S1 (FriAM 1-65) - The Psychonomic Society

Friday Noon Posters 2090–2096
subjects rated the lesson on several subjective measures. Subjects
were most enthusiastic about lessons that included visuals and interactivity,
but those features may or may not actually increase learning,
depending on whether they promote processing that transfers to particular
test types.
(2090)
A Testing Effect With Multimedia Learning. CHERYL I. JOHNSON
& RICHARD E. MAYER, University of California, Santa Barbara
(sponsored by Richard E. Mayer)—In Experiment 1, participants viewed
a short, narrated animation about lightning formation, and then either
watched the animation again (study–study group) or took a retention
test (study–retention test group), before taking an immediate or delayed
retention test. In Experiment 2, in addition to the study–study
and study–retention test conditions, a third condition took an intervening
transfer test (study–transfer test group), and all groups took an
immediate or delayed retention test followed by a transfer test. Across
both experiments, the study–retention group outperformed the
study–study group on the delayed retention test but not on the immediate
retention, thus replicating the testing effect obtained with word
lists. In Experiment 2, taking an initial retention test benefited final
retention test performance but not final transfer test performance,
whereas taking an initial transfer test benefited performance on both the
final retention and transfer tests, as predicted by levels-of-processing
theory.
• IMPLICIT COGNITION •
(2091)
Semantic Organization: Possible Individual Differences Based on
Handedness. VARALAKSHMI SONTAM & STEPHEN D. CHRIST-
MAN, University of Toledo (sponsored by Stephen D. Christman)—
Previous research indicates that there are handedness differences in
semantic switching flexibility. That is, in comparison with stronghanders,
mixed-handers switch between different subcategories
within a semantic tree more readily. The present study hypothesizes
that these handedness differences are due to differences in semantic
organization based on differential link-strengths between the concepts,
which in turn affects the spread of activation. Specifically, it is
proposed that for mixed-handers, the strength of links connecting the
concepts belonging to different subcategories (relatively less relevant
concepts) is very close to the strength of the links connecting the concepts
within a subcategory (more relevant concepts). This idea was
tested using ambiguous words (e.g., bank), which are related to other
concepts via dominant (e.g., money) or subordinate (e.g., river) meanings.
Consistent with the hypothesis, in a controlled priming task,
mixed-handers demonstrated equal facilitation for both dominant and
subordinate associates, whereas strong-handers showed facilitation
only for the dominant associates.
(2092)
Evidence of Cross-Modal Grammar Learning. JASON J. JONES &
HAROLD E. PASHLER, University of California, San Diego (sponsored
by Harold E. Pashler)—Many researchers have argued that the mechanisms
of statistical learning are modality specific. We present data
from an artificial grammar learning experiment demonstrating that
subjects learn statistical relationships between auditory and visual
stimuli. We argue this is evidence for a form of statistical learning occurring
at a level of cognition at which modality information has already
been abstracted away.
(2093)
The Implicit Learning of Concurrent Spatial Sequences. JACQUE-
LINE C. SHIN, Indiana State University—Can implicit learning occur
for concurrent sequences in two spatial dimensions? In a serial reaction
time task, a visual stimulus was presented in one of three sets of
four horizontal positions, each set in a different region of the visual
display. The location of the stimulus within these localized (horizon-
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tal position) and macroscopic (region) spatial levels was manipulated
independently. Response selection was based on the localized information,
but the macroscopic information was incidental. In different
conditions, the two types of spatial information followed same-length
sequences that were phase matched or followed different-length sequences.
In the same-length condition, the two sequences were integrated
into a common sequence representation. Although the individual
sequences were learned simultaneously in both conditions,
learning for the macroscopic spatial sequence was greater in the
different- than in the same-length condition. The pattern of results
suggests an interactive relationship between integrative and independent
sequence learning in the visuospatial modality.
(2094)
Monitoring Not Versus Not-Monitoring in Automatic Memory for
Context. YAAKOV HOFFMAN, Bar Ilan University & Ben Gurion
University, & JOSEPH TZELGOV, Ben Gurion University (sponsored
by Joseph Tzelgov)—Automatic (AA) memory is monitored neither
at encoding nor at retrieval. Direct measurement of AA memory is examined
with a recognition context paradigm, where larger gray (perceptually
nonsalient) words appear behind smaller black (salient)
words. Context was manipulated by instructions telling participants to
remember either a gray (gray = target, black = context) or a black
(black = target, gray = context) word. Although significant AA memory
was obtained for both contexts, the result pattern differed. Shorter
lists, deeper encoding, and full attention enhanced memory for nonsalient
context, yet impaired memory for salient context. Longer lists,
shallower encoding, and divided attention, which typically weaken
memory, enhanced AA memory for salient context. It implies that
nonsalient context is not triggered by task requirement and is thus not
monitored. However, salient context interferes with target monitoring
and has to be intentionally ignored.
(2095)
Interaction Between Spatial Context Learning and Learning Strategy.
NOBUTAKA ENDO, Hiroshima Shudo University, WALTER R.
BOOT, ALEJANDRO LLERAS, & ARTHUR F. KRAMER, Beckman
Institute, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, & TAKATSUNE
KUMADA, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and
Technology—Visual search performance is improved when participants
repeatedly experience the same spatial layout (contextual
cuing). Contextual cuing suggests that the spatial layout is implicitly
learned, and can guide spatial attention to the target location (Chun
& Jiang, 1998). Recently, Lleras and von Mühlenen (2004) manipulated
participants’ search strategy (active or passive between participants)
and showed that contextual cuing occurred only when participants
with passive strategy conducted the search task. Moreover,
Endo, Boot, Kramer, Lleras, and Kumada (2006) replicated the results
of Lleras and von Mühlenen’s study even when participants used each
strategy in the different session of the experiment. However, it was unclear
whether search strategy affected context learning or use of the
learned context because they used the different set of stimuli in each
session. In the present study, we controlled the set of stimuli between
the sessions, and examined the interaction between context learning
and search strategy.
(2096)
Accommodating “Backward” Repetition Priming Effects in a Transfer
Appropriate Processing Model. WENDY S. FRANCIS, EDGAR
GRANILLO, MARTHA G. OROZCO, & VICTORIA ALEXANDER,
University of Texas, El Paso—Word comprehension and word production
involve access to common mental representations, but the associated
flow of information goes in opposite directions. Two experiments
with Spanish–English bilinguals measured the long-term
effects of forward and backward process repetition on response times
in picture naming and word translation. Experiment 1 (N = 84) used
picture naming, translation, and semantic classification as encoding
tasks for later translation. Experiment 2 (N = 84) used picture nam-