Jason Arndt

Models of recognition: a review of arguments in favor of a dual-process account.

The majority of computationally specified models of recognition memory have been based on a single-process interpretation, claiming that familiarity is the only influence on recognition. There is increasing evidence that recognition is, in fact, based on two processes: recollection and familiarity. This article reviews the current state of the evidence for dual-process models, including the usefulness of the remember/know paradigm, and interprets the relevant results in terms of the source of activation confusion (SAC) model of memory. We argue that the evidence from each of the areas we discuss, when combined, presents a strong case that inclusion of a recollection process is necessary. Given this conclusion, we also argue that the dual-process claim that the recollection process is always available is, in fact, more parsimonious than the single-process claim that the recollection process is used only in certain paradigms. The value of a well-specified process model such as the SAC model is discussed with regard to other types of dual-process models.

The effect of distinctive visual information on false recognition

Using the false memory paradigm (Deese, 1959), recently revived by Roediger and McDermott (1995), we examined the effect on true and false recognition of presenting study items in unusual looking fonts. In one condition, each font was associated with a single study item. In a second condition, each font was presented 12 times per study list, randomly distributed across several themes. In a third condition, each font was presented 12 times in the study list, and was associated with a particular study theme. False recognition levels were lowest when there was a unique association between each font and a single study item, whereas false recognition levels were highest when all items from a theme were presented in the same font. Further, the effects of font condition on false recognition of lures maintained when font condition was manipulated within participants and lists. These results, taken together, are inconsistent with theories proposing that false recognition reduction is the product of global shifts in response strategies across conditions (e.g., Schacter, Israel, & Racine, 1999). However, perspectives highlighting the effects of memory based processes on true and false recognition provide an adequate account.

Midazolam amnesia and dual-process models of the word-frequency mirror effect

The word-frequency mirror effect (Glanzer & Adams, 1985) is the finding that subjects are more accurate on low frequency words than high frequency words for old and new items in recognition memory. Recently, several theorists (Guttentag & Carroll, 1997; Joordens & Hockley, 2000; Reder et al., 2000) have proposed dual-process accounts of the word-frequency mirror effect. These accounts hypothesize that the low frequency advantage on old items arises from increased recollection of these items, while the low frequency advantage on new items arises from reduced familiarity of these items. We tested these views using midazolam amnesia. Midazolam is a safe, fast-acting benzodiazepine that produces a dense anterograde amnesia. Based on the hypothesis that midazolam amnesia should have larger effects on recollection than familiarity, we predicted that: (1) old high frequency words should have an advantage over old low frequency words in a midazolam condition (i.e., the traditional effect should reverse); and (2) the traditional advantage of new low frequency words over new high frequency words should replicate in a midazolam condition. Both predictions of the dual-process approach were confirmed. Additional analyses demonstrated that a single-process signal detection model could not account for the current results and that midazolam amnesia produces a larger effect on recollection processes than on familiarity processes.

Word Frequency and Receiver Operating Characteristic Curves in Recognition Memory: Evidence for a Dual-Process Interpretation

Dual-process models of the word-frequency mirror effect posit that low-frequency words are recollected more often than high-frequency words, producing the hit rate differences in the word-frequency effect, whereas high-frequency words are more familiar, producing the false-alarm-rate differences. In this pair of experiments, the authors demonstrate that the analysis of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves provides critical information in support of this interpretation. Specifically, when participants were required to discriminate between studied nouns and their plurality reversed complements, the ROC curve was accurately described by a threshold model that is consistent with recollection-based recognition. Further, the plurality discrimination ROC curves showed characteristics consistent with the interpretation that participants recollected low-frequency items more than high-frequency items.

Taboo words: The effect of emotion on memory for peripheral information

In three experiments, we examined memory for peripheral information that occurred in the same context as emotion-inducing information. In the first two experiments, participants studied either a sentence (Experiment 1) or a pair of words (Experiments 2A—2C) containing a neutral peripheral word, as well as a neutral, negative-valence, or taboo word, to induce an emotional response. At retrieval, the participants were asked to recall the neutral peripheral word from a sentence fragment or emotion-inducing word cue. In Experiment 3, we presented word pairs at encoding and tested memory with associative recognition. In all three experiments, memory for peripheral words was enhanced when it was encoded in the presence of emotionally arousing taboo words but not when it was encoded in the presence of words that were only negative in valence. These data are consistent with priority-binding theory (MacKay et al., 2004) and inconsistent with the attention-narrowing hypothesis (Easterbrook, 1959), as well as with object-based binding theory (Mather, 2007).

Midazolam amnesia and conceptual processing in implicit memory

Prominent theories of implicit memory (D. Schacter, B. Church, & J. Treadwell, 1994) emphasize the dominant role of perceptual processing in mediating priming on perceptual implicit memory tests. Examinations of the effects of conceptual processing on perceptual implicit memory tests have produced ambiguous results. Although a number of investigations (e.g., J. Toth & R. Hunt, 1990) have demonstrated that variations in conceptual processing affect priming on perceptual implicit memory tests, these effects may arise because of the contaminating effects of explicit memory. The current experiment examined this controversy using midazolam, a benzodiazepine that produces a dense, albeit temporary, anterograde amnesia when injected prior to study. The experiment examined whether the effects of generation found on the implicit memory test of perceptual identification were affected by a midazolam injection prior to study. Results demonstrated that midazolam substantially diminished generation effects in free and cued recall, as well as overall performance on these tests, but had no detectable effect on the generation effect in perceptual identification.

The effect of midazolam on implicit and explicit memory in category exemplar production and category cued recall

Transfer‐appropriate processing theory (Roediger, Weldon, & Challis, 1989) proposes that dissociations between performance on explicit and implicit memory tests arise because these tests often rely on different types of information processing (e.g., perceptual processing vs conceptual processing). This perspective predicts that implicit and explicit memory tasks that rely primarily on conceptual processing should show comparable results, not dissociations. Numerous studies have demonstrated such similarities. It is, however, possible that these results arise from explicit memory contamination of performance on implicit memory tasks. To address this issue, an experiment was conducted in which participants were administered the sedative midazolam prior to study. Midazolam is known to create a temporary, but dense, period of anterograde amnesia. The effects of blocking stimulus materials by semantic category at study and generation at study were investigated on category exemplar production and category‐cued recall. The results of this study demonstrated a dissociation of the effects of midazolam on category exemplar production and category‐cued recall. Specifically, midazolam reduced the effect of blocking stimulus materials in category‐cued recall, but not in category exemplar production. The differential effect of midazolam on explicit and implicit memory is at odds with transfer‐appropriate processing theory and suggests that theories of memory must distinguish the roles of different types of conceptual processing on implicit and explicit memory tests.

A contextual interference account of distinctiveness effects in recognition

In this article, we report on two experiments that aimed to shed light on the memorability effect that derives from varying the uniqueness of contextual cues presented at encoding and retrieval. We sought to understand the locus of the recognition advantage for studying and testing words with nominally irrelevant features that are rarely shared with other words (“low-fan” features) as compared with features that are studied with more words (“high-fan” features). Each word was studied with one high-fan feature and one low-fan feature, but only one of the two features was reinstated at test. Recognition judgments were more accurate when the low-fan feature was reinstated than when the high-fan feature was reinstated. The data suggest that encoding cues that suffer from contextual interference negatively affect retrieval and do so by hindering recollection-based processing.

The Role of Memory Activation in Creating False Memories of Encoding Context

Using 3 experiments, I examined false memory for encoding context by presenting Deese-Roediger-McDermott themes (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995) in usual-looking fonts and by testing related, but unstudied, lure items in a font that was shown during encoding. In 2 of the experiments, testing lure items in the font used to study their associated themes increased false recognition relative to testing lure items in a font that was used to study a different lures theme. Further, studying a larger number of associates exacerbated the influence of testing lure items in a font used to study their associated themes. Finally, testing lures in a font that was encoded many times, but was not used to present the lures studied associates, increased lure errors more than testing lures in a font that was encoded relatively fewer times. These results favor the explanation of false recognition offered by global-matching models of recognition memory over the explanations of activation-monitoring theory and fuzzy-trace theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved).

The effect of midazolam on the modality-match effect in implicit memory.

Prominent theories of implicit memory claim that perceptual processes play a central role in implicit memory. The modality-match effect, the finding that priming is greater when the modality of stimulus presentation matches at study and test, provides the central evidence for these approaches. In this paper we use the benzodiazepine, midazolam, to explore the nature of the modality-match effect in implicit memory. We compared the modality-match effect in a midazolam and a saline (i.e., a placebo) condition. Our experimental results demonstrate that the modality-match effect is diminished substantially in a midazolam condition even though components of priming are preserved. Given the empirically-validated assumption that midazolam minimizes explicit memory, these results suggest that there exist components of implicit memory that are not mediated by perceptual processes and raise questions about the generality of prominent theories of implicit memory.