp. 2) and that it is only slightly disrupted by an interference task between the two searches (Exp. 3). Introducing a concurrent secondary task (Exp. 4) showed that the memory representations formed in the first search are based on identity as well as location information. Together, these findings show that the short-term memory that supports repeated visual search stores a complex combination of item identity and location that is robust to disruption by either time or interference.     

Local and global processing biases fail to influence face,object, and word recognition

Three studies investigated whether encouraging people to use either global or local processing using the Navon task (Navon, 1977 Navon, D. 1977. Forest before the trees: The precedence of global features in visual perception. Cognitive Psychology, 9: 353–383. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) influenced recognition memory for upright and inverted pictures of faces, objects, and words. Contrary to the striking results of Macrae and Lewis (2002 Macrae, C. N. and Lewis, H. L. 2002. Do I know you? Processing orientation and face recognition. Psychological Science, 13: 194–196. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), no effect of such cross-task processing biases were found. In particular, encouraging global processing did not improve the recognition of upright faces, whilst encouraging local processing failed to improve the recognition of words. These results suggest that using the Navon task to manipulate people's processing strategy typically does not have a large, consistent effect on recognition memory. Instead, prior performance of an unrelated task may only influence subsequent recognition memory under restricted circumstances. Therefore, the cross-task processing bias effect does not provide researchers with a powerful, reliable tool with which to investigate the relative importance of local versus global, configural processing of visual stimuli.     

Semantic ambiguity within and across languages: An integrative review

Semantic ambiguity often occurs within a language (e.g., the word “organ” in English means both a body part and a musical instrument), but it can also cross a language boundary, such that a given word form is shared in two languages, but its meanings are different (e.g., the word “angel” means “sting” in Dutch). Bilingual individuals are therefore faced not only with ambiguity in each of their languages, but also with ambiguity across languages. The current review focuses on studies that explored such cross-language ambiguity and examines how the results from these studies can be integrated with what we have learned about within-language ambiguity resolution. In particular, this review examines how interactions of frequency and context manifest themselves in ambiguity that crosses a language boundary and call for the inclusion of language context as a contributing factor. An extension of the monolingual reordered access model (Duffy, Morris, & Rayner, 1988 Duffy, S. A., Morris, R. K. and Rayner, K. 1988. Lexical ambiguity and fixation times in reading. Journal of Memory and Language, 27: 429–446. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) is outlined to discuss the interactions between these factors. Furthermore, the effects of the similarity between the two meanings, task differences, and individual differences are explored. This review highlights the need for studies that test within- and cross-language ambiguity in the same individuals before strong conclusions can be made about the nature of interactions between frequency, semantic context, and language context.     

Prosody's Contribution to Fluency: An Examination of the Theory of Automatic Information Processing

LaBerge and Samuels’ (1974) LaBerge, D. and Samuels, S. J. 1974. Towards a theory of automatic information processing in reading. Cognitive Psychology, 6: 293–323. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] theory of automatic information processing in reading offers a model that explains how and where the processing of information occurs and the degree to which processing of information occurs. These processes are dependent upon two criteria: accurate word decoding and automatic word recognition. However, LaBerge and Samuels’ theory does not account for a comprehensive definition of fluency that includes accurate word decoding, automatic word recognition, and prosody. This article will use empirical studies to argue that prosody is also a defining criterion of fluent reading and must be considered in LaBerge and Samuels’ theory of automaticity. The author concludes that the theory of automaticity should be amended to consider the importance of prosody as an essential element that contributes to fluent reading.     

Manipulating inattentional blindness within and across sensory modalities

People often fail to consciously perceive visual events that are outside the focus of attention, a phenomenon referred to as inattentional blindness or IB (i.e., Mack & Rock, 1998 Mack, A. and Rock, I. 1998. Inattentional blindness, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). Here, we investigated IB for words within and across sensory modalities (visually and auditorily) in order to assess whether dividing attention across different senses has the same consequences as dividing attention within an individual sensory modality. Participants were asked to monitor a rapid stream of pictures or sounds presented concurrently with task-irrelevant words (spoken or written). A word recognition test was used to measure the processing for unattended words compared to word recognition levels after explicitly monitoring the word stream. We were able to produce high levels of IB for visually and auditorily presented words under unimodal conditions (Experiment 1) as well as under crossmodal conditions (Experiment 2). A further manipulation revealed, however, that IB is less prevalent when attention is divided across modalities than within the same modality (Experiment 3). These findings are explained in terms of the attentional load hypothesis and suggest that, contrary to some claims, attention resources are to a certain extent shared across sensory modalities.