Multiple-item Recognition Learning Research Articles

Frequency judgments by young and elderly adults for relevant stimuli with simultaneously present irrelevant stimuli.

Young and elderly adults judged the frequency of occurrence of right words (relevant information) and wrong words (irrelevant information) that had varying numbers of exposure in a multiple-item recognition learning study list. Elderly adults gave lower frequency values to right words than did young adults but only when each right word was accompanied by more than one wrong word in the study list. This outcome was attributed to an age difference in the distractability created by the presence of irrelevant sources of information. By contrast no age difference was found for the frequency judgments given to wrong words, words that presumably are processed at a superficial level by elderly adults as well as young adults.

Effects of imagery on individual item identifications and frequency judgments in multiple-item recognition learning.

Effects of imagery on individual item identifications and frequency judgments in multiple-item recognition learning.

Effects of imagery on individual item identifications and frequency judgments in multiple-item recognition learning.

Effects of imagery on individual item identifications and frequency judgments in multiple-item recognition learning.

Item identification following varying presentations of pairs on a heterogeneous multiple-item recognition learning task.

Item identification following varying presentations of pairs on a heterogeneous multiple-item recognition learning task.

Item identification following varying presentations of pairs on a heterogeneous multiple-item recognition learning task.

Item identification following varying presentations of pairs on a heterogeneous multiple-item recognition learning task.

Frequency judgments of individual items after varying exposures in a multiple-item recognition learning list

Sets of pairs for a multiple-item recognition learning task varied in their number of exposures (one, two, and four) during a single extended study trial. The test phase required frequency of exposure judgments of individual items (i.e., prior right and wrong items). In agreement with frequency analyses of multiple-item recognition learning, frequency judgments of right items were greater than judgments of wrong items at each exposure level. Judgments of both item types increased as the number of pretest exposures increased, and the disparity between item types also increased with increases in exposure. Individual differences in frequency judgments were greater for wrong items than for right items.

Instructions and processing of right vs. wrong items in multiple-item recognition learning

Recognition of individual items after one, two, or four study trials on paired right (R) and wrong (W) items was contrasted for subjects expecting a standard paired R-W item test and subjects expecting an individual item test. Expecting to be tested on individual items resulted in less disparity between R and W items in terms of their recognizability as prior study, or old, items and in more false recognitions of W items as having functioned as prior R items. Informing subjects about the precise nature of their individual item test presumably diminishes the distinction between R and W items as nominally relevant and irrelevant sources of informational input, respectively.

False Recognition of Synonyms of Right and Wrong Items in Multiple-Item Recognition Learning

The hypothesis that right items are processed at a featurally deeper level than wrong items was tested. After one, two, or four study trials on a list of paired right and wrong items, subjects were asked to decide whether individual items, including new ones that were synonyms of the prior ones or unrelated to them, were old or new and, if old, had been right or wrong. A false-recognition effect was found for synonyms of both right and wrong items, suggesting that wrong items, as well as right, are processed at a semantic level. However, that effect took more study trials to appear for synonyms of wrong items, reflecting the disparity between right and wrong items in the rates at which their features accrue frequency units. Implicit in Ekstrand, Wallace, and Underwood's (1966) frequency theory of verbal-discrimination learning - that is to say, multiple-item recognition learning - is the assumption that the processing of right items does not differ qualitatively from the processing of wrong items. Processing consists of representational and/or rehearsal responses to items whether they function as right or wrong in the pairs. That is, the processing of right items is distinguishable from the processing of wrong items only in terms of the greater number of responses elicited by right items. It is intuitively ap

Item identifications following varying study trials on a multiple-item recognition learning task.

Item identifications following varying study trials on a multiple-item recognition learning task.

Item identifications following varying study trials on a multiple-item recognition learning task.

Item identifications following varying study trials on a multiple-item recognition learning task.

Pronunciation and individual item identifications in multiple-item recognition learning

Item identifications were tested following either pronunciation or no pronunciation of intrapair R and W members of a prior study list. Pronunciation had no effect on W items in terms of identifying either their oldness or their prior pairwise function. However, pronunciation adversely affected identifications of R items in terms of both their oldness and their prior pairwise function. The results were interpreted in terms of both a frequency model and a depth of processing model.

Differential processing of bilingual right and wrong items in multiple-item recognition learning.

Differential processing of bilingual right and wrong items in multiple-item recognition learning.

Differential processing of bilingual right and wrong items in multiple-item recognition learning.

Differential processing of bilingual right and wrong items in multiple-item recognition learning.

Schematic exemplars as items in multiple-item recognition learning

Schematically related dot patterns (i.e., distortions of a common prototype) were employed as either the right items or the wrong items of a multiple-item recognition learning task. Relative to a control list containing unrelated items, the presence of related right items yielded facilitated performance, but only early in practice. By contrast, the presence of related wrong items yielded an inhibitory effect early in practice. The results suggested that shared features are more likely to be extracted from the information present in right items than from the information present in wrong items.