Individual differences in working memory capacity predict retrieval-induced forgetting.

Selectively retrieving a subset of previously studied information enhances memory for the retrieved information but causes forgetting of related, nonretrieved information. Such retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) has often been attributed to inhibitory executive-control processes that supposedly suppress the nonretrieved items' memory representation. Here, we examined the role of working memory capacity (WMC) in young adults' RIF. WMC was assessed by means of the operation span task. Results revealed a positive relationship between WMC and RIF, with high-WMC individuals showing more RIF than low-WMC individuals. In contrast, individuals showed enhanced memory for retrieved information regardless of WMC. The results are consistent with previous individual-differences work that suggests a close link between WMC and inhibitory efficiency. In particular, the finding supports the inhibitory executive-control account of RIF. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adult age differences in episodic memory: Further support for an associative-deficit hypothesis.

This study further tested an associative-deficit hypothesis (ADH; M. Naveh-Benjamin, 2000), which attributes a substantial part of older adults' deficient episodic memory performance to their difficulty in merging unrelated attributes-units of an episode into a cohesive unit. First, the results of 2 experiments replicate those observed by M. Naveh-Benjamin (2000) showing that older adults are particularly deficient in memory tests requiring associations. Second, the results extend the type of stimuli (pictures) under which older adults show this associative deficit. Third, the results support an ADH in that older adults show less of an associative deficit when the components of the episodes used are already connected in memory, thereby facilitating their encoding and retrieval. Finally, a group of younger adults who encoded the information under divided-attention conditions did not show this associative deficit. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in conformity: Surveillance by the group as a determinant of male nonconformity.

75 male and 71 female undergraduates met in groups containing 2 males and 2 females and received each other's opinions, which were represented as deviating from the opinions that Ss had given earlier. Ss then gave their opinions with the other group members either having or not having surveillance over these opinions. Only with surveillance was males' conformity significantly less than females' conformity. Males' conformity with surveillance was also significantly less than males' or females' conformity without surveillance. Interpretation focuses on (a) the compatibility of nonconformity with the emphasis of the male gender role on independence from other people and (b) the greater likelihood that males' (vs females') nonconformity will result in successful influence over other group members. No support was obtained for a hypothesized tendency for women to be especially conforming because of their concern about harmony in interpersonal relationships. (62 ref) (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)     

Social context as a determinant of sex differences in adults' attraction to infants.

70 male and 70 female undergraduates in same- or mixed-sex groups publicly or privately judged pictures of subhuman primate infants and adults for attractiveness. Sex differences were significant but the largest difference between males and females was found when judgments were made in public same-sex groups. Females reported greater attraction to infants relative to their attraction to adults, when judgments were made publicly in all-female groups. Males reported less attraction to infants in all-male public groups than when in private. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in memory performance and memory ratings as measured in a sample survey.

Age differences in memory performance were studied in a probability sample of a cross-section of 1,491 adults living in the Detroit metropolitan area, with an oversample of those age 60 and older. Both a recall and a recognition measure were adapted to the survey context by querying respondents about the nature of the questions asked in an immediately preceding interview. Subjective memory assessment was also measured, using global memory ratings performed by the respondent, his or her spouse, and the interviewer. A clear, age-related decline in memory performance was found in this population sample. Subjective memory assessment also declined across age groups, but the relation was weaker. On the basis of multiple regression analyses of the recognition measure and the respondent's self-rated memory, which were judged to have the best measurement qualities, a substantial part of these age differences can be accounted for by differences in sociodemographic composition between age groups, by cognitive functioning and physical health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Remembering can cause forgetting: Retrieval dynamics in long-term memory.

Three studies with 148 university students show that the retrieval process itself causes long-lasting forgetting. Ss studied 8 categories (e.g., Fruit). Half the members of half the categories were then repeatedly practiced through retrieval tests (e.g., Fruit Or). Category-cued recall of unpracticed members of practiced categories was impaired on a delayed test. Exps 2 and 3 identified 2 significant features of this retrieval-induced forgetting: The impairment remains when output interference is controlled, suggesting a retrieval-based suppression that endures for 20 min or more, and the impairment appears restricted to high-frequency members. Low-frequency members show little impairment, even in the presence of strong, practiced competitors that might be expected to block access to those items. Findings suggest a critical role for suppression in models of retrieval inhibition and implicate the retrieval process itself in everyday forgetting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Life-span differences in memory integration as a function of processing time.

K. Pezdek (see record 1981-03016-001) reported life-span differences in integration of semantically related pictures and sentences in memory; 6th-grade and high school Ss spontaneously integrated information across modalities, but 3rd graders and adults over 65 did not integrate this information. The present study extends these findings and tests the hypothesis that the 8-sec presentation rate in the previous study was not sufficient to allow the young children and older adults to perform integration processes in memory. Although 3rd graders and older adults (63–78 yrs) did not integrate pictures and sentences that were presented individually at an 8-sec rate, when the presentation rate was increased to 15 sec per item, cross-modality integration resulted. This result is interpreted to mean that the slower presentation rate was necessary for these Ss to actively rehearse different items together, and that this rehearsal strategy is necessary for integration of information in memory. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adult age differences in retrieval: Trace-dependent and cue-dependent forgetting.

A multitrial free recall task was presented to 3 age groups of men and women (18-34, 50-64, and 65-83 yrs) under cued and noncued recall conditions to determine whether age-related differences in retrieval were attributable to the availability of elementary units (trace-dependent forgetting), the accessibility of higher order units (cue-dependent forgetting), or both. Results show significant age differences in words recalled, categories recalled (accessibility), and words recalled per category (availability). It is concluded that adult age differences in retrieval are a function of both cue-dependent and trace-dependent forgetting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging and directed forgetting in episodic memory: A meta-analysis.

In this meta-analysis, we examined the effects of aging on directed forgetting. A cue to forget is more effective in younger (d = 1.17) than in older (d = 0.81) adults. Directed-forgetting effects were larger (a) with the item method rather than with the list method, (b) with longer presentation times, (c) with longer postcue rehearsal times, (d) with single words rather than with verbal action phrases as stimuli, (e) with shorter lists, and (f) when recall rather than recognition was tested. Age effects were reliably larger when the item method was used, suggesting that these effects are mainly due to encoding differences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inferred sex differences in status as a determinant of gender stereotypes about social influence.

In 3 experiments, 470 male and 425 female university students read a scenario describing a communicator's attempt to influence a recipient and then judged how much influence would occur. The scenarios in Exp I described a man trying to influence a woman or a woman trying to influence a man. For scenarios in which job titles were omitted, Ss believed that women held lower status jobs than men and that women were more likely to comply behaviorally with men than men were with women. For scenarios in which job titles were included, Ss' beliefs about compliance were based on job status rather than the sex of the stimulus persons. In Exp II, scenarios in which job titles were omitted described an influence attempt between same- or opposite-sex persons. Both the communicator's and the recipient's sex were found to contribute to the greater perceived compliance of women to men (vs men to women). In Exp III, this perceived sex difference in compliance occurred only when the communicator and recipient were employed by the same organization. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Why never forgetting a face matters: Visual imagery and social memory.

Tested the hypothesis that persons who tend to form vivid visual images of others have more accurate social memories than those who form relatively nonvivid visual images of others. In Exp I, using 186 undergraduates as Ss, vivid imagers outperformed nonvivid imagers in remembering details concerning the attitudes, activities, and life history of a woman whom they observed being interviewed. Exp II with 154 Ss provided more definitive evidence for the link between visual imagery and social memory by demonstrating that vivid imagers had more accurate memories after seeing an interviewee answer questions, whereas seeing the interviewee had no impact on the memories of nonvivid imagers. Results support the author's hypothesis that the relatively superior social memories of vivid imagers reside in their capacity for visual imagery rather than some covariate of imagery. The discussion considers the impact that imagery processes may have on a variety of social thought processes. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ego-defensiveness as a determinant of reported differences in sources of job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction.

Administered the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability scale to 77 white- and blue-collar male employees who described the determinants of their present satisfactions and dissatisfactions during 3 work periods. It was found, especially in relation to the reported determinants of job dissatisfaction, that the higher the social-desirability score the greater was the tendency to respond in a manner predictable from F. Herzberg's 1959 2-factor theory. Results support V. Vroom's 1964 suggestion that Herzberg's results are in part a product of ego-defensive processes within individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intentional inhibition in memory and hallucinations: Directed forgetting and updating.

Hallucinations have been recently associated with inhibitory deficits in memory. In this study, the authors investigated whether hallucinations were related to difficulties to inhibit irrelevant information from episodic memory (Experiment 1) and working memory (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, a directed forgetting task was used. This task measures participants' ability to intentionally forget some recently learned material, when instructions indicate that it is no longer relevant. In Experiment 2, an updating task was used. This task requires participants to intentionally suppress irrelevant information from working memory. Results showed that patients with schizophrenia with hallucinations presented inhibitory deficits in the directed forgetting task and an increase in the number of intrusions in the updating task, compared to patients without hallucinations and healthy controls. No correlations were found between indices of inhibition and other general, negative or positive symptoms. These findings support the existence of an association between intentional inhibition in memory and hallucinations, and they suggest that problems to suppress memory representations can underlie hallucinations in schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recognition memory for briefly presented pictures: The time course of rapid forgetting.

When viewing a rapid sequence of pictures, observes momentarily understand the gist of each scene but have poor recognition memory for most of them (M. C. Potter, 1976). Is forgetting immediate, or does some information persist briefly? Sequences of 5 scenes were presented for 173 ms/picture; when yes-no testing began immediately, recognition was initially high but declined markedly during the 10-item test. With testing delays of 2 or 6 s, the decline over testing was less steep. When 10 or 20 pictures were presented, there was again a marked initial decline during testing. A 2-alternative forced-choice recognition test produced similar results. Both the passage of time and test interference (but not presentation interference) led to forgetting. The brief persistence of information may assist in building a coherent representation over several fixations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Movement-associated neural excitation as a factor in spatial representational memory in rats.

The hypothesis that rats require an attentionlike function arising from integration of exteroceptive and movement-related excitation during the information phase of representational memory–dependent discriminations is proposed. Experiments 1A and 1B (both behavioral) demonstrated the crucial importance of movement-related excitation (angle of turn at T-maze choice point). Experiment 2 showed that, contrary to plausible expectations, ablation of putative posterior parietal association cortex only mildly affected memory. This finding agrees with the notion of a nonspecific mass action–equipotential effect of ablations in nondifferentiated cortex on memory rather than the specific effects resulting from dorsolateral prefrontal ablations in primates. Instead, it is proposed from previous data (e.g., K. M. Heilman et al, 1987) that the hippocampus integrates movement-related and exteroceptive excitations necessary for representational memory, which is largely restricted to spatial attributes in rats. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the course of forgetting in very long-term memory.

For practical reasons, little information is available about memory across very long learning-retention intervals. To determine the time course of forgetting in very long-term memory, a memory test was constructed that sampled events (former one-season television programs) that had occurred during a single year from 1 to 15 years ago. Updated versions of the test were administered each year for 9 consecutive years, and a forgetting curve was then calculated by superimposing the results from the nine tests. The best fitting function to the curve was monotonic and nonlinear. The findings show that forgetting in very long-term memory can be gradual and continuous for many years after learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evidence from a partial report task for forgetting in dynamic spatial memory

G. Sperling (1960) and others have investigated memory for briefly presented stimuli by using a partial versus whole report technique in which participants sometimes reported part of a stimulus array and sometimes reported all of it. For simple, static stimulus displays, the partial report technique showed that participants could recall most of the information in the stimulus array but that this information faded quickly when participants engaged in whole report recall. An experiment was conducted that applied the partial report method to a task involving complex displays of moving objects. In the experiment, 26 participants viewed cars in a low-fidelity driving simulator and then reported the locations of some or all of the cars in each scene. A statistically significant advantage was found for the partial report trials. This finding suggests that detailed spatial location information was forgotten from dynamic spatial memory over the 14 s that it took participants to recall whole report trials. The experiment results suggest better ways of measuring situation awareness. Partial report recall techniques may give a more accurate measure of people's momentary situation awareness than whole report techniques. Potential applications of this research include simulator-based measures of situation awareness ability that can be part of inexpensive test batteries to select people for real-time tasks (e.g., in a driver licensing battery) and to identify people who need additional training.     

Intentional forgetting as a facilitator for recalling new product attributes.

When market changes alter what product attributes are deemed important, consumers may intentionally try to forget old product information in an attempt to remember new product information. In Experiment 1, the authors demonstrated that intentional forgetting of this nature temporarily inhibits retrieval of old product information and leads to a benefit to memory for new product information. The results show that, after a short delay, benefits continue in the absence of costs, which is supportive of a multiple-process account of intentional forgetting. Experiment 2 extends these effects using an advertising message to stimulate forgetting. Across both experiments, results also show that brand preference is based on learning of new attribute information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)