List length and the bizarreness effect: Support for a hybrid explanation

INTRODUCTION: Semantic relations among words and repetition enhance free recall, but it is unknown if these facilitating factors are effective in dementia. METHOD: Alzheimer's patients (MILD-Alz, MOD-Alz) were compared to healthy elderly. Fifteen-word lists were read out to the subjects. In four sets of lists the words in intermediary input positions were semantically related or not, or the midlist words were repeated, or they were repeated and semantically related. RESULTS: The usual third peak of recall of semantically related words was not observed in MOD-Alz, repetition of words did not increase recall of the patients, and the combination of relatedness and repetition benefited only MID-Alz. In a second experiment, with related or unrelated midlist words, and list length shortened from 15 to 9 words, semantic facilitation was observed in mild and moderate Alzheimer´s patients, although diminished compared to controls. CONCLUSION: Progression of dementia turns facilitating factors of recall less effective.

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An Improved Measure of Cognitive Salience in Free Listing Tasks

Field Methods ◽

10.1177/1525822x17726726 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 29 (4) ◽

pp. 395-403 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Michael C. Robbins ◽

Justin M. Nolan ◽

Diana Chen

Keyword(s):

List Length ◽

Marshall Islands ◽

List Position ◽

Free List ◽

The Republic ◽

Cognitive Salience

A new free-list measure of cognitive salience, B′, is presented, which includes both list position and list frequency. It surpasses other extant measures by being normed to vary between a maximum of 1 and a minimum of 0, thereby making it useful for comparisons irrespective of list length or number of respondents. An illustration of its properties, uses, and computation is provided with the aid of examples drawn from free lists of foods elicited from a sample of migrants from the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

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Memory Load, Critical Features and Retrieval Processes in Facial Recognition

Perceptual and Motor Skills ◽

10.2466/pms.1977.45.3f.1079 ◽

1977 ◽

Vol 45 (3_suppl) ◽

pp. 1079-1087 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Howard B. Orenstein ◽

Kathy M. Hamilton

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Repeated Measures ◽

List Length ◽

Memory Load ◽

Facial Recognition ◽

Reaction Times ◽

Retrieval Processes ◽

Factor Design ◽

Different Response

A Sternberg-type varied set procedure was used in which the set of stimuli associated with the “different” response was, in some cases, large and unspecified. A 3-factor design was used with repeated measures on list length (1, 2, or 4 faces), decision (“same” or “different”), and number of critical features varied between memory and target faces (0, 2, 4, or 7). Reaction times of college students for recognition of faces were analyzed to determine the nature of the retrieval processes employed. Reaction times were faster as the number of feature changes increased, and both parallel and serial processes were indicated for both “same” and “different” responses.

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