Retrieval independence in successive recognition tasks

In three experiments participants studied AB word pairs and completed two recognition tests. In the first recognition test, which was included in all three experiments, the B word had to be discriminated from two distractors that did not appear on the study list. In Experiment 1, in the second recognition test, an AB target was compared with distractors composed of words not on the study list. In Experiment 2, in the second recognition test, an AB target had to be discriminated from two other pairs that were created by randomly re-pairing A and B words that appeared on the study list. In Experiment 3, on the second recognition test, words from the study list were systematically re-paired to form distractors that contained either the same A term or the same B term as the target pair. Recognition of the B word on the first test was always at least partly independent of recognition of the AB pair on the second test. Even when recognition judgements were restricted to those for which the participants were most confident, all experiments demonstrated significant retrieval independence between the two tests.     

False memories for compound words: Role of working memory

Subjects studied pairs of compound words; pair members were presented simultaneously (one above the other) for 2 sec or sequentially (one immediately following the other) for 1 sec each, and 6-sec interstimulus intervals separated the end of presentation of one pair and the start of that of another. A subsequent recognition test included within-pair and between-pair conjunction foils (recombinations of stimulus parts from the same study pair and from separate pairs, respectively). Previous experiments using faces as stimuli have demonstrated that when faces are presented simultaneously there are many more false alarms to within-pair than to between-pair conjunction items, and when faces are presented sequentially there is an equal number of false alarms in those two conditions. However, Experiment 1 showed that for compound word stimuli there were equally high false alarm rates toboth types of foils in both study conditions relative to completely new test items. Experiment 2 showed that when rehearsal of compound words was prevented, the pattern of conjunction errors was very similar to the one typically obtained for faces. In Experiment 3, subjects falsely recalled conjunctions of within-pair compound words but not conjunctions of between-pair words in the simultaneous-study condition; no conjunctions were recalled in the sequential-study condition. The results support the idea that working memory processing is necessary for binding stimulus parts together in episodic memory.     

False recognition and word length: A reanalysis of Roediger,Watson, McDermott,and Gallo (2001) and some new data

Roediger, Watson, McDermott, and Gallo (2001) reported a multiple regression analysis of the variables that predicted rates of false recall and recognition across lists in the Deese/Roediger— McDermott paradigm. They concluded that false recollection was predictable from the backward associative strength of critical words and list words and the veridical recall level of list words, with no independent contribution of frequency, concreteness, or length of critical words. A reanalysis of their data shows that critical word length does contribute to false recognition when it is measured relative to the length of other words in the list. Relative word length in the form of an unsignedz-score has a larger correlation with false recognition than any of the variables used by Roediger et al. and is also independently predictive of false recognition. This relationship was confirmed by the results of two recognition experiments in which false positives were significantly less frequent for words of lengths that never occurred in a studied list than for words of lengths that did occur in the study list.     

Recognition memory for faces: When familiarity supports associative recognition judgments

Recognition memory for single items can be dissociated from recognition memory for the associations between items. For example, recognition tests for single words produce curvilinear receiver operating characteristics (ROCs), but associative recognition tests for word pairs produce linear ROCs. These dissociations are consistent with dual-process theories of recognition and suggest that associative recognition relies on recollection but that item recognition relies on a combination of recollection and assessments of familiarity. In the present study, we examined associative recognition ROCs for facial stimuli by manipulating the central and external features, in order to determine whether linear ROCs would be observed for stimuli other than arbitrary word pairs. When the faces were presented upright, familiarity estimates were significantly above zero, and the associative ROCs were curvilinear, suggesting that familiarity contributed to associative judgments. However, presenting the faces upside down effectively eliminated the contribution of familiarity to associative recognition, and the ROCs were linear. The results suggest that familiarity can support associative recognition judgments, if the associated components are encoded as a coherent gestalt, as in upright faces.     

Social recognition memory: the effect of other people's responses for previously seen and unseen items

When people discuss their memories, what one person says can influence what another person reports. In 3 studies, participants were shown sets of stimuli and then given recognition memory tests to measure the effect of one person's response on another's. The 1st study (n = 24) used word recognition with participant-confederate pairs and found that the effect of confederate responses on participant responses was larger for previously unseen items than for previously seen items (omega(p) = .23). This finding was replicated in the 2nd study, which used photographs of cars (n = 24). In the 3rd study (n = 54), which used photographs of faces with participant pairs, the effect was also larger for unseen items. Results indicate that people rely more on other people's memories for unremembered objects than for remembered objects. This is important for both theories of memory and applications (e.g., witnesses talking, students studying together).     

Semantic-context effects on word recognition: Influence of varying the proportion of items presented in an appropriate context

Several recent experiments have shown that an appropriate semantic context facilitates word recognition. Lexical (word/nonword) decisions about a word such as "nurse" are faster when it follows a related word such as "doctor". The present experiment examines the consequence of varying the proportion of semantically related adjacent words. The effect of semantic context is found to depend on the overall proportion of related word pairs. More facilitation occurs when there is a greater proportion of related word pairs. This finding contradicts theories of word recognition which account for context effects solely by postulating transient increases in the aecessibility of only those words semantically related to the particular preceding stimuli encountered by the observer. An adequate theory must include an account of strategic or adaptive processes in which the past usefulness of contextual information modulates its influence in the word recognition process.     

Comparative difficulty and the strategic regulation of accuracy: The impact of test-list context on monitoring and meta-metacognition

A growing body of research has shown that context manipulations can have little or no impact on accuracy performance, yet still significantly influence metacognitive performance. For example, participants in a test-list context paradigm study one list of words with a medium levels-of-processing task and a second word list with either a shallow or deep task: Recognition for medium words does not differ across conditions, however medium words are significantly more likely to be labeled as “remembered” (vs. merely familiar) if they had been studied with a shallow word list (Bodner & Lindsay, 2003). The goal of the current studies was to extend the test-list context paradigm to strategic regulation (report/withhold recognition test), and broaden it to incorporate different types of stimuli (i.e., face stimuli in place of a medium word list). The paradigm also was modified to include separate answer (studied/new) confidence and decision (report/withhold) confidence ratings at test. Results showed that context did not impact recognition accuracy for faces across the context conditions, however participants were more likely to report (i.e., volunteer) their face responses if they had studied the shallow word list. The results also demonstrated a difference between answer confidence and decision confidence, and the pattern of this difference depended on whether responses were reported or withheld (Experiment 1). Overall, the data are presented as support for the functional account of memory, which views memory states as inferential and attributional rather than static categories.     

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.     

Retrieval independence between parts and wholes in successive recognition tasks

Participants studied AB word pairs and completed three recognition tests. In one recognition test each A word was presented with two distractors that did not appear on the study list. In another recognition test each B word was presented with two distractors that did not appear on the study list. In a third recognition test an AB target was presented with two distractors composed of words not on the study list. Six different groups of participants each performed the recognition tests in a different order, so that all possible orders were tested. Recognition of the A, B, and AB targets for a given study pair were independent of each other when single-word recognition preceded double-word recognition. There was almost complete independence in the reverse order. Even when recognition judgements were restricted to those for which the participants were most confident, there was independence of recognition among the three tests. A pair recognition test served as an additional study trial for the individual words; however, the reverse was not the case. All of these results were predicted by a single three-parameter mathematical model derived from the hypothesis that single-word and double-word targets had independent representations in memory.     

Retrieval independence between parts and wholes in successive recognition tasks

Participants studied AB word pairs and completed three recognition tests. In one recognition test each A word was presented with two distractors that did not appear on the study list. In another recognition test each B word was presented with two distractors that did not appear on the study list. In a third recognition test an AB target was presented with two distractors composed of words not on the study list. Six different groups of participants each performed the recognition tests in a different order, so that all possible orders were tested. Recognition of the A, B, and AB targets for a given study pair were independent of each other when single-word recognition preceded double-word recognition. There was almost complete independence in the reverse order. Even when recognition judgements were restricted to those for which the participants were most confident, there was independence of recognition among the three tests. A pair recognition test served as an additional study trial for the individual words; however, the reverse was not the case. All of these results were predicted by a single three-parameter mathematical model derived from the hypothesis that single-word and double-word targets had independent representations in memory.     

Word frequency effects in associative and item recognition

The word frequency effect (WFE) has been taken as evidence that recall and recognition are in some way fundamentally different. Consequently, most models assume that recall and recognition operate via very different retrieval mechanisms. Experiment 1 showed that the WFE reverses for associative recognition, which requires discrimination between intact test pairs and recombinations of study list words from different study pairs. Experiment 2, in which word triples were used, revealed an interaction between word frequency and test type: for item recognition, performance was better for low-frequency words; however, for associative recognition and free recall, performance was better for high-frequency words. In Experiment 3, item recognition was tested: although overall performance was better for low-frequency words, the recognition advantage for items in intact pairs was larger for high-frequency words, suggesting two components in recognition memory. These results imply common mechanisms in recall and recognition. Theoretical implications are discussed within the framework of the SAM model.     

Strong memories obscure weak memories in associative recognition

The list strength effect, in which strengthening some memories has a detrimental effect on the retrieval of other memories, has generally not been found in item recognition. The present study shows that the list strength effect does occur in associative recognition. Study materials were sets of overlapping word pairs (A-B, A-C, D-B, etc.). Within critical sets of words, strong pairs were presented three times at study, as compared with one presentation for weak pairs. In Experiment 1, associative recognition for weak pairs was less accurate than that for baseline pairs, and response times for hits were slower. In Experiment 2, receiver-operating characteristic curve data provided further evidence of poor accuracy for weak pairs. These findings support a qualitative distinction between item and associative recognition.     

Modeling the effects of verbal and nonverbal pair strength on associative recognition

Operations that improve the accuracy of associative recognition can do so in qualitatively different ways. Increasing repetitions and study time increases hit rates but has small effects on false alarm rates, and the specific patterns of false alarms are dependent on the stimuli (e.g., pairs of words, pseudowords, faces, or Chinese characters). In contrast, manipulating the type of stimuli that make up pairs produces a robust mirror effect: The hit rate is greater, and the false alarm rate is lower, for better recognized stimuli. To explain these findings, a model of single-item recognition is extended to associative recognition. Within this dual-process framework, the present results suggest that words are encoded more extensively than nonverbal stimuli and that recognition of frequently encountered stimuli (words and faces) is more likely to be based on recollection than is recognition of uncommon stimuli (pseudowords and Chinese characters).     

Semantic and subword priming during binocular suppression

In general, stimuli that are familiar and recognizable have an advantage of predominance during binocular rivalry. Recent research has demonstrated that familiar and recognizable stimuli such as upright faces and words in a native language could break interocular suppression faster than their matched controls. In this study, a visible word prime was presented binocularly then replaced by a high-contrast dynamic noise pattern presented to one eye and either a semantically related or unrelated word was introduced to the other eye. We measured how long it took for target words to break from suppression. To investigate word-parts priming, a second experiment also included word pairs that had overlapping subword fragments. Results from both experiments consistently show that semantically related words and words that shared subword fragments were faster to gain dominance compared to unrelated words, suggesting that words, even when interocularly suppressed and invisible, can benefit from semantic and subword priming.     

Lateralization of lexical codes in auditory word recognition

Three experiments examined the lateralization of lexical codes in auditory word recognition. In Experiment 1 a word rhyming with a binaurally presented cue word was detected faster when the cue and target were spelled similarly than when they were spelled differently. This orthography effect was larger when the target was presented to the right ear than when it was presented to the left ear. Experiment 2 replicated the interaction between ear of presentation and orthography effect when the cue and target were spoken in different voices. In Experiment 3, subjects made lexical decisions to pairs of stimuli presented to the left or the right ear. Lexical decision times and the amount of facilitation which obtained when the target stimuli were semantically related words did not differ as a function of ear of presentation. The results suggest that the semantic, phonological, and orthographic codes for a word are represented in each hemisphere; however, orthographic and phonological representations are integrated only in the left hemisphere.     

Pictures and words in visual search

Ss in three experiments searched through an array of pictures or words for a target item that had been presented as a picture or a word. In Experiments I and II, the pictures were line drawings of familiar objects and the words were their printed labels; in Experiment III, the stimuli were photographs of the faces of famous people and their corresponding printed names. Search times in Experiments I and II were consistently faster when the array items were pictures than when they were words, regardless of the mode of the target items. Search was also faster with pictures than with words as targets when the search array also consisted of pictures, but target mode had no consistent effect with words as array items. Experiment III yielded a completely different pattern of results: Search time with names as targets and faces as search array items was significantly slower than in the other three conditions, which did not differ from each other. Considered in relation to several theories, the results are most consistent with a dual-coding interpretation. That is, items that are cognitively represented both verbally and as nonverbal images can be searched and compared in either mode, depending on the demands of the task. The mode actually used depends on whether the search must be conducted through an array of pictures or words.     

Exploring a recognition-induced recognition decrement

Four experiments were performed to explore a recognition decrement that is associated with the recognition of a word from a short list. The stimulus material for demonstrating the phenomenon was a list of words of different syntactic types. A word from the list was recognized less well following a decision that a word of the same type had occurred in the list than following a decision that such a word had not occurred in the list. A recognition decrement did not occur for a word of a given type following a positive recognition decision to a word of a different type. A recognition decrement did not occur when the list consisted exclusively of nouns. It was concluded that the phenomenon may reflect a criterion shift but, probably, does not reflect a list strength effect, suppression, or familiarity attribution consequent to a perceived discrepancy between actual and expected fluency.     

Attentional bias for words and faces in social anxiety

Conflicting findings concerning the nature and presence of attentional bias in social anxiety and social phobia have been reported in the literature. This paper reports the findings of two studies comparing people with high and low social anxiety on dot probe tasks using words, faces photographed in front view, and faces photographed in profile as stimuli. In Study 1 those with high social anxiety displayed an attentional bias towards negative faces. The low social anxiety group showed an attentional bias towards positive faces. No significant effects were observed on the dot probe using words as stimuli. Study 2 used pairs of faces presented in profile as though looking at each other. One of the faces displayed either a positive, negative or neutral expression. The second face always had a neutral expression, and in half of the trials it was the subject's own face. The findings of this more ecologically valid procedure replicated those of Study 1. Facilitated attention to dots following emotional faces was specific to threatening facial stimuli. From these studies it appears that the facial dot probe task is a more sensitive index of attentional bias than the word task in a non-clinical sample with social anxiety.     

Information processing in reading-disabled and nondisabled children

Reading disabled and nondisabled children (13-14 years of age) were presented lists of 10 words each at different rates (one word per 1, 2, and 4 sec), and immediately after the last word of each list they recalled the words in any order. Recall of the first few words presented from each list (the primacy effect) was lower in reading-disabled than nondisabled children, and slower presentation rates increased the primacy effect in both groups. These findings suggest that reading-disabled children are not completely failing to use elaborative encoding but are using less effective elaborative encoding than nondisabled readers. With all presentation rates, recall of the last few words (the recency effect) was comparable in both groups, suggesting that older reading-disabled children encode and recognize the stimuli and that elaborative encoding is deficient in reading-disabled in spite of adequate stimulus encoding and recognition.