Abstracts 2005 - The Psychonomic Society

Posters 4044–4050 Saturday Noon
sponded more slowly to positive targets following negative contexts
(RT = 1,139 msec) than to positive targets following positive contexts
(RT = 1,002 msec). In contrast, subjects responded more quickly to negative
targets following positive contexts (RT = 939 msec) than to negative
targets following negative contexts (RT = 989 msec). These results
indicate that contextual novelty is affected by the interaction between
the emotional valences of the context and the unexpected event.
(4044)
Individual Differences in Memory for Bizarre and Common Verbal
Information. JAMES B. WORTHEN, BRETT J. MOSS, LESLIE A.
HAYDEL, BLAITHIN D. MACMAHON, & SARAH C. SAVOY, Southeastern
Louisiana University—Relationships between six personality
variables and each of three different measures of recall for bizarre and
common sentences were examined. The personality variables investigated
included measures of sensation seeking, novelty experiencing,
desire for novelty, arousal-seeking tendency, social potency, and conservatism.
Recall was measured in terms of sentences accessed, target
words recovered per accessed sentence, and misplaced target
words. Results from 180 undergraduate students indicated that both
arousal seeking and conservatism were positively related to a bizarreness
advantage in sentences accessed. In addition, high social potency was
related to the recovery of more details from common than from bizarre
sentences, and high desire for novelty was related to an increased
bizarre misplacement effect. The results are discussed in terms of current
explanations of the effects of bizarreness on memory.
(4045)
Blowing Up T–N-T: Interference Instructions Lead to “Suppression.”
BRIAN CRABB, CARLI JENSEN, MERYL MARTIN, & MEGAN
JENSEN, Western Washington University—Anderson and Green’s (2001)
“think–no-think” paradigm claims that blocking the entry into conscious
awareness of targets from previously learned word pairs leads
to lower later recall of the targets. However, because no behavioral response
is measured during these “no-think” trials, it is not clear what
participants are actually doing. We have found evidence that many
participants in this task use an interference strategy (thinking of things
other than the target) to not think of the target, rather than use the suppression
strategy that Anderson and Green assume they are using. Furthermore,
we find that giving participants interference instructions for
the “no-think” trials leads to reduced memory for those words. Together,
these findings suggest that Anderson and Green’s findings are
best explained by interference rather than by suppression.
(4046)
Sleep Benefits Declarative Memory Consolidation: Sleep-Dependent
Resistance to Interference (SDRI). JEFFREY M. ELLENBOGEN,
Harvard Medical School, & JUSTIN C. HULBERT, DAVID F. DINGES,
& SHARON L. THOMPSON-SCHILL, University of Pennsylvania—
There is considerable evidence that sleep improves implicit memory
consolidation in humans. However, the role of sleep in declarative (hippocampally
mediated) memory remains controversial. The purpose of
this study is to clarify whether, and in what manner, sleep affects declarative
memory. In two experiments, participants learned word pairs,
then were tested after a 12-h retention period that either included sleep
or consisted entirely of wakefulness. Experiment 1 assessed cued recall
after the delay; Experiment 2 assessed the resilience of such memories
to retroactive interference after the delay. Results demonstrate
two significant findings: a benefit of sleep, when compared with wakefulness,
for cued recall of word pairs and a robust benefit of sleep in
preventing interference. We conclude that sleep benefits declarative
memory consolidation, rendering memories resistant to subsequent interference.
These findings have broad implications for understanding
the processes of memory, the purpose of sleep, and their relationship.
(4047)
Expanding Retrieval Does Not Improve Long-Term Retention. JEF-
FREY D. KARPICKE & HENRY L. ROEDIGER III, Washington Uni-
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versity (sponsored by Henry L. Roediger III)—Expanding retrieval
practice (Landauer & Bjork, 1978) is widely believed to be a superior
technique for promoting long-term retention (relative to equally
spaced retrieval and other types of practice). In two experiments using
GRE vocabulary word pairs, we found that expanding retrieval produced
modest short-term benefits (10 min after learning), conceptually
replicating Landauer and Bjork. However, equally spaced retrieval
produced superior long-term retention (2 days later). This
pattern was observed under conditions with or without feedback during
the learning phase. We argue that the key factor for promoting retention
is having an initial retrieval attempt after a brief delay (thereby
making it more effortful and difficult), not expanding the interval between
repeated tests. Expanding retrieval is not the most effective
spaced retrieval technique for enhancing long-term retention.
(4048)
Determinants of Individual Differences in Current Events Knowledge:
A Longitudinal Study. DAVID Z. HAMBRICK, Michigan State
University, & ELIZABETH J. MEINZ & JONATHAN C. PETTIBONE,
Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville—Research has established
that acquired knowledge is a major source of individual differences in
cognitive performance. What, then, contributes to individual differences
in knowledge? This study investigated determinants of individual
differences in knowledge of politics. The study occurred in two
sessions separated by 2.5 months. In Session 1, participants performed
tests to assess (1) cognitive ability factors, (2) knowledge of politics,
and (3) personality and interest factors. In Session 2, which occurred
immediately following the 2004 U.S. general election, participants
completed tests to assess knowledge of politics acquired since Session
1. Structural equation modeling revealed strong effects of cognitive
ability on acquisition of political knowledge. However, there were independent
effects of nonability factors. Specifically, a personality factor
reflecting intellectual openness predicted interest in politics,
which in turn predicted exposure to and acquisition of political information.
Thus, there was evidence for two predictive pathways—an
ability pathway and a nonability pathway.
(4049)
Locus of Talker Variability Effects in Primary and Secondary Memory
Search for Spoken Words. WINSTON D. GOH, National University
of Singapore (sponsored by David B. Pisoni)—Previous work on
talker variability effects in memory for spoken words suggests that
having words spoken by multiple rather than single talkers was detrimental
in short-term memory (STM) tasks but facilitative in longterm
memory (LTM) tasks. It has been suggested that variability disrupts
processing fluency in STM tasks but that, in LTM tasks, multiple
talkers provide unique voice cues that aid retrieval. Interpreting the
locus of these effects is complicated by variations across tasks. The
present study investigated variability effects in auditory memory
search, using a single task that had a primary and secondary memory
version—the two-memory paradigm (Wickens, Moody, & Dow, 1981)
variant of Sternberg’s (1966) memory search task. The magnitude of
variability effects was larger for secondary than for primary memory.
Memory set size did not interact with variability, suggesting that the
locus of variability effects is at the retrieval stage and not at the processing
stage.
(4050)
Generating Study Items Increases Older Children’s Reliance on Gist
and Younger Children’s Reliance on Verbatim Memories. TIMOTHY
N. ODEGARD, University of Texas, Arlington, ROBYN E. HOLLIDAY,
University of Kent, Canterbury, & CHARLES J. BRAINERD & VALERIE
F. REYNA, Cornell University (sponsored by Charles J. Brainerd)—The
Battig and Montague norms were used to investigate the effects of an
encoding manipulation (read versus generate) and an instructional
manipulation (accept targets, accept related lures, accept targets and
related lures) on 7- to 8-year-old and 10- to 11-year-old children’s true
and false recognition. Children studied two blocks of four categorical