The Role of Relational Processing in Memory for Actions: A Negative Enactment Effect in Free Recall

1999 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 877-903 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie C. Steffens
2003 ◽  
Vol 56 (5) ◽  
pp. 829-848 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Engelkamp ◽  
Kerstin H. Seiler

Enacting action phrases (SPT for subject-performed task) produces better free recall than only learning the phrases verbally (VT for verbal task). A widespread explanation of the enactment effect is based on the distinction between item-specific and relational information. There is widespread agreement that the main reason is the excellent item-specific encoding by enactment. However, there is little direct evidence in the case of free recall. The role of relational information is less clear. We suggest that content-based relational encoding is better in VTs than in SPTs. In three experiments, in which multiple free recall testing used item gains and losses as indices of item-specific and content-based relational encoding, respectively, these assumptions were confirmed. Consistently more gains (indexing better item-specific encoding) and more losses (indexing poorer relational encoding) were observed in SPTs than in VTs (Experiments 1 and 2). Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the content-based relational information underlying losses is not identical with order-relational information (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, it was shown that an item-specific orienting task for VTs produced an equivalent number of item gains and losses as did the SPT condition.


2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aisha P. Siddiqui ◽  
Nash Unsworth
Keyword(s):  

1970 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 384-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Richard Puff
Keyword(s):  

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara A. Charlesworth ◽  
Richard J. Allen ◽  
Suzannah Morson ◽  
Wendy K. Burn ◽  
Celine Souchay

This study examines the enactment effect in early Alzheimer’s disease using a novel working memory task. Free recall of action-object instruction sequences was measured in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease (n=14) and older adult controls (n=15). Instruction sequences were read out loud by the experimenter (verbal-only task) or read by the experimenter and performed by the participants (subject-performed task). In both groups and for all sequence lengths, recall was superior in the subject-performed condition than the verbal-only condition. Individuals with Alzheimer’s disease showed a deficit in free recall of recently learned instruction sequences relative to older adult controls, yet both groups show a significant benefit from performing actions themselves at encoding. The subject-performed task shows promise as a tool to improve working memory in early Alzheimer’s disease.


1966 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 627-634 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mari J. K. Brown

Free recall of lists at different orders of approximation to English was compared to the recall of the same lists when the order of the words had been scrambled to destroy their sequential organization. Recall of the organized lists showed the typical improvement with increasing order of approximation. Recall of the scrambled lists was unrelated to the original order of approximation. The results indicate that increased recall with increasing order of approximation to English is not produced by systematic differences in the characteristics of the individual words comprising the approximations. When recall of the organized lists was scored in terms of the number of longer sequences present in recall, the number of recalled sequences of any given length increased as order of approximation to English increased, with the first order list showing proportionally less organization in recall than the second and higher order lists.


2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (6) ◽  
pp. 1493-1506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark J Huff ◽  
Glen E Bodner

Using the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm, Huff and Bodner found that both item-specific and relational variants of a task improved correct recognition, but only the item-specific variants reduced false recognition, relative to a read-control condition. Here, we examined the outcome pattern when memory was tested using free recall, using the same item-specific versus relational task variants across three experiments as our previous study (processing instructions, pleasantness ratings, anagram generation). The outcome pattern in recall was similar to recognition, except relational processing at study actually reduced the DRM illusion, though not as much as item-specific processing. To reconcile this task difference, we suggest that the memory information laid down during relational encoding enhances the familiarity of the critical items at test. To the extent that familiarity is used less as a basis for responding in free recall than in recognition, relational processing ironically reduces rather than increases the DRM illusion in recall.


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