Bilingual memory representation: A further test of dual coding theory.

Compared incidental recall for words coded as synonyms, translations, and copies in 28 Spanish-English, early and late onset bilingual undergraduates. 24 English-monolingual undergraduates recalled in draw, synonym, and copy conditions. Words in the synonym condition were recalled more than copied words by both groups of Ss, and bilingual Ss recalled imaged and translated words more often than synonyms. No differences were found between early and late onset bilinguals across words. It is argued that a dual coding view offers an explanation for these findings. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of concreteness on comprehensibility, interest, and memory for text: Implications for dual coding theory and text design.

The comprehensibility, interestingness, familiarity, and memorability of concrete and abstract instructional text were investigated in 4 experiments. Exp 1 investigated relationships between ratings of concreteness, familiarity, interestingness, and comprehensibility in concrete and abstract sentences about historical figures. Exp 2 investigated the immediate and delayed recall of those sentences, and employed rating norms from Exp 1 as predictors of recall. Exps 3 and 4 replicated aspects of Exps 1 and 2 with paragraphs of varying length. Results indicated that concreteness (ease of imagery) was the variable overwhelmingly most related to comprehensibility and recall. Discussion evaluates dual coding theory vs schema theory in explaining the results, suggests guidelines for text design, and offers a new perspective on the "seductive details" phenomenon, suggesting that abstractions also pose problems for learners. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A test of hue memory.

A hue memory test consisting of 20 chips from the Farnsworth-Munsell hue series (S is required to select a same-hued chip after brief exposure of each test chip) was developed. Test-retest reliabilities for two groups were .68 and .59. Item data and correlations with the Woods Color Aptitude Test and the ISCC CAT are presented. "Neither the present test nor Woods' test is a valid substitute for the ISCC CAT… . By itself, the present test is certainly valid as a test of hue memory since it is a direct test of immediate memory for hue dissociated from the factor of configuration." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A social context-personality index theory of memory for acquaintances.

We propose a social context-personality index theory of memory for acquaintances. According to this theory, acquaintances are indexed within social encoding contexts by their deviations from a personality norm. Four tests of the theory are reported. In Experiments 1 and 2, subjects retrieved an acquaintance to two serially presented cues: a social cue and a personality cue. Retrievals were faster if the social cue preceded the personality cue, rather than vice versa. In Experiment 3, subjects retrieved an acquaintance to one cue; here retrievals were faster if the cue identified a social rather than a personality category. In Experiment 4, subjects named as many acquaintances as possible in 10 min, then identified acquaintances' social contexts and personality attributes. Results showed that persons were named in social clusters that were divided into personality subclusters. The four experiments support our context-index theory and have implications for competing theories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A dual representation theory of posttraumatic stress disorder.

A cognitive theory of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is proposed that assumes traumas experienced after early childhood give rise to 2 sorts of memory, 1 verbally accessible and 1 automatically accessible through appropriate situational cues. These different types of memory are used to explain the complex phenomenology of PTSD, including the experiences of reliving the traumatic event and of emotionally processing the trauma. The theory considers 3 possible outcomes of the emotional processing of trauma, successful completion, chronic processing, and premature inhibition of processing. We discuss the implications of the theory for research design, clinical practice, and resolving contradictions in the empirical data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A production system theory of serial memory.

A theory is described that provides a detailed model of how people recall serial lists of items. This theory is based on the Adaptive Character of Thought-Rational (ACT-R) production system (J. R. Anderson, 1993). It assumes that serial lists are represented as hierarchical structures consisting of groups and items within groups. Declarative knowledge units encode the position of items and of groups within larger groups. Production rules use this positional information to organize the serial recall of a list of items. In ACT-R, memory access depends on a limited-capacity activation process, and errors can occur in the contents of recall because of a partial matching process. These limitations conspire in a number of ways to produce the limitations in immediate memory span. As the span increases, activation must be divided among more elements, activation decays more with longer recall times, and there are more opportunities for positional and acoustic confusions. The theory is shown to be capable of predicting both latency and error patterns in serial recall. It addresses effects of serial position, list length, delay, word length, positional confusion, acoustic confusion, and articulatory suppression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory.

The present article presents a meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory. With 713 independent samples from 515 studies, the meta-analysis finds that intergroup contact typically reduces intergroup prejudice. Multiple tests indicate that this finding appears not to result from either participant selection or publication biases, and the more rigorous studies yield larger mean effects. These contact effects typically generalize to the entire outgroup, and they emerge across a broad range of outgroup targets and contact settings. Similar patterns also emerge for samples with racial or ethnic targets and samples with other targets. This result suggests that contact theory, devised originally for racial and ethnic encounters, can be extended to other groups. A global indicator of Allport's optimal contact conditions demonstrates that contact under these conditions typically leads to even greater reduction in prejudice. Closer examination demonstrates that these conditions are best conceptualized as an interrelated bundle rather than as independent factors. Further, the meta-analytic findings indicate that these conditions are not essential for prejudice reduction. Hence, future work should focus on negative factors that prevent intergroup contact from diminishing prejudice as well as the development of a more comprehensive theory of intergroup contact. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Visual memory for novel shapes: Implicit coding without attention.

Implicit memory for novel shapes was explored with a negative priming paradigm. The results show that representations of shapes, formed in a single trial and without attention, can last without decrement across 200 intervening trials and with temporal delays of up to a month. No explicit memory of the shapes was available, either immediately or after a delay. There were consistent individual differences in the amount of negative priming shown, and some participants showed only facilitation. There was a trend toward increased facilitation across time, as if the memory of the shape survived longer than an "action tag" attached to it, which specified whether it should be attended or ignored. The results demonstrate a surprising combination of plasticity and permanence in the visual system and suggest that the roles of both attention and repetition may be to ensure voluntary retrievability rather than to form a lasting memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A test of the Taylor-Spence theory of anxiety.

"The present studies tested the Taylor-Spence theory under 2 conditions: (a) Competing and noncompeting materials were equated in difficulty for a nonanxious group. The prediction from the Taylor-Spence theory that the anxious Ss would perform more poorly on the competing than on the noncompeting material was not sustained. (b) Anxious and nonanxious Ss were tested on easy competing and difficult noncompeting materials. The prediction from the Taylor-Spence theory was that anxious Ss would do more poorly (relative to nonanxious Ss) on the easy competing than on the difficult noncompeting material. The results were opposite from those predicted and significant at beyond the .05 level." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The testing effect in recognition memory: A dual process account.

The testing effect, or the finding that taking an initial test improves subsequent memory performance, is a robust and reliable phenomenon--as long as the final test involves recall. Few studies have examined the effects of taking an initial recall test on final recognition performance, and results from these studies are equivocal. In 3 experiments, we attempt to demonstrate that initial testing can change the ways in which later recognition decisions are executed even when no difference can be detected in the recognition hit rates. Specifically, initial testing was shown to enhance later recollection but leave familiarity unchanged. This conclusion emerged from three dependent measures: source memory, exclusion performance, and remember/know judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A test of Piaget's theory of moral judgment.

Tested Piaget's theory that children's moral development is a function of their peer group experiences and age. 48 8-yr-old children, in 16 cohesive and 16 low-cohesive groups of 3, competed for prizes on 4 paper-and-pencil tasks, unaware that their cheating could be detected. The procedure was repeated with 48 5 yr. olds. Prior social experience was inferred from sociometric data. Findings are: (a) 5 yr. olds cheated significantly more than 8 yr. olds, supporting Piaget's belief that moral autonomy increases between ages 5 and 8; (b) at age 8, but not at age 5, cheating was an inverse function of the degree of cohesiveness, supporting Piaget's theory that group ties produce moral autonomy at age 8, but not at age 5; and (c) prior social experience bore a significant inverse relationship to cheating at age 8, but not at age 5, supporting Piaget's theory that such experience is the principal factor responsible for moral autonomy at age 8, but not at age 5. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A test of the melioration theory of matching.

Melioration theory entails that matching in concurrent schedules occurs because the subjects equalize the local reinforcement rates (reinforcers received for each alternative divided by the time allocated to each alternative). The role of local reinforcement rates was tested by using multiple schedules in which one component involved an alternative with a high absolute rate of reinforcement and a low local reinforcement rate while the second component involved an alternative with a low absolute rate and a high local rate. These alternatives were then presented simultaneously in probe trials to determine preference between them. Contrary to melioration, the absolute rate of reinforcement, not the local rate, was the controlling variable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spatial and verbal abilities in children's crossmodal recognition: A dual coding approach.

Conducted 2 experiments to study the relative importance of visuospatial (VSAs) and verbal referential abilities (VRAs) to 184 English-speaking children's (aged 4 yrs 11 mo to 8 yrs) crossmodal performance under imagery, naming, and control instructions. Using the Minnesota Paper Form(s) Board Test Revised, imagery instructions induced Ss to implement a visual imagery strategy that depended primarily on VSA, whereas naming instructions promoted use of a naming strategy that depended relatively more on VRA. No instructions resulted in use of a verbal/naming strategy similar to that used by naming Ss. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A driving-simulator test of Wilde's risk homeostasis theory.

Previous experimental tests of risk homeostasis theory (RHT) have failed to manipulate both motivational and nonmotivational variables in an ecologically valid within-subject design. In this study, 24 Ss operated an interactive driving simulator under varying levels of a within-subject motivational factor (monetary accident cost), a within-subject nonmotivational factor (speed limit), and a between-subjects nonmotivational factor (speeding fine). Consistent with RHT, increased speed limit and reduced speeding fine significantly increased driving speed but had no effect on accident frequency. Moreover, increased accident cost caused large and significant reductions in accident frequency but no change in speed choice. Results suggest that in contrast to motivationally based accident countermeasures, regulation of specific risky behaviors such as speed choice may have little influence on accident rates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Engrams, memory storage, and mnemonic coding.

Among the basic questions concerning memory is the problem of "how the human brain records, stores, and transmits information… . I believe that acquired engrams are laid down like genetic codes, are transmitted as genetic information and revived and assembled into memories by some matching method. The matching may be either chemical or electrical and at some levels of neural organization of the sort we identify with frequency radio tuning or electrical resonance… . [If] we conceive of learning as a linking of sequential responses or facts, it is not the facts but the links between them which are altered by the learning process." Brain function resembles genetic replication and resonance phenomena rather than devices currently employed in automata. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A split-attention effect in multimedia learning: Evidence for dual processing systems in working memory.

Students viewed a computer-generated animation depicting the process of lightning formation (Experiment 1) or the operation of a car's braking system (Experiment 2). In each experiment, students received either concurrent narration describing the major steps (Group AN) or concurrent on-screen text involving the same words and presentation timing (Group AT). Across both experiments, students in Group AN outperformed students in Group AT in recalling the steps in the process on a retention test, in finding named elements in an illustration on a matching test, and in generating correct solutions to problems on a transfer test. Multimedia learners can integrate words and pictures more easily when the words are presented auditorily rather than visually. This split-attention effect is consistent with a dual-processing model of working memory consisting of separate visual and auditory channels. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A resource exchange theory approach to interpersonal interactions: A test of Foa's theory.

Employed U. G. Foa and E. B. Foa's (1974) resource exchange theory to examine the types and patterns of exchanges involved in 57 college students' interpersonal interactions. Two judgment tasks were used to test both the functional and structural aspects of this theory. The dimensions of particularism and concreteness were hypothesized to underlie the 6 resource categories of love, status, information, money, goods, and services. In addition, resources perceived to be in the same category were expected to be exchanged with a higher probability than resources in different categories. Support for both the structural and the functional relations among the resource categories was consistent not with the initial classification of the behaviors used to represent the 6 resource categories but with the meaning associated with the behaviors. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Retrieval rules and semantic coding in short-term memory.

Examines studies of semantic coding in short-term memory for evidence of semantic effects in the primary memory component. It is argued that all cases in which semantic factors have been shown to affect primary memory are attributable to S's utilization of retrieval rules (i.e., techniques and strategies that are stored in secondary memory but facilitate the retrieval of phonemically-coded information from primary memory). It is concluded that semantic coding produces durable secondary memory traces. (41 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)