Recall Failure Research Articles

Observer variability in cancer detection during routine repeat (incident) mammographic screening in a study of two versus one view mammography.

To examine the reasons for observer variability of cancer detection using one and two view mammography at incident (subsequent) screening and determine whether false negative results (non-recall of a cancer) are due to failure to detect the associated features(s) of the cancer on the mammogram, or misinterpretation of the observed feature(s) as not indicative of malignancy. A random selection of cancers (invasive and in situ) seen as incident cases during the second screening round (January 1994-January 1997) in the South West London Breast Screening Service were used. This service uses two view mammography and double reading with arbitration by a third or further readers for all screens. Mammograms of cases were mixed with those of controls in a 1:2 ratio in two test sets. Eleven experienced film readers, each reading both test sets, took part in the study. Initially the oblique view only was read, then, additionally, the craniocaudal view. Previous films were available to the readers. Data on abnormalities noted on the films and probability of recall were recorded and analysed. 387 valid readings of 36 cancers (30 invasive and six ductal carcinoma in situ) were made by 11 readers. The overall sensitivity increased from 79% with one view to 85% with two views. For invasive cancers < 10 mm the sensitivity was 71% with one view, but increased to 85% with two views. Recall of individual cancers by the readers varied substantially. With one view 15 (50%) of the 30 invasive cancers were recalled by all 11 readers, increasing to 18 (60%) with two views. Of the invasive cancers not recalled by all 11 readers, there was considerable disagreement, particularly for the smaller cancers. With one view 69% of invasive cancers < 10 mm were correctly marked on the proforma compared with 87% with two views. Invasive cancers > 10 mm were almost all marked on the proforma with one or two views. For invasive cancers, the misinterpreted feature that did not lead to recall was most commonly an asymmetry (42%), whereas for in situ cancers it was calcifications (67%). The finding of an irregular mass was the least misinterpreted feature. The study showed that of those invasive cancers detected at routine repeat screening by a programme using two view mammography and double reading with arbitration, at least 50% could be described as "difficult" (for example, "minimal" signs) to recall using the single reading of one view, even under "favourable" study conditions with two normal subjects per case. The finding that at least 87% of invasive cancers < 10 mm are detected (marked on the proforma) with two views, but only 69% with the one view, suggests that for single reading of mammograms with one view the detection of small invasive cancers is a major problem. This problem is helped by the second view. For invasive cancers > or = 10 mm, interpretation (benign or malignant) rather than detection (under these study conditions) was the major cause of recall failure. The most common signs to be misinterpreted were calcifications and asymmetries; once visualised an irregular mass was least likely to be misinterpreted. This study provides evidence that detection and interpretation of most invasive cancers is improved by increasing the number of views, and by increasing the number of readers.

A Natural Language Thesaurus for the Humanities: The Need for a Database Search Aid

Database searching presents special difficulties for humanists because many subjects may be covered, many synonyms may be used to describe a single concept, and terms may vary in precision. Databases may be searched by using controlled vocabularies, free-text (natural language) terms, or a combination of both. A significant cause of recall failure in a free-text search is the inability of the searcher to think of all the terms an author may have used. The current study was undertaken to determine the potential value to humanists of a thesaurus integrating free-text terms from the humanities and social sciences. In the first part of the study, a sample of common-noun subject headings from the "Humanities Index" was analyzed to determine how many have at least quasi-synonymous terms. The subject headings were compared to terms in "The Contemporary Thesaurus of Social Science Terms and Synonyms: A Guide for Natural Language Computer Searching" to determine the overlap of terminology between the humanities and social sciences. The results indicate a high degree of overlap, suggesting that a thesaurus integrating terms from the humanities and the social sciences would be of value to scholars in both disciplines. Results also demonstrate that a high proportion of common-noun subject headings have at least quasi-synonymous terms useful for searching. In the second part of the study, searches for humanities scholars were conducted on controlled-vocabulary databases, using both controlled vocabulary and free-text terms to determine whether the latter retrieved additional relevant records not retrieved by the controlled vocabulary. The results indicate that combining both approaches yields more relevant items and higher recall than either method alone. Searchers need tools to identify both controlled-vocabulary terms and free-text terms. The proposed free-text thesaurus will complement controlled-vocabulary thesauri.

EEG correlates of dream recall in depressed outpatients and healthy controls.

The present study explored EEG correlates of dream recall in 17 symptomatic, unmedicated depressed patients and in 19 healthy adults. EEG segments from the last 30 minutes of sleep, from the five minutes following morning awakening, and the absolute difference between sleep and waking EEG were contrasted between the two groups of participants during successful dream recall and during no recall. Period amplitude analysis was used to quantify EEG frequencies. Increased high-frequency beta incidence in the right hemisphere and amplitude in both hemispheres during sleep were associated with dream recall in both patient and control groups. Depressed patients also showed higher delta amplitude in both hemispheres during sleep associated with recall, but this effect did not reach significance. With regard to the changes between sleep and wakefiilness, a smaller change in right hemisphere beta and delta incidence characterized successful recall in healthy controls. By contrast, those with depression showed recall success when the sleep/wake shifts in right hemisphere beta and delta incidence were larger. Recall failure was characterized by small EEG shifts from sleep to wakefulness in the depressed group. The same effects were observed for beta and delta amplitude measures, except that healthy controls showed a large shift in delta amplitude in the sleep-wake transition during successful recall but not during recall failure. Recall in those with depression was associated with a dramatic shift in left hemisphere delta amplitude. These findings provide support for Koukkou and Lehmann's (1983, 1993) state-shift hypothesis of dream recall in healthy controls (except for left hemisphere delta amplitude) but not in the depressed. It appears that in order to recall a dream, depressed patients must undergo larger shifts in brain activity and perhaps a different pattern of reorganization of EEG frequencies than controls. This finding may account for the low rates of recall reported previously in this clinical group.

Masked target priming effects on feeling-of-knowing and feeling-of-familiarity judgments

The present study tested whether the same processes underlie recognition memory based on feeling-of-familiarity on the one hand and feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgments made to unrecalled items on the other. Five experiments compared the effects of masked priming of targets in the memory tests. Masked priming increased recognition judgments based on feeling of familiarity (KNOW responses) but not those accompanied by conscious recollection (REMEMBER responses). The same masked priming procedure enhanced cued recall accuracy and FOK judgments made to recalled items but not for recall failures. These results are interpreted as indicating that the metamemory monitor subserving FOK does not have privileged access to unconscious information, and that FOK is based on partial products of retrieval.

Recall of numerical risk estimates and counsellees' perceptions of the importance of risk information following genetic counselling for breast and ovarian cancer

Using questionnaires and interviews, this study investigated counsellees' recall of numerical risk information following genetic counselling for breast and/or ovarian cancer. The relationship between the perceived importance of risk information and recall was also explored. The data confirmed that many women who attend genetic counselling for breast/ovarian cancer experience difficulty in recalling the probabilities used to describe their risk of developing cancer and that recall failure increases with time. There was evidence that counsellees' perceptions of the importance of risk information influence recall. It was suggested that counsellees who failed to recall risk information may not have not attempted to memorize their risk estimate because they had received a written confirmation of their risk following counselling. Alternatively, it was noted that recall failure may have occurred because counsellees regard obtaining a particular numerical risk estimate as less important than having their pre-counselling risk perceptions confirmed or refuted.

Topical relevance relationships. I. Why topic matching fails

This is the first in a two-part series on topical relevance relationships. Part I presents conceptual background; Part II reports on a related empirical study. Since topicality is a major factor in relevance, it is crucial to identify the range of relationship types that occur between the topics of user needs and the topics of user needs and the topics of texts relevant to those needs. We have generally assumed—without particular warrant—that a single relationship type obtains, i.e., that the two topics match. Evidence from the analysis of recall failures, citation analysis, and knowledge synthesis suggests otherwise: topical relevance relationships are not limited to topic matching relationships; to the contrary, in certain circumstances they are quite likely not to be matching relationships. Relationships are one of the two fundamental components of human conceptual systems. Attempts to classify them usually accept a distinction between relationships that occur by virtue of the combination of component units (syntagmatic relationships) and relationships that are built into the language system (paradigmatic relationships). Given the variety of relationship types previously identified, empirical research is needed to determine the subset that actually account for topical relevance. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Evaluating the Fragmentation Hypothesis: The analysis of errors in cued recall

This paper investigates whether cued recall of multidimensional stimuli is all-or-none, as predicted by the Fragmentation Hypothesis (Jones, 1976); or probabilistic, as is commonly assumed in models of associative memory. To test this, composite stimuli were cued repeatedly, by each of their attributes in turn, to see whether the patterns of recall were consistent with all-or-none fragments. This test also requires a model to account for the inconsistent patterns of recall which are to be expected as a result of correct guessing. Of necessity, therefore, this paper also investigates the nature of guessing to enable the test of all-or-none recall. Two experiments are reported, both conditions of the same design and using the same pictorial stimuli. The first analysis looks at errors and seeks to discover interactions within sequences of responses. There are two stages involved. First, the most likely sources of each answer are indentified and classified according to a number of different categories of interest. Second, there is a statistical evaluation of the frequency with which these different categories occur. This analysis reveals: (a) the systematic recall of previous errors; and (b) that guesses comprising a pair of elements from the same (incorrect) stimulus occur more frequently than is expected by chance. Both processes have a systematic effect upon the pattern of correct guesses which is not predicted by the models of guessing commonly used. A model of cued recall is presented which combines the Fragmentation Hypothesis (including the assumption of all-or-none recall) with a model of guessing which hypothesises that a proportion of guesses act also as implicit cues for recall. This “memory checking” model of guessing is shown to predict the observed processes in guessing well. Overall, the combined model shows a satisfactory fit to the data, providing support for the all-or-none assertion. However, it is shown that a small proportion of inconsistent patterns of recall cannot be explained by the guessing model, and a low level of recall failure and forgetting is proposed. The recall of fragments is therefore closely approximated by all-or-none recall, but cannot be exactly so.

Dynamic memory processes in retrieving answers to questions: Recall failures, judgments of knowing, and acquisition of information.

Dynamic memory processes in retrieving answers to questions: Recall failures, judgments of knowing, and acquisition of information.

Dynamic memory processes in retrieving answers to questions: Recall failures, judgments of knowing, and acquisition of information.

Dynamic memory processes in retrieving answers to questions: Recall failures, judgments of knowing, and acquisition of information.

Effects of Age on the Ability to Remember Common and Rare Proper Names

Difficulties in remembering proper nouns increase with age. One factor is that names are arbitrary labels. Another is that because many people share the same names, mutual discriminability between names is less than than that between other words. Discriminability between names may reduce as the number of acquaintances increases. Also, most people have both a first and a second name. These have to be learned as a pair, but they may be of unequal distinctiveness and so be unequally well remembered. An experiment was designed to evaluate the relative effects of distinctiveness of first and second names on free and cued recall. Subjects (aged 60-69 or 70-79 years, matched on Mill-Hill vocabulary score) were asked to remember one of four lists of 16 names. Each was presented four times. The names were either common, rare, or a combination of the two--a common first name with a rare surname, or vice versa. Subjects first freely recalled the names. They were next cued by either first name or surname to recall the remaining half of name pairs. Interactions between effects on recall of subjects' ages and of the relative distinctiveness of first and second names provide partial support for a model incorporating "relative distinctiveness" as a factor in failures of name recall in old age.

The Feeling of Another Person′s Knowing

We investigated whether predictions about the currently unrecallable knowledge that a person possesses (a) are facilitated by that person′s privileged access to nonobservable information and (b) are influenced by aspects of his or her behavior that can also be observed by another person. A total of 106 target subjects (a) attempted to answer general-information questions (b) predicted which of the unanswered items they would be most likely to recognize, and (c) took a multiple-choice test on the items. The recognition performance of each of these target subjects was also predicted by an observer, who had watched the target′s recall attempts, and by a judge, who had virtually no information about the target. The targets predicted more accurately than the observers, who were in turn more accurate than the judges. The predictions of the targets and the observers were related to three cues in the targets′ behavior: (a) type of recall failure (omission error vs commission error), (b) latency of omission errors, and (c) plausibility of commission errors.

The influence of surgical stress, anxiety and benzodiazepine intravenous sedation on recall of oral surgery

Abstract This study, part of a larger investigation of the efficacy and safety of intravenous sedation in dentistry, reports the prevalance of failure to recall information during third molar impaction surgery and attempts to differentate the effects of stress and benzodiazepines on recall. Both recognition of neutral pictures and the recall of surgical procedures were assessed. Recall failure in the drug groups ranged from zero for recall of stressful procedures, completed before drug titration, to 92 percent of subjects for recognition of the neutral picture presented at 5 minutes after the surgical procedure began. Placebo condition subjects had almost no recall loss. Recall failure was demonstrated to be primarily a function of the volume of midazolam employed. However, operative stress and trait and state anxiety explained some of the findings.

The retention and free recall of multiple movements

Lists of movements, varying in length from 1 to 10 items were given to subjects using an immediate free recall procedure. A technique for dichotomizing subjects' movements, developed earlier, was employed to obtain percentages and probabilities of correct recalls (Wilberg and Adam 1985). An estimate was made of the likelihood that a significant number of recalled movements could have occurred by chance. A set of procedures applied before, during, and following the experiment reduced this likelihood to an insignificant value. Three types of analyses were made involving: the serial order in which the list items were given, the order in which they were recovered, and the precision with which the items were actually recalled. The results suggest that recall failure is dependent upon both the number of items that must be retained, and the precision requirements demanded at recall. Serial position effects of primacy, asymptote, and recency, normally found in the verbal literature were reaffirmed here; but more importantly the data provided support for order effects in free recall, both within and outside of memory capacity that are not often reported in the verbal learning and memory literature (see Greene (1986) for exceptions). These order effects appear to be dependent upon both a criterion list item-to-item relationship, and a memory capacity effect.

Childhood Events Recalled by Children and Adults

Publisher Summary This chapter examines two parallel yet distinctive phenomena of human memory. First, most adults can recall few if any specific events from the early years of life. Second, attempts by preschool children to recall past events on demand-even events of the previous day-frequently are unsuccessful by adult standards. A tantalizing parallelism is evident about the connection, if any, between the paucity of early childhood memories for adults and the limitations of an immature human memory system. The chapter delineates possible connections between early memory development and the difficulties that most adults experience when trying to remember events of their childhood. Two prior questions have to be addressed. First, evidence for the presumed lack of early memories in adults-commonly termed childhood amnesia-has with a few notable exceptions consisted of clinical case studies. Critical new data have been presented in the past few years. So, what is the current scientific status of this concept? Second, systematic studies of preschoolers' memory for naturally occurring events, practically nonexistent 10 or 20 years ago, also have increased sharply in the 1980s. Is a deficiency of memory in early childhood convincingly demonstrated? A review and integration of research on memories of childhood events is timely for two reasons. First, the most compelling evidence has appeared in the last few years and has not yet been synthesized. Second, both adults' and children's recall failures have practical consequences. For adults, reconstruction of early childhood events remains an important component of psychotherapy. For preschool children, the question of whether they can recall specific episodes has become a critical and controversial aspect of legal testimony.

Interserial and Intraserial Interference Processes in Morning Recall of Mental Sleep Experience

This study investigated ways in which predictions from interference theory might explain partial or total failure in the morning recall of mental sleep experience (MSE) episodes reported after provoked night awakening. Interference could take place either between the contents of one MSE episode (intraserial interference) or between the contents of different MSE episodes (interserial interference) and would be more likely to affect morning recall where similar (i.e., interrelated) contents in MSEs are involved. If interference were mainly intraserial, in the morning there would be no change in the difficulty of retrieving interrelated contents, whereas, if it were mainly interserial, there would be increased difficulty in the retrieval of such contents. All the possible pairs of reports obtained by awakening 8 subjects four times in REM sleep during each of four experimental nights spaced at weekly intervals were scored for interrelated contents, using Clark's (1970) system of analysis of paired units, which operates by matching linguistic features. Results showed that interrelations in morning report pairs are as frequent as in night report pairs, maintaining the same linguistic characteristics and with little transfer of contents from one MSE to another. Overall these findings are compatible with the hypothesis that interference is primarily intraserial rather than interserial. It is consequently suggested that morning recall failure may be due to temporary blocking of retrieval.

Elders' nonadherence, its assessment, and computer assisted instruction for medication recall training.

This study investigates three questions related to the problem of medication nonadherence among elders. First, does recall failure play a significant role in nonadherence? Recent research suggests that it may not. Second, can the new portable bar code scanner technology be used to study nonadherence? Other forms of monitoring are obtrusive or inaccurate. Finally, can inexpensive computer assisted instructions (CAI) be used to teach mnemonic techniques specifically designed to improve medication schedule recall? Current research on memory training teaches nonspecific mnemonics and uses the expensive classroom approach. Results of the present study suggest that physically active and cognitively alert elders do have significant nonadherence (control group = 32.0%) problems related to forgetting and that CAI courseware can significantly reduce (medication recall training group = 10.0%) this form of nonadherence. Portable bar code technology proved easy to use by elderly patients and provided detailed information about the type of forgetting underlying nonadherence. Most significant recall failure was in the complete forgetting to take medication rather than delays in medicating or overmedicating.

A fifteen-item modification of the fuld object-memory evaluation: Preliminary data from healthy middle-aged adults

A modification of the Fuld Object-Memory Evaluation (FOME) test was developed for use with middle-aged adults. To avoid the ceiling effect which occurs when the 10-item FOME is used with adults in this age group, we made the test more difficult by increasing the number of items to 15. We obtained preliminary data on the 15-item version of the test by administering it to 32 healthy, well-educated adults aged 35 to 55. This version of the test was difficult enough so that even high functioning adults needed multiple trials to memorize all items. No sex differences, and no significant correlations with education or age for any aspect of test performance were found. We present mean scores for recall on each trial, as well as averaged scores for storage, retrieval, consistent retrieval, and recall failure across five trials.

Processes of redaction: the case of the Tamīmite delegation to the Prophet Muḥammad

The Year 9 A.H. is known as 'ām al-wufūd, ‘the year of the delegations', on account of the many tribal delegations which came at that time to the Prophet at Medina. One of the most impressive was that of Tamīm. The accounts of its meeting with the Prophet are rich in detail, and involve both Qur'ānic verses and poems. As is often the case with our sources, there is a considerable amount of confusion between the various accounts. In this instance, however, the confusion is the result not merely of falsifications of failures of recall but also of the conception which guided the Muslim scholars in their redaction of the material. The compilers, rather than their primary sources, are responsible for the confusion which is the main subject of thispaper.

Is Organic Amnesia Caused by a Selective Deficit in Remembering Contextual Information?

An influential view of amnesia is that the recognition and recall failure is a consequence of a selective loss of memory for contextual, rather than target, information. The various forms of this viewpoint are outlined and one is consid ered in more detail. This hypothesis claims that amnesics suffer from a selective inability to remember background context i.e. spatiotemporal or extrinsic context. The evidence cited in support of this hypothesis is then critically reviewed and assessed in relation to two methodological problems. The first problem shows that when weak amnesic memory is compared with good normal memory qualitative differences in contextual memory may arise artef actually. The second problem is that contextual memory deficits, found in amnesics, may be incidental consequences of frontal cortex damage rather than essential to the core memory deficit. In the light of these problems it is concluded that currently there is no convincing support for the contextual memory deficit hypothesis of amnesia. Finally, guidelines are laid down which should enable the hypothesis to be more appropriately assessed, and an alternative kind of hypothesis is briefly outlined.

Dissociations between skill learning and verbal recognition in amnesia and dementia.

Patients with Huntington's disease (HD), patients with alcoholic Korsakoff's syndrome, and normal control subjects were compared on tests of skill learning (mirror reading) and verbal recognition. Like previously reported results, the patients with Korsakoff's syndrome acquired the mirror-reading skill at a normal rate but were severely impaired in their recognition of the words used on the mirror-reading task. In contrast to the amnesic patients, the demented patients with HD were retarded in their ability to acquire this skill but showed normal verbal recognition. Besides emphasizing substantial differences in the anterograde substantial differences in the anterograde memory disorders of these two patient populations, the results suggest that the memory disorder of patients with HD may appear much more severe when recall rather than recognition test paradigms are employed. This failure of recall by the patients with HD may be due to an inability to generate strategies necessary to search their short- and long-term memories.