Altering retrieval demands reverses the picture superiority effect

In Experiment 1 subjects studied a mixed list of pictures and words and then received either a free recall test or a word fragment completion test (e.g.,_yr_mi_forpyramid) on which some fragments corresponded to previously studied items. Free recall of pictures was better than that of words. However, words produced greater priming than did pictures on the fragment completion test, although a small amount of picture priming did occur. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that the picture priming was not due to implicit naming of the pictures during study. In Experiment 4 subjects studied words and pictures and received either the word fragment completion test or a picture fragment identification test in which they had to name degraded pictures. Greater priming was obtained with words in word fragment completion, but greater priming was obtained with pictures on the picture identification test. We conclude that (1) the type of retrieval query determines whether pictures or words will exhibit superior retention, and (2)our results conform to the principle of transfer appropriate processing by which performance on transfer or retention tests benefits to the extent that the tests recapitulate operations used during learning.     

The picture superiority effect in associative recognition

The picture superiority effect has been well documented in tests of item recognition and recall. The present study shows that the picture superiority effect extends to associative recognition. In three experiments, students studied lists consisting of random pairs of concrete words and pairs of line drawings; then they discriminated between intact (old) and rearranged (new) pairs of words and pictures at test. The discrimination advantage for pictures over words was seen in a greater hit rate for intact picture pairs, but there was no difference in the false alarm rates for the two types of stimuli. That is, there was no mirror effect. The same pattern of results was found when the test pairs consisted of the verbal labels of the pictures shown at study (Experiment 4), indicating that the hit rate advantage for picture pairs represents an encoding benefit. The results have implications for theories of the picture superiority effect and models of associative recognition.     

The picture superiority effect: support for the distinctiveness model

The form change paradigm was used to explore the basis for the picture superiority effect. Recognition memory for studied pictures and words was tested in their study form or the alternate form. Form change cost was defined as the difference between recognition performance for same and different form items. Based on the results of Experiment 1 and previous studies, it was difficult to determine the relative cost for studied pictures and words due to a reversal of the mirror effect. We hypothesized that the reversed mirror effect results from subjects' basing their recognition decisions on their assumptions about the study form. Experiments 2 and 3 confirmed this hypothesis and generated a method for evaluating the relative cost for pictures and words despite the reversed mirror effect. More cost was observed for pictures than words, supporting the distinctiveness model of the picture superiority effect.     

An auditory analog of the picture superiority effect

Previous research has found that pictures (e.g., a picture of an elephant) are remembered better than words (e.g., the word "elephant"), an empirical finding called the picture superiority effect (Paivio & Csapo. Cognitive Psychology 5(2):176-206, 1973). However, very little research has investigated such memory differences for other types of sensory stimuli (e.g. sounds or odors) and their verbal labels. Four experiments compared recall of environmental sounds (e.g., ringing) and spoken verbal labels of those sounds (e.g., "ringing"). In contrast to earlier studies that have shown no difference in recall of sounds and spoken verbal labels (Philipchalk & Rowe. Journal of Experimental Psychology 91(2):341-343, 1971; Paivio, Philipchalk, & Rowe. Memory & Cognition 3(6):586-590, 1975), the experiments reported here yielded clear evidence for an auditory analog of the picture superiority effect. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that sounds were recalled better than the verbal labels of those sounds. Experiment 2 also showed that verbal labels are recalled as well as sounds when participants imagine the sound that the word labels. Experiments 3 and 4 extended these findings to incidental-processing task paradigms and showed that the advantage of sounds over words is enhanced when participants are induced to label the sounds.     

The picture superiority effect in a cross-modality recognition task

Words and pictures were studied, and recognition tests were given in which each studied object was to be recognized in both word and picture format. The main dependent variable was the latency of the recognition decision. The purpose was to investigate the effects of study modality (word or picture), of congruence between study and test modalities, and of priming resulting from repeated testing. Experiments 1 and 2 used the same basic design, but the latter also varied retention interval. Experiment 3 added a manipulation of instructions to name studied objects, and Experiment 4 deviated from the others by presenting both picture and word referring to the same object together for study. The results showed that congruence between study and test modalities consistently facilitated recognition. Furthermore, items studied as pictures were more rapidly recognized than were items studied as words. With repeated testing, the second instance was affected by its predecessor, but the facilitating effect of picture-to-word priming exceeded that of word-to-picture priming. The findings suggest a two-stage recognition process, in which the first is based on perceptual familiarity and the second uses semantic links for a retrieval search. Common-code theories that grant privileged access to the semantic code for pictures or, alternatively, dual-code theories that assume mnemonic superiority for the image code are supported by the findings. Explanations of the picture superiority effect as resulting from dual encoding of pictures are not supported by the data.     

Conceptual and perceptual factors in the picture superiority effect

This study tested the hypothesis that separate mechanisms mediate the planning of reaching and keypress responses. Participants performed a spatial precueing task with two preparation intervals (100 ms and 1000 ms) and three response sets: (a) pressing one of four response keys; (b) reaching with one of two hands; and (c) reaching with one hand. Reaction time results showed a pattern of precueing effects that strongly depended on the number of effectors in the response set and on the preparation interval. This outcome was interpreted as evidence that distinct mechanisms mediate the planning of multiple-effector and single-effector actions, with effector selection being relevant in the former but not in the latter. The theoretical implications of this conclusion are discussed.     

Levels of processing and picture memory: the physical superiority effect

Six experiments studied the effect of physical orienting questions (e.g., "Is this angular?") and semantic orienting questions (e.g., "Is this edible?") on memory for unrelated pictures at stimulus durations ranging from 125-2,000 ms. Results ran contrary to the semantic superiority "rule of thumb," which is based primarily on verbal memory experiments. Physical questions were associated with better free recall and cued recall of a diverse set of visual scenes (Experiments 1, 2, and 4). This occurred both when general and highly specific semantic questions were used (Experiments 1 and 2). Similar results were obtained when more simplistic visual stimuli--photographs of single objects--were used (Experiments 5 and 6). As in the case of the semantic superiority effect with words, the physical superiority effect for pictures was eliminated or reversed when the same physical questions were repeated throughout the session (Experiments 4 and 6). Conflicts with results of previous levels of processing experiments with words and nonverbal stimuli (e.g., faces) are explained in terms of the sensory-semantic model (Nelson, Reed, & McEvoy, 1977). Implications for picture memory research and the levels of processing viewpoint are discussed.     

Subjective qualities of memories associated with the picture superiority effect in schizophrenia

Patients with schizophrenia (n = 24) matched with 24 normal subjects were presented with both words and pictures. On a recognition memory task, they were asked to give remember, know, or guess responses to items that were recognized on the basis of conscious recollection, familiarity, or guessing, respectively. Compared with normal subjects, patients exhibited a lower picture superiority effect selectively related to remember responses. Unlike normal subjects, they did not exhibit any word superiority effect in relation to guess responses; this explains why the overall picture superiority effect appeared to be intact. These results emphasize the need to take into account the subjective states of awareness when analyzing memory impairments in schizophrenia.     

The picture superiority effect in conceptual implicit memory: a conceptual distinctiveness hypothesis

According to leading theories, the picture superiority effect is driven by conceptual processing, yet this effect has been difficult to obtain using conceptual implicit memory tests. We hypothesized that the picture superiority effect results from conceptual processing of a picture's distinctive features rather than a picture's semantic features. To test this hypothesis, we used 2 conceptual implicit general knowledge tests; one cued conceptually distinctive features (e.g., "What animal has large eyes?") and the other cued semantic features (e.g., "What animal is the figurehead of Tootsie Roll?"). Results showed a picture superiority effect only on the conceptual test using distinctive cues, supporting our hypothesis that this effect is mediated by conceptual processing of a picture's distinctive features.     

Monitoring eye movements to investigate the picture superiority effect in spatial memory

Spatial memory is usually better for iconic than for verbal material. Our aim was to assess whether such effect is related to the way iconic and verbal targets are viewed when people have to memorize their locations. Eye movements were recorded while participants memorized the locations of images or words. Images received fewer, but longer, gazes than words. Longer gazes on images might reflect greater attention devoted to images due to their higher sensorial distinctiveness and/or generation with images of an additional phonological code beyond the visual code immediately available. We found that words were scanned mainly from left to right while a more heterogeneous scanning strategy characterized encoding of images. This suggests that iconic configurations tend to be maintained as global integrated representations in which all the item/location pairs are simultaneously present whilst verbal configurations are maintained through more sequential processes.     

The picture superiority effect in recognition memory: A developmental study using the response signal procedure

Items studied as pictures are better remembered than items studied as words even when test items are presented as words. The present study examined the development of this picture superiority effect in recognition memory. Four groups ranging in age from 7 to 20 years participated. They studied words and pictures, with test stimuli always presented as words, and time to respond to test stimuli was manipulated. The picture superiority effect showed a clear developmental trend. In the condition in which participants had ample response time, a significant picture superiority effect appeared in all but the youngest group. With short response time, a significant picture superiority effect appeared only among 11- and 20-year-old groups, while a significant reverse of the picture superiority effect was detected in the youngest group. These results were interpreted as suggesting that different memory processes (familiarity and recollection) contribute differently to the picture superiority effect at different stages of development.     

部分线索对记忆提取的影响:认知抑制能力的作用

在回忆时,以刚刚学过的部分项目作为提取线索,被试的回忆成绩反而比没有任何线索时的回忆成绩差,这一现象被称为部分线索效应。该效应通常被认为是抑制执行控制过程对非线索项目记忆表征强度抑制的结果。本研究以Stroop效应量(实验1)和工作记忆容量(实验2)为指标,从个体差异角度考察了认知抑制能力对部分线索效应的影响。结果发现,Stroop效应量与部分线索效应各指标呈显著负相关,Stroop效应量越小,部分线索效应各指标的值越大;工作记忆容量与部分线索效应各指标呈显著正相关,高工作记忆容量个体的部分线索效应各指标的值也更大。结果表明,认知抑制能力越强,部分线索对回忆的破坏作用越大,研究结果支持部分线索效应的提取抑制假说。     

The accuracy of beliefs about retrieval cues

We investigated the accuracy of predictions about semantic, environmental, and phonological cues for remembering. Subjects rated the pleasantness of 10 words in each of four rooms, predicted the number of words that they would recall with and without one of the three types of cues, and then were tested for free or cued recall. Consistent with their predictions, subjects who received semantic cues recalled more words than did subjects in the free-recall group. The subjects in the other cuing conditions did not benefit from the cues; furthermore, they overestimated the value of phonological cues, and they believed that environmental cues were ineffective. Finally, confidence ratings for cued-recall predictions did not reflect the pattern of cued-recall performance. Subjects were least confident about their predictions for semantic cuing and most confident about their predictions for recall to be cued phonologically.     

The acronym superiority effect

The visual world is replete with noisy, continuous, perceptually variant linguistic information, which fluent readers rapidly translate from percept to meaning. What are the properties the language comprehension system uses as cues to initiate lexical/semantic access in response to some, but not all, orthographic strings? In the behavioral, electromagnetic, and neuropsychological literatures, orthographic regularity and familiarity have been identified as critical factors. Here, we present a study in the Reicher—Wheeler tradition that manipulates these two properties independently through the use of four stimulus categories: familiar and orthographically regular words, unfamiliar but regular pseudowords, unfamiliar illegal strings, and familiar but orthographically illegal acronyms. We find that, like letters in words and pseudowords, letters in acronyms enjoy an identification benefit relative to similarly illegal, but unfamiliar strings. This supports theories of visual word recognition in which familiarity, rather than orthographic regularity, plays a critical role in gating processing.     

Hypermnesia: The role of multiple retrieval cues

We demonstrate that encoding multiple cues enhances hypermnesia. College students were presented with 36 (Experiment 1) or 60 (Experiments 2 and 3) sets of words and were asked to encode the sets under single- or multiple-cue conditions. In the single-cue conditions, each set consisted of a cue and a target. In the multiple-cue conditions, each set consisted of three cues and a target. Following the presentation of the word sets, the participants received either three cued recall tests (Experiments 1 and 2) or three free recall tests (Experiment 3). With this manipulation, we observed greater hypermnesia in the multiple-cue conditions than in the single-cue conditions. Furthermore, the greater hypermnesic recall resulted from increased reminiscence rather than reduced intertest forgetting. The present findings support the hypothesis that the availability of multiple retrieval cues plays an important role in hypermnesia.     

The development of the picture‐superiority effect

When pictures and words are presented serially in an explicit memory task, recall of the pictures is superior. While this effect is well established in the adult population, little is known of the development of this picture‐superiority effect in typical development. This task was administered to 80 participants from middle childhood to adolescence. The magnitude of the picture superiority effect increased with age. This finding is interpreted as supporting the position that pictorial superiority is contingent upon the encoding of pictorial information through two different routes.     

Transfer of memory retrieval cues in rats

Two experiments using rats were conducted to determine whether the retrieval of a memory could be brought under the control of new contextual cues that had not been present at the time of training. In Experiment 1, rats were trained in one context and then exposed to different contextual cues immediately, 60 min, or 120 min after training. When tested in the shifted context, rats that had been exposed shortly after training treated the shifted context as if it were the original context. The control that the previously neutral context had over retrieval disappeared with longer posttraining delays, suggesting the importance of an active memory representation during exposure. Experiment 2 replicated the basic finding and demonstrated that the transfer of retrieval cues was specific to the contextual cues present during exposure. These findings with rats are consistent with findings from infant research (see, e.g., Boller & Rovee-Collier, 1992) that have shown that a neutral context can come to serve as a retrieval cue for an episode experienced elsewhere.     

The postdiction superiority effect in metacomprehension of text

Metacomprehension accuracy for texts was greater after, rather than before, answering test questions about the texts-a postdiction superiority effect. Although postdiction superiority was found across successive sets of test questions and across successive texts, there was no improvement in metacomprehension accuracy after participants had taken more tests. Neither prediction nor postdiction gamma correlations with test performance improved with successive tests. Although the results are consistent with retrieval hypotheses, they contradict predictions made by test knowledge hypotheses, which state that increasing knowledge of the nature of the tests should increase metacomprehension accuracy.     

Processing picture-word stimuli: the contingent nature of picture and of word superiority

Participants named (Experiments 1-2) or categorized (Experiments 3-4) the picture or the word of picture-word compounds that varied in the relative saliency of the 2 components and in the correlation between them over the experimental trials. Picture-word interference (PWI) was gauged through Stroop and Garner effects. PWI was found to be malleable; its magnitude and very presence depending lawfully on the contextual variations introduced. The contingent nature of PWI is a fact to be reckoned with by theorists of picture-word processing.