Serial-position effects for lures in short-term recognition memory

Johns, Elizabeth E.; Mewhort, D. J. K.

doi:10.3758/s13423-011-0137-2

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 27 publications

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“…The novel and more interesting finding was that the serial position function for the lures showed the same pattern: Lures that were highly similar to more recently presented memory set items had shorter correct rejection RTs than did lures that were highly similar to less recent memory set items. Although some versions of global-familiarity models might predict the reverse result (see Johns & Mewhort, 2011), such is not the case for the EBRW model. In particular, a fundamental component of Nosofsky et al's EBRW modeling involved the assumption that whereas memory strength of study list items decreased with lag, so did memorial sensitivity-that is, the ability to discriminate between memory set items and high-similarity lures.…”

Section: Other Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 92%

The structure of short-term memory scanning: an investigation using response time distribution models

2012

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A classic question in cognitive psychology concerns the nature of memory search in short-term recognition. Despite its long history of investigation, however, there is still no consensus on whether memory search takes place serially or in parallel or is based on global access. In the present investigation, we formalize a variety of models designed to account for detailed response time distribution data in the classic Sternberg (Science 153: 652-654, 1966) memory-scanning task. The models vary in their mental architectures (serial exhaustive, parallel self-terminating, and global access). Furthermore, the component processes within the architectures that make match/mismatch decisions are formalized as linear ballistic accumulators (LBAs). In fast presentation rate conditions, the parallel and global access models provide far better accounts of the data than does the serial model. LBA drift rates are found to depend almost solely on the lag between study items and test probes, whereas response thresholds change with memory set size. Under slow presentation rate conditions, even simple versions of the serial-exhaustive model provide accounts of the data that are as good as those of the parallel and global access models. We provide alternative interpretations of the results in our General Discussion.Keywords Short term memory . Response time models . Math modeling and model selection . Serial position functionsIn this article, we revisit and examine from a new perspective the Sternberg (1966) short-term memory-scanning paradigm, perhaps the most venerable of all recognition memory response time (RT) tasks. In the Sternberg paradigm, participants are presented with a brief list of study items (the memory set), followed by a test item (the probe). The task is to judge, as rapidly as possible while minimizing errors, whether the probe is a member of the memory set. Sternberg's classic result was that mean RT was an approximately linearly increasing function of memory set size. Furthermore, the slope of the mean RT function for positive probes (i.e., probes that are members of the memory set) was equal to the slope for negative probes. This pattern of results led Sternberg to suggest his classic serial-exhaustive model of short-term memory search. Sternberg's (1966) article set into motion the modern study of memory-based information processing. Since the publication of his article, the original paradigm and variants of the paradigm have been tested innumerable times, and a wide variety of different mathematical models have been developed to account for performance in the task (for a review of many of these models, see Townsend & Ashby, 1983).Despite the wide variety of different formal models of short-term memory search that have been considered, it is surprising that there have been relatively few attempts to contrast them by considering their ability to account for RT distribution data. Indeed, we are not aware of any studies that have engaged in competitive testing of fully parameterized versions of the m...

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Section: Other Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 92%

The structure of short-term memory scanning: an investigation using response time distribution models

2012

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Implicit learning is order dependent

Jamieson

Vokey

Mewhort

2015

Psychological Research

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We report two experiments using the artificial-grammar task that demonstrate order dependence in implicit learning. Studying grammatical training strings in different orders did not affect participants' discrimination of grammatical from ungrammatical test strings, but it did affect their judgments about specific test strings. Current accounts of learning in the artificial-grammar task focus on category-level discrimination and largely ignore item-level discrimination. Hence, the results highlight the importance of moving theory from a category- to an item-level of analysis and point to a new way to evaluate and to refine accounts of implicit learning.

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In Defence of High-Speed Memory Scanning

Sternberg

2016

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

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Serial-position effects for lures in short-term recognition memory

Cited by 3 publications

References 27 publications

The structure of short-term memory scanning: an investigation using response time distribution models

The structure of short-term memory scanning: an investigation using response time distribution models

Implicit learning is order dependent

In Defence of High-Speed Memory Scanning

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