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In four experiments, we investigated whether masked stimuli in priming experiments are subjected to early or to late selection. In Experiment 1, participants classified four target-pictures as being small or large. In line with early selection accounts, prime-pictures with a different perceptual appearance as the experienced targets did not elicit congruency effect. In Experiment 2, 40 targets all depicting animals were presented. Results were in line with late selections assumptions because novel animal primes but not novel primes form different semantic categories yielded congruency effects. In Experiment 3, the targets were chosen such that there is a second semantic feature that covaried with the required response. Here, novel primes picturing small animals did not influence target responses with regard to the instructed size classification, but with regard to their affiliation to the category animal. In Experiment 4, small and large pictures from two categories were presented. Category match did not influence priming, ruling out that feature overlap contaminated the former results. The results indicate that participants' prestimulus expectations determine in which stage in the processing-stream masked stimuli are selected. Keywords: early/late selection, masked priming DOI: 10.1037/a0015793

Two experiments compared the effects of depth of processing on working memory (WM) and long-term memory (LTM) using a levels-of-processing (LOP) span task, a newly developed WM span procedure that involves processing to-be-remembered words based on their visual, phonological, or semantic characteristics. Depth of processing had minimal effect on WM tests, yet subsequent memory for the same items on delayed tests showed the typical benefits of semantic processing. Although the difference in LOP effects demonstrates a dissociation between WM and LTM, we also found that the retrieval practice provided by recalling words on the WM task benefited long-term retention, especially for words initially recalled from supraspan lists. The latter result is consistent with the hypothesis that WM span tasks involve retrieval from secondary memory, but the LOP dissociation suggests the processes engaged by WM and LTM tests may differ. Therefore, similarities and differences between WM and LTM depend on the extent to which retrieval from secondary memory is involved and whether there is a match (or mismatch) between initial processing and subsequent retrieval, consistent with transfer-appropriate-processing theory. Keywords: short-term memory, working memory, secondary memory, long-term memory, levels of processing DOI: 10.1037/a0018405

Secure-base behavior in adolescents was examined from the perspective of information processing. The secure-base behavior was operationally defined as accessibility to attachment-related information and assessed by reaction time to target stimuli. Study 1 was conducted on 37 undergraduates (10 classes as Secure, 12 men, M age = 19.3 yr.) to investigate whether differences in attachment styles would show different forms of information processing. There was a difference in reaction time to negative targets between Secure and Insecure participants. Study 2 was conducted on 45 undergraduates (8 classed as Secure, 22 men, M age = 19.4 yr.) to investigate whether activation of the internal working models would show different forms of information processing. There was a difference between Secure and Insecure participants in patterns of reaction time to stimuli for positive and negative relationships. Results were discussed on the basis of secure-base behavior.

Conceptual implicit memory is demonstrated when, in the absence of explicit retrieval, performance on a task requiring conceptual processing benefits more from prior conceptual encoding than from prior nonconceptual encoding. In the present study, we sought to provide an improved measure of conceptual implicit memory by minimizing contamination from explicit retrieval. On a modified word association test, participants free-associated to the actually studied items, with response time to produce any associate serving as the dependent measure. Experiment 1 varied whether words were read or generated at study and showed that generated words were associated to more quickly than were read words. Experiment 2 varied level of processing at study and showed that words processed semantically were associated to more quickly than were words processed non-semantically. With modifications to ensure its implicit nature, a conceptual implicit test can be consistently affected by the same encoding manipulations as those that affect conceptual explicit memory tests.

Using a comparative neuropsychological approach, the authors compared performance of younger and healthy older adults ages 65 and over on tasks originally developed to measure cognition in animals. A battery of 6 tasks was used to evaluate object discrimination, egocentric spatial abilities, visual and spatial working memory, and response shifting. Older adults performed more poorly than younger adults on tasks that evaluate egocentric spatial abilities, response shifting, and to a lesser extent object recognition. The two groups did not differ for tasks that evaluate spatial working memory and object discrimination. The impairments the authors observed in tasks that evaluate response shifting and object recognition are consistent with those found in canines and primates as well as those found in Alzheimer's disease. The results are consistent with the notion that cognitive processes supported by the amygdala and the orbitofrontal cortex are among the first to decline with increasing age in both humans and animals. Keywords: delayed nonmatching-to-sample task, object discrimination, reversal learning, spatial abilities, aging

This study uses signal detection measures and secondary task reaction times (STRTs) to examine the effects of structural complexity and information density on processing television messages. Of particular interest are results pertaining to cognitive overload experienced while processing structurally complex and informationally dense messages. When required resources exceed available resources--that is, when a state of cognitive overload is reached--both memory sensitivity and criterion bias drop dramatically while STRTs get faster. The results provide support for the contention that secondary task reaction times are often very fast during highly complex messages because the system is overloaded and therefore resources are shifted from the primary task to the secondary task. Also of interest, the liberal shift in criterion bias starts before overload has occurred, suggesting that criterion bias may be tracking available resources. Keywords: limited capacity; signal detection; secondary task reaction time

An examination of previous claims for virtually perfect time-sharing in dual-task situations reveals confounding effects that may have obscured dual-task interference. Two experiments are conducted in which these confounding effects are minimized, revealing statistically significant dual-task interference. These results support the hypothesis that human information processing is dominated by a structural central capacity limitation and call into question the hypothesis that dual-task interference can be eliminated by meeting the 5 conditions outlined by D. Meyer and D. Kieras (1999).