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Memory retrieval tasks determine the serial position curves of linear orders with categorical structures.

I examined 2 different views on organization of linear order information in memory: the linear schema view and the hierarchical structure view. The linear schema view holds that there is a strong tendency in memory to organize an array of transitively related elements into a unidimensional order. The hierarchical structure view maintains that the transitively related elements are organized in memory in a hierarchy of items. I proposed an input structure and retrieval compatibility hypothesis as a coherent explanation for the contradictory views on the memory organization of serial elements. I argue that the organization of linear order information in memory is determined by the nature of the memory retrieval task used. For example, a comparative judgment task is more compatible with a unidimensional structure, whereas a sequential recall or serial position identification task is more compatible with a hierarchical organization. The input structure and retrieval compatibility concept can also explain why dichotomous categories imposed on a linear order play very little role in comparative judgments.

Analysis of Variance↗

The language experience of deaf children: its relation to spontaneous rehearsal in a memory task.

This study was an investigation of whether the language history of deaf children is related to their delayed emergence of spontaneous memory strategy use. Use of rehearsal on a serial recall task was compared for 41 deaf (age 5 to 15 years) and 45 hearing (age 5 to 8 years) children. A lag of several years was noted in the emergence of spontaneous rehearsal for the deaf. Hierarchical discriminant function analysis showed language history to be a nearly perfect mediator of the relation between age and rehearsal use, effectively eliminating the lag in the emergence of rehearsal use. Increased language experience was hypothesized to be associated with automatization of language skills, and thus with decreased processing demands when language-based strategies are used.

Adolescent↗

List-strength effect: I. Data and discussion.

Extra items added to a list cause memory for the other items to decrease (the list-length effect). In one of the present studies we show that strengthening (or weakening) some items on a list harms (helps) free recall of the remaining list items. This is termed the list-strength effect. However, in seven recognition studies the list-strength effect was either absent or negative. This held whether strengthening was accomplished by extra study time or extra repetitions. The seven studies used various means to control rehearsal strategies, thereby providing evidence against the possibility that the findings were due to redistribution of rehearsal or effort from stronger to weaker items within a list. Current models appear unable to predict these results. We suggest that different retrieval operations underlie recall and recognition, as in the SAM model of Gillund and Shiffrin (1984), which can be made to fit the results with certain relatively minor modifications.

Cues↗

The revelation effect: when disguising test items induces recognition.

Documented here is a bias whereby items are more likely to be judged as having been presented beforehand if they are disguised in some way and so have to be discovered or "revealed." The bias was found for test words that were unfolded letter by letter (Experiments 1 and 3), presented with their letters either transposed (Experiments 2 and 3), or individually rotated (Experiments 4 and 5), or rotated as a whole (Experiment 5), and for test numbers that were presented in the form of roman numerals (Experiment 6) or equations (Experiment 7). The bias occurred both for items that were presented beforehand and for those that were not. No bias was found when words were judged, not for prior occurrence, but for typicality as category instances (Experiment 8), lexicality (Experiment 9), frequency of general usage (Experiment 10), or number of times encountered during the preceding week (Experiment 11).

Adult↗

Dose-response evaluation of the amnestic effects of triazolam and pentobarbital in normal subjects.

The effects of placebo, triazolam (0.25, 0.5, and 0.75 mg), and pentobarbital (100, 200, and 300 mg) were examined in seven normal male volunteers using a double-blind, Latin Square, balanced crossover design. Before and at hourly intervals after oral drug administration at approximately 10 a.m., subjects completed subject ratings of drug effects, psychomotor performance tasks, and two versions of a number recall task in which eight-digit number stimuli were recalled by reproduction on a numeric keypad. In one version, number stimuli were displayed on a video screen for varying lengths of time (3, 6, or 9 seconds) before immediate recall. In another version, subjects initially reproduced a continuously displayed number and then recalled the number following an immediate or a 16-second delay interval. Both triazolam and pentobarbital produced dose-related effects on all measures. Relative potency comparisons showed that triazolam was 270-384 times more potent than pentobarbital on subject ratings and psychomotor measures but was 406-647 times more potent than pentobarbital on measures of recall impairment. Recall performance deficits produced by both triazolam and pentobarbital at short (3-second) stimulus presentation times were attenuated at longer presentation times. With the variable delay task, triazolam but not pentobarbital interacted with the delay interval and produced impairments only at the 16-second delay condition. These data indicate that both triazolam and pentobarbital quantitatively impair acquisitional processes involved in short-term recall performance. Furthermore, triazolam may have a greater potential than pentobarbital to produce memory impairment, as reflected by its greater relative potency on these measures and its tendency to interfere with retention over short delay intervals.

Adult↗

Deficit of the "primacy effect" in parkinsonians interpreted by means of the working memory model.

29 Parkinsonians and 29 controls matched for age and schooling were tested for memory by means of a free recall test (serial position curve) and two spans (verbal and non-verbal). The free recall test yields three measures: primacy (item 1); secondary memory (items 2-7) and recency (items 8-12). The Parkinsonians displayed a selective deficit of primacy, which is taken to be evidence of defective functioning of the Central Executive in the Working Memory model.

Aged↗

The effects of varying cigarette deprivation duration on cognitive and performance tasks.

The effects of varying times of cigarette deprivation on cognitive and performance tasks were examined. This study employed a between-subjects design in which five groups of smokers (9-10 subjects in each group) were compared on a vigilance task and cognitive measures as a function of length of deprivation (0, 2, 4, 8, or 24 hours). Each subject was tested during baseline ad-lib smoking and at one of the deprivation durations. Difference scores were compared between the 0-hour group and the 2-, 4-, 8-, and 24-hour groups. The results showed that there were no significant withdrawal effects on the measures at 2, 4, and 8 hours after cigarette deprivation with the exception of poorer performance on the Trail Making Test (B) at 4 hours, However, there were significant withdrawal effects at 24-hours deprivation. These included increased mean reaction time, increased variability in reaction time, and increased errors of commission on the vigilance task. There were near significant changes at 24-hours deprivation on the Trail Making Test (B) and Symbol Digits Modalities.

Adolescent↗

Effects of flunitrazepam on memory and their reversal by two antagonists.

The amnestic effects of flunitrazepam (2 mg intravenously) were studied in normal volunteers with emphasis on their relationship to sleep and their reversal by two specific benzodiazepine receptor antagonists (Ro 15-1788 and Ro 15-3505). The test battery was based on available clinical tests to assess various aspects of encoding and recall. The results suggest that flunitrazepam impairs acquisition of new information by interfering with encoding, and that these effects are clearly independent of sleep. Flunitrazepam effects on memory were fully reversed by both antagonists, as were the subjective and objective signs of sedation. This speaks against the hypothesis of different receptors for sedative and amnestic effects. Ro 15-3505 had shorter lasting effects than Ro 15-1788 and interfered with some tests; this is discussed in relation to its inverse agonistic effects.

Adult↗

Anticholinergic effects on memory: benztropine versus amantadine.

To evaluate anticholinergic effects on cognition and other functions, we studied 60 healthy volunteers in a double-blind crossover trial of two antiparkinsonian agents, benztropine and amantadine. Benztropine 4 mg/day, but not amantadine 200 mg/day, impaired free recall and perception of time, and subjects' perception of their own memory impairment was significantly greater with benztropine. Side effects in general were worse with benztropine, particularly such anticholinergic effects as dry mouth and blurred vision, and benztropine decreased measured salivary flow to a significantly greater degree than amantadine. Our findings support the hypothesis that drugs that decrease cholinergic transmission impair storage of new information into long-term memory, but have little effect on retrieval from memory or on tasks involving only immediate memory. Clinically, anticholinergic agents can levy a considerable burden on memory and time perception.

Adolescent↗

How children choose among serial recall strategies.

A theoretical and methodological approach originally developed to investigate preschoolers' arithmetic strategies was extended to the study of 5-8-year-olds' serial recall strategies. Immediately retrospective verbal reports, together with observation of overt behavior, indicated a number of parallels between strategy choices in the 2 areas. In serial recall, as in arithmetic, most children used multiple approaches. Even among the youngest children, the majority sometimes used the most effective strategy, repeated rehearsal. Changes in strategy choices were adaptive in the sense of children rehearsing more often when not rehearsing on the previous trial had led to incorrect recall. Developmental changes occurred in how often children rehearsed, in how accurately they executed each strategy, and in the type of rehearsal that they used most frequently. Only small changes were apparent, however, in whether the 5-8-year-olds rehearsed at all.

Attention↗

Recency effect in recall of a word list when an immediate memory task is performed after each word presentation.

Subjects studied 12-word lists for free recall. During presentation of the lists, each word was followed by a supraspan sequence of digits, which the subjects tried to reproduce. This task, unlike those used in previous research with this continual distractor procedure, presumably taxed immediate memory capacity to the full. Nevertheless, the word recall data showed a pronounced recency effect. Moreover, the magnitude of the recency effect was found to be just as great with this task as with a more typical task in which the demands on immediate memory are likely to be fewer. These findings reinforce the emerging view that the recency effect need not be the product of immediate memory.

Humans↗

Performance and acquisition of serial position sequences by pigeons as measures of behavioral toxicity.

A procedure has been developed to measure the repeated acquisition of serial position sequences and to study the effects of drugs and toxic chemicals on the behavior generated by the procedure. Thus far experiments using the procedure have shown: (1) Performance schedules generate lower error rates than corresponding acquisition schedules: (2) Addition of a reset contingency further decreases errors under both performance and acquisition schedules: (3) Chained acquisition and performance schedules generate lower error rates than corresponding tandem acquisition and performance schedules: (4) Chained acquisition and performance schedules produce behavior that usually is more sensitive to drugs than corresponding tandem acquisition and performance schedules: (5) Acquisition schedules produce behavior that usually is more sensitive to drugs than corresponding performance schedules: and (6) Lead is an exception in that it produced clearer effects under a chained performance schedule with a reset contingency than under a corresponding acquisition schedule. The greater sensitivity to drug effects of behavior under acquisition schedules than behavior under performance schedules and of behavior under chained schedules may be a function of the baseline error rates, rather than the behavioral processes of acquisition, performance, and stimulus control.

Animals↗

Attention, rehearsal, and memory for serial order.

In three experiments, subjects attended to one of two simultaneous nine-digit sequences, presented binaurally in different voices (one male, one female). Substantial repetition effects (defined as gains in immediate memory performance for previously presented sequences relative to novel ones) were found for two exposure conditions: (a) one that required reproduction of the full sequence on each exposure (Experiment 1), and (b) one that required recall of a different two-digit subsequence on each exposure (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, the following conditions produced no repetition effects, even though tests had substantial power to detect small effects: 10 consecutive presentations in the unattended voice; 4 prior presentations in a task that required attention to each digit as it was presented (but not to digit order); and 4 prior presentations in a task that required attention to digit order during their presentations. These results, together with those of previous studies, support the conclusion that repetition effects on immediate memory occur only with procedures that encourage covert rehearsal of full-sequence order on each exposure. These findings also limit the generality of others' conclusions that event order is automatically encoded for attended events, and extend previous findings showing unattended exposures to be without effect on recall measures.

Attention↗

Aspects of digit-span performance: naming time and order memory.

Individual differences in digit span, as in any memory span task, can be attributed to item-identification speed (naming time) and memory for order. The relationship between the two was examined in an experiment with 40 EMR and 40 nonretarded children. Order memory and digit span had significant correlations for both groups. Naming time was found to correlate with span only for EMR subjects; span was a linear function of the number of digits named in 2.89 seconds. For nonretarded subjects no relationship between the two was observed. The results for EMR subjects, although interpretable in terms of limited capacity in working memory, were discussed in the context of the substantial correlation between order memory and naming time.

Child↗

Spontaneous rehearsal by mildly mentally retarded children and adolescents.

The use of a rehearsal strategy by 10-, 12-, and 14-year-old mildly mentally retarded children and adolescents was investigated using a self-paced recall readiness task. This task, in contrast to those typically used to study rehearsal by retarded individuals, allowed subjects to study items in any order as many times as desired. Each age group used rehearsal, as indicated by increasing study time patterns and the number of repetitions per item. We suggest that previous studies have failed to detect rehearsal by retarded persons because the tasks used have constrained the range of possible types of study behavior. The implication of this finding for rehearsal deficit theories was discussed.

Adolescent↗