Labeling effects on memory for nonsense pictures

It has been shown that labeling nonsense pictures improves memory for them, but how the label takes effect is uncertain. In this study subjects viewed nonsense pictures with or without labels; in the former case, the labels were either meaningful or nonmeaningful with respect to the pictures. Then the subjects took part in a free recall test, followed by recall in the presence of cues. Only the meaningful labels facilitated free recall of the pictures, but both types of labels facilitated cued recall. The results suggest that a meaningful label affects picture encoding by providing a conceptual interpretation for the picture; a nonmeaningful label, in contrast, appears to provide only an ad hoc associative cue.     

Extraversion,Neuroticism, and Face-Name Learning

Previous research has attempted to relate personality traits to paired-associate learning. We tested name recall as a function of extraversion and neuroticism (as assessed by the Eysenck Personality Inventory) and task difficulty. Face photographs were paired with one of three levels of information: names only (an easy task); names and occupations; or names, occupations, and interests (a difficult task). On the easy and difficult tasks, extraverted subjects recalled more names than did subjects scoring at the median or below on that trait. Contrary to expectations, subjects scoring high on neuroticism recalled more names than did subjects scoring low on that trait. Neither trait was significantly related to recall on the moderately difficult task. There was no interaction between traits for name recall, but there was for interests: Neurotic introverts were significantly impaired at recalling interests, whereas the other subjects recalled interests better than names. These findings thus differ from those of paired-associate learning tasks using words and nonsense syllables.     

Self-monitoring and humor production1

According to reviews by Goodchilds (1972) and Lieberman (1977) of research on humor, the least studied component of the humorous event is the humorous person. Results of two studies investigating the relation between individual differences in self-monitoring and humor production are reported. In the first study, subjects completed a self-report measure of humorousness, captioned as many cartoons as possible within five minutes, and performed a three-minute monologue. The second study involved a group-discussion task. As predicted, high self-monitors compared to low self-monitors rated themselves as more humorous, generated more humorous cartoon captions, produced more humorous monologues, and were nominated by group participants as having made more witty remarks. The humorousness of the high self-monitors was discussed in terms of control of affective display and mastery of interpersonal skills required to initiate and maintain social interaction.     

Recognition with and without identification: dissociative effects of meaningful encoding

In a series of four experiments, the effects of levels of processing and generation on the recognition of identified versus unidentified word fragments were examined. After studying a list of words, participants took a word fragment completion test in which half of the fragments came from studied words and half came from nonstudied words. Regardless of whether they could complete a given fragment, the participants were asked to rate the likelihood that it came from a studied word. Recognition of identified fragments was best whenever the focus of the encoding task was on meaning. Recognition of unidentified fragments did not benefit from meaningful encoding in any of the experiments reported here but did benefit from generation. It is suggested that whereas recognition with identification involves the use of meaning, recognition without identification involves the use of abstract orthographic information in memory.     

Dual coding versus relational processing in memory for concrete and abstract words

In two experiments, participants judged whether nouns fitted particular sentence frames and then received an unanticipated recall test with the sentence frames as cues. Concrete nouns were better recalled than abstract nouns, and nouns presented in meaningful sentence frames were better recalled than nouns presented in anomalous sentence frames. In Experiment 2, performance in a test of free recall was positively related to the concreteness of the nouns but unrelated to the meaningfulness of the sentence frames. The increase in performance from free recall to cued recall was positively related to the meaningfulness of the sentence frames but not significantly related to the concreteness of the nouns. The effects of concreteness and meaningfulness showed no sign of any interaction either in their effects on recall performance or in their effects on the advantage of cued recall over free recall. These results are consistent with the dual-coding theory of imagery and verbal processes but are not consistent with either of two different interpretations of the relational-distinctiveness processing theory.     

Semantic processing and organization in free recall

It was hypothesized that both semantic processing and organizational activity are necessary for optimal free recall performance. In a series of three experiments, subjects were presented with a list of randomly selected nouns and were asked to make up a meaningful sentence for each noun. The subjects also rated the difficulty of using each noun. The subjects were instructed to try to remember words that were labeled "remember" words. For words that were labeled "story" words, the subjects were instructed only to make each sentence, using the word, part of an ongoing story which each subject was to make up. A test of retention for all presented words, using retention intervals of both 1 min and 24 h, showed that the story words were always recalled better than were the remember words. However, the amount of sequential organization was the same for both the story and the remember words. Recognition performance was found to be the same for both types of words. In addition, the story words were rated as being more difficult than the remember words. It was concluded that extensive semantic processing without organization is not sufficient for optimal recall.     

Who’s funny: Gender stereotypes,humor production,and memory bias

It has often been asserted, by both men and women, that men are funnier. We explored two possible explanations for such a view, first testing whether men, when instructed to be as funny as possible, write funnier cartoon captions than do women, and second examining whether there is a tendency to falsely remember funny things as having been produced by men. A total of 32 participants, half from each gender, wrote captions for 20 cartoons. Raters then indicated the humor success of these captions. Raters of both genders found the captions written by males funnier, though this preference was significantly stronger among the male raters. In the second experiment, male and female participants were presented with the funniest and least funny captions from the first experiment, along with the caption author’s gender. On a memory test, both females and males disproportionately misattributed the humorous captions to males and the nonhumorous captions to females. Men might think men are funnier because they actually find them so, but though women rated the captions written by males slightly higher, our data suggest that they may regard men as funnier more because they falsely attribute funny things to them.     

The use of hand gestures as self-generated cues for recall of verbally associated targets

This study examined the effects of hand gestures as cues for recall of 40 previously described abstract and concrete words. Participants were either self-cued (SC) with their own self-generated gestures, other-cued (OC) with someone else's gestures, or shown no cues (NC). The SC group had significantly better recall for both word types than either the OC or NC immediately and at a 2-week retrieval interval. Results also showed that when the SC group produced a meaningful gesture, concrete words were cued significantly more often than abstract words, but when total recall (cued and residual) was considered, abstract words were recalled equally well. These results are discussed in the context that hand gestures are a component of subjective organization and are thus distinctive cues for the producer that may facilitate or prime recall.     

Short-term serial tactual recall: effects of grouping on tactually probed recall of Braille letters and nonsense shapes by blind children

The study tested the hypothesis that grouping has adverse effects on the recall of tactual shapes but facilitates the recall of tactual letters on the assumption that this depends on different processes. A further question was the relation of grouping to letter recall span (set-size). Tactually probed recall of tactually presented serial nonsense and letter shapes by blind children was tested under grouped and ungrouped conditions. Results showed a highly significant interaction between list type and grouping, and a (smaller) higher order interaction between set size list type and grouping, in the predicted directions. Grouping had adverse effects on nonsense shape recall. Letter recall was better and was facilitated by grouping, except by subjects with poor letter recall spans who were also slow at letter naming. Mental and chronological age were associated with higher scores, but unlike set size, did not relate differentially to letter grouping. It was argued that the form of coding is a factor in determining the nature of processing and in recall efficiency.     

Recall of concrete and abstract sentences in bilinguals

Sixty-one subjects with differing degrees of bilingualism were placed in two groups according to reaction time measures and self-ratings: one group dominant in German with Swedish as the weaker language, and one group balanced in skills. The subjects performed a recall task on 60 concrete and abstract sentences under normal conditions and during exposure to background noise. The results provide evidence that recall of sentences is a clear index of language dominance and that recall of abstract sentences provides the most revealing measure of dominance and balance. Comparisons of the two groups showed that the dominant group recalled significantly more in their dominant language than did the balanced group in that language. The most frequent error was the substitution of synonyms. It occurred most frequently in the balanced group. Some of the factors which contribute to the group differences were discussed and the results were interpreted in terms of current theories of recall.     

Creating number semantics through finger movement perception

Communication, language and conceptual knowledge related to concrete objects may rely on the sensory–motor systems from which they emerge. How abstract concepts can emerge from these systems is however still unknown. Here we report a functional interaction between a specific meaningful finger movement, such as a finger grip closing, and a concept as abstract as numerical magnitude. Participants were presented with Arabic digits to recall before or after they perceived a biological or non-biological hand movement. The results show that perceiving a grip closing slows down the processing of large magnitude numbers. Importantly, we show that this motor-to-semantic interaction differs from the reverse semantic-to-motor interaction, and that it does not result from a general movement amplitude processing as it is only observed for biological hand movements. These results demonstrate the functional link between number meaning and goal-directed finger movements, and show how abstract concept semantics can emerge from the sensory–motor circuits of the brain.     

Effects of short-term retrieval on adult age differences in long-term recall of actions.

In Experiment 1 young and elderly subjects either recalled or repeated after every block of 4 actions, whereas control subjects received neither interpolated short-term recall nor action repetition. On a later long-term memory test, experimental subjects, regardless of age or condition, recalled slightly more actions than control subjects. In Experiment 2 young adult and elderly subjects received 12 short-term memory trials in which 2 actions were performed on each trial, but only 1 was cued for recall after a brief retention interval filled with a distracting activity. On a later long-term memory test for the actions performed on the short-term trials, both young and elderly subjects recalled significantly more previously cued than noncued actions. The Age X Cuing Condition interaction was negligible. Prior retrieval of actions appears to enhance later recall regardless of age but seemingly only when prior retrieval requires considerable cognitive effort (as in Experiment 2).     

Manipulating the word frequency effect in free recall

A recall advantage for common words was not evidenced when subjects generated or rated the list words on the basis of commonness and on a semantic, phonological, or orthographic basis prior to recall. Recall of the same set of words following only structural judgments of the words resulted in the usual recall advantage for common words. Results were not consistent with interpretations based only on the associative strengths of the recalled items. A process based on categorization of the words to be recalled was suggested as an alternative explanation.