Enactment supports unitisation of action components and enhances the contribution of familiarity to associative recognition

Memory for actions is usually better following subject-performed tasks (SPT) than verbal tasks (VT). We hypothesised that enactment unitises the components of actions such that familiarity can support associative recognition following SPT. To examine this hypothesis, participants studied verb–object pairs in a SPT or VT condition. During testing, they discriminated between intact, recombined and new items and made Remember/Know judgments; additionally, their EEGs were recorded. Associative recognition was better following SPT than VT. Early frontal event-related potentials (ERPs) were graded according to the item status following SPT, but no such effects were found after VT. Similarly, the late parietal ERPs were graded following SPT, whereas these effects were smaller and did not differ between intact and recombined items following VT. We conclude that enactment unitised the action and object so that familiarity could contribute to associative recognition and that recollection became sensitive to the amount of the matching associative information.     

动作记忆SPT优势效应的理论探讨

操作条件下的记忆效果好于语词条件下记忆效果的现象被称为动作记忆SPT效应。以往研究先后提出非策略加工、多通道加工、动作编码及情景整合理论来解释SPT效应,但这些理论解释仍存在矛盾和分歧,并阻碍了当前动作记忆领域的研究进展。为了解决目前的理论困境,本文详细地阐述了各理论的核心内容、发展历程及其存在矛盾和分歧的原因,并提出应以加工过程与加工对象相结合的视角来建立新的理论模型,以进一步促进实证研究的展开。     

SPT效应的编码机制：项目特异性与项目关联性信息

SPT是增强了项目特异性信息还是增强了项目关联性信息一直是SPT效应研究的主题。研究从项目特异性信息和项目关联性信息两个层面综述了SPT效应编码机制的相关研究。在项目特异性信息方面,研究剖析了SPT增强项目特异性信息加工的具体内容、所采取的研究方式以及SPT增强项目特异性加工的原因。在项目关联信息方面,研究分类梳理了情景关联、项目与环境的关联以及类别关联在SPT效应中的作用。未来研究应着手探索SPT能够增强项目特异性加工的深层原因。     

SPT效应的自动突显机制:来自输出监测的证据

研究采用"对回忆的再认"范式,从输出监测的角度考察了操作效应的提取机制。实验1结果显示,被试操作任务条件下的自由回忆的系列位置成绩缺乏首因效应,却拥有扩展的近因效应;被试操作任务条件下的"对回忆的再认"成绩显著差于语词任务下的成绩,差异具体表现在组块2~9、10、11和12上,表明在上述组块,被试操作任务条件下的提取存在自动突显,即操作效应得益于这些组块在提取时的自动突显。实验2结果显示,在类别测验下,被试操作任务和语词任务的自由回忆成绩拥有相似的系列位置曲线,而"对回忆的再认"结果同实验1。研究认为自由回忆的系列位置效应与自动突显机制之间不存在直接的因果关系,而"对回忆的再认"范式则能敏感地测量出操作效应的提取机制。     

动作操作与怪异性对联结记忆的影响

被试操作任务（SPT）编码后的记忆成绩通常优于语词任务（VT）编码后的记忆成绩,此类现象被称为SPT效应。本研究考察动作与物体之间已有的联结程度对联结再认的SPT效应的影响。学习阶段,被试使用SPT与VT编码识记日常动作短语（动作与物体配对,如“切西瓜”）和怪异动作短语（如“种锤子”）;测试阶段,要求被试区分“旧”、“重组合”和“新”短语。结果发现,当识记日常动作短语时,SPT条件的联结再认成绩显著高于VT条件的成绩,但是,当识记怪异动作短语时,SPT条件与VT条件的联结再认成绩无显著差异。此外,仅在VT而非SPT条件,怪异动作短语的联结再认成绩显著高于日常动作短语的成绩。研究结果表明,动作操作和刺激材料的怪异性均可促进动作与物体的联结记忆,但是两者不能对联结记忆产生叠加的促进作用。     

The association of motor information and verbal information: a new perspective on the mechanism of the SPT effect

Current perspectives on the mechanism underlying the Subject Performed Task (SPT) effect have not yet reached a consensus. This study investigated whether the association between motor and verbal information is a key factor that explains the SPT effect. Experiment 1 and 2 tested whether motor and verbal retrieval memory performance were different when the association level was varied. Results showed that when subjects used low association learning materials, memory performance in either motor or verbal retrieval condition was significantly better than performance in the combined retrieval condition. Experiment 3 examined whether the level of association between motor and verbal information affects the SPT effect. Results revealed that the SPT effect disappeared when low association learning materials were used. Our findings imply that the high association level between motor and verbal information enables mutual activation of the two information types, leading to improved memory performance.     

Facilitation of source discrimination in the novelty effect

It has been demonstrated experimentally that recognition of novel items is more accurate than recognition of previously familiarized items. Tulving and Kroll (1995) proposed that this effect is due to novelty detectors in the brain giving processing priority to novel information. Recently, Dobbins et al. (1998) suggested that the effect is due to source discrimination problems. In the present two experiments attempts were made to facilitate source discrimination by having different orienting tasks and materials in the familiarization and in the critical presentations. Degree of familiarization was manipulated by varying number of presentations one, two or three times. The results in Experiment 1 showed that the novelty effect increased linearly as a function of presentations in the familiarization phase. In the second experiment the difference between familiar and novel items was even more pronounced. Enactment at encoding was added as a manipulation during familiarization. The results of Experiment 2 showed that the novelty effect did increase linearly for items with nonenacted encoding (in which the familiarization and the critical phase were more similar) but not for enacted encoding. All subjects reported experiencing source discrimination difficulties in both experiments despite the measures taken to diminish them. It seems safe to conclude that source discrimination difficulties are a part of the novelty effect.