Milton H. Hodge

Does Hypermnesia Occur in Recognition and Cued Recall

Hypermnesia is an improvement in memory that occurs with repeated attempts to retrieve previously encoded material. In two forced-choice recognition experiments that varied processing strategy (relational, item-specific, intentional) and retention interval (immediate and delayed), no hypermnesia was observed under any condition. In contrast, hypermnesia was found in two cued recall experiments that manipulated processing strategy and list structure. Cumulative recall curves showed that the improvement in performance was due to an increased rate of item recovery facilitated by relational processing, especially with a well-categorized stimulus list. It was concluded that relational processing increased the availability of retrieval cues that in turn aided the generation of target words

The influence of similarity between relevant and irrelevant information upon a complex identification task

This experiment sought answers to two questions: (1) Do increases in the similarity between relevant and irrelevant information present in visual stimulus patterns detrimentally influence the performance of a complex identification task, and (2) does the effect of such similarity interact with increasing amounts of irrelevant information? An analysis of the response latencies and errors indicated that identification of the relevant information in the stimulus patterns becomes significantly poorer with increasing similarity between relevant and irrelevant information and with increasing amounts of irrelevancy. The results also showed that the joint effect of similarity and irrelevancy produces a greater performance decrement than that associated with either variable alone. Practice on the task reduced the detrimental effects.

Beyond category sorting and pleasantness rating: Inducing relational and item-specific processing

In most studies of relational and item-specific processing, category sorting and pleasantness rating have been the main procedures used to induce these two types of processing. Because the two types of processing have been studied in a wide range of memory phenomena (Hunt & McDaniel, 1993), it is strange that other tasks have not been proposed and tested. The present experiment demonstrates that equivalent results can be obtained with three relational processing tasks (category sorting, narrative construction, and relational imagery) and equivalent results with three itemspecific processing tasks (pleasantness ratings, familiarity ratings, and single imagery).

Some further tests of the constant-ratio rule

Five experiments sought to test the constant-ratio rule (CRR) with single dimensional ensembles composed of 2, 4, or 8 stimulus objects. Each S attempted to identify stimuli which varied in weight or in visual size or brightness. The results demonstrated: (a) The CRR predicts equally well the response proportions of single dimensional visual, kinesthetic, and auditory stimulus ensembles, but less well than those for multidimensional auditory stimuli. (b) Better predictions are obtained with four than with two stimulus objects.(c) The CRR is sensitive to variations in the spacing and range of the stimulus ensembles and to practice on the task. It is concluded that the rule tends to fail whenever stimulus conditions elicit differential amounts of stimulus and response confusion.

Statistical programs for Commodore computers

In research and education, microcomputers are frequently used for statistical analysis, but many existing programs have disparate data entry, storage, and analysis routines. The analyst must reenter the same information for each analysis, often in a different format with a different entry routine, which may confuse even experienced users. The usual solutions to these problems are to organize a set of programs around an easy-to-use menu and to develop an entry-and-storage procedure that creates a data file compatible with all the statistical procedures. In this paper, we describe a set of programs which avoids these problems and offers an efficient approach to a variety of statistical analyses. The package of programs has several significant features: (1) The programs perform many common statistical analyses; however, they do assume that the user is familiar with statistical concepts. (2) The programs are easy to use because they require little knowledge of programming or operation of computers and, consequently, are well suited for student use. (3) All of the longer statistical programs have been converted to machine code to make them run quickly and to reduce computation time with large data sets. (4) Two utility programs, Data Manager and Disk Operations, facilitate and ease use of the statistical analyses. (5) Although designed expressly for Commodore computers, the programs are written entirely in BASIC, making them easily adaptable to other machines which run BASIC programs. (6) Working memory (RAM) of the Commodore computers is not as large as RAM of newer machines, but it is sufficient for the analysis requirements of many investigators and many student projects. (7) Because a Commodore 64 system (C-64 computer, 1541 disk drive, 1702 color monitor) can be purchased for less than

Competing responses and the processing of irrelevant information.

500 (1985), the programs offer an inexpensive source of considerable computing power.

Prelims in Experimental Psychology at the University of Georgia.

A number of studies have shown that performance of identification and discrimination tasks is detrimentally affected by irrelevant information, yet other studies have failed to find such decrements. It is suggested that these contradictory findings depend on whether S must make difficult discriminations among the relevant stimuli, the irrelevant stimuli, or between the relevant and irrelevant stimuli. The role of irrelevant information in these tasks is to enhance or amplify the competihg responses engendered by the difficult discriminations. Irrelevant information enhances competing responses by increasing the information processing requirements of a task. The results of various studies of irrelevant information seem to be in good agreement with the assertions.

Familiarity effects in a same-different task with simultaneous and successive presentation

After considering weaknesses of traditional prelim examinations, the faculty redesigned them for the demonstration of research skills.

Individual response patterns in binary choice tasks with nondiscriminable stimuli

To assess conflicting results of prior studies concerned with the effects of familiarity and task conditions on the performance of visual matching tasks, six groups of independent observers (N = 8) each received three blocked trials of 12 “same” and 12 “different” pairs (randomly ordered) of letters, rotated letters, or nonsense forms presented simultaneously or successively in a tachistoscope. Each observer was asked to judge whether the elements of each pair were “same” or “different.” Analysis of the RTs showed that judgments of the nonsense forms were slower than the equally fast responses to the letters and rotated letters. An interaction between presentation mode and type of stimulus pair indicated that judgments of “same” pairs were somewhat faster with successive than with simultaneous presentation, but “different” pairs were judged equally fast under both modes. The results are related to earlier studies of familiarity, but emphasis is placed on a facilitation hypothesis based on meaningfulness.

The category effect in visual selective attention

The present experiment sought to determine whether individual Ss tend to employ repeatedly the same response patterns in binary choice tasks containing nondiscriminable stimuli and, if so, whether the response sequences when used to constructstimulus sequences improve the performance of other choice tasks. Information and frequency analyses of the response sequences of 48 Ss showed moderate consistency of patterning within a light and within a tone task. Performance of a card task following the light and tone tasks was closely related to the task (light or tone) from which the stimulus sequence was obtained. The frequency analysis showed that repetition patterns were preferred by most Ss but at the expense of alternation responses. The presentation of reinforcement in the card task did not improve performance over that observed in the light and tone tasks.