scholarly journals Recognition Memory for Pictorial Events: Fusion or Features

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Julie Leibrich
Keyword(s):  
Recognition Memory ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Alternative Interpretation ◽  
Stimulus Material ◽  
Test Material ◽  
Semantic Consistency ◽  
Visual Events ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
Picture Stories

<p>This research investigated recognition memory for picture stories. Jenkins, Wald and Pittenger (1978) had found that when subjects viewed a slide sequence which depicted an every-day event, in a later recognition memory test they correctly rejected distractors which were inconsistent with the event but falsely accepted consistent distractors. Jenkins interpreted this result as evidence that fusion - the abstraction of visual events - determined memory performance. He argued that subjects compared the test slides to the abstracted event and accepted those which were consistent with the event. A series of experiments examined the possibility that performance was due not to fusion but to confusion with respect to the featural details of the stimulus material. This alternative interpretation argued that consistent slides had more features in common with acquisition slides than did the inconsistent slides and that the variables of semantic consistency and featural similarity had been confounded. The first experiment manipulated acquisition material and found that subjects who saw a disordered acquisition sequence falsely accepted consistent slides. The second experiment manipulated acquisition conditions and found that subjects who were inhibited from fusing the event by being required to perform a non-semantic task during acquisition falsely accepted consistent slides. Neither of these results supported a fusion interpretation since acceptance of consistent slides occurred under conditions where fusion of the event was not expected. The third experiment manipulated the test conditions and found that acceptance of both consistent and inconsistent slides was less likely with delayed tests although fusion of the event should have led to no change in the likelihood of accepting inconsistent slides. The fourth and fifth experiments re-examined the manipulation of presentation order and demonstrated that subjects were unable to reconstruct the event from a disordered sequence and yet still falsely accepted consistent slides. Each test of the fusion interpretation which had attempted to separate the variables of features and meaning indirectly had indicated that recognition performance was not due to abstraction of the visual event. A final experiment attempted to find explicit evidence for a featural interpretation of the results by directly varying featural similarity of consistent distractor slides to slides from the originally viewed sequence while keeping the degree of semantic consistency constant. Although this experiment failed to support a featural account, the converging evidence from all experiments indicated that recognition memory for picture stories is based to a large extent on the featural properties of the stimulus material. An account of performance solely in terms of visual abstraction is not adequate. Moreover, unless the variables of featural similarity and meaning can be separated directly in the test material, this recognition paradigm is unlikely to provide a means for examining the influence of schemata on recognition memory for picture stories.</p>

scholarly journals Recognition Memory for Pictorial Events: Fusion or Features

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Julie Leibrich
Keyword(s):  
Recognition Memory ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Alternative Interpretation ◽  
Stimulus Material ◽  
Test Material ◽  
Semantic Consistency ◽  
Visual Events ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
Picture Stories

<p>This research investigated recognition memory for picture stories. Jenkins, Wald and Pittenger (1978) had found that when subjects viewed a slide sequence which depicted an every-day event, in a later recognition memory test they correctly rejected distractors which were inconsistent with the event but falsely accepted consistent distractors. Jenkins interpreted this result as evidence that fusion - the abstraction of visual events - determined memory performance. He argued that subjects compared the test slides to the abstracted event and accepted those which were consistent with the event. A series of experiments examined the possibility that performance was due not to fusion but to confusion with respect to the featural details of the stimulus material. This alternative interpretation argued that consistent slides had more features in common with acquisition slides than did the inconsistent slides and that the variables of semantic consistency and featural similarity had been confounded. The first experiment manipulated acquisition material and found that subjects who saw a disordered acquisition sequence falsely accepted consistent slides. The second experiment manipulated acquisition conditions and found that subjects who were inhibited from fusing the event by being required to perform a non-semantic task during acquisition falsely accepted consistent slides. Neither of these results supported a fusion interpretation since acceptance of consistent slides occurred under conditions where fusion of the event was not expected. The third experiment manipulated the test conditions and found that acceptance of both consistent and inconsistent slides was less likely with delayed tests although fusion of the event should have led to no change in the likelihood of accepting inconsistent slides. The fourth and fifth experiments re-examined the manipulation of presentation order and demonstrated that subjects were unable to reconstruct the event from a disordered sequence and yet still falsely accepted consistent slides. Each test of the fusion interpretation which had attempted to separate the variables of features and meaning indirectly had indicated that recognition performance was not due to abstraction of the visual event. A final experiment attempted to find explicit evidence for a featural interpretation of the results by directly varying featural similarity of consistent distractor slides to slides from the originally viewed sequence while keeping the degree of semantic consistency constant. Although this experiment failed to support a featural account, the converging evidence from all experiments indicated that recognition memory for picture stories is based to a large extent on the featural properties of the stimulus material. An account of performance solely in terms of visual abstraction is not adequate. Moreover, unless the variables of featural similarity and meaning can be separated directly in the test material, this recognition paradigm is unlikely to provide a means for examining the influence of schemata on recognition memory for picture stories.</p>

Word length negatively predicts recognition memory performance

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (10) ◽  
pp. 1675-1683
Author(s):  
Michael J Cortese ◽  
David Von Nordheim ◽  
Maya M Khanna
Keyword(s):  
Recognition Memory ◽  
Word Length ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
False Alarms ◽  
Memory Representation ◽  
Orthographic Similarity ◽  
Single Process ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Noise Models

We examined how word length affects performance in three recognition memory experiments to resolve discrepant results in the literature for which there are theoretical implications. Shorter and longer words were equated on frequency, orthographic similarity, age of acquisition, and imageability. In Experiments 1 and 2, orthographic length (i.e., the number of letters in a word) was negatively related to hits minus false alarms. In Experiment 3, recognition performance did not differ between one- and two-syllable words that were equated on orthographic length. These results are compatible with single-process item-noise models that represent orthography in terms of features and in which memory representation strength is a product of the probabilities that the individual features have been stored. Longer words are associated with noisier representations than shorter words.

scholarly journals Memorable words are monogamous: The role of synonymy and homonymy in word recognition memory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle Mahowald ◽  
Phillip Isola ◽  
Evelina Fedorenko ◽  
Edward Gibson ◽  
Aude Oliva
Keyword(s):  
Recognition Memory ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Affect Recognition ◽  
Rational Analysis ◽  
Intended Meaning ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
With Memory

What makes a word memorable? Prior research has identified numerous factors: word frequency, concreteness, imageability, and valence have all been shown to affect recognition performance. One important dimension that has not received much attention is the nature of the relationship between words and meanings. Under the hypothesis that words are encoded primarily by their meanings, and not by their surface forms, this relationship should be central to determining word memorability. In particular, rational analysis suggests that people will more easily remember words that convey a large amount of informationabout their intended meaning and that have few alternatives – that is, memorable words will be those with few possiblemeanings and synonyms. To test this hypothesis, we ran two large-scale recognition memory experiments (each with 2,222 words, 600+ participants). Memory performance was overall high, on par with memory for pictures in a similar paradigm. Critically, however, not all words were remembered equally well. Consistent with our proposal, the best recognized words had few meanings and few synonyms. Indeed, the most memorable words had a one-to-one relationship with their meanings. Estimates of memorability derived from this rational account explain a large amount of the variance in word memorability.

Learning From (Test) Experience

2020 ◽  
Vol 228 (4) ◽  
pp. 264-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan E. Mitton ◽  
Chris M. Fiacconi
Keyword(s):  
Recognition Memory ◽  
Test Performance ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Judgments Of Learning ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
Memory Tests ◽  
Recognition Memory Performance ◽  
Study Test ◽  
Explicit Feedback

Abstract. To date there has been relatively little research within the domain of metamemory that examines how individuals monitor their performance during memory tests, and whether the outcome of such monitoring informs subsequent memory predictions for novel items. In the current study, we sought to determine whether spontaneous monitoring of test performance can in fact help individuals better appreciate their memory abilities, and in turn shape future judgments of learning (JOLs). Specifically, in two experiments we examined recognition memory for visual images across three study-test cycles, each of which contained novel images. We found that across cycles, participants’ JOLs did in fact increase, reflecting metacognitive sensitivity to near-perfect levels of recognition memory performance. This finding suggests that individuals can and do monitor their test performance in the absence of explicit feedback, and further underscores the important role that test experience can play in shaping metacognitive evaluations of learning and remembering.

Semantic Congruency Improves Recognition Memory Performance for Both Audiovisual and Visual Stimuli

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 763-781 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenni Heikkilä ◽  
Kimmo Alho ◽  
Kaisa Tiippana
Keyword(s):  
Recognition Memory ◽  
Congruency Effect ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
The Other ◽  
Memory Encoding ◽  
Semantic Congruency ◽  
Recognition Memory Performance ◽  
Visual Encoding ◽  
Per Se

Audiovisual semantic congruency during memory encoding has been shown to facilitate later recognition memory performance. However, it is still unclear whether this improvement is due to multisensory semantic congruency or just semantic congruencyper se. We investigated whether dual visual encoding facilitates recognition memory in the same way as audiovisual encoding. The participants memorized auditory or visual stimuli paired with a semantically congruent, incongruent or non-semantic stimulus in the same modality or in the other modality during encoding. Subsequent recognition memory performance was better when the stimulus was initially paired with a semantically congruent stimulus than when it was paired with a non-semantic stimulus. This congruency effect was observed with both audiovisual and dual visual stimuli. The present results indicate that not only multisensory but also unisensory semantically congruent stimuli can improve memory performance. Thus, the semantic congruency effect is not solely a multisensory phenomenon, as has been suggested previously.

Recognition Memory for Emotional and Neutral Faces: An Event-Related Potential Study

2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. 1840-1853 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikael Johansson ◽  
Axel Mecklinger ◽  
Anne-Cécile Treese
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Recognition Memory ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Facial Affect ◽  
Test Phase ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Affect Recognition ◽  
Negative Events ◽  
Familiarity And Recollection ◽  
Criterion Setting

This study examined emotional influences on the hypothesized event-related potential (ERP) correlates of familiarity and recollection (Experiment 1) and the states of awareness (Experiment 2) accompanying recognition memory for faces differing in facial affect. Participants made gender judgments to positive, negative, and neutral faces at study and were in the test phase instructed to discriminate between studied and nonstudied faces. Whereas old–new discrimination was unaffected by facial expression, negative faces were recollected to a greater extent than both positive and neutral faces as reflected in the parietal ERP old–new effect and in the proportion of remember judgments. Moreover, emotion-specific modulations were observed in frontally recorded ERPs elicited by correctly rejected new faces that concurred with a more liberal response criterion for emotional as compared to neutral faces. Taken together, the results are consistent with the view that processes promoting recollection are facilitated for negative events and that emotion may affect recognition performance by influencing criterion setting mediated by the prefrontal cortex.

scholarly journals Is Pupil Activity Associated With the Strength of Memory Signal for Words in a Continuous Recognition Memory Paradigm?

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Oliveira ◽  
Marta Fernandes ◽  
Pedro J. Rosa ◽  
Pedro Gamito
Keyword(s):  
Retention Interval ◽  
Recognition Memory ◽  
Pupil Size ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Subjective Feeling ◽  
Consistent Finding ◽  
Pupillary Responses ◽  
Study Test

Research on pupillometry provides an increasing evidence for associations between pupil activity and memory processing. The most consistent finding is related to an increase in pupil size for old items compared with novel items, suggesting that pupil activity is associated with the strength of memory signal. However, the time course of these changes is not completely known, specifically, when items are presented in a running recognition task maximizing interference by requiring the recognition of the most recent items from a sequence of old/new items. The sample comprised 42 healthy participants who performed a visual word recognition task under varying conditions of retention interval. Recognition responses were evaluated using behavioral variables for discrimination accuracy, reaction time, and confidence in recognition decisions. Pupil activity was recorded continuously during the entire experiment. The results suggest a decrease in recognition performance with increasing study-test retention interval. Pupil size decreased across retention intervals, while pupil old/new effects were found only for words recognized at the shortest retention interval. Pupillary responses consisted of a pronounced early pupil constriction at retrieval under longer study-test lags corresponding to weaker memory signals. However, the pupil size was also sensitive to the subjective feeling of familiarity as shown by pupil dilation to false alarms (new items judged as old). These results suggest that the pupil size is related not only to the strength of memory signal but also to subjective familiarity decisions in a continuous recognition memory paradigm.

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