The role of inhibitory processes in part-list cuing.

Providing a subset of studied items as retrieval cues can have detrimental effects on recall of the remaining items. In 2 experiments, the authors examined such part-list cuing impairment in a repeatedtesting situation. Participants studied exemplars from several semantic categories and were given 2 successive cued-recall tests separated by a distractor task of several minutes. Part-list cues were provided in the 1st test but not the 2nd. Noncue item recall was tested with the studied category cues (same probes) in the 1st test, but novel, unstudied retrieval cues (independent probes) in the 2nd test. The authors found detrimental effects of part-list cues in both the 1st (same-probe) test and the 2nd (independent-probe) test. These results show that part-list cuing impairment can be lasting and is not eliminated with independent probes. The findings support the view that the impairment was caused by retrieval inhibition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interference from retrieval cues in Parkinson's disease.

Objective: Existing studies on memory interference in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients have provided mixed results and it is unknown whether PD patients have problems in overcoming interference from retrieval cues. We investigated this issue by using a part-list cuing paradigm. In this paradigm, after the study of a list of items, the presentation of some of these items as retrieval cues hinders the recall of the remaining ones. Method: We tested PD patients' (n = 19) and control participants' (n = 16) episodic memory in the presence and absence of part-list cues, using initial-letter probes, and following either weak or strong serial associative encoding of list items. Results: Both PD patients and control participants showed a comparable and significant part-list cuing effect after weak associative encoding (13% vs. 12% decrease in retrieval in part-list cuing vs. no part-list cuing -control- conditions in PD patients and control participants, respectively), denoting a similar effect of cue-driven interference in the two populations when a serial retrieval strategy is hard to develop. However, only PD patients showed a significant part-list cuing effect after strong associative encoding (20% vs. 5% decrease in retrieval in patients and controls, respectively). Conclusions: When encoding promotes the development of an effective serial retrieval strategy, the presentation of part-list cues has a specifically disruptive effect in PD patients. This indicates problems in strategic retrieval, probably related to PD patients' increased tendency to rely on external cues. Findings in control conditions suggest that less effective encoding may have contributed to PD patients' memory performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some tests of the strategy disruption interpretation of part-list cuing inhibition.

Part-list cuing inhibition is diminished recall for the remainder of a studied list when part of that list is provided on the recall test. In Experiments 1–3, participants formed arbitrary subcategories. Inhibition was absent when cues were consistent with those subcategories but present when cues were inconsistent with them. In Experiment 4, participants failed to adapt to part-list cuing, despite its presence on several training trials. In Experiment 5, a subcategorical retrieval strategy consistent with the presence of cues effectively eliminated inhibition whether that strategy was suggested at study or at recall. Two findings indicated that part-list cuing may be inconsistent with some retrieval strategies that produce recall segregated by subcategory. Most findings supported the strategy disruption position that inhibition results when a whole-list retrieval strategy is abandoned for a less effective part-list retrieval strategy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exhaustive and heuristic retrieval processes in person cognition: Further tests of the TRAP model.

The twofold retrieval by associative pathways (TRAP) model (L. Garcia-Marques & D. L. Hamilton, 1996) proposes that two distinct modes of retrieval typically underlie recall and frequency estimation. The model accounts for the simultaneous occurrence of greater recall of incongruent information and higher frequency estimation of congruent information. Three experiments provided further tests of the TRAP model. Experiment 1 manipulated cognitive load (at encoding and at retrieval) and the selectivity of the retrieval goal. Under either high load or a selective retrieval goal, incongruent items ceased to be better recalled. Experiment 2 manipulated the accessibility of expectancy-congruent, -incongruent, or -neutral episodes and found corresponding effects in frequency estimates. Finally, Experiment 3 showed that providing part-list retrieval cues inhibits recall but increases frequency estimates. The TRAP model predicted these results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive psychometrics: Assessing storage and retrieval deficits in special populations with multinomial processing tree models.

This article demonstrates how multinomial processing tree models can be used as assessment tools to measure cognitive deficits in clinical populations, This is illustrated with a model developed by W. H. Batchelder and D. M. Riefer (1980) that separately measures storage and retrieval processes in memory. The validity of the model is tested in 2 experiments, which show that presentation rate affects the storage of items (Experiment 1) and part-list cuing hurts item retrieval (Experiment 2). Experiments 3 and 4 examine 2 clinical populations: schizophrenics and alcoholics with organic brain damage. The model reveals that each group exhibits deficits in storage and retrieval, with the retrieval deficits being stronger and occurring more consistently over trials. Also, the alcoholics with organic brain damage show no improvement in retrieval over trials, although their storage improves at the same rate as a control group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Search of associative memory.

Describes search of associative memory (SAM), a general theory of retrieval from long-term memory that combines features of associative network models and random search models. It posits cue-dependent probabilistic sampling and recovery from an associative network, but the network is specified as a retrieval structure rather than a storage structure. A quantitative computer simulation of SAM was developed and applied to the part-list cuing paradigm. When free recall of a list of words was cued by a random subset of words from that list, the probability of recalling one of the remaining words was less than if no cues were provided at all. SAM predicted this effect in all its variations by making extensive use of interword associations in retrieval, a process that previous theorizing has dismissed. (55 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Retrieval-induced forgetting in episodic memory.

Participants learned the locations of 12 stimuli that were uniquely colored but could be grouped by shape (4 circles, 4 triangles, 4 crosses). Following the study, a retrieval-practice phase required participants to recall the colors of a subset of the stimuli (i.e., 2 circles, 2 triangles) using shape and location as cues. In a final test, participants recalled the colors of all 12 stimuli. Compared with the control set of stimuli (i.e., 4 crosses), memory was facilitated for practiced items but impaired for related items, which were not practiced but shared the same shape group. Across experiments, retrieval-induced forgetting was observed for different perceptual groupings and for different cuing procedures. The effect, however, required retrieval of information during the interpolated phase. Providing extra presentations did not disrupt memory for related items. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging and shifts of visual spatial attention.

Three experiments examined adult age differences in the efficiency of endogenous (voluntary) and exogenous (involuntary) attention shifts. Younger and older Ss performed a spatial cuing task in which abruptly onset peripheral cues (Exp 1) or central, symbolic cues (Exps 2 and 3) were presented before a target stimulus at intervals ranging from 50 to 250 msec. With peripheral cues, the magnitude of cuing effects was at least as great for older as for younger adults and followed a similar time course. Similar results were obtained with symbolic cues, although cuing effects for older adults varied with cue difficulty. The results suggest that cue encoding may decline with advancing age but that the efficiency of the shift process is preserved. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Part-Set Cuing Effects in Younger and Older Adults.

In 3 experiments, the authors examined part-set cuing effects in younger and older adults. Participants heard lists of category exemplars and later recalled them. Recall was uncued or cued with a subset of studied items. In Experiment 1, participants were cued with some of the category names, and they remembered fewer never-cued categories than a free-recall condition. In Experiment 2, a similar effect was observed for category exemplar cues. There was also an age difference: By some measures, a small number of cues impaired older adults more than younger. Experiment 3 replicated this result and found that older adults were disproportionately slow in the presence of cues. Across experiments, older adults showed robust part-set cuing effects, and sometimes, they were disproportionately impaired by cues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Odors and the remembrance of things past.

Three experiments, using ambient odors and incidental learning procedures, examined the effectiveness of odors as memory retrieval cues. Experiment 1 showed that a single ambient odor present on both learning and testing improved recall of a list of words over a no-odor control and a group that received the odor at encoding or retrieval only. Experiment 2 replicated this result and showed that whereas reinstating the odor context improved overall recall, recall of odor-related information was not significantly enhanced by the odor cue. Finally, Experiment 3, employing implicit and explicit retrieval tasks, demonstrated that the same odor must be present on both learning and remembering for the memory benefit to occur. The memory enhancement observed with odors was not due to the effects of semantic mediation. The results are discussed within the framework of encoding specificity of memory (e.g., E. Tulving and D. M. Thomson, 1973), and implications for odor imagery and cuing effects on odor-related material are addressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cumulating Retrieval Inhibition in Semantic and Lexical Domains.

In 3 experiments the authors examined changes in successive exemplar generation percentages within categories defined semantically (e.g., fruit-P, fruit-A, fruit-M) and by 1st letter (e.g., insect-C, sport-C, car-C), with a mixed control condition (e.g., fruit-P, insect-C, disease-M). Retrieval success declined across 12 successive items in both semantic and letter categories, with no change for the mixed condition. This retrieval inhibition is unrelated to taxonomic frequency of exemplars within either letter or semantic categorical structures. Furthermore, semantic retrieval inhibition appears to be long lasting, suggested by the decline in retrieval percentage across successive 12-item blocks in both the mixed and letter conditions. The authors suggest that different mechanisms underlie the inhibition found in the semantic (suppression) and letter (interference) conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are independent probes truly independent?

The independent cue technique has been developed to test traditional interference theories against inhibition theories of forgetting. In the present study, the authors tested the critical criterion for the independence of independent cues: Studied cues not presented during test (and unrelated to test cues) should not contribute to the retrieval process. Participants first studied a subset of cues (e.g., rope) that were subsequently studied together with a target in a 2nd study phase (e.g., rope–sailing, sunflower–yellow). In the test phase, an extralist category cue (e.g., sports, color) was presented, and participants were instructed to recall an item from the study list that was a member of the category (e.g., sailing, yellow). The experiments showed that previous study of the paired-associate word (e.g., rope) enhanced category cued recall even though this word was not presented at test. This experimental demonstration of covert cuing has important implications for the effectiveness of the independent cue technique. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cue strength as a moderator of the testing effect: The benefits of elaborative retrieval.

The current study explored the elaborative retrieval hypothesis as an explanation for the testing effect: the tendency for a memory test to enhance retention more than restudying. In particular, the retrieval process during testing may activate elaborative information related to the target response, thereby increasing the chances that activation of any of this information will facilitate later retrieval of the target. In a test of this view, participants learned cue–target pairs, which were strongly associated (e.g., Toast: Bread) or weakly associated (e.g., Basket: Bread), through either a cued recall test (Toast: _____) or a restudy opportunity (Toast: Bread). A final test requiring free recall of the targets revealed that tested items were retained better than restudied items, and although strong cues facilitated recall of tested items initially, items recalled from weak cues were retained better over time, such that this advantage was eliminated or reversed at the time of the final test. Restudied items were retained at similar rates on the final test regardless of the strength of the cue–target relationship. These results indicate that the activation of elaborative information—which would occur to a greater extent during testing than restudying—may be one mechanism that underlies the testing effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the generality of the part-set cuing effect: Evidence from nonmemory tasks.

A puzzling finding in memory research is that part–set cuing, or the presentation of some of the to-be-recalled items as cues, impairs recall of the remaining items. In this article a series of four experiments involving nonmemory tasks extends this finding to other cognitive domains. Specifically, it is shown that providing possible responses impairs the production of other responses when words are constructed from the letters of a lengthy word (Experiment 1), when differences between almost identical pairs of pictures are discovered (Experiment 2), when blurred pictures brought gradually into focus are identified (Experiment 3), and when nonsense figures are likened to meaningful objects or scenes (Experiment 4). These findings suggest that the part–set cuing effect in memory may be only one instantiation of a much broader phenomenon. And such a perspective might elicit a more satisfactory explanation of this puzzling effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Metacognitive control and strategy selection: Deciding to practice retrieval during learning.

Retrieval practice is a potent technique for enhancing learning, but how often do students practice retrieval when they regulate their own learning? In 4 experiments the subjects learned foreign-language items across multiple study and test periods. When items were assigned to be repeatedly tested, repeatedly studied, or removed after they were recalled, repeated retrieval produced powerful effects on learning and retention. However, when subjects were given control over their own learning and could choose to test, study, or remove items, many subjects chose to remove items rather than practice retrieval, leading to poor retention. In addition, when tests were inserted in the learning phase, attempting retrieval improved learning by enhancing subsequent encoding during study. But when students were given control over their learning they did not attempt retrieval as early or as often as they should to promote the best learning. The experiments identify a compelling metacognitive illusion that occurs during self-regulated learning: Once students can recall an item they tend to believe they have “learned” it. This leads students to terminate practice rather than practice retrieval, a strategy choice that ultimately results in poor retention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of forgetting rate in producing a benefit of expanded over equal spaced retrieval in young and older adults.

The current study examined the effects of two manipulations on equal and expanded spaced retrieval schedules in young and older adults. First, we examined the role that the type of expansion (systematic vs. nonsystematic) has in producing a benefit of expanded retrieval. Second, we examined the influence of an immediate retrieval attempt to minimize forgetting after the original encoding event. It was predicted that including multiple retrieval attempts with minimal intervening spacing (best accomplished in a nonsystematic retrieval schedule) would be necessary to produce a benefit of expanded retrieval over equal spaced retrieval for older adults but not young adults due to age differences in working memory capacity. Results from two experiments revealed that the presence of an expanded over equal spaced retrieval benefit is modulated by the extent to which the spacing conditions minimize forgetting in the early retrieval attempts in the spaced conditions. As predicted, these conditions differ substantially across young and older adults. In particular, in older adults two intervening items between early retrieval attempts produce dramatic rates of forgetting compared to one intervening item, whereas younger adults can maintain performance up to five intervening events in comparable conditions. Discussion focuses on age differences in short term forgetting, working memory capacity, and the relation between forgetting rates and spaced retrieval schedules. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Retrieval blocks in episodic and semantic memory.

A retrieval block (RB) refers to impaired accessibility in retrieving target information when semantically related information is presented or retrieved prior to target retrieval. A research review reveals that RBs occur in a variety of situations, including both episodic and semantic memory tasks. RBs have been most thoroughly studied in the part-list cuing paradigm in episodic recall, but similar principles seem to operate in other situations, including the A–B, A–D interference paradigm, episodic recognition, and the tip-of-the-tongue situation. Evidence for such RBs is problematic for theories postulating automatic spreading activation among associated nodes in memory. Difficulties with theories that account for such RBs are discussed. Further research on RBs may help illuminate similar phenomena, such as the effects of Einstellung in thinking and problem solving. (French abstract) (76 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Overcoming misinformation effects in eyewitness memory: effects of encoding time and event cues

Eyewitness memory is often distorted when misleading information is presented to subjects after encoding. Three experiments explored ways to overcome these misinformation effects. In Experiment 1, subjects viewed slides of a robbery, at a rate of four or seven seconds per slide. Five minutes later subjects were given a recognition test with few (1-3) or numerous (6-13) event cues. Providing numerous retrieval cues improved overall performance, but did not reduce the effects of misinformation. With week-long delays (Experiment 2) numerous retrieval cues did eliminate misinformation effects, but only when subjects viewed slides at the slower rate (seven seconds per slide). Experiment 3 essentially replicated this pattern, using a modified test to eliminate any biasing effects of distractors. Given adequate encoding and numerous retrieval cues, misinformation effects were eliminated, suggesting that under some conditions misinformation makes event memory inaccessible, but not unavailable.     

No retrieval-induced forgetting using item-specific independent cues: Evidence against a general inhibitory account.

Retrieval practice with particular items from memory can impair the recall of related items on a later memory test. This retrieval-induced forgetting effect has been ascribed to inhibitory processes (M. C. Anderson & B. A. Spellman, 1995). A critical finding that distinguishes inhibitory from interference explanations is that forgetting is found with independent (or extralist) cues. In 4 experiments, the authors tested whether the forgetting effect is cue-independent. Forgetting was investigated for both studied and unstudied semantically related items. Retrieval-induced forgetting was not found using item-specific independent cues for either studied or unstudied items. However, forgetting was found for both item types when studied categories were used as cues. These results are not in line with a general inhibitory account, because this account predicts retrieval-induced forgetting with independent cues. Interference and context-specific inhibition are discussed as possible explanations for the data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A processing resource account of age differences in recall.

Hypothesized that age deficits in recall are due to a reduction in available processing resource. It is also argued that the formation of a distinct encoding, in which unique aspects of the context are integrated with the target item, requires a substantial amount of attentional resource but that the core semantic features of words are encoded relatively automatically. Thus, under conditions of reduced processing resource, a general, stereotyped encoding is predicted. The effectiveness of general, categorical retrieval cues was compared to the effectiveness of contextually specific retrieval cues in 3 experiments with 84 undergraduates and 60 elderly (approximately 66–69 yrs old) Ss. Young adults recalled more than older adults when they were cued with specific retrieval cues, but no age differences were observed when general retrieval cues were used. A similar pattern of results was obtained when the amount of processing resource was experimentally reduced by requiring young adults to perform a concurrent task during encoding. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)