Dissociations between familiarity processes in explicit recognition and implicit perceptual memory.

Dual-process theories of recognition posit that a perceptual familiarity process contributes to both explicit recognition and implicit perceptual memory. This putative single familiarity process has been indexed by inclusion–exclusion, remember–know, and repetition priming measures. The present studies examined whether these measures identify a common familiarity process. Familiarity-based explicit recognition (as indexed by the inclusion–exclusion and the independence remember–know procedures) increased with conceptual processing. In contrast, implicit word-identification priming and familiarity-based word-stem completion (as indexed by inclusion–exclusion) increased with study–test perceptual similarity. These dissociations indicate that familiarity-based explicit recognition may be more sensitive to conceptual than to perceptual processing and is functionally distinct from the perceptual familiarity process mediating implicit perceptual memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Microcomputer learning in small groups: Cognitive requirements and group processes.

35 self-selected 11–14 yr olds learned LOGO for 1 wk in 3-person groups that were homogeneous with respect to previous experience with computers. A battery of cognitive pretests yielded different profiles that were used to predict different programming outcomes. Ss were posttested for achievement. Results show that mathematics ability was the best predictor of knowledge of syntax, interpreting graphics programs, and generating relations programs. Spatial ability was the best predictor of knowledge of basic commands. A combination of spatial ability and field independence best predicted generating graphics programs. Of 11 group process variables examined, 5 predicted programming outcomes: receiving explanations in response to errors (positively related), receiving explanations in response to questions (negatively related), not receiving explanations after an error (negatively related), receiving no response to a question (negatively related), and time at the keyboard (positively related). No student demographic characteristic or ability was related to the 5 group process variables. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beyond attribution theory: Cognitive processes in performance appraisal.

Construes performance appraisal as the outcome of a dual-process system of evaluation and decision making whereby attention, categorization, recall, and information integration are carried out through either an automatic or a controlled process. In the automatic process, an employee's behavior is categorized without conscious monitoring unless the decisions involved are problematic; a consciously monitored categorization process would then occur. Subsequent recall of the employee is viewed to be biased by the attributes of prototypes (abstract images) representing categories to which the employee has been assigned. Dispositional and contextual factors influence the availability of categories during both assignment and recall. Although automatic and controlled processes can create accurate employee evaluations, categorization interacting with task type tends to affect subsequent employee information with halo, lenient/stringent, racial, sexual, ethnic, and personality biases. Behavior taxonomies, individual differences in cognitive structure, validation of behavior-sampling techniques, and laboratory studies of appraisal processes are presented as potential topics for research. (93 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transactive memory in organizational groups: The effects of content, consensus, specialization, and accuracy on group performance.

Previous research on transactive memory has found a positive relationship between transactive memory system development and group performance in single project laboratory and ad hoc groups. Closely related research on shared mental models and expertise recognition supports these findings. In this study, the author examined the relationship between transactive memory systems and performance in mature, continuing groups. A group's transactive memory system, measured as a combination of knowledge stock, knowledge specialization, transactive memory consensus, and transactive memory accuracy, is positively related to group goal performance, external group evaluations, and internal group evaluations. The positive relationship with group performance was found to hold for both task and external relationship transactive memory systems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Decision processes in recognition memory: Criterion shifts and the list-strength paradigm.

This article focuses on decision processes in recognition memory. It begins with investigation of the hypothesis that the measured criterion increases systematically with the memorability of old items. Three experiments using the list-strength paradigm, and a review of the prior literature, present results consistent with this hypothesis. Several psychological models of criterion placement are examined, generating different predictions about the relative sizes of criterion shifts for strong and weak items. A range model, in which criterion placement depends on the estimated range of the old and new distributions, predicts that criterion shifts should be larger for weak items; this result emerges in a reanalysis of prior studies. The general discussion elaborates on how a focus on criterion placement can explain the mirror effect (Glanzer, Adams, Iverson, & Kim, see record 1993-40158-001) and provides a framework for testing Shiffrin, Ratcliff, and Clark's (see record 1990-13917-001) claims about why null effects of list strength occur with repetition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual effects on remembering: Recollective processes in picture recognition memory.

In 3 experiments, the effects of perceptual manipulations on recollective experience were tested. In Experiment 1, a picture-superiority effect was obtained for overall recognition and Remember judgments in a picture recognition task. In Experiment 2, size changes of pictorial stimuli across study and test reduced recognition memory and Remember judgments. In Experiment 3, deleterious effects of changes in left–right orientation of pictorial stimuli across study and test were obtained for Remember judgments. An alternate framework that emphasizes a distinctiveness–fluency processing distinction is proposed to account for these findings because they cannot easily be accommodated within the existing account of differences in conceptual and perceptual processing for the 2 categories of recollective experience: Remembering and Knowing, respectively (J. M. Gardiner, 1988; S. Rajaram, 1993). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Member variation, recognition of expertise, and group performance.

The most effective method for aggregating the conflicting opinions of experts is a subject of active debate in the literature. Task differences are most often used to explain differing results among studies. Alternatively, we suggested that the characteristics of the interacting groups themselves determine whether they outperform or underperform their equivalent composites. Expert loan officers serving in ad hoc and practiced groups, on average, performed equally as well as did their composite and most influential individual. However, whether a particular group outperformed or underperformed its composite could be explained by variation in group members' performances and abilities to recognize differential expertise. These findings suggest the circumstances in which alternative social decision schemes are likely to be more effective. They also support the usefulness of conceptualizing group judgment as a weighted combination of the opinions of group members whereby the allocation of weights to members is the critical issue. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive processes in counting.

Five experiments investigated the effects of articulatory suppression and unattended speech on performance in simple counting tasks. Results were consistent in showing substantial disruption of counting performance by concurrent articulatory suppression. However, when response errors occurred, they tended to be numerically close to the correct figure, suggesting that performance was not totally disrupted by suppression. A small effect of unattended speech on counting was obtained when the unattended speech was phonologically similar to numbers used in counting. A larger effect on counting was observed when the unattended speech consisted of random number sequences; however, this effect was much less than that found with suppression. These results are tentatively interpreted in terms of two separate components of the counting task: subvocalization of a running total and priming of the most recently accessed numbers in an input register or long-term memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dissociations of processes in recognition memory: Effects of interference and of response speed.

Examined effects on 2 bases for recognition-memory judgments using a process dissociation procedure and variation in the length of study lists in 3 experiments with 62 undergraduates. Exp 1 defined recollection (RCL) and examined the influence of list length on RCL and familiarity. Exp 2 redefined RCL, and Exp 3 examined differences in the speed of the 2 bases for recognition using a response-signal procedure. It was found that increasing the length of a study list interfered with conscious RCL, but left familiarity in place. An examination of reaction time (RT) distributions, as well as results from a response-signal procedure, showed that familiarity was faster as a basis for recognition judgments than was conscious RCL. Findings indicate that both bases contributed to performance on the fastest as well as the slowest responses, suggesting that the 2 processes were acting in parallel. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive processes, anxiety, and performance on doctoral dissertation oral examinations.

In an effort to explore evaluation anxiety in a naturalistic setting, this study examined the relationships among anxiety, thoughts, self-efficacy, and performance of 37 students defending their doctoral dissertations. After the orals, faculty examiners rated each student's performance and level of anxiety. Analyses showed that the state-of-mind ratio (ratio of positive thoughts to positive-plus-negative thoughts) appeared to be a more important contributor to anxiety than did self-inefficacy to control thoughts. Although faculty ratings of anxiety were significantly related to their ratings of performance, S's own reports of anxiety and their thoughts during orals were not predictive of performance. The strongest predictors of orals performance were graduate grade point average (GPA) and committee ratings of the quality of the dissertation and of the student's work in the doctoral program before the dissertation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive activity and physiological arousal: processes that mediate mood-congruent memory

This research proposes that the cognitive activity associated with the experience of an emotional state mediates the occurrence of mood-congruent processing. Two experiments examined the role of cognitive activity in selective processing of words in a mood congruence paradigm. Four induction procedures were used: a depressed-mood induction, a schema induction organized around the theme of writing a paper, an arousal induction, and a control neutral-mood induction. The memory task consisted of recalling a word list composed of negatively associated and thematically organized words. Selective processing was demonstrated in conjunction with the depressed-mood and organizational-schema induction procedures. In contrast, the arousal and neutral induction procedures did not produce selective processing of words from the list. The findings support the thesis that cognitive activity mediates the selective processing typical of mood congruence as distinct from arousal processes per se. The findings are discussed with respect to the resource allocation model and semantic network theory.     

Measuring recognition memory.

Recent years have seen an expanded interest in recognition memory tasks. This resurgence of interest has also renewed concerns with measurement problems. Comparing 4 models for recognition memory, J. G. Snodgrass and J. Corwin (1988) found that measures of bias from the distribution-free (nonparametric) model were inadequate. However, their analysis was based on bias measures that can be shown a priori to be nonindependent of discrimination. This article traces the history of the nonparametric model and develops a better measure of bias. The consequence of developing this better measure is that the nonparametric model deserves serious consideration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Excitotoxic lesions of the pre- and parasubiculum disrupt object recognition and spatial memory processes.

Rats with bilateral ibotenic acid lesions centered on the pre- and parasubiculum and control rats were tested in a series of spatial memory and object recognition memory tasks. Lesioned rats were severely impaired relative to controls in both the reference and working memory versions of the water maze task and displayed a delay-dependent deficit in a delayed nonmatch to place procedure conducted in the T-maze. Lesioned rats also displayed reduced exploration in a novel environment, and performance was altered in an object recognition procedure as compared with the control group. These findings indicate that the pre- and parasubiculum plays an important role in the processing of both object recognition and spatial memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive processes in propositional reasoning.

Propositional reasoning is the ability to draw conclusions on the basis of sentence connectives such as "and," "if," "or," and "not." A psychological theory of propositional reasoning explains the mental operations that underlie this ability. The ANDS (A Natural Deduction System) model, described in this article, is one such theory that makes explicit assumptions about memory and control in deduction. ANDS uses natural deduction rules that manipulate propositions in a hierarchically structured working memory and that apply in either a forward or a backward direction (from the premises of an argument to its conclusion or from the conclusion to the premises). The rules also allow suppositions to be introduced during the deduction process. A computer simulation incorporating these ideas yields proofs that are similar to those of untrained Ss, as assessed by their decisions and explanations concerning the validity of arguments. The model also provides an account of memory for proofs in text and can be extended to a theory of causal connectives. (65 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive processes in story understanding.

The major goal of the author's research has been to discover how readers overcome the limited capacity of working memory to discover the rich pattern of causal relationships found in even the simplest stories. The specific purpose of the series of experiments presented in this article is to discover what happens when the goals and actions are widely separated in the text, and when the actions are not associated with a coherence break. The results suggest that some readers retrieve the goal from long-term memory while others do not. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group process and performance: Interpersonal behaviors and decision quality in group problem solving by consensus.

A correlational study examined group performance of a problem-solving task that required consensus in relation to 3 interpersonal behaviors: discussing strategy, inviting input, and asking or summarizing agreement. Participants did a simulated survival task individually and then worked toward consensus in 54 mixed-gender groups of 4 to 6. Group error scores indicated decision quality. Videotaped sessions were scored for observed behaviors. Rate of asking about or summarizing agreement correlated positively with group error. The same behaviors unexpectedly correlated with completion times, which correlated inversely with group error: Faster groups made more errors. Other behaviors were unrelated to group decision quality or completion time. Rate of discussing strategy declined over time; inviting input stayed stable; and rate of asking or summarizing agreement increased. Temporal trends were unrelated to performance. Implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive processes and interpersonal predictions.

An investigation of the cognitive process by which one observer makes predictions about another person in a social situation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive change processes in psychotherapy.

Several types of cognitive-behavioral therapy are now practiced that use different sets of theoretical concepts and propose different kinds of change mechanisms. None, however, is directly grounded in experimental research in cognitive and social psychology, and few address basic issues such as the relevance of conscious versus nonconscious cognitive processes and the validity of the self-report data on which therapy depends. Put forward in this article is a model that describes the conscious and nonconscious processing of emotional stimuli and distinguishes between knowledge that is verbally accessible and knowledge that can only be recovered by exposure to situational cues. Also proposed are three mechanisms of cognitive change that involve altering verbally accessible knowledge, the accessibility of nonconscious situational memories, and self-regulatory strategies. These mechanisms are related to the current practices of behavioral and cognitive-behavioral therapies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group collaboration in recognition memory.

Group collaboration was examined in item and associative recognition. The present study distinguishes between group effects versus collaborative processes and defines the latter as interactive information exchange among group members. By that definition, many group effects do not involve collaboration. For example, group performance can exceed individual performance by pooling the increased resources of the group. Specifically, a group advantage can be obtained by deferring to a majority vote or to the group's best member. For both item and associative recognition, a group advantage was obtained that could not be accounted for by resource pooling. Collaborative facilitation was shown reliably in recognizing targets but not for rejecting distractors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)