“…Whether this is due to an effect on particular encoding mechanisms (e.g., of self-referential encoding), or to generalised arousal or attentional effects is unclear at the present time. Alternative explanations in terms of memory mechanisms may be viable, however-for example, in terms of the "familiarity" process invoked within dualprocess models of recognition (e.g., Yonelinas, 2002) or in terms of the fast unitisation of voice/object information (e.g., Bader, Mecklinger, Hoppstadter, & Meyer, 2010). Our present findings do not allow us to distinguish between these various accounts, and this is a line of research that we are actively pursuing.…”
From a functionalist perspective, human memory should be attuned to information of adaptive value for one's survival and reproductive fitness. While evidence of sensitivity to survival-related information is growing, specific links between memory and information that could impact upon reproductive fitness have remained elusive. Here, in two experiments, we showed that memory in women is sensitive to male voice pitch, a sexually dimorphic cue important for mate choice because it not only serves as an indicator of genetic quality, but may also signal behavioural traits undesirable in a long-term partner. In Experiment 1, we report that women's visual object memory is significantly enhanced when an object's name is spoken during encoding in a masculinised (i.e., lower-pitch) versus feminised (i.e., higher-pitch) male voice, but that no analogous effect occurs when women listen to other women's voices. Experiment 2 replicated this pattern of results, additionally showing that lowering and raising male voice pitch enhanced and impaired women's memory, respectively, relative to a baseline (i.e., unmanipulated) voice condition. The modulatory effect of sexual dimorphism cues in the male voice may reveal a mate-choice adaptation within women's memory, sculpted by evolution in response to the dilemma posed by the double-edged qualities of male masculinity.
“…Whether this is due to an effect on particular encoding mechanisms (e.g., of self-referential encoding), or to generalised arousal or attentional effects is unclear at the present time. Alternative explanations in terms of memory mechanisms may be viable, however-for example, in terms of the "familiarity" process invoked within dualprocess models of recognition (e.g., Yonelinas, 2002) or in terms of the fast unitisation of voice/object information (e.g., Bader, Mecklinger, Hoppstadter, & Meyer, 2010). Our present findings do not allow us to distinguish between these various accounts, and this is a line of research that we are actively pursuing.…”
From a functionalist perspective, human memory should be attuned to information of adaptive value for one's survival and reproductive fitness. While evidence of sensitivity to survival-related information is growing, specific links between memory and information that could impact upon reproductive fitness have remained elusive. Here, in two experiments, we showed that memory in women is sensitive to male voice pitch, a sexually dimorphic cue important for mate choice because it not only serves as an indicator of genetic quality, but may also signal behavioural traits undesirable in a long-term partner. In Experiment 1, we report that women's visual object memory is significantly enhanced when an object's name is spoken during encoding in a masculinised (i.e., lower-pitch) versus feminised (i.e., higher-pitch) male voice, but that no analogous effect occurs when women listen to other women's voices. Experiment 2 replicated this pattern of results, additionally showing that lowering and raising male voice pitch enhanced and impaired women's memory, respectively, relative to a baseline (i.e., unmanipulated) voice condition. The modulatory effect of sexual dimorphism cues in the male voice may reveal a mate-choice adaptation within women's memory, sculpted by evolution in response to the dilemma posed by the double-edged qualities of male masculinity.
“…As indicated by the results from two ERP studies from our laboratory, investigating the retrieval of such type of novel compounds (Bader, Mecklinger, Hoppstädter, & Meyer, 2010;Wiegand, Bader, & Mecklinger, 2010), familiarity for novel conceptual units and single items is associated with different ERP signatures. Thus, the aim of the current study was two-fold.…”
“…For example, Yonelinas et al (1999) demonstrated greater familiarity for recognition of upright compared with inverted faces under the logic that upright faces can be treated as a unitized whole, whereas inverted faces must be processed as individual components (Searcy & Bartlett, 1996). Unitization effects have also been demonstrated in studies using ERPs to index familiarity and recollection, for example, with word pairs related by preexisting associations (e.g., traffic-jam; Rhodes & Donaldson, 2007 and unrelated word pairs joined through invented definitions (e.g., smoke-apple: a fruit maturing above flames; Bader et al, 2010). Consistent with this, the benefit of unitization has also been shown in amnesic patients who exhibit severely impaired recollection with relatively preserved familiarity.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Of particular interest here is the claim that familiarity may be able to contribute to associative recognition under conditions where multiple items have been processed in a "unitized" manner (e.g., Diana, den Boom, Yonelinas, & Ranganath, 2011;Bader, Mecklinger, Hoppstädter, & Meyer, 2010;Rhodes & Donaldson, 2007Quamme, Yonelinas, & Norman, 2007;Yonelinas, Kroll, Dobbins, & Soltani, 1999). Unitization occurs when previously separate items are encoded as a single coherent component (cf.…”
Abstract■ Episodic memory relies on both recollection and familiarity; why these processes are differentially engaged during retrieval remains unclear. Traditionally, recollection has been considered necessary for tasks requiring associative retrieval, whereas familiarity supports recognition of items. Recently, however, familiarity has been shown to contribute to associative recognition if stimuli are "unitized" at encoding (a single representation is created from multiple elements)-the "benefit" of unitization. Here, we ask if there is also a "cost" of unitization; are the elements of unitized representations less accessible via familiarity? We manipulated unitization during encoding and used ERPs to index familiarity and recollection at retrieval. The data revealed a selective reduction in the neural correlate of familiarity for individual words originally encoded in unitized compared with nonunitized word pairs. This finding reveals a measurable cost of unitization, suggesting that the nature of to-be-remembered stimuli is critical in determining whether familiarity contributes to episodic memory. ■
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