Person memory: Personality traits as organizing principles in memory for behaviors.

In 3 experiments, a total of 96 undergraduates studied and recalled sentences describing behaviors while performing a laboratory impression-information task. Recall was high for behaviors that were incongruent with a personality-trait impression for a character, whereas recall was much lower for behaviors that were congruent or neutral with reference to the impression. Set size, the number of congruent and incongruent behaviors attributed to the character, was shown to be a major determinant of this result. The smaller the size of the incongruent set, the higher the probability of recalling an item from the set. There was no tendency for behaviors to cluster by trait category in recall output protocols. This result is interpreted as evidence that a simple analogy to hierarchical noun categories, studied in many verbal learning experiments on organization of memory, did not apply to the present results. Three theoretical analyses—an associative network model, a depth-of-processing model, and a schema model—are reviewed in light of these results. (56 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dose-dependent effects of hydrocortisone infusion on autobiographical memory recall.

The glucocorticoid hormone cortisol has been shown to impair episodic memory performance. The present study examined the effect of two doses of hydrocortisone (synthetic cortisol) administration on autobiographical memory retrieval. Healthy volunteers (n = 66) were studied on two separate visits, during which they received placebo and either moderate-dose (0.15 mg/kg IV; n = 33) or high-dose (0.45 mg/kg IV; n = 33) hydrocortisone infusion. From 75 to 150 min post-infusion subjects performed an Autobiographical Memory Test and the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT). The high-dose hydrocortisone administration reduced the percent of specific memories recalled (p = .04), increased the percent of categorical (nonspecific) memories recalled (p     

An ecological theory of expertise effects in memory recall.

Previous research has shown a significant correlation between domain expertise and memory recall performance after a very brief exposure time. Despite the large number of such studies, several findings in the literature have no satisfactory theoretical explanation. A novel theory based on an ecological approach is proposed to explain these results. This constraint attunement hypothesis provides a framework for identifying and representing the various levels of goal-relevant constraint in a domain. The theory predicts that there will be a memory expertise advantage in cases in which experts are attuned to the goal-relevant constraints in the material to be recalled and that the more constraint available, the greater the expertise advantage can be. The theory explains a number of diverse empirical findings in the literature in a coherent, unique, and parsimonious fashion and suggests a number of promising issues for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of subject-generated and experimenter-provided memory tags on free recall.

64 children from Grades 2 and 5 participated in a recall task. There were 4 instructional conditions distinguished by the type of retrieval cue: sign, subcategory, supracategory, and control. The task required that the Ss image and recall items from 6 successively presented sets of categorized pictorial stimuli. These categories, however, were not mentioned; instead, a sign representing an activity for each set was emphasized as the retrieval cue. Significant effects of grade and of condition, favoring the subcategory condition, were determined by ANOVA. The results, based upon total recall as well as items-per-category and category recall, are discussed in relation to E. Tulving and M. J. Watkins's (see record 1975-26816-001) encoding specificity principle, A. Paivio's (1971) 2-process theory of memory, and F. I. Craik and R. S. Lockhart's (see record 1973-20189-001) levels-of-processing approach to memory. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Short-term memory: The effects of inter-item time distribution and recall procedure.

Presents an extension of the M. C. Corballis (see pa, vol. 40:4982) study by exploring the effects of the increasing vs. Decreasing interitem interval variable in a task where retrieval will be from long- and short-term memory. 40 undergraduates served as ss. In the earlier memory-span experiment results revealed that increasing interitem intervals resulted in better performance than decreasing intervals. Corballis used a serial recall procedure in which digits were being recalled from long-term memory. The addition in the present study of the free-ordered recall condition produced an opposite result, I.e., recall was better in the decreasing interval condition. This finding supports the argument that in memory studies effects on the different memory stores must be carefully determined. (french summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age effects in cued recall: Sources from implicit and explicit memory.

In 2 experiments, young and old adults were compared on cued recall using direct and indirect test instructions. Participants studied words under an incidental orienting task of rating each word for concreteness. Test cues were meaningfully related to the targets, and participants used them either to recall the studied word (direct test) or to generate a related word (indirect test). Target words and test cues varied in the number of associates linked to them prior to the laboratory experience, and effects of the size of the sets of associates were used as indicators of implicit memory search. Age differences were observed in the effects of target and cue set size as well as in the effects of type of test instruction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Person memory and judgment.

Two general types of information about a person are considered in this article: One pertains to specific behaviors a person had manifested, and the other refers to more abstract personality dispositions or behavioral tendencies. A theoretical model of person memory that incorporates both types of information is developed. The model accounts for a large number of factors that are known to affect the recall of social information, the making of interpersonal judgments, and the relation between what is recalled and the judgments that are made. A major strength of the model is its applicability to a wide range of person memory and judgment phenomena that are observed in several different experimental paradigms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Word-frequency effects on short-term memory tasks: evidence for a redintegration process in immediate serial recall

Four experiments investigated the mechanisms responsible for the advantage enjoyed by high-frequency words in short-term memory tasks. Experiment 1 demonstrated effects of word frequency on memory span that were independent of differences in speech rate. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that word frequency has an increasing effect on serial recall across serial positions, but Experiment 4 showed that this effect was abolished for backward recall. A model that includes a redintegration process that operates to "clean up" decayed short-term memory traces is proposed, and the multinomial processing tree model described by R. Schweickert (1993) is used to provide a quantitative fit to data from Experiments 2, 3, and 4.     

Serial recall versus recall by categories in short-term memory.

C. G. Penney (1980) reported that serial recall of a list containing both auditorily and visually presented verbal items produced a lower level of recall than did separate recall of auditory and visual items. This finding was interpreted as support for the hypothesis that auditory and visual items are processed in separate streams in short-term memory, and that it is difficult to integrate these 2 streams into 1 sequence for rehearsal. The present study tested an alternate interpretation of the earlier results, the hypothesis that retention of order information is facilitated by S's being able to organize the list into 2 short sequences rather than 1 long sequence. Three experiments (72 university students) were carried out in which spatial location or category of stimulus material (letters or digits) was used to establish 2 types of items. Total recall from a list did not differ significantly between the serial and category recall conditions. Results rule out the organizational interpretation of the bisensory experiment and, therefore, provide indirect support for the separate streams hypothesis. (French abstract) (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Person memory and causal attributions.

Three experiments with 273 college students were conducted to reconcile the apparent contradiction between the well-established finding that initial impressions are resistant to incongruent (ICG) information and the finding that information ICG with an impression is particularly likely to be recalled. Using a procedure similar to that of R. Hastie and P. A. Kumar (1979), a situational or dispositional attribution was provided for a target item, which was either congruent (CG) or ICG with an initial impression. The ICG item was more likely than the CG item to be recalled only when attributed to dispositional causes (Exp I). The congruence of the target had greater impact on impressions when attributed to dispositional causes, particularly when Ss were given little other information about the target (Exps I and II). Exp III revealed that Ss preferred situational attributions for ICG items and dispositional attributions for CG. The authors conclude that Hastie and Kumar's findings may be limited to conditions in which situational attributions for TCG information are not provided. Possible mediators of the effects of causal attributions on recall, and the relation between recall and impressions are discussed. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of suppressing a negative autobiographical memory on concurrent intrusions and subsequent autobiographical recall in dysphoria.

Depressed individuals endeavor to suppress intrusive thoughts and memories as a form of mood control. Two predictions from this literature were examined. The 1st was that attempts to suppress a preselected negative memory during a stream-of-consciousness (SOC) task in dysphoric individuals, relative to a no-suppress condition, would lead to relatively speeded access to other negative but not positive memories on a subsequent cue-word recall task. No such effects were predicted for nondysphoric controls. The 2nd prediction was that, across all participants who were asked to suppress memories, higher levels of depressed mood would be associated with more intrusions of the to-be-suppressed memory during the SOC and that this association would be stronger than the comparable relation in participants who were not asked to suppress memories. Results support both predictions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The memory recall paradigm: Straightening out the historical record.

Traces the inadvertent distortion of historical detail committed by various authors in the dissemination of memory recall results from A. D. de Groot's (1946 [1965]) work with chess masters. The misrepresentation of these details not only has not been corrected but seems to be spreading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Response-contingent variation in visual recall: Evidence of a dynamic memory trace.

Conducted an experiment to confirm hypotheses derived from D. C. Donderi (1973) and Donderi et al (1970) that visual memory is sensitive to information in learned stimulus-response contingencies and to the delay in recall testing. 66 Ss (aged 19–26 yrs) learned responses to 4 ellipses that varied orthogonally in area and orientation. Correct responses were contingent on either area or orientation of the ellipses. Ss recalled the ellipses by drawing them. Findings confirm that there was a systematic change in recall memory along a stimulus dimension when values along that dimension were associated with responses that were learned to the set of stimuli prior to recall. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expertise effects in memory recall: Comment on Vicente and Wang (1998).

K. J. Vicente and J. H. Wang proposed a "constraint attunement hypothesis" to explain the large effects of domain expertise on memory recall observed in a number of task domains. They claimed to have found serious defects in alternative explanations of these effects, which their theory overcomes. Reexamination of the evidence shows that their theory is not novel but has been anticipated by those they criticized and that other current published theories of the phenomena do not have the defects that Vicente and Wang attributed to them. Vicente and Wang's views reflect underlying differences about (a) emphasis on performance versus process in psychology and (b) how theories and empirical knowledge interact and progress with the development of a science. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vives (1538) on memory and recall.

Histories of associationism and early psychology frequently refer to the writings of Juan Luis Vives (1492–2540) on memory and the flow of ideas. The present article includes a translation of the chapter on memory from Vives's De Anima et Vita. The introduction preceding the translation places the chapter in its historical context, showing that much of it is based on a framework dating from the early Middle Ages. The introduction also points out some of the ways in which Vives was original and anticipated problems of memory that still concern modern researchers. (French abstract) (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Therapeutic responses to delayed recall: Beyond recovered memory.

Heated controversy has arisen over the advisability of making recovery of traumatic memories a central intervention strategy in psychotherapy for adults survivors of childhood sexual abuse. This article addresses why such an approach can be deleterious, discusses alternatives to memory-focused treatment, and presents core strategies for facilitating self-management of intrusive recall in order to promote client autonomy and empowerment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Person stereotypes and memory for people.

Tested the proposal by M. Snyder and S. W. Uranowitz (see record 1980-05464-001) that there exists a memory-priming mechanism by which information about a person that is normally unavailable in episodic memory is made available by the activation of a person stereotype that subsumes that information. In 2 experiments 128 college students read a biography of Betty K, who was later labeled as either a heterosexual or a lesbian before Ss took a recognition memory test. A signal-detection model was used to assess the effects of labeling on response bias as well as on the amount of information available in memory. The memory availability hypothesis predicted that Ss primed with a lesbian label for Betty K would have more availability in memory of lesbian information, and Ss primed with a heterosexual label would remember more heterosexual material. Neither experiment produced any improved recognition memory for biographic information due to activation of a sexual stereotype. Both experiments found a response bias (guessing) acting in the direction of the label S received. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Implicit memory: Effects of network size and interconnectivity on cued recall.

Previous findings have indicated that the recall of a recently studied word is affected by how many associates it has in long-term memory (set size). The purpose of these experiments was to determine whether recall is also affected by the connectivity of these associates. Studied words were preselected to represent combinations of set size and connectivity and, in different experiments, recall was cued with extralist or intralist cues and with cues sharing few or many associates with the studied words. Effects of study time, encoding context, and levels of processing were also investigated. The results indicated that recall was more likely for words with smaller associative sets and for words with more interconnected sets of associates. These findings demonstrate that the recall of a recently presented word in the presence of a retrieval cue is affected by both the size and organization of its implicitly activated associative structure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)