Abstracts 2005 - The Psychonomic Society

Saturday Evening Posters 5037–5044
(5037)
Photographic Memory of Unfamiliar Faces Under 30 Seconds.
KANG LEE & STEPHEN LINK, University of California, San Diego,
& LIEZHONG GE & SONGQING WANG, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University
(sponsored by John T. Wixted)—The present study examined how
accurate one’s memory is for an unfamiliar face and what is the minimal
amount of exposure needed to ensure an adequate face memory.
Participants were first shown a face for 10, 20, or 30 sec and then were
presented with either the familiarized “old face” or new faces, one at
a time. The new faces differed from the old face only in terms of the
interocular distance of the old face, ranging from 2 to 20 pixels. In a
control condition, participants had to discriminate the old and altered
faces presented simultaneously. Accuracy for the 20- and 30-sec conditions
was comparable to that for the control condition. Thus, a brief
exposure of between 10 and 30 sec is sufficient to create photographic
memory of unfamiliar faces, and this memory is perhaps limited only
by our visual system’s ability to resolve interocular distance differences.
• WORKING MEMORY •
(5038)
Auditory Sequence Processing: Individual Differences in Memory
for Serial Order. ELIZABETH I. PIERPONT & MARK S. SEIDEN-
BERG, University of Wisconsin, Madison—Impairments in memory
for the serial order of auditory events have been implicated in some
types of language and memory disorders. However, assessments that
rely on spoken responses could be affected by differences in the ability
to name the stimuli. We examined variability in memory for serial
order in college students. Subjects listened to a series of four sounds
presented in a continuous loop and were asked to report their order.
Stimuli included nameable animal sounds and nonnameable tone sequences.
Stimulus durations varied between 250 and 1,000 msec. Subjects
responded either vocally or by manipulating objects corresponding
to the sounds. Latencies to name the animal sounds were
independently assessed. The results showed individual differences
among subjects in memory for serial order that were not due to differences
in naming ability but were related to performance on tests of
grammar and working memory.
(5039)
A Phonological Similarity Advantage in Serial Recall. DANIEL J.
ACHESON & MARYELLEN C. MACDONALD, University of Wisconsin,
Madison—Phonological similarity among items in word lists reduces
serial recall rate. This effect persists with concurrent articulation
of a nonsense syllable during encoding of auditorily presented
items but disappears when the list is presented visually. In the present
study, an additional dimension of phonological similarity was investigated
in immediate serial recall—similarity between list items and
a concurrently articulated syllable. This manipulation was crossed
with list presentation modality (visual vs. auditory). Results (N = 32)
replicated previous phonological similarity effects with one notable
exception: Whereas memory was better for nonoverlapping lists than
for overlapping lists presented auditorily, superior recall was achieved
for phonologically similar lists when the articulated syllable overlapped
with list items, relative to when it did not. The implications of
this facilitation effect for phonological similarity are discussed, with
particular emphasis on the role of language production mechanisms
in verbal short-term memory.
(5040)
Timing and Short-Term Memory for Order Information. SIMON
FARRELL, University of Bristol—Several theories of short-term order
memory assume that people remember the order of sequences in
short-term memory by associating each item or event with a time code
(e.g., Brown, Preece, & Hulme, 2000). Alternatively, some models assume
that order representation is not time based but is, instead, event
driven (Farrell & Lewandowsky, 2002). Recent evidence supports the
latter view by showing that the spacing of items in time has little effect
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on their serial recall (Lewandowsky & Brown, 2005). The present experiment
investigated this issue by presenting lists of digits with irregular
timing and postcuing participants for their memory of the order of
the digits or the timing of the digits. The results showed that the timing
of recall of order tended to match the input timing and that grouping
instructions had similar effects on timing in the serial recall and the
timing tasks. Implications for models of serial recall are considered.
(5041)
Memory for Empty and Filled Intervals: Evidence for the Instructional
Ambiguity Hypothesis. ANGELO SANTI & STEPHEN
GAGNE, Wilfrid Laurier University—Pigeons were trained in a withinsubjects
design to discriminate durations of an empty interval (2 sec
and 8 sec bound by two 1-sec light markers) and durations of a filled
interval (2 sec and 8 sec of continuous light). The background illumination
displayed on the video monitor was varied in order to differentiate
the intertrial interval (ITI), the sample presentation phase,
and the delay interval (DI). Differentiating all three trial phases resulted
in parallel retention functions for both empty and filled intervals.
When the DI and the sample phase were undifferentiated, there
was a choose-long bias for empty intervals, but no bias for filled intervals.
When the DI was differentiated from both the ITI and the sample
phase, the retention functions were parallel for both empty and
filled intervals. When all three trial phases were undifferentiated,
there was a choose-long bias for empty intervals. These results support
the ambiguity explanation of biased-forgetting effects.
(5042)
Effect of Training Delay on the Choose-Short Effect in Pigeons.
DOUGLAS S. GRANT, University of Alberta—Pigeons were trained
on a matching-to-duration task in which the samples were 2- and 8-sec
presentations of keylight. Three groups of pigeons received one of
three delay conditions during training: a 0-sec fixed delay (Group 0sF),
a fixed 2-sec delay (Group 2sF), and a variable 2-sec delay (range,
1–3 sec; Group 2sV). Acquisition was more rapid in Group 0sF than
in the other two groups which did not differ from each other. During
retention testing, only Group 0sF demonstrated a statistically reliable
choose-short effect (CSE). It was concluded that use of a nonzero
delay during training reduces the likelihood of analogical sample coding
and, hence, results in a less robust CSE.
(5043)
A Time–Accuracy Study of Age Differences in Perception and Working
Memory. JULIE A. DUMAS, University of Vermont, & MARILYN
HARTMAN & BREA STRATTON, University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill—The locus of reduced working memory in older adults and
its relationship to slowed perception was examined using a delayedmatching-to-sample
(DMTS) task. Older and younger participants
performed six blocks of a DMTS task and a perception task across a
range of study times. Time–accuracy curves were fitted for each participant
to estimate parameters measuring the encoding time necessary
for performance to rise above chance, asymptotic accuracy, and
the rate of approach to the asymptote. Results showed age differences
in the rate of approach parameter on the working memory test and in
the asymptote and rate of approach parameters on the perception test.
When speed of perception was controlled statistically, age differences
in working memory were no longer present. These results are discussed
with respect to the effects of age on speed and accuracy in
working memory and to the role that lower level perceptual processes
play in these effects.
(5044)
The Role of Working Memory Functions in Metaphor Production.
DAN L. CHIAPPE, VANESSA E. CHAMBERS, CANDACE J. STUTE,
KELLY M. MCCULLOCH, DEBORAH L. NELSON, & JESSE ME-
LENDREZ, California State University, Long Beach—Although mechanisms
of metaphor comprehension have received much attention,
those involved in metaphor production have not. We remedy this by