The influence of word frequency on recency effects in directed free recall.

Leading theoretical explanations of recency effects are designed to explain the reported absence of a word frequency effect on recall of words from recency serial positions. The present study used a directed free-recall procedure (J. I. Dalezman, 1976) and manipulated the frequency composition of the word lists (pure and mixed). Overall, with pure lists, a greater proportion of high-frequency (HF) words were recalled than low-frequency (LF) words, and with mixed lists, a greater proportion of LF words were recalled than HF words. Of importance, this recall advantage for one frequency over the other as a function of list composition was evident across the last three serial positions, indicating an influence of word frequency on recency effects that is dependent on the frequency composition of the lists. These results challenge one of the major assumptions on which several theories of recency effects have been based. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Examining the relationship between free recall and immediate serial recall: The effect of concurrent task performance.

In 3 experiments, participants saw lists of 16 words for free recall with or without a 6-digit immediate serial recall (ISR) task after each word. Free recall was performed under standard visual silent and spoken-aloud conditions (Experiment 1), overt rehearsal conditions (Experiment 2), and fixed rehearsal conditions (Experiment 3). The authors found that in each experiment, there was no effect of ISR on the magnitude of the recency effect, but interleaved ISR disrupted free recall of those words that would otherwise be rehearsed. The authors conclude that ISR and recency cannot both be outputs from a unitary limited-capacity short-term memory store and discuss the possibility that the process of rehearsal may be common to both tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Effect of the Length of To-Be-Remembered Lists and Intervening Lists on Free Recall: A Reexamination Using Overt Rehearsal.

In 3 experiments, the authors investigated the effects of to-be-remembered (TBR) and intervening list length on free recall to determine whether selective rehearsal could explain the previous finding that recall was affected only by TBR list length. In Experiments 1 (covert rehearsal) and 2 (overt rehearsal), participants saw 5- and 20-word lists and had to recall the list prior to that last presented list. In Experiment 3, either 1 or 2 lists were presented, and recall of TBR list was postcued. Recall proportion decreased with increased TBR list length. Moreover, the authors found extended recency effects when recall was replotted by when words were last rehearsed (Experiments 2 and 3) and an effect of intervening list length when rehearsal was reduced (Experiment 3). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stimulus context effects, associative strength, and word frequency as determiners of free recall in paired-associate learning.

Two levels of response word frequency and three levels of associative strength of paired-associates were used to form six lists. One level of low associative strength between pairs to be learned was created by re-pairing stimuli and responses from high associative strength lists. Both the high associative strength condition and the re-paired condition produced superior recall of response items. Results suggested that the development of response availability in paired-associate learning depends in part not only upon the strength of the initial relationship between each stimulus and response pair to be learned, but also upon the context provided by other stimuli in the list. The meaning of "present at input" in studies evaluating the principle of encoding specificity (Tulving & Thompson, 1973) was questioned. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age dissociates recency and lag recency effects in free recall.

The temporal relations among word-list items exert a powerful influence on episodic memory retrieval. Two experiments were conducted with younger and older adults in which the age-related recall deficit was examined by using a decomposition method to the serial position curve, partitioning performance into (a) the probability of first recall, illustrating the recency effect, and (b) the conditional response probability, illustrating the lag recency effect (M. W. Howard & M. J. Kahana, 1999). Although the older adults initiated recall in the same manner in both immediate and delayed free recall, temporal proximity of study items (contiguity) exerted a much weaker influence on recall transitions in older adults. This finding suggests that an associative deficit may be an important contributor to older adults' well-known impairment in free recall. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting free recalls.

This article reports some calculations on free-recall data from B. Murdock and J. Metcalfe (1978), with vocal rehearsal during the presentation of a list. Given the sequence of vocalizations, with the stimuli inserted in their proper places, it is possible to predict the subsequent sequence of recalls--the predictions taking the form of a probability distribution over all possible such sequences. The predictions are parameter free. This article looks at (a) the accuracy of those predictions and how that accuracy can be validated, (b) the principles on which the predictive algorithm is based, and (c) the limits to predictability. Some implications for the understanding of free recall are spelled out. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of item-specific information for the serial position curve in free recall.

The serial position curve in free recall of a list of action phrases differs depending on whether the phrases were memorized by listening/reading (verbal task; VT) or by additionally enacting the denoted actions (subject-performed task; SPT). In VTs there is a clear primacy effect and a short recency effect. In SPTs there is no primacy effect but an extended recency effect. H. D. Zimmer, T. Helstrup, and J. Engelkamp (2000) assumed that SPTs provide excellent item-specific information, which leads to an automatic pop-out of the items presented last. In the present study, the authors assumed that good item-specific encoding generally enhances the recency effect and that it hinders rehearsal processes and thereby reduces the primacy effect. This assumption was confirmed. An item-specific orienting task leads to parallel serial position curves in VTs and SPTs with no primacy effect but a clear recency effect. Moreover, the same serial position effects were shown with nouns as learning material. An item-specific orienting task changes the classical U-shaped serial position curve with verbal material and leads to the disappearance of the primacy and the enhancement of the recency effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age of acquisition and word frequency effects in picture naming: A dual-task investigation.

In 2 experiments, the authors explored age of acquisition (AoA) and word frequency (WF) effects in picture naming using the psychological refractory period paradigm. In Experiment 1, participants named a picture and then, a short time later, categorized 1 of 3 possible auditory tones as high, medium, or low. Both AoA (Experiment 1A) and WF (Experiment 1B) effects propagated onto tone discrimination reaction times (RTs), with the effects of AoA being stronger. In Experiment 2, the to-be-named picture followed the auditory tone by a varying interval. As the interval decreased, picture naming RTs increased. The relationship between the interval and AoA (Experiment 2A) was reliably underadditive; AoA effects were eliminated at the shortest interval. In contrast, WF (Experiment 2B) was additive with the effects of the interval. These results demonstrate an empirical dissociation between AoA and WF effects. AoA affects processing stages that precede those that are sensitive to WF. The implications for theories of picture naming are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On some factors in the organizational characteristics of free recall.

Ss "reorganize the material so that the recalls differ in sequential properties from those of the original list." When categorized subgroups of words are presented in a random order and Ss in recall put together or cluster such categorized items, the procedure is called category clustering. Associative clustering occurs "when in their recalls the Ss put together in sequence the stimuli and their responses which had been separated at list presentation" (e.g., stimuli such as table and mountain and responses such as chair and hill were presented in random order in word lists to Ss for recall). Results of several investigations are discussed. "When sufficiently prominent, experimenter-provided associational and categorical relations between members of a word pair provide a basis for clustering in free recall alternative to the bases—associational or otherwise—the S will use to effect subjective organization or idiosyncratic pairing. Free recall can tell us something of the way verbal organization is set up but we are largely in the dark as to how this organization acts to bring related items together whatever the basis of their relationship." 14 figures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Examining the relationship between free recall and immediate serial recall: The effects of list length and output order.

In 4 experiments, participants were presented with lists of between 1 and 15 words for tests of immediate memory. For all tasks, participants tended to initiate recall with the first word on the list for short lists. As the list length was increased, so there was a decreased tendency to start with the first list item; and, when free to do so, participants showed an increased tendency to start with one of the last 4 list items. In all tasks, the start position strongly influenced the shape of the resultant serial position curves: When recall started at Serial Position 1, elevated recall of early list items was observed; when recall started toward the end of the list, there were extended recency effects. These results occurred under immediate free recall (IFR) and different variants of immediate serial recall (ISR) and reconstruction of order (RoO) tasks. We argue that these findings have implications for the relationship between IFR and ISR and between rehearsal and recall. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Data-driven methodology illustrating mechanisms underlying word list recall: Applications to clinical research.

Objective: Word list learning tasks such as the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT; Delis, Kramer, Kaplan, & Ober, 1987) are widely used to investigate recall strategies. Participants who recall the most words generally employ semantic techniques, whereas those with poor recall (e.g., patients with schizophrenia) rely on serial techniques. However, these conclusions are based on formulas that assume that categories reflect semantic associations, bind strategy to overall performance, and neglect strategy changes over 5 trials. Therefore, we derived novel measures—independent of recall performance—to compute strategies across trials and identify whether diagnosis predicts recall strategy. Method: Participants were included on the basis of performance on the CVLT (i.e., total words recalled over 5 trials). The 50 highest and 50 lowest performers among healthy volunteers (n = 100) and patients with schizophrenia (n = 100) were selected. Novel measures of recall and transition probability were calculated and analyzed by permutation tests. Results: Recall patterns and strategies of patients resembled those of controls with similar performance levels: Regardless of diagnosis, low performers were more likely to recall the first 2 and last 4 items from the list; high performers increased engagement of semantically based transitions across the 5 trials, whereas low performers did not. Conclusions: Cognitive strategy must be considered independent of overall performance before attributing poor performance to degraded learning processes. Our results demonstrate the importance of departing from global scoring techniques, especially when working with clinical populations such as patients with schizophrenia for whom episodic memory deficits are a hallmark feature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of stimulus frequency on subsequent recall of backward associates.

Previous research has shown that increased Thorndike-Lorge frequency (F) of stimulus-terms leads to poorer paired-associate learning (PAL), while increased F-level of response-terms facilitates PAL. Therefore, if a word pair is learned in the order A-B, then later tested in reverse (B-A), there are two possibilities. (1) Error level could be the same on the reverse test, implying that performance on the A-B learning trials determined the strength of the B-A association. (2) Error level on the reverse test could revert to what it would have been if the B-A pair had been learned originally. In the present study the experimental group learned A-B word pairs and was tested on corresponding B-A versions. Results showed that, for the experimental group, the relationship between errors and F-level of the A-terms shifted dramatically between the last A-B trial and B-A test trial. On the B-A test trial, this group performed in a manner comparable to that of a control group trained on B-A throughout. Thus, for pairs which differed in F-level of their stimulus-terms, relative performance during the A-B learning trials was not a crucial factor in later B-A performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Additive and interactive effects on response time distributions in visual word recognition.

Across 3 different word recognition tasks, distributional analyses were used to examine the joint effects of stimulus quality and word frequency on underlying response time distributions. Consistent with the extant literature, stimulus quality and word frequency produced additive effects in lexical decision, not only in the means but also in the shape of the response time distributions, supporting an early normalization process that is separate from processes influenced by word frequency. In contrast, speeded pronunciation and semantic classification produced interactive influences of word frequency and stimulus quality, which is a fundamental prediction from interactive activation models of lexical processing. These findings suggest that stimulus normalization is specific to lexical decision and is driven by the task's emphasis on familiarity-based information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distributional effects of word frequency on eye fixation durations.

Recent research using word recognition paradigms, such as lexical decision and speeded pronunciation, has investigated how a range of variables affect the location and shape of response time distributions, using both parametric and non-parametric techniques. In this article, we explore the distributional effects of a word frequency manipulation on fixation durations in normal reading, making use of data from two recent eye movement experiments (Drieghe, Rayner, & Pollatsek, 2008; White, 2008). The ex-Gaussian distribution provided a good fit to the shape of individual subjects' distributions in both experiments. The frequency manipulation affected both the shift and skew of the distributions, in both experiments, and this conclusion was supported by the nonparametric vincentizing technique. Finally, a new experiment demonstrated that White's (2008) frequency manipulation also affects both shift and skew in response-time distributions in the lexical decision task. These results argue against models of eye movement control in reading that propose that word frequency influences only a subset of fixations and support models in which there is a tight connection between eye movement control and the progress of lexical processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Immediate and delayed effects of word frequency and word length on eye movements in reading: A reversed delayed effect of word length.

Three experiments examined the effects in sentence reading of varying the frequency and length of an adjective on (a) fixations on the adjective and (b) fixations on the following noun. The gaze duration on the adjective was longer for low frequency than for high frequency adjectives and longer for long adjectives than for short adjectives. This contrasted with the spillover effects: Gaze durations on the noun were longer when adjectives were low frequency but were actually shorter when the adjectives were long. The latter effect, which seems anomalous, can be explained by three mechanisms: (a) Fixations on the noun are less optimal after short adjectives because of less optimal targeting; (b) shorter adjectives are more difficult to process because they have more neighbors; and (c) prior fixations before skips are less advantageous places to extract parafoveal information. The viability of these hypotheses as explanations of this reverse length effect on the noun was examined in simulations using an updated version of the E-Z Reader model (A. Pollatsek, K. Reichle, & E. D. Rayner, 2006c; E. D. Reichle, A. Pollatsek, D. L. Fisher, & K. Rayner, 1998). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sublexical or lexical effects on serial recall of nonwords?

S. E. Gathercole, C. R. Frankish, S. J. Pickering, and S. Peaker (1999) reported 2 experiments in which they manipulated phonotactic properties of nonword stimuli and observed the effects on serial recall. Their results show superior recall for items consisting of more frequent phoneme pairs (biphone frequency). Biphone frequency was counted as the number of 3 phoneme words in which the phoneme pair occurs. In the first experiment of the current article, the authors made the same manipulation while controlling for the number of lexical neighbors and found no effect of biphone frequency. In the second experiment, the authors manipulated neighborhood size while controlling biphone frequency and found a significant effect of neighborhood size. The authors argued that serial recall of nonwords is influenced by lexical rather than sublexical knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An Observation on the Role of Context Variability in Free Recall.

The authors conducted 3 experiments investigating the effect of context variability and word frequency on free recall. Context variability refers to the number of preexperimental contexts in which a given word is experienced. Both between-subjects and within-subjects manipulations of context variability demonstrated a distinct advantage for low context variability words. Standard word frequency effects were obtained in 2 of the 3 experiments, but the common finding of no word frequency differences in mixed lists of high and low word frequency may depend on the level (low vs. high) of context variability. The authors speculate that the advantage for low context variability items may accrue from better item-to-list context associations or better storage of contextual information as a consequence of the smaller preexperimental contextual fan that these items possess. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temporal associations and prior-list intrusions in free recall.

When asked to recall the words from a just-presented target list, subjects occasionally recall words that were not on the list. These intrusions either appeared on earlier lists (prior-list intrusions, or PLIs) or had not appeared over the course of the experiment (extra-list intrusions). The authors examined the factors that elicit PLIs in free recall. A reanalysis of earlier studies revealed that PLIs tend to come from semantic associates as well as from recently studied lists, with the rate of PLIs decreasing sharply with list recency. The authors report 3 new experiments in which some items in a given list also appeared on earlier lists. Although repetition enhanced recall of list items, subjects were significantly more likely to make PLIs following the recall of repeated items, suggesting that temporal associations formed in earlier lists can induce recall errors. The authors interpret this finding as evidence for the interacting roles of associative and contextual retrieval processes in recall. Although contextual information helps to focus recall on words in the target list, it does not form an impermeable boundary between current- and prior-list experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between word frequency and perceptibility with a forced-choice technique.

"A number of studies have suggested that word thresholds obtained from the ascending method of limits are particularly susceptible to linguistic biases and hence may indicate little about perception. In the present investigation a forced-choice technique was employed in which S was presented with several words and required to identify the spatial location of a given word. With this technique, which reduces or eliminates response bias, the same positive relationship between frequency of prior usage and performance as had been found with the ascending method of limits was obtained. The implications of a perceptual interpretation of these findings were discussed." From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4GG91T. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Physiological need, verbal frequency, and word association.

"Fifty college men and women were deprived of food and water for 0, 10, and 24 hours, and were presented with a word association list of 24 words which has been matched for commonness and need-relevance. Each S was tested only once. The results show that (a) more food, water, and neutral word association responses were made to food, water, and neutral stimulus words, respectively; (b) there was an increase in the number of food and water responses up to the tenth hour, but a decrease thereafter; and (c) with protracted periods of deprivation the number of responses pertaining to acts instrumental to need satisfaction increased while the number of responses involving the names of need satisfiers decreased." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)