The non-strategic nature of linguistic long-term memory effects in verbal short-term memory
This study provides novel evidence for linguistic accounts of vSTM by demonstrating a robust impact of lexical and surface-level semantic knowledge on vSTM in non-strategic, fast-encoding conditions. (Source: Journal of Memory and Language)
Source: Journal of Memory and Language - July 11, 2018 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Limitations of translation activation in masked priming: Behavioural evidence from Chinese-English bilinguals and computational modelling
Publication date: August 2018Source: Journal of Memory and Language, Volume 101Author(s): Yun Wen, Walter J.B. van HeuvenAbstractElectrophysiological and behavioural evidence suggests that Chinese translations of English words are automatically activated when Chinese-English bilinguals read English words (e.g., Thierry & Wu, 2007; Wu & Thierry, 2010; Zhang, van Heuven, & Conklin, 2011). The present study investigated the impact of translation activation in three behavioural experiments with in total 118 Chinese-English bilinguals. First, we investigated whether Chinese phonology was the source of the effects of Chinese cha...
Source: Journal of Memory and Language - July 11, 2018 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Cataphoric pronoun resolution in native and non-native sentence comprehension
We report the results from a series of eye-movement monitoring and questionnaire experiments investigating cataphoric pronoun resolution in German. Given earlier findings suggesting that the application of structure-sensitive constraints on reference resolution may be delayed in non-native language processing, we tested both native and proficient non-native speakers of German. Our results show that cataphoric pronouns trigger an active search in both native and non-native comprehenders. Whilst both participant groups demonstrated awareness of Condition C in an offline task, we found Condition C effects to be restricted to ...
Source: Journal of Memory and Language - July 11, 2018 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Influences of context load and sensibleness of background photographs on local environmental context-dependent recognition
Publication date: August 2018Source: Journal of Memory and Language, Volume 101Author(s): Takeo Isarida, Toshiko K. Isarida, Takayuki Kubota, Miyoko Higuma, Yuki MatsudaAbstractThe present study explored which theory can best explain local environmental context-dependent recognition. One type of theory (encoding specificity principle) posits that recognition reflects remembering of the past episode, whereas the other theory (ICE: Item Context Ensemble) posits that recognition reflects familiarity-based judgements. In three experiments, a total of 120 undergraduates intentionally studied a list of unrelated words superimpos...
Source: Journal of Memory and Language - July 11, 2018 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
The nature and consequences of false memories for visual stimuli
Publication date: August 2018Source: Journal of Memory and Language, Volume 101Author(s): Jianqin Wang, Henry Otgaar, Mark L. Howe, Felix Lippe, Tom SmeetsAbstractDifferent theoretical views exist regarding whether false memories contain perceptual information or are merely conceptual in nature. To address this question, we conducted three experiments to examine whether false memories for pictures had a priming effect on a perceptual closure task. In Experiment 1, participants were presented with pictorial versions of Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) lists and received a recognition task. Finally, in the perceptual closure t...
Source: Journal of Memory and Language - July 11, 2018 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Language unifies relational coding: The roles of label acquisition and accessibility in making flexible relational judgments
We examined the ability to make relative, spatial judgments across verbal and nonverbal tasks of above, below, right and left in children between the ages of 5 and 10 years. We found that the verbal ability to make above/below judgments preceded verbal right/left judgments and all nonverbal judgments. We also found that only when the labels were accessed – as opposed to only having been acquired – did children’s nonverbal performance improve. Our findings further indicate that accessing the correct term was not needed for enhanced performance. The results suggest that accessing language unifies different instantiat...
Source: Journal of Memory and Language - July 11, 2018 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Divided attention during encoding causes separate memory traces to be encoded for repeated events
In this report, we examined the LSE in free recall and recognition when items were learned with full attention or under divided attention at encoding. In free recall, the results showed a robust LSE under full attention, but a null LSE in divided attention. In contrast, in recognition a null LSE was observed under full attention, but a positive LSE emerged under divided attention. Within REM theoretical framework, the combination of these findings suggests that DA reduces the tendency to accumulate information across repetitions in a single trace, thereby reducing the influence of differentiation. (Source: Journal of Memory and Language)
Source: Journal of Memory and Language - July 11, 2018 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Learning to recall: Examining recall latencies to test an intra-item learning theory of testing effects
Publication date: October 2018Source: Journal of Memory and Language, Volume 102Author(s): William J. Hopper, David E. HuberAbstractWe propose a new theory for the benefits of recall practice based on intra-item learning. On this account, retrieval cues produce an initial memory state (termed ‘primary retrieval’). However, this state is incomplete and insufficient for overt recall of the item. A subsequent process, termed ‘convergent retrieval’, fills in any missing information through intra-item associations, allowing recall of the item. Because this occurs in a staged manner, directional learning occurs from the ...
Source: Journal of Memory and Language - July 11, 2018 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Retrieval interference and semantic interpretation
We report two reading experiments that manipulated sentence plausibility, rather than grammaticality, as a diagnostic of interference. In both experiments, although reading times were longer for implausible sentences, this plausibility effect was reliably attenuated when a distractor item partially matched the cues at retrieval. We interpret these results as being compatible with the predictions of cue-based parsing. The illusions of plausibility that we report indicate that similarity-based retrieval interference has a potent influence on the semantic interpretation that is assigned to a sentence during processing. (Sourc...
Source: Journal of Memory and Language - July 11, 2018 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Temporal contiguity in incidentally encoded memories
Publication date: October 2018Source: Journal of Memory and Language, Volume 102Author(s): M. Karl HealeyAbstractThinking of one event often triggers recall of other events experienced nearby in time. This Temporal Contiguity Effect has been extensively documented in laboratory list learning tasks, but its source is debated. Is it due to task-general automatic processes that operate whenever new memories are formed? Or is it due to task-specific encoding strategies that operate only during deliberate rote learning? I test these theories by presenting over 3500 subjects with a surprise free recall test after various inciden...
Source: Journal of Memory and Language - July 11, 2018 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Linguistic experience affects pronoun interpretation
Publication date: October 2018Source: Journal of Memory and Language, Volume 102Author(s): Jennifer E. Arnold, Iris M. Strangmann, Heeju Hwang, Sandra Zerkle, Rebecca NappaAbstractWe test the hypothesis that language experience influences the cognitive mechanisms used to interpret ambiguous pronouns like he or she, which require the context for interpretation. Pronoun interpretation is influenced by both the linguistic context (e.g., pronouns tend to corefer with the subject of the previous sentence) and social cues (e.g., gaze can signal the pronoun’s referent). We test whether pronoun comprehension biases are related t...
Source: Journal of Memory and Language - July 11, 2018 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Detecting when timeseries differ: Using the Bootstrapped Differences of Timeseries (BDOTS) to analyze Visual World Paradigm data (and more)
Publication date: October 2018Source: Journal of Memory and Language, Volume 102Author(s): Michael Seedorff, Jacob Oleson, Bob McMurrayAbstractIn the last decades, major advances in the language sciences have been built on real-time measures of language and cognitive processing, measures like mouse-tracking, event related potentials and eye-tracking in the visual world paradigm. These measures yield densely sampled timeseries that can be highly revealing of the dynamics of cognitive processing. However, despite these methodological advances, existing statistical approaches for timeseries analyses have often lagged behind. ...
Source: Journal of Memory and Language - July 11, 2018 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Electrophysiological evidence for an independent effect of memory retrieval on referential processing
In this study, we show that the difficulty of re-activating and retrieving the representations of potential referents from memory (retrieval difficulty) influences referential processing, and that this effect is independent of the number of potential referents for a pronoun or the probability of possible referential interpretations (referential coherence). In two experiments, we varied retrieval difficulty by manipulating whether two referential candidates were modified by extra semantic information or not, creating representationally rich (modified) or bare (unmodified) referential candidates, respectively, and we measure...
Source: Journal of Memory and Language - July 11, 2018 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Testing potentiates new learning across a retention interval and a lag: A strategy change perspective
Publication date: October 2018Source: Journal of Memory and Language, Volume 102Author(s): Jason C.K. Chan, Krista D. Manley, Sara D. Davis, Karl K. SzpunarAbstractPracticing retrieval on previously studied materials can potentiate subsequent learning of new materials. In four experiments, we investigated the influence of retention interval and lag on this test-potentiated new learning (TPNL) effect. Participants studied four word lists and either practiced retrieval, restudied, or completed math problems following Lists 1–3. Memory performance on List 4 provided an estimate of new learning. In Experiments 1 and 2, parti...
Source: Journal of Memory and Language - July 11, 2018 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
Does dynamic visual noise eliminate the concreteness effect in working memory?
Publication date: October 2018Source: Journal of Memory and Language, Volume 102Author(s): Chrissy Chubala, Aimée M. Surprenant, Ian Neath, Philip T. QuinlanAbstractDynamic visual noise (DVN), an array of squares that randomly switch between black and white, interferes with certain tasks that involve visuo-spatial processing. Based on the assumption that the representation of concrete words includes an imagistic code whereas that of abstract words does not, Parker and Dagnall (2009) predicted that DVN should disrupt visual working memory and selectively interfere with memory for concrete words. They observed a reversal of...
Source: Journal of Memory and Language - July 11, 2018 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research
