Using an interference paradigm, we demonstrate that there is a place for a direct coding mechanism in a comprehensive theory of frequency coding. Ss were presented words whose frequency was judged later. Under one set of instructions, these words were coded in terms of numerical associates; under another set of instructions, the coding was governed by nonnumerical associates. The condition using numerical associates resulted in frequency estimations that were of lesser quality than those produced in the control condition. This effect, moreover, was a function of the encoding of the target words, not just their retrieval.We thank David Bryant, Robert Greene, Robert Rose, and William Whitlow for their incisive comments on an earlier version of this article.
Memory models that embody the total similarity principle (e.g., Gillund & Shiffrin, 1984; Hintzman, 1988; Murdock, 1982; Ratcliff, 1990) assume that frequency judgments reflect the total similarity of a test item to stimuli that have been studied. In 4 experiments, subjects estimated the frequencies of target words that had been presented in the context of varying numbers of semantically similar words. In a fifth experiment, subjects made forced-choice relative frequency judgments. The results of these experiments supported 1 prediction of total similarity models: Presenting similar words will increase rather than decrease frequency judgments of target words. However, a second prediction of these models was not supported. In particular, similar-word presentations had no effect on the judged frequencies of target words that had not been shown.
People possess implicit theories about the motion of objects, theories that are often incorrect. When asked to predict the path of an object emerging from a curved tube, for example, people often say that the object will continue to follow a curved path. However, when solving a problem that reminds them of a familiar previous instance, people often reason by analogy to the instance. In this study, we show that a previous instance must be very superficially similar to a problem in order to be used as an analogy; otherwise, people will use their implicit theories as the basis of their reasoning.
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