Memory
Friday, September 30th, 2011 [17:20 - 19:20]
PS_1.067 - How does collaboration facilitate recognition? A study using the remember-know paradigm
Rossi-Arnaud, C. 1 , Spataro, P. 4 , Pieroni, L. 4 & Cestari, V. 2, 3
1 Dept of Psychology, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy
2 Dept of Educational Sciences, LUMSA University, Rome, Italy
3 CNR Institute of Cellular Biology and Neurobiology, Rome, Italy
4 Dept of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy
Collaboration impairs free recall (Weldon & Bellinger, 1997; Wright & Klump, 2004), but facilitates recognition (Clark et al., 2006). The present study investigated the effects of pair collaboration and word-frequency on recognition memory, using the “remember/know” procedure. The aim was to test the predictions of the information-exchange hypothesis (Clark et al., 2000), which states that collaborative facilitation occurs when participants are able to share recollective memories with other members of the group. Results showed that recognition performance was significantly better in the collaborative than in the individual condition, and better for low- than for high-frequency words. The advantage of collaborating pairs was produced by an increase of correct hits, coupled with a significant reduction of false alarms. The analysis of the “remember” (R) and “know” (K) responses indicated that the effects of group collaboration and word-frequency were larger on recollection than on familiarity processes. It is concluded that both variables influence the retrieval of the contextual details associated with the target words. It is also proposed that a reduction in the probability to accept new items on the basis of familiarity (K) responses may account for the decrease in false alarms in collaborative groups.
PS_1.068 - Prospective memory for cheaters
Horn, S. , Bell, R. , Bayen, U. & Buchner, A.
Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet Duesseldorf
Prospective memory (PM) refers to self-initiated remembering of intended actions after a delay. One influential perspective in evolutionary psychology implies that the human mind comprises cognitive modules for social exchange, including a module serving to enhance memory for cheaters. We assumed that PM tasks may be particularly sensitive and ecologically valid in this regard, given the high importance for any future interaction to remember cheaters. In our study, participants first played a trust game with computerized opponents who either cooperated, defected, or were neutral in terms of social exchange. In a subsequent PM task, faces of the previous cooperators, defectors, and neutral persons appeared as target events, mixed with distracter faces that did not occur in the trust game. A multinomial model analysis revealed that the prospective component of the PM task (i.e., remembering that something needs to be done) was increased for defectors relative to cooperators or neutral persons. These findings indicate that event-based PM is particularly sensitive to socially relevant targets.
PS_1.069 - A common process to compute typical size difference and perceptual size difference?
Riou, B. & Versace, R.
Laboratoire d'Etudes des Mécanismes Cognitifs (EMC). Université Lumière Lyon 2. Lyon, France
This study assesses whether memory and perception share common processes. We used a visual priming paradigm to test if a typical size (size in real life) difference could improve the detection of a perceptual size difference. The primes were pairs of familiar objects displayed simultaneously. The two objects had either the same or different typical sizes. Two squares, with the same or a different displayed physical size, were presented as targets. The participants were instructed to decide whether the two squares displayed simultaneously had the same or different size. Our results showed a priming effect: the latencies to detect the target physical size difference were shorter when the typical size between the primes was also different rather than the same. Further, when both the typical size of primes and the physical size of targets were different, latencies were shorter when, at a same location of the screen, the typical size of one of the primes mismatched the physical size of one of the targets. We therefore discuss the results following the embodied cognition framework. We conclude that memory and perception could share a common process to compute typical and perceptual size difference.
PS_1.070 - Do judgments of learning lead to improved memory?
Larsson Sundqvist, M. , Todorov, I. & Jönsson, F.
Department of Psychology, Stockholm University
Judgments of Learning (JOL) that are made after a delay, instead of immediately after study, are more accurate in terms of predicting later recall (the delayed JOL effect). The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy (SFP) theory describes the delayed JOL effect as the result of a testing effect. In this experiment we tested the prediction that performing delayed JOLs leads to a memory improvement. During learning, 79 participants studied Swahili-Swedish word pairs, immediately followed by a cued recall test, and then made either one single or three repeated, spaced JOLs. A final cued recall test was given after either 5 minutes or 1 week. Making repeated JOLs did not increase memory performance compared to the single JOL condition, hence lending no support to the SFP theory.
PS_1.071 - Investigating secondary-distinctiveness-based effects in ageing
Yannick, G. & Serge, N.
Paris Descartes University
Secondary distinctiveness effect means that items that are unusual compared to one’s general knowledge stored in permanent memory are better remembered than common items. The present research investigated two typical cases of secondary-distinctiveness-based effects in ageing: the bizarreness effect and the orthographic distinctiveness effect. Experiment 1 confirmed that ageing diminishes the facilitative effects of bizarreness in a mixed list design with equal numbers of bizarre and common images. We suggest that the absence of bizarreness effect in older adults (above age 70) may be due to reduced attentional resources, since a similar pattern of results was observed for younger adults in the divided attention condition. Experiment 2 studied the orthographic distinctiveness effect in ageing for the first time. Surprisingly, an orthographic distinctiveness effect was observed for all participants including older adults and younger adults in a divided attention condition. Because reduced attentional resources due to normal ageing or to experimental manipulation did not impair the facilitative effects of orthographic distinctiveness, our results suggest that the orthographic distinctiveness effect may be mediated by more automatic processing.
PS_1.072 - Emergence of knowledge: generalization and specification mechanisms
Cherdieu, M. , Mazza, S. & Versace, R.
Laboratory EMC. University Lyon 2. Lyon, France.
The aim of the present study was to investigate the sensory nature of memory and knowledge. Different studies based on the idea that knowledge is multimodal highlighted that all the sensory components of a memory trace can be reactivated if the participant is confronted with an object previously associated to this trace (whatever the sensory modality). We used in this study a paradigm divided into two phases. The first phase consisted in learning an association with a shape (a circle or a square) and a sound (a white noise). We also manipulated the sound frequency in each category obtaining a high frequency category: one shape presented without sound among shapes presented with sound; and a low frequency category: one shape presented with sound among shapes presented without sound. The second phase consisted in a priming task where the prime shape (without sound) preceded an object (associated or not with a noise in memory). We hypothesized that the presentation of a shape previously associated with a sound, facilitated the treatment of a “noisy” object. Furthermore we also expected the appearance of generalization and specification mechanisms as found in other studies.
PS_1.073 - The role of completion strategy in implicit word fragment task
Jean-Baptiste, D. , Fiori, N. & Nicolas, S.
Laboratoire de Psychologie et Neuropsychologie Cognitive FRE 3292 CNRS - Université Paris Descartes
Performances on implicit test (priming) refer to facilitation to perform a task consequently to previous experiences but without to require its recollection (Schacter, 1987). But, it is not always certain whether an implicit task is performed solely on the basis of implicit memory. In order to investigate this possibility, first we manipulated factors which classically affect explicit performances but not priming on implicit memory test: repetition mode and age (Stevens, Wig, & Schacter, 2008) and, second we used a post-test questionnaire about completion strategy of participants. Based on the questionnaire, we differentiated two completion strategies: pure implicit strategy vs. explicit contamination (use, at least partially, intentional recollection). Interestingly, in the “implicit” group, young and elderly actually did not differ significantly on priming and priming was equivalent between repeated words in a massed vs. spaced fashion. Whereas young and elderly differed significantly on priming and priming differed too as a function of repetition mode, in the “explicit contamination” group. To conclude, we emphasized the necessity to check completion strategy of subject during implicit completion task. So, it will be interesting to develop a more objective method to check intentional recollection use in order to detect explicit contamination on priming.
PS_1.074 - Semantic information of scene contexts disturbs recognition of target objects
Ishibashi, A. 1 , Ikeda, T. 2 & Osaka, N. 1
1 Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Japan
2 Departments of Mind and Brain Science, Graduate School of Human Science, Osaka University, Japan
Natural scenes are reported to be processed rapidly and automatically. We investigated how and what kind of information of scene contexts affects memory of target objects presented in them. We conducted a delayed match sampling test presenting meaningful or scrambled scenes in the background and measured performances of object recognition when background context was unchanged, changed or absent in the recognition phase. The results showed; (1) response time was longer with different background compared to same or no background context; (2) Tendency to give “old” responses was higher with the same background than in other conditions. Both effects were observed only when meaningful backgrounds were utilized. These results indicate that the effect of background context associated with the targets is not always facilitative as the classical encoding specificity principle would predict, but can be considered as distractive when different context is presented. Also indicated was that the meaning of unchanged background context biases the judgments to be more gravitated to correctly and falsely recognizing target objects. It is arguable from these results that non-target semantic information of the scene contexts is memorized automatically and disturbs the retrieval of target objects.
PS_1.075 - Differential outcomes and spatial recognition memory in five and seven-year-old children
Estévez, A. 1 , Esteban, L. 1 , Melero, R. 1 , Vivas, A. 2 , López-Crespo, G. 3 & Easton, A. 4
1 Universidad de Almería, Almería, Spain
2 City Liberal Studies (Affiliated Institution of the Univesity of Sheffield), Thessaloniki, Greece
3 Universidad de Zaragoza, Teruel, Spain
4 Durham University, Durham, UK
Background: It has been demonstrated that the differential outcomes procedure (DOP) facilitates both conditional discrimination learning and delayed face recognition in humans. In the present study, we extend this procedure to five and seven-year-old children who were asked to remember spatial locations. Method: Two computerized spatial working memory tasks were used. In the differential outcomes condition each location was paired with its own outcome. In the non-differential condition outcomes were randomly arranged. Results: Five-year-old children showed a significantly better performance when differential outcomes were arranged. By contrast, the overall performance of children aged seven was similar in both conditions, differential and non-differential, suggesting that the task used was very easy for them to perform. Conclusions: These results showed, to our knowledge for the first time, that the DOP can enhance spatial recognition memory performance in children. This finding, along with those of Hochhalter, Sweeney, Bakke, Holub, and Overmier (2000) and López-Crespo, Plaza, Fuentes, and Estévez (2009) suggests that this procedure can be a technique to improve memory performance in children and in people with memory impairments. This research was supported by grants CSD2008-00048 and PSI2009-09261 from Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.