Abstracts 2005 - The Psychonomic Society

Papers 8–14 Friday Morning
of encoding conditions, we examined, in three experiments, whether
part-list cuing is a transient or lasting phenomenon. Across the experiments,
the detrimental effect of part-list cues was consistently
found to be transient with associative encoding and lasting with
nonassociative encoding. These results indicate that the persistence of
part-list cuing depends on encoding, thus challenging both strategy
disruption and retrieval inhibition as general accounts of part-list
cuing. A two-mechanism account is provided, according to which the
two mechanisms mediate the effect in different encoding conditions.
8:40–8:55 (8)
The Influence of Preexisting Associations on Integration Effects
in Directed Forgetting. LILI SAHAKYAN, University of North Carolina,
Greensboro, & LEILANI B. GOODMON, University of South
Florida—The directed-forgetting effect refers to impaired recall of
previously studied information as a result of instructing people to forget.
Previous research showed that integration resulting from strong primary
associations between to-be-forgotten (TBF) and to-be-remembered
(TBR) lists reduces the directed-forgetting effect (Conway, Harries,
Noyes, Racsmany, & Frankish, 2000). The present studies investigated
the effects of the direction and strength of preexisting semantic associations
(as measured by free association norms) on directed forgetting.
In a series of studies, the TBF and TBR lists were completely unrelated
(rose–business), linked only in one direction (stem activates
rose, but rose does not activate stem), or linked in both directions
(rose–petals). Results revealed no forgetting in the bidirectional condition
only. To determine whether greater net strength of the associations
or the presence of links in both directions were responsible for
these findings, subsequent studies crossed strength with the direction
of association.
9:00–9:15 (9)
Protecting Against Inhibition: The Influence of Episodic and Semantic
Integration on Retrieval-Induced Forgetting. LEILANI B.
GOODMON, University of South Florida, & MICHAEL C. ANDER-
SON, University of Oregon (read by Michael C. Anderson)—When
people form episodic connections between memories that share a cue, the
tendency for those memories to compete is reduced. This episodic integration
has been shown to protect memories from retrieval-induced
forgetting (RIF), a phenomenon in which retrieval of some associates
of a cue suppresses other competitors. Here, we report three experiments
examining whether semantic integration (i.e., preexisting associations),
also protects against RIF, even when no episodic integration
is attempted. In the interset condition, strong a priori associations
existed between the retrieval practiced and nonpracticed sets. In the
intraset condition, there were strong associations within the practiced
set and nonpracticed set. Results show a striking dependency of inhibition
on the pattern of associations: The intraset condition revealed
substantial inhibition, but the interset condition revealed none. These
findings show that integration—whether episodic or semantic—forms
a fundamental boundary condition on RIF that is likely to explain variability
in this phenomenon.
9:20–9:35 (10)
In Search of Inhibition in Retroactive “Inhibition.” DENNIS J.
DELPRATO & KAREN STANLEY, Eastern Michigan University—
Although retroactive interference (RI) once was routinely referred to
as retroactive inhibition, convincing evidence of inhibition in the classic
RI preparation may have never been reported. This research, in
which experimental subjects studied two successive lists of 20 different
unrelated words, was designed to rule out several noninhibitory
sources of RI decrements. And one of the two RI experimental conditions
(study only), like the RI control condition, should not have activated
inhibitory processes, because subjects did not overtly recall
second-list words prior to the test of first-list retention. The other
(study–test) was expected to activate inhibitory control processes, due
to overt retrieval of words during second-list study. Over two experi-
2
ments, RI was evident, but only when the second list was studied for
more than a single cycle, provided that the words were also recalled
in conjunction with study episodes. These findings seem to suggest
that inhibition does participate in RI.
9:40–9:55 (11)
Repression Revisited. MICHAEL S. HUMPHREYS & ANGELA M.
MAGUIRE, University of Queensland, & DOUGLAS L. NELSON,
University of South Florida—It has been suggested that the think/nothink
paradigm in which participants are encouraged to suppress responses
(Anderson & Green, 2001) may provide a model for the
Freudian concept of repression. We have been able to replicate the
basic results through mere exposure, without having subjects practice
suppressing a response. We argue that our results, as well as the Anderson
and Green results, are better explained by associative chaining,
where interference occurs when a nontarget member of the chain
is associated with context.
Causal Learning and Reasoning
Grand Ballroom West, Friday Morning, 8:00–10:00
Chaired by Brett K. Hayes, University of New South Wales
8:00–8:15 (12)
The Development of Causal Induction. BRETT K. HAYES & SUSAN
P. THOMPSON, University of New South Wales—Most process models
of category-based induction assume that the strength of an inductive
argument is a positive function of the similarity between the features
of premise and conclusion instances. This paper examines the
development of an alternate basis for induction: shared causal relations
in premises and conclusions. Three experiments compared the
use of feature similarity and causal relations in the inductive reasoning
of 5- and 8-year-olds and adults, using artificial category stimuli.
Although the prevalence of induction based on causal relations increased
with age, 5-year-olds showed a reliable preference for causal
over similarity-based induction. For all ages, inductive inferences
based on causal antecedent features were stronger than those based on
causal consequent features. Similar results were found across two conceptual
domains (animals and artifacts). The implications for models
of inductive reasoning and inductive development are considered.
8:20–8:35 (13)
Mechanisms of Induction Across Points of Development. VLADIMIR
M. SLOUTSKY, Ohio State University—The ability to generalize from
known to novel appears early in development. To examine mechanisms
of inductive generalization, Sloutsky and Fisher (2004) studied
recognition memory for items, using the induction-then-recognition
(ITR) paradigm. Adults induced on the basis of category information,
whereas 5-year-olds induced on the basis of similarity. The reported
research further examines the mechanisms underlying induction across
points of development. We presented young children and adults with
the ITR task, while recording their eye movements. Overall results indicate
that (1) all participants accurately performed the induction task,
(2) children had multiple fixations on the studied items and accurately
discriminated studied items and new members of studied categories,
and (3) adults had few fixations on the studied items and poorly discriminated
studied items and new members of studied categories.
These findings indicate that children’s induction is based on processing
of item-specific information, whereas adults’ induction is based
on processing of category information.
8:40–8:55 (14)
Children’s Reasoning Under Uncertainty: The Influence of Conditional
and Unconditional Contingencies. EMMA L. JOHNSTONE,
MICHELLE R. ELLEFSON, & NICK CHATER, University of Warwick
(read by Michelle R. Ellefson)—In previous studies, causal contingencies
have been suggested to play an important role in causality judg-