Item-specific Processing Research Articles

Dying to remember, remembering to survive: Mortality salience and survival processing

Processing items for their relevance to survival improves recall for those items relative to numerous other deep processing encoding techniques. Perhaps related, placing individuals in a mortality salient state has also been shown to enhance retention of items encoded after the morality salience manipulation (e.g., in a pleasantness rating task), a phenomenon we dubbed the “dying-to-remember” (DTR) effect. The experiments reported here further explored the effect and tested the possibility that the DTR effect is related to survival processing. Experiment 1 replicated the effect using different encoding tasks, demonstrating that the effect is not dependent on the pleasantness task. In Experiment 2 the DTR effect was associated with increases in item-specific processing, not relational processing, according to several indices. Experiment 3 replicated the main results of Experiment 2, and tested the effects of mortality salience and survival processing within the same experiment. The DTR effect and its associated difference in item-specific processing were completely eliminated when the encoding task required survival processing. These results are consistent with the interpretation that the mechanisms responsible for survival processing and DTR effects are overlapping.

Effect of Item-specific Processing and Relational Processing on Cross - Language False Memory among Less Proficient Chinese - English Bilinguals

In recent years,there has been an explosion of research on false memory with Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm(DRM).But few of these studies have involved bilingual participants and cross-linguistic effects in false memory.Furthermore,there were some mixed results between Sahlin,Harding Seamon's(2005) and Marmolejo,Diliberto-Macaluso Altarriba's(2009).In the present experiments,we used 16 DRM lists(8 English and 8 Chinese lists) as study materials and manipulated the DRM list lengths(7 item-list and 15 item-list)to explore the effect of different activation strength in encoding phase on cross-language false memory among less proficient Chinese-English bilinguals.2 experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of item-specific processing and relational processing on cross-language false memory:Experiment1 studied cross-language false memory under item-specific processing condition,namely the participants were instructed to recognize an item as the old item according to both the meaning and language of the item ;a 2× 2 × 3mixed design was used,with two within-subject variables(language congruence:the same languages,the different languages;list type:studied words,critical lures,unrelated words),one between-subject variable(list length:15item-list,7item-list).Experiment 2 studied cross-language false memory under relational processing condition,study materials and experiment procedure in Experiment 2 were same as that in experiment 1,the only difference was to emphasize the relational processing in experiment 2,namely the participants were asked to judge an item as the old item only according to the meaning regardless of its language.Results of 2 experiments indicated that:1)cross linguistic false recognition also existed among less proficient Chinese-English bilinguals;2) In item-specific processing condition,false recognition of critical lures was more higher in the same languages than different languages regardless of the list length.In relational processing condition,false recognition of critical lures was more higher in the different languages than the same language regardless of the list length;3) only in item-specific processing condition,false recognition of critical lures was more frequent in long list than that in short list,regardless of whether is the same language or different languages.The outcome of 2 experiments is accordance to activation/monitoring theory.

Adaptive memory: The survival scenario enhances item-specific processing relative to a moving scenario

Nairne, Thompson, and Pandeirada (2007) found that retention of words rated for their relevance to survival is superior to that of words encoded under numerous other deep processing conditions. They suggested that our memory systems might have evolved to confer an advantage for survival-relevant information. Burns, Burns, and Hwang (2011) suggested a two-process explanation of the proximate mechanisms responsible for the survival advantage. Whereas most control tasks encourage only one type of processing, the survival task encourages both item-specific and relational processing. They found that when control tasks encouraged both types of processing, the survival processing advantage was eliminated. However, none of their control conditions included non-survival scenarios (e.g., moving, vacation, etc.), so it is not clear how this two-process explanation would explain the survival advantage when scenarios are used as control conditions. The present experiments replicated the finding that the survival scenario improves recall relative to a moving scenario in both a between-lists and within-list design and also provided evidence that this difference was accompanied by an item-specific processing difference, not a difference in relational processing. The implications of these results for several existing accounts of the survival processing effect are discussed.

Negative affect promotes encoding of and memory for details at the expense of the gist: Affect, encoding, and false memories

I investigated whether negative affective states enhance encoding of and memory for item-specific information reducing false memories. Positive, negative, and neutral moods were induced, and participants then completed a Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) false-memory task. List items were presented in unique spatial locations or unique fonts to serve as measures for item-specific encoding. The negative mood conditions had more accurate memories for item-specific information, and they also had fewer false memories. The final experiment used a manipulation that drew attention to distinctive information, which aided learning for DRM words, but also promoted item-specific encoding. For the condition that promoted item-specific encoding, false memories were reduced for positive and neutral mood conditions to a rate similar to that of the negative mood condition. These experiments demonstrated that negative affective cues promote item-specific processing reducing false memories. People in positive and negative moods encode events differently creating different memories for the same event.

Spatial relations and spatial locations are dissociated within prefrontal and parietal cortex.

Item-specific spatial information is essential for interacting with objects and for binding multiple features of an object together. Spatial relational information is necessary for implicit tasks such as recognizing objects or scenes from different views but also for explicit reasoning about space such as planning a route with a map and for other distinctively human traits such as tool construction. To better understand how the brain supports these two different kinds of information, we used functional MRI to directly contrast the neural encoding and maintenance of spatial relations with that for item locations in equivalent visual scenes. We found a double dissociation between the two: whereas item-specific processing implicates a frontoparietal attention network, including the superior frontal sulcus and intraparietal sulcus, relational processing preferentially recruits a cognitive control network, particularly lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) and inferior parietal lobule. Moreover, pattern classification revealed that the actual meaning of the relation can be decoded within these same regions, most clearly in rostrolateral PFC, supporting a hierarchical, representational account of prefrontal organization.

Uncovering the Nature of Information Processing of Men and Women Online: The Comparison of Two Models Using the Think-Aloud Method

This paper compares two models predicting gender differences in information processing to determine if either of the models is more pertinent to goal-oriented Internet searches. The Selectivity Model (Meyers-Levy 1989) proposes that women make more comprehension effort than men whereas the Item-Specific/Relational Processing Model (Putrevu 2001) suggests that men and women differ primarily in their processing style, with men tending to use item-specific processing by focusing on product attributes and women tending to use relational processing by looking for interrelationships among multiple pieces of information. The study participants (106 total, 50% female) were asked to think aloud while performing one of two goal-oriented search tasks on a website. Their thoughts were then coded according to relevant categories by two independent analysts using Atlas TI software. Consistent with the Selectivity Model, women made more comprehension effort than did men. However, our hypotheses related to a difference in processing style between men and women received less support. Overall, the results help disentangle the two theories and provide website developers with a basis for creating sites that are suited to men's and women's distinctive information processing strategies.

Richer concepts are better remembered: number of features effects in free recall.

Many models of memory build in a term for encoding variability, the observation that there can be variability in the richness or extensiveness of processing at encoding, and that this variability has consequences for retrieval. In four experiments, we tested the expectation that encoding variability could be driven by the properties of the to-be-remembered item. Specifically, that concepts associated with more semantic features would be better remembered than concepts associated with fewer semantic features. Using feature listing norms we selected sets of items for which people tend to list higher numbers of features (high NoF) and items for which people tend to list lower numbers of features (low NoF). Results showed more accurate free recall for high NoF concepts than for low NoF concepts in expected memory tasks (Experiments 1–3) and also in an unexpected memory task (Experiment 4). This effect was not the result of associative chaining between study items (Experiment 3), and can be attributed to the amount of item-specific processing that occurs at study (Experiment 4). These results provide evidence that stimulus-specific differences in processing at encoding have consequences for explicit memory retrieval.

Neural correlates of relational and item-specific encoding during working and long-term memory in schizophrenia

Successful long-term memory (LTM) depends upon effective control of information in working memory (WM), and there is evidence that both WM and LTM are impaired by schizophrenia. This study tests the hypothesis that LTM deficits in schizophrenia may result from impaired control of relational processing in WM due to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) dysfunction. fMRI was performed on 19 healthy controls and 20 patients with schizophrenia during WM tasks emphasizing relational (reorder trials) versus item-specific (rehearse trials) processing. WM activity was also examined with respect to LTM recognition on a task administered outside the scanner. Receiver operator characteristic analysis assessed familiarity and recollection components of LTM. Patients showed a disproportionate familiarity deficit for reorder versus rehearse trials against a background of generalized LTM impairments. Relational processing during WM led to DLPFC activation in both groups. However, this activation was less focal in patients than in controls, and patients with more severe negative symptoms showed less of a DLPFC increase. fMRI analysis of subsequent recognition performance revealed a group by condition interaction. High LTM for reorder versus rehearse trials was associated with bilateral DLPFC activation in controls, but not in patients who activated the left middle temporal and inferior occipital gyrus. Results indicate that although patients can activate the DLPFC on a structured relational WM task, this activation is less focal and does not translate to high retrieval success, suggesting a disruption in the interaction between WM and LTM processes in schizophrenia.

Knowledge affords distinctive processing in memory

The effect of knowledge on memory generally is processing. However, both conceptual and empirical reasons exist to suspect that the organizational account is incomplete. Recently a revised version of that account has been proposed under the rubric of distinctiveness theory ( Rawson & Van Overschelde, 2008). The goal of the experiments reported here was to extend the distinctiveness theory to the effect of knowledge on event-based as well as item-based memory. High and low knowledge individuals were shown two lists of items, each containing domain relevant items and control items. Various orienting tasks were performed across the experiments, which in conjunction with type of material and level of knowledge defined distinctive processing. The tests required recognition of items from the second of the two lists in the presence of lures drawn from the first list as well as novel items. For domain relevant material, hits and false alarms were a direct function of knowledge, the rates of which were predicted successfully by the distinctiveness theory. Most current theories attribute the effect of knowledge on memory to organizational processing. The results of these experiments illustrate the importance of item-specific processing to supplement organizational processing in order to adequately explain skilled memory.

Synesthesia and memory: Color congruency, von Restorff, and false memory effects.

In the current study, we explored the influence of synesthesia on memory for word lists. We tested 10 grapheme-color synesthetes who reported an experience of color when reading letters or words. We replicated a previous finding that memory is compromised when synesthetic color is incongruent with perceptual color. Beyond this, we found that, although their memory for word lists was superior overall, synesthetes did not exhibit typical color- or semantic-defined von Restorff isolation effects (von Restorff, 1933) compared with control participants. Moreover, our synesthetes exhibited a reduced Deese-Roediger-McDermott false memory effect (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995). Taken as a whole, these findings are consistent with the idea that color-grapheme synesthesia can lead people to place a greater emphasis on item-specific processing and surface form characteristics of words in a list (e.g., the letters that make them up) relative to relational processing and more meaning-based processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Adaptive memory: Determining the proximate mechanisms responsible for the memorial advantages of survival processing.

J. S. Nairne, S. R. Thompson, and J. N. S. Pandeirada (2007) suggested that our memory systems may have evolved to help us remember fitness-relevant information and showed that retention of words rated for their relevance to survival is superior to that of words encoded under other deep processing conditions. The authors present 4 experiments that uncover the proximate mechanisms likely responsible. The authors obtained a recall advantage for survival processing compared with conditions that promoted only item-specific processing or only relational processing. This effect was eliminated when control conditions encouraged both item-specific and relational processing. Data from separate measures of item-specific and relational processing generally were consistent with the view that the memorial advantage for survival processing results from the encoding of both types of processing. Although the present study suggests the proximate mechanisms for the effect, the authors argue that survival processing may be fundamentally different from other memory phenomena for which item-specific and relational processing differences have been implicated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Affect influences false memories at encoding: Evidence from recognition data.

Memory is susceptible to illusions in the form of false memories. Prior research found, however, that sad moods reduce false memories. The current experiment had two goals: (1) to determine whether affect influences retrieval processes, and (2) to determine whether affect influences the strength and the persistence of false memories. Happy or sad moods were induced either before or after learning word lists designed to produce false memories. Control groups did not experience a mood induction. We found that sad moods reduced false memories only when induced before learning. Signal detection analyses confirmed that sad moods induced prior to learning reduced activation of nonpresented critical lures suggesting that they came to mind less often. Affective states, however, did not influence retrieval effects. We conclude that negative affective states promote item-specific processing, which reduces false memories in a similar way as using an explicitly guided cognitive control strategy.

The Effects of Mood and Advertising Context on Ad Memory and Evaluations: The Case of a Competitive and a Non-Competitive Ad Context

This study examines the joint effects of mood and ad context on ad memory and evaluations. It is argued that mood (negative vs. positive) and ad context (competitive vs. non-competitive) both influence the type of processing (item-specific vs. relational processing) adopted by message recipients. As a result, mood and ad context are expected to interact to influence recall of advertising claims and as well as evaluations of advertising. Results of a controlled experiment provided support for the hypotheses. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. (Keywords: mood, information processing, memory, item-specific processing, relational processing, affect-as-information)

The First Does the Work, But the Third Time's the Charm: The Effects of Massed Repetition on Episodic Encoding of Multimodal Face–Name Associations

In social interactions, it is often necessary to rapidly encode the association between visually presented faces and auditorily presented names. The present study used event-related potentials to examine the neural correlates of associative encoding for multimodal face-name pairs. We assessed study-phase processes leading to high-confidence recognition of correct pairs (and consistent rejection of recombined foils) as compared to lower-confidence recognition of correct pairs (with inconsistent rejection of recombined foils) and recognition failures (misses). Both high- and low-confidence retrieval of face-name pairs were associated with study-phase activity suggestive of item-specific processing of the face (posterior inferior temporal negativity) and name (fronto-central negativity). However, only those pairs later retrieved with high confidence recruited a sustained centro-parietal positivity that an ancillary localizer task suggested may index an association-unique process. Additionally, we examined how these processes were influenced by massed repetition, a mnemonic strategy commonly employed in everyday situations to improve face-name memory. Differences in subsequent memory effects across repetitions suggested that associative encoding was strongest at the initial presentation, and thus, that the initial presentation has the greatest impact on memory formation. Yet, exploratory analyses suggested that the third presentation may have benefited later memory by providing an opportunity for extended processing of the name. Thus, although encoding of the initial presentation was critical for establishing a strong association, the extent to which processing was sustained across subsequent immediate (massed) presentations may provide additional encoding support that serves to differentiate face-name pairs from similar (recombined) pairs by providing additional encoding opportunities for the less dominant stimulus dimension (i.e., name).

The effects of pregnancy on memory: Recall is worse but recognition is not

Women who are pregnant frequently complain of memory problems. Past research suggests that pregnancy is associated with a measurable decline when memory is tested using free recall but not when memory is tested using recognition. However, no prior studies on recognition memory tested performance across two time periods (e.g., pregnant vs. postpartum). A repeated measures design has greater power than a between-subject design to detect any difference in recognition memory performance that might exist. We administered a standardized memory test to 37 women during pregnancy and then again during the postpartum period 3 to 12 months later. Our results show that during pregnancy free-recall performance was somewhat worse (in agreement with prior research) than postpartum but that recognition performance was not worse and was, if anything, slightly enhanced. These results weigh against a purely biological explanation of the memory difficulties associated with pregnancy and instead point to a strategic explanation. In particular, the results suggest that when women are pregnant they rely more on item-specific processing (which can enhance recognition) but when they are no longer pregnant they rely more on relational processing (which enhances recall).

Retrieval-induced forgetting of negative stimuli: The role of emotional intensity

Repeatedly retrieving a subset of previously studied items can cause forgetting of related non-retrieved material. We examined whether such retrieval-induced forgetting holds also for negative material. Participants studied neutral and negative stimuli and then repeatedly retrieved a subset of the neutral material. Later, a recall test was conducted in which participants were asked to recall all previously studied items. On average, retrieval practice on the neutral items caused the same amount of forgetting for neutral and negative items, indicating that the emotionality of material does not affect retrieval-induced forgetting. More detailed analysis, however, revealed that the forgetting of negative items decreased with both the emotional intensity of a negative item and the dispositional negative affectivity of a participant. The decreases in retrieval-induced forgetting may have been driven by item-specific processing of material, which is known to be enhanced for highly negative stimuli and participants high in dispositional negative affectivity and to reduce or even eliminate retrieval-induced forgetting.

Decomposing the memory processes contributing to enactment effects by multinomial modelling

Typically, symbolic enactment increases memory for verb-object phrases. When investigating which processes constitute this enactment effect, a difficulty is that observable effects in standard memory tests are ambiguous. The present work presents a multinomial model that decomposes memory performance into (a) a retrieval parameter, (b) a parameter for integration of a verb-object phrase, and (c) one for item-specific processing. We tested whether enactment strengthens the item-specific processing of the object in addition to that of the verb, and whether enactment strengthens the integration of verbs and objects on top of item-specific processing. Memory after enactment was compared to that after verbal learning and after imagery. Our findings show that, indeed, all three processes are increased after enactment as compared to verbal learning. In addition, retrieval is hindered by enactment.

Investigating the mechanisms fuelling reduced false recall of emotional material

We investigated false memory for emotional word lists using the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm. Participants viewed negative, positive, and neutral lists of semantic associates matched on backward associate strength (BAS) and word frequency and recalled as many words as they could remember after each list was presented. Results from two experiments indicated that while participants did create false memories for emotional word lists, neutral lists resulted in the highest false and true recall rates. Experiment 2 used an inclusion task that required participants to recall any words that came to mind and indicate whether the words had actually been presented. The results suggest that emotional words decrease false memories, in part, by encouraging item-specific processing, which consequently impairs the acquisition of relational information and/or the spread of activation to the critical lure.

The influences of item-specific and relational processing on the part-list cuing effect

記憶内の情報の一部を検索手がかりとして与えられると，それ以外の情報が思い出しにくくなる．この現象は，リスト内手がかり効果と呼ばれている．本研究では，リスト内手がかり効果が検索抑制によって生じているのかを調べるために，符号化方略を操作した．実験参加者は5カテゴリ，6項目ずつの計30項目からなる学習リストを記銘し，連続して呈示される二つの項目の相違点か類似点のいずれかを判断した．その後，手がかり群は連続呈示された2項目のうちの一方を残りの項目(非手がかり項目)を再生するための手がかりとして与えられ，それらを読み上げた．統制群は4桁の数字を呈示され，それらを読み上げた．その後，手がかり群は非手がかり項目だけを再生し，統制群はすべての項目を再生した．その結果，相違点判断群では，非手がかり項目の再生率は統制群より手がかり群のほうが低く，リスト内手がかり効果が認められた．一方，類似点判断群では，統制群と手がかり群の間に差はなく，リスト内手がかり効果が認められなかった．これらの結果は，リスト内手がかり効果の検索抑制説を支持するものであるといえる．

An Isolation Effect in Serial Memory for Spatial Information

This paper reports the first demonstration of an isolation effect or von Restorff effect (von Restorff, 1933) in the context of a spatial-memory task: Short-term serial recall was enhanced for both the location and the serial position of one red dot presented amongst a sequence of otherwise black dots. When the serial position of the isolate was fixed, the spatial isolation effect only emerged when participants received a control block of trials before the block of isolation trials (Experiment 1). However, when the serial position of the isolate was varied across isolation trials, an isolation effect was still produced regardless of condition order (Experiment 2). It is suggested that both temporal grouping strategies and greater item-specific processing may have contributed to the enhanced retention of the isolate.