The influence of item properties on association-memory

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2010.03.001 Byline: Christopher R. Madan (a), Mackenzie G. Glaholt (b), Jeremy B. Caplan (a)(c) Keywords: Association-memory; Associative symmetry; Imageability; Word frequency; Episodic memory Abstract: Word properties like imageability and word frequency improve cued recall of verbal paired-associates. We asked whether these enhancements follow simply from prior effects on item-memory, or also strengthen associations between items. Participants studied word pairs varying in imageability or frequency: pairs were 'pure' (high-high, low-low) or 'mixed' (high-low, low-high) where 'high' and 'low' refer to imageability or frequency values and are probed with forward (A-?) and backward (?-B) cues. Probabilistic model fits to the data suggested that imageability primarily improved retrieval of associations, but frequency primarily improved recall of target items. All pair types exhibited a high correlation between forward and backward probe accuracy, a measure of holistic learning (), which extends the boundary conditions of holistic association-memory and challenges suggestion that holistic learning depends critically on imagery. In sum, item properties can boost association-memory beyond simply boosting target retrievability. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Canada (b) Department of Psychology, University of Toronto at Mississauga, Canada (c) Centre for Neuroscience, University of Alberta, Canada Article History: Received 29 May 2009; Revised 16 February 2010