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Semantically Clustered Words Are Stored With Integrated Context: Validating a Measurement Model for Source Memory, Storage, and Retrieval in Free Recall

January 2009
Zeitschrift für Psychologie / Journal of Psychology 217(3):326-338

DOI:10.1027/0044-3409.217.3.136

Authors:

University of Mannheim

Source memory (i.e., memory for context) has been studied with recognition tasks almost exclusively. However, encoding context affects recall stronger than recognition, presumably because of more complex retrieval strategies in the former task. An extension of Batchelder and Riefer (1980) pair-clustering model is proposed which is intended to measure the storage and retrieval of clusterable word pairs as well as the memory for the sources in which these were presented. In two experiments, the construct validity of the central model parameters is demonstrated. Furthermore, there was a strong stochastic dependency between recalling the sources of the first and the second word of a clustered pair, respectively, suggesting that not only semantic but also contextual features are bound together in clustered pairs. Advantages of using recall tests in source monitoring research are discussed.

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Semantically Clustered Words Are

Stored With Integrated Context

Validating a Measurement Model for Source Memory,

Storage, and Retrieval in Free Recall

Arndt Bröder

University of Bonn and Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany

Abstract. Source memory (i.e., memory for context) has been studied with recognition tasks almost exclusively. However, encoding context

affects recall stronger than recognition, presumably because of more complex retrieval strategies in the former task. An extension of Batchelder

and Riefer (1980) pair-clustering model is proposed which is intended to measure the storage and retrieval of clusterable word pairs as well as the

memory for the sources in which these were presented. In two experiments, the construct validity of the central model parameters is

demonstrated. Furthermore, there was a strong stochastic dependency between recalling the sources of the ﬁrst and the second word of a clustered

pair, respectively, suggesting that not only semantic but also contextual features are bound together in clustered pairs. Advantages of using recall

tests in source monitoring research are discussed.

Keywords: source memory, free recall, multinomial modeling

‘‘Source memory’’ refers to the recollection of contextual

aspects that accompanied the encoding of information and

qualiﬁes the content of this memory trace as ‘‘episodic’’

memory. Various active retrieval, judgment, and recon-

struction processes interact to produce source memory,

and to emphasize the active role of deliberate reconstruc-

tion, Johnson, Hashtroudi, and Lindsay (1993) introduced

the term source monitoring. The multitude of processes

involved poses a problem for usual descriptive and athe-

oretical ad hoc measures of source memory performance

because these often confound item recollection, source

recollection, item guessing biases, and source guessing

biases (Batchelder & Riefer, 1990; Bayen, Murnane, &

Erdfelder, 1996; Murnane & Bayen, 1996; Vogt &

Bro¨der, 2007).

Therefore, multinomial models have been

proposed to disentangle the processes in order to obtain

more process-pure measures (Batchelder & Riefer, 1990;

Bayen et al., 1996; Bro¨der & Meiser, 2007; Meiser &

Bro¨der, 2002).

However, almost all empirical research on source

memory hitherto employed recognition tasks, and conse-

quently, multinomial models as well as signal detection

models (e.g., DeCarlo, 2003) are tailored to this paradigm.

In the recognition source memory task, participants are ﬁrst

confronted with items that are presented in (at least) two

different sources, for example, speakers, locations on the

computer screen, or word lists. Later, they are shown old

items from the different sources as well as new foils, and

they have to decide for each item whether it came from

Source A, Source B, or whether it is new. This implies an

old-new judgment as well as a source judgment.

Several lines of research seem to imply that item

memory and source memory are dissociable to a certain

extent. For example, item and source memory appear to

be differentially affected by factors such as age, dementia,

amnesia, or frontal lobe dysfunction (Glisky, Polster, &

Rothieux, 1995; Multhaup & Balota, 1997; Shimamura

& Squire, 1987; Spencer & Raz, 1995). On the other hand,

Glanzer, Hilford, and Kim (2004) emphasized a functional

dependency between both kinds of memories by claiming

that any variable that enhances item memory will also

enhance source memory. In ﬁve experiments they found

support for this claim. The diverging results may partly

be attributed to the exclusive use of recognition tests in this

area. It has long been known that context has a stronger

effect on memory measures derived from free recall tests

than from recognition tests (e.g., Smith & Vela, 2001).

This may be attributed to the fact that in recognition,

‘‘Guessing bias’’ is used here as an umbrella term for strategic reconstruction processes informed either by bottom-up or by top-down

information. For example, the tendency to attribute an item to a speciﬁc source could be inﬂuenced by its similarity to other items of that

source (bottom-up) or by metacognitive expectations (top-down, ‘‘He would never have said that’’).

Zeitschrift fu¨ r Psychologie / Journal of Psychology 2009; Vol. 217(3):136–148

DOI: 10.1027/0044-3409.217.3.136

2009 Hogrefe Publishing

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