The ranschburg effect: Repetition and guessing factors in short-term memory

Hinrichs, James V.; Mewaldt, Steven P.; Redding, Janet

doi:10.1016/s0022-5371(73)80061-1

Cited by 27 publications

(42 citation statements)

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“…In other words, increasing the likelihood of detecting and producing repeated items in recall apparently reduces the bias against guessing repeats when other items are forgotten. However, the within-sequence difference (2-5 vs. 3-6) in the magnitude of the Ranschburg effect obtained by Hinrichs et al (1973) did not replicate, suggesting no greater influence of repetitions in the embedding sequence on reducing the Ranschburg effect in later positions than on earlier positions. In contrast to earlier speCUlation, no evidence supporting a shift in guessing bias during recall of a single sequence was obtained.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

“…A "guessing hypothesis" has been proposed (Hinrichs, Mewaldt, & Redding, 1973) which contends that the Ranschburg effect is the result of a bias in the manner in which a subject guesses items he cannot remember. If an individual cannot store an entire sequence because its length exceeds his shortterm memory capacity, he may recall those items he was able to store and guess at the remainder.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…More generally, any tendency to avoid guessing previously recalled items will reduce recall performance on repeated items and improve performance on unrepeated items, resulting in an observed Ranschburg effect. Hinrichs et al (1973) attempted to manipulate the guessing strategy employed by the subject. They hypothesized that if subjects were exposed to many sequences containing repeated items other than the critical test items, they would be less likely to employ the restrictive guessing strategy.…”

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The Ranschburg effect: Modification of guessing strategies by context

Hinrichs

Mewaldt

1977

Bull. Psychon. Soc.

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A guessing strategy interpretation of the Ranschburg effect-poor recall of repeated items in a short sequence-was tested by manipulating repetition frequency in the surrounding sequence. Three groups of 32 college students were tested with high-, low·, and mixed-repetition structure lists. The usual Ranschburg effect was obtained in the low· repetition group, but no significant differences were found on the high-repetition group. Performance in the mixed-repetition structure group was intermediate, but comparison of high and low sublists within the mixed condition revealed nearly identical performance for both sublists, more similar to the separate high-repetition group than to the low group.The Ranschburg effect may be produced when subjects are required to recall immediately a short sequence containing at least one repeated item. The Ranschburg effect is defined as poorer recall of the repeated item, or of the experimental sequence containing the repeated item, compared to recall of a control sequence in which the item occurs only once. The items of particular interest within a given sequence (critical items) consist of both occurrences of the repeated item in experimental sequences and the unrepeated items occupying corresponding serial positions in control sequences. The earliest investigations of the Ranschburg effect have been summarized by McGeoch (1942), while more recent research and boundary conditions for the effect have been summarized in a scholarly review by Jahnke (1969).The major difficulty posed by the Ranschburg effect is to understand why the repeated items, which should be remembered better than control elements according to conventional laws of learning and memory, are in fact recalled less well. A "guessing hypothesis" has been proposed (Hinrichs, Mewaldt, & Redding, 1973) which contends that the Ranschburg effect is the result of a bias in the manner in which a subject guesses items he cannot remember. If an individual cannot store an entire sequence because its length exceeds his shortterm memory capacity, he may recall those items he was able to store and guess at the remainder. To maximize his performance, the subject will usually choose some type of guessing strategy, such as eliminating the items he is able to recall from the pool of possible items, in order to increase the probability of correctly guessing the remainder. If the presented sequence contained few or no repeats, the elimination strategy will enhance performance. However, if the item that the subject We are greatly endebted to Cheryl Connelly and Frederick Liewehr for their assistance. Requests for reprints should be sent to James V. Hinrichs, Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242. cannot recall is a second occurrence of a previously recalled item, and if he has eliminated items he has already recalled from the pool of possible responses, then the probability of correctly guessing the second occurrence will drop to zero, producing the Ranschburg effect. More generally, any tendency to avoid g...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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The Ranschburg effect: Modification of guessing strategies by context

Hinrichs

Mewaldt

1977

Bull. Psychon. Soc.

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“…A notable empirical example of this tendency is found in the Ranschberg effect, in which repeated items in a short list show performance decrements relative to unrepeated controls. One popular account of this phenomenon places its locus in subjects' tendencies to restrict their guesses only to items that have not yet been given as responses (see Hinrichs, Mewaldt, & Redding, 1973). Thus, even though a subject may correctly sample SM(j) given PM(j) , SM(j) may not be recovered if that response has been incorrectly recalled earlier during that trial.…”

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confidence: 99%

A feature model of immediate memory

1990

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A feature model of immediate memory is presented, and simulations are described. List items are characterized as multiattribute vectors that can be selectively overwritten by subsequent external events and by the ongoing stream of internal activity. Degraded primary memory vectors are compared with intact secondary memory vectors, and retrieval likelihood is computed as the ratio of similarities. The model is shown to account for the major modality-based phenomena of the immediate serial recall literature, including modality-based temporal grouping effects and the negative effects of phonological similarity. 251The ability to reconstruct recently presented information as it recedes backward in time is basic to a fully functioning cognitive system. The interpretation of spoken language, among other examples, requires the preservation of temporal order information, a task that is typically assumed to be a critical function of primary, or short-term, memory. This article describes a simulation model that handles a variety of phenomena characteristic of immediate retention. The model is based on an earlier descriptive framework (Nairne, 1988); its main appeal is to the composition of list traces in primary memory and to the manner in which trace composition might change as a function of interference from externally presented events and ongoing cognitive activities. The focus of the simulation studies is on modality-based effects in immediate memory. These effects are quite large and stable empirically, and their analysis exploits the feature-based properties of the model. In a later section, I apply the proposed mechanics to a range of other benchmark data in the immediate memory literature.Of the many variables that can affect performance in a task such as immediate serial recall, where subjects are required to reproduce short lists of items in the exact order of presentation, one of the more conspicuous is presentation modality. The modality effect refers to the superior recency performance that occurs for auditory, compared with visual, presentation. Typically, serial recall of auditory and visual lists leads to declining performance over serial position, but, for the last few serial positions, there is a relative auditory advantage (Conrad & Hull, 1968;Corballis, 1966;Craik, 1969;Murdock & Walker, 1969;Murray, 1966). The stimulus suffix effect is a related phenomenon, which is observed when an extra item, usually a word presented aloud, eliminates the modality effect by reducing the recency advantage that is found for auditory lists (Dallett, 1965).The presentation of list information aloud also interacts significantly with the organization of presentation: If a nine-item list is presented with the items in groups of three, separated by short pauses, auditory presentation leads to large grouping advantages, relative to visual presentation, and, within each group, there is a recency advantage for the last serial position (Frankish, 1985(Frankish, , 1989Ryan, 1969). In addition, under auditory presentation, increa...

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“…Rather, the Ranschburg effect is interpreted as a result of the guessing strategies that a subject follows when he/she is unable to remember an item (Hinrichs, Mewaldt, & Redding, 1973). This account assumes that the subject develops guessing strategies to improve his/her recall performance.…”

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The Ranschburg effect: The role of guessing strategies

Greene

1991

Memory & Cognition

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The Ranschburg effect refers to the finding of impaired serial recall of items repeated on a list. One account attributes this effect to the use of a strategy where subjects avoid using as guesses stimuli that they had recalled elsewhere on the list. Support for this interpretation is reported here. The Ranschburg effect is eliminated when subjects are instructed to avoid guessing. Also, the Ranschburg effect is found in partial report only when subjects are told that the crucial item occurred elsewhere on the list.Immediate serial recall of a list of items is impaired when an item is repeated on a list. This phenomenon, known as the Ranschburg effect, was introduced into the modem memory literature by Crowder and Melton (1965). Two important qualifications are that only recall of the second occurrence of a repeated item is generally impaired and that this effect is typically found only when one or more other items intervene between the two occurrences of a repeated stimulus (Crowder, 1968a). Thus, the Ranschburg effect violates two established principles of memory-namely, that repetition improves memory and that the beneficial effects of repetition improve as a function of spacing.Two approaches have generally been taken to explain this phenomenon. The first stresses the importance of output interference in memory. This approach claims that the emission of a stimulus as a response somehow makes a second occurrence of that stimulus harder to retrieve. There are several findings supporting the role of output processes. For example, although recall of the second occurrence is impaired when subjects recall a list of items in typical forward fashion, recall of the first occurrence may be impaired when subjects recall a list in backward order (Jahnke, 1969). No Ranschburg effect is found when subjects are given memory tests that do not require emission of an item twice, such as list recognition (Wolf & Jahnke, 1968) or probed recall of single items (Jahnke, 1970). Also, Ranschburg effects may be caused by response prefixes; when subjects have to emit a stimulus before recall, they are more likely to make errors if that stimulus also occurs on the list (Crowder, 1968b).A second approach does not deny the importance of output processes in this effect but claims that this is not truly a memory phenomenon at all. Rather, the Ranschburg effect is interpreted as a result of the guessing strategies that a subject follows when he/she is unable to remember

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The ranschburg effect: Repetition and guessing factors in short-term memory

Cited by 27 publications

References 16 publications

The Ranschburg effect: Modification of guessing strategies by context

The Ranschburg effect: Modification of guessing strategies by context

A feature model of immediate memory

The Ranschburg effect: The role of guessing strategies

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