Matching Items (4)
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- All Subjects: Memory
- Creators: Brewer, Gene A.
Description
An emerging literature on the relation between memory and importance has shown that people are able to selectively remember information that is more, relative to less important. Researchers in this field have operationalized importance by assigning value to the different information that participants are asked to study and remember. In the present investigation I developed two experiments, using a slightly altered value-directed-remembering (VDR) paradigm, to investigate whether and how value modifies the dynamics of memory organization and search. Moreover, I asked participants to perform a surprise final free recall task in order to examine the effects of value in the recall dynamics of final free recall. In Experiment 1, I compared the recall dynamics of delayed and final free recall between a control and a value condition, in the latter of which numbers appeared next to words, in random order, denoting the value of remembering each word during recall. In Experiment 2, I manipulated the order of presentation of the values by adding an ascending and a descending condition where values were presented in either an ascending or a descending order, respectively. Overall, my results indicated that value affected several measures of delayed and final free recall, without, in most cases, taking away the serial position effects on those same measures.
ContributorsStefanidi, Aikaterini (Author) / Brewer, Gene A. (Thesis advisor) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Goldinger, Stephen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Current theoretical debate, crossing the bounds of memory theory and mental imagery, surrounds the role of eye movements in successful encoding and retrieval. Although the eyes have been shown to revisit previously-viewed locations during retrieval, the functional role of these saccades is not known. Understanding the potential role of eye movements may help address classic questions in recognition memory. Specifically, are episodic traces rich and detailed, characterized by a single strength-driven recognition process, or are they better described by two separate processes, one for vague information and one for the retrieval of detail? Three experiments are reported, in which participants encoded audio-visual information while completing controlled patterns of eye movements. By presenting information in four sources (i.e., voices), assessments of specific and partial source memory were measured at retrieval. Across experiments, participants' eye movements at test were manipulated. Experiment 1 allowed free viewing, Experiment 2 required externally-cued fixations to previously-relevant (or irrelevant) screen locations, and Experiment 3 required externally-cued new or familiar oculomotor patterns to multiple screen locations in succession. Although eye movements were spontaneously reinstated when gaze was unconstrained during retrieval (Experiment 1), externally-cueing participants to re-engage in fixations or oculomotor patterns from encoding (Experiments 2 and 3) did not enhance retrieval. Across all experiments, participants' memories were well-described by signal-detection models of memory. Source retrieval was characterized by a continuous process, with evidence that source retrieval occurred following item memory failures, and additional evidence that participants partially recollected source, in the absence of specific item retrieval. Pupillometry provided an unbiased metric by which to compute receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, which were consistently curvilinear (but linear in z-space), supporting signal-detection predictions over those from dual-process theories. Implications for theoretical views of memory representations are discussed.
ContributorsPapesh, Megan H (Author) / Goldinger, Stephen D (Thesis advisor) / Brewer, Gene A. (Committee member) / Reichle, Erik D. (Committee member) / Homa, Donald (Committee member) / Glenberg, Arthur M. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The present study examined the effect of value-directed encoding on recognition memory and how various divided attention tasks at encoding alter value-directed remembering. In the first experiment, participants encoded words that were assigned either high or low point values in multiple study-test phases. The points corresponded to the value the participants could earn by successfully recognizing the words in an upcoming recognition memory task. Importantly, participants were instructed that their goal was to maximize their score in this memory task. The second experiment was modified such that while studying the words participants simultaneously completed a divided attention task (either articulatory suppression or random number generation). The third experiment used a non-verbal tone detection divided attention task (easy or difficult versions). Subjective states of recollection (i.e., “Remember”) and familiarity (i.e., “Know”) were assessed at retrieval in all experiments. In Experiment 1, high value words were recognized more effectively than low value words, and this difference was primarily driven by increases in “Remember” responses with no difference in “Know” responses. In Experiment 2, the pattern of subjective judgment results from the articulatory suppression condition replicated Experiment 1. However, in the random number generation condition, the effect of value on recognition memory was lost. This same pattern of results was found in Experiment 3 which implemented a different variant of the divided attention task. Overall, these data suggest that executive processes are used when encoding valuable information and that value-directed improvements to memory are not merely the result of differential rehearsal.
ContributorsElliott, Blake L (Author) / Brewer, Gene A. (Thesis advisor) / McClure, Samuel M. (Committee member) / Fine, Justin M (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Working memory capacity and fluid intelligence are important predictors of performance in educational settings. Thus, understanding the processes underlying the relation between working memory capacity and fluid intelligence is important. Three large scale individual differences experiments were conducted to determine the mechanisms underlying the relation between working memory capacity and fluid intelligence. Experiments 1 and 2 were designed to assess whether individual differences in strategic behavior contribute to the variance shared between working memory capacity and fluid intelligence. In Experiment 3, competing theories for describing the underlying processes (cognitive vs. strategy) were evaluated in a comprehensive examination of potential underlying mechanisms. These data help inform existing theories about the mechanisms underlying the relation between WMC and gF. However, these data also indicate that the current theoretical model of the shared variance between WMC and gF would need to be revised to account for the data in Experiment 3. Possible sources of misfit are considered in the discussion along with a consideration of the theoretical implications of observing those relations in the Experiment 3 data.
ContributorsWingert, Kimberly Marie (Author) / Brewer, Gene A. (Thesis advisor) / McNamara, Danielle (Thesis advisor) / McClure, Samuel (Committee member) / Redick, Thomas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018