Mark J Huff

University of Southern Mississippi | USM · Department of Psychology

The current study examined the relationships between attentional control (AC) and the Big Five personality traits. Older and younger adults ( M age = 38.62 years; Range = 18–90) completed a battery of behavioral attention tasks consisting of Stroop color naming, antisaccade, and operation span, which were designed to assess inhibition, goal mainten...

The present study investigated differences in priming perceptions of target objects via affordance or semantic primes. Affordances denote possibilities for action in relation to objects (e.g., chair – sit), whereas semantic primes describe related concepts and features of objects (e.g., chair – legs). In Experiments 1A/1B the effects of affordance...

With pursuit of incremental progress and generalizability of findings in mind, we examined a possible boundary for older and younger adults’ metacognitive distinction between what is not stored in memory versus merely inaccessible with materials that are not process pure to knowledge or events: information regarding news events. Participants were a...

Providing judgments of learning (JOLs) at study tends to produce reactive effects on recall of cue–target word pairs. This reactivity generally produces memory improvements (i.e., positive reactivity) but only for related word pairs. For unrelated pairs, reactivity is typically not observed. Researchers have primarily investigated reactivity using...

A common method used by memory scholars to enhance retention is to make materials more challenging to learn—a benefit termed desirable difficulties. Recently, researchers have investigated the efficacy of Sans Forgetica, a perceptually disfluent/distinctive font which may increase processing effort required at study and enhance memory as a result....

Judgments of learning (JOL) are often used to assess memory monitoring at encoding. Participants study a cue-target word pair (e.g., mouse-cheese) and are asked to rate the probability of correctly recalling the target in the presence of the cue at test (e.g., mouse -?). Prior research has shown that JOL accuracy is sensitive to perceptual cues. Th...

Research has shown that judgments of learning (JOLs) often produce a reactive effect on the learning of cue-target pairs in which target recall differs between participants who provide item-based JOLs at study versus those who do not. Positive reactivity, or the memory improvement found when JOLs are provided, is typically observed on related pairs...

We evaluated the effects of item-specific and relational encoding instructions on false recognition for critical lures that originated from homograph and mediated study lists. Homograph lists contained list items that were taken from two meanings of the same critical lure (e.g., autumn, trip, harvest, stumble; for fall) which disrupted thematic/gis...

Recall testing is a common assessment to gauge memory retrieval. Responses from these tests can be analyzed in several ways; however, the output generated from a recall study typically requires manual coding that can be time intensive and error-prone before analyses can be conducted. To address this issue, this article introduces lrd (Lexical Respo...

We examined the effects of drawing on correct and false recognition within the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) false memory paradigm. In Experiment 1, we compared drawing of a word’s referent using either a standard black pencil or colored pencils relative to a read-only control group. Relative to reading, drawing in either black or colored pencil s...

The accuracy of judgments of learning (JOLs) in forecasting later recall of cue–target pairs is sensitive to associative direction. JOLs are generally well calibrated for forward associative pairs (e.g., credit-card), but recall accuracy is often overestimated for backward pairs (e.g., card-credit). The present study further examines the effect of...

The use of list-learning paradigms to explore false memory has revealed several critical findings about the contributions of similarity and relatedness in memory phenomena more broadly. Characterizing the nature of “similarity and relatedness” can inform researchers about factors contributing to memory distortions and about the underlying associati...

The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm is widely used to study false memory in the laboratory. It tests memory for lists of semantically related words (correct list item memories) and their non-presented associates (false lure memories). Evidence suggests that early items in DRM lists could make an especially significant contribution to false...

Prior research has emphasized that performing distinctive encoding on a subset of lists in the DRM paradigm suppresses false recognition; we show that its benefits can be mitigated by costs and spillover effects. Within groups read half the DRM lists and solved anagrams for the other half using a strategy that emphasized either item-specific or rel...

In the Deese-Roediger/McDermott (DRM) paradigm, distinctive encoding of list items typically reduces false recognition of critical lures relative to a read-only control. This reduction can be due to enhanced item-specific processing, reduced relational processing, and/or increased test-based monitoring. However, it is unclear whether distinctive en...

We evaluated the time course of persistent automatic spreading activation from a mediated list of indirect associates (e.g., meow, day, and basement) that all converged upon a non-presented critical item (CI; e.g., black). Mediated lists were related to CIs through non-presented mediators (e.g., cat, night, and bottom). Three speeded tasks were use...

We evaluated the time course of persistent automatic spreading activation from a mediated list of indirect associates (e.g., meow, day, basement) that all converged upon a non-presented critical item (CI; e.g., black). Mediated lists were related to CIs through non-presented mediators (e.g., cat, night, bottom). Three speeded tasks were used to eva...

The distinctiveness effect refers to the memorial benefit of processing unique or item-specific features of a memory set relative to a non-distinctive control. Traditional distinctiveness effects are accounted for based on qualitative differences in how distinctive items are encoded and subsequently retrieved. This study evaluates whether a separat...

Relative to reading silently, reading words aloud (a type of “production”) typically enhances item recognition, even when production is manipulated between groups using pure lists. We investigated whether pure-list production also enhances memory for various item details (i.e., source memory). Screen side (Experiment 1), font size (Experiment 2), o...

Many studies have demonstrated retrieval-enhanced suggestibility (RES), in which taking an initial recall test after witnessing an event increases suggestibility to subsequent misinformation introduced via a narrative. Recently, however, initial testing has been found to have a protective effect against misinformation introduced via cued-recall que...

Scientific advances across a range of disciplines hinge on the ability to make inferences about unobservable theoretical entities on the basis of empirical data patterns. Accurate inferences rely on both discovering valid, replicable data patterns and accurately interpreting those patterns in terms of their implications for theoretical constructs....

Prior research suggests that individuals recruit a disease‐avoidance system designed to avoid sources of illness through threat detection and memory (Fernandes, Pandeirada, Soares, & Nairne, 2017). Our study evaluated whether disease‐related memory benefits reflect the distinctive/salient nature of a diseased state versus the infectious nature of a...

We document the development of the Memory of Love towards Parents Questionnaire-for use in multiple areas of psychology. It is designed to measure current feelings of and memory of love towards a specific parent during important time periods in childhood. In all samples (total N = 1527), we consistently found high internal reliability. We report th...

Using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, Huff and Bodner found that both item-specific and relational variants of a task improved correct recognition, but only the item-specific variants reduced false recognition, relative to a read-control condition. Here, we examined the outcome pattern when memory was tested using free recall, using th...

Our study examined processing effects in improving memory accuracy in older and younger adults. Specifically, we evaluated the effectiveness of item-specific and relational processing instructions relative to a read-only control task on correct and false recognition in younger and older adults using a categorized-list paradigm. In both age groups,...

Recently, we have shown that two types of initial testing (recall of a list or guessing of critical items repeated over 12 study/test cycles) improved final recognition of related and unrelated word lists relative to restudy. These benefits were eliminated, however, when test instructions were manipulated within subjects and presented after study o...

In 2 experiments, we assessed age-related suggestibility to additive and contradictory misinformation (i.e., remembering of false details from an external source). After reading a fictional story, participants answered questions containing misleading details that were either additive (misleading details that supplemented an original event) or contr...

Studying Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) lists using a distinctive encoding task can reduce the DRM false memory illusion. Reductions for both distinctively encoded lists and nondistinctively encoded lists in a within-group design have been ascribed to use of a distinctiveness heuristic by which participants monitor their memories at test for distin...

In a recent experiment using dual-list free recall of unrelated word lists, C. N. Wahlheim and M. J. Huff (2015) found that relative to younger adults, older adults showed: (a) impaired recollection of temporal context, (b) a broader pattern of retrieval initiation when recalling from 2 lists, and (c) more intrusions when selectively recalling from...

We examined whether 2 types of interpolated tasks (i.e., retrieval-practice via free recall or guessing a missing critical item) improved final recognition for related and unrelated word lists relative to restudying or completing a filler task. Both retrieval-practice and guessing tasks improved correct recognition relative to restudy and filler ta...

A task-switching paradigm was used to examine differences in attentional control across younger adults, middle-aged adults, healthy older adults, and individuals classified in the earliest detectable stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD). A large sample of participants (570) completed a switching task in which participants were cued to classify the let...

Younger and older adults studied lists of words directly (e.g., creek, water) or indirectly (e.g., beaver, faucet) related to a nonpresented critical lure (CL; e.g., river). Indirect (i.e., mediated) lists presented items that were only related to CLs through nonpresented mediators (i.e., directly related items). Following study, participants compl...

Initial retrieval of an event can reduce people's susceptibility to misinformation. We explored whether protective effects of initial testing could be obtained on final free recall and source-monitoring tests. After studying six household scenes (e.g., a bathroom), participants attempted to recall items from the scenes zero, one, or two times. Imme...

In the present experiment, we examined age differences in the focus of retrieval using a dual-list free recall paradigm. Younger and older adults studied 2 lists of unrelated words and recalled from the first list, the second list, or both lists. Older adults showed impaired use of control processes to recall items correctly from a target list and...

In two experiments, we examined veridical and false memory for lists of associates from two meanings (e.g., stumble, trip, harvest, pumpkin, etc.) that converged upon a single, lexically ambiguous critical lure (e.g., fall), in order to compare the activation-monitoring and fuzzy-trace false memory accounts. In Experiment 1, we presented study list...

We review and meta-analyze how distinctive encoding alters encoding and retrieval processes and, thus, affects correct and false recognition in the Deese–Roediger– McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Reductions in false recognition following distinctive encoding (e.g., generation), relative to a nondistinctive read-only control condition, reflected both impo...

In three experiments, participants studied photographs of common household scenes. Following study, participants completed a category-cued recall test without feedback (Exps. 1 and 3), a category-cued recall test with feedback (Exp. 2), or a filler task (no-test condition). Participants then viewed recall tests from fictitious previous participants...

We compared the effects of item-specific versus relational encoding on recognition memory in the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm. In Experiment 1, we directly compared item-specific and relational encoding instructions, whereas in Experiments 2 and 3 we biased pleasantness and generation tasks, respectively, toward one or the other type of proces...

In two experiments, participants studied two types of word lists. Direct lists were taken from the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm (e.g., water, bridge, run) and contained words directly related to a nonpresented critical item (CI; e.g., river, Roediger & McDermott, 1995). Mediated lists (e.g., faucet, London, jog) contained words related t...

There is considerable evidence (e.g., Pexman et al., 2008) that semantically rich words, which are associated with relatively more semantic information, are recognized faster across different lexical processing tasks. The present study extends this earlier work by providing the most comprehensive evaluation to date of semantic richness effects on v...

This study examined possible age-related differences in recall, guessing, and metacognition on free recall tests and forced recall tests. Participants studied categorised and unrelated word lists and were asked to recall the items under one of the following test conditions: standard free recall, free recall with a penalty for guessing, free recall...

False memory effects were explored using unrelated list items (e.g., slope, reindeer, corn) that were related to mediators (e.g., ski, sleigh, flake) that all converged upon a single nonpresented critical item (CI; e.g., snow). In Experiment 1, participants completed either an initial recall test or arithmetic problems after study, followed by a fi...