Direct comparison of two implicit memory tests: Word fragment and word stem completion.

In 3 experiments, the implicit memory tests of word fragment and word stem completion showed comparable effects over several variables: Study of words produced more priming than did study of pictures; no levels-of-processing effect occurred for words; more priming was obtained from pictures when Ss imaged the pictures' names than when they rated them for pleasantness; and forgetting rates were generally similar for the tests. A different pattern of results for the first 3 variables occurred under explicit test conditions with the same word fragments or word stems as cues. It is concluded that the 2 implicit tests are measuring a similar form of perceptual memory. Furthermore, it is argued that both tests are truly implicit because they meet the D. L. Schacter et al (1989) retrieval intentionality criterion: Levels of processing of words have a powerful effect on explicit versions of the tests but no effect on implicit versions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of imagery on perceptual implicit memory tests.

Four experiments demonstrate that imagery can promote priming on perceptual implicit memory tests. When Ss were given words during a study phase and asked to form mental images of corresponding pictures, more priming was obtained on a picture fragment identification test than from a study condition in which Ss performed semantic analyses of words. Imaginal priming of picture fragment identification occurred for recoverable fragments, but not for nonrecoverable fragments. The imagery effect was restricted to the imaged type of material: Imagining pictures (when presented with words) enhanced priming on a picture fragment identification test but not on word fragment completion. Similarly, when pictures were presented, imagining the corresponding words increased priming on word fragment completion but not on picture fragment identification. Overall, results support the hypothesis that imagining engages some of the same mechanisms used in perception and thereby produces priming. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Theoretical analysis of the cognitive processing of lexical and pictorial stimuli: Reading, naming, and visual and conceptual comparisons.

This article reviews the research literature on the differences between word reading and picture naming. A theory for the visual and cognitive processing of pictures and words is then introduced. The theory accounts for slower naming of pictures than reading of words. Reading aloud involves a fast, grapheme-to-phoneme transformation process, whereas picture naming involves two additional processes; (a) determining the meaning of the pictorial stimulus and (b) finding a name for the pictorial stimulus. We conducted a reading-naming experiment, and the time to achieve (a) and (b) was determined to be approximately 160 ms. On the basis of data from a second experiment, we demonstrated that there is no significant difference in time to visually compare two pictures or two words when size of the stimuli is equated. There is no difference in time to make the two types of cross-modality conceptual comparisons (picture first, then word, or word first, then picture). The symmetry of the visual and conceptual comparison results supports the hypothesis that the coding of the mind is neither intrinsically linguistic nor imagistic, but rather it is abstract. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging can spare recollection-based retrieval monitoring: The importance of event distinctiveness.

The authors investigated two retrieval-monitoring processes. Subjects studied red words and pictures and then decided whether test words had been studied in red font (red word test) or as pictures (picture test). Memory confusions were lower on the picture test than on the red word test, implicating a distinctiveness heuristic. Memory confusions also were lower when study formats were mutually exclusive (the same item was never studied as both a red word and a picture), compared with a nonexclusive condition, implicating a recall-to-reject process. When the to-be-recollected events were pictures, older adults used each monitoring strategy as effectively as did younger adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dynamics of two-component biochemical systems in interacting cells; synchronization and desynchronization of oscillations and multiple steady states

Three experiments examined transfer across form (words/pictures) and modality (visual/auditory) in written word, auditory word, and pictorial implicit memory tests, as well as on a free recall task. Experiment I showed no significant transfer across form on any of the three implicit memory tests, and an asymmetric pattern of transfer across modality. In contrast, the free recall results revealed a very different picture. Experiment 2 further investigated the asymmetric modality effects obtained for the implicit memory measures by employing articulatory suppression and picture naming to control the generation of phonological codes. Finally, Experiment 3 examined the effects of overt word naming and covert picture labelling on transfer between study and test form. The results of the experiments are discussed in relation to Tulving and Schacter's (1990) Perceptual Representation Systems framework and Roediger's (1990) Transfer Appropriate Processing theory.     

Dissociative effect of massed repetition on implicit and explicit measures of memory.

Ss saw or heard words presented once, or repeated 4 or 16 times in massed fashion, and then received an implicit or explicit memory test. Massed repetition did not increase priming on word fragment completion beyond that obtained from a single presentation but did enhance performance on various explicit tests (free recall, recognition, question cued recall, and word fragment cued recall) and an implicit general knowledge test. Modality of presentation affected implicit and explicit word fragment cued tests but did not affect performance on any of the other tests. Levels of processing affected performance on implicit and explicit question cued tests. These results are consistent with a transfer appropriate processing account of dissociations among memory measures and imply that massed repetition promotes conceptual processing but does not entail a repetition of perceptual-based processes responsible for priming on word fragment completion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Direct comparison of four implicit memory tests.

Four verbal implicit memory tests, word identification, word stem completion, word fragment completion, and anagram solution, were directly compared in 1 experiment and were contrasted with free recall. On all implicit tests, priming was greatest from prior visual presentation of words, less (but significant) from auditory presentation, and least from pictorial presentations. Typefont did not affect priming. In free recall, pictures were recalled better than words. The 4 implicit tests all largely index perceptual (lexical) operations in recognizing words, or visual word form representations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Implicit memory in Alzheimer's disease: A meta-analysis.

Meta-analysis was performed on 33 articles (36 experiments involving 564 Alzheimer's disease [AD] patients and 592 controls). Overall, AD patients were significantly impaired on implicit memory tests, r?=?.163 (a difference of .329 SDs from normal performance). They were impaired on nonverbal tests (e.g., fragmented pictures), word stem completion, classical conceptual tests (e.g, free association), and on word-based perceptual tests with long delays. However, they performed normally on word-based perceptual tests (e.g., perceptual identification of words) with short study test delays. They also performed normally on word stem completion if they were older than 75, possibly because their age-matched controls were also impaired. These results are neither qualified by study list length nor patient mental status. None of the theories in the field is compatible with the results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Integration of orthographic, conceptual, and episodic information on implicit and explicit tests.

Examined how a prior encoding episode affected the integration of orthographic and conceptual information during incidental and intentional retrieval. 180 college students studied word lists with either shallow (counting vowels in each word) or deep (rating pleasantness) encoding tasks. Half of the Ss received implicit or explicit test instructions for a word fragment completion test containing orthographic cues (letters) and semantically related words. In the implicit condition, the word fragments had to be completed, while the explicit condition involved a memory test for the words seen earlier. On both the implicit and explicit tests, performance improved with an increase in the number of letters and words. Conceptual information processing had a larger effect in intentional retrieval than in incidental retrieval. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Retrieval monitoring and anosognosia in Alzheimer's disease.

This study explored the relationship between episodic memory and anosognosia (a lack of deficit awareness) among patients with mild Alzheimer's disease (AD). Participants studied words and pictures for subsequent memory tests. Healthy older adults made fewer false recognition errors when trying to remember pictures compared with words, suggesting that the perceptual distinctiveness of picture memories enhanced retrieval monitoring (the distinctiveness heuristic). In contrast, although participants with AD could discriminate between studied and nonstudied items, they had difficulty recollecting the specific presentation formats (words or pictures), and they had limited use of the distinctiveness heuristic. Critically, the demands of the memory test modulated the relationship between memory accuracy and anosognosia. Greater anosognosia was associated with impaired memory accuracy when participants with AD tried to remember words but not when they tried to remember pictures. These data further delineate the retrieval monitoring difficulties among individuals with AD and suggest that anosognosia measures are most likely to correlate with memory tests that require the effortful retrieval of nondistinctive information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The time it takes bilinguals and monolinguals to draw pictures and write words.

In 4 experiments, picture-word translation was studied in Spanish-English bilinguals and English monolinguals. In Experiment 1, bilinguals drew pictures or wrote English or Spanish words for picture or English or Spanish word stimuli. Equivalent increases in production onset latency for cross-language/modality translation were found. In Experiment 2, bilinguals and monolinguals drew pictures or wrote English words for picture or English word stimuli. Cross-modality translation equivalence was replicated, though bilinguals were slower than monolinguals overall. In Experiment 3, bilinguals and monolinguals were equivalent when they drew or wrote names from pictures as blocked tasks. In Experiment 4, bilinguals replicated Experiment 1 but were faster for blocked than mixed tasks, indicating that stimulus-processing uncertainty slows them. Results support a revised concept mediation model, with equivalent semantic access for pictures and words for bilinguals and monolinguals (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Activating representations in permanent memory: different benefits for pictures and words

Previous research has suggested that pictures have privileged access to semantic memory (W. R. Glaser, 1992), but J. Theios and P. C. Amrhein (1989b) argued that prior studies inappropriately used large pictures and small words. In Experiment 1, participants categorized pictures reliably faster than words, even when both types of items were of optimal perceptual size. In Experiment 2, a poststimulus flashmask and judgments about internal features did not eliminate picture superiority, indicating that it was not due to differences in early visual processing or analysis of visible features. In Experiment 3, when participants made judgments about whether items were related, latencies were reliably faster for categorically related pictures than for words, but there was no picture advantage for noncategorically associated items. Results indicate that pictures have privileged access to semantic memory for categories, but that neither pictures nor words seem to have privileged access to noncategorical associations.     

Directed forgetting meets the production effect: Distinctive processing is resistant to intentional forgetting.

The production effect refers to the fact that, relative to reading a word silently, reading a word aloud during study improves explicit memory. The authors tested the distinctiveness account of this effect using the item method directed forgetting procedure. If saying words aloud makes them more distinctive, then they should be more difficult to forget on cue than should words read silently. Participants studied a list of words by reading half aloud and half silently; half of the words in each of these subsets were followed by a Remember instruction and half were followed by a Forget instruction. There was a robust production effect for both Remember and Forget words on an explicit recognition test. Critically, however, a directed forgetting effect was observed only for words read silently; words read aloud at study were unaffected by memory instruction. An implicit speeded reading test showed equal priming for all studied items. This pattern supports a distinctiveness account of the production effect: Words processed distinctively during production are not influenced by subsequent rehearsal differences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual and nonperceptual components of implicit memory for pictures.

The transfer appropriate processing (TAP) framework posits that in data-driven tasks, such as picture naming (PN) or picture perceptual identification, repetition priming is greater when perceptual processes engaged at study are recapitulated at test. Thus, priming with pictures is greater after study-phase exposure to pictures than to words (picture names). A. S. Brown, D. R. Neblett, T. C. Jones, and D. B. Mitchell (see record 1991-26453-001) reported that a pure-list format eliminated perceptual priming: Participants who saw either pictures or words in a study phase showed equal priming in a PN task. In the present study, participants showed greater priming after exposure to pure lists of pictures than to pure lists of words in 3 PN and 1 picture perceptual identification experiments. Thus, perceptual priming occurred in 4 pure-list picture priming tasks, as predicted by the TAP framework. Priming also was found after exposure to words. In PN and picture perceptual identification tasks, implicit memory for pictures includes perceptual and nonperceptual components. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lexical selection and phonological encoding during language production: Evidence for cascaded processing.

The time course of lexicalization during production was explored using a production priming procedure. Participants were presented with pictures to name. Occasionally, a visual target word was presented following a picture, and participants named the word. In Experiments 1A and 1B, phonological priming was found for targets related to the dominant name of a picture, as well as for those related to a near-synonymous name. These results suggest that phonological activation occurs for multiple lexical candidates. In Experiments 2A and 2B, semantic priming was found to arise earlier than phonological priming. In Experiment 3, no priming was found for words phonologically related to category associates, suggesting that the activation of such items is weak. Overall, the results are supportive of a cascaded processing model of lexicalization in which activation spreads continuously from semantic to phonological levels of representation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging and strategic retrieval processes: Reducing false memories with a distinctiveness heuristic.

The authors show that a strategic retrieval process--the distinctiveness heuristic--is a powerful mechanism for reducing false memories in the elderly. Individuals studied words, pictures, or both types of items and then completed a recognition test on which the studied items appeared once, whereas the new words appeared twice. After studying either pictures only or a mixture of pictures and words, both younger and older adults falsely recognized fewer repeated new words than did participants who studied words. Studying pictures provided a basis for using a distinctiveness heuristic during the recognition test: Individuals inferred that the absence of memory for picture information indicates that an item is "new." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Directed forgetting: Comparing pictures and words.

The authors investigated directed forgetting as a function of the stimulus type (picture, word) presented at study and test. In an item-method directed forgetting task, study items were presented 1 at a time, each followed with equal probability by an instruction to remember or forget. Participants exhibited greater yes–no recognition of remember than forget items for each of the 4 study–test conditions (picture–picture, picture–word, word–word, word–picture). However, this difference was significantly smaller when pictures were studied than when words were studied. This finding demonstrates that the magnitude of the directed forgetting effect can be reduced by high item memorability, such as when the picture superiority effect is operating. This suggests caution in using pictures at study when the goal of an experiment is to examine potential group differences in the magnitude of the directed forgetting effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dissociations among implicit and explicit memory tasks: The role of stimulus similarity.

Compares the effect of picture fragmentation level at study on performance on a variety of implicit and explicit memory tests. Consistent with previous research, a moderately fragmented study picture produced the most learning on the implicit memory task of picture fragment completion (Exp 1) and speeded picture identification (Exp 4). In contrast, an intact study picture produced the most learning on the implicit memory task of naming intact pictures (Exp 3). These results suggest that performance on 2 implicit memory tasks can be dissociated by differences in visual similarity between the study and test forms of a stimulus. More surprising, parallel effects were observed in recognition memory. Recognition memory was best when fragmentation levels of the study and test pictures matched (Exp 2) or were comparable (Exp 1). In contrast to many results in the literature, recognition memory was acutely sensitive to surface form differences. The results are discussed in terms of 2 types of study-test similarity, stimulus similarity and process similarity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Implicit memory: Retention without remembering.

Explicit measures of human memory, such as recall or recognition, reflect conscious recollection of the past. Implicit tests of retention measure transfer (or priming) from past experience on tasks that do not require conscious recollection of recent experiences for their performance. The article reviews research on the relation between explicit and implicit memory. The evidence points to substantial differences between standard explicit and implicit tests, because many variables create dissociations between these tests. For example, although pictures are remembered better than words on explicit tests, words produce more priming than do pictures on several implicit tests. These dissociations may implicate different memory systems that subserve distinct memorial functions, but the present argument is that many dissociations can be understood by appealing to general principles that apply to both explicit and implicit tests. Phenomena studied under the rubric of implicit memory may have important implications in many other fields, including social cognition, problem solving, and cognitive development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age Differences in Implicit Memory: Conceptual, Perceptual, or Methodological?

The authors examined age differences in conceptual and perceptual implicit memory via word-fragment completion, word-stem completion, category exemplar generation, picture-fragment identification, and picture naming. Young, middle-aged, and older participants (N=60) named pictures and words at study. Limited test exposure minimized explicit memory contamination, yielding no reliable age differences and equivalent cross-format effects. In contrast, explicit memory and neuropsychological measures produced significant age differences. In a follow-up experiment, 24 young adults were informed a priori about implicit testing. Their priming was equivalent to the main experiment, showing that test trial time restrictions limit explicit memory strategies. The authors concluded that most implicit memory processes remain stable across adulthood and suggest that explicit contamination be rigorously monitored in aging studies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)