Modality Effects in Free Recall: A Retrieved-Context Account

The modality effect refers to the robust finding that memory performance differs for items presented aurally, as compared with visually. Whereas auditory presentation leads to stronger recency performance in immediate recall, visual presentation often produces better primacy performance (the inverse modality effect). To investigate and model these differences, we conducted two large-scale web-based immediate free recall experiments. In both experiments, participants studied visual and auditory word lists of varying lengths and rates of presentation. We observed typical modality and inverse modality effects, while also discovering that participants were more likely to initiate recall from recent items on auditory trials than on visual trials. However, modality effects persisted regardless of the first item recalled. Meanwhile, an analysis of intrusion errors revealed that participants were more likely on visual trials than on auditory trials to erroneously recall words from one list prior. Furthermore, words presented in the same modality as the present list intruded more often than those presented in a different modality. We next developed a retrieved-context account of the modality effect by fitting the Context Maintenance and Retrieval model to data across multiple list lengths. Through our simulations, we demonstrate that the modality effect can be explained by faster contextual drift and stronger context-to-item association formation during auditory presentation, relative to visual. Our modeling shows that modality effects can arise without hypothesizing distinct memory stores for recent and remote information. Finally, we propose that modality effects may derive primarily from the temporal dynamics of stimuli, rather than their modality.

L2 word recognition in French–English late bilinguals: does modality matter?

Research in second language (L2) learning often considers one modality only during task completion. It is unclear if L2 performance is as accurate whatever the modality. L2 learning at school is characterized by a predominance of written materials. One might expect written L2 word recognition to be more accurate than spoken one. This modality effect could also depend on L2 proficiency and the presence of cognate items, closer orthographically than phonologically for most language pairs. Two experiments were conducted with 50 intermediate proficiency French–English bilinguals. Experiment 1 highlighted this modality effect on accuracy and a session effect reflecting a benefit from oral to written modality on latency. In Experiment 2, which included both cognate and non-cognate words, modality effect was even stronger for cognate words and cognate effect depended on modality. In both experiments, these effects depend on L2 proficiency. These findings are discussed according to bilingual word recognition models.

Strategi meminimalkan beban kognitif eksternal dalam pembelajaran matematika berdasarkan load cognitive theory

Memahami objek, konsep, prosedur merupakan salah satu tujuan mempelajari pelajaran matematika disekolah. Muatan materi yang cendrung kompleks dengan elemen-elemen yang abstrak menjadi masalah bagi siswa sehingga memunculkan beban kognitif, diantaranya adalah beban kognitif eksternal. Tujuan dari penelitian ini untuk menunjukkan beberapa strategi yang perlu diperhatikan dalam mendesain pembelajaran matematika agar dapat meminimalkan beban kognitif eksternal. Penelitian ini berupa studi kepustakaan (library research). Teknik pengumpulan data dalam penelitian ini, dilakukan dengan melakukan penelusuran referensi secara online melalui beberapa sumber basis data Google Cendikia, ERIC Institute of Education Science, serta Science Direct. Analisis data dalam penelitian ini menggunakan metode analisis isi (content analysis). Hasil kajian dalam studi ini terdapat 8 strategi dalam mendesain pembelajaran matematika untuk meminimalkan beban kognitif eksternal diantaranya The Goal-Free Effect, The Worked Exampel Effect, The Split-Attention Effect, The Modality Effect, The Redundancy Effect, The Element Interactivity Effect, The Imagination Effect dan The Guidance Fading Effect.Understanding objects, concepts, procedures is one of the goals of studying mathematics in school. Material content that tends to be complex with abstract elements becomes a problem for students so that it creates cognitive loads, including external cognitive loads. The purpose of this study is to show several strategies that need to be considered in designing mathematics learning in order to minimize external cognitive load. This research is in the form of library research (library research). The data collection technique in this study was carried out by searching for references online through several Google Cendikia database sources, ERIC Institute of Education Science, and Science Direct. Analysis of the data in this study using content analysis method. The results of the study in this study there are 8 strategies in designing mathematics learning to minimize external cognitive load including The Goal-Free Effect, The Worked Exampel Effect, The Split-Attention Effect, The Modality Effect, The Redundancy Effect, The Element Interactivity Effect, The Imagination Effect and The Guidance Fading Effect.

Pictures over words: a cross-sectional study reporting short term memory abilities in children

Background: An impressive amount of research has been conducted studying the modality effect on multimedia information in children from higher elementary school to college. In the present study, we aimed to examine the modality effect in the recall of multimedia information among children between the age range of 6 years to 9 years 11 months. Methods: The study followed a cross-sectional design and comprised of 80 participants between the ages of 6 years to 9 years 11 months. An animated story was shown to the children, following which a word recall task was performed. In this task, children were asked to recall the words mentioned in the story from a pictorial array. Results: One-way analysis of variance revealed a significant difference in the overall recall abilities of children. The recall performance was strongly related to the modality of the presentation of words. A marginal difference was observed for the recall of auditory-visual words in comparison to recall of words in the auditory modality; wherein older children recalled better in comparison to younger children. The findings of the study could be attributed to the "visual superiority effect", "encoding specificity principle of memory" and "multimedia effect." Conclusion: Recall abilities were observed to increase with age, with the existence of asynchrony in the auditory-visual and auditory recall scores indicating the firm reliance on the modality of presentation of word. The study implications emphasize on the use of visual stimuli for teaching new vocabularies, skills, and concepts in younger children. These findings also highlight the use of visual stimuli while assessing speech, language, and cognitive skills in younger children.

The Effects of Input Modality, Word Difficulty and Reading Experience on Word Recognition Accuracy

Language users encounter words in at least two different modalities. Arguably, the most frequent encounters are in spoken or written form. Previous research has shown that – compared to the spoken modality – written language features more difficult words. An important question is whether input modality has effects on word recognition accuracy. In the present study, we investigated whether input modality (spoken, written, or bimodal) affected word recognition accuracy and whether such a modality effect interacted with word difficulty. Moreover, we tested whether the participants’ reading experience interacted with word difficulty and whether this interaction was influenced by modality. We re-analyzed data from 48 Dutch university students that were collected in the context of a vocabulary test development to assess in which modality test words should be presented. Participants carried out a word recognition task, where non-words and words of varying difficulty were presented in auditory, visual and audio-visual modalities. In addition, they completed a receptive vocabulary and an author recognition test to measure their exposure to literary texts. Our re-analyses showed that word difficulty interacted with reading experience in that frequent readers (i.e., with more exposure to written texts) were more accurate in recognizing difficult words than individuals who read less frequently. However, there was no evidence for an effect of input modality on word recognition accuracy, nor for interactions with word difficulty or reading experience. Thus, in our study, input modality did not influence word recognition accuracy. We discuss the implications of this finding and describe possibilities for future research involving other groups of participants and/or different languages.