Philip H. Marshall

A functional analysis of common and bizarre visual mediators

This study determined if the complexity level and type of common and bizarre visual mediators generated for paired associate items functionally related to performance on a recall task given 1 week later. Results indicated that while bizarre imagery yielded higher complexity scores and was associated with greater response recall, there was no difference between correctly and incorrectly recalled responses in terms of mediator complexity. The previously reported finding of greater variety in mediator formation for bizarre mediators was replicated. The discussion focused on differential effects of complexity of verbal and visual mediators.

The effects of the elimination of rehearsal on primacy and recency

The role of rehearsal in free recall was investigated by varying the amount of rehearsal during learning. An intentional learning condition (INT) and an intentional learning condition with a subsidiary task (INT-T) compared recall under conditions of full and reduced rehearsal, respectively. An incidental learning condition (INC) was also used to examine recall with rehearsal eliminated. Performance under INT-T revealed the usual serial position effect, but overall recall was reduced relative to INT. Performance under INC was described by the presence of recency but the absence of primacy. The results question the necessity of a rehearsal buffer mechanism as an explanation of recency.

Intralist and extralist sources of distinctiveness and the bizarreness effect: The importance of contrast

The roles played by intralist and extralist distinctiveness with respect to the recall of bizarre and common sentences was investigated in two experiments. In Experiment 1, a greater percentage of bizarre than common sentences was accessed in predominantly common lists and in lists containing equal numbers of common and bizarre items. Reciprocally, a greater percentage of common than bizarre sentences was accessed in predominantly bizarre lists. In Experiment 2, contrast (i.e., the degree of separation between common and bizarre sentence types) was manipulated. In high-contrast lists, intralist distinctiveness was more powerful than extralist distinctiveness associated with bizarreness. The opposite was true for low-contrast lists. The results support an extension of the distinctiveness hypothesis to include the independent effects of intralist and extralist distinctiveness and suggest related limiting conditions. In recent years, much of the research investigating bizarre mnemonics has been guided by explanations and hypotheses that incorporate the distinctiveness construct. McDaniel and Einstein (1986), who provided the first formal extension of the distinctiveness account to bizarreness research, have suggested that distinctiveness may be at the heart of the bizarreness effect. In their review of the previous literature, McDaniel and Einstein found that investigators that have found bizarreness to be an effective memory aid have usually incorporated the use of a withinlist design. Those that have used a between-list design tended not to find the significant effect. Thus, when subjects are presented with bizarre and common items within the same list, results indicate a mnemonic advantage for the bizarre items. In their study, McDaniel and Einstein hypothesized that, in a mixed list, the bizarre items are made distinct by the presence of the common items and are, therefore, better recalled. To support their distinctiveness hypothesis, they demonstrated a mnemonic benefit for bizarre sentences accessed when subjects were presented with lists containing equal numbers of common and bizarre sentences. Also in support of the distinctiveness hypothesis, Einstein, McDaniel, and Lackey (1989) showed that when subjects were presented with unmixed

Age differences in verbal mediation: A structural and functional analysis

Five experiments were conducted to investigate potential structural and functional differences in verbal mediators given by young and elderly adults to CVC material. Experiment 1 found no significant differences in the complexity and flexibility of mediator formation by the two age groups. Experiment 2 replicated these findings using a different sample and task, and different materials. Additionally, this study also indicated a significant rank order correlation for the particular types of mediators used. Experiment 3 indicated that under some situations young subjects may be able to discriminate young from old mediators while Experiment 4 showed that younger subjects had no preference for which mediator would be most helpful to them in a learning task. Experiment 5 found that, in a paired associate learning task, young subjects learned faster the mediators given by other young subjects. The data were discussed in terms of current methodolical practices and in terms of localizing age-related memory deficits in structure or process variables.

Meaningfulness and Interference as Factors in Paired-Associate Learning with the Aged.

A group of young and elderly females were tested on a paired‐associate task. The responses of the paired‐associates were consonant‐vowel‐consonant trigrams (CVCs) that were either high in association value (AV) on Glaze norms and low on Archer norms, or low in AV on Glaze norms and high on Archer. The results indicated that older individuals made more intrusion errors on the CVCs high in AV on the Glaze norms but low on the Archer norms. Results showed that associations were being formed across the life‐span of the individual.

A structural analysis of common and bizarre visual mediators

Recent evidence from the areas of both verbal and visual mediation suggests that qualitative differences exist among mediators. Subjects in this study were asked to generate and describe visual images of common or bizarre interactions for noun pairs that were then judged on the type and number of operations used to form the visual images. Bizarre imagery instructions resulted in images that were generated by the use of significantly more operations and a greater variety of operation combinations than images formed under common imagery instructions.

On the Development of Prototypes and Preferences

Using a methodology previously established to investigate prototype development, the present study evaluated the hypothesis that prototypicality is the basis for aesthetic preference. Over the course of several sorting trials, subjects classified (with feedback) computer-generated random asterisk patterns (exemplars) into two categories, each of which represented a different predetermined prototype pattern. Subjects did not see the prototype patterns during this learning phase, but were exposed to them in a subsequent sorting test phase during which sorting speed and accuracy measures were taken for old exemplars, new exemplars and prototypes. Following this test phase, preference ratings for old exemplars, new exemplars and prototype patterns were obtained. Various indices of prototype development, reflecting sorting speed and accuracy of classification of test patterns, were derived for individual subjects. The results indicated that although overall “classic” prototype effects emerged for both latency and accuracy measures, there was no evidence that prototype development was involved with preference judgments. Alternative theoretical and methodological considerations are offered.

The spacing effect in short-term motor memory.

A study of the spacing effect was conducted within a short-term motor memory framework. In Experiment 1 subjects received one or six repetitions of a discrete linear movement at intervals of 5 or 60 sec, and with a constant retention interval of 30 sec. The performance over 10 trials was analyzed in terms of algebraic, absolute, and variable error. The facilitation associated with longer intervals found in verbal retention situations was obtained in the present study for algebraic error only. The results were discussed in terms of the several hypotheses offered by Hintzman (1974), and a mechanism for the operation of differential attention was suggested. Inconsistencies with previous data were discussed. Experiments 2 and 3 addressed some unresolved issues from Experiment 1 and additional support for the differential-attention hypothesis was obtained.

Motor Control of the Knee as a Function of Age and Range of Motion

The purpose of this study was to extend the findings of age-related changes in force fluctuation of musculature of the lower extremity by examining whether accuracy of movement differs between young, middle-aged, and older adults depending on the angular position of the lower leg when completing a continuous tracking task. Participants were 24 healthy young adults (17 to 25 years of age), 24 middle-aged adults (40 to 50 years of age), and 24 older adults (65 to 75 years of age). Performance was assessed during active leg flexion and extension movements within end (10 to 40 degrees flexion) and mid (60 to 90 degrees flexion) ranges of knee motion. Older individuals performed more poorly on the motor task, as indicated by a greater mean absolute deviation from the target (mean [M] = 31.96 mm, standard deviation [SD] = 23.83 mm) compared with the young group (M = 10.59 mm, SD = 10.51 mm) and middle-aged group (M = 9.09 mm, SD = 4.55 mm). There was no interaction between age and range of motion. Although clear age-related differences in performance were obtained, there was no evidence that age-related differences in dynamic position sense affected voluntary motor control performance as measured in this study. Whatever factors contribute to age-related changes in motor performance control appear to have consistent affect on performance throughout the range of motion of the knee.

Failure to Replicate a Reported Implicit/Explicit Speech Equivalence

This study reports a failure to replicate the implicit/explicit speech equivalence reported by Landauer in 1962. The present data suggest that there may be some situations which will support the equivalence but that it is erroneous to generalize that conclusion to all situations.