Wait for it…performance anticipation reduces recognition memory

Publication date: December 2019Source: Journal of Memory and Language, Volume 109Author(s): Noah D. Forrin, Brandon C.W. Ralph, Navi K. Dhaliwal, Daniel Smilek, Colin M. MacLeodAbstractConventional wisdom suggests that there is an encoding decrement prior to performing in front of others. We hypothesized that this pre-performance memory deficit—the next-in-line effect (Brenner, 1973)—should also occur in the context of mixed-list memory experiments where one of the conditions requires performance. As the testing ground for this prediction, we used the production effect (i.e., enhanced memory for words that are read aloud vs. silently). Specifically, we examined whether performance anticipation imposes a memorial cost on silent items studied in a mixed list (among “performed” aloud items) relative to a pure-silent list. Experiment 1 established this mixed-list cost in recognition (replicating Bodner, Taikh, & Fawcett, 2014). In Experiments 2 and 3, providing foreknowledge of the task to be performed on upcoming study items—thereby allowing participants to see when they would have to read aloud—led to diminished memory for silent items that were studied immediately before aloud items. In Experiment 4, in the absence of an experimenter, the pre-performance cost to silent items was non-significant (with Bayesian evidence supporting the null), consistent with the notion that the presence of the experimenter (a social factor) contributed to performance anticipation. Tak...
Source: Journal of Memory and Language - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research