Abstracts 2005 - The Psychonomic Society

Saturday Evening Posters 5066–5072
& AGATHA LENARTOWICZ, Princeton University (sponsored by
Lynn Hasher)—Participants were given two tasks at either their peak
or off-peak time of day: a spatial working memory task and an implicit
test for distraction presented in the context of a target task. The participants’
peak times were either in the morning or in the afternoon,
and they were tested either early in the day (8 a.m.–9 a.m.) or late in
the afternoon (4 p.m.–5 p.m.). In accord with results reported by May,
Hasher, and Foong (2005), we found that performance on our intentional
task, spatial working memory, was better at peak times of day
(morning for the morning types and afternoon for the evening types).
The data from the implicit task showed a dramatically different pattern,
with greater tacit knowledge at off-peak times of day.
(5066)
Memory for Unattended Stimuli in a Flanker Task. MARTIN L.
BINK & JOHN L. JONES, Western Kentucky University—The flanker
paradigm is used to explore the distinctions between early and late attention
selection. The flanker effect occurs when unattended stimuli
in a display affect the processing of target stimuli. The flanker effect
suggests that the unattended stimuli are being processed in real time,
but there is no suggestion about the degree to which these unattended
stimuli are available to subsequent memory processes. The goal of the
present study was to explore the degree to which unattended stimuli
could be “remembered” in subsequent tests of implicit memory and
recognition. Stimuli were first presented in a flanker task. Across
three experiments, memory for the distractor items was tested using
a lexical decision task (implicit test), recognition, modified recognition
(explicit tests), and the process dissociation procedure. The results
indicated that the to-be-ignored stimuli were nonetheless available
to implicit memory processes in the subsequent memory tests.
(5067)
Interference as a Source of Dissociation Between Implicit and Explicit
Knowledge. RICARDO TAMAYO & PETER A. FRENSCH,
Humboldt University, Berlin—Two experiments tested the assumption
that implicit and explicit knowledge decay at different rates due to interference.
In a training phase, participants responded to letters that
followed a repetitive pattern according to a finite state grammar. In
the first experiment, participants were tested immediately following
training and after 7 days. During each test, participants responded to
old and new sequences and performed a concurrent recognition test.
Priming was measured by the difference in reaction time to learned
versus new items. The results of this experiment partially replicated
those of Tunney (2003). In a second experiment, an interference task,
in which participants were required to respond to randomly formed sequences
of letters, produced results equivalent to those observed by
delay. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for unitary
explanations of learning.
(5068)
The Modulation of Consolidation by D-Amphetamine in Implicit and
Explicit Sequence Learning. INGE ZEEUWS, NATACHA DEROOST,
& ERIC L. L. SOETENS, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (sponsored by
Eric L. L. Soetens)—D-amphetamine enhances the retention of explicitly
learned verbal material (Soetens et al., 1995). Presently, we
examined whether this finding can be generalized to the consolidation
of implicit sequence learning. To this end, participants performed a
serial reaction time (SRT) task in which they were not informed that the
stimuli followed a structured sequence. The next day, participants were
transferred to the initial sequence, a mirrored sequence, or a different
sequence, to determine the extent to which knowledge consolidation
involves abstraction of the learned material. Knowledge consolidation
and abstraction were observed in implicit sequence learning, but the
effect was independent of drug influence. In a second experiment, the
explicitness of sequence knowledge in the SRT task was manipulated
by instructions. Again, no influence of d-amphetamine was observed.
Accordingly, the present results suggest that the consolidation of verbal
and nonverbal material occurs differently.
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(5069)
Explicit Contamination in Word Stem Completion Task: A Response
Time Approach. MICHEL ISINGRINI, SÉVERINE FAY, LAURENCE
TACONNAT, DAVID CLARYS, & BADIÂA BOUAZZAOUI, University
of Tours, & VIVIANE POUTHAS, CNRS, Paris (sponsored by
Patrick Lemaire)—This experiment investigated the involvement of
awareness in functional dissociations between explicit and implicit
memory tests using word stems. The words were lexically or semantically
studied. In the implicit condition, subjective awareness was
subsequently measured on an item-by-item basis. The time taken to
complete each stem was recorded. In the explicit task, semantically
studied words were associated with higher levels of recall and shorter
response times than were lexically studied words. In the implicit task,
these effects failed to reach significance, although deep encoding
made the contents of memory more accessible to awareness. Performance
was slower in the explicit than in the implicit task, but in the
latter condition, times to produce old words with and without awareness
were comparable, and both of these responses were produced
more quickly than with control words. This finding suggests that although
participants may become aware in implicit paradigms, they do
not adopt voluntary retrieval strategies.
(5070)
Impact of Positive and Anxious Moods on Alcohol-Related Cognitions
in Internally Motivated Drinkers. VALERIE V. GRANT &
SHERRY H. STEWART, Dalhousie University (sponsored by Raymond
Klein)—We investigated the impact of musically induced positive and
anxious moods on the alcohol-related cognitions of undergraduates
who drink either to enhance positive mood states (EM) or to cope with
anxiety (CM anxiety). Participants completed a postmood induction
Stroop task that taps implicit alcohol-related cognitions. As was expected,
CM-anxiety participants in the anxious mood condition maintained
the tendency to show longer color-naming latencies for alcohol
(vs. nonalcohol) targets following mood induction. However,
contrary to our expectation, EM participants in the positive mood condition
did not maintain the alcohol interference effect following mood
induction. Also in accord with our hypothesis, CM-anxiety drinkers
in the anxious mood condition showed increases in the strength of explicit
emotional relief alcohol expectancies after the mood induction.
Surprisingly, EM drinkers in the anxious condition also exhibited significant
increases in the strength of explicit emotional relief (but not
emotional reward) alcohol expectancies. Theoretical and clinical implications
of the findings will be discussed.
(5071)
A Benefit of Heightened Susceptibility to Distraction: An Aging
Study. SUNGHAN KIM, University of Toronto, LYNN HASHER,
University of Toronto and Rotman Research Institute, & ROBERT S.
LOCKHART, University of Toronto—Under instructions to ignore distraction,
younger and older adults read passages with interspersed distracting
words. The distraction was manipulated such that some of the
words could then serve as solutions to a subsequent set of verbal problems
in which three weakly related words can be related by retrieving
a missing fourth word (i.e., the Remote Associates Test; Mednick,
1962). If older adults are less able than younger adults to regulate attention
during the reading task, they might show a benefit of that distraction
on the subsequent problem-solving task. And the findings are
quite clear: They are better than younger adults when the problems
can be solved by distractors from the original reading task. This study
shows a case in which the lack of attentional control can actually lead
to superior performance.
(5072)
The Role of Response Competition in Age Reductions in Implicit
Memory Performance. LISA GERACI, Texas A&M University, &
MARYELLEN HAMILTON, Saint Peter’s College—Implicit memory
performance is sometimes reduced in older adults, as compared with
younger adults. These age reductions in performance have been ex-