The Effect of Imageability and Predicability of Cues in Autobiographical Memory

Four experiments investigated the role of imagery in the recollection of autobiographical memories. The first two experiments examined the effects of word imageability and word frequency on the retrieval of personal memories in a cued autobiographical memory task. They showed that the imageability of cues (but not frequency) mediates specificity in the recall of personal memories. Experiment 2 explored how different imagery modalities (visual, olfactory, tactile, auditory, and motor) influence autobiographical retrieval. Consistent with research on imagery modalities in verbal learning paradigms, visual imageability emerged as the most significant predictor of specificity. Experiments 3 and 4 examined how far a knowledge-based account of imagery effects might account for these effects, using predicability as a measure of semantic richness of a cue. Results found that visual imageability of cues accounted for more variance in specificity of recall than did predicability. The results are explained in terms of the way images represent the most efficient form of summarizing the information that can be used at each stage of the recollection process: setting the retrieval plan, strategic search, and evaluation of candidate episodes.     

Comparison of barriers self-efficacy and perceived behavioral control for explaining physical activity across 1 year among adolescent girls.

The absence of longitudinal data about correlates of physical activity during adolescence has hindered the identification of key mediator variables that can be targeted by interventions. Building on the authors' previous report of a cross-sectional analysis, this study compared barriers self-efficacy and perceived behavioral control as predictors of change in 2 levels of physical activity across a 1-year period among a sample of Black and White adolescent girls (N=1,038). Self-efficacy did not predict change in either moderate or vigorous physical activity. In contrast, perceived behavioral control exhibited a longitudinal, independent relationship with change in vigorous physical activity. The authors concluded that perceived behavioral control is an independent predictor of change in vigorous physical activity levels across a 1-year period among a sample of Black and White adolescent girls and warrants study as a potential mediator variable in interventions designed to increase or maintain physical activity.     

Order-relevant and order-irrelevant decision rules in multiletter matching

Two experiments examined order effects in multiletter matching. In each experiment, subjects used one of two decision rules that differed in whether pairs of letter strings that contained the same letters, but in different orders (rearranged pairs), were classified as same or different. Method of presentation also was varied, with the two strings in each pair being presented either simultaneously or successively in one experiment, and with the exposure duration of the second of two successively presented strings being either short or long in the other. Latency and accuracy of responding to the rearranged pairs varied as a function of the amount of positional displacement, with the two tasks showing similar, but mirror image, patterns. This outcome suggests that most of the order effects are attributable to processes common to both tasks, although there was some evidence for a contribution from task-specific processes as well. Both method-of-presentation manipulations had little influence on the order effects, suggesting that the effects are attributable to perceptual and decision processes, rather than to memory processes. The results are most consistent with a model that assumes position-sensitive comparisons, with the same-different decision based on pooled information.