The authors varied the similarity between negative probes and study items in a short-term item-recognition task. Current models treat similarity as a function of the number of occurrences of the probe's features in the study set, a factor that is often confounded with the number of the probe's features occurring in the study set. Unconfounded comparisons showed that performance reflected only the latter factor, with response time a linear function of the number of probe features in the study set. The effect was obtained for both stimuli with manipulated features (colored shapes) and words. Number of presented features is a global property of the study list, but existing global models calculate familiarity by averaging across item matches and cannot readily accommodate the data. The authors proposed that the probe's features are compared with a global representation of the study set's features.

This article challenges the view that the generation effects occurs only for items represented in semantic memory. We obtained generation effects regardless of the lexical status of the cue used to generate the target and regardless of the lexical status of the target. Generation effects were comparable for wordlike and unwordlike nonwords. The effect for nonwords depended on displaying the target at the end of each generate trial. We argue that such feedback gives subjects appropriate visual experience with nonwords; otherwise, the disadvantage of never seeing the generated nonwords could overwhelm any memorial advantage conferred by generating. Generated items also suffer when study and test formats differ more for generated than for read items; we demonstrated that changing format reduces recognition for nonwords. We conclude that previous failures to demonstrate generation effects with nonwords reflect confoundings with such familiarity factors and that the generation effect does exist for nonwords.

We present an iterative-resonance model for recognition memory. On successive iterations, the probe is compared against a feature-by-feature profile of the study set. Yes decisions depend on the similarity of the probe to the profile; No decisions depend on a count of elements in the probe that are not in the profile. Successive iterations sharpen the evidence, and response latency is a function of the number of iterations needed to obtain a sufficiently clear result. The model successfully simulates classic data as well as recent data problematic for alternate models.

This study investigated short-term memory for odors using a four-alternative, forced-choiced recognition paradigm. Stimuli were the odors of 36 common food substances. Twelve subjects were tested in each offour conditions, which differed in the activity performed during the retention interval. Recognition performance was poorest when subjects free associated to an additional odorant presented during the retention interval. Thus, interference from interpolated events does occur in odor memory. Recognition performance was best when the subjects free associated to the name of the target odorant during the retention interval. Thus, the memory code for odors may incorporate semantic information. Remembering odors appears, therefore, to be governed by the same principles as remembering stimuli in other modalities.

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