Recall Phase Research Articles

Prose recall in first-grade children using imagery, pictures, and questions

Recent studies suggest that children younger than 8 years old fail to use imagery instructions, resulting in memorial deficits. This inferior recall performance has been ascribed to encoding, storage, and/or retrieval deficiencies. One method recently used to assess the encoding/storage vs. the retrieval effects of imagery instructions on recall is to employ imagery instructions with or without a partial picture during the learning and/or recall phase of the study. The present study employed a 2 (imagery, no-imagery instructions) by 2 (partial picture during story, no partial picture during story) by 2 (partial picture during questioning, no partial picture during questioning) factorial design, with first-grade children as subjects. Recall of items specified in narrative passages was the dependent variable. Recall of narrative prose for 6-year-old children was consistently facilitated by partial pictures during story presentation. Imagery instructions were ineffective in facilitating recall.

Effects of non-focal brain dysfunction on visual memory.

Investigated the effects of non-focal brain damage on visual memory abilities with a sample of 114 Ss with confirmed brain-dysfunction and 71 controls who completed the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test. In contrast, to the findings of earlier studies of patients with focal brain-damage, right-hemisphere lesioned Ss could not be discriminated from left-hemisphere lesioned Ss on the basis of impaired visual recall. All three brain-damaged groups, however, performed more poorly than the control group in both the copy and recall phases of the task. Age and intelligence also were found to be related inversely to task performance. Implications of these data for clinical neuropsychological assessment are discussed.

Practice effects within a multiple-phase Bender administration.

Practice effects within a multiple-phase administration of the Bender Visual-motor Gestalt Test were investigated. The addition of a 5-sec. Flash phase prior to the standard presentation did not significantly influence performance on the standard presentation. Students who attempted both the Flash and standard administration prior to a recall phase remembered significantly more designs than students receiving only the standard administration prior to recall. Those skills possibly measured by the multiple phase Bender format are discussed and the need for research using the three-phase method is suggested.

When do semantic orienting tasks hinder recall?

Multitrial free recall was compared between groups engaging in semantic orienting tasks on each study trial and a standard group. When study and recall phases alternated, the standard group showed a steeper growth rate over trials, although the usual equivalence among groups after a single trial was replicated. This outcome was predicted on the assumption that the growth of recall with repetition depends on organizational encoding and that semantic orienting tasks emphasize the coding of individual items. When there was only a single test trial following three study trials, no difference was found, implicating an important role for retrieval processes in potentiating organizational encoding.

The development of organized rehearsal

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the development or organization strategies in rehearsal processes. First-grade (age 7 years), third-grade (age 9 years), and fifth-grade (age 11 years) children were exposed to a memory task which involved multiple overt rehearsal and recall phases. The children were either free to rehearse any words from a taxonomically structured list or they were taught to rehearse in categories. The recall phase was either free or categorically cued. The number of repetitions in rehearsal increased only as a function of age. All of the independent variables facilitated the amount of organized rehearsal and the amount of retention. Children at all ages were able to maximize the relative amount of organized rehearsal when rehearsal was cued. The correlational analysis of the dependent variables indicated that for young children the quantity of rehearsal was linked to retention, but for older children the quality of rehearsal was related to retention. The results were interpreted as demonstrating the bases for production inefficiencies.

Developmental changes in free recall: The interaction of task structure and age

Free-recall learning and organization were measured for 3rd, 7th, and 11th graders under conditions which varied the type and amount of task structure. Task structure for the input or list-presentation phase was manipulated by using a random, constant, or alphabetic item sequence across trials. Task structure for the output or recall phase was manipulated by providing standard instructions or instructions which suggested the possible use of an alphabetic ordering scheme. Recall performance and organization showed an interaction between age and both manipulations of task structure. The 3rd graders required the maximal amount of task structure (alphabetic order with alphabetic instructions) to demonstrate recall facilitation relative to the completely unstructured control condition. The 7th graders showed recall facilitation for intermediate and high levels of task structure, and the 11th graders showed recall facilitation for low, intermediate, and high levels of task structure. The results are related to current hypotheses about developmental changes in recall performance and their relationship to changes in the systematic use of organizational strategies.

Subject-generated and experimenter-supplied associations as cues in recall of associatively encoded words and paralogs

Subjects were instructed make associations words and paralogs (i.e.. associatively encode the units be recalled) during the study phase of a cued recall experiment. During the recall phase. one group was cued with the associations made during the study phase (subject­ generated associations); a second group was cued with words previously established as the modal associates the units be recalled (experimenter-supplied associations); a third group was not cued. The group cued with subject-generated associations recalled more units than the group cued with experimenter-supplied associations. and both cued groups recalled more units than the uncued groups. Short-latency associative reaction time units were recalled more frequently than long-latency units under the experimenter-supplied cued recall condition, and high-meaningfulness units were recalled more frequently than low-meaningfulness units under all experimental conditions. The results were interpreted as evidence in support of Ley and Locascio's hypothesis that retrieval from memory is a function of associations made at the time of storage. Ley and Locascio (I 970a) have proposed that making an association a verbal unit during study (associative encoding) facilitates the recall of that unit, and that associative reaction time is related recall in that it indexes the facility with which an association can be made. These hypotheses were supported in a free recall experiment (Locascio & Ley, 1972a) in which it was found that subjects instructed make associations verbal units during study recalled more units than sub­ jects instructed repeat the units aloud. The results of this study also suggested that subjects instructed to rehearse silently may be making associations during study although not specifically instructed do so. Although the effects of associative reaction time appear be related primarily recall rather than recogni­ tion memory (Ley & Locascio, 1970a, 1970b), it is not clear whether making associations improves recall · through the facilitation of memory storage, retrieval from memory, or both. Informal observations of subjects during free recall experiments and reports from

Pictures and Words as Stimuli in Paired Associate Learning

Abstract Skaalvik, Einar M. 1977. Pictures and Words as Stimuli in Paired Associate Learning. Scand. J. educ. Res. 26, pp. 1‐15. This paper focuses on the effect of verbal and pictorial stimuli on paired associate learning. The discussion centres on the traditional finding that learning is easier with pictures than with words as stimuli. It is hypothesized that this effect is caused by differential coding and storing strategies for words and pictures. A model is developed for these coding and storing strategies, and two main hypotheses are stated. The first of these states that the difference in performance when learning lists with conceptually similar and conceptually dissimilar stimuli will be greater in lists where the stimuli are verbal, rather than pictorial. The second states both that after learning lists with pictorial stimuli the performance will be better when pictorial stimuli rather than verbal stimuli are presented during the recall phase, and also that a significant interaction will be obtained between stimulus modality during the study phase and the recall phase. These hypotheses are confirmed experimentally.

Visual imagery differences and eye movements in the recall of pictures

Groups of vivid and poor visualizers were given a picture memory task. and horizontal and vertical components of the electro-oculogram were recorded. This allowed a detailed investigation of each S’s eye movements in the perception. imagery, and recall phases of the task. The vivid visualizers gave a higher accuracy of recall Eye movement rate was lower in visual imagery than it was in perception, especially in the goup of vivid visualizers. There was some evidence of scanning activity prior to recall, but only if positional cues were provided or if recall was incorrect. No scanning occurred prior to accurate recall unprompted by a positional cue. These results provide no support to the theories of image construction proposed by Hebb (1949, 1968) and Neisser (1967). As suggested by Singer (1966), an absence of eye movement may be a necessary condition for vivid visual imagery.

Some characteristics of retrieval limitation in long-term memory

Two variables were considered as potentially relevant to limitations on retrieval from long-term memory: category size and retrieval cues. The experiment involved a multitrial free recall design where each presentation was followed by three successive recall phases. The proportion recalled per recalled category and the consistency among the specific words recalled on the three phases of each trial (a) were higher for cued than for noncued subjects, and (b) varied as an inverse function of category size. Given a small category and an experimentally defined retrieval strategy, recall was essentially perfect after several trials.

Interaction between a Visually Perceived Simple Figure and an Appropriate Verbal Label in Recall

Using a circle with a 90° gap as stimulus figure and the verbal labels a clock set at 5 min. to 7 and a clock set at 10 min. to 8, several experimental conditions were run to test the interaction between the figure and the label in recall, after the stimulus had been labelled just prior to its presentation. From the obtained results the conclusion was drawn that the main interaction occurs during the recall phase, there existing two separate memory traces, a visual and a verbal, up to the time of recall.