Differences in encoding for free recall vs. recognition

Three experiments examined effects of test expectancy on memory for relatively unrelated words. In Experiment I, where preliminary recall or recognition practice was given, both recall and recognition were superior when the subjects expected and had practiced for recall. Free study led to better recall and recognition than paced presentation, but did not interact with test expectancy. Experiment II demonstrated that recall was better for subjects expecting a recall vs. a recognition test in the absence of preliminary practice. In Experiment III all subjects practiced both recall and recognition prior to presentation of the critical list. Study time also was varied. With longer study, recall was better when a recall test was expected, with no test expectancy effect on recognition. There were no appreciable expectancy effects with the short study period. Self-reports and other data suggested that the critical encoding differences produced by test expectancy manipulation were quantitative in nature.     

Effects of sentence importance on text recall and recognition: The inferential hypothesis

Abstract

The hypothesis that sentences with important information are more likely to be remembered than less important sentences because the former are inferred to a greater extent than the latter, was explored. In three previous studies, sentence importance in the structure of texts had been established: Main sentences were assigned higher importance ratings, and recalled and recognised better than secondary sentences. In the present experiment, the subjects read two out of six 500-word texts at their own pace and performed a recall or a recognition test 8 min and 7 days later. Different text versions were written; in each version, one main sentence and one secondary sentence were removed from the original texts. me results showed: (1) a higher false alarm rate and intrusion proportion for main sentences compared to secondary sentences; (2) superior net recall scores (after deduction of intrusions) and memory scores (after correction for guessing) for main sentences; but (3) equivalent net recognition scores (after deduction of false alarms) and discrimination (d') scores in the immediate test, and a superior net recognition and discrimination of secondary sentences in the delayed test. It is concluded that the inferential hypothesis is consistent with most of the results, and that the probability of coding and retention does not differ as a function of sentence importance, though main information may be retrieved more easily than less important information.     

Influence of motoric encoding on forgetting function of memory for action sentences in patients with Alzheimer's disease

This study assessed whether verbal encoding and motoric encoding have different effects on the forgetting function for action sentences of patients with Alzheimer's disease. Subjects were 13 healthy elderly adults and 10 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Three tasks were used: verbal tasks, subject-performed tasks, observed tasks. On the verbal tasks, subjects only heard the action sentences as read to them. On the subject-performed tasks, subjects heard, then performed each action sentence. On the observed tasks, subjects heard the action sentences read while observing the object mentioned in each action sentence. After presentation of each task, subjects conducted immediate and 30-min. delayed recall tests, and then a recognition test. Analysis indicated recall performance for subject-performed tasks was significantly better than that for verbal tasks and observed tasks at both immediate and delayed recall in each group. On the recognition test, carrying out the action had no effect, but for both groups recognition was enhanced by observing the object. Elderly adults performed significantly better than patients on all tasks of recall and recognition. However, the results indicate that patients with Alzheimer's disease can use multimodal resources from motoric encoding even if time passes.     

Test-expectancy and semantic-organization effects in recall and recognition

Two experiments examined whether people expecting recall are, compared with people expecting recognition, more likely to form associations between semantically related words in a list of to-be-remembered words. People were induced to expect either a recall or a recognition test on a critical list that included three conditions of semantic organization. Words in the unrelated (U) condition were semantically unrelated to all other words on the list, whereas words in the two related conditions were semantically related to one other list word. In the related-spaced (R-S) condition, the two related words appeared in input positions separated by 5-11 other items, whereas in the related-massed (R-M) condition, they appeared in adjacent input positions. Different groups received either an expected or unexpected recall (Experiment 1) or recognition (Experiment 2) test on the critical list. In both recall and recognition, (l) people expecting recall did better than those expecting recognition, (2) memory was worst for U words, next best for R-S words, and best for R-M words, and (3) the test-expectancy and semantic-organization effects were additive. A standardizedz-score measure of category dependency in memory indicated that (1) people expecting recall were not more likely than those expecting recognition to form interitem associations between the related words and (2) recognition was category dependent, but less so than recall. Within the framework of Anderson and Bower’s (1972, 1974) theory, these data indicate that, compared with people expecting recognition, those expecting recall are not more likely to form interitem associations by tagging more pathways connecting semantically related nodes but, rather, are more likely to tag the nodes themselves. The implications that semantic-organization effects in recognition have for the Anderson-Bower theory were also discussed.     

Short term retention of sentences

A series of experiments was performed on the interaction between the short-term retention of sentences and of digits. In Experiment I a digit span method was used whereby subjects were presented with a sentence followed by a sequence of digits and were required either (a) to recall the sentence first and then the digits or (b) to recall the digits followed by the sentence. Under condition (a) prior recall of the sentence reduced the percentage of digit sequences correctly recalled, while under condition (b) retention of the sentence appeared to have no effect on digit recall. This last finding was confirmed in Experiment II, where the sentences varied both in grammatical complexity and length.

In Experiment III the effect of prior recall of a sentence on the recall of digits was found to depend on the type of sentence used. A correlation was observed between the size of this effect and the time taken to recall a sentence. The rate of forgetting suggested by this observation was comparable to that obtained in Experiment IV, where subjects performed an intervening task that did not involve immediate memory for sentences in the interval between the presentation and recall of a six-digit sequence.

It was concluded from these results that the short-term retention of sentences and of lists of items cannot be explained in terms of some general store of limited capacity.     

Negative Cueing Effects with Weak and Strong Intralist Cues

In three experiments, we studied cueing effects of relational and itemspecific information after enacted and non-enacted encoding of short sentences (e.g. lift the pen, fold the paper). In Experiment 1, all subjects were instructed at encoding to remember only the nouns of these sentences; half of the subjects were informed about the categorical nature of the nouns, whereas the other half were not. At retrieval, all subjects were given a free recall test and a cued recall test with the verb of each sentence as the cue. In Experiment 2, all subjects were instructed at encoding to remember the whole sentence; as in Experiment 1, half of the subjects were informed about the categorical nature of the nouns and half were not. At test, all subjects were given two cued recall tests, one categorical cue for each noun in the first test and one verb cue and one categorical cue for each noun in the second test. In Experiment 3, at encoding, all subjects were informed about the categorical nature of nouns and were instructed to remember the whole sentence. In this experiment, the actions were performed with imaginary objects; free recall and cued recall tests were given to different subjects. In all three experiments, there was a negative effect of intralist cueing with verbs. This finding is at odds with the Encoding Specificity Principle, which assumes facilitation of cueing at retrieval if the cues were encoded together with the to-be-remembered information at encoding. Also, the effect of intralist cueing was different after encoding with enactment than after encoding without enactment; this difference holds true for enactment with real objects but not for enactment with imaginary objects. Enactment increased both the relational and the item-specific cueing efficiency. The results are discussed in terms of encoding interference between cues and targets and between item-specific processing and relational processing. Enacted encoding is conceived as integrating episodic information both with respect to item specificity and relational aspects of the information.     

A developmental comparison of the effectiveness of encoding tasks.

In Experiment 1, the free-recall performance of young children, college students, and older adults was examined. Subjects encoded words by simply learning them, by studying them in either base or elaborate sentence frames, or by constructing sentences. Overall recall was better for the college students than for the children or for the older adults, and the college students recalled best in the simple learning condition. The young children recalled best in the sentence construction condition; recall by older adults did not vary as a function of the encoding tasks. In Experiment 2, college students and older adults recalled a categorized list, encoding the words by simply learning them, by studying them in elaborate sentence frames, or by completing word fragments. For both age groups, simple learning produced the highest level of recall. These results suggest that organization provides the most effective encoding system and that older adults may need a more obvious basis for organization than do younger adults. Younger and older adults recalled equally well only when organization was discouraged by conceptual processing.     

Picture memory: recognizing added and deleted details

When people are presented simple and complex pictures and then tested in a same-changed recognition test with a simple or complex form of each, d' is greater for the simple than the complex picture (Pezdek & Chen, 1982). The results of three experiments confirm the robustness of this "asymmetric confusability effect" and test a model of the processes underlying this effect. According to the model, pictures are schematically encoded such that the memory representation of both simple and complex pictures is similar to the simple form of each. In Experiment 1, a sentence was presented that described the central schema in the picture prior to subjects' viewing each picture. This manipulation exaggerated the asymmetric confusability effect; schematic processing thus underlies the effect. Results of Experiment 2 refute the hypothesis that the effect results from subjects erroneously anticipating a recall test rather than a recognition test. Furthermore, although some of the nonschematic elaborative information in complex pictures is stored in memory, it is difficult to retrieve to verify that something is missing when complex presentation pictures are changed to simple test pictures (Experiment 3). Thus, although people are able to distinguish large sets of old pictures from new distractor pictures, their ability to detect missing elaborative visual details is more limited.     

Sentence coding: Tests of the address-contents model and the fragmentation-conceptual focus hypothesis

Predictions of the address-contents model of sentence coding (Broadbent, 1971, 1973) were contrasted in two experiments with predictions based on the fragmentation hypothesis (Jones, 1974, 1976, 1978) and the conceptual focus hypothesis (Tannenbaum and Williams, 1968a,b). Participants attempted to recall lists of active-voice subject-verb-object sentences in response to a noun cue from each sentence. For persons instructed to image the sentences in Experiment I, there was a subject cuing superiority for verb partial recalls, but there were no reliable cuing asymmeties for complete sentence or noun partial recalls. For persons instructed to repeat the sentences aloud, the subject superiority for verb partial recalls did not appear. In Experiment II, there was overall a subject superiority for verb partial recall and symmetry for complete and noun partial recalls. This pattern was not affected by whether a question following each sentence required the subject or the object as response. These results support the fragmentation-conceptual focus hypothesis.     

Test expectancy and question answering in prose processing

Two experiments were conducted to study the effects of expectanices about test format (recall versus recognition) upon the retention of information from prose. In each study subjects expecting recall recalled better than those expecting a multiple-choice test. Serial position analysis in Experiment 1 suggested differential use of study time in groups expecting different types of test. Examination of study time use in Experiment 2 indicated that subjects expecting multiple-choice showed greater variability in the use of time spent reading prose segments. They were also more likely to employ idiosyncratic orders of reading segments. In general the results seem compatible with the theoretical model of Gillund and Shiffrin (1984) emphasizing the ratio of two types of coding.     

Remembering environmental sounds: The role of verbalization at input

Two experiments investigated the role of verbalization in memory for environmental sounds. Experiment i extended earlier research (Bower & Holyoak, 1973) showing that sound recognition is highly dependent upon consistent verbal interpretation at input and test. While such a finding implies an important role for verbalization, Experiment 2 suggested that verbalization is not the only efficacious strategy for encoding environmental sounds. Recognition after presentation of sounds was shown to differ qualitatively from recognition after presentation of sounds accompanied with interpretative verbal labels and from recognition after presentation of verbal labels alone. The results also suggest that encoding physical information about sounds is of greater importance for sound recognition than for verbal free recall, and that verbalization is of greater importance for free recall than for recognition. Several alternative frameworks for the results are presented, and separate retrieval and discrimination processes in recognition are proposed.     

Word associations are formed incidentally during sentential semantic integration

Sentential context facilitates the incidental formation of word associations (e.g., Prior, A., & Bentin, S. (2003). Incidental formation of episodic associations: the importance of sentential context. Memory and Cognition, 31(2), 306-316). The present study explored the mechanism of this effect. In two experiments, unrelated word pairs were embedded in coherent or semantically anomalous sentences. Anomalous sentences included either a local or a global anomaly. During an incidental study phase, participants performed a sentence categorization task. The strength of the incidental associations formed between two nouns jointly appearing in a sentence was probed by gauging their influence on subsequent paired-associate learning and cued recall in Experiment 1, and by assessing their associative priming effect in a subsequent unexpected explicit recognition test for single words in Experiment 2. In both experiments, significant associative memory was found for noun pairs studied in coherent sentences but not for those appearing in anomalous sentences, regardless of anomaly type. In a sentence rating task, global anomalies yielded less plausible sentences than local anomalies, however both types of anomalies were equally detrimental to the sentence integration process. We suggest that sentence constituents are incidentally associated during sentence processing, particularly as a result of sentence integration and the consolidation of a mental model.     

Recall of aggressive and withdrawn statements among young children: Social schema or meaningfulness

Two studies assessed the effects of type of sentence (aggressive vs. withdrawn) and meaningfulness level on the sentence recall of young children. In Study 1, normative data showed that the meaningfulness value of aggressive sentences was greater than that of withdrawn sentences and that meaningfulness and recall were positively related. In Study 2, subjects were tested for sentence recall in a 2 (aggressive vs. withdrawn sentences) x 2 (high vs. low meaningfulness)within subjects design. The sole significant effect was meaningfulness, with the superior recall of high relative to low meaningful sentences. Results are interpreted through a knowledge base model. This research was supported by the Wake Forest University Research and Publication Fund. Experiment 1 was presented at the 1988 annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Atlanta, GA, and Experiment 2 was presented at the 1991 annual meeting of the American Psychological Society, Washington, DC.     

Recall of aggressive and withdrawn statements among young children: Social schema or meaningfulness

Two studies assessed the effects of type of sentence (aggressive vs. withdrawn) and meaningfulness level on the sentence recall of young children. In Study 1, normative data showed that the meaningfulness value of aggressive sentences was greater than that of withdrawn sentences and that meaningfulness and recall were positively related. In Study 2, subjects were tested for sentence recall in a 2 (aggressive vs. withdrawn sentences) x 2 (high vs. low meaningfulness)within subjects design. The sole significant effect was meaningfulness, with the superior recall of high relative to low meaningful sentences. Results are interpreted through a knowledge base model. This research was supported by the Wake Forest University Research and Publication Fund. Experiment 1 was presented at the 1988 annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Atlanta, GA, and Experiment 2 was presented at the 1991 annual meeting of the American Psychological Society, Washington, DC.     

Interactive processes in sentence comprehension and recognition

Two experiments examined the roles played by semantic and surface information in reading and recognizing sentences. Subjects read sentences in normal and inverted typography. Their recognition of meaning and other sentence features was tested using sentences whose typography, wording, and/or meaning were either the same as or different from that in the first set of sentences. In Experiment 1, subjects either read aloud or performed a sentence continuation task. For originally inverted sentences, recognition of meaning was high, irrespective of task demands. For originally normal sentences, recognition was low for Read Aloud subjects and high for Sentence Continuation subjects. Sentence recognition was affected by repetition of wording and typography. Experiment 2 replicated the results with the read aloud task and showed the second reading of originally inverted sentences to be equally swift for paraphrase and verbatim test forms. It was concluded that reading and recognition are interactive processes, involving conceptually driven and data driven operations. The interaction of operations may be either automatic or controlled. While processing of normal typography is automatic, inverted typography induces controlled processing, resulting in better retention. Furthermore, semantic and surface information are conceptualized as interacting components of comprehension and memory processes.     

Encoding and retrieval processes in the memory for conceptually distinctive events

Memory for conceptually isolated (distinctive) words was investigated in two experiments. In Experiment 1, recognition of distinctive targets was compared with recognition of targets from homogeneous lists and with recognition of background information. Distinctive targets were better recognized than the same words presented in homogeneous lists. No effects of distinctiveness on the recognition accuracy of background items were observed. These results fail to support the hypothesis that distinctive information receives extra resources during encoding at the expense of surrounding background information. In Experiment 2 the effects of distinctiveness on recall were evaluated. Distinctive targets were more likely to be recalled than targets from homogeneous lists. However, unlike the effects found in recognition, background items were more poorly recalled from lists containing distinctive targets than from homogeneous lists. Organizational processes in recall were also evaluated. There was greater subjective organization for target and background items from lists containing distinctive targets than from lists containing nondistinctive targets. These results were discussed in terms of encoding and retrieval explanations of the effects of distinctiveness.     

The effect of childhood bilingualism on episodic and semantic memory tasks

Kormi-Nouri, Moniri and Nilsson (2003) demonstrated that Swedish-Persian bilingual children recalled at a higher level than Swedish monolingual children, when they were tested using Swedish materials. The present study was designed to examine the bilingual advantage of children who use different languages in their everyday life but have the same cultural background and live in their communities in the same way as monolingual children. In four experiments, 488 monolingual and bilingual children were compared with regard to episodic and semantic memory tasks. In experiments 1 and 2 there were 144 boys and 144 girls in three school groups (aged 9-10 years, 13-14 years and 16-17 years) and in three language groups (Persian monolingual, Turkish-Persian bilingual, and Kurdish-Persian bilingual). In experiments 3 and 4, there were 200 male students in two school groups (aged 9-10 years and 16-17 years) and in two language groups (Persian monolingual and Turkish-Persian bilingual). In the episodic memory task, children learned sentences (experiments 1-3) and words (Experiment 4). Letter and category fluency tests were used as measures of semantic memory. To change cognitive demands in memory tasks, in Experiment 1, the integration of nouns and verbs within sentences was manipulated by the level of association between verb and noun in each sentence. At retrieval, a recognition test was used. In experiments 2 and 3, the organization between sentences was manipulated at encoding in Experiment 2 and at both encoding and retrieval in Experiment 3 through the use of categories among the objects. At retrieval, free recall or cued recall tests were employed. In Experiment 4, the bilingual children were tested with regard to both their first and their second language. In all four experiments, a positive effect of bilingualism was found on episodic and semantic memory tasks; the effect was more pronounced for older than younger children. The bilingual advantage was not affected by changing cognitive demands or by using first/second language in memory tasks. The present findings support the cross-language interactivity hypothesis of bilingual advantage.     

The effects of elaboration on recognition memory

Two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of elaboration on recognition memory. Subjects were given either simple or complex sentences to learn and were tested for recognition of either an individual target word or the entire sentence. Complex sentences supported better recognition performance only when the test item allowed the subject to easily redintegrate the initial encoding context, either by re-presenting the encoded sentence as the test item or by constructing sentences such that the component words of the sentence could be easily redintegrated from an individual target item. It was suggested that complex, elaborate encoding established a richer trace, but that this richness can be utilized to enhance recognition only when the test conditions permit a reinstatement of the original encoding context.     

Verbal and pictorial elaborations enhance memory in younger and older adults

Abstract

These studies examined the facilitative role of verbal and pictorial elaborations in younger and older adults' recall of verbal material. During acquisition, subjects studied short sentences under one of several encoding/retrieval conditions where the presence of verbal and pictorial elaborations was systematically varied. Subjects later recalled the target adjectives, given the sentence frames as a prompt. In Experiment 1, explanatory verbal elaborations at study and test enhanced verbal recall for both age groups, but no benefit of pictorial elaborations was observed. In Experiment 2, pictorial elaborations improved recall for both age groups. A significant Age x Encoding Condition interaction effect revealed that the benefit was especially pronounced for the older adults. the implications of these results for understanding the facilitative effects of pictorial illustrations on older adults. recall of verbal material are discussed.     

Syntactic complexity and elaborative processing

Memory for sentences as a function of the syntactic complexity of the sentences was examined. Sentence complexity was varied through a manipulation that involved presenting sentences in either self-embedded forms or more standard forms. Subjects performed an incidental semantic orienting task on a set of sentences varying in complexity and were subsequently tested for their recognition memory of the sentences. In Experiment 1, subjects were tested for their memory of both surface characteristics and meaning of the sentences. There were no differences caused by sentence complexity for memory for meaning. Memory for surface structure, however, was a function of sentence complexity such that there was better memory for the more complex sentences. Experiment 2 replicated the finding that the more complex sentences produced better recognition memory for surface structure. The results are interpreted within a framework that suggests that increased syntactic complexity produces more elaboration, which in turn produces better memory.