The biasing effect of verbal labels on memory for ambiguous figures in patients with progressive dementia

Abstract

This experiment investigated the effects of verbal labels on recognition memory for ambiguous visual figures in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), patients with Huntington's disease (HD), and matched normal control subjects. The study employed ambiguous figures that could be interpreted in two different ways. During the study phase each figure was presented together with a verbal label that corresponded to one interpretation of the figure. After a 30-min retention interval a recognition memory test was given during which the study figures and distractor figures were presented one at a time without verbal labels. For each study figure two distractor figures were employed, each corresponding to a different interpretation of the study figure. The patients' overall recognition memory performance was severely impaired compared to control subjects. However, all subject groups tended to produce responses and response latencies to distractor items that were consistent with the verbal labels presented during the study phase. This bias effect occurred in the AD patients despite the fact that their recognition memory performance was at chance level. Indeed, there was no significant difference in the bias evidenced by the AD and HD patients and their respective matched control subjects. The bias effects were obtained in an explicit memory task, and the findings are discussed in terms of unconscious influences on explicit memory processes. (JINS, 1995, I, 271–280.)

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“…Initially demonstrated more than 80 years ago, Carmichael, Hogan, and Walter (1932) presented ambiguous line drawings (e.g., two circles joined by a straight line) accompanied by different labels (barbell, pair of binoculars) and found that the subsequent drawings produced by the subjects (from memory) were biased in the direction of the label. Subsequent work revealed that words also influence memory at an implicit level (Ostergaard, Heindel, & Paulsen, 1995), in that such distortions can occur whether or not one remembers previously seeing the label. There is also evidence that labels can influence quantitative judgments.…”