Organization In Recall Research Articles

Associating map features and related prose in memory

The purpose of this research was to investigate the conjoint retention of spatial and linguistic information in an instructional context. We presented learners with a prose passage that included 20 general nouns as target concepts (from the Battig & Montague, 1969, category norms). Reference maps supporting this passage contained 10 high-frequency specific nouns as exemplars of 10 of the 20 general concepts, and 10 exemplars that learners generated for depiction on the map. Results from measures of map and prose memory indicated that subjects producing idiosyncratic exemplars of the general prose concepts and placing them logically within the map space retained the most perceptual map information and conceptual passage information. Data on order of recall suggested that subjects who viewed intact maps as they processed the prose were able to rely on both the map structure and the serial order of the original passage for free recall. However, subjects viewing lists of identical map features showed a deficiency in image-based processing, relying almost exclusively on passage structure for organization of free recall. Finally, when subjects generated map features and their spatial locations they exhibited superior locational accuracy at map reconstruction. This study supports the conjoint retention hypothesis which states that the probability of recalling information from maps and related prose is predictable directly from the trace strength of jointly encoded imaginal and verbal memory representations.

Test Expectancy and Individual-Item versus Relational Processing

The effects of recall and recognition test expectancies were evaluated as a function of category size and type of memory test. Small categories were better recognized than large categories, and large categories were better recalled than small categories. However, the effects of category size and test expectancy were additive on both recall and recognition tests. In addition, a recall test expectancy led to greater organization in recall and a greater probability of recalling items from recalled categories than a recognition test expectancy. The results were consistent with the hypothesis that a recall test expectancy leads to greater relational and individual-item processing than a recognition test expectancy.

Visual and semantic organization in picture recall

Frost (1971, 1972) demonstrated that subjects can organize pictures by using either visual features or semantic features of the items presented. For the present study, a set of pictures was constructed that could be organized visually and semantically. The subjects viewed these pictures at either a fast rate (1.5 sec/item) or a slow rate (5 sec/item) of presentation. The subjects expected a recognition task, which would enhance attention to visual detail. Clustering by visual (spatial orientation) and semantic (taxonomic category) categories on an unexpected recall task was measured. At the fast presentation rate, semantic and visual clustering occurred at equal levels, but when presentation rate was decreased (longer presentation times), visual clustering decreased and semantic clustering increased. These results are discussed in terms of the changing representation of picture information as a function of study time.

Measurement of Visual Cluster

The cluster continuum is described, along with how to measure degree of cluster and how to generate stimuli that vary along the continuum. Five experiments were performed on cluster discrimination and rating, numerosity estimation, pattern discriminability, and random generation. Difference thresholds were obtained for discrimination between random and clustered patterns, and ratings exhibited a power function with respect to cluster values of the stimuli. Numerosity estimates decreased with increasing degree of cluster, and random patterns were easier to discriminate than clustered ones. When subjects were asked to arrange items so that they appeared random, they erred on the side of regularity. The cluster continuum was discussed in relation to the distribution of living organisms and to the ecological approach of Gibson. The cluster metric was compared with the measures used in the study of response organization in free recall.

The role of conceptual knowledge and metamemory in the development of organizational processes in memory

The present study investigated the relationship between developmental shifts in the organization of materials and developmental changes in deliberate strategy use. Second and fourth grade children were presented with clusterable sort/recall lists representing the factorial combinations of high and low interitem association, and high and low category relatedness. Strategy use in the task was rated by the experimenter and also assessed via self reports. General and task-related strategy knowledge (metamemory) was also examined. Second graders displayed more category clustering during recall for highly associated items than for weakly associated items, whereas older children's recall organization (but not recall) was unaffected by this organizational dimension. Correlations among measures of metamemory and organizational behavior indicated that second graders in general were unaware of the importance of categorization strategies for facilitation of recall. On the other hand, sorting during study and task-related metamemory were the most important predictors of fourth graders' recall performance, thus indicating that most fourth graders used categorization strategies deliberately.

Subjective and categorical organization of recall during posthypnotic amnesia.

Subjective and categorical organization of recall during posthypnotic amnesia.

Hypermnesia and the organization of recall

In this study, the role of organizational processes in hypermnesia was investigated. Subjects were given 40 simple riddles and asked to recall their answers on each of five consecutive recall trials. Two measures of organization, based on interitem response times during recall or on repetition of item pairings between successive recall trials, were used. The two measures yielded comparable findings. Total recall and organized recall increased across recall trials, but unorganized recall did not. The findings support the hypothesis that the construction of a relatively stable, interitem organizational scheme is important for the growth of recall. It was suggested that organizational processes may contribute to the maintenance of items once recalled rather than to their initial retrieval.

Sequence Memory and Organization in Recall of Black Third and Fifth Graders

Children learning to read rely on basic memory processes. Episodic memory, for example, is involved in decoding letter sequences and differentiating words. Semantic relationships in long-term memory, on the other hand, can organize pictorial material and words in recall. The child's general knowledge and experience also contribute to the constructive processes of reading. According to Chall's stage theory of reading development,' children in the first stage master decoding by relying predominantly on lexical and phonetic cues and not on semantic relationships between words. Only in the next stage, stage two, which is attained by 7-8 years of age or third grade, do children achieve fluidity in reading. The better readers at this stage can go beyond the printed material and focus on semantic relationships. In stage three, an early phase of which is attained by grades four to six, children increasingly shift from decoding to employing cognitive skills to comprehend more abstract and technical content. How competent readers of diverse backgrounds differ from less competent readers in basic cognitive skills such as sequence memory and use of semantic organization in recall is not well understood. The purpose of the present study was to shed light on the relationship of reading competence to the attainment of basic memory skills in Black elementary school-age children. Chall's theory of reading stages would predict that better readers at stage two would rely on semantic knowledge in organization of recall and would differ from poor readers in memory for sequences

Subjective and categorical organization of recall during posthypnotic amnesia.

Subjective and categorical organization of recall during posthypnotic amnesia.

The Effect of Unconstrained Study Time on Free Recall in Children and Adults

Abstract Automatic associative organization in children's recall was expected to be reflected in the independence of study time, clustering, and number of items remembered. Thirty-six kindergartners and 36 adults performed a free-recall task using categorizable picture cards. Adults used more study time and recalled and clustered more than children did. Similar structural features of adult recall correlated with study time, clustering, and total output, but no relationship was found between children's study time and performance. Children approached the task nonsystematically, and their memory processing proceeded in an automatic manner so that clustering of pairwise associations appeared without application of a strategy.

Associative and categorical processes in children's memory: The role of automaticity in the development of organization in free recall

Free recall performance was assessed in children in Grades 3, 5, 7, and 9 (Experiment 1) and adults (Experiment 2) on a list of categorically related words constructed so that some items within a category were highly associated with one another and interitem associations were low among other items (e.g., dog, cat, cow, lion, tiger). Associative relations were used frequently in recall by subjects of all ages, with analyses of interitem latencies and correlations between recall and clustering indicating that organization in recall was based only on associative relations for the third and fifth graders but based on both associative and nonassociative categorical relations for older subjects. Examination of the placement of high associates in recall indicated that seventh- and ninth-grade children were more apt to use associative relations to begin category clusters than were younger children or adults. These children were hypothesized to use the relatively automatic activation of associative relations to instigate categorical organization and to represent a stage in development between nonstrategic younger children and strategic adults. The results were discussed in terms of the role that the automatic activation of semantic memory relations may play in the development of strategic memory organization.

Development of organization in recall: A stages-of-learning analysis

An experiment is reported in which the effects of taxonomic organization on 7-year-old and 11-year-old children's free and cued recall of two- and four-category lists were examined. The data were analyzed using a stages-of-learning model that simultaneously delivers estimates of the impact of these manipulations on storage and retrieval components of recall. The results indicated that for the Grade 2 children providing a category label at the time of recall primarily enhanced storage whereas increasing the number of categories primarily enhanced retrieval. For Grade 6 children, on the other hand, the use of category labels to cue recall primarily enhanced retrieval, whereas increasing the number of categories affected both storage and retrieval in free recall, but only retrieval in cued recall. In addition, while older children were superior to younger children at both storing and retrieving information, age differences at retrieval were generally larger than those at storage.

The effects of noise on recall of lists of associated words

An experiment investigated the effect of noise on recall of lists consisting of pairs of strong and weak associates. Noise improved recall (both number recalled and organization of recall) and did so with both types of list. The subjects who were initially tested in noise continued to show better recall and organization of recall even when they were transferred to the quiet condition. This finding shows that noise may reinforce the use of the dominant strategy and that this strategy may be used more in noise when experimental conditions are changed and even when the subject is transferred from the noise to the quiet.

The Organization of Recall during Hypnotic Suggestions for Complete and Selective Amnesia

Hypnotic subjects learned a nine item list that contained three words in each of three categories. Afterwards, they were instructed to forget either the entire list, the items in one category, or one item from each category. Clustering of recall was measured on the recall trials immediately before the suggestion, during amnesia testing, and after cancelling the suggestion. Partial amnesics asked to forget the entire list clustered significantly less during amnesia testing than before or after the suggestion, and testified that they shifted attention away from the recall task during amnesia testing. Subjects in the two selective amnesia treatments showed high levels of clustering during amnesia testing. Instead of disattending from the recall task at this time, these subjects devised strategies for segregating the to-be-forgotten and to-be-remembered items. These findings support the hypothesis that hypnotic amnesia involves strategic enactment, and that amnesic subjects maintain control over their memory processes.

Variables affecting subjective organization during posthypnotic amnesia

Subjects learned a list of unrelated words to a criterion of either two successive correct trials (standard criterion), or two successive correct trials plus five additional recall trials (extra criterion). The extra recall trials significantly increased the subjective organization of recall. In the extra criterion group, a posthypnotic amnesia suggestion and a nonhypnotic distraction task produced equivalent decrements both in the amount recalled and in the subjective organization of recall. In the standard criterion group, suggestion and distraction reduced the amount recalled, but not the subjective organization of recall. The implications of these findings for understanding the contradictory results of earlier studies of recall organization during amnesia are discussed. Implications for theories of hypnotic amnesia are also discussed.

Temporal organization of recall during posthypnotic amnesia.

Temporal organization of recall during posthypnotic amnesia.

Developmental and population comparisons of taxonomic and thematic organization in free recall.

Developmental and population comparisons of taxonomic and thematic organization in free recall.

Developmental and population comparisons of taxonomic and thematic organization in free recall.

Developmental and population comparisons of taxonomic and thematic organization in free recall.

Temporal organization of recall during posthypnotic amnesia.

Temporal organization of recall during posthypnotic amnesia.

Encoding variability and organization in free recall

Measures of category clustering and subjective organization are well-established predictors of performance in free recall tasks. The present studies demonstrate that a measure of encoding variability affords equally powerful and independent prediction of free recall performance. They also illustrate an interaction between encoding processes and organizational activity. In Experiments 1 and 2, the independent contributions of organization and encoding variability are demonstrated in categorizable and uncategorizable lists and in subjects whose recall is expected to increase (adults) or decrease (children) as a function of more varied encodings across trials. In Experiment 3, a category labeling procedure is used to demonstrate that the negative relationship between encoding variability and recall can be reversed by inducing adult-like organizational activity in children.