S1 (FriAM 1-65) - The Psychonomic Society

Friday Noon Posters 2062–2068
ness. In addition, we report that judgments are influenced by working
memory, the number of sequences judged per set, as well as whether
the data are presented as a series of discrete outcomes or in a graphical
format. We conclude that when judging sequences, people are not
as biased as has been previously reported.
(2062)
Object Familiarity Can Be Altered in the Presence of Other Objects.
ALAN S. BROWN, Southern Methodist University, & ELIZABETH J.
MARSH, Duke University—Does the familiarity of an object depend
on the context in which it is judged? To answer this, abstract symbols
were judged alone or in the context of another symbol. The flanker
symbol was either very familiar or very unfamiliar, as established in
a pilot study. Experiment 1 used two brief presentation conditions:
100 or 1,000 msec. In both conditions, unfamiliar flankers decreased
rated target familiarity, while familiar flankers increased rated target
familiarity, relative to the no-flanker control. In Experiment 2, symbols
remained in view until rated. Familiar flankers continued to inflate
the familiarity of the target, but there was no effect of unfamiliar
flankers (relative to the no-flanker control). Irrelevant stimuli can
change how familiar a target feels, especially when the nontarget is
very familiar.
(2063)
Implicit Figural–Semantic Association in Chinese Characters.
MIN-JU LIAO, HAN-JU TASI, & CHING-FAN SHEU, National Cheng
Kung University—Research has shown a figural–semantic association
in Chinese where the orthographic signs are used to designate concepts.
The present study investigated an implicit/automatic process of
this association. Our hypothesis was that figural attributes of positive
meaning characters will automatically prompt positive perceptual
evaluations. Perceptual judgment and recognition tasks were employed
in the present experiment. In the perceptual judgment task, participants
noncognate of Chinese were presented with a pair of Chinese
characters designed with either antonymic or neutral concepts and
were to choose one character that was perceptually more preferable.
In the recognition task, participants’ recognition performance for
characters presented in the first task was examined. Preliminary data
revealed that when presented with two antonymic characters, participants
tended to evaluate positive meaning characters as more preferable.
The recognition rates for individual characters from antonymic
or neutral concept pairs did not show any difference.
(2064)
The Effect of Forecasts From Sources Differing in Forecast Extremity
and Diagnosticity. YARON SHLOMI & THOMAS S. WALLSTEN,
University of Maryland—An important issue concerns how consumers
of forecasts learn to utilize the information provided to them.
We created advisors that varied in forecast extremity (e.g., probability
forecasts that were low [60%] vs. high [90%]) and diagnosticity
(e.g., conditional hit rate, .60 vs. .90) and provided participants an opportunity
to learn about the forecasts’ characteristics over many trials.
The data suggest that the two dimensions have independent effects
on the extremity of the participants’ judgments. We developed a mathematical
model to account for participants’ learning in this task. Applying
the model at the level of individual respondents, the estimated
parameters suggest that forecast extremity was overweighted and forecast
diagnosticity was underweighted. Our results are useful on both
theoretical and practical grounds. In addition, the experimental procedure
developed here may be adapted for investigating effects of properties
related to the producer of the forecasts, such as trustworthiness.
• RETRIEVAL PROCESSES •
(2065)
Detecting Semantic Versus Episodic Memory Retrieval via fMRI
Pattern Classification. PER B. SEDERBERG & KENNETH A.
NORMAN, Princeton University—Behavioral studies have demon-
78
strated that humans rely on both semantic and episodic associations
to cue memory retrieval; however, with few exceptions, imaging studies
of memory retrieval have focused on the neural correlates of semantic
and episodic memory independently. In order to understand
the interplay between semantic and episodic associations during
memory retrieval, it is first necessary to track subjects’ retrieval states
during memory search. To this end, we collected fMRI data while
subjects performed both semantic and episodic paired-associate stem
completion tasks. We were able to distinguish between semantic and
episodic cue states in all subjects by means of a back-propagation
neural-network pattern classifier. In a subset of the subjects, the output
of the neural classifier also correlated with behavioral performance
in the tasks. These results indicate that subjects modulate their
retrieval state during memory search and that pattern classification
techniques can dissociate between episodic and semantic states during
memory retrieval.
(2066)
Memory Retrieval As an Encoding Event: The Role of Attention.
NICOLE M. DUDUKOVIC & ANTHONY D. WAGNER, Stanford
University—When you remember an event, the act of memory retrieval
serves to reencode the experience, ultimately influencing
whether you will remember it in the future. We investigated whether
dividing attention during retrieval reduces the power of retrieval as an
encoding event. Participants studied object pictures under two different
semantic encoding tasks. They then engaged in a recognition and
source memory test, sometimes while simultaneously performing an
auditory discrimination task. Two days later they returned for a second
recognition and source memory test. Recognition and source
memory were better for items that had been retrieved under full as opposed
to divided attention. More importantly, items that were correctly
recognized on the first test were more likely to be subsequently
recognized on the second test if they had initially been retrieved under
full attention. The same held true for correct source memories. Thus,
attention may be critical for retrieval benefits.
(2067)
Distributed Retrieval Practice: How Much Is Enough? MARY A.
PYC & KATHERINE A. RAWSON, Kent State University—Previous
research has established that distributed retrieval practice promotes
memory. However, students necessarily have a finite amount of time
to spend studying, and thus examining the efficiency of practice
schedules is also important. In two experiments, we compared various
schedules of distributed retrieval practice to examine the minimum
number of times an item needs to be correctly recalled during
practice to maximize final test performance. The results showed that
correctly recalling an item only once during practice led to lower final
test performance than correctly recalling an item more than once during
practice. However, we observed diminishing returns of further
practice, until a point was reached where correctly recalling an item
more times during practice provided no further benefit to final test
performance. The results also showed that the level of practice at
which asymptotic final test performance was reached depended on the
retention interval between practice and final test.
(2068)
Phonological and Visual Imagery Mediation Processes in Vocabulary
Retrieval. ROBERT J. CRUTCHER & JENNIFER M. SHEA,
University of Dayton—Two experiments investigated retrieval processes
of vocabulary pairs learned using keyword mediators by independently
manipulating the phonological or visual imagery properties of
the mediators. We measured accuracy and latency of retrieving
Indonesian–English vocabulary pairs (vocabulary task), as well as of
retrieving keywords from Indonesian words (keyword subtask) and
English translations from keywords (English subtask). Manipulating
the phonological similarity of the keyword mediator to the Indonesian
word impacted vocabulary retrieval such that greater phonological
similarity of keyword mediators to Indonesian words enhanced re-