OS_02. Memory
Friday, September 30th, 2011 [10:50 - 11:50]
TALKS
OS_02.1 - How specific is source memory for faces of cheaters? Evidence for categorical emotional tagging
Bell, R. 1 , Buchner, A. 1 , Erdfelder, E. 2 , Giang, T. 1 , Schain, C. 3 & Riether, N. 4
1 Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf. Düsseldorf, Germany.
2 Universität Mannheim. Mannheim, Germany.
3 Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster. Münster, Germany.
4 Universität Bielefeld. Bielefeld, Germany.
The study was designed to examine the specificity of emotional source memory. In the encoding phase, participants saw faces along with emotional context information, that is descriptions of cheating, trustworthy, or irrelevant behavior. In the test phase, participants were required to complete a source of classification test and a cued recall test. The source memory advantage for faces characterized by negative context information (cheating) was replicated. Extending previous research, a multinominal source monitoring model was applied to distinguish between specific source memory for individual behavior descriptions and partial source memory in the sense of only a rough classification of the behavior as belonging to a particular emotional category-cheating, trustworthy, or neither of these. The results indicate that the source memory advantage for the emotional context information is not always accompanied by enhanced recollection of the specific details of the learning episode and might rather reflect unspecific memory for categorical emotional information.
OS_02.2 - Disembodying memory - the role of covert oral simulations for implicit memory, familiarity, and recollection
Topolinski, S.
University of Wuerzburg
The present embodied account of memory argues that fluency-based memory forms, namely both implicit memory and familiarity, are genuinely embodied in drawing on the efficiency of sensorimotor simulations related to the to-be-judged stimulus. These simulations are trained and run more fluently for old compared to new stimuli. In contrast, retrieval-based memory, namely recollection, is independent from stimulus-specific sensorimotor simulations because it draws on additional retrieval processes. In four experiments, words as verbal stimuli being mediated by the oral motor system were presented, some of them repeatedly, either under manual (e.g., moving a ball), or oral motor interference (e.g., chewing gum). In contrast to manual interference, oral interference prevented the acquisition of implicit memory (Experiment 1) and familiarity (Experiment 2), and substantially impaired the familiarity estimates in the remember-know paradigm (Experiment 3) and receiver-operating characteristics (Experiment 4), while leaving recollection unaffected (Experiments 1-4). This pattern establishes unconventional memory dissociations in healthy participants, e.g. explicit without implicit memory (Experiment 1), or recognizing without feeling familiar (Experiment 2), which are only known from severe clinical cases and have strong implications for our understanding of memory across disciplines.
OS_02.3 - Effects of age of acquisition on implicit memory
Spataro, P. 1 , Rossi-Arnaud, C. 2 & Mulligan, N. 3
1 Sapienza University, Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology
2 Sapienza University, Department of Psychology
3 University of North Carolina, Department of Psychology
The present study examined the effects of subjective age of acquisition (AoA) in two different tasks of implicit memory that are heavily based on the retrieval of visual-orthographic information. The rationale is that, having established where priming effects are located, the assessment of the interaction with psycholinguistic variables like AoA may allow one to determine if their effects influence the same processing levels. Experiment 1 employed the Word-Fragment Completion task. The to-be-completed fragments were exposed for 4 sec, to reduce possible contributions from phonological and semantic processes. Results indicated that the overall percentages of correct completion were significantly greater for early- than for late-acquired words. Importantly, repetition priming interacted with AoA, such that priming was higher for late- than for early-acquired items. Experiment 2 used a modified version of the Lexical Decision task, in which non-words were represented by illegal, unpronounceable strings of letters. Data showed that decision times were significantly shorter for early- than for late-acquired words. Again, repetition priming interacted with AoA, because priming was greater for late- than for early-acquired items. These findings suggest that AoA can affect implicit memory by facilitating the retrieval of the orthographic properties of the studied words.