Processing letters in words at different levels

Subjects indicated whether two letters, two words, or a letter and the first letter of a word were the same. Letter targets were matched more quickly than word targets when the stimuli were presented simultaneously. When the target and comparison stimuli were separated by a 3-sec interval, word targets were matched more quickly than a letter and a letter in a word. It was also shown that the physical similarity of the targets and comparison stimuli had a greater effect in the simultaneous matching conditions. These findings are consistent with a model of word processing in which letters are individually compared prior to word identification at a physical level of processing. At a higher level of processing, words may be encoded as a unit, and the identification of the letters within the word may require a decoding of the word unit.     

Spatial-frequency thresholds for object categorisation at basic and subordinate levels

In an attempt to understand how low-level visual information contributes to object categorisation, previous studies have examined the effects of spatially filtering images on object recognition at different levels of abstraction. Here, the quantitative thresholds for object categorisation at the basic and subordinate levels are determined by using a combination of the method of adjustment and a match-to-sample method. Participants were asked to adjust the cut-off of either a low-pass or high-pass filter applied to a target image until they reached the threshold at which they could match the target image to one of six simultaneously presented category names. This allowed more quantitative analysis of the spatial frequencies necessary for recognition than previous studies. Results indicate that a more central range of low spatial frequencies is necessary for subordinate categorisation than basic, though the difference is small, at about 0.25 octaves. Conversely, there was no effect of categorisation level on high-pass thresholds.     

Free associate norms for 139 European Portuguese words for children from different age groups

In the present study, we present normative ratings of free association for 139 European Portuguese (EP) words among 7- to 8-, 9- to 10-, and 11- to 12-year-old children attending the 3rd, 5th, and 7th grades of elementary and middle school in Portugal. For each word, five indices are presented: (a) the percentage of associates, (b)?the strength of the first associate, (c)?the strength of the second associate, (d) the distance between the first and second associates, and (e)?the percentage of idiosyncratic responses. Additionally, grade-level frequency values for each word from the ESCOLEX database (Soares et al., in press) are also provided. As expected, the results revealed developmental changes in the knowledge organization of the children, which occurred at the ages of 9–10 (5th grade) and remained stable in the 11- to 12-year-old children (7th grade). Specifically, we observed a decrease in the percentages of associates and idiosyncratic responses, as well as an increase in the strengths of the first and second associates from the 3rd to the 5th grade. Moreover, a comparative analysis with the previous work of Carneiro, Albuquerque, Fernandez, and Esteves (2004) on EP and Macizo, Gómez-Ariza, and Bajo (2000) on Spanish, for the subsets of common words (16 and 58, respectively), showed that the present norms fit well with previous EP data, but differ from the Spanish data.     

Effects of different kinds of semantic processing on memory for words

In an incidental learning paradigm, recall and recognition memory were shown to be significantly better for words rated on pleasantness than on any of the other six semantic dimensions (concreteness, imagery, categorizability, meaningfulness, familiarity, and number of attributes) recently used for scaling of 2,854 words by Toglia and Battig (1978). Pleasantness ratings are also relatively uncorrelated with ratings on these other six dimensions, and the pattern of memory differences between these seven dimensions corresponds closely to differences in dimensional distinctiveness, as indexed by the average correlation of each dimension with the other six dimensions as reported by Toglia and Battig (1978). Word subsets with high and low mean ratings on all seven dimensions showed comparable dimensional differences in memory, but high words were both recalled and recognized better than were low words.     

The spontaneous use of memory aids at different educational levels

Three groups of students in different educational levels: 8th–9th grade students (average age 15); 10th–11th grade students (average age 16); and college students (average age 21), completed a metamemory questionnaire on the use of external, general, and formal memory aids in everyday life and study situations. Short-term repetition, mental rehearsing, and summary elaboration were the most frequent aids. The least frequently used were those that require a special training to be used effectively (e.g. Digit-letters and method of loci). There were differences in the use of general memory aids due to education level, but not in the case of external and formal memory aids. Results showed also that women used memory aids more frequently than men.     

Recognition memory for words and pictures at short and long retention intervals

In two experiments, subjects studied a long series of words and pictures for recognition. Retention intervals varied from several minutes to a few months. The complicated testing procedures in Experiment I required the use of a traditional correction for guessing to obtain estimates of subjects' memory performance. A comparable, but simpler, design in Experiment II permitted the calculation of sensitivity and bias measures. In both studies, pictorial memory was superior to verbal memory at all retention intervals tested, and this advantage was essentially constant over time. In addition, the experiments identified an increasing tendency to call verbal test items "old" over time. Bias scores in Experiment H revealed that subjects adopted a more lenient criterion in responding to words than to pictures, and increased leniency was noted for both item types over time. Explanations of the results are offered in terms of differences in initial encoding and of a loss of discrimination between experimental and extraexperimental materials.     

Immediate recognition memory for wine

We describe a preliminary investigation concerning the short-term recognition memory function for gustatory stimuli (wines). In Experiment 1A, 24 non-expert wine drinkers completed a yes/no recognition task for 3-wine sequences. For the raw recognition scores, the serial position function comprised both primacy and recency. Recency did not, however, achieve significance for the d′ scores. In Experiment 1B, 24 participants completed the same yes/no recognition task for 3-visual matrix sequences. In contrast to Experiment 1A, the serial position function comprised recency and an absence of primacy. We argue that the presence of primacy for the wine sequences cannot be interpreted via a verbal labelling strategy, nor can it be interpreted via proactive interference from the first wine in the list on subsequent list items. The result suggests qualitative differences in the memory processing for gustatory and non-verbal visual stimuli.     

A different look at perceptual defense for taboo words

Hober has concluded from previous work that meaningfulness, frequency, and related stimulus variables directly affect the clarity of letters of words. To examine whether the letters of taboo words would be harder to see, 12 taboo words were matched in length to 12 very frequent and 12 very rare neutral words. Each word was shown an unpredictable number of times. Three groups of 8 Ss each were required, respectively, either to name the letters they saw on each flash, name the letters and then guess the word, or guess the word only. While no differences were found among the three groups, the clarity of the letters of the frequent words exceeded that for the rare words, which in tum was higher than that of the taboo words. This difference was apparent on even the first flash, supporting the interpretation of a perceptual defense effect.     

Visual statistical learning at basic and subordinate category levels in real-world images

Visual statistical learning (VSL) has been proposed as a powerful mechanism underlying the striking ability of human observers to handle complex visual environments. Previous studies have shown that VSL can occur when statistical information is embedded at multiple levels of abstraction, such as at semantically different category levels. In the present study, we further examined whether statistical regularities at a basic category level (e.g., a regular sequence of a bird, then a car, and then a dog) could influence the ability to extract statistical regularities at the subordinate level (e.g., a regular sequence of a parrot, then a sports car, and then an Eskimo dog). In the familiarization phase, participants were exposed to a stream of real-world images whose semantic categories had temporal regularities. Importantly, the temporal regularities existed at both the basic and subordinate levels, or the regularities existed at only the subordinate level, depending on the experimental condition. After completing the familiarization, participants performed a surprise two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) task for a familiarity judgment between two triplets in which the temporal regularities were either preserved or not preserved. Our results showed that the existence of statistical regularities at the basic level did not influence VSL at the subordinate level. The subsequent experiments showed these results consistently even when the basic-level categories had to be explicitly recognized and when the stimuli were not easily categorized at their subordinate level. Our results suggest that VSL is constrained to learn a particular level of patterns when patterns are presented across multiple levels.     

Implicit and explicit memory for compound words

Subjects studied visually presented compound words (e.g.,toothpaste, heartache) and then received a recognition, perceptual identification, or word-fragment completion test that contained old, recombined (e.g.,toothache), and partially and completely new words. False recognitions increased with the increasing number of previously studied components; however, priming in perceptual identification occurred only for old words. Priming in word-fragment completion occurred for old and recombined words. Reducing the time available to solve word fragments, from 20 sec to 5 sec, did not affect the pattern of results; it is therefore unlikely that priming for recombined words resulted from the use of a recollection-based strategy. Memory tasks that involve a conceptual component access memories that are constructed from parts; memory tasks that are primarily perceptual do not access such memories.     

Source memory enhancement for emotional words

The influence of emotional stimuli on source memory was investigated by using emotionally valenced words. The words were colored blue or yellow (Experiment 1) or surrounded by a blue or yellow frame (Experiment 2). Participants were asked to associate the words with the colors. In both experiments, emotionally valenced words elicited enhanced free recall compared with nonvalenced words; however, recognition memory was not affected. Source memory for the associated color was also enhanced for emotional words, suggesting that even memory for contextual information is benefited by emotional stimuli. This effect was not due to the ease of semantic clustering of emotional words because semantically related words were not associated with enhanced source memory, despite enhanced recall (Experiment 3). It is suggested that enhancement resulted from facilitated arousal or attention, which may act to increase organization processes important for source memory.     

Retrieval of pictures and words from long-term memory: Effects upon short-term memory

On each of a series of Brown-Peterson short-term memory (STM) tests, the presentation of a verbal to-be-remembered (TBR) item (a five-letter quintogram in Experiment 1 and an eight-letter octogram in Experiment 2) was followed immediately by a 10-sec retention interval. During the retention interval, subjects recalled and reproduced previously learned paired associate response triads that consisted of three concrete pictures, concrete words, abstract pictures, or abstract words. Following selective retrieval of one of the four types of response triads from long-term memory (LTM), subjects attempted to recall the TBR items from STM. In both experiments, the intervening retrieval of abstract words resulted in significantly poorer retention of the TBR items than did the intervening retrieval of concrete words; the retrieval of concrete words resulted, in turn, in significantly poorer retention of the TBR items than did the retrieval of concrete or abstract pictures. Retrieval of the latter two types of materials appeared not to interfere with the short-term retention of the TBR verbal material (i.e., the quintograms and octograms). The results reflect the occurrence of selective interference effects, and, except for one discrepant finding, appear to be consistent with Paivio’s 11971) dual-coding hypothesis and Shiffrin and Schneider’s (1977) general theory of memory.     

Immediate memory and simultaneous stimuli

When two sets of digits are presented simultaneously one to one ear and one to the other, the subject may be asked to write them down from immediate memory beginning with those on an ear chosen by the experimenter. He can do this, but any mistakes are usually amongst those on the ear prescribed for later response. If the subject does not know the order of recall until after stimulation, he either shows low efficiency with the same serial order effect, or else normal efficiency with an altered serial order effect.

When the order of recall is known in advance, efficiency is also reduced by altering the time of presentation of the last items to be recalled; and also by inserting irrelevant items. All these facts are consistent with a particular theory of immediate memory.     

Immediate memory span, recognition memory for subspan series of words, and serial position effects in recognition memory for supraspan series of verbal and nonverbal items in Broca's and Wernicke's aphasia

Four Broca's aphasics, four Wernicke's aphasics, and four matched controls were investigated on three verbal and one visual short-term memory tasks. Experiment 1 considered memory span and subspan recognition memory for verbal items and Experiment 2 assessed serial position effects in supraspan verbal recognition memory. The Broca's aphasics demonstrated verbal memory deficits, which could not be attributed to linguistic disturbances, while the verbal memory deficiencies seen with the Wernicke's aphasics could be regarded as secondary to linguistic defects. In Experiment 3, where visual recognition memory was investigated, only the Broca's aphasics showed deficient performance. The wider context of deficient mnemonic performance in aphasia is discussed.     

Effects of age, speed of processing, and working memory on comprehension of sentences with relative clauses

Two hundred participants, 50 in each of four age ranges (19-29, 30-49, 50-69, 70-90) were tested for working memory, speed of processing, and the processing of sentences with relative clauses. In Experiment 1, participants read four sentence types (cleft subject, cleft object, subject-subject, subject-object) in a word-by-word, non-cumulative, self-paced reading task and made speeded plausibility judgments about them. In Experiment 2, participants read two types of sentences, one of which contained a doubly center embedded relative clause. Older participants' comprehension was less accurate and there was age-related slowing of online processing times in all but the simplest sentences, which increased in syntactically complex sentences in Experiment 1. This pattern suggests an age-related decrease in the efficiency of parsing and interpretation. Slower speed of processing and lower working memory were associated with longer online processing times only in Experiment 2, suggesting that task-related operations are related to general speed of processing and working memory. Lower working memory was not associated with longer reading times in more complex sentences, consistent with the view that general working memory is not critically involved in online syntactic processing. Longer online processing at the most demanding point in the most demanding sentence was associated with better comprehension, indicating that it reflects effective processing under some certain circumstances. However, the poorer comprehension performance of older individuals indicates that their slower online processing reflects inefficient processing even at these points.     

Subjective age-of-acquisition norms for 600 Turkish words from four age groups

The main purpose of this study was to report age-based subjective age-of-acquisition (AoA) norms for 600 Turkish words. A total of 115 children, 100 young adults, 115 middle-aged adults, and 127 older adults provided AoA estimates for 600 words on a 7-point scale. The intraclass correlations suggested high reliability, and the AoA estimates were highly correlated across the four age groups. Children gave earlier AoA estimates than the three adult groups; this was true for high-frequency as well as low-frequency words. In addition to the means and standard deviations of the AoA estimates, we report word frequency, concreteness, and imageability ratings, as well as word length measures (numbers of syllables and letters), for the 600 words as supplemental materials. The present ratings represent a potentially useful database for researchers working on lexical processing as well as other aspects of cognitive processing, such as autobiographical memory.     

Specificity of memory representations for spoken words

Many theories of spoken word recognition assume that lexical items are stored in memory as abstract representations. However, recent research (e.g., Goldinger, 1996) has suggested that representations of spoken words in memory are veridical exemplars that encode specific information, such as characteristics of the talker’s voice. If representations are exemplar based, effects of stimulus variation such as that arising from changes in the identity of the talker may have an effect on identification of and memory for spoken words. This prediction was examined for an implicit and explicit task (lexical decision and recognition, respectively). Comparable amounts of repetition priming in lexical decision were found for repeated words, regardless of whether the repetitions were in the same or in different voices. However, reaction times in the recognition task were faster if the repetition was in the same voice. These results suggest a role for both abstract and specific representations in models of spoken word recognition.