Geoff Ward

Task-switching costs, Stroop-costs, and executive control: A correlational study

Three correlational studies investigated the relationship between the time costs associated with Stroop stimuli (Stroop-costs) with the time costs associated with task-switching (switch-costs) obtained from colour-word stimuli and digit stimuli. In all studies, large and significant positive correlations were found between different measures of switch-costs. However, only small (and sometimes non-significant) correlations were obtained between the different measures of Stroop-costs and between measures of Stroop-costs and measures of switch-costs. The results are taken as evidence for the existence of some common or shared specialized mechanisms involved in taskswitching, which are different from those used to overcome Stroop interference.

Time Scale Similarity and Long-Term Memory for Autobiographical Events

We examine the extent to which retrieval from very long-term autobiographical memory is similar when participants are asked to retrieve from widely differing periods of time. Three groups of 20 participants were given 4 min to recall autobiographical events from the last 5 weeks, 5 months, or 5 years. Following recall, the participants dated their events. Similar retrieval rates, relative recency effects, and relative lag-recency effects were found, despite the fact that the considered time scales varied by a factor of 52. These data are broadly consistent with the principle of recency, the principle of contiguity (Howard & Kahana, 2002), and scale similarity in the rates of recall (Brown, Neath, & Chater, 2007; Maylor, Chater, & Brown, 2001). These findings are taken as support for models of memory that predict time scale similarity in retrieval, such as SIMPLE (Brown et al., 2007) and TCM (Howard & Kahana, 2002).

The Role of Rehearsal on the Output Order of Immediate Free Recall of Short and Long Lists.

Participants tend to initiate immediate free recall (IFR) of short lists of words with the very first word on the list. Three experiments examined whether rehearsal is necessary for this recent finding. In Experiment 1, participants were presented with lists of between 2 and 12 words for IFR at a fast, medium, or slow rate, with and without articulatory suppression (AS). The tendency to initiate output with the first item for short lists (a) did not change greatly when presentation rate was increased from a medium to a fast rate under normal conditions, (b) was reduced but not eliminated by AS, and (c) was maintained at slower rates when rehearsal was allowed but decreased at slower rates when rehearsal was prevented. In Experiment 2, the overt rehearsal methodology was used, and the tendency to initiate output with the first item for short lists was present even in the absence of overt rehearsal. Experiment 3 re-examined IFR under normal encoding conditions and replicated the main findings from the normal encoding conditions of Experiment 1 while using the presentation rates and list lengths of Experiment 2. We argue that rehearsal is not strictly necessary for the tendency to initiate recall with the first item under normal conditions, but rehearsal nevertheless contributes to this effect at slower rates.

Collecting Shared Experiences through Lifelogging: Lessons Learned

The emergence of widespread pervasive sensing, personal recording technologies, and systems for the quantified self are creating an environment in which one can capture fine-grained activity traces. Such traces have wide applicability in domains such as human memory augmentation, behavior change, and healthcare. However, obtaining these traces for research is nontrivial, especially those containing photographs of everyday activities. To source data for their own work, the authors created an experimental setup in which they collected detailed traces of a group of researchers over 2.75 days. They share their experiences of this process and present a series of lessons learned for other members of the research community conducting similar studies.

Why do participants initiate free recall of short lists of words with the first list item? Toward a general episodic memory explanation.

Participants who are presented with a short list of words for immediate free recall (IFR) show a strong tendency to initiate their recall with the 1st list item and then proceed in forward serial order. We report 2 experiments that examined whether this tendency was underpinned by a short-term memory store, of the type that is argued by some to underpin recency effects in IFR. In Experiment 1, we presented 3 groups of participants with lists of between 2 and 12 words for IFR, delayed free recall, and continuous-distractor free recall. The to-be-remembered words were simultaneously spoken and presented visually, and the distractor task involved silently solving a series of self-paced, visually presented mathematical equations (e.g., 3 + 2 + 4 = ?). The tendency to initiate recall at the start of short lists was greatest in IFR but was also present in the 2 other recall conditions. This finding was replicated in Experiment 2, where the to-be-remembered items were presented visually in silence and the participants spoke aloud their answers to computer-paced mathematical equations. Our results necessitate that a short-term buffer cannot be fully responsible for the tendency to initiate recall from the beginning of a short list; rather, they suggest that the tendency represents a general property of episodic memory that occurs across a range of time scales.

Benchmarks for Models of Short Term and Working Memory

Any mature field of research in psychology-such as short-term/working memory-is characterized by a wealth of empirical findings. It is currently unrealistic to expect a theory to explain them all; theorists must satisfice with explaining a subset of findings. The aim of the present article is to make the choice of that subset less arbitrary and idiosyncratic than is current practice. We propose criteria for identifying benchmark findings that every theory in a field should be able to explain: Benchmarks should be reproducible, generalize across materials and methodological variations, and be theoretically informative. We propose a set of benchmarks for theories and computational models of short-term and working memory. The benchmarks are described in as theory-neutral a way as possible, so that they can serve as empirical common ground for competing theoretical approaches. Benchmarks are rated on three levels according to their priority for explanation. Selection and ratings of the benchmarks is based on consensus among the authors, who jointly represent a broad range of theoretical perspectives on working memory, and they are supported by a survey among other experts on working memory. The article is accompanied by a web page providing an open forum for discussion and for submitting proposals for new benchmarks; and a repository for reference data sets for each benchmark. (PsycINFO Database Record

Can Less be More?: Contrasting Limited, Unlimited, and Automatic Picture Capture for Augmenting Memory Recall

Todays abundance1 of cheap digital storage in the form of tiny memory cards put literally no bounds on the number of images one can capture with ones digital camera or smartphone during an event. However, prior work has shown that taking many pictures may actually make us remember less of a particular event. Does automated picture taking (lifelogging) help avoid this, yet still offer to capture meaningful pictures? In this work, we investigate the effect of capture modality (i.e., limited, unlimited, automatic, and no capture) on peoples ability to recall a past event – with and without the support of the pictures captured through these modalities. Our results from a field experiment with 83 participants show that capturing fewer pictures does not necessarily lead to the capture of more relevant pictures. However, when controlling for number of pictures taken, our results show that having a limited number of pictures to capture may lead to pictures with increased memory value. At the same time, automated capture failed to produce pictures that would help remember the past experience better.

Impact of reviewing lifelogging photos on recalling episodic memories

Photos are a rich and popular form for preserving memories. Thus, they are widely used as cues to augment human memory. Near-continuous capture and sharing of photos have generated a need to summarize and review relevant photos to revive important events. However, there is limited work on exploring how regular reviewing of selected photos influence overall recall of past events. In this paper, we present an experiment to investigate the effect of regular reviewing of egocentric lifelogging photos on the formation and retrieval of autobiographic memories. Our approach protects the privacy of the participants and provides improved validation for their memory performance compared to existing approaches. The results of our experiment are a step towards developing memory shaping algorithms that accentuate or attenuate memories on demand.

How to browse through my large video data: face recognition & prioritizing for lifelog video

Due to the rise of lifelog cameras, we have personal video data that is too large to be watched. Video indexing has the potential to provide meta-information for faster video search. This work aims to support lifelog video indexing through automated face priority rating. In a user study, we identified parameters that allow for rating the importance of persons in a video. We implemented these findings to automatically predict the persons importance in video. We show that our algorithm predicts similar person priority ratings like the participants had given. Hence, we contribute to video-based lifelogging through indicating, implementing, and testing face indexing rules that predict how important a person in a video is perceived. Our findings can help to build video players that support users navigating through their large video data and reviewing sequences that recall important moments of life.

Benchmarks provide common ground for model development: Reply to Logie (2018) and Vandierendonck (2018).

We respond to the comments of Logie and Vandierendonck to our article proposing benchmark findings for evaluating theories and models of short-term and working memory. The response focuses on the two main points of criticism: (a) Logie and Vandierendonck argue that the scope of the set of benchmarks is too narrow. We explain why findings on how working memory is used in complex cognition, findings on executive functions, and findings from neuropsychological case studies are currently not included in the benchmarks, and why findings with visual and spatial materials are less prevalent among them. (b) The critics question the usefulness of the benchmarks and their ratings for advancing theory development. We explain why selecting and rating benchmarks is important and justifiable, and acknowledge that the present selection and rating decisions are in need of continuous updating. The usefulness of the benchmarks of all ratings is also enhanced by our concomitant online posting of data for many of these benchmarks. (PsycINFO Database Record