Automatic retrieval in directed forgetting

In two experiments, we investigated the role of automatic retrieval in directed forgetting, using a stem completion test. In each experiment, we compared the performance of an implicit group, a process dissociation procedure (PDP) group, and a group given a speeded response task. The response times of the speeded response group on the stem completion task replicated earlier data in suggesting that this group adopted a purely automatic retrieval strategy. Experiment 1 revealed a directed-forgetting effect on automatic retrieval with the item method, but Experiment 2 revealed no directed-forgetting effect on automatic retrieval with the list method, consistent with the lack of implicit effects with the list method throughout the literature. Both experiments showed lower automatic estimates for the PDP group than for the implicit and speeded response groups, which did not differ. The data are consistent with either a selective rehearsal or an inhibition account of directed forgetting with the list method. The comparison of methods for assessing automatic retrieval is consistent with earlier evidence suggesting that subjects may adopt a generate/recognize strategy when given direct retrieval instructions.     

Measuring automatic retrieval in a conceptual priming task

The speeded response technique has demonstrated that priming in perceptual memory tasks can occur through automatic retrieval that is uncontaminated by conscious retrieval (pure automatic retrieval). This work assesses whether priming in a conceptual task (category exemplar generation) can occur through pure automatic retrieval using the same technique. Automatic retrieval estimates obtained using the speeded response technique were compared to those obtained using more traditional measures (implicit memory and process dissociation procedure [PDP]). Similar estimates of automatic retrieval were obtained for speeded, implicit, and PDP groups following shallow processing. However, higher estimates of automatic retrieval were obtained following deep processing in the speeded and implicit conditions compared to the PDP condition. Advantages for using the speeded response technique to index automatic memory are discussed.     

Synchrony effects in automatic and controlled retrieval

Using a speeded retrieval procedure, we investigated time-of-day effects in automatic and controlled retrieval. Morning-type adults were tested at either peak (early morning) or off-peak (late afternoon) times on a speeded implicit (Experiment 1) or explicit (Experiment 2) stem completion task. In Experiment 1, retrieval strategies were identified by changes in response speed between a practice phase with rapid retrieval and an implicit memory test phase. Performance based on controlled retrieval (shown by slowdown participants) showed more priming at peak than at off-peak times of day, a finding confirmed in Experiment 2, in which the participants were given intentional retrieval instructions when the materials switched. In contrast, performance based on automatic retrieval (shown by nonslowdown participants) did not differ across peak and off-peak times. The finding suggests a robust synchrony effect in controlled retrieval, but not in automatic retrieval, which does not appear to vary across the day.     

Measuring automatic retrieval

A variety of procedures have been used to assess automatic retrieval effects on memory, including implicit memory tests and the process dissociation approach. Theoretical concerns with each are summarized prior to describing a procedure for evaluating automatic retrieval that is based on retrieval speed. Specifically, in a speeded implicit task, participants were encouraged to complete word stems using strictly automatic retrieval by presenting several practice test trials that did not allow responding based on previously studied items and by encouraging speed of responding. This speeded implicit task was compared with a condition in which conscious retrieval of studied information was not possible and a condition in which conscious retrieval was required, providing converging evidence to support the hypothesis that the speeded implicit procedure can yield pure estimates of automatic retrieval. Furthermore, evidence from a standard implicit memory task yielded comparable data that suggests that participants engaged automatic retrieval processes on this task also.     

Dissociating word stem completion and cued recall as a function of divided attention at retrieval

The aim of this study was to investigate the widely held, but largely untested, view that implicit memory (repetition priming) reflects an automatic form of retrieval. Specifically, in Experiment 1 we explored whether a secondary task (syllable monitoring), performed during retrieval, would disrupt performance on explicit (cued recall) and implicit (stem completion) memory tasks equally. Surprisingly, despite substantial memory and secondary costs to cued recall when performed with a syllable-monitoring task, the same manipulation had no effect on stem completion priming or on secondary task performance. In Experiment 2 we demonstrated that even when using a particularly demanding version of the stem completion task that incurred secondary task costs, the corresponding disruption to implicit memory performance was minimal. Collectively, the results are consistent with the view that implicit memory retrieval requires little or no processing capacity and is not seemingly susceptible to the effects of dividing attention at retrieval.     

Dissociating word stem completion and cued recall as a function of divided attention at retrieval

The aim of this study was to investigate the widely held, but largely untested, view that implicit memory (repetition priming) reflects an automatic form of retrieval. Specifically, in Experiment 1 we explored whether a secondary task (syllable monitoring), performed during retrieval, would disrupt performance on explicit (cued recall) and implicit (stem completion) memory tasks equally. Surprisingly, despite substantial memory and secondary costs to cued recall when performed with a syllable-monitoring task, the same manipulation had no effect on stem completion priming or on secondary task performance. In Experiment 2 we demonstrated that even when using a particularly demanding version of the stem completion task that incurred secondary task costs, the corresponding disruption to implicit memory performance was minimal. Collectively, the results are consistent with the view that implicit memory retrieval requires little or no processing capacity and is not seemingly susceptible to the effects of dividing attention at retrieval.     

The Directed Forgetting Effect in Word-fragment Completion: An Application of the Process Dissociation Procedure

In three experiments, subjects were asked to remember and forget study words. In line with previous studies, a directed forgetting effect was observed in a word-fragment completion task: Instructions to remember increased the completion of target fragments compared with instructions to forget (Experiment 1). Using the process dissociation procedure (Jacoby, 1991), it appeared that instructions to remember increased the estimates of intentional influences of memory but did not affect the estimates of automatic uses of memory (Experiments 1, 2 and 3). This suggests that directed forgetting effects in word-fragment completion reflect the surreptitious influence of explicit memory in a nominally implicit memory task. However, a meta-analysis indicated that directed forgetting instructions affected automatic and intentional influences of memory in opposite directions. This finding casts doubt on the assumption of independence between automatic and intentional uses of memory. The implications for use of the process dissociation procedure are discussed.     

Effects of divided attention on perceptual and conceptual memory tests: An analysis using a process-dissociation approach

In two experiments, the nature of the relation between attention available at learning and subsequent automatic and controlled influences of memory was explored. Participants studied word lists in full and divided encoding conditions. Memory for the word lists was then tested with a perceptually driven task (stem completion) in Experiment 1 and with a conceptually driven task (category association) in Experiment 2. For recall cued with word stems, automatic influences of memory derived using the process-dissociation procedure remained invariant across a manipulation of attention that substantially reduced conscious recollection for the learning episode. In contrast, for recall cued with category names, dividing attention at learning significantly reduced the parameter estimates representing both controlled and automatic memory processes. These findings were similar to those obtained using indirect test instructions. The results suggest that, in contrast to perceptual priming, conceptual priming may be enhanced by semantic processing, and this effect is not an artifact of contamination from conscious retrieval processes.     

Comparing techniques for estimating automatic retrieval: effects of retention interval

Results from implicit memory (IM) tasks suggest that automatic retrieval remains stable or decreases over time. In contrast, results from the process dissociation approach (PDA) suggest that automatic retrieval may actually increase over time. One explanation for these discrepant results is that performance on IM tasks is contaminated by controlled retrieval strategies, thereby overestimating automatic retrieval, particularly at short retention intervals, when controlled retrieval strategies are high. An alternative explanation is that automatic and controlled retrieval are positively correlated, rather than independent as assumed by the PDA. If so, the PDA would underestimate automatic retrieval, particularly when controlled retrieval strategies are high. Results from a speeded IM task suggest that a standard IM task provided an accurate estimate of automatic retrieval, whereas the PDA underestimated automatic retrieval at a short retention interval. This pattern of underestimation by the PDA supports the conclusion that automatic and controlled retrieval were positively correlated rather than independent.     

Level of processing and the process-dissociation procedure: Elusiveness of null effects on estimates of automatic retrieval

We describe two experiments that used the process-dissociation procedure to investigate the effects of level of processing on estimates of controlled and automatic retrieval processes in word-stem completion tasks. Despite our best endeavours, we found the null effect of level of processing on estimates of automatic retrieval reported by Toth, Reingold, and Jacoby (1994) elusive. Estimates of automatic retrieval were not independent of level of processing but inversely related to it. In part, the reason was that, following deeper levels of processing, instructions to exclude recollected words led to floor effects. But the inverse relationship persisted even when floor effects were avoided. Only participants who were not given strict instructions in the exclusion task–and who also qualified as lax responders based on answers in a structured post-test interview–showed no effect of level of processing on estimates of automatic retrieval. This null effect apparently occurred because these participants failed to exclude words that they in fact recollected from the study list. This finding violates the critical assumption that in this task participants exclude recollected words. The results are therefore paradoxical. Successful replication of the null effect occurred only under conditions that preclude the very use of the procedure. This paradox has important implications for views on how consciousness should be conceived in relation to memory.     

Automatic processing influences free recall: converging evidence from the process dissociation procedure and remember-know judgments

Dual-process theories of retrieval suggest that controlled and automatic processing contribute to memory performance. Free recall tests are often considered pure measures of recollection, assessing only the controlled process. We report two experiments demonstrating that automatic processes also influence free recall. Experiment 1 used inclusion and exclusion tasks to estimate recollection and automaticity in free recall, adopting a new variant of the process dissociation procedure. Dividing attention during study selectively reduced the recollection estimate but did not affect the automatic component. In Experiment 2, we replicated the results of Experiment 1, and subjects additionally reported remember–know–guess judgments during recall in the inclusion condition. In the latter task, dividing attention during study reduced remember judgments for studied items, but know responses were unaffected. Results from both methods indicated that free recall is partly driven by automatic processes. Thus, we conclude that retrieval in free recall tests is not driven solely by conscious recollection (or remembering) but also by automatic influences of the same sort believed to drive priming on implicit memory tests. Sometimes items come to mind without volition in free recall.     

Does survival processing enhance implicit memory?

Recent research has shown that human memory may have evolved to remember information that has been processed for the purpose of survival, more so than information that has been processed for other purposes, such as home-moving. We investigated this survival-processing advantage using both explicit and implicit memory tests. In Experiment 1, participants rated words in one of three scenarios: survival, pleasantness, and moving, followed by a timed stem-cued recall/stem-cued completion task. Items were completed more quickly in the survival scenario, as compared with the other two for the explicit task, but no differences were found across conditions in the implicit task. In Experiment 2, the implicit task was changed to concreteness judgments to encourage more conceptual processing. Again, the survival-processing advantage occurred in the explicit task (speeded item recognition), but not in the implicit task. These results suggest that a survival-processing advantage may benefit participants’ memory performance only during explicit retrieval.     

A comparison of conscious and automatic memory processes for picture and word stimuli: a process dissociation analysis

Four experiments were conducted to evaluate explanations of picture superiority effects previously found for several tasks. In a process dissociation procedure (Jacoby, 1991) with word stem completion, picture fragment completion, and category production tasks, conscious and automatic memory processes were compared for studied pictures and words with an independent retrieval model and a generate-source model. The predictions of a transfer appropriate processing account of picture superiority were tested and validated in "process pure" latent measures of conscious and unconscious, or automatic and source, memory processes. Results from both model fits verified that pictures had a conceptual (conscious/source) processing advantage over words for all tasks. The effects of perceptual (automatic/word generation) compatibility depended on task type, with pictorial tasks favoring pictures and linguistic tasks favoring words. Results show support for an explanation of the picture superiority effect that involves an interaction of encoding and retrieval processes.     

提取干扰对内隐记忆的影响

以往研究多认同内隐记忆不会受到干扰的影响,但主要集中于编码时的干扰不会影响随后的内隐记忆提取成绩,而对于提取时的干扰是否也不会影响内隐记忆成绩仍存在疑义。该文在实验1采用学习-测验范式,通过在提取阶段设置同时干扰任务进一步考察提取干扰与内隐记忆的关系,结果表明提取干扰下并未发现明显的启动效应,即提取干扰破坏了内隐记忆。为进一步探讨内隐记忆的提取干扰效应是否源于记忆与干扰刺激同时呈现所引起的知觉表征竞争,实验2改变了记忆与干扰刺激的呈现顺序,结果表明不论干扰刺激在记忆项目之前或之后呈现,启动效应均受到影响。相比之下,提取干扰对再认成绩的影响并不明显(实验3)。上述结果表明,内隐记忆的提取干扰效应是源于一般认知资源的竞争,在提取过程中任何能够产生认知资源竞争的变量设置都可能会削减内隐测验中的启动效应。     

提取干扰对知觉和概念启动的影响

通过学习—测验范式,分别以词汇判断、语义分类任务为测验,探讨提取干扰对不同识别式记忆的影响差异。结果发现,实验1验证了识别式知觉内隐记忆的提取干扰效应,实验2发现识别式概念内隐记忆在提取干扰下也明显降低;两个实验启动量联合分析发现,相比无干扰条件,概念启动比知觉启动受到提取干扰的破坏更大。上述结果说明识别式内隐记忆的提取干扰具有普遍性,提取干扰产生了不同识别式内隐记忆之间的分离,识别式概念内隐记忆更容易受到提取干扰的影响。     

Level of processing and the process-dissociation procedure: elusiveness of null effects on estimates of automatic retrieval

We describe two experiments that used the process-dissociation procedure to investigate the effects of level of processing on estimates of controlled and automatic retrieval processes in word-stem completion tasks. Despite our best endeavours, we found the null effect of level of processing on estimates of automatic retrieval reported by Toth, Reingold, and Jacoby (1994) elusive. Estimates of automatic retrieval were not independent of level of processing but inversely related to it. In part, the reason was that, following deeper levels of processing, instructions to exclude recollected words led to floor effects. But the inverse relationship persisted even when floor effects were avoided. Only participants who were not given strict instructions in the exclusion task-and who also qualified as lax responders based on answers in a structured post-test interview-showed no effect of level of processing on estimates of automatic retrieval. This null effect apparently occurred because these participants failed to exclude words that they in fact recollected from the study list. This finding violates the critical assumption that in this task participants exclude recollected words. The results are therefore paradoxical. Successful replication of the null effect occurred only under conditions that preclude the very use of the procedure. This paradox has important implications for views on how consciousness should be conceived in relation to memory.     

Musical stem completion: humming that note

This study looked at how people store and retrieve tonal music explicitly and implicitly using a production task. Participants completed an implicit task (tune stem completion) followed by an explicit task (cued recall). The tasks were identical except for the instructions at test time. They listened to tunes and were then presented with tune stems from previously heard tunes and novel tunes. For the implicit task, they were asked to sing a note they thought would come next musically. For the explicit task, they were asked to sing the note they remembered as coming next. Experiment 1 found that people correctly completed significantly more old stems than new stems. Experiment 2 investigated the characteristics of music that fuel retrieval by varying a surface feature of the tune (same timbre or different timbre) from study to test and the encoding task (semantic or nonsemantic). Although we did not find that implicit and explicit memory for music were significantly dissociated for levels of processing, we did find that surface features of music affect semanticjudgments and subsequent explicit retrieval.     

Consequences of violating the assumption of independence in the process dissociation procedure: A word fragment completion study

In three experiments that used levels of processing and study time manipulations as independent variables in a word fragment completion task, the validity of the assumption of independence between recollection and automatic influences of memory was assessed. This assumption underlies the use of the process dissociation procedure (Jacoby, 1991), a tool suggested for distinguishing the different contributions of recollection and automatic influences of memory. Overall, it appeared that semantic processing, as compared with physical processing at study, positively affected recollection but negatively affected automatic influences of memory in word fragment completion. This negative effect on the automatic influences was reduced when the available study time decreased. The incompatibility of these results with the assumption of independence between recollection and automatic influences of memory and their impact on the applicability of the process dissociation procedure are discussed.     

联想启动与知觉启动的比较研究

采用快速命名方法探讨不同加工水平对联想启动效应的影响。被试分别在深、浅加工条件下学习一系列颜色词,然后完成颜色命名和再认任务,并设立词命名任务,以比较联想启动和知觉启动的异同。结果表明,在颜色命名任务中,深、浅加工条件下均可形成对颜色词的启动效应,但浅加工条件下的再认成绩明显低于深加工,出现了联想启动和再认的分离现象。词命名表现出与颜色命名相似的结果,但它们在有意识回忆方面仍存在一定的差异,提示知觉表征系统单独并不能支持联想启动,联想启动可能是多个记忆系统共同作用的结果。     

Levels-of-processing effects on conceptual automatic memory

This study aimed to provide converging evidence for the conceptual processing effect on conceptual priming that involved automatic retrieval. Two experiments examined whether the levels-of-processing manipulation affects the conceptual priming effect in the speeded category-production task and the relation between the magnitude of conceptual priming and the level of participants’ awareness of the study–test relationship. In the implicit category-production task, participants were required to respond to the category name with the first corresponding category member to come to mind, whereas in the explicit category-cue recall task, participants were instructed to use the category name as a cue to recall the studied word. Response speed was emphasised for all participants. The results, based on response times, suggest that the implicit groups did not shift to a conscious retrieval strategy after the practice trial. The magnitude of priming was also not related to participants’ test-awareness. Furthermore, both conceptual implicit and explicit tests were sensitive to the levels-of-processing manipulation after considering the problems of both conscious contamination and diminished lexical processing. Using a purer measure of conceptual implicit memory, this study replicated the previous findings of the levels-of-processing effect on the conceptual implicit test.