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)     

Age differences in incidental learning.

Examined the effects of age and of incidental-learning tasks on recall of a categorized word list. Ss were 50 18-30 yr old college students and 50 55-65 yr old teachers. The control groups were instructed to remember the words; incidental-learning groups performed orienting tasks, but were not informed that they would have to recall the words. 2 orienting tasks required that Ss process the meaning of the words; the other 2 orienting tasks did not involve semantic processing. Analysis of the free-recall data indicates that the semantic processing tasks led to much greater recall and organization of recall than the nonsemantic orienting tasks. In recall, there was a significant interaction between age and orienting task, with old Ss only manifesting incidental learning that was inferior to young Ss, whose orienting task involved semantic processing. The findings indicate that the presence or absence of an age-related decrement in incidental learning is predictable from the depth of processing of the incidentally acquired material. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcohol's Dissociation of Implicit and Explicit Memory Processes: Implications of a Parallel Distributed Processing Model of Semantic Priming.

Alcohol's dissociation of implicit (unintentional) and explicit (intentional) memory processes in social drinkers was examined. It was hypothesized that an alcohol challenge would lower the percentage of words recalled and result in more retroactive interference in explicit recall tasks but would not lengthen reaction time in an implicit semantic priming task involving highly semantically similar words. Men and women completed all memory tasks in each of 2 counterbalanced sessions (alcohol challenge vs. no-alcohol) separated by 1 week. Alcohol significantly degraded processing in both explicit memory tasks, yet implicit semantic priming remained intact. A parallel distributed processing model that simulates semantic memory is presented. When this system is strongly activated, it does not appear to be altered during moderate alcohol intoxication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory capacity, selective control, and value-directed remembering in children with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Objective: The ability to select what is important to remember, to attend to this information, and to recall high-value items leads to the efficient use of memory. The present study examined how children with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) performed on an incentive-based selectivity task in which to-be-remembered items were worth different point values. Method: Participants were 6–9 year old children with ADHD (n = 57) and without ADHD (n = 59). Using a selectivity task, participants studied words paired with point values and were asked to maximize their score, which was the overall value of the items they recalled. This task allows for measures of memory capacity and the ability to selectively remember high-value items. Results: Although there were no significant between-groups differences in the number of words recalled (memory capacity), children with ADHD were less selective than children in the control group in terms of the value of the items they recalled (control of memory). All children recalled more high-value items than low-value items and showed some learning with task experience, but children with ADHD Combined type did not efficiently maximize memory performance (as measured by a selectivity index) relative to children with ADHD Inattentive type and healthy controls, who did not differ significantly from one another. Conclusions: Children with ADHD Combined type exhibit impairments in the strategic and efficient encoding and recall of high-value items. The findings have implications for theories of memory dysfunction in childhood ADHD and the key role of metacognition, cognitive control, and value-directed remembering when considering the strategic use of memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Electrophysiologic dissociations in memory encoding of abstract and concrete words

This study examined memory encoding of auditorily presented abstract and concrete nouns. 22 subjects performed various blocks of a free recall memory task in which lists of 22 either abstract or concrete words had to be memorized. Consistent with a large variety of memory studies, recall performance was better for concrete than for abstract words. When the event-related potentials (ERPs) recorded during study were selectively averaged for those words that were subsequently recalled and those subsequently not recalled, the ERPs were more positive going for words that were subsequently recalled. These Dm effects (Difference due to memory) started around 500 ms post-stimulus and differed in timing and scalp topography for both types of words: For abstract words, they were present in an early (i.e., 600 to 1100 ms) time interval at parieto-occipital electrodes only. In contrast, for concrete words, Dm effects were obtained with a broad topographic distribution in the 600 to 1000 ms time range and were also present in a late time interval (1100 to 1600 ms) at fronto-central recording sites. The topographical dissociations of the Dm effects in the early time interval are taken to reflect the larger distinctiveness of concrete words during encoding, whereas the late effects presumably play a functional role in elaborative processing of concrete words. The results do not agree with models of word concreteness that propose separate processing systems for the two types of words, and rather support those models that propose quantitative differences in the processing of abstract and concrete words.     

Use of relational and item-specific information in remembering by older and younger adults.

The applicability to older adults of predictions from the integrated memory model, that optimal memory results from concurrent availability of relational and item-specific information, was assessed. In Experiment 1, older adults (M?=?69 years) encoded related or unrelated words using rating, sorting, or both tasks. Using both tasks produced better recall than either separate task. Rating facilitated recall for related items, but sorting did not facilitate unrelated items. In Experiment 2, younger (M?=?20) and older (M?=?74) adults sorted or rated lists comprising categories of varying sizes. Young adults' free recall conformed to predictions, but older adults again showed facilitation mainly from rating larger categories. The stronger effects for younger adults imply that specific combinations of encoding and retrieval manipulations and materials must be considered in predicting older adults' performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of word co-occurance on short-term memory: Associative links in long-term memory affect short-term memory performance.

In immediate serial recall tasks, high-frequency words are recalled better than low-frequency words. This has been attributed to high-frequency words' being better represented and providing more effective support to a redintegration process at retrieval (C. Hulme et al., 1997). In studies of free recall, there is evidence that frequency of word co-occurrence, rather than word frequency per se, may explain the recall advantage enjoyed by high-frequency words (J. Deese, 1960). The authors present evidence that preexposing pairs of low-frequency words, so as to create associative links between them, has substantial beneficial effects on immediate serial recall performance. These benefits, which are not attributable to simple familiarization with the words per se, do not occur for high-frequency words. These findings indicate that associative links between items in long-term memory have important effects on short-term memory performance and suggest that the effects of word frequency in short-term memory tasks are related to differences in interitern associations in long-term memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory for emotional trait adjectives in clinically depressed youth

An experiment was conducted to examine memory for emotional trait adjectives in depressed children and adolescents. Two groups of children and adolescents, clinically depressed participants and non-clinical controls, were compared on computerized versions of recall and recognition memory tasks. Three groups of words (positive trait adjectives, negative trait adjectives, and categorized neutral words) were used in the experiment. Results showed that the depressed group recalled significantly more negative adjectives than positive adjectives, whereas the control group recalled the same number of positive and negative adjectives. This effect was predicted by the association between age and level of depression, with the depression-related bias becoming stronger with age. Signal detection analysis revealed that the depressed group did not show any bias in the recognition task. The findings are discussed with respect to cognitive theories of depression with consideration of the developmental implications.     

Concreteness and semantic repetition effects in free recall: Evidence for dual-coding theory.

Tested the prediction of A. Paivio's (1971, 1976) dual-coding model, which states that semantic-repetition effects will be obtained for concrete but not abstract words. Dual-coding theory also asserts that semantic equivalents are encoded as a combination of separate verbal representations for all words and common imaginal representations for concrete equivalents. 96 undergraduates recalled a list that contained no-repetition, synonym-repetition, and identical-repetition items, half of which were concrete and half of which were abstract. Results show that, for concrete words, recall of synonym- and identical-repetition items did not differ significantly, and both conditions facilitated recall relative to no-repetition items. For abstract words, however, recall of synonym- and no-repetition items did not differ significantly, whereas identical-repetition items facilitated recall relative to both of these conditions. Findings support the prediction and demonstrate the importance of concreteness in semantic-repetition effects. (French abstract) (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Imagery, encoding, and retrieval of information from memory: Some specific encoding-retrieval changes in Huntington's disease.

Used mixed lists of 10 high-imagery and 10 low-imagery words as stimuli in a prompted, free-recall experiment. On each trial, only words not recalled on the previous trial were presented again as stimuli. Normal controls recalled more words on each test of recall than did 8 41–53 yr old patients with Huntington's disease. Controls remembered more high-imagery words after fewer presentation trials and could recall them with greater consistency than low-imagery words. Patients with Huntington's disease required far more trials to remember words, never recalled all 20 words, and did not differentiate high- and low-imagery words with respect to their recall probability. Results indicate that these patients, unlike controls, cannot consistently retrieve responses that were recalled previously. Findings are discussed in terms of the relationship between encoding and retrieval processes. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Paired-associate learning and recall of high and low imagery words: moderating effects of hypnosis, hypnotic susceptibility level, and visualization abilities

Relationships between recall of low and high imagery paired-associate (P-A) words and hypnotic susceptibility, and the influence of hypnosis on recall as moderated by hypnotic level were examined. Subjects were assessed on 2 hypnotic susceptibility scales [Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility; Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C (SHSS:C)]. Forty-one low (0-4 SHSS:C) and 41 highly (9-12 SHSS:C) hypnotizable college students were assigned to 1 of 4 experimental groups: waking-hypnosis, hypnosis-waking, waking-waking, or hypnosis-hypnosis. Recall was significantly better for high than low imagery words. In the more sensitive within-subjects design, high hypnotizables recalled more P-A words during hypnosis than waking, and lows did not differ. In the between-subjects design, hypnotic level was not a moderator of performance during hypnosis. Low hypnotizables recalled more words in the within-subjects design. Visualization ability was a poor moderator of imagery-mediated learning. High imagery recall correlated significantly with Marks's (1973) Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (.25) and Paivio and Harshman's (1983) Individual Differences Questionnaire (IDQ) Verbal scale (.29), but not with the IDQ Imagery scale, the Mental Rotations Test (Vandenberg & Kuse, 1973), or the revised Minnesota Paper Form Board Test (Likert & Quasha, 1941).     

The influence of levels of processing on recall from working memory and delayed recall tasks.

Recent research in working memory has highlighted the similarities involved in retrieval from complex span tasks and episodic memory tasks, suggesting that these tasks are influenced by similar memory processes. In the present article, the authors manipulated the level of processing engaged when studying to-be-remembered words during a reading span task (Experiment 1) and an operation span task (Experiment 2) in order to assess the role of retrieval from secondary memory during complex span tasks. Immediate recall from both span tasks was greater for items studied under deep processing instructions compared with items studied under shallow processing instructions regardless of trial length. Recall was better for deep than for shallow levels of processing on delayed recall tests as well. These data are consistent with the primary-secondary memory framework, which suggests that to-be-remembered items are displaced from primary memory (i.e., the focus of attention) during the processing phases of complex span tasks and therefore must be retrieved from secondary memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comprehension of texts with unfamiliar versus recently taught words: Assessment of alternative models.

Used modeling data from a study of M. G. McKeown et al (1983) in which approximately 160 4th graders recalled texts containing words that were either unfamiliar or recently taught to them through an intensive vocabulary instruction program. A suppression model, in which incomplete representations of propositions containing unfamiliar words were used during processing, predicted the pattern of recall of texts containing 11% unfamiliar words better than did a substitution model, in which propositions that contained only familiar words were substituted for those that contained unfamiliar words. A remind model, in which instructed words received additional processing, predicted the pattern of recall of texts containing 11% instructed words better than did a normal model, in which propositions that contained instructed words were processed in the same way as were propositions containing only familiar words. It is suggested that learning words through well-designed, direct instruction makes the instructed words salient and results in a greater ability to use the instructed rather than familiar words during comprehension. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Serial Position Effects and the Picture-Superiority Effect in the Group Recall of Unshared Information.

This research examined how serial position effects (i.e., primacy and recency effects) and the picture-superiority effect (i.e., the tendency to recall pictures better than words) can impact the recall of unshared information (i.e., information known by only 1 group member). In 2 experiments, participants studied a stimulus list of pictures and words and completed a group recall task. In both experiments, the authors found that the primacy effect and the picture-superiority effect influenced how much unshared information was recalled and when it was recalled. However, there was little impact of the recency effect on either how much unshared information was recalled or when it was recalled. The implications of these findings for future theoretical research and applications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mnemonic organization and free recall in schizophrenia.

Investigated word-storage structure and processes of organization and retrieval in 17 young schizophrenics (mean age 26.5 yrs) and 13 normal Ss (mean age 25.7 yrs). Ss were required to establish a stable organization of 25 unrelated words through repeated, self-paced sortings into self-determined categories. Subsequently, they were asked for free recall of the words. The schizophrenics required significantly more trials to complete the sorting task, but once this was achieved they recalled as many words in equally regular order as the normals did. The groups did not differ in regard to organizational structure in the sortings as assessed by hierarchical structure analysis. It is concluded that a schizophrenic deficit of mnemonic organization is indicated, possibly due to difficulties in maintaining a stable system of categories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of affective meaningfulness and self-concept in the verbal learning styles of White and Black children.

White and Black 5th graders, representing 2 social class and 2 self-concept (Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale) levels, recalled nouns which they had prerated for likability in a multitrial free recall format. While self-concept failed to have any noticeable influence on the total sample, it interacted significantly with race. As predicted, the high self-concept White Ss recalled positively rated words more readily than negatively rated words, while their low self-concept peers showed no memory predilection. Although the low self-concept Black Ss also reflected no preference for their affective evaluations, the high self-concept Black Ss showed a greater propensity to recall their negatively rated words. Social class had a negligible effect on affective learning styles. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory failures in progressive idiopathic dementia.

14 patients with progressive idiopathic dementia (PID) were compared with 14 normal controls (average age 61.2 yrs) on psychometric and laboratory measures of cognitive processes. Patients had significantly lower scores than controls on the Wechsler Memory Scale and the WAIS Performance IQ, but not on WAIS Verbal or Full Scale IQ or Digit Span tests. Patients performed more poorly on learning and memory tasks than controls. Unlike the latter, patients' recall of categorized word lists was no better than their recall of unrelated words, and they did not consistently remember information that had been previously recalled. Patients also were unable to generate as many words that start with a given letter or that belong to a given category as controls did. Data show that while many intellectual functions are preserved, PID patients are unable to access structures in semantic memory and therefore fail to effectively encode episodic events so that they are memorable. Differences in cognitive dysfunction in PID and in depression are discussed. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory for student-performed tasks.

Examined whether memory improved in a series of 10 student-performed tasks in three conditions administered to students who expected a posttest. The results indicated that the subjects in a rhyming mnemonic condition recalled significantly more of the student-performed tasks than did subjects in paraphrase or control conditions. In addition, subjects in a paraphrase condition recalled significantly more student-performed tasks than did subjects in the control condition. In Experiment 2, we did not use the rhyming mnemonic condition. Results confirmed those of Experiment 1. In Experiment 3, we contrasted conditions in which unrelated student-performed tasks were used as the to-be-remembered events with conditions in which the student-performed tasks made up an overall procedure. Results indicated that the type of task influenced recall. Overall conclusions suggest that encoding of student-performed tasks is strategic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)