Encoding categories of words: An empirical approach to meaning.

Abstract

This article reports a series of studies investigating the dimension along which words are encoded, using the "release from proactive inhibition" in short-term memory technique. The results of the experiments indicate that different dimensions vary in their effectiveness for proactive inhibition release. In general, semantic dimensions (taxonomic categories or semantic differential) are highly effective, whereas physical characteristics such as word length or figure-ground colors of the slide presentation are relatively ineffective in releasing proactive inhibition. The results of this technique of measuring encoding are related to other types of experiments on verbal material as well as to the topic of subception and imageless thought.

Age, time of testing, and proactive interference.

“…A mixed 3 × 2 × 2 ANOVA was conducted on number recalled, with list (1, 2, 3) as a within-subject factor, and age (older, younger) and time of testing (TOD; morning vs. afternoon) as between-subject factors. As is commonly found in this literature (e.g., Wickens, 1972), recall declined across the lists, F(2, 184) = 37.471, MSE = 1.95, p < 0.05, indicating the buildup of PI. No other effects involving List (List × Age, List × TOD, and List × Age × TOD, largest F < 1) were significant, suggesting that the declines across lists did not differ across age and between people tested at their optimal and nonoptimal times of day.…”

The role of prefrontal cortex in working-memory capacity, executive attention, and general fluid intelligence: An individual-differences perspective

“…Even when these frontal patients were matched on List 1 recall to patients with nonfrontal lesions (or to healthy controls), the frontal patients had more difficulty recalling the later word lists. Interference-buildup tasks typically produce highly variable data and require large samples to detect group interactions (see, e.g., Wickens, 1970). Thus, these findings of significant frontal deficits with modest-sized patient groups are particularly noteworthy.…”

Semantic distance effects on object and action naming

“…Because identifying the primary conceptual dimensions is far more difficult in these domains, can graded effects be observed? To date little empirical work has addressed this question (beyond studies using the "release from proactive interference" paradigm 1 ; Wickens, 1970;Wickens, Dalezman, & Eggemeier, 1963), although a number of different theories of meaning representation predict semantic distance effects, especially those assuming distributed semantic representations and featural overlap between them (e.g. Martin & Chao, 2001;McRae, de Sa, & Seidenberg, 1997;Plaut, 1995).…”