Effects of an imagery mnemonic on second language recall and comprehension.

24 university students with some background in French as a 2nd language used an imagery-based hook mnemonic and rote rehearsal to learn sets of French words. The hook technique involved associating the new items with an overlearned series of French stimulus words and images, which could be retrieved during recall using a number code. The rote condition involved the technique without imagery. The recall items, presented with their translation equivalents on the study trial, varied in familiarity and concreteness. Recall following 1 study trial was much higher for words learned by imagery than by rote. This effect was slightly qualified by familiarity and concreteness, which also affected recall. Translation tests given before and (unexpectedly) 1 day after the recall experiment showed that correct translations of relatively unfamiliar items increased more after study by imagery than after rote study. Thus, imagery simultaneously facilitated both recall and comprehension. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Serial recall versus recall by categories in short-term memory.

C. G. Penney (1980) reported that serial recall of a list containing both auditorily and visually presented verbal items produced a lower level of recall than did separate recall of auditory and visual items. This finding was interpreted as support for the hypothesis that auditory and visual items are processed in separate streams in short-term memory, and that it is difficult to integrate these 2 streams into 1 sequence for rehearsal. The present study tested an alternate interpretation of the earlier results, the hypothesis that retention of order information is facilitated by S's being able to organize the list into 2 short sequences rather than 1 long sequence. Three experiments (72 university students) were carried out in which spatial location or category of stimulus material (letters or digits) was used to establish 2 types of items. Total recall from a list did not differ significantly between the serial and category recall conditions. Results rule out the organizational interpretation of the bisensory experiment and, therefore, provide indirect support for the separate streams hypothesis. (French abstract) (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Associative learning of abstract and concrete nouns and their subject-drawn pictorial representations.

Conducted 2 experiments to examine undergraduates' associative learning and pictorial representations of 48 concrete and 48 abstract noun pairs. In Exp. I, 24 Ss drew their own pictures of each noun. In Exp. II, another 24 Ss chose S-drawings that best represented their subjective meaning of the word referents. These Ss also received pretraining in labelling the S-drawings. Results from both experiments show that recall of noun pairs was superior to recall of S-drawn picture pairs. These findings conflict with the literature on picture and word paired-associate learning. In addition, concreteness of items facilitated recall. In Exp. I, concrete S-drawings were significantly better retrieval cues than abstract S-drawings. Results are discussed in terms of Pavio's theory of verbal and imagery processes of memory. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Imagery elaboration and the recall of French article-noun pairs.

Examined the effect of an imagery-based study technique, called the "hook," on the acquisition of French article–noun pairs. 40 undergraduates with some background in French as a 2nd language studied a list of items under imagery elaboration or under rote rehearsal instructions. Under each type of instruction, half the Ss were asked to use the peg words learned prior to the experiment, whereas the remaining half were not asked to use them. When the English translation equivalents were presented as retrieval cues, recall was substantially better under imagery than under rote instructions. The use of mnemonic peg words had a slight detrimental effect on recall, regardless of the type of instructions received. It is concluded that rote repetition, as prescribed in language textbooks, is not as effective as imagery elaboration for learning French article–noun pairs. (French abstract) (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of concurrent semantic categorization on delayed serial recall.

The influence of semantic processing on the serial ordering of items in short-term memory was explored using a novel dual-task paradigm. Participants engaged in 2 picture-judgment tasks while simultaneously performing delayed serial recall. List material varied in the presence of phonological overlap (Experiments 1 and 2) and in semantic content (concrete words in Experiment 1 and 3; nonwords in Experiments 2 and 3). Picture judgments varied in the extent to which they required accessing visual semantic information (i.e., semantic categorization and line orientation judgments). Results showed that, relative to line-orientation judgments, engaging in semantic categorization judgments increased the proportion of item-ordering errors for concrete lists but did not affect error proportions for nonword lists. Furthermore, although more ordering errors were observed for phonologically similar relative to dissimilar lists, no interactions were observed between the phonological overlap and picture-judgment task manipulations. These results demonstrate that lexical-semantic representations can affect the serial ordering of items in short-term memory. Furthermore, the dual-task paradigm provides a new method for examining when and how semantic representations affect memory performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bilingual dual-coding theory and semantic repetition effects on recall.

A bilingual version of dual-coding theory was tested with French-English bilinguals who free recalled lists of concrete and abstract words repeated at different interitem lags. Repetitions involved the same words, translation equivalents, or same-language synonyms. The results extended previous findings and generally supported predictions from dual-coding theory and the independence storage hypothesis of bilingual memory: (a) Relative to single words, semantic repetitions (translations and synonyms) had additive effects on type recall even at short lags, whereas identical repetitions were less than additive at zero lag; (b) recall of identical repetitions increased more with lag than recall of semantic repetitions, so that differences between these conditions were diminished and sometimes reversed; (c) semantic repetition effects were weaker for synonyms than for translations, especially for abstract words; and (d) intrusion errors and pair recall were higher for translations than for synonyms, especially for concrete words at long lags. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comprehension of concrete and abstract words in semantic dementia.

The vast majority of brain-injured patients with semantic impairment have better comprehension of concrete than abstract words. In contrast, several patients with semantic dementia (SD), who show circumscribed atrophy of the anterior temporal lobes bilaterally, have been reported to show reverse imageability effects, that is, relative preservation of abstract knowledge. Although these reports largely concern individual patients, some researchers have recently proposed that superior comprehension of abstract concepts is a characteristic feature of SD. This would imply that the anterior temporal lobes are particularly crucial for processing sensory aspects of semantic knowledge, which are associated with concrete not abstract concepts. However, functional neuroimaging studies of healthy participants do not unequivocally predict reverse imageability effects in SD because the temporal poles sometimes show greater activation for more abstract concepts. The authors examined a case-series of 11 SD patients on a synonym judgment test that orthogonally varied the frequency and imageability of the items. All patients had higher success rates for more imageable as well as more frequent words, suggesting that (1) the anterior temporal lobes underpin semantic knowledge for both concrete and abstract concepts, (2) more imageable items—perhaps because of their richer multimodal representations—are typically more robust in the face of global semantic degradation and (3) reverse imageability effects are not a characteristic feature of SD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Imagery and verbal associative latencies as a function of imagery ability.

Examines RTs of Ss high or low in imagery ability under instructions to elicit a verbal associate or arouse an image to concrete and abstract noun stimuli. 16 high and 14 low imagers were selected from a sample of 77 volunteer undergraduates. Latencies were significantly shorter for high than low imagers, for concrete than abstract words, and for verbal than imagery instructions. 1 interaction showed that imagery latencies were shorter to concrete than to abstract stimuli, whereas the latencies of verbal associations did not differ for the 2 types of words; another revealed that the relative superiority of high over low imagers in reaction speed was greater when the stimuli were abstract. Correlational data suggest that verbal associations may be mediated by both verbal and imaginal processes, thus favoring high imagers in both instruction conditions, and that self-reports of imagery ability can reliably predict imaginal behavior. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Concrete words are easier to recall than abstract words: Evidence for a semantic contribution to short-term serial recall.

Immediate serial recall and maximal speech rate were assessed for concrete and abstract words differing in length. Experiment 1 showed large advantages for spoken recall of concrete words that were independent of speech rate. Experiment 2 showed an equivalent effect with written, rather than spoken, recall. Experiment 3 showed that the concreteness effect was still present when recall was backward rather than forward. In all 3 experiments, concrete words enjoyed an advantage that was roughly constant across all serial positions (with the possible exception of the 1st and last items). Experiment 4 used a matching-span procedure and showed that when there was no requirement for linguistic output, the effect of concreteness (but not the effect of word length) was eliminated. It is argued that semantic coding exerts powerful effects in verbal short-term memory tasks that have generally been underestimated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-related differences in memory as a function of imagery processing.

The effects of aging on imagery production and use (following the learning of concrete and abstract words) and their relations to subsequent memory performance were explored in 2 experiments. Both experiments demonstrated better free recall of concrete than of abstract words (the concreteness effect). Exp 1 showed this superiority to be greater for young Ss only under explicit imagery instructions. Exp 2 revealed that the advantage of concrete over abstract words reflects the use of differential imagery production. The results are discussed in terms of age differences in imagery utilization and the effects of visual processing on recall. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Form-specific priming and functional brain asymmetries in perceptual identification

Word form representations in intact cerebral hemispheres were studied by a lateralized perceptual identification priming task. During the study phase, word forms were primed by displaying words visually in uppercase or lowercase letters. During the test phase, perceptual identification of non-studied baseline words and studied words (presented in same or different lettercase as studied) was tested by displaying targets in the left or right visual field. Experiment 1 showed that the hemispheric pattern of priming effects was dependent on the lettercase at test. For uppercase test items, only the left visual field/right hemisphere was sentitive to study-test changes in lettercase, replicating an earlier result obtained in word-stem completion (Marsolek, Kosslyn and Squire, 1992). However, lowercase test items did not reveal any asymmetries in the form-dependent priming component indicating that in some conditions form-specific representations are computed in the left hemisphere also. No asymmetries were found in the abstract, form-independent component of priming. Experiment 2 revealed that use of explicit memory in the perceptual identification task eliminated the form-specific priming effects and suggested that the results of Experiment 1 were uncontaminated by explicit memory.     

Electrophysiologic dissociations in memory encoding of abstract and concrete words

This study examined memory encoding of auditorily presented abstract and concrete nouns. 22 subjects performed various blocks of a free recall memory task in which lists of 22 either abstract or concrete words had to be memorized. Consistent with a large variety of memory studies, recall performance was better for concrete than for abstract words. When the event-related potentials (ERPs) recorded during study were selectively averaged for those words that were subsequently recalled and those subsequently not recalled, the ERPs were more positive going for words that were subsequently recalled. These Dm effects (Difference due to memory) started around 500 ms post-stimulus and differed in timing and scalp topography for both types of words: For abstract words, they were present in an early (i.e., 600 to 1100 ms) time interval at parieto-occipital electrodes only. In contrast, for concrete words, Dm effects were obtained with a broad topographic distribution in the 600 to 1000 ms time range and were also present in a late time interval (1100 to 1600 ms) at fronto-central recording sites. The topographical dissociations of the Dm effects in the early time interval are taken to reflect the larger distinctiveness of concrete words during encoding, whereas the late effects presumably play a functional role in elaborative processing of concrete words. The results do not agree with models of word concreteness that propose separate processing systems for the two types of words, and rather support those models that propose quantitative differences in the processing of abstract and concrete words.     

Words and things and images.

Explores and evaluates the current renaissance of interest in imagery as a cognitive mechanism, with reference to its role in associative learning, mediation, meaning, and personality. The variable of time is stressed in the formation of effective imagery in mnemonic research. Experiments are described in which Ss, instructed to image but not to learn, were unable to prevent learning. Imagery is relatively free from interference in memorizing successive lists, and highly effective in recall of long lists of concrete and abstract words. Abstract words are frequently transposed into concrete representations. Research employing 3-6 yr. old deaf children without language of any known variety supports assumptions about imagery. (30 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discriminating alternative conceptions of false recognition: The cases of word concreteness and word frequency.

A classical finding in recognition memory is that participants falsely recognize new high-frequency words more than new low-frequency words. Similarly, participants falsely recognize new abstract words more than new concrete words. The authors contrast a memory-based explanation of these effects to a decision-based explanation. In the former explanation, differences in false recognition arise because some sets of new items have properties that discriminate them from study-list items stored in memory. In the latter explanation, differences in false recognition arise because some sets of old items are especially well remembered. This strong memory influences decision processes, with resulting effects on false recognition of new items. The authors test these views by examining the relationship between relative hit rates and relative false-alarm rates under a variety of encoding conditions. The results of 7 experiments support the memory-based approach. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Abstract word deficits in aphasia: Evidence from semantic priming.

J.G. and D.E. are nonfluent aphasic patients who appear to have selective problems with abstract words on a variety of standard tests. Such a pattern would normally be interpreted as indicating a central semantic deficit for abstract words. The authors show that this is not the case by means of a semantic priming task that tests for implicit knowledge of the meanings of abstract and concrete words. Spoken word pairs that were either abstract or concrete synonyms (e.g., street-road or luck-chance) were presented; both Ss showed priming for the abstract and concrete pairs. The researchers followed up by asking the Ss to produce definitions to spoken abstract and concrete words; these definitions were also normal. The priming and definition data suggest that the semantic representations of abstract words in these Ss were relatively unimpaired. The researchers found that the Ss have problems only with spoken abstract words in just those tasks where normal controls also have difficulty. In contrast, they clearly have deficits in reading abstract words aloud, which may be due to problems with output phonology. Implications of these data for claims concerning hemispheric differences in the representation of abstract and concrete words are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The sandwich effect: The role of attentional factors in serial recall.

Five experiments tested the prediction, from a simple chaining model, that interleaving irrelevant material will substantially disrupt immediate serial recall. Exp 1 interpolated long or short words between items in an auditory digit span test. These 2 "sandwich" conditions disrupted recall to an equal but moderate extent. Exp 2 presented mixed lists of digits and words, cuing one or the other before or after presentation. Precuing led to substantially better recall. Exp 3 used articulatory suppression to rule out the hypothesis that recall was protected from the sandwich effect by subvocal rehearsal. Exp 4 combined the sandwich effect with a concurrent task, finding clear effects of both but no interaction. Exp 5 showed that the predictability of interpolated material did not influence recall. These results can be explained by adding an attentional preprocessor to standard chaining models. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory capacity, selective control, and value-directed remembering in children with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Objective: The ability to select what is important to remember, to attend to this information, and to recall high-value items leads to the efficient use of memory. The present study examined how children with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) performed on an incentive-based selectivity task in which to-be-remembered items were worth different point values. Method: Participants were 6–9 year old children with ADHD (n = 57) and without ADHD (n = 59). Using a selectivity task, participants studied words paired with point values and were asked to maximize their score, which was the overall value of the items they recalled. This task allows for measures of memory capacity and the ability to selectively remember high-value items. Results: Although there were no significant between-groups differences in the number of words recalled (memory capacity), children with ADHD were less selective than children in the control group in terms of the value of the items they recalled (control of memory). All children recalled more high-value items than low-value items and showed some learning with task experience, but children with ADHD Combined type did not efficiently maximize memory performance (as measured by a selectivity index) relative to children with ADHD Inattentive type and healthy controls, who did not differ significantly from one another. Conclusions: Children with ADHD Combined type exhibit impairments in the strategic and efficient encoding and recall of high-value items. The findings have implications for theories of memory dysfunction in childhood ADHD and the key role of metacognition, cognitive control, and value-directed remembering when considering the strategic use of memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Encoding conditions and the list-strength effect.

The list-strength effect occurs when "strong" items within a list are remembered at the expense of "weak" items within that same list. Two experiments (using 185 college student Ss) showed that variably encoded words were remembered better than words repeated with the same encoding context, whether memory was measured by free recall, frequency estimates, or recognition d'. However, there was little or no evidence from any of the measures that the variably encoded words were recollected in the mixed lists at the expense of the similarly encoded words. This pattern held even though, in Exp 2, there was a list-strength effect on free recall, when list strength was manipulated by increasing the number of presentations of a word. It is concluded that the free recall results could not be accommodated by the model of memory postulated by R. M. Shiffrin et al (see record 1990-13917-001) to account for the effects of list strength. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Concreteness effects on memory: When and why?

Two experiments with 194 university students studied the effects of concreteness and relatedness of noun pairs on free recall, cued recall, and memory integration. Dual-coding theory (DCT) implies that concreteness and relatedness should have independent and additive effects on memory performance, whereas relational-distinctiveness processing theory implies that the 2 variables should interact. Their effects proved to be statistically independent in cued-recall and memory integration tests in both studies. In free recall, the effects were independent in Exp 1 and interactive over subjects, but not over items in Exp 2. Results were most consistent with the DCT and, regarding integration, with the hypothesis that strong verbal relations are necessary for integrative recall of abstract pairs, whereas high imagery is sufficient for integrative recall of concrete pairs. The hypothesis resolves a long-standing issue concerning memory integration of abstract language. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal-discrimination learning: Familiarization of common and uncommon words.

Conducted a verbal-discrimination (VD) study with 96 undergraduates. VD acquisition of 30 pairs of high-frequency (H) or low-frequency (L) English words was compared following 1, 3, or 9 relevant (R) or irrelevant (I) familiarization exposures. L lists were learned more quickly than H lists. Performance was poorer in H-R than H-I, but L-R and L-I did not differ significantly. Results suggest that R familiarization training for L lists stabilized encoding of items and thus offset detrimental effects of accrued frequency. Free recall following VD learning showed different patterns of variable effects than VD acquisition; learning which permitted recall of items did not facilitate VD performance. (French summary) (19 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)