Graduate

A series of experiments was performed using the free recall of short story-like passages and a variety of analytic techniques to investigate two aspects of the mental representation of text: the nature of the encoding, and the structural relations among information in memory. The verbatim component of recall was the most variable across several factors, declined fastest after a moderate interval but was unresponsive to the recall accuracy demanded by instructions. It seemed to represent the most accurate information rather than any specifically verbatim encoding, Qualitative analysis demonstrated that verbatim recall was strongly determined by lexical and contextual constraints. Substitutions tended to be higher frequency words, supporting semantic decomposition and the loss of finer components of meaning. The mental representation appeared to consist of information on a number of levels of detail and accuracy, with no evidence for discrete propositions. The literature indicates two alternative approaches to structural factors in discourse comprehension. 'Text-led' theories employ structures peculiar to text and stress causal relations as organising factors. 'Knowledge-led' theories base organisation on the structure of corresponding information in semantic memory and predict that thematic relations, whether causal or not, will dominate memory. Evidence from clause recall contingencies and simple cluster analyses supported the 'knowledge-led' position. The differential behaviour of 'narrative' and 'nodal', apparently organised around verbs (activities) and nouns (actors or objects) respectively, was also consistent with knowledge-led processing. The implications of the results for selective processing during comprehension, and for the role of working memory were discussed. An attempt was also made to identify possible semantic memory structures which might be responsible for organising the episodic representation of information derived from text. Though still sketchy, the present framework is consistent with several recent lines of research and provides direction for future investigation.

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In an event-method directed forgetting task, instructions to remember (R) or forget (F) were integrated throughout the presentation of four videos depicting common events (e.g., baking cookies). In a concurrent-instruction paradigm (Experiments 1-5) participants were instructed to remember (R) anything presented when the video border was green and to forget (F) anything presented when the video border was purple. In a post-instruction paradigm (Experiments 6-10) participants were instructed to remember anything preceding a green circle and to forget anything preceding a purple circle. The R or F segments lasted 35 s and were randomly assigned such that each video always contained 4 R and 4 F segments. Participants responded more accurately to cued-recall questions (Experiments 1 and 6) and true-false statements (Experiments 2-5 and 7-10) regarding R segments than F segments although this difference was found only for relatively specific (the woman added 3 cups of flour) as opposed to general (the woman added flour) information (Experiments 5 and 7-10). Participants retain a general representation of the events they intend to forget – even though this representation is not as specific as the representation of events they intend to remember. At encoding, participants were faster to discriminate targets overlaid upon F segments compared to R segments in the concurrent-instruction paradigm (Experiment 3) but were slower to detect targets presented following F compared to R instructions in the post-instruction paradigm (Experiments 6-7 and 9-10). Therefore, whereas both concurrent- and post-instruction paradigms produced comparable effects on subsequent mnemonic performance, the underlying processes are not identical. In the concurrent-instruction paradigm, participants needed to control access to working memory; in the post-instruction paradigm, participants needed to control the contents of working memory. In the former case, we expect that participants minimized processing of F segments while actively rehearsing R segments. In the latter case, we expect that participants engaged one or more active mechanisms associated with the removal of processing resources from the representation of the F segments (functionally terminating rehearsal) while focusing instead on the elaborative rehearsal of the R segments.

Six experiments were conducted to examine the factors modulating the size of age differences in recollection. The research presented in the current thesis was guided by the notions of self-initiated processing and environmental support. Older and younger adults’ performance in recollection was measured by Jacoby’s (1990) process dissociation procedure (PDP); the age differences as a function of self-initiated processing demands of the task and the amount of support provided to the participants were assessed by manipulating the encoding (Experiments 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3) and retrieval (Experiments 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3) contexts. Experiments 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3 examined interactions of aging and encoding contexts. Recollection under baseline conditions (i.e. visually presented words) was contrasted with recollection of items encoded under contexts that are assumed to enhance memory. The results showed differential age-related patterns of benefits from encoding conditions: Presenting pictures with words benefited older adults more than younger adults; word generation benefited both groups equally; and presenting sound effects with visual words benefited younger more than older adults. Experiments 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3 investigated age-related changes in retrieval processes and their interactions with retrieval contexts. In each of the three experiments, some of the test lists were constructed so that participants had to recollect specific aspects of the encoding event to differentiate between the to-be-included and to-be-excluded items, whereas other test lists were constructed so that they only had to recollect general aspects. Older adults showed reduced levels of recollection than younger adults for the high-specificity test lists only (Experiment 3.1). Encoding manipulations improved (Experiment 3.2) or reduced (Experiment 3.3) recollection performance but the effects did not interact with test, whereas DA at retrieval (Experiment 3.3) in younger adults partly mimicked aging. In summary, the six experiments showed that older adults have greater difficulties in spontaneously carrying out distinctive and integrative processes at encoding, and in accessing specific information at retrieval compared to their younger counterparts. These age-related changes further interact with the processing demanded or afforded by the encoding and retrieval conditions.

Six experiments were conducted to examine the factors modulating the size of age differences in recollection. The research presented in the current thesis was guided by the notions of self-initiated processing and environmental support. Older and younger adults’ performance in recollection was measured by Jacoby’s (1990) process dissociation procedure (PDP); the age differences as a function of self-initiated processing demands of the task and the amount of support provided to the participants were assessed by manipulating the encoding (Experiments 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3) and retrieval (Experiments 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3) contexts. Experiments 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3 examined interactions of aging and encoding contexts. Recollection under baseline conditions (i.e. visually presented words) was contrasted with recollection of items encoded under contexts that are assumed to enhance memory. The results showed differential age-related patterns of benefits from encoding conditions: Presenting pictures with words benefited older adults more than younger adults; word generation benefited both groups equally; and presenting sound effects with visual words benefited younger more than older adults. Experiments 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3 investigated age-related changes in retrieval processes and their interactions with retrieval contexts. In each of the three experiments, some of the test lists were constructed so that participants had to recollect specific aspects of the encoding event to differentiate between the to-be-included and to-be-excluded items, whereas other test lists were constructed so that they only had to recollect general aspects. Older adults showed reduced levels of recollection than younger adults for the high-specificity test lists only (Experiment 3.1). Encoding manipulations improved (Experiment 3.2) or reduced (Experiment 3.3) recollection performance but the effects did not interact with test, whereas DA at retrieval (Experiment 3.3) in younger adults partly mimicked aging. In summary, the six experiments showed that older adults have greater difficulties in spontaneously carrying out distinctive and integrative processes at encoding, and in accessing specific information at retrieval compared to their younger counterparts. These age-related changes further interact with the processing demanded or afforded by the encoding and retrieval conditions.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 43 pages. / Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: Processing Implicit and Explicit Representations (PIER2) is a model of memory that makes predictions about memory performance based on the interaction of known and newly acquired information by studying how implicitly activated associates affect episodic memory. Nelson and Zhang (2000) found a significant effect of cue connectivity in a multiple regression analysis of the variables known to affect cued recall, but at that time no manipulational experiments had studied the cue connectivity effect in the laboratory. The present paper presents a series of three experiments designed to investigate the effect of cue connectivity in the context of the PIER2 memory model to determine the importance of this variable in the prediction of cued recall. / ABSTRACT: Results of the experiments were inconsistent, and a revised regression analysis performed on an updated version of Nelson and Zhang's (2000) cued recall database indicated that cue connectivity was no longer a significant predictor of cued recall performance. It was concluded that PIER2's equations do not need to be modified to include the influence of retrieval cue attributes. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Previous research suggests that larger context effects are observed when participants are required to search a scene in order to find the to-be-remembered stimuli. Similarly, animal research on brain oscillations has shown theta wave activation when animals are searching their environment. These theta wave oscillations are positively correlated with learning. However, theta activation can also occur in response to sensory stimulation, for example, auditory stimulation with binaural beats or visual stimulation with a checkerboard pattern reversal. The results of several studies suggest that while a visual search task seems to reliably improve free recall performance, the effects of passive sensory stimulation on memory are less consistent. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Recognition is the cognitive process by which we judge whether a given object, person, place, or event has occurred in our previous experience or is new to us. According to signal detection theory, old/new recognition decisions are based on how much evidence one finds in memory that an item has appeared previously (e.g., its familiarity) but can be affected substantially by response bias, a general proclivity to respond “old” or “new.” When experimental conditions evoke a “conservative” response bias, participants will require a relatively high amount of memory evidence before calling an item “old” and will give a high proportion of “new” responses to both old and new items; when conditions promote a “liberal” bias, participants will relax their required level of memory evidence and will call a high proportion of both old and new items “old.” Response bias is usually analyzed at a group level, but substantial individual differences in bias can underlie group means. These differences suggest that, independent of any experimental manipulation, some people require more memory evidence than others before they are willing to call an item “old.” The central motivation for the present work is the possibility that these individual differences are meaningful and reflect bias levels that inhere within individuals. Seven experiments were designed to test the hypothesis that response bias can be characterized as an intra-individually stable cognitive “trait” with an influence extending beyond recognition memory. The present experiments are based on the expectation that if response bias is a cognitive trait, it should a) be consistent within an individual across time, to-be-recognized materials, and situations; b) generalize beyond recognition memory to other tasks involving binary decisions based on accumulated evidence; c) be associated with personality traits that represent one’s willingness to take action based on limited information; and d) carry consequences for recognition in applied settings. The results indicated substantial within-individual bias consistency in two recognition tests separated by 10 minutes (Experiment 1) and a similar level of consistency when the two tests were separated by one week (Experiment 2). Bias was strongly correlated across the stimulus domains of words and paintings (Experiment 3) and words and faces (Experiment 7). Correlations remained significant across two ostensibly independent experiments differing markedly in context and materials and separated by an average of 2.5 weeks (Experiments 6 and 7). Recognition bias predicted frequency of false recall in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm (Experiment 4) and false alarms in an eyewitness identification task (Experiment 7). No relationship was detected between bias and grain size in estimation from general knowledge (Experiment 2), risk avoidance through the use of report option on a trivia task (Experiments 4 and 5), or speed and accuracy on a go-no go task (Experiment 6). Personality measures suggested relationships between response bias and need for cognition, maximizing versus satisficing tendencies, and regret proneness. Collectively, these findings support the idea that response bias as measured in recognition memory tasks is a partial function of stable individual differences that have broad significance for cognition. / Graduate

This study aims to analyse the interconnection between human memory and digital media technology, and its relation to forgetting and deletion. The main focus area is related to short messages (SMS) as a form of digital memory and mobile application Delete by Haiku that assists the user in creating poetry out of stored messages. The reception analysis approach was chosen and individual in-depth interview method was combined with focus group interview. The collected data regarding human memory and media indicates similarities between theoretical claims and respondents’ views; memory could be perceived as a narrative, storytelling, fading away. Informants’ relation to memorabilia and their deleting practices are very dependent on the personal and professional characteristics. Besides, deleting practices could be related to organization of a physical space. Delete by Haiku app could be seen as an invitation to engage into playful process of creation through deletion, however mostly for the people attached to memorabilia.