False recognition and perception without awareness

Jacoby and Whitehouse (1989) demonstrated that the probability of calling new test words "old" (i.e., false recognition) is biased by context words. When context words were briefly exposed and subjects were not informed of their presence, new words were called "old" more often if the context and test words were identical than if the context and test words were different. When the context words were presented at longer exposure durations and subjects were informed of their presence, the opposite pattern of results occurred. In Experiment 1, we replicated the critical qualitative difference across conditions reported by Jacoby and Whitehouse. In addition, the combined results of Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrated that the exposure duration of the context words, and not the instructions to the subjects, is the primary factor determining which pattern of false recognition occurs. However, in contrast with the findings of Jacoby and Whitehouse, both patterns of false recognition were associated with significant recognition memory for the context words. The latter finding presents problems for any interpretation of false recognition, which implies that the briefly exposed context words are perceived without awareness.     

Distinctive encoding reduces the Jacoby—Whitehouse illusion

We investigated the influence of distinctive encoding on the Jacoby and Whitehouse (1989) illusion. Subjects studied visually presented words that were associated with either an auditory presentation of the same word (nondistinctive encoding) or a picture of the object (distinctive encoding). In both conditions, words were visually presented on the recognition test, and half were preceded by brief repetition primes. Priming test items increased hits and false alarms in the auditory condition, demonstrating the Jacoby-Whitehouse illusion. This illusion was reduced in the picture condition. In order to test whether this distinctiveness effect was caused by a recollection-based response strategy (i.e., the distinctiveness heuristic), we minimized recollection-based responding by having subjects make speeded recognition decisions. Contrary to the distinctiveness heuristic hypothesis, speeded responding did not eliminate the distinctiveness effect on the Jacoby-Whitehouse illusion. Picture encoding may reduce this illusion via a shift in preretrieval orientation, as opposed to a postretrieval editing process.     

On the immunity of perceptual implicit memory to manipulations of attention

In four experiments, we examined the effect of manipulating study phase attention in a Stroop task on the extent of repetition priming in the lexical decision task (LDT). Experiment 1 replicated the immunity of the LDT to division of attention reported by Szymanski and MacLeod (1996), using a standard Stroop configuration. Response times to previously encountered words were identical regardless of whether the participants were required to read the words or name the color in which they were presented. Experiment 2 demonstrated that implementing the Stroop manipulation across separate visual objects reduced but did not eliminate priming of unattended words, provided the words remained in the attended region of the stimulus display. When this constraint was removed in Experiment 3, priming of unattended words disappeared. Experiment 4 demonstrated statistically equivalent priming for attended and unattended words when the Stroop manipulation remained in the same visual object but attention was directed to a single letter of the word. In all four experiments, the Stroop manipulation had a clear effect on recognition. These results qualify claims that the LDT might be immune to manipulations of study phase attention and suggest that the LDT has a lower threshold level of attention at encoding than do other standard implicit tests of memory.     

Creating Illusions of Past Encounter Through Brief Exposure

ABSTRACT— Titchener (1928) suggested that briefly glancing at a scene could make it appear strangely familiar when it was fully processed moments later. The closest laboratory demonstration used words as stimuli, and showed that briefly glancing at a to-be-judged word increased the subject's belief that it had been presented in an earlier study list ( Jacoby & Whitehouse, 1989 ). We evaluated whether a hasty glance could elicit a false belief in a prior encounter, from a time and place outside of the experiment. This goal precluded using word stimuli, so we had subjects evaluate unfamiliar symbols. Each symbol was preceded by a brief exposure to an identical symbol, a different symbol, or no symbol. A brief glance at an identical symbol increased attributions to preexperimental experience, relative to a glance at a different symbol or no symbol, providing a possible mechanism for common illusions of false recognition.     

Judgment heuristics and recognition memory: Prime identification and target-processing fluency

In three experiments, the effect of identification of a briefly presented word (prime) on a subsequent recognition response to that word (target) was investigated. Theories of current processing fluency (e.g., Jacoby & Whitehouse, 1989) suggest that prime identification should reduce P(old) relative to prime misidentification because awareness of the prime provides a source to which to attribute target fluency, rendering attributions to prior presentation less likely. However, counter to these predictions, Experiment 1 demonstrated that prime identification increased P(old) relative to misidentified primes. It is hypothesized that this reversed effect was due to participants' using a heuristic that related prime identification success to prior presentation but was not based on current processing fluency. In Experiment 2, participants were induced to avoid using this heuristic by making an alternate source for prime identification success (display duration) highly available. Under these circumstances, prime identification reduced P(old) relative to prime misidentification, suggesting that participants now relied on current processing fluency rather than on prime identification success. Experiment 3 replicated the results of Experiments 1 and 2, but with fixed rather than variable prime displays.     

Attending to the distractor and old/new discriminations in negative priming

When participants ignore an irrelevant distractor they typically show impaired responding to that item if it becomes the relevant stimulus on a subsequent trial. In Experiment 1 (N = 64), a masked white colour name was presented briefly before a Stroop display. Negative priming in colour naming occurred when the colour of the lettering for the Stroop stimulus matched the colour name displayed in the first display, consistent with the proposal of temporal discrimination theory that negative priming arises because a recurrence of an unattended stimulus cannot readily be classified as old or new. Experiment 2 (N = 32) replicated negative priming in the interleaved-word display where participants had to name the red word from a pair of red and green words. In Experiment 3 (N = 32) and Experiment 4 (N = 28) the participants were required to attend to but not respond to the words in the prime display and name one of two interleaved words in the probe display. Negative priming was observed in this arrangement, consistent with the episodic retrieval theory of negative priming. The temporal discrimination model may need to be extended to situations in which the attended stimuli have different responses attached to them.     

The word frequency effect in recognition memory versus repetition priming

The role of word frequency in recognition memory and repetition priming was investigated by using a manipulation of attention. In Experiment 1, the lexical decision task produced greater repetition priming for low-frequency words than for high-frequency words following either the attended or the unattended study condition. The recognition memory test, on the other hand, showed a low-frequency word advantage only following the attended study condition. Furthermore, this advantage was limited to the measure of recognition memory based on conscious recollection of the study episode. In Experiment 2, a speeded recognition memory test replicated the pattern obtained with the unspeeded recognition memory test in Experiment 1. These results argue against the view that the word frequency effects in recognition memory and repetition priming have the same origin. Instead, the results suggest that the word frequency effect in recognition memory has its locus in conscious recollection.     

The processing of affectively valenced stimuli: The role of surprise

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that the surprise mechanism activates a threat detection system that prioritises the processing of threat-related stimuli. In Experiment 1, participants responded to a dot that appeared during the presentation of two words. In the critical trial, one of the two words was either pleasant or unpleasant. In Experiment 2, depending on the condition, the participants had to decide whether at least one of two simultaneously presented pictures depicted either a pleasant or an unpleasant stimulus. In the critical trial, both a pleasant and an unpleasant picture appeared. In both experiments, the stimuli in the critical trial were presented either during routine behaviour or in the context of a surprising event. The results showed that during routine behaviour unpleasant stimuli received more attentive resources than pleasant stimuli only if the affective valence of the stimuli was action-relevant (Experiment 2). In contrast, in the context of surprise, unpleasant words engaged more attentive resources than pleasant words although they were action-irrelevant (Experiment 1). In addition, in the context of surprise, the decision time increase was more pronounced in the pleasant than in the unpleasant experimental group. This finding was interpreted as evidence that the threat detection system of the surprise mechanism initially searches for a threat-related stimulus.     

范畴变量对虚假记忆的影响

以中文词为材料,考察范畴样例重复,样例熟悉性、典型性和范畴大小对虚假再认的影响。实验1表明,随着范畴样例增加,虚假再认也增加。实验2表明,对高熟悉的样例虚假再认多。实验3表明,对高典型样例更易虚假再认。实验4表明,和大范畴样例比,对小范畴样例有更多的虚假再认。整个结果可以用激活扩散理论统一地加以解释     

The effect of divided attention on false memory depends on how memory is tested

In three experiments, we investigated the effects of divided attention on false memory, using the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants studied six DRM lists with full attention and six in one of two divided-attention conditions (random number generation or digit monitoring). Both divided-attention conditions increased false recall of related words (Experiment 1) but reduced false recognition (Experiment 2). These results were confirmed in Experiment 3, in which the type of secondary task was manipulated within groups. We argue that the increase in false recall with divided attention reflects a change in participants' response criterion, whereas the decrease in false recognition occurs because the secondary tasks prevent participants from generating associates of the words presented at study.     

Effects of spatially directed attention on visual encoding

The purpose in this study was to distinguish among possible mechanisms by which focused attention facilitates visual perceptual processing in a cued discrimination task. In two experiments, subjects verified the presence of an X in masked, briefly presented, four-letter arrays. On most trials, subjects were precued to the location of the stimulus array (valid-cue condition); however, sometimes a nonstimulus location was cued (invalid-cue condition). The exposure duration of the stimulus array was varied. In Experiment 1, there was a large effect of cue condition on hit probability, but no effect of cue condition on false alarm probability. In Experiment 2, there was a large effect of cue condition on d'. In both experiments, the stimulus duration needed to reach any given performance level was greater by a constant factor for stimuli in the invalid-cue than it was in the valid-cue condition. This suggests that visual information is acquired (or utilized) more rapidly from attended than from unattended locations.     

Test-induced priming impairs source monitoring accuracy in the DRM procedure

Three experiments investigated the effects of test-induced priming (TIP) on false recognition in the Deese/Roediger-McDermott procedure (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995). In Experiment 1, TIP significantly increased false recognition for participants who made old/new decisions at test but not for participants who made remember/know judgments or were given diagnostic information to help them avoid false recognition. In Experiment 2, a TIP effect was observed with old/new recognition but not when participants were required to remember whether study items were spoken by a male or a female speaker. In Experiment 3, false recognition increased when critical lures were preceded by 10 studied items but not when preceded by 5 studied and 5 unstudied items from the same list. These findings suggest that TIP increases false recognition by disrupting source monitoring processes.     

Dynamics of thematic activation in recognition testing

Two experiments investigated the effects of spreading semantic activation during a recognition test. In Experiment 1, activation spreading during testing from words that were thematic associates of unstudied critical words yielded a linear increase in false alarms to such critical words as the number of tested associates increased, regardless of whether the theme appeared during study or whether any thematic processing occurred during study at all. In Experiment 2, the number of tested associates was held constant, and false alarms to critical words from unstudied themes increased linearly with the strength of association between the critical word and its tested associates, consistent with predictions of spreading-activation theory. For studied themes, however, testing weaker or stronger associates yielded similar rates of such false alarms, contrary to spreading-activation theory. These results suggest that test-induced thematic priming is driven by spreading activation for unstudied themes but by thematic reactivation for studied themes.     

The homophone effect in semantic access tasks using kanji words: Its relation to the articulatory suppression effect

The present study examined whether articulatory suppression influences homophone effects in semantic access tasks using Japanese kanji words. In Experiment 1, participants were required to decide whether visually presented word pairs were synonyms. This experiment replicated the homophone effect observed in previous research that showed more false positive errors in response to nonsynonym homophone pairs than to controls. The present study found that this homophone effect was also obtained under an articulatory suppression condition. In Experiment 2, participants performed a semantic decision task, in which they had to judge whether a visually presented target word was an exemplar of a definition that was shown immediately before presentation of the target word. The homophone effect observed in previous studies was replicated—that is, longer response times and more false positive errors were associated with homophones of correct exemplars than with nonhomophone control words. This homophone effect was also obtained under an articulatory suppression conditions. These results suggest that the phonological processing that produces the homophone effects in semantic access tasks using Japanese kanji words does not include articulatory mechanisms.     

The homophone effect in semantic access tasks using kanji words: its relation to the articulatory suppression effect

The present study examined whether articulatory suppression influences homophone effects in semantic access tasks using Japanese kanji words. In Experiment 1, participants were required to decide whether visually presented word pairs were synonyms. This experiment replicated the homophone effect observed in previous research that showed more false positive errors in response to nonsynonym homophone pairs than to controls. The present study found that this homophone effect was also obtained under an articulatory suppression condition. In Experiment 2, participants performed a semantic decision task, in which they had to judge whether a visually presented target word was an exemplar of a definition that was shown immediately before presentation of the target word. The homophone effect observed in previous studies was replicated--that is, longer response times and more false positive errors were associated with homophones of correct exemplars than with nonhomophone control words. This homophone effect was also obtained under an articulatory suppression conditions. These results suggest that the phonological processing that produces the homophone effects in semantic access tasks using Japanese kanji words does not include articulatory mechanisms.     

Influences of temporal factors on memory conjunction errors

Subjects viewed a series of faces presented two at a time for 16 seconds. Following either a 15‐minute (Experiment 1) or 24‐hour (Experiment 2) retention interval they received a recognition test that included old faces as well as faces constructed by recombining features from simultaneously presented study faces (simultaneous‐conjunction condition), faces from successive pairs (near‐conjunction condition), and faces that were two pairs apart (far‐conjunction condition). In Experiment 1, false alarm rates decreased as the temporal distance between the relevant study faces increased. In Experiment 2, the false alarm rate in the simultaneous‐conjunction condition was equal to the hit rate for old faces, and the false alarm rates for the other conditions was much lower. There was no effect of serial position during the study phase on the likelihood that parts of a face would later be miscombined to produce a recognition error in either experiment. The results suggest that witnesses to a crime are more likely to miscombine features of a to‐be‐remembered stimulus with those of another stimulus that was simultaneously present at the crime scene than with those of a stimulus encountered either earlier or later, especially when the test is delayed. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Forgetting is effortful: Evidence from reaction time probes in an item-method directed forgetting task

Reaction time (RT) was measured in response to visual detection probes embedded within an item-method directed forgetting paradigm. In Experiment 1, study words were presented individually followed by an instruction to remember (R) or forget (F). Probes were presented at stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) of 1,400, 1,800, or 2,600 msec in relation to the study word or memory instruction. After the study trials, a yes-no recognition task measured retention of R and F words. Experiment 2 added a no-word control condition and no-probe catch trials. In both experiments, post-F probe RTs were longer than post-R probe RTs at early SOAs. Confirming that participants attended to the memory instructions, there was a significant directed forgetting effect, with greater recognition of R than of F words. These findings contradict the view that directed forgetting in the item-method paradigm is due to the passive decay of nonrehearsed F items; instead, they are consistent with the view that intentional forgetting in an item-method paradigm occurs via the operation of an active, potentially inhibitory, cognitive process.     

项目特异性加工和关系加工对非熟练中-英双语者跨语言错误记忆的影响

采用DRM范式进行跨语言错误记忆的研究较为鲜见, 而且得出了许多不同的结果, 关于错误记忆跨语言产生的理论解释也是各执己见。研究以非熟练中-英双语大学生为被试, 采用DRM范式对非熟练中-英双语者的跨语言错误记忆进行了研究。在2个实验中, 分别探讨了项目特异性加工和关系加工条件下, 语义激活的不同水平对跨语言错误记忆的影响。结果发现：1)非熟练中-英双语者也存在跨语言的错误记忆; 2)在项目特异性加工和关系加工条件下, 相同语言内与不同语言间发生关键诱词的错误再认的结果是不同的; 3)只在项目特异性加工条件下, 长词表比短词表会诱发更多的对关键诱词的错误再认。研究结果支持了激活-监测理论。     

Generalizing linguistic structures under high attention demands

We explored whether the generalization of rules based on simple structures depends on attention. Participants were exposed to a stream of artificial words that followed a simple syllabic structure (ABA or AAB), overlaid on a sequence of familiar noises. After passively listening, participants successfully recognized the individual words present in the stream among foils, and they were able to generalize the underlying word structure to new exemplars. Yet, when attention was diverted from the speech stream (by requiring participants to monitor the sequence of noises), recognition of the individual words fell dramatically irrespective of word structure, whereas generalization depended on stimulus structure. For structures based on vowel repetitions across nonadjacent syllables (ABA; Experiment 1), generalization was affected by attention. In contrast, for structures based on adjacent repetitions (AAB; Experiment 2), generalization capacity was unaffected by attention. This pattern of results was replicated under favorable conditions for generalization, such as increased token variability and the implementation of the rule over whole syllables (Experiments 3 and 4). These results suggest a differential effect of attention on rule learning and generalization depending on stimulus structure.     

The positivity proportion effect: A list context effect in masked affective priming

In the evaluative decision task, participants decide whether target words denote something positive or negative. Positive and negative prime words are known to engender so-called affective priming effects in this task. Primes were sandwich masked, and the proportion of positive to negative target words was manipulated. In Experiment 1, prime valence and positivity proportion interacted, so that primes of the less frequently presented target valence caused larger priming effects. Experiment 2 rendered an explanation of this interaction in terms of response bias unlikely, Experiment 3 ruled out a peripheral locus of the effect, and Experiment 4 ruled out an account in terms of stimulus repetition. The effect is explained by means of an attentional bias favoring the rare kind of valence.