Are associative changes in acquisition and extinction negatively accelerated?

Performance to a conditioned stimulus typically shows a negatively accelerated change with Pavlovian conditioning or extinction. This is commonly attributed to negatively accelerated changes in the underlying associative learning. However, the absence of well-specified rules for mapping learning into performance makes it difficult to infer changes in the size of associative changes for stimuli occupying different points on the performance scale. This problem can be addressed by comparing responding to stimulus compounds each consisting of 2 stimuli, 1 of which is poorly conditioned and 1 of which is well conditioned, when either the former or the latter receives a specified amount of additional training. This permits comparison at a common performance level. Two magazine-approach experiments in rats and 2 autoshaping experiments in pigeons used this technique to assess the form of the associative changes in acquisition and extinction.     

Do spelling variations affect associative and phonological priming by pseudohomophones?

A nonword prime can sound like a target word or one of the target's associates, and it can look like either without sounding like either. These pseudohomophones and pseudohomographs can vary in the number of letters shared with the target or its associate. In an associative priming experiment in which targets were named and prime duration was 125 msec within a mask-prime-mask-target sequence, pseudohomophones primed and pseudohomographs did not, with the pseudoassociative priming being only weakly affected by spelling differences. In three further experiments, prime homophony and homography were defined in respect to the target. Prime durations were 125 and 21 msec within a mask-prime-mask-target sequence and 57 msec within a mask-prime-target sequence. The superior priming by pseudohomophones was relatively insensitive to spelling. Results are discussed in terms of the phonological coherence hypothesis and the roles for orthographic information implied by the hypothesis.     

How do associative and phonemic overlap interact to boost illusory recollection?

This project investigated the underlying mechanisms that boost false remember responses when participants receive study words that are both semantically and phonologically similar to a critical lure. Participants completed a memory task in which they were presented with a list of words all associated with a critical lure. Included within the list of semantic associates was a target that was either semantically associated (e.g., yawn) to the critical lure (e.g., sleep) or shared the initial (e.g., slam) or final (e.g., beep) phoneme(s) with the critical lure. After hearing the list, participants recalled each list item and indicated whether they just knew it was on the list or if they instead recollected specific contextual details of that item’s presentation. We found that inserting an initial phonemic overlap target boosted experiences of recollection, but only when semantically related associates were presented beforehand. The results are consistent with models of spoken word recognition and show that established semantic context plus initial phonemic overlap play important roles in boosting false recollection.     

Are associative and propositional processes qualitatively distinct? Comment on Gawronski and Bodenhausen (2006)

The authors comment on B. Gawronski and G. V. Bodenhausen's (2006) associative-propositional evaluation model of implicit and explicit attitudes by examining the claims that (a) truth value is attached to propositions but not to associations; (b) pattern activation is qualitatively different from syllogistic structure of arguments; and (c) Pavlovian conditioning may be propositional, whereas evaluative conditioning is not. They conclude that despite surface dissimilarities between implicit and explicit attitudes both may be mediated by the same underlying process.     

Are coffee and toffee served in a cup? Ortho-phonologically mediated associative priming

We report three masked associative priming experiments with the lexical decision task that explore whether the initial activation flow of a visually presented word activates the semantic representations of that word's orthographic/phonological neighbours. The predictions of cascades and serial/modular models of lexical processing differ widely in this respect. Using a masked priming paradigm (stimulus onset asynchrony, SOA = 50 ms), words preceded by ortho-phonologically mediated associated “neighbours” (oveja–MIEL, the Spanish for sheep–HONEY; note that oveja is a phonological neighbour of abeja, the Spanish for bee) were recognized more rapidly than words preceded by an unrelated word prime (Experiments 1 and 3). Furthermore, the magnitude of the ortho-phonologically mediated priming effect (oveja–MIEL) was similar to the magnitude of the associative priming effect (abeja–MIEL). With visible primes and a 250-ms SOA, only the directly associated words showed a priming effect (Experiment 2). These findings pose some problems for a modular account and are more easily interpreted in terms of cascaded models.     

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.     

Younger and older adults’ associative memory for medication interactions of varying severity

While older adults face various deficits in binding items in memory, they are often able to remember information that is deemed important. In Experiment 1, we examined how younger and older adults remember medication interactions of varying severity. There were no age differences in overall memory accuracy, but older adults’ performance depended on the severity of the interactions (such that the interactions associated with the most severe health outcomes were remembered most accurately) while younger adults’ did not. In Experiment 2, a similar task was designed to create interference in memory. Even with this more difficult task there were no age differences in recall accuracy, and both age groups remembered the interactions with the severe outcomes most accurately. These findings suggest that, under certain circumstances, older adults do not face deficits in associative recognition accuracy of information that varies in importance.     

Is an attention-based associative account of adjacent and nonadjacent dependency learning valid?

Pacton and Perruchet (2008) reported that participants who were asked to process adjacent elements located within a sequence of digits learned adjacent dependencies but did not learn nonadjacent dependencies and conversely, participants who were asked to process nonadjacent digits learned nonadjacent dependencies but did not learn adjacent dependencies. In the present study, we showed that when participants were simply asked to read aloud the same sequences of digits, a task demand that did not require the intentional processing of specific elements as in standard statistical learning tasks, only adjacent dependencies were learned. The very same pattern was observed when digits were replaced by syllables. These results show that the perfect symmetry found in Pacton and Perruchet was not due to the fact that the processing of digits is less sensitive to their distance than the processing of syllables, tones, or visual shapes used in most statistical learning tasks. Moreover, the present results, completed with a reanalysis of the data collected in Pacton and Perruchet (2008), demonstrate that participants are highly sensitive to violations involving the spacing between paired elements. Overall, these results are consistent with the Pacton and Perruchet's single-process account of adjacent and nonadjacent dependencies, in which the joint attentional processing of the two events is a necessary and sufficient condition for learning the relation between them, irrespective of their distance. However, this account should be completed to encompass the notion that the presence or absence of an intermediate event is an intrinsic component of the representation of an association.     

Visuospatial cueing by self-caused features: Orienting of attention and action–outcome associative learning

The effect of a salient visual feature in orienting spatial attention was examined as a function of the learned association between the visual feature and the observer’s action. During an initial acquisition phase, participants learned that two keypress actions consistently produced red and green visual cues. Next, in a test phase, participants’ actions continued to result in singletons, but their color could be either congruent or incongruent with the learned action–color associations. Furthermore, the color singletons now functioned as valid or invalid spatial cues in a visual search, in which participants looked for a tilted line (“/” or “\”) among distractors (“X”s). The results showed that an action-congruent color was more effective as a valid cue in the search task (increased benefit), but less effective as an invalid cue (reduced cost). We discuss our findings in terms of both an inhibition account and a preactivation account of action-driven sensory bias, and argue in favor of the preactivation account.     

Does a simultaneous memory load affect older and younger adults’ implicit associative learning?

This study investigated the effects of a simultaneous memory load on implicit associative sequence learning using the Triplets Learning Task (TLT). Participants in the Simultaneous condition held a secondary task memory load during the TLT, while those in the Sequential condition also performed both tasks, but successively, rather than simultaneously. Thus, the Simultaneous condition had a memory load during the TLT, while the Sequential condition did not. Probe blocks without the secondary task allowed separation of effects on learning from effects on its expression. Results revealed that the simultaneous memory load affected older, but not younger adults, by suppressing the expression of learning, not learning itself. Thus, older and younger adults can learn probabilistic associations while holding a simultaneous memory load, but the load can limit the extent to which older adults adapt their performance to environmental structure. Results are consistent with theories which propose that implicit associative learning does not call on limited capacity resources, and highlight the importance of distinguishing effects of dual tasks on the expression of learning from those on learning itself.     

Semantic processing in “associative” false memory

We studied the semantic properties of a class of illusions, of which the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm is the most prominent example, in which subjects falsely remember words that are associates of studied words. We analyzed DRM materials for 16 dimensions of semantic content and assessed the ability of these dimensions to predict interlist variability in false memory. For the more general class of illusions, we analyzed pairs of presented and unpresented words that varied in associative strength for the presence of these same 16 semantic properties. DRM materials proved to be exceptionally rich in meaning, as indexed by these semantic properties. Variability in false recall, false recognition, and backward associative strength loaded on a single semantic factor (familiarity/meaningfulness), whereas variability in true recall loaded on a quite different factor (imagery/concreteness). For word association generally, 15 semantic properties varied reliably with forward or backward association between words. Implications for semantic versus associative processing in this class of illusions, for dual-process theories, and for semantic properties of word associations are discussed. nt]mis|The present article was supported, in part, by grants from the National Institutes of Health (MH-061211) and the National Science Foundation (BCS 0553225) to C.J.B. and V.F.R., a grant from the National Cancer Institute (R13CA126359) to V.F.R., and a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council U.K. (RES-062-23-0452) to M.L.H.     

Do novel associative word stem completion and cued recall share the same memory retrieval processes?

The aim of this study was to determine whether word stem completion for novel associations between cue and target words was mediated by automatic unconscious memory processes or effortful memory processes under conscious control. This was done by applying full and divided attention conditions at test to stem completion, cued recall, and recognition, and by administering a questionnaire that probed the memory strategies used by subjects during the completion test. Divided attention had no effect on stem completion performance, but did reduce associative cued recall. Recognition performance was weakened overall by divided attention, but the associative effect was similar under both attention conditions. This suggested that novel associative word stem completion was mediated by automatic retrieval processes. However, the results of the questionnaire indicated that only subjects who attempted to remember the words from the study phase during the completion task showed any novel associative effect. It is concluded that novel association word stem completion and cued recall share automatic retrieval processes, which nevertheless give rise to the experience of remembering.     

A neural model of hippocampal–striatal interactions in associative learning and transfer generalization in various neurological and psychiatric patients

Building on our previous neurocomputational models of basal ganglia and hippocampal region function (and their modulation by dopamine and acetylcholine, respectively), we show here how an integration of these models can inform our understanding of the interaction between the basal ganglia and hippocampal region in associative learning and transfer generalization across various patient populations. As a common test bed for exploring interactions between these brain regions and neuromodulators, we focus on the acquired equivalence task, an associative learning paradigm in which stimuli that have been associated with the same outcome acquire a functional similarity such that subsequent generalization between these stimuli increases. This task has been used to test cognitive dysfunction in various patient populations with damages to the hippocampal region and basal ganglia, including studies of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), schizophrenia, basal forebrain amnesia, and hippocampal atrophy. Simulation results show that damage to the hippocampal region—as in patients with hippocampal atrophy (HA), hypoxia, mild Alzheimer’s (AD), or schizophrenia—leads to intact associative learning but impaired transfer generalization performance. Moreover, the model demonstrates how PD and anterior communicating artery (ACoA) aneurysm—two very different brain disorders that affect different neural mechanisms—can have similar effects on acquired equivalence performance. In particular, the model shows that simulating a loss of dopamine function in the basal ganglia module (as in PD) leads to slow acquisition learning but intact transfer generalization. Similarly, the model shows that simulating the loss of acetylcholine in the hippocampal region (as in ACoA aneurysm) also results in slower acquisition learning. We argue from this that changes in associative learning of stimulus–action pathways (in the basal ganglia) or changes in the learning of stimulus representations (in the hippocampal region) can have similar functional effects.     

Auditory agnosia: apperceptive or associative disorder?

Neuropsychological testing of a patient with auditory agnosia showed that certain difficulties in the initial analysis of sounds may be the cause of his inability to understand spoken words and other sounds. Abnormalities included a slow reaction time to brief auditory stimuli (but not to equally brief visual stimuli or to longer auditory stimuli) and the need for approximately 1/4 sec of silence between two tones before the patient was able to hear them as separate. He could identify words and word associations if he was able to view the object whose name or word associate he was hearing. The findings imply that this patient's deficit in comprehending speech was probably apperceptive rather than associative in origin.     

Exploring the time course of semantic interference and associative priming in the picture–word interference task

The picture–word interference (PWI) task is a widely used technique for exploring effects of semantic context on lexical access. In this task, printed words are superimposed over pictures to be named, with the timing of the interfering word relative to the picture systematically manipulated. Two experiments (N = 24 adults in each) explored the time course of effects of associates (e.g., CARROT superimposed on a picture of a rabbit) versus coordinates (e.g., CHIPMUNK superimposed on a picture of a rabbit) on naming latencies. Associates led to faster picture naming than did unrelated words, with facilitative effects occurring at stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs, in ms) ranging from –450 to 0. Coordinates led to slower naming latencies, with the interference effect restricted to SOAs of –150 and 0. The overlapping time course of associative priming and coordinate interference provides important constraints on models of lexical access in speech production.     

False recall in the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm: The roles of gist and associative strength

Theories of false memories, particularly in the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm, focus on word association strength and gist. Backward associative strength (BAS) is a strong predictor of false recall in this paradigm. However, other than being defined as a measure of association between studied list words and falsely recalled nonpresented critical words, there is little understanding of this variable. In Experiment 1, we used a knowledge-type taxonomy to classify the semantic relations in DRM stimuli. These knowledge types predicted false-recall probability, as well as BAS itself, with the most important being situation features, synonyms, and taxonomic relations. In three subsequent experiments, we demonstrated that lists composed solely of situation features can elicit a gist and produce false memories, particularly when monitoring processes are made more difficult. Our results identify the semantic factors that underlie BAS and suggest how considering semantic relations leads to a better understanding of gist formation.     

Prawn-in-a-tube procedure: habituation or associative learning in cuttlefish?

The prawn-in-a-tube procedure (J. B. Messenger, 1973a) has been used almost exclusively to study associative learning in cuttlefish. In two experiments, the authors sought to determine whether the decline in attack responses observed in this procedure was best accounted for by habituation or associative learning. Results of Experiment 1 revealed an asymmetrical stimulus-specificity effect that could be interpreted as either an instance of habituation or of associative learning. Results of Experiment 2 demonstrated that the response decline could not be reversed following the presentation of a dishabituatory stimulus. The combined results of these experiments support the conclusion that the response decline is best viewed as a resulting of associative processes. The authors considered whether the response decline represents extinction or passive avoidance.     

Lexical processing of ambiguous words: dominance or associative strength?

Four experiments examined the role of meaning frequency (dominance) and associative strength (measured by associative norms) in the processing of ambiguous words in isolation. Participants made lexical decisions to targets words that were associates of the more frequent (dominant) or less frequent (subordinate) meaning of a homograph prime. The first two experiments investigated the role of associative strength at long SOAs (Stimulus Onset Asynchrony) (750 ms.), showing that meaning is facilitated by the targets' associative strength and not by their dominance. The last two experiments traced the role associative strength at short SOAs (250 ms), showing that the manipulation of the associative strength has no effect in the semantic priming. The conclusions are: on the one hand, semantic priming for homographs is due to associative strength manipulations at long SOAs. On the other hand, the manipulation of the associative strength has no effect when automatic processes (short SOAs) are engaged for homographs.     

Do distractors interfere with memory for study pairs in associative recognition?

In an associative recognition task, distractors generally consist of a rearrangement of the items composing the study pairs. This makes it possible that processing the distractors generates retroactive interference on memory for the study pairs. In Experiment 1, we explored this possibility in ayes/no recognition test concerning previously learned arbitrary associations between visual symbols and auditory syllables. Rearranged pairs had a deleterious impact on the accuracy and the speed of responses to related correct pairs. This effect did not vary as a function of the number of training blocks, and furthermore, in Experiment 2, the same effect was observed for overlearned small multiplication facts. These results suggest that exposure to potentially confounding information generates interference even if this information is known to be incorrect. Some implications are outlined, especially with regard to the widespread use of multiple-choice tests in knowledge evaluation.