Three experiments examined the processing of pictures and words in two tasks of semantic decision--judgments of conceptual size and judgments of associative relatedness--in order to test the prediction from single-coding models of memory that different semantic decisions produce comparable picture-word latency differences. In Experiment 1 an interaction in decision latency was found such that picture-picture (P-P) pairs were significantly faster than word-word (W-W) pairs in decisions of size but not in decisions of associative relatedness. In Experiment 2 no latency differences were found in decisions of association for pairs presented in P-P, W-W, or mixed (P-W or W-P) forms. Decisions of size, however, were fastest for P-P pairs, intermediate for mixed pairs, and slowest for W-W pairs. In a third experiment, using a speeded inference task, the interaction obtained in the first two experiments was reproduced. In light of these results possible revisions to common-coding assumptions about the processing of pictures and words in semantic decisions are discussed.
Symbolic comparisons of object brightness and color were investigated in two experiments using words and outline drawings as stimuli. Both experiments yielded orderly symbolic distance effects. Contrary to prediction, no reliable picture advantages emerged. For color comparison, individual differences in word fluency and color memory predicted decision time with word stimuli. These results contrast sharply with those of previous comparison studies involving concrete dimensions. The results are discussed in terms of dual-coding theory and the role of verbal mechanisms in memory for object color.
This article is a selective review of research literature that may provide clues to brain mechanisms underlying episodic and semantic memory functions of nonverbal imagery. Brain functions are inferred from effects of lateralized presentation of different materials or tasks to one or the other cerebral hemisphere of normal subjects and patients who have undergone cerebral commissurotomy, as well as from performance deficits resulting from focal brain lesions. Inferences about imagery are based primarily on the effects of relevant stimulus attributes and task variables. The findings suggest that the two hemispheres and different cortical areas within each hemisphere are differentially involved in episodic and semantic memory functions of imagery. The results have implications for neuropsychological models of imagery, dual coding theory, and the episodicsemantic memory distinction.
This study investigated symbolic comparison of color similarity using a triplet paradigrn. Results showed that the time to choose which of two color samples is more similar to a color name was a function of several measures of distance between the samples relative to the focal color for the category name. Since colors appear to be represented in memory only as names and images and not as abstract entities such as features or propositions, these results provide support for models of symbolic comparison that assume that items are stored and compared as mental analogs. 141Recent research on the manner in whieh our knowledge of the world is represented in long-term memory has made use of a paradigm that involves comparative judgment of symbolic information. The participants in these experiments are shown a pair of stimuli, such as names or pietures of familiar objects or animals, and their task is to decide which of the two is, for example, larger in reallife.The basic finding from these experiments is a systematie decrease in the time required to choose between the two symbols as the psychologieal distance between them increases. For example, Moyer (1973) found that the reaction time (RT) to choose the larger of two named animals decreased as the difference in rated sizes of the animals increased. These results are similar to those obtained when subjects are asked to make size comparisons among physical stimuli actually presented (Curtis, Paulos, & Rule, 1973).Several findings within a variety of symbolic cornparison tasks permit strong inferences concerning the nature of symbolic information in long-terrn memory. Moyer (1973) suggested that his subjects made some kind of internal "psychophysical judgment" among analog memory representations. Such representations store our knowledge of the world in a form that is highly isomorphie with or analogous to perceptual knowledge (Attneave, 1972;Cooper & Shepard, 1973). They "contain" information that bears a continuous (analog) relation to the perceptua1 information aroused by the perceptual objects themselves. Paivio (1975) proposed that these analog representations may take the form of This research was supported by a postgraduate scholarship to the first author and Grant A0087 to the second author from the National Research Council of Canada. The authors thank lan Spence for his help in scaling the data. They also thank Keith Holyoak and an anonymous reviewer for comments on an earlier version of this paper. Portions of this paper were presen ted at the annual meeting of the Canadian Psychological Association, Ottawa, JUDe 7-9, 1978. Requests for reprints should be sent to lohn te Linde, Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London. Ontario N6A 5C2, Canada.Copyright © 1979 Psychonomic Society, Inc. visual images. According to dual-coding theory (Paivio, 1975(Paivio, , 1978, two independent but interconnected systems exist in memory for retaining knowledge of the world. Perceptual information, such as the sizes of objects, is stored in a nonver...
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