No source memory for unrecognized items when implicit feedback is avoided

In a recent empirical study, Starns, Hicks, Brown, and Martin (Memory & Cognition, 36, 1–8 2008) collected source judgments for old items that participants had claimed to be new and found residual source discriminability depending on the old-new response bias. The authors interpreted their finding as evidence in favor of the bivariate signal-detection model, but against the two-high-threshold model of item/source memory. According to the latter, new responses only follow from the state of old-new uncertainty for which no source discrimination is possible, and the probability of entering this state is independent of the old-new response bias. However, when missed old items were presented for source discrimination, the participants could infer that the items had been previously studied. To test whether this implicit feedback led to second retrieval attempts and thus to source memory for presumably unrecognized items, we replicated Starns et al.’s (Memory & Cognition, 36, 1–8 2008) finding and compared their procedure to a procedure without such feedback. Our results challenge the conclusion to abandon discrete processing in source memory; source memory for unrecognized items is probably an artifact of the procedure, by which implicit feedback prompts participants to reconsider their recognition judgment when asked to rate the source of old items in the absence of item memory.     

无决策成分的靶记忆与源记忆的加工深度比较

本研究通过两个实验来比较源记忆和靶记忆的难度。实验一比较两种记忆提取阶段的事件相关电位（ERPs）。实验二设置较高的成功标准,比较两者达标所需的时间,以此比较它们的难度。在实验一中,被试先进行项目记忆任务,接着进行源记忆任务（从两位虚拟人处接收项目,并记住项目的来源）和靶记忆任务（向两位虚拟人递送项目,并记住项目的去向）。源记忆和靶记忆的测试阶段要求被试再认项目的源或靶,并记录提取阶段的脑电。结果显示,虽然源记忆与靶记忆的正确率没有显著差异,但是在正确提取的ERP中观察到,两者与回想有关的LPC之间有边缘显著差异（靶记忆比源记忆更趋正向,且在顶区差异最明显）,这说明在回想上,靶记忆可能比源记忆需要更深的加工。实验二将源记忆和靶记忆结合在同一个任务中,要求被试反复尝试,直至两种记忆的正确率都达到较高的成功标准（近90%）。结果进一步证实,源记忆的加工水平深于源记忆。     

Bound context features are integrated at encoding

In the present research, we tested the predictions of different accounts of context binding in "remember" judgements. Context binding, defined as the stochastically dependent retrieval of two different context features, has previously been suggested to be due to mechanisms operating at retrieval either by cueing among context features (Meiser & Br?der, 2002) or by cueing between item and context features (Starns & Hicks, 2008). These accounts, however, do not make specific assumptions regarding the underlying memory representation supporting context binding. By contrast, here we propose that a binding process at encoding integrates item and context information into a coherent memory representation. Varying the presentation of the context features during encoding either with both context features presented simultaneously or with features spread over two encoding episodes, data from two experiments corroborate the notion that binding is produced at encoding. This result suggests that a binding process integrating the context features at encoding is necessary for stochastically dependent retrieval of context features.     

Measuring memory for source: Some theoretical assumptions and technical limitations

Henkel and Franklin (1998) present a series of well-designed experiments in support of the conclusion that memory for the source of an item is affected by the similarity between the item and other information in memory. Their principle analyses use an empirical measure of source memory that is a variant of a measure evaluated by Murnane and Bayen (1996). We point out an important assumption that underlies the use of this measure and question additional arguments and analyses that Henkel and Franklin offer in support of their conclusions. The problems discussed illustrate the need for careful consideration of the technical characteristics of measures and the theoretical assumptions on which measures rest when one is conducting research on source memory.     

Is beauty talent? Sex interaction in the attractiveness halo effect

Two experiments were performed to replicate and extend previous findings of judgmental bias which favors physically attractive people. In the first experiment male and female subjects judged an essay purportedly written by an attractive or an unattractive female author. The attractive author was rated as significantly more talented by male judges. Female judges rated the attractive author as less talented, although this difference was not statistically significant. A second experiment concerned ratings by males and females of essays written by attractive or unattractive male authors. The results suggested that the attractiveness halo effect does not occur for male authors.A similar version of this article was presented at the meeting of the Western Psychological Association, Los Angeles, April 1976. Thanks are due to Jan Ault, Lynn Barrett, Paul Leathem, Mike Orenich, Bill Starns, and Meg Wiedlin for their participation in various stages of the research.     

Automatic mediation or absence of mediation? Commentary on Crutcher and Ericsson (2000)

R. J. Crutcher and K. A. Ericsson (2000; see record 2000-05419-014) showed that subjects stopped reporting mnemonic mediation in a recall task after sufficient practice. They concluded that subjects continued to use the mediator indefinitely but that its execution eventually became automatic and no longer required access to working memory. Their article thus supports the more general hypothesis that multistep cognition can take place without awareness. In this article the authors evaluate that conclusion on both conceptual and empirical grounds and report results of a new experiment that indicate that a qualitative shift to direct, unmediated recall can occur for at least some tasks.     

来源记忆提取的情境线索效应

探索当存在多维来源信息时,对一个维度的来源信息的再现是否会促进对另一个维度的来源记忆的提取,即出现情境线索效应。以汉字词语作为项目刺激,以背景颜色作为情境线索,通过两个实验分别考察对呈现位置和背景形状的提取是否会出现情境线索效应。结果发现：只在对背景形状的提取中出现了情境线索效应,并且线索负载越高,效应越小。该结果表明对来源记忆提取时,来源信息间的高可结合性是引发情境线索效应的重要因素。     

The generation and resemblance heuristics in face recognition: cooperation and competition

Like all probabilistic decisions, recognition memory judgments are based on inferences about the strength and quality of stimulus familiarity. In recent articles, B. W. A. Whittlesea and J. Leboe (2000; J. Leboe & B. W. A. Whittlesea, 2002) proposed that such memory decisions entail various heuristics, similar to well-known heuristics in overt decision making. Using verbal stimulus materials, Whittlesea and Leboe illustrated 3 separate memory heuristics: fluency, generation, and resemblance. In the present investigation, the authors examined the generation and resemblance heuristics in face recognition. In 12 experiments, people memorized faces and later performed exclusion (source memory) tasks. Every experiment contained natural groups of facial photographs (e.g., Caucasian vs. Asian faces), but such groups were not always valid source-memory predictors. Instead, across experiments, the potential utility of generation and resemblance strategies was systematically varied. People were quite sensitive to such variations, changing from one heuristic to another as needed. However, they also combined heuristics, both improving and damaging performance across conditions. The relevance of recognition decision heuristics to eyewitness memory is considered.     

The effects of unitization on familiarity-based source memory: testing a behavioral prediction derived from neuroimaging data

Performance on tests of source memory is typically based on recollection of contextual information associated with an item. However, recent neuroimaging results have suggested that the perirhinal cortex, a region thought to support familiarity-based item recognition, may support source attributions if source information is encoded as a feature of the relevant item (i.e., "unitized"). The authors hypothesized that familiarity may contribute to source memory performance if item and source information are unitized during encoding, whereas performance may rely more heavily on recollection if source information is encoded as an arbitrary contextual association. Three source recognition experiments examining receiver operating characteristics and response deadline performance indicated that familiarity makes a greater contribution to source memory if source and item information are unitized during encoding. These findings suggest that familiarity can contribute to source recognition and that its contribution depends critically on the way item and source information are initially processed.     

工作记忆表征的激活与抑制状态对注意引导效应的影响

本研究采用双任务范式, 通过定向遗忘任务操纵工作记忆表征状态, 分别在目标无关和目标相关条件下考察工作记忆激活与抑制状态对视觉搜索早期注意引导效应的影响。实验1与实验2发现当工作记忆表征只可能与视觉搜索分心物匹配时(目标无关条件), 处于激活状态的工作记忆表征会引导视觉注意偏向到与之匹配的分心物, 表现出注意引导效应, 而处于抑制状态的工作记忆表征则没有观察到注意引导效应。实验3与实验4发现, 当工作记忆表征有可能与视觉搜索目标匹配时(目标相关条件), 处于激活状态的工作记忆表征能捕获注意, 而处于抑制状态的工作记忆表征只有与视觉搜索目标匹配时, 才表现出对该搜索目标反应的延迟。这些研究的结果表明(1)处于激活状态的工作记忆表征能有效地引导注意偏向到与之匹配的搜索目标或分心物, 并且这种注意引导效应并未受到抑制动机的影响而被消除或反转; (2)处于抑制状态的工作记忆表征能将抑制状态传递到视觉搜索阶段, 并延迟对与之匹配的搜索目标的反应。     

Why faces are and are not special: an effect of expertise

Recognition memory for faces is hampered much more by inverted presentation than is memory for any other material so far examined. The present study demonstrates that faces are not unique with regard to this vulnerability to inversion. The experiments also attempt to isolate the source of the inversion effect. In one experiment, use of stimuli (landscapes) in which spatial relations among elements are potentially important distinguishing features is shown not to guarantee a large inversion effect. Two additional experiments show that for dog experts sufficiently knowledgeable to individuate dogs of the same breed, memory for photographs of dogs of that breed is as disrupted by inversion as is face recognition. A final experiment indicates that the effect of orientation on memory for faces does not depend on inability to identify single features of these stimuli upside down. These experiments are consistent with the view that experts represent items in memory in terms of distinguishing features of a different kind than do novices. Speculations as to the type of feature used and neuropsychological and developmental implications of this accomplishment are offered.     

非熟练蒙英双语者概念表征的非对称性特点

采用跨语言长时重复启动范式探讨非熟练蒙英双语者的词汇与概念表征特点。选取165名非熟练蒙英双语者为被试。实验自变量为语言条件和学习条件,因变量为任务判断的反应时和正确率。结果发现,词汇判断任务中未产生跨语言长时重复启动效应,表明非熟练蒙英双语者的词汇表征是分离的;语义判断任务中产生了跨语言重复启动效应,表明非熟练蒙英双语者的概念表征是共享的。在概念判断任务中语言内启动是对称性的,说明语言内启动可能发生在词汇水平;而语言间启动效应是非对称性的,即英-蒙条件产生跨语言长时重复启动效应,而蒙-英条件未产生跨语言长时重复启动效应,结果支持修正层级模型。     

When Knowing Becomes Remembering: Individual Differences in Susceptibility to Suggestion

In two experiments, the authors explored factors that might influence a person's tendency to make source-monitoring errors about autobiographical memories. In the first experiment, undergraduates retrieved a memory from childhood (a) that was known about but not remembered, (b) that was remembered, or (c) for which they were unsure of their memory's source. After writing down the memory, experimental groups listened to a guided visualization tape and answered questions about the event—interventions designed to help them focus on details of their memory. Controls also retrieved and wrote down a memory; however, instead of visualizing the memory, they were instructed to conduct a visual search task. Results indicated that guided visualization led participants to rate known memories closer to remembered events. A second experiment examined individual difference variables that might be related to this know-to-remember shift. Results indicated that extraversion, external locus of control, a memory that conveyed fear, and overall affective content predicted this rating. The applicability of these findings to the psychotherapy process is discussed.     

When knowing becomes remembering: individual differences in susceptibility to suggestion

In two experiments, the authors explored factors that might influence a person's tendency to make source-monitoring errors about autobiographical memories. In the first experiment, undergraduates retrieved a memory from childhood (a) that was known about but not remembered, (b) that was remembered, or (c) for which they were unsure of their memory's source. After writing down the memory, experimental groups listened to a guided visualization tape and answered questions about the event--interventions designed to help them focus on details of their memory. Controls also retrieved and wrote down a memory; however, instead of visualizing the memory, they were instructed to conduct a visual search task. Results indicated that guided visualization led participants to rate known memories closer to remembered events. A second experiment examined individual difference variables that might be related to this know-to-remember shift. Results indicated that extraversion, external locus of control, a memory that conveyed fear, and overall affective content predicted this rating. The applicability of these findings to the psychotherapy process is discussed.     

Negative effects of item repetition on source memory

In the present study, we explored how item repetition affects source memory for new item-feature associations (picture-location or picture-color). We presented line drawings varying numbers of times in Phase 1. In Phase 2, each drawing was presented once with a critical new feature. In Phase 3, we tested memory for the new source feature of each item from Phase 2. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated and replicated the negative effects of item repetition on incidental source memory. Prior item repetition also had a negative effect on source memory when different source dimensions were used in Phases 1 and 2 (Experiment 3) and when participants were explicitly instructed to learn source information in Phase 2 (Experiments 4 and 5). Importantly, when the order between Phases 1 and 2 was reversed, such that item repetition occurred after the encoding of critical item-source combinations, item repetition no longer affected source memory (Experiment 6). Overall, our findings did not support predictions based on item predifferentiation, within-dimension source interference, or general interference from multiple traces of an item. Rather, the findings were consistent with the idea that prior item repetition reduces attention to subsequent presentations of the item, decreasing the likelihood that critical item-source associations will be encoded.     

Factor structure of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI): findings from a large incarcerated sample

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI; S. O. Lilienfeld, 1990; S. O. Lilienfeld & B. P. Andrews, 1996) with a community sample has suggested that the PPI subscales may comprise 2 higher order factors (S. D. Benning, C. J. Patrick, B. M. Hicks, D. M. Blonigen, & R. F. Krueger, 2003). However, substantive and structural evidence raises concerns about the viability of this 2-factor model, particularly in offender populations. The authors attempted to replicate the S. D. Benning et al. 2-factor solution using a large (N = 1,224) incarcerated male sample. Confirmatory factor analysis of this model resulted in poor model fit. Similarly, using the same EFA procedures as did S. D. Benning et al., the authors found little evidence for a 2-factor model. When they followed the recommendations of J.-W. van Prooijen and W. A. van der Kloot (2001) for recovering EFA solutions, model fit results provided some evidence that a 3-factor EFA solution could be recovered via confirmatory factor analysis.     

Common response processing and psychological refractoriness

This experiment examined whether structural considerations, that is the functional closeness of limb control centres (Kinsbourne and Hicks 1978), have a role to play in common processing models of psychological refractoriness. A typical double stimulation paradigm was used (Kantowitz 1974). On experimental trials, subjects responded with the right hand (RT1) to an auditory signal (0.80 probability). After a varied interstimulus interval (ISI) of 100, 200, 300 or 700 msec, one of three lights corresponding to one of the other limbs provided the signal for the second response (RT2). Control trials for RT1 and RT2 involved both stimuli, but subjects were required to make only one response. Results indicated that experimental RT1 was lengthened considerably over control values. While typical double stimulation effects were found at short ISIs, that is RT2 was lengthened, RT2 at long ISIs was actually faster than double stimulation control values. Although the RT results were not in a pattern that would be predicted by functional distance (Kinsbourne and Hicks 1978), within subject correlations of RT1 and RT2 by limb condition suggest that structural considerations may have a role to play. While within subject correlations were positive at all levels of ISI, they decreased as the interval between the two signals increased. The implications of these results for common processing models are discussed.     

The temporal dynamics of visual search: evidence for parallel processing in feature and conjunction searches

Feature and conjunction searches have been argued to delineate parallel and serial operations in visual processing. The authors evaluated this claim by examining the temporal dynamics of the detection of features and conjunctions. The 1st experiment used a reaction time (RT) task to replicate standard mean RT patterns and to examine the shapes of the RT distributions. The 2nd experiment used the response-signal speed-accuracy trade-off (SAT) procedure to measure discrimination (asymptotic detection accuracy) and detection speed (processing dynamics). Set size affected discrimination in both feature and conjunction searches but affected detection speed only in the latter. Fits of models to the SAT data that included a serial component overpredicted the magnitude of the observed dynamics differences. The authors concluded that both features and conjunctions are detected in parallel. Implications for the role of attention in visual processing are discussed.     

Positive and negative generation effects in source monitoring

Research is mixed as to whether self-generation improves memory for the source of information. We propose the hypothesis that positive generation effects (better source memory for self-generated information) occur in reality-monitoring paradigms, while negative generation effects (better source memory for externally presented information) tend to occur in external source-monitoring paradigms. This hypothesis was tested in an experiment in which participants read or generated words, followed by a memory test for the source of each word (read or generated) and the word's colour. Meiser and Br?der's (2002) multinomial model for crossed source dimensions was used to analyse the data, showing that source memory for generation (reality monitoring) was superior for the generated words, while source memory for word colour (external source monitoring) was superior for the read words. The model also revealed the influence of strong response biases in the data, demonstrating the usefulness of formal modelling when examining generation effects in source monitoring.     

Do young and older adults rely on different processes in source memory tasks? A neuropsychological study

Source memory has consistently been associated with prefrontal function in both normal and clinical populations. Nevertheless, the exact contribution of this brain region to source memory remains uncertain, and evidence suggests that processes used by young and older adults may differ. The authors explored the extent to which scores on composite measures of neuropsychological tests of frontal and medial temporal function differentially predicted the performance of young and older adults on source memory tasks. Results indicated that a frontal composite measure, consistently associated with source memory performance in older adults, was unrelated to source memory in young adults, although it was sensitive to a demanding working memory task. The memory composite score, however, predicted performance in the young group. In addition, item and source memory were correlated in young but not older people. Findings are discussed in terms of age-related differences in working memory and executive functions, and differential binding processes necessary for item and source memory. The requirement to integrate item and source information at encoding appears to place greater demands on executive or working memory processes in older adults than in younger adults.