Recognition without identification

The ability of people to recognize words that they could not identify was examined. After studying a list of 15 words, participants completed a word fragment test consisting of 4-letter fragments of both studied and nonstudied words. Whether they were able to solve a particular fragment or not, participants then made an episodic recognition judgment. Even when participants were unable to solve a fragment, their recognition accuracy was significantly higher than chance. This effect was significant when list length was increased, when 2-letter fragments were used, when first letters were excluded from fragments, and when the letter casing and the presentation modality were changed from study to test. It also occurred when participants attempted to identify fragments at study and rated words at test. Recognition without identification is attributed to the use of orthographic information when determining the familiarity of a test item.     

Priming voluntary autobiographical memories: Implications for the organisation of autobiographical memory and voluntary recall processes

The goal of this study was to show that voluntary autobiographical memories could be primed by the prior activation of autobiographical memories. Three experiments demonstrated voluntary memory priming with three different approaches. In Experiment 1 primed participants were asked to recall memories from their elementary school years. In a subsequent memory task primed participants were asked to recall memories from any time period, and they produced significantly more memories from their elementary school years than unprimed participants. In Experiment 2 primed participants were asked to recall what they were doing when they had heard various news events occurring between 1998 and 2005. Subsequently these participants produced significantly more memories from this time period than unprimed participants. In Experiment 3 primed participants were asked to recall memories from their teenage years. Subsequently these participants were able to recall more memories from ages 13–15 than unprimed participants, where both had only 1 second to produce a memory. We argue that the results support the notion that episodic memories can activate one another and that some of them are organised according to lifetime periods. We further argue that the results have implications for the reminiscence bump and voluntary recall of the past.     

时序知觉重复启动效应的作用机制

先前研究发现,时序判断任务在启动的靶刺激先出现时出现了重复启动效应的反转,这是以往的理论所不能单独解释的。通过两个实验对我们提出的双加工表征匹配调节假说加以实证检验,实验结果支持了该假说。因此,双加工表征匹配调节假说能较完整地综合解释时序知觉重复启动效应的作用机制     

Mechanisms of facilitation in primed perceptual identification

We investigated the mechanism that produces priming in perceptual identification. In Experiment 1, subjects studied a series of compound words (e.g.,outdoor,sideline); in Experiment 2, subjects studied a series of pictures (photographs) of objects. All subjects later received perceptual identification tests in which old (primed) and new (unprimed) words (Experiment 1) or pictures (Experiment 2) were presented for varying durations and masked. In both experiments, performance for primed and unprimed stimuli was predicted essentially perfectly by a model that assumes that prior exposure to a stimulus results in increased visual information-acquisition rate when it is subsequently encountered. An ancillary purpose of Experiment 1 was to test whether or not priming occurs for recombined words (e.g.,outline); there was no evidence for such priming at any exposure duration.     

重复启动对时序知觉的影响

在时序判断任务中,重复启动导致被试把启动的靶刺激知觉为先出现的。知觉加工增强观和决策反应偏向观都试图解释其机制,但仍存在争议。本研究采用图形材料,通过三个实验系统考察了重复启动对时序知觉的影响。实验结果显示,启动和指导语都具有显著效应。这说明,重复启动对时序知觉的影响涉及知觉加工和决策水平两个方面。实验还首次发现,在启动的靶刺激先出现时发生了重复启动效应的反转。最后,研究提出了双加工表征匹配调节假说,用以综合解释目前的研究结果     

Altering retrieval demands reverses the picture superiority effect

In Experiment 1 subjects studied a mixed list of pictures and words and then received either a free recall test or a word fragment completion test (e.g.,_yr_mi_forpyramid) on which some fragments corresponded to previously studied items. Free recall of pictures was better than that of words. However, words produced greater priming than did pictures on the fragment completion test, although a small amount of picture priming did occur. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that the picture priming was not due to implicit naming of the pictures during study. In Experiment 4 subjects studied words and pictures and received either the word fragment completion test or a picture fragment identification test in which they had to name degraded pictures. Greater priming was obtained with words in word fragment completion, but greater priming was obtained with pictures on the picture identification test. We conclude that (1) the type of retrieval query determines whether pictures or words will exhibit superior retention, and (2)our results conform to the principle of transfer appropriate processing by which performance on transfer or retention tests benefits to the extent that the tests recapitulate operations used during learning.     

The sensory match effect in recognition memory: Perceptual fluency or episodic trace?

The sensory match effect in recognition memory refers to the finding that recognition is better when the sensory form in which an item is tested is the same as that in which it was studied. This paper examines the basis for the sensory match effect by manipulating whether a studied fragmented picture is tested with the same or a complementary set of fragments in a recognition memory test (Experiment 1) and in a fragment-identification test (Experiment 2). Assuming that fragment identification is a direct measure of perceptual fluency, we expected identical patterns of results across the two tests if perceptual fluency accounted for the sensory match effect in recognition memory. Instead, recognition memory showed a robust overall sensory match effect (the same fragmented image was recognized better than the complementary image), whereas fragment identification showed no overall sensory match effect (the same fragmented image was identified no better than the complementary fragmented image). Experiments 3 and 4 combined the two responses and showed that the basis for the sensory match effect in recognition memory was a subject’s ability to recognize the matching fragments in the absence of conceptual information (when the test stimulus could not be identified), supporting the idea that the episodic trace of the sensory code is responsible for the sensory match effect in recognition memory. Experiment 5 demonstrated that subjects are able to use this sensory code as the sole basis for recognition memory.     

汉字模糊度、字频和语义启动在N400上的交互作用：N400的IA模型的证据

通过两个实验, 采用事件相关电位技术, 记录大学生被试在同一字判断任务中的脑电波形。两个实验涉及三个因素, 包括模糊度、字频和语义, 语义和字频为被试内设计, 以启动字-靶字(模糊)-探测字的呈现序列为一个测试(trial), 要求被试判断靶字和探测字是否是同一个字。两个实验除了靶字的模糊度不同外, 其他材料完全相同。结果发现, 实验1字频和语义启动间存在交互作用, 其中低频条件下无语义启动比语义启动的N400波幅更偏负, 高频条件则无这种差异; 实验2中只存在语义启动效应, 字频与语义启动间不存在交互作用; 综合两个实验的ERP结果, 模糊度、字频和语义启动三者间存在交互作用, 且高频而非低频条件下模糊度与语义间也有交互作用, 无启动条件下字频和模糊度间也存在交互作用。本研究因此支持N400的IA模型(交互激活模型), 不支持核证模型和词汇后加工理论。     

Orthographic rime priming

Three experiments are described, each using a partial priming technique in which a target word was briefly preceded by a masked trigram. The relative strength of priming effects was assessed by comparing the difference in target word naming times between unprimed and primed trials in different priming conditions. Experiment 1 replicated previous work in demonstrating stronger priming when the target word was primed by the orthographic rime than when the prime constituted otherwise comparable word-final trigrams that do not constitute orthographic rimes. Experiment 2 compared orthographic, phonological rime, and control primes. Only orthographic rime primes reliably increased target word naming speed, although the priming effect was less selective with longer prime durations. In Experiment 3 priming was observed for both orthographic rime and phonological rime primes shown for 150 msec. However, stronger priming was observed with orthographic rime primes. These experiments demonstrate that orthographic rime priming effects do not simply reflect the activation of an intact subunit of the target word articulation program.     

The locus of semantic priming in RSVP target search

At what stage does semantic priming affect accuracy in target search? In two experiments, participants viewed two streams of stimuli, each including a target word among distractors. Stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) between the targets (T1 and T2) ranged from 53 to 213 msec. A word semantically related to one or neither of the targets preceded each trial. In Experiment 1, participants were instructed to report both targets. Although more primed than unprimed targets were reported, there was no cost for unprimed words. A strong interaction between SOA and T1 versus T2 was found, but priming did not interact with either variable. In Experiment 2, only related targets were reported. Performance was similar to that for primed targets in Experiment 1. Semantic priming does not seem to modulate how attentional resources are initially allocated between targets, but instead affects a later stage of processing, the point at which a target word reaches lexical identification.     

Cue depreciation: when word fragment completion is undermined by prior exposure to lesser fragments

The ability to think of a previously studied item has often been shown to be impaired when, in one way or another, the extraitem context is changed from study to test. In a series of five experiments, such impairment is induced in a somewhat different way. A fragment (e.g. r-i--rop) of a just-studied word (raindrop) is shown to be less readily completed if it is presented bit by bit (r------p, r----r-p, r-i--r-p, r-i--rop) rather than all at once (Experiments 1, 3, 4, and 5). No such effect is found if the word has not been studied beforehand (Experiments 2, 3, 4, and 5). This pattern of results occurs even when fragments of studied and nonstudied words occur in the same test and under conditions in which subjects cannot tell whether a given fragment is of a studied or nonstudied word (Experiments 4 and 5). In addition, for words that have been studied beforehand, the impairment is shown to increase systematically with the number of steps involved in the presentation of the word fragment (Experiment 3) and also to persist when the time allowed for completion of the final version of the fragment is increased from 4 s to a full minute (Experiment 5).     

Priming index of the Spanish word fragments from the Dasí, Soler,and Ruiz (2004) database

Word-fragment completion is a frequently used test in implicit memory research. A database of 196 Spanish fragments was recently published (Dasí, Soler, & Ruiz, 2004) in which the fragments were described for indices, such as difficulty, familiarity, frequency, number of meanings, and so on (www.psychonomic.org/archive). In this work, a new index, the priming index, is described for the same 196 fragments. This index is calculated for each fragment by subtracting the difficulty index (the proportion of correct completion when the fragment is not studied) from the proportion of correct completion when the fragment is studied, and it means the capacity of an item to be primed. In order to determine whether the new index performs well, we have replicated some important experimental effects, such as priming, frequency, and difficulty. We consider that this index can help researchers to better select stimuli for fragment-completion tasks.     

Auditory Long term Memory: Repetition Priming of Voice Recognition

Two experiments examined repetition priming in the recognition of famous voices. In Experiment 1, reaction times for fame decisions to famous voice samples were shorter than in an unprimed condition, when voices were primed by a different voice sample of the same person having been presented in an earlier phase of the experiment. No effect of voice repetition was observed for non-famous voices. In Experiment 2, it was investigated whether this priming effect is voice-specific or whether it is related to post-perceptual processes in person recognition. Recognizing a famous voice was again primed by having earlier heard a different voice sample of that person. Although an earlier exposure to that person's name did not cause any priming, there was some indication of priming following an earlier exposure to that person's face. Finally, earlier exposure to the identical voice sample (as compared to a different voice sample from the same person) caused a considerable bias towards responding 'famous'-i.e. performance benefits for famous but costs for nonfamous voices. The findings suggestthat (1) repetition priming invoice recognition primarily involves the activation of perceptual representations of voices, and (2) it is important to determine the conditions in which priming causes bias effects that need to be disentangled from performance benefits.     

Unpriming: the deactivation of thoughts through expression

Unpriming is a decrease in the influence of primed knowledge following a behavior expressing that knowledge. The authors investigated strategies for unpriming the knowledge of an answer that is activated when people are asked to consider a simple question. Experiment 1 found that prior correct answering eliminated the bias people normally show toward correct responding when asked to answer yes-no questions randomly. Experiment 2 revealed that prior answering intended to be random did not unprime knowledge on subsequent attempts to answer randomly. Experiment 3 found that exposure to the correct answer did not influence the knowledge bias but that exposure to the incorrect answer increased bias. Experiment 4 revealed that merely expressing the answer for oneself was sufficient to unprime knowledge. Experiment 5 found that each item of activated knowledge needs to be unprimed specifically, in that correctly answering 1 question does not reduce the knowledge bias in randomly answering another.     

People's hypercorrection of high-confidence errors: did they know it all along?

This study investigated the "knew it all along" explanation of the hypercorrection effect. The hypercorrection effect refers to the finding that when people are given corrective feedback, errors that are committed with high confidence are easier to correct than low-confidence errors. Experiment 1 showed that people were more likely to claim that they knew it all along when they were given the answers to high-confidence errors as compared with low-confidence errors. Experiments 2 and 3 investigated whether people really did know the correct answers before being told or whether the claim in Experiment 1 was mere hindsight bias. Experiment 2 showed that (a) participants were more likely to choose the correct answer in a 2nd guess multiple-choice test when they had expressed an error with high rather than low confidence and (b) that they were more likely to generate the correct answers to high-confidence as compared with low-confidence errors after being told they were wrong and to try again. Experiment 3 showed that (c) people were more likely to produce the correct answer when given a 2-letter cue to high- rather than low-confidence errors and that (d) when feedback was scaffolded by presenting the target letters 1 by 1, people needed fewer such letter prompts to reach the correct answers when they had committed high- rather than low-confidence errors. These results converge on the conclusion that when people said that they knew it all along, they were right. This knowledge, no doubt, contributes to why they are able to correct those high-confidence errors so easily.     

Priming trait inferences through pictures and moving pictures: the impact of open and closed mindsets

A newly developed paradigm for studying spontaneous trait inferences (STI) was applied in 3 experiments. The authors primed dyadic stimulus behaviors involving a subject (S) and an object (O) person through degraded pictures or movies. An encoding task called for the verification of either a graphical feature or a semantic interpretation, which either fit or did not fit the primed behavior. Next, participants had to identify a trait word that appeared gradually behind a mask and that either matched or did not match the primed behavior. STI effects, defined as shorter identification latencies for matching than nonmatching traits, were stronger for S than for O traits, after graphical rather than semantic encoding decisions and after encoding failures. These findings can be explained by assuming that trait inferences are facilitated by open versus closed mindsets supposed to result from distracting (graphical) encoding tasks or encoding failures (involving nonfitting interpretations).     

Effects of semantic priming on visual encoding of pictures

We investigated the effects of semantic priming on initial encoding of briefly presented pictures of objects and scenes. Pictures in four experiments were presented for varying durations and were followed immediately by a mask. In Experiments 1 and 2, pictures of simple objects were either preceded or not preceded by the object's category name (e.g., dog). In Experiment 1 we measured immediate object identification; in Experiment 2 we measured delayed old/new recognition in which targets and distractors were from the same categories. In Experiment 3 naturalistic scenes were either preceded or not preceded by the scene's category name (e.g., supermarket). We measured delayed recognition in which targets and distractors were described by the same category names. In Experiments 1-3, performance was better for primed than for unprimed pictures. Experiment 4 was similar to Experiment 2 in that we measured delayed recognition for simple objects. As in Experiments 1-3, a prime that preceded the object improved subsequent memory performance for the object. However, a prime that followed the object did not affect subsequent performance. Together, these results imply that priming leads to more efficient information acquisition. We offer a picture-processing model that accounts for these results. The model's central assumption is that knowledge of a picture's category (gist) increases the rate at which visual information is acquired from the picture.     

Menstrual cycle effects on perceptual closure mediate changes in performance on a fragmented objects test of implicit memory

Healthy premenopausal women with regular menstrual cycles were assessed on a fragmented objects test of implicit memory. Testing took place at either the low estrogen (n=17) or the high estrogen (n=16) stages of the menstrual cycle. Concentrations of ovarian hormones were confirmed by saliva assays. Both groups of women exhibited a priming effect, in that primed objects were identified faster and at greater fragmentation than unprimed objects. There was no evidence that high estrogen inhibits perceptual object priming. However, women at the menstrual phase were able to identify both primed and unprimed objects at a more degraded level of fragmentation. Changes in perceptual closure over the menstrual cycle may be the basis for the changes in performance on the fragmented objects test observed in previous studies.     

The mental representation of knowledge acquired from maps

Recognition priming and distance estimation were used to investigate the mental representation of knowledge acquired from maps. In Experiment 1, recognition priming showed that cities close in route distance primed each other more than cities far in route distance, even when Euclidean distance was equated. Experiment 2 showed that this finding was robust and not an artifact of the way subjects learned the maps. Distance estimations in Experiment 1 supported the priming results. These results indicated that psychological distance in cognitive maps is primarily dependent on route distance rather than Euclidean distance.     

Effects of a Daytime Nap on Primed and Repeated Remote Associates Tests and Relations with Divergent Creativity

The effect of napping versus wakefulness was studied on primed and repeated Remote Associate Tests (RATs) and on divergent creativity tests. The participants were 42 students from the USA, studying international courses at a Swedish university. The hypotheses for the RATs were (1), when the correct answers were primed before the nap, the RAT should be solved better for those who entered REM sleep, compared to those with no REM sleep or a resting condition; and (2), when retested the RAT should be solved better after a nap than after rest. For the creativity tests, hypothesis (3) was that creativity should be higher after the nap than after rest. Hypothesis 1 and hypothesis 3 were not supported. Hypothesis 2 was supported in an ANOVA. The REM group improved more than the rest group on the repeated RAT. Also, the No-REM and rest groups differed, strengthening the importance of both REM and No-REM sleep for creative problem-solving.