Effects of intentionality and strategy on memory for frequency.

Abstract

Several recent studies have examined whether subjects who learn a list of words incidentally remember frequency as well as those who learn the words intentionally. Conflicting results have been found. This study demonstrates that the instructions play a crucial mediating role. Intentional-learning subjects exhibit an advantage in memory for frequency only if the instructions emphasize the importance of good performance on the memory task. Additional experiments show that intentionality influences memory for frequency within a list of items and that a strategy that involves semantic processing leads to improved frequency estimation. These results are inconsistent with current formulations of the claim that frequency information is encoded automatically.One of the most influential hypotheses made in recent years about memory for event frequency was suggested by Zacks (1979, 1984), who argued that frequency information is encoded automatically or effortlessly. It has long been known that people are very sensitive to differences in frequency of occurrence (Attneave, 1953). Hasher and Zacks (1979) proposed a set of additional criteria for determining whether a particular kind of information is encoded automatically. The criterion that has received the greatest empirical attention states that intentionality of learning should have no effect on memory performance for that information. It has been demonstrated by a large number of different investigators (e.g.,

Recognition memory of spatial location information: Another failure to support automaticity

“…It has been argued recently in the context of frequency judgments (Fisk & Schneider, 1984;Greene, 1984;Naveh-Benjamin & Jonides, 1985, 1986) that giving instructions to pay attention and to expect a test on item info'rmation is inappropriate in establishing incidental learning of the memory attribute (frequency of occurrence in the above cases and spatial location information in the present case). With such instructions, subjects still pay attention and try to remember the information, so they might be using various strategies, including some in which spatial location of the objects is used to remember the items.…”

“…Prewarning about the spatiallocation test did not affect performance. This study, however, is characterized by the problem that the incidental learning instructions used, in which subjects were told to expect a test on item information, were not the appropriate ones.It has been argued recently in the context of frequency judgments (Fisk & Schneider, 1984;Greene, 1984;Naveh-Benjamin & Jonides, 1985, 1986) that giving instructions to pay attention and to expect a test on item info'rmation is inappropriate in establishing incidental learning of the memory attribute (frequency of occurrence in the above cases and spatial location information in the present case). With such instructions, subjects still pay 437…”

“…Both theoretically and empirically, various investigators have argued that insensitivity to competing task demands is the hallmark of automaticity (Jonides, 1981;NavehBenjamin & Jonides, 1984, 1986Posner & Snyder, 1975;Schneider & Shiffrin, 1977;Shiffrin & Schneider, 1977). The claim is that if an automatic process is assumed to require minimal mental capacity for its operation, simultaneous performance of a task with the automatic process should not affect the operation of the process.…”

Availability and category-frequency estimation

“…Because we were interested in frequency discrimination and not recognition, the results, unless otherwise indicated, exclude performance at the frequency level of 0 (cf. Birnbaum, Taylor, Johnson, & Raye, 1987;Greene, 1984Greene, , 1986Greene, , 1988Jonides & Naveh-Benjamin, 1987;Naveh-Benjamin & Jonides, 1986 Frequency judgments. The first five data columns of Table I set forth mean frequency judgments as a function of actual frequency and overall means for each condition of the experiment.…”

Frequency judgments: The problem of defining a perceptual event.

“…Frequency judgments improved when the cover task directed subjects' attention to the identity of the stimuli, especially to the conjunction of letter and typeface. The results suggest that frequency estimation of complex stimuli may be possible only for stimuli that have been processed as phenomenal objects.Largely prompted by Zack's (1979, 1984) proposal that certain attributes of events are automatically encoded, there has been considerable recent interest in people's ability to judge the relative frequency of events (e.g., Barsalou & Ross, 1986;Begg, Maxwell, Mitterer, & Harris, 1986;Birnbaum, Taylor, Johnson, & Raye, 1987;Fisk & Schneider, 1984;Greene, 1984Greene, , 1986Hanson & Hirst, 1988;Kausler, Lichty, & Hakami, 1984;Maki & Ostby, 1987;Naveh-Benjamin & Jonides, 1986;Williams & Durso, 1986). The available studies collectively highlight a number of important aspects of frequency judgments that are not yet well understood.…”