The effect of long-term working memory through personalization applied to free recall: Uncurbing the primacy-effect enthusiasm

In this study, a personalization method (Guida, Tardieu, & Nicolas, European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 21: 862–896 2009) was applied to a free-recall task. Fifteen pairs of words, composed of an object and a location, were presented to 93 participants, who had to mentally associate each pair and subsequently recall the objects. A 30-s delay was introduced on half of the trials, the presentation rate was manipulated (5 or 10 s per item), and verbal and visuospatial working memory tests were administered to test for their effects on the serial curve. Two groups were constituted: a personalized group, for whom the locations were well-known places on their university campus, and a nonpersonalized group, for whom the locations did not refer to known places. Since personalization putatively operationalizes long-term working memory (Ericsson & Kintsch, Psychological Review, 102: 211–245 1995)—namely, the capacity to store information reliably and rapidly in long-term memory—and if we take a dual-store approach to memory, the personalization advantage would be expected to be greater for pre-recency than for recency items. Overall, the results were compatible with long-term working memory theory. They contribute to validating the personalization method as a methodology to characterize the contribution of long-term memory storage to performance in working memory tasks.     

Towards a More Plausible Exemplification Theory of Events

Among the most well-known accounts of events is Jaegwon Kim’s exemplification theory, which identifies each event with a property exemplification (often modeled as an “ordered triple” of an entity, property type, and time). Two of the most influential rival event theorists (Lawrence Lombard and Jonathan Bennett) have urged rejecting exemplificationism on the basis of the charge that it ultimately conflates events with facts [Lombard (1986): Events: A Metaphysical Study. Routledge & Kegan Paul; Bennett (1988):Events and their Names. Hackett Publishing Company]. In response, I offer a detailed examination of Lombard and Bennett’s arguments that exemplificationism undermines the event/fact distinction. I then develop and defend a modified version of Kim’s account that overcomes this objection, and so constitutes a more plausible exemplification theory of events.     

Interpretation and Intention: The Debate between Hypothetical and Actual Intentionalism

Regarded for decades as a fallacy, intentionalist interpretation is beginning to attract a following among philosophers of art. Intentionalism is the doctrine that the actual intentions of artists are relevant to the interpretation of the artworks they create – just as actual intentions are relevant to the interpretation of the everyday words and deeds of other people. Although there are several forms of actual intentionalism, I defend the form known as modest actual intentionalism, which holds that the correct interpretation of an artwork is compatible with the author's actual intention, which itself must be supported by the artwork. Looking at literary works specifically, I consider criticisms of actual intentionalism – for example, the contention that such a stance substitutes paraphrase for a reading of the text. In particular, I argue against hypothetical intentionalism, which maintains that the correct interpretation of an artwork is constrained by the best hypotheses of the artist's intentions. As I show, the methodology of this position is in fact designed to track the author's actual intentions, and furthermore, hypothetical intentionalism does not accurately depict existing interpretive practices.     

Psychologists in secondary schools: Training and present patterns of service

Psychologists serving randomly selected secondary schools were surveyed regarding actual and preferred patterns of service and training. Though a small sample was employed, the random sampling procedure and high response rate attained were viewed by the investigators as effective means for controlling the sampling error that often occurs in survey research. As a group, respondents indicated little specialized training for working with the secondary school population. Traditional assessment and report writing activities occupied the main portion of respondents' working time although nearly all reported involvement in the design and implementation of intervention plans for a variety of client groups. The psychologist-to-student ratio was found to be 1:6180, and more than 60% of those surveyed reported plans for a career change out of school psychology. One-fourth of the districts surveyed reported that psychological services were not regularly available.     

Memorability judgments for high- and low-frequency words

Five experiments were conducted in order to examine subjects’ judgments of the memorability of high- (HF) and low-frequency (LF) words in the context of a recognition memory task. In Experiment 1, the subjects were provided study/test experience with a list of HF and LF words prior to making memorability judgments for a new list of HF and LF items. The findings were consistent with previous evidence (Greene & Thapar, 1994; Wixted, 1992) suggesting that subjects are not explicitly aware of the greater recognition memorability of LF words. Experiments 2–5 embedded the memorability judgment task within the recognition test itself. In these experiments, the subjects consistently gave higher memorability ratings to LF items. The contrast between the pattern of results found when the subjects made their judgments at the time of list presentation (Experiment 1) and that when they made their judgments during the recognition test (Experiments 2–5) is consistent with recent evidence that even seemingly highly related metamnemonic judgments (e.g., ease of learning judgments vs. judgments of learning for the same items) may be based on very different factors if they occur at different points in the study/test cycle. The present findings are also consistent with the possibility that very rapid retrieval of memorability information for HF and LF words may affect recognition decisions and may contribute to the recognition memory word frequency effect.     

Constraints on semantic priming in reading: A fixation time analysis

In Experiment 1, subjects read sentences containing a category name or a neutral prime that was followed by a target exemplar that varied in typicality. Fixation time on the target exemplar was the measure of processing difficulty. The category name facilitated processing for both high- and low-typicality exemplars. Unexpectedly, high-typicality exemplars were processed more quickly than low-typicality exemplars in both primed and unprimed conditions. Experiment 2 extended the priming effect to primary associates. Most importantly, the priming effect was influenced by the syntactic structure of the stimulus sentence. When both the prime and the associated target word were in the same clause, semantic priming occurred, but when the prime and target were in different clauses, no associative facilitation was observed. These results were interpreted as supporting a clausal processing hypothesis based on an autonomous modular view of the language processing system. Furthermore, the results were consistent with direct control models of eye movements, which claim that fixation duration reflects the timing of processing related to the word currently under fixation.     

Visual-motor ability of children with articulation disorders

The present study was done to assess differences between children with diagnosed functional articulation disorders and a control group on the variable of visual-motor ability. A group of 34 elementary children with articulation problems were matched with a control group of 34 for sex, age, and grade. Both groups were administered the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation and the Minnesota Percepto-Diagnostic Test--Revised. Analysis indicated that children with articulation problems performed significantly lower on visual-motor skills.     

Autobiographical memory and perceptual learning: A developmental study using picture recognition,naming latency,and perceptual identification

Memory &; Cognition - In this paper, we report four experiments aimed at extending the distinction between recognition memory and perceptual memory introduced by Jacoby and Dallas (1981). In...     

Sex differences in the relation of children's height and weight to academic performance and others' attributions of competence

The purposes of the present study were to examine the relation of elementary-school girls' and boys' height and weight to (a) teachers' and peers' perceptions of the children's independence and academic, athletic, and social competence; and (b) children's achievement test scores and grades. Teachers rated kindergarteners' through fourth graders' competence both at the beginning of the school year and four months later; first and third graders rated their peers' competence once midyear. In general, size and/or bulk were positively related to teachers' attributions of competence, grades, and achievement test scores for boys, especially for the older boys. Heaviness was negatively related to teachers' ratings of females' competence (especially athletic competence and especially for older girls). Moreover, large size (height not controlling for weight) was positively related to younger but not older children's nominations of males for athletic ability. The results are discussed in terms cultural stereotypes and their implications for the development of children's competence.