Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition

Uncertainty in category-based induction: When do people integrate across categories?
Two experiments investigated how people perform category-based induction for items that have uncertain categorization. Whereas normative considerations suggest that people should consider multiple relevant categories, much past research has argued that people focus on only the most likely category. A new method is introduced in which responses on individual trials can be classified as using single or multiple categories, an improvement on past methods that relied on null effects as evidence for single-category use. Experiment 1 found that people did use multiple categories when the most likely category gave an ambiguous induction but that few people did so when it gave an unambiguous induction. Experiment 2 suggested that the reluctance to use multiple categories arose from a cognitive shortcut, in which only one source of information is consulted. The experiments revealed significant individual differences, suggesting that use of multiple categories is one of a number of strategies that can be used rather than being the basis for most category-based induction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Multiple sources of competence underlying the comprehension of inconsistencies: A developmental investigation.
How do children know the sentence “the glass is empty and not empty” is inconsistent? One possibility is that they are sensitive to the formal structure of the sentences and know that a proposition and its negation cannot be jointly true. Alternatively, they could represent the 2 state of affairs referred to and realize that these are incommensurate, that is, that a glass cannot simultaneously be empty and contain something. In 2 studies, the authors investigated how children (N = 186; ages 4–8) acquire competence to notice inconsistencies. The authors found that children could determine that 2 states of affairs were incommensurate before being able to determine that statements of the form p and not-p were inconsistent. The results demonstrate that competence in understanding inconsistent relations depends on (a) the ability to represent 2 states of affairs and (b) the ability to process negation in the context of an inconsistency. The authors discuss these results in relation to sources of competence that may underlie the assessment of such simple inconsistencies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
The influence of interactional semantic patterns on the interpretation of noun–noun compounds.
The CARIN theory (C. L. Gagné & E. J. Shoben, 1997) proposes that people use statistical knowledge about the relations with which modifiers are typically used to facilitate the interpretation of modifier–noun combinations. However, research on semantic patterns in compounding has suggested that regularities tend to be associated with pairings of semantic categories, rather than individual concepts (e.g., P. Maguire, E. J. Wisniewski, & G. Storms, in press; B. Warren, 1978). In the present study, the authors investigated whether people are sensitive to interactional semantic patterns in compounding. Experiment 1 demonstrated that the influence of a given modifier on ease of interpretation varies depending on the semantic category of the head. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the relation preference of the head noun influences ease of interpretation when the semantic category of the modifier is compatible with that preference. In light of these findings, the authors suggest that people are sensitive to how different semantic categories tend to be paired in combination and that this information is used to facilitate the interpretation process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Conditional reasoning in context: A dual-source model of probabilistic inference.
A dual-source model of probabilistic conditional inference is proposed. According to the model, inferences are based on 2 sources of evidence: logical form and prior knowledge. Logical form is a decontextualized source of evidence, whereas prior knowledge is activated by the contents of the conditional rule. In Experiments 1 to 3, manipulations of perceived sufficiency and necessity mapped on the parameters quantifying prior knowledge. Emphasizing rule validity increased the weight given to form-based evidence relative to knowledge-based evidence (Experiment 1). Manipulating rule form (only–if vs. if–then) had a focused effect on the parameters quantifying form-based evidence (Experiment 3). The model also provides a parsimonious description of data from the so-called negations paradigm and adequately accounts for polarity bias in that paradigm (Experiment 4). Relationships to alternative conceptualizations of conditional inference are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Dissociating conditional recency in immediate and delayed free recall: A challenge for unitary models of recency.
Temporal distinctiveness models of recency in free recall predict that increasing the delay between the end of sequence and attempting recall of items from that sequence will reduce recency. An empirical dissociation is reported here that violates this prediction when the delay is introduced by the act of recall itself. Analysis of data from a number of previously published free recall studies shows that when the assumed availability of final list items is taken into account, recency increases across the first few output positions in immediate recall despite the delay introduced by recalling items; no such change, with a trend to decreasing recency, is observed in delayed recall. Simulations are presented, showing that 2 models accounting for recency in free recall, the temporal context model (M. W. Howard & M. J. Kahana, 2002) and the SIMPLE model (G. D. A. Brown, I. Neath, & N. Chater, 2007), are unable to account for this novel pattern of data. Further simulations show that the results are consistent with a short-term buffer contributing to recency in immediate free recall and that ordered probing of items may also contribute to this effect; both of these are consistent with the formulation of a short-term buffer akin to models of serial recall. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Bottom-up influences on voluntary task switching: The elusive homunculus escapes.
Voluntary action can be studied by giving participants free choice over which task to perform in response to each presented stimulus. In such experiments, performance costs are observed when participants choose to switch tasks from the previous trial. It has been proposed that these costs primarily index the time-consuming operation of top-down control processes that support voluntary action. The present experiments showed, contrary to this view, that greater costs were associated with voluntary switching to the easier task of a pair. These increased switch costs for the easier task were accompanied by a reliable preference of the participants for performing the other, more difficult task. Interference between tasks during response selection was identified as the critical factor driving these effects of task difficulty. Together, the findings suggest that participants’ voluntary choices, and the time taken to execute those choices, may not directly index the operation of cognitive control but instead may reflect complex interactions between top-down and bottom-up influences on behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
The problem state: A cognitive bottleneck in multitasking.
The main challenge for theories of multitasking is to predict when and how tasks interfere. Here, we focus on interference related to the problem state, a directly accessible intermediate representation of the current state of a task. On the basis of Salvucci and Taatgen’s (2008) threaded cognition theory, we predict interference if 2 or more tasks require a problem state but not when only one task requires one. This prediction was tested in a series of 3 experiments. In Experiment 1, a subtraction task and a text entry task had to be carried out concurrently. Both tasks were presented in 2 versions: one that required maintaining a problem state and one that did not. A significant overadditive interaction effect was observed, showing that the interference between tasks was maximal when both tasks required a problem state. The other 2 experiments tested whether the interference was indeed due to a problem state bottleneck, instead of cognitive load (Experiment 2: an alternative subtraction and text entry experiment) or a phonological loop bottleneck (Experiment 3: a triple-task experiment that added phonological processing). Both experiments supported the problem state hypothesis. To account for the observed behavior, computational cognitive models were developed using threaded cognition within the context of the cognitive architecture ACT-R (Anderson, 2007). The models confirm that a problem state bottleneck can explain the observed interference. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Relationship between measures of working memory capacity and the time course of short-term memory retrieval and interference resolution.
The response-signal speed–accuracy trade-off (SAT) procedure was used to investigate the relationship between measures of working memory capacity and the time course of short-term item recognition. High- and low-span participants studied sequentially presented 6-item lists, immediately followed by a recognition probe. Analyses of composite list and serial position SAT functions found no differences in retrieval speed between the 2 span groups. Overall accuracy was higher for high spans than low spans, with more pronounced differences for earlier serial positions. Analysis of false alarms to recent negatives (lures from the previous study list) revealed no differences in the timing or magnitude of early false alarms, thought to reflect familiarity-based judgments. However, analyses of false alarms later in retrieval indicated that recollective information accrues more slowly for low spans, which suggests that recollective information may also contribute less to judgments concerning studied items for low-span participants. These findings can provide an explanation for the greater susceptibility of low spans to interference. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Source memory for unidentified stimuli.
Two experiments were conducted to determine whether participants have source memory for test stimuli that they cannot identify. Using a paradigm developed to investigate the phenomenon of recognition without identification (Peynircioglu, 1990), we found that even when participants could not identify a previously studied item, they nonetheless exhibited above-chance performance on a source discrimination task. Most surprising was that source accuracy for unidentified items was independent of old–new discrimination and not different from that of identified items. These results are interpreted as evidence that source memory is based on a continuous, as opposed to a threshold-like, process and suggest that recollection may, in some circumstances, contribute to the phenomenon of recognition without identification. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Attention and facilitation: Converging information versus inadvertent reading in Stroop task performance.
Disagreement exists about whether color–word Stroop facilitation is caused by converging information (e.g., Cohen et al., 1990; Roelofs, 2003) or inadvertent reading (MacLeod & MacDonald, 2000). Four experiments tested between these hypotheses by examining Stroop effects on response time (RT) both within and between languages. Words cannot be read aloud to produce facilitation between languages. Dutch–English bilingual participants named color patches while trying to ignore Dutch or English color words presented at a wide range of preexposure and postexposure stimulus onset asynchronies. The color patches were named in Dutch (Experiments 1 and 2) or English (Experiments 3 and 4). In all experiments, Stroop facilitation and interference effects were obtained in mean RTs with similar time courses within and between languages. Facilitation was generally present throughout the entire RT distributions. These results suggest that Stroop interference and facilitation have a common locus within and between languages, supporting the converging information hypothesis of Stroop facilitation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
On the flexibility of grammatical advance planning during sentence production: Effects of cognitive load on multiple lexical access.
Three picture–word interference experiments addressed the question of whether the scope of grammatical advance planning in sentence production corresponds to some fixed unit or rather is flexible. Subjects produced sentences of different formats under varying amounts of cognitive load. When speakers described 2-object displays with simple sentences of the form “the frog is next to the mug,” the 2 nouns were found to be lexically–semantically activated to similar degrees at speech onset, as indexed by similarly sized interference effects from semantic distractors related to either the first or the second noun. When speakers used more complex sentences (including prenominal color adjectives; e.g., “the blue frog is next to the blue mug”) much larger interference effects were observed for the first than the second noun, suggesting that the second noun was lexically–semantically activated before speech onset on only a subset of trials. With increased cognitive load, introduced by an additional conceptual decision task and variable utterance formats, the interference effect for the first noun was increased and the interference effect for second noun disappeared, suggesting that the scope of advance planning had been narrowed. By contrast, if cognitive load was induced by a secondary working memory task to be performed during speech planning, the interference effect for both nouns was increased, suggesting that the scope of advance planning had not been affected. In all, the data suggest that the scope of advance planning during grammatical encoding in sentence production is flexible, rather than structurally fixed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Working memory enhances visual perception: Evidence from signal detection analysis.
We show that perceptual sensitivity to visual stimuli can be modulated by matches between the contents of working memory (WM) and stimuli in the visual field. Observers were presented with an object cue (to hold in WM or to merely attend) and subsequently had to identify a brief target presented within a colored shape. The cue could be re-presented in the display, where it surrounded either the target (on valid trials) or a distractor (on invalid trials). Perceptual identification of the target, as indexed by A', was enhanced on valid relative to invalid trials but only when the cue was kept in WM. There was minimal effect of the cue when it was merely attended and not kept in WM. Verbal cues were as effective as visual cues at modulating perceptual identification, and the effects were independent of the effects of target saliency. Matches to the contents of WM influenced perceptual sensitivity even under conditions that minimized competition for selecting the target. WM cues were also effective when targets were less likely to fall in a repeated WM stimulus than in other stimuli in the search display. There were no effects of WM on decisional criteria, in contrast to sensitivity. The findings suggest that reentrant feedback from WM can affect early stages of perceptual processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Visual word recognition during reading is followed by subvocal articulation.
Three experiments examined whether the identification of a visual word is followed by its subvocal articulation during reading. An irrelevant spoken word (ISW) that was identical, phonologically similar, or dissimilar to a visual target word was presented when the eyes moved to the target in the course of sentence reading. Sentence reading was further accompanied by either a sequential finger tapping task (Experiment 1) or an articulatory suppression task (Experiment 2). Experiment 1 revealed sound-specific interference from a phonologically similar ISW during posttarget viewing. This interference was absent in Experiment 2, where similar and dissimilar ISWs impeded target and posttarget reading equally. Experiment 3 showed that articulatory suppression left the lexical processing of visual words intact and that it did not diminish the influence of visual word recognition on eye guidance. The presence of sound-specific interference during posttarget reading in Experiment 1 is attributed to deleterious effects of a phonologically similar ISW on the subvocal articulation of a target. Its absence in Experiment 2 is attributed to the suppression of a target’s subvocal articulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Similarities and differences between working memory and long-term memory: Evidence from the levels-of-processing span task.
Two experiments compared the effects of depth of processing on working memory (WM) and long-term memory (LTM) using a levels-of-processing (LOP) span task, a newly developed WM span procedure that involves processing to-be-remembered words based on their visual, phonological, or semantic characteristics. Depth of processing had minimal effect on WM tests, yet subsequent memory for the same items on delayed tests showed the typical benefits of semantic processing. Although the difference in LOP effects demonstrates a dissociation between WM and LTM, we also found that the retrieval practice provided by recalling words on the WM task benefited long-term retention, especially for words initially recalled from supraspan lists. The latter result is consistent with the hypothesis that WM span tasks involve retrieval from secondary memory, but the LOP dissociation suggests the processes engaged by WM and LTM tests may differ. Therefore, similarities and differences between WM and LTM depend on the extent to which retrieval from secondary memory is involved and whether there is a match (or mismatch) between initial processing and subsequent retrieval, consistent with transfer-appropriate-processing theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Differentiation and response bias in episodic memory: Evidence from reaction time distributions.
In differentiation models, the processes of encoding and retrieval produce an increase in the distribution of memory strength for targets and a decrease in the distribution of memory strength for foils as the amount of encoding increases. This produces an increase in the hit rate and decrease in the false-alarm rate for a strongly encoded compared with a weakly encoded list, consistent with empirical data. Other models assume that the foil distribution is unaffected by encoding manipulations or the foil distribution increases as a function of target strength. They account for the empirical data by adopting a stricter criterion for strongly encoded lists relative to weakly encoded lists. The differentiation and criterion shift explanations have been difficult to discriminate with accuracy measures alone. In this article, reaction time distributions and accuracy measures are collected in a list-strength paradigm and in a response bias paradigm in which the proportion of test items that are targets is manipulated. Diffusion model analyses showed that encoding strength is primarily accounted for by changes in the rate of accumulation of evidence (i.e., drift rate) for both targets and foils and manipulating the proportion of targets is primarily accounted for by changes in response bias (i.e., starting point). The diffusion model analyses is interpreted in terms of predictions of the differentiation models in which subjective memory strength is mapped directly onto drift rate and criterion placement is mapped onto starting point. Criterion shift models require at least 2 types of shifts to account for these findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Strategy selection and use during classification skill acquisition.
Two experiments examined 3 variables affecting accuracy, response time, and reports of strategy use in a binary classification skill task. In Experiment 1, higher rule cue salience, allowing faster rule application, produced higher aggregate rule use than lower rule cue salience. After participants were pretrained on the relevant classification rule, rule reports were high but generally declined across training trials; after participants were pretrained on an irrelevant rule, reports of the relevant rule increased across training trials. In Experiment 2, no rule pretraining produced a pattern of results like that obtained with irrelevant rule pretraining in Experiment 1. Presenting novel stimuli during training in Experiment 2 elevated aggregate rule reports relative to conditions where they were absent. Two participant subgroups were identified: those persisting in rule reports and those transitioning from rule to memory reports during training. The proportion of persistent rule users was higher after rule discovery than after relevant rule pretraining. Overall, the results indicate that differences among prior experiments can be reconciled. Further, they raise questions about the inevitability of memory-based automaticity in binary classification, favoring instead strategy choice based on the costs and benefits of a particular strategy and of a shift from one strategy to another. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
The ubiquitous nature of the Hebb repetition effect: Error learning mistaken for the absence of sequence learning.
Sequence learning is essential in cognition and underpins activities such as language and skill acquisition. One classical demonstration of sequence learning is that of the Hebb repetition effect, whereby serial recall improves over repetitions on a repeated list relative to random lists. When addressing the question of which mechanism underlies the effect, the traditional approach is to prevent the action of processes thought to be responsible for sequence learning: If the typical Hebb repetition effect is reduced, these processes are key to the effect, researchers claim. By reanalyzing the data of F. B. R. Parmentier, M. T. Maybery, M. Huitson, and D. M. Jones (2008)—who reported no Hebb effect for sequences of auditory–spatial stimuli—we revealed that error learning can be mistaken for the absence of sequence learning. Indeed, incorrect responses are reproduced increasingly over repetitions. Our findings suggest that the Hebb repetition effect can be associated with response learning as well as stimulus processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
The time course of name retrieval during multiple-object naming: Evidence from extrafoveal-on-foveal effects.
The goal of the study was to examine whether speakers naming pairs of objects would retrieve the names of the objects in parallel or in sequence. To this end, we recorded the speakers’ eye movements and determined whether the difficulty of retrieving the name of the 2nd object affected the duration of the gazes to the 1st object. Two experiments, which differed in the spatial arrangement of the objects, showed that the speakers looked longer at the 1st object when the name of the 2nd object was easy than when it was more difficult to retrieve. Thus, the easy 2nd-object names interfered more with the processing of the 1st object than the more difficult 2nd-object names. In the 3rd experiment, the processing of the 1st object was rendered more difficult by presenting it upside down. No effect of 2nd-object difficulty on the gaze duration for the 1st object was found. These results suggest that speakers can retrieve the names of a foveated and an extrafoveal object in parallel, provided that the processing of the foveated object is not too demanding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Effects of plausibility on structural priming.
We report a replication and extension of Ferreira (2003), in which it was observed that native adult English speakers misinterpret passive sentences that relate implausible but not impossible semantic relationships (e.g., The angler was caught by the fish) significantly more often than they do plausible passives or plausible or implausible active sentences. In the experiment reported here, participants listened to the same plausible and implausible passive and active sentences as in Ferreira (2003), answered comprehension questions, and then orally described line drawings of simple transitive actions. The descriptions were analyzed as a measure of structural priming (Bock, 1986). Question accuracy data replicated Ferreira (2003). Production data yielded an interaction: Passive descriptions were produced more often after plausible passives and implausible actives. We interpret these results as indicative of a language processor that proceeds along differentiated morphosyntactic and semantic routes. The processor may end up adjudicating between conflicting outputs from these routes by settling on a “good enough” representation that is not completely faithful to the input. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Higher social intelligence can impair source memory.
Source monitoring is made difficult when the similarity between candidate sources increases. The current work examines how individual differences in social intelligence and perspective-taking abilities serve to increase source similarity and thus negatively impact source memory. Strangers first engaged in a cooperative storytelling task. On each trial, a single word was shown to both participants, but only 1 participant was designated to add a story sentence, using this assigned word. As predicted, social intelligence negatively predicted performance in a subsequent source-monitoring task. In a 2nd study, preventing participants from being able to anticipate their partner’s next contribution to the story eliminated the effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Comprehension as a basis for metacognitive judgments: Effects of effort after meaning on recall and metacognition.
We examined free recall and metacognitive judgments of ambiguous sentences studied with and without clues to facilitate their comprehension. Sentences were either studied without clues, with clues meaningfully embedded, or with clues following a 10-s interval delay. After presentation, subjects made judgments of comprehension (JCOMPs) or judgments of learning (JOLs). Puzzling over the meaning of sentences for several seconds prior to receiving the clue enhanced recall compared with studying sentences without clues or with embedded clues. This benefit of effort after meaning was not reflected in JCOMPs or JOLs. Rather, sentences considered relatively easy to understand received higher JOLs regardless of experimental condition. Although effort after meaning enhanced recall, subjects displayed no awareness of this benefit in their judgments. Our study adds to a growing literature showing students’ ignorance of factors affecting their own learning, which have important implications for education. Making learning conditions more difficult, thus requiring students to engage more cognitive effort, often leads to enhanced retention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Remember-Know and source memory instructions can qualitatively change old-new recognition accuracy: The modality-match effect in recognition memory.
Remember-Know (RK) and source memory tasks were designed to elucidate processes underlying memory retrieval. As part of more complex judgments, both tests produce a measure of old-new recognition, which is typically treated as equivalent to that derived from a standard recognition task. The present study demonstrates, however, that recognition accuracy can be qualitatively changed by a RK or source-retrieval orientation. Visual and auditory presentations of words were varied at encoding and at test. The memory test was either a standard (old-new) recognition test, the RK test, or a source (modality) test. No effect of modality match was found on standard recognition. However, recognition accuracy in the RK and modality tests was greater when study and test modalities matched—a result obtained for both 1-step (e.g., R, K, or new?) and 2-step (e.g., old-new decision followed by RK decision for items judged old) versions of these tests. Thus, the RK and source (modality) memory procedures produced a measure of old-new recognition that was qualitatively different than standard recognition, having a greater sensitivity to perceptual information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Do reaction times in the perruchet effect reflect variations in the strength of an associative link?
In 3 experiments, we examined Perruchet, Cleeremans, and Destrebecqz’s (2006) double dissociation of cued reaction time (RT) and target expectancy. In this design, participants receive a tone on every trial and are required to respond as quickly as possible to a square presented on 50% of those trials (a partial reinforcement schedule). Participants are faster to respond to the square following many recent tone–square pairings and slower to respond following many tone-alone presentations. Of importance, expectancy of the square is highest when performance on the RT task is poorest—following many tone-alone trials. This finding suggests that RT performance is determined by the strength of a tone–square link and that this link is the product of a non-expectancy-based learning mechanism. The present experiments, however, provide evidence that the speeded RTs are not the consequence of the strengthening and weakening of a tone–square link. Thus, the RT Perruchet effect does not provide evidence for a non-expectancy-based link-formation mechanism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition - Vol 36, Iss 2