Becoming famous without being recognized: Unconscious influences of memory produced by dividing attention.

The familiarity of names produced by their prior presentation can be misinterpreted as fame. We used this false fame effect to separately study the effects of divided attention on familiarity versus conscious recollection. In a first experiment, famous and nonfamous names were presented to be read under conditions of full vs. divided attention. Divided attention greatly reduced later recognition memory performance but had no effect on gains in familiarity as measured by fame judgments. In later experiments, we placed recognition memory and familiarity in opposition by presenting only nonfamous names to be read in the first phase. Recognizing a name as earlier read on the later fame test allowed Ss to be certain that it was nonfamous. Divided attention at study or during the fame test reduced list recognition performance but had no effect on familiarity. We conclude that conscious recollection is an attention-demanding act that is separate from assessing familiarity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attributions of familiarity in amnesia: Evidence from a fame judgment task.

To evaluate the extent to which amnesic patients can attribute the source of familiarity to its correct source during a fame judgment task, gains in familiarity were placed in opposition to conscious recollection. In the 1st experiment, patients and controls were told specifically that nonfamous names presented just prior to a fame judgment task were not famous; in the 2nd experiment they were told that nonfamous names were in fact famous. Although such instructions produced dramatically different results in the fame judgment performance of normal control Ss, minimal change in attribution of fame occurred for the amnesic Ss. It is concluded that the amnesic Ss were unable to attribute the familiarity of a previously presented name to its correct source because of their inability to recollect a name's prior presentation. Hence, it may be the nature of the memory query rather than the adequacy of a specific memory system that determines whether or not an amnesic patient can access information in memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of mood and analytic and intuitive judgement tendencies in the "false-fame" effect

In two experiments the process dissociation procedure (Jacoby, 1991) was used to examine the effects of mood on automatic and consciously controlled processes in a fame judgment task. Thirty nonfamous names were presented once in a study phase to the subjects. After a mood manipulation subjects performed a fame judgment task. The old nonfamous names were presented together with new nonfamous and famous names. Subjects got either the hint that names repeated from the study phase were all famous (inclusion test) or that they were all nonfamous (exclusion test). Results, especially the comparison of the inclusion and the exclusion test, indicated that subjects under negative mood based their judgments more on consciously controlled processes, i.e. recollection of names from the study phase. There was only a weak impact on good mood on controlled processes. In respect to automatic consequences of the study phase (familiarity of names) there was no difference between the three mood conditions.     

Aging and inhibitory control in text comprehension.

The degree to which inhibitory regulation is related to the initial perception of information or to the control of response tendencies was examined by asking participants to read paragraphs that included italicized, to-be-ignored words. Older adults were more likely than younger adults to begin vocalization of the italicized words and to make text comprehension errors involving the to-be-ignored information. However, younger adults were subsequently more likely to recognize the words they had apparently ignored, suggesting that inhibitory regulation controls selectivity in response rather than initial perception. Commonalities between inhibitory regulation and source monitoring paradigms are demonstrated, and discussion focuses on the degree to which on-line monitoring of goal-relevant response underlies age-related deficits in both domains. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of prior events on cognitive judgments in amnesia.

Amnesic patients and control Ss read the names of famous and nonfamous persons. Subsequently, both groups were more likely to designate a name as famous if it had been encountered previously. The facilitatory effect of prior presentation was similar for amnesic patients and control Ss and similar for famous and nonfamous names. For amnesic patients, the effect occurred despite severely impaired recognition memory for the names. In a 2nd experiment, recombining the first and last names that had been presented together did not diminish the facilitatory effect of prior presentation, which indicates that the effect does not depend on forming an association between first and last names. The results show that nondeclarative (implicit) memory can support the acquisition of information that is specific (e.g., names of persons) and that has no preexisting representation (e.g., nonfamous names). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The use of source memory to identity one's own episodic confusion errors.

In 4 category cued recall experiments, falsely recalled nonlist common members, a semantic confusion error participants. Errors were more likely if critical nonlist words were presented on an incidental task, causing source memory failures called episodic confusion errors . Participants could better identify the source of falsely recalled words if they had deeply processed the words on the incidental task. For deep but not shallow processing, participants could reliably include or exclude incidentally shown category members in recall. The illusion that critical items actually appeared on categorized lists was diminished but not eradicated when participants identified episodic confusion errors post hoc among their own recalled responses; participants often believed that critical items had been on both the incidental task and the study list. Improved source monitoring can potentially mitigate episodic (but not semantic) confusion errors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparing Source-Based and Gist-Based False Recognition in Aging and Alzheimer's Disease.

This study examined 2 factors contributing to false recognition of semantic associates: errors based on confusion of source and errors based on general similarity information or gist. The authors investigated these errors in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), age-matched control participants, and younger adults, focusing on each group's ability to use recollection of source information to suppress false recognition. The authors used a paradigm consisting of both deep and shallow incidental encoding tasks, followed by study of a series of categorized lists in which several typical exemplars were omitted. Results showed that healthy older adults were able to use recollection from the deep processing task to some extent but less than that used by younger adults. In contrast, false recognition in AD patients actually increased following the deep processing task, suggesting that they were unable to use recollection to oppose familiarity arising from incidental presentation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Metamemory in older adults: The role of monitoring in serial recall.

Older and younger adults were asked to think aloud while studying sets of pictures matched in difficulty for immediate serial recall. When instructed only to remember, young adults tended to study longer, rehearse more, and recall better than did older adults on the most difficult lists. Young adults were also much more likely to spontaneously test themselves during study in the most difficult condition. Older adult groups instructed either to study longer or to self-test, both showed improved recall. Only the older adults who had been instructed to self-monitor, however, recalled better on tests of short-term maintenance and generalization; overt rehearsal data showed that these older adults continued to test themselves. Metamemory deficits may be present with older adults when a strategy, like self-testing, is needed to generate metamemorial knowledge. Strategies such as self-testing can be easily taught, however, and they hold promise of being useful across situations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging, source, and decision criteria: When false fame errors do and do not occur.

Two experiments investigated the influence of decision criteria on source memory performance of older adults and younger adults. Experiment 1 used the false fame paradigm, which encourages people to use relatively loose decision criteria when making what are, in essence, source judgments. Consistent with previous research, older adults made more false fame errors than younger adults. Experiment 2 was identical to Experiment 1 except that the fame judgments were made with the traditional source task format that encourages relatively stringent decision criteria when making source judgments: Possible sources were listed, and participants categorized names in terms of their source. In contrast to Experiment 1, older adults reduced their false fame errors to the level of younger adults. Encouraging older adults to use relatively stringent decision criteria when making source discriminations can reduce age differences in source misattributions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Source monitoring during name recognition in older adults: Psychometric and electrophysiological correlates.

The hypothesis that source monitoring in older adults is specifically related to frontal lobe function was tested. In a fame-judgment task, older adults' ability to monitor the source of name familiarity was independent of their short-term recognition ability. Source errors were not related to performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, a psychometric index of frontal function, or to the initial orienting response of the contingent negative variation (CNV), a frontally based electrophysiological measure, even though these "frontal" measures were reliably related to each other. Source error was predicted by the latter portion of the CNV, the expectancy response, and by the Benton Facial Recognition Test, a visuoperceptual task not typically linked to frontal function. These data suggest that the accuracy of source attribution in older adults depends on various attentional control processes, not all of which may be frontally based. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maximizing the benefits and minimizing the costs of repeated memory tests for older adults.

Repeatedly trying to remember information can help people remember more but can also lead to inaccuracies. Two experiments examined whether the costs of repeated recall efforts can be minimized for older adults by using memory tests that require specification of the source of recalled items. Participants saw and imagined pictures and then took 3 successive recall tests in which they either indicated the source of each remembered item (source recall) or simply recalled the items without specification of their source (free recall). Results showed that recall increased systematically from Test 1 to Test 3, although the rate of increase was less marked for older adults, and older adults recalled less overall. After the free recall tests, older adults made more source misattributions (claiming to have seen imagined items) than did young adults, but after the source recall tests, age differences were not significant. Thus, repeatedly recalling items while considering their source was associated with benefits in terms of increased recall and fewer costs in terms of source errors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Becoming famous overnight: Limits on the ability to avoid unconscious influences of the past.

Nonfamous names presented once in an experiment are mistakenly judged as famous 24 hr later. On an immediate test, no such false fame occurs. This phenomenon parallels the sleeper effect found in studies of persuasion. People may escape the unconscious effects of misleading information by recollecting its source, raising the criterion level of familiarity required for judgments of fame, or by changing from familiarity to a more analytic basis for judgment. These strategies place constraints on the likelihood of sleeper effects. We discuss these results as the unconscious use of the past as a tool vs its conscious use as an object of reflection. Conscious recollection of the source of information does not always occur spontaneously when information is used as a tool in judgment. Rather, conscious recollection is a separate act. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-related differences in recognition memory: Effects of materials and context change.

The study explored age-related differences in the effects of context change on recognition memory by presenting object names (Expt. 1A) or their pictures (Expt. 1B) on background scenes. Participants later attempted to recognize previously presented items on background scenes that were original, switched, blank, or new. Older adults recognized fewer word stimuli than did younger adults, and context effects were larger for older adults. With pictures, however, the age-related decrement was eliminated and context effects were reduced. The beneficial effect of context reinstatement in older adults occurs despite the finding that they are less able to recall or recognize such contexts (Experiment 2). Older adults can use context information in recognition memory at least as efficiently as younger adults when suitable materials and conditions are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in using source-relevant cues.

Ss heard words originating from 2 speakers and later decided which of the 2 speakers said the words. Older adults had difficulty with source monitoring when perceptual cues from 2 sources were similar (2 female speakers), but this difficulty was overcome when perceptual cues were distinctive (a male and a female speaker) and were the only salient cues to source. Older adults also benefited from distinctive spatial cues when these were the only salient cues to source. Older adults, however, experienced difficulties in using multiple cues (both perceptual and spatial) to source effectively, whereas younger adults were able to use multiple cues to enhance their source-monitoring performance. It is suggested that age differences in source monitoring result from differential cue utilization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cues and secrets: Influences on children's event reports.

88 6-yr-olds and 88 10-yr-olds took part, in pairs, in a contrived interaction with a "magician." The children were interviewed 10 days and 10 wks later in 1 of 4 conditions: no cues, context cues, relevant cues, and irrelevant cues. Older children recalled more accurate information than younger children, and both groups recalled more accurate information after the short than the long delay. Although relevant cues facilitated free recall, accuracy did not differ across cue conditions. Younger children were less likely to report an accident they had been asked to keep secret than were older children. Children's understanding of truth and lies did not predict errors in free recall or their reporting of the secret. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Monitoring one's own forgetting in younger and older adults.

The present study examined whether there are age-related differences in the ability to accurately monitor forgetting. Young and older adults studied a mixed list of categorized words, and later recalled items when cued with each category. They then estimated the number of additional items that they did not recall—a form of monitoring one's forgetting. Older adults exhibited impaired memory performance compared with young adults, but also accurately estimated they forgot more information than young adults. Both age groups were fairly accurate in predicting forgetting in terms of resolution, indicating that aging does not impair the ability to monitor forgetting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-related differences in an ecologically based study of route learning.

Spatial learning abilities in younger adults and in healthy elderly adults were examined in 2 tasks. In the first task, participants were tested for their ability to recall relevant route information as well as to recognize and to order temporally landmark information observed along the route. Older participants had relatively greater difficulty retracing the route and temporospatially ordering landmarks but were equally good at recognition of landmarks occurring on the route. In the second task, participants memorized a 2-dimensional representation of a route and subsequently navigated the route from memory. Older participants had greater difficulty memorizing the route and navigating it. Errors of omission, commission, wrong, and forced choice were analyzed. Group differences in the pattern of errors differed by task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Autobiographical remembering and hypermnesia: A comparison of older and younger adults.

This study examined age differences in autobiographical memory and extended findings concerning hypermnesia in laboratory tasks to a real world event, the announcement of the verdict in the O. J. Simpson murder trial. Older and younger adults repeatedly recalled the event in a single session. Interviews were coded for amount and type of accurate information and for errors. The age groups did not differ in ability to recall the gist of the event or in the number of errors made. Younger adults were better at remembering when the event had occurred. Both age groups showed hypermnesia. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of autobiographical memory across the life span and the phenomenon of hypermnesia in everyday memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Event memory: The effects of processing objectives and time delay on memory for action sequences.

Tested a general model of information processing proposed by the present 1st author and T. K. Srull (1980, 1984) that conceptualizes the memorial representations of events that result from different types of goal-directed cognition. 248 undergraduates read a passage describing events that took place at a cocktail party. They were told either to form an impression, to empathize with the writer, or to remember the information presented. The stimulus passage contained 2 target events described chronologically or in reverse order that were presented together or were separated. After a short or long delay, Ss recalled the information they read in the order it came to mind. Ss were given the individual event actions and told to place them in the order they were presented. The target events were more likely to be recalled together and in chronological order when Ss had learned about them with either an impression formation or an empathy objective. Orderings of these actions were affected by task objectives only after a long delay. Ss with an empathy objective were most likely to recall the last target event presented before the 1st one after a long delay, whereas Ss with an impression objective were least likely to do so. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Isolating the contributions of familiarity and source information to item recognition: A time course analysis.

Recognition memory may be mediated by the retrieval of distinct types of information, notably, a general assessment of familiarity and the recovery of specific source information. A response-signal speed-accuracy trade-off variant of an exclusion procedure was used to isolate the retrieval time course for familiarity and source information. In 2 experiments, participants studied spoken and read lists (with various numbers of presentations) and then performed an exclusion task, judging an item as old only if it was in the heard list. Dual-process fits of the time course data indicated that familiarity information typically is retrieved before source information. The implications that these data have for models of recognition, including dual-process and global memory models, are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)