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Total retrieval time and hypermnesia: Investigating the benefits of multiple recall tests
Abstract
Hypermnesia is an increase in recall over repeated tests. A core issue is the role of repeated testing, per se, versus total retrieval time. Prior research implies an equivalence between multiple recall tests and a single test of equal total duration, but theoretical analyses indicate otherwise. Three experiments investigated this issue using various study materials (unrelated word lists, related word lists, and a short story). In the first experimental session, the study phase was followed by a series of short recall tests or by a single, long test of equal total duration. Two days later, participants took a final recall test. The multiple and single test conditions produced equivalent performance in the first session, but the multiple test group exhibited less forgetting and fewer item losses in the final test. In a fourth experiment, using a brief delay (15 min) between the recall sessions, the multiple recall condition produced greater hypermnesia as well as fewer item losses. In addition, final recall was significantly higher in the multiple than in the single test condition in three of the four experiments. Thus, single and repeated recall tests of equal total duration are not functionally equivalent, but rather produce differences observable in subsequent recall tests.
... Although each of the accounts can explain important findings in the hypermnesia literature, none of them can account for the full range of experimental results. For instance, while the cumulative recall hypothesis can explain the positive relation between variables affecting recall levels (e.g., imagery, semantic elaboration) and the magnitude of hypermnesia (Roediger & Challis, 1989;, the functional equivalence between single and repeated recall tests of equal total duration, which is predicted by the hypothesis, has repeatedly been challenged (Mulligan, 2005(Mulligan, , 2006. Similarly, while the retrieval strategy hypothesis can account for the fact that retrieval strategies become increasingly organized over multiple recall tests and appear to contribute to hypermnesia (McDaniel et al., 1998;Mulligan, 2001), the hypothesis, for instance, has trouble explaining the picture-word difference, the very robust finding of higher hypermnesia for pictures than words (Payne, 1987). ...
... Indeed, most hypermnesia studies employed a short delay between study and test of 1 or 2 min only, mainly to distribute the recall protocols or give detailed test instructions (e.g., Bergstein & Erdelyi, 2008;Kelley & Nairne, 2003;Mulligan, 2002;Payne & Roediger, 1987). Other studies additionally included filler tasks of 2 or 3 min to reduce possible recency effects (e.g., Mulligan, 2005;Otani, Widner, Whiteman, & Louis, 1999), employed a delay of 5 min with the subjects' instruction to think silently about the list items (Shapiro & Erdelyi, 1974), or employed a delay of about 12 min, asking subjects to participate in a distractor task and complete a questionnaire (Wheeler & Roediger, 1985). For this range of relatively short retention intervals, there is no indication yet that delay influences hypermnesia. ...
... The finding of Experiments 1, 2 and 4 that the increase in hypermnesia with delay is due to a reduction in item losses, arose by analyzing absolute differences in recall levels between tests, which is typical for prior work on hypermnesia (e.g., Dunning and Stern, 1992;Mulligan, 2005;Wheeler and Roediger, 1985; but see Goernert, Widner, & Otani, 2007). However, one may also take a different view on the issue. ...
Hypermnesia is increased recall across repeated tests in the absence of any
further study opportunities. Although over the years, many factors have been
identified that influence hypermnesia, to date not much is known about the role
of delay between study and test for the effect. This study addressed the issue
in four experiments. Employing both words and pictures as study material,
we compared hypermnesia after shorter delay (3 min or 11.5 min) and longer
delay (24 hrs or 1 week) between study and test. Recall occurred over three
successive tests, using both free recall (Experiments 1, 2, and 4) and forced
recall testing (Experiment 3). In forced recall tests, subjects are instructed to
recall as many items as possible, but if unable to remember all studied items,
to fill in the remaining spaces with their best guesses. With free recall testing,
hypermnesia increased with delay and the effect was driven mainly by reduced
item losses between tests. These results suggest a link between hypermnesia and
the testing effect, which shows that demanding retrieval practice, as it happens
after longer delay, can improve recall by reducing the forgetting of the practiced
items. In contrast, with forced recall testing, hypermnesia decreased with delay
and was even absent after longer delay. The findings indicate that recall format
can influence hypermnesia and different mechanisms may mediate the effects of
repeated testing in the two recall conditions.
... Fouth, hypermnesia is difficult to obtain in recognition (Otani and Hodge, 1991;Otani and Stimson, 1994;Payne and Roediger, 1987; also see Otani, Kato, and Widner, 2005), unless a non-standard method of testing is adopted to emphasize active retrieval during tests (Erdelyi and Stein, 1981;Groninger and Murray, 2004;Kazén and Solís-Macías, 1999). Fifth, repeatedly recalling items make these items more resistant to forgetting; that is, repeating a test three times is not the same as administering a single test with the same duration (Mulligan, 2005). Sixth, hypermnesia is difficult to observe with older adults (Finkel, Fox, and McGue, 1995;Otani, Kato, Von Glahn, Nelson, Widner, and Goernert, 2008;Widner et al., 2000) unless memory being tested is autobiographical in nature (Bluck, Levine, and Laulhere, 1999). ...
... The advantage of the STTT condition relative to the other conditions makes sense based on hypermnesia research. As mentioned earlier, repeatedly retrieving items makes those items more resistant to forgetting (Mulligan, 2005). Consistent with such an observation, Roediger and Karpicke found that forgetting over a one-week period was inversely related to the amount of testing (i.e., STTT < SSST < SSSS). ...
Hypermnesia is a phenomenon in which memory performance improves across repeated tests even though no new exposure to the study material occurs between tests. Hypermnesia is a combined effect of reminiscence (item gains) and intertest forgetting (item losses). When reminiscence exceeds intertest forgetting, memory performance increases across repeated tests to produce hypermnesia. In this chapter, we review basic findings and theories and explore possible applications of hypermnesia. Based upon the review, we propose the following. In education, repeated testing can be used to maximize students' recall and promote long-term retention. In forensic settings, repeated testing can be used to uncover new information but repeated testing can also increase incorrect recall and distort source information. For older adults, we propose that a decline in reminiscence may indicate abnormal aging process. In clinical psychology, hypnotic hypermnesia is not a special case of hypermnesia but hypnosis can increase false confidence by highly hypnotizable individuals. Finally, we propose that hypermnesia is a normal memory phenomenon that should be included in a standardized memory scale to measure the level of memory functioning. We conclude the chapter by suggesting that the practitioners of repeated testing must be aware of the benefits and costs of repeating a test.
... ARC scores measure of the extent to which items reported during a free recall task are organized by category membership (0 = chance clustering, 1 = perfect clustering). ARC scores can be greater following relational than itemspecific tasks (Einstein & Hunt, 1980), and have also been found to correlate with retention (Mulligan, 2005). ...
... ARC scores were also expected to be greater for groups that produced (vs. did not produce) an EV benefit, based on the finding that clustering improves retention (Mulligan, 2005). Therefore, ARC scores were expected to be greater in the variable-processing groups relative to the variabletask and repeated-task groups with weakly related lists (Experiments 1B and 2B), but not with strongly related lists (Experiment 1A and 2A). ...
... Research on both individual and group memory support the notion that retrieval organization may play an important role in shared memory. First, findings from the individual memory literature have shown that information that is better organized survives longer across time (Mulligan, 2005;Puff, 1979;Zaromb & Roediger, 2010; see also Congleton & Rajaram, 2012;Luhmann, Congleton, Zhou, & Rajaram, 2014), as information that has been chunked into clusters is easier to retrieve compared with nonclustered information (Miller, 1956;Zaromb & Roediger, 2010; see also Congleton & Rajaram, 2012). Second, retrieval organization of individual group members has been found to play a critical role in shaping collaborative group processes-a precursor for the formation of shared memory-both in immediate recall and after some delay between learning and recall (Congleton & Rajaram, 2011). ...
... For instance, enduring shared representations also include the alignment of the organization of the memory itself in such a way that all participants who share that memory possess similar cues needed to reconstruct the representation. In the absence of such organization, which is a key variable involved in the persistence of individual and group memory across time (e.g., Mulligan, 2005;Puff, 1979;Tulving, 1972), a shared representation may only exist during the specific temporal point at which collaborative discussion occurred but may dissipate over time. ...
Memory research has primarily focused on how individuals form and maintain memories across time. However, less is known about how groups of people working together can create and maintain shared memories of the past. Recent studies have focused on understanding the processes behind the formation of such shared memories, but none has investigated the structure of shared memory. This study investigated the circumstances under which collaboration would influence the likelihood that participants come to share both a similar content and a similar organization of the past by aligning their individual representations into a shared rendering. We tested how the frequency and the timing of collaboration affect participants' retrieval organization, and how this in turn influences the formation of shared memory and its persistence over time. Across numerous foundational and novel analyses, we observed that as the size of the collaborative inhibition effect-a counterintuitive finding that collaboration reduces group recall-increased, so did the amount of shared memory and the shared organization of memories. These findings reveal the interconnected relationship between collaborative inhibition, retrieval disruption, shared memory, and shared organization. Together, these relationships have intriguing implications for research across a wide variety of domains, including the formation of collective memory, beliefs and attitudes, parent-child narratives and the development of autobiographical memory, and the emergence of shared representations in educational settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
... In support of chunking, researchers have pointed to the finding that when people study lists of words coming from different conceptual categories in a randomized order, they tend to recall them in an organized fashion by clustering conceptually-related responses together (Bousfield, 1953;Bousfield, Whitmarsh, & Cohen, 1958). Further, response clustering is often associated with greater retention (Mulligan, 2005;Puff, 1979). Similarly, Tulving (1962) found that when asked to learn a list of seemingly unrelated words, individuals tend to recode groups of items into higher-order subjective units, and that this organizing tendency, which is referred to as subjective organization, is predictive of free recall. ...
... Although a variety of theories offer explanations for how retrieval affects organization, there is surprisingly little evidence that this is so. Two studies of hypermnesia have shown that taking multiple successive recall tests (without intervening study episodes) can enhance organization relative to taking a single test of equal total duration (Mulligan, 2002;Mulligan, 2005). For example, Mulligan (2005, Experiment 2) found that taking 4 successive 5-minute recall tests produced greater clustering two days later than taking a single 20 minute recall test. ...
In educational contexts, tests not only assess what students know, they can also directly improve long-term retention of subject matter relative to restudying it. More importantly, the memorial advantage of testing is not limited to select information that was tested earlier. Research has shown that testing can serve as a versatile learning tool by enhancing the long-term retention of non-tested information that is conceptually related to previously tested information; stimulating the subsequent learning of new information; and permitting better transfer of learning to new knowledge domains. We further investigated the potential benefits of testing on learning by asking whether testing can also improve students' learning and retention of the conceptual organization of study materials, and if so, whether processes involved in mentally organizing information during learning contribute to the memorial advantage of testing. In three experiments with categorized lists, we asked whether the testing effect in free recall is related to enhancements in organizational processing. In the first experiment, different groups of subjects studied a list either once or twice before a final criterial test or they studied the list once and took an initial recall test before the final test. Prior testing enhanced total recall of words and reduced false recall of extra-list intrusions relative to restudying. In addition, testing increased the number of categories accessed, the number of items recalled from within those categories, and improved category clustering. In two additional experiments, manipulating the organizational processing that occurred during initial study and test trials affected delayed recall and measures of output organization. Testing produced superior long-term retention when initial test conditions promoted the use of semantic relational information to guide episodic retrieval, and measures of category clustering and subjective organization were correlated with delayed recall. The results suggest that the benefit of testing in free recall learning arises, at least in part, because testing creates retrieval schemas based upon categorical knowledge and recollections of previous recall attempts that guide and facilitate episodic recall.
... The testing effect 14 shown that repeated testing can enhance clustering relative after long delays relative to taking a single, time-matched test (Mulligan, 2005). Thus, one would expect greatest clustering with more tests, if testing enhances clustering. ...
... Nevertheless, aside from the possible ceiling effect, it is still unclear why testing had no effect on category clustering, because some prior studies have shown that testing does have a positive effect on clustering in delayed free recall (Masson & McDaniel, 1981; Mulligan, 2005). For instance, Masson and McDaniel (1981, Experiment 1) The testing effect 19 presented subjects with a list of words representing several taxonomic categories and either gave intentional or incidental learning instructions as well as different encoding tasks for the study of individual words (subjects wrote down a semantic or phonological associate of each list item). ...
In two experiments with categorized lists, we asked whether the testing effect in free recall is related to enhancements in organizational processing. During a first phase in Experiment 1, subjects studied one list over eight consecutive trials, they studied another list six times while taking two interspersed recall tests, and they learned a third list in four alternating study and test trials. On a test 2 days later, recall was directly related to the number of tests and inversely related to the number of study trials. In addition, increased testing enhanced both the number of categories accessed and the number of items recalled from within those categories. One measure of organization also increased with the number of tests. In a second experiment, different groups of subjects studied a list either once or twice before a final criterial test, or they studied the list once and took an initial recall test before the final test. Prior testing again enhanced recall, relative to studying on the final test a day later, and also improved category clustering. The results suggest that the benefit of testing in free recall learning arises because testing creates retrieval schemas that guide recall.
... However, as Christianson and Bylin noted, the better recall of the accurate participants on the delayed tests than of the participants who had previously feigned amnesia could have been due to either the inhibitory consequences of previously faking amnesia or, more simply, practice at recalling the facts of the story correctly. Participants in the accurate condition had more practice recalling correctly than did participants in the feigned amnesia condition, and research on repeated recall indicates that recall repetition enhances accuracy (see, e.g., Mulligan, 2005). Bylin and Christianson (2002) addressed this issue in a follow-up study in which they added a necessary control condition. ...
... Specifically, participants who are instructed to feign amnesia on immediate tests before being instructed to recall accurately on delayed tests have less practice at recalling accurately than do participants who are told to recall accurately at both times. Thus, we propose that participants in Group 1 (Amnesia– Accurate) performed worse than did participants in Group 2 (Accurate– Accurate) on the delayed free and cued recall tests because Group 1 had less practice at recalling the facts of a story correctly than did Group 2. As previous research has demonstrated, recall repetition enhances accuracy (Mulligan, 2005), This same recall practice interpretation can account for the performance of Groups 1 (Amnesia–Accurate) and 3 (No Recall–Accurate) on the delayed free recall and cued recall tests. In the present experiments, we limited the amount of information requested for free recall in order to make the amount to be recalled manageable and to focus the recall on the details surrounding the death of a character. ...
Defendants who are accused of serious crimes sometimes feign amnesia to evade criminal responsibility. Previous research has suggested that feigning amnesia might impair subsequent recall. In two experiments, participants read and heard a story about a central character, described as "you," who was responsible for the death of either a puppy (Experiment 1) or a friend (Experiment 2). On free and cued recall tests immediately after the story, participants who had feigned amnesia recalled less than did participants who had recalled accurately. One week later, when all participants recalled accurately, participants who had previously feigned amnesia still performed worse than did participants who had recalled accurately both times. However, the participants who had formerly feigned amnesia did not perform worse than did a control group who had received only the delayed recall tests. Our results suggest that a "feigned amnesia effect" may reflect nothing more than differential practice at recall. Feigning amnesia for a crime need not impair memory for that crime when a person later seeks to remember accurately.
... The body of research on memory organization at this level provides an important backdrop, as it has revealed relationships between recall, organization, and learning; organization guides not only our retrieval of the learned information (A. Congleton & Rajaram, 2012;Mulligan, 2005;Zaromb & Roediger, 2010) but may also influence our future learning by facilitating the grasp of related information (Chan, Manley, et al., 2018;Chan, Meissner, & Davis, 2018). ...
The last 25 years of research have revealed that recalling the past with others changes memory. A key finding is that former group members show increased memory overlap or collective memory. Beyond memory content, we ask whether collaborative recall changes the organization of memory. How we organize information has far-reaching consequences on learning and remembering, and research has produced sophisticated theories and measures of memory organization when people recall alone. However, research remains sparse on how social influences shape memory organization. Furthermore, studies document local changes only (small segments in recall), raising the question whether collaboration produces global changes (positional relations among all items) in memory organization that can inform how people construct memory narratives. It is also unclear whether collaboration affects memory organization differently for different emotional contents despite the well-established influence of emotion on memory. We address these questions by focusing on two important advances. Using representational similarity analysis, we seek a deeper understanding of collaborative recall on memory organization at the global level and how emotional valence influences memory organization. Comparing two collaborative recall sequences, collaborative–collaborative–individual and individual–collaborative–individual, with individual–individual–individual (baseline sequence), we replicated better memory for emotional than neutral content and collective memory for content. Novel to our aims, collaborative recall changed global memory organization, both at individual and collective levels and for neutral and emotional contents. These quantitative indices for holistic changes in memory organization reveal the depth of social influences in reshaping memory, with implications for remembering, beliefs, education, and national narratives.
... In the present studies, this hypothesis would not explain how item gains and maintained items benefit from associations on earlier tests because the later test is assumed to reflect an extension of earlier tests. Although there is some evidence against the cumulative recall level hypothesis (e.g., Mulligan, 2005Mulligan, , 2006Payne, 1987), it is still important to ensure that subjects have enough time to recall all items. Most importantly, item gains on later tests should not simply be items that would have been recalled on an earlier test if the earlier recall period had been longer. ...
When performing successive recall tests without restudy, subjects’ recalls exhibit intriguing variability across tests, including gaining or losing items across tests. To examine the cognitive mechanisms underlying this variability, research has focused primarily on hypermnesia, the finding that recall performance increases across tests (Erdelyi & Becker, 1974). Hypermnesia studies commonly consider conditions that impact recall levels of items gained across tests versus items maintained across tests. By contrast, analyses of recall clustering in hypermnesia studies typically collapse across maintained items and item gains. Here, I examine associative processes separately for item gains and maintained items. Experiment 1 examines these effects in final free recall, a paradigm also used to examine changes in recall across tests but less commonly linked with hypermnesia, whereas Experiment 2 uses a classic hypermnesia design. In both experiments, subjects exhibited significant temporal and semantic clustering for maintained items, but there was less evidence of these associations supporting item gains. In Experiment 1, transitions to maintained items boasted a greater proportion of same-list transitions than item gains, and in Experiment 2, there were no significant clustering effects to item gains on a test producing hypermnesia. Further, in Experiment 1, subjects exhibiting greater list-level temporal clustering of maintained items also maintained more items across tests. The results highlight the importance of episodic and semantic associations to changes in recall across tests and have implications for current theories of hypermnesia.
... As a function of the nature of the material or of the memory task, a particular strategy can be more or less efficient (for a review, see Froger et al., 2014). For a free recall task, the most difficult episodic memory test, organizing the information is particularly well-adapted to improve performance (e.g., Denney, 1974;Mulligan, 2004;Puff, 1979;Taconnat et al., 2020;Zaromb & Roediger, 2010). In this study, we investigated the effect of age on the use of two different organizational strategies, namely semantic and subjective organization, as well as their underlying cognitive processes. ...
Organizing information is beneficial to episodic memory performance. Among several possible organizational strategies, two consist of organizing the information in semantic clusters (semantic organization) or self-organizing the information based on new associations that do not exist in semantic memory (subjective organization). Here, we investigated in a single study how these two organizational behaviors were underlined by different controlled processes and whether these relations were subjected to age-related differences. We tested 123 younger adults (n = 63) and older adults (n = 60) on two episodic memory tasks, one where the words were organizable and another where the words were not organizable, allowing for semantic and subjective organization, respectively. Additionally, participants were tested on three cognitive control tasks (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Stroop Test and Trail Making Test) and three working memory tasks (Backward Digit Span, Alpha Span and N-back test). Results revealed well-established age-related differences in terms of recall performance and organizational strategy implementation. More importantly, we found evidence that the different cognitive tests statistically yielded two different latent factors, a cognitive control factor and a working memory factor. Based on this dissociation, we found that only cognitive control contributed to semantic organization in all age groups whereas only working memory contributed to subjective organization, also in all age groups. These results shed new lights on our understanding of how controlled processes differently contribute to organizational behaviors in episodic memory.
... Several aspects of the experiment merit discussion, beginning with the retrieval condition during Session 1. First, these results replicate prior research in two ways: (1) hypermnesia was found; recall increased across tests (Erdelyi, 2010;Mulligan, 2001Mulligan, , 2006; and (2) category clustering increased over tests (Mulligan, 2001(Mulligan, , 2005Mulligan & Duke, 2002), indicating increased organization with repeated recall (Payne & Wenger, 1992). Second, neither of these results were significantly impacted by DA, in line with the idea that retrieval is hardy in the face of distraction (Craik et al., 1996;Mulligan, 2008) even for free recall and even with respect to the increasing organization that occurs over tests. ...
Memory retrieval not only reveals but can also change memory, as shown by direct and indirect (e.g., forward) testing effects. Three experiments examined the testing effect with free recall, with respect to attention, organization and forward testing effects. In Experiment 1, participants learned two categorized word lists, one followed by retrieval practice and the other by restudy; memory for both lists was assessed on a final free recall test two days later. Retrieval practice and restudy were conducted under full attention (FA) or divided attention (DA). Final recall was significantly diminished by DA in the restudy but not retrieval condition, indicating that the encoding consequences of retrieval are relatively resistant to distraction. However, a negative testing effect was found on final recall (in the FA condition). Experiments 2 and 3 implemented a between-subjects version of the experiment (FA condition only) in which both learning blocks were in the retrieval or restudy condition. Final recall now exhibited a positive testing effect. Analyses of the order of learning blocks revealed strong forward-testing effects in which the study list following the retrieval block produced superior final recall, a benefit accruing to the restudy condition in the within-subject design (Experiment 1) and to the retrieval condition in the between-subjects design (Experiments 2 and 3). In contrast, no direct testing effects were found on the first list, a result analyzed in terms of prior research that often conflated forward and direct testing effects. Finally, retrieval practice generally did not impact organization (as measured by category clustering on the final recall test), indicating that the organization effect found in earlier research may not be readily replicated.
... Individuals who organize recall also tend to remember more information (Mandler, 2011;Mulligan, 2005). For that reason, semantic organization strategies have been employed in cognitive training schemes to enhance long-term retention of healthy, older adults (Miotto et al., 2013), healthy adolescents (Miotto et al., 2020), patients with lesions in prefrontal cortex (Miotto et al., 2014), and in patients with mild cognitive impairment (Miotto et al., 2018). ...
The ability to retain new information is important in daily life. In particular, two techniques have shown promise for improving long-term retention: retrieval practice (RP), which consists of actively retrieving information from long-term memory to make it more accessible in the future; and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), which consists of non-invasive brain stimulation that modulates cognitive processes by increasing and decreasing neuronal excitability. Previous studies have implicated the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (l-dlPFC) in memory encoding and memory organization. We examined whether RP associated with a single 20-min tDCS session over the l-dlPFC could improve long-term memory retention. Participants (N = 119) repeatedly studied a list of related words either via RP or via restudy, while undergoing either anodal or sham stimulation. Participants returned 2 days later for a free-recall test. Results showed that the RP group outperformed the restudy group in all measures, regardless of stimulation type. Also, recall organization was higher in the RP group than in the restudy group. The data support previous findings and indicate that RP may enhance performance by improving the organization of the to-be-remembered list items.
... However, at least some gains can also be achieved by other factors: For example, previous retrieval attempts might have failed in spite of a sufficiently strong memory trace due to distraction, incomplete search, reduced attentional resources etc. Furthermore, simply repeating retrieval attempts without any retention interval leads to increases in recall success and can produce memory gains, a phenomenon known as "hypermnesia" (Mulligan, 2005;Roediger & Payne, 1982). And finally, if we assume that retrieval is a probability process depending on the strength of the memory trace, some gains will always occur by chance. ...
... A stark contrast to conditions of cognitive dysfunction is hypermnesia, which is the enhancement of memory produced by repetition or emotion (Lanza, 1881;Stratton, 1919;Roediger and Payne, 1982;Mulligan, 2005;Hurlemann, 2006;Otani et al., 2008), as well as hyperthymesia, which is the abnormal and extraordinary capacity of some individuals to exhibit great accuracy in the retrieval of their autobiographical memories (Parker et al., 2006;Leport et al., 2012;Ally et al., 2013;Patihis et al., 2013). In one case in which memory testing and brain imaging were conducted for a person with hyperthymesia, the only brain structure with increased volume was the amygdala (Ally et al., 2013). ...
Our motivation in writing this Review arose not only from the great value in contributing to this special issue of the Journal of Neuroscience Research but also from the desire to express our opinion that the description of the amygdala as "dysfunctional" in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) might not be appropriate. We acknowledge that excessive activation of the amygdala contributes to the cluster of PTSD symptoms, including hypervigilance, intrusive memories, and impaired sleep, that underlies the devastating mental and physical outcomes in trauma victims. The issue that we address is whether the symptoms of PTSD represent an impaired (dysfunctional) or sensitized (hyperfunctional) amygdala status. We propose that the amygdala in PTSD is hyperfunctional rather than dysfunctional in recognition of the fact that the individual has already survived one life-threatening attack and that another may be forthcoming. We therefore consider PTSD to be a state in which the amygdala is functioning optimally if the goal is to ensure a person's survival. The misery caused by a hyperfunctional amygdala in PTSD is the cost of inheriting an evolutionarily primitive mechanism that considers survival more important than the quality of one's life. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
... For example, when studying a list of categorized materials, quizzes increase both the number of categories that are reported on a final test and the number of items from each of those categories (Zaromb & Roediger, 2010). These beneficial effects are probably due to the fact that testing promotes clustering of similar items during the test, a retrieval strategy that is very effective (Mulligan, 2005). ...
Recent years have seen an increased push toward the standardization of education in the United States. At the federal level, both major national political parties have generally supported the institution of national guidelines known as Common Core—a curriculum developed by states and by philanthropic organizations. A key component of past and present educational reform measures has been standardization of tests. However, increased reliance upon tests has elicited criticism, limiting their popular acceptance and widespread adoption. Tests are not only useful for assessment purposes, however. The goal of this article is to review evidence from the recent literature in psychology that indicates that tests produce direct educational benefits for students. A reconsideration of how and how many tests are implemented based on these principles may help soften the focus on testing solely as a means of assessment and help promote wider recognition of the role of tests as potent instructional interventions.
... Although at first glance this pattern may be considered inconsistent with our argument that gistbased processes increase over a delay, the clustering scores were already quite high, and it is possible that clustering may have been at ceiling and been exempt from any further increase due to the delay. Furthermore, clustering has been shown to be positively related to correct recall (Hunt & Einstein, 1981;Mulligan, 2005). Given that correct recall decreases across a delay for blocked lists, this relationship may further hamper any clustering increase across delays for blocked lists. ...
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 lists that were blocked or alternated by meaning (within subjects), followed by a free recall test completed immediately or after a 2.5-min delay. Correct recall was greater for blocked than for alternated lists. Critical-lure false recall was greater for blocked lists on an immediate test, whereas both list types produced equivalent false recall on a delayed test. In Experiment 2, lists blocked and alternated by meaning were presented via a between-subjects design, in order to eliminate possible list-type carryover effects. Correct recall replicated the result from Experiment 1; however, blocking lists increased false recall on delayed, but not on immediate, tests. Across the experiments, clustering correct recall by meaning increased across the delay selectively for the alternated lists. Our results suggest that thematic (i.e., gist) processes are influential for false recall, especially following a delay, a pattern consistent with fuzzy-trace theory.
... We report recognition hypermnesia for Socratic stimuli for the first time. Hypermnesia refers to net memory improvements across tests following a single-study session (e.g., Erdelyi, 1996Erdelyi, , 2006Erdelyi & Kleinbard, 1978;Mandler, 1994;Mulligan, 2005;Otani & Griffith, 1998;Payne, 1987;Roediger & Payne, 1982;Solís-Macías, 2006). In contrast with single-test paradigms, which are the rule in memory investigations, hypermnesia has ecological validity because it resembles everyday-life memory situations: We are often confronted with the need of repeatedly recalling or recognising a thing or an event which we experienced in the past. ...
In two experiments we investigate hypermnesia, net memory improvements with repeated testing of the same material after a single study trial. In the first experiment we found hypermnesia across three trials for the recall of word solutions to Socratic stimuli (dictionary-like definitions of concepts) replicating Erdelyi, Buschke, and Finkelstein (1977) and, for the first time using these materials, for their recognition. In the second experiment we had two “yes/no” recognition groups, a Socratic-stimuli group presented with concrete and abstract verbal materials, and a word-only control group. Using signal detection measures we found hypermnesia for concrete Socratic stimuli - and stable performance for abstract stimuli across three recognition tests. The control group showed memory decrements across tests. We interpret these findings with the alternative retrieval pathways (ARP) hypothesis, contrasting it with alternative theories of hypermnesia, such as depth of processing, generation, and retrieve-recognise. We conclude that recognition hypermnesia for concrete Socratic stimuli is a reliable phenomenon, which we found in two experiments involving both, forced-choice and yes/no recognition procedures.
... Por otra parte, López-Olivares (2006) y Solís-Macías (2008) reportan distintas tasas de aproximación al nivel de recuerdo asintótico en un paradigma de ensayos múltiples, condición contraria a la hipótesis propuesta por Roediger et al. (1989). Resultados similares han sido reportados por Mulligan (2005;. ...
Hypermnesia is defined as gradual increases in information recovery from memory as result of multiple recall trials and after a single learning phase. Reminiscence is defined by recovery of single information elements not reported in recall trials previously. The present article provides a description of study paradigm of this phenomenon. In addition, historical background, main proposed hypotheses for its explanations, current research and possible applications in the area of eyewitness testimony, education and clinical psychology are mentioned. Finally, it is point out the importance of the study of these processes of memory and the new tendencies in research.
In the pursuit of enhancing educational practices and systems, this study delved comprehensively into examining the implementation and lessons learned from the Annual National Assessment (ANA) within an educational district in South Africa. A stratified random sampling technique was used to pick up schools from different tiers. A sample of 108 teachers from 22 schools within the UMkhanyakude education district, situated in the KwaZulu Natal province of South Africa participated in the study. The study examined the effects of the ANA on schools and its impact on teaching and learning. Data was collected using a questionnaire and were analyzed with SPSS software version 26. The findings indicate that teachers received sufficient training on the administration procedures of the assessment and recognized its positive influence on schools in general. However, a majority of the teachers disagreed with the notion that the assessment had positive effects on teaching and learning. They expressed a lack of confidence in the assessment, both in themselves and in their students, and also raised concerns about parental involvement. Therefore, this study suggests the inclusion of a comprehensive consultative approach and the involvement of stakeholders in future assessment administration and implementation processes. Additionally, it advocates for the importance of aligning assessments with the curriculum to prevent teachers from solely teaching to the test in most situations. This study will contribute to knowledge on test construction as well as the different approaches to assessment. Keywords: Administration, Annual National Assessment, Assessment, High Stakes, Management, Parental Involvement, Standardized Testing.
Given the recent interest in how memory operates in social contexts, it is more important than ever to meaningfully measure the similarity between recall sequences of different individuals. Similarity of recall sequences of different individuals has been quantified using primarily order-agnostic and some order-sensitive measures specific to memory research without agreement on any one preferred measure. However, edit distance measures have not been used to quantify the similarity of recall sequences in collaborative memory studies. In the current study, we review a broad range of similarity measures, highlighting commonalities and differences. Using simulations and behavioral data, we show that edit distances do measure a memory-relevant factor of similarity and capture information distinct from that captured by order-agnostic measures. We answer illustrative research questions which demonstrate potential applications of edit distances in collaborative and individual memory settings and reveal the unique impact collaboration has on similarity.
Collaborative recall synchronizes downstream individual retrieval processes, giving rise to collective organization. However, little is known about whether particular stimulus features (e.g., semantic relatedness) are necessary for constructing collective organization and how group dynamics (e.g., reconfiguration) moderates it. We leveraged novel quantitative measures and a rich dataset reported in recent articles to address, (a) whether collective organization emerges even for semantically unrelated material and (b) how group reconfiguration-changing partners from one recall to the next-influences collective organization. Participants studied unrelated words and completed three consecutive recalls in one of three conditions: Always recalling individually (III), collaborating with the same partners twice before recalling alone (CCI), or collaborating with different group members during two initial recalls, before recalling alone (CRI). Collective organization increased significantly following any collaboration (CCI or CRI), relative to "groups" who never collaborated (III). Interestingly, collaborating repeatedly with the same partners (CCI) did not increase collective organization compared to reconfigured groups, irrespective of the reference group structure (from Recall 1 or 2). Individuals, however, did tend to base their final individual retrieval on the most recent group recall. We discuss how the fundamental processes that underlie dynamic social interactions align the cognitive processes of many, laying the foundation for other collective phenomena, including shared biases, attitudes, and beliefs.
Background/Study Context: A number of longitudinal randomized controlled trials (LRCT) have used free verbal recall tests to study the effects of post-menopausal estrogen hormone therapy (HT) on episodic memory, but none have explicitly explored contrasts between list and story recall, in spite of cognitive differences between the tasks. For example, list recall provides little support for the use of gist, while story recall emphasizes it, and there is evidence that estrogen produces gist bias. Moreover, we present a literature tabulation that also suggests a task-specific HT effect.
Methods: In an LRCT with up to eight yearly test sessions, post-menopausal women were randomly assigned either to placebo (N = 56) or to an estrogen formulation (N = 44); subgroups received either estrogen alone (hysterectomy; E-alone; N = 16) or with progestin (intact uterus; E + P; N = 28). Participants were tested on the immediate and delayed list and story recall at each session.
Results: Linear mixed effects analyses of longitudinal trajectories showed that relative to placebo, the HT group declined significantly faster on immediate list recall and slower on immediate story recall. Separate analyses produced a sharpened version of this pattern for the E-alone subgroup but found no significant effects for the E + P subgroup. No significant effects were found in delayed testing.
Conclusion: The dissociation we found for immediate list and story recall is similar to the pattern of results in our literature tabulation. Fuzzy-Trace Theory posits parallel verbatim and gist traces plus a meta-cognitive review which becomes more gist-biased with age. Our results suggest that: (1) estrogen increases gist bias, hastening the normal age-related decline of list recall but slowing the decline of story recall relative to placebo; (2) decay of the verbatim trace over time generally causes a shift to gist, thereby accounting for the absence of a delayed recall difference; and (3) progestin weakens the effects of estrogen, thereby accounting for why the dissociation found in E-alone was absent in the E + P subgroup.
PurposeAs more courses move to online testing, it is important to understand how it can be used to enhance student learning. Adopting online testing strategies which have been documented to be effective (including increasing the frequency of testing, allowing the students to take the test “open book” and allowing the students two opportunities to take each test) may enhance student learning. This study assesses whether adopting these strategies, facilitated by online testing, leads to greater student learning.
Design/methodology/approachI gathered data from eight sections of an undergraduate auditing course in which students in four sections of the class were tested using six online tests taken by the students outside of class. These six online tests were “open book” and allowed the students two opportunities to take each test. Scores from a common final exam are then compared to those from four sections of the same course where three in-class, traditional paper tests were administered. I also surveyed the online test group to gather information regarding their perceptions of online testing.
FindingsStudents in the online group scored significantly higher on the tests and the final exam. Additionally, the online group reported a positive perception about their experience with online testing.
Practical implicationsOnline testing did not impair students’ learning, and if the testing environment is designed correctly, online testing may increase student learning.
Originality/valueInstructors considering introducing online testing should consider introducing some of the specific strategies and practical implications described in the chapter to increase student learning.
This study examined whether the emotional memory effect (i.e., superior recall for emotionally arousing events relative to neutral events) is sensitive to encoding instructions focusing participants' attention on denotation, connotation, or surface information and on the passage of time. Participants encoded taboo and neutral words under one type of instructions and then performed a free recall task after a variable delay. Attention to denotation negatively affected the emotional memory effect. Time elapsed from encoding weakened recall of neutral words but not of emotional words. These findings suggest that although attentional control can influence the emotional memory effect, distinctiveness can shield retrieval of taboo words from the passage of time.
In a simulated last-minute test preparation scenario, the authors examined the extent to which practice can influence accuracy of self-assessment, overall test performance, and memory of a familiar knowledge domain. They simulated test preparation by exposing students to practice questions, allegedly from a study guide. The test preparation consisted of either answering questions (retrieval practice) and then checking the correctness of the answers or reviewing questions along with their answers (review-only practice). Immediately after either form of practice, students took a test with questions whose content was conceptually related to the practice test questions. In this study, both forms of practice had a beneficial effect on self-assessment prior to the test and on overall test performance. When the authors examined specific memory responses, they found practice to benefit the frequency of correct responses that students defined as experiences of remembering and knowing. The effect of practice was not modulated by the recency of the acquisition of the domain being tested (at least within the time span of an academic semester).
Recall performance sometimes improves over repeated recall attempts, a phenomenon dubbed hypermnesia. A critical theoretical issue is whether hypermnesia is due to repeated testing per se or increased retrieval time. The present experiments investigated by contrasting five testing conditions. All participants were presented with the same study list followed by either two shorter recall tests or a single longer test. In the multiple test conditions, the tests were either separated by a (filled) 7-minute interval (the multiple-split condition), or presented consecutively, with no break (the multiple-immediate condition). In the single test conditions, the test either began at the start of the recall session, after a (filled) 7-minute delay, or with a 7-minute interruption inserted in the middle. The multiple-split condition produced more reminiscence and hypermnesia than the multiple-immediate condition. More importantly, the multiple-split condition produced greater cumulative recall than any of the other conditions (which did not differ among themselves). That is, single and repeated recall tests of equal total duration are not functionally equivalent.
An improved long-term retention of verbal memory was observed after an acute D-amphetamine administration. It was proposed that D-amphetamine modulates consolidation, but a possible drug effect on retrieval could not be rejected.
We want to provide additional support for the consolidation hypothesis, and investigate whether an influence on intervening retrieval can be refuted.
Thirty-six male paid volunteers participated in a double blind, counterbalanced, placebo-controlled design in which the number of intermediate free recall tests was manipulated.
A significant D-amphetamine facilitation effect on recall performance emerged 1 h and 1 day after list learning. In line with the consolidation hypothesis, no effect was found on immediate tests. Importantly, the number of intermediate retrievals did not affect the magnitude of the drug effect, suggesting that the D-amphetamine facilitation effect is independent of retrieval.
The D-amphetamine facilitation effect on verbal memory does not involve a modulation of the initial encoding or short-term memory (STM) processes. Moreover, the drug does not enhance long-term retention by acting on intervening retrieval processes. The current findings are in line with the conjecture of an involvement of the consolidation process in the D-amphetamine facilitation effect on verbal memory in healthy humans.
Previous studies that examined age differences in hypermnesia reported inconsistent results. The present experiment investigated whether the different study materials in these studies were responsible for the inconsistency. In particular, the present experiment examined whether the use of a video, as opposed to words and pictures, would eliminate previously reported age differences in hypermnesia. Fifteen college students and 15 older adults viewed a 3-minute video clip followed by two free-recall tests. The results indicated that older adults, as a whole, did not show hypermnesia. However, when older adults were divided into low and high memory groups based on test 1 performance, the high memory group showed hypermnesia whereas the low memory group did not show hypermnesia. The older adults in the low memory group were significantly older than the older adults in the high memory group - indicating that hypermnesia is inversely related to age in older adults. Reminiscence did not show an age-related difference in either the low or high memory group whereas inter-test forgetting did show an age difference in the low memory group. As expected, older adults showed greater inter-test forgetting than young adults in the low memory group. Findings from the present experiment suggest that video produces a pattern of results that is similar to the patterns obtained when words and pictures are used as study material. Thus, it appears that the nature of study material is not the source of inconsistency across the previous studies.
Repeated and prolonged searches of memory can lead to an increase in how much is recalled, but they can also lead to memory errors. These 3 experiments addressed the costs and benefits of repeated and prolonged memory tests for both young and older adults. Participants saw and imagined pictures of objects, some of which were physically or conceptually similar, and then took a series of repeated or prolonged recall tests. Both young and older adults recalled more on later tests than on earlier ones, though the increase was less marked for older adults. In addition, despite recalling less than did young adults, older adults made more similarity-based source misattributions (i.e., claiming an imagined item was seen if it was physically or conceptually similar to a seen item). Similar patterns of fewer benefits and more costs for older adults were seen on both free and forced recall tests and on timed and self-paced tests. Findings are interpreted in terms of age-related differences in binding processes.
In 2 experiments, the effects on participants' memory and confidence of repeatedly describing a videotaped crime and of the opportunity to review a previous description were investigated. E. Scrivner and M. A. Safer (1988) demonstrated that witnesses' successive attempts to describe such events can lead to the recall of more new information in comparison with the amount forgotten (i.e., increased net recall, or hypermnesia). In Experiment I, a more forensically relevant procedure was used, and no support for hypermnesia was found. Witnesses did recall significantly more new information across attempts, but the amount did not exceed how much was forgotten (i.e., increased gross recall, or reminiscence). The opportunity to review a previous statement had no effect on the number of items recalled. In Experiment 2, the more traditional, repeated-recall procedure used by Scrivner and Safer was applied, and their finding of hypermnesia was replicated with the present study's materials.
When people form connections between several memories that share a common retrieval cue, the tendency for those memories to interfere with one another during later retrieval attempts is often eliminated. Three experiments examined whether forming such connections might also protect memories from retrieval-induced forgetting, the phenomenon in which retrieving some associates of a cue leads to the suppression of others that interfere during retrieval (M. C. Anderson, E. L. Bjork, & R. A. Bjork, 1994). All 3 experiments found that instructing subjects to interrelate category exemplars during an initial study phase reduced retrieval-induced forgetting. Postexperimental questionnaires indicated that even when people were not instructed to interrelate exemplars, they often did so spontaneously and that this spontaneous integration also protected people from impairment. These findings, together with others obtained in different experimental settings, suggest that complex knowledge structures composed of highly interconnected components may be especially resistant to retrieval-induced forgetting.
T. K. Landauer and R. A. Bjork (1978) demonstrated that a pattern of expanding retrieval trials following a single study opportunity results in higher final recall than uniform spacing or uniform massing of tests. Although expanding retrieval practice has been described as a powerful mnemonic strategy with wide potential application, it has been infrequently investigated. The authors obtained evidence for the generality of this strategy by exploring systematically in a series of 5 experiments the conditions under which an expanding pattern of retrieval enhances retention. By expanding knowledge of this mnemonic strategy, the authors seek to stimulate research on what appears to be a missed opportunity for applied memory researchers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
retrieval as a memory modifier / one key to maintaining access to knowledge in memory is to use—that is, retrieve—that information periodically
retrieval practice as a mnemonic technique
implications of the retrieval practice idea (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Presents complete normative data for responses to 56 verbal categories by students from the universities of Maryland (N = 270) and Illinois (N = 172). All 43 categories from the Connecticut norms are included, and complete data are presented for all responses given by each S to each category label within 30 sec. Additional data include (1) number of times each response was given 1st and mean rank of each response; (2) correlations between the various measures and between the Maryland and Illinois samples for each category; and (3) "category potency" measures and ratings for each category. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Hypermnesia (increased recall levels associated with increasing retention intervals) is examined, along with the related phenomenon of reminiscence (the recall of previously unrecallable items). A historical survey of the reminiscence literature is presented, and it is concluded that the decline in interest in the phenomenon during the 1930s and 1940s was partly attributable to changes in how reminiscence was defined and conceptualized. Recent experimental work that has renewed interest in the hypermnesia phenomenon is reviewed, along with two theoretical explications of hypermnesia and the attempts to test them. However, neither theoretical interpretation provides a complete account of hypermnesia. Finally, the experimental literature on repeated testing is examined in order to ascertain which factors affect the likelihood of obtaining hypermnesia. Among the primary factors that apparently affect hypermnesia are the type of study items (pictures produce greater hypermnesia than words) and the length of the recall periods used, with longer recall periods being more likely to produce hypermnesia than shorter periods. Because hypermnesia in the repeated test paradigm depends on both the rate of item recovery and the rate of intertest forgetting, future research should consider more closely the factors that affect intertest forgetting and the recovery of new items. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
When people form connections between several memories that share a common retrieval cue, the tendency for those memories to interfere with one another during later retrieval attempts is often eliminated. Three experiments examined whether forming such connections might also protect memories from retrieval-induced forgetting, the phenomenon in which retrieving some associates of a cue leads to the suppression of others that interfere during retrieval (M. C. Anderson, E. L. Bjork, & R. A. Bjork, 1994). All 3 experiments found that instructing subjects to interrelate category exemplars during an initial study phase reduced retrieval-induced forgetting. Postexperimental questionnaires indicated that even when people were not instructed to interrelate exemplars, they often did so spontaneously and that this spontaneous integration also protected people from impairment. These findings, together with others obtained in different experimental settings, suggest that complex knowledge structures composed of highly interconnected components may be especially resistant to retrieval-induced forgetting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Experimental research on memory since H. Ebbinghaus has predominantly focused on the fact of forgetting, creating the impression that memory inevitably decreases with time or time-correlated interpolated events. Recent laboratory work on the recall of pictures, however, has suggested that memory for certain classes of stimuli may be hypermnesic rather than amnesic, increasing over time and recall attempts. The present study attempted to determine the magnitude of memory growth over more significant time intervals. Tests of memory up to 1 wk, in 1 and 6 Ss, indicated substantial growth of recall for pictures, but not usually for words. The outcomes are discussed in terms of (a) their bearing on the Ebbinghaus experimental tradition; (b) the relation of this study to other hypermnesia literature, including P. B. Ballard's reminiscence, hypnotic hypermnesia, memory recoveries in therapy, and the Penfield effect; and (c) the implications of hypermnesia for psychodynamics and unconscious processes. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Five experiments with 150 undergraduates examined the hypothesis that hypermnesia (improved recall across repeated tests) can be predicted from cumulative recall levels. Contrary to this view, Exp I demonstrated that when the cumulative recall levels for pictures and words were equated, pictures still produced a larger hypermnesic effect. Results of Exps II and III show that varying test length (and thus recall level) had no effect on the magnitude of the hypermnesic effect. In Exp IV, Ss studied a categorized word list and then received 1 21-min test or 3 7-min tests. Results suggest that (a) similar retrieval processes are used in these 2 conditions and (b) hypermnesia in the repeated test paradigm results from Ss generating covert cues to aid item recovery across tests. Overall findings suggest that although hypermnesia is related to cumulative recall levels, various other factors (e.g., item type) modulate the magnitude of the hypermnesia by affecting item accessibility across tests. It is argued that changes in item accessibility across tests, caused by learning during testing, play a major role in producing hypermnesia in both episodic and semantic memory tasks. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Examines recently developed measures of clustering in free recall and shows them to vary with characteristics of recall unrelated to relative amounts of clustering. Previous measures were shown to vary with factors, E.g., number of categories recalled, the distribution of the total items recalled across categories, and total number of items recalled. For these reasons, comparisons between and within ss, as well as comparisons between experiments, are difficult. An adjusted ratio of clustering measure, which does not vary with irrelevant characteristics of recall, is proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Three experiments attempted to explain why high clusterers recall more than low clusterers. In Exp 1, we cued high and low clusterers to recall category exemplars contiguously, noncontiguously, or by free recall. Performance was best contiguously, worst noncontiguously, and intermediate in free recall. Surprisingly, the magnitude of the high-clusterer recall superiority was the same in each recall condition. Exp 2 investigated whether differences between high and low clusterers involve differences in how lists are studied. Again, the high–low clusterer recall difference was the same when category exemplars were presented contiguously and randomly for study. Exp 3 showed a high-clusterer recall superiority in unrelated-word lists. It is concluded that the high-clusterer recall advantage is due not to clustering per se. Clustering can be viewed as a moderator variable that facilitates recall within the boundaries set by ability differences among Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The purpose of this chapter is to explore what psychologists have learned about repeated testing of memory in laboratory paradigms and to consider applications of this knowledge to thorny issues arising from cases of recovered memories in therapy.
In this chapter, we cover 4 related topics. First, we consider evidence from experimental investigations that shows that memories can be recovered over time in laboratory situations. In particular, we consider the phenomena of reminiscence, hypermnesia, and spontaneous recovery.
Second, we consider the effects of retrieving information from memory on later retrieval.
In the 3rd section of the chapter, we consider the effect of response criterion on remembering. In particular, what effects do instructions to guess (or to free associate) have on remembering?
In the 4th section, we ask why people may come to accept and to believe memories recovered from early in their lives. If one slowly recovers memory of an horrific event of which one was previously unaware, why believe it?
The thrust of the chapter is that although repeated retrieval of events can lead to recovery of accurate memories, the processes involved also constitute powerful forces for the development of false memories. We deal with this paradox—the benefits and drawbacks of repeated retrieval—throughout the chapter. We consider only cases in which people attempt to retrieve memories on 2 or more occasions under the same conditions, typically free recall. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Describes search of associative memory (SAM), a general theory of retrieval from long-term memory that combines features of associative network models and random search models. It posits cue-dependent probabilistic sampling and recovery from an associative network, but the network is specified as a retrieval structure rather than a storage structure. A quantitative computer simulation of SAM was developed and applied to the part-list cuing paradigm. When free recall of a list of words was cued by a random subset of words from that list, the probability of recalling one of the remaining words was less than if no cues were provided at all. SAM predicted this effect in all its variations by making extensive use of interword associations in retrieval, a process that previous theorizing has dismissed. (55 ref)
In two experiments subjects presented with either words or pictures showed improved recall over three successive recall tests
for both types of materials, partially replicating Erdelyi’s finding of hypermnesia. However, these subjects did not recall
more unique items than other subjects who received only one test equated in time with the three shorter ones. It is concluded
that hypermnesia results from simply allowing subjects additional recall time. In a third experiment subjects were shown to
recall additional information even after a long recall period employed during an experimental session. This surprising amount
of item recovery during long recall periods is attributed to the use of subjective retrieval cues that are thought to function
in a manner analogous to externally manipulated cues.
Four experiments tested the hypothesis that successful retrieval of an item from memory affects retention only because the retrieval provides an additional presentation of the target item. Two methods of learning paired associates were compared. In the pure study trial (pure ST condition) method, both items of a pair were presented simultaneously for study. In the test trial/study trial (TTST condition) method, subjects attempted to retrieve the response term during a period in which only the stimulus term was present (and the response term of the pair was presented after a 5-sec delay). Final retention of target items was tested with cued-recall tests. In Experiment 1, there was a reliable advantage in final testing for nonsense-syllable/number pairs in the TTST condition over pairs in the pure ST condition. In Experiment 2, the same result was obtained with Eskimo/English word pairs. This benefit of the TTST condition was not apparently different for final retrieval after 5 min or after 24 h. Experiments 3 and 4 ruled out two artifactual explanations of the TTST advantage observed in the first two experiments. Because performing a memory retrieval (TTST condition) led to better performance than pure study (pure ST condition), the results reject the hypothesis that a successful retrieval is beneficial only to the extent that it provides another study experience.
A total of 90 undergraduates watched a videotape that portrayed a burglar breaking into a home and shooting three innocent victims. The 2-min tape contained 47 important violent and nonviolent details. Subjects recalled increasingly more details on each of four successive recall trials, including a trial 48 hr after seeing the tape. Instructions to use context or emotion as retrieval cues did not affect recall gains, and the gains were not the result of increased guessing. We conclude that eyewitness accounts may become more accurate with repeated attempts to recall information.
Three studies show that the retrieval process itself causes long-lasting forgetting. Ss studied 8 categories (e.g., Fruit). Half the members of half the categories were then repeatedly practiced through retrieval tests (e.g., Fruit Or_____). Category-cued recall of unpracticed members of practiced categories was impaired on a delayed test. Experiments 2 and 3 identified 2 significant features of this retrieval-induced forgetting: The impairment remains when output interference is controlled, suggesting a retrieval-based suppression that endures for 20 min or more, and the impairment appears restricted to high-frequency members. Low-frequency members show little impairment, even in the presence of strong, practiced competitors that might be expected to block access to those items. These findings suggest a critical role for suppression in models of retrieval inhibition and implicate the retrieval process itself in everyday forgetting.
We demonstrate that encoding multiple cues enhances hypermnesia. College students were presented with 36 (Experiment 1) or 60 (Experiments 2 and 3) sets of words and were asked to encode the sets under single- or multiple-cue conditions. In the single-cue conditions, each set consisted of a cue and a target. In the multiple-cue conditions, each set consisted of three cues and a target. Following the presentation of the word sets, the participants received either three cued recall tests (Experiments 1 and 2) or three free recall tests (Experiment 3). With this manipulation, we observed greater hypermnesia in the multiple-cue conditions than in the single-cue conditions. Furthermore, the greater hypermnesic recall resulted from increased reminiscence rather than reduced intertest forgetting. The present findings support the hypothesis that the availability of multiple retrieval cues plays an important role in hypermnesia.
This study examined age differences in autobiographical memory and extended findings concerning hypermnesia in laboratory tasks to a real world event, the announcement of the verdict in the O. J. Simpson murder trial. Older and younger adults repeatedly recalled the event in a single session. Interviews were coded for amount and type of accurate information and for errors. The age groups did not differ in ability to recall the gist of the event or in the number of errors made. Younger adults were better at remembering when the event had occurred. Both age groups showed hypermnesia. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of autobiographical memory across the life span and the phenomenon of hypermnesia in everyday memory.
In medium-sized groups such as classes, it is often desirable that the members become acquainted with one another. Toward this end, various methods of introducing group members are often used, with only anecdotal evidence for their effectiveness. The name game is a method for introducing group members that is based on the principles of retrieval practice. The authors compared 2 versions of the name game with a widely used introductory method--pairwise introductions--and found that the name game participants were much better at remembering one another's name after 30 min, 2 weeks, and 11 months. A second experiment tested the contribution of retrieval practice by comparing 2 versions of the name game with a procedure that was matched for number of repetitions and time spent on the task. Again, the name games were superior.
Hypermnesia is a net improvement in memory performance that occurs across tests in a multitest paradigm with only one study session. Our goal was to identify possible age-related differences in hypermnesic recall. We observed hypermnesia for young adults using verbal (Experiment 1) as well as pictorial (Experiment 2) material, but no hypermnesia for older adults in either experiment. We found no age-related difference in reminiscence (Experiments 1 and 2), though there was a substantial difference in intertest forgetting (Experiments 1 and 2). Older, relative to young, adults produced more forgetting, most of which occurred between Tests 1 and 2 (Experiments 1 and 2). Furthermore, older, relative to young, adults produced more intrusions. We failed to identify a relationship between intrusions and intertest forgetting. We suggest that the age-related difference in intertest forgetting may be due to less efficient reinstatement of cues at test by older adults. The present findings reveal that intertest forgetting plays a critical role in hypermnesic recall, particularly for older adults.
The multifactor account of the generation effect makes detailed predictions about the effects of generation on item-specific and relational encoding, predictions confirmed in four experiments using a multiple-test methodology. In pure-list designs with unrelated study items, generation produced more interest item gains (indexing greater item-specific processing) and more interest item losses (indexing less relational processing) relative to the read condition. In a mixed-list design, generation produced more gains but did not affect losses. With categorically-related study items, generation produced more gains but fewer losses (indicating enhanced relational encoding). Generation consistently produced hypermnesia whereas reading did so only for related study items. Also, a significant generation effect emerged on later tests under conditions (between-subjects design, unrelated study items) which typically yield no generation effect.
Retrieving some members of a memory set impairs later recall of semantically related but not unrelated members (M. C. Anderson, R. A. Bjork, & E. L. Bjork, 1994; M. C. Anderson & B. A. Spellman, 1995). The authors investigated whether this retrieval-induced forgetting effect would generalize to testing procedures other than category-cued recall. Although the authors demonstrated a retrieval-induced forgetting effect using a category-cued recall task, they failed to show retrieval-induced forgetting on several different memory tests that used item-specific cues, including a category-plus-stem-cued recall test, a category-plus-fragment-cued recall test, a fragment-cued recall test, and a fragment completion task.
The generation effect is moderated by experimental design, affecting recall in within-subjects designs but typically not in between-subjects designs. However, N. W. Mulligan (2001) found that the generation effect emerged over repeated recall tests in a between-subjects design, calling into question the generality of this limiting condition. In addition, the generate condition but not the read condition produced hypermnesia (increased recall over tests). The present experiments demonstrate that semantic-based (semantic-associate and category-associate) generation tasks produce this pattern of results whereas nonsemantic (letter transposition, rhyme, word fragment) generation tasks do not. Thus, the emergent generation effect appears to be a byproduct of semantic elaboration rather than a direct product of generation. In addition, high- and low-imagery words produced equivalent hypermnesia and emergent generation effects, arguing against a mediating role for imagistic encoding. Finally, there is no evidence of an emergent generation effect for nonwords, another traditional limiting condition of the generation effect.
Participants viewed either a violent, arousing film or a non-violent, control version of the same film. After viewing the film, they made three successive attempts to recall details of the event. Participants who were exposed to the negative emotional event were better than control participants at recalling details of the event itself, but they were worse at recalling details that preceded or followed the violence. Both groups of participants recalled significantly more information over successive recall attempts, suggesting that memory impairment due to arousal can be alleviated by repeated testing. Repeated testing was also associated with a small but reliable increase in memory intrusions. The implications of these findings for research on hypermnesia and on the relationship between arousal and memory are discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Hypermnesia (increased recall levels associated with increasing retention intervals) is examined, along with the related phenomenon of reminiscence (the recall of previously unrecallable items). A historical survey of the reminiscence literature is presented, and it is concluded that the decline in interest in the phenomenon during the 1930s and 1940s was partly attributable to changes in how reminiscence was defined and conceptualized. Recent experimental work that has renewed interest in the hypermnesia phenomenon is reviewed, along with two theoretical explications of hypermnesia and the attempts to test them. However, neither theoretical interpretation provides a complete account of hypermnesia. Finally, the experimental literature on repeated testing is examined in order to ascertain which factors affect the likelihood of obtaining hypermnesia. Among the primary factors that apparently affect hypermnesia are the type of study items (pictures produce greater hypermnesia than words) and the length of the recall periods used, with longer recall periods being more likely to produce hypermnesia than shorter periods. Because hypermnesia in the repeated test paradigm depends on both the rate of item recovery and the rate of intertest forgetting, future research should consider more closely the factors that affect interest forgetting and the recovery of new items.
Three experiments attempted to explain why high clusterers recall more than low clusterers. In Experiment 1, we cued high and low clusterers to recall category exemplars contiguously, noncontiguously, or by free recall. Performance was best contiguously, worst noncontiguously, and intermediate in free recall. Surprisingly, the magnitude of the high-clusterer recall superiority was the same in each recall condition. In Experiment 2, we investigated whether differences between high and low clusterers involve differences in how lists are studied. Again, the high-low clusterer recall difference was the same when category exemplars were presented contiguously and randomly for study. Experiment 3 showed a high-clusterer recall superiority in unrelated-word lists. We conclude that the high-clusterer recall advantage is due not to clustering per se. Clustering can be viewed as a moderator variable that facilitates recall within the boundaries set by ability differences among subjects.
The concepts of organization and distinctiveness are considered important to memory. Yet, examination of research related to these concepts reveals conceptual inconsistency and confusion. We suggest that the problem can be traced to the use of similarity and difference as explanations and further suggest that adoption of a theory of similarity judgment as the description of encoding ameliorates the problem. The approach is illustrated by showing that Medin, Goldstone, and Gentner′s (Psychological Review, in press) theory of similarity judgment allows simultaneous organizational and distinctive processing. Reinstatement of these processes at retrieval produces unique convergence on a particular item and completes the description of the simultaneous importance of relational and distinctive processing of a particular item. The idea is applied to research directly related to organization and distinctiveness, and to the less obviously related phenomena of hypermnesia, generation effectsm, proactive interference, prose recall, and self-referent encoding.
This paper describes a computerised database of psycholinguistic information. Semantic, syntactic, phonological and orthographic information about some or all of the 98,538 words in the database is accessible, by using a specially-written and very simple programming language. Word-association data are also included in the database. Some examples are given of the use of the database for selection of stimuli to be used in psycholinguistic experimentation or linguistic research. © 1981, The Experimental Psychology Society. All rights reserved.
Bartlett (1932) gave subjects a prose passage and showed how recall dropped when they were tested repeatedly. Ballard (1913), using poetry, and Erdelyi and Becker (1974), using pictures, reported improvements in performance (or hypermnesia) over repeated testing. We investigated two likely factors leading to the discrepant results: the type of material and the interval between tests. The primary cause of the differing outcomes is the interval between tests. In general, when the intervals between successive tests are short improvement occurs between tests. When these intervals are long, forgetting occurs. The type of material used plays little role: Hypermnesia in recall of prose (even “The War of the Ghosts”) occurred with short intervals between tests. We also report a striking confirmation of the power of tests to enhance memory: Repeated tests shortly after study greatly improved recall a week later.
Three experiments on factors affecting item recovery in repeated free-recall tests are reported. In Experiment 1 the pictorial quality of the material was varied. There was more item recovery with pictures (line drawings and photographs) than there was with words. Although picture quality had a large effect on recall levels, it did not affect recovery rate. Experiment 2 was an attempt to influence recall of new items on a second test by varying the "strengthening" effect of the first test on recalled items: subjects were given either a standard written recall test that allowed review of recalled items or a test in which recalled items were not so easily reviewed. The first method produced greater recall of new items on the second test, but this enhancement was not accompanied by any differences in intertrial forgetting. Experiment 3 compared item recovery in a procedure in which the two recall trials were separated by 1, 5, or 15 min. There was more item recovery with a 5-min delay than with the 1-min delay but no further increase in the 15-min condition. Interest forgetting was also slightly less with greater intertest intervals. Temporal separation of test did not appear to influence the consistency of recall orders across test trials. Attempts to influence item recovery by changing possible sources of recall inhibition were not generally successful, and the suggestion is made that functional recall time may be an important and neglected aspect of methods of testing retention.
[discusses] the most effective ways of distributing and managing the conditions of encoding and practice / research suggests that the effectiveness of repetition depends on a number of factors, including the time interval between repetitions, the frequency of repetitions, and even the form of the repetition / a review provides an additional encoding opportunity, whereas a test provides retrieval practice / concluded that the effects of spaced practice, in particular, provide important insights into the basic mechanisms of learning and memory
encoding practice / retrieval practice / theoretical implications [spacing effects, testing effects] / educational implications (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Three studies investigated whether requiring eyewitnesses to provide multiple accounts of a crime prompted them to exhibit more accurate and complete recall (i.e. hypermnesia) or towards providing more inaccurate and confabulated testimony. Subject-witnesses viewed videotapes enacting several types of crimes. Subjects exhibited hypermnesia in two studies in which they were asked to provide accounts of the incident via a free-recall procedure. Indeed, there tended to be roughly a 10–20 per cent increase in the number of facts accurately recalled from the initial interview to the third. The number of incorrect recollections and confabulations did not reliably increase. In the second experiment, hypermnesia was observed even when eyewitness memory was degraded by delaying the initial interview until a week after the witness viewed the crime. In a third study, which employed a multiple-choice questioning procedure, subjects exhibited neither hypermnesia nor heightened incorrect responding. Discussion centres on possible factors influencing the hypermnesia effect and implications of the present research for theory on hypermnesia.
The results of three experiments provide converging evidence for the conclusions that hypermnesia (increased recall with repeated testing) does not depend on encoding of material in an imaginal format, but is related to the level of recall across conditions within an experiment. In Experiment 1 subjects performed orthographic, phonological, or semantic operations on words and then recalled them on three successive free recall tests. Orienting tasks affected the level of recall (semantic > phonological > orthographic), and the level of recall was correlated with hypermnesia. In Experiment 2 subjects studied nonsense syllables presented either once or three times and were then given three tests. Recall improved across tests, and the improvement was reliably greater for items studied three times. In both Experiments 1 and 2 subjects who received three tests recalled no more total items than did subjects given a single long test of equivalent duration. In Experiment 3 subjects repeatedly recalled instances of categories from semantic memory. Hypermnesia was observed and was again related to level of recall. The results help delineate the necessary and sufficient conditions for observing hypermnesia on repeated tests, and are in general agreement with the account of the phenomenon provided by J. G. W. Raaijmakers and R. M. Shiffrin's (In The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory. New York: Academic Press, 1980, Vol. 14.) SAM model.
Participants viewed either a violent, arousing film or a non-violent, control version of the same film. After viewing the film, they made three successive attempts to recall details of the event. Participants who were exposed to the negative emotional event were better than control participants at recalling details of the event itself, but they were worse at recalling details that preceded or followed the violence. Both groups of participants recalled significantly more information over successive recall attempts, suggesting that memory impairment due to arousal can be alleviated by repeated testing. Repeated testing was also associated with a small but reliable increase in memory intrusions. The implications of these findings for research on hypermnesia and on the relationship between arousal and memory are discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
This paper describes the construction of the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (GSS), its rationale and scoring. The scale is quick to administer and contains a sufficiently large range of possible scores to be of practical value with different groups of Ss and individuals. It can be used either as a clinical tool to measure individual susceptibility to suggestion or as a research instrument for obtaining greater understanding of the nature and mechanisms of interrogative suggestibility. Principal-component (rotated) analyses were performed on the scale's item scores. Two types of suggestibility emerged: (i) the extent to which Ss yield to suggestive questions; (ii) the extent to which Ss can be made to shift their replies once interpersonal pressure has been applied. Each aspect of the scale contains 15 items which comprise reasonably homogeneous measures with satisfactory internal-consistency reliabilities. The validity of the scale has been demonstrated in several recent experiments.
This paper develops the argument that many factors affecting retention can be understood in the context of a distinction between relational and individual-item processing. Relational processing refers to the encoding of similarities among a class of events and individual-item processing refers to encoding of item-specific information. Both forms of information are assumed to be important in retention, and the empirical argument for the distinction rests in part upon the reported demonstration of superior recall when both types of information are encoded. The experiments also demonstrate that variables influencing the type of processing, such as orienting instructions and the type of material, produce differential effects upon certain dependent measures. Thus, the data indicate facilitation of recall from the combination of relational and item-specific information, and further suggest the viability of a distinction between them because of differential effects of the two forms of processing upon recognition, clustering, and the relative recall of typical and atypical category instances.
Memory has recently become the focus of media attention because of the emotionally charged uses made of delayed recall of repressed memories. Integrating literatures from all corners of psychology, The Recovery of Unconscious Memories includes historical accounts, analysis of experiments, and treatment topics, providing the first comprehensive scientific account of memory and how can it can increase over time. Erdelyi includes his own important contributions to this field, ranging from his early attempts to use free-association to produce hypermnesia to his most recent research with hypnosis, subliminal stimuli, forced-recall techniques, and very long-delayed recall probes. Sketching out the scientific foundations for a unified theory of repression that integrates the findings of the laboratory and the clinic, this comprehensive and authoritative synthesis of a century of memory research will be crucial reading for psychologists and clinicians, as well as forensic and legal professionals interested in the recovery of "inaccessible" memories. "By debunking hypnosis, [Erdelyi] has allowed the debate on memory to move forward. . . . Erdelyi's work on hypermnesia is very important to our understanding of the mechanisms of memory and the brain."âJanet D. Feigenbaum, Times Literary Supplement
The purpose of the two experiments reported here was to observe the effects of degree of learning, interpolated tests, and retention interval, primarily on the rate of forgetting of a list of words, and secondarily on hypermnesia for those words. In the first experiment, all the subjects had one study trial on a list of 20 common words, followed by two tests of recall. Half of the subjects had further study and test trials until they had learned the words to a criterion of three correct consecutive recalls. Two days later, half of the subjects under each learning condition returned for four retention tests, and 16 days later, all the subjects returned for four tests. Experiment 2 was similar, except that all the subjects had at least three study trials followed by four recall tests on Day 1, intermediate tests were given 2 or 7 days later, and they all had final tests 14 days later. The results showed that rate of forgetting was attenuated by an additional intermediate set of tests but not by criterion learning. Hypermnesia was generally found over the tests that were given after a retention interval of 2 or more days. The best predictor of the amount of hypermnesia over a set of tests was the difference between overall cumulative recall and net recall on the first test of the set.
The purpose of this study was to determine whether hypermnesia (improved net recall over time) can be differentially affected by manipulating the nature of tasks performed during the intervals between successive recall trials. In Experiment 1, all subjects were asked to imaginally encode separate words and were tested three times for recall. The control group (no interpolated task) produced the hypermnesia effect. Both groups performing interpolated tasks showed significantly lower recall. A second experiment was conducted in order to replicate these results and to examine the effects of intertest rehearsal on hypermnesia. In Experiment 2, subjects were asked to encode pairs of words using interactive-imagery instructions. Six different interpolated task conditions were employed, varying in the degree to which subsystems of working memory were used. Groups performing imaginal interpolated tasks showed no hypermnesia, whereas those performing nonimaginal tasks did. These findings suggest that access to working memory (see Baddeley, 1986) is not necessary for hypermnesia.
Three experiments investigated the effect of testing for recall on forgetting. One experiment demonstrated that the effect
of testing is restricted to the items tested. A second experiment showed that the difference between tested and untested items
increased with longer retention intervals. Increasing the study time had no effect on the retention of tested items, but increased
the recallability of untested items. A third experiment ruled out rehearsal during the retention interval as an explanation.
It was concluded that the critical aspects of a test are the retrieval operations themselves. Suggestions are made as to how
these operations attenuate forgetting.
In this study, we investigated the effects of various interpolated tasks on hypermnesia (improved recall across repeated tests) for pictures and words. In five experiments, subjects studied either pictures or words and then completed two free-recall tests, with varying activities interpolated between the tests. The tasks performed between tests were varied to test several hypotheses concerning the possible factor(s) responsible for disruption of the hypermnesic effect. In each experiment, hypermnesia was obtained in a control condition in which there was no interpolated task between tests. The remaining conditions showed that the effect of the interpolated tasks was related to the overlap of the cognitive processes involved in encoding the target items and performing the interpolated tasks. When pictures were used as the target items, no hypermnesia was obtained when subjects engaged in imaginal processing interpolated tasks, even when these tasks involved materials that were very distinct from the target items. When words were used as the target items, no hypermnesia was obtained when the interpolated tasks required verbal/linguistic processing, even when the items used in these tasks were auditorily presented. The results are discussed in terms of a strength-based model of associative memory.
In 2 experiments, the effects on participants' memory and confidence of repeatedly describing a videotaped crime and of the opportunity to review a previous description were investigated. E. Scrivner and M. A. Safer (1988) demonstrated that witnesses' successive attempts to describe such events can lead to the recall of more new information in comparison with the amount forgotten (i.e., increased net recall, or hypermnesia). In Experiment 1, a more forensically relevant procedure was used, and no support for hypermnesia was found. Witnesses did recall significantly more new information across attempts, but the amount did not exceed how much was forgotten (i.e., increased gross recall, or reminiscence). The opportunity to review a previous statement had no effect on the number of items recalled. In Experiment 2, the more traditional, repeated-recall procedure used by Scrivner and Safer was applied, and their finding of hypermnesia was replicated with the present study's materials.
Two experiments tested predictions derived from R. R. Hunt and M. A. McDaniel's (1993) relational/item-specific account of hypermnesia. According to this framework, participants encoding relational information should show greater hypermnesia on early test trials than on later test trials. In contrast, participants encoding item-specific information should show greater hypermnesia on later test trials than on early test trials. These predictions were not anticipated by other accounts but were confirmed by the results. Further, the patterns of reminiscence and intertest forgetting supported the theoretical underpinnings of these predictions. A 3rd experiment examined some factors by which item-specific encoding might enhance reminiscence (and thus hypermnesia) on later test trials. These results suggested that a richer set of encoded attributes rather than a fluctuating retrieval plan supported the beneficial effects of item-specific encoding on reminiscence.
Hypermnesia is an improvement in memory that occurs with repeated testing. In the present experiment, hypermnesia was examined with prose materials. Participants were presented with either a fairy tale or an expository passage, followed by 3 free-recall tests. Participants used 1 of 2 encoding strategies (the relational or item-specific processing conditions) to process the material, or they simply read the material (the read-only condition). Recall performance improved across the 3 tests in the relational and item-specific processing conditions. No improvement was found in the read-only condition.
Recent research has demonstrated that the act of remembering can prompt temporary forgetting or, more specifically, the inhibition of particular items in memory. Extending work of this kind, the present research investigated some possible boundary conditions of retrieval-induced forgetting. As expected, a critical determinant of temporary forgetting was the interval between guided retrieval practice and a final recall test. When these two phases were separated by 24 hr, retrieval-induced forgetting failed to emerge. When they occurred in the same testing session, however, retrieval practice prompted the inhibition of related items in memory (i.e., Experiment 1). A delay of 24 hr between the encoding of material and guided retrieval practice reduced but did not eliminate retrieval-induced forgetting (i.e., Experiment 2). These findings are considered in the wider context of adaptive forgetting.
The MRC Psycholinguistic Database (on-line Database available at http://www.psy.uwa.edu.au/MRCDataBase/uwa_mrc.htm)
- M Coltheart