Effect of Semantic Context on Free Recall of Serial Lists

1979 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 651-657
Author(s):  
James F. Sanford ◽  
Patti R. Hulvershorn

The role of semantic context as a basis for organization was examined by presenting subjects with a serial list of 30 nouns in three different contexts: (a) embedded within a narrative passage having a single semantic theme; (b) embedded within a randomly ordered list of the words contained in the narrative passage; (c) presented with no additional context cues. Results showed that both over-all recall performance and input-output consistency were poorer in the random context than in the other two and that other organizational measures were not highly associated with recall performance. It was concluded that (a) subjects attend to context when organizing serial lists and (b) optimal recall was obtained when subjects' organization was related to order of input.

2004 ◽  
Vol 94 (1) ◽  
pp. 291-304
Author(s):  
Hiroshi Toyota

Two experiments compared the effectiveness of three types of elaboration on incidental and intentional memory for a story: self-generated, self-choice, and experimenter-provided elaboration. In Exp. 1, using the incidental memory paradigm, second graders listened to a fantastic story and then, in the self-generated condition, answered a “why” question about a particular topic in the story. In the self-choice condition, they chose one of the alternative answers to the question and in the experimenter-provided condition, judged the appropriateness of each of two provided answers. This was followed by free-recall and cued-recall tests. Subjects were categorized into two groups, good and poor academic achievers in terms of academic scores in four subject matter areas. For good academic achievers, self-choice elaboration led to a better cued recall than the other two elaboration types. The cued-recall performance of poor achievers was not different with the three conditions. In Exp. 2, using the intentional memory paradigm, the subjects intended to learn a different story and then performed the same procedure as Exp. 1. For poor achievers, self-choice elaboration led to a worse free recall than the other elaboration types, but the free recall of good achievers was not significantly different for the three types of elaboration. The results were interpreted as showing that the effects of self-choice elaboration on incidental and intentional memory were correlated with subjects' academic performance.


Author(s):  
Daniela Gîfu ◽  
Mirela Teodorescu

The scientists as Bateson, Watzlawick expresses the determining role of interaction in the axiom of the “impossibility of not communicating”. All behavior (verbal and nonverbal) occurring between persons who are conscious of each other's presence has behavioural effects, whether intended or not. Such effects have interpersonal message value, and thus are communicative in nature. Since it is impossible for humans not to behave in one way or another, it follows that in interaction it is impossible not to communicate (Bateson, 1963; Watzlawick et al., 1967). Communication theory is relatively new as science and interacts with the other disciplines of sciences. During its development some of the notions were used that were already committed and comprehensive. This article aims to present some of them. Terms as system, input, output, feedback, entropy specific to scientific disciplines as systems theory, cybernetics, information theory, physics, are especially used in communication theory.


2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (04) ◽  
pp. 205-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer B. Shinn ◽  
Jane A. Baran ◽  
Deborah W. Moncrieff ◽  
Frank E. Musiek

The role of attention in the differentiation of auditory processing disorders from attention deficit disorders is gaining considerable interest in both the clinical and research arenas. It has been well established that when attention is directed to one ear or the other on traditional dichotic tests, performance can be altered. However, preliminary studies in our laboratory have shown that dichotic fusion paradigms are resistant to shifts in ear performance associated with changes in attention. The purpose of this study was to assess the performance of normal listeners on a dichotic consonant-vowel and a dichotic rhyme (fusion) test. Both test procedures were administered to 20 young adults in three different listening conditions (free recall, attention directed to the left ear, and attention directed to the right ear). Results from this study supported the hypothesis that dichotic rhyme tests are resistant to alterations in the laterality of attention and have implications for the development of test paradigms that can be used to segregate attention from pure auditory deficits in the clinical domain.


1979 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1115-1128 ◽  
Author(s):  
T Ihara

This paper analyzes interregional commodity flows in order to clarify the characteristics of trade structures for the regional economy in Japan. Two types of analytical model are indicated according to two different objectives. One is to characterize the role of each industrial sector, the other is to take into account the relative connectivity of the interregional relationships under study. Even these simple models provide some useful information for regional development and planning, as demonstrated in this paper by using data from the 1970 interregional input—output table.


Author(s):  
Peter P. J. L. Verkoeijen ◽  
Remy M. J. P. Rikers ◽  
Henk G. Schmidt

Abstract. The spacing effect refers to the finding that memory for repeated items improves when the interrepetition interval increases. To explain the spacing effect in free-recall tasks, a two-factor model has been put forward that combines mechanisms of contextual variability and study-phase retrieval (e.g., Raaijmakers, 2003 ; Verkoeijen, Rikers, & Schmidt, 2004 ). An important, yet untested, implication of this model is that free recall of repetitions should follow an inverted u-shaped relationship with interrepetition spacing. To demonstrate the suggested relationship an experiment was conducted. Participants studied a word list, consisting of items repeated at different interrepetition intervals, either under incidental or under intentional learning instructions. Subsequently, participants received a free-recall test. The results revealed an inverted u-shaped relationship between free recall and interrepetition spacing in both the incidental-learning condition and the intentional-learning condition. Moreover, for intentionally learned repetitions, the maximum free-recall performance was located at a longer interrepetition interval than for incidentally learned repetitions. These findings are interpreted in terms of the two-factor model of spacing effects in free-recall tasks.


Author(s):  
Ryoji Nishiyama ◽  
Jun Ukita

This study examined whether additional articulatory rehearsal induced temporary durability of phonological representations, using a 10-s delayed nonword free recall task. Three experiments demonstrated that cumulative rehearsal between the offset of the last study item and the start of the filled delay (Experiments 1 and 3) and a fixed rehearsal of the immediate item during the subsequent interstimulus interval (Experiments 2 and 3) improved free recall performance. These results suggest that an additional rehearsal helps to stabilize phonological representations for a short period. Furthermore, the analyses of serial position curves suggested that the frequency of the articulation affected the durability of the phonological representation. The significance of these findings as clues of the mechanism maintaining verbal information (i.e., verbal working memory) is discussed.


Author(s):  
Katherine Guérard ◽  
Sébastien Tremblay

In serial memory for spatial information, some studies showed that recall performance suffers when the distance between successive locations increases relatively to the size of the display in which they are presented (the path length effect; e.g., Parmentier et al., 2005) but not when distance is increased by enlarging the size of the display (e.g., Smyth & Scholey, 1994). In the present study, we examined the effect of varying the absolute and relative distance between to-be-remembered items on memory for spatial information. We manipulated path length using small (15″) and large (64″) screens within the same design. In two experiments, we showed that distance was disruptive mainly when it is varied relatively to a fixed reference frame, though increasing the size of the display also had a small deleterious effect on recall. The insertion of a retention interval did not influence these effects, suggesting that rehearsal plays a minor role in mediating the effects of distance on serial spatial memory. We discuss the potential role of perceptual organization in light of the pattern of results.


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

1995 ◽  
Vol 74 (05) ◽  
pp. 1271-1275 ◽  
Author(s):  
C M A Henkens ◽  
V J J Bom ◽  
W van der Schaaf ◽  
P M Pelsma ◽  
C Th Smit Sibinga ◽  
...  

SummaryWe measured total and free protein S (PS), protein C (PC) and factor X (FX) in 393 healthy blood donors to assess differences in relation to sex, hormonal state and age. All measured proteins were lower in women as compared to men, as were levels in premenopausal women as compared to postmenopausal women. Multiple regression analysis showed that both age and subgroup (men, pre- and postmenopausal women) were of significance for the levels of total and free PS and PC, the subgroup effect being caused by the differences between the premenopausal women and the other groups. This indicates a role of sex-hormones, most likely estrogens, in the regulation of levels of pro- and anticoagulant factors under physiologic conditions. These differences should be taken into account in daily clinical practice and may necessitate different normal ranges for men, pre- and postmenopausal women.


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