Frequency discrimination as a function of frequency of repetition and trials.

Radtke, Robert C.; Jacoby, Larry L.; Goedel, George D.

doi:10.1037/h0031170

Cited by 9 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…The fact that performance is a function of the FC to FI ratio rather than of absolute difference between objective frequency of pair members is also consistent with previous research on this question (Hintzmann, 1969;Radtke, Jacoby, & Goedel, 1971;Underwood & Freund, 1970).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 76%

“…Available evidence with experimental frequency would support the notion that frequency discrimination is based on relative rather than absolute frequency differences (Hintzmann, 1969;Radtke, Jacoby, & Goedel, 1971;Underwood & Freund, 1970), consistent with the Weber law postulate. Also, recent evidence has indicated greater perceived frequency for abstract than concrete words when either objective background frequency is equal based upon available word counts (Galbraith & Underwood, 1973) or when objective experimental frequency is equal for low-presentation frequencies and delayed judgments (Begg, 1974).…”

mentioning

confidence: 51%

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The imagery effect and frequency discrimination

Goedel

Thomas

1977

Memory & Cognition

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A 300-item list of concrete and abstract nouns with varying frequency of occurrence was presented at a 1-sec rate to 144 subjects under imagery or nonimagery instructions. Subjects were then tested on 72 word pairs homogeneous and heterogeneous with respect to concreteness, where the more frequent member of each pair was to be chosen. Frequency discrimination was found to be a function of relative rather than absolute frequency differences between pair members. In addition, a subjective frequency bias for abstract items was found, with the best performance when the more frequent alternative was abstract and less frequent alternative concrete. The worst performance was for the reverse condition, while that for pair types homogeneous with respect to concreteness fell in-between, with better performance when both alternatives were concrete. The results suggest that the role of imagery may be to produce more discriminable subjective relative frequency differences between alternatives and that the imagery effect generally found in verbal discrimination learning may be reconcilable with frequency theory as it currently stands.One of the more reliable fmdings concerning verbal discrimination learning (VOL) over the last few years has been the so-called "imagery effect" when concrete and abstract word materials are employed. Differential performance on word pairs homogeneous with respect to concreteness (i.e., image-arousal capacity) is typically found with faster learning when both members of a pair are concrete rather than abstract in mixed as well as unmixed list designs (Paivio & Rowe, 1970Ullrich & Balogh, 1972).An attempt was initially made (paivio & Rowe, 1970) to integrate this phenomenon within the general theoretical framework of frequency theory (Ekstrand, Wallace, & Underwood, 1966;Wallace, 1972) which has thus far served well to explain VOL. This attempt took the form of assuming implicit imaginal response evocation to correct high-imagery items more than to incorrect high-imagery items and differential frequency accrual analogous to that postulated by frequency theory for implicit associative responses (lARs). Subsequent failures to confirm several predictions based upon this assumption led to the abandonment of frequency theory interpretations in favor of image "tagging" or differential learning strategy interpretations and to the conclusion that imagery and frequency are independent processes in VDL (Rowe, 1972a, b).It now seems that the abandonment of frequency theory may have been somewhat premature. Wallace, Murphy, and Sawyer (1973), in a recent monograph, pointed out that the critical requirement for a frequency theory interpretation of the imagery effect is a demonstration that correct and incorrect alternatives of concrete word pairs are more discriminable in terms of Requests for reprints should be sent to George D. Goede!, Department of Psychology, State University of New York, College at Geneseo, Geneseo, New York 14454. 53 subjective frequency than are alternatives of abstract word pairs. Usi...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 76%

mentioning

confidence: 51%

The imagery effect and frequency discrimination

Goedel

Thomas

1977

Memory & Cognition

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“…However, all of those studies used verbal materials. Further, two used relatively long retention intervals (Hintzman, 1969;Underwood, Zimmerman & Freund, 1971), and the other studies (Radtke, Jacoby, & Goedel, 1971;Underwood & Freund, 1970;Whitlow & Estes, 1979) used a fast presentation rate (one per second). Thus, in all of these studies, the failure of performance to reliably exceed the predicted ceiling may have been fortuitous.…”

Section: Accuracy Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Memory for frequency: A comparison of two multiple-trace theories.

Hintzman¹,

Grandy²,

Gold³

1981

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory

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Two multiple-trace accounts of memory for frequency are compared: Estes's limited-capacity theory and Hintzman's unlimited-capacity theory. Two experiments were done to differentiate between them. The results supported three conclusions: (a) When the experimental materials are easily remembered (e.g., vacation scenes, or words presented at relatively slow rates), frequency discrimination performance exceeds the maximum values that the limited-capacity theory predicts, (b) Frequency discrimination suffers little or no retroactive interference when the interpolated materials are new items presented in the same general context, (c) Reaction times in a frequency discrimination task depend on the frequencies of both the chosen and the unchosen alternatives; in particular, the more similar the two frequencies, the longer the reaction time. Several constraints that these findings impose on theories of memory for frequency are discussed.

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“…often than another tends to approach the actual relative frequency of the two items. 1 This tendency is clear in the data of Hintzman (1969) and Radtke, Jacoby, and Goedel (1971) and is less clear in the data of Underwood and Freund (1970) and Underwood, Zimmerman, and Freund (1971). However, analyses reported later suggest that the latter two studies may be interpreted as fitting the same p^tern.…”

mentioning

confidence: 91%

Judgments of relative frequency in relation to shifts of event frequencies: Evidence for a limited-capacity model.

Whitlow¹,

Estes²

1979

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory

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Shifts of item frequencies in a judgment-of-relative frequency paradigm were used to test differential implications of limited versus unlimited capacity models. In a within-list design, relative frequencies of presentation of items (words or consonant-vowel-consonant strings) were shifted after different numbers of observation trials, and tests were given after different numbers of postshift trials, During both preshift and postshift learning, judgments of relative frequency approached an asymptotic level of frequency matching, and the degree to which judgments were determined by memory for frequency proved relatively independent of number of preshift observation trials. These results are most compatible with a limited-capacity context model, which also provides a quantitative account of the full pattern of data over a limited range of observation-test cycles.In view of the simple and replicable pattern of results yielded by numerous studies of relative frequency judgments, this paradigm seems quite promising for purposes of analyzing the quantitative form of memory for frequency of events. In the standard experimental design, the subject is presented sequentially with a list of items, usually words, with one item appearing at a time and different items occurring with different frequencies. Following exposure of the last item, a series of tests is given, on each of which the subject is presented with a pair of items and asked to judge which item of the pair occurred more frequently during the previous exposure of the list. One of the most salient findings is that the proportion of judgments that one item occurred more

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Frequency discrimination as a function of frequency of repetition and trials.

Cited by 9 publications

References 7 publications

The imagery effect and frequency discrimination

The imagery effect and frequency discrimination

Memory for frequency: A comparison of two multiple-trace theories.

Judgments of relative frequency in relation to shifts of event frequencies: Evidence for a limited-capacity model.

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