Use Of Retrieval Cues Research Articles

Memory gaps in the American time use survey: Investigating the role of retrieval cues and respondents' level of effort

Unaccounted respondent memory gaps – i.e., those activity gaps that are attributed by inter- viewers to respondents’ memory failure – have serious implications for data quality. We con- tribute to the existing literature by investigating interviewing dynamics using paradata, distin- guishing temporary memory gaps, which can be resolved during the interview, from enduring memory gaps, which cannot be resolved. We investigate factors that are associated with both kinds of memory gaps and how different response strategies are associated with data quality. We investigate two hypotheses that are associated with temporary and enduring memory gaps. The motivated cuing hypothesis posits that respondents who display more behaviors related to the presence and use of retrieval cues throughout the survey will resolve temporary memory gaps more successfully compared to respondents displaying fewer such behaviors. This should result in overall lower levels of enduring memory gaps. The lack of effort hypothesis suggests that respondent who are less eager to participate in the survey will expend less cognitive effort to resolve temporary memory gaps compared to more motivated respondents. This should then result in a positive association with enduring memory gaps and no association with temporary memory gaps. Using survey and paradata from the 2010 ATUS, our analyses indicate that, as hypothesized, behaviors indicating the use of retrieval cues are positively associated with temporary memory gaps and negatively associated with enduring memory gaps. Motivated respondents experiencing memory difficulties overcome what otherwise would result in en- during memory gaps more successfully compared to other respondents. Indicators of lack of effort, such as whether or not the respondent initially refused to participate in the survey, are positively associated with enduring memory gaps suggesting that reluctant respondents do not resolve memory gaps. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for survey research.

Using Multiple Contexts and Retrieval Cues in Exposure-Based Therapy to Prevent Relapse in Anxiety Disorders

The benefits of exposure-based interventions for anxiety disorders are substantial but not stable for everyone, given that these interventions are often followed by relapse of symptoms. A body of research provides a background on how to add certain strategies in exposure-based therapy to prevent relapse in anxiety disorders. This review summarizes some of these strategies and provides clear-cut clinical implications. Studies that provide support for two types of strategies to prevent relapse have been reviewed—the use of multiple contexts and the use of retrieval cues. The use of multiple contexts reduces context and stimulus specificity of extinction learning during exposure, while the use of retrieval cues enhances memory (re)consolidation and retrieval after exposure. The described strategies to enhance the accessibility and therefore the retrievability of exposure-based learning to prevent relapse in anxiety disorders can be summarized as advice to conduct exposure under variable conditions. This way, the generalizability of what is learned during exposure to the patients’ daily life after treatment improves. Therefore, adding these strategies in the course of exposure-based treatment of anxiety disorders seems beneficial. However, future replications and translational studies are needed to verify ecological validity.

Retrieval Cues On Tests: A Strategy for Helping Students Overcome Retrieval Failure

ABSTRACTStudents often struggle to recall information on tests, frequently claiming to experience a “retrieval failure” of learned information. Thus, the retrieval of information from memory may be a roadblock to student success. I propose a relatively simple adjustment to the wording of test items to help eliminate this potential barrier. Specifically, I examined whether embedding salient information from class lectures in test items as retrieval cues enhanced student performance on tests. In two studies, including both an upper- and lower-division course, student performance on identical test items with and without retrievals was compared. Student performance varied significantly depending on whether retrieval cues were embedded in the items, and in both courses the difference was at least a half letter grade (study 2) or more (study 1). These results suggest that the selective use of retrieval cues on tests may be an effective strategy for helping students overcome retrieval failure on tests.

Memory, Communication, and Data Quality in Calendar Interviews

Calendar instruments are hypothesized to promote data qual- ity through the increased use of retrieval cues and conversational probes intended to clarify meanings. this research explores these hypotheses by examining the associations between retrieval and conversational verbal behaviors and data-quality measures. a verbal behavior coding scheme was applied to transcripts of 165 calendar interviews that collected life- course information on residence, marriage, employment, and unemploy- ment from respondents in the p anel Study of income Dynamics (pSiD). Confirmatory factor analyses revealed three latent factors for interview- ers (retrieval probes, rapport behaviors, and conversational behaviors intended to satisfy questionnaire objective) and three latent factors for respondents (retrieval strategies, rapport, and conversational behaviors indicative of difficulty being interviewed). Ratios of discrepancies in annual totals between retrospective calendar reports and reports col- lected for up to thirty years in the pSiD over the total number of avail- able years were used as measures of data quality. Regression analyses show that the level of behavior and the level of experiential complexity interact in their effect on data quality. both interviewer and respond- ent retrieval behaviors are associated with better data quality when the retrieval task is more difficult but poorer accuracy when experiential Robert F. belli is Director of the Survey Research and Methodology program and the gallup Research Center, and professor of psychology, at the University of nebraska-lincoln, lincoln, ne, USa. ipek bilgen is Survey Methodologist ii at noRC at the University of Chicago, Chicago, il, USa. tarek al baghal is Research assistant professor in the Survey Research and Methodology program at the University of nebraska-lincoln, lincoln, ne, USa.

Intact implicit verbal relational memory in medial temporal lobe amnesia

To elucidate the role of the hippocampus in unaware relational memory, the present study examined the performance of amnesic patients with medial temporal lobe (MTL) lesions on a cued category-exemplar generation task. In contrast to a prior study in which amnesic patients showed impaired performance (Verfaellie et al., Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience, 2006, 6, 91–101), the current study employed a task that required active processing of the context word at test. In this version of the task, amnesic patients, like control participants, showed enhanced category exemplar priming when the context word associated with the target at study was reinstated at test. The finding of intact implicit memory for novel associations following hippocampal lesions in a task that requires flexible use of retrieval cues is inconsistent with a relational memory view that suggests that the hippocampus is critical for all forms of relational memory, regardless of awareness. Instead, it suggests that unaware memory for within-domain associations does not require MTL mediation.

Verbal memory compensation: Application to left and right temporal lobe epileptic patients

This study investigates the compensatory impact of cognitive aids on left and right temporal lobe epileptic patients suffering from verbal memory disorders, who were candidates for surgery. Cognitive aids are defined in the levels-of-processing framework and deal with the depth of encoding, the elaboration of information, and the use of retrieval cues. Results indicate differential compensatory impact for left and right epileptic patients and are discussed according to the HERA model and the compensation framework.

Encoding–Retrieval Interactions in Mild Alzheimer's Disease: The Role of Access to Categorical Information

Normal old adults and patients in an early phase of Alzheimer's disease (AD) were presented with photographs of common objects under two different encoding conditions: naming and naming along with category decisions. Memory was assessed with free recall, category cued recall, and recognition. For both groups, recognition was superior to cued recall which was higher than that for free recall. Most importantly, cue utilization in AD was optimized in the naming + category decision condition, although the normal old showed equivalent gains from cues following both encoding conditions. These results suggest that AD patients require more cognitive support at encoding than normal old adults to make effective use of retrieval cues. Dementia-related deficits in processing categorical information spontaneously may underlie the observed group differences in patterns of performance.

Vieillissement et déficit mnémonique : effet des indices catégoriels et spécifiques dans le rappel d'une liste de mots

Summary : Memory deficit and aging : The effect of categorical and specific cues on a word-list recall. The two experiments reported here investigated the question of age-related deficit in recall with the use of retrieval cues. In Exp. I, we have tried by using categorical cues to determine if the memory deficit of the elderly in recall memory tasks may be the result of a slowing down linked to the memory search processes. The results suggest that the elderly show a significant improvment in performance when presented at the output with the cues which were at hand on input. These observations tend to support the idea that aging is accompanied by a worsening of the memory search processes. In Exp. II, it is proposed that age related deficit in recall can also be determined by a decrease in the effectiveness of use of contextually specifie retrieval eues. The results show that the elderly seem capable of carrying out a functional specific encoding at input ; the difficultes in this situation again seem linked to a deficit in memory search processes. Key words : aging, cued recall, encoding, memory search.

Metamemory-memory behavior relationships in young children: Evidence from a memory-for-location task

Relationships among metamemory, memory behavior, and memory performance in 4- to 6-year-old children were studied in two experiments, employing a memory-for-location task in which retrieval cues were available as memory aids. There were substantial correlations among task-related metamemory, memory behavior (i.e., use of retrieval cues), and memory performance even in 4-year-olds. Very few children used retrieval cues without being aware of at least some of their functions. Cue use, cue effectiveness, and metamemory concerning retrieval cues were shown to increase over the preschool years. One of the most interesting developmental trends seemed to be the increasing ability to establish relationships between cues and targets even if these are not highly associated. These results are discussed with regard to previous research on young children's use and understanding of retrieval cues.

Children's use of retrieval cues to “describe” episodic information in memory: Problems of constructability and discriminability

Four experiments were conducted to extend the “descriptions” approach to differences in using retrieval cues in second and fourth graders and college adults. The purpose of the experiments was to determine if “discriminability” and “constructability” in using cues are separable and to determine some of the sources of developmental differences in both aspects of cue use. In all the experiments, the encoding of cue-target word pairs at acquisition and of the cues alone at retrieval was constrained by means of orienting questions. Discriminability, which concerns the distinctiveness of acquisition encoding, was manipulated by varying the specificity of the acquisition orienting questions in Experiments 1 and 2, and the extent to which the cue modified the target information at acquisition in Experiment 3. Constructability, which concerns the retrieval information, was manipulated by varying the semantic relation of the retrieval orienting questions to the acquistion orienting questions in Experiments 1–4, and by using retrieval cues representing the “whole” or only “part” of the acquisition encoding context in Experiment 3. The results suggest that deficits in discriminability and constructability contribute independently to developmental differences in using retrieval cues and suggest some reasons for these deficits.

Constraints on retrieval search for episodic information in children and adults

The hypothesis that a lack of structural constraint limits children's ability to use context and category cues to search associative memory for episodic information is examined in this study. Second and fifth graders and college adults were shown word triplets at acquisition and asked to recall the final target member of each triplet in a cued recall task. The manipulations concerned sources of associative structure that could constrain retrieval search. The degree to which the members of the triplets were associated was varied, as well as the kind of association, and the kind and amount of retrieval support provided in the cue, and encoding was constrained by orienting questions or was unconstrained. The results showed that children's effective use of retrieval cues was more dependent on episodic associative structure, retrieval support, and the constrained encoding of associative information than was adults'. Differences in the associative structure of information in permanent memory seemed to contribute to the results.

Developmental differences in the use of retrieval cues to describe episodic information in memory

In four experiments, this study examined some reasons why second and fourth grade children use cues relatively ineffectively to retrieve episodic information in memory. Retrieval success was conceptualized as using a cue to describe episodic information in memory. The experiments manipulated factors hypothesized to affect the discriminability and constructability of compatible encodings of context cue information at retrieval. In general, the effects were accomplished by varying the specificity of cue-target information at acquisition, and similar or different samplings of cue information alone at retrieval by means of orienting questions. Experiment 1 varied the encoding of item specific or categorical information. Experiment 2 varied the encoding of supercategorical or subcategorical information. Experiment 3 used two acquisition trials, crossing Categorical × Item Specific encoding and repeating identical encoding experiences. Experiment 4 varied Separate and Interactive Imagery encoding instructions. The results showed that problems of both discriminability and constructability contribute to developmental differences in the use of retrieval cues.

Retrieval variability: The inefficient use of retrieval cues by young children

The hypothesis of this study is that the inefficient use of retrieval cues by young children is due to retrieval variability: the variable encoding of semantic information in cue stimuli at input and retrieval and the inability to reinterpret cue information to ensure cue-trace compatibility. The critical manipulations involved the use of semantic orienting questions at both input and retrieval. Second and fourth graders and college adults were given moderately associated word pairs (Knife-Axe). Encoding was constrained or free between groups at both input and retrieval. The retrieval questions biased the Same interpretation of the cue as at input (weapon), a uniquely Different interpretation (utensil), or an inappropriate Negative interpretation. Both cued recall and recognition of the target items was tested. The results showed systematic developmental increases both in the distinctiveness of the semantic encoding of stimulus information, and in the ability to reinterpret cue information to ensure cue-trace compatibility. The second graders encoded more variably than the older subjects, and were less able to shift from an incompatible encoding of cue information.

La rétention à long terme : organisation et recherche dans la mémoire des formes

Summary A set of sixteen forms was derived from four basic abstract figures (four instances per basic figure). Subjects were given seven trials to learn the sixteen forms in a free recall situation. After a one-week delay, they were submitted to two retention tests. During learning trials, subjects were divided into two groups : in group 1, the four basic forms were presented simultaneously with the derived forms ; in group 2, subjects never saw the basic forms. Results show that the presentation of basic forms facilitates the development of a categorization process ; however one third of the subjects in group 2 reached a high degree of categorization. Learning seems dependent on this categorization process. The retention tests were the same for ail subjects : first a non-cued recall (Rni), then a cued recall (Ri) in which the cues were the four basic forms. In Rni, the retention rate was identical for both learning conditions (58,%). In Ri, the cues increased the recall. The analysis of data shows that long term retention depends on two factors : the development of a categorization process during learning and the use of retrieval cues.