Socially Shared Feelings of Imminent Recall: More Tip-of-the-Tongue States Are Experienced in Small Groups

Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) states are typically defined as feelings of imminent recall for known, but temporarily inaccessible target words. However, TOTs are not merely instances of retrieval failures. Clues that increase the subjective likelihood of retrieval success, such as cue familiarity and target-related information, also have been shown to elicit feelings of imminent recall, supporting a metacognitive, inferential etiology of the TOT phenomenon. A survey conducted on our university campus provided anecdotal evidence that TOTs are occasionally shared among people in small groups. Although shared TOTs may suggest the influence of social contagion, we hypothesized that metacognitive appraisal of group recall efficiency could be involved. There should be more instances of remembering in several heads than in one. From this, we conjectured that people remembering together entertain the inference that successful retrieval is more likely in group recall than in a single-person recall situation. Such a metacognitive appraisal may drive a stronger feeling of closeness with the target word and of recall imminence, precipitating one (or more people) into a TOT state. We used general knowledge questions to elicit TOTs. We found that participants reported more TOTs when remembering in small groups than participants remembering alone. Critically, the experimental manipulation selectively increased TOTs without affecting correct recall, suggesting that additional TOTs observed in small groups were triggered independently from the retrieval process. Near one third (31%) of the TOTs in small groups were reported by two or more participants for the same items. However, removing common TOTs from the analyses did not change the basic pattern of results, suggesting that social contagion was not the main factor involved in the observed effect. We argue that beyond social contagion, group recall magnifies the inference that target words will be successfully retrieved, prompting the metacognitive monitoring system to launch more near-retrieval success “warning” (TOT) signals than in a single-person recall situation.

Do not (Just) Think, But (Also) Feel!: Empirical Corroboration of Emotion-Involved Processing Hypothesis on Foreign Language Lexical Retention

Emotion plays important roles in learning, memory, and other cognitive processes; it does so not only in the form of macro-level emotion (e.g., salient affective states and self-reportable motivational currents) but also in the form of micro-level emotion (e.g., subtle feelings and linguistic attributes that are usually processed subconsciously without special attention). According to the Emotion-Involved Processing Hypothesis (EIPH), processing that draws attention to emotional aspects (EmInvProc+) is postulated as a deeper version of semantic processing which has cognitive advantage to facilitate linguistic processing and retention more than non-emotional semantic processing (EmInvProc−). This study empirically investigated whether the EIPH can be experimentally corroborated for learners of a distant foreign language (viz., Japanese learners of English). In the experiment, participants processed visually presented English words that were either positively or negatively valenced under different conditions, followed by the test session in which they engaged in memory tests. Two processing modes were compared (EmInvProc+ vs. EmInvProc−). The dependent variables were correct recall frequency, correct recognition frequency, and correct recognition reaction time. It was revealed that EmInvProc+ was more cognitively facilitatory in making stronger foreign language lexical memory traces than EmInvProc− for all the measures employed in the experiment, regarding both accuracy (correct response frequency) and fluency (correct response reaction time). Therefore, it is implied that EmInvProc+ can be regarded as a sui generis deeper level of processing that is qualitatively distinguishable from mere semantic processing, supporting the Emotion-Involved Processing Hypothesis.

Past and Present Subjective Wellbeing: The Role of Contrast and Memory

This study is an attempt to analyse the interrelationships between current, past and expected future subjective wellbeing (SWB) through the intermediating role of memory using the National Income Dynamics Study panel dataset for South Africa. The contribution of this study is in exploring the role of contrast (inter-temporal and social) in determining; a) the current levels of SWB and, b) the drivers of recall bias; within a causal framework in the context of a country with low average SWB and high SWB inequality. The results indicate significant presence of hedonic adaptation and reveals past and future contrast as important correlates of current subjective wellbeing. In addition, a perceived improvement in current happiness from the past, is associated with higher levels of current SWB, highlighting the intermediating role of memory. Memory, however, is observed to be biased with only 42% accuracy. Higher levels of current subjective wellbeing are found to enhance the probability of correct recall of past. An overall improvement bias is evident among those in the lower segment of the SWB distribution. The results reinforce the hypothesized simultaneous relationships between current SWB, inter-temporal contrast, and recall behaviour. Further the differences in our findings from European studies emphasise the relevance of context in driving these relationships.

Missed Opportunities: The Need to Promote Public Knowledge and Awareness of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Taxes

Despite a growing body of evidence showing that sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes nudge consumers away from SSBs, we lack an understanding of people’s awareness and perceptions of SSB taxes and whether tax awareness and perceptions differ based on sociodemographic characteristics. We used serial cross-sectional study intercept surveys (n = 2715) in demographically diverse neighborhoods of Berkeley and Oakland in 2015 and 2017, and San Francisco and Richmond in 2017. In the year following successful SSB tax ballot measures, 45% of respondents correctly recalled that an SSB tax had passed in their city. In untaxed cities, 14% of respondents incorrectly thought that a tax had passed. Perceived benefits of SSB taxes to the community and to children’s health were moderate and, like correct recall of an SSB tax, were higher among respondents with higher education levels. Awareness of SSB taxes was low overall, and perceptions about taxes’ benefits varied by educational attainment, reflecting a missed opportunity to educate citizens about how SSB taxes work and their importance. Public health efforts should invest in campaigns that explain the benefits of SSB taxes and provide information about how tax revenues will be invested, both before and after a tax proposal has passed.

The Effects of Divided Attention on Memory for Road Signs

We examined incidental learning of road signs under divided attention in a simulated naturalistic environment. We tested whether word-based versus symbol-based road signs were differentially maintained in working memory by dividing attention during encoding and measuring the effect on long-term memory. Participants in a lab watched a video from the point of view of a car driving the streets of a small town. Participants were instructed to indicate whether passing road signs in the video were on the left or right side of the street while either singing the Star-Spangled Banner (phonological divided attention) or describing familiar locations (visuospatial divided attention). For purposes of analysis, road signs were categorized as word signs if they contained words (e.g., a STOP sign) or as symbol signs if they contained illustrations or symbols (e.g., a pedestrian crosswalk sign). A surprise free recall test of the road signs indicated greater recall for word signs than symbol signs, and greater recall of signs for the phonological divided attention group than the visuospatial divided attention group. Critically, the proportion of correct recall of symbol signs was significantly lower for the visuospatial divided attention group than the phonological divided attention group, p = .02, d = 0.63, but recall for word signs was not significantly different between phonological and visuospatial groups, p = .09, d = 0.44. Results supported the hypothesis that visuospatial information—but not phonological information—is stored in working memory in a simulated naturalistic environment that involved incidental learning.

Memorable navigation: Assessing the influence of way-finding in spatial clustering

Navigating around an environment and remembering the events that took place within it are crucial cognitive abilities that have been linked to the Hippocampus and medial temporal lobes (MTL). Scene Construction Theory (SCT) has proposed that a function of the Hippocampus is the implicit and continuous construction of scenes to help prediction of upcoming environment. Scenes, as highly efficient means of packaging information, underpin in coordination with other brain regions, episodic memory (EM), spatial navigation, future thinking and perhaps even dreaming and mind-wandering. We examined the conditions in which spatial contiguity of stimuli influences the organization of memory by examining spatial clustering (SC) phenomenon. In this research, an augmented reality (AR) system was used to test 14 participants in a spatially dependent memory task which assessed the SC differences between active navigators and passive spectators. We confirmed our hypothesis that navigators use spatial information as part of the retrieval process in free recall, as they tended to sequentially recall any two neighboring otherwise unrelated items. We also found a significant correlation between SC and correct recall performance supporting our second hypothesis. These results may be valuable for design of learning applications, especially dealing with large amounts of data. Research on Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases may also benefit from our approach. Future studies may assess the role of encoding and retrieval modality and participant's use of mnemonic strategies.

An empirical study of the classifier effect in advanced L2 users of Chinese

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: This article examines the classifier effect on categorization among advanced Chinese as a second language (CSL) learners. More specifically, it aims to answer this question: Is non-classifier language speakers’ categorization of objects influenced by the acquisition of the Chinese classifier system? Design/methodology/approach, data and analysis: Native Chinese speakers, advanced CSL learners and non-CSL participants were asked to rate the relatedness of drawing pairs based on either classifier or taxonomy/theme; advanced CSL learners and non-CSL participants were then asked to immediately recall two lists of nouns, one associated with three taxonomic categories and the other with three classifiers. Repeated-measures ANOVA was conducted to examine the major effect between drawing relations (classifier related, taxonomically/thematically related and unrelated) and participant groups. Two measures of NCR (number of correct recall) and RR (ratio of repetition) were calculated and analysed to examine effective memory retrieval as well as subjective clustering. Findings/conclusions: Results showed that preferences for classifier-based and taxonomy/theme -based categorizations differed between advanced CSL learners and non-CSL participants. CSL learners’ knowledge of the classifier system also facilitated their performance in recalling and clustering objects. The findings revealed that concepts in bilingual minds may be language-specific and an alternative interpretation of the real world is internalized by learning a new language. Originality: Unlike previous studies, this article extended the examination of the cognitive consequences of classifiers to late bilinguals whose second language (L2) proficiency was formally assessed. Significance/implications: This study contributes empirical data supporting the importance of nonverbal behavioural evidence in the study of bilingual cognition. The degree and nature of the restructuring of real-world referents as a consequence of acquiring Chinese classifiers is of pedagogical value to second-language acquisition (SLA).

Use of Nutrition Information and Understanding of “Percent Daily Value” on Nutrition Facts Tables: Evaluating the Impact of a National Public Education Campaign among Youth and Young Adults in Canada

Purpose: In 2010, Health Canada implemented a national campaign to improve understanding of “percent daily value” (%DV) in Nutrition Facts Tables (NFTs). This study examined sources of nutrition information and knowledge of %DV information communicated in the campaign. Methods: Respondents aged 16–30 years completed the Canada Food Study in 2016 (n = 2665). Measures included sources of nutrition information, NFT use, and %DV knowledge based on the campaign message (“5% DV or less is a little; 15% DV or more is a lot”). A logistic regression examined correlates of providing “correct” responses to %DV questions related to the campaign messaging. Results: Overall, 7.2% (n = 191) respondents correctly indicated that 5% is “a little”, and 4.3% (n = 115) correctly indicated 15% DV was “a lot”. Only 4.0% (n = 107) correctly answered both. Correct recall of %DV amounts was not associated with number of information sources reported, but was greater among those who were female, were younger, and reported greater NFT understanding and serving size information use (P < 0.05 for all). Conclusions: Results show low awareness of messaging from the Nutrition Facts Education Campaign among young Canadians. Such a mass media campaign may be insufficient on its own to enhance population-level understanding of %DV.

Motivation to Learn

Learners are more likely to remember what they study if they are motivated to do so. Such motivation can be externally driven by prospective rewards, but also intrinsically driven by curiosity. The present research focused on the role of curiosity during intentional learning. We examined the potential mnemonic benefit of curiosity, whether this benefit is undermined when learners are externally motivated to learn by rewards, and whether it can be attributed to increased study time for information they are more curious about. In two experiments, participants were presented with trivia questions, rated their level of curiosity about each question, and then studied the answers, either with or without a prospect of reward for correct recall on a subsequent test. Study time was either fixed (Experiment 1) or self-paced (Experiment 2). Performance on a memory test 1 week later suggested that curiosity enhanced long-term retention, and that rewards did not undermine the benefit of curiosity. When learning was self-paced, study time increased with curiosity but did not account for the effect of curiosity on memory. The results highlight the important role curiosity plays in learning and suggest that curiosity and rewards can be used together effectively to promote students’ learning.