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The current experiment examined the use of plausibility judgments by children to reject distractors presented on yes/no recognition memory tests. Participants studied two lists of word pairs that shared either a categorical or rhyme association, which constituted the global nature of the two study conditions. During the recognition memory tests, participants were presented with distractors that were either consistent or inconsistent with the global nature of the study environment. Five-year-old children did not engage in plausibility-based rejections in either the rhyme or category condition, whereas children 7 years of age and older engaged in plausibility-based rejections in the rhyme condition. However, it was not until children were 12 years old that they engaged in plausibility-based rejections in the category condition. Such data demonstrate global gist to be necessary but insufficient for children to reject recognition test items on the basis of their plausibility. Keywords: memory, gist, plausibility, source memory, novelty detection DOI: 10.1037/a0019148

The response-signal speed-accuracy trade-off (SAT) procedure was used to investigate the relationship between measures of working memory capacity and the time course of short-term item recognition. Highand low-span participants studied sequentially presented 6-item lists, immediately followed by a recognition probe. Analyses of composite list and serial position SAT functions found no differences in retrieval speed between the 2 span groups. Overall accuracy was higher for high spans than low spans, with more pronounced differences for earlier serial positions. Analysis of false alarms to recent negatives (lures from the previous study list) revealed no differences in the timing or magnitude of early false alarms, thought to reflect familiarity-based judgments. However, analyses of false alarms later in retrieval indicated that recollective information accrues more slowly for low spans, which suggests that recollective information may also contribute less to judgments concerning studied items for low-span participants. These findings can provide an explanation for the greater susceptibility of low spans to interference. Keywords: working memory capacity, short-term item recognition, interference, recent negative, speed--accuracy trade-off procedure DOI: 10.1037/a0018029

One of the most influential findings in the study of recognition memory is that receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves are asymmetric about the negative diagonal. This result has led to the rejection of the equal-variance signal detection model of recognition memory and has provided motivation for more complex models, such as the unequal-variance signal detection and dual-process models. Here, the authors test the possibility that previous demonstrations of ROC asymmetry do not reflect mnemonic process but rather reflect distortions due to averaging data over items. Application of a hierarchical unequal-variance signal detection model reveals that asymmetries are in fact a real phenomenon and do not reflect distortions from averaging data. Keywords: recognition memory, ROC curves, ROC asymmetry, signal detection, hierarchical models DOI: 10.1037/a0017682

We examined associative and item recognition using the maintenance rehearsal paradigm. Our intent was to control for mnemonic strategies; to produce a low, graded level of learning; and to provide evidence of the role of attention in long-term memory. An advantage for low-frequency words emerged in both associative and item recognition at very low levels of learning. This early emergence casts doubt on explanations based on the traditional concept of recollection. A comparison of false alarms supports a role for item information or the joint use of cues but not familiarity in producing associative false alarms. We may also have found a way to measure the amount of attention being paid to a to-be-learned item or pair, independently of memory performance on the attended item. This result may be an important step in determining whether coherent theories about the role of attention in long- and short-term memory can be created. Keywords: memory, attention, associative recognition, item recognition, short term memory DOI: 10.1037/a0017687

In a series of experiments, participants learned to associate black-and-white shapes with nonsense spoken labels (e.g., 'joop'). When tested on their recognition memory, participants falsely recognized as correct a shape paired with a label that began with the same sounds as the shape's original label (onset-overlapping lure; e.g., joob) more often than a shape paired with a label that overlapped with the original label at offset (offset-overlapping lure; e.g., choop). Furthermore, the false-alarm rate was modulated by the phonetic distance between the sounds that distinguished the original label and the lures. Greater false-alarm rates to onset-overlapping labels were not predicted by explicit similarity ratings or by consonant identification and were not dependent upon label familiarity. The asymmetry at erroneously recognizing onset- versus offset-overlapping lures remained unchanged as the presentation of the shape at test was delayed in time, suggesting that response anticipation based on the first sounds of the spoken label did not contribute much to the false recognition of onset-overlapping lures. Thus, learning 2 words whose names differ in their last sounds appears to pose greater difficulty than learning 2 words whose names differ in their first sounds because, we argue, people are biased to give more importance to the early sounds of a name than to its last sounds when learning a novel label-referent association. Keywords: memory recognition, spoken-word recognition, temporal structure DOI: 10.1037/a0017527

Using 3 experiments, I examined false memory for encoding context by presenting Deese-Roediger-McDermott themes (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995) in usual-looking fonts and by testing related, but unstudied, lure items in a font that was shown during encoding. In 2 of the experiments, testing lure items in the font used to study their associated themes increased false recognition relative to testing lure items in a font that was used to study a different lure's theme. Further, studying a larger number of associates exacerbated the influence of testing lure items in a font used to study their associated themes. Finally, testing lures in a font that was encoded many times, but was not used to present the lures' studied associates+ increased lure errors more than testing lures in a font that was encoded relatively fewer times. These results favor the explanation of false recognition offered by global-matching models of recognition memory over the explanations of activation-monitoring theory and fuzzy-trace theory. Keywords: false recognition, encoding context, models of recognition memory DOI: 10.1037/a0017394

The authors examined priming within the test sequence in 3 recognition memory experiments. A probe primed its successor whenever both probes shared a feature with the same studied item (interjacent priming), indicating that the study item like the probe is central to the decision. Interjacent priming occurred even when the 2 probes did not themselves share any features: A lure that shared a single feature with a study item primed a lure that shared a different feature with the same study item. The experiments distinguished interjacent priming from other types of facilitation. Interjacent priming indicates that a study item that is like the probe is more relevant to the decision than other study items, contrary to global memory models. It also shows that negative decisions depend on contradiction, not insufficient familiarity, because lures, as well as targets, benefited. The data are discussed in terms of a recall check within a dual-process theory, but the authors prefer a single-process resonance model with separate decision mechanisms for yes and no responses (D. J. K. Mewhort & E. E. Johns, 2005). Keywords: recognition memory, related lures, sequential priming, dual-process models DOI: 10.1037/a0016372

Studies were undertaken to examine the hypothesis behind the mindset theory, which suggests that during information processing the deliberative mindset is more open-minded and the implemental one is more close-minded. Results indicated superior recognition memory amongst deliberative mindsets suggesting their increased open-mindedness to processing incidental information.

Older and younger adults' attentional biases and subsequent incidental recognition memory for distracting positive, negative and neutral words were examined. Results showed that younger adults were more distracted by negative stimuli than positive or neutral stimuli and they correctly recognized more negative than positive words. Older adults attended equally to all stimuli yet showed reliable recognition only for positive words.

Kahana and Sekuler (2002) conducted short-term perceptual recognition experiments and modeled the data with a noisy exemplar similarity model. They found model-based evidence that list homogeneity (i.e., the degree to which exemplars on a study list are similar to one another) exerted a significant impact on recognition performance--a finding that is not predicted by standard global familiarity models. A potential limitation of their experiments is that they tested complex stimuli in which psychological similarities among exemplars may have been misspecified. Also, the relative importance of list homogeneity was not compared with that of alternative forms of parametric variation in the model. We conducted conceptual replications of their experiments, using a simpler set of stimuli in which interexemplar similarities could be more precisely measured. Extensive model-based comparisons reveal, in accord with the results of Kahana and Sekuler, strong evidence for a role of list homogeneity on old-new recognition performance. We suggest that subjects systematically adjust their response criteria on the basis of the homogeneity of the study list items.

Byline: Annette Farrant (1), Mark Blades (2), Jill Boucher (1) Keywords: Autism; autistic; source monitoring; reality monitoring; memory Abstract: The term 'source monitoring' refers to the ability to distinguish the origins of memories. One type of source monitoring is reality monitoring--which means distinguishing internally and externally generated memories. This experiment examined reality monitoring by children with autism (with a mean mental age of 7 years 8 months). The children said several words and listened to another person say similar words. The children were then given a surprise memory test and asked to identify which words they had said and which the other person had said. The children with autism were compared to matched groups of normal children and children with mental retardation. There were no differences between the groups and, at least for this task, there was no evidence that children with autism have a deficit in their reality monitoring abilities. Author Affiliation: (1) Department of Human Communication, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, United Kingdom (2) Department of Psychology, University of Scheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TP, United Kingdom Article History: Registration Date: 29/09/2004

The process of encoding meaningful information by adults with autism/pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) is similar to that by normal adults. Disembedding is slowest from meaningful contexts in both the autistic/PDD and normal groups. Besides extracting meaning from the original memory, the individuals with autism/PDD use information to enhance memory. The individuals with autism/PDD and normals have more problems disembedding from abstract than from fragmented contexts.

The word frequency effect (WFE) has been taken as evidence that recall and recognition are in some way fundamentally different. Consequently, most models assume that recall and recognition operate via very different retrieval mechanisms. Experiment 1 showed that the WFE reverses for associative recognition, which requires discrimination between intact test pairs and recombinations of study list words from different study pairs. Experiment 2, in which word triples were used, revealed an interaction between word frequency and test type: for item recognition, performance was better for low-frequency words; however, for associative recognition and free recall, performance was better for high-frequency words. In Experiment 3, item recognition was tested: although overall performance was better for low-frequency words, the recognition advantage for items in intact pairs was larger for high-frequency words, suggesting two components in recognition memory. These results imply common mechanisms in recall and recognition. Theoretical implications are discussed within the framework of the SAM model.

The studies on the effects of bicultural priming on self knowledge and recognition memory of Beijing University students reveal that the interplay of the interdependent and independent self of these students is responsible for the sociocultural response.

We offer a framework for understanding how color operates to improve visual memory for images of the natural environment, and we present an extensive data set that quantifies the contribution of color in the encoding and recognition phases. Using a continuous recognition task with colored and monochrome gray-scale images of natural scenes at short exposure durations, we found that color enhances recognition memory by conferring an advantage during encoding and by strengthening the encoding-specificity effect. Furthermore, because the pattern of performance was similar at all exposure durations, and because form and color are processed in different areas of cortex, the results imply that color must be bound as an integral part of the representation at the earliest stages of processing.

Skin Conductance Responses (SCRs) to familiar and unfamiliar names and faces were recorded from independent groups of subjects, using two different presentation designs: the first employing fewer familiar than unfamiliar [...]