James B. Worthen

Adult age differences in memory for distinctive information: Evidence from the bizarreness effect

Two experiments examined age-related differences in memory for bizarre and common pictures. In Experiment 1, a facilitative effect of bizarreness was obtained for young adults and one of the older groups, but not for the oldest group (over age 70). However, the bizarreness effect was found for even the oldest group when predominantly common lists were used in Experiment 2. It is concluded that older adults suffer from deficits in distinctive processing, but those deficits can be reduced by providing a more uniformly common context in which differences can be processed.

Humour mediates the facilitative effect of bizarreness in delayed recall

The first empirical study focused exclusively on the influence of bizarre elaboration on memory (Delin, 1968) indicated a significant relationship between bizarreness and recall after a 15-week delay. However, that study was strongly criticized on methodological grounds. The present study offers a conceptual replication of Delins historically significant study which sought to verify his influential, yet criticized, results and to test the possibility that a humour response mediates the relationship between bizarre elaboration and recall using multiple regression procedures. In keeping with Delins findings, the results of the present study suggest that bizarre elaboration facilitates both free and cued recall after a substantial delay. The results also suggest that the facilitative effects of bizarreness are mediated by humour. The findings are discussed in the context of a comprehensive theory of bizarreness effects.

Developing an Attitudes Toward Housecleaning Scale: Gender Comparisons and Counseling Applications

An Attitudes Toward Housecleaning Scale was tested with two diverse adult workforce samples, with one sample from the employees of a Holt Caterpillar dealership and the other from the faculty/staff at two universities. In both samples, a 13-item scale that assessed three factors, preferred level of cleanliness, liking of house-cleaning tasks, and gender attitudes related to housecleaning responsibilities, was supported by confirmatory factor analyses. In Study 2, men on average liked housecleaning more than women, whereas women typically felt more conflict, guilt, and resentment related to housework. Possible applications for couples in premarital and marital counseling are discussed.

Test of competing explanations of the bizarre response bias in recognition memory.

Abstract Recent research has demonstrated that a more liberal response criterion is used when people make judgments about bizarre items than about common items in old-new tests of recognition. The present study was designed to test 2 possible explanations of the bizarre response bias. The bizarre-relations explanation suggests that the bizarre response bias is triggered by the bizarre relations depicted in test items. The target-constituent explanation suggests that the bizarre response bias is the result of a sense of familiarity with constituents of bizarre test items. These explanations were tested by examining the influence of lure manipulations on memory discrimination and response bias for common and bizarre hand-drawn pictures. The results indicated support for the target-constituent explanation by reversing the response bias (obtaining a common response bias) in a recognition test that used common lures containing constituents from bizarre target items and bizarre lures containing constituents from common target items. The results also indicated that increased verbal elaboration enhanced memory discrimination and reduced response bias for both common and bizarre stimuli. The implications of these results are discussed with regard to the false memory controversy.

Imagery Nonvividness and the Mnemonic Advantage of Bizarreness

Previous research has demonstrated that bizarre elaboration can facilitate free recall despite the fact that such elaboration evokes less vivid mental imagery than does common elaboration. The present study investigated the possibility that the nonvividness of bizarre imagery enhances the distinctiveness of a bizarre representation and thus serves as a cue that facilitates recall. The results indicated that bizarre information required significantly more time to comprehend and image, and that bizarre imagery was significantly less vivid than common imagery. However, a correlational analysis indicated that the relationship between bizarre and common vividness differences and bizarre and common recall differences was not in the direction predicted by the nonvividness-cue hypothesis. It is concluded that bizarre-imagery nonvividness is related to a reduction in the magnitude of the bizarre recall advantage.

Tests of Structural Hypotheses in Free Recall of Bizarre and Common Dream Reports: Implications for Sleep Research

Interpretation of research investigating the content of dreams within the context of sleep studies is complicated by memory-related factors. The present study offers a controlled experiment using wakeful participants to test two main hypotheses that have implications for sleep studies: 1) that the bizarre content of dream reports is more memorable than the common content and 2) that dream structure influences dream recall. Regarding the latter hypothesis, the memorability of three different types of dream reports (Discontinuous, Improbable Combinations, and Improbable Identities) was tested. The results indicated that bizarre content was recalled better than common content across all dream types. Although the three dream types did not differ in terms of correct recall, there was more misplacement in the recall of bizarre than common target content for Discontinuous dream reports only. Implications of the results for the interpretation of sleep studies investigating dream content is discussed.

Housecleaning Attitudes and Intimate Relationships

ABSTRACT Although the importance of the relation between the division of housework responsibilities and marital happiness/satisfaction has been frequently documented, research has infrequently focused on how attitudes toward housecleaning may mediate housework-related issues and marital interactions. Employees (368 women, 90 men) of two universities, one in Texas and one in Louisiana, participated in an online survey that included the Attitudes toward Housecleaning Scale (ATHC) as well as measures of marital quality and feelings about housework. The liking of housecleaning subscale was positively related to relationship satisfaction and, as might be expected, negatively related to feelings of conflict, guilt, resentment, and unfairness associated with housecleaning. The level of cleanliness subscale was also inversely related to negative feelings regarding housecleaning. Although women had higher levels of cleanliness, men indicated a greater liking for housecleaning tasks. These results support the utility of the ATHC in couples counseling, facilitating awareness of preferences and opinions regarding issues related to housecleaning.

Memory for frequency of bizarre and common stimuli: limitations of the automaticity hypothesis.

Abstract In 2 experiments, the influence of intention to process frequency on accuracy of memory for frequency of bizarre and common sentences was investigated. The results from multiple regression analyses indicated that intentional processing increased the accuracy of frequency judgments when memory for frequency was tested after a 2-min (Experiment 1) and after a 48-hr (Experiment 2) retention interval. Furthermore, the results of Experiment 2 indicated that unintentional processors tended to overestimate frequencies of bizarre relative to common items after a delay. The implications of the results are discussed with regard to L. Hasher and R. T. Zackss (1984) automaticity hypothesis, human performance, and the accuracy of judgments of frequency of occurrence of unusual events.