Name Retrieval Research Articles

カテゴリー群化における典型性効果

To investigate typicality effect on category clustering, three lists were constructed with varying typicality but with equivalent familiarity. Each list was composed of 36 items, six examplars from each of six categories, which were kagu (furniture), yasai (vegetable), mushi (insect), tori (bird), doubutsu (animal), and dougu (tool). In Exp. I, 60 undergraduates learned the lists, and their free-recall data indicated that high typicality list was more clustered and better recalled. Experiment II, in which category named were presented either before or after list learning to 120 undergraduates, showed the same typicality effect as was found in Exp. I. Results suggest that the typicality effect obtained in Exp. I was not due to category name retrieval in list learning or in recall but due to chunking while learning the list.

Encoding variability and retention

The effects of encoding variability on retention were examined in three experiments. In Experiments 1 and 2, target words embedded in sentencees were presented three times, either in the same sentence or in different sentences. Encoding variability failed to increased either free or cued recall of the targets, nor did it reduce long term forgetting. In Experiment 3, phrases consisting of a class name and modifier were presented three times, with or without imagery instructions. The modifiers either remained the same or changed. Modifier variability had no overall effect on either immediate or delayed retrieval of the class names. Recall of modifiers was lower after variable than after constant encoding. It was concluded that an increase in the number of retrieval routes is not a sufficient condition of improved recall.

The development of the relation between letter-naming speed and reading ability

A discrete-trial reaction time methodology was employed in order to measure the speed with which two groups of first-grade children (one tested twice during the school year) named letters. The relation of letter-naming speed to reading ability, although statistically significant, was much smaller than that observed in previous research in which a continuous-list procedure was employed. It was suggested that this procedure inflates the correlation because it involves many other psychological processes in addition to name retrieval speed. A third-grade group also displayed a weak correlation, but the relationship was reasonably strong in a fifth-grade group. The presence of a strong relationship in groups as advanced in reading as fifth-graders is probably more indicative of differential experience with text than it is of a causal role for name retrieval speed in determining reading ability.

Odor identification by males and females: predictions vs performance

More than 200 males and females estimated the identifiability of 80 common odorous objects (e.g., chocolate, beer, mustard, rubber). The two genders agreed rather closely in their estimates. The groups also agreed closely in their relative judgements of whether males or females could identify the objects better. Both groups anticipated that males would be superior for only a small number of substances, mainly substances that seem stereotypically ‘male’ (e.g., cigar butts, beer, machine oil). The groups anticipated female superiority for not only stereotypically ‘female’ substances (e.g., Ivory soap, Johnson's baby powder, nail polish remover), but also for virtually all foods, including foods presumably consumed equally by both sexes (e.g., potato chips, Juicy Fruit gum, grape drink). The results suggested the existence of a second stereotype, namely that females will be superior at identifying all substances not clearly in the male domain. An experiment that explored the performance of 46 males and females over five sessions revealed general female superiority. The superiority extended to odors considered ‘male’. Males seemed educable and could apparently overcome their disadvantage eventually with merely some help in the retrieval of odor names. Blockage of retrieval seems a strong limiting factor in odor identification for females as well as for males. Irrespective of gender, when persons have the veridical name of a well-known odor made available by one or another means, they exhibit considerable talent at identifying objects by smell.

Processing and Memory Factors in Children's Reading Comprehension Skill

HESS, THOMAS M., and RADTKE, ROBERT C. Processing and Memory Factors in Children's Reading Comprehension Skill. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1981, 52, 479-488. The roles of verbal coding skills, processing efficiency, and memory ability in accounting for individual and developmental differences in reading comprehension skill were examined. Measures of automatic processing of phonological information, name retrieval, reading time, memory scanning efficiency, memory span for letter strings of high and low approximation to English, and story recall were obtained for children in grades 3-8. Regression and multivariate statistical methods were used to examine the influence of these measures on skill within a theoretical model of comprehension. Initial analyses indicated that semantic coding skills, scanning speed of working memory contents, and span low all accounted for significant skill variance. Further multivariate analyses suggested that coding and scanning speed were related to general processing efficiency and that some general memory ability factor, which differed across skill levels, was affecting performance on all 3 memory tasks. These results indicate that skill differences can arise through ability differences at 2 independent levels-processing speed and memoryand that general factors might be more important predictors of skill than specific operations.

Relationships between word decoding speed, general name-retrieval ability, and reading progress in first-grade children.

A discrete-trial reaction time methodology was employed in order to measurethe speed with which skilled and less-skilled readers named colors, pictures,numbers, letters, and words. Words were the only stimulus type that theskilled readers named more rapidly. The equality of naming times for colors,pictures, and numbers suggests that a general name retrieval deficit, suggestedby earlier studies of dyslexic children, does not appear to be characteristic ofless-skilled nondyslexic children. Instead, the marked word decoding speeddifference, in conjunction with the lack of a letter naming difference betweenthe two groups, supports previous research that has suggested that phonologi-cal analysis skills may be important determinants of early reading acquisi-tion.

Internal representation of the months

When questioned, many subjects reported thinking of the months of the year in terms of a spatial ‘form’. Experiment II demonstrated that the RT profile generated when subjects made centre-end or first/second half judgements about month positions was similar to that obtained for cued locations on a spatial array. This evidence for a linear representation contrasted with results from a forward-backward shift task (Experiment III) which suggested a directionally asymmetric circular representation. Retrieval of month names from cued locations on horizontal, vertical, or circular spatial arrays showed an effect of congruity of the external display and the subject's professed form (Experiment IV). There was an advantage for central locations in retrieval of month-digit and digit-month equivalences (Experiment V). Implications of these results for an account of the internal representation of the months are discussed.

Factors influencing the response latencies of subnormal children in naming pictures.

The times taken to name 56 drawings of objects on five separate occasions were analysed for 21 ESN(M) and 21 ESN(S) children, matched for picture-naming vocabulary. The ESN(S) group not only had a higher mean response latency but also showed greater inter- and intra-subject variance. Nine objects were selected whose names have a Thorndike-Lorge language frequency of 50 words per million or greater, and nine others were selected with a frequency of less than 50 words per million. Each object was drawn in two ways, one giving a two-dimensional outline with the addition of important detail, the other drawing also incorporating cues indicating the depth of the object. An analysis of variance of the children's latencies in naming the selected 36 pictures of 18 objects over five trials indicated that the method of drawing had no effect upon naming latencies. Pictures with high-frequency names were named faster than those with lower frequency names, the ESN(S) group showing a greater rate of increase in naming latency for the lower frequency words than the ESN(M) children. Results were discussed in terms of the Oldfield and Lachman models of lexical memory storage and of the search processes required for the retrieval of names.

Effects of frequency on retrieval from a semantic category

Retrieval of bird names as a function of frequency was compared for recall and for production. As with unrelated words, high-frequency names were about as easily retrieved by either method, but low-frequency names were recalled much better than they were produced. Failure to retrieve some of the very highest frequency names occurred with both retrieval methods, a finding that poses difficulty for some theories of memory.

Effect of inconsistent distinctiveness of artificial semantic features on retrieval speed

A purported universal of language is the generalization of distinctive features, for example, in phonology and semantics, within a language or an individual. This could be due to a tendency either to use or to ignore a feature depending on whether or not it has previously been distinctive. This mechanism is shown to operate in retrieval of well-learned artificial concept names. Several simple models of performance cannot account for this effect. The apparent inefficiency of possible mechanisms which could account for this result suggests that it may reflect a special predisposition.

First-Letter Clues in the Retrieval of Proper Names from Long-Term Memory

Each of four experiments required retrieval of proper names from long-term memory. In Exps. I and II a picture of a well-known person was presented on each of a series of discrete trials and S was to say, as rapidly as possible, the surname of the person pictured. on each trial of Exps. III and IV S was given a book title, or titles, and asked to say the surname of the author. In some of the conditions the first letter of the target name was provided, and in some it was not. The results of each experiment indicated a small, but reliable, facilitation of name recall by a first-letter clue; the magnitude of the effect was independent of the class of stimulus materials and of other experimental conditions. In Exp. III, three titles corresponding to each author were rank-ordered by S according to their degree of association with the author. Exp. IV indicated that the proportion correct was higher and that the latency of correct responses was shorter, when a single-title stimulus was of high association with the author than when that association was of low strength. The clue effect in the latter experiment did not interact with the degree of association between the title and the author. It was suggested that the clue effect was not larger because, for those names he was likely to recall, S had considerable first-letter information available before presentation of the clue.

Priming and the retrieval of names from long-term memory

Retrieval from long-term memory was investigated in a task in which S was shown a series of pictures of well-known people and asked to say the surname of the person pictured. For half of the pictures S had learned the correct name in a previous free-recall task, i.e., the name was primed. The results were interpreted to indicate that priming facilitated two aspects of retrieval from memory: search and recovery.

Record linkage

Special difficulties are encountered in devising reliable systems for searching and updating any large files of documents that must be identified primarily on the basis of names and other personal particulars. The underlying problem is that of making nearly maximum use of items of identifying information that are individually unreliable but that may collectively be of considerable discriminating power. Rules that can be applied generally to name retrieval systems have been developed In a methodological study of the linkage of vital and health records into family groupings for demographic research purposes. These rules are described, and the ways in which information utilization for matching may be optimized are discussed.