不同情境转换对重复学习条件下类别-例词回忆的影响

为了考察重复学习条件下内部心境转换和外部情境转换对类别-例词回忆的影响,本研究参考提取练习范式,进行了两个实验。实验1选取96名被试,在初始学习与重复学习阶段之间通过指导语操纵被试维持初始学习时的心境,或转换为合作心境,或转换为竞争心境;实验2选取64名被试,被试在不同外部情境中进行初始学习和重复学习,测试时或处于初始学习的情境,或处于重复学习的情境。回忆测验的结果显示:与未经历重复学习的基线词相比,同类别重学的例词回忆率高于基线词,表现出促进现象;当发生内部心境转换,或发生外部情境转换且在重复学习的情境测试时,同类别中未重学例词的回忆率低于基线词,表现出削弱现象;当发生外部情境转换但在初始学习情境测试时,同类别未重学例词的回忆却高于基线词。可采用联结凸显-曝光-线索扩展性的三维度观点解释这一结果。     

Effective list length and part-whole transfer in first-graders' multitrial free recall

First-gradens' multitrial free recall shows an effective list-length (ELL) effect: an initial recall gain followed by a constant output level that fluctuates in item content. The part-whole transfer paradigm was used to investigate ELL. The ELL effect occurred in whole-list learning regardless of whether the prior task consisted of relevant practice, irrelevant practice, or an unrelated task. Relevant part-list learning resulted in positive transfer which declined from a high to a marginal level over the course of whole-list learning. Other analyses indicated a general deficit in the use of strategies. A response-strength model was used to explain the ELL effect and the transfer results.     

Initial-retrieval “depth” and the negative recency effect

A novel variation of the probed recall, negative recency paradigm was employed to test the general hypothesis that the amount of learning from an initial recall test is a function of the level of processing used during initial retrieval, and to test specific predictions concerning the role of initial tests in the production and elimination of the negative recency effect. On each of 32 trials, 32 subjects each saw four words followed by a search-mode signal and a probe word. The level of initial retrieval processing (acoustic or semantic) was controlled by the search-mode signal. Initial test response latencies were recorded, and the learning derived from initial tests was assessed by an unexpected final free recall test. Final recall of words initially retrieved in the semantic-search condition showed no negative recency, while final recall of words initially retrieved in the acoustic-search condition did show negative recency. Conditional analyses showed that memory was incremented more by semantic-level initial retrieval than by acoustic-level initial retrieval. Implications of these results for an explanation of negative recency effects and for other learning-from-tests effects are discussed.     

Illusions of competence and overestimation of associative memory for identical items: Evidence from judgments of learning

The relation between subjects’ predicted and actual memory performance is a central issue in the domain of metacognition. In the present study, we examined the influence of item similarity and associative strength on judgments of learning (JOLs) in a cued recall task. We hypothesized that encoding fluency would cause a foresight bias, so that subjects would overestimate recall of identical pairs (scale-scale), as compared with strong associates (weight-scale) or unrelated pairs (mask-scale). In Experiment 1, JOLs for identical word pairs were higher than those for related and unrelated pairs, but later recall of identical pairs was lower than recall of related pairs. In Experiment 2, the effect of encoding fluency (inferred from self-paced study time) was examined, and a similar pattern of results was obtained, with subjects spending the least amount of time studying identical pairs. We conclude that overconfidence for identical pairs reflects an assessment of item similarity when JOLs are made, despite associative strength being a better predictor of later retrieval.     

Memory loss versus memory distortion: The role of encoding and retrieval deficits in Korsakoff patients’ false memories

Recent studies with the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm have revealed that Korsakoff patients show reduced levels of false recognition and different patterns of false recall compared to controls. The present experiment examined whether this could be attributed to an encoding deficit, or rather to problems with explicitly retrieving thematic information at test. In a variation on the DRM paradigm, both patients and controls were presented with associative as well as categorised word lists, with the order of recall and recognition tests manipulated between-subjects. The results point to an important role for the automatic/controlled retrieval distinction: Korsakoff patients’ false memory was only diminished compared to controls’ when automatic or short-term memory processes could not be used to fulfil the task at hand. Hence, the patients’ explicit retrieval deficit appears to be crucial in explaining past and present data. Results are discussed in terms of fuzzy-trace and activation-monitoring theories.     

Attention to important versus trivial tasks and salience of fatigue-related symptoms for coronary prone individuals

The present study tested the hypothesis that individuals with the Type A coronary prone behavior pattern focus their attention more on important tasks, and less on trivial tasks than do Type B's. The study used a paradigm in which some subjects worked on math problems (important task) and rated intervening mood items (trivial task), whereas others rated mood items they were to memorize (important task) and worked on intervening math problems (trivial task). All subjects were later tested on recall of mood items. Results indicated that Type A's performed better on math problems and recalled more fatigue-related mood items when the task was important than when it was trivial; for Type B subjects, there was no difference in the number of math problems solved correctly or number of mood items recalled between important and trivial task conditions. Moreover, Type A's reported greater fatigue when mood recall was the important task than when math was the important task, whereas fatigue ratings of Type B's did not differ across these conditions. The findings suggest that Type A's suppress their attention to fatigue-related symptoms only when symptoms are not the objects of focus.     

Effects of concreteness and semantic relatedness on composite imagery ratings and cued recall

Day and Bellezza (1983) rejected a dual coding imagery explanation for the superior recall of concrete words because unrelated concrete pairs were rated lower in composite imagery but were still remembered better than related abstract pairs. We show that dual coding theory explains their results and our new findings using the same paradigm. In Experiment 1, 120 subjects rated imagery or relatedness for 108 pairs that varied in concreteness, pair relatedness, and associative strength. Incidental cued recall followed. Relatedness and strength affected imagery ratings, as did concreteness, and very low relatedness partly accounted for the low composite imagery ratings for unrelated concrete pairs. Concreteness and relatedness also affected recall, and suporior recall for unrelated concrete pairs occurred consistently under imagery but not under relatedness instructions. In Experiment 2, 40 subjects rated imagery value and recalled 24 pairs. Subsequent questioning indicated that composite images were retrieved better given stimuli from unrelated concrete than from related abstract pairs. These findings and Day and Bellezza’s original results are explained in terms of (1) imaginal and verbal associative processes, which jointly influence composite imagery ratings and recall, and (2) the critical role of stimulus concreteness during image retrieval and recall (i.e., the conceptual peg hypothesis).     

Proactive effects of memory in young and older adults: The role of change recollection

Age-related deficits in episodic memory are sometimes attributed to older adults being more susceptible to proactive interference. These deficits have been explained by impaired abilities to inhibit competing information and to recollect target information. In the present article, I propose that a change recollection deficit also contributes to age differences in proactive interference. Change recollection occurs when individuals can remember how information changed across episodes, and this counteracts proactive interference by preserving the temporal order of information. Three experiments were conducted to determine whether older adults are less likely to counteract proactive interference by recollecting change. Paired-associate learning paradigms with two lists of word pairs included pairs that repeated across lists, pairs that only appeared in List 2 (control items), and pairs with cues that repeated and responses that changed across lists. Young and older adults’ abilities to detect changed pairs in List 2 and to later recollect those changes at test were measured, along with cued recall of the List 2 responses and confidence in recall performance. Change recollection produced proactive facilitation in the recall of changed pairs, whereas the failure to recollect change resulted in proactive interference. Confidence judgments were sensitive to these effects. The critical finding was that older adults recollected change less than did young adults, and this partially explained older adults’ greater susceptibility to proactive interference. These findings have theoretical implications, showing that a change recollection deficit contributes to age-related deficits in episodic memory.     

The effect of divided attention on global judgment of learning accuracy

This study examined the effect of divided attention (DA) on global judgment of learning (JOL) accuracy in a multitrial list learning paradigm. A word monitoring task was used to divide attention. Participants were assigned to an attention condition (DA at encoding, DA at judgment, DA at retrieval, or focused attention) and completed 4 learning trials, each comprising a study, judgment, and recall phase. Participants showed greater overconfidence in the DA at encoding (Trial 2) and DA at retrieval (Trials 1 and 2) conditions than in the focused attention condition. DA atjudgment did not affect JOL accuracy, and there was no effect of DA in Trials 3 and 4 on JOL accuracy across all attention conditions. Results indicate that participants consider conditions of encoding and retrieval but do not engage in recall when forming global JOLs. These findings suggest that people rely on extrinsic cues when making repeated, global metamemoryjudgments.     

Learning under stress impairs memory formation

Converging lines of evidence indicate that stress either before or after learning influences memory. Surprisingly little is known about how memory is affected when people learn while they are stressed. Here, we examined the impact of learning under stress in 48 healthy young men and women. Participants were exposed to stress (socially evaluated cold pressor test) or a control condition while they learned emotional words and neutral words that were either conceptually associated with or unrelated to the stressor. Memory was assessed in free recall and recognition tests 24 h after learning. Learning under stress reduced both free recall and recognition performance, irrespective of the emotionality and the stress context relatedness of the words. While the effect of stress was comparable in men and women, women outperformed men in the free recall test. These findings show a memory impairing effect of learning under stress in humans and challenge some assumptions of current theories about the impact of stress around the time of learning on memory formation.     

Biases in affective forecasting and recall in individuals with depression and anxiety symptoms

The authors used experience sampling to investigate biases in affective forecasting and recall in individuals with varying levels of depression and anxiety symptoms. Participants who were higher in depression symptoms demonstrated stronger (more pessimistic) negative mood prediction biases, marginally stronger negative mood recall biases, and weaker (less optimistic) positive mood prediction and recall biases. Participants who were higher in anxiety symptoms demonstrated stronger negative mood prediction biases, but positive mood prediction biases that were on par with those who were lower in anxiety. Anxiety symptoms were not associated with mood recall biases. Neither depression symptoms nor anxiety symptoms were associated with bias in event prediction. Their findings fit well with the tripartite model of depression and anxiety. Results are also consistent with the conceptualization of anxiety as a "forward-looking" disorder, and with theories that emphasize the importance of pessimism and general negative information processing in depressive functioning.     

Semantic relations between encoding and retrieval in cued recall

Two experiments were conducted to test the encoding-specificity hypothesis. In Experiment 1, subjects were presented pairs of coordinates to study, followed by a cued-recall test. Semantically weak and strong coordinates (defined by the degree of featural overlap shared with the pairs) served as encoding and retrieval cues. The semantic strength of the retrieval cue proved to be the most important factor in recall, whereas the re-presentation of an unrelated cue previously seen during encoding led to no facilitation of recall. In Experiment 2, three noun coordinates of varied semantic interrelatedness were presented for study and then were cued for recall by novel semantically strong or weak coordinates. Maximum recall was achieved when a strong encoding condition was matched with a strong retrieval cue. Implications of these findings for an encoding-specificity hypothesis were discussed.     

Does test delay eliminate collaborative inhibition?

Earlier research has demonstrated that collaborative groups recall more than individuals, but less than nominal groups (pooled performance of individuals), thus exhibiting collaborative inhibition. In two experiments, all participants were first asked to recall story material on their own. Some participants were then assigned to pairs and recalled the material collaboratively. On the other hand, the participants in the individual recall condition were asked to recall the material once again on their own. In Experiment 1, the collaborative pairs recalled less than the nominal pairs in accordance with previous studies. In Experiment 2, the timing of the initial individual recall was manipulated by inserting one week between the learning and the recall. The collaborative inhibition was eliminated in this situation. Sources of the collaborative inhibition in immediate recall and its disappearance in delayed recall are discussed in terms of the effect of cross cueing in collaborative remembering.     

The influence of learning style and cognitive ability on recall of names and faces in an older population

The present study examined whether, for older adults, a verbal or imagery cognitive style is associated with recall of names and faces learned in an experimental condition. Cognitive abilities that are represented in current models of face recognition and name recall were also examined. Those abilities included picture naming, verbal fluency (i.e., naming items within a given category), vocabulary comprehension, visual memory, and the learning of unassociated word pairs. Fifty older adults attempted to learn first and last names of 20 student actors and actresses pictured on videotapes (40 names total). On average, participants learned the most first names, followed by last names, and the fewest full names. The greater the number of responses on a questionnaire associated with an imagery cognitive style, the more the names of faces were correctly identified by participants. There was no significant relationship between a verbal cognitive style and the number of names and faces recalled. As for cognitive abilities, all of the abilities measured--with the exception of vocabulary comprehension--were significantly associated with the number of names and faces learned. A regression analysis indicated that the best predictor of successful name-face learning was the participants' ability to learn and recall 5 unrelated word pairs. When that cognitive measure was deleted from the regression analysis, delayed visual memory and verbal fluency were the next best predictors of the older adults' ability to learn names and faces.     

Aging and monitoring associative learning: is monitoring accuracy spared or impaired?

Mixed lists of associatively related and unrelated paired associates were used to study monitoring of associative learning. Older and younger adults produced above-chance levels of relative accuracy, as measured by intraindividual correlations (gamma) of judgments of learning (JOLs) with item recall. JOLs were strongly influenced by relatedness, and this effect was greater for older adults. Relative accuracy was higher for unrelated than for related pairs. Correlations of JOLs with item recall for a randomly yoked learner indicated that access to one's own encoding experiences increased relative accuracy. Both age groups manifested a contrast effect (lower JOLs for unrelated items when mixed with related items). Aging appears to spare monitoring of encoding, even though it adversely affects associative learning.     

The Influence of Learning Style and Cognitive Ability on Recall of Names and Faces in an Older Population

The present study examined whether, for older adults, a verbal or imagery cognitive style is associated with recall of names and faces learned in an experimental condition. Cognitive abilities that are represented in current models of face recognition and name recall were also examined. Those abilities included picture naming, verbal fluency (i.e., naming items within a given category), vocabulary comprehension, visual memory, and the learning of unassociated word pairs. Fifty older adults attempted to learn first and last names of 20 student actors and actresses pictured on videotapes (40 names total). On average, participants learned the most first names, followed by last names, and the fewest full names. The greater the number of responses on a questionnaire associated with an imagery cognitive style, the more the names of faces were correctly identified by participants. There was no significant relationship between a verbal cognitive style and the number of names and faces recalled. As for cognitive abilities, all of the abilities measured—with the exception of vocabulary comprehension—were significantly associated with the number of names and faces learned. A regression analysis indicated that the best predictor of successful name-face learning was the participants' ability to learn and recall 5 unrelated word pairs. When that cognitive measure was deleted from the regression analysis, delayed visual memory and verbal fluency were the next best predictors of the older adults' ability to learn names and faces.     

Sex differences in elaborative strategies: a developmental analysis.

The present study examined sex differences in the use of elaboration in paired associate learning in adolescence and young adulthood. In Experiment 1, 48 eighth grade and 48 tenth grade students were asked to recall 24 word pairs, half of which were high frequency pairs, and half low frequency pairs. After recall, students reported the type of strategy used for each word pair (reading the pairs carefully, rehearsing the words, using imagery or constructing a verbal connection). Females used elaborative strategies more often, were more likely to recall elaborated pairs, and recalled more word pairs than males at both ages. These effects were observed in both high and low frequency word pairs. There was also a main effect of frequency, with elaboration more common with high frequency word pairs. In Experiment 2, college students performed the same paired-associates learning task, but with the added instruction to describe their elaborations in a sentence. At this age, there was a sex by materials interaction, with sex differences in strategy use only present with low frequency word pairs. These findings indicate that sex differences diminish under more favorable task conditions that encourage strategy use (high frequency word pairs) as males and females become more proficient strategy users, but remain under less favorable circumstances. An examination of the types of elaborations generated by college students indicated although males and females produced similar types of elaborations to the word pairs, sex differences in the recallability of low frequency words appeared with less interactive and more idiosyncratic elaborations.     

Effects of mood on self-appraisal of health status

Two experiments investigated the effects of temporary mood on the self-perception of health status. In Experiment 1, participants viewed one of two videotapes designed to induce either positive or negative mood. Under the guise of a second experiment, they were asked to imagine an illness-related scenario and to provide judgments concerning their health status. As predicted, positive-induction participants judged their health more favorably than negative-induction participants. Experiment 2 examined the mediating role of illness-relevant thinking in this mood effect. After seeing one of the two mood-induction tapes, some participants were asked to imagine either an illness-related or illness-unrelated scenario. A third group was given no instructions concerning imagination. As predicted, the relative effect of negative mood on health appraisal was attenuated only among those who imagined a scenario unrelated to health. Furthermore, the pattern of symptom recall data mirrored the self-appraisal findings. The data are consistent with the notion that negative mood can affect subjective appraisals of health by increasing the accessibility of illness-related memories. Implications for diagnostic practice are explored.     

Orthographic learning in children with isolated and combined reading and spelling deficits

Dissociations between reading and spelling problems are likely to be associated with different underlying cognitive deficits, and with different deficits in orthographic learning. In order to understand these differences, the current study examined orthographic learning using a printed-word learning paradigm. Children (4th grade) with isolated reading, isolated spelling and combined reading and spelling problems were compared to children with age appropriate reading and spelling skills on their performance during learning novel words and symbols (non-verbal control condition), and during immediate and delayed reading and spelling recall tasks. No group differences occurred in the non-verbal control condition. In the verbal condition, initial learning was intact in all groups, but differences occurred during recall tasks. Children with reading fluency deficits showed slower reading times, while children with spelling deficits were less accurate, both in reading and spelling recall. Children with isolated spelling problems showed no difficulties in immediate spelling recall, but had problems in remembering the spellings 2 hours later. The results suggest that different orthographic learning deficits underlie reading fluency and spelling problems: Children with isolated reading fluency deficits have no difficulties in building-up orthographic representations, but access to these representations is slowed down while children with isolated spelling deficits have problems in storing precise orthographic representations in long-term memory.