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Prior research has shown that searching for multiple targets in a visual search task enhances distractor memory in a subsequent recognition test. Three non-mutually exclusive accounts have been offered to explain this phenomenon. The mental comparison hypothesis states that searching for multiple targets requires participants to make more mental comparisons between the targets and the distractors, which enhances distractor memory. The attention allocation hypothesis states that participants allocate more attention to distractors because a multiple-target search cue leads them to expect a more difficult search. Finally, the partial match hypothesis states that searching for multiple targets increases the amount of featural overlap between targets and distractors, which necessitates greater attention in order to reject each distractor. In two experiments, we examined these hypotheses by manipulating visual working memory (VWM) load and target-distractor similarity of AI-generated faces in a visual search (i.e., RSVP) task. Distractor similarity was manipulated using a multidimensional scaling model constructed from facial landmarks and other metadata of each face. In both experiments, distractors from multiple-target searches were recognized better than distractors from single-target searches. Experiment 2 additionally revealed that increased target-distractor similarity during search improved distractor recognition memory, consistent with the partial match hypothesis., (© 2023. The Psychonomic Society, Inc.)

The enactment effect is the phenomenon whereby carrying out a simple action phrase results in superior memory compared with listening to the phrase or observing someone else carry out the action. Several early studies suggested that action memory processing is less effortful and strategic compared with traditional verbal processing, a perspective that is still argued today. In the current study, we reexamine a particularly compelling finding in support of this view (Cohen, 1985). Contrary to Cohen's original findings, we demonstrate that additional time to encode an action phrase leads to comparable gains in recall as seen with controls. These data fit well with a different perspective of action memory, namely that the processing of actions is guided by the same strategic, effortful processing as verbal memory.

Though retrieving information typically results in improved memory on a subsequent test (the testing effect), Peterson and Mulligan (2013) outlined the conditions under which retrieval practice results in poorer recall relative to restudy, a phenomenon dubbed the negative testing effect. The item-specific-relational account proposes that this occurs when retrieval disrupts interitem relational encoding despite enhancing item-specific information. Four experiments examined the negative testing effect, showing the following: (a) The basic phenomenon is replicable in free recall; (b) it extends to category-cued recall; (c) it converts to a positive testing effect when the final test is recognition, a test heavily reliant on item-specific information; (d) the negative testing effect in recall, robust in a pure list design, reverses to a positive testing effect in a mixed-list design; and (e) more generally, the present testing manipulation interacts with experimental design, such that an initially negative effect becomes positive or an initially positive effect becomes larger as the design changes from pure-list to mixed-list. The breadth of results fits well within the item-specific-relational framework and provides evidence against 2 alternative accounts. Finally, this research indicates that the testing effect shares important similarities with the generation effect and other similar memory phenomena., ((c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).)

A number of memory phenomena are modulated by experimental design, with the effect (e.g., of bizarreness, generation, or perceptual interference) occurring in recall for mixed-list, but not pure-list designs. These effects have other similarities and have been treated in common theoretical frameworks, some focusing on encoding and others on retrieval. The typical paradigm for examining design effects confounds encoding and retrieval contexts, making it difficult to compare these accounts. Using a new paradigm, McDaniel, Dornburg, and Guynn (2005) concluded that retrieval processes contribute to the bizarreness effect. We applied this paradigm to the related perceptual-interference and generation effects. Participants were presented with two pure study lists and later recalled the lists separately (inducing pure retrieval sets) or together (inducing a combined or mixed retrieval set) in a single test. In four experiments, the combined recall condition consistently failed to enhance the size of the generation or perceptual-interference effect. Two additional experiments verified that perceptual interference and generation enhanced recognition memory, as predicted by the standard encoding accounts. The results provide no support for the retrieval account of these two variables but generally are consistent with an encoding locus.

When selecting fillers to include in a police lineup, one must consider the level of similarity between the suspect and potential fillers. In order to reduce misidentifications, an innocent suspect should not stand out. Therefore, it is important that the fillers share some degree of similarity. Importantly, increasing suspect-filler similarity too much will render the task too difficult reducing correct identifications of a guilty suspect. Determining how much similarity yields optimal identification performance is the focus of the proposed study. Extant research on lineup construction has provided somewhat mixed results. In part, this is likely due to the subjective nature of similarity, which forces researchers to define similarity in relative terms. In the current study, we manipulate suspect-filler similarity via a multidimensional scaling model constructed using objective facial measurements. In doing so, we test the "propitious heterogeneity" and the diagnostic-feature-detection hypotheses which predict an advantage of lineups with low-similarity fillers in terms of discriminability. We found that filler similarity did not affect discriminability. We discuss limitations and future directions.

There is an increasing need in eyewitness identification research to identify factors that not only influence identification accuracy but may also impact the confidence--accuracy (CA) relationship. One such variable that has a notable impact on memory for faces is viewing distance, with faces encoded from a shorter distance remembered better than faces encoded at longer differences. In four pre-registered experiments, using both laboratory and online samples, we compared faces viewed at a simulated viewing distance at two different levels (medium and far) to faces that were viewed at a very near-simulated distance. Distance was simulated using a Gaussian blur function with higher levels of blur corresponding to greater simulated distance. We found that both medium and far simulated distances impaired memory performance overall relative to no simulated distance, with increased distance resulting in poorer memory. However, only far simulated distances impaired the CA relationship. In a fourth experiment, we found that a pre-test warning did not ameliorate this impairment of the CA relationship for faces viewed at a far simulated distance. These findings suggest that even high-confidence identifications made for faces viewed from long distances should be disregarded, and that estimator variables that impact memory may degrade the CA relationship when memory is reduced to critical levels.

Presenting information in a perceptually disfluent format sometimes enhances memory. Recent work examining 1 type of perceptual disfluency manipulation, Sans Forgetica typeface, has yielded discrepant findings; some studies find support for the idea that the disfluent typeface improves memory whereas others do not. The current study examined a boundary condition that determines when disfluency is and is not beneficial to learning to explore this discrepancy. Specifically, we investigated whether knowledge about an upcoming test (high test expectancy) versus not (low test expectancy) helps clarify when mnemonic benefits arise for perceptually disfluent stimuli. In Experiment 1 (preregistered, N = 231), we found that Sans Forgetica is a memory-improving desirable difficulty, but only when there was no expectation of a final test. In Experiment 2 (preregistered, N = 232), we conceptually replicated the Sans Forgetica effect using a cued-recall test. In Experiment 3 (preregistered, N = 232), we ruled out a time-on-task explanation while replicating the results of Experiment 2. Though these data provide some evidence of San Forgetica's mnemonic benefits, caution should be taken in interpreting these results. Not only were the effect sizes moderate, but low test expectancy may not be realistically achievable in actual educational contexts. Though more research is warranted, we echo our prior arguments that students wanting to remember more and forget less should stick to other, more empirically supported desirable difficulties.

Although memory retrieval often enhances subsequent memory, Peterson and Mulligan (2013) reported conditions under which retrieval produces poorer subsequent recall--the negative testing effect. The item-specific--relational account proposes that the effect occurs when retrieval disrupts interitem organizational processing relative to the restudy condition. Rawson et al. (2015), in contrast, failed to replicate the negative testing effect despite repeated high-powered attempts. This article examines the discrepant results, ruling out differences in procedures, and concludes that differences in participant population produced the varying outcome. Specifically, participants from the University of North Carolina (UNC) and Kent State University (KSU) completed the same version of the negative-testing paradigm and were assessed on several measures of cognitive ability (working memory capacity, Raven's progressive matrices, and SAT or ACT score). For the UNC sample, free recall scores and the amount of category clustering (a measure of organizational processing) was greater in the restudy than retrieval condition (i.e., the negative testing effect was found); for the KSU sample, there was no difference on either measure. Furthermore, in the restudy condition, recall and clustering was greater for UNC than KSU students whereas in the retrieval condition, there was no effect of site on either measure. As expected, measures of cognitive ability were greater for the UNC than KSU sample. The results indicate that the negative testing effect is replicable but is subject to limitation related to the participant population. An analysis in terms of the relationship between cognitive ability and memory predicted this pattern of results.

Although retrieval often enhances subsequent memory (the testing effect), a negative testing effect has recently been documented in which prior retrieval harms later recall compared with restudying. The negative testing effect was predicated on the negative generation effect and the item-specific-relational framework. The present experiments examine whether the negative testing effect persists over longer delays, whether the testing manipulation interacts with retention interval, and whether the negative testing and negative generation effects respond similarly to delay. Experiment 1 demonstrated a significant negative testing effect on an immediate free-recall test but not on a delayed test (after a 2-day retention interval). Furthermore, the retrieval condition produced less forgetting than the restudy condition. Under similar conditions (Experiment 2), generation likewise produced a negative effect on an immediate free-recall test but not after a 2-day delay. In addition, the generation condition produced less forgetting over 2 days than did the read condition. The results uncover important similarities between the mnemonic effects of retrieving information from episodic (testing effect) and semantic (generation effect) memory. The pattern of forgetting across delay also has relevance for accounts of the Testing × Retention interaction, a prominent phenomenon in the literature on the testing effect.

Perhaps the most basic finding in memory research is the repetition effect--the fact that repetition enhances memory. Peterson and Mulligan (2012) recently documented a surprising "negative repetition effect," in which participants who studied a list of cue-target pairs twice recalled "fewer" targets than a group who studied the pairs only once. Words within a pair rhymed and across pairs, the target words were drawn from a small set of categories. In the repetition condition, the pairs were initially presented in a random order and then presented a second time blocked by the category of the target words. In the single presentation condition, the pairs were presented only in the blocked order. Participants in the former condition recalled fewer target words on a free recall test despite having seen the word pairs twice (the negative repetition effect). The encoding conditions necessary to produce this effect were examined in 4 experiments. Presenting the repetitions in a single study list elicited the negative repetition effect in free and category-cued recall. However, eliminating the strong within-trial, rhyme relationship eliminated the effect in both tests. Finally, presenting a disorganized but unrelated set of rhyming word pairs as List 1 reduced recall (relative to the single-presentation condition) to the same degree as the repetition condition. The negative repetition effect is due to reduced interitem relational processing during the presentation of the organized list (or half list), a reduction that requires a competing within-target relationship but can be induced by an unrelated as well as identical set of word pairs.

A fundamental property of human memory is that repetition enhances memory. Peterson and Mulligan (2012) recently documented a surprising "negative repetition effect," in which participants who studied a list of cue-target pairs twice recalled fewer targets than a group who studied the pairs only once. Words within a pair rhymed, and across pairs, the target words were drawn from a small set of categories. In the repetition condition, the pairs were initially presented in a random order and then presented a 2nd time blocked by the category of the target words. In the single presentation condition, the pairs were presented only in the blocked order. Participants in the former condition recalled fewer target words on a free recall test despite having seen the word pairs twice (the negative repetition effect). This phenomenon is explored in a series of 5 experiments assessing 3 theoretical accounts of the effect. The experiments demonstrate that the negative repetition effect generalizes over multiple encoding conditions (reading and generative encoding), over different memory tests (free and cued recall), and over delay (5 min and 2 days). The results argue against a retrieval account and a levels-of-processing account but are consistent with the item-specific--relational account, the account upon which the effect was initially predicated.

Across 3 experiments, we investigated the factors that dictate when taking a test improves subsequent memory performance (the "testing effect"). In Experiment 1, participants retrieving a set of targets during a retrieval practice phase ultimately recalled fewer of those targets compared with a group of participants who studied the targets twice, a "negative" testing effect. In Experiments 2 and 3, theoretically motivated modifications to the basic design of Experiment 1 reversed this pattern, demonstrating the more typical positive testing effect. The results from all 3 experiments were predicted by the multifactor account, an explanatory account applied to the "generation effect" (improved memory for self-generated material), which details why generation typically improves memory, as well as those conditions under which generation can impair memory performance. These results suggest the testing effect and the generation effect may be understood within a common framework.

One of the foundational principles of human memory is that repetition (i.e., being presented with a stimulus multiple times) improves recall. In the current study a group of participants who studied a list of cue-target pairs twice recalled fewer targets than a group who studied the pairs only once, a negative repetition effect. Such a demonstration is novel yet theoretically motivated. Though participants in each condition studied the same set of cue-target pairs, those who studied the pairs twice were initially presented with the pairs in a way that hindered organizational processing. Even after a 2nd presentation when the pairs were presented in a manner that should facilitate organizational processing (the same presentation given to participants who received the list only once), participants did not capitalize on the structure and consequently recalled fewer targets. The results offer compelling support for the item-specific-relational account. (Contains 2 figures and 3 footnotes.)

Remember-Know (RK) and source memory tasks were designed to elucidate processes underlying memory retrieval. As part of more complex judgments, both tests produce a measure of old-new recognition, which is typically treated as equivalent to that derived from a standard recognition task. The present study demonstrates, however, that recognition accuracy can be qualitatively changed by a RK or source-retrieval orientation. Visual and auditory presentations of words were varied at encoding and at test. The memory test was either a standard (old-new) recognition test, the RK test, or a source (modality) test. No effect of modality match was found on standard recognition. However, recognition accuracy in the RK and modality tests was greater when study and test modalities matched--a result obtained for both 1-step (e.g., R, K, or new?) and 2-step (e.g., old-new decision followed by RK decision for items judged old) versions of these tests. Thus, the RK and source (modality) memory procedures produced a measure of old-new recognition that was qualitatively different than standard recognition, having a greater sensitivity to perceptual information. (Contains 4 tables, 2 figures, and 4 footnotes.)

Prior research on implicit memory appeared to support 3 generalizations: Conceptual tests are affected by divided attention, perceptual tasks are affected by certain divided-attention manipulations, and all types of priming are affected by selective attention. These generalizations are challenged in experiments using the implicit tests of category verification and lexical decision. First, both tasks were unaffected by divided-attention tasks known to impact other priming tasks. Second, both tasks were unaffected by a manipulation of selective attention in which colored words were either named or their colors identified. Thus, category verification, unlike other conceptual tasks, appears unaffected by divided attention, and some selective-attention tasks, and lexical decision, unlike other perceptual tasks, appears unaffected by a difficult divided-attention task and some selective-attention tasks. Finally, both tasks were affected by a selective-attention task in which attention was manipulated across objects (rather than within objects), indicating some susceptibility to selective attention. The results contradict an analysis on the basis of the conceptual-perceptual distinction and other more specific hypotheses but are consistent with the distinction between production and identification priming. (Contains 6 footnotes and 14 tables.)

Research suggests exposure to misinformation continues to impact belief and reasoning, even if that misinformation has been corrected (referred to as the Continued Influence Effect, CIE). The present experiment explores two potentially important factors that may impact the effect: (1) learner age and (2) length of delay between retraction and final test. During initial learning, participants (both young and older adults) read six scenarios in which a critical piece of misinformation was either retracted or not retracted. Following no delay, a short (10 min) delay, or a long (2 days) delay, participants then answered inferential reasoning questions about the previously studied scenarios to evaluate how (if at all) the prior retraction impacts reliance on misinformation. Outcomes help us to understand the ways in which misinformation (even following retraction) impacts reasoning, an issue of exceeding importance as the proliferation of fake news shows no signs of slowing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Research suggests exposure to misinformation continues to impact belief and reasoning, even if that misinformation has been corrected (referred to as the Continued Influence Effect, CIE). The proposed experiment explores two potentially important factors that may impact the effect: (a) learner age and (b) length of delay between retraction and final test. During initial learning, participants (both young and older adults) will read six scenarios in which a critical piece of misinformation is either retracted or not retracted. Following no delay, a short (10 min) delay, or a long (2 days) delay, participants will then answer inferential reasoning questions about the previously‐studied scenarios to evaluate how (if at all) the prior retraction impacts reliance on misinformation. Outcomes will better help us to understand the ways in which misinformation (even following retraction) impacts reasoning, an issue of exceeding importance as the proliferation of fake news shows no signs of slowing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have documented an intriguing phenomenon whereby simply walking through a doorway causes forgetting (the location updating effect). The Event Horizon Model is the most commonly cited theory to explain these data. Importantly, this model explains the effect without invoking the importance or reliance upon perceptual information (i.e., seeing oneself pass through the doorway). This generates the intriguing hypothesis that the effect may be demonstrated in participants who simplyimaginewalking through a doorway. Across two experiments, we explicitly test this hypothesis. Participants familiarised themselves with both real (Experiment 1) and virtual (Experiment 2) environments which served as the setting for their mental walk. They were then provided with an image to remember and were instructed to imagine themselves walking through the previously presented space. In both experiments, when the mental walk required participants to pass through a doorway, more forgetting occurred, consistent with the predictions laid out in the Event Horizon Model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that spaced learning, compared with massed learning, results in superior long-term retention (the spacing effect). Son (2010) identified a potentially important moderator of the spacing effect: metacognitive control. Specifically, when participants chose massed restudy but were instead forced to space the restudy, the spacing effect disappeared in adults (or was reduced in children). This suggests spacing is less effective (or possibly ineffective) if implemented against the wishes of the learner. A closer examination of this paradigm, however, reveals that item-selection issues might alternatively explain the disappearance of the spacing effect. In the current experiments, we replicated the original design demonstrating that an itemselection confound is operating. Furthermore, relative to a more appropriate baseline, the spacing effect was significant and of the same size whether participants' restudy choices were honored or violated. In this paradigm, metacognitive control does not appear to moderate the spacing effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The enactment effect is one of a number of effects (e.g., bizarreness, generation, perceptual interference) that have been treated in common theoretical frameworks, most of them focusing on encoding processes. Recent results from McDaniel, Dornburg, and Guynn (2005) call into question whether bizarreness and, by association, related phenomena such as enactment are better conceptualized as arising due to retrieval processes. Four experiments investigated the degree to which retrieval processes are responsible for enhanced memory for enacted phrases. Participants were presented with two pure study lists and later recalled the lists separately (inducing pure retrieval sets) or recalled the lists together in a single test (inducing a combined or mixed retrieval set). Across all four experiments, the combined recall condition consistently failed to enhance the size of the enactment effect. The results provide no support for the retrieval account but are generally consistent with encoding accounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Repeat concussions (RC) can result in significant long-term neurological consequences and increased risk for neurodegenerative disease compared with single concussion (SC). Mechanisms underlying this difference are poorly understood and best elucidated using an animal model. To the best of our knowledge, there is no closed-head model in the adult rat using a commercially available device. We developed a novel and clinically relevant closed-head injury (CHI) model of both SC and RC in the adult rat using a controlled cortical impact (CCI) device. Adult rats received either a single or repeat CHI (three injuries, 48 h apart), and acute deficits in sensorimotor and locomotor function (foot fault; open field), memory (novel object), and anxiety (open field; corticosterone [CORT]) were measured. Assessment of cellular pathology was also conducted. Within the first week post-CHI, rats with SC or RC showed similar deficits in motor coordination, decreased locomotion, and higher resting CORT levels. Rats with an SC had memory deficits post-injury day (PID) 3 that recovered to sham levels by PID 7; however, rats with RC continued to show memory deficits. No obvious gross pathology was observed on the cortical surface or in coronal sections. Further examination showed thinning of the cortex and corpus callosum in RC animals compared with shams and increased axonal pathology in the corpus callosum of both SC and RC animals. Our data present a model of CHI that results in clinically relevant markers of concussion and an early differentiation between SC and RC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]