Keith N. Clayton

Measures of free recall of 900 English nouns: Correlations with imagery, concreteness, meaningfulness, and frequency

Forty groups of subjects were given six lists of 25 nouns each for immediate free written recall. A measure of free recall was thereby obtained for each of 900 nouns in the Paivio, Yuille, and Madigan (1968) norms, each noun’s measure based on the recall of 32 subjects. First-order correlations showed recall to be correlated with imagery, concreteness, meaningfulness, Thorndike-Lorge frequency, and Kuěra-Francis frequency. Partial correlations showed meaningfulness to be essentially unrelated to recall and concreteness only moderately related. In contrast to previous comparisons, which were based on smaller ranges of frequency and were more susceptible to list-specific effects, imagery and frequency were found to be approximately equal in their influence on free recall.

Contribution of temporal contiguity to the spatial priming effect

Locations nearby in space are typically experienced together in time : Spatial and temporal contiguity are confounded. In these experiments, subjects learned a map under controlled temporal order

Methodological problems with the use of the retroactive interference design to infer what is stored.

The retroactive interference paradigm has been used in a variety of settings to investigate the nature of the representation of memory. Much of the research using this paradigm is methodologically flawed because it involves treatment comparisons which are inappropriate. It is argued that comparisons must be made between presentation conditions having the same interpolated activity and that, in addition, evidence is required that the differences are not confounded by acquisition level differences if one is to infer mode-specific interference and representation. The methodological issues are discussed in detail and the utility of the retroactive interference design is questioned. Studies employing the design are reviewed, and several conclusions are drawn: (1) there has been no unambiguous demonstration of visual mode-specific interference, (2) there has been no clear demonstration that imagery instructions produce memories that are more susceptible to visual than to auditory interpolation, and (3)no clear demonstrations are yet available that memory for spatial location is more susceptible to visual interference than memory for letters

OVERLEARNING AND REVERSAL OF A SPATIAL DISCRIMINATION BY RATS.

Rats were trained to criterion on a position discrimination and then given reversal training with or without 150 trials of overlearning (N = 14). Initial reversal performance was significantly retarded by overlearning but mean number of trials to reversal criterion was not significantly affected.

Imaginal processes during the attempt to recall names.

Definitions of 20 distinctive but uncommon objects were read to 51 subjects. For each definition the subject was to attempt to recall the name of the object defined and to indicate whether the name was recalled before an image was remembered or vice versa. They were also to draw a picture of the defined object even if they were unable to remember its appearance. Three judges independently rated the degree to which the drawings resembled the target object. Drawings made when the visual appearance was reputed to be recalled before the name were significantly better than the drawings made without benefit of recall of the name or appearance and were indistinguishable from drawings made when the name was remembered immediately. Apparently, recall of visual information can precede verbal recall.

Recognition Priming Effects Following Serial Learning: Implications for Episodic Priming Effects

Experiment 1 found that recognition of an item could be facilitated if it were preceded on the recognition list by the item that preceded it during learning. Experiment 2 showed that this priming effect depended on evidence that the prime could elicit the target during learning. These results are interpreted by elaborating on the perspective of episodic memory as a record of encoding processes. Items encoded as part of the same cognitive episode are said to be stored within the same representation. Later recognition priming is possible when the target and prime are both encoded within the same episode. This framework is then extended to episodic tasks in general, and in particular to recognition priming effects that are observed after map learning.

T- maze learning as a joint function of probability and magnitude of reward

Rats were trained on a position discrimination. The experimental design involved simultaneously manipulating per cent and magnitude reward given for the correct response. Learning-rate was found to be a negatively accelerated growth function of reward magnitude for both of the reward schedules used. The results are interpreted as support for the treatment of reward magnitude as a special case of reinforcement probability.

Rate of concept identification and the noticeability of the relevant dimension

Six groups of Ss were given concept identification tasks involving stimuli varying in six dimensions. A different dimension was relevant for each of the six groups and the observed identification rate was compared to measures of relative salience of the dimensions provided by a separate set of Ss. The failure to obtain a positive correlation between the measure of relative salience of a dimension and ease of concept identification when that dimension was relevant is discussed in terms of a distinction between “noticing” a cue and “using” a cue.

Presentation modality, rehearsal-prevention conditions, and auditory confusions in tests of short-term memory.

Ss were presented four-letter sequences either auditorily or visually and asked for ordered recall after 0, 2.1, 4.2, 8.4, or 12.6 sec of digit categorization. Three different rehearsal-prevention conditions were required during presentation of the memory set: categorizing, suppressing (saying “dah”), or pronouncing each letter. Recall was worst after categorizing, best after pronouncing. Auditory presentation led to better recall after no delay but more rapid forgetting than visual presentation, regardless of the rehearsal-prevention condition. These results, and analyses of auditory confusions, are inconsistent with a view of memory which asserts that sensory information is encoded auditorily regardless of presentation modality or vocalization behavior during presentation.

Prefeeding and the apparent frustration effect

In a series of three experiments, running speed in a single runway was found to increase following the omission of prefeeding when this was preceded by consistent prefeeding (Apparent Frustration Effect). A similar increase was also found in Ss which had not been previously prefed. It is suggested that the increased running speed of the previously nonprefed Ss resulted from either rapid generalization of reward expectation from the goalbox or simply from a change in stimulus conditions.