Biomedical subjects

Gabriel A Radvansky

Publications and source records attributed to Gabriel A Radvansky.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Situation models and retrieval interference: pictures and words.

Previous studies have found that interference in long-term memory retrieval occurs when information cannot be integrated into a single situation model, but this interference is greatly reduced or absent when the information can be so integrated. The current study looked at the influence of presentation format-sentences or pictures-on this observed pattern. When sentences were used at memorisation and recognition, a spatial organisation was observed. In contrast, when pictures were used, a different pattern of results was observed. Specifically, there was an overall speed-up in response times, and consistent evidence of interference. Possible explanations for this difference were examined in a third experiment using pictures during learning, but sentences during recognition. The results from Experiment 3 were consistent with the organisation of information into situation models in long-term memory, even from pictures. This suggests that people do create situation models when learning pictures, but their recognition memory may be oriented around more "verbatim", surface-form memories of the pictures.

Cognition↗

PubMed2005

Coping with stereotype threat: denial as an impression management strategy.

Four experiments tested the hypothesis that people who are concerned with impression management cope with stereotype threat through denial. Consistent with this hypothesis, temporary employees threatened by a stereotype of incompetence (Study 1) and hostel-dwelling older adults (Study 2) were more likely to deny incompetence if they were high in impression management. African Americans (Study 3) showed a similar pattern of denying cognitive incompetence, which emerged primarily when they were interviewed by a White experimenter and had attended a predominantly Black high school. In Study 4, White students who expected to take an IQ test and were threatened by a stereotype of being less intelligent than Asians were more likely to deny that intelligence is important if they were high in impression management.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2005

A novel study: investigating the structure of narrative and autobiographical memories.

In two experiments we assessed the degree to which memory for events are similar or differ depending on whether they were narrative or autobiographical events. Consistent with previous research on autobiographical memory, memories for events captured the sequential order of events. However, in contrast to autobiographical memory research, ratings of importance did not appear to be related to retrieval speed. An analysis of causal connectivity of the recalled events was significantly related to retrieval speed. Issues of narrative comprehension and memory, autobiographical memory, and their overlap are discussed.

Cues↗

PubMed2005

Age and inhibition: the retrieval of situation models.

We present a test of whether age-related differences in the management of interference during memory retrieval can be explained, at least in part, by decreased inhibitory mechanisms in older adults. We conducted this test by measuring the ease of retrieval of situation model representations that were sources of interference on the preceding trial but that contained the target information for the current trial. Prior research has shown that situation model retrieval under these conditions exhibits inhibition relative to an unrelated control. This effect was replicated in the current study for younger but not older adults; at the same time, the older adults showed greater overall retrieval interference than the younger adults. This pattern is consistent with the idea that there are declines in inhibitory processing in older adults, and that this applies to memory retrieval.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Situation models, propositions, and the fan effect.

According to theories of language comprehension, people can construct multiple levels of representation: the surface form, the propositional text base, and the situation model. In this study, I looked at how the referential nature of memory probes affects the experience of retrieval interference. All the subjects memorized sentences about objects in locations (e.g., "The potted palm is in the hotel"). When memory probes were sentences and, therefore, referential and most closely associated with the situation model level, no interference was observed during retrieval for information that could be integrated into a common situation model. In contrast, interference was observed in such cases when the memory probes were concept pairs (POTTED PALM-HOTEL) and hence not directly referential. This is interpreted to mean that nonreferential memory probes involve surface form and text base representations more than do referential sentence probes.

Cognition↗

PubMed2005

The detection and tracing of melodic key changes.

Adjusting to key changes in music is vital to a listener's understanding of it, although it is unclear when this adjustment occurs. In three experiments, participants heard obscure melodies that sometimes contained key changes. Both the number of notes after the change and the change distance were manipulated. For one task, the participants were explicitly asked to detect a change. For another task, the participants rated probe tones. These ratings allowed us to trace the listeners' multiple representations of keys. Results suggest that old keys were abruptly abandoned but that new keys were accepted gradually. More distant key changes (e.g., C-F#) were associated with more accurate detection of change, as well as with more time being required to adapt to the new key.

Humans↗

PubMed2004

Reasoning, integration, inference alteration, and text comprehension.

This paper reports how the study of formal logical reasoning provides insight into more everyday types of reasoning, such as that involved in language comprehension. Both of these types of cognition are thought to involve the use of mental models, and so it is reasonable to think that the cognitive operations needed for formal logical reasoning would be involved in everyday reasoning as well. We focused on three aspects of formal reasoning: (a) the integration of information into a common mental model, (b) the drawing of inferences, and (c) the coordination of alternative possibilities. We were able to show that the integration and inference components were related to narrative comprehension processes, but the coordination of alternative models was not. Thus, there is evidence for some overlap in the mental processes used in formal and everyday reasoning. This further justifies the study of formal logical reasoning as a window into certain types of everyday reasoning.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed2004

The accuracy of spatial information from temporally and spatially organized mental maps.

The way a space is learned can result in a mental map that is either temporally or spatially organized (Curiel & Radvansky, 1998). The present study examined the availability of spatial information under map learning conditions where either temporal or spatial organization has been previously observed. The finding was that people were fairly accurate in tasks that explicitly required the use of spatial information. However, there was a particular advantage for having a spatially organized mental map in a direction judgment task, especially for short distances where fine-grained knowledge was required. In contrast, there was no clear advantage for either group in a distance estimation task. These data are interpreted in the context of Huttenlocher's category adjustment model.

Cognition↗

PubMed2004

Working memory span and situation model processing.

This study looked at how comprehension and memory processing at the situation model level is related to traditional measures of working memory capacity, including the word span, reading span, operation span, and spatial span tests. Issues of particular interest were the ability to remember event descriptions, the detection and memory of functional relationships, the detection of inconsistencies, sensitivity to causal connectivity, and memory for surface form, textbase, and situation-specific content. There was little evidence that traditional measures of working memory span were directly related to processing at the situation model level. However, working memory span was related to our few textbase-level tests.

Cognition↗

PubMed2003

Aging and functional spatial relations in comprehension and memory.

Previous research has suggested that, relative to younger adults, older adults devote a greater proportion of their discourse processing to the situation model level. The current experiment assessed whether this is due, in part, to a preserved ability to focus on functionally appropriate information. The focus here was on spatial relations. Both reading time and recognition data showed superior performance for functional over nonfunctional information, and this functional effect was similar in younger and older adults. This is consistent with the idea that older adults' ability to process information at the situation model level is relatively well preserved.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Mental maps in memory retrieval and comprehension.

How do people use spatial information stored in maps? This question has been explored in a number of domains, such as memory and language comprehension, with differing results. Some studies of how experimentally learned maps are organised in memory, using primed recognition, have found temporal information to influence mental map organisation. In contrast, studies of narrative comprehension, using probe identification and anaphoric reading times, have observed spatial effects. This study combines these two research traditions and shows that the organisation observed in long-term memory differs from the organisation in narrative comprehension, even when both tasks refer to the same map.

Cognition↗